Cry of the believer really never
changes throughout life. We're mercy beggars through and
through, constantly crying out for mercy, constantly crying
out for grace. That's what we cry from the time
that the Lord calls us to the time we take our last breath.
Lord, fill me with thy hallowed presence. Lord, come meet with
us. Lord, let me see your face. Lord,
send your spirit and power. Lord, save me. Have mercy upon
me, the sinner. It's the constant prayer of the
believer, isn't it? I'm thankful he hears on behalf of his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He hears his people when they
pray. Tonight we're looking at the
number seven and I've titled this message, Christ our Sabbath,
Christ our Sabbath. The number seven is the number
for completeness, the number of oneness, the number of perfection. It represents God's finished
work, not only in the heavens and the earth that he made and
all of the fullness thereof, but it represents the completion,
the finished work of salvation, the work of atonement for his
people, his elect people. The Sabbath day means just that,
the day of atonement by definition. It's first mentioned in Genesis
chapter two. If you would turn there, Genesis
chapter two, we'll read this together. Genesis 2, and we'll begin at
verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day
God ended His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh
day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the
seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested
from all his work which God created and made. This one day that the
Lord made was different than all the other days. He worked
for six days up until this point, and this was the only one that
he took rest in. In Psalm 118 and verse 24, David
says this, this is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice. and be glad in it. Now, certainly
that is today that we're, whatever today's date may be, whatever
date that we may look at the calendar and find it, we can
certainly rejoice that this is the day the Lord hath made because
we are alive. He's called us, He's causing
us to look unto Him. And so we rejoice that we have
breath this day, but the day that the Lord rested on was the
Sabbath day. And the day that David was speaking
of saying, this is the day, was the Sabbath day, the day of atonement,
the day of Mount Calvary, only the day that everything was created
for, the day that was purposed for from the beginning of time,
from the foundation of the world to save the Lord's people this
day, the day that the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head
and gave up the ghost and redeemed his people. It's the reason for
everything. Even the heavens and the earth
and the fullness thereof were created for the Sabbath day,
for the Lord to rest upon the Sabbath day. Genesis chapter
one, in the very beginning, it says, in the beginning, God. Now we could stop right there
and just preach that for the rest of the evening, and that
would be okay, wouldn't it? In the beginning, God. That doesn't
leave anything before him. And unless he continues speaking,
it leaves nothing after him. He has alpha and he's omega in
the beginning and the end. And the believer loves the Lord that
way in his sovereignty, in his power, in the beginning God. And it says he created, he chose
to create the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And the
Lord said this, let there be light. Let there be light. God created light. Now, what
do you suppose that light represents? Well, the scripture tells us
that light shines in darkness and darkness comprehends it not.
That light is the Sabbath. That light is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, certainly we see a natural light that the Lord
created, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the sun to rule by
day, the moon and the stars to rule by night. But the light,
Christ said, I am the light of the world, didn't he? I am the
light. The light represents Christ shining
into darkness, and that's how he saves his people. As he comes
by, according to the appointed time, he shines the light upon
his people, and we see him as glorious. We see him as our rest,
the Sabbath, because of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Hebrews 2, verse 10, it says, For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things. for whom are all things
and by whom are all things." We can't miss that. It's very
important. For whom and by whom. That leaves you and I out of
the equation completely unless He does something. Unless He
enacts mercy and grace upon us, it leaves us completely out,
doesn't it? Because it's for Him and it's by Him are all things
in bringing many sons into glory. There's our hope. Even though
it's all by Him and for Him, He chose to have mercy and shine
His light upon us. He chose to have a resting place
for Himself, the Father, and for His people on the Sabbath,
the Lord Jesus Christ. For it became Him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. Now in Genesis chapter two, we
find mention of four words that's not prior mentioned in the scripture,
four words. The word finished is found in
verse one. The seventh day or the Sabbath
day is mentioned for the first time in verse two. Sanctified
is mentioned in verse three and rest is mentioned in verse three. So why was this finished? Well,
we have to begin And I understand that this was figurative, this
was literal creation that took place, I understand that. But
we see a beautiful picture of the gospel here as well. We see
a beautiful picture of Christ Jesus being the only rest for
the Lord's people. We see the covenant of grace
before the foundation of the world. We see that the only way
that the work could be finished is by Christ himself keeping
God's law, fulfilling God's law, looking unto the Father with
every I dotted, every T crossed, everything that the Father required,
Christ fulfilled in salvation. And he says, and we say this
so often, do you know why? Because this is all our hope.
