I invite your attention back
to Exodus. Most people have an idea about
what the Sabbath is, and most of their ideas are wrong. I had a friend, or I thought
he was a friend until he got mad at me over this subject, who has built a great portion
of his life proving that Sunday is the new Sabbath. The new Sabbath. Sunday is not the new Sabbath. There is no new Sabbath. Yesterday,
if you're making the Sabbath a day, was the Sabbath. And according to what these verses
say and others, us eight men who went out and cut wood yesterday,
they're going to have to stone us to death. Sunday is called in the New Testament
the Lord's Day. It's a day set aside the first
day of the week where the children of God gather to worship God.
There are no restrictions as to whether or not you can wash
your car on Sunday. There's not. None of that exists
in the New Testament. The Sabbath, as put forth in
the Old Testament, was part of the law given to Moses. Every
believer is not under that law in any way, shape, or form. We
know that the Old Covenant has been set aside. It is no longer
in force and has nothing to do with the believer, and the believer
has nothing to do with the Old Covenant. However, the Old Testament
the Old Testament, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. the Lord
Jesus Christ. When the apostles began to preach,
when our Lord began his ministry, when John the Baptist, who came
before him, when he preached, he used the Old Testament. And
they preached Christ from the Old Testament. The book of Acts
is about a bunch of men whom God called to take the Old Testament
and tell folks about Jesus Christ, because the New Testament had
not been written yet. This book is about Jesus Christ.
And the Sabbath is about Jesus Christ. The Sabbath, or the Hebrew
word Shabbat, means rest. That's all it means. It means
rest. And it comes from the fact that
our Lord, after He had created the world in six days, rested. Now why did He rest? Did He rest
because He was just wore out? Yesterday we cut down five trees
and unloaded six truckloads of wood and when we got back I was
wore out. My thighs hurt, my arms hurt,
my head hurt. And I sat down and I was so tired
I couldn't really even nap good. It was a fitful nap I had. But
I was tired. Was the Lord God Almighty tired? after six days of making this
planet and this universe. It took less effort for him to
do that than for me to lift this handkerchief off this desk. He
spoke it, he thought it, and it became, because he's God. Why did he rest? Why did it say,
on the sixth day, the Lord's Shabbat, he rested? Why does
it say that? There was nothing left to be
done. The work was finished. That's why he rested. The work
was finished. Now when you see the Sabbath
mentioned in the Old Testament, the first thing you ought to
do is think of this concept of rest and resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Sabbath is still Saturday
if you're going to make it a day. But we don't make a day, we don't
recognize one day above another day, not the believer. Our Sabbath
is a person and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we rest
in Him. We rest in Him. Those who refuse
the rest wherein we find sweet rest, that the Lord sent His
prophet to preach to in Isaiah 28, had a specific reason for
refusing the rest. Look over there for a moment,
just for a second, Isaiah chapter 28. Now our Lord had sent His
prophet to tell of His people of a rest. A rest wherein they
would find sweet rest, but they would not. They didn't want anything
to do with it. They wanted to work. People like to do that,
especially in religion, so they can call attention to what they
do. Read Matthew chapter 23. The Pharisee was all about his
works. And his works were done to be
seen of men. So men could look at him and
say, now there's a holy fellow. There's a religious fellow. There's
a righteous fellow. He even blowed trumpets before
he prayed so people would know that here's a righteous man,
here's a holy man, I'm going to pray in public. Now y'all
got to stop and listen. He did what he did to beseed
of men. And they're called Pharisees and vipers and snakes and two-fold
more the children of hell than those whom they convert. In Isaiah
chapter 28, these refused the rest of God. They didn't want
to rest. They wanted to do something else. But the Word came to them
line upon line, here a little and there a little, and it snared
them and drove them back. But here's what they said. They
said, we have another rest. We're okay. Don't tell us to
stop what we're doing. and rest in Christ, because we
have another rest. We're okay. We're satisfied.
They said in verse 15, because our Lord said, Ye have said,
this is what they say, We have made a covenant with death. We're
as sure as for heaven as we is already there. We ain't worried
about death. When Jesus comes, we're going to be with Him. That's
what they said. And with hell, we're in agreement. We're in
agreement with God. Bad people ought to go to hell,
but us good people ought not. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass, pass through, it shall not come unto us." They
said, we're not worried about judgment in the future. Because
we made, look at the next word. These are their words. These
are not God's words about them. These are their words about their
own religion. We have made lies our refuge. Anybody do that? Anybody make a lie their refuge?
