This morning, we're turning in the Bible to the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, and we've started a series in the book of Genesis, and so we're on page two, since we're in chapter two, and we're going to just consider this morning, I will take a lot larger sections generally, but we're just going to consider the seventh day this morning because of its importance throughout history and so it will this will have a brief section considering genesis and then i'd ask you to keep your bibles open because we'll be looking at a couple other passages to show how the lord viewed this day throughout the history of israel and on into the new covenant so genesis chapter 2 the first three verses let's give our attention to the word of the lord thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them 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 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. There is no doubt that if you want to inspire the charge of being legalistic or strict, just mention that you believe that somebody should honor the Sabbath day. The word itself has become somewhat dangerous to use today. It hasn't always been like that, of course, even in U.S. culture, American culture. You know, I remember the story of Eric Little, the British runner who refused to run in the 1924 Olympics, refused to run on Sunday because that would be a breaking of the Sabbath. If you've ever seen Chariots of Fire, it's a really fascinating and powerful movie to show how that conviction kept him from that. And we would look cross-eyed at somebody like that today. Are you kidding me? Why would you give up the Olympics for that? What we consider today is extremely important. And it has all sorts of implications. And we have lots of questions about it. I'll never forget hearing about a pastor who went out to eat on Sunday. And as he was out to eat, the cook was standing there. and the pastor wanted to evangelize the cook. And the cook, he added some questions about church, and the pastor said, well, why don't you go to church? And the cook said, because of people like you. The pastor felt very guilty about that. It's a sad phenomenon when this issue comes up. Immediately I get from people questions about, well, what can or can't we do on Sunday? And my patent response now is to that, because that's never the starting point my patent response is i refuse to let you do that to this day it's similar to creation isn't it i mean we come to genesis and the first two issues of genesis are clouded with controversy genesis one last week and you know how i approached it i said i'm not getting into the controversies we're going to look at the beauty of this but then we come to the second issue the seventh day and the whole thing is clouded again with controversy and i feel like the same thing i refuse to do that to this beautiful thing that the lord has done for us in genesis chapter 2 i don't want to make this about a list of do's and don'ts i don't want to do what the pharisees did to it i don't want to put a wall around it so that no one can enjoy it and if we can understand that and begin there we're going to look and see why this day was so important why this day was so important in the life of israel why did god rest on the seventh day that's what i want to consider with you this morning and we're going to look at this with the goal of showing how god rooted this in creation to teach us something about him and when this rest was lost at creation i mean at the fall which soon happened god just like creation was very concerned to restore this rest god was very concerned for his people to give back this rest and that should mean something to us god would continue to hold out the sabbath for israel as an act of god preserving them and strengthening them until they had entered their final rest in the new heavens in the new earth in the eternal canaan and we're going to unpack a little bit of that this morning because the book of revelation will declare right at the very end blessed are those who die that they may now rest from their labors rest let's look at this this morning with those things in mind in genesis 2 verse 1 we have a conclusion a conclusion a summary statement made that the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and last week we considered god's uh creative work in the first six days and it was beautiful to study remember israel would have looked back on creation and said wow our god made all of this he made all of this all of its glory and all of its beauty look at the handiwork of it all and the psalmists were constantly saying this and when they looked out into a world israel of false gods and false ideas and the powerful kingdoms of the earth that seemed so powerful and that seemed to be winning the victory they seemed to be more powerful than israel's god And all they saw around them was oppression and wickedness getting worse and worse and worse. Just like we're experiencing. Creation could be something that Israel looked back upon that would encourage them. And I said that last week. I believe creation should be the greatest encouragement to God's people. Your God made this. Your God fashioned this. And guess what he said about it? it was all very good. It was never his fault. Whatever this mess is and whatever society wants to blame God for, which I heard last week, God told us, I created all this good. Man wrecked this. Man has destroyed this. Now the question should be, would a good, righteous, and gracious king leave it this way? And the beauty of the Christian gospel is he told us right after the fall he would not leave it this way. He would not let it spiral out and be destroyed and everyone land in hell. God would make all of this right. So that was an initial great encouragement for the Christian. But then Israel would have looked at something else that God did on the seventh day and they would have thought a lot about this. God rested on the seventh day. What did Israel think about that? What did the Lord later teach them about its meaning for them as a people? Look at verse 2. 