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Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. I'm going to read to you verses 8 through 11, very familiar verses. Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11. 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 the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Title of message tonight is God's Sabbath rests, the way God measured Israel's neglect of him. In other words, God's Sabbath rest, see the Sabbath here, we just read it, and how God used the Sabbath to measure Israel's neglect.

It was going to be through the way they treated the Sabbath is going to be the way God measures how they related to him. Remember last week, We looked at Deuteronomy 32, 18. It says this, you neglected the rock who begot you and forgot the God who gave you birth.

We looked at the sure way into God's displeasure. If you want to find yourself in and under God's displeasure, well, there's two ways to get there's a very straightforward way to get there. First of all, you need to neglect God. And then soon, after you neglect him for a while, you'll forget him.

And then as you forget him, you will do those things that anger him. You will go down the paths of idolatry and end up under his displeasure. That was Israel's history. We looked at that. They forgot God. And forgetting God always leads to idolatry. So when you forget God, be sure idolatry is close at hand.

We're going to come on the heels of that. But before one forgets God, they must first neglect. To forget is to become oblivious to, just out of the mind completely. Neglecting is to pay little attention to, to treat God indifferently, or is not a person of weight or magnitude.

And so when you neglect God, it inevitably leads to forgetting God. And as I encouraged you last week, is before the semester gets going, before you get into the routine of the school year and all of that, to make sure you establish a routine that does the opposite of neglecting but causes remembrance.

Pay attention to the God who made you. Pay attention to the God who gives you strength. Don't treat him as an afterthought, but as the primary thought. This week, I want to continue looking at the nation of Israel and specifically this idea of Sabbath, the Sabbath that was given to them.

And as we study, just to give you the big picture, as we study it, it becomes very evident that the way Israel treated the Sabbath is ultimately the way they treated God. Their indifference to the Sabbath and the Lord's appointed rest, not just the one day in the seven, but all of his appointed feasts, they neglected them.

And because they paid little attention to the Sabbaths, they didn't get the benefits of those Sabbaths. And what ends up happening is they forget. All of these Periods and times and rests that God gave Israel in the Sabbath was to help them not neglect him. And so, how do you forget God?

By neglecting him. How do you make sure you don't neglect? Make sure you pay attention to those times-appointed rests that he gave. That will keep you from neglecting, and that will keep you from forgetting, that will keep you from falling into idolatry and under his displeasure. That's Israel's history.

And so it's evident, and I'll read to you a few verses, and you may want to jot these down. I encourage you, if you have your Bible, to turn there. I don't do that much. I know flipping around the pages can sometimes get a little tedious and distracting, but tonight I encourage you to look at some, and it's okay if you just want to listen to me read them.

That's fine too. But for those who are really interested in some key verses about understanding the Sabbath rest, giving under the Mosaic law, I encourage you to write down these verses, at least write them down and go back to them. But it's clear that God told Israel ahead of time, I mean, before they go into.

The land. He tells them ahead of time how he is going to measure their neglect of him. And it's going to be by the way they treat his Sabbaths. Listen to the words of Leviticus 26, verse 33. Leviticus 26, verse 33. You, however, I will scatter among the nations.

This is before they even go into the land. He's telling them he's going to scatter them among the nations because he knows they're going to forget him and fall into idolatry. You 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, verse 34, very important, the land will enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemy's land, then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. In other words, I'm going to bring a military against you. I'm going to take you captive, destroy your city, I'm going to take and your country, and I'm going to take you out, and I'm going to put you in a foreign land, and you're going to stay there until the land enjoys all the Sabbaths which it didn't observe under you.

Verse 35 of Leviticus 26, all the days of its desolation. It will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths while you were living on it. In other words, I gave you the Sabbath, and because you didn't honor that Sabbath, that's how I'm going to measure.

And the timeline for how long you're in your captivity is going to be measured to the Sabbath so that it has its Sabbaths. So neglecting the Sabbath is an indicator of neglecting God. That's how God sees the relationship with Israel. That's what he says before he sends them into the land of Israel.

But then afterwards, he tells them what he would do. So he tells them ahead of time what's going to happen. And then, Ezekiel, if you remember Ezekiel chapter 20 and chapter 22, Ezekiel, before the Babylonian exile comes, before he's going to bring the Babylonians into Jerusalem and destroy it, he says, I told you, if you forget me and fall into idolatry, then I'm going to bring your enemies against you and going to desolate your land.

