Remember To Keep The Sabbath Holy

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We have a series going through the Ten Commandments, so thank you all for being here as we continue our study.
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I do want to tell you how I got this responsibility of teaching on the
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Fourth Commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. I was hanging out in the office studying Scripture, and Stephen comes in, and I'm excited.
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I just learned something new about the Sabbath. And this was kind of random, by the way. This was months ago.
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And I'm telling him the uniqueness of the Sabbath and how Christians are to keep it holy. And I notice he's looking at me like this, just giving me that intense stare.
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He's just looking, and he's like, yeah, yeah. And at the end of our conversation, he said, well, we're actually going to do a series through the
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Ten Commandments coming up in January, and you're going to teach on the Fourth Commandment. And I'm like, what have
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I done? I was like, oh, boy. So here we are today, and I'm excited to be able to help us tackle some of the hard questions of how
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Christians today are connected with the Sabbath law.
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And so there's a context when we go to the Old Testament. We deal with the people of Israel.
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And so something that Pastor Stephen has been telling us over the past weeks is we're not just dealing with Ten Commandments, but 613 commandments were given to Moses and the people of Israel.
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And as Christians, when we're reading and studying our Bible, we can't just cherry -pick verses that make us feel good and say, that's my life verse.
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I'm going to use that one for later. We have to understand context. When we approach
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God's Word, when we approach all of Scripture, this is the whole counsel of God.
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And so we must diligently divide the word of truth and figure out what eternal principles apply to our lives.
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And so that's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to spend a good portion of time in the Old Testament, and we're going to see the transition in how to understand the
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Sabbath into the New Testament as Christians. And so God had a very specific purpose for the people of Israel to be set apart from all these pagan surrounding nations.
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God wanted them to be set apart and to be holy. Leviticus 20, God commands
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Israel to keep all My commandments and all My rules and do them. And He says, you shall be holy to Me, for I the
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Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be Mine.
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And so if the people of Israel were obedient to these 613 commandments, then they would be set apart.
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They would start to begin to understand what it means to be holy as God is holy.
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And so as we go along, I want us to see the weight of all 613 commandments.
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I want to see how we go from that to the Ten Commandments. And then I want us to talk about the uniqueness of keeping the
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Sabbath holy. And so now this next point I'm about to make is really, really important.
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So if you miss this, you may be lost for a good portion of time. But when we look at all 613 commandments, we can understand that they fall into one of three categories.
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The first one being the ceremonial law. Number two is civil laws, right?
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Judicial laws that deal with people interacting with one another. That is the civil law. And then thirdly, we have the moral law.
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So I want to back up, and I want us to kind of unpack these as we go. We have ceremonial laws. Of all these laws, they can overlap for sure, but they kind of slide into one of these categories.
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And so ceremonial laws are instructions to do animal sacrifices, circumcision, feasts, dietary restrictions, and so on.
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But the purpose of these laws, like I said, is teaching the people of Israel about holiness.
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And also it is teaching them to see their need for the coming Savior. So for example,
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I want to talk a little bit about maybe animal sacrifices, because we're talking about the category of ceremonial law.
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Animal sacrifices taught Old Testament saints that God required payment for sin.
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Leviticus 16 demonstrates forgiveness and the removal of sin by commanding a high priest to sacrifice or to take two male goats.
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And so what's really cool is the first goat was to be sacrificed. This taught the people of Israel forgiveness by means of atonement.
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A sacrifice has to be made. The second goat was released into the wilderness, and this represented a removal of sin.
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And so when we come to the New Testament, we understand that these ceremonial laws, like animal sacrifices, were types and shadows that pointed to our
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Savior, Jesus Christ, and John the Baptist proclaimed, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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So we're talking about ceremonial laws. The purpose is to set the people of Israel apart from all of these pagan nations.
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And these types of laws were shadows that pointed to the coming Messiah. So the second category of laws, again, is the civil laws.
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These basically governed the nation of Israel, how to live with one another, and this included punishments for breaking the law.
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These laws were put in place to help Israel thrive as a nation. And what's real interesting is because the church today, we're no longer under any obligation to keep these civil laws because Jesus said that He's going to build
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His church. We're going to be a royal priesthood of believers worldwide. The point is that God is not using a nation -state on earth anymore.
