Grace Bible Church & Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
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THE DOCTRINE OF THE SABBATH.

04/13/08

Our main passage is ROM 9:4 Who are Israelites, to whom is the adoption and as sons and the glory [that is the Shekinah glory], and the unconditional covenants, and the deposit of the law, [Mosaic Law], and the temple service [the service of God] and the promises.
The service of God refers to the worship of God and it's a reference to the manner of operation of the Levitical priesthood, the Levitical offerings, the articles of furniture in the tabernacle, in the temple, the Holy days, the feasts, etc. You are here for a reason and your life is to have definition and purpose. We have five purposes: 1. Worship. 2. Discipleship. 3. Fellowship. 4. Ministry. 5. Evangelism. We have begun to note the first one, worship. For example, in giving the Law for His people, God set several appointed "feasts of the Lord" for Israel to observe at specific times during the year (Lev 23). The first holy day God set aside is the Sabbath day, which was to be observed every week. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week or Saturday. The Jews rested every Saturday, and it was to remind the Jews of the principle of grace. It reminded them that there was nothing you could do for Salvation, and that there was nothing you could do to gain the approbation and the blessing of God. This has led us to the Doctrine of the Sabbath.
Point 1. Introduction. Freedom demands rest and rest demands freedom. You can never have freedom when you stop thinking. The Sabbath was a thinking day when you didn't work physically, but instead you sat somewhere, rested, and thought. There are two kinds of Sabbath: The temporal Sabbath is the faith-rest technique of the believer, this is the moment-by-moment Sabbath (HEB 3:11; HEB 4:1-7). Then there is the eternal Sabbath (MAT 11:28).
Point 2. Salvation rest (MAT 11:28).
Point 3. Supergrace rest and test.
DEU 6:10-13, “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and [given you] houses or homes full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you shall eat and be satisfied, then watch yourself, lest you forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall respect only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him, and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,”
This literally means back up your promises with His name only or with His character. This also means not follow other god’s such as money, materialism, pleasure, etc.
In DEU 8:10 “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” This is part of the Biblical premise of praying after a meal, because your satisfied and so you bless GOD, your God, for the good place He has given you, and for the good family and friends He has provided. DEU 8:11 “Beware lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today;” DEU 8:13-14, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then beware that your heart becomes proud, and that you forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt [the cosmic system], out of the house of slavery [bondage to the devil, the flesh or the OSN and the world.” We forget to remember grace and Divine blessings, so, the commandment said to remember grace. The commandment was a ritual, and has to do with what you think.
Let's look at a passage where the importance of the Sabbath is really brought out, HEB 3:7-10, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts [your way of thinking] as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial or testing in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart [system of thinking]; And they did not know My ways.’” Even though they watched God at work for forty years, they refused to accept God's way of doing things.
You are the beneficiary of many wonderful blessings from God. Yet, many of you don't even know a thing about those blessings. The Sabbath or rest that God has for you is completely neglected because of ignorance. The modern tendency of apostasy today stresses the works and production of the believer. Just like the Jews distorted the ritual Sabbath, most Christians distort the real one.
HEB 3:11 “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest.” This rest is a state in which the believer has a relaxed mental attitude no matter what the situation may look like. It is a complete trust in the character and nature of God working for you. God knew in eternity past every problem you would ever face, and He made a provision for those problems.
HEB 3:12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. This heart of unbelief is a heart without rest. Having no faith-rest is to say God is a liar. One of the greatest problems the Christian faces is fear. Fear, worry, anxiety, stress, always takes away your rest.
HEB 4:1 Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. Refusing to enter into His rest will not stop God from being glorified, but it will surely rob us. JOH 10:9-10, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have {it} abundantly.” The Lord is constantly pouring out His grace on His people while His people are constantly pouring out complaints.
HEB 4:2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. The prerequisite for entering into rest is being filled with the Holy Spirit for the believer (rebound), but it's not enough, we need the daily intake of Bible doctrine. HEB 4:4-6, For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works;” and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, This rest depends upon the faithfulness of God and not the faithfulness of man. The Lord's invitation for rest has always been available to every believer. His rest consists of specific instructions and directions, and must be accompanied with the hearing of Bible Doctrine. Faith is not blind, it is the greatest vision in the world.
HEB 4:9-12, There remains therefore 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. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Point 4. The origin of the Sabbath rest.
GEN 2:1-3, Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day God completed His work 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.
On the seventh day of the earth's restoration, everything was provided for man, and God rested in the sense that nothing else could possibly be provided for man in grace. Everything man needed at that point was provided. The principle: Since there was nothing God could add, obviously there is nothing that man can add.
Point 5. The Sabbath is given to Israel as a command from God.
EXO 20:8-11, “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 [set it apart as a holy day] for Him.”
This very change of pace was not only beneficial to them physically and mentally, but it had ultimate benefit to them in the spiritual realm because it was a reminder of grace. Also, by maintaining good health with periodic rest, this contributed to the full, free function of the mind. With loss of health, your mind becomes a slave to certain preoccupations, like pain. In Exo 16 the Sabbath was taught to the Jews in a special way.
EXO 16:22-30, Now it came about on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul, nor was there any worm in it. And Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.” And it came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and 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.”
So the people rested on the seventh day. They had received manna from heaven which represented Divine provision for the believer in time. In verse 22 on the 6th day (Friday) they were told to gather a double portion because on day 7 God wouldn't provide manna and they were not to try and gather it. This was the first specific reference to the Sabbath since GEN 2:2, when God rested. You go at from GEN 2:2 to Exo 16 and all of that time man understood the principle of the Sabbath without being forced to.
