God's Finished Work & The Seventh Day

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, we're making progress, right? Genesis chapter 2, we're gonna be looking at verses 12, and 3 this morning. If you want to give a title to the message, it would be God's finished work and the 7th day, God's finished work and the 7th day.

It is interesting. to me, how the creation account that we find in chapter 1, verse 1 all the way through chapter 2, verse 3, how it begins with a burst of light and it ends with a shadow. the first words we hear God saying on day one of creation is, let there be light. And there was light in obedience to his command, and the apostle Paul, cannot read those words, let there be light, without thinking.

of what God has done for us in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, Paul says, God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the very one who is shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In the face of Christ. So Paul reads those words, let there be light, and he's thinking of the gospel and how God would give that same command into the hearts of those who believe in Jesus.

But interestingly, on the final day, Of the creation week that we're going to look at today, twice we are told. That God Sabbath or he rested on this 7th day. And in Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 and 17, the apostle Paul tells us that the Sabbath is a shadow of what was to come, the substance of which is Jesus Christ and the salvation that is found in him. In other words, in the mind of the apostle Paul, the Sabbath is not simply an analogy that helps us to understand Christ.

Instead, it's the other way. God actually patterned what he did on the Sabbath day. On the 7th day of the creation week, he patterned what he did on that day after the pattern of what Jesus would do and the salvation that he would bring in a future day. And so the creation account begins with light, And it ends with a shadow, a shadow being cast by a looming reality, the substance of which is Christ and the salvation and the rest.

That he will bring to those who believe in him. And that's very practical for us. Maybe you are restless this morning. Maybe you are trying to work your way to heaven and you're never sure whether or not you've done enough or whether or not what you've done is good.

Enough. Maybe you are anxious and afraid this morning. Maybe you're looking for rest for your soul in all of the wrong places and everywhere you look to for rest and invest yourself in, you end up only in greater turmoil. Everything you've tried has brought you no rest.

And I hope that we'll observe this morning that God is the only place where we can find true rest for our souls. As Augustine once said to God, he says, you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you. Jesus himself says to us, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and if you do this, you will find rest. For your souls.

Wouldn't it be awesome if 2015 is a year of rest for your soul. The year where even if there is turmoil all about you, you are enjoying rest in your heart. The rest that though you may be working hard, Your heart is at rest. The rest in which you are secure, totally secure in your relationship with God, absolutely secure in the certainty of His love for you, His forgiveness of your sins, and his acceptance of you.

That'd be awesome, wouldn't it? Don't make this year a year of resolution. As much as you make it a year of rest. Our passage today can help us with this.

We come this morning to Genesis 2:1 through 3. In Genesis 1, we have watched the triune God build a universe in 6 days. As far as we can observe today, and we've talked about this in the past, several weeks, the known universe is 27 billion light years in diameter. Containing at least 40 sextillion stars, that's a 40 with 21 zeros after it.

That's just the known universe. God created all of that and everything that lies beyond all of that. God created the sun which is over a million kilometers wide and 27 million degrees at its core. He created Earth.

With its millions of varieties of vegetation and trees and sea creatures and land animals and sky creatures, and according to Genesis 1, he did it all in 6 days, 6 mornings and evenings. 6 turns of the earth on its axis. And now we come to Genesis 2:1, and let's look at what the text says to us. Says thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts.

By the 7th day, God completed his work, which he had made. And he rested on the 7th day from all his work which he had made. Then God blessed the 7th day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all His work which God had created and made. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His word, this morning.

There's a couple of things that stand out in the passage that I just read, this description of the 7th day, and that is how frequently the 7th day is mentioned. we know that the 7th day must be a big deal to the writer of this text because of the 3-fold repetition. Of the 7th day in this passage. Here's a literal rendering of the text.

So God finished on the 7th day, his work which he did, and he rested on the 7th day from all His work which he did, and God blessed the 7th day. And sanctified it because in it he rested. We've already seen in chapter one how when God's, when the writer of scripture states something three times, that's one way of putting a huge exclamation point. On something that is being spoken about.

