We're going to turn now to Hebrews chapter 4, and we will look today particularly at verses 9 through 11. This is something of the centerpiece of the chapter, and it really belongs with verses 1 through 8, but in light of the difficulties and complexities of this entire section, I hope you'll agree with me that it would have been even more difficult to put it all together in one piece. So let us stand together as we hear from God's word in Hebrews chapter four verses nine through eleven. This is the word of the Lord. May we hear it with reverence as though hearing God himself speaking from heaven. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also ceased from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. You may be seated. Probably many of you in this room will remember what used to be known as blue laws. These were the laws that in this country required places of business to be closed. on Sundays. There is a general recognition that this day is different than other days and is to be observed as the day of worship and all of the mainline denominations, whether the Presbyterians or the Baptists or the Methodists or the Episcopalians and Anglicans and others and the Roman Catholics agreed that this was an appropriate thing to do. I don't need to explain to you that that's not the case anymore. A seismic shift has occurred in the way that our nation views Sunday. In the middle of the 19th century, the Presbyterian Church, United States of America, in its General Assembly declared, the church without a Sabbath is apostate. Would that same statement shock many of the churches in our land today? Why do I mention that? Because as we come to this central piece in Hebrews chapter 4, there is an emphasis on what the author refers to as a Sabbath rest, or more literally, a Sabbath keeping for the people of God. These are the New Testament people of God, as I hope to show you, and what the author is stressing here is this basic point, that we are driven to trust in Jesus Christ alone, and in doing so we are presently entering into what he has called God's rest, so that in the future we may enter God's rest in its perfection and glory. In the middle of this, the basic conclusion is, in light of the present rest you have in Christ, the future rest you hope to have in Christ, there still remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. I'm going to do something today in this text that I try studiously to avoid in normal circumstances, and that is that I'm going to make most of my points from the Greek text. And I hope, even without knowing Greek, you'll see why that's the case as we go through, because there's a clear difference that stands out between verse 9 and everything else in the surrounding context. So, what we're going to see today from this text is that the Sabbath rest of God's people is a great means of entering God's rest in glory. Our present Sabbath, in other words, is a means of directing us and looking forward to our future Sabbath. And in this, I hope to show you that this theme of the Sabbath in the book of Hebrews is actually presenting to us the gospel and what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to look at this text in three basic parts, and that does purposefully correspond to our three verses. We're going to see that there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God in verse 9. We're going to see the grounds of this Sabbath-keeping in verse 10. And then we're going to see the purpose of this Sabbath-keeping in verse 11. First, we're going to begin with the fact that there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. And we do see that in verse 9 once again. So then there remains a sabbatismos for the people of God. I want you to hold that Greek word sabbatismos in your mind. I don't think it's too difficult to figure out. What does it sound like? It sounds like Sabbath. Because it's taking the Hebrew term for Sabbath in the Old Testament and it is transferring it directly into the Greek language. Now, you may say at the outset, what's the big deal? Well, if you read through Hebrews chapter 4, and maybe after you leave today, I recommend you go back and re-read the text with these types of questions in mind, you will see that the main theme throughout the chapter is God's rest. And you would perhaps expect, as you go through, you see references over and over and over again. The promise of entering his rest remains. We must be diligent to enter his rest. He swore in his wrath that they would not enter his rest. And then verse nine. Therefore, there remains a Sabbath rest to the people of God. It would all be the same term. But actually, the entirety of the chapter uses the Greek word Catapalsis. What does catapalsis mean? Rest. But then suddenly there's a shift in vocabulary in verse 9. Now what we need to recognize is when we come to verse 9, this is actually the crux of the chapter. Everything before and everything after revolves around verse 9 in the text. And instead of using katapausis, rest, the same verb he's used the whole time, he suddenly shifts to sabbatismos. Now, if you are a Greek reader in the first century, I don't think you need to use your imagination to realize that this is going to jump off the page. There's another reason why this is going to jump off the page. This is the only time where the word sabbatismos appears in the entire New Testament. So, it's not just a different word. It's an unusual word. So, the author here, in other words, is striking at something, he