And then he tells them again. Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 13. 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.

In other words, they treated my Sabbaths common. That's what profane means. To treat the Sabbath day like every other day, just to make it another day of commerce, another day of business, another day, just to make it common. That's what it means to profane. And that's what they did.

They just treated. Listen to what Ezekiel 22, 26 says. Ezekiel 22, 26. Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean.

In other words, my priests, the priests haven't taught the difference between what is common and what is holy and what is clean and unclean. And then it says this, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. You see, there is a connection in Israel's history, the neglecting of God's appointed rest times, and Israel's inability to distinguish between good and evil.

Say that again. There's a connection in Israel's history between neglecting God's appointed rest times and not being able to distinguish good from evil. So, by neglecting the Sabbaths, they missed out on the benefits of the Sabbaths, which was a key means that God established for them to remember him.

Hebrews 4:9 says this: So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the 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, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.

So, the New Testament is telling us: learn from Israel, learn from how they related to the Sabbath, learn from their sin, learn from how they ended up neglecting God, forgetting God, falling into idolatry, and under God's displeasure. You learn that almost kind of an oxymoron. Be diligent to rest.

We'll unpack that a little bit tonight. But tonight, I want to take a little time to understand the purpose of the Sabbath under the Mosaic covenant. That we will learn how to not neglect God under the new. And I just say in advance, I'm going to say some things that I can almost hear it in advance.

Some may think that I am a legalist. And some of you may have this thought that what you're saying is legalism. No, I'm not advocating at all that we're going back under the Mosaic law. That chapter in human history is over. No, we're not going back under the Mosaic law.

We can learn from the God who revealed himself in the Mosaic law for sure. On the other extreme, someone I can hear is going to think, well, Thomas, you're being antinomian. And what does that mean? On the one hand, you're saying there's no law. On the one hand, you're going to be a legalist.

On the other hand, you're going to say there's no law. And some of you, by some of the things I say, some of you may have those very, well, that sounds legalistic. Well, that sounds antinomian. That sounds like you're advocating that there is no law. I'm just going to walk you through the text and say some things that hopefully will help get your mind around what was expected of Israel under the Mosaic covenant, what the Sabbath was to do, what it was, what it was to accomplish, so that we can learn from them and inform ourselves.

So, first of all, I want to look at to whom the Sabbath was given, why it was given, and its positive effects upon those who observed it, and what we can learn from this today. First, to whom the Sabbath was given, second, why it was given, and then I want to look at its positive effects upon those who observed it, and what we can learn from this today.

So, first of all, to whom was the Sabbath given? Deuteronomy 4:13 tells us that the Sabbath was part of a covenant. Deuteronomy 4:13. You remember that passage on the Ten Commandments? So, he declared to you his covenant. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform.

That is, here's the covenant, the Ten Commandments. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone. That's a good verse to write down, underline. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded to you. That is, the Ten Commandments. Certainly, the Ten Commandments are the covenant, or certainly part of that covenant.

Either way, they are part of this covenant. Who was it given to? It was given to the Exodus generation. It was not given to the patriarchs. Deuteronomy 5, 3, you can turn over there. It makes it very explicit. Deuteronomy 5.3, the Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.

So the covenant, this Sabbath covenant, part of the Ten Commandments, was not a covenant with the patriarchs. In fact, you read through the Genesis, there is no mention of the Sabbath. Oh, there's the mention of the tithes, there's prayers, there's offerings, but no mention of the Sabbath. That comes in with this generation.

There's no mention of the institution of the Sabbath anywhere. Circumcision is there, marriage is there, sacrifices. So the silence about the Sabbath is significant. So it was not given to the patriarch. It did not make it this covenant with our fathers. It's clear this covenant was not made with our fathers.

Abraham a covenant made, but not this one. Nor was it made with Gentiles of any era. This covenant is not to any Gentile. Of any era. Listen to what Ephesians 2.11 says, Ephesians 2.11 and 2.12. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ.

So you're outside of Christ, you Gentiles, outside of Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. You're excluded from the commonwealth. You're not part of Israel. You're not part of the commonwealth. That's what the Mosaic covenant created. It's basically a commonwealth of Israel. You were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and stranger to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

So as Paul's talking about this, he's saying, Look, Gentiles, you were strangers to the covenants. You weren't part of these covenants. You were certainly not part of this Mosaic covenant. You were strangers. You were outsiders and you were excluded from Christ. So this Sabbath was not given to the patriarchs.