Did the Bible say man has a free will? No, that's a lie. Yet men take a great refuge in
there. The Bible say God loves everybody?
No it doesn't. He loves his people, his sheep,
his church. He hated Jacob, hates the workers
of Iniquity, and angry with the wicked every day. But it's a real refuge. It's a real refuge. It's alive.
Men stand up and say, Christ paid your sin debt. Well let
me tell you this, if he did, it's paid. But they say He paid everybody's
sin debt. If that's the case, everybody's going to heaven.
It's just that simple. Otherwise, you have Christ paying
a debt that is of no value whatsoever, because Scripture clearly declares
in the judgment, God's going to put some people in hell. Now,
if their debt's been paid, and God accepted the payment, how
in the world could He put them in hell? That's unjust. Justice cannot twice demand payment
at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine. But men
take refuge in that because when somebody tells them God just
loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, it feels
so warm and fuzzy. It feels good to be loved. But let me tell you what, everyone
whom God loves, God is bound by that love to save. He said that in 1 John 3, verse
16 and 17. When he talked about the love
of God being us, when he said, we see a brother in need and
we don't help him, the love of God is not in us. Was a sinner
in need? Does God have the Word with all
to save that sinner? Does He have what's necessary
to save him? If you don't save him, then you don't love him,
because the love of God is not in him either. We have made lies
our refuge. Nobody talks like that. Everybody
who don't trust Christ alone for salvation is saying the very
same thing. I know because I said it for
years. Said it for years. Under falsehood have we hid ourselves. That's the testimony of those
who will not enter in to that rest which is Christ Jesus. That's
the Sabbath. Back in our text in Exodus 34
and 35, our Lord makes reference three times to the Sabbath. Twice
to the weekly Sabbath and once to the Sabbath of the Passover.
There are eight Sabbaths listed in the book of Leviticus. Eight
of them. Paul said to the Colossian church,
don't let any man judge you in Sabbaths. Don't let them judge
you because it's already been taken care of. The Sabbath day
established in the law given on Sinai and the Passover established
by divine edict on the night that God saved Egypt by blood. Through the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they all speak of one thing, they speak
of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5, 7 it says,
Christ our Passover, our Paschal Lamb slain for us. In Hebrews
chapter 4 and verses 9 and 10 it speaks of a rest that remaineth
for the people of God a Sabbath that those who serve the temple
cannot have part in. a rest for the people of God. The words of our Lord were often
words that related to the Sabbath. When He said, this is the prayer
you ought to pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. That's Sabbath language because
that's the Sabbath of the Jubilee. Because in the Sabbath of the
Jubilee, which was after 49 years, 7 times 7, the 50th year was
the year of Jubilee. And in that, those who owe debts
to people, were forgiven their debts when the trump sounded. That's the language of the Sabbath. The Sabbath simply and emphatically
declares this. It's a simple thing. When you
hear the word Sabbath, when you read the word Sabbath in Scripture,
it simply says this, the work is done. the work is finished. And the ramifications of that
principle are that because the work is done, nothing else can
be done, nothing else is to be done, lest the doer declare that
in truth the work is somehow not done. You're either going to rest or
you're going to say the work is not complete. Now did Christ
say it was finished on Calvary Street? Did Paul tell the Colossian church,
you are complete in Him? Then if you feel that you still
have work left to be done for your standing before God, whether
it be righteousness or your life or justification or anything
else, that there's still something to be done. You're saying Jesus
Christ did not complete the work. That's why Paul said, if a man
is justified by the works of the law, Christ is dead in vain. His work was an empty thing.
An empty thing. Since it is the perfect God who
has accomplished the work, any work or ever added to that work
calls the character of God into question concerning His truthfulness. Those who are weary in their
efforts and labors to establish a righteousness with God, if
you've finally been fed up, try to be good enough to get to heaven
because you've got to be as good as God to get there. You've got
to be as good as God to get to heaven. That's how good you've
got to be. And if you're wore out and tired of that laboring,
if you're tired of trying your best to be a good person when
you're really not, and you never will be except in the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Lord. He said, that's an impossible
goal to reach, you know, for a man to be righteous on his
own. Our Lord said in Sabbath terminology, coming to me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you Shabbat. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. My burden is easy, my yoke is
easy, my burden is light, and you shall find rest unto your
souls. One thing I did find yesterday
that wasn't difficult at all after we did all that work cutting
down those trees and hauling them, handling them three times.
