Doing Nothing

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Okay, let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, again, as we open

00:06

Your Word, just study the story of the Exodus and how it relates to our own salvation. We ask that You would open our hearts, our minds, and that You would guide our thoughts, teach us what it is that You would have us know and to do.

00:21

We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Last week,

00:27

Rodeo Jesus made an appearance. This week,

00:33

I don't think I could do that. But last week, we specifically were talking about how the manna from heaven is type and shadow.

00:43

The fulfillment is Christ. Christ is the heavenly bread from heaven. And then this has implications then for our understanding of the

00:49

Lord's Supper, which is further explicated in other passages. Prior to that, we looked at the crossing of the

00:57

Red Sea and how it is held up in Scripture as a type and shadow of baptism itself.

01:03

And today, we are going to do something that for some of you may be review. But for others of you, it's not gonna be review.

01:11

It's going to deal with a topic that many of us as Christians do not know how to sort out.

01:18

And this has to do with the topic of the Sabbath. The Sabbath.

01:24

Remember, there's this day of rest that people have to observe in the Old Testament. And so the question often comes up, why is it that Christians do not observe the

01:34

Sabbath? Now, if you know somebody who is Seventh -day Adventist or somebody who is in the

01:41

Hebrew Roots Movement, they worship exclusively on Saturday.

01:47

In fact, they're very legalistic about it. Apparently, we are sinning because we are getting together to worship on Sunday.

01:54

You know, you pagans, what are you thinking? And so we're gonna actually unpack this and in order to do it, we're gonna have to take a look at the

02:02

Mosaic Covenant. And so it comes up in our text in the context of right before Mosaic Covenant is established and is already beginning to be established.

02:11

But then we have to take a look at the Mosaic Covenant itself and what is our relationship to it.

02:18

And then we're gonna take a hard look at what the Sabbath actually points to so we can rightly understand the command itself.

02:26

Does that make sense? All right, sure. Okay, he's thinking, well, I don't know. We'll see how far we get before we start asking questions because, you know, rows are rows.

02:34

But let's take a look at our text and we'll start there. We're in Exodus 16.

02:41

And if you remember in Exodus 16, we talked about the meh -nuh, what is it?

02:47

Hopefully today, after today's sermon, you have a better concept of what the kingdom of God is all about. When we hear kingdom talk, it's important stuff.

02:56

But so the Lord hears their grumbling. The Lord gives them food, gives them bread from heaven, the meh -nuh.

03:06

And so we're in Exodus 16, 22. And so we're picking up in the middle of the giving of the manna.

03:13

Here's what it says. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each.

03:19

The reason why is because the Lord commanded them to do that. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told

03:25

Moses, he said to them, this is what Yahweh has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy

03:32

Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will, bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over, lay aside to be kept until morning.

03:42

So they laid it aside until morning as Moses commanded them. And it did not stink, because remember when they gathered it, if they kept it till the next day, it stunk and it got worms.

03:50

It makes you think, what kind of food is this? And eat it today for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field.

03:56

Six days you shall gather, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.

04:05

On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the

04:10

Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

04:16

See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, He gives you bread for two days.

04:23

Remain each of you in His place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.

04:28

So the people rested on the seventh day. So there you go.

04:34

So already now with the children of Israel, now being given miraculous food from heaven, they're not permitted to work on Saturday.

04:46

Sunday is the first day of the week. Saturday is the seventh day. Now it's important to note in the book of Genesis that no one is a

04:55

Sabbath keeper except for the Lord Himself in the very beginning. In six days,

05:02

He created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day, God rested. But you don't see

05:08

Noah or Adam or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob or any of the sons of Israel being

05:16

Sabbath keepers. They don't. There's no commandment that they are to do likewise. Does that make sense?

05:21

So the commandment to keep the Sabbath is specifically then tied to the

05:29

Mosaic Covenant, and we'll see it being established in the

05:34

Mosaic Covenant, and it gets put into the 10 Commandments. So let me ask you this.

05:41

If we were sitting around sinning together, maybe gossiping about somebody, and we said, let me tell you about Jane Doe.

05:48

I heard she's an adulteress. Really? Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.

05:55

Now, would this be a hot, sizzling, juicy piece of gossip? Let me tell you about Harold.

06:01

Oh, my goodness. He's been breaking the Sabbath. That is some, like, flat gossip, right?