EXO 20:9-10, “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.” All work was to stop on the Sabbath for the purpose of orienting to the grace of God. The basis for this commandment is given in EXO 20:11 “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.” This one day of rest each week is not only a principle of blessing, it is also a principle of freedom.
Point 6. The Sabbatical Year of Israel.
The Sabbatical year is tied to the Biblical concept of the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week and a time of rest. The Sabbatical years provided a form of regular debt release to stabilize social and economic gaps in society. According to the Bible, during the seventh year all land had to be left untilled and unplanted, and debts from close neighbors that had been unpaid during the previous six years were to be cancelled. This command can be divided into three different concerns: First, the environmental concerns that overuse of the land would make it unusable. Secondly, some of the commands covered debt concerns. Because of drought and other cyclical crop failures, the poor needed to be allowed to start over and not languish in poverty. Thirdly, land ownership and management concerns affected families in inter-generational settings. The Sabbatical year was intended to be not simply a year of leisure, but also one of religious instruction and exercises. EXO 23:10-11 we read, “And you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield or crops, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat;[in the seventh year leave it alone and give it a rest so that your poor may eat from it] and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.” A release of debts owed by Israelite to Israelite was made. Then look at LEV 25:3-4, “Six years you shall sow your field, and 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.” However, as usual, they did not obey God. So, In LEV 26:33-37 we read “You, however, 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 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 on it. As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them and even when no one is pursuing, they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies.” Every seven years, the Jews were supposed to stop work. If they had been functioning properly under supergrace, then this was really a year's vacation in which they didn't have to work. This was a great test to see if they had entered supergrace or not. Could they trust God to provide everything for them? If so, it was no problem. If not, they were like squirrels who hadn't gathered nuts for the winter.
Now, it is very interesting that the failure of the Jews to observe the sabbatical year was the basis for determining how long they would stay under the fifth cycle of discipline. From the Exodus until the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom, they had accumulated 490 years in which they had not observed even one sabbatical year as a nation. Over a period of 490 years they had accumulated seventy lost sabbatical years. God told the southern kingdom in 586 B.C. that since they had missed seventy sabbatical years, therefore He would give them those seventy years (that’s 490) in slavery. Therefore, the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline lasted for seventy years (LEV 26:33-36; 2CH 36:20-21; DAN 9:2; JER 25:11-12; JER 29:10). 2CH 36:20-21, And those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.
What was the word of the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah? Look at it in JER 25:11-12, “And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.” Then look at JER 29:10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”’ So the Jews had to be reminded about the sabbath. For 6 years they planted as much as they wanted to and operated under the principle of free enterprise, but on the 7th year they were to stop. However, the Jews would not do that. They completely rationalized the 7th year sabbath away. In reality, the sabbath never meant a thing to most of the Jews. So when the first 7 year sabbath came they didn't observe it, 14 years later they again did not observe it, and this went on until finally in a period of 490 years in Jewish history they had missed 70 sabbath years. So because they didn’t want to rest when God told them to rest, He would bring about the rest Himself. So they went into 70 years of captivity in Chaldea and Persia. They have actually served 69 of those and God still owes 1 more (7 years) according to DAN 9:24-25.
Point 7. The year of Jubilee.
LEV 25:8 “You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, {namely,} forty-nine years.” This could be called a super sabbatical year. After forty-nine years (in which there were seven sabbatical years), the fiftieth year was called the year of Jubilee; it was a sabbath year also. During the year of Jubilee, all the real estate in the land went back to its original owners, all the businesses went back to their original owners; everything reverted back to how it was in year one. All slaves were to be freed, and whatever was their portion of land allotted to them by tribe and by the system was given back to them. So, no matter what you ever owned, it was all, always on a lease basis, and you were never to keep any of it past the year of Jubilee. This same principle applies to all of us, everything that we have or own is only on lease. Now, of course if the Jews wouldn't even keep the sabbath once a week, you can be sure that the Jews violated this one also. So, the Lord knew that they were not going to observe the Sabbath year. He gave them another chance. He gave them what was called the year of jubilee (yobel).
Point 8. Profaning the Sabbath was Associated with Idolatry and the Apostasy of the Jews (EZE 23:37-39). EZE 23:38 “Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths.”
Point 9. Sabbath Violation Occurred even after the Restoration or the Jews were Restored Back to Their Promise Land. NEH 13:15 In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food. Jeremiah taught the Jews in JER 17:21 'Thus says the Lord, "Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. They rejected this command concerning the Sabbath, just like many believers today reject the command to rest. Nehemiah found the people not only doing business on the Sabbath, but also doing their daily work and carrying unnecessary burdens.
NEH 13:16-21, Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem. Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day? Did not your fathers do the same so that our God brought on us, and on this city, all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath.” And it came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates that no load should enter on the sabbath day. Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem. Then I warned them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you.” From that time on they did not come on the sabbath.
Nehemiah took three steps toward changing the situation. First, he rebuked the Jews who were working and selling on the Sabbath and made them stop. Secondly, he rebuked the nobles for allowing business on the Sabbath Day, reminding them that the nation's violation of the Sabbath was one cause for their captivity. Thirdly, he ordered the gates of the city to be shut on the Sabbath Day. The guards had been willing to open the gates to the Gentile merchants, possibly because they were bribed; so Nehemiah put some of his own servants on duty. He also ordered the Levites to set a good example on the Sabbath and minister to the people.