I've got at least two more times to handle them before I get them
in the wood stove. One thing I did not find difficult yesterday
was to sit down in my chair and kick back and quit working. I found that so easy. Why do
men have such difficulty with it? I can't imagine. I guess
it's because they've never really rested. They've never really
rested. I want us to look at these three
texts this morning. I'll try not to be too long. The first
we'll look at is Exodus 34 and verse 21. He says, 6 days shalt thou work,
but on the 7th day thou shalt rest in earring time, and in
harvest thou shalt rest. Now that last phrase qualifies
and quantifies what he's talking about in this particular Sabbath.
6 days thou shalt work, but on the 7th day thou shalt rest in
earring time, and in harvest thou shalt rest. Now this is
the course, this is the standard set by God based on the creation. God created all that He is in
six days, and on the seventh day He rested. As I said, not
from exhaustion, but because the work was done and there's
nothing left to do in creation. Under the old covenant, the six
days of work was always attached to the Sabbath. When you see
work for six days, it's always attached to the Sabbath rest
because it was a conditional covenant. We're not under a conditional
covenant. We're under the covenant of grace.
The conditional covenant says that you do this and God will
do this. That's the conditional covenant.
That's the old covenant. You obey, God will bless. You
disobey, God will curse. That was the conditional covenant.
We're not under that covenant. The believer's not under that
covenant. He's under the covenant of unmerited favor. He's under
the covenant of grace. And it's all already been done. And there is nothing for the
child of God but blessing. And you don't have to pray for
blessing. God has blessed you with all spiritual blessings
in Jesus Christ according as He's chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love having predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself to the praise and glory
of His grace wherein He's made us accepted in the Beloved. Well,
if you do this, God will bless you. If you've got to do something
for God to bless you, you'll never be blessed of God. You hear that? Well, if you pray a lot, won't
you be blessed? You're blessed to be able to pray a lot. Really? Well, if you read the
Bible, won't God bless you for reading the Bible? God blesses
you to understand this book, to start with, and give you a
hunger for these words. You can't do nothing but get
God to bless you. That was an old covenant. It's
passed away. If God blesses you, you know
why He does? Because He will. He's God, the God of all grace,
unmerited favor. You can't merit His favor. You can't merit His favor. In the New Testament, the new
covenant, the Sabbath is always mentioned without any reference
to the six days of work. In the Old Testament, six days
of work, rest. But in the New Testament, the
Sabbath is referenced and never mentioned with the six days of
work. Now that means something. That's
important. The reason is that for the believer
every day is the Sabbath day. Every day is a day of rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We as believers live on the Sabbath. We live in the Sabbath, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We live, move and have our being
in a perpetual state of rest. I know religion doesn't like
that. They like to talk about work and multitasking and all
that mess. Will a believer work? Of course
he will. Will he know he's working? No, he's just loving Christ and
going on in this world. Living. Living. I want to do something for Jesus.
Wake up in the morning. If you're a child of God, go
to work. Give your boss work for eight
hours to pay. Somebody needs a glass of water,
give them a drink. But don't think when you go to
work, I'm doing God's business. Because that automatically makes
you a Pharisee. Just live. Live. Rest. Rest. Now, I know this is urgent to
religion. It's nonetheless true. We do not work to earn a rest
in Christ. Christ worked, finished the work,
and earned our rest for us. We rest in Him who performed
the work and finished it And we disavow any notion that we
had or have anything to do with the accomplishment of our salvation.
I didn't have anything to do with my salvation. You know,
I had it and didn't even know it. Christ didn't make it possible
that I'd be redeemed on Calvary Street. Christ redeemed me on
Calvary Street. He shed His blood. God accepted that sacrifice.