06:09

It just doesn't register. But think of it this way. It's in the 10 Commandments, right? And this is where we have to be careful, and the reason

06:16

I say this, we have to be careful. Many a bad argument begins with these words.

06:22

Yeah, but it's in the Bible. Yeah, but it's in the Bible. Yeah, the

06:28

Sabbath is in the Bible. But do you keep the

06:34

Sabbath? Now, I'm gonna pull something up. I created a document a while ago, and let me find it real quick.

06:45

And the name of the document is, Are You a Sabbath Breaker or a Sabbath Keeper?

06:51

And we're going to review what the scriptures teach regarding what it means to be a

06:56

Sabbath keeper. Now, many people, when they think Sabbath, well, that's the day you're supposed to worship.

07:03

Let's pay attention to the details, though. And let me pull this up. Give me a second here. I gotta find it.

07:08

I had it prepared ahead of time, and then I closed the window. Smart move, Pastor Roseborough. So we have to go with the slow internet connection speeds out here.

07:19

So here's what we're gonna ask the question. Are you a Sabbath keeper or are you a Sabbath breaker? So the

07:24

Torah, notice I'm using the Hebrew language here. The Torah, the law. The Torah and the

07:29

Torah only defines what it means to keep or to break the Sabbath. Here's what it teaches. The Sabbath must be observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.

07:42

And the reason for this is simple. Go back to Genesis 1. God creates the heaven and the earth.

07:47

Hebrew time is according to sunrise, sunset. There was evening and there was morning the first day.

07:56

There was evening and there was morning the second day. So the way that time gets going, it begins in darkness and then comes into light.

08:06

It begins with sleep and then comes to being awake. It starts with death and ends in resurrection.

08:17

There's a pattern to all of this. Now, this kind of begs the question. Is it possible to keep the

08:23

Sabbath according to what God's law says if you live in Anchorage, Alaska?

08:31

Can you imagine making that phone call? Okay, you're a Torah observant Jew. And the sun goes down on Friday night.

08:39

And it's not gonna be back for how many days? It's like, sorry dude, I can't come to work.

08:45

This is a really long Sabbath. I'll come in as soon as the sun comes back up.

08:53

It's kind of a problem. Which kind of begs the question, did God ever intend this to be a universal commandment kept by all people in all places on the planet?

09:03

Okay, think about that. And by the way, the Pharisees, man, they always were having these kind of Talmudic Mishnah type conversations and questions about the

09:18

Sabbath. And so when you read the Talmuds, they actually have this fascinating question. Okay, so imagine you're in your home.

09:25

It's Friday evening and a friend comes over and they're standing outside your window and they brought you some apples.

09:31

It's like, hey, would you like an apple? Oh, I'd love an apple. You stick your arm out, the sun's still up, you grab the apple and immediately the sun goes down.

09:39

Now what do you do? Ah -ha -ha -ha -ha. Because if you bring your arm in, you're delivering groceries, that's working, you're breaking the

09:46

Sabbath. If you drop the apple, you're planting a tree, again, engaging in horticulture, and that's breaking the

09:54

Sabbath. So what do you do? Maybe gnaw off your arm, I don't know. But these are the types of questions that they kind of would, because they're all looking at it legalistically in that sense.

10:03

So it's from evening until, it's from the evening sunset on Friday to the sun setting on Saturday.

10:12

No work can be done on the Sabbath. It's wholly a day of rest. Exodus 31, 15 says six days you shall work.

10:18

But the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. And if you turn your furnace on during the winter on the

10:26

Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker. No joke, I am not making this up. In Orthodox Judaism, there are appliances and furnaces designed to be

10:40

Sabbath observant. I am not joking. The Samsung oven that my wife owns has a

10:45

Sabbath setting. It really does. So what it'll do, before sun sets on Friday, it'll crank up the oven, keep it at a low grade, because if it's cranked up, then you're not turning it on.

11:01

All you're doing is turning it up. And I saw a Kickstarter program, no joke, a

11:07

Kickstarter program for Torah observant Orthodox Judaism to deal with light switches.

11:14

Because this also means if you can't light a fire or turn on a furnace, you can't actually turn on a light or even turn it off, that's considered work.

11:24

So what do you do if it's Friday evening and you forgot to turn off the light in your bedroom?

11:33

You're gonna, for the next 24 hours, that light's gonna be on, you're not gonna be able to sleep. No, you can't even use the clapper.