is underscoring a point, he is highlighting something, and he is, as it were, grabbing our attention even by his use of terms. In light of what I have said, the conclusion is, therefore, there remains a sabbatismos for the people of God. Now, here's the question. What does it refer to? Think about it this way. If you are getting ready to run in a race, what we're really asking here is, what is the finish line? What's the goal? What are you aiming towards in this particular thing? So, what is the author saying in terms of there remains a sabbatismos for the people of God? Most commentaries will say something like this. What it means is that in heaven there remains a rest for the people of God to enter into. Now, I realize the logic and the connection of the text last week was particularly difficult, and maybe this is a good point to reconnect everything we've done up to this stage in order to ask what's going on here. God said through David in Psalm 95 certain people didn't enter into God's rest, and God's people under David now must enter into God's rest. Under Moses, or rather Moses wrote in Genesis, that when God created the heavens and the earth, he rested on the Sabbath day. You see the picture? God did a great work of creation, God rested. Then you see Joshua bringing the people into the land, and the end of the book of Joshua explicitly says, I believe in chapter 21, they were at rest from all their enemies. But the author of Hebrews says they didn't enter the rest from Genesis 2. You see, God did a work of creation, God rested. Joshua did a great work of bringing the people into the land, the people rested. David says that even though the people entered under Joshua, they didn't enter into the rest of Genesis 2. Now, I realize this is complex, but there's a rest that God is setting before our eyes that we must enter into in the very pattern of our work week. Joshua didn't do it. He didn't bring them to the anticipated end. But he's going to argue that Jesus does. Jesus brings us into the rest of God. So people will say the Sabbatismos in verse 9 is heaven. That's the rest that's being pointed out. And so it's all future oriented, something you look forward to, not something you do now. The problem is the entirety of the argument begins in verse 3. And there he says, we who believe are right now presently entering into God's rest. Then in verse 11, therefore let us be diligent to enter the rest. We are entering now, therefore let us enter even more. Let us go further. Let us come into the last fulfillment of God's rest. This reminds me of the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia, which, frankly, I don't recommend in many ways, because it's got strange theology. But one thing that happens is all the characters die, and they end up going to heaven. And Aslan is leading them, and as he is, he keeps saying, further up, further in. And what's going on is, he's saying, you're already here, you're already safe, you've already arrived, But if you really want to experience the glory of the place, you have to go further up, further in. That is exactly what the author of Hebrews is doing. Not simply in heaven, but in this life, if you are a Christian, if you are trusting in Christ and only in Christ as your Lord and Redeemer, you have entered now so that you anticipate the perfection of your rest and entering in the future. You are in, you are safe, and you're going further up and further in. And that's the basic idea the author is arguing. There is a present rest that you experience today as a Christian, and a future rest that you must experience. Now, why does he change to this term sabbatismos? I'm trying my best to make this clear, and I want to say at the outset, this is one of the most difficult texts I've ever had to wrestle with. He's saying something like this, I believe. Just as God rested at the original creation, and there was a Shabbat, now God has rested from His work in Christ, and there is a Sabbatismus. Now, if you are a Hebrew Christian, and you need to use your imagination a little bit, and you are reading your Old Testament, not in Hebrew, but in Greek. And you come to Genesis 2 and Exodus 20 and other places in the Old Testament, essentially you see some sort of Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Shabbat, Sabbath. And it's not quite Sabbatismus, but it's something like that. And so you're reading this over and over and over again, God rested in creation and therefore we keep the Sabbath. I believe what the author of Hebrews is saying here is that Christ rested from redemption, therefore you keep the Sabbath too. Because there is a promise of entering into God's rest, the people kept the Sabbath in the Old Testament. Because there is a promise of entering into God's rest for you in Christ, you are to keep the Sabbatismos in the New Testament. There is a new Sabbatismos for the people of God. And notice he does say, there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Maybe the easiest way to do this is to tell you what I think he's saying and then come back and try to prove it. I think what he's saying is something like this. Because of what Jesus has done in his life, death, and resurrection, you are to keep the Sabbath day. As you keep the Sabbath day, you are to anticipate heaven. Because in the Old Testament, God rested at creation and the people kept the Sabbath day in order to look to heaven, in order to look ahead. And he's essentially telling the church that if you want to enter the rest