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. Now Israel must have stopped and said, Wow. God himself, the one who never faints or never becomes weary or never gets tired, he rested. Why would God do that? Why would he rest? And you'll notice here that it says that he rested from everything that he had made. The rest was telling us that God's act of creating the heavens and the earth was completed. And that the seventh day, he ceased and rested. And how encouraging, because the first thing you could say is, well, that's a wonderful truth in and of itself, that God finishes what he starts. And if God finishes what he starts, and we're still here, he's going to finish what he's promised. The entire creation to them was a declaration that God brings to perfection his work, and that the seventh day was a declaration to all that the completing of his work is something that's bound up with his own character, his attributes, that he's good. He's not a God who delights in a job unfinished. And you can hold that thought because we're going to come back to that a lot. So we read that here we're looking at that he rested and we get the sense that he delighted, the end of creation being the glory of God. So what does He do in verse 3? God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created. Now that's a huge verse this morning. Do you notice what God did on the seventh day? God rests Himself. And by doing that, Israel understood that something had been established that was to be perpetual in the life of those who were to live under the reign of this king did you notice how it's presented you know every day every day it said there was evening and there was morning there was evening and there was morning there was evening and there was morning and we come to the seventh day and we don't have it huge verse notice there's no morning and evening he specifically takes this day and he blesses it and he sanctifies it the word for sanctify here you know what we're looking at throughout history as we study this that he set it apart from the common days the common number that god separated out this one day among the seven to be a blessed day of rest and we still to this day don't we we have seven days in a week now think about all of this israel would have looked back at this think about israel would have received this pull aside all the baggage that's happened with this day and say wow what had god done here he had created man and how had he created man well you remember back in chapter one the most amazing thing about this creation the crown of his creation being in verse 27 so god created man in his own image in the image of god he created him male and female he created them and you get a purpose to this as if to say he created them in his image male and female and by the way that's really important to say today isn't it He created them male and female. We'll come back to that too. God said, fill the earth and subdue it. Exercise dominion and rule. And they would pattern their maker. God worked the first sixth day. He rested the seventh day. And so too, His image bearers at creation were designed to do this. so this continuous pattern would be established whom in those whom he had made in his image that their lives would be completely consecrated set apart to him and one way they would confess that he is lord over all is that they would pattern this work rest pattern that had been given at creation for what purpose so that creatures those made in his image would glorify him you know that's why the westminster confession when it begins ask the question what is the chief end of man what is his purpose in this life and you know we talk a lot about glorifying god but it's interesting that the divines understood that there's in connection with that enjoying god to glorify god and enjoy him forever and if i said show me a show of hands today of how many of you in all of your busy lives are really enjoying him how many hands would really go up enjoying him so think about what god did god didn't want life to be just about work it was to be more than that god sanctified a day for man that he would enjoy him and so god takes delight in this work of his hands and then man would then take delight in the work of god's hands and enjoy god and rest and trust and worship he blessed this day it was a day to sanctify men and women in his image to have the opportunity to confess that he's lord to worship together and express their commitment to Him and enjoy Him. What a day! What a day, isn't it? So God makes this, the Sabbath for man, supplying a day of worship that He would image this. And the Psalms talk about this all the time. You know, Psalm 111, Great are the works of the Lord studied by all who delight in them. Study. Studying. Seeing. Full of splendor and majesty are His work and righteousness enduring forever. God took pleasure in creation. Now, did all of this last very long? In other words, what was lost at the fall? Communion with God. And you remember that when Adam and Eve, we'll get there, when it was all exposed, God put up lashing swords, boys and girls. And God said, you can't come anymore. You can't come