11:40

Okay, that has not been approved by the rabbis. Here's what you do, no joke, forever.

11:47

This is what Jews have done. They've called up their Gentile neighbor and said, oh man,

11:54

I left the light on in my bedroom, could you come and turn it off for me? Oh, well, you can do that, okay, you can do that.

12:03

You can communicate with people. So I actually saw a Kickstarter program for a light switch that uses some kind of a light beam and some kind of an algorithm based upon random numbers to actually turn on or turn off a light switch because the random part of it means you're not doing the work.

12:23

I'm not joking. The light's on, let's go in there real quick. It's like, when you start thinking in these terms, it really becomes quite the burden, doesn't it?

12:32

And Jesus' words, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, kind of come ringing back.

12:39

But here, so you can't, here's what it says in Exodus 35 .3, you shall kindle no fire in your dwelling place on the

12:45

Sabbath day. Exodus 16, 22 through 33, on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, we just read this, two omers each, and when all the leaders of the congregation came and said to Moses, this is what the

12:56

Lord has commanded, tomorrow's the day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord, bake what you will bake, boil what you will boil, and all that is left over set aside to be kept until morning.

13:06

So if you boil or bake food on the Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker. If you travel from your home on a

13:13

Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker. Remain each of you in his place, let no one go out of his place on the seventh day, that's

13:20

Exodus 16, 29, and Exodus 31, 15 teaches you, don't keep the

13:26

Sabbath unless you enforce it with the death penalty. Why don't you think for a second here?

13:33

There on death row, murderers, serial killers, Sabbath breakers.

13:42

Yeah, right, some guy turned off his light, kill him, and here's what it says, Exodus 31, 15, whoever does any work on the

13:49

Sabbath shall be put to death. And I know it sounds harsh, it absolutely sounds harsh, but when you understand what the

13:55

Sabbath points to, you'll understand why. But let's kind of see what the Mosaic Covenant says on this.

14:01

In Numbers 15, 32, verses 30 through verse 35, we actually get the account of a fellow who experienced the death penalty for breaking the

14:10

Sabbath. While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath.

14:16

Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation, and they put him in custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him.

14:27

And Yahweh said to Moses, the man shall be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp, and they did.

14:34

He's like, what? Oh, and here's the other part. You don't keep the Sabbath unless your priest sacrifices two lambs every

14:41

Sabbath. In other words, priests are well -commanded to actually defile the

14:48

Sabbath in order for people to keep the Sabbath, and there's a sacrifice, two sacrifices.

14:54

Here's what it says in Numbers 28, nine through 10. On the Sabbath day, two male lambs, a year old, without blemish, two tenths of an ephah, a fine flower, for a grain offering mixed with oil and its drink offering.

15:04

This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath besides the regular burnt offerings and its drink offerings. So let me ask you, based upon these criteria for keeping the

15:13

Sabbath, are any of you Sabbath keepers? No.

15:20

Huh? How many sheep do I have in my yard? Not enough, not enough.

15:27

So none of you are keepers of the Sabbath. Okay, let me ask you another question. Where are the commandments regarding worship?

15:36

Did you see any? None. There isn't.

15:43

There is no commandment that says, thou shalt worship God on the

15:48

Sabbath. That's not what this is. Sabbath is rest, no work, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, no work.

15:56

So sleep all day. Oh yeah, I'm loving this. That's what the

16:02

Sabbath is. It has nothing to do with the day in which you worship. So why then did the children of Israel go to the synagogue on Saturday?

16:12

That was their day off. And it becomes a day of worship, a day of hearing the word of the

16:19

Lord. But the commandment specifically is about not working.

16:26

Now, if this is the case then, we look at the commandment, you shall have no other gods before me, you shall not take the name of the

16:34

Lord your God in vain, you shall keep the Sabbath holy.

16:41

Well, you all are all Sabbath breakers. I mean, what's the deal here? I mean, are you thinking in these terms?

16:47

Are you thinking, well, wait a second here. Something's a little bit off. Christians, they don't ever emphasize keeping the

16:55

Sabbath. And here's the thing, the person who says, and this is where I want to kind of get this in your mind, the person who says that the day we must worship is on Saturday doesn't rightly understand the commandments regarding the

17:09

Sabbath and the person who says I'm a Sabbath keeper is lying to your face.

