What's God's remedy for a restless home?
Listen to Adrian Rogers. Speed and restless people. It seems all we've added to our lives is speed and noise. God's remedy for a restless home was the day of rest, otherwise known as the Sabbath. As we just heard from Pastor Rogers, when it's properly honored, it will serve as one of the richest blessings our families could ever possess.
If you have your Bible, turn to Exodus chapter 20. We'll begin in verse 8 as Adrian Rogers shares how to make the rest day the best day. May I say that in this day when we're supposed to have so many devices to save time, I've never seen so many hurried and restless people. If the computer is to save time and the cellular phone is to save time and the calculator and all of these things are to save time, why are we so behind time?
It seems like with all that we've done, really, about all we have added is speed and noise. We get there faster, but we don't know where we're going, and when we get there, we're out of breath. I read one time about a man who swallowed an egg whole, and he was afraid to move. He was afraid it would break, but he was afraid to sit still.
He was afraid it would hatch. And there are a lot of folks who are like that today. I mean, we're just running around so frenetic, and the pressure is on the family. So many restless homes today. Now, God has given us a recipe to deal with restless homes. You're going to learn something very wonderful today if you'll pay attention, and these commandments relate directly to the home.
There used to be a time when a man would come home, put his hat down, wipe his brow, and say, boy, it's good to be home. There's a jungle out there. Well, folks, today the jungle is on the inside. Now, what do we do about that?
What is God's cure for restlessness in the home and therefore for peace outside the home? Well, we're going to think about that today. God has given us a day of rest. Many of us don't use it. We don't even really know much about it. But I want to speak to you today on this subject, how to make the rest day the best day.
Now let's look at it. In Exodus chapter 20 and verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.
Now God gave to his ancient people, the Jewish nation, a wonderful gift. It was the Sabbath day, and it was a gift. Jesus told us in Mark chapter 2 and verse 27 that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And all of the commandments of God were made for us. You see, even when we honor the Lord, it doesn't make him any more holy.
It just makes us more holy. All of these commandments were made for us, even the ones that give God glory and cause us to love other people. I've reminded you before, and I'll remind you again, God did not make these ten commandments to make us squirm like a worm in hot ashes trying to keep them. God's laws are for our welfare. The Sabbath was made for man. And every time God says, Thou shalt not, he just simply says, Don't hurt yourself. And every time God says, Thou shalt, he says, Help yourself to happiness. Now God gave the Old Testament Sabbath to Israel.
It was a wonderful gift to them. God has given to us something even better. It is the Lord's day, which is the transformation of the Sabbath into something even more wonderful, and it is a fulfillment of the Sabbath. We're going to talk about that in a moment. But you as a Christian family have been given a day.
And if you'll use it properly and enjoy it as you should, it will be one of the best treasures, the richest treasures in your treasure chest of family values. Now the very word Sabbath means rest. Now there are three primary rest days. Now get this.
If you'll get this, you'll keep your traces straight. First of all, there's the creation rest. Secondly, there's the covenant rest. And thirdly, there's the Calvary rest.
Got them? Now let me explain to you. What is the creation rest? Well, when God created the world, when he had finished creating the world in six days, then he rested. In Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 and 3, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he, God, rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. God made it in six days and then he rested. Pastor, was he tired?
Of course not. He doesn't get tired. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28 says God never gets weary. Well why did he rest then? Well why do we have a rest in music? Because the musicians are tired?
No. Because they want to have a pause for emphasis and reflection and to rejoice in what has just gone before and to let it sink in. So God now is resting like a musician would rest in a musical score.
But listen to this. God's rest has been disturbed. God has been interrupted. What disturbed God's rest and put God back to work?
Sin. Did you know that God's rest has been interrupted? Put this verse down. John chapter 5 and verse 17. Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath day, the day of rest. Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees in whom the milk of human kindness had curdled. The Pharisees condemned him for working on the Sabbath day and this is what Jesus said.
Listen to it. Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto and I work. God's rest had been disturbed. The rest of God's first creation has been disturbed. But there was creation rest. The second rest is the covenant rest. The creation rest that pertained to God Almighty. The covenant rest that pertains to the nation Israel. When God had a special people, the Jews, God gave them a special day and it was the seventh day rest, the last day of the week.
Put these verses in your margin. Exodus chapter 31 beginning in verse 13. Speak thou also unto the children of Israel. Now notice the children of Israel saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you, between God and the children of Israel throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. And then verse 16, Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a covenant Sabbath.
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. So there was the creation rest and then there's the covenant rest. God gave the Old Testament seventh day Sabbath to the Jew. It was a covenant between God and the children of Israel. Now we have people today who say they want to keep the Sabbath like the people in the Old Testament kept it.
