my brother-in-law Tom Shuler,
Ann's husband's brother that's been just diagnosed with cancer.
His name's John Shuler, so remember him in your prayers, if you will.
Seek the Lord's help for him. Remember the others who requested
prayer also. Debbie's brother-in-law's gonna
be operated on the 18th, right? Monday, so remember him in your
prayers, too. Hymn number 291, Guide Me, O
Thou Great Jehovah. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. But Thou, Almighty, hold me with
Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. But now the crystal fountain,
which the healing stream doth flow, let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey. Strong believer, strong believer,
be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and
shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bear me through the swelling
current. Land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee. ♪ I will ever give to thee ♪ M
number 118, when I survey the Wondrous Cross. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my All the vain things that charmed
me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head, His feet, sorrow and love, Flamingo
down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, O'er thorns composed so rich a crown? realm of nature, mine, that were
a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, If you have your Bibles turn
to Exodus chapter 31. Look at verses 12 through 18. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying,
Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep. For it is a sign between me and
you throughout your generation, that ye may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore,
for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall
surely be put to death. For whosoever doth any work therein,
that soul shall be cut off from among the people. Six days may
work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy
to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the
Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore, the
children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations, for perpetual covenant. It is
a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day
he rested and was refreshed. And he gave unto Moses, when
he had made an end of communing with him upon the Mount Sinai,
two tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger
of God. Let us pray. Now, Father in Heaven,
we bless you and thank you for this study as we've seen the
words that you have given Moses on Sinai for these many chapters. We've seen Christ pictured in
so many ways, His glory set forth. We thank you, Father, that we
have your word We know it's what we have on
earth is your testimony. We have nothing else that can
prove anything. But we have your word, and we
thank you that you have given us faith to believe it and to
rest in it. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who are going to have operations. We ask, Lord,
you'd be with them. pray you'd comfort them and strengthen
them to be according to your good will, you'd heal them and
bring them back to a good measure of health. Pray for ourselves
tonight as we look at your word that you'd be able, you would
be, you would enable us to understand and appreciate what we have before
us. Help us Lord to know who Christ is and what he did and
what he accomplished and help us to bow to your sovereign mercy
and grace knowing full well and had you left us to ourselves,
there'd be no hope for us. Help us now, Father, we pray
in Christ's name, amen. This passage is the last of the
instructions given to Moses on the Mount. For 40 days he's been
in the school of law, and after this he'll go to deliver the
word of the Lord to the people This time on the Mount has covered
11 chapters in this book, from chapter 20 to this chapter. The
Lord is done talking now on these subjects, as is revealed in verse
18, when he said this, and he gave to Moses when he had made
an end to communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables
of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger of God. It is historically held that
all the words of God, especially those concerning the priesthood,
their clothing, the manufacture of the different elements and
furniture, and curtains in the sanctuary, were not included
on these tables of stone. Historically, it says these tables
of stone contain the Ten Commandments. how they were divided on the
tables is not known. Some say the first four was on
one table, the last six was on another. Some say it was five
and five, but that's neither here nor there. These contain
only the Ten Commandments, which commanded first the duty of the
people toward God in the first four verses, the first four of
the commandments, and then the last six was the duty of the
people of God toward their neighbor. These were summed up in two commandments
according to the Word of God, according to our Lord Jesus Christ.
that it was to love God and to love your neighbor the entirety
of the law hangs on these two commandments that is what our
Lord said over in Matthew chapter 22 when confronted by the Pharisees
about which was the greatest law hoping I'm sure that the one
they kept was the one he would bring up but in Matthew chapter 22 and
verse 36 they asked master which is the great commandment in the
law as if one had greater strength than the other. The Lord said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
the great commandment. The second is like unto it, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. On these two commandments, the
law and the prophets, There's an interesting phrase that was
used in reference to those who spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the law and the prophets gave witness to Jesus Christ.