It is finished. And this is what the Lord is
saying here. The heavens and the earth is finished. His work,
all the work that the Father did in creation, all the work
that the Father did in salvation, all that the work that was needed
to be done in sanctification, in redemption, in wisdom, in
righteousness. Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily
and accomplished all of this for his people. So we see that
it's finished. God ended his work, God ended
salvation, and Christ declares that it is finished. He's seen
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in Revelation 13,
eight. So it's finished because Our Lord Jesus Christ finished
the work. The Father rested in the covenant
of grace. If I can say this the right way,
the Father rested in Jesus Christ first. The Father trusted his
Son first in the covenant of grace before time. whenever the
father and the son entered into that covenant for his people,
the father trusted that his son would redeem us. Those who are
under the law to redeem them to redeem us. Becoming a man,
being born of a woman, being born under the law, he redeemed
them that are under the law. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
was trusted by his father to do this. Who do we trust? We trust him too, don't we? We
trust Him as all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification, all
of our wisdom, all of our redemption. We trust Christ is all in salvation,
and He gets all the glory for it, and we love Him that way.
We desire Him because we can rest in the finished work of
Christ. There is no other rest in this
world. There is no other rest anywhere other than Christ. When
we lay our head on our pillow at night, we truly don't rest.
We truly don't rest. We may sleep for a little while,
and sleep is nice, but resting means you have zero worries whatsoever,
zero responsibilities, zero obligations. Christ did it all. Now, an antinomian
hears that, and they'll say, well, that's gonna let me live
however I want to. Well, if I could live however I wanted to, I would
constantly be wanting to look unto Christ. I would constantly
be wanting to rest in his peace, rest in his presence, because
that's where my happiness is found. My joy, rather, is found,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to the believer, it's the
same, isn't it? Hebrews chapter 7 tells us, For
such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice,
first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he
did once when he offered up himself. Now understand that there was
no rest in the Old Testament under the Levitical covenant,
under the priesthood. These men would have to offer
up sacrifice daily. Every day they would wake up
and offer sacrifice. That would be their life, their
entire life. And then they would go to bed
and they would wake up and do it again. And it never put away sin. But
this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't have to offer up a
sacrifice first for himself and then for the people as the priest
did back then, he offered himself up once unto the Father and the
Father was satisfied with Jesus Christ. So therefore, you and
I rest on Christ our Sabbath. They did that on the Sabbath
day, the day of atonement, the scripture tells us. So my question
to us this evening is, is the Sabbath a day or is the Sabbath
a person? The answer is yes. The answer
is yes. We see that the Sabbath is a
person in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see it is the day that
the Lord made. Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. We see that in the Sabbath, God rested. And now God hath
made known unto us his Sabbath and given us a place of rest
in Christ. Isaiah 55 three, I read that
on purpose. I preface that chapter because
we're going to be going through it a little bit here. I read
that on Sunday too, actually, at closing, Isaiah 55. So this
seems like we're hovering around it for the last little bit, but
that's okay. It says on Isaiah 55 three, incline your ear and
come unto me here and your soul shall live. And I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
He says, incline your ear. That's the call that goes forth,
isn't it? The scripture tells us in Revelation, the angel says,
he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit
saith unto the churches. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear. One time I was preaching a message just of that
category in a church of false religion. I was trying to preach
the truth to these people. And I said, he that hath an ear
to hear and he that hath eyes to see will see. But not everybody
has eyes and everybody has ears. And a woman walks up to me after
the service and she says, I can see and hear just fine. Thank
you very much. It was totally over her head. She didn't understand
what I'm saying. But you, if the Lord gives us
the grace to see this, it's so clear. The only way a blind man
can see is to be made blind to Christ. The only way that we
can hear is to be deaf unto Christ. He has to open up our ears. He
has to open up our eyes. Think about the apostle Paul.
