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a long number 24 a single together on the first and can it be that I should gain an interest in the savior was one died he bore me for me who him to death pursued amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me he left his father's throne above so free so infinite his grace emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race his mercy all immense and free for oh my god it found out me amazing love how can it be that though my god should die for me long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night nine i defuse a quickening ray i woke the dungeon flame with life my chains fell off my heart was free i rose went forth and followed the amazing love how can it be that though my God should find for me amen great singing let's bow to word of prayer jeremy father we just thank you that we could be here with your people just to hear from your word tonight and i just pray you bless the message help our our help our hearts and our ears to be open to it and help us to apply it to our lives and please fill pastor shelly with your holy spirit right now in jesus name amen next is going to be 199 let the joy overflow again that's 199 it's kind of a newer one so i don't know if everybody's heard this one and if it's not it's on the the faithful word app if you don't have it they have a lot of stuff on there this message is brought to you in par by faithful word baptist 199 let the joy overflow sing all together on the first there's a clear fountain flowing from the bright throne above and its waters are glowing with the sunshine of love take the blessed consolation which the Lord the Lord will bestow take the blip of salvation let the joy overflow oh the joy with this wondrous salvation be our hearts all aglow oh the joy oh let the blessing run over and joy overflow many hearts need the story are a thirst for his grace go to them with his glory shining out from your face tell of jesus your savior if his mercies you know to the light of his favor let the joy overflow oh the joy with this wondrous salvation be our hearts all ago oh the joy let the blessing run over and joy overflow be our lives freely yielded to the savior's command by his care ever shielded and upheld by his hand and the pathways of sadness sweetest lilies may grow let us sow seeds of gladness let the joy overflow oh the joy with this wondrous salvation be our hearts all aglow oh the joy let the blessing run over and joy overflow amen thank you for coming to steadfast baptist church it's like the red hot preaching comments here just how hot it is no i'm just kidding and uh on the inside we have our service soul winning times please make sure to report all your numbers to brother dylan as far as soul winning totals and get him your maps afterwards so we can keep a good track on that um just so i don't forget the van the van at five anything outside of of soul winning from the van please report that you're so wanting captain um on the right we have the list of expecting ladies we have our prayer list uh please definitely make sure you're praying for the goodwin family also we had 76 salvations for our soul winning seminar praise the lord for those who participated there is still some handouts on the back table at least there was this morning i'll try to put that information online as well and so if you'd like any of that information you can check that out it's a great way to just start going soul winning or getting better um also we have a couple soul winning events some people have already they listened the message and they applied it they emailed me and said they're ready to take the van uh down to college station so if that's you you want church transportation or our soul winning event this coming up saturday please just email the church if not we'll just see you there i'll make a video monday or tuesday to let you know exactly where we're meeting so if you're planning on traveling yourself i'll make a public video with that information as well as emailing everybody in the church where we're going to be meeting uh for breakfast and lunch um also we have our tribe competition still going with baptisms and if you're just too hot just go baptize yourself real quick so that's a great way to cool off as well that's pretty much all i had for announcements let's go to our third song brother duncan 419. the sound the battle cry 419. 419 let's sing it all together on the first sound the battle cry see the foe is nigh raise the standard high for the lord gird your armor on stand firm everyone rest your cause upon his holy word rows and soldiers rally round the banner ready steady pass the word along onward forward shout aloud hosanna christ is captain of the mighty throng strong to meet the foe marching on we go while our cause we know must prevail shield and banner bright gleaming in the light battling for the right we ne'er can fail rows and soldiers rally round the banner ready steady pass the word along onward forward shout aloud hosanna christ is captain of the mighty throng oh thou god of all hear us when we call help us one and all by thy grace when the battle's done and the victory's won may we wear the ground before thy face rouse and soldiers rally round the banner ready steady pass the word along onward forward shout aloud hosanna christ is captain of the mighty throng amen great singing Turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2 as the offering plates are being passed around Genesis chapter 2 the Bible reads thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created and the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens and every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the site good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil and a river went out of eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted he came into four heads the name of the first is paisan that is it which composite the whole land of havila where there is gold and the gold of that land is good there is bdellium and the onyx stone and the name of the second river is gihon the same is it that composite the whole land of the of ethiopia and the name of the third river is hidekel that is it which goeth toward the east of asyria the fourth river is euphrates and the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of eden to dress it and to keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die and the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone i will make him and help meet for him and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field every fowl of the air and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever adam called every living creature that was the name thereof and adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field but for adam there was not found and help meet for him and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman brought her unto the man adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of a man therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh and they were both naked the man and his wife and were not ashamed amen so we're finishing our series on genesis day seven of creation and as my wife said it's done so i guess we can go home so no i'm just kidding uh day seven it says in verse number one of chapter two says thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them and on the seventh day god ended his work which he had made and rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and god blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that and it he had rested from all his work which god created and made these are the generations of the heaven the earth when they were created so according to the bible we have seven days of creation as it were however the seventh day is a special day in which nothing actually happened in the sense that there was nothing created there was nothing formed all of god's creations were done in the first six days but instead of creating something physical god creates something kind of spiritual with the seventh day something metaphorical