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He used the nation of Israel for a time, a very special time to reveal
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His Word, which we're talking about the Old Testament, and to ultimately bring forth the coming
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Messiah. And so these civil laws seem to be in place for the people of Israel for a very unique and particular point in time.
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And so this brings us to the third category of the moral law. And if I can just say this is the most important category for Christians today to understand.
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The moral law reflects the character of God. And so the moral law extends from the
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Old Testament all the way to the New Testament because God's character,
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His nature, His holiness, His truthfulness cannot change.
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So this is the doctrine that is called the immutability of God, which means that God does not change
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His mind, His will does not change, nor does His nature change.
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The Bible teaches us in the Old Testament in Malachi 3 .6, God says, I the
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Lord do not change. Numbers 23 tells us that God is not like a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change
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His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
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And so we see a huge, infinite difference between God and man. Man, we're prone to change according to our circumstances, right?
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Don't we go through the hardships of life and we feel bad just because something comes up that we didn't foresee?
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A lot of times, we'll make a promise to do something, and guess what? We don't do it. God is infinitely different than we are.
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God, when He makes a promise, He is going to keep it. And so we must understand the moral law reflects
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God's unchanging character. So when we spend time in the Old Testament and we see moral principles, that's true for us today.
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I love this because the New Testament confirms what the Old Testament already teaches us about God's nature and will never changing.
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The book of James alone tells us that God cannot be tempted by evil.
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And it's because God is unchangeably holy and good, and only good comes directly from God.
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And so one of my favorite verses in the New Testament is James 1 .17. Perhaps a lot of us know this verse.
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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Sometimes we stop right there, and it's a great place because this tells us about the graciousness of God.
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Everything good comes from Him. But listen to the second half of this verse. With whom
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God, there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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God does not change. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
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So we're talking about the moral law, and the moral law is essentially the Ten Commandments.
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So with that being said, please turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. Y 'all are probably wondering when we're going to get to turn into Scripture because we're about to have a
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Bible study. We're about to go all over the place. So I get excited about that. You can ask the kids and youth group how much time we spend in Scripture.
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So as you're turning there, at the heart of every commandment we must hang on to this, that at the essence of all the commandments is to love the one true
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God and to love people. We see this principle being reflected in the two tablets of the
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Ten Commandments. The first four commandments deal with our vertical relationship with God.
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Commandments 5 -10, the second half, deals with our horizontal relationship with other people, with man.
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That's why Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew said this, Love the Lord your
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God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. Guess what he said about that?
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This is the greatest and most important commandment. And the second is like it.
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Love your neighbor as yourself, and all of the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
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So let's review back to the first three commandments and then let's examine the fourth commandment together.
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Starting in verse 3, the first commandment says, You shall have no other gods before me.
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The second commandment says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
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You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous
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God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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The third commandment in verse 7 says, You shall not take the name of the Lord your
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God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
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So now this brings us to the fourth commandment where we're going to be spending the rest of our time together. Verse 8 says,
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Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a
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Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates for in six days the
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Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day.
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Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day. Hello?
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Will this work? Thank you.
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All right, so where were we? Okay, we just finished reading the fourth commandment, right? We're tracking? Okay, so when
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I finished reading the fourth commandment, one of the first questions
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I had is, what is the Sabbath exactly, right? Why is it on the seventh day and what does it mean to make it holy?
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So we're going to answer some of these questions as we go. Look with me at verse 10 where we read,
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The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. And so with it being the seventh day, we understand that this is
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Saturday, right? The end of a seven -day week. And so look back with me at the very beginning of this commandment.
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Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Okay, I don't need this anymore. Hello? Okay, cool.
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Man, you've got to love technology. I tell you. All right, let's get back in.
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All right, remember to keep the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. Remember, when we go to the
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Bible, we have to ask questions of what is the context, right? So here God is telling
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Moses and the people of Israel to continually be mindful of this
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Sabbath day. And the key is to keep it holy.
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So how are they supposed to do that? We're immediately told in verses 9 and 10, Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
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But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. And here's the point. On it you shall not do any work.
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Not your son, no sojourners within your gates, not even your livestock.
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The Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest. Israel was to keep the
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Sabbath holy by resting on the last day of week from all their labor that they had previously done.