17:16

No, no, they're lying to your face because they don't keep it. There's no sacrifice for their sins, they're not enforcing it with the death penalty.

17:28

Do they cook? Do they light a fire? Do they turn their furnace on? Do they turn, you see what I'm saying? You really want to drill down into this?

17:35

The Sabbath is kept by doing absolutely nothing. Nothing.

17:42

This is the only commandment that requires you to do nothing to keep it.

17:49

I know. Habitual sin. Yeah, the habitual sin of doing stuff. Which, okay, now,

17:56

I'm making this, I'm kind of emphasizing this for a reason because when you understand what it points to, it'll all make sense.

18:02

But right now, I just kind of want to hit that. You observe and keep the Sabbath by doing nothing.

18:10

And you still break it. When it says keep the Sabbath holy, how is doing nothing holy?

18:18

Well, that's the thing. God has said, this is a day, you're to set this day apart.

18:24

All right, so by setting it apart, it becomes holy. What do you want me to do on this day?

18:30

Nothing. Okay? When you say nothing, what do you mean?

18:37

Nothing. I want you to go nowhere, do nothing, don't make breakfast, lunch, dinner.

18:46

You can leave the bed unkempt. All the women are looking at me like with laser beams.

18:53

You do nothing. Are you sure about this? Yes. So what if I do something?

18:58

I kill you. You dead. This doesn't make any sense.

19:05

But that's the commandment. The commandment is to do nothing. Different.

19:17

Set apart means it's different. So we worked six days out of the week and we did something different on Sunday.

19:29

We didn't work. We didn't mow the yard. We didn't do those things that my folks thought that you could get done during the weekday.

19:39

We didn't do those. So it was different. Right. Set apart and different, that's another way of looking at holy.

19:49

Okay, that is one way of looking at it. Now, is there anything wrong with saying, listen, I work from sun up to sun down Monday through Saturday.

20:02

Sunday, I go to church and then I watch football. Which is still doing nothing, by the way. I just want to let everybody know that.

20:09

Is there anything wrong with it? We're not going to do any work. We're going to spend time as a family. Sunday's going to be the day we're going to set apart.

20:15

Is there anything wrong with that? No. It's a good thing. But if you don't do that, are you sinning?

20:23

Technically, no, and we'll explain why. Okay, so clearly

20:32

I have to work on my sentence structure. We had like an ambiguous referent there.

20:38

Okay, it depends on who you're rooting for. If you're rooting for the

20:45

Vikings, clearly you're sinning. So now here's the question I have for you. If this is all established in the

20:51

Mosaic Covenant, are we under the Mosaic Covenant, yes or no? No, we're not.

20:58

When you read the Book of Galatians, the Book of Galatians makes it explicitly clear which covenant is the covenant of note.

21:07

Is it the Abrahamic Covenant or Mosaic Covenant? Abrahamic. It's the

21:13

Abrahamic Covenant. And it explicitly says why the Mosaic Covenant was given.

21:20

Let's kind of get into that. Let me pull this up in Galatians. Give me a second here. Galatians chapter three, starting verse seven.

21:29

Know then it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

21:41

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. All who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

21:49

Now, I'm gonna make something very clear here. We need to make a distinction. The word rely is going to be the thing that is most important here.

21:59

If you're relying on works of the law in order to be declared righteous before God, you are under a curse.

22:09

If you honor and love the commandments and strive to keep and to guard them because you are saved, you are not under a curse.

22:20

You're living in freedom. Does that make sense? So Paul here is writing to the Galatian church who's bought into this idea that you're not saved unless you're circumcised.

22:30

Does that sound familiar? All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. It is written, curse is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the, and I'm gonna translate this as Torah, in the book of the

22:43

Torah, and continue to do them. The verb here is like ongoing, present tense.

22:52

Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the Torah, for the righteous shall live by faith.

22:58

But the law, the Torah, is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, curse is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come on the

23:12

Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. To give a human example, brothers, even a man -made covenant, think contract here.

23:22

Covenant is synonymous with contract. A man -made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.

23:29

Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, singular.

23:35

It does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is

23:44

Christ. And this is what I mean. The Torah, which came 430 years after, 430 years after the

23:52

Abrahamic covenant, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.

24:00

For if the inheritance comes by the Torah, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

24:10

So why then the Torah? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary, and we know that an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

24:30

So is the Torah then contrary to the promises of God? Answer, no, certainly not.