which is known as the sabbath day it's later in the scriptures known as the sabbath day go if you would to exodus chapter number 20 for a moment go to exodus chapter number 20 and it's not that far from genesis we get this wording of of the sabbath day now in the bible the sabbath is also just a rest day so there is a specific day called the sabbath which is the seventh day of every single week on that day there would be no there would be no work done and as the bible describes it in some places no servile work so essentially it'd be kind of like having a day off from your job you know you're not necessarily going to work anymore it doesn't mean that you're not you know going to pick yourself out of bed or you're not going to put clothes on you know it doesn't necessarily go that far but the bible does describe things like gathering food kindling a fire the bible describes basically doing normal work your normal activities you would you would cease from those and it says in x's chapter 20 in the 10 commandments specifically it says in verse 8 remember the sabbath day to keep it holy so the word holy means set apart meaning that it's different than something else okay god is holy in the sense that he's perfectly righteous and we're not he's the only one that's perfectly righteous that's why we say holy holy it means something it means that god set apart sanctified and that he's the only one that is like him in the sense that there's only one that's righteous as the bible says there's none righteous no not one and that's why even jesus when the young rich ruler asked him you know good master he says why call us thou me good there's none good but one that's god because he's holy so when we talk about the sabbath day being holy what we mean by that is is different than every other day okay the first six days of work they're all basically the same in essence the seventh day is special it's unique it's set apart it's considered holy and you're supposed to remember that in the old testament covenant that was one of the 10 commandments literally now it elaborates look at verse 9 it says six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the lord blessed the sabbath day in aledith so notice in exodus god calls the seventh day the sabbath day okay that's where you get that naming that's where you get that understanding of what the sabbath was is it's a complete uh rest day no works whatsoever and the bible describes god resting from his works on that specific seventh day of creation that's where we get our seven day week is literally from genesis the first six days of creation and then you have that seventh day now in the new testament some people get confused sometimes even on this that they think oh well do we have to observe this this law we have to observe this commandment the sabbath and the answer is no um i want to explain that let's go to colossians chapter number two if you would colossians chapter number two and the only reason i say that is because the bible literally says that okay i'm not just deciding something i'm not making up which rules of the old testament i want to follow in fact i believe you should follow every old testament law commandment instruction unless the new testament expressly states otherwise okay so some people would say oh we're not under the law they don't even know what they're talking about when they say that okay when they bring up if you bring up an old testament law and it says that you shouldn't print marks on your body and they're like well we're not under the law they don't even know what they're talking about not being under the law means that i'm not going to hell okay that's really what that means in the bible it does not mean that i don't have to follow god's commandments magically it doesn't mean that now all of a sudden i can murder what if i said hey don't murder oh i'm not under the law brother don't don't commit adultery don't steal oh i'm not i'm under grace bro it's like that's not how the bible works okay that person literally just doesn't understand anything is ignorant of the scriptures okay but then you have this other extreme that says every single instruction we still have to follow and then you're like okay when did you offer a passover lamb when when did you go and you know perform all the sacrifices necessary do you blow the shofar you know and of course they probably do it's like they only want to accept and embrace parts of the old testament that they like no one literally observes all of the old testament there is not a group that says we literally follow every single thing in the old test they might say that on the server but nobody does it nobody even attempts to do it not even your black keeper israelites okay they don't they're not keeping it you're torah observing christians they don't do it they're not doing all the sacrifices and and they say well we don't have a temple but you know what you had to offer sacrifices way before a temple even existed and in fact you'd have to make an altar of earth i don't see them making altars of earth or altars of stone just normal stones and then offering animal sacrifices on a regular basis they're not even offering the pigeon sacrifice okay that's at the asian restaurant no i'm just kidding but in colossus chapter number two it makes it clear there is a distinction in the new testament okay there is some parts of the law that were fulfilled in christ that are no longer observed and then they're specifically outlined look at colossians chapter two the bible says in verse number 16 let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the sabbath days so the bible says you're not supposed to be judged in these things now why would he say this in colossians well here's the thing colossians are gentiles gentiles did not observe the law gentiles were never observing the sabbath days the new moons and all these other rituals that the jews had previously been observing before christ but after the gospel has been preached and a lot of people have been converted you know they're of course going to be reading the old testament if you think about it they don't have matthew mark luke and john to read they're reading what moses they're reading the psalms they're reading the proverbs they're reading all these other portions of scripture so what happens a lot of false preachers a lot of false teachers are creeping into these churches and then saying oh yeah you got to follow all these other rituals and all these other rules what's called judaizing okay where they're basically coming in and saying aren't you going to observe the new moon with me aren't you going to go and do the sacrifice and do all this other stuff and the apostle paul saying hey don't let these judaizers come and judge you for not observing the same judaizing judaizing type laws old testament laws that they claim that they observe they claim that they're following what would be some of those like dietary restrictions they're not allowed to have bacon okay they're like in an outburger or something okay they don't have bacon they're kosher okay they don't have uh certain uh privileges as it were in the new testament affords they're restricting themselves based on their understanding of the old testament but the problem is christ has done away with those things christ has fulfilled those things he's ripped the veil in the temple so there's no longer this distinction between jew and gentile and one of those aspects is the sabbath has been fulfilled now if there's not a law in the old testament that was clearly fulfilled and what christ did then i believe it's still in effect you know christ didn't die on the cross so that people could commit murder christ didn't die on the cross so that a spouse could commit adultery christ didn't die on the cross so a man could dress like a woman and call himself a woman that's nonsense people that believe this are brain dead okay or they're just ignorant of the bible or they just purposely are ignorant just refusing to believe what god has said but did jesus christ die on the cross so that jews and gentiles be reconciled