2_MV_KKsHSk

0:55The title of this morning's message is A Sabbath Rest and the Ones Who Enter Into It. Specifically, going to spend our time looking at that first part, Sabbath rest, and then next week we'll spend some more on the second part. But as we return to Hebrews chapter 4, we continue in this study of God's rest. It's been going on since the very beginning of chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, let us fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

1:43Rest. Most important thing about you: where do you find your rest? Where does your soul ultimately trust? And in whom does your soul ultimately trust? Since I've been into Hebrews 4, I've just realized just how major this theme of resting in God is in the Bible. The opening two chapters of the Bible describe a world at rest. And so do the last two chapters of the Bible. And everything in between depicts this disruption that sin has caused in the earth.

2:39This disruption of sin and really God's work in bringing all the nations to trust in Him, to rest in Him, and to look forward to an eternity of enjoying rest. In him. Genesis 3, you remember, right after the fall. Genesis 3, 23 says this: Therefore, the Lord God sent him, speaking of Adam, out from the garden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So since the fall, that rest that God had created and which he enjoyed that seventh day was removed from the earth. Life on earth has been a struggle. There's been relational strife. You see that first in Adam and Eve. There was this constant competition and incessant fighting. You certainly see that, Cain and Abel. Then there is the life or the daily anxieties and the internal difficulties, the perplexing situations and endless labors that characterize life on planet earth. The psalmist in Psalm 90 says this, you turn man back into dust and say, return, O children of men. For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a Watch in the night. And he goes on to say, for all our days have declined in your fury. We have finished our years like a sigh. As for the days of our life, they contain 70 years, or if due strength, 80 years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone, and we fly away.

4:59So the question coming right out of the early chapters of Genesis is when? When is this curse going to be lifted? And it's evident by the time you get to Genesis chapter 5 that people knew that somebody was going to have to provide this rest. Remember in Genesis 5:9, Noah's father named his son Noah. And he says this in Genesis 5, 29. This one, speaking of Noah, as his name means, this one will give us rest from all our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed. We live in a world with a cursed ground, and because of that there is toils. Because we all have shelf. Life. We are returning to the dust. There's a time limit, pressure.

6:08When will the struggle with sin and death and decay and the cursed earth end? That's the question that jumps off the page in the early chapters of the Bible. And the Bible teaches us very clearly that fallen man is not going to inherit the earth. And each of us will be brought into this world and experience some duration of it, some very short, some longer, much longer than others. But each of us are going to be born into this world. We're going to experience the trials and pains of its fallenness, and then we're going to return to dust.

7:02Fallen man is not going to inherit the earth. But the Bible also teaches that some will be resurrected to life. Some, not all, are going to put on a glorious body that will never see decay again. Jesus talks about them in his Sermon on the Mount. He calls them the humble, the poor in spirit. They are the gentle ones, and they shall inherit the earth. Just like Abraham sojourned in the land that he and his descendants were to ultimately possess, so we too sojourn in this earth and one day will inherit it.

7:58So it goes with the people of God. Some will be resurrected to eternal life, some will be resurrected to eternal misery. What is the difference between these two masses of humanity? And the bottom line is: it comes down to rest. One group rests in God and the other does not. Where and in whom you place your trust is going to define your eternity. There is no rest, there is no peace in what we can do or in our own imperfections, our own fallenness.

8:55Those who rest in the Lord inherit the earth. Those who rest in themselves or whatever will not. So, this tells you something about the blessed of the earth, why they sojourn in this life. The blessed of the earth learn how to rest in God. Somewhere along life's journey, holy wisdom fills their heart. Whether that comes from picking up the word of God, whether that comes through a friend, or whether it comes to the preaching ministry, somewhere along the line, holy wisdom fills their heart, and they cease trusting in themselves and they put their faith in the one true God. That's the blessed of the earth.

9:48Are you among them? Where does your soul find its rest? Or is your soul not at rest? If your soul is not at rest, you have not heard the gospel, or you certainly have not believed in the gospel. The cursed of the earth never learned the most basic matter of life. God is God, and we are not. That's life 101. God can be trusted because he's God. God will receive all who call upon him because he said he would do so.

10:43And so we can rest in him. And our passage this morning speaks about this rest and those who will enter it. We'll look at verse 9 today. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. I want you to understand this Sabbath rest so that you will enter into it and enjoy it. A Sabbath rest. Verse 9. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. This whole concept of rest in Hebrews 4 is further developed with this Sabbath rest.