THE DOCTRINE OF REST. FROM THE PROMISES OF GOD.

04/20/08

The Doctrine of Rest.
Point 1. Definition. Rest is having peace in soul which means that you are free from worrying, from anxiety, and from frustration. However, there is also another side to rest. It also means to remain confident. If you're at rest, you'll remain confident. The Church-age believer does not have a Saturday Sabbath. It didn't work too well for the Jews. So, for the Church-age, God increased it, and gave us a moment-by-moment Sabbath, that is the faith-rest technique taught in HEB 4:1-3. This is the principle by which the believer enters into the supergrace life.
Your moment-by-moment Sabbath means your spiritual advance, and your annual sabbatical is comparable to the supergrace life.
llustrations of this moment-by-moment Sabbath, or the dynamics of faith-rest.
Abraham. ROM 4:19-20, and without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.
Moses at the Red sea (EXO 14:10-14). This is when Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the deliverance of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
Caleb and the giants (Num 13-14), this is an illustration of the supergrace life and the moment by moment rest.
So, it is inevitable that the daily perception of Bible doctrine and the function of the faith-rest technique will eventually lead to the supergrace life. Rest also means to trust under extreme pressure. The most popular Hebrew word for rest is the word nuwach which means to settle down, something many people need to do. It means to be at rest from troubles and anxieties. Loipoi, the most popular New Testament word for rest and it means rest and recreation. God wants you to have recreation in the your life and this includes the spiritual realm. Another Greek word in the New Testament for rest is anapauo, which means to cease from work in order to receive strength. So, we will translate rest as the state of mind in which there is complete and total peace being free from worries, anxieties and fears. That's the definition.
Point 2. Introduction. The manifestation of the glory of God within.
There is a manifestation of the glory of God in you. HEB 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. If you have believed in Jesus Christ, then you are at the beginning of entering into God's rest. It is beginning of the manifestation of the glory of God in you. When a believer reveals the glory of God, there will be one basic characteristic that follows them around, and that is rest. This is why HEB 3:19 tells us And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. The reason why many believers are anxious, worried, and living in fear is because of unbelief. Because of this they become very critical, judgmental, and have no relaxation toward the details of life at all. This is because they refuse to enter into the rest that God has for their lives. As HEB 4:10 says For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. In other words, you are to enter into a New Testament Sabbath, which requires you to learn how to rest. This is what a lot of believers do not know how to do. If the believer does not rest, and tries to accomplish things on his own then he enters into a temporal death which is a separation from God. This is because they are trying to make certain things happen when God has given them rest. What is the day that God has given you for rest? The answer is every day that you wake up is another opportunity for you to enter into His rest. Many people do not understand God's rest. They struggle with restlessness, and they usually blame others. However, your resting place starts in your very own altar. You have an altar that starts in your soul. Your altar goes way beyond prayer, although prayer is a part of your altar, but so is learning, serving, giving, etc. Therefore, as a believer you should ask yourself where do all these struggles, fears, insecurities, worries, anxieties, concerns come from? They come from a great enemy that we all have which is fear.
What is the Sabbath, or this rest that God has for us, based upon? EXO 33:12-16, Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, Thou dost say to me ‘Bring up this people!’ But Thou Thyself hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Moreover, Thou hast said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people. And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” How else will it be known that You're with me and Your people? How else will we know that we're special among all other people on this planet Earth?
EXO 33:17-19, And the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
God's glory is revealed by His grace, and by His mercy. God says He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious, and will be compassionate to whom He will be compassionate. Mercy, or compassion, is that which deals with the past in our lives, our mistakes and our failures. Grace gives us the power in the present and the power for the future. You have to understand these two specific principles of grace and mercy if you are ever going to have rest with God. If you don't have rest with God you won't have rest with yourself. If you don't have rest with yourself you won't have rest with others. Remember that the Bible says, “You shall love your neighbor as or while you love yourself.” Before you can ever love others, you have to learn how to love yourself. Arrogance, guilt, condemnation, and fear, torments a person's soul unless the individual discovers what real biblical rest is all about. Why should you have rest as a believer? Well there is only one reason; because God promised that He will be gracious and merciful (compassionate) to you. Therefore, no matter how bad you fail, how bad you've fallen, the promise is still grace and mercy to you as a child of God. Even Divine discipline is a revelation of His grace.
When Moses asked to see the glory of God, that manifestation of God's glory was grace and mercy. The manifestations of the glory of God from God, is His grace and mercy, but the manifestation of the Glory of God in us, is rest. If we have rest within us, we manifest His glory. His glory from Him is the manifestation of His grace and mercy. His glory in us is different. It's you and I manifesting to Him, and to the world that we are at rest no matter what the situation may be. We are at rest because as the Lord Jesus Christ has said, He has finished the work.
Point 3. Rest is also a fulfillment of the promises of God.
The Lord has promised you rest. In fact, God has promised rest for all those who come to Him. However, if you don't live in God's promises, which are based upon His character and nature, you won't have rest. The writer of Hebrews says that if you want to live in fear of something, live in fear that you don't live in the promises of God (HEB 4:1). The Lord Jesus Christ made a promise to everyone of us that come unto Him. MAT 11:28-29, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” The problem is that most individuals do not want to learn. Rest comes first from going to Him, that's His promise, and secondly, if you learn from Him, you will find rest for your souls. The second time rest is used here, it means to refresh yourself. The Christian life is to be one of refreshment. Every day the things of this world are designed to take away your freshness; to make you stale, dull, passive and slothful. That's why LAM 3:23 says, Every morning He is waiting to meet you and His grace and His mercy and His faithfulness are there. In ISA 30:18 He's is tapping His foot waiting to be gracious to you. Rest for your life does not depend upon you striving to produce it, but rest depends upon you resting in His promise that He will give you rest. Not one word of His promise has ever failed.