yes he did did he die on the cross to fulfill the passover lamb sacrifice yes he did did christ die on the cross to fulfill the sabbath and the answer is yes the sabbath was fulfilled in jesus christ okay why because the sabbath is a picture of salvation my friend what is salvation salvation is no works on our part so god rested from his works to show us an example of how we don't put any faith confidence or trust in our works to go to heaven but rather we accept the free gift of salvation and we rest from our works and that's how we get into heaven and this the word seven in your bible is often a picture of perfection completion okay we're thinking about going to heaven being with the father that perfection that completion that happens with no works because i did nothing to get myself saved the bible says not of works of righteousness which we have done but by his mercy he saved us and so god gave us the sabbath as a picture of salvation and now salvation has nothing to do with works and everything to do with just trusting the lord putting faith in his promises now of course people want to come to promises now of course people want to come along and pervert that it says in verse 17 which are a shadow of things to come but the bodies of christ now why does he say a shadow i believe what is being described here is the fact that even though the old testament sacrifice system and sabbath is fulfilled in christ on the cross it's not completely fulfilled in the sense that we haven't all gone to heaven yet we haven't actually realized that salvation so a lot of those old testament pictures are pictures of things yet to come in the sense that we'll be redeemed by his blood we're going to be in heaven we're going to be restored so a lot of those things while we don't observe them in the new testament they still have a future significance in the sense that we're going to see the realization of those sacrifices of those holy days in fact a lot of the holy days the trumpets and these things were a picture of the end times wrath that's coming of the rapture of a lot of these events they're just a picture of what is going to happen so even though i don't blow a shofar and wear a silly hat and i don't do all these strange rituals they do still picture future events and things that will happen it's just i don't observe them because they're fulfilled in christ okay now of course is there technically anything wrong with someone refusing to eat a particular meat right having a particular dietary restriction upon themselves the answer is no if someone decides they want to worship jesus you know his birthday in the middle of july rather than december 25th is there anything wrong with that technically the answer is no really what the bible is rebuking here is someone judging you for how you observe and worship god and serve god when the bible is silent on that particular issue okay does the bible say jesus is born december 25th the answer is no so therefore because the bible's silent on that the the day that you decide to worship jesus's birth is up to you and no one should be able to judge you for that particular day okay and the same would be in eating meats if you decide to eat bacon no one's allowed to judge you if you decide not to eat bacon no one is allowed to judge you but of course people that put these uh basic restrictions on themselves they impose them upon themselves sometimes they'll try to push their agenda on other people that's what it says in the next verse let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding in those things which you have not seen vainly puffed up by his flesh and mind so a voluntary humility is this it's not a necessary humility what's a necessary humility we should have a low view of ourselves okay we shouldn't boast about ourselves we shouldn't be prideful about things of ourselves the bible commands humility in certain areas of our life okay but a voluntary humility is essentially where there's freedom saying like well i'm i'm just not even going to eat any meat that is not something the bible prescribes that would be your own personal desire or own personal wish to decide not to do that's a voluntary humility or lowering of oneself whereas the bible doesn't say you have to do that certain people might dress a certain way act a certain way talk a certain way do certain things that are not the bible's commandments they're their own personal restrictions that's a voluntary humility you know you have the sons of uh recap i believe it is the sons of recap they basically are not allowed to buy a house you know they basically just dwell in tents or whatever they're not supposed to live in the city because their dad said so well they're they're following your dad's instruction but their dad's idea that's a voluntary humility saying i'm not going to own he's humbling himself in some way that's not prescribed in the bible that's his own personal idea personal conviction whereas some people might impose that on you and say well i'm not going to own because i think owning a house is vanity and if you own a house then you're not right with god or whatever and they end up trying to like persuade you to do all this weird stuff that you don't want to do that you don't think is right that you're not personally convicted of and they will try to even get you to do things that aren't found in the bible like worshiping angels where does the bible say that yet some people they'll they'll dream up all these things oh there's this extra book of the bible the book of jayshire there's this extra book of enoch and i think we should follow these rules too or whatever and they'll try to get you off actually following god's legitimate commandments by following all these weird rules that have nothing to do with the bible like mormons saying that you can't drink coffee or drink coca cola that's a voluntary humility some people say it's wicked okay you know and i understand it is wicked to teach that that's a commandment of god right it's a wicked commandment to teach it's a doctrine of devils to teach these abstained from any meat you know even squirrel i mean you know every creature god is good and nothing we refused okay so that's for you to decide so if you would go to exodus chapter 16 for a moment go to exodus chapter 16 for a moment and i want to kind of talk a little bit more about the physical sabbath and we kind of look at the spiritual pictures but i do want to make it clear christ fulfilled the sabbath so if i don't if i don't observe a sabbath day you're not allowed to judge me yet there's a lot of christians today that will literally judge you for not observing a sabbath i'm not joking i have people in my own personal life they'll be like oh my sabbath day is tuesday i'm thinking like i don't even know where that came from okay that's a voluntary humility and they're like you need to take a sabbath and i'm like when did jesus take a sabbath because you know in the bible jesus actually worked on the sabbath and i'm gonna get there in a moment but you know they said he's beside himself why because he's just working so hard but i thought we sang like we'll work till jesus comes we'll work i don't have to observe a sabbath if i don't want to now i'm not saying that it's a bad idea of course resting is a good idea you know if you don't rest your body you can overwork it too much stress too much anxiety you can end up causing yourself damage harm a lot of problems you know it's important to take care of your body and rest is a component of that you know getting a good night's sleep eating and dieting and exercising but at the end of the day some people take this to such an extreme that they think their version of lifestyle their amount of hours of sleep the food that they eat the way that they live is the way that everyone has to live no no no the bible has certain laws that we're supposed to observe those are what we're supposed to observe everything else is superfluous don't let people make christianity a fad diet don't make christianity chipotle and panda express or something you know it's like you