that God has promised, you must believe in the Lord and you must keep the Sabbath. There's my summary. I think that's what he's saying in the text. Now I want to back up and try to demonstrate it. Again, this is a present rest that we have entered into. The terminology and the vocabulary unmistakably relates to the Old Testament Sabbath, and it is clearly distinguished and related to the term rest in the rest of the context. There is a rest, a katapausis, for the people of God, therefore keep a sabbatismus, to look to God and to trust in him. Well, really, this isn't going to become completely clear, I hope, until we get to verse 12. But I want to make a general application in light of what I said here last week, as well as what we're getting into in Genesis in the evening service. The basic cycle that God had embedded into the creation itself was six days of labor followed by a day of rest. This is not a sacred day for rest. But this is, as John Owen put it, a day for sacred rest. Now, what's the difference? I just changed the order of the phrase. In other words, this is not a day for idleness. This is not our day. This is not a day to go and do what we please and what we want to do. This is a day that is God's day, a day that in the creation He set apart as holy, a day of sacred rest, a day of rest in which the people in the Old Testament came to worship morning and evening and dedicated their time to the Lord in the synagogues as well as in the temple. A day which, just like the temple itself, the priests, the vessels, everything else that was in the service of God, was set apart as holy. A day that exclusively belonged to the worship and to the service of God. What the author of Hebrews is doing is writing to these Hebrew Christians and saying, you've lived this way for centuries, one day a week. You have kept this holy day to the Lord because you hope to enter God's rest. And there is this cycle embedded into the very fabric of creation that God has designed to direct your heart and mind to heaven. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is that's still here. It's not gone. There's still a Sabbath keeping for the people of God. Now, there's so much more that needs to be said here. And I realize the issue that I'm pressing is not as simple as it may sound on the surface. For example, why are we here on Sunday instead of Saturday? There are other issues involved. But hold that thought for one moment. What the author is saying is that this cycle continues. They were looking to the promise. They, in verse 2, heard the gospel, just like you. They didn't believe the gospel. You must. They didn't profit from their Sabbaths and from entering into the land under Joshua that you should by keeping a Sabbath to the Lord and looking to heaven. This is why, by the way, the PCUSA back in the 1840s said that a church without the Sabbath is apostate. Because without a Sabbath day, the church is essentially, whether it realizes it or not, declaring, we don't need heaven. We don't need the pledge of it. We don't need the promise of it. And there's no longer a sabbatismos for the people of God. We rest in Jesus Christ. Now, here's the first thing that I want you to realize. I've heard many people say at this present day, and by the way, I think we are largely people of our times. We don't live under the blue laws anymore. We don't live at the time where everybody virtually took it for granted. that there was a Christian Sabbath, a Sabbatism lost for the people of God. We can't take it for granted anymore. But the presumption used to be, if you're a Presbyterian, you're a Baptist, you're a Methodist, you're a Catholic, you're going to be keeping Sunday as the Sabbath. But now it's the other way around. This Sabbath rest is for the people of God. I think this is an Old Testament phrase. God tells the people in the book of Exodus, remember my Sabbath, to keep it holy, to sanctify it, as a sign to you that you are holy, that you are sanctified. In other words, the Sabbath keeping of the people of God is a sign that you are the people of God. that you've been set apart by God to be His own. And the author of Hebrews is writing and saying, Jesus has come and this hasn't changed. The day has come, the day has changed, the ground of the rest is different. The fullest expression of the promise is here in a way that no Old Testament believer ever knew. But there's still a Sabbatismus for the people of God. Maybe the broad application I want to ask you is do you realize the importance of the question? People dismiss it, oh not a big deal, whether you believe there is such a thing as a Sabbath day or not. Does the author of Hebrews think that? Did Moses think that? Did the first century Jews think that? And there are a host of other questions that we need to study, but in my book, for example, on the Sabbath day, I spend the first two chapters simply arguing with people why you need to think about the question, because frankly, most people don't. They don't want to. Now, here's how this functions in the text, and this is the key. The Sabbatismos for the people of God is an advantage. It's not a yoke and a heavy burden. It's a blessing. It's a means that God has given to direct them to eternal rest and all of the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is where he makes the transition, not only from the duty to keep the Sabbatismos to the Lord, but the grounds for it, the reasons for it, and this goes into verse 10. Now, I'm going to depart here from the