Let's look at the Hebrew word for rest in this passage. Menuwchah means a marriage with rest or a resting place, it means to settle in a particular place. The Lord hasn't just given you a moment-by-moment rest, but He has given you a marriage with rest. It is a life-time guarantee, that's what a marriage means to the Lord. Menuwchah also means a condition of rest, a place of rest, and a habitation of rest. This tells us that the Lord has not only promised you rest daily, He has promised you rest for all eternity. Some of you have been waiting for a proposal, well here it is: Rest is asking for you to marry it, waiting for you to say, yes. Many believers are trying to reach a goal that they have already been graciously promised, which is rest and peace. We all have the opportunity for what we are secretly searching for and it's within ourselves because of the life of Christ. Again, here is the promise that the Lord Jesus Christ made: “If you come to Me, I will give you rest.” But we cant stop there because He says in the next verse, “Take My yoke upon you [walk with Me and work with Me] for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” This seems to be a strange paradox in light of the fact that the average believer, already weary and overloaded must take a new weight upon him in order to find rest. But this advice is based upon two passages, PSA 55:22 Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you [Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders]; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. 1PE 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. If you think that your problems are overwhelming, think of what our Lord went through for others. For the prophet Isaiah wrote that our Lord was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (ISA 53:3). The writer of Hebrews said “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. Think of it, you who think you have problems that are so intense and no one really seems to care or understand. What kind of yoke did our Lord endure? He endured the mocking by leaders and others in LUK 23:35. They also tried to stone Him to death in JOH 8:59. In PSA 22:16 they pierced His hands and His feet. People that He loved, and that He died for, stood up and began to give false testimony about Him in MAR 14:57. In LUK 22:48, His close friend, whom He trusted betrayed Him. People spat in His face, and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him in MAT 26:67. Still in LUK 23:34 we read But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (See also ZEC 13:6; JOH 1:11; MAT 9:34; MAT 11:19; MAT 26:65-66; MAR 3:21-22; MAR 3:30;). In addition to all that, He went through an experience that was the worst experience of all, having God the Father forsake Him in MAT 27:46.
So, our Lord says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Why did our Lord say that after knowing all that He would go through? HEB 12:2-3 answers this, Be concentrating our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart [become discouraged].
Continuing on from MAT 11:30 (there are no breaks in the original) MAT 12:1 At that time [after He had just taught them about rest] Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads {of grain} and eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” Once again the Pharisees were sticking their collective noses into other peoples affairs.
Point 4. The purpose of rest.
Why is it that God wants to give you rest? Rest is given because it's the only cure for sorrows, fears, and bondage. However, rest is the medicine to heal you from sorrows, difficulties and fears (2TI 1:7). You must have a sound mind or else you can forget about the power and love that you need. The Apostle John tells us in 1JO 4:18 that fear has torment. ROM 8:15 says, For you have not received the spirit of bondage [there is your promise again], but you have received the spirit of adoption. In ISA 14:3-7 we see that the purpose of rest is to deliver you from your fears, your sorrows, and your bondages. ISA 14:3-7, And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved, that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, {And how} fury has ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, The scepter of rulers Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes, Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution. The whole earth is at rest {and} is quiet;” They break forth into shouts of joy.
The Hebrew word for rest here is nuwach, which is a special kind of rest, it means to replace your sorrows, fears, and bondage with the comfort of rest and peace. Many believers are enslaved to their troubles and the details of life. Every day things take place that feed this sorrow and bondage (JER 49:23). Many are ridden with guilt and condemnation which determines how they are going to live that day. But, God's rest will give you comfort. It will give you freedom from guilt and condemnation. It will replace your fears, sorrows and bondages with His comfort and peace. There is only one thing stopping you from receiving that rest and that is your very own unbelief. It's not what your spouse did to you, or what your parents did to you, or anything else, the one and only thing stopping you is what you are doing to yourself. The purpose of rest is to give us confidence and to give us Divine deliverance. No matter how good, moral, or sweet we are, no matter how much we pray, serve, honor, or give, if we are not at rest, we are not operating in proper motivation. When you are not at rest, it's time for you to change your system of thinking. It is in repentance or changing your mind and resting that you will be delivered.
Point 5. Bible Doctrine Is the Guide to Lead God's People to Rest.
Bible doctrine is the Lord's way of leading you to rest. Without it (Bible doctrine) you'll will never have rest.
ISA 28:9-16, To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there. Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen. So the word of the Lord to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by. For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.”
The first rest is the Hebrew word menuwchach, this is the rest, or the condition of rest, the marriage of rest. The second rest is nuwach, to give comfort and rest from troubles and anxieties. So, it is saying that doctrine is making a proposal for you to marry it so that it will give you rest from your sorrows and heartaches and from your guilt. Doctrine is the object of your unbelief or that which you are unbelieving towards. Once you have doctrine, it will cause you to rest. Doctrine leads you to the person of Christ and to reject doctrine is to reject the rest that God has for your life.
Point 6. Rest is said to be the inheritance of people of God.
Have you ever stopped and thought that you are an heir to the throne? You're not just some inconsequential member of the human race merely existing. You are said to be an heir to the throne of God, God loves you, and you're an heir, you're a king, you're a priest. In Deu 12, rest is said to be the inheritance of the people of God. DEU 12:9 “for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.” Until now you haven't arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that your God is giving you. DEU 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,” He'll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You'll be able to settle down and live in safety.
DEU 12:11-12, “then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God shall choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, [celebrate in the presence of GOD] you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he [the Levite] has no portion or inheritance with you.
PSA 37:7 says “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” This time the word for rest is the Hebrew word damam to stop everything you're doing and be astonished at Him, occupied with Him. It means if you have problems right now, just stop everything you're doing and be astonished at Him. What happens with most believers is that the problem comes and they immediately freak out, and all they do is concentrate on the problem. They don't stop everything that they are doing, rather they start doing more than they have ever done before. They should have stop everything they're doing and rest in the Lord. In His time, He has a purpose, He has a reason for everything that happens in your life, He even knows even the numbers of hairs upon your head (MAT 10:30). He will come through for you.
Point 7. The Opposition to Rest.
In Deu 25, the opposition to God's rest is the believers flesh. You have an enemy that goes with you wherever you go, and its job is to try and see to it that you are not at rest, that enemy is your flesh your old sin nature (OSN). The duty of the OSN is to fight against the rest that God has for you. JOH 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
Remember that in EPH 2:1-2, there are three enemies that you face; “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins [your flesh], in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world [the cosmic system], according to the prince of the power of the air [the devil],”

