reading Hebrews 3 and the 5th verse. As we go through these verses, we're going to see these three types of rest that the Sabbath symbolizes throughout the Bible, we're going to see them exemplified here in this passage. The rest of salvation, the rest of dedication, and the rest of eternity. So here in Hebrews 3 and verse 5, we read, And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ is a Son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do all way err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, and departing from the living but exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, while it is said to-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved forty Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. In these verses we've just read, we have set before us here the rest of dedication. We've talked many times about the story and the symbolism involved. about how Egypt is a symbol of the world, and the Promised Land is a symbol of the victorious Christian life. The wilderness is a symbol of carnal Christian living, a life where a person is out of Egypt, under the blood, they are saved, but they are just wandering in circles, marking time, waiting to die, not winning any victories, not accomplishing anything for the glory of the Lord So when we apply that analogy here in Hebrews 3, we see that the writer is telling us why these people had so much trouble in the wilderness. They couldn't enter into the land of promise because of unbelief. They couldn't move from the place of salvation to the place of dedication because of a basic unbelief in the heart. And the Lord said of them twice in this passage, So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. They couldn't know the rest of God, the peace of God, because of this condition. Next, drawing on this same analogy, he speaks of the rest of salvation. Notice what we read in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said, I have sworn in my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the So here he is talking about the gospel being preached, about people believing and entering into the rest of salvation. But then let's notice a little further. In the 6th verse, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus or Joshua, as you see it there in the margin, same word in the Greek, had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. So when we apply the symbolism to this passage, and to the Old Testament passage as well, it doesn't matter whether we're talking here about the Lord Jesus leading his people, or Joshua who was a type of the Lord Jesus, we have set before us the fact that there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. A rest beyond that rest that we can receive in this world from the Lord Jesus. Now, he's the captain of our salvation. First of all, we enter into the rest of salvation. Then if we follow his leadership, we enter into the rest of dedication. But there's something even beyond that. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, the rest of eternity, the rest of heaven, the time when we don't any longer have to be bothered with an old nature, or the weakness of human flesh, or the problems it faces here in the world. He gives us a summary here in the 10th verse of Hebrews chapter 4. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. So in essence, all three types of rest are included in the gospel. The rest of salvation, the rest of dedication, the rest of eternity. These things were made possible by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And yet we must labor, therefore, to enter into the good of it. There's a certain amount of willingness to struggle with that old nature, to strive against the natural tendency of man to strive, is about the best way to put it. Because the goal that we're attempting to reach is there in verse 10, he that entereth into his rest, He also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. You know, that's some of the hardest work you'll ever do, to stop working. That's some of the hardest work in the world for a lost person, to stop trying to work hard enough to get to heaven, long enough to get saved. It's tremendously difficult for the Lord's people when it comes to the rest of dedication. To know what it is to go about daily doing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ having ceased from our own carnal labors and being enabled to work by the power of God and the strength of the Spirit of God filling our life. So as we see it here in verse 10, the key is to cease from our own works as God did from his. To know what it means to let the Lord take over, first of all to give us the rest of salvation. And then as we learn something about him and about his ways, to let him take control of our life with the power of his Spirit to give us the rest of dedication. And then that coming day when we're going to know something about perfect rest, the rest of eternity, when the people of God are freed from the earthly labors that face us now. But again, you'll notice that all three of these types of rest are tied to the Sabbath, to that day of creation. He said there in verse 4 of Hebrews 4, For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this watch, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. So that's taking us back to the book of Genesis and the time when God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. And again in the 10th verse, "...he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." So now let's go to Genesis and let's take a look at this first Sabbath and some of the things connected with it. As I say, we don't find that word used until we get over there to Exodus 20. But there, as we saw a few moments ago, God tells us that this seventh day was the Sabbath, whether we understood it at the time or not. Here in Genesis 1, we see the creation. Of course, this is typology. Much of it is symbolism. This is God teaching us. by the earthly creation, the creation of the world, the things that are true of us as the Lord's people when we get saved. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And the Bible uses this original creation to prefigure the new creation that we can become in the Lord Jesus Christ when we come to know him as our And we see that in Genesis 1 and verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. We come into this world as God's creation. But then we see in verse 2 that the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. This is the condition of man by nature. Even though man comes as a creature of God into the world, he comes as a fallen creature. one who is a descendant of Adam, one who is a partaker of the fall of Adam, so that sin is resident within. And when we look at our life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we see that it is without form and void. We see that there is darkness upon the face of the deep. Then the next thing that happens is tremendous. In the latter part of verse 2, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. As we saw when we studied that subject, water is a symbol of the Word of God. And the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters of the Word of God as it is applied to the human heart. And he says, Let there be light, and there is light. A soul comes out of darkness out of this condition of being without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep of our mind, the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters of the Word of God, and by a miracle, God says to our sin-darkened soul, let there be light, and there is light. But then we see that something else important happens there in the 4th verse. saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. When we study those two words as symbols, we saw that light is a symbol of wisdom, and darkness is a symbol of ignorance. And this is the very first thing that God does in the life of the new creation. When we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, he makes a clear-cut division between wisdom and ignorance, between the old nature and the new. As a new creation of the Lord Jesus, we have the mind of Christ. Christ, who is the wisdom of God, has come to take up residence in us. All right, but not to take too long on this, the second day of creation. There in the 6th verse, God divided the waters from the waters. Here again, water, a symbol of the word of God. And this is what happens in our life as the Lord's people when we begin to grow. We understand something about rightly dividing the word of truth. Dividing the waters from the waters. And then on the 3rd day in verse 11, God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. So the third day is a day of fruit bearing, because this again should be true in our life as a new creation in the Lord Jesus. As we grow in grace and in our knowledge of him, we begin to manifest the fruit of the Spirit. love and joy and peace and long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and humility and self-control. These things begin to grow in our life and we bear fruit because we are a new creation in the Lord Jesus. Then in verse 14 we see what happened on the fourth day. God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for years. and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. The fourth day is a day of light bearing, which speaks of our testimony. The third day is a day of fruit bearing. The fourth day is a day of light bearing. And when we come to the 20th verse, we see what happened on the fifth day. God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth, and the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. So the fifth day speaks to us of the lifestyle of the believer. We see that this was a day when two kinds of creatures were created. The water creatures, the fish, and the heavenly creatures, the birds, the ones that fly in the heavens. These two symbols speak to us of that kind of character which should be ours as the Lord's As we go through this process of growth that we see exemplified in this creation, this is the lifestyle of the believer, if we were what God would have us to be. We become creatures of the water, the water of the Word of God. We're immersed in the Word of God day and night. We're constantly living in that environment, that atmosphere, where the Word of God is teaching us and admonishing us. and comforting us and giving us all that we need to live a life that this world can't explain. The same is true there with the birds. We set our affection on things above and not on things on the earth. We're those who develop this understanding that we're seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. This is the lifestyle of the believer, to be heavenly creatures, to be water creatures, according to the symbolism as we have it here. Then on the sixth day, there in verse 24, God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and the beast of the earth after his kind. It was so. The sixth day, the cattle speaking of service, because this is a critical part of our life as a growing believer, a growing part of the new creation of the Lord Jesus. But also the sixth day was a day for man, there in verse 27. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him. This, in the typology of the situation, is prefiguring the man Christ Jesus. He was the man truly created in the image and likeness of God. And when we are conformed to the image of the last Adam, that's when the work of God is complete and our life as a believer. We go through this process of growth and that's the end of the story, when we are conformed to the image of the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's only one thing left when that happens. That happens when he changes our vile body and fashions it like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. But when that happens, there is one thing left to do. We see it there in chapter 2 and verse 1 and following, and that is to enter into rest, the rest of eternity. We are changed into the image of the Lord Jesus, and we go directly into the presence of God to live forever in this condition of eternal rest based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we talk about the finished work of the cross, and that's a very important point of understanding. But we need also to understand that that's the finished work in terms of God's part in the matter. Potentially, everything was done at the cross. But we go through this process whereby we are conformed to the image of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a good thing he's not finished with us in the condition that we're in right now. But one day we'll be, and we'll enter into the rest of eternity. So in this creation story here in Genesis 1, we see pictured the new creation that man has the potential of becoming in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the rest of salvation. When he says to the soul, darkened by sin, let there be