Christ the Sabbath Rest

Good morning.

So have the honor of being able to preach here again. It's a Beulah Baptist and so thank you Casey for Having me up here today. It's a it's been a it's been a whirlwind the last couple of months It's hard to believe we're already going back to Cleveland's But rest assured Beulah is always at the top of our prayer list at home. So it's a it's a it's our second home certainly

So today's sermon is Christ the Sabbath rest for the weary soul Pastor Casey has already read the passage. So I'll be referencing it throughout our sermon this morning

Several years ago. I had a very interesting conversation with a patient. He's a Korean war vet 92 years old And he was very proud of his service to our country I always made it a point and I still make it a point to thank Servicemen anytime I see a hat on the streets. I thank them

It was interesting this day though he Commented about the walls in the office. So we had just sold our dental office and my wife and I We ran our dental office in a very Christian manner and there were Christian Verses all over the walls. We had great comfort gospel tracts that were being given out in the in the waiting room people knew who we were whether they were Christian or not and And I got a chance to talk to a lot of people witnessed a lot of people Julie did as well Some people you just never had that opportunity to talk to So in this day this 92 year old vets who I never had a chance to talk to about the gospel Looked at the walls and he said Where's all the scripture verses at?

Because see what had happened is as we sold our dental office and The new owners took them all down

and it was amazing because there's a lot of people we found out were Christians or at least liked the verses and Never said anything about it until they were actually off the walls and and this was this gentleman and And after he talked about how we missed the verses he talked about how you know, I've lived a very bad life. Dr. Silvestro You don't know what I've done

And I said it doesn't matter what you've done because there can be forgiveness in this and he says, you know I've gone back to the church the Catholic Church

And he says, you know, I don't agree with it all because the the Pope You know, he says a lot of really bad things Like why do you go to the Catholic Church?

Well, you know, that's just that's what I was raised in and again, I've lived a very bad life you don't know what I've done

I'm gonna pick up with that story here in a little bit

While there's many theological points from this passage today Hebrews 4 verses 1 through 13 We're gonna focus on one point of it

Casey's I'm sure is gonna have to go back and and to flesh out more points in this text But this point deserves a sermon on its own the idea of biblical rest the biblical rest for the believer and the lure of the biblical rest for the unbeliever

And so in our in our passage today We have to understand the background of Hebrews and and pastor Casey's in a remarkable job as he's been preaching through Hebrews I want to pull it all together for us to understand how we are to view what's happening here in Hebrews 4 and really the rest of Hebrews You see while being rich in theology and and greatly beneficial to know well to the Gentile believer The book of Hebrews was written to the Jews sometime between the ascension of Christ and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD and it dealt with three main Groups of people and who were they the first group Jewish people who were not born again People who had not repented their sin believed in the gospel These were people who who didn't have any eyes open or even wanting to see the gospel Even though they may have understood some of the arguments that are out there at least heard the arguments Yet a second group of people who were Jewish also And and they may have understood the intellectual arguments

But they didn't receive him

So they heard the arguments, but they weren't quite there then he had the third group of people these were the Jewish Christians These were the the Jews who had actually gotten saved Believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They believed in his atoning sacrifice. They were born again But and here's the big but is while they were saved they were in danger of being dragged back into this yoke of works

Because of the other Jewish people around

and so we have to also keep in mind something about these three sets of of Jews is They understood their Old Testaments

See when we read the book of Hebrews We better open up our commentaries We better open up all of our other resources because it is full of Old Testament references If you don't understand the book of Leviticus You're missing out on a whole bunch of the book of Hebrews as well as other areas But here's just a few things that the Jews of the day the three groups of Jews that were being That would have had the book of Hebrews preached to them as I believe Casey is pastor Casey is correct about this Hebrews was a sermon that was penned by somebody else and it was for a Jewish audience primarily

They understood messianic prophecy. They understood who they were to be looking for as we understand 350 plus prophecies the Old Testament to be fulfilled in the first coming of the Messiah. They knew this They knew what to look for they understood the Levitical priesthood which is spoken about here in the book of Hebrews You can get to that in a few chapters, maybe a couple months down the line They understood the temple in the sacrificial sacrificial animal system having to slaughter animals for sin They understood the priestly order of Melchizedek They had understanding of types and shadows throughout the Old Testament of the one who was to come the Messiah So they had all of this background better than probably any of us do today even