It was not given to the Gentiles of any era. Deuteronomy 5, 6 makes it very clear to who this was given to you. 5, 6. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery. It's with this generation that came out of Egypt during the Exodus.

That's to whom it was given. And there is a stiff penalty for not obeying the Sabbath. Listen to what happens in Deuteronomy 15, beginning in verse 32. Numbers, I mean, sorry, did I say Numbers? Yeah, Numbers 15, verse 32. A man goes out and gathers wood on the Sabbath day.

And this is early in Israel's history as they're learning the ropes of what does it mean to walk with God. They've come out of Exodus. I mean, they've come out of Egypt. The blood of the Lamb made a distinction between Israel and Egypt. It was that blood of the Lamb that made that distinction.

They came out. And now they have to learn how to walk with God. And that's what Leviticus is all about, the way to God and the sacrifices and all that that is involved. And so they're learning. They're learning to obey his laws. And in Numbers 15, verse 32, this is after the Sabbath had been given.

Now, while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood Brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation, and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done with him.

And we got a violation of the Sabbath here. You just gave it to us. Now we've got a violation. What are we supposed to do? Then the Lord said to Moses, The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.

So the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. And why do I share that with you? To illustrate the point that the Sabbath wasn't just an isolated precept of a moral code. We look at the Ten Commandments, we often just think, okay, that's just a moral code.

No, it involves the Sabbath. And the Sabbath was far more than just a good moral idea, it was an integral part of a legal system, the Commonwealth of Israel. The whole legal system governed the whole nation. In fact, the Sabbath had very specific sacrifices. They had to do two male lambs, a grain offering, a drink offering, a burnt offering every Sabbath.

You see, to those who were under the law, there was no distinction between the moral code and the civil code. It was one big constitution, it was one legal. The system that governed the whole nation and to break the Sabbath was punishable by death. So it's not just like it's a good moral idea.

There's something far more profound that God is doing here with the Sabbath and trying to impress some truths upon the nation of Israel and really all who would learn from them. God is very important. And by the way, no one can really observe the Sabbath today as prescribed in the law, not even Orthodox Jews.

You know why? Because we don't have a temple. And the Sabbath required sacrifice. And so, and even with all of the Jewish holidays that involve sacrifice, guess what? Yeah, you can observe it in the sense that you can remember it, remember what used to be done, but in terms of really observing it as prescribed in the Mosaic Code, no one can do it.

There is no place for sacrifice, and there hasn't been for 2,000 years. But as Christians, we have this basis covered very profoundly in the work of Christ. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. But what happens today, even in the Observing of the holidays is people can remember what it was supposed to be and they can learn from it, but in terms of observing it as the law described, it cannot because there is no temple, there is no sacrificial system.

So all of that has to go out. But so that's to whom it was given. It was given to that generation that came out of Egypt. And then subsequent generations afterwards, it was part of their whole commonwealth. It wasn't given to the patriarchs, wasn't given to Gentiles. Scripture is clear on this.

So the question is: why was it given? Why was it given? Well, it's another thing that was made very clear is that it was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. Why was the Sabbath given? It was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. Remember, Exodus 31, 13. Exodus 31, 13.

But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely observe my Sabbaths. Make sure that's strong language. You shall surely observe my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your life. Generations. This is a sign between me and you henceforth throughout your generations.

This Sabbath is a sign. And here's its purpose: that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. There's the purpose. It's a sign. And it is given to you so that you will observe it. And as you observe it, you will learn. And what you will come to understand and know is that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

I am the God who sets you apart. So there is a connection between observing the Sabbath and knowing God under the Mosaic law. Exodus 31:17 goes on to say this, again, underlying it. 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 his labor and was refreshed.

It's the sign of the Mosaic covenant. What was the sign of the Noahic covenant? Do you remember? The rainbow. Yes. What was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant? Circumcision. God is very clear that he wants the sign. He gives signs for a reason. What does the rainbow tell us?

God is never going to flood the world again in a deluge that covers the whole earth. And he's lived up to that promise, the Abrahamic covenant, circumcision between Abraham and his descendants. It's the sign of the covenant. You remember Moses was nearly killed in Exodus 4 because he hadn't circumcised his son Gershem.