can make it whatever you want it could be texas barbecue and of course if you're right with god it'll be texas barbecue no i'm just kidding but you know even if you say you know what i'm a vegan god bless you your life's much more difficult than mine but you know what i'm not going to go down that path i'm going to i'm going to be rewarded with real meat you know with real good food exodus chapter 16 okay this is the children of israel are wandering the wilderness and they're eating manna now god makes a special provision that they're supposed to gather every single day except for on the sabbath day on the sabbath day they basically can get a a double portion and it's not going to bread worms look what it says let's skip down to verse like uh 18 it says and when they did meet it with an omer talking about the manna he that had gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack they gathered every man according to his eating and moses said let no man leave of it till the morning notwithstanding they harker not to moses but left but some of them left of it until the morning and it bread worms and stank and moses was wroth with them so when someone would gather food the manna and they didn't eat all of it that day it ended up spoiling and becoming rotten bread with worms the next day where they couldn't eat it okay every single day you gather too much on monday tuesday it's spoiled gather on tuesday wednesday it's spoiled but then there's this miracle where on the seventh day it would not do that and he said in verse 23 and he said in them this is that which the lord has said tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath of the lord bake that which you will bake today and see that you will see and that which remaineth overlay up for you to be kept until the morning they laid it up to the morning as moses bade and it did not stink neither was there any worm therein so it's like hey every single day that ends in y that's not the sabbath day for some reason it always breads worms the next day it's always a 24-hour window type thing but somehow on the sabbath day it never happened it never stank it never bread this is what you call a miracle my friend okay defies science it defies experimentation in the sense that how does it magically just know what the sabbath day is and and you know bacteria and just rotting just doesn't happen the same rate on the sabbath day this is because the lord is showing them there's a difference between the sabbath day and every other day isn't there now some people didn't really care what god said it's called life okay it's called america and so they would just go out and just do their own thing anyways but here's another part of the miracle if you tried to go and get mana on the sabbath day let's say you didn't gather on that sixth day enough for the sabbath so you're like i'm gonna go and try and get some on the sabbath day there wasn't any to get that's another aspect of the miracle and look what it says on 26 six days you should gather it but on the seventh day which is the sabbath in it there shall be none so he's saying hey not only do you need to go and get this on saturday i'm not sorry on friday basically for the sabbath on saturday he's like even if you try to get some you won't get it and it says in verse 27 it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day four together and they found none now what i love about this wording is because we know that the sabbath day is about salvation think about what he's saying he's saying hey if you go and try and work for salvation guess how much salvation you're going to find none but you know what if you just trust that the lord is going to carry you beyond beyond reason doesn't make any sense that your food wouldn't spoil you have to completely trust them by faith because every other day it spoils but if you just trust the lord by faith and you do absolutely nothing you do literally it's not like they're putting in the fridge it's not like oh on friday put in the fridge and it won't stink on saturday they're doing nothing different here's the only difference they're just trusting god all they do is they just put their faith on the lord and then what does he do he gives them that bread on the next day but if you go and look for it if you go and work for it if you actually rebel against the lord you don't get it at all it's a picture of salvation if you just trust in the lord salvation if you're trusting in your works you're looking for it you're going to go find it some people say to be saved you have to look for god no no you just believe on him let me just rest salvation is rest you know when i go to bed tonight i'm not worried about how many works i did and whether or not i'm getting to heaven i'm not like well i didn't go so many enough hours a day i don't know if i'm gonna go to heaven no no i'm gonna sleep like a baby knowing i'm going to heaven because i did nothing and i'm doing nothing and i'm resting on his promises i'm resting on john 3 16 i'm resting on act 16 30 and 31 and the people that are worried about what am i gonna do to get into heaven they're not going they're not gonna find it it doesn't matter how hard they try it doesn't matter what works they do trusting in your works will get you zero salvation you either just know you have it and you do nothing and you get it or if you try you'll never get it never have it it's such a great and clear picture of salvation now go through into matthew 12 go to matthew chapter 12 jesus actually worked on the sabbath and some people don't really uh understand this point but the bible makes it really clear that jesus worked on the sabbath and it's also to illustrate an important truth now in matthew chapter 12 it brings up his disciples it says in verse 1 and and in that time jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were in hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and eat when the pharisees saw it they said and behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day but he said on them have you not read what david did when he was a hungered and they that were with him how he entered in the house of god and did eat the showbread which is not lawful for him to eat neither for them which were with him but only for the priests or have you not read in the law how that on the sabbath days the priests and the temple profane the sabbath and are blameless but i send you that in this place is one greater than the temple but if you had known what this meaneth i will have mercy not sacrifice he would not have condemned the guiltless for the son of man is lord even of the sabbath day so the sabbath was not to be a grievous day for the children of israel it's actually supposed to be a good day supposed to be a day where they could worship the lord they could have um you know healing restoration it's supposed to picture salvation yet the jews ruin everything and they literally made salvation a burden they literally made it a work they made it so grievous upon people and they made it so hard on people they basically abhor the sabbath day and look that's what jews do to salvation is they try to make it about works to where no one can get there no one likes it anymore no one wants to serve god you know that's what false religion does today is it tries to take the sabbath day and make it into a curse rather than a blessing oh you got to go to church and get baptized and do all these works you're going to lose it you got to give all this money you got to build these indulgences you know throughout time in history false religions constantly reverted the sabbath day and you want to make jesus angry now technically some people could break the sabbath and yet at the same time not break it all in the same sentence because pay attention what he even said in verse number five the priest in the temple profane the sabbath and are blameless how can you profane it and be blameless all at the same time because they were told to work on the sabbath day so because they're told to work they're literally breaking the sabbath in a technical sense yet they're