So By the time the Hebrews listening to this sermon get to our passage here in chapter 4

the writer now is begging upon their knowledge already of what they have about the Old Testament scriptures and He's laid out more arguments here in the first three chapters of Hebrews So think about this right off the bat in Hebrews verses 1 through 4 of chapter 1 He says this long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son Whom he appointed the heir of all things through him. Also. He created the world He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature And he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high Having become as much superior to angels as the name is inherited is more excellent than theirs Now think about this passage This sermon is being given to these three groups of Hebrews And all of a sudden he's like it's about Christ

There is no introduction there there is no ramping up. He's like Christ is the one

This is the Christ that it is spoken about to the prophets that you guys have listened to he used to speak to us through these prophets Now he speaks to us through the Sun

That this is the creator of the entire universe

He made everything oh by the way, it's all for him too. He's the heir of everything that was created. Oh And he is also the exact imprint of God. Oh and by the way, he is the one that you've been waiting for to make purification for sin I Mean all of this is jam-packed in the first couple of verses The first part of this sermon to the Hebrews. Oh and he sat down at the right hands of the father

Taking that seat of majesty who as we will learn later in the book of Hebrews is Continuing to make intercession for the saints over and over and over again

So these first four verses of Hebrews would have caused alarm bells to go off in the minds of the Hebrews listening to this They've been waiting for the Messiah for literally four thousand years at this point

2,000 years from the beginning of creation all the way to about Abraham and then from Abraham all the way to the birth of Christ Another 2,000 years so they had been waiting for this for a long time. And of course the rest of this chapter is continuing to speak about the Sun I Love talking to Jehovah's Witnesses and pointing out the fact that the rest of chapter one is the father speaking about his son Your throne Oh God, you will sit on forever Think about that The father calling his son God make no mistake about it. He's gonna sit on the Davidic throne forever Then you get into chapter 2 proclaims who is God who God's son is and what he did and we see here in this chapter about Jesus being the propitiation for sin

And That he had to come not only as God, but he had to come down as flesh to take on human flesh to live exactly like humans except without sin

He had to he had to be tempted

and Yet not fall to sin

So we see this here in in chapter 2 but then we get into chapter 3 as as Casey has been has been going through lately and And we see the police starting here in verse 1 therefore, holy brothers partakers of a heavenly calling consider

Consider the Apostle and high priest of our confession Jesus

So two chapters laying out who Jesus is that he is the long-awaited Messiah the one to fulfill all the messianic prophecy

Consider Christ as the one

Heber nation contemplate what I told you reflect on your Old Testament scriptures think about this continuous animal sacrifices That you have been forced to do for a really long time consider Jesus

Think back to Isaiah 52 and 53 Behold my servant shall act wisely He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted as many were astonished at you his appearance was so marred beyond human Semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind So shall he sprinkle many nations king shall shut their mouths because of him For that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand consider Jesus

Isaiah 53 who is believed when he is heard from us and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground He had no former majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him

He was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised and we esteemed him not

He brews consider Jesus

They would have understood what Isaiah 53 was make no mistake you can walk up to Jewish people today And I do this at airports and other places and and I've learned I don't open up my Bible because I don't want to be obvious I open up my phone and I open Isaiah 53 and I ask him who does this sound like to you?

They all know They all know it sounds like Jesus of Nazareth

Let's continue verse 4 surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet We esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but He was pierced for transgressions and was crushed for iniquities Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds We are healed all we like sheep have gone astray And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all

Hebrews consider Jesus

He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet He opens not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shearers is silent So we open not his mouth by oppression and judgment He was taken away and asked for his generation who consider that he was cut off out of the land of the living Stricken for the transgression of my people and they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth consider Jesus

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring He shall prolong his days the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge of that righteous one My servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet He bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors Consider Jesus

I purposely waited to open up in a word of prayer. Let's do that now

Lord and just thank you for gathering us together today Lord There may be people here who do not truly know who you are Although they may not be Hebrew by descent Lord this passage Isaiah 53 here as well as Hebrews so far It speaks to anybody who doesn't know you in a salvific way. So I pray for those who don't know who you are today That today may be the day of salvation today may be the day that you open up their eyes grant them repentance and faith