And Zipporah comes, circumcises Gershem, says, Look, you have become a bridegroom of blood. But that's, God is very serious about the signs. So this Sabbath was a sign. That was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. And the way they related to the sign would indicate how they related to God.

And it would be through that sign that God would say, okay, let me show you how you treated the Sabbath. Therefore, this is how I'm going to deal with you. The way you've treated the sign is the way I'm going to deal with you. So, number one, why was the Sabbath given?

It was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. Number two, it was the reason for the exile. In Leviticus, I've already read this text. In Leviticus 26, verse 34 and 35, I will scatter you among the nations and 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 its desolation.

While you're in your enemy's land, then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its desolation. It will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths while you were living in it. So it was the sign that measured Israel's mindfulness of God.

As they neglected the Sabbath, it was an indication that Israel was becoming less and less mindful of God. And you can kind of see how that happens. Well, we'll come to that in a minute. So we've looked at to whom the Sabbath was given, why it was given.

It was given as the sign. Now, what were the positive effects that Israel was to get from observing the Sabbath? Well, number one, it was to teach them to trust in God. They had to trust in God. Do you remember that very first Sabbath back in Exodus 16, shortly after they come out?

Of the Exodus, what did God tell them to do? And they're out there in the wilderness, and they're like, okay, we're out here in a desert. What are we going to eat? God says, I'm going to give you some manna. What is that? Well, you'll find out. And so manna comes down, something like a dew, a crusty thing that forms, and they're able to pick it up, kind of like wafers, and they're able to gather it, and they're to go out and gather it every single day.

And if they gather too much, what would happen? It would rot, and God would get mad at them. Look, I told you to just get enough for a day. You tried to store it, and it went bad. Trust me, get only what you need. There will be plenty tomorrow.

And then, but what happens on this Sabbath day? They're not to gather any. They're supposed to gather twice as much on the sixth day. And you think about what's happening there. In Exodus 16, 29, 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. So the people rested on the seventh day. Interesting. So on the one hand, they're to trust in the gathering and get just. Enough for one day, but then when the Sabbath day, and then it rots.

But then on the Sabbath day, I mean, on the sixth day, the day before the Sabbath, they were to go and gather twice as much. And for some reason, that stuff didn't rot. It was able to last through the Sabbath day. God is saying to them, Trust me.

Every single day you're going to have to trust me for sustenance. And every Sabbath day, to be able to have a day off, you must trust that I am going to provide so that you can have this day of rest, reflection, and remembrance. You see, God will provide your needs so that you can rest and enjoy the times of rest in Him.

The lesson that Israel was supposed to get was to learn to trust God or die. That was the lesson that the Sabbath would teach them. Learn to trust in God or die. And what's interesting is they have a whole sabbatical year, a seventh year. Now think about that.

Six years you're to work, and then the seventh year, you're not to gather anything of the produce of the seventh year. Now that's going to take even a little bit more faith, isn't it? That God's going to sustain the whole nation by letting the whole land lay fair.

Follow. That's where we get the sabbatical year from. It sounds like paradise to me. I mean, what a great system. And I don't think they, when you study their history, I don't know if they ever did honor the sabbatical year. That just takes too much faith. God, how are you going to provide for us?

I need to get out and do this. I can't trust you. But that was what they were to learn: trust in God or die. Second thing it was to teach them to do, it was to taught the people to completely cease their labors. Exodus 31:15 says, For in six days work may be done, but on the seventh there is a Sabbath of complete rest.

It goes on later in Exodus 35, verse 3, you shall not even kindle a fire on it. What is happening here? Be diligent to make sure you can have this rest and keep this rest. In fact, it started the day before, preparing for the rest. It was the day of preparation.

Set your house in order so that you can take this Sabbath rest. And listen, the Sabbath rest was a number of things, all in one. First of all, it was a spiritual rest. It was a rest of trusting that God would provide, that the The sacrifices that were made, there was an atonement, there was a covering there, there was a sacrifice.

It was also a time for a mental rest. It was also a time for a physical rest. So a spiritual, physical, and mental rest, all what is the message here. Israel, you've just come out of 400 years of slavery. You need to learn rest. In fact, you need to learn how to rest in God or die.

You need to learn how to trust in God or die, and you need to learn how to rest in God or die. That's going to be your future in the land. Well, and you can just think about what that would be. Quietness in the house, quietness in the land.