And here, 7th day, 7th day, 7th day, and notice how even beyond the three mentions of the 7th day, there are two times where we have the pronoun it referring to the 7th day. There's no other day in the week of creation that gets this attention. The 7th day obviously is a very big deal. It is no afterthought in the creation week.

In fact, it's the day evidently that everything has been heading towards. Additionally, we might think that the 7th day has nothing to do with work. Right? but actually, we see the word work 3 times in this passage, the word made 3 times in this passage, and the word created 1 time in this passage.

7 times in these verses, we have a word. For work, for what God did. We see more frequent recurrences of words for work and labor in these three verses than in any of the other days. So we would have to say that the 7th day of creation had everything to do with God's work.

And we're gonna see what that relationship is as we unpack the passage this morning. But let's read the passage again and make note of the words that speak of God's work. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts. By the 7th day, God completed.

His work, which he had made, and he rested on the 7th day from all His work which he had made, then God blessed the 7th day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all His work which God had created and made. Throughout this passage, there is a constant juxtaposition between the 7th day and God's work. And so as we study these verses this morning, we'll study them from that angle. We're gonna observe 5 truths in these 3 verses regarding God's finished work and this 7th day, and in the process, we'll see how all of this serves to foreshadow.

Jesus Christ and the salvation that we find in him. First of all, the first truth we observe is that God's work of creating everything was finished before the 7th day. God's work of creating everything was finished before the 7th day. The text says in verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts.

the last chapter or the last verse of chapter one ends with Moses telling us that God looked upon all that he had made and saw that it was all very good. And then the text tells us in the last verse of chapter 1, that there was evening and morning, the 6th day, and then immediately Moses says in the next verse, thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host. He's not even gotten to the 7th day yet, and he's telling us by the conclusion of the 6th day, all that God had done.

had created was completed.

The heavens and the earth were completed in all their host. References made in verse one here to the heavens and the earth being created and all their host. This expression, all their host does not merely refer to the inhabitants of the heavens, and we find a number of references in the Old Testament to the host of heaven, but the grammar of the text indicates that the, it's also the host. Of earth.

It's the sun, moon and stars who are the host of heaven, but also all the inhabitants of the earth that God has created. The heavens are teeming with trillions of stars and the earth's seas and dry land and skies are teeming with life forms that God has created also. These are the hosts of heaven and of earth. All of these inhabitants of heaven and earth are referred to as hosts.

This is interesting. This is a translation of the Hebrew word for armies. You might want to write that down. the song, that Martin Luther wrote, Lord Sabaoth is his name.

That's the word, Sabbath oath. it's not to be confused with Sabbath, but it's the word for armies and the use of this word here speaks of not only the vast numbers of inhabitants in the heavens and on earth, but also of the fact that all of these are like an army, as one writer says, marshaled, disciplined and under command. As soldiers would be obediently doing exactly what God had created them to do. And so his work is done.

All the hosts of heaven and earth are completed and they're all operating exactly as he has commanded them to and created them to behave. And that leads us to the second truth in this passage regarding God's finished work and the 7th day, and that is God declared his work finished on the 7th day. He declared his work finished. On the 7th day.

Now, in the new American Standard, it says this, by the 7th day, God completed his work. Which he had done. And you'll, you might want to underline that word by whatever translation you're using, mark that word, that's an important word, by the seventh day. and for the translators of the New American Standard to use this word, it's definitely a true enough statement, but the Hebrew preposition that is translated by, by these translators won't really allow us to get by with that given how This preposition is used in other places in this very passage.

There's actually 3 times that we see something very close to this phrase in these two verses, verses 2 and 3. That funky looking letter you see on the screen, that's the Hebrew letter bait. OK. It's the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet and it's pronounced bah.

OK. Can you say bah? Very good. So you are a Hebrew speaker, just go around and say ba.