THE DOCTRINE OF REST. PART 2.

04/27/08

We are noting the Doctrine of Rest.
Point 7 in our study: The Opposition to Rest.
In Deu 25, the opposition to God's rest is the believers flesh. You have an enemy that goes with you wherever you go, and it is trying make sure that you are not at rest; that enemy is your flesh. In DEU 25:17-19, the Lord told Moses to teach the children of Israel, “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, [Amalek is a type of the flesh] how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear [the ones not moving forward at the proper speed] when you were faint and weary; and he did not respect God. Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.”
Amalek is a type of the flesh that tries to make you weary. You are most vulnerable at times when you have just had a victory, that's when your rest is in danger of being taken away. In verse 19 the word for rest is nuach which is the rest that gives us comfort and freedom from worrying, so it is a refreshing rest. There's another principle to note concerning opposition to rest, and that is sin, David said in PSA 38:3 that he had no rest because of his sin. Sin takes away your rest, your pleasure and deprives you of rest. Sin condemns us, accuses, and destroys us. That's why the believer must come to a place to learn how to receive the rest of God. LAM 1:3 teaches that the believer can find no rest among the heathen or those who live in the cosmic system. They couldn't find a resting place in the world, because only God can provide that. They couldn't find a marriage with rest because they had entered into spiritual adultery. JAM 4:4 says, You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Unrest is also described as the inevitable result of the unbeliever, REV 14:11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Pretty serious words from a God who has fulfilled over 300 prophecies perfectly and completely and has proven over and over again that what He says will happen, happens. Although this verse speaks of the eternal lake of fire, it also speaks temporarily of those that are involved with the cosmic system. Your greatest enemy taking away your rest is your very own flesh.
Rest is also related to the home. In Ruth 1:9, Naomi had told her two daughters-in-law to go and find rest in the house of their own husbands, RUT 1:9 “May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Again we have the Hebrew word for a marriage with rest. Many women find no rest in life because they are not at rest at home with their husbands, this is because of the principle of 1PE 3:1-7, and of course vice-versa is true as well. They are in constant struggle with each other, and so they never have any rest. 1PE 3:7 tells us that this is why prayers are not answered in many marriages. Certain prayers are not answered because they are hindered on account of domestic problems. So rest has a tremendous relationship to the home. Rest at home is where rest really begins. For example, PRO 29:17 tells us that if we correct our children, they will give us rest, a household that has discipline, has rest. This is why God's love and God's word will solve any domestic problem that you will ever have. It may not work out as some people want it to, but it will work out for those who operate in God's word with Divine viewpoint.
ISA 11:10 tells us that His rest is said to be glorious, Then it will come about in that day That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious. God's word is glorious and will give you rest. God will give you the rest that you need to handle the situations in life. If you let God give you rest, no matter how difficult things at home may be, His rest is so glorious that He will come through for you.
Now, all of this truly begins, and becomes easier to attain, when you understand that the power on the inside of the believer is greater than any attacks from the cosmic system. The Power that you possess is greater then worries, anxieties, fears, distress, troubles, phobias, panic, shock, tensions, etc. 1JO 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome all the things of this world them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. The Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. The power of the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and Bible doctrine is a greater power than anything in the world. Whatever comes against you from the outside can't stand up to what is on the inside of you, because the Greater One lives inside of you. You have already won the victory! Satan's strategy is to try and deflate you; to stop you from reaching your goal. However, God has the final say, and He has already spoken. We fall down, we get up, over and over again. Remember that the saints are just the sinners, who fall down, and get up. The Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan and the kingdom of darkness at the Cross once and for all, that means for all time.
COL 2:14-15, having cancelled out the certificate of debt which was against us by means of the decrees, and which [certificate of debt] was hostile to us and He [by means of the decrees] has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the Cross]. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
Point 8. Rest Is Also the Result of Submitting to a Local Assembly.
This means we are to truly submit to a local assembly, and the authority of the pastor-teacher. Whenever we mention authority we must back it up scripturally, because of all the attacks made against the pastor's authority. Satan knows the value of authority, so he attacks it especially in the spiritual realm. No believer can attain spiritual maturity, and become an invisible hero or glorify God, apart from perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine. This means that no believer can simply read the Bible and attain spiritual maturity. The Bible is our textbook, but the gift of pastor-teacher is designed to communicate the specifics of the mystery doctrine that cause spiritual growth (EPH 4:11-13). Doctrine must be learned under authority, and that authority is vested in the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. Pastors don't rule over you in the sense of telling you what to do, but in the sense of teaching you what God expects from you and how to execute His plan. You submit to the pastors' authority in listening to their communication of doctrine.