There would be, there's something very special and joyful about this that God had designed. But number three, we need to move on. Positive effects. Number one, it taught the people to trust in God. Number two, the Sabbath would teach the people to completely cease their labors. And number three, it taught the people to remember God and reflect upon his work.

It was the time for remembering. God had instituted these times, these periods of rest, gave them things to do, things that they were not to do, and things that they would do, so that they would remember. Listen to what Deuteronomy 5:15. Says, 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. You shall remember who you were. You shall remember what God did for you. You shall remember what he continues to do. That is why he has given you and commanded you to observe the Sabbath. So remembering, remembering God, who he is, his concern, his covenant faithfulness, promises made to Abraham, faithfulness to his promise.

They were to remember God's salvation. They were to remember God's purpose for saving them. He had a place for them. He had something he wanted them to do. And that was to make him known. And so, as we look at this, we've looked at to whom the Sabbath was given.

We've looked at why it was given. We looked at the positive effects upon those who would have observed it. Now, what can we learn today? We're not Israel under the Mosaic. Covenant. But we can learn several things here from their example. We can understand that disregarding God is perhaps the thing that offends him most.

Disregarding God. And in our world, the closeness of the Lord's Day to the Sabbath, there is a parallel there on some level, significantly level. Nothing has changed with humanity, nothing has changed with basic needs, nothing has changed with man's basic need for spiritual, physical, and mental rest. All that's the same.

The Sabbath itself was anchored all the way back at creation, just watching with God who rested from his work. And by the way, he didn't rest because he was tired. He was reflecting upon a completed work. He was looking back and reflecting upon what he had done. And it was good.

It was very good. And so when we take time to come together at the Lord's Day, we too are entering into that time of reflection and remembrance of what God has done, his great salvation. His continual provision, his promises to us in the here and now, and that future and coming rest, ultimate rest that he has for the people of God in his holy presence.

But disregarding the Lord's Day, disregarding the daily times of devotion and all other times that God has put for you to observe, there are times and places that God wants you resting and reflecting. Listen, the Lord's Day is based upon a much better sacrifice. We meet the first day of the week.

That was the day of the resurrection. That is God's exclamation point that we are under a new covenant, one that truly does take away the sins of the world. We have a spiritual rest, complete in Christ. But we also need to take that mental break. We also need to take that physical break.

And if you don't get the Lord's Day right, it will lead to neglect, further neglect, it will lead to forgetting, it will lead to idolatry. Listen, we need to honor the Lord's Day. We're in a much more profound covenant under the new covenant. This is why the writer of Hebrews is like, be diligent, do not forget, do not neglect so great a salvation that we have in Christ.

And let me say this about the Lord's Day. It's really nice how the Lord has just given us the Lord's Day, and it really makes planning easy. Let me tell you about school work. Don't do it on the Lord's Day. Be diligent to get all your schoolwork done.

Well, you say, well, I may not be able to pass the class, then flunk it. It's more important for you to remember God. Listen, probably the conversations that happened around Israel in its time of forgetting was like, yeah, but so-and-so down the road, they got their fishing boats out there right now.

And if I don't get an early start, they're going to get the commercial advantage on me. Trust. Trust. Now, that doesn't mean blow off the other six days. No, the opposite. Be diligent so that you can have this time. So, students, set the Lord's Day apart as a family.

What if the. Baseball team meets Sunday morning. Scrap it. It's not a day for sports. It's far more important for your children to grow up going to church and being part of the Lord's Day and remembering Him than it is to become a baseball star. And by the way, probably your child isn't going to become a world-class baseball player anyway.

Maybe a couple of exceptions in the room. I don't know. But statistically speaking, what about jobs? Take Sundays off as a pattern. Don't choose a career that puts you in on the Lord's Day. Some of that's legalistic. No, we're not going back to the Mosaic code. And I recognize there's periods in time, I recognize, I'm not saying this is a moral absolute.

You cannot, but as a pattern of life, navigate that to that place where you can take the Lord's Day and you can worship together with your brothers and sisters of Christ, that you can remember who He is, you can remember God, what He has done, so that you don't neglect, so that you don't forget.

What about the place where you live? Do you have a good place, a good church? Listen, the Lord's Day, if you put that big block of time in its right place, guess what? The rest of life, even your job career, the school, Everything falls into place much easier.