And lord for those who are in here who are believers I pray that you allow them to understand what this biblical rest looks like

Because so many of us fall into this trap where we say we're resting in Christ But as it turns out, we don't do a whole lot of resting

And so I pray that that for them as well that they understand what this biblical rest truly means It's your holy and precious name. We pray. Amen

So let's talk about this rest there's four points in our passage today That we're going to to go through number one is rest for those with faith. This is hebrews 4 verses 1 through 3a

Point number two the model of rest

Point number three the present availability for rest and then point number four the urgency for his rest

See jesus Said in matthew 11 28 to 30 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from me For i'm gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light

this rest Christ spoke about numerous times in the gospel. This rest is a free gift by grace through faith in christ alone We have to understand what this rest is and so here in verses one through three point number one rest for those with faith

Therefore while the promise of entering as rest still stands Let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it For good news came to us just as to them But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened For we have believed for we who have believed enter that rest as he has said as I swore in my wrath They shall not enter my rest Now this passage would have conjured up memories of psalm 95. It's a direct reference to it

And in that psalm, it says for 40 years I've loathed that generation and said there are people who go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways Therefore as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest So what is this what is this time period? being pointing out to or pointing to

Well think about back to the exodus

Israel was living in egypt for 400 years For a while they had it really good because of joseph

Well joseph dies the pharaoh dies

New pharaohs forget about israel and they start to view israel as a threat Instead of a benefit to the nation and a blessing to egypt and so as time goes on

The egyptian pharaoh starts to be harsh with israel

They start making them work really hard And as they started to grumble what happened they were forced to work even harder making those bricks

Exodus 2 23 says this the people of israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help Their cry for rescue from slavery came to god and god heard their groaning and god remembered his covenant with abraham With isaac and with jacob god saw the people of israel and god knew Now, how does this connect to the 400 to the 40 years in psalm 95? Well, here's how it connects is because israel Was caused was caused to work really hard in egypt They cried out to god for rest And so what did god do?

God orchestrated his mighty sovereign plan of rest He brought forth nine plagues to egypt

And that wasn't enough to cause egyptian pharaoh to repent was it

And so now he brings out the 10th the most devastating of them all And this being the most clear picture one of the most clear pictures in the entire t the old testament about the coming messiah See in that 10th plague

It was the angel of death was going to come in and kill the first born of every family and animal

The angel of death was going to come in and kill everyone except whom

Except the ones who took a perfect lamb

Shed the lamb's blood And poured that lamb over the door posts So that the angel of death would pass over the homes and not kill the first born If the blood covered the family

That's the passover lamb This is this is an unbelievable picture

Of the coming messiah

and so israel was saved as a result of this 10th plague Pharaoh finally relents. He now allows israel to go out and worship the way that they were asking to worship god

And as they leave the lands god lets them plunder the egyptians blesses them with wealth and they leave

And then just for god to show even more of his mighty sovereign power He has the egyptians chase after him in chariots And then we see the miracle of the parting of the red sea as As israel walks through it untouched The chariots go through and what happens? All swept away all killed god rescued israel

He's giving them rest

And so he brings him in for the purpose of bringing him to the promised land that he had promised to the israelites But here's the problem. They spend just a few weeks there. And what do they start doing again?

grumbling

Terminating and eventually making a golden calf to worship

Can you imagine can you imagine

Watching all of those plagues happen

Watching the entirety of the army of the egyptians get swept away In the red sea

The miracles that have occurred

He is granting you all this wealth and plundering the egyptians

And then within weeks you're like do you really exist?

Amazing to think about

This probably kindled some anger in god didn't it that's exactly what we read here in exodus and it kindles anger and And one of the things that happens is that god forces them to wander in the desert for 40 years? Which is what psalm 95 is about this is the background to what happened in psalm 95?