ESV in two ways, in verse 10 and verse 11, so I'm telling you ahead of time. Here in the ESV it tells us, whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Now, frankly, that stacks the deck, because how does that read? That seems to mean anyone, anyone who believes in Jesus, anyone who walks in his ways, anyone who follows the teachings of Christ, who believes in his gospel, he, whoever, man, woman, and child will enter into God's rest. That's possible. That's a possible way of reading the text. But I don't think it fits the context. A better way to translate this is, he who has entered into his rest has ceased from his works as God did from his. Not whoever, but he. There is a shift here throughout the chapter from the plural, addressing all the people of God, to the singular in verse 10. And I don't believe that's accidental. He's been stressing the fact that all of you, every single one hearing this, must believe in Jesus. You must enter God's rest. You must persevere in the faith. But now He is saying that He, singular, not y'all, but you, He, has ceased from His works just as God did from His. Now, there's two ways to take this. Either that it's referring to the believer, or that it's referring to Christ. If it's referring to the believer, you have something like this in view. He who has believed in Jesus has stopped trying to earn his salvation. And he ceased from his works, just as God did from his. So, he's entered into his rest. Or maybe the variation of that is the believer, trusting in Christ, enters into heaven. And he enters into heaven and he rests. Now, that's possible. But this is where you need to stretch your brains for just a moment, because I know this is hard. In fact, the next chapter, the author is going to tell us that a lot of this is difficult to explain. The other interpretation is that Jesus rested from his work of redemption in a way that is comparable to God resting from his work at creation. I believe that's the only thing that fits. Just think about the argument. Let us fear lest we come short of God's rest. God rested on the Sabbath day. After six days of creation, he set not only a pattern for your rest, but he sent a promise for your rest. Joshua did not fulfill the promise when he brought the people into the promised land, but someone else did. And that is he who has entered into his rest. That is Jesus, because He has ceased from His works in a way, in the only way, that is comparable to God ceasing from His works in the six days of creation. He's comparing creation and redemption. Why should you keep a sabbatismos to God? Because Jesus Christ died and He rose from the dead. And He rose from the dead to die no more. He has ceased from his works, and just as God rested on the seventh day, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father, and that's how the book of Hebrews begins. This is the only possible rest and work that is comparable to God resting in creation. Now, think about it. Is he really saying, let us keep a Sabbath as the people of God, because you, the Christian, have rested from your works in Jesus Christ in a way that is comparable to God resting from his works of creation." I think that's nonsense. Maybe someone can show me different. I think he's saying this. You need to keep the Sabbatismos because Jesus' rest parallels God's rest. God created and brought in a Sabbath. Jesus redeemed and brought in a Sabbath. This is why we see in the New Testament that when Jesus rose from the dead, have you ever noticed the dimension of the days in the New Testament? It doesn't say Jesus came and he met with Peter on the third day of the week. The church gathered in the book of Acts on the fifth day of the week. Never, not once. There are only two days that are actually mentioned in the New Testament. The Jewish Sabbath, in which they still gathered on Saturday in the synagogues and the first day of the week or the Lord's Day, as John uses the phrase, is it really accidental? The author of Hebrews is saying there's a Sabbath for you based on the redemption of Christ. And if we're to ask the question, when is that Sabbath? Well, then we would ask, when did Jesus enter into His rest? Really, the answer is it began at the Resurrection. Now Christ has moved from being humiliated and suffering, bearing the wrath of God to the beginning of His exaltation. And His work is coming to a close. It is completed. And in His glorified state, His resurrected state, rather, He appears to Peter on the first day of the week. He appears to the disciples of the seaside on the first day of the week. He meets with the church gathered in Acts 20 on the first day of the week. He commands to Paul that the church take the collection in 1 Corinthians 16 on the first day of the week. John is in the Spirit, in the book of Revelation, on the Lord's Day. And maybe that last reference, though it seems the most obscure, relates most directly to our text. The author of Hebrews is saying, keep a sabbatismos, keep a Sabbath, to look to glory, to look ahead, to look to rest in the future in Christ. And what's going on? John is in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And what does he have visions of? The day of the Lord, the coming of Christ. He has visions about other things. There are present, real-life events going on then that the book of Revelation addresses immediately. But how does it end? It ends with the return of the Lamb and the final completion of the new heavens and the new earth. On the Lord's day, he had a