The Blessing of the Sabbath

[0:00] to the book of Exodus in chapter 16. We're continuing our series in the book of Exodus, and we're coming to the end now of chapter 16.

[0:27] And today we'll be looking at verses 21 through 36. So if you'll look there, I'll read it out loud. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat.

[0:44] But when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, This is what the Lord has commanded.

[1:00] Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy 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 the morning.

[1:14] So they laid it aside until the morning, as Moses commanded them, And it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, Eat it today, for today is the Sabbath to the Lord.

[1:28] Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none.

[1:40] On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

[1:53] See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.

[2:05] So the people rested on the seventh day. Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

[2:19] Moses said, This is what the Lord has commanded. Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

[2:33] And Moses said to Aaron, Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it, and placed it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.

[2:47] The people of Israel ate the manna forty years till they came to habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

[3:00] And omer is the tenth part of an etheth. Let's pray together. O Lord, we thank you again for your word and ask that your spirit would be with us in the preaching of it, that you would open our eyes to the truth of your word.

[3:14] Help us to understand even the modern-day relevance to this concept of the Sabbath. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now we've talked some about the idea that the wilderness wandering of the Israelites was for their sanctification.

[3:29] It was making them fit to enter into the promised land, much like we think of sanctification as an ongoing process in the Christian life as we wander through the wilderness of this world, and preparing us one day to be glorified and enter into God's presence.

[3:46] And so, God is working here to sanctify them. And we see really a further expression of that here. You know, today we're busy people.

[3:59] I hear people all the time saying, I just don't have time for that, or I'm too busy to do that, and we're always running about, and even though we have all the conveniences of modern technology, our cars and our electronics at home that should be making things faster, we just find ourselves more and more busy with other things to do.

[4:16] And so our passage today speaks to us of the concept or the idea of rest. And so that in itself, it ought to be a welcome message for us. As we think about that rest, as we think about how God was preparing them, sanctifying them, hopefully it will be of help to us.

[4:31] So I want to first look at this idea of the Sabbath, what it was, and what was going on here at this point in time. And the first thing I would notice is that it was a really unique provision that God was doing with the manna.

[4:43] We've looked the last two Sundays at the idea of manna. I won't go back over that, but as we think about what happens, particularly on the Sabbath, something quite amazing is happening.

[4:55] In verse 5, verse 22, we get the idea that they were given more manna than usual the day before the Sabbath. A double amount fell. Look at verses 5, 22.

[5:09] 5 is going further back than where we were at before, but look at verse 5. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So there it says they will gather twice as much.

[5:21] Verse 22, On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each, and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses. And then look finally at verse 29.

[5:35] See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, He gives you bread for two days. So it's not just that they gathered twice as much. There was twice as much out there. So it was even easier to gather than before.

[5:47] So if we think about the miraculous nature of this manna, it fell every day consistently except for the Sabbath. For 40 years, the same pattern.

[5:59] Just think about if we had rain like that. Every morning, we got a nice little dew that watered the grass every morning like a sprinkler system. But we got a double portion on Friday to prepare for Saturday when we'd have none or for us today, it would be for Sunday when there would be none.

[6:16] And so our garden was kept perfect. And we get that impression. There's a pattern. The kind of pattern that in our day and age we would think you would need electronics to set the water sprinkler, wouldn't you?

[6:29] I don't have anything like this, but they have those ones you plug it into, plug it in, however you attach it to your garden sprinkler and you can control when the water comes on and when it goes off and every day you have a pattern.

[6:40] And the manna was much like that. It fell the same time every day. It was the same amount every day except for Friday when it was twice as much as it was the days before to make it easy for God's people to gather twice as much of it.

[6:56] And then it set for Saturday. And on Saturday there would be none that would fall whatsoever. Saturday's portion came the day before at the same time as Friday's portion.

[7:08] And so they gathered twice as much and God provided twice as much or significantly more. You kind of wonder even as you look at this did they already know about the Sabbath or how did they understand this?

[7:21] Look at verse 22 and 23. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses he said to them this is what the Lord has commanded.

[7:32] Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil and all those left over lay aside to be kept to the morning. So the people already knew there was twice as much there.

[7:44] They gathered twice as much as usual. They seem to already have a concept of this. Now part of this may go back to what I read earlier in verse 5 where we have God telling them on the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in it will be twice as much as they gather daily.