Is that they wandered for 40 years and in god Punish the israelite nation so much that he only let a few actually into the promised land and and one other one To view the promised land from afar

But he was not The reality is this is that the israelites lacked faith In god and his promises and god sworn his wrath. They should not enter that rest

Again israel saw the miracles They they saw the plagues they saw how god delivered them and yet

We know what happened

But this shouldn't surprise us should it

How many of us receive blessings in life

That we know of the lord

And that a day later we're questioning them

Let's be honest right I'm not going to have you all raise your hands because every one of your hands should be raised lest you're a liar

Then we got a different problem

But This is this is what's being spoken of here is this rest

So this is point number one the rest for those with faith israel lacked it

It's a point number two now

The model of his rest verses three through five As I sworn my wrath they should not enter my rest Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and god rested on the seventh day from all his works And again this passage he said they shall not enter my rest

So what's happening in here is psalm 95 and this idea of rest Is we're getting a little more information about this and it's being tied now to the biblical account of creation and rest

Now let's think back to creation

God made everything in six literal 24 hour days. I know we're all good bible students. We all believe that I've taught it many times here case you did a long series here To make sure you got that right because if you get creation wrong you get lots of other problems You have lots of other problems in the bible

So he made everything in six days rest in the seventh from all his works

He made human beings as the pinnacle of his creation The last thing he created were human beings Specifically the woman and then he said it was very good, right?

You ladies should really appreciate that one

But god rested on this seventh day now I have a question for you god is All knowing god is all powerful God has lots of other wonderful attributes does god need to rest

No So why did he rest? Well, we get some understanding of that in the exodus verse chapter 20 verses 8 through 11 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days You shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your god On it you should not do any work you or your son or your daughter your male servant or female servant or your livestock Or the sojourner who's within your gates for in six days The lord made the heaven the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day Therefore the lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy

What god was doing was making a model for our work week

It worked six days rest in the seventh He's gave us a day off

So we learned that here in exodus I think there's a key in this too though is the lord blessed the sabbath day and make it whole and made it holy

Keep that at the forefront of your minds as we continue to unravel this See after six days of work We're to rest on the seventh now going back to the creation account god stuck Adam before he was created into the garden special fields special garden in that field And Adam was called to tend to that garden That garden was not meant to be hard work. Now. We were supposed to work We've always were called to work, but it was not to be a little boreus type of work. He was to tend to the garden

Now we all know that changed. Thank you, Adam that

We now have to work hard as part of the curse in genesis 3 as a result of them sinning

What happened in the midst of that garden? Thorns thistles, we know those to be weeds

Try growing plants today. Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to weed for 90 percent of the work in growing a carrot?

I mean it's incredible to think about how far we've come

So this this understanding of work is that we actually have work now to do that wasn't present at the beginning of creation And god has granted a day of rest from that work

And he blessed this sabbath day

Now in this Genesis 3 accounts of where he said thorns and thistles will not pop up What happened at genesis 3 15? Right in the middle of that

Is the first prophecy of the coming messiah?

So while god is cursing creation

We see that there's also a blessing wrapped up in the center of it that the future messiah was going to come

Amazing to think about with this sabbath rest and maybe one of the clues we're going to get to in our next point

But before we get there, do we still celebrate the sabbath today? Are we supposed to do that right now?

Well We need to understand what's going on in the old testament to have a proper view of of whether we keep the sabbath or not Because who is this command given to?

Israel

Is that a command that we are to hold on to today? There's a lot of commands the old testament that were for israel only and there's others that are for everybody How do we distinguish between the two? Well, I think some of the best explanations out there takes the law of the old testament breaks it into two categories One would be the moral law and the other would be the ceremonial law

They were both for israel at the time, but only The moral law Is still applicable today? So there's a reason why the ceremonial law was in place for israel and it was to set them apart From the rest of the world for for a purpose and there's two ways that theologians primarily come to this conclusion First if the law is repeated in the new testament that was in the old testament

We're still to follow it today

And so we can see with the 10 commandments nine are explicitly repeated So we follow them. Guess which one is not keep the sabbath day holy so That is one way we can arrive at this conclusion that there's something different about keeping the sabbaths today versus what it was for israel back in the day Here's a second way to get this conclusion. And by the way, these these work together really well Here's a second way. Now. This is going to be a shameless plug But we have a good conference coming up here in november And this conference is going to be with keith phosky and and justin peters who's been here many times

Now as we get closer to the conference i'm sure casey's going to have a bunch of flyers printed off That you're going to be hanging on walls maybe around town do them at starbucks

And then he's going to have flyers made that you hand out to others and these flyers are going to be great, right? They're announcing the coming conference. They're announcing this wonderful time of fellowship That keith phosky and justin peters are going to be here

And so it's going to be something that we can look forward to

But here's the big question when the conference comes in november

Thursday friday saturday sunday monday. Well, it's not thursday friday saturday sunday monday go by and the conference is done

Do we need the flyers on the walls anymore?

