WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 Okay. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.000 And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.000 And He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.000 because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 This is God's word. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.000 Amen. Let's pray together. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.000 Lord, as we come to read, as we come to look at the word we've just read, 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:44.000 we ask Father that you would come now and be with us. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.000 We know that we cannot see all that you have for us in this text 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.000 without you coming and giving us eyes of faith to see it. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.000 And so we do ask, Lord, as we look at it for just a little bit, 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.000 that you would give us the eyes of faith. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.000 And we pray specifically, Lord, for maybe somebody here, 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.000 some people here that may be coming and searching for faith. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.000 And we ask that through your word you would encounter them and meet with them today. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 And then for the rest of us, Lord, that you would use this passage to change us, 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.000 that we would see what we were really made for and see how we can get it the only way. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.000 And so we ask, Lord, that you would teach us today what it really means to have a Sabbath. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.000 And we pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:28.000 All right, so let's look together at this passage for just a few minutes. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.000 We are in a series right now on Genesis 1 and 2. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:40.000 And Genesis is an ancient book, a book that comes and approaches us as modern people 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.000 and confronts us in a lot of ways. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.000 And one of the things Genesis 1 and 2 especially does is it gives us the foundations, 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:52.000 the beginning in some sense, the grounding of who we are, what we're made for, 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:58.000 why we exist, and we've seen so far that it really focuses on the fact that God created the world, 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.000 that we humans were made in His image, and we belong to Him. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.000 It's probably one of the simplest ways to say the beginning couple of chapters and all that they mean. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.000 And last week, we talked about the fact that every single one of us, 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.000 because we're humans, we are God's image. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:20.000 So being the image of God is not first about the fact that you can think in a way that's like God 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.000 or that you have language capacity in a way that's like God, 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.000 or you're greater than the other creatures. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Not those things first. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:34.000 The first thing to say about who you are is that you are the image of God, human beings, male and female. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.000 It's not an aspect of capacity. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000 It's an aspect of just being human, embodied souls. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:41.000 You're the image of God. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Today, you might not have very much money. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.000 You might not dress very well. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:53.000 You might always say the wrong thing at the wrong time. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.000 You might be an awkward person, not very good socially. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:01.000 You might be from a class that you think doesn't have much respect. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 And let me say to every single human being, no matter what, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:10.000 made in God's image, full of dignity, full of worth, full of value, 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.000 nothing that we have, nothing that we do, nothing that we fail to do, 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:16.000 takes us out of that reality. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.000 And really all we're going to do in Genesis 2, this next chapter we turn to Genesis 2 today, 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:25.000 is for three weeks, including today, have a reflection, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:31.000 which is what Genesis 2 does, unpacking a little bit more on what the image of God means. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:36.000 And today, the first, one of the more detailed things to say about what it means to be in God's image 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.000 related to God is that we were made for rest. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:45.000 Every single one of us, we were ultimately made for deep rest, lasting rest. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:51.000 And so let's think about that. First, the paradox of the God who rests. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:57.000 And then secondly, let's look at what it means for us to enter into God's rest. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:02.000 Right, so first, the paradox, there's a paradox here in the God who rests. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.000 If you look down at the passage with me, verse 2, it says, 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:12.000 on the seventh day, God finished the work he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all that work. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:21.000 Now, verse 2 and 3 has these three parallel lines, three verbs, 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:26.000 three references to the seventh day. And so it reads very literally something like this. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.000 God finished his work on the seventh day. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.000 God rested from his work on the seventh day. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:37.000 And so God blessed the seventh day because he rested. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 So that's a very literal translation, if you will, of the three lines. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:45.000 And so they're parallel. And as soon as you read those three lines, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:48.000 a question could come up, should come up for all of us, 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:56.000 and that's what in the world does it mean to say something like God entered into rest? 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.000 So God finished work and he came and he rested. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:04.000 And the reason that that question is so obvious in some sense is because 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.000 maybe you're not a Christian today and you're coming and you're exploring the faith. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:13.000 One of the things that Christians believe, that we think the Bible teaches very clearly, 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:18.000 and that philosophy also shows us is that God does not have a body. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.000 God is incorporeal. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:27.000 And so when this passage comes and says God worked for six days and on the seventh day, he took a rest day. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:34.000 One of the first things we have to ask is what in the world could it possibly mean that God rests from labor? 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.000 God doesn't have a body. God is not like us. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.000 God does not get tired. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:44.000 And so we've got a very explicit moment in Psalm 121 where the writer says, 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.000 my help comes from the Lord. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 He is the keeper who neither slumbers nor sleeps. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000 He just never gets tired. He doesn't have a body. What could that mean? 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.000 Now a second question comes up here as well, and that's in verse one. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:05.000 It says the heavens and earth were finished on the seventh day and all the host or the vast array that God had made. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:11.000 This is the verse one of chapter two is the conclusion statement of all of Genesis one. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.000 So forget about the chapters, forget about the headings. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:18.000 This is the last sentence of the first story of the book of Genesis. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:25.000 And so at the beginning it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the very conclusion sentence. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:27.000 So God finished the heavens and the earth. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:28.000 So that's what we have here. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:33.000 And remember in verse two of Genesis one it says the earth was formless and void. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:36.000 It didn't have stuff, organization. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.000 It didn't have creatures or it wasn't filled with things. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:45.000 And so the first six days is God forming the space, filling the space. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:48.000 Here we have that job is done. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:51.000 And so what's missing here is what's so significant. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:59.000 On this seventh day there is no refrain that we see on the other six days like there was morning and evening. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:02.000 And God said and he saw that it was good. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:07.000 Every one of the six days you've got these refrains, especially morning and evening. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:11.000 But you come to this day there is no morning and evening. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:17.000 And that means that this it's implicit but we're to understand that this day is endless. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.000 It never stopped. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.000 The seventh day is still going. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:27.000 And immediately when you come to that two big questions, what in the world could it mean that God rests? 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 That God has a Sabbath as the Bible will later set call it. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:35.000 What in the world does it mean that there's a day at the end of creation that never stops? 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:36.000 That's endless. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:44.000 Now take a 90 second step aside from that and just let me just mention truly 90 seconds. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:50.000 Hopefully this helps us think about how to read the Bible actually. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:57.000 So when you come to a passage like this and you say, wait a minute, God doesn't need a nap. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:02.000 We realize that there's something here that strikes us that's different. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.000 And you come and say, how can it be a day if it never ended if there's no morning and evening? 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.000 A couple of facts like that. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:15.000 So John Calvin, when he comes to a passage like this, he uses it to look at the whole Bible and say, 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:23.000 when you read the Bible, you've got to think in this frame that God is speaking to you in baby talk. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:29.000 He's condescending to speak at our level in a way that we can understand. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:40.000 Now I have a baby at the minute and because I have a baby right now, I have seen some of you break through all barriers 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.000 and enter into your baby talk, your form of baby talk. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:50.000 So you might be a very formal person or you might think of yourself as a man who would never talk, 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 I'm not going to do my baby talk, I'll be embarrassed. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.000 But I have baby talk. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:56.000 You've got baby talk. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:57.000 We all have it. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:00.000 You have baby and you change. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.000 And the Bible is like that. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.000 When God reveals himself, Calvin says he lists like talking to a baby. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.000 That's the word he uses when he wrote. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:18.000 And that means that when you read the Bible, what it says about God, there's always something, it's true. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:19.000 This is God's rest. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.000 But at the same time, you've got to say, but there's something different. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.000 I can't just do a one to one. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.000 I can't just say, well, I rest, therefore God rests like me. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Of course not. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:35.000 So there's always metaphor built in and metaphor doesn't take away literal truth. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:38.000 It's literal truth and simultaneously there's an analogy. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:40.000 There's something that's totally different as well. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.000 God is absolute spirit. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.000 Of course, he doesn't sleep. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.000 He doesn't live in, he's not bound by space and time. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.000 And so it teaches us here how to read the Bible. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:51.000 So what does this mean? 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.000 What is this seventh day talking about? 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:56.000 And the first thing, let me just tell you two things. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.000 First, in verse one, it says God finished the heavens and the earth. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:09.000 That's referencing the fact that when he enters the seventh day, it's a statement declaring that the work of creation is stopped. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.000 He's done with it. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:17.000 And that means that God really did in space and time finish his work of creation. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.000 That God doesn't create anymore. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.000 Now that might strike you strangely at first. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 And it should in a way. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:24.000 But what does that mean? 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:30.000 It means that creation refers to God's work of bringing stuff out of nothingness, something out of nothing. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:32.000 And he did that. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:39.000 It says that he created everything according to its kind and gave it the ability now to reproduce, to multiply. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 And so you might say, well, but God didn't, he created me. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:43.000 Yes. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 And we're involved in that. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:48.000 We now contribute to the work. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:49.000 It's not from nothing. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:50.000 It's from something. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:57.000 And so his entrance into the seventh day, first, is the pronouncement that God created the world from nothing. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.000 And now he's providing for the world. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:07.000 So for the rest of human history, the seventh day never ends because it's the time, the season in which God just provides. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:08.000 He sustains. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.000 He keeps giving and giving and giving, but it's not from nothing. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:12.000 We're involved in that. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.000 We make things. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:14.000 We produce things. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:20.000 He's called us to be his partners in the providential care of the world. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:28.000 The second thing, though, and the more important thing than that is what could it mean to say, though, that he rests in that? 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:32.000 And we're really helped here by a couple other passages. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:33.000 Psalm 95-11. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:41.000 So the rest of the Bible takes up this idea of God resting and explains what this passage means for us. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:46.000 You got to read another how to read the, you got to read the whole Bible together to really understand any one passage. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:52.000 And you come to a place like Psalm 95-11 and it's talking about the Exodus story. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:01.000 And it's saying that when Israel left Egypt, they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years because they hardened their heart against God. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:07.000 And it says in Psalm 95-11, they failed to enter my rest. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:13.000 So they refused to, God is saying very literally, I told them, come and rest with me. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:16.000 And the Israelites of the first generation after Egypt said no. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.000 And so they failed to enter God's rest with a hard heart. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:21.000 So they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.000 And then you flip over to Hebrews 4. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:30.000 So if you have a Bible with you, I don't do this too often, but I do want to flip over just for a minute to Hebrews chapter 4. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.000 Because I want to just highlight a few verses. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.000 This, this Hebrews 4, this is the key. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:39.000 This is where the meaning of God's rest really is unlocked for us in Hebrews 4. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:45.000 Verse 1 in Hebrews 4, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.000 let us fear that we would harden our hearts as well. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:55.000 So the first thing we learn is the promise of actually entering this rest that started in Genesis 2 still remains. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.000 God is still existing. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.000 He's living in this time, in this rest. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:03.000 And you, what we're being told here is that you can enter into that rest. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:08.000 And if you hop down from there to verse 3, it says in verse 3, 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:12.000 for we who have believed enter that rest. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:18.000 If you, if you take up Christianity, belief in Jesus by faith, you can enter the Sabbath of God. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.000 We're being told there, hop down then to verse 4. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.000 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:27.000 God rested on the seventh day from all his works. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:32.000 So the writer saying the very thing I'm talking about entering God's rest is the Sabbath day from Genesis 2. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.000 That God is still living in. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.000 That you can be a part of as well. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.000 And then lastly, down in verse 10. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:44.000 Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Alright, so what do we learn? 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:50.000 We learn, and we'll come to this in just a minute, that you can have the Sabbath day rest of God. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.000 True rest. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.000 And that tells us something about what it means that God rest. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:57.000 It's not a rest from activity. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:58.000 No, because the day's still going. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000 God is upholding the world right now by the word of his power, by his providence. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:06.000 It couldn't be, he's, I mean he's taking a nap or something like that. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:07.000 No, not at all. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:09.000 What is it? 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:10.000 Think about Mount Sinai. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:11.000 Think about the temple. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.000 Think about Jesus entering Jerusalem in the triumphal entry. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.000 These are all ways of seeing God entering into rest. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:20.000 And what is it? 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:27.000 It's when God finishes his work of creation and delightfully and joyfully steps into the world he made. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.000 To be with it in exactly the way he planned. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.000 It's entering, he entered into rest. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:40.000 And what that means is that he came down to the world he made to delightfully be in it with us. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:49.000 It's the word of the covenants when God says, I am for you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:52.000 That's his entrance into Sabbath. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.000 It's his entrance into rest. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:59.000 It's the way that we talked about a few weeks back when you paint something, if you paint, or you make a great cake, 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:04.000 or you make anything that you're really impressed with, you know, you're impressed with yourself. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:05.000 I can't believe I did that. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:11.000 You step back like an artist and you look at it and you say, this is very good. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:12.000 And then you want it. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:13.000 You want to be a part of it. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.000 That is what God's Sabbath is. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.000 He makes it. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:19.000 He steps back. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:23.000 He looks at it in delight and then he enters in. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:27.000 He comes down and he says, I want to be with you. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:29.000 And so God's Sabbath is simply this. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:34.000 You are made for deep, everlasting, restful relationship with the living God. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.000 And he's come to offer that. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:37.000 He's here. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:40.000 He's come into this world to offer that rest. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:42.000 That's what it means here. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:43.000 Okay. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.000 Secondly, finally, how do we get that? 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:52.000 Hebrews four says, don't harden your heart today. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:57.000 Come to this with a soft heart and enter into the ultimate rest that you need in this life. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:05.000 So Hebrews four tells me today, tells me as the preacher, the teacher, what do I do with Genesis two? 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:10.000 Well, it tells me, it tells me to say, don't let your heart be hard. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.000 Come and enter into the rest of God. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:13.000 How can you do it? 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:14.000 How can you do it? 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:15.000 And there's a couple of ways. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:22.000 The first thing is this, the rest of the Bible takes God's rest this Holy day. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.000 The third clause tells us he made this day Holy. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:25.000 He blessed it. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:34.000 And it picks up on that and says now in our world, in our time, because we have bodies, we commemorate that reality by honoring the Sabbath day. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.000 And so the fourth commandment says, keep the Sabbath day. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:38.000 Remember the Sabbath day. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:39.000 It's a holy day. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:44.000 And in the fourth commandment in Exodus 20, it says it's holy because on that day, it's holy. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:46.000 Because on that day, God rested. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:51.000 So it uses Genesis two as the reason for honoring the Sabbath day. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:56.000 And that Hebrews four says there remains a Sabbath day for the people to come. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:04.000 And so in this life right now, we celebrate the Sabbath day and we do it because ultimate Sabbath still awaits. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:06.000 We still haven't reached it. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:13.000 And so we have one day a week out of seven to stop and to look out and to rest and say there's a holy day set apart for me to remember who I am. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.000 Remember ultimately what I'm for. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.000 That's the command from the 10 commandments. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:19.000 Do you remember? 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:20.000 We've said this a couple weeks ago. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:25.000 Do you remember who the first audience was that received this passage in history? 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:35.000 The first people to ever hear Genesis chapter two where the Israelites about to enter the promised land for the second time. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.000 So the book of Deuteronomy is the first audience of the book of Genesis. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:47.000 So Moses wrote the book of Genesis sometime in between Mount Sinai in this moment that Israel is about to enter the promised land. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:55.000 And these people, their parents in particular and some of the little ones, they were slaves in Egypt. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:06.000 And that means the people listening, part of them were born into seven day a week slavery in the ancient Eastern world. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.000 A type of labor. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.000 I know some of you are tired today. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:11.000 We're all tired. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:12.000 Everybody's tired every day. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.000 That's the main thing we all say to each other. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.000 I'm tired. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:16.000 I'm busy. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:20.000 We're always tired, but we've never been tired like this. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:30.000 If you were born into an ancient Eastern context in the desert where you are a slave labor seven days a week from the time of your childhood, you've never been tired like that. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:32.000 We haven't. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:38.000 I remember my dad was big on the children in the house learning hard work. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:57.000 And when I was a teenager, he got me a job in the summer in a air conditioning unit scrap yard where we would rip open the air conditioning units with all sorts of tools and pull out the copper wiring and sell it for metal, you know, because copper is worth good money. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:02.000 And it was an average. This is Mississippi, South Mississippi. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.000 It's average in the summer of 37 38 degrees every day. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:06.000 There was no shade. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:10.000 And I worked just five hours a day. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.000 And I worked just for about six, eight weeks in the summer. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:26.000 And I remember coming home every single day and doing the same thing, going straight to my mom to plead with her that she would talk to my dad about getting me out of this misery. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:27.000 Right. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:31.000 And of course, from my dad, it was hard work, learn hard work and be miserable. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:32.000 And that's good. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:33.000 Right. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:36.000 Now, that was miserable. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.000 It really was, but not like being a slave in Egypt. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:47.000 Because, you know, I had a weekend and I had good night times and I ate plenty of food and they were starving. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:52.000 Now, this is the command slaves in Egypt liberated. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.000 Take the Sabbath day off. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.000 It was never for them a command of restriction. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:03.000 It was a command of liberation to be told by God. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.000 You used to be called worthless slave. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.000 Now I'm telling you, you take a you take a day off and you worship and you rest. 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:13.000 Boy, freedom, utter freedom from top to bottom. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:18.000 And today, you know, I think I know that I have this problem. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:22.000 And I think most of us do that anybody who asked me, how are you? 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.000 And a lot of you do ask me that I appreciate it. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:29.000 You say, I say, I'm fine, but you know, we're very busy. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:32.000 And I ask you and you say, I'm fine, but we're very, I'm very busy. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.000 And we are, we really are busy and busyness is the curse of the modern life. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:47.000 You know, we in the middle 20th century thought if we can create things like the internet, if we can build robots, if we can make machines, if we can have a company like Tesla come along one day, we will be freed from our labors. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.000 And what's happened is the exact opposite. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.000 We work more in 2024 than humans in 1954 ever did. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:59.000 And because of the internet, because we can work anywhere, we work everywhere. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:04.000 And so the first thing to say is you were made for real rest. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:15.000 And one of the ways God has explained that to human beings who have bodies is to say, take the Sabbath day, take a day off your labor is your work, because you need it, because you were made for it. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:21.000 And because if you're not doing that, then you're showing yourself, you're running back to Egypt. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:23.000 You're being a slave to your work. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:27.000 You're thinking that your work is the thing that really gives you meaning in this life. 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:39.000 And so today, if you, if you like all of us at times struggle to come to worship and then go home and then pull your email back out again in a micro way and a small way, you're in bondage. 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:47.000 And if you leave here as a student and you, you've got to get back to the library on a Sunday on the Sabbath day, you're in bondage. 