light, and there is light. There's the rest of dedication. That's the growth process where the light is divided from darkness, the wisdom is divided from ignorance. The division of the water is rightly dividing the word of truth. And then there's fruit bearing, and then there's light bearing, our testimony that we have as the Lord's people. And then there's this lifestyle becoming creatures of the water of the word of God, creatures of the heavenlies. And then there is the service pictured by the creation of the cattle. And finally there is the rest of eternity as we are conformed to the image of the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, and enter into the rest of eternity in the presence of God forever. So there you have a broad overview of how these things are connected with this first Sabbath day. the one that God himself instituted at creation and then named at the giving of the law. But let's go for a moment to Exodus chapter 35. The 35th chapter of Exodus. You'll remember that the Ten Commandments were given in the 20th chapter, we saw that just a minute ago. Now here this is the 35th chapter, and they're getting some more instruction. And Exodus 35, verse 1, "...And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them. 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. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day." So here we see that there was this weekly Sabbath, six days of work. And then on Saturday, which was the last day of the week, the weekly Sabbath, and still is the Jewish Sabbath today, there were two things forbidden. There was to be no work and no fire. So when we look at a passage like this, when we come across it in reading the Bible, obviously the rest of salvation is in view here. No work. Because our salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast. There can be no work connected with the rest of salvation. We have to rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus. And no fire, because as we've seen in the symbolism, fire is a symbol of supernatural judgment. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Once we have entered into his rest, The judgment is passed. There can't be any fire on the Sabbath day because that would destroy the symbolism. If God had a day which symbolized the rest of salvation, they'd go out and they'd work for six days and then on the seventh day of each week they'd have this day to remind the people that in connection with the rest that God has provided, the rest of salvation, there can be no works. There can be no fire, no judgment to fall on those who have entered into his rest, because the Lord Jesus took our judgment on the cross. There are a tremendous number of passages that have slight variations on these things. We're going to have to limit it, because there are so many, but let's look for a moment at Leviticus, chapter 23. The 23rd chapter of Leviticus. I'm sure you realize that a great deal of controversy surrounds the Sabbath. There are Seventh-day Adventists. There are Seventh-day Baptists. The Jews, of course, keep Saturday as a Sabbath still, as they always have. Herbert W. Armstrong's cult, the Worldwide Church of God, they keep Saturday as a Sabbath. There's been a great deal of confusion in people's minds, primarily, I believe, because of a failure to understand that the Sabbath to the Jews came every Saturday, but it also came on many other days of the The Sabbaths of the Old Testament were not only set aside weekly, but just as we have various holidays throughout the year for various reasons, they had their holidays. And each of these holidays was a rest day, a Sabbath day, one that was set apart from the others. The most striking example of that, and the reason we've turned here, Leviticus 23, the seven feasts of Jehovah. And you'll notice that in this chapter which sets forth the seven feasts of Jehovah, seven major holidays of the nation of Israel, it begins not by talking about the feasts themselves, but about the Sabbath. In Leviticus 23, verse 1, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and holy convocation. Ye shall do no work therein, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. So before he even begins to list the feast, he speaks again of the Sabbaths that are connected with this situation. So that first of all, he mentions in verse 5, the Passover. The 14th day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover. Well, that day became a Sabbath to the Jews, or we might say a holiday today, whenever the 14th day of the first month came around. It may be on Saturday, it may not. It may be any day of the week. But whatever day it happened to fall on, the Passover, the 14th day of the first month, that was declared to be a Sabbath, in the same sense that we would do that with a holiday today. So here in this passage, and in the national life of Israel, They had the Feast of Passover, which we see there in verse 5. The 14th day of the first month that even is the Lord's Passover. That was a Sabbath. Then when we come to the 6th verse, we see the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then when we come to the 10th verse, we see the Feast of Firstfruits. Then in verse 16, the Feast of the Fifty Days or Pentecost, which is what Pentecost means, fifty days. Then in verse 24, we have the Feast of Trumpets. Then in verse 27, the Day of Atonement. Then in verse 34, the Feast of Tabernacles. Now here we have the same overall picture that we had when we were looking at the creation a few months ago. Each of these was a Sabbath designated somewhere in the course of the year, the nation of Israel, sometimes on Saturday, sometimes whatever any other day of the week it happened to fall on. And all these things were sprinkled throughout their national life in order to symbolize either the rest of salvation. or the rest of dedication, or the rest of eternity. For example, the Passover, Sabbath, was a type of the cross, when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. The unleavened bread was a picture of a holy life, sanctification. We talked about the leaven being a symbol of evil. The Feast of Unleavened Bread being a picture of a life without leaven, without even. The Feast of Firstfruits was a symbol of his resurrection. Now has Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. Then we see the Feast of Pentecost, emblematic of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world, the Feast of the Fifty Days. Then the Feast of Trumpets, a symbol of the second coming of the Lord Jesus. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Then the Day of Atonement, the day of the afflicting of the soul, which is a symbol of the tribulation period. And then the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a symbol of the millennium. when the tabernacle of God is with men, when the Lord Jesus comes to dwell among men as king sitting upon the throne of David. So here we have this overall picture again of these various kinds of rest, the rest of salvation, the rest of dedication, the rest connected with eternity. Now, let's look at Leviticus chapter 25 for a moment. We're trying here just to, in the space of this short time, to touch all the major ones that you'll encounter when you read books and hear sermons about the Sabbaths. Here in Leviticus chapter 25, let's just read the first seven verses. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord. thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land. shall all the increase thereof be meet." So here we see a sabbatical year. We've just been talking about a Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was the seventh day of the week. But here we're talking about a Sabbath year. They would labor for six years, and the seventh year was the year of Sabbath. And in that seventh year, They let the ground rest, let the land have a year of rest, and also the people. Whether it was Israel themselves, their servants, the people that worked for them, their maids, the strangers that were with them, every seventh year they ceased from their labors. And in that year, here again, this is a memorial. Every seventh year they were reminded, just like they were every seventh day, that God has provided a rest for his people, that we can know what it is to enter into a rest provided by God, totally apart from our own works, totally trusting in him to supply everything that we need, from the salvation of our soul to the common physical needs of life. And in this year, They didn't go out and work the fields and the vineyards. They just sat back and watched God supply all their need. They'd go to the field long enough to get something to eat for themselves, for their animals. But the seventh year was a sabbatical year, a year of rest from all their labors. But that was not all that the Lord did. This seventh year is obviously a picture of dedication, and we learn what it means to rest in the Lord, the rest of dedication that he's provided whenever it comes to the work that we need to do for him here in the world. But let's notice what we read at verse 8. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years. And the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall halla the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you. Ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy unto you. Ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. So first we're talking about the Sabbath day, six days of labor, then comes the Sabbath. Then we're talking about the Sabbath year, six years of labor, one year of rest. But here in this case, we're talking about the year of Jubilee, a Sabbath which came every 49 years, seven times seven. The 50th year was proclaimed to be the year of Jubilee, and in that year, every man got back all his possessions. If he lived on a piece of land, he owned it, whether he had been renting it before or not. If he was a slave, he was sent out free to go and be with his family or whatever it was he wanted to do. They returned to every man his possession, his freedom. In this 50th year, all debts were canceled. And in this 50th year, they entered into a rest that everybody had been waiting for for a long time. Of course, we don't have too many of those today. This was a time of great joy and great blessing to these people. They could look forward to that year of jubilee knowing that at that time all their debts would be canceled. All the families would be reunited. There would be no more problems as far as owing anybody anything or being in bondage of any sort. I'm sure you can see that this 50th year Sabbath pictures to us the rest of eternity. there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. We are going to know what it is to escape from every single iota of bondage that we have in this world. We are not going to be bound at all by the problems that face us, by the limitations of the flesh, by the problems of the old nature. We are going to know what it is to enter into perfect rest. and the perfect liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is something that can only be imagined, and yet it can be accepted by faith, if you are willing to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Because all of these Sabbaths keep pointing us back to that fact, that God has provided a rest for people. Whenever we are willing to cease from our own labors, Stop trying to work our way to heaven. Stop trying to be something after the flesh that we can't possibly be. That's when God can step into our life and do for us what we're totally unable to do for ourselves. He can bring us into the rest of salvation. He can bring us into the rest of dedication. And one of these days, very soon, he's going to bring us into the rest of eternity if we know him as our Savior. Let's bow together as we close in prayer. Our Father, we are so thankful that thy word is truth and that we can look at these things not simply as words in a book, but as thy truth written upon the tables of the hearts of so many who are here this evening. Those who have indeed entered into the rest provided in the Lord Jesus Christ to rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus upon the cross. Father, how we pray that should there be any here this evening who don't know this rest, those who are not sure that they're contemplating in a day not far from us the rest of eternity because of what the Lord Jesus has done for them, how we do pray that you'll open minds and hearts to help them to see that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, that the old things are passed away and all things have become new. And we're praying that as we go from this place this evening, that you'll give us a great appreciation in our heart for that rest that you've provided for the Savior who made it possible, and for the blessed Holy Spirit who even now is waiting to make it real to the heart of each one of us. We pray in our Savior's precious name, amen.