And if someone says, what are you doing? I'm speaking Hebrew. I'm fluent in Hebrew. So, bah, and so if they want to say that something, want to create a prepositional phrase, you would say ba and then whatever would follow would be the object of that preposition.

And so in verse two, we have that preposition, but the seventh day God created his work. We're going to suspend our understanding of that for just a second. But look at how this same preposition is used later in verse 2 and in verse 3. And look at the second line there, God rested the 7th day from all his work.

No one disputes the fact that clearly that means he rested on the 7th day or inside of in the 7th day, right? And then we find a very similar phrase in verse 3 where it says ba it, referring to the 7th day he rested from all his work. So when this preposition shows up on the later two times, it's clearly speaking of something that happened on or in the 7th day. Does that make sense?

Given that fact, if we just want to be consistent, Then we would translate the first phrase in this way, on or in the 7th day, God finished or completed his work, which he had done. OK? So let's be consistent and understand it that way. Here's the problem, the hang up with understanding it this way and this is why the New American Standard Translators use the word by.

is because it seems a bit odd. In verse one, we learned that all of creation was done before the 7th day, and now we're being told that God completed his creation in the 7th day. And so which is it? Did God complete his work on the 6th day, or did he complete his work on the 7th day, which is it?

The answer is. Yes, Both. There's a way of looking at it to where God finished on the 6th day and on the 7th day. Given the form of the verb that is used here, it, it can often have a declarative type of meaning, and so a great translation of this, clause or this sentence would be on the 7th day, God pronounced finished His work which He had done.

Another writer suggests this translation, on the 7th day, God declared his work on which he was engaged, finished, and they bring out that declarative idea. So on the 6th day God finished, but on the 7th day, he declared it finished. The 7th day with this understanding is the day in which God looks upon all of his creation and declares it officially finished. At the end of the 6th day, he declares everything to be very good, but here on the 7th day, he speaks the words as it were, it is finished.

It is finished. If I'm doing a project at my house and I do the last of my work, I drive the last nail on that project on a Friday, then from one standpoint, I can say that I finished the project on Friday. But if on Saturday, a city inspector comes out to inspect My work and he, upon inspecting it signs the document, putting his name on that document declaring that the project is officially finished, then it could also be said that this project was officially finished or completed on Saturday.

I finished my work on Friday, but on Saturday, my work was declared finished.

And that's the idea here in this passage, only God is the one inspecting his own work. The 7th day, guys, is the 1st day that morning dawns on a perfectly completed creation. The 7th day is the grand opening day of God's creation. And as the sun rises on The day God looks upon all that he has made and the host of the heavens and earth, and he says, it is finished.

There is no more to be done. And that leads us logically to the next thing that happens, a third truth that we can observe in this passage about The relationship of God's work in the 7th day, and that is God rested from His finished work on the 7th day. says in verse 2, and he rested on the 7th day from all his work which he had done. He rested.

Literally, he sabbathed. God's Sabbath on the 7th day from all His work which He had done twice we're told, once in verse 2 and then again in verse 3 that God Sabbath. On the 7th day. the word Sabbath means to rest in one sense, but it doesn't mean to rest in the way that we often use the term today.

We rest because we're tired. But God wasn't. tired. like an attorney might say, I rest my case.

That's closer to the idea. He's not saying I rest my case cause what, it's really tired. That'd be a terrible admission. what he's saying is I rest my case because my case is finished.

I'm done arguing my case. God is not tired, and that's not why he is resting. God stopped creating and declared it finished because it was all done. Notice the wording of the text, God ceased from all his work or he rested from all His work which He had done or which he had made or which he had accomplished.

God pulls away from his work because there's nothing left to do. Nothing needs to be tweaked or adjusted or added to. His work is done, it's finished. Everything is complete and whole.

One writer says, God did not need a breather. God's rest was one of deep pleasure and satisfaction in the fruit of his labor. He likes what he's done and it's complete. As another writer says, Kyle and Delich in their commentary, the rest of the Creator was the consequence of his self-satisfaction in the work that he had done.