Well, be very careful. To break an Old Testament Sabbath law meant sudden death. For example, in this passage that I just read in Exodus chapter 31, in verse 15 it says, Six days may work be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest. Holy to the Lord, listen to this, Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Do you know what the Old Testament penalty for breaking the Sabbath was?
Death. If you did any work, for example, if you built a fire on the Sabbath day, you would be put to death. Exodus chapter 35 in verse 3, Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day. Now if you say today, I'm going to keep the Sabbath like they did in the Old Testament, you've got a lot of trouble.
Because if you start a fire, you're worthy of death. Did you start your engine today? Your automobile? You started firing every one of those cylinders. Did you turn on an incandescent bulb today when you flicked a light switch? You started a fire in that light switch.
Did you adjust your thermostat if you thought it was a little cold and your furnace went on? You started a fire. You committed a crime worthy of death if you put yourself under the Old Testament covenant Sabbath that was between God and Israel when there was a theocracy. Now, to make matters worse, there are 39 words in this commandment in the Hebrew language that talks about the Sabbath. And so the Jews added to the Word of God and they found 39 ways that you could break the Sabbath.
But they weren't content with that, so they took each of these 39 ways and broke them down into 39 divisions. And when they finished, they had 1,521 ways you could break the Sabbath. And that's Jesus said, you made vain the law of God with your tradition.
They had all kinds of things. They said, for example, if you've got a tack in your shoe, you better take it out on Friday night before sunset or you'll be carrying a burden on the Sabbath. You broke the Sabbath.
If you've got a flea on you, you better get him off before sunset on Friday. If not, you try to kill him on Saturday, you are hunting on the Sabbath day. Seriously, they would not eat an egg that was laid on Saturday, because that hen was working on the Sabbath day.
You could put vinegar in your mouth and swallow it for it was all right to eat on the Sabbath day, but don't hold it in there very long if you had a toothache, for that was healing on the Sabbath day. They had taken this Sabbath day and they had made all these little minute laws about the Sabbath day and one of the things that they hated Jesus for was they said, He has broken our Sabbath. It didn't matter that He was going around healing people and doing works of mercy and love and so forth, but let me say there was the creation rest when God created the world, He rested. Then there was the covenant rest. God gave the Sabbath to Israel and it was supposed to be a blessing to Israel, but they so contorted it that they made it what was to be a blessing, a burden.
Now here's the third rest and this is what applies to you. Remember the word Sabbath means rest. There is Calvary rest. That's the fulfillment of the Sabbath for us and that's how we apply this command to us today. You see the Old Testament Sabbath as were all of the Old Testament ceremonies they were also prophecies.
They pointed to something even more wonderful and I'm going to show you in a moment that the Bible says that the Sabbath was a shadow that pointed toward the Lord Jesus Christ. When did God rest? After His first creation. When did Jesus rest? After His new creation. You know what the Bible says? If any man be in Christ he is what?
A new creation. So remember Jesus said, my Father worketh hitherto and I work. Remember that Jesus said, I must finish the work of him that sent me while it is day. Jesus came to do a labor. What was that labor? To create a new race, a new creation.
If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creation. Now Jesus said, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. I've got to get this work done.
When he bowed his head on the cross and died he said, what? It's finished. It is finished.
My work is done. And then the Bible tells us thank God in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 12, but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God. Jesus did his work. It's finished.
And now he is sitting down. In the Old Testament temple the priest never had a place to sit because his work was never done. But Jesus' work is done. It is finished and he is resting from his work.
What work? The new creation. He has made a new creation. Now take your Bibles and let me show you something that will bless you. Turn to Colossians if you will chapter 2 and look with me. Colossians chapter 2, and you being dead in your sins, all of us were dead without Christ and in the uncircumcision of our flesh, that is we had this sinful nature, hath he quickened together with him.
What does that mean? When Jesus rose from the grave, hallelujah, we rose with him having forgiven you all trespasses. Glory to God. We were dead. Now we're alive. We were in sin.
Now we are forgiven. And here's what else he did, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Well, in Bible times if a man committed a crime and he was adjudicated guilty, the court clerk would write down the crimes that he had done and when he would be put in prison they would nail that certificate of debt to the prison door. And it was called a certificate of debt or the handwriting of ordinances. Well look, Jesus just took that handwriting of ordinances that was against us as criminals against heaven's king and he blotted it out.
He took it out of the way. He just stamped on that, it is finished. The word it is finished means paid in full, paid with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stamped paid in full and ripped it from the door and set the prisoners free.