24:38

For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

24:45

But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

24:54

Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed, so then the law was, past tense, our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified, declared righteous, by faith.

25:11

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

25:18

You see it? So put it on a timeline, and that's why I had this open, and let's see if I can do this quickly.

25:26

So we'll put this on a timeline. We'll start here, and we'll go out from here.

25:33

So we're gonna basically say, the beginning of the line, we're gonna say

25:40

Abraham, Abraham, there we go, and copy

25:49

V here, we're gonna say Moses, okay.

25:57

Abraham to Moses, what did Galatians just say was the time span there? 430 years.

26:03

So this is a timeline 430 years long. The promise is given to Abraham, and Abraham is declared righteous before God because he believed

26:13

God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham is saved by grace through faith in God.

26:21

So God establishes a covenant with Abraham, but 430 years later, children of Israel march out of Egypt, and they are practically pagan, and I mean that.

26:35

They are practically pagan. We'll see that with the whole golden calf incident.

26:43

They really don't understand God. They don't understand his ways at all, and so God establishes the

26:50

Mosaic covenant 430 years after the Abrahamic covenant, and Galatians makes it clear that the

26:57

Mosaic covenant could not annul the Abrahamic covenant, and the Mosaic covenant was put in place until, which means it was always a temporary covenant.

27:09

Does that make sense? Until Jesus, the one who was the seed of Abraham appears.

27:15

Yes. That was close, a little fuzzy.

27:55

Sure, the transfiguration of Christ takes place on a mountain. Pay attention in scripture when things happen on mountains.

28:01

They go up to the top of the mountain, and right before their eyes, Peter, James, and John are there. Boom, Jesus is transfigured, and out comes his glory, and immediately, immediately,

28:12

Moses and Elijah appear with him discussing his, and here's what it says in the

28:17

Greek, his exodus. It actually says the Greek word exedos. It says it right there, and so Peter, like freaking out, goes, it's good that we're here.

28:29

Would you like me to set up three booths? You know, one for Moses, one for Elijah, maybe one for Jesus, and the father literally speaks out.

28:38

This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him, and Moses is the representative of the

28:46

Torah. Elijah is the representative of the prophets, so the law and the prophets point to the one who is fulfilling them all, and that's

28:54

Christ, and now the voice says, listen to Jesus. That's the idea. So the

29:00

Mosaic Covenant has a purpose. It has a very specific purpose, but you'll notice in Galatians, it makes it clear that it was temporary.

29:10

It was to do a function until Christ appeared. Let me give you another text then, too.

29:18

Matthew 5, and I'm doing this from memory. See if I got this. Yep, here it is. Matthew 5 .17,

29:24

in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

29:32

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

29:40

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the

29:45

Torah until all is accomplished, or you can say all is fulfilled.

29:55

You see it? So there's Jesus. He's Israel squished down into one person.

30:02

He's the seed of Abraham. He's the son of David, son of God. He has not come to abolish the

30:10

Torah. He's come to fulfill it. Does Jesus keep

30:15

Torah perfectly? Yes. Did Jesus keep the

30:20

Sabbath perfectly? Yes, He did. So then the question then is, what is the current status of the

30:30

Mosaic Covenant? We're gonna take a look at two passages in particular. First one is 2

30:35

Corinthians chapter three. I'll start in verse one for our context, but the verses we're gonna look at in particular are starting at verse four and continuing on until verse 11.

30:47

But here's our context. Paul says to the church in Corinth, are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need as some do letters of recommendation to you or from you?

30:58

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living

31:08

God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God.

31:17

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

31:39

Now, if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the

31:46

Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory?

31:57

For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceeded in glory.

32:04

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.

32:11

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will that what is permanent have glory.

32:20

Ministry of death carved in letters of stone. Hmm, sounds like Mosaic Covenant because it is.

32:28

What does this passage say is the current status of the

32:33

Mosaic Covenant? It's ended.

32:40

It's been brought to an end. So you notice 2 Corinthians 3 totally agrees with Galatians 3.

32:49

The Mosaic Covenant has come to an end. Christ has fulfilled it.

32:56

It is no longer in place. We're gonna talk about that.

33:06

We're gonna have to tease something out here. We're gonna have to tease something out. And that is that what is the status of the moral law in relation to the

33:15

New Covenant? So here's the question. We're in the New Covenant, right? The New Covenant.