There is a tremendous form of Divine protection given the pastor because of his office. The pastor's authority is established on the basis of the teaching of Bible doctrine. Hence, the issue is not the man, but always the message (1PE 5:2; 2TI 4:2). The man who is willing to accept all the pressure that comes from his calling, such as double discipline and undeserved suffering, better be prepared for the calling. 1TI 4:10 For because of this [communication of Bible doctrine], we work hard to the point of exhaustion, and we hang in there tough because we have confidence in the living God who is the Savior of all men. The pastor's authority is documented many places throughout the scripture (ACT 20:28; 1PE 5:2). So without a local assembly the believer is without rest. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule, but this is the basic principle. David gave us a spiritual principle concerning this in 1CH 23:25 For David said, “The Lord God of Israel has given rest to His people, and He dwells in Jerusalem forever.”
Jerusalem is said to be the mother of us all. Jerusalem is the type of Church in GAL 4:25, and a church can certainly become your resting place. Things can be bad in the home, or on the job, but when you come to the local assembly you should receive edification (EPH 1:22-23). Therefore, when you are a part of a local assembly where people love and serve God; a place where the word of God is being spoken accurately, you will end up being benefited by it and you'll receive all the rest that you need. When you walk out of the doors of the local assembly you are free to have the rest and peace needed in confronting the situations that life brings.
ACT 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in the respect for the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
The Greek word oikodomeo means to build a house, here it refers to building a soul structure. So notice a church with rest is edified (that's the soul structure), because of this they walked in reverent respect or occupation with the Lord. They enjoyed and experienced the comforting ministry of God the Holy Spirit (GAL 5:22), who manifests His fruit in us, and they are increased or multiplied. The rest in a local assembly causes the believers to be a soul winners, they want loved ones to have the same thing that they do. The rest comes from the wisdom that is to rest in the believers soul. PRO 14:33 Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, but in the bosom of fools it is made known. Whatever rests in the heart of the believer will determine the mental attitude and your overt behavior. Is it guilt, fear, condemnation, or is it the word of God dwelling richly within? It either going to be stress or rest. Each of us has within ourselves the power to decide how to interpret stressful events. We can do it with humor; we can do it with wisdom. Sometimes we can use compassion, sometimes we can use patience and sometimes we can just accept the situation for what it is. But, you always remain humble and at rest.
When you have a servant's heart, you're humble and at rest within yourself. You respect those in charge, you serve faithfully and quietly without concern over who gets the credit. That was just how King David was, and God looked at David, out in the fields in the foothills surrounding Bethlehem, keeping his father's sheep, faithfully doing his father's bidding, and God put His approval on him. A true servant doesn't care who gets the glory. A servant has one great goal, and that is to make the person he serves look better, to make that person even more successful. A servant does not want the person he serves to fail. A servant doesn't care who thinks what, just as long as the job gets done. So while David's brothers were off in the army making rank and fighting big, impressive battles, David was all alone keeping the sheep. God loved His servant's heart.
Point 9. God's Attitude of Rest Toward the Believer.
God's attitude toward the believer is a vital principle for you to understand concerning the doctrine of rest. One of the problems most believers face is talking too much and listening too little. This is why the Bible says that when you come into the house of the Lord your God be not rash with your mouth to utter anything before God (ECC 5:1-2). There are going to be some difficulties you will have to face when you go to the house of God. Everything is not going to be perfect. You can very easily get your eyes stuck on people. In fact, many people withdraw from a local assembly because of personality conflicts with others. But, if you're on the way to the house of God, the place where doctrine is being taught, and the word of God can do all things, then you can bet that the kingdom of darkness has designed a plan to try and distract you from hearing the word of God. If the kingdom of darkness is not successful in hindering you from coming to Bible class, then it will try to hinder you from receiving the word of God once you are in Bible class. That results in cramming your mind with your problems instead of the Divine mental attitude of rest. Remember the kingdom of darkness can hinder you from being at the place you ought to be, 1TH 2:18 “For we wanted to come to you I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us. Not only can you be hindered from coming to the house of God, you can also be distracted while you're on your way! It may be the children acting up and fighting in the back seat making you miserable. It might be an argument between the passengers, a disagreement between husband and wife, or amongst friends. The point is that you need to be careful of anything that can distract you and get you involved with the mental attitude sins which will disturb your concentration on the word of God. You may even be all alone, and suddenly these terrible thoughts begin to come to your mind. You don't know where they're coming from, but they are designed to take your mind off the real purpose from coming, which is concentration on the word of God. Remember that the word of God is alive and powerful.