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And what I want you to see here is that the Sabbath was supposed to be a time of blessing. This was the time where you could recharge from working all week.
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This was a time to rest. It was a time of blessing. And of course, in the
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New Testament, we read about the Pharisees. The Pharisees always have something to say. They always have something to say,
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Nope, you're doing it wrong. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we read about an account of Jesus and His disciples plucking heads of grain to eat on the
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Sabbath. So the Pharisees come along and they call foul. They're like, Nope, you're breaking the
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Sabbath law here. And this is what Jesus says in Mark 2. He says, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
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Sabbath. Then He says this next truth, and I love it. So the Son of Man, He's talking about Himself, is
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Lord even of the Sabbath. The problem with the Pharisees is that they are very legalistic.
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And remember we've talked about 613 laws or commandments. If that wasn't enough, they decided to make a lot more do's and don'ts of what you can do and not do on the
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Sabbath, even outside of all of those commandments. And in my time of studying even modern day
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Jews on this topic, they still have ongoing debates about what you can and can't do on the Sabbath. And this kind of blew me away, that you're not allowed to even pick your nose on the
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Sabbath. And I know that's kind of funny at first, but the debate is, if you were to pull a hair, is that considered work or not?
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But it's kind of silly, because they're fixed in this system of legalism. These do's and don'ts.
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And God has always, always, even since the time of Moses, has been concerned with our heart.
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The Pharisees, when they said that Jesus and the disciples were breaking the Sabbath, ultimately they made the
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Sabbath a burdensome day where you really couldn't do anything at all. Remember it was supposed to be a day of blessing.
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And they twisted it and made it a burdensome day. Jesus explains that He is
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God. He is Lord of the Sabbath, because guess what? He made it. And so He knows exactly what the
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Sabbath is for. The Sabbath was made for man to rest from working. It was also a day of opportunity to do acts of love and mercy to your neighbor and to give
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God glory. So next, we are given the reason why the
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Sabbath rest was to be on the last day of the week, the seventh day. Look with me at verse 11.
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We read, I love reading chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, because we see how in six days
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God was speaking everything into existence. And then we read that He rested on the seventh day.
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It's not that He got tired. God doesn't get tired. He's not like man, but He ceased from His creation.
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And I believe this verse is telling us that God set the pattern for man, especially the people of Israel, to work six days and then to have a
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Sabbath rest. God set that pattern in motion. And a principle from that is, I think man is supposed to rest, to at least have times where we can just go home and relax and be with family.
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We're not made to work 24 -7. We even see that in the model of creation.
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But once again, we're dealing in the context of the Old Testament. So we've got to think about,
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Moses led the people out of slavery, out of Egypt, and he took them to Mount Sinai.
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And this is where God gave all 613 of His commandments, and He wanted them to be set apart.
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He wanted them to be holy, not like the pagan cultures. And so also, this is where, in my preparation for this sermon,
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I went over an hour, and I thought, I cannot do that to you all. I would feel awful. And so I just want to, you all don't have to take my word.
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On your own, you can go study Exodus 31, but that chapter goes into great detail, that the sign of the
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Mosaic law, thank all those hundreds and hundreds of commandments, the sign of the law of Moses was the
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Sabbath day observance. So we know that the Sabbath was a day of rest, right?
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You were not to work, and you were to make this day a day to meditate on the magnificence of the
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Creator. However, since the Sabbath was a sign of the Mosaic law, every
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Sabbath pointed to God not only as Creator, but also as Lawgiver, the law of Moses.
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Think about this. Every Sabbath day, they were reminded of all those laws. The laws of Moses constantly reminded the people how sinful they were before God.
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That was another major aspect of the Sabbath. The people of Israel were constantly reminded of God's perfect and holy standard and how they constantly missed the mark.
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Every Sabbath reminded Israel of their sin before God, and it called for a time of repentance, a time of repentance of sin.
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So now we're going to see how the Sabbath transitions from the Old Testament, everything we've been talking about, and how it transitions into the
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New Testament. And so we've talked about a lot of information, and if you got lost somewhere along the way,
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I just want you to hang on to just these couple points. The Sabbath was the seventh day of rest.
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It was a sign for the people of Israel, and every Sabbath was a reminder of sinfulness.