No, we take them down right? We don't we don't need them the purpose has been served They made an announcement for the ones that were to come And now you take the flyers down Now if you want to keep the flyers as a keepsake, yeah, fine. Keep it in a keepsake. Keep it in a drawer Look at it. Remember

But the flyers are done with We don't need them This is how we view the ceremonial law is that there were things that the israelite nation was to do to set them apart from the rest of the world

And and it was the purposes so that god would make it known that the messiah was coming from the israelite line

So they were set apart as holy and they had these different types of holiness laws to set them apart Though the way that they dressed what they ate all kinds of different things So that the entire world would know About the oracles of god and the messiah coming

Listen to how paul addresses the sabbath and other old testament ceremonial deeds in collations 2 verses 13 to 17

And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive in him Having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions having canceled out the certificate of death Consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us He also has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross Having disarmed the rulers and authorities. He made a public display of them having triumphed over them in him And now we get to pastor casey's absolute favorite word therefore

Because therefore in verse 16 talks about the previous verses therefore Since christ has come

Since christ has paid the penalty for sin

Therefore no one is to judge you in food and drink Or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day Things which are only a shadow of what is to come But the substance belongs to whom? christ

That's how we understand do we still keep the sabbath or not?

Now there's another point we we should talk about with this idea of sabbath Sabbath is saturday. Why are we here on sunday?

Now There are principles we can take out of The commandments of resting on the sabbath. Is it a good principle that we have a day of rest?

Absolutely

And so we can we can view that as as a as a good thing out of out of x's 20 verses 8 through 11 But there's no there's nothing that mandates things that we must do as a result of the sabbath And then on top of that there's there's always been a custom that saturday was the day of worship So why do we do it on sunday now? Well one is we don't we're not mandated to keep a sabbath number two It's nowhere mandated in the scriptures that sabbath is the day in the old testament to worship on You won't find it in there

That's what's really and you can read got questions and you can read all those explanations out there But there isn't this mandated day for it. It was the day of rest It just will happen because it's today at rest. It was the easiest day to worship on

But the command wasn't there So when you fast forward now to the new testament and you get into the book of acts What do we find the early church doing? What day did they worship on?

sunday Why do we worship on sunday then? Because that's what was established and of course There's probably the scripture doesn't say this either but probably an underlying reason reason for that Because christ was raised on sunday So we celebrate his raising every sunday here in our church services

One of the reasons why we don't have christ still hung on a cross unlike the catholic cult does He's raised from the dead

One more point on this that we need to talk about

Is this work on sunday is it okay if somebody works on sunday?

Yeah, I think we already discussed that You know Pastor case and I have talked a lot about this but this in the 69 confession one of the many reasons why Our church here does not just subscribe to this blindly is is because of the sabotarianism I mean one thing scripture should be our voice. We read the scriptures. We proclaim the scriptures That is what our standard is. It's not any confession Confessions can be helpful. There's a lot of good things in the 1689 But I can tell you in a lot of the circles I run in there are arguments among the 1689 guys And they talk about well You shouldn't ever go to a restaurant on a sunday because there's people that have to work on a sunday

even if they're unbelievers And you're like, well, where'd you get that from? And there's others like well It's okay to go to a restaurant as long as they're only unbelievers and they have all kinds of various ideas with this that are only man-made

And so we stay away from man-made doctrines Because it's essentially no difference than the story you remember from the gospels, which is Jesus chastising the Pharisees as he often liked to do If your ox or your child fell into a hole and it's on the sabbath, would you not pull him out?