[7:58] So maybe Moses has communicated that to them and told them. I think we can understand as well that there's a larger pattern that goes throughout God's word about the Sabbath. That the Sabbath itself is a creation ordinance.

[8:10] So we can remember the creation itself and what God did. Genesis 2 verses 2 and 3. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

[8:28] So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. And so God rested on the seventh day of creation and set really a pattern for us to follow.

[8:44] Now Moses has not yet written the book of Genesis. They don't have it yet to read it. So it's not as though they were studying Genesis 2 and said oh this is what we should do. But it's been revealed.

[8:56] Perhaps even orally passed down a tradition. They've understood something about it. Although it probably was not observed while they were in Egypt. In Exodus 20 we have the Ten Commandments and there in verses 8 through 11 the fourth commandment remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[9:14] Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the 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 Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the Sabbath day.

[9:40] Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So if we're not clear from Genesis 2 when the Ten Commandments are given what's explained to us is the reason why the Sabbath is to be observed is because God observed the Sabbath.

[9:54] He took a rest and therefore it's a blessed day a day that He is blessed. It's really part of what it means to be a man or a human being created in God's image.

[10:09] That part of that is God gives us a pattern of rest. A set pattern of that seventh day of rest unlike anything else in all the creation.

[10:20] Any other creature that we know of none of them have that kind of rest that patterns after God. And so the Sabbath was given before the Ten Commandments were given.

[10:32] It was given even in the creation itself probably communicated to Adam in some way and that may even be why we see in the Ten Commandments it says remember the Sabbath day. Don't forget it.

[10:43] Think back on it. And I think it's more than Him just saying here is the Sabbath keep on remembering it. It's think back on what has been taught to you about the Sabbath. So I was saying there were two there were the aspects that made this bread unique miraculous.

[11:03] One is a larger quantity was provided but secondly it was longer lasting as well. We see that in verse 24. So they laid it aside till the morning as Moses commanded them and it did not stink and there were no worms in it.

[11:16] So there's a pattern that's set for them. They gather the bread if they gather too much and they try to save it for the next day it rots. It stinks.

[11:27] It gets worms or maggots in it. But the day before the Sabbath they gather twice as much they save half of that and they wake up the next morning and what they find is the bread's perfect.

[11:42] The manna has not changed at all. It hasn't rotted hasn't deteriorated it hasn't gotten worms. They were able to keep it an extra day without it going bad. That's not normal.

[11:56] I believe in anything else in all of our experience the same substance deteriorates at the same rate. Now understand when I say that I don't mean one french fry is equal to another french fry.

[12:09] I've seen the studies where McDonald's french fries can last for decades. Right? I'm not sure that's even a okay sorry tangent I'm off on a side note but what I mean is the same french fry from McDonald's cooked in the same batch ought to last the same amount of time.

[12:26] The bread that you get it ought to last the same amount of time. The idea that every week if you can imagine going to the grocery store you buy some bread on Friday and it lasts twice as long as all the other bread you get.

[12:41] Right? You're used to your bread going bad I'm not very good at this maybe I should have questioned my wife beforehand You're used to your bread going bad in what? Nine days?

[12:52] Or is that ten? You were holding your pen it was hard to tell. So nine or ten days but you get one day a week where you go to the grocery store and that bread is going to last you for twenty days. Right? That's not normal.

[13:03] That's weird. And so we see another way in which God is miraculously providing something with the manna that shows that this is not anything they could do. Every day if they save any of it it rots except for one day they can gather twice as much and it doesn't rot and they are able to use it the next day.

[13:24] And then thirdly I've mentioned this already but no manna fell on the Sabbath day. It follows that pattern every single day except for the Sabbath day. for forty years.

[13:36] Whatever that works out to be if that's over forty years fifty two what two hundred and eighty times or something? Did I just butcher that? Two thousand and eighty times.

[13:49] Two thousand and eighty days over forty years it didn't fall. All the other times it fell. Every single day other than that. And so really God's teaching them the pattern by which they were to live when they entered into the promised land.

[14:08] Remember the idea of sanctification. He's preparing them. And there's a pattern that they're to observe. When they enter into the promised land the manna's going to cease. It's going to stop. In fact we read about the day they entered they gathered food from the land they ate the food and that was the last day they received the manna.

