A Day of Rest - Eric Troyer

Well, good morning. I went to greet each one in

Jesus' name. I've enjoyed being here this morning. It's a

beautiful day outside, and summer is coming, and yeah, I

just really enjoy this time of the year. It's beautiful,

enjoy the creation of God, and I also enjoy a

day of rest and a day of worship. Just seems

like life is busy, and when Sunday rolls around, I

really excuse me, really look forward to laying aside my

duties at the workplace and just enjoy some downtime. Also

appreciated the service so far. Thank you Hans for that devotional.

It goes well with some of what I have to

share this morning, and we'll get to that little later

in the message. The topic I've chosen to speak on

today and the title of the message is a day

of rest, a day of rest, and I want to

take some time to look at a day, what a

day of rest is, how a day of rest came about,

what it signifies, what it is pointing to. And I

want to end up with looking at a day of

rest that we should all be looking forward to and

that we can all experience someday if we are faithful.

So to begin with, I want to read a few

verses from Genesis two. I'm gonna be reading verses one

through three, but before we read that, preceding this chapter,

in Genesis one, we have the creation of the world,

and we have this world starting out as a formless

void matter, I guess. And we have God speaking life

into the world. And so the first day we have

light and day and night being created. Day two we

have the heavens or the sky. Day three, the seas,

dry land, plants, and trees were created. On the fourth

day we have the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Day five we have sea creatures and birds and daix

we have land, animals and man. And that is what

brings us here to Genesis two. And I would like

to say here before I get into this message, that

I feel that this message is as much for me

as it may be for anyone else. I see some

needs in my life in this area, and so I

just want to say that upfront, I'm not picking on

anyone here. I see some needs in my own life

on this subject. Okay. Genesis two Versus one through three.

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 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

the work which God had created and made. And so

here we see God coming to the end of creation.

God is completing what he set out to do. And

I can see if this was me, which thank God

that I am not God. But the way I operate,

I like to have a checklist of things. I like

to have this to do list, and as I go,

I check things off. And we can see God here

coming to the end. And I can just see him

putting that last check mark by creating the land, animals

and man got that done. And so he finished what

he had set out to do. And it says on

the seventh day that God rested. And I don't believe

that God was resting because he was tired. Our God

is an infinite god, He is all powerful, and I

don't think he was tired when he came to the

end of but he chose to set that day apart.

And it says he hallowed that day, and he sanctified it,

and that means he set it apart for a special use.

He set it apart for holy use. He differentiated the

seventh day from all the rest. And the Bible does

not exactly say in these words that and on the

seventh Day God created a day of rest. It doesn't

say that. But I believe that in looking at the

example that God set here, that he did indeed create

a day of rest. And it wasn't just by chance

that God completed his work and was like, oh, I

have an extra day. Let's just put our feet up

here and enjoy the new creation, and then we'll get

on with life. I don't think that's what happened. God.

God is all knowing, and he knew what he had

just created, including the man that he had created, and

he knew that that man was going to need a

day of rest at some point, a day to rest

from his physical labors and a day to a day

to be refreshed and be rejuvenated also in his spiritual life.

I want to look for a little bit at the

history of the day of rest, or the Sabbath as

I will call it. I wasn't sure where the first

place is that the Sabbath is mentioned. So in Genesis

two we have a day of rest, and I did

some searching. I think I'm right on that. You can

correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe the next

place in the Bible that a day of rest is

mentioned is in Exodus sixteen, And so it is some

time later from Genesis one, quite a bit later at

Exodus sixteen. We'll talk a little more about this chapter later,

but this is a story where God sends manna to

the children of Israel. But even though the Sabbath day

or a day of rest is not mentioned from Genesis

two to Exodus sixteen, I think that it is very

likely that there was still some form of a Sabbath

day or a day of rest observed by the children

of Israel. The reason I say that is because in

Exodus sixteen they talk about the Sabbath day, and they

talk about it as something that they already know about it.

It seems like it's something that has been in place,

and it wasn't necessarily a surprise to them that they're

supposed to be taking this day of rest. Later on,

then God commands, He commands the keeping of the Sabbath

and that was in the Ten Commandments, and he gave

those ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. And it

seems like this is God reinforcing the importance of observing

this day of rest. And the Ten Commandments, I guess

in my mind seem to be ten basic but yet

important rules for godly living. And I just want to

read here from Exodus twenty versus eight through eleven. This

is the portion of the Ten Commandments that talks about

observing the sabbath or a day of rest. Excuse me,

Exodus twenty verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep

it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all

they work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of

the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt Thou shalt

not do any work thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,

thy man servant, nor they made servant, nor they cattle,

nor they stranger that is within thy gates. For in

six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,

and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.

Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and halloed it.

And so as far as I can tell this is

the first time that we have a commandment to keep

the Sabbath, to keep a day of rest. And it

was to be a day of rest for everyone and everything.