So the matter of loving God and loving your neighbor was really
only fulfilled by one person that ever walked upon the face
of the earth. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is God and man,
loved God with all his heart and mind and his soul, and he
loved his neighbor as himself. We don't do that. We try, but
we don't do it very well. That God is the author of the
law is without any doubt, and it states also in verse 18 that
He inscribed these laws on tables of stone with His finger, with
His finger, the finger of God. And the finger of God is referred
to three times in Scripture. Here where the law was given
to Moses on Mount Sinai, And then secondly, when Christ
wrote with his finger in the sand and refused to accuse the
woman accused of adultery by the Pharisees. He bent down and
wrote in the sand. Nobody knows what he wrote, but
he wrote something in the sand. And he sent the Pharisees packing. This showed him to be God and
the author of the law and solely responsible for who is accused
because he said to this woman, I accuse you not either. Go and
sin no more." He showed him to be God. He sent the legalists
packing that day because he would answer the law and justice demand
for that woman and fix it that the law would have no grounds
to accuse this woman ever. when he went to the cross of
Calvary. This is how we are without the law and have no law save
for the love of God in us. This is the rule that Paul gives
in Galatians chapter six. This is the rule that we should
glory in the cross of Christ only and that is the rule which
we live by and that's the love of God for us. Then the third
time he cast out devils with the finger of God. That's the
third time the finger of God is used declaring that when he
does, the kingdom of God is coming to you, and the kingdom of God
is his sovereign rule in all things. And this was in reference
to his binding Satan and delivering his people from the captors.
So you see, the finger of God writes the law. The finger of
God answers the law. And this finger of God is used
to set captive to those that are under the law and under the
captivity of Satan. This is the finger of God in
scripture. The final commandment given is a repetition of the
commandment given in chapter 20 and verse 18 when the commandments
were given to Moses in this first part of these 11 chapters. In
verse 8 it says this, Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Remember the Sabbath day and
keep it holy. This commandment refers to the
seventh day of the week. That began on Friday at sundown
and ended at sundown on Saturday. It was the day of rest. That's
what the word Sabbath means. The Hebrew word is Shabbat. It
means to rest or the rest. The word Sabbath is pluralized
in our text in verse 13. It says, Speak thou also of the
children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths, my Sabbaths ye shall
keep. Now the Lord may have been speaking
of the fact that this Sabbath would be repeated each week.
Or He may have been spoken of the fact that there were many
Sabbaths that would come in the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy
that the Sabbaths would be not only the seventh day, but you
would have other Sabbaths which were represented by feasts. You
would have a Sabbath year. You would have a Sabbath that
covered five decades and ended with the year of Jubilee. That
was also a Sabbath. There are eight Sabbaths in Scripture. and these sabbaths had one specific
edict in every one of them that was to disobey it you did so
on the pain of death he's already said twice in this chapter or
in this passage we just read if you don't keep the sabbath
you die you cut off from the people and you'll die this is
what's the edict that was set forth is this no work to be done
on this day or any of the other seven Sabbaths that are set forth.
Every one of them says this. In every case it ends with no
servile work is to be done on this day. It says in scripture
to pick up a stick on a Sabbath day or on a Sabbath you'll have
to be put to death. you have to be put to death.
People have great ideas about this. I've told you this story
about the lady at the hospital at times taking, going out to eat. It was on a
Sunday. I was visiting somebody on a Sunday, Saturday, asking
what they was going to eat tomorrow. They said, well, why don't I
ask her what she's going to cook tomorrow? She says, oh, I don't
cook on Sunday. That's the Sabbath. And I said, well, what do you
do? Do you eat? She said, oh, I go out and eat. So I said,
you have somebody else cook for you. But you don't cook. But people have ideas about the
Sabbath. It's a big deal in religion. People talk about it a lot. There's
a group of people, a God denomination, called the Seventh-day Adventists,
which say they are Christian people, but they meet only on
Saturday. At least they understand what
the Sabbath is. They don't meet on Sundays, they meet on Saturdays.