11:31Look back, so, therefore, then there remains. There is something that is remaining, something that is left behind, something that is still available today. There remains something that is available, and we know the who, who is available for, for the people of God. There's something left behind, something still available for the people. People of God. Who are the people of God? Well, the people of God are the people of God, and they're the ones who rest in God.

12:12And what is this that's left behind? A rest. A rest. Already, looked at verse 1. There remains a rest, promise of entering His rest. Already, this rest has been called God's rest or his rest. God's rest. And in verse 4, it's speaking about Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, and that seventh day after God had created everything. By the seventh day, he completed his work on which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. And so that seventh day, look at verse 4 of Hebrews 4. For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. He's bringing Genesis chapter 2 into this.

13:25Before sin entered the world, there was this day, the seventh day. Seventh day of our existence. Seventh day of the earth, the universe's existence. Yes, literal day. Seventh day, God was contemplating, he was reflecting upon, he was enjoying his completed work. The rest of God. A ceasing. God had ceased. It was six days. Completed everything in six days, and then he ceased, and he reflected, and he enjoyed that which was made because it was complete. It was perfect.

14:17So there remains a rest for the people of God. But notice there's another word there. A Sabbath rest. A Sabbath rest. Language experts are quick to point out that this is the first time the word Sabbath rest shows up in Greek literature, classical Greek or any other. This is the first time this concept enters into the realm of human thinking. A Sabbath rest. A rest, but modified by the word Sabbath, a Sabbath rest. Not even in the Septuagint is this word used to describe the Sabbath, a Sabbathmos.

15:20And so it combines the previous rest, God's rest, with Sabbath, a modifier. A Sabbath kind of rest. A Sabbath rest. A Sabbath of God's rest. A rest of rest. And so, how do we understand this Sabbath rest? I think it's appropriate that we go slowly here. It's the first time this concept shows up in all of Greek literature. It shows up in the Bible, speaking of that which is remaining, a kind of rest that is remaining for the people of God.

16:07So we need to understand the Sabbath under Israel before we can get our minds around a Sabbath rest for the people of God. So that's where we're going to spend a little time. We're going to look at the Sabbath under Moses, and we'll then come to the Sabbath rest for the People of God under Christ. So let's talk for a few moments about the Sabbath under the Mosaic covenant. In teaching the nations, and this is what God does, he sets out to teach the nations how to rest in him, he had to start with one nation. And so he chose Israel.

16:57And it was no coincidence that the Sabbath was first given to a people who desperately needed it. After generations of hard labor in Egypt, God institutes a Sabbath for that Exodus generation. It's a detail of Scripture you must be aware of. God did not mandate Sabbath keeping until the Exodus generation. Sabbath keeping doesn't show up during the patriarchal period. There's no mention of the Sabbath during the time of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Circumcision showed up, marriage showed up, sacrifices showed up, tithe shows up.

18:00But not the Sabbath. And then as you keep reading, the scriptures are very clear that God made the covenant with the Exodus generation. That's why we call it the Mosaic covenant. Prior to Moses, it wasn't in place. And it was a covenant that was made with that Exodus generation and their descendants. See, this very clearly. You can write this down, and then you can read them to you, and you can remember these verses later. But Deuteronomy 5:3 explicitly says this: The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.

18:55The Lord did not make the Mosaic covenant with our fathers, who were their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs, but with us, with all of those who are alive today. Moses is speaking about that generation that has come out of Egypt. And then he says this in Deuteronomy 5:6. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house. House of slavery. This covenant was made with a certain group of people, those who came out of Egypt. It wasn't made with those who went into Egypt, but those who came out of Egypt.

19:44Very clear on this. And at the core of the Mosaic covenant was the Ten Commandments, and that included Sabbath observance. Exodus 28 says this, 20 verse 8 says this: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, for in six days, yes, six literal days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day, yes, a literal day of rest. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

20:49So that Sabbath day that was given in the cycle each week was to cause reflection upon the seventh day of the Sabbath. Creation. The seventh day of the week was given to remember the seventh day of creation, a day where God is contemplating and enjoying the works that He had performed in creation. God contemplating, God enjoying the works. Every day was special, but it was not until it was complete that God refreshed Himself in the contemplation of it. A world with no sin, a world that was complete and good.