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:49.000 You need liberation. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:51.000 You need the Sabbath. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:52.000 God commands it of you. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:54.000 And it's not a command of restriction. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:55.000 It's a command of liberation. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:57.000 You're not defined by your work. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:58.000 And so be liberated. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:00.000 Be free from it. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 Come back to the Lord who gives you your true identity. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:07.000 Secondly, finally, and a little bit more deeply. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.000 What's underneath that issue that we all face because we can work anywhere we work everywhere. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:13.000 There's something underneath that, I think. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:25.000 And one of the ways to get at this is in Psalm chapter four verse eight, David says at the very end of that song in peace, I lie down and sleep for you alone. 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.000 Oh, Lord, make me dwell in safety. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.000 Now David in that song is got an entire army encamped around him. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.000 So when he wakes up in the morning, he for all he knows is probably going to die. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:45.000 And the, but as he goes to sleep that night, he says, in your presence, Lord, I lay my head down. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:47.000 And so I sleep in peace. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.000 And he was not in peace. 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:51.000 His circumstances were terrible. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:56.000 And one of the things we can learn from that is maybe, maybe a way to say it's like this. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:01.000 This is where this is where our faith comes to be tested when you lay your head down to sleep at night. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:15.000 You know, and many of us, we struggle to sleep because our minds are racing about what we failed to do today, about what's coming tomorrow, about the anxieties that are arising in our lives because of our physical safety, our spiritual safety, 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:23.000 our lack of achievement, our lack in life in all sorts of ways, all the ways we can get it wrong and catastrophizing it. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:25.000 And we struggle to sleep. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:35.000 And really one of the ways we can test the way we're relating to entering God's rest is in what we do when we lay our heads down to sleep at night. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.000 In other words, what is this? 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.000 What is God's rest truly offering to you today? 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 It's inviting you to do a lot more than just stop checking your email on Sunday. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:49.000 It's inviting you to have, to, for your soul to come to rest. 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:55.000 In order to really rest on the Lord's Day, you gotta, your soul actually has to come into a place of true restfulness. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:02.000 And what that means is that we've got to find rest outside of ourselves. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:19.000 In 1981, one of the great movies of the 20th century, Chariots of Fire, came out about our own Edinburgh son, Eric Little, who, Scottish Presbyterian, part of the tradition that this church comes from. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:28.000 And in 1924, Eric Little went to the Olympics in Paris and he, it's a Sabbath story so it works very well for the sermon. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:35.000 He decided not to race in the 100 meter, the thing he trained for the most because it was on Sunday and he went to worship instead. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:38.000 And he did win a gold in another race. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:45.000 But instead of thinking about him for a second, I just want to highlight his counterpart in that story, Harold Abraham's. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.000 So the movie is really a balanced story between Eric and Harold. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:25:01.000 And in it, Harold, who's also an incredibly gifted sprinter, we're told over and over again by the writer of the film that he runs to achieve his meaning in life. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:07.000 And he says at one point, I run so that I can know that I'm worth something, to self justify. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:10.000 And so there's all these different scenes where this really comes out. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:23.000 There's one where he's standing in front of a board at Trinity College, Cambridge, and he tells them in an argument, heated argument, he says, you know, I'm here at Cambridge because I deserve to be. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:27.000 Because of my intelligence and my ability to sprint. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:33.000 And he said, and all of you on this board are here because you were born into families of aristocracy and nobility. 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:41.000 And you see Harold, he's countering early 20th century, a sort of a downfall moment of the aristocracy rule in Cambridge. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.000 And he says, but I'm here because I earned it. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.000 That's what he says. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:52.000 And then in another scene, he really wrestles all throughout, you see this all throughout, that he's, he was born, he's a Jewish young man. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:26:03.000 And he says that he wants to, he wants to win a gold medal to prove in England in the early 20th century that a Jewish boy deserves respect, just like an English boy. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:08.000 And he saw growing up, his dad always disrespected for being Jewish in different spaces. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:11.000 And you see him wrestling with this. 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:19.000 These, these pat answers we all have for who we are, you know, my meaning and my value is that I'm a good person. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:26.000 And that I can justify myself by what I do in this life, by not doing that and by achieving this. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:28.000 That's what we do as human beings. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:32.000 And one film critic, he writes this about it. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:37.000 He said, from Little's perspective, God, he, Little says, God made me for a purpose. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:39.000 He made me fast. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:42.000 And when I run, I feel the pleasures of God. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:53.000 So little success comes from channeling this pleasure into a reckless abandon on the race course, because he's found so much assurance in God, he's free to run. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:04.000 In sharp contrast to Abraham's meticulous training regimen, little runs by faith, full assurance and advance of always being accepted by the only one that really matters. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Abraham's runs by works, doubling down and groping after a feeling of acceptance and a sense of purpose that always eludes him, that he can never quite capture. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.000 You know, our sleeplessness is metaphorical. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:32.000 Maybe it's literal for you, but it's because we are racing, racing, racing, racing always to find merit and meaning in the way we perform. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:40.000 And true Sabbath is coming to the bottom of your soul and resting in what God says about you and what God has done for you already. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.000 That's the real Sabbath. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:44.000 And, you know, we get it. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:48.000 We get that don't work physically, take a day off, stop working, stop checking your email. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:28:00.000 But do you yet spiritually come to the Sabbath day to lay your deadly doings down, not only in body, but also in heart. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:08.000 And truly come to rest in the reality of justification, God's pronouncement, that you're cleansed, pardoned, forgiven. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:15.000 That you're His and He is yours and you've entered into His rest forever and that can't be taken away from you. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:21.000 And so you can stop chasing and trying to achieve meaning and merit. 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:23.000 Lay your deadly doings down. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:24.000 That's real Sabbath. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.000 That's Sabbath that goes down to the bottom of the heart. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:36.000 In Mark chapter two, John chapter five, Luke chapter four, you have these three parallel moments of Jesus on Sabbath days. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:45.000 And in each of these passages, Jesus heals somebody or He allows His disciples to eat grind grain on the Sabbath day so they can eat. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:50.000 And in all of these moments, the Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees get very angry about it. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:29:00.000 And they say, you know, how in the world are you breaking the 39 Sabbath regulations that were written in the inter-testamental period, the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament? 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:02.000 They were called the Hakala 39 rules. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:08.000 Never grind grain, never rub two sticks together to make a fire. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:11.000 Thirty, thirty-eight, seven more of those. 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.000 How in the world are you doing this, Jesus? 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:19.000 And they got so mad at Him and He said, the Sabbath was not made for us. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:21.000 Oh, sorry, we were not made for the Sabbath. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:22.000 The Sabbath was made for us. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:24.000 I said that exactly backwards. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:29.000 Meaning, we are not made to serve the Sabbath. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:33.000 The Sabbath was made as a gift to us. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:40.000 And Jesus says in that moment, the reason I can say that today in front of your hearing is because I am the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:49.000 And in that moment, He is identifying Himself as the God of Genesis chapter two, who created the world and entered into rest. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:51.000 And let me just say today, what is true soul rest? 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:54.000 What is true Sabbath to the bottom of your soul that's on offer for you today? 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:08.000 And it is this, the very fact that the Lord of the Sabbath, the God of all the earth, who entered into ultimate delight on the seventh day, came into this world to experience utter restlessness. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:13.000 True restlessness so that you could be offered rest forever. 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:25.000 Because we chase meaning and merit in all the wrong places, in our performance, in our religion, apart from God shaking our fists at God, Jesus Christ came into this world. 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:34.000 And at the cross, there is a restlessness that happens at the cross that no 400 years in slavery and Egypt could ever understand. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:50.000 And He did that to offer you meaning and merit, that's a gift so that you could rest forever to lay your deadly doings down and body and soul and just know that He loves you and He's got you to lose control. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:53.000 You got to put your head down on the pillow at night and just lose control. 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:55.000 You're not in charge. 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:56.000 Jesus has already done it. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:57.000 You're okay. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:30:59.000 That's what you need. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:02.000 And that's justification. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:04.000 God's pronouncement over you. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.000 You're cleansed, you're pardoned, you're forgiven. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:12.000 And no matter what happens tomorrow, no matter what they say about you, God's going to keep you. 00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:15.000 Let me close with this last word. 00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.000 Let's get incredibly practical for a couple minutes. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:24.000 Until Jesus Christ returns, we await the Sabbath day. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:32.000 And that means that we commemorate, we look forward to what He's going to do by remembering the Sabbath day Sunday and keeping it holy. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:33.000 How can you do that? 00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:39.000 How can you, in other words, find better rest in your life through this day, Sunday, the Sabbath day? 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.000 Let me give you a few ways and we'll finish. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:51.000 First, if at all possible, take your Sabbath day, your rest day, truly on the resurrection day, on the day that God in the New Testament has offered as the new Sabbath. 00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:59.000 There are some jobs that you can't do that. I do not get to take my Sabbath on the Sabbath day, though I do Sabbath in another way on the Sabbath day. 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:05.000 And others of you, you have shift work, you work at a hospital, there's all sorts of reasons some people can't do that. 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:11.000 But if you can, at all possible, make it work in your life, take Sabbath on the Sabbath day, on a Sunday. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:16.000 Secondly, the Sabbath day, Sunday, is a day of liberation and joy. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:23.000 And so never burden yourself or others by over-regulating what somebody should do and can do on the Sabbath day. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:32.000 If, Luke 4, John 5, Mark 3, I think Mark 3, I can't remember, Mark 3. 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:41.000 If there's one thing that's so clear in these passages in the Gospels is that Jesus is condemning any attempt to over-regulate a Sabbath day. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:47.000 And so we have two very clear commands about how to honor the Sabbath day. One, worship with the Lord and His people. 00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:50.000 Two, rest from your labors. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:57.000 So it's going to look different for different people because you want to pursue something on the Sabbath day that's avocational, that's different from your normal work. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.000 Don't do what you do on a work day on the Sabbath day. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:07.000 Third, on the seventh day, God entered into creation, taking delight to be with us. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:16.000 And so again, come on Sunday and worship with God's people and enter into God's presence as we're about to, as we're doing now and about to do at the Lord's table. 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:21.000 Fourth, again, the Sabbath day is a day of liberation and freedom. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:27.000 So let me just reiterate, don't be a slave to your work on the Sabbath day. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:32.000 Fifth, Jesus offered gospel-like mercy on the Sabbath day. 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:39.000 The Sabbath day is a day to show mercy, kindness, and rest, the future rest that is to come on Sunday. 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:49.000 So it's a great day to show mercy to somebody that's really in need, to feed somebody that's hungry, to clothe the naked, to give a cup of cold water to those who are thirsty. 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:57.000 And whatever way that looks like in your life, to your neighbors, to the people you pass, it's a great day to show works of mercy. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:00.000 Six, I think, just a couple more. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:05.000 God entered on the Sabbath day into creation to enjoy what he had made. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.000 So the Sabbath day is a great day to enjoy what God made. 00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:16.000 Get outside, enjoy something beautiful, enjoy the beauty of the space that God has made. 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.000 And two more. 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:20.000 The Sabbath day is a day of accountability. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:26.000 And so it may very well be the case that one practical thing is today you need somebody in your life. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:33.000 I need somebody in my life, I know, to come and say, you got to stop working on your Sabbath day. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:36.000 So put your phone down, get off your email. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:37.000 Somebody, you need somebody. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.000 If you're married, it's a little easier. 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:45.000 If you're not, you need somebody else in your life that can turn and say to you, hey, get off the phone, get off the computer. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:48.000 To say it, you need somebody in your life to tell you that. 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:55.000 Because the Sabbath thing is hard work, ironically, when we're addicted to our work. 00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:58.000 Lastly, that means that Sabbath day is a day of trust. 00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:11.000 And so on the Sabbath day to really enter into true soul and body rest, you've got to be able to trust the Lord enough to stop working, stop studying, stop hustling, lose control, stop trying to make money. 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:14.000 Enough to say God has me so I can really be at rest today. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:15.000 It's a day of trust. 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:18.000 And so Jesus Christ today. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:23.000 He offers you every bit of meaning and every bit of merit that you can ever achieve. 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:27.000 Only He can bring you to the Sabbath feast. 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:28.000 So let's celebrate that now. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.000 Let's pray. 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:31.000 Father, we thank you for true rest. 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:39.000 And we know that in this busy hustle culture, we don't have it except when we run to your arms. 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:44.000 And so I pray today, Jesus, you would help us to run to your arms as we prepare our hearts to come to the feast. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:50.000 Lord, teach us in the feast, the Lord's supper this morning, that you are our ultimate rest. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:36:01.000 And that it's only in your, the meaning you offer, the merit you've achieved that we can truly find our self justification, our justification, not in self, but in you. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:02.000 So we pray for these hearts now. 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:22.000 Lord, in Christ's name, amen.