So just quickly reviewing where I left off, we finished up with chapter 1 and we went through the entire creation narrative that's there in chapter 1. And particularly we looked at the 10 times that we see the phrase, and God said. And so every time God said something such as, let there be light, there was light. So he created through the power of his word. We also saw that God said that His creation was good and in verse 31 He said it was very good. We also learned that when it came to vegetation and animals, he made them after their kind. Therefore, particularly with the animal kingdom, God blessed the animal kingdom, and we learned that that was about procreation, and so they were populating the earth. Certainly God could have populated the earth entirely by the power of his word, but he chose to allow the animals that he created to do that work. And then we learned on day six that God created man. Man was the last of his creation. So God created the heavens and the earth in six days. And he created man in his image. He blessed them as well. And he blessed their marriage, Adam and Eve. And he blessed them to be able to procreate. And they were to populate the earth. They were to subdue the earth. They were to care and tend for the garden. And they were to use the resources that God had given them not only for food, but to be inventive and to use things to help them in this way. And so when we think of creation, we tend to go through it very quickly, but we need to remember that when God created the heavens and the earth, he created a fully functional and operating system. But then we come to Genesis chapter 2, And we notice that this is the final day, and this is a unique day. And so let's look at the text and read it and see what it has to say. Beginning in verse 1, 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. So I want to begin this morning with defining some terms because I think it's important that we understand particularly what this word rested is, but also we throw the word around Sabbath. What does that mean as well? And what you'll find if you do a look at the Hebrew words here, There are three very similar words used, and one is Shabbat, which is what we see in chapter 2 and verse 2 and 3. And that word means to cease, to rest, or to desist from labor. But there's two other words that are very similar sounding that we find other places in the Old Testament, particularly I'm thinking of Exodus chapter 16, and that is the word Shabbathon, and then the second time it is Shabbath. And so we need to understand what these terms mean and how they affect us as we think of the Sabbath or think of rest. So the text tells us that God finished His work and that He rested from His work. So God ceased from His work of creation, but He didn't cease from working. Think about it. He didn't create our world and then just abandon it. No, He's been very much active and being involved in how this world functions and how it operates, even to this very day. And we know this is true because Jesus affirmed it. In John 5, verse 17, Jesus said, My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working. We also learned when I went through the book of Colossians that Jesus sustains and upholds his creation. In Colossians 1 verse 16 and 17 we read these words, in him all things hold together. And it's that same idea is repeated again in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 where we read he upholds the universe by the word of his power. So God had ceased from creating but he hasn't ceased from working. God wasn't tired when he finished creating the world and the universe. And sometimes I think maybe inadvertently people apply something to the text that doesn't belong there. The text does not say that God needed to rest. It said that he did rest. Very different. And when we think about that, Psalm 33 9 says, For He spoke and it came to be, He commanded and it stood firm. So we see that God's creation was from His voice. He spoke it and it was done. So this explains to us that God is the Almighty One. And we first see that in Genesis 17 verse 1. But we also know that God is all-powerful, so He doesn't get tired. He doesn't need to rest. Psalm 147, 5. We also know that God is the everlasting God, so He doesn't faint. He doesn't get weary. He's not diminished in any way whatsoever. We see that in Isaiah 40, 28. So this word rest that we see in chapter 2 has to speak to something else other than being tired. And again, God ceased from his work, but he didn't cease to work. And if you consider the context of Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2, you'll see that it strongly affirms the idea that rest is a sensation of work, not a reinvigoration from work. But we also see that God sanctified the seventh day. He set it aside. He made it special. He consecrated it. It's a holy day. So when He rested from creating things, He also made it a special day and made it holy. And this is important because in Hebrews, we read that Christ is our ultimate Sabbath rest. Chapter 4, verses 9 through 11. And so, what we see here in chapter 2 is something bigger and broader than just God making it a holy day. He's got something bigger in mind. And it's pointing to Christ. Because Christ alone is the one who can satisfy the requirements of the law. And Christ was our perfect atoning sacrifice for sin. That was God's plan from the very beginning. Before the foundation of the world, is what we read in Ephesians. So now we need to understand this word Sabbath. But we have to define it in two different