33:23

Christ is the establisher of a new covenant. The covenant of grace, the covenant of Christ, the

33:31

New Covenant in the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of our sins. We're not under the

33:37

Mosaic Covenant and the Abrahamic Covenant which pointed to the offspring has now seen its fulfillment because the offspring has arrived.

33:46

Does that make sense? So now Christ is the establisher of a new covenant.

33:52

And this is why when we talk about the Old Testament, we look at types and shadows that point us to the fulfillment who is

34:02

Christ. Does that make sense? Now I'm gonna give you a passage here that is going to make this a little bit clearer, but I need to look at one more thing first.

34:10

I want you to go to Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10. If you remember last week's sermon, as I was working through this passage in relation to what

34:20

Christ did for us on the cross and how the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Jesus, here's what we noted.

34:28

I'll start at verse one for our context. For since the Torah, and that's how

34:33

I'm gonna translate namas here. Since the Torah has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near.

34:49

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers have once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sin.

34:58

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

35:06

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me and burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

35:16

And then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and burnt offerings and offerings and burnt offerings and in sin offerings, these are offered according to the

35:31

Torah. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

35:42

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

35:51

So notice verse 9. He has done away with the first in order to establish the second. So here we've got several data points all saying the same thing.

36:01

Mosaic covenant, done away with. Then fulfilled. It is no longer in effect.

36:07

It was to point us to Jesus. The opening verse in chapter 10 makes it clear it was all type and shadow.

36:14

That those sacrifices in the temple never took away sins. They always pointed to the reality the once for all sacrifice of Christ.

36:24

But they thought it was taking away sins. They always saw it as a rolling back, never as a true atonement in the real sense.

36:35

They always see it as an annual rolling back. It's fascinating. That's the way they would talk about it.

36:41

Okay, so now in the Mosaic covenant, there are three types of law that we see in it.

36:48

There is moral law. There is civil law. And there is ceremonial law.

36:56

The moral law specifically look at nine of the 10 commandments. You shall not commit adultery.

37:03

You shall not lie. You shall not covet. You shall not steal. You shall not murder. Moral law.

37:09

Civil law. If you do this, then you are to punish this person in this way.

37:17

There's a whole civil code in the Mosaic covenant. And then there's a whole lot of law regarding offerings.

37:24

If you commit an unintentional sin in this particular way, you offer this sacrifice with this offering at this time, in this place, in this way.

37:35

Does that make sense? So moral, civil, ceremonial.

37:42

We have no problem identifying this. Well, there's no sacrifices going on in a temple in Jerusalem today.

37:47

There hasn't been for almost 2 ,000 years. God brought that to an end.

37:55

That all always pointed to Christ. So we can say, well, for sure, the ceremonial portion of the

38:03

Torah has come to an end. It's not in effect. This is what this is saying.

38:10

How about the civil laws? Are we required to stone

38:16

Sabbath breakers and the sexually immoral? No.

38:22

Those were commandments given specifically to Israel. But what about the moral?

38:29

And I'm gonna hold out the third commandment here, the Sabbath commandment for a second.

38:35

Let's take nine of the 10 and take the Sabbath out for just a second. Every one of the nine, with the exception of the

38:43

Sabbath, are reiterated within the new covenant itself as we are duty -bound to keep and guard and obey them.

38:54

You see them at the tail end of practically every one of the epistles. Do not murder.

39:01

Do not be sexually immoral. Do not gossip. Look at Galatians chapter six in the list regarding the fruit of the sinful nature.

39:11

All of that is tied explicitly to the moral law. So the good way of thinking about it is take nine of the 10 commandments, hold the

39:19

Sabbath out for a second because it's actually still in effect, just not in the way you think. Take the

39:25

Sabbath out for a second. All of that moral law, we know if we break these, we're sinning because the

39:34

New Testament makes it explicitly clear. So they all get rolled into the new covenant.

39:41

And the reason for this is simple. God's moral law is exactly how he intended for us to live our lives.

39:48

And a good way to think of it is the moral law is eternal. This always reflects

39:53

God's character, his holiness, his righteousness, and all of that.

39:59

It reflects the character of God. Does that make sense? So what do we do with the

40:04

Sabbath? What do we do with it? This commandment to rest, to do nothing.

40:12

I'm commanding you, do nothing. I like this commandment, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to obey.