Because Saturday is the Sabbath. much of so-called Christianity
believes that the Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. It hasn't. It hasn't. It is Saturday. It is Saturday
still as a designated day of the week. Sunday is the first
day of the week and is called the Lord's Day in Scripture because
it's supposed to represent the Lord's Resurrection. That was
the day that the Lord rose from the grave. The first day of the
week was when the early Church met. They met on Sunday and we
meet on Sunday. That's called the Lord's Day
and you'll find this to be true that nowhere in the New Testament
is a Sabbath called the Lord's Day or is the Lord's Day called
a Sabbath. Nowhere in the New Testament
will you find that. Now the mention of the Sabbath
in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel, is manifold. It's
manifold. It's mentioned many times. Never
is this particular commandment spoken but it is spoken of many
times and it involves usually when
the Jews went to temple there were a lot of people that gathered
around that needed healing or looked for alms. They would gather
Acts chapter 3 at the beautiful gate and stick out their hand
to get alms and hoped or dreamed of being healed. So that's the
mention of the New Testament, or mention of the Sabbath in
the New Testament mostly, or in some time, but mostly it was
the Pharisees who brought up the Sabbath. And they did it
to catch Christ, and they did it to catch him in a mess, because
the fact is that most of the healing that the Lord did was
on the Sabbath day, in the temple. or around the temple. That's
what he did on Sabbath day. The Lord did this because the
sick were often present at the temple gate hoping for alms and
dreams of healing. But mostly Christ did it on the
Sabbath to reveal that he was the Lord of the Sabbath. That's
what he says in Luke chapter 6. And it's in reference to being
attacked because he did something on the Sabbath day. He did something
and the Pharisees were standing around watching. They were supposed
to be in their homes. They weren't supposed to be outside
watching, but they did. They was watching. In chapter 6 and verse 1 it said,
It came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first that
Christ went into the cornfields, and his disciples plucked the
ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certainly
the Pharisee says, why do ye that which is not lawful to do
on a Sabbath day? You're not supposed to do that
on a Sabbath day. And Jesus answered and said, Have you not read so
much that what David did, when himself was hungered, and they
were with him, how he went into the house of God, and did take
and eat of the showbread, and gave also to them that were with
him, which was not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone?
And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the
sabbath. And it came to pass on another
sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue, and taught, and
there was a man whose right hand was withered. the scribes and
the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath
day, that he might find an accusation against him. So this is why they
are always bringing up the Sabbath. You remember the man who had
been laying by the pool of Bethesda all his life with the palsy and
could not get to the waters when they were stirred and the Lord
said take up thy bed and walk and he took up his bed. A man
had been sick all his life. The Pharisees had walked by him.
They said we can't do nothing for you. There's no help for
you. Christ healed him and he took up his bed. He was going
home and the Pharisees stopped and said what are you doing carrying
your bed on the Sabbath? On the Sabbath. Under the law
that's what they did. That's how they acted. Christ
said I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath belongs to me. The
Sabbath belongs to me. He was saying that he was the
lawgiver. He was the one who spoke to Moses
on the mount centuries prior to this. In truth, under the
new covenant, the believer is not to allow religion to trouble
him about the Sabbath. I've had a lot of preachers say
the Sabbath, you ought to observe the Sabbath. I don't observe
the Sabbath. Not the Sabbath day. not to Sabbath day. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
16 when Paul is talking about the elements of the world that
are to be avoided and set aside or the elements of the old law
because they are only fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter 2 verse
16 he says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink,
or in respect of a holy day, a solid day, where these people
were barbecuing on their back porch, and their vegan neighbors
came over and just give them a feed. And I actually asked
them to notify them when they were going to barbecue so they
could leave the premise and wouldn't have to smell them cooking animals. And I thought, I would have said,
from here on out, Every morning, I'm barbecuing steak, and we're
having steak and eggs. Y'all can just leave the county. Let no man judge you in meats,
or in drink, or in any respect of a holy day, or a new moon,
or in Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come. But
the body is Jesus Christ. These are a shadow of things
to come. They don't matter. They don't matter. And so man, no
man is to judge you. And if somebody tries to, don't
let them. Don't let them. Say Jesus is
a substance, and you're talking about a shadow. What does Sabbath
mean? Sabbath means rest. That's what
it means. In fact, back in our text in
verse 15, the Lord calls it six days you may work, and the Sabbath
is a Sabbath of rest. A Sabbath of rest. Now the observance
of this day, under the law, does not refer to being tired and
then having some getting some leisure time. That's not what
it said. That's not what this is about.
The Jews came home from their labors and got good night's sleep.