It's a great example. When the Lord smote him blind,
when the Lord struck him with blindness on the road to Damascus,
he saw a lot better when the Lord struck him blind, didn't
he? He saw a whole lot better. He saw the truth. He saw for
the first time. And of course, the Lord let him
see naturally as well. But spiritually speaking, He's the one that has
to give us eyes to see Christ our Sabbath and rest. He's the
one that has to give us ears to hear Christ our Sabbath and
rest in Him just as the Father did. We're made to do this. We're commanded to do this. We
rest on Christ our Sabbath. God, give us In the Ten Commandments,
he talks about the Sabbath, doesn't he? He says in Exodus 20, verse
eight, remember, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now understand something, the
unbeliever would say that they're doing their part, but the believer
truly knows that it's by grace through faith alone. It's God's
doing. It's nothing that we do in keeping
anything. As a matter of fact, if I'm left
responsible to keep or to do something, I know that I'll mess
it up. You do too, don't you? But thanks be to God, Christ
did it all. He accomplished salvation. When
the Lord says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, we know
men try to keep God's Sabbath. They try to keep God's Sabbath.
There's a congregation that meets every Saturday called the Sabbath
Day Adventists. Now, I'm not wanting to pick
on just their little clan of Unbelief, I'm not trying to be
cruel or any certain thing like that, but the truth of the matter
is, is that is their righteousness, isn't it? Their title is on the
sign. I have family members that go
to a free will Baptist church, it's written on the sign, literally,
and that's their righteousness. What am I trying to say? I'm
trying to say that men try to keep God's Sabbath, but they
fail to see that Christ is the Sabbath of God. They're trying
to do something in keeping an ordinance or maintaining a certain
standard with God when they don't realize it's finished. There's
nothing left to be done, and anything I try to add to or take
away from it in any way is blasphemy. If the Lord demands me to do
one thing that I produce. One thing. It's not salvation
accomplished. It's not finished, is it? But
he doesn't require one thing from me. That doesn't cause us
to live a frivolous life. That causes us, when we see ourself
as the sinner, it causes us to run to Christ, just as we read
a minute ago. It calls us to incline our ear
unto him. Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner, cry out. We see the Lord had a situation
with the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12 of the same, turn
there with me if you will, Matthew chapter 12. These men were trying
to keep the Sabbath. The Pharisees, they delighted
themselves, prided themselves in keeping the law. They were
lawmongers. That was the word I was trying
to remember Sunday, how I made this statement. I'm glad the
Lord hadn't called me to be a law preacher. Well, he definitely
called me to preach grace, but we do preach the law as well.
But we preach it's finished. That's what we preach. We don't
preach it as a lawmongering in order to get men to do something.
And that's what men in religion do. And that's exactly what these
Pharisees did. They had power, they had popularity, they had
everything you could possibly want as a man, but they didn't
have the Sabbath. They thought they were keeping
the Sabbath and offering their self up unto God, but they didn't
have Christ. They didn't have rest. Matthew
chapter 12. At that time, Jesus went on the
Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were hungered
and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. And when the
Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do
that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he
said unto them, have you not read what David did when he was
hungered? And they that were with him,
how he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread,
which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them, which
were with him, but only for the priests. Do you remember that
account that we talked about a few weeks ago when David entered
into Uh, that's whenever he gave him the sword of Goliath. You
remember how I gave that account just to, I think it was just
a couple of weeks ago, but this is the account that Christ is
telling. It wasn't lawful for him to have the showbread. That
was a holy thing. Let's read on. Or have you not read in verse
five in the law, how that the, on the Sabbath days, the priest
and the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless. That was the
offering up on the day of atonement that I just mentioned to you.
They would take the unleavened bread and put them in six loaves,
side by side, sixth and sixth, representing the number 12, unto
the Lord on his ordinance as a meat offering. And they did
this on the Sabbath day. So according to the law, they
were guilty, but yet because God commanded it, they were blameless.
So here's the response, or here's the Lord continuing to tell us
in verse six, but I say unto you that in this place is one
greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have
condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even
of the Sabbath day. And when he was departed, thence
he went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man which
hath his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is
it lawful to kill on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him?