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And so as we understand a transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, it's going to help us as Christians understand why we no longer are bound by Sabbath day regulations.
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We're going to be able to understand historically why we worship on Sunday rather than Saturday, which is the
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Sabbath, and ultimately everything is building up to how Jesus is our
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Sabbath rest. So with that being said, please turn your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2.
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This is where I think the Apostle Paul is instructing the Church of Colossae that they are no longer under restrictions and penalties of ceremonial laws.
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Remember we talked about three categories of the law, the first one being ceremonial laws.
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We're going to be looking at verses 16 and 17 where I believe Paul is so precise with what the purposes of these ceremonial laws were for and how
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Christians should respond in light of them. So look at verses 16 with me.
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Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to festival or a new moon or a
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Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
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So notice that first statement that he made. He said, let no one pass judgment on you.
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He's explaining to Christians not to be intimidated by seemingly spiritual people that say, hey, you've got to follow this list of do's and don'ts in order to have a right relationship with God in order to be saved.
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And kind of ironically, the early church in the book of Acts, they dealt with these same issues.
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There was a group of Judaizers, these Jews that were imposing Jewish customs onto Gentiles.
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So this whole debate was going on between Judaizers and the apostles about what people must do to be saved.
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The Judaizers were saying you must be circumcised and keep the whole law of Moses.
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And I don't want you to turn there, but the conclusion of the debate was we have everything in Christ.
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It's only by the grace of what Jesus did on the cross that we can be saved, and we must put our faith in Him and Him alone.
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But you see how this has been an ongoing debate throughout the ages. And this is where in verse 16,
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Paul articulates it has to be the ceremonial law. He says, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a
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Sabbath. Within all of those 613 commandments, Leviticus 11 told the people of Israel that they were not allowed to eat or drink certain foods, because once again,
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God was teaching them aspects of holiness and how to be separated from the pagan cultures. They had annual feasts like Passover and the
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Feast of Booths and the Feast of Trumpets and so on. And the reason why it brings up the moon is because the moon cycle would help regulate
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Israel's monthly sacrifices that were to be done at the first of every month. And so at the very end of Paul's ceremonial list, he brings up the
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Sabbath. So once again, the Sabbath was a sign for the people of Israel.
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God gave them ceremonial commandments to vividly teach them about holiness.
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So now Paul is coming onto the scene and telling Christians we are no longer bound by any law to observe a particular day of the week.
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We've got to understand we are in the new covenant. We are Christians, and we are made holy by being sanctified by having a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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And so when we're talking about certain days to observe or not observe, Paul tells us in Romans 14, he tells us that a mature believer esteems all days alike.
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Christians are to celebrate the gospel and to give God glory every day. But it is a weaker brother in the faith that has trouble letting go of all these external ceremonial commandments.
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All of these ceremonial laws were always meant to teach us about something greater.
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So look with me at verse 17 where we read about all these ceremonial laws were a shadow of things to come.
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And I love that word shadow because when I think about a shadow, it's like an empty copy of something.
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When you look at a shadow, it's leading up to the real thing. And when we look at the Old Testament, this is referred to as the old covenant.
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The old covenant, especially the ceremonial laws, were types and shadows leading the people of Israel to the promised
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Messiah. And that's Paul's point here in this verse. The substance, the very thing that these laws pointed to, belongs to Christ.
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The book of Hebrews explodes with this truth but way more in detail.
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And hopefully we'll have it posted behind me because Hebrews 10 tells us that the law has been but a shadow of the things to come.
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Instead of the true form of these realities, it can never be by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year.
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Think about the people of Israel. They had to constantly make sacrifices that covered their sin.
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These sacrifices never fully atoned, but they had to keep doing it because they are imperfect sacrifices, right?
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This was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice that points to Christ's once -for -all sacrifice.
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Hebrews 8 tells us about the Levitical priesthood in the Old Testament, which is really neat because they had to have what
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I call lowercase m mediators between the people of God and God Himself.
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They're lowercase because they are a fallen man trying to fulfill their role. So it's this
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Levitical priesthood where you read, They serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things.
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For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.
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Think Mount Sinai when Moses received God's law. But as it is,
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Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the
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Old, the Old Covenant, as the covenant that Jesus mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.