Showing the foolishness of the Pharisees there

So so far we've seen number one the rest for those with faith number two the model of rest which is christ and now I'm sorry, which is the creation week pointing to christ and now point number three the present availability of rest verse six

Through ten since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formally receive the good news Failed to enter because of disobedience Again, he appoints a certain day today Saying through david so long afterward in the words already quoted today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts For if joshua had given them rest god would not have spoken of another day later on So then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of god For whoever has entered god's rest has also rested from his works as god did from his

So the jewish nation largely refused to believe by faith Keep in mind what was going on in the jewish nation with the with the Pharisees They had come up with all kinds of rules and laws About what they were to follow in order to what they thought was honoring god more and more

Think about when? Jesus chastised the Pharisees in another passage about how they weren't giving to their parents And they would say well, it's because we're giving it all to god and jesus like you're few fools

You're skipping over the commandment of honoring your father and your mother and making the excuse that you're just giving it to god

Another man-made rule they came up with but there was lots of them when it comes to the sabbath You couldn't drag your chair because that was considered work

Yeah, because you know if you leave a trail it would be like you're trying to plant seed

So there was a number of really ridiculous rules that they have come up with

And it was this system of right of of what we call a man-made righteousness

It was the exact opposite of the idea of what the old testament scriptures were pointing to Which is this rest in the messiah?

Now think about that today, what do the roman catholics do?

They claim that they're saved by christ Except they say it's applied in baby baptism in the baptismal waters And then they stick you underneath their yoke of works the rest of your life Having to do confessions and mariology and and lighting candles and all the other stuff that they do

This is what islam does with all the works that they're supposed to do jovah's witnesses Make no mistake about it. They log their hours while they're out there on the streets peddling their false gospel

And then they have to turn those in every month

Every religion on this planet besides one has a works-based system to it

That come in the same light as what the pharisees were trying to do When instead what the scriptures tell us is that? rest in the one

that This is no different than what happened at the beginning of time when adam sinned His eyes were opened. He and eve realized they were naked and ashamed. What did they do?

They try to cover themselves as fig leaves The first act of workspace righteousness. This has always been present in the human condition And guess what? It's still in ours

Let's be honest every time any one of us sins do we automatically think about how we can atone for our sin

This is human sinful nature

And yet the bible says something different about this it says about resting in him

And so with this present availability arrest going back now to the creation because this is all tied together

Think about this you have god

And the triune god had by the way all involved in creation. Jesus is the agent of creation scriptures are clear on this God rested the triune god had rested on the seventh day from his works This is a picture of our sabbath rest resting from works

But it gets even better than this why is it tied to creation week Who is our sabbath rest?

Christ you know what creation week is a picture of

This is why we're this is why at the end of the fourth commandment That he said to bless the sabbath is a blessed day because it's about christ being foreshadowed Christ being our sabbath rest

That's an incredible connection to think about here going back to the creation account And so If any of you today don't know who christ is there is a rest presently available from your works from your workspace Righteousness and that is in christ By his grace in faith alone in him Which brings us to our last point the urgency of his rest verse 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience As john mccarther states the need for god's rest is urgent A person should diligently with intense purpose and concern secure it It is not that he can work his way to salvation But he that he should diligently seek to enter god's rest by faith Lest he like the israelites in the wilderness lose the opportunity

This rest that is being pointed out to the hebrews

Is being pointed out to don't make the mistakes that your

Forefathers did don't make the mistakes that the israelites did wandering in the desert Don't make the mistakes. They did all along in your history

Of continuing to walk away from god or to try to rest in false gods or works-based righteousness

He's saying rest in the messiah

Now We should ask a question about this Why should those who are hesitating to enter his rest be diligently seeking it instead? And i'm speaking to anybody in here who doesn't know christ salvifically

Because here's the reality and and these verses i'm sure pastor casey's going to spend an entire sermon on verses 12 and 13

If you're not a believer today listen to this carefully For the word of god is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow And discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart

No creature that includes you

Is hidden from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account God knows every bad thing that you've ever done

His word does nothing but condemn you Every time you sit here and listen to his word preached in week in and week out It is nothing but condemn. It is does nothing but separate soul from spirit bone from arrow. It cuts deep into you

and This is what I know because we all went through this who are believers There was a time in our lives that we weren't believers and his word was piercing us

That between our knowledge of god and general revelation in the creation Our general revelation of god in our conscience Because he's written the moral law in our hearts