back into my presence because I am holy. So the entire Old Testament demonstrates and shows this great problem for mankind. He's dwelling in the land of Nod, east of Eden. He can't come back. He's booted out of the garden. trying to find their way and we see people and they're just mulling around and they have no purpose for their existence and they don't know what they're doing and where they're going and why they're existing and what this is all about and that is a tragedy but the beauty of the christian gospel that i'm commanded to preach and that we're told to preach every sunday God didn't leave it this way. And one of the things that He promised in Genesis 3.15 that we see progress throughout history is an understanding that God has promised a rest for His people. A rest. He's going to bring them home. God is going to bring His people back. He would make a way so that they could again enjoy this rest and so what do we what do we see throughout history brief survey here god raises up people to himself and he raises up people through whom the savior would come to be a blessing to all the nations fulfilling the promise to abraham but the question for us is did god give up on his sabbath even though we were fallen did god say ah it's okay go do what you want how important is this to him and what did this now mean for for a people who were fallen it's amazing how important this issue of sabbath was to our lord what happened to israel they went into bondage didn't they in egypt a lot of years what didn't they have you ever ask that they didn't have the Sabbath Pharaoh said that Moses comes and is come to be the deliverer and you know what Pharaoh says in the early sections to Moses and Aaron when Moses had come to deliver Israel and bring them out into the wilderness and bring them to the promised land of rest remember what Pharaoh said Moses and Aaron why do you take the people from their work get back to your labor and pharaoh said look the people of the land are many now and you make them rest from their labor how dare you try to bring a rest on the people of god moses so i tell you what they don't get straw anymore their workload's getting to be a lot more bondage in egypt was 24 7 it was a 24 hour fitness center they were working all the time burdened there was no practice of sabbath in egypt so what's fascinating here is is that what did the lord do he shatters it and he breaks the bondage and he brings them out and he delivers them and and what is the whole message of the exodus well he breaks them from bondage to their slavery which we all know is a picture of being in bondage to slavery to sin and he delivers them and he passes them through the red sea which is a whole cross-like event they are raised if you will brought out on the other side resurrected to a new life and they as soon as they come out to the other side the enemies are conquered and they sing the song of salvation moses's triumph song and you know that's the whole story of your redemption that's why we study the old testament we were brought out from being in bondage to our sins by christ he delivered us he plundered the devil at the cross we were saved from judgment being baptized into him as they were baptized in the sea and today we sing the song of the lamb revelation 5 we sing that song okay so they get out into the wilderness and what did god say to them as soon as they enter the wilderness and i believe a whole connection can be made to the life of sanctification traveling from the day of your salvation the day of the cross to the eternal land of rest you are in the wilderness you're not home yet and the New Testament picks this up and says you are a wilderness people just like Israel Israel has now come out on the other side they've been brought out of bondage and they're traveling to the promised land but the wilderness life is hard oh it's tough and what do we find in the wilderness it's a time of testing it's a time of deep struggle and now you understand Israel gets out into the wilderness and what do they struggle with? The whole thing. It got hard. We have no food and water. Well, you brought us out here to die, Moses? And they look back. Well, in Egypt we had pots of meat. It's way better back there. And you see the pullback. i want to go back to the former life i want to go back to sin and the lord says no you're going forward and i want you to trust me the whole way and in this connection the lord says to them you need rest think of how good he is so in exodus 16 he says every seventh day i want you to stop your wilderness journey and i want you to take delight in me and i want you to pattern what was done at creation in other words the lord lavishes down upon them in the wilderness the restoration already i want the sabbath back for you i want you to rest i want this to be an anticipation of the day when you will no longer needed to be provided for in the wilderness in this kind of way in other words he was raining down manna from heaven and he did it six days and on the sixth day he reigned double so that they would be fed and that they would trust him that he would care for them and that he would provide for them in the wilderness and so sabbath day the word for sabbath really first appears in this exodus 16 account where he says i want you to rest i want you to cease from your journey you know what's fascinating as soon as they got to the land of rest the manna stopped that day then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land and the children of israel no longer had manna but they ate the food of the land of from canaan that year see the whole picture