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Satan hounded Jesus to the cross. It was the worst thing he'd ever done because Satan's seeming victory was his biggest defeat and Jesus through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, that's verse 15. Now look in verse 16, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days, literally the Sabbath. The word days is supplied in the King James translation of the scripture. The Sabbath days, verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come. The shadow of things to come.
Coming events cast the shadow before them. The Sabbath days were a shadow of things to come. Don't ever let anybody say, oh you started a fire on the Sabbath day, you ought to be stoned. Don't let anybody say you took a Sabbath days journey, you transgressed and went too far, you ought to be stoned.
Don't let anybody judge you, that was the covenant Sabbath, that was the covenant rest, it was between Israel, it was a shadow of things to come. Now there's my shadow down here on this platform. The light is up there and the shadow is down here and here I am.
Well is that me or is this me? Well here I am, that's the shadow. Listen to me, have you ever seen a dog chasing the shadow of a bird on the ground?
He's chasing the, the bird is up there. These people who are still trying to keep the covenant Sabbath, the Old Testament Sabbath are chasing shadows. Jesus is the body. The Sabbath is only, the Old Testament Sabbath was a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ. The body is of Christ. The Sabbath is the shadow that pointed to the body, don't miss Jesus.
That's the reason Jesus could say in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I will give you rest. I am your rest. I have made a new creation.
I am now sitting at the right hand of the Father. It is done. It is finished.
It is paid in full. And now the Lord Jesus is our finished rest. This is why we celebrate the first day of the week because Jesus burst asunder the bonds of death and came out of that grave upon the first day of the week. And it is called in the Bible in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 10, the Lord's day. The Sabbath is never called the Lord's day. Not the Old Testament covenant Sabbath. But the new creation Calvary Sabbath is called the Lord's day.
I want to give you nine facts. Jesus rose from the dead the first day of the week, Mark 16, 9. Now when Jesus was risen early, the first day of the week. Fact number two, Jesus met with his disciples after his resurrection on the first day of the week, Mark 16, 11. Jesus met with them eight days later upon the first day of the week, John chapter 20 verses 19 and 20. Then the same day evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you. They were commissioned to preach the gospel on the first day of the week. John 20 verse 21, then said Jesus unto them again, peace be unto you as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. The Holy Spirit was imparted to them upon the first day of the week.
John 20 verse 22, and when he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, receive the Holy Ghost. Later on the day of Pentecost, the church was born on the first day of the week. The day of Pentecost was on Sunday, the first day of the week, Acts 2 and verse 1. The book of the revelation was given upon the first day of the week, Revelation 1 verse 10. The early church met for worship upon the first day of the week, Acts 20 verse 7. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.
On the first day of the week, they took their offerings, 1 Corinthians 16 verse 2, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. For our Lord has taken the Old Testament Sabbath, he has fulfilled it, and he has transformed it, and there was the creation rest, there was the covenant rest, but thank God, hallelujah, for the Calvary rest. When Jesus said it is finished, it is paid in full. Aren't you glad for the truth of those words?
It is finished, paid in full. What a beautiful place to end today's lesson. We'll hear part two of how to make the rest day, the best day coming up tomorrow. But maybe you have questions regarding your faith in Jesus, what that means, how to receive the love and forgiveness he's offering you right now. If you can go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio, you'll find answers to a lot of those questions. There's a response section. You can share how this message or others have made a difference. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus.
We can't wait to hear from you. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, the title is How to Make the Rest Day the Best Day. Call to order at 1-877-LOVE-GOD. This message is also part of a 10-part series, a perfect 10 for homes that win. For the complete collection, all 10 insightful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVE-GOD, or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio, or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Thanks for studying in God's word with us today.
How exactly can we make the Lord's Day a celebration of love rather than a burden of legalism? You don't want to miss the conclusion of how to make the rest day the best day tomorrow, right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener in Louisiana reached out recently.
You have to hear this. I listen and re-listen to Adrian Rogers' messages while I do my housework. Thank you, Love Worth Finding, for making them so accessible. Well, we are honored to share with you profound truth that never changes, the truth of the gospel, simply stated by Adrian Rogers. And at Love Worth Finding, it's our great desire to equip you with resources to share the light of the gospel with a lost, dark world. If you give a gift of any amount this month to help us, we'd love to send you our 2020 Christmas cards, featuring an original painting by artist Lacey Hancock. This bundle includes 10 cards and envelopes ready for you to share some comfort and joy with friends and family as we near the end of a very stressful year. Call today 1-877-LOVEGOD. You can give online as well at lwf.org slash radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-29 00:18:35 / 2024-01-29 00:27:21 / 9