Chapter 62
Blessed
Sabbath Rest
“Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ” Matthew
11:28-30
The text that heads this page is a call to rest.
Here the Son of God, the Lord of glory, the God-man Mediator, our all-glorious
Christ, bids weary, heavy laden sinners to come to him and find rest for their
souls. Call it a command, if you
like. When the King of the universe bids you do something, his bidding is a
command. Call it an invitation, if
you wish. I have no problem with that either. When the all holy, infinite God
condescends to speak to hell-bent, hell-bound sinners, when he bids those
sinners come to him and live, that is the sweetest, gentlest, most tender,
gracious, and merciful invitation in the world! Whether we hear these words as
a command, or hear them as an invitation, it matters not. The only thing that
matters is that we hear them.
Here
is Christ’s word to lost, ruined, guilty sinners. - “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. There is no salvation to be had, but by coming to Christ. There
can never be any true, peaceful, satisfying rest for our souls, except we come
to Christ, trusting him alone as our Lord and Savior, -- trusting his blood as
our only atonement and his obedience as our only righteousness. Only Christ can
give weary sinners rest.
Here
is the Master’s word to us all, both to the unbeliever and the believer. - “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find
rest unto your souls.” In all circumstances of life we find rest unto our souls only as we
voluntarily submit to the rule and dominion of the Son of God as our Lord and
King. The only way to find rest is to willingly slip our necks under his yoke.
When we do and only when we do, we will find that his yoke really is easy and
his burden really is light. I bid you now, whatever your circumstances, take
the Master’s yoke upon you, and find rest unto your soul. Take upon you the
yoke of his grace, bowing to him as your Lord (Luke. 14:25-33). Take upon you
the yoke of his doctrine, his gospel, bowing to him as your Prophet (Jer.
6:16). Take upon you his yoke of providence, trusting him as your God and
Savior (Ps. 31:1, 5, 7, 15). Only in this way do we find rest for our souls.
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The
call of the gospel is a call to rest, the blessed rest of faith in Christ. It is this rest
that the Old Testament sabbath day pointed to and typified. All things relating
to sabbath law in the Old Testament pointed to the necessity and blessedness of
that rest of faith which believers enjoy in Christ. In this study we will see
from the Word of God what was required for the keeping of the Sabbath in the
Old Testament law, what the purpose of that law was, and why we do not and must
not keep the Old Testament sabbath today.
Non-essential
Sabbath Observance is not
essential in the worship of God. The first observance of a sabbath day mentioned in
Holy Scripture is in Genesis 2:2-3, where we are told, “God ended his work
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all work which he had
made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he
had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
Though it is not mentioned
by name, here we see the first observance of a sabbath rest. The Lord God
himself rested on the seventh day from all his work. That is what it is to keep the sabbath. It is to rest from all your work.
Though he kept the sabbath, there was no other mention of it for 2,000 years.
Adam never kept a sabbath day, either before or after the fall. Yet, he
worshipped God and walked with him. Abel never observed a sabbath day; but he
worshipped God. Enoch walked with God; but he never observed a sabbath day.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; but we never read of him observing
the sabbath. Abraham was the friend of God; but he did not keep a ceremonial
sabbath day of any kind.
Throughout the days of the
patriarchs, (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), though God was believed, worshipped,
loved and honored by his people, not one of his people kept a sabbath day. Even
Joseph, that great, eminent type of Christ, never once observed a sabbath day.
Were these men antinomians?
Were they evil, licentious, wicked men? To even suggest such nonsense is
offensive. These were men, all of them, who walked with God. They were holy,
righteous, believing men. They did not keep a sabbath day, because God did not
require them to do so. Yet, they worshipped God! My point is just this: -- Sabbath observance is in no way essential to
the worship of God.
Sabbath Established
The ordinance of sabbath
observance was established by God in the wilderness at the same time that manna
was given from heaven (Ex. 16:22-30). The manna portrayed God’s provision of life in
Christ, the Bread of Life. The sabbath portrayed God’s provision of rest in
Christ. It is specifically called, “the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord.” “So the people rested on
the seventh day.”
The
children of Israel were commanded not to do any work on the sabbath. They were
not even allowed to pick up manna on the seventh day of the week! In Exodus
20:8-11 God’s law strictly prohibited any man from doing any work on Saturday,
and even prohibited him from having anyone under his authority to do any work
for him.
Those who would impose upon
us the carnal ordinance of sabbath keeping, those who would bring us back under
the yoke of bondage to the law, compelling us to keep the sabbath day, compel
us to do what they themselves cannot do. I know that many teach sabbath keeping
as a rule of life. They would impose upon God’s saints strict rules and
regulations for sabbath day observance. But all their teaching and preaching in
that regard is sheer hypocrisy. Not one of them observes the sabbath day. Their
teaching regarding the sabbath are just “a
fair show in the flesh” (Gal. 6:12-13), no more. Their pretended reverence
for the law of God, when closely examined, reveals a total disregard for God’s
law. They sift through the commandments, pick out what they like, and simply
ignore the rest. Let me show you what I mean. Here are four things required in God’s law for the observance of the
sabbath day. If the sabbath day is observed, it must be observed in such
a way as to include all four of these things.