21:46And each week they were to remember that day, reflection on something that God had done. So it's very clear that the scriptures were made with that Exodus generation, not a generation before. And it's also clear that Gentiles were not part of that. Ephesians 2:11, Paul says this, actually, Ephesians 2:12, he says, This, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers. The covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Stranger means an outsider. You were not party to the covenant. So here's Paul in the New Testament saying, You guys were not under, as Gentiles, you were not part of this covenant. So the Mosaic covenant has a very definitive group of people in mind: those who, that Exodus generation who came out and their descendants. It didn't have Gentiles, it didn't have the patriarchs in view.

23:08And the point of all this is what God is doing is He's teaching the nations how to rest, and so He starts with this one nation, Israel. And so it's important for us to understand what was God teaching this nation about rest. So I want to make four observations about the Sabbath under the Mosaic covenant so we can better grasp a Sabbath rest under the people of God. We need to understand the Sabbath, four observations about the Sabbath under Israel that will equip us to understand a Sabbath rest as the people of God and what we are to enter into. First of all, Paul, first observation, as you study, the sign of the Mosaic covenant was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a sign.

24:13And the way one relates to the sign says something about how they, their attitude toward God. You can see sign, the American flag, many people, how you treat the flag is indicative of how you think about this country. Well, that's what a sign does: it's an emblem. Remember the sign of the Noahic covenant? What was it? A rainbow, yes. Genesis 9:12, God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations. I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. And it was a promise that God would withhold devastation or destruction upon the earth by water. A rainbow. A rainbow.

25:17It's an emblem of withholding judgment. Let me say something about the LGBTQ movement. Riddled with sexual immorality, the kind that God forbids. It's riddled with pride, not just doing it, but involving or improving, but loud and celebratory of it. And they do so under the banner of the rainbow. That provokes God. That's to fly in the face, to parade your sin around before a sign that God had promised not to or to withhold destruction. So come out of that LGBTQ movement, to whatever degree you're involved or support or whatever, or come out of that.

26:26The rainbow is a promise to withhold destruction. There's another sign, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. What was that? Circumcision, yes. Genesis 17:10 says this, this is my covenant which you shall keep, speaking to Abraham, between you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised. The flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. You see, God expected Abraham and Abraham's descendants to honor the sign of this covenant that God had made with them to bless Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

27:25And you remember in Exodus chapter 4, God had commissioned Moses to go and deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. But something happened along the way. God was about to kill Moses. So in Exodus 4:24, we read this narrative: Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him, that is Moses, and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet. And she said, You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone at that time.

28:23And it was because of the circumcision. So the sign. Of the Abrahamic covenant was a physical circumcision. And I won't spend time to develop this, but that becomes a spiritual emblem, a spiritual surgery of cleansing the heart, a cutting away of the idols and the vain pursuits of man's heart. Fallen man. You see, the way a person related to the sign reflected their attitude toward God. So you have a rainbow, a promise to withhold devastation. And you have another emblem, that of circumcision. Something that has to happen within man.

29:25So devastation is going to be withheld by something that has to be done within man's heart. Which brings us to the sign of the Mosaic covenant, which is the Sabbath. Exodus 31:13 says this: But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely observe my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generation. That you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Exodus 31, 17 says this, speaking again of the Sabbath, it is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he ceased from labor and was refreshed. He wasn't tired, he took it in. There, the seventh day, God contemplating a world that was made beautiful, complete.

30:44He blessed it, and it was a blessing to God. The beauty of it all, God contemplating on a finished work, and in that finished work of contemplating, God Himself was satisfied. And if contemplating God's finished works can bring satisfaction and enjoyment to God, it can bring satisfaction and enjoyment to us. God was saying is: take time to rest and enjoy God. In fact, it's stronger than that. Make time to rest in God. That's what the Sabbath was about.

31:42Because we have a tendency to just rush on, do our thing, and make every day common. God expected Israel to honor the sign. It's what he says in Exodus 35:2. He says, For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall not even kindle a fire. God was serious about rest. Honor the sign. Make time to rest. You don't understand the fallen condition. And God is inserting himself into the flow of humanity. And he's saying, make time to rest.

32:40Take time to contemplate the finished works of God. So, number one, the sign of the Mosaic covenant was the Sabbath. Second thing, observation I want to make. About the Sabbath under the Mosaic covenant, is God's curse came upon those who would not observe the Sabbath. God's curse came upon those who would not and did not observe his prescribed rest. This curse is prophesied in Leviticus even before they went into the land. Leviticus 26, God says, I know what's going to happen. You're not going to honor the Sabbaths, and you're going to disregard all the signs that are coming against you, and you're going to experience the ultimate expression of the curse, dispersion from the land.