contexts. We have to define the Sabbath in the Old Testament, and we need to define the Sabbath in the New Testament. So in the Old Testament, the Sabbath is first mentioned that the first time we see the word Sabbath is actually in Exodus chapter 16. I referred to that earlier. And if we pick up in verse 23, we read these words. And he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will and boil what you will, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept until the morning. So they laid it aside until the morning as Moses commanded them. And it did not stink and there were no worms in it. Moses said, eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none. And so what the context of chapter 16 is, you remember, the Israelites were complaining in the wilderness about being hungry. And so God provided for them manna. And the way it worked was you would go out in the morning and you would gather enough manna for that day. It would not keep to the next day. It would spoil. So you gathered what you needed for that day. However, because God didn't want his people working and commanded that you don't work on the Sabbath, God provided enough manna on the sixth day that could be used for both the 6th day and the 7th day. That's the context here. God made it clear that you're not to work on that day. And when he said not work, he meant nobody in the household, whether they were a family member, whether they were a servant, whether they were a sojourner, didn't matter. Nobody was to work. In fact, you weren't even allowed to let the animals do any work. So God was serious about the Sabbath, to keep it holy. And so the first time we read Sabbath in verse 23, it's Shabbaton. And so it refers to like a special holiday, a special rest, and a Sabbath observant. But we see it said again in verse 23, and it's a slightly different word. It's Sabbath. And when we think about that in the context of Deuteronomy, it was a way to remember something very specifically. Really two things, but specifically in Deuteronomy, the deliverance from Egypt. Think about that. And so God was wanting them to remember what took place in Egypt. And so he provided manna from heaven once they left Egypt. And as I said, they gathered enough on the sixth day for the seventh day. And then over in chapter 20 of Exodus, as you know, that's where we read the Ten Commandments. And the fourth commandment is found in verse 8 through 11. It says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall do no work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant, your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. And over in chapter 31 we see that this Sabbath day is also a sign between God and His people. In verse 17 we read, it is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. And so as I was talking about before, it was a means within the context of Deuteronomy to remember the exodus from Egypt. Think about it, they were abused and worn out from the abuse of the Egyptians because they were slaves. But what did the land of Canaan represent to the children of Israel? It represented to them a land of rest. That was God's promised land for the people of Israel. God knew they needed to come out of Egypt. They needed to get out from underneath all that burden and go to the land of rest. But it also, the Sabbath rest also has another thing to remember, and that is God's creation. And we've seen it repeated, that God created in six days, rested on the seventh. So it's a means to remember creation, but it's also a means to remember something else that may not be quite as obvious, but it's there if you look for it. And that is this rest was a means to remember repentance. You see, when Adam and Eve sinned, paradise was lost. I don't know how long the world was in existence before Adam and Eve sinned. But forever how long that was, it was a perfect environment. It was a paradise. But when they sinned, that paradise was lost. And so there has to be something in order to regain paradise. And it's the righteousness of Christ that is the only way that we can regain paradise. And so again, we see a future view here of the Sabbath. But the other thing we gotta think about, particularly here in the Old Testament, the Sabbath day is not only a requirement and a command, but it's also a gift to the people. A gift of rest. I think in our day today, in our culture today, we forget how important rest is. We just go and go and go, and we wonder why we're wore out all the time. There is a gift of rest that God has given for us, and it certainly was for them in the Old Testament. But now we need to understand what the Sabbath means in the context of the New Testament, because it changes. In Mark chapter 2, verse 27, Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It was intended to be a help to people, not a burden to people. And when you look at the Sabbath in the Old Testament, it really was pretty simple. Do not work on the Sabbath. You rest. It was the Pharisees in the New Testament that just kept adding all of these different things to the Sabbath. They were applying a burden to the Sabbath that doesn't exist in the text. And this made it a problem for people. instead of a help to people or a way to give them rest. In verse 28 of that Mark chapter 2 passage, Jesus goes on to say that the Son of God is Lord even of the Sabbath. Now that really angered the Pharisees. And the reason why is because they knew exactly what Jesus was saying when he said that to them. Jesus was saying that he was equal with God, that he was deity, and that really upset the Pharisees. But we need to remember why Jesus came. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to fulfill the law and all of its demands, which he did perfectly. As we like to say, he dotted every I, he crossed every T. There was nothing in the law that he did not fulfill. But there's a huge implication to that. By doing so, by fulfilling the law, he in effect ended the priesthood, the sacrificial system, and yes, the Sabbath. You might think, Bruce, wait a minute. That's not what I've been taught. Hear me out. The way we can see what is being said here is see how Jesus himself treated the Sabbath day. It is a clue to believers today what to think about the Sabbath. In Matthew chapter 12, verses 1 through 8, we have the scene of the disciples and Jesus are walking through a field. The disciples are hungry, and so they're plucking the grain heads off and eating them, and it was on the Sabbath. Well, as you know, the Pharisees constantly had somebody watching Jesus' every move and the disciples' every move. And so they saw that and, of course, complained to Jesus about the disciples breaking the Sabbath by eating the grains of head, the heads of grain. So Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he talked about David. And he reminded them of when David and his followers entered the temple. when they were hungry and they ate the showbread that was intended for the priests. Jesus said, was that not lawful for David to do that? They were hungry. It was only for the priests. And so Jesus went a step further and he said, have you not even read the law that the priests profane or break the Sabbath and are guiltless? In Matthew chapter five, verse six. John MacArthur, he asks a question, how did Jesus treat the Sabbath? And his answer is not flippant, even though it might sound that way, but the answer is any way he wanted to. And we can see that because in Luke 14, 1-6, Jesus healed the man with dropsy on the Sabbath day. In John 5, 5-29, Jesus healed the paralyzed man because he wasn't able to get carried into the pool of Bethesda. But he healed that paralyzed man on the Sabbath day. And we just talked about plucking the grain of heads and eating on the Sabbath day. So what we have to see here is that the Sabbath is not moral, it's symbolic. It speaks to rest. And not so much necessarily physical rest, although I think there's an application there, but it's talking about a spiritual rest. Having peace with God through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be given Christ's righteousness through our belief in Him. It's a reminder again that we cannot earn our salvation. Jesus did the work. And so the rest that we see in Genesis chapter 2 is pointing to this greater rest that I just mentioned. This rest that is an eternal rest, a Sabbath rest. And we see this particularly in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 3, beginning in verse 8, all the way through chapter 4, ending in verse 13, that we see that there is a rest for the people who belong to God. And so what we understand that the Sabbath rest in the New Testament, the eternal rest, is the most important rest. Here's what the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 4. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have not spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. And if you read that entire section from chapter 3 verse 8 on to 4.13, you see that there, you know, it really can be somewhat of a terrifying text. Because it warns us and to make us aware that we ought not to miss this eternal rest and how important it is to find it. But there's something interesting that MacArthur pointed out that I didn't realize, but the fourth commandment that we read in Exodus 20, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, is not quoted in the New Testament. I find that rather interesting because all the other commandments in some shape, way, or form are quoted in the New Testament. So this rest that is being spoken of here has to be considered in a couple of different ways. The first is grace and faith. Remember in Ephesians chapter 2 we read, for by grace you have been saved through faith. But we also need to remember that our works cease. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. We just read that in Hebrews 4.10. That's a little challenging because, you know, we talk about doing good works as a result of our faith, and as being believers we're doing good works, but this work here is that we're not trying to strive to earn it, because we can't earn our salvation. It is a gift. It is by grace and by faith alone. And so again, we just are reminded that the work of salvation was completed by Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin and he lived a sinless life. Jesus roughly spent three years proclaiming the gospel and the kingdom of God. He performed many miraculous deeds and there are many of those deeds that are not even recorded in scripture. He was arrested, tried, crucified. as our perfect and holy sacrifice for sin. He was buried and He rose again on the third day and He was resurrected in power and glory. And that is why we worship on Sundays. It's because of Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week. But for the Christian, the Sabbath rest is eternal life. We see that in part here in this life. But more importantly, as we enter into eternity and we receive our salvation in full, because we are in the presence of Christ Himself, our Savior. Because one day our faith will be sight. So how do we conclude this? I'm