Now understand something here, brethren. The Lord gives us a
an insight to the difference, the difference of false religion
and the difference of free grace, the difference of salvation truly
and the difference of damnation. And he says it to us in verse
seven. If you had known what this meaneth,
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Now, this knowledge is not a
knowledge of us attaining unto an educational elevation over
our peers, meaning we don't attain to this. We don't gather more
and more knowledge and know and know that God will have mercy
and not sacrifice. This is not something that can
be learned. This is something that grace has to show us through
faith. This is not something that we
attain or merit. This is something completely
bestowed by the grace of God. This is when we rest on Christ
completely, when we see that God delights in mercy and not
sacrifice. The Lord's calling them out for
their sin, and they can't even really see it. He's telling them,
you're saying you're keeping the Sabbath, but all you're doing
is offering up sacrifice, and the Lord does not delight in
sacrifice. He delights in showing mercy. The ordinances that were
given pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we see that? Every
ordinance given, every ceremony that was taking place in the
Old Testament pointed to Christ, our substitute, pointed to Christ,
our Sabbath. He tells him, if you would have
known all this, you would not have condemned the guiltless. The Lord calls them guiltless.
Did you know that you're guiltless before the Father? You're unblameable,
unreprovable in his sight. Does that give you comfort? Because
of Christ our Sabbath, because of what He accomplished, we have
real rest before God the Father. True rest. As a matter of fact,
we can enter in boldly to the throne of grace, having obtained
mercy, and to find grace to help us in the time of need. The Lord
Jesus Christ, our Sabbath, put away our sin and gave us His
rest. The simple truth is this. Men
believe they can keep the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is a person. The Sabbath is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Are you looking in keeping these
ordinances in any way? Are you looking in offering yourself
up in any way? Are you looking to yourself in
any way, shape or form? Or are you looking to the person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God's Sabbath, who is the place
of rest for the Father and for the Lord's people? Either we
see the Sabbath as something that must be kept, or we see
it as a person. We see Him, Christ, our Sabbath. Now let's continue reading here.
Matthew chapter 12, verse 10 again. And behold, there was
a man which had his hand withered. They asked him, saying, is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they might accuse him. And he said unto them, what man
shall there be among you that shall have one sheep And if it
fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on
it and lift it out? How much more, how much then
is a man better than a sheaf? Wherefore, it is lawful to do
well on the Sabbath, on Sabbath days, on these Sabbath days.
Then said he unto the man, stretch forth thine hand and he stretched
it forth and it was restored whole like, he stretched it forth
and it was restored whole like as the other. They hated God. These Pharisees hated God so
much that they say this in the next verse, 14. Then the Pharisees
went out and held counsel against him, how they might destroy him. Understand, they didn't just
want to kill him. They wanted to utterly destroy
the Son of God. And that is exactly what men
are doing in the day and age in which we live. They will not
have this man to reign over them. He says that to the Pharisees.
He said, you will not come to me that you may have eternal
life. Why won't they come? Because
it's the Lord that has to interject grace and faith and show mercy
unto his people and bringing them in. And aren't you glad
that he does? He does, he shows grace and mercy in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. These men hated God. for messing up their Sabbath. These men had a Sabbath of their
own, didn't they? These men had an ordinance of their own. These
men had thought they had attained something in God's eyes. They
had a righteousness and they hated Christ for messing up their
Sabbath. Think about that. They had it
all figured out, didn't they? In their mind, they had made
an agreement. They had made an agreement with hell and with
death, they had made a covenant. That's what the Scripture talks
about, isn't it? The Lord says, well, when the time comes, I'll
disannul your covenant. It will mean nothing. But we
heard Sunday that the Lord will never break His covenant with
His people. Aren't you glad for that? Judges
chapter 2. They hated God for messing up their Sabbath. That's
the first thing He does in showing you that you're a sinner, is
He messes up your Sabbath. What do I mean by that? Anything
and everything that you have ever done or thought that pleased
God, He shows you that it's done. Paul said, I counted all things
but dung. Everything that I'd ever done.
And he starts out by telling you that he was of the chief
stock. He was circumcised the eighth day of the child of Benjamin.