When his word gets preached It cuts deep and you got one of two thick places you can go You either continue to hide in your own righteousness That isn't a real righteousness or You go diligently seek the rest that god has provided

So now the rest of the story my 92 year old patient at the time Who i'm sad to say just died actually a few weeks ago at 96

He Spent the next several minutes telling me about all the bad things he had done in his life that had haunted him And then after reason after receiving some words from some of his friends. He's like you can fix it all Here's how you're going to do it go back to the catholic church

And so 20 years earlier he went back to the roman catholic church He went to confession asked the priest how he can be forgiven For all of those bad things he'd ever done The priest listened to impatiently and then does as every catholic priest does

Go out and say the act of contrition Many times go out and say the hail mary prayer rosary do works

To try to get your sins absolved

And I want you to start reading the book of luke

And read it and make your penance by your reading

And so richard proudly expressed to me that he had spent the last 20 years reading the gospel luke Chapter two every day he got through it in six and a half times in the last 20 years and he was proud of it And he's and so I asked him. How do you how do you feel about it? How do you feel about your penance? How do you do you feel like you've been forgiven based on all these things that you were told to do?

And he repeated himself to me. Dr. Sylvestero I've lived a very bad life You don't know what i've done

I I responded richard. I don't know all you've done

But I can tell you this I know what god did

I know what christ did richard you will never rest

Until you rest in the one who provided that rest

Richard it is not by a priest In a flowing dress that can save you It is not by all these works that you that he's told you to do that can save you There's only one way you can be saved and it says to throw upon yourself throw yourself upon The mercy and grace of jesus christ

repent of your sin and he is He will Repay, he will pay your penalty of sin on that cross 2 000 years ago

That that blood is already dripped. It is ready for you through repentance and faith

That the moment you repent and believe he gives you forgiveness He grants you repentance. He grants you his righteousness There's nothing more you need to do to try to earn it

Richard you've been reading the bible all these years, which is wonderful, but you've been reading it for the wrong motives

You've been reading it because you thought that somehow just by going through the act of it You're going to be saved and yet In god's grace. He gave you the word to read so that Hopefully you would understand what that gospel message was

And I'm sad to say I don't know how his life ended

I knew that the last time I spoke to him was about eight months ago and he was still embroiled in the catholic church Still trying to gain his own penance

I begged him

That the catholic church can't save you

I begged him to Repent and believe the gospel

So, what does this mean for all of us today, what are our teaching points we're our take-home points You know number one is this if if you were a believer today

Enjoy your rest in christ

Because see

If if we view christ rightly

The moment we repented and believed His righteousness cloaks us second chrythians 5 verse 21. It's also in isaiah

His full love is covering us Do you recognize there's nothing you can do to get more of god's love onto you?

His love is fully on you. There's nothing more nothing more to gain

He has adopted you into his family

You're adopted by the father You are now brothers and sisters of christ. You are co-heirs in the eternal kingdom

To which he says rest

When you sin guess what you're supposed to do

Rest repent and rest

satan wants you to dwell on your sin

He wants you to think you have to do some type of penance and what does he do? He takes you out of the race for a while. He takes you out of the ministry for a while because you are no longer resting in his grace so believers rest

He it is a full rest

When you believe

For those who are unbelievers in here right now, I hope you don't rest

You think you're resting by doing works To try to save yourself You think that you would you're doing things that you can somehow please god?

I can promise you your works are nothing but filthy rags as the scriptures say your works don't please him In any way whatsoever

He provided rest

He provided his son the Sabbath rest

To be your rest

And so I implore you again today. If you don't know who he is Rest from your works Put your trust in his death burial and resurrection because if you don't do that There is a day of reckoning coming

And as he was 9 27 says every man's appointed wants to die and then the judgment And I guarantee you you will not be resting in the internal flames

Lord I just thank you for gathering us together today

and uh I so hard to do this passage justice That your rest is so much more than what I could cover in in the time we had today But I just pray that that you allow your word to continue to simmer on our on our hearts minds and souls

That if you're we're believers we understand what your rest truly is And if we're not believers, I pray you don't bring rest That you don't allow them to feel like they can rest and that They recognize that your word is that two-edged sword that can discern everything going on in their bodies and minds And that you can bring them

Comfort through your gospel. It's your holy impression. We pray. Amen You