Another writer, Alan Ross, says this is not a word that refers to remedying exhaustion after a tiring week of work, rather, it describes the enjoyment of accomplishment, the celebration of completion. This is a contented satisfaction of God and all that he has created, as Matthew Henry says. God did not rest as one weary, but as one well pleased. So imagine what God is feeling on this day.

The picture here is of an artist who has created a masterpiece with great artistry and ease, and he finally looks upon what he has created and he says, it's very good. And he sees that there's nothing else that needs to be added, not the slightest finishing touch. Nothing more needs to be done, tweaked or modified or added to, and so God puts down his paintbrush and he stops because there's nothing more to do to make this more perfect than it already is. So God is resting.

He's not just resting, he's resting from his work. He's resting in the work that he has done. That's not all that he does. There's a 4th truth that we observe that explains the relationship between God's work and The Sabbath or the 7th day, and that is God blessed the 7th day because in it he rested from his finished work.

It says, then God blessed the 7th day, and he did something else, we'll look at that in a minute, but why did he bless the 7th day and sanctify it? Because here's the reason, in it, he rested from all his work, which God had created and made. So God blesses. He blesses this 7th day.

In verse 22, he blessed the animals. In verse 28, he blessed Adam and Eve, and here in chapter 2 verse 3, God is blessing the day. He's blessing the seventh day, bestowing upon this day a blessing that is unique from the other six days. This means that there is a unique blessing.

That the 7th day holds that the other days do not hold. It's fascinating what some writers say about the 7th day. Some of the language they use here just caused my heart to soar. one commentator says that when God blessed the 7th day, the day became imbued with an extraordinary vital power that communicates itself in a beneficial way.

Another writer says that in blessing the seventh day, God is bestowing on this day the power to stimulate. Animate, to enrich, and to give fullness to life. He's making this day a perpetual spiritual spring, an oasis, as it were, for our souls. Speaking of the blessing that God bestows upon this day of the week, this probably explains why Jesus, when you read the gospel accounts, was eager And never refrain from healing.

On the Sabbath. When you read the four Gospel accounts, what you find interestingly enough, if my count is right, guess how many times we have a miracle of healing or deliverance that Jesus performed on a Sabbath day recorded in the Gospels. Take a guess. 7, very good.

7 miracles of healing or deliverance on the Sabbath day. And Jesus knew every time he did this, that it was going to upset the religious leaders. Jesus would see someone who's been in a condition for decades and he, it's a Sabbath and he could have thought, man, this, this guy's waited decades, he can wait till tomorrow and I'll heal him then. No, he sees the opportunity to perform.

Miracles on the Sabbath day. On one of those occasions we find in Matthew 12:12, Jesus is in the synagogue and he's looking at a man with a withered hand in the synagogue, and he knows that the religious leaders are watching him to see whether he's gonna heal this guy or not. And Jesus begins to defend himself before he performs the healing, and he basically says it's lawful to do good. To render benefit on the Sabbath.

In other words, he's saying it's very much in the spirit of God's law, which tells us to remember the Sabbath as a holy day and a day of blessing to do good to others and to be a blessing. To them And Christ then turns around and heals this man with a withered hand. From before time, God the Father had planned. That on this particular Sabbath, That this day would hold this blessing of healing.

For the benefit of this man with the withered hand, and Jesus was not about to withhold that blessing from him. This would be a Sabbath that this man would never forget. And this blessing was all in the heart of God when he endowed a blessing upon the 7th day. Imagine that man with the withered hand after he's healed, and he remembers that Sabbath day so vividly and he's reading the creation account, how God blessed the 7th day.

He'd be like, yeah, what a blessing that day is and what a blessing I received on that day of the week. Now what's interesting is that in Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Assyrian culture, there were evil days, bad luck days, evil days every month at 7-day intervals that were determined by the lunar, cycle. in our culture today, the, Friday the 13th is considered a bad luck day. You just don't do anything.