And we were accounted as His children because we'd already
been accounted as His children and the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He redeemed me. He didn't try to do something
up there. He satisfied God's law and the requirements of God's
law for me and propitiated God for my sin 2,000 years ago. And I come into this world a
sinner. As soon as I was born, I started
speaking lies. I proved myself a sinner. Didn't
take long for my mom and dad to find out what I was. And all the time, 2,000 years
ago, Christ had already paid my sin debt. Well, how did I
know? One day, God sent a preacher. And I was just stupid enough
to go to church. And I sat there one night, and
I was already a religious man. And I sat down in that church
one night, and that preacher told me how God had accomplished
my salvation without any help from me, without my consent. or anything. And I found out
that night by the Holy Spirit calling me through the Word of
God that I didn't find out I could be saved or if I do something
I could be saved. I found out that God had saved
me and called me with a holy calling not according to my works
but according to His own purpose and grace which He had given
me in Jesus Christ before the world began. If you're a child of God, we
hear people talk about, well, you need to get saved. Listen,
you can't get saved unless you're saved. It ain't going to happen. But if you are one of those for
whom Christ shed His blood, if you are one of those for whom
Christ has paid the sin debt, one day the Holy Spirit through
the preaching of the Word is going to call you up and tell
you not what you can do, but what God has done for you. The
work is finished. We rest in that, and we disavow
anything that attacks it or tries to attach itself to it. In our
text here, about the six days of work, it mentions two times,
earing and harvest. Earing and harvest, the time
of sowing, literally the word earing is plowing, and the time
of reaping. which is the time of harvest.
Now both plowing and harvesting require work, don't they? You've
made a garden, you know that's why it requires some work. Wayne
plants a garden every year and I guarantee you don't go out
there and stand at that thing and say, be calm. He gets out his
plow and his little tractor and he works on it with the hoe and
keeps the weeds out and things like that. There's work involved. And when a time of harvest comes,
he don't look at those grapes and say, jump in this basket.
He don't look in those ears of corn and say, find myself, find
yourself in the pot. He has to go out there and pick
it. Those things involve work. And our Lord says this, 6 days
thou shalt thou work, but on the 7th day thou shalt rest in
earring time and in harvest. Thou shalt rest in earring time
and in harvest. Earring represents the beginning
of the thing. Harvest represents the ending
of a thing. And here our Lord refers simply
in the Old Testament language to all the spectrum of work,
the beginning and the end of it. Here our Lord refers to that,
and that automatically puts a free will legalistic religion in jeopardy. The Sabbath, the rest obtained
by Christ and enjoyed by the believer is realized without
labor in the beginning or labor in the end. In hearing and in
harvest is void of personal intent in the gaining of it. The Sabbath is the free gift
of God. Don't go trying to pluck no corn. Don't try to plow the field.
You ain't going to get nowhere with that. You see, God says,
rest in the time of earing and in the time of harvest. From
beginning to end, rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Any intention
to possess it, merely prove that you already were the recipient
of it. Those who intend to gain this
rest because they are tired Having worked for it will never have
it. If you want this rest, you can't work for it. You can't
work for it. You can't have it if you work
for it. You can have it in earring and in harvest from beginning
to end in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest. Rest. There are those who tried to
work for this rest. Now our Lord in Romans chapter
1 declared that the gospel was the revelation of the righteousness
of God from faith to faith. And that righteousness, we know
in the study of Romans, is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ. Now there are those, however,
that could not stomach that thing where you just can't rest. My mother and I, we always, my
mother's the kind of woman that can never not have something
to do. I'm serious. If there's not something
to do, she'll invent something to do. She's got to stay busy.
That's her nature. That's the way she's geared.
Me, I'm just the opposite. And so I often tease her and
kid her. She's 85 years old, you know, and I say, Mom, when
there's nothing to do, do nothing. No, no. I said, yes, that's how
it is. When there's nothing to do, do nothing. Learn how to
rest. Is there anything to do in salvation?
Come on now. Why are you trying to do something?
Quit. Rest. In the hearing, or in the
earing, in the beginning, and in the end, in the harvest, and
everything in between, there's nothing to do in the matter of
your rest in Christ. Just rest. Rest. These folks couldn't stomach
that in Romans chapter 10. Paul says, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved, for I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. They
are religious. They're on the money. They're
there, but not according to knowledge. Their zeal and their enthusiasm
is born of ignorance, not knowledge. Here's how they're ignorant.
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness." Now, that's not
God's essential righteousness. That's the righteousness revealed
in the Gospel from faith to faith. The righteousness which is the
Lord Jesus Christ. God's righteousness. They don't
want that. You mean if I just trust Christ, it's all taken
care of? It's all taken care of and you don't trust Christ
if it's taken care of for you. But the answer to that question
is yes, if you trust Christ, it's all taken care of. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. And this is just the case here
this morning. If you're not bowing to the Lord Jesus Christ and
trusting Him alone for your salvation, all of your salvation, all of
your salvation, then you're going about to establish your own righteousness.