blameless in god's sight because the work that they're doing is good okay and the same applies in this scenario where these men are starving to death what would the jews have them do not eat right basically starve and suffer and whatever but jesus is allowing them to eat you know just pluck a little bit of food eat a little bit of food because they're hungry they didn't have provision and he's saying hey these guys are blameless they're guiltless you're condemning them but even consistently throughout the gospels go to john chapter five go to john chapter five jesus literally breaks the sabbath and in fact it almost feels like a theme if you study especially the book of john that jesus will only heal people like on the sabbath day specifically it seems like he's trying to make the jews mad on purpose it's like hey i know what day i'm going to go and heal a bunch of people the sabbath day because he just knows it's going to rub them the wrong way okay and consistently throughout the bible jesus is going in the sabbath day and healing people and it's making the jews so angry look at john chapter number five and look what it says in verse number 16 and therefore the jews persecute jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the sabbath day notice they're getting really mad that stuff's happened on the sabbath day right because they believe in a works-based salvation if you go around preaching a faith-based salvation it makes people mad i knocked on a lady's door today and i said hey you know if you're to die today 100 you go to heaven absolutely i said what do you have to do to to go to heaven clean living holy living and i was like so would you say it's like faith alone faithful search definitely works and i said well actually the bible says it's just a free gift she's just like don't ever say that to anyone bam and i was just like i mean why would you be so mad at a free gift why would you so mad that jesus is offering it's because it reproaches them because they're a prideful person because they're trusting in themselves and you know what unless she repents she's gonna split hell wide open because good luck on your holy living there no one's holy it's funny you go to the ghetto and they want to tell you how holy they are how set apart they are how righteous they are and it's a joke my friend i don't care what beautiful area you go to either no one's holy no one's righteous no one's going to work their way into heaven you know it's a free gift says in verse number 17 but jesus i'm sorry verse 16 oh yeah verse 17 but jesus answered that my father worked at the other two and i work so you know jesus even literally says i'm working on the sabbath day okay verse 18 therefore the jews sought the more to kill him because he had not because he had not only had broken the sabbath but said that god was his father making himself equal with god again notice what makes people really mad preaching salvation by faith and that jesus is god isn't it just doctrine isn't it just doctrine that makes people so mad that they want to kill you literally i mean why did they kill stephen because of his doctrine why did they kill john the baptist because of his doctrine you know john the baptist wasn't going to lock up harrod and throw away the key for doing something unlawful all he did was tell him hey god's mad at you for that that's a sin don't commit that particular sin but you know today people get mad at me they're like oh why did you have to preach that that's not the gospel i'm like it's a sin though people get mad at everything that the preacher says because they're wicked because they're evil because they don't like their sin being called out okay but it's not the preacher's fault that you're a sinner did you realize that it's not my fault that you're a liar it's not my fault you're a fornicator it's not my fault that you you know think the wnba is a great thing i made i like went on a little rant and just talked about the wnba being worthless just go on youtube and type in like wnba okay and then come back to me and tell me how great it is i watched it was like the finals this is like the best two women's basketball teams and they're competing these this team missed three layups open layups in a row and the announcer is like wow they just just three layups in a row i mean it's so bad it's so terrible who wants to watch it i don't okay it's it's nonsense and people will be like oh how dare you say that the wnba is worthless okay the nba is worthless too there i said it what what profit is i mean we're in the bible we're reading about people who won the super bowl and won all these accolades you know our society has an unhealthy affection towards sports and you know i'm for sports because i love sports i love activity i love getting exercise i think it's a lot of fun but let me tell you something you know it's vanity you know what vanity is worthless yes the women's nba is worthless and of course it's trying to take women and make them as masculine as possible and then get a bunch of trannies in there disguised as women to go in and suck at basketball too and it's just it's just a freak show today a bunch of virtue signaling people are like free britney griner you know in russia and i'm thinking like i don't even know if it's a woman and if it isn't please keep it you go look it up if you don't know what i'm talking about and if not you probably just shouldn't even look it up right but but here's the thing jesus christ is working on the sabbath day and that reproaches them that causes them to get very angry and it says very clearly that he broke the sabbath what does that mean did he sin no jesus christ without sin what is it talking about technically he broke the sabbath because he was working but you know what he was doing good on the sabbath day and he was healing people and that reproach them look at chapter seven chapter number seven this is where later he kind of confronts them about the sabbath day and it says in verse 23 of a man on the sabbath they receive circumcision that the law of moses should not be broken are you angry at me because i've made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment and and so he's basically rebuking them for saying hey you guys will do circumcision but why can't i not heal somebody why can i not do good on somebody he says another pastor of the bible is it lawful to do good on the sabbath and the obvious answer is yes but these pharisees and these sadducees they didn't want to do any good on the sabbath day okay and of course the sabbath day is a special day it's a holy day and it pictures salvation now go if you would to hebrews chapter number four hebrews chapter number four i want to explain one other point to this sermon because while it's about salvation sap the sabbath pictures other things okay and there was other days that were sabbath days that were not just the seventh day there was other special holy days ceremonies and and basically holidays that they had that were observed as a sabbath day you know after the um passover lamb they're supposed to have a holy convocation it was a special sabbath day that would be observed and you know i've done the whole sermons on this but in the timing of the passover i believe jesus christ was killed you know on thursday and basically he was crucified at 9 am died about 3 pm and the sun goes down about 6 pm approximately just throwing out numbers based on what the bible says talking about which hour of the day it was the friday after though is a sabbath day it's a special holy day then that saturday is the normal sabbath day and then you have sunday so basically while jesus christ is doing the work for us going to hell and basically doing everything necessary for our salvation man was just resting just resting in him and then he comes back on that first day he comes back on the sunday and we have the resurrection of jesus christ so obviously sabbath days picture salvation but sabbath days also just picture a reward and if you think about it you know a rest day is a reward isn't it in fact when you get hired is it part of