[14:25] And so that's going to end. But this pattern of Sabbath is to continue for them in the land. And so God's teaching them and preparing them to enter the land. They were trained in Sabbath observance for forty years.

[14:39] I think I remember that it takes forty days I think of doing the same thing every day to develop a habit. Forty years. They do the same thing over and over again.

[14:50] And so by now they've established a pattern in their life. We can even think about this of in the creation account God rested on the seventh day. And so too God is physically providing for them bread every single day except for the Sabbath.

[15:07] God himself is resting on the Sabbath. He's not sending it on that day. He rests and we follow that pattern of resting with him. And there's blessing in the rest.

[15:20] In Egypt they worked every day as slaves. Probably long hours. You know this great discussion in our day of some societies are moving to a four day work week.

[15:32] And they're finding that productivity increases by giving an extra day off. And so we're a people who are concerned with can I have three days off instead of two?

[15:43] And how productive can I be in forty hours working four days versus five days? And you understand they're probably working twelve hour days. Seven days a week.

[15:55] Eighty-four hours a week. Twice what most of us are working in a week. And they're doing that week in, week out without any rest, without any break when they serve Pharaoh.

[16:08] But now God brings them out and says you're to serve me, you're to worship me. And what is that going to look like? You're going to have one day off that you don't have to even gather food.

[16:21] None of that's required. He's going to provide for them each and every day but on the Sabbath they are able to take a break. And God's given this time specifically for rest and for worship.

[16:33] They can rest from what they're doing so they can dedicate time to worshiping God. And it was a gift that was given for their benefit. And compared to Pharaoh, God's showing himself to be caring and compassionate for his people.

[16:47] Some of the themes that we talked about even in our worship leading today. God is caring for his people. He's looking out for them. In Deuteronomy 5, 15 we read, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.

[17:01] And the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Therefore, the reason God commanded you to keep the Sabbath was because of what you experienced.

[17:15] God's giving you this as a blessing. Through the Sabbath even they remember their salvation. God delivered us. And you can understand that pattern. Maybe you can even imagine if you changed jobs.

[17:27] You had this job, you're working 84 hours a week, 7 days a week, and you get a new job and you get a day off. That may not sound great compared to what you were doing before or what you're doing now maybe, but every day that you have off, you would think back to the time in which you had no time off.

[17:45] What a blessing it is to have a day off when I had none before. And so every day, every Sabbath day, they would reflect upon the fact God's given us rest.

[17:58] How gracious is our God? How good is our God? Later in the New Testament, Jesus will say in Mark 2, 27 that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

[18:12] It's meant to be a blessing, something to be enjoyed by God's people. Now, I'm going to touch still more on the idea of the Sabbath, but let me say that we're coming to the Ten Commandments, and we'll have time to look at each one of the commandments.

[18:28] My plan is to spend a sermon on each of the commandments. It may end up being more on some of those. So we're going to have a whole sermon dedicated to the Sabbath, the command of the Sabbath, later on.

[18:41] In fact, it's probably going to be January or February of next year, just based on my estimation of sermons and where we'll be. So early next year, we'll spend more time on this, but for now, I wanted to look at it particularly in light of what happens here.

[18:55] So moving on from that concept, I want to look at the fact that there was disobedience in verses 27 and 28. On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.

[19:07] And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? So this command of rest, some found it hard to obey.

[19:22] Maybe they did not believe that God would do what he said he would do. You can imagine the logic even of this. they're there at day six and they're thinking, God sent Manny every other day.

[19:35] Why should tomorrow be any different? Maybe they were even in that society, remember, it's a mixed company. There were people who had joined them with this. There were people who were even new to understand, even the Israelites, some of them were new to understanding the worship of Yahweh.

[19:49] And so maybe there were some rationalists or some scientists amongst the group. And they were saying, well, this must be a natural phenomenon. Every day we have bread that just, it's there.

[20:01] Why would the Sabbath be any different? And so they go out to gather. They didn't make any preparation the day before. They go out to gather and it wasn't there.

[20:13] They didn't trust God's word. They didn't believe him or take him at his word. If I say it that way and understand as well, then that means that working and taking extra the day before the Sabbath was an act of faith.

[20:29] They had to believe that what God said was true, that it wouldn't stink and wouldn't rot, that they'd have it for tomorrow, that they wouldn't need to work the next day.