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The New Covenant is the fulfillment of the Old. Jesus didn't come to abolish or do away with all these commandments.
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He's come to say, It all points to Me. And it's in Christ where there is grace and there is forgiveness.
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And guess what? Jesus is the perfect mediator between God and man. But it's that Old Covenant, the law of Moses, all 613 laws.
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Think about the weight of those. That constantly reminded the people of Israel how sinful they were before God.
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And so now, we're kind of starting Hebrews 10 and we're kind of going in reverse order. Hebrews 4, love this passage.
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And I'm telling you, I had a whole sermon in and of itself that I had to cut back. But Hebrews 4 links together
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David's psalm, Psalm 95, that speaks about a heavenly rest.
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Hebrews 4, the writer links David's psalm of heavenly rest to the substance of the
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Sabbath which can only be found in the salvation of Jesus Christ. We read,
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For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have not spoken of another day later on.
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So then, it remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
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For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his work as God did from his.
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When we think about the Old Testament narrative, we see that Moses led the people out of slavery, right?
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They were hoping to rest from all of that. And he led them into the wilderness. And eventually, it carried over to Joshua.
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Joshua was going to lead them to the promised land of rest. And then check this out.
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The promised land could only offer a temporary imperfect rest.
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King David later on in the Old Testament, we understand that during his time, they experienced many wars, many bloodshed, and much death.
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And so, all of God's people, both Old and New Testament Christians, we long for that heavenly rest because nothing on earth can provide that rest.
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Amen? So the last passage I want us to consider together is
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Matthew 11, if you'd please turn there. I want us to look at verses 28 -30.
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And hopefully, this piece of Scripture will sound familiar to you all because there's been times in my life where I've been broken in spirit, going through a really tough time.
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And this has been one of those passages that have just helped restore my joy and my peace, right?
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Being reminded that it's all about Christ. He did it all. Everything I need to have in relation to God.
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We read, Come to Me, Jesus says, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
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And you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
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Man, it's so comforting, right? Because Jesus is our Sabbath rest.
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We enter into God's rest by repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Apart from any works that we could do our own because Jesus did all the works. He was perfectly obedient.
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He died on the cross. God doesn't want our self -righteous works like the Pharisees advocate for.
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He wants our heart to be set on Christ. So we've talked about a lot of information today.
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So what do we make of all this? How do Christians remember to keep the Sabbath and to keep it holy?
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Very simply put, Christians keep the Sabbath day holy by resting in Jesus Christ.
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And that's it. Christians are under no obligation to keep ceremonial laws of keeping the
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Sabbath and the punishments that go along with it. The New Testament teaches us in Romans 10 verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for the righteous to everyone who believes.
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This means that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament law. And we who are in Christ, we are freed from the hundreds and hundreds of Old Testament ceremonial and civil laws that were given to the people of Israel.
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Now I've talked with people about this very topic and I think it's great to lovingly disagree and sharpen one another.
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But the objection was so basically Christians teach lawlessness, right? Because you're saying we don't have to keep the laws anymore.
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And that could not be anywhere close to what is actually true. We don't advocate for lawlessness, but rather we advocate for following the law of Christ.
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That's what the New Testament commands us to do. We are under a new and better covenant that teaches us that the law of Christ can be summed up in one word.
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Love. Right? Doesn't this sound familiar to the whole principle and the essence of all the
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Old Testament laws? To love God and to love people. And so the
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New Testament, Jesus and the apostles confirmed the teachings of the moral law, right?
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That reflect God's unchanging nature. So I was looking through the
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New Testament for some good examples. We're commanded to flee immorality and sexual immorality.
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Why? Because God is pure. And He is faithful. The New Testament reiterates the
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Ten Commandments with the uniqueness of the Sabbath being in Christ. But the New Testament teaches us not to steal because God is not a thief.
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We see that all of these commandments, even the moral law, they deal with the heart.
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These are all issues of the heart. And all these issues can be taken care of when we love the
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Lord, our God, with all of our heart, with all of our might, with all of our soul, with our whole being.
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I think that's the whole point of that commandment. That's another thing. I don't want to step up on a soapbox for very long, but when we read about the commandment to love the
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Lord, that's not just an idea to make us feel good. This is a law that we continually fall short of doing.