your benefits how many days off you get and paid days off you know pto as it were right paid time off as they describe it that's a that's a perk you know and i've worked for companies where they give you four weeks pto that's great you know that was that was what i call a reward you know some people literally get zero pt i've had jobs where i got zero pto you know if you didn't work you weren't getting paid and if you think about it salvation is kind of like pto in the sense that i didn't have to do anything yet i get to rejoice and enjoy the rewards of salvation in heaven and the sabbath is also just an essence a reward because not only did they have the picture of salvation they physically observed sabbath days and think about it couldn't god have made mankind work seven days in the old testament but he literally gave them in a complete day off and then he would even perform miracles to help them saying hey you don't even have to gather on this day you just get to reap the reward of extra food on this day that you didn't even have to labor for so a lot of times the sabbath pictures a reward an additional promise given to us by god okay so it pictures both in hebrews chapter number four it's important that you realize this concept to understand the bible because in hebrews chapter four it brings up both and a lot of times people they kind of get confused and they want to attribute the rest mentioned in hebrews four to just one just salvation but what the author of hebrews is doing is he's using the picture of sabbath and even its picture of salvation to illustrate the point of the rewards attached to the rest day the sabbath day okay look at verse number one and this is a little bit deeper okay verse one let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it now context what's the context of hebrews it's written to the saved also written to those that have knowledge of the old testament law they probably were jews probably hebrews of some short some kind of the tribe they've done the rituals before and now they're coming into christ and they have to realize they need to stop all that and just cling on to christ but just like the hebrews in the old testament are a picture to us they're a picture to them and the children of israel are kind of a picture of salvation their timeline when they're in egypt that's a picture being in the world the passover lamb is like salvation you put the blood on the doorpost you're saved okay at that point you don't have to do anything else to get into heaven but that doesn't mean that god doesn't want you to do other things okay what's the next step in the christian walk baptism right so how do the children of israel get out of the wilderness right through the red sea and they got water on the left the right and the cloud above them it's a picture of them being encompassed by water now they have what the wilderness and the wilderness is a picture of the christian life where you're going to go through constant tribulation suffering affliction trials and temptations until you get where the promised land okay and that's the picture of heaven you kind of have this bigger picture of your christian life illustrated through the story of the children walking through the children walking through the wilderness okay if i don't get to enter into the promised land what is the promised land in this parable it's a reward it's a blessing meaning that not every saved person gets to receive the rewards and blessings of god okay case in point moses is saved he did not get to enjoy the promised land joshua and caleb saved they enjoyed the promised land both saved one didn't go one did go why because of rebellion okay because of not having enough faith in the lord not trusting in his promises moses specific uh examples he struck the rock twice okay and and basically he fetched the water rather than trusting the lord to deliver that water to him okay it's kind of similar to the guy that's picking up sticks on the sabbath day not trusting on the lord or gathering manna on the sabbath day so in hebrews chapter number four we're talking to the safe we're already talking to say believers we're already talking people that are christians we're basically trying to admonish them hey keep going through this wilderness so that you can enjoy the promised land too okay and that promised land is often just the rewards of heaven specifically so it says in verse one let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it what is that rest he's not talking about going to heaven okay because obviously they're all going to heaven we know that they're going to heaven because they already were believers notice what it said in the previous chapter and a few places i want to look at verse one wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession christ jesus who is faithful to him that appointed him as also most of us faithful in all his house so here's the thing who is our profession in it's in christ all these people are professing christ you know what that makes them saved okay but we also want to continue notice what it says in verse eight harden out your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your father's tempted me proved me and saw my works 40 years he skipped down a little bit and it says in verse number 11 so i swear in my wrath they should not enter to my rest take heed brethren lest there be any of you any in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living god so he's saying you could be like the children of israel in the wilderness whereas you're saved but you end up falling away through temptation and struggle and you don't enter into that rest that sabbath day rest that entering of the promised land that he has for you and it could happen to any of us that's why it says in verse 13 but exhort one another daily while it is called a day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we are made partakers of christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end now here's the thing unless you believe in the most hardcore work salvation this has nothing to do with salvation and of course preachers of work salvation love these verses because they say see you got to endure to the end to be saved you got to be steadfast in the end to be saved but what is he talking about here he's talking about the rewards of being a faithful christian talking about the rewards of serving god in your life and not departing not going back to the world not being dimas which have forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed unto thessalonica you know don't depart don't stop serving god and in fact if you start forsaking church and god we're supposed to call you out notice what it's very exhort one another daily while it's called saying like what are you doing don't start heading back to egypt don't start going back to the world don't start uh you know backsliding get your butt in hot church okay don't harden your heart with air conditioning and comfortability and joy you know suffer suffer in the wilderness hey you think it's hot in here why don't we go walk around the sahara desert okay why don't we go walk around in arabia and saudi arabia okay i guarantee it was hotter i guarantee in the tent they didn't have ac pumping in either okay even if it was like barely working all right sorry that was just my rant for a second but verse verse four or chapter four verse one let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it from to us was the gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith and them that heard it now here's where it gets a little bit confusing and conflated okay the general context is about rewards and during the end to receive their words but then he brings up salvation literally to prove that point okay so yes these verses when it's talking about the gospel we can preach and people not believing it that is absolutely about salvation i do believe that you have to look at the broader context of what we're kind of describing and he's just illustrating the spiritual truths of salvation to then relay them back to rewards he says here in verse