Title: Rest!
Text: Exodus 34: 21
Date: June 12, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Exodus 34: 21: Six days thou shalt work, {Ex 20: 9: all thy work} but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Rest
There were eight sabbaths in the book of Leviticus: each one is on the 7th which is the number of perfection, of completion; each one meant rest from all exertion, all work, or all debts. Every one of the Sabbaths were given to typify Christ, the believer’s Rest.
Colossians 2: 16: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Not one person in the history of the world has ever kept the law of God—not this or any other—EXCEPT CHRIST and none but by faith in Christ.
When you read the law commanding us to rest, do you immediately think of doing? Amazing how sinners are able to make a work out of resting. When you rested through the night last night, where you working?
Proposition: Christ Jesus is the believer’s Sabbath rest. We will just look at this seventh day Sabbath.
Creation Work and Rest
Concerning the seventh day the LORD points us back to creation.
Exodus 20:11: 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 sabbath day, and hallowed it.
God did not rest for any other reason than this: there was nothing else to be done. He finished all his work.
Genesis 2: 1: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2: And on the seventh day God ended his work.
When you think of the word “Sabbath” remember this: THE WORK IS DONE!
The Law
Galatians 3: 19: Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made;
God gave the law— this one included—to show his people our sins and to point us to Christ in whom THE WORK IS DONE. God the Father promised God the Son, that when Christ finished the work Christ would enter into rest.
Christ’s Work and Rest
God gave the work of redemption to his Son in the covenant of grace TO FINISH!
Daniel 9:24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
John 17:4: I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
From the cross, he said, “IT IS FINISHED!” Just as God did when he finished the work of creation—when Christ Jesus finished the work of redeeming his people—Christ entered into rest.
Hebrews 1: 3:…when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Hebrews 10: 11: And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13: From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14: For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
The Believer’s Rest
When the Spirit of God writes his law on the heart of his child, he sanctifies his children:
Hebrews 4: 3: For we which have believed do enter into rest,… 9: There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10: For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
The believer’s Sabbath—our Rest—is not a new day of rest, it is Christ Jesus our Rest! Christ is our Righteousness. The believer has ceased from his own works, as God did from his because THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO BE DONE!
Illustration: At the end of hard days work—it feels so good to lay down in a cool room, on clean sheets, in a big bed, with plenty of covers. But there is no rest for the sinner who has not ceased from all his works and stretched out in Christ by faith.
Isaiah 28:20: For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
But the believer stretches out in Christ, wrapped up in his righteousness--RESTING!
The Sufficiency of Rest
The rest the believer has in Christ is the rest of knowing Christ is our full sufficiency.
Exodus 34: 21:…in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Earing time—is the beginning. Harvest—is the end. From beginning to end the believer rests in Christ. In the old testament--the Sabbath was always connected with the 6 days of work—it was a conditional covenant—it was a day to be observed, in earing time and in harvest. In the new testament, the only time the Sabbath day is mentioned in connection with the 6 days is
Luke 13:14: And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
The significance is this: our Rest in Christ is not conditional upon our works—but is an everlasting covenant based on Christ’s work. We live in rest; we are in a perpetual everlasting rest which Christ will sustain us in
Food for Rest
Earing and harvesting was in order to eat.
Exodus 35: 2: Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. 3: Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
Resting in Christ means Christ is our Bread-our Life—our full sufficiency. If we keep working for righteousness—then we are saying that Christ is not sufficient Righteousness for us.
Remember when the manna fell—
Exodus 16: 23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. 27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. 28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
God told Moses—my people can trust me to drive out your enemies.
Exodus 34: 24: For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
If we do keep working for acceptance— whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. When we try to add our works with Christ’s we break the whole law of God. If we do we are dead, and we shall be put to death
This is his commandment that you believe on him whom he hath sent and love one another. Are you tired of working? Are you weary and heavy laden? Are your debts more than you can pay? Christ said,
Matthew 11:28: Come unto ME, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Amen!