think of the whole picture here for a minute they were sustained on the manna the bread from heaven jesus called it the whole way until they entered the land till they would eat freely off the land in the land of good milk and honey the land which showed us the eternal land and revelation 22 picks up on all of that and says there's a new heavens and there's a new earth coming that is your place of rest you're going to eat from the tree of life it'll no longer be like this amazing how the study of israel tells us our story but the point is they were in the wilderness and the lord wanted them to learn to look for the rest that is to come when they would no longer have to work six days he would rain down the manna and every day they would go and gather it and they would take according to their need and they were taught to trust the Lord that he is going to provide for them. Now the Sabbath day was the key mark of identifying them. When the law was given, remember what the Lord said. The Lord said, remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath. Get that? I delivered you, therefore I want you to enjoy that and never forget that. I want you to rest, to remember that I've delivered you. I know your wilderness journey's tough. I know it's full of pain. I know some of you are sitting here right now with a lot of pain and a lot of toil and a lot of suffering and a lot of hardship. I know that. And the Lord's saying, I want to provide. and i want you to work six days and i want you to learn this that by your daily gathering you can trust me i'll sustain you in the wilderness but the seventh day stop and i'll give you double the sixth day i'll give you double and seventh day rest step away from it and jesus would pick up on this in john 6 and say what do you think all that pointed to i'm the bread from heaven I'm the bread and I want you to always remember the rest that is set out for you that I've provided and I want this seventh day to teach you that an eternal rest is coming now what happened many didn't listen many said we don't we're not going to do that and they went out and gathered and God cursed. Turn to Exodus 31 for a minute and then we'll see how this applies in the New Testament. Exodus 31 is a very fascinating section of Scripture and notice in verse 12, And the Lord said to Moses, You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all you shall keep my sabbaths for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations now listen this that you may know that i the lord sanctify you well that's a blessing i want you to know that i've set you apart to me says the lord you shall keep it because it's holy for you everyone who profanes it shall be put to death and he goes on to talk about this work rest pattern patterning creation you know what's fascinating about this you know when this came it came right after the instruction on building the tabernacle god handed them a set of building instructions and if you go through and study it six times he did the same thing as that creation and the lord said and the lord said and the lord said and on the seventh time in exodus 31 he says rest rest and i believe the purpose is that the lord was telling them in all of your working i don't want you to forget what all this is about you think they're in the process of life in the process of their building in the process of doing what you're doing building your life you can forget why you're doing it it's like a man who has beautiful roses and he trims his roses and he builds a beautiful rose all his rose trees and everyone comments on his roses and he works on his roses and he labors on his roses and one day he wakes up and says i've never once enjoyed my roses that's us and god says here's this festive day of rest to enjoy me testing the loyalty of your hearts now what happens in a church culture that abandons this that's what i want to have us think about for a minute what happens in a church culture that abandons this how many christians are trying to build their lives right now and they're working so hard and you know we've got everything going on under the sun they say the average family today is busier than ever even though we've got washing machines whatever we've got all sorts of high-tech stuff you know and we're busier than ever we're working so hard we're running around to ball games we're doing all of this stuff and then we have the church trying to figure out why no one is spiritually satisfied so we write books on 40 days of this and 40 days of purpose and we write this we need we need a crusade we need some festival we need something to kick spirituality into the life of the people because it's just not there and we wonder we wonder why the church is a mess today it's spiritually unfilled it's hungry it's starving and how much time do you really spend sitting doing this in the course of a week oh well you see pastor the sabbath was for israel it's not for us that's what i hear the sabbath was for israel it's not for us the fourth commandment and done well what if i applied that this way today that mentality and i said hey i don't want to be legalistic you know i do not want to be legalistic so pick a commandment husbands and wives say you want to go out and commit adultery every now and then go ahead you'd call me a cult leader do you want to go out and steal every now and then go ahead you want to go out and take the lord's name in vain go ahead if you want to bow down to another god go ahead if you want to covet a little bit go ahead i don't want to be legalistic on that but honor the sabbath honor the lord's day and immediately you get that