[20:40] And so those who obeyed, obeyed by faith. Now, you may remember that before, God had told them only to gather enough for them to eat.

[20:53] Do you remember? People still disobeyed. So when God says only gather a certain amount, they don't do it. They gather extra. And when God says gather extra because there will be none the next day, they don't do it.

[21:09] They just gather the same amount that they've been gathering. Now, it's part of me that wonders, is this the same group of people? Right? Because even though the issues seem completely different, on one hand, well, I just want to say they seem like they're overzealous to gather.

[21:26] The truth is they were probably just being lazy because they only wanted to work three or so days a week. I'm going to gather double the amount and take off tomorrow. And then with this, something very similar happened.

[21:42] This time they think, I don't want to gather twice as much. That's going to be twice as hard, twice as long. I'd rather take today off and I'll get it tomorrow when it comes. So perhaps that's laziness too.

[21:54] But beyond that, regardless of the reason for each time, the truth of the fact is, in both instances, they doubted what God said. They did not heed the word of God.

[22:05] They did not follow God's commands by faith. And so we see God's response in verse 28. He says, how long? How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

[22:17] How long will this continue? This reminded me of Etzus 10.3. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

[22:35] Let my people go that they may serve me. And so at the very least, we can say that this is a rebuke similar to the rebuke that God gave to Pharaoh. How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

[22:49] And here it's how long will you refuse? This time it's refuse to obey God's commands and keep his commandments and his laws.

[23:08] And so the same question being asked again, but again, how long? And so in many ways they're behaving similar to Pharaoh. Was Pharaoh a man of faith in Yahweh?

[23:21] Well, no. So he didn't want to obey God. And so we're seeing some of the same problems come up again. And I think God's even drawing their attention to this. How long will you continue to act in this way?

[23:34] And so the Israelites were saved to worship God. They were saved for God's worship, but now they won't even commit one day for that purpose. They want to keep on working or keep on with the pattern.

[23:47] They won't trust God for it. God recounts this in Exodus, excuse me, Ezekiel 20 verses 10 through 13. God says, So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

[24:00] I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules by which if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbath as a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

[24:17] But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules by which if a person does them, he shall live and my Sabbath they greatly profaned.

[24:30] And so you see what an offense this is to God. God's brought them out for this purpose and yet they won't do it. He's brought them out that they may have life but they reject it. They're rejecting God's gift and therefore they're rejecting God's blessing to them.

[24:45] And so we've seen the provision of the Sabbath, we've seen the disobedience. I want you to see as well there's an ongoing remembrance of the manna that's related to this. Verses 31 through 35 I won't go back and reread that but we see that they're to remember the manna.

[25:03] Particularly to remember how the Lord had provided for them over the 40 years. How he cared for them during the years of wandering. And so they were given a visual reminder of the Lord's provision for them.

[25:16] A visual reminder of how the Lord cared for them and looked out for them. And with that the lessons he taught them through it the sanctification that he'd worked in them they're to see it before them.

[25:28] And so one omer the same amount that they gathered every day which I don't remember if we recounted two or three weeks ago but one omer it's really difficult because ancient measurements some of that's been lost but it gives some understanding here at the end that helps us a little bit verse 36 in omer it's the tenth part of an epheth.

[25:48] And so the measurement would be by today's understanding of the ancient measurements it'd be somewhere around a half gallon by volume. So if you can imagine a half gallon of milk that was empty if you filled that jar up with these flakes bread some estimates would say that back then that Israel later conformed to other cultures measurements and it could have even been half that so a quarter of a gallon but somewhere around that I know I'm using liquid terms to talk about volume but you guys get an idea visually of what it is so they take something like that they put it in a jar we find out later that the jar is gold but there's this jar and it's placed before the testimony which is just another word for the Ark of the Covenant and so as we read this understand that this may be a later addition either by Moses or even later perhaps even by someone like Joshua verse 35 says the people of Israel ate the manna forty years till they came to a habitable land they ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan so speaking of the past tense there of what happened they ate the manna until then you see as well that it said and Moses said