going to offer some suggestions. And I want you to take them as that. I want you to think about these things. I want you to consider them. To see if there's something there that maybe should be considered for you. But before I do, I want us to remember what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 14, verse 5. He said this, one person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. So as I give these suggestions, I want to just, you know, encourage you. Take what I say and study it for yourself. But here are some thoughts. The one thing we see is that it always says the seventh day. We don't see in the Old Testament where God says Saturday or Sunday or Monday or any day of the week. It's the seventh day. So there's, we work six days and we rest on the seventh. And it's good for us to work six days in a week and then have that day of rest on the seventh day. I would bring it more to that we need to have this day set aside for worship and rest. For the majority of people these days, Sunday is that day. There are those who worship on Saturday. Obviously the Jews still look at Saturday as their Sabbath day. But what I want to suggest to us in picking up the Old Testament thought of setting the Sabbath day aside and making it holy. That is to do our best not to schedule activities that interfere with worship on Sunday morning. As a believer, our place on Sunday morning should be in the church with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the reason for that is the world has nothing for us. The world only wants to destroy you. They want to hurt you. They want to harm you. you will find encouragement in the church with brothers and sisters in Christ. And we need to make that a priority. And it's sad that so many people who name themselves as Christians don't go to Sunday service. I'm sorry, get out of bed and come to church. It's important because we can encourage one another. We are able to lift one another up. We can hear what's going on in each other's lives and be praying for those things. We need that because again you're not going to get that outside in the world. So avoid scheduling activities that's going to take you away from worship. In fact, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 tells us that we should not neglect the assembling together of ourselves. The second thing I would like to suggest, and I know this is a hard one, but avoid doing any work on the Sabbath. That's a hard one, because sometimes things have to be done, and I get that. You know, the fourth commandment says, remember this Sabbath day and keep it holy, and it's not quoted in the New Testament. And I'm not saying that it's sinful to work on Sunday. I've had to work on Sunday on occasion, but I do my best to not have to open my laptop and do work or, you know, anything else that may need to be done that I didn't get to on Saturday or whatever. But I also understand there are times where you have no choice. But really work hard to not have to work on Sunday. I want you to consider the implications of, pardon maybe the way I'm putting this, but rejecting a Sabbath rest. You see, God didn't need to rest because He's God. He's almighty. He's all-powerful. He doesn't get tired. But He knows that we are but dust and we do get tired. We get weary. We need rest. And I think the example of the Sabbath year where the Israelites were supposed to let their fields rest for the entire year. They weren't to work those fields. And so God provided in year six what was needed to sustain them for an entire year to allow those fields to rest. I think that's important for us to understand that God provides for us in six days to give us the opportunity for rest on the seventh. And so I want you to consider that it's a gift to us to have that day of rest. So again, I just will read what Paul said to the Romans. One person esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. And that last sentence is the important part here. Study these things for yourself and be convinced in your mind what is the right way to go. So please take those suggestions for what they are. Suggestions. And not get mad at me because of maybe a little dogmatic approach. But before I conclude, we sang a song last Sunday at the end of the service called, Come to Jesus, Rest in Him. And I was going to ask Andrew to close us with that song, but I felt actually it would be nice to just read the lyrics. And this is what Jordan Coughlin wrote in his song. Are you weary, heavy laden? Come and lay your burdens down. Jesus calls you. Jesus draws you. Rest in Him. He is gentle. He is lowly. He delights to bring us peace. Tender Shepherd. Mighty Savior. Rest in Him. How sure His compassion for us. Oh, how deep is His love. So come. Come to Jesus and rest in Him. Are you hopeless? Are you guilty? Caught in shame for all your sin, He pursues you to forgive you. Rest in Him. He has paid for every failure. Mercy flows in endless streams. Come and follow. Freedom calls you. Rest in Him. Are you waiting in your sorrows for this broken world to heal? He is coming, soon returning, rest in Him. We will see Him, we will know Him. Oh, what heights of grace revealed from His kindness, every promise then fulfilled. Oh, trust in Jesus, He will keep us to the end. Then the chorus again, how sure His compassion for us. Oh, how deep is His love. So come, come to Jesus and rest in Him. Brothers and sisters, we have a Sabbath rest. Yes, it is eternal life sometime in the future. But don't lose out on the opportunity for a Sabbath rest in our lives today. Let's pray.