You're trying to figure out a way to merit a standing before God
that God will accept based on that merit. And you can't do
it. You can't do it. They've not
established their own righteousness. They've not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. What was he talking about? Verse
4, For Christ is the end of the law. That is the purpose, the
fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes on
Him. To everyone. What's left to do? Get a pillow. Lay down. Throw an Afghan over
yourself and rest. That's what this is talking about.
The second reference of our text is in Exodus chapter 35 and verse
2. Exodus chapter 35 and verse 2. It says, "...six days shall work
be done, but on the seventh day there shall be unto you a holy
day of the Sabbath of rest of the Lord. Whosoever doth work
therein shall be put to death." Look at the next line, "...ye
shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath
day." Now a lot of people like to take that and say, well, you
know, I don't do no work on Sunday. I had a dear old friend. I saw
her picture in the One Feather the other day. I think they'd
celebrate. She was ninety-some years old. We was at the hospital
one day. I think I was up there to see Winnie. I think Winnie
had had a problem. We was up there. She was sitting in Winnie's
room, and somehow the subject of the Sabbath came up. I didn't bring it up. But it
came up, and she said to me, she says, you know, I don't cook
on Sundays. I don't cook on Sundays. I said,
well, honey, do you eat? She says, oh yeah, I eat. I said,
where do you eat? She says, up at the restaurant. I said, so you have somebody
else cook for you. You don't break the Sabbath, but you have
somebody else break the Sabbath so you can eat. And I told her
what the Sabbath was. The seventh day was a holy day
unto the Lord. It was called the Sabbath of
rest and don't kindle No fire through your habitations on that
day. Don't do anything. What does
that mean? Well, it must mean that if you don't do anything,
it must mean that you trust God to supply your needs. That's what you're doing. You
say, well, shouldn't I cook on Sunday? I cooked a pot of soup
today. This is about resting in Christ
for all that's necessary for your salvation. Don't do anything. What he's
talking about is if God is providing this, if God has given this,
for you to do something is to say that what He's given is insufficient. Insufficient. Several things
are found here. First thing, there is a personal
reckoning of this rest. This rest, he says, shall be
to you a holy day. A holy day. This is very important
because of our natural bent and inclination to account that our
works carry a weight of significance. We like to think they do. Part
and parcel with the believer's struggle is to believe God concerning
this rest. And it is often a struggle. We
constantly need to remind ourselves to reckon the old man to be dead
because he certainly raises his ugly head a whole lot in our
lives. We need to cease from our labors
in effort to gain a harvest from God. Secondly, note the word
LORD. L-O-R-D is all in capital letters.
This refers to the Savior, Lord Jehovah, Lord Jehovah. And what follows then is a reference
to the Lord's work in saving His people, a work that He alone
accomplished. He by substitution, satisfaction,
and imputation has forever redeemed His people. There are no human
fingerprints on Calvary. No human DNA can be found. Only Christ is there on the seat
alone. He alone bears all the responsibility
for the salvation of His people. He alone gets the glory for the
salvation of His people. He alone finishes the work. Therefore,
whosoever worketh therein shall be put to death. That simple.
If you don't trust Christ alone is your salvation. You are gone,
Jesse. That simple. To add your work
to that which the Lord has accomplished according to this is a capital
crime. a capital crime, and not in the
courts of humanity, but at the bar of God. Let him that is righteous
be righteous still. Let him that is unrighteous be
unrighteous still. How are you righteous? Christ
is your righteousness, or you're not righteous at all. There are
no exceptions to the rule. The phrase, you shall kindle
no fire throughout your habitation upon the Sabbath day is referring
to preparing food on the Sabbath and teaches us that just as you
cannot work for this rest, you have neither any part in sustaining
yourself in this rest. You don't have any part in sustaining
yourself. You are kept by the power of God unto salvation.
That's what the scripture says, kept by the power of God. If
God don't keep you, you're in trouble. If God don't restrain
you from being what you are, you're in real trouble. You know what God has to do for
you to perish in an eternal hell? Nothing. He doesn't leave you
to yourself. That's all He's got to do. You
better beg Him to interfere in your life and interrupt your
career right now. Believers are kept by the power
of God. The third reference is Exodus chapter 34 and verse 25.