So, Solomon puts it this way in ECC 5:1 “Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools;
This means that when people go to the house of God, they are to be involved in true worship which is listening. Listening to the communication of the word of God, hearing what God's word has to say. Worship is a very interesting word and many people do not know what it really means. The ultimate form of worship is the communication of Bible doctrine. That's why our Lord said in MAT 15:9 “But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” Note that our Lord equated teaching with worship. In JOH 4:23-24 He said “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Truth is needed in true worship, and it is truth that must be taught! In ACT 18:13 Paul was accused of “persuading men to worship God contrary to the law,” meaning that worship in the Old Testament had to do with the doctrine found in the Law, but now the New Testament form of worship is found in learning the mystery doctrine of the Church-age.
The highest form of worship is either teaching Bible doctrine or receiving Bible doctrine. All of the nonsense that you see today with excessive singing and raising hands, and clapping and yelling out pious “amens” is not worship. True worship is either teaching or listening to Bible Doctrine. You do more worshipping by sitting and listening and concentrating under the filling of the Spirit then you could ever do while doing anything else. PSA 138:2 says “I will bow down toward Your holy temple and will praise Your name for Your love and Your faithfulness, for You have exalted above all things Your name and Your word.” In fact, we should never forget that all of us will be judged and evaluated based upon our love and desire for God's word. In JOH 12:48, the Lord said “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My doctrines, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”
So in ECC 5:1 “Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they do not know they are doing evil.” Solomon is saying that true worship is listening to the word of God or your perception of Bible doctrine! The sacrifice of fools is referring to meaningless rituals! The sacrifice of fools is religion! God is not interested in any of these things, He is interested in His word, which is active and living, alive and powerful always changing your life for the better, and giving you the information you need to be at rest in your souls. Knowledge learned and then applied is what gives you rest.
Sadly today, worldly problems and human plans are brought not only to the very door, but even into the house of God itself. That's why the house of the Lord is not to sell things. No restaurant or a book store or the selling of tickets etc. And if you say, it’s alright if it’s for the Lord, JOH 2:16 says “And to those who were selling the doves [the doves were for the sacrifice to the Lord]away; stop making My Father's house a house of merchandise.”
Just think of all the people going through various types of ritual and tradition and the Bible says they do not know they are doing evil! HEB 3:10-11; They always go astray in their heart; And they did not know My ways, therefore, as I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’
Point 10. The Believers Responsibility and The Means to Rest.
The Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel that He was going to feed the flock and cause them to lie down. EZE 34:15 “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest," declares the Lord God.
Again it is spiritual food which causes us to rest. Now when the Lord gives you rest it's for a specific purpose. What is one of the reasons?
2Ch 14:6-7, And he built fortified cities in Judah, since the land was undisturbed, and there was no one at war with him during those years, because the Lord had given him rest, because we have sought the Lord our God; He has given us rest on every side.
So they built and prospered. So because the Lord gave them rest on every side, they took that opportunity to build and prosper. When the Lord gives you rest it's for you to build. No matter what kind of enemy you're faced with, He is our peace and rest. When He gives you rest, it's not a time for you to get lazy and slothful, impassive doctrinally. It's a time to build up your soul with more doctrine! You are the beneficiary of many wonderful blessings from God. Yet like many people if you do not know these things you will lose out. Many people live as paupers on earth when they are related to a God who controls the entire universe. The modern tendency today of apostasy stresses the works of the believer and the production of the believer rather than the rest of God, which is why many people have been denied these blessings. The problem today is the believers ignorance of Bible doctrine. Your biggest enemy is your own ignorance. People constantly live in their relationship to God rather than God's relationship to them. This is why they make so many mistakes. The tendency today in these times of apostasy, is to put all the pressure on you as a believer to get you to work and to get you to perform.
HEB 3:7-10, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. “Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart; And they did not know My ways;”
When God gets down to indicting you He doesn't mention your failures to do this or that, He mentions that you have erred in your heart and you have not known His ways. When God gets down to indicting you, He does so for your stupidity and your ignorance. This is because you are living on earth as a loser when He has given you the equipment and artillery to make you an overcomer and a winner. Serving, giving, loving, and praying all happens after learning Bible doctrine. So, the main problem in the life of most believers is no doctrine. The reason why most believers cannot be distinguished from unbelievers: No doctrine. Ignorance of Bible doctrine means a breakdown with the faith-rest life.