[27:05] Aaron take a jar and put an omer of manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations and it says as the Lord commanded Moses so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept well right now the Ark of the Covenant the testimony doesn't exist so we know he didn't place it before them in that time further we could probably say we don't know when God gave the command it's possible God gave the command at the end of the 40 years of wandering this may just be an editorial note to explain the manna was saved that's what's there before the Ark of Testimony and so either God commanded it at this moment in time and it happened later or let me say with that Aaron would become the high priest later he's not yet a high priest at this point this is a priestly act that he's doing placing something before the Ark of the Covenant so either way just understand that as this command's given it may be that either it was given later in time or it was given now and it wasn't done until later in time after the wilderness wandering which would make it a little bit easier to carry around a jar for 40 than carrying around a jar for 40 years all that really probably doesn't matter what really matters is that this one omer was placed so they would remember what God had done visually can they see that and know that God had taken care of them why would they remember this why is it important for them to remember that

[28:28] God provided for them this well I want to point back to last Sunday's sermon and say the reason that they were to remember the provision of the manna was because the bread from heaven had not yet come Christ was coming and this was pointing them forward to Jesus Christ so as they remembered what God did by looking back seeing the manna there they would look forward to the coming of the bread from heaven in much the same way as I said last week God gives us a visual reminder of that bread today he gives us the Lord's table where we are reminded that God though not physically present Jesus is spiritually present in the bread and in the juice and so we too are given this reminder but they were given that to look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ and remember the salvation that God had given them from Egypt to know there's a salvation that's coming from another bread from heaven so how does this all apply to us well first

[29:31] I think we're being taught much as they were being taught to trust and obey God to take him at his word to trust and obey God's word the scriptures they had to trust day in and day out that God would provide for them including resting on one day a week and knowing that God's still going to provide for them so resting on the Sabbath is one expression of their trust in God and so too for us do we believe that God's word do we believe that God's going to provide for us logic would tell us that we need to work every single day if we're really going to take care of ourselves but do we believe that God's going to provide for us through obedience and one thing that makes this much harder for us today is that the Sabbath is not something that's widely recognized or observed in our culture anymore there's an individualistic nature in American culture that says I decide what I'm going to do for myself

[30:34] I don't have to listen to anyone else I'm my own king my own master I can do what I think is right in my own eyes we believe we're the ones who determine our schedule and so because of that if we see that God's calling us to a day of rest and again we'll talk more about this in January or February but if we understand that God's calling us to a pattern of rest a day of rest are we going to follow that knowing that our culture is never going to understand this that they're going to be even imposed to this this will become harder and harder for us to find a job that doesn't require us to work on Sundays I want to say that I think a positive example of this you heard me earlier to knock on McDonald's now I'm going to praise another fast food company but Chip Filet I think has done an excellent job of this the Kathy family the town I grew up in they were from the neighboring town they went to the church there

[31:35] Truett Kathy taught Sunday school and he made a commitment when he started his business that they would not be open on Sundays so that the employees would be free to go and worship God on Sunday that they wouldn't have to work on Sunday and by human logic that should hurt a company but Chip Flays continue to grow it's despised by many in our culture which is just fascinating to me they get so worked up over a chicken sandwich it's just not that big a deal but the problem is he's standing for his beliefs and our culture doesn't like that and so the fact that it's despised I remember there was one that was open in New York City that people you know booed it they were all in an uproar how could New York City allow a Chip-fil-A in but they stood for what they believed and if they're getting opposition you can imagine we're going to face similar opposition but God's blessed that business Truett Cathy's a billionaire it defies logic in some ways because shouldn't he been their company been defeated by other companies that worked on Sunday that could have made a better profit but God's blessed them

[32:42] I think as well as we talk about this and again we'll have more time to go in depth on the Sabbath but this is not to be an issue of legalism that we have some set rules we saw in the New Testament how the Pharisees would have a standard by they could walk so many feet on a Sunday there are only certain things that they could do and I think we don't want to become legalistic about it but we do want to see that God's given us rest as a pattern for our blessing and for our benefit and for worship I want to say as well that we find our ultimate rest in Jesus Christ so even as we understand this we understand that Jesus has brought our ultimate rest we have not yet fully realized that we're awaiting that future rest but that God has already provided that for us in the person of Jesus Christ now in my belief and again we'll have more time to discuss this but in my belief that does not mean that the Sabbath is abolished Jesus is coming Jesus being our rest doesn't mean that there's not still a