It says, Thou shalt not offer the
blood of my sacrifice with leaven, neither shall the sacrifice of
the feast of the Passover be left until morning. Now, we know
that the Passover was one of the Sabbaths that the
Lord ordained. The Passover is the second Sabbath
observance mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23. And as with all the
other seven Sabbaths, there is one phrase that you'll find in
all eight of them, if you'll look at it, Leviticus 23 and
25. All eight Sabbaths have one phrase
that says, No servile work to be done. Look it up. Every time
those Sabbaths are mentioned, no servile work to be done. None whatsoever. But here in
this text, our Lord narrows the concepts of work to a specific
kind. With the use of the word leaven,
our Lord makes singular reference to approaching God by the law. or legalism, or keeping the law
for righteous. That's specific here. Because
he uses it in the Old Testament. Or uses leaven in the New Testament
when he's teaching this very principle. Look at a few verses
of Scripture. Matthew chapter 16. Our Lord said in verse 6, Then
Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven, of
the Pharisee and the Sadducee. And they reason among themselves,
saying, it's because we don't have any bread. It shows you
how stupid the apostles were. They're just like us. They're
dumber than a box of hammers. They really are. They need revelation
just like we do. He's talking about 11. They say,
you reckon we're out of bread? Now this is shortly after he's
just taken 12 loaves and fishes and fed 4,000 people. Reckon
we're out of bread. How are we going to get bread? Just like the woman after the
Lord told who he was and heaven opened and God said, this is
my beloved son in whom thou wilt place. Some woman stood up and
said, boy, the woman who gave you breast milk sure is blessed.
Said, I ain't got to do anything. Just got to show you how goofy
humanity is. They reason among themselves,
is it because we've taken no bread? Which when Jesus perceived,
He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves
because you've bought no bread? Do you not yet understand, neither
remember the five loaves and the five thousand, and how many
baskets we took up? Neither the seven loaves or the
four thousand, how many baskets you took up? How is it that you
do not understand that I speak not of you concerning bread?
but that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
the Sadducees. Then understood how that he bade
them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." What did they teach? Keep the
law and be safe. He said, That's leaven. That's
leaven. He said, On my sacrifice, on
the Passover, No leaven to be added to that. And all of it's
going to be gone in the morning. Nothing going to be left over.
It's all going to be consumed on the night of the sacrifice. Don't you add your little bit
of leaven to it. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Our Lord
says this in verses 6 through 8, Your glory is not good. Now the situation here, a young
man in this church is having sex with his mother or his father's
wife. It's incest. It's a horrible
crime. It should never take place. And
the church, rather than mourning and seeking this fellow's recovery,
says, What in the world have you got yourself into? They become
puffed up. That's what Paul said. They began
to glory. Well, you know, I might be a sinner, but I'm not like
that guy. I'm not doing what he's doing. I'm okay. That fellow's doing a horrible
thing. But I'm not doing a horrible thing. They were puffed up and
they were glorying. In this one, Paul is going to
turn over to the devil to destroy his flesh that his soul might
be saved. And so he says, your glorying is not good. Know ye
not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump, a little self-righteous
Phariseeism, purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may have
a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast,
not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. No leaven in this sacrifice.
That means none of your works in this sacrifice. None whatsoever. Paul said in Hebrews chapter
4, let us labor therefore to enter into this rest. Let us
strive to get here. You want to work? Work to get
here. Strive. How do you strive? To enter into
rest. Work really hard to lay down. That's what you do. You work
really hard to fall into a place of repose and respite. That's what you do. Man will
fall who adds anything to what God has done. And what a beautiful
thing this is. And I said this many times to
legalists over the years who got in my face over subjects
like this. I've had my share of them. But
I remember one standing, reports of her church one time, after
I had preached something along these lines. And that fellow
said, well, you just leave men to act the way they want to.
And I said, yeah, I do. That's what I want to do, act
the way they want to. God will restrain them, I hope. I know
He will. He said, well, what do you do?
What are you talking about, Red? Don't you know we have to work?
I said, no. You'll have to excuse me. I'm
going to go home and rest. I'm going to go home and rest. Can
you say that in your heart today? It is done. The great transaction
is done. I am the Lord's and He is mine. What you're saying, if you're
really saying that is, no, I think I'll rest. I'm just going to
rest. You're lazy. No, there's nothing
left to do. No work left to be done. It's
all taken care of. from earring to harvest. I'm
going to put no leaven in this sacrifice. Ain't going to kindle
no fire. It's done. What a glorious thing
our God has done for His people. What a glorious thing. You go
ahead and do it. He'll kill you. It's that simple. Rest. Father, bless us through
our understanding. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.