33:49And he says this, prophesied it before it would even happen. Leviticus 26, 33. He says, you, after this curse has come upon, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation while you are in your enemies' land. Then the land will have rest and enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation. It will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths while you were living in it. In other words, you're going to be dispersed, and the period of time you're going to be dispersed is all the Sabbaths that you missed.

34:48And then this curse, I read it earlier in the service in Ezekiel 20, is explained. It was prophesied in Leviticus and other places. But it's explained by Ezekiel. They're like, why in the world would God allow this to come upon us? Heard that question before? Well, that's what the Israelites in Babylon, how could God allow this to happen? And Ezekiel says this, Ezekiel 20, verse 13, but the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, by which if a man observes them, he will live. And my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out my wrath on them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. You know what that means? They made them common. They made the Sabbath just like any other day.

35:52Common. That's what it means to profane, to take something holy and make it common. Ezekiel 22, verse 26, Ezekiel goes on to talk about the priests. And he said, her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. And he goes on, and then he says, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and so I am profaned among them. You see, Israel became a living contradiction. God is God, and God is overall, was their expression. But then God couldn't seem to meet their needs. They couldn't rest in him.

36:44Why didn't Israel honor the Sabbath? Becomes a very important question. Why didn't they honor the Sabbath? Ezekiel gives us the answer. Ezekiel 20, 16. They even profaned my Sabbaths for their heart continually went after their idols. They needed a circumcised heart because their heart was so filled with idols and vain pursuits. Listen, friends, an idolatrous heart does not rest in God. An idolatrous heart is pursuing something else. Fundamentally, a lack of rest in God is in. Inevitably connected to some form of idolatry, vain pursuit.

37:38Israel lacked faith in God, so they didn't listen to him. Therefore, they disregarded his instructions. Israel's faithlessness was gauged by their failure to observe the Sabbath. An idolatrous heart, same is true today, an idolatrous heart needs to be circumcised, needs to be cleaned. But know this: an idolatrous heart will experience God's judgment. So, first observation: the sign of the Mosaic covenant was the Sabbath. Second observation: God's curse came upon those who would not observe the Sabbath. Number three, three, I want to talk to you a little bit about the practice of the Sabbath under the Mosaic covenant. Let me take you to that first Sabbath day. Exodus 16:27, we read about the very first Sabbath day. It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather manna.

38:51What? Gather manna, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments? In my instructions. See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, he gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. God said, I'm giving you the Sabbath. I'm giving you the seventh day of your week to remember the seventh day of creation, a time that should cause you to reflect upon a world before sin and what God has done, and what God has promised, and what God will do.

39:44That was to be the basis, a routine. Every seven days, think back to that seventh day. Now, think about that. If you had to go out, you couldn't eat, except that God had to provide two days' worth of manna. And remember, every other day, the manna, if you got more than you needed, it went bad. But except the day before the Sabbath, you could get twice as much and it wouldn't go bad. What is God teaching in them in all this? God is your provider. Rest in Him. Israel, God wanted Israel to learn. To be still and know that God was their God.

40:35He had created them, redeemed them, and he will provide for them. Well, it was to also be a day of complete rest, complete rest, holy to the Lord. Rest or die. He didn't rest. A person who does any work on the Sabbath shall surely be put to death. Exodus 31, 15. Same is true spiritually. Do not rest in God, and you're resting in your idols. You will die. An eternal spiritual death. Rest or die. It was life under the Mosaic covenant. But it was also to be a rest for all.

41:26For you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servant, your cattle, the foreigners among you. It was to be a day of rest for all. And those Sabbath times were many. There was one day a week. You remember that? Okay, so you have to get two days. Okay, you can actually do without one day of food and probably still live anyway, even if you didn't eat anything on the Sabbath day. Also, that's pretty. Then you have the holy days. You read these in Leviticus 23. Sometimes you'd have to have a Sabbath. Not working for a whole week, but you could again make preparations for that. But then came the Sabbath year.

42:09Six years, Leviticus 25:3 says, six years you shall sow your field, six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop. But during the seventh year, the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Your harvest aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather. The land shall have a sabbatical year. You're not to plant, nor are you to go out and harvest. Now, what's that going to do? You're really going to have to trust, aren't you?

42:47See what God's doing? God wanted Israel to be still and know that he was God. I don't think they ever honored the Sabbath sabbatical year. Ezekiel's going to make much about this. Think about this. If we had to just stop doing anything for a year, our economy would collapse. There's no way we could do this. But God is God. And that's what God told them to do, and God would provide. And then you had the 50th year, the Jubilee, same thing. I'll move on.