number three for we which have believed do enter into rest so think about this statement if he's saying hey we want to enter into that rest but we already have that doesn't make any sense because he's talking about two different rests there's a rest which is salvation and there's a rest which is a picture of of the rewards the blessings of god for doing that which is right so of course everyone that's believed is going to heaven they've all entered in the rest and notice as he said i've sworn my wrath if they shall enter into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world now he says why does he say if they shall enter into my rest because everybody got to enter into the seventh day everybody got to observe the sabbath day all of them have the sabbath but what did they not necessarily all enter the promised land okay so when he's saying when i'm talking of another day i'm not talking about the physical sabbath i'm talking about a spiritual picture which is rewards which they didn't necessarily get says in verse four for he spake at a certain place on the seventh day on this wise and god did rest the seventh day from all his works and in this place again if they shall enter to my rest seeing therefore remaineth that some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entered not him because of unbelief again he limited the certain day saying and david a day after so long a time as it is said today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts for if jesus had given them rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another day they remain it therefore arrest of the people of god for he that has entered into his rest he also has seats from his own works as god did from his now he brings up a little bit about salvation at the in the first few verses of this chapter but then he's bringing it back to the rewards okay he's saying hey if he just gave them the rewards right after going through the baptism you know the baptism picture the red sea then he wouldn't have been talking about another day he would have said they got it they entered the rest so he's bringing up the fact that they didn't enter the rest because they didn't make it in the promised land they didn't get to receive those rewards why because they didn't believe in the lord they didn't have faith in the lord why would someone stop serving god in the christian life because they don't trust in the lord because they don't have faith they don't look to the rewards that are in heaven they're looking what they can see right now so instead of making this the spiritual decision which reaps rewards they end up making the carnal decision which has instant gratification okay it's basically like your wife says hey i prepared the greatest meal at home but you gotta go you gotta drive 30 minutes to get there right you gotta wait to get home to eat it or you could just go straight to the mcdonald's that you see right here and be like instant gratification you would be a fool to eat the mcdonald's over the great meal that your wife's prepared but you know what it takes the faith and what your wife said to just wait to not go for the instant gratification the same is with the christian life we have to constantly trust the lord that the rewards of heaven are far greater and it's more important to serve him than getting the instant gratifications of this life the pleasures of this life the vanities of this life departing from the lord stop serving god i mean look it would be so much more fun to be playing golf right now than being in a hot church service i'm just speaking from personal experience right it'd be more fun to be sitting in a chair lounged back you know just stuffing my face eating ice cream right now okay than sitting here reading the bible we get that we understand that but we're making that sacrifice because it's more important to serve god than it is to feed the flesh and let me tell you something this church is not about feeding the flesh welcome to steadfast baptist church it's about feeding the spirit today and we feed the spirit through the word of god and we don't want to depart from the word of god okay we'll depart from some of the carnal things we don't have to have all the carnal things but we don't want to you know take a restriction on the spiritual we don't want to stop the spiritual rewards and notice what he says in verse 11 let us labor therefore to enter into that rest so we're talking about salvation no because you don't work for salvation you don't labor to get into salvation but you know what you do you labor into the rewards of heaven let me prove this a little bit further go if you would to hebrews chapter number 10 hebrews chapter number 10 and look what it says in verse number 38 now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back in a perdition but of them that believe to the saving the soul so he's saying look god doesn't take pleasure in christians that are not following his word that are not faithful christians in fact you can still be an enemy of god even when you're saved example saul he was the enemy of god okay so verse 39 is a caveat just explaining that none of us are unsaved but whenever you depart from the lord you know what he's not pleased with you look at hebrews chapter 11 and look at verse 6 but without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him so in hebrews chapter number 11 verse 6 the bible makes it abundantly clear that he's going to reward those that are what of faith and you have to believe in him you have to have faith why did they not enter the promised land because they didn't have the faith they saw the giants rather than the rewards they saw the difficulty rather than what god was going to promise them or bless them with now i want to go to a couple more places and then we're going to finish here but go to second john chapter number one for a second go to second john chapter one and you can lose a reward the bible says in a sense but i want to explain this second john look at verse number nine whosoever transgresseth i'm sorry verse seven for many deceivers are entered in the world who confess not that jesus christ has come in the flesh this is a deceiver and antichrist look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward so he's saying you could be laboring for something quit halfway through and then you don't receive it this is kind of that picture in hebrews 4 of let us labor that we may enter into that what rests because once you die it's over once you die it's done your works are going to be judged there's no more works to be done on this earth there's no more works to be rewarded okay and so that's why it's important to work now to labor now so that you can receive those rewards and he's saying some people they start working towards a reward and then they quit halfway through they quit before they get to the finish line and here's the thing god doesn't reward the partial efforts he rewards those that finish the course you know they they're faithful unto death they receive that reward okay so why would i want to sit here and spend my whole life serving god and then the last few years just quit and then basically lose out on everything that i've already done you know imagine i mean you're just running a marathon it's 26 miles isn't it was like 26 point something miles like a full marathon 26.2 is that all right 26.2 yeah you're just running you run 25 miles and then you just go home it's just like dude you better crawl that last mile you know i mean why in the world would you stop after you've run so much you want to just keep going you put in so much effort so much energy and the same as the christian life you're already serving god you're already going someone you just got to finish we just got to finish and then you get that what that rest because as soon as you cross the finish line you rest you've entered into that rest you know when they enter the promised land it was rest because the lord just fought for them the lord just conquered their enemies they just got to basically inherit all of these great blessings with the lord as