On people, not us here at Cornerstone, but a lot of people won't do anything on Friday the 13th because it's considered an unlucky day. But for the Assyrians and the Babylonians, it was the 7th day of the month, the 14th day of the month. And the 21st day of the month and the 28th day of the month that were were considered to be unlucky days on which a man should afflict himself, abstain from pleasures, and refrain from performing important works, for they would not prosper. That was the culture.

Don't do anything on these days at 7-day intervals and sight of a month that represent the phases of the moon. These are bad luck days. Just chill on that day. Don't try to do anything cause if you do, you're gonna fail.

That was what they believed. 1 7th century calendar from Assyria speaks of these days. And gives this guidance, the shepherd of many people, probably referring to the king, shall not eat cooked meat or baked bread, nor may he change the garment on his body or put on a clean garment. Some people would love that.

I don't have to put on clean clothes. The king shall not ride on a chariot, nor shall he speak words of rulership. The seer shall not inquire of his God. The physician shall not attend to the sick.

The day is not favorable for doing any desired thing. Anything you wanna do on any of these, the 7th, the 14th, the 21st, and the 28th day, don't even think about it cause It won't fare well. So the Babylonians and the Assyrians in ancient times, viewed the 7th, 14th, and the 21st and 28th day of the month as being unlucky days. Here in Genesis 2, we're told that every 7th day is blessed by God and holds a special blessing.

In the Old Testament, the Jews abstain from doing work on the 7th day, not because it was an unlucky day, but because it was a day for them to enjoy God's blessing and a part of that blessing was enjoying together with God the completeness of his work in creation. So God blesses this day. Man, I can just imagine how just that statement by Moses of what God did on the 7th day of creation, how that shattered stereotypes in ancient times regarding the 7th day. This is a day of blessing, he says.

Number 5, a 5th truth that we observe here is that God sanctified the seventh day because in it he rested from his finished work. He didn't just bless the day, he sanctified it. Then God blessed the 7th day and he sanctified it because in it he rested from all His work which God had created. And made.

To sanctify something is to set something apart as holy for God and for his use. We would know the fact that God is sanctifying this day and setting it apart, that he intends to use this day for a very sacred, holy purpose. All the preceding days contain things that God did, which he looked upon and deemed good and very good, but on this day, God sanctifies the day. Itself.

All the other days were as perfect as could be. This day was above and beyond perfect. It was consecrated to God in a special way, being set aside by him to be used to bless and to communicate Himself in a very special way to mankind. And we're gonna see in a moment that this purpose was to carry a very special message.

To mankind that points to Jesus Christ and the rest and the completeness of salvation that is found in him. Notice the reason God blessed and sanctified the 7th day. The text says, because in it he rested from all His work which He had created and made. Guys, please, please make note of this.

God did not simply bless and sanctify the 7th day because it was the day he rested. He didn't just rest on this day, but he rested from his finished work. On this day. And God blesses and sanctifies the day because it was the day that he declared, finished, and rested in His finished work, which he had spent the previous 6 days.

Creating. The 7th day is only a Sabbath because of what God did on the previous 6 days. This is the closing image of God that Moses leaves us with. On the 7th day.

Moses doesn't even close this day in the narrative by saying in the evening and the morning, we're the 7th day. And some writers make a big deal, out of that. I'm not gonna get into all of that, but I don't, I don't know what's complicated about the fact that that formula is missing. Moses simply wants this scene.

To be what's left in our minds. He doesn't want the sun to set on this image of God. He wants this scene of a contented, well pleased, and satisfied God to be the closing scene of this creation account of the 1st 7 days. With this picture of God, the curtains close on the story of the creation week.

An image of a contented God at rest. And his completed finished work, which was whole. In fact, God will continue to rest. until Adam and Eve will sin.

And the next time in the narrative of Genesis, we see God making anything, guess when that is? In Genesis 3:21, when God is making garments of skins. To clothe Adam and Eve with after they had sinned. But for now, the curtains close on this seven day creation week with an image of God at rest, well pleased, fully satisfied.