It was to be a day of rest for man,

for women, for the children, for the hired men, for

all the servants, the man servants made servants. It was

to be a day of rest for the cattle, for

the oxen, and for the donkeys, for even the strangers

that may have been within the city at that time.

And you could say it was a day of rest

for all the tractors and all the whatever else you

want to put in there. Everything was supposed to come

to a halt, and it wasn't just to have some downtime.

God had a purpose for this. He wanted the Israelites

to remember something on this day of rest. The day

of rest was so that the Israelites would remember God's

sanctifying and hallowing the seventh day following creation. It was

also to be a remembrance of their servanthood and deliverance

by the mighty Hand of God from the Egyptians. And

so they were supposed to stop what they were doing

and put aside their work. But they're also supposed to

remember God and what he had done for them. It

was to be a holy day of reverence and reflection.

I want to talk now a little bit about Exodus sixteen,

which I mentioned earlier. It seems here in Exodus sixteen

that God was trying to teach the children of Israel

a lee and at least that's how I that's how

it seemed to me. But in this story, in Exodus sixteen,

the children of Israel were murmuring against Moses and Aaron.

And the reason they were murmuring is because they were hungry.

They were out in the middle of the desert, and

they didn't have anything to eat, and they thought it

was time. It was time for some food. And they said,

why could we not have just died by the hand

of the Lord back in Egypt when we had plenty

to eat. Why couldn't we have just died there? And

instead we're out here in the middle of the desert

and there's no food, and we're hungry, and we're miserable,

and looks like it's going to be a slow death.

But you know, God, God knew their predicament, and he

told Moses, he said, in the evening I'm going to

send flesh, and we know that God God sent them

some birds. He said, I'm going to send some flesh

in the evening and the and in the morning there's

going to be some bread. And he said, by this

they will know that I am God, and I will

rain bread down from heaven. And we know that God

gave some pretty specific instructions when he when he told

Moses that He's going to send them bread to eat,

they had five days in which they were supposed to

gather the bread in the morning, and they were only

supposed to gather enough for one day. They were not

to lay up any extra bread for the following day,

because God would provide there would there would be be

bread again the next morning. The only exception was that

on the sixth day they were to gather double and

they were to gather enough so that they could have

to eat on the seventh day, or the Sabbath day,

and that was because God was not going to send

bread that day. And God said, he said, I'm going

to do this as a way to test the Israelites,

to prove whether they walk in my laws or not.

And I guess you could say they proved that they

wouldn't or at least not all of them chose to

walk in God's laws. We know that there were some

people who gathered too much, and they tried to save

it for the next day, and overnight it got wormy

and it got rotten and it stank, and it was

no good. They had to throw it out, And no doubt,

on the seventh day, some people got out of their

tents and there was no bread, and they were looking

at a day of being hungry. But God was faithful.

He did what he said he was going to do,

and he met their needs every day as long as

they followed what he had said. And I think, I

think these lessons can be applied to our lives as well.

As we think of observing a day of rest, God

wants to see if we will be obedient to him

and what he wants for our lives. He also wants

us to learn to trust him for our daily needs.

And you know, we don't need to work every day

just to make sure we have enough to eat. God

will provide for us. He has more than enough, and

he can meet our needs each and every day. And

how serious was this command to keep the Sabbath day holy?

Was it just a polite suggestion, Hey, maybe you should

think about doing this, or did God actually really mean

what he said. Exodus thirty one, verses thirteen and fourteen

said says, speak thou also into the children of Israel, saying, verily,

my Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign

between me and you throughout your generations, that you may

know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you,

and you shall keep the Sabbath. Therefore, for it is

holy unto you, everyone that defileth it shall surely be

put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein that

soul shall be cut off from among his people. And

so we see that for the children of Israel this

was not something to be taken lightly, and it was

not something to just be brushed off. God was serious

and he meant what he said said when he commanded

them to keep the Sabbath day holy, and anyone that

profaned the Sabbath was to be put to death. And

there is an account. I'm sure it likely happened more

than once, but there is an account in numbers of

a man that did not keep the Sabbath day. And

this man was found on the Sabbath day out gathering sticks,

and the children of Israel were in the wilderness. So

I don't know. You know, in the desert, it can

get cold at night, and I don't know. Maybe this

man was just cold. Maybe he had a child or

a wife that was sick and needed to be warmed up.

I don't know why he was out gathering sticks, but

someone found him gathering sticks. And not only was it

considered work to be gathering wood on the Sabbath, they

were also not allowed to make a fire. And so

this man was caught red handed, and the people that

found him brought him to Moses, and it says they

put him in ward, or they kept him in custody.

They weren't going to let him go. But the reason

they did that is because they weren't sure what they

were supposed to do with this man. And we see

later that the Lord speaks to Moses and he says,

this man shall surely be put to death. Take this

man outside of the camp and stone him with stones,

And we know that's what the children of Israel did.

They took this man outside the camp and they picked

up rocks and stones, and they threw rocks and stones

at this man until he died. Now, I'm not saying

that we should we should stone people that don't observe

a day of rest, But the point I