40:18

Do nothing. Let me give you another passage. We're gonna go to Colossians two and we're gonna note what it says specifically regarding the

40:28

Sabbath. What was that? In this particular case, no.

40:39

You know me,

40:45

I like to like draw the story out, keep you on the hook, build the suspense, right?

40:51

I can't believe it.

41:04

Okay. Well, see, the Sabbath points to something. We'll talk about that. All right, so here's our context.

41:09

We're gonna start in Colossians two, verse eight. We're going to review the gospel in Colossians two and then note immediately after the proclamation of the gospel, it explains what the

41:22

Sabbath is about. I'll show you. Colossians two, eight. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy.

41:29

That's right, those philosophers, they do not tell you theology. By philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

41:40

For in Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. You have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.

41:47

In him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Now I would love to unpack this, but this will come up a little bit later in our study of Exodus when it talks about circumcision in particular, what this is all pointing to.

42:00

So in him, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

42:07

Having been buried with him in baptism, which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

42:16

Circumcision points to baptism. Baptism is the circumcision done in your heart by the hand of Christ.

42:23

That's what the text is saying. And you, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

42:30

God has made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

42:39

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Just sit there, I love this picture. I just cannot get enough of this.

42:46

You mean that whole, all those pages in my book of all of my sins, he's ripped them out and nailed them to the cross?

42:51

Yes, that's what this is saying. And by doing so, he disarmed the rulers and authorities. This is talking about demonic rulers and authorities, put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

43:03

So now you've heard the gospel, the record of debt that stood against you, all of your Sabbath breaking, all of your coveting, all of your lies, all of your murderous thoughts, all of your sexual immorality, all of your idolatry, all taken care of, nailed to the cross, record of debt canceled, debt paid in full by Jesus.

43:24

Because of that, now watch. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a

43:38

Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come. The substance belongs to Christ.

43:47

Am I correct in saying that this text says the Sabbath is a shadow? Yep. The substance belongs to who?

43:58

Okay, now, so think of it this way. All of the feast days of the Mosaic Covenant, Passover, Feast of Booths, you know, the harvest festivals, the new moons, and the

44:10

Sabbath, all of those are type and shadow pointing to Christ in one way or another.

44:17

The text just said so, okay? So if someone comes up to you and says, you know, you Kongs, Vingareans, that's the way we describe ourselves here, right?

44:27

It's a little bit challenging to roll off the tongue. Okay, you Kongs, Vingareans, you worship on Sunday.

44:34

You don't keep the Sabbath. Oh, I'm told by Christ in his word to not let you pass judgment on me regarding that.

44:47

So don't be hating on me. Put away your

44:52

Sabbath regulations and don't be judging on me. I can worship any old day I want to, plus you don't even know what the

44:59

Sabbath is because you're supposed to be doing nothing. You have to do it with a swagger kind of thing.

45:05

It really helps, you know. No, the sassy snap, that's right. You got to do that too.

45:11

So don't you be judging me. God's word says, uh -uh, you put that judgment back. The Sabbath is a shadow.

45:20

The substance is Christ. Now here's the question. If it points to Christ, okay, the answer's always

45:25

Jesus somehow. Isn't that great? Yeah, yeah, it's like. So let me ask you a question.

45:32

The answer is Jesus. How'd you know? Because you're kind of predictable that way, Roseboro. So here's the idea. If it points to Jesus, in what sense?

45:39

We need some clarification because when we talk about Jesus, that's a pretty big topic. Pretty big topic.

45:46

So remember, the Sabbath is to do nothing. You do zip, and if you do something,

45:53

I kill you. You're dead. Hebrews 4. This is our governing text.

46:02

Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

46:17

Huh, this is talking about entering into Christ's rest.

46:26

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.

46:35

For we who have believed entered that rest as it has said, as I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

46:46

Although His works were finished from the foundation of the world, for He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way.

46:54

And God rested on the seventh day from all of His works. And again, in this passage,

47:00

He said, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.

47:12

Again, He appoints a certain day. Today, saying through David, so long afterward in the words already quoted.

47:20

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

47:25

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

47:33

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered

47:39

God's rest has also rested from His work as God did from His.

47:45

So let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

47:53

Translation, the Sabbath points to Christ who has fulfilled the law for you and saves you by grace through faith apart from works.

48:11

To enter into true Sabbath rest is to be forgiven and quit your striving and your works in order to earn your salvation.