vision of the day of the Lord. His sabbatismos was pointing to God's katapausis. It was directing him to this heavenly rest and this glory to come. And in some sense, him being on the Spirit on the Lord's day sets the tone of the entire book, even though it seems incidental. Now, let's bring this back to ourselves and figure out what this is saying. It's saying something like this. You must be Sabbath keepers if you're the people of God. Just as the people of God have always kept a day holy to the Lord, you need to keep a sabbatismos. And why do you need to do so? Because Jesus has finished His work. And Jesus' finished work is so great and so glorious, the only point of comparison that you have is God making the heavens and the earth by speaking it into existence in six days. And Jesus far outshines those original six days. And He's essentially telling you this, that every Sunday, every time you gather to keep this Sabbatismos as the people of God, You are celebrating the glorious finished work of Jesus Christ. Every time you walk in these doors on the Lord's Day, if you're thinking about what you are doing, you are making a confession that Jesus is risen. It's Easter today. It's Easter last Sunday. It's Easter next Sunday. It's Easter the Sunday after that. Jesus is risen. That's why we're here. And I ask you as you come into these doors this day, are you keeping a sabbatismos to the Lord? Are you regarding the day as a great means to point to him who entered into his rest just as God did from his? This day is screaming to you that Christ's work is finished. That you must rest in his finished work, not your own. That you must trust in the one who entered into his rest. so that you may enter into yours. And God has given you a day to remind you of it every single week. And what a glorious thing that is. Do you see, dear friends, how this is a benefit? Owen mentions at this particular stage that some vainly assume the Sabbath belonged to the Old Testament church and not to the New. And he asks an interesting question. When we deal with the New Covenant, the Gospel that we hear today, we read continuously of added benefits. That's the whole purpose of Hebrews 8. It's a new covenant. It's a better covenant. It has better promises. And these people under the lesser covenant in the Less glorious promises had one day a week to direct them to heaven and really to the coming of Christ. Are we less privileged than the Old Testament saints? Has God taken away the greatest advantage that he has ever given to human beings to direct into a heavenly life? Can we really imagine such a thing? Now, again, that raises more questions than it answers, I'm sure, for some of us. But in the providence of God, this is our text. We're not dealing with everything the Bible has to say about this, simply what I think the author of Hebrews is stressing. Do we value this Sabbath rest of the people of God? And then he ends with an exhortation which I want to adopt as my own conclusion. Verse 11. Let us, therefore, strive or be diligent to enter that katapausis. Now he goes back to the terminology. You have a sabbatismos that remains for you to keep as the people of God. It's grounded in the finished work of Jesus Christ, which is comparable to God's work in creation. Therefore, let us strive to enter the katapausis, the final rest of God. We keep the Sabbatismos, we observe the Sabbath day, we rest in Him who has rested from His works. Therefore, let us be diligent to press onward and upward. Let us go further up and further in by faith in Jesus Christ and by resting in Him in all things. What he's saying is you can't put off thought of heaven for tomorrow. I've had the experience, and maybe you've had it as well, that there are certain people that you will talk to, and when they're well, they don't want to talk about death, because it's a morbid thought and it depresses them. But when they're ill, they don't want to talk about death, because they want to live. And the question remains, when is the good time to talk about it? Is there no time? What the author of Hebrews is stressing in some sense is it's always time. Not because we want to think about our end, not because we want to die, but because for the believer we can flip that over. There may be a dreadful end and a dreadful judgment to those who are not resting in the finished work of Jesus and who don't know the true and living God. But there's a catapalsis for the people of God. There's a rest that is awaiting you. And so direct your attention to it and you have one seventh of your time dedicated by God himself for no other purpose than to make you think about verse 11. Let us be therefore diligent to enter that rest. When shall I do that, Lord? Well, every day, preferably, but at least one seventh of your time. I've used this illustration in a different context. If you thought about, if you lived in another country for one-seventh of your life, what would happen to you? Well, you would probably pick up the customs. You might start wearing the clothes. You might pick up the accent. If there's a different language, you might learn the language. And there's going to be something in you, something inbred into you, maybe that you yourself can't even put your finger on, that is going to reflect the culture that you spent one-seventh of your time in. I spent, I'm only 35 now, and I spent about 10 years in South Carolina. And there's a certain sense where I'm a Californian, and there's another sense where I'm a Southerner. And I've