Grace Bible Church & Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Copyright © 2022 by Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
Gbible.org

LESSON RESOURCES:
2112 123 The Sabbath to remind us of the principle of grace and rest.
04 06 08 Rom 9:4; Heb 3:7 13; Heb 4:1 7; Gen 2:1 3.

2112 124 The Sabbath to remind us of the principle of grace and rest. Part 2.
04 09 08 Rom 9:4; Eph 2:10; Mat 28:19 20; Deu 6:10 14; 8:7 10.

2112 125 The Sabbath to remind us of the principle of grace and rest. Part 3.
04 10 08 Gen 2:1 3; Col 1:9 13; Exo 20:8 11; 16:1 30.

2112 126 The Sabbath to remind us of the principle of grace and rest. Part 4.
04 11 08 Isa 58:13 59:1; Exo 23:10 11; Lev 25:3 4; Lev 26:33 37.

2112 127 The Sabbath to remind us of the principle of grace and rest. Part 5.
04 13 08 Isa 58:13 14; 1Co 15:20 23; Jam 1:18; Col 2:16 17.

2112 128 The Doctrine of Rest from the principle of grace and mercy, Part 1.
04 16 08 Mar 16:1 9; Rom 14:4 6; Lam 3:22 25; Heb 4:3.

2112 129 The Doctrine of Rest from the promises of God. Part 2.
04 17 08 Mat 11:28, 29; Heb 12:2, 3 Mat 12:1, 2.

2112 130 The Doctrine of Rest. The guide to lead God's people to rest.
04 18 08 Isa 28:9 13; Psa 95:6 11; Jer 6:16 17; Deu 12:9 12.

2112 131 The Doctrine of Rest. Part 4. The Opposition to Rest.
04 20 08 Rom 7:14, 18; 8:5 14; 13:14; Deu 25:17 19.

2112 132 The Doctrine of Rest. Part 5. Learning the value of authority and humility.
04 23 08 Deu 25:17 19; Rev 14:11; Col 2:14 15; Eph 4:11 13.

2112 133 The Doctrine of Rest. Part 6. God's attitude of rest towards the believer.
04 24 08 Isa 32:17 18; Ecc 5:1 2.

2112 134 The Doctrine of Rest. The believer's responsibility and means to rest.
04 25 08 Heb 3:14 4:12; Heb 5:14; 1Ti 4:7 8.

2112 135 The greater and more perfect tabernacle.
04 27 08