And what he had created in a complete way that was utterly, entirely whole. But the time we have left, let's just ponder a few things about the Sabbath. I know that this is a, a big issue. There's no way we can fully do justice to all the things that may come to your mind regarding, this day, and all of its ramifications.

But let's just ponder a few, items. we should make note of the fact that in this passage, Genesis 2:1, 2 and 3, we do not see God laying upon Adam and Eve any requirement to observe, the Sabbath. Everyone pretty much, most people agree on that. Even a Jewish commentator, that I was reading said, let's make note of this fact that the institution of the Sabbath does not begin here.

This is merely the foundation for the later institution. Of the Sabbath. God does not tell Adam and Eve to rest from their work. At this point, we are only told that God is ceasing from his.

His creative work. One writer says, for the present, the Sabbath stays in heaven. So this is an account where we observe that the Sabbath is being kept by God in heaven. Another thing to observe is that it's not until the book of Exodus that we find God's specific requirements for the Jews to keep The Sabbath, Exodus 16 is like the first reference that we find where God is giving regulations to the Jews about collecting of manna.

we know from the broad sweep of scripture that the Sabbath was sanctified by God and blessed by God to serve for sacred purposes. And let me just go over those with you, OK? purpose number 1 is to point to God's rest. When God instituted the Sabbath observance for the Jews, he wanted them to observe the Sabbath because it pointed to his rest on the 7th day of creation.

In Exodus 20:8 through 10. God commands the Jews to remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy, to do their work on the other 6 days of the week, and then to abstain from work on the Sabbath day, and in verse 11, he gives the reason, for in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the 7th day, therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it. Holy. God worked for six days, then he rested.

This is the rhythm of heaven and God wanted the Jews to make it their rhythm also. Their life, every week would tell the story of creation. Their weekly routine would be a mnemonic device as it were, a memory device to call to their minds. That creation week.

There's a second purpose of the Jewish institution of the Sabbath, and that is to point to God's redemption of the people of Israel. It's interesting when, the commandments are given again in the book of Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law. A different reason is stated for why they should observe the Sabbath. In Deuteronomy 5:15, the text says to the Jews, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath. Day, the rest day. In Egypt, the Israelites were slaves and they were worked excessively hard by Pharaoh and they had no rest, and they cried out to God for deliverance and God delivered them from their exhausting enslavement and God, having done that is wanting them to celebrate the rest of the Sabbath. The repose of the Sabbath with a mindfulness of him as the one who redeemed them from the harsh and the exhausting slavery of Egypt.

I'm sure when they were in Egypt, They had no Sabbath. They had no day of rest, and he wanted them forever after that to contemplate his redemption of them, deliverance of them from Egypt. On the Sabbath day. There's a 3rd purpose.

That the Sabbath served in the Old Testament and that is to point to God's relationship. With his people. In Exodus 31:16 and 17, God says, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel.

So God is saying the Sabbath is a unique sign of my covenant relationship with my people, the people of Israel. This is why you observe, that there is no indication in the Old Testament that God ever required any other nation to observe the Sabbath, the Sabbath day. Israel's prophets speak words of criticism against other peoples and other nations for a variety of sins. Never once do they criticize or denounce another nation, another people, because they were not keeping The Sabbath.

In contrast, the language to the Jews is that the Sabbath was a unique sign. of their covenant relationship with Jehovah God, and the Jews are the only people in Scripture who are called to keep the Sabbath and who get criticized for failing to keep it. There's a 4th purpose of the Sabbath, the institution of the Sabbath, and that is to point To Christ, to point to Christ, that should say 4 on the slide. Sorry about that, to point to Christ and in saying this, I'm not suggesting that 1 out of the 4 purposes was to point to Christ.

It had 3 others, but one of them was to point to Christ. Actually, this final purpose gathers the previous 3 purposes into itself. It embraces the previous three. The Sabbath points to God's resting in his finished work, God's redemption of Israel from bondage, and God's covenant relationship with his people, and all three of these things point To Jesus Christ.