got both of those things, interwoven, from spending the time in a different place. Many of you in this room are from other countries, and you know exactly what this is like. Moving to this country, there are certain things that still define you, in terms of where you've lived, where you've come from, your family, your culture, and so on. But there are other things that you pick up here. Language and speech and behaviors that are appropriate here, and maybe not be other places. This is what the Sabbath is like for the Christian. It's like spending one-seventh of your life in heaven, at least in a foretaste of it. Therefore, let us be diligent, he says, to enter into that rest, lest one may fall by the same sort of, here it has disobedience. I want to translate this unbelief. I'm not going to go into all the reasons, because it's the same reason I took the terms at the end of Chapter 3 as unbelief instead of disobedience. The idea here is not that they are disobeying a command of God so much as they are neglecting a promise of God. They are not believing what God said He would do, and because they are not believing, they are not acting. They're not responding in obedience because they have responded in unbelief. and their unbelief led them to disobedience. The ideas are connected, but it's the same term, it's the same idea that we saw earlier. So here is the conclusion of the whole thing. These people in the Old Testament under Moses in the wilderness had all the same promises preached to them that you're hearing as Christians today. And they died. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness, they didn't believe God, They didn't obey God, even though they had all of these advantages and all of these blessings. And now what he's really saying is, what are you going to do? There remains a sabbatismos for you, a means God has appointed to look ahead. There is this great grounds to see the finished work of Jesus Christ as the grounds for your resting in God. And therefore, listen. Don't follow the bad example. And I'm not saying this hypothetically, I'm addressing you directly. Don't follow the example of unbelief. Look to him who finished his work. Use the Sabbath as a means to make you a heavenly-minded Christian. Flee from your sins, from your righteousness, from anything other than Christ, and rest in him who rested from his works. Be diligent to enter that rest, lest you fall in the same example of disobedience. I want to close with a few simple observations here about the Christian life in relation to this text. Owen says that the pattern God created that the creation was something like this. Six days you work and then you rest. But the pattern now that the Christian has is rest and then work. What does he mean? Well, in light of the text, what he means is, look to him who entered into his rest, that is Christ, who ceased from his works. Trust in Him, not in yourself. And then, in light of it, work because you're at rest. Because you have peace with God, you can work, you can strive, you can press onward. And if you've not begun here, by looking to Him who has entered into His rest, then anything else you want to say about a good and obedient life is on the wrong foundation. You're beginning on the wrong foot and not starting where the author takes you to start. Go back to my runner. This is like the runner and he's running the race, but he's on the wrong track. And he's got the wrong shoes. And he's going the wrong way. Are you beginning? The rest of Christ. from his finished work, that you may work and you may labor. Those who were here for the Sunday school class heard me mention verse on five. We are told that if we love him, we will keep his commandments. And the commandments are not burdensome, and the question has been raised. Some say, well, the commandments are pretty burdensome. They show me I'm a sinner. They show me that I am disobedient and that I'm condemned and I can't do anything about it. That's a burden. And therefore, what the text must mean is, I need to look to Christ who bore the burden for me. That's true. That's emphatically true, but it's the wrong doctrine from the wrong text. What he's really saying is something like this, and I want to superimpose that text with the one I'm preaching. You who believe in Jesus Christ are already resting in Christ and have peace with God. Therefore, out of that love for Christ, out of that rest in Christ, love Him and keep His commandments. That's what the author is saying here. Why should I persevere as a Christian? Why should I continue to do good to others with no thanks in return? Why should I exercise hospitality? Why should I persevere with children that frequently, continually disappoint in not listening to instruction? Why should I persevere against sin and temptation? Much easier to ignore it. The answer is because Christ has entered into his rest and you're entering it. Now work. Get to work. Because you're at rest. And you're at peace. And it's then and only then that his commandments will not be burdensome. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your kindness and your love to us. We ask that you would help us to understand this great portion of scripture better. And we pray that we would rejoice in this blessed Lord's Day as a means to direct us to Christ, as rested from his works, even as you did from yours, O Father, in the creation of the world. Bless us as we continue in worship and be glorified through all that we do and say. In Christ's name, Amen.