They got rest every day. They got rest every day. The
Sabbath day was not about their rest and their labor. Their labor. It was about an observance of
a day designated to declare something and it was to declare a finished
work. That's why it was to be observed.
It was to declare something. It was to say something. The
Sabbath day, the Sabbath day was given to memorialize what
God had done in creation. And that's what it says in our
text. It is a sign in verse 17 that children of Israel are forever.
For in six days The Lord made heaven and earth, and on the
seventh day He rested and was refreshed." Six days, it's about
what God did. The Sabbath is not about what
you do, so the Sabbath is not for you. Well, I've worked six
days and I'm going to rest on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not
for you. The Sabbath is for the glory of Almighty God. He rested
from creating on the sixth, seventh day. He created for six days
and He rested from what? From creating. Why? Not because
He was exhausted, but because the work was done. There was
nothing left to do. That's why He did it. As all
the Old Testament testifies of Christ. The old creation and
its attendant rest speaks of the new creation and its attendant
rest. It speaks of another and greater
finished work, the greatest finished work of all, and that is the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to John chapter 17. Our Lord said to the Father,
Glorify me now with the glory which I had before the foundation
of the world. And he said that because of the
work that God had given him to do. John chapter 17, verse 4, it
says, I have glorified thee on earth. I have finished the work
that thou gavest me to do. Over in chapter 19 is when that
work was fully and completely finished. Verse 28 says, And after this,
Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, words
to Leo, perfect, finished, and the scripture might be fulfilled,
same word, perfect, finished, he said, I thirst. Now there
was set a vessel of vinegar, and they lifted the sponge, and
put it upon his mouth, and put it to his mouth. And when Jesus,
therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. He's finished the work. the work
is done what's left to be done he's finished the work having
finished the work of redemption he entered into his rest that's
what it says in Hebrews chapter 4 in Hebrews chapter 4 verse one
it says this, let us therefore fear lest a promise being left
us of entering into his rest any should seem to come short
of it. We want to enter into that rest. That is the rest born
of a finished work. We don't want to miss that, do
we? Over in verse nine through eleven it says, is there remaineth
therefore rest? for the people of God, a Sabbath
keeping is what that means for the people of God. For he that
is entered into his rest, he also is ceased from his own works
as God did from his. Why? Because the work's done.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man
fall after example of unbelief, those in the Old Testament. Let's
enter into that rest. Let's labor. Now, that seems
to be an oxymoron, to labor to rest. To labor to rest, but that's
what you and I do every day of our lives as a child of God. The labor spoken of here is the
warring struggle with our flesh to bring all things to the obedience
of Christ. It is the affliction of the soul
that the Bible speaks of. The hardest thing in the world
for a child of God still remains this, to just believe. to just
rest in Christ. It's just a struggle. It's because
the flesh is always saying, you probably need to do more Bible
reading. You probably need to pray more.
It's just the flesh always tells us that. And the hardest thing
in the world is that struggle. And that's what he talked about.
That's what Paul talked about in the Corinthian church in 2
Corinthians chapter 10. This struggle. Laboring to enter into the rest. second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 it says this for though
we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal but spirit mighty through God
to his to the pulling down of strongholds that's not outside
us that's inside us casted out of our imaginations, that's our
little god practice that we manufacture gods in our head. Every high
thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and the
acknowledgement of God in all things. What do we, how do you
do that? You bring, you bring into captivity
every thought to Christ's obedience. What's that? The finished work.
The obedience of Christ was when he obeyed even the death of the
cross, he finished the work. And it's a struggle. Labor to
enter into that rest. The struggle of the child of
God is wrestling to rest. What a thing. What a thing. The believer rests in Jesus Christ.
He rests because Christ has finished the work and in the entire matter
of salvation. The believer has done nothing
and has nothing to do. He worships the Lord of the Sabbath
on this singular basis. The believer keeps the Sabbath
every day of his life. How? He rests in Christ. He believes the work is done.
He observes in his mind the memorialization of a finished work when he hears
and believes the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is that rest spoken
of in the Old Testament in Isaiah 28, the rest wherein we find
sweet rest and refreshing, and it is so refreshing. The Sabbath
is for God's glory. because of what God has done. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name, amen.