43:32Fourth, I want to talk to you about the purposes of the Sabbath, expressed statements about the Sabbath under Moses. First of all, one of the purposes of the Sabbath was, Sabbaths were to be times of remembering, times of remembering. Deuteronomy 5, 15. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. One of the very first things they were to remember was to remember their salvation from Egypt.

44:20I bet they never saw Pharaoh's army again. Not in pursuit of them. Sabbaths were also times for humbling. Leviticus 16, 31, speaking of the day of atonement, says this, It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls. Not only were they to remember salvation, but they were to remember their need for salvation. They were to remember the Lamb. They were to remember their need for atonement. They were a people in need.

45:00Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble, says Jesus. Third purpose of the Sabbath was to look forward to the ultimate rest to come. To look forward to the ultimate rest to come. In Deuteronomy 12, 10. When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for his name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice and vote of offerings, which you will bow to the Lord. So the place of rest, they were journeying to the place of rest, but there were times of rest along the way that anticipated the greater rest and greater celebration and greater worship in the place of rest that was to come.

46:12Another purpose of the Sabbath was to sanctify Israel. This is the last one I'll mention. To sanctify Israel. I read it earlier. Exodus 31, 13 says this. But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel. Saying, you shall surely observe my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. That you may know that I am the Lord who is sanctifying you as a mass of people from all the other masses of people.

46:57And what was to be that definitive marking that set them apart? It was the way they rested. God intended to set Israel apart from all other nations by the way they rested in him. But they refused. And so they did not enter into the land promised to them. Let's come back now to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 9. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. What is this rest, the people of God, looks like? Well, it's a rest, it's God's rest. It takes us back to Genesis chapter 2, reflecting upon the things that God has done. A rest is a time for remembering.

47:56A rest is a time for humbling. Rest is a time for enjoying that gift of rest, that spiritual rest. See, part of our journey to the place of rest, we are to enjoy rest along the way to the point of our ultimate rest and ultimate celebration in heaven. But that rest, that Sabbath rest, is available today by contemplating, by reflecting upon the finished works of Christ. What God has done. There is no rest if you're looking inward. You can't even stay home and have a vacation at home because you're always seeing something that's lacking. I got to get out and fix that. I got to get out and fix that. There is no rest in something that we do because it's incomplete. But there is rest in that which God has done. So when you think about a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath and a rest, a rest, rest, a rest, rest.

49:11A seventh day of creation kind of rest. An entering into the reflection upon the perfect works of God and a celebration of those even as we journey to heaven. I have a lot more to say on this. That's why I'm not even going to try to jump into verse 10. As the people of God, we have many perfections to celebrate, don't we? Many perfections to reflect upon, even more so than this Exodus generation did. We are more accountable. That's why the writer of Hebrews is saying, pay close attention.

49:50How should we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? We have more information than they did. What can we reflect on? Well, we can reflect upon God Himself, perfect in power, perfect in knowledge, perfect in wisdom, perfect in goodness, perfect in faithfulness. Reflect on that. We can reflect upon Christ Himself, perfect man, perfect revelation of God. We know what God is like: a perfect Savior, a perfect sacrifice, a perfect high priest. And that's where the writer of Hebrews is going.

50:34The next chapter is going to be all about the high priest and this perfect high priest and the confidence that gives us to enter heaven. And we have Christ as a perfect king. All that to say we have more than more perfection to celebrate a perfect salvation, a perfect future, a perfect supply in this life, a perfect invitation. to rest in him. Where does that leave us here today? Confess your sins. Cease your vain pursuits. Circumcise your heart and rest in the God who created you.

51:20Heavenly Father, indeed, we confess so often we get caught up in the vain pursuits. We're easily agitated. We're easily thrown off balance because, Lord, we listen to our circumstances or we listen to our covetous desires and we go after them and are pained when we don't achieve what we want. Father, we see the erring direction of our heart. We see the mixture. But Lord, we're comforted by the fact that you invite people such as us to come and to cleanse our hearts, to confess our sins, to call upon your name, to do your sanctifying work in us, to put your spirit in us, satisfy our souls deeply because you and you alone are our God and the only one who cares for our soul.

52:30And you are the only one who knows how to care for our souls. And so we trust in you this morning. Call us, awaken us from the dead, and let us help us to put our trust and truly rest in you. In Christ's name.