[33:46] Sabbath it means that that day of rest points us to and reminds us to look to Christ for our provision of rest day in and day out it reminds us to look to Christ it leads us to worship him Jesus said in Matthew 11 28 through 29 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls and so the Sabbath that we celebrate reminds us to go to Christ for our rest as we have a day off from our work a day to gather and worship God together we're reminded that our rest ultimately comes from Christ and so we give up our words when we come to Jesus our works for salvation our righteousness we give it up and we depend perfectly and fully on Christ we have to rest in him and his finished work for our salvation and he gives us the daily grace to face our troubles we talked about last week how in the

[34:55] Lord's prayer Jesus prays give us our daily bread and so we're taught the same thing to depend upon God day in and day out but we find our ultimate rest in the person of Jesus Christ I also want you to see that the Sabbath is a blessing for us today just as it was for them Isaiah 50 now I'm saying today and I'm going back to the Old Testament but Isaiah 58 13 through 14 if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable if you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your pleasure or talking idly then you shall take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth I will feed you from the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken so call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day honorable then you shall take delight in the

[35:57] Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth and so there's a correlation do we want to delight ourselves in the Lord well I hope you do God made us for his glory and to delight and take joy in him and one way we do that is by the Sabbath by resting now I started off in our message talking about we're busy people I think we should understand that God has given us rest as a blessing if we really understand how busy we are we should delight in the fact that God has set one day aside for our rest and for our worship of him together I want you to see as well that the day has changed from Sunday instead of Saturday and again we'll have more time to look at this but just two examples from the New Testament 1 Corinthians 16 2 talks about the gathering for worship and the offering it says on the first day of every week each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so there will be no collecting when

[37:02] I come so Paul speaking of when they gathered together they're to take an offering basically a special offering for those who were hungry from a famine that was going on in the world and so that when he came it would be there but they were meeting the church early church met on the Lord's day they called it here's example because there's a pattern the day of resurrection of Jesus Christ is now celebrated as that day of rest instead of Saturday again we'll have more time to look at that and you're welcome to ask Dave any questions you have about that all right and then finally this message points us to look forward to our eternal rest that awaits us in the future Hebrews 4 9 through 11 so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever has entered God's rest is also rested from his words as

[38:04] God did from his let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience the same sort of disobedience he's referring to is the disobedience of the first generation in the wilderness who disobeyed God and did not get to enter into the rest of Canaan and he's saying to us learn their lesson there still to this day awaits the Sabbath rest for the people of God and he's speaking after Jesus came so for me one of the main reasons why I believe the Lord's day is still observed is because even though Jesus is our rest we haven't yet fully experienced what that rest means there still awaits the the weekly reminder that there awaits us a rest to come and so he says that we're not to disobey rather we're to strive to make sure that we're going to enter into that rest and so the

[39:04] Sabbath is a reminder for us as we rest every Lord's day is to remind us of what awaits us in heaven now if we understand that rightly that means that Sunday is meant it's meant to be it should be I'm not sure all of us experience Sunday that way but we need to be praying that by God's grace that's what Sunday would be for us it's a foretaste of heaven it ought to be day of all the days the best because we get to rest from our work and we get to meet with our God who alone is our delight and joy who alone satisfies our soul this is the day for meeting with him just imagine if you're married you get one day a week with your spouse what a treasure day that would be you don't have to go to work you don't have to be apart one day a week just the two of you you have all the time you need to be together God set aside one day in his presence his fullness of joy and his right hand are pleasures forevermore and so we taste of those pleasures and that joy on the

[40:21] Lord's day let's pray together dear heavenly father we thank you not only for your word but also that you've given rest to your people who are weary and heavy laden you give us rest in salvation in Jesus Christ you give us rest in our weekly pattern of Sunday resting from our labors and gathering for your worship and Lord you've given us rest eternally that one day we will be in your presence and we will be free from bondage to sin from that slavery Lord even from the difficulties of living in a fallen world we will have rest and we will be in your presence and we will know joy to the full and everlasting Lord we thank you for that rest and we pray that all who are here would strive by your grace by your spirits working to enter into that rest and that none of us would fail to enter it by disobedience so

[41:25] Lord work in the hearts of those who are here that they would know you and love you and one day that they would enter your rest and even now that they would experience that rest in Christ and they would have a foretaste of that joy to come we pray this all in Christ's name amen prophets to X A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A