1. The
sabbath day must be observed on Saturday, the seventh
day of the week (Ex. 20:10). Sunday is not
the sabbath day. It never has been. Sunday is once called “the Lord’s Day,”
but only once, and then with no instructions of any kind about the matter. It
was the day of Christ’s resurrection. But nowhere in the Bible are we
commanded, or even permitted, to observe the sabbath on Sunday.
2. No
work can be done on the sabbath. -- NONE (Ex. 20:10). Works of
necessity and works of mercy were permitted on the sabbath; but no one was
allowed to do any work of any kind for himself, or to benefit himself. If you want to keep the sabbath day, in
accordance with God’s holy law, then you must not, under penalty of death, light
a fire for cooking (Ex. 35:3), gather wood for burning (Num. 15:32-36), carry
any burden (Jer. 17:21-22), travel (Ex. 16:29), or do any business (Amos 8:5). Anything which might be construed as a matter
of personal profit or pleasure was expressly forbidden on the sabbath day (Isa. 58:13; 56:2; Ezek. 20:12,
21). The essence of sabbath worship was absolute, unreserved, unconditional,
all-encompassing self-denial. It was an utter renunciation of self and an utter
dedication of one’s self to the Lord God.
3. In addition to these things,
any genuine observance of the sabbath
day necessitates a return to the ceremonial law of the Old Testament. The sabbath day cannot be
observed without the offering of a double sin-offering, a double meal offering,
and a double drink-offering; and those offerings must be made in the temple at
Jerusalem (Num. 28:9-10).
4. There is one more point,
which cannot be ignored. Those who insist upon keeping the sabbath must also
demand the execution of all sabbath breakers (Ex. 31:15). The very same law
that required the observance of the sabbath also required the death of those
who broke the sabbath. If a man wants to keep the sabbath, he must also be
willing to stone to death anyone who breaks the sabbath, even his own son or
daughter.
Do you know anyone who
observes the sabbath day this way? I don’t. Not even the most orthodox Jew, the
most strict Adventist, or the most heretical Russelite
in the world observes such a sabbath. And those who pretend to observe a Sunday
sabbath do not even come close to the requirements of God’s Word regarding
sabbath observance.
It is
obvious that no one observes the sabbath day in a literal sense, and no one has
for 2,000 years! Jews do not observe it. Catholics do not observe it.
Protestants do not. Reformed people do not observe it. Those who pretend to
observe it only make a mockery of the sabbath by their hypocrisy. Their sabbath keeping is nothing but a fleshly show!
Why not keep a sabbath day?
Why don’t we observe a
sabbath day? Why do we refuse to observe a literal sabbath
day? What can be wrong with sitting aside the first day of the week and
requiring God’s saints to keep it as a sabbath day unto the Lord? Should we not
at least allow the observance of a sabbath day by those who want to do it?
We do not
and must not observe any literal sabbath day for precisely the same reasons we
do not and must not observe the Jewish Passover or any other legal ceremonies
of the Old Testament. The sabbath day which God required the Jews to keep was,
like all the other carnal ordinances of the law, only a temporary, typical
ritual of the law, which represented, portrayed, and typified the Lord Jesus
Christ and our redemption by him.
When the
Lord God established the sabbath, when he instituted that ordinance of worship,
he gave two reasons, and only two reasons, for its observance.
1. The
sabbath day was to be observed by Israel as a symbol of God’s rest (Ex. 20:8-10). It
represented the completion of God’s work, the finality of creation, and God’s
total satisfaction with it. Though God’s creation has been marred by sin,
though the slime of the serpent’s trail has polluted it, the Book of God speaks
of a time called the time of restitution. The sabbath day portrayed that day
when all things shall be restored to God; and that restitution began when
Christ died and rose again (Acts 3:21; Col. 1:20).
2. The
observance of the sabbath was designed by God to be a constant reminder to
Israel of their redemption out of Egypt. As such, it was a picture of our
redemption by Christ (Deut. 5:15). Like all other
aspects of the Mosaic law, the sabbath was a picture prophecy of our perfect
redemption by Christ. As the Jews rested from all their works on the seventh
day of the week (eating the manna, the bread of life, which God gave them
without any works of their own being done), believers find perfect rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
We
do not and cannot observe a legal, literal sabbath day, because Christ is our
Sabbath, and we rest in him! In the New Testament epistles (Romans - Revelation), the sabbath is
only mentioned in two places. It is mentioned in the four gospels and in the
Book of Acts many times in connection with the Jews and Jewish worship. But in
those Epistles that prescribe all ordinances of divine worship in this gospel
age, it is mentioned in just two places (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 4:3-9).
Colossians
2:16-17 – “Let
no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday,
or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
Here the
Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, forbids the observance of a legal
sabbath day on the basis of the fact that in Christ every believer is
completely, totally, entirely, and forever freed from the law (Rom. 7:4; 10:4).
Hebrews
4:3-9 – “For we
which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my
wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. For he
spake in a certain place of the seventh day
on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works…There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”
The word
“rest” in these verses is the word normally translated “sabbath.”
Here we are told that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ keep the sabbath
spiritually, truly keep the sabbath by faith in him. How do we keep the sabbath
by faith? Just like our God kept the first sabbath. -- Coming to Christ, believing on the son of God, we cease from our works
and rest in him. This is our Savior’s word of grace to poor, needy, troubled,
heavy-laden sinners. – “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”