48:23

You see it? And do nothing. So Christ is your

48:30

Sabbath rest. So when you do this, you know, Maude, I've been watching you, and you sure do seem to be trying to work real hard to get to heaven.

48:44

Let me tell you about Christ's Sabbath rest. You can quit your working.

48:53

You can kick up your heels. And do nothing because Christ has done it all for you.

49:03

He is your Sabbath rest. The one who works for his salvation is a

49:11

Sabbath breaker. The one who does nothing and instead trusts in Christ only for their salvation is a

49:23

Sabbath keeper. Do you see it?

49:30

You who would be justified by the law, Paul says, you have been alienated from Christ and you have fallen from grace.

49:39

That's what he says in Galatians five. The one who is striving and working for their salvation is a

49:47

Sabbath breaker. And the penalty for that is eternal death.

49:57

Let's take a look at Romans four just to kind of look at it through this lens. But Jesus even said it in the

50:04

Gospels too. Oh yeah. In Matthew 12, eight for the Sabbath. Uh -huh.

50:10

He said it. Yeah, exactly. In fact, he's not only the Lord of the Sabbath, he is the Sabbath. Romans four.

50:17

So what should we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? If Abraham was justified, that again means to be declared righteous.

50:26

If he was declared righteous by works, he has something to boast about. But not before God.

50:32

But what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness.

50:39

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

50:53

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteous apart from works.

51:00

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the

51:06

Lord will not count his sin. In other words,

51:12

I'm going on strike. I'm going to keep the Sabbath. You ready?

51:19

All of you out there who are telling me that I've got to do these things in order to be saved, pah, I'm not gonna do any of them.

51:26

I'm gonna sit down on my comfy couch and I'm gonna do nothing. I refuse to work at all.

51:33

Not one hour am I gonna put on my time sheet. Nope, I'm doing absolutely nothing, period.

51:42

No works to save myself. Yep, that's what it means to keep the

51:50

Sabbath. The one who's trying to save themselves by their works has not entered into the

52:01

Sabbath rest. It's kind of ironic, but technically, the

52:07

Sabbath day is breaking the third commandment because it's doing something.

52:18

Right, yeah. All of a sudden, if your worship becomes the thing that you've got to do to add to your salvation or participate in it, oh, you're breaking the

52:24

Sabbath all over the place. The only true Sabbath keepers are those who have entered into Christ's rest, have peace with God, and say,

52:33

I'm not gonna do anything to save myself. Christ has done it for me, period. End of story. So go on strike.

52:48

Sit down and do nothing. Here's what it says. The one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

52:58

And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

53:09

You're getting no work out of me, God, for my salvation. Not one anything, nothing. You sit there and go.

53:17

Oh, man, what about good works? The reason

53:22

I do my good works is because I'm already saved. I don't do them in order to be saved.

53:30

Uh -huh, yeah. You see, how do we like to do it? You know,

53:36

God, I was just thinking back over the past week, whoo, let me tell you the things I did for you. Oh, yeah,

53:42

I actually kissed my wife on the cheek twice. I sort of kind of made the bed.

53:49

And you know, and oh, I was even nice to my dog. And I called my neighbor. Oh, I hate that neighbor.

53:54

But I called them to see how they were doing. They talked my ear off. But I did it because, well, you told me to do good works.

54:01

And so I've done all these things. So here's my timesheet. Where's my wage? This is a

54:10

Sabbath breaker of the worst kind. Instead, here's what

54:16

I do. Sit down, I'm doing nothing for my salvation. I'm on strike, I'm gonna just do the

54:21

Sabbath thing. Sitting there going, ah, this is really comfortable. It's like, oh my goodness, my neighbor needs help.

54:27

I better go help them. That's a great idea. I just go do it, you know. My salvation's secure.

54:34

Your salvation's secure. You're forgiven. You're washed. You're fed from heavenly manna.

54:43

You have a right standing before God. You don't have to do a thing to earn your salvation. It's totally covered.

54:50

Rest in Christ. That's what the

54:57

Sabbath is. And it was always pointing to it. So we keep it in our 10 commandments for this reason.

55:04

Because it's the key to unlocking all of the rest. Only true

55:10

Sabbath keepers have love for God and love for neighbor. For their sake and not their own.

55:18

So rest. Christ has got you covered. You see it? All right, we'll end there.