long as they were just faithful as long as they just showed up i mean think of their first battle jericho walk around and blow a trumpet i mean that wasn't hard the lord fought for them the lord basically destroyed them and anytime they tried to work for it themselves they they ended up losing out on that the same as with your christian life there are so many rewards that you could potentially get in heaven if you just be faithful to the end the lord has a big crowd and you know what there's a lot of people in this room they work really hard to earn money and they they work really hard to build a nice house and have goods you know what there's nothing in this world worth it why wouldn't you be working that much harder for the spiritual awards for the spiritual giftings you know if i have all this effort and energy you know god gave me two legs that i can stand on he gave me a lot of strength he gave me a lot of ability to think critically and to do works what if i expend all of my energy on being a professional basketball player what is that going to benefit me you know to go into the military to conquer some great nation to con you know to conquer ukraine you know conquer russia to finally put put in his way what is that going to benefit me what is that going to posit you know give me impossible if i gain the whole world and lose my soul it's no point serving god is the only thing that matters in this life and god gave us a sabbath to realize hey there's a reward to be had but we must work now and then we get to enter that rest and i don't want to be that christian that just worked the whole bunch and then didn't get it go back to hebrews for a second there's one more verse i want to look at here hebrews chapter 10 there's another verse i was thinking of and then we'll finish hebrews chapter number 10 look at verse 35 okay hebrews chapter 10 verse 35 cast not away therefore your confidence which has great recompense of reward you know the whole book of hebrews is telling you like one narrative keep serving god keep following christ keep go go on under perfection you know let us labor that we may enter into that rest you know we have the hall of faith in hebrews chapter 11 telling us that we can go through all these difficult things we have to believe that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and notice the emphasis on the word diligent that means you actually have to put effort in that means you actually have to read the bible that means you have to figure out what the right church is to go to it's not just the church down the street it's not just well whatever i think oh you mean like memorizing scripture oh you mean like walking up and down the streets you mean like practicing the gospel you mean like singing the hymns to my children you mean like doing the works of god yeah it takes a lot of effort it takes a lot of diligence but you know what there's a reward to those that seek god there's a reward to those that want to work and labor for god and you know what there's coming a rest today's not to rest now is not that rest you know what the only rest i have is in salvation you know what when it comes to rewards let's get into full gear let's be stepping let's not cast away our confidence let's go on and get that full reward you know i want to see every single person this church when we get into heaven they're like thank you pastor shelley for encouraging me to get that full reward rather than like hey when i quit church why didn't you tell me that i was going to lose all these great rewards hey when i'm a bozo and i am lazy and i was a jerk why didn't you just tell me i was a jerk you know why didn't you tell me i was lazy why didn't you tell me i was doing evil well i didn't want to hurt your feelings you know it's like no one's gonna be mad at you for preaching hard against them when they get to heaven and and all the people that the world hated all the hard preachers of of of today all those people gonna have to see you being rewarded by god and it's just gonna grind their gears they're gonna be like that guy god liked that guy and it's like yeah he liked that guy he liked john the baptist oh yeah he didn't like the methodist he's in hell but the baptist yeah he liked that guy he didn't like the catholic he didn't like pete buddha judge he didn't like joe biden he didn't like all he didn't like coby bryant you know when michael jordan stands before god god's not gonna have to bow down to him he's not gonna bow down to tiger woods he's not gonna care one lick they're gonna be judged according to their works and they'll be found wanting i mean tiger woods has committed so much adultery you know you'd be like oh man i wish i was tiger woods i don't want to be tiger woods on judgment day yeah talk about a horrible person to have to stand before god and give an account i mean you want to be bill clinton on judgment day you want to be uh bill gates you want to be jeffrey epstein i mean the people that are even praised in this world people that they love billy graham leading billions to hell he literally said you don't even know the name of jesus to go to heaven i don't want to stand before jesus christ and have to explain why i said that on national television and i hung out with all these catholic priests and everything else and never rebuke them you know what and the bible even gives a stronger rebuke to those that were the masters you know those that were the the teachers of the word of god what they said you know i want to be able to stand before god and say hey i made this out of my deception you know i wasn't i wasn't cowering to the rainbow crowd you know i was trying to stand up against them you know i believed every promise of god i believed what the bible actually said i would rather just be killed and hated by everyone here but know that at least one person's pleased with me and that's god and let us be reminded by the sabbath that there is a rest coming but it's not today it's not now it's when you die then you get to rest we'll work till jesus comes let's go to work thank you heavenly father so much for the sabbath thank you for this picture of salvation thank you for making salvation so easy so free thank you for doing all the work for us i pray that we would follow your example of all the works that you've done and that we would work for our rewards in heaven we know that you want to reward us that you want to encourage us and motivate us to do service and that you're not forgetful to remember our works in labor and love i pray that our church would be a steadfast church to the end not name only but in action that we would just continue to receive that full reward all the way to the bitter end in jesus name we pray amen all right let's go ahead and sing one more song before you head home you'll take out your hymnals to 405 the banner of the cross again that song number 405 405 the banner of the cross let's sing it all together on the first there's a royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the king as an ensign fair we lift it up today while as ransomed ones we sing marching on marching on for christ count everything but loss and to crown him king toil and sing eat the banner of the cross though the foe may rage and gather as a flood let the standard be displayed and beneath its folds as soldiers of the lord for the truth be not dismayed marching on marching on for christ count everything but loss and to crown him king toil and sing beat the banner of the cross over land and sea wherever man may dwell make the glorious tidings known of the crimson banner now the story tell while the lord shall claim his own marching on marching on for christ count everything but loss and to crown him king toil and sing need the banner of the cross when the glory dawns is drawing very near it is hastening day by day and before our king the foe shall disappear and the cross the world shall stay marching on marching on for christ count everything but loss and to crown him king will toil and sing need the banner of the cross amen thank you all for being here god bless you are dismissed