Business and all. And I realize that we're all in different places right now, and God's got us. But I'm not talking like, I'm talking like a trajectory. Be moving to more and more honoring the Lord's Day. That's what I'm trying to encourage here. Not that you're in sin because your boss has you working on, but don't let that be your norm.

And stand by and watch how God provides. Trust him. That's what he was telling Israel. Look, just get enough for the day. There'll be plenty tomorrow. Oh, by the way, get twice as much on the sixth day so that there'll be plenty so that you can have this day.

Oh, and by the way, the seventh year, I've got that covered too. Take a sabbatical year, all of you. They really didn't. And so they missed the benefit of the remembering. They missed the joy, the celebration. They missed all of that. And so in that neglect, they end up neglecting God.

They end up forgetting God. And then God says, look, the way you've treated this Sabbath is now you're going to be expelled from the land. And the land is going to enjoy its Sabbaths. You see, we need rest. We need times of complete rest. We have the spiritual rest in Christ, His finished work.

We have the rest that we can spiritually just know that we're forgiven. We can know that we're right with God. We have promises of His daily provision. We have promises that He'll never leave or never forsake us. We have an advocate at the right hand of God. He is, we have become disciples in whom Jesus loves.

That is enough to satisfy the soul. We have spiritual rest. No matter what happens, we have spiritual rest. But there's more. It's also wise to take that mental break. You know, that mental break, you know, that's what we need. We need rest from the hurry, don't we? Otherwise, we end up going through life by the seat of our pants, don't we?

Reactive instead of proactive. God wants us to meditate, to think. He wants to reign with us. He wants us to learn. He wants us to not go around just reacting to everything. We need physical rest. Our bodies need that rest. So, therefore, Hebrews 4:11, let us be diligent to enter that rest.

Not just the rest in the future. Yes, enter into that great salvation, but to all the benefits that we have. So, enter into his rest now. And I think the Lord's day is one good day. Practical time that we can connect with. But also, not just the Lord's, that time of rest, that place, there needs to be a place of rest, a time of rest.

And be diligent to protect those. You see, we need to honor the Lord's Day. We need to honor our times before the Lord where we just, you know, we need times of humbling ourselves before the Lord. We need times to express our gratitude to Him, not just on the fly, in between places.

Oh, that's good too. We need times to simply just trust God. Trust God, trust God with my school, trust God with my work, trust God with my career. We also need times of reflection. We need times to reflect upon God's completed works. Ah, perfect. What he is is good and complete.

We need to reflect upon his completed works and creation and salvation. We need times of renewal. We need these times of remembering. We need places of rest as we journey through this life, as we go to our ultimate rest. Be diligent. Work hard. Protect those times. Work hard.

Be diligent those six days and watch what God does. Isaiah 30, 15, and I need to close with this thought. Isaiah 30, 15 says this: For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, In repentance and rest, you will be saved. Repentance and rest, you will be saved.

In quietness and trust is your strength. That's our strength. Quietness, trust. Repentance, rest. And a practical way to do that and to display these virtues is just simply honoring the Lord's Day and all other times of rest. And pray that God will open the avenue. If you have a heart for these times, these special times of rest and reflection and remembrance in Him, He'll grant them to you.

He'll make a way. That's what He wanted from Israel. He said, Look, I'll set it all up to where I want a relationship with you. And He knows that we need provision. We need that blank spot on the calendar. And you know what? If you have a heart to guard and protect those times, I promise you, the Lord will meet you at it.

Because that's what He wants. So, I encourage you just as you're going through and thinking about your routines and don't neglect God and don't neglect the Lord's day. Don't neglect gathering with his people. Don't neglect your personal times with him. Protect those and be diligent to protect those.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for these truths as we looked upon Israel and learned from them and help us, Father, under the new covenant to apply these things in a way that we don't become some kind of legalistic or adding traditions that go beyond, that are just nothing more than traditions of man.

But at the same token, Father, help us not to be so careless that we neglect. Help us to steward the days and years that you've given us so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom that we may grow in the big epochs of our lives.

Father, may you guide and apply these words to all of us tonight as you see fit in our unique situations. And I know there are many here who would love to be moving more and more in a time. Of being able to honor the Lord's Day more fully.

And I pray, Father, that you would open doors and make that happen. And in the meanwhile, Father, I just pray that you will continue to show them your rest in spiritual rest that we have in you and help them to take times of rest, otherwise. But, Father, I just pray now that you would guide us to where we can honor you with the times that you've given us.

In Jesus' name, amen.