charge why god put it as a commandment it was a commandment of test testing your separateness testing your loyalties testing where your heart is i believe that's why this commandment is so different it was the one commandment that exposes the heart so here comes jesus in his day fulfilling all righteousness and he goes to the cross and what does he say it's finished it's finished i've gotten up off my throne i came down to work and i finished the work that you gave me to do and jesus stands up to the multitudes and he says does anyone hunger and thirst come to me and i will give you rest for your weary souls enter that rest by me says jesus believe in me if there's anyone here today who doesn't believe jesus just stood put out his hands to you and he said come to me and you will enjoy my rest i'll free you from your misery and since he's raised christians by example have always understood that this first day of the week since he rose from the dead triumphant was to be the day that they would gather festively and rest showing what jesus has restored that was lost at the fall and then the book of hebrews comes along and says, but you see, there's a rest that remains for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself ceased from his works as God did from his. There's a rest that awaits you. Christ has secured it for you. He's gone ahead for you. And here's the message this morning. We'll close with this. I know the journey's hard, says the Lord. But I want you to know as you're journeying and you're facing the discouragements, there is a land that I have prepared for you. Think of Israel. It's a land of milk and honey. There'll be no enemies there. There'll be no tears there. There'll be no death there. There'll be no sufferings there. It's coming. I'm taking you there. There's a rest that is held out for you. But in all of your working, you see, I know that you can forget that you're going there. And in all of your working and in all of your busyness, I know that it gets hard and you forget. And I want to add this. As a pastor, I realized what the Pharisees did to this. They built a fence around a beautiful park, and they kept building it higher and higher and higher so that no one could come in. And the park just became totally unkempt, as one pastor said. Jesus said, I didn't make man to be slavishly tied for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man to enjoy. I'm the Lord of the Sabbath, said Jesus, and I'm declaring it's for your enjoyment. I want you to enjoy what I've done for you. Jay Dalmo once said, someone who wants to keep control of his own affairs would experience the interruption of his daily duties on the Sabbath. as a hindrance isaiah 58 if you turn your foot from the sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the sabbath a delight think of new testament christians call the sabbath a delight a holy day of the lord honorable and shall honor him not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure not speaking your own words listen to this then you shall delight yourself in the lord well i want that i would love to delight myself in the lord because i don't do it i'm going to cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth whatever that means i want it i'm going to feed you with the heritage of jacob your father the mouth of the lord has spoken what a blessing I put this in place says the Lord to strengthen you to help you so that you would know that I love you not to make it a bunch of rules to bind you up I didn't do that I've set apart one day in seven that's the principle one day in seven I did that at creation and I sanctified it for you as my people to spend the day enjoying that you would never lose sight of the eternal rest that is to come. Isn't that wonderful? The very thing that points to what is to come, we get to taste a little bit of today. And when you're doing this without sin, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. You see now how evil it is? I was talking with someone the other week. And they said to me, you know, I've hit rock bottom. I'm struggling. I don't know where to turn. I don't know what to do. I said to them, I said, well, let me ask you a question. Why do you think we have church? Didn't know. Why do you think we have a pastor? Didn't know. Tell me this. What is gospel? Didn't know. I said, you know, gospel means good news. And that God set a pastor aside to preach to you good news and to give you a day where you can come in and rest from all of your weariness and be strengthened and helped. You know God did that for you. Now you see how bad it is when someone says, no thanks. Do it on my own, God. And you want to say, you've missed the beauty of this wonderful garden that God's given you to enjoy. A feast on His Word. Let's pray to the Lord this morning and ask Him that this would be recovered in our lives to rest and to worship and to not forsake that. Let's pray. O Lord our God, we praise You and we thank You that You would give us this day of rest. Anticipating the rest that is to come and that even now we can enjoy resting in Christ knowing we don't have to work for our salvation. knowing that everything has been accomplished that needs to be accomplished for our forgiveness, but that You have given us a foretaste of what is to come in glory, we get to come out of our weeks and be fed by You a giant meal, a steak meal of Your Word that fills us with life. Recover this in us and in all those who hear and Lord, make this place full of saints who love to set apart this day to glorify You and enjoy You forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.