And he gives you his pedigree. And his pedigree is incredible.
His background, his resume, if you will. And then what he says
at the end of all that, I counted it all but dung. Every bit of
it that I may win Christ. Now he didn't win Christ because
he counted it but dung. He counted it dung because Christ
had been revealed to him. Do we see that? Christ had been
shown to him. He found rest on the Sabbath
day and no longer needed to try to work his way unto the Father. The Lord wrecked his Sabbath
and gave him a new one, the Sabbath, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he does for his people. That's the good news and the
interjection of the gospel. Men love their Sabbath day, whatever
they have. created, whatever figment of
their imagination that they're doing and keeping of the law.
It's a false Sabbath. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
true Sabbath, and either we are looking to him as all of our
righteousness, all of our wisdom, all of our sanctification, and
all of our redemption, or we're not. He gets all the glory. What
does that make you want to do? That makes me want to cry out,
Lord, have mercy upon me. Give me Christ. Cause me to rest
in Christ. Cause me to rest on your Sabbath.
Calls me forsake my ways what I am. We must see that it is finished.
It is finished and that the father rested upon Christ and his people
rests upon Christ also. It all hinges upon what God hath
done. Hebrews 12.2 says, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. The father sat down resting on
Christ. and the Lord Jesus Christ sat
down on the right hand of the Father. Why? Because He put away
our sin. Because it is finished. Because
no more can the law say anything against us except justified. Perfect. Righteous. That's all
that can be spoken. Peace. When the law looks upon
the child of God, it says peace, not judgment. You know how glorious
that is? If we had a glimpse of the holiness
of God, and we truly don't, We truly can understand holiness
because we're completely opposite of it. But if we had a glimpse
of that and really understood that all that it does is say
peace under the child of God, what rest we have in our Sabbath,
the Lord Jesus Christ, what great salvation he hath wrought for
his people. I read this earlier to us, but
Isaiah 55, one, he says, ho, everyone that thirsteth. He's
giving you a thirst. They say you can't, You can't
lead a horse. You can't make a horse. What
is it? You can't lead a horse to water.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
That's what it is. But you can give him a salt block, can't
you? And it'll make him pretty thirsty. Forgive my Tennessee coming out
there a little bit, but he gives his people salt. The Lord Jesus
Christ gives them a longing and a thirst, a desire. And he tells
them, come to the water. And he tells them to buy. And
we come forth saying, in my hand, no price I bring, simply to the
blood of Christ, simply to the Sabbath do I cling. He gives
us all that we need to purchase, because He's purchased it and
it's bestowed, isn't it? Now in closing, I want to look
at two places quickly in Hebrews, both of them. You turn to Hebrews
with me. Hebrews chapter 7. Nope, it's Hebrews 10. Forgive me. Then said I, verse 7, Hebrews
10, verse 7, Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the
book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when
He said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offering, and offerings
for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure in them which
are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. By the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can
never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering," now get this, for by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I didn't
mention this earlier, but the word sanctified means to be set
apart. It literally translates to be
made holy, holy. Let's read that again. For by
one offering, his own offering, his own blood, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That's past tense, isn't it?
All those who were found in Christ Jesus on the day of atonement,
all those who were found on that Sabbath day, the day that we
rejoice in, that's the Lord's day, the day that the Lord wrought
victory for his people, all of those that were found in him,
he hath perfected forever and ever and ever and ever and ever
and ever. Them that are sanctified. Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is witness to us, for after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their heart
and in their minds while I write them. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Why? Because they're gone. They're gone. Their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of
these is, there is no more offering for sin. There is no greater
rest to the believer, to the child of God, than to know that
God does not remember our sin and He does not remember our
iniquity. That is not to say He forgot
them. He put them away. He put them away by His own person,
by His own blood. He entered once to the holy place,
as we just read. He made sacrifice, one sacrifice
for sin forever. And he hath perfected those who
are sanctified in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is the rest that we have in our Sabbath. That is our hope. There's
no more need for offering. Why not? Because our sins gone.