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It's because we can't. We can't do it. The law, the whole purpose, was to show us our sinfulness and to long for that day of reconciliation.
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So since Christians do not have to gather together on Saturday, the
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Sabbath, why do we gather together on Sunday? Historically speaking, all the saints throughout the past 2 ,000 years, they gathered together on the first day of the week to celebrate the resurrection of our
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Lord and Savior. A really interesting verse is Revelation 1 .10
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where the Apostle John most likely is referring to the first day of the week and he speaks of it as the
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Lord's Day. And so the early church in Acts 20, they gathered together on the first day.
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They even broke bread with one another. This is talking about the intimacy of communion that Christians share with one another, and they also gathered together to listen to the preaching of God's Word.
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Sunday is a day for celebration, not a day to make a new
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Sabbath and import rules and regulations from the old Mosaic law and say, look, if you don't gather together on Sunday, then you're in sin.
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I've heard people say you can't mow your lawn or go run errands on Sunday because it's the new
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Sabbath. That's not the point. It's the Lord's Day. It's a day of celebration.
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And so the Sabbath, we talked about how it pointed to God's creation, right, and how
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He rested on the seventh day. The Lord's Day represents a different creation, a new creation for those who have been made new in Christ Jesus.
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And so as we begin to close, I couldn't help but to reflect back on what
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I call just a really short story in the Old Testament found in Numbers 15. There was a man found gathering sticks on the
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Sabbath. Now, to me, I think of that, I think no big deal. He's picking up sticks, right?
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But this man was breaking God's Sabbath law in spite of His plain commandment to cease from all labor.
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This man's transgression was known and willful and done with boldness in broad daylight.
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This was open defiance against God's divine authority. And so this is what the
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Lord said to Moses, that man must die and the whole assembly must stone him outside of the camp.
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Now, we've been talking about context, right, about understanding the Old Testament in light of the
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New Testament and understanding transitions and the consistency that happens. But when
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I read that story, I can't help but to realize and see a principle there.
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The principle is that everyone who rejects God's provision of our
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Sabbath rest in Christ will experience eternal death.
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Jesus tells us in great detail that this spiritual death is for eternity in a place called
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Hell. And I've talked with people that try to downplay that and say, well, if I go to Hell, then
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God will give me a body that's made for that and it'll be fine. The Bible teaches us that it's a place of eternal punishment.
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I don't know about you, but that should prick our hearts and be like, you know, I don't want that. I don't want to experience eternity in a place of eternal punishment.
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This punishment is just because we are all sinners who have broken
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God's holy law. We understand aspects of the ceremonial law and the civil law were completely fulfilled and done away with in Christ.
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But when we look at the moral law, like I said, even to love the Lord your God with your whole being, we fall short of even that commandment.
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We look at other people with lust in our heart and guess what Jesus said? That is adultery.
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When we hate somebody, that is murder of the heart. So when we look at God's law, we should look at that and understand that God is holy and that he is just for punishing lawbreakers.
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And this is another point about the law. The law is not good news. The law exposes to us that we are lawbreakers worthy of God's just punishment.
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But can I tell you that there is good news? There is good news only in Jesus Christ.
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And so, I plead with you all, if you are wrestling with knowing if you are saved or you don't really care and you're just here by chance, know this.
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There is no peace apart from a relationship in Christ. We rest in him by loving him far more than anything else in this world.
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We rest in Christ by trusting in him for salvation and not trusting in ourselves or any good works that we do or anything else that this world has to offer.
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And can I speak on behalf of all Christians? Don't we experience his rest here and now as we wait for eternity?
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I think about the hardships that we go through every day.
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We lose loved ones. Our bodies get sick or we go through injury or whatever.
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But what do Christians do? We go back to God's word, his unchanging truthfulness and we rest in his promises.
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You want to know what God promises Christians? This. We know that for those who love
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God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
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This also tells us that God is controlling everything according to his will and for those who really love
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God, they are Christians because they have received forgiveness of sin.
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Everything we go through in this life is not random or by chance, but everything we experience here on earth has an eternal weight because God is working out all things, even the good times, the seemingly hard times.
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He's working out all these things to make us more and more like his Son, Jesus Christ.
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We rest in this truth and one day it will even be more glorious when we see him face to face.