In Colossians 2 verses 16 and 17, Paul speaks of the Sabbath as being among the things that were shadows cast by a coming reality and the substance of that reality casting that shadow is Christ. He says in verse 16, therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival, or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Don't let anyone judge you, regarding what you do or don't do on the Sabbath day. These things, including the Sabbath, are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance, Belongs to Christ.

He's saying the Sabbath as you read about it and study it in the Old Testament, what you're studying is a shadow. Being cast by a substantial reality and that is Jesus and the salvation to be found in him. This ties everything together. Yes, the Sabbath pointed the Jews to God's rest on the 7th day of creation.

Yes, the Sabbath pointed their attention to God's redemption of them from bondage in Egypt, and yes, the Sabbath pointed them to their covenant relationship that they had uniquely with God. In the process, all of these things were serving as shadows. Being cast by a looming substantial reality found in Christ. In Christ we rest with God.

In Christ's finished work. In Christ we experience redemption from bondage to sin and to Satan. And the hopelessness and despair. In Christ, we have covenant relationship.

With God through Christ shed blood. The Sabbath is a shadow of these realities that you and I as believers in Jesus get to live and walk in the good of each day. When it comes to the New Testament. And the Sabbath, one of the things that you'll notice is that of the 10 Commandments, essentially the spirit of all of the 10 Commandments are repeated in the New Testament somewhere.

Nonetheless, in all of Paul and Peter and John's and James and Jude's epistles, nowhere is there ever a command. Upon Christians to keep The Sabbath in the book of Acts, when instructions are being given to Gentiles, in the letter that the Jerusalem church sent to them, there was no instructions about keeping and honoring the Sabbath day and the silence of the New Testament on this issue is absolutely deafening. In my opinion. What we find instead are passages like Romans 14 where Paul says in verse 51 man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.

Let each man be fully convinced. In his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and what's implied is he who does not observe some special day is not observing it, for the Lord. There's no way that Paul would speak this way if the Sabbath was required for Christians and it was indeed a day that they were to hold above the other days.

Of the week. Paul is saying here, if you regard one day as higher than another, such as the Sabbath, that's great. If you regard every day as a Sabbath, that's fine too. Let's love one another and not judge one another for thinking differently on issues like this.

Going back to Colossians 2, let's look again at what Paul says. Therefore, let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come. But the substance belongs to Christ. He's telling us that Christians have liberty to decide what they will do with issues like Sabbath observance, and we should not be judging people for observing the Sabbath, nor should we judge them for not observing the Sabbath as we might personally be observing it.

I love what Warren Wearsby says about this. He says some believers may choose to honor the Sabbath day as unto the Lord and Christians are not to judge or condemn one another in this matter. When good and godly people disagree on matters of conscience, they must practice love and mutual acceptance and grant one another liberty. Sometimes in scripture, there's clear answers, and we get to show our unity in Christ by totally agreeing on those issues.

And then there are issues like this that, that aren't completely clear and people's consciences are in different places and some are going to go one way and some the other way. And in those cases, we get to show the glory of the gospel by how we love one another, even in the midst of differing opinions on something like this. And so we want to embrace that rather than no, we got to agree on everything. No, we get to love each other.

On some of those issues where scripture refuses to put its foot down and say, here's the one and only way to view this. Paul refrains. From putting his foot down on this issue, and simply says let's love one another and not judge one another. What we should all agree on regarding the Sabbath is what it points to, and that is Christ.

Every Christian should love the Sabbath because it is a shadowy finger pointing our attention to Jesus Christ and the rest that is found in Him. In Hebrews 4, the writer of Hebrews says there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his. Therefore, let us be diligent.

to enter that rest. I love the language there. The one who's entered into his rest, looking at God's rest in his completed work and one who enters into God's rest is one who ceases from His own works. It's not like he stops doing good works, but he stops depending upon those good works in order to earn his way in To heaven.

The Sabbath was celebrated throughout the Old Testament. It did not give the Jews the true rest. That they longed for the true rest that is found only. In Jesus Christ.