There's no more of a need for another offering for you and
I. That's why we don't come bringing something in our hand. Do we
see that would be adding to the offering of the Lord? The Lord
doesn't require an offering anymore because our sin have been put
away. God was satisfied with the offering of Christ, and therefore
we do not bring anything to the Father in order for Him to be
pleased with us. All that we have is the faith of Christ that's
bestowed upon us that looks to Him, and He's pleased with that.
It's not something we produce. It's all by grace. For by grace
are you saved through faith. We just look to Christ. We just
rest on the Sabbath. We rest on Christ our Sabbath.
He finished the work. Our last place is Hebrews chapter
4, just back a few pages. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1. In trying to decide which of
these verses to kind of read through and omit, I couldn't
really make up my mind. So we're going to read a few
of them here, not the entire chapter, but bear with me as we go through.
Verse one of chapter four of Hebrews, let us therefore fear
lest a promise being lest us of entering into his rest, any
of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. Now that's a, he's telling us, let us therefore fear, be
afraid. of this fact, that it's all of
God. God has to mix the preaching of the gospel with the faith
of Christ in order for us to inherit eternal life. He gets
all the glory in the hearing. He gets all the glory in the
work. He gets all the glory in all of it in salvation. Paul's
saying, don't take for granted the fact that you're sitting
and hearing it. Cry out for mercy. Be afraid
that the Lord would leave you to yourself and cry out for mercy
because if you're a believer, that's exactly what you're going
to do. For we which have believed, verse three, do enter into rest. For we which have believed do
enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Aren't you glad of an absolute
God? I mean, absolute. He didn't try to do anything.
He didn't attempt. He doesn't hope. that you'll
do something, he's absolute. All the works, all the works. Why can we rest? How can we rest
on Christ our Sabbath? Because all the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise. And God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. Do we see that's Christ? That's
the place the Father rested on. Certainly that's the place we
should rest as well, isn't it? the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing
therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they
to whom it was first preached enter not in because of unbelief. Again, he limited a certain day,
saying in David, today, after so long a time, as it is said
today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, for if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another
day." What is he saying here? He's telling us that the people
in the Old Testament, they didn't have a place of rest. They were
constantly trying to keep the law, constantly trying to offer
up sacrifice and ordinances and ceremonies and wanting to worship
God. And yet Christ had not come in
the flesh at that point. So he's speaking of another day.
So what do you and I have? Verse nine. There remaineth,
therefore, a rest, a rest, the rest, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. Have you ceased from your works? Have you ceased from your works? If you have, entered into his
rest, you have ceased from your works." That's the only way you
can enter into the rest of Christ. Whenever we completely cease
from our works is the only way we can enter into this rest of
Christ. Now, that's not to say we cease
our works and we enter in. That's to say we cease our works
because we've entered in, because We've been given the faith of
Christ that looks unto Him because we've been given the repentance
of God and we see Him as God. We rest on Christ, our Sabbath,
and we ceased from our works. Let us therefore labor to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Now, a man would say that word
labor. They would say, okay, well, now
I have it. Okay, I have to work to enter
into the rest. You want that word labor means.
Make haste. Endeavor. Give diligence to run. Run to Christ, that's what he's
telling us. Let us therefore run. Run unto
Christ, enter into that rest, call upon him while he is near.
Seek you first the kingdom of God. Cry out, Lord, have mercy
upon me, the sinner. He's not contradicting himself,
saying, now you need to work in order to enter into the rest.
He's saying, run to Christ, flee to him. And that's all the believer
can do over and over. We run to him, as we heard Sunday,
the new man and the old man. We run to him and yet we deal
with all these inhabitants, this inhabitant that's standing before
you. I deal with this old inhabitant, this old man, this dead corpse
upon my back constantly fleeing away from Christ and yet he brings
me back. He says, seek you my face. He says, rest. The warfare
has been accomplished. Salvation has been accomplished.
Your sin's been put away. He leaves us but for a moment
to deal with things of this life, to distract us, just as we remember
Peter walking on the water and sinking. He said, Lord, save
me. That's what we cry out. We enter into his rest, don't
we? Thank God for the rest of Christ our Sabbath. Father, thank
you for Christ, our Sabbath. We pray that you would cause
us to fully rest our salvation upon him, not looking unto ourself,
but looking unto that which you are satisfied with, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.