If you read the entire passage of Hebrews 4, you see that those who believe the good news of the gospel enter the Sabbath rest. Those who don't believe the gospel, they have no rest, but when someone does believe the gospel, his whole life becomes a continuous Sabbath, and that's the whole point. Every day is a Sabbath for believers in Jesus. People who are trying to earn their way to heaven are people who are believing in themselves and in their own works.

And what, there's no rest for such people. They never get a Sabbath rest. Everyday, they have to be on because their eternal destiny depends upon their performance. But people who believe in Jesus, They've rested from their own works, and they're now resting in the work that Christ has done.

For their salvation Remember again that the Sabbath is not just about resting and abstaining from work. Twice our passage today tells us how God rested from the work which he had done. That's the rest that's being spoken about. It's God resting in his completed work, and that's what points us to Christ.

Christ died on the cross and he completed our work of redemption to the perfect life he lived. He showed perfect love for the Father and for his fellow men at every turn. He went to the cross and died. And before he breathed his last on the cross, what did he say?

It is finished. Guess what day that was. Friday Around 3 in the afternoon, just in time for him to breathe his last and have his body taken down from the tomb. Is it, is it coincidental that Christ declared his work finished?

On a Friday afternoon. Is it coincidental that on the Sabbath day, Christ was taking his rest? Through the entirety of that day in the tomb, resting in his completed finished work. Do you think that when God rested on the 7th day in Genesis 2, the 7th day of the creation week, that he was doing more than resting in his finished work of creation?

Is that all he was doing? No, I think we would say. That God was also resting. In pre-commemoration.

Of the rest that his son would take. After his redemptive work was finished thousands of years later. Some of you in a room this size with this many people, you're trying to earn your way into heaven, you're trying to be good enough. Funny thing is, you've never been able to look at all you've done and say, it is finished, have you?

It's done. I'm in. It is finished. The work of getting myself into heaven, it is done.

You never have a Sabbath when you depend. On you. Several years ago, USA Today conducted a survey in which they asked people, what do you think are your chances of getting into heaven? One lady from Hammond, Indiana said, my chances are slim, maybe fifty-fifty.

I have to be more of a nice person, but I'm still in the running. That sounds exhausting just to read. That poor woman will never know a Sabbath for her soul until she looks to Jesus and his work that was so great and so fine that he looked upon it and said it's done. It's finished She's not sure she's done enough yet, but Christ did enough.

He lived a perfect life, and he said it is finished. And we enter into a lifelong Sabbath, where every day is a Sabbath when we agree with Jesus and rest in His finished work on our behalf. God rested on the 7th day because he was so well pleased with all that he had done. This was his day to enjoy all that he had done, and you and I are never more at rest than when we are gazing at all that Christ has done.

And resting in his finished work. If you believe in Jesus today, And hear him say of his work, it is finished, and you agree with him and believe in Him, then you will enter into His rest, and every day, every day of the week will be a Sabbath of grace for you. The creation account begins with light. And it ends with a wonderful shadow.

A wonderful shadow, and both the light and the shadow point us to Jesus and may God give us the grace. To look to him today. Let's pray together. Lord, I marvel at Just the genius of scripture, and you're always thinking about everything all the time.

And even on the 7th day, Lord, you're, you're setting this day apart. Like the Jews would set apart utensils and buildings for sacred purposes, you, you set this day apart for a very sacred purpose and we've just explored some of what that entails. This account of the creation week, Lord, from, from the light. At the beginning to the shadow of the Sabbath at the end, it just all points us to the gospel, to Jesus.

He's what this story is all about. And we look to him. We look to him today and we ask you to help us to fix our eyes upon him. Putting our trust in Him, and if there's someone here today who's never looked at Jesus, Lord, may you touch their hearts and cause them to look to him today and to cry out to Him for salvation and to enter into this rest.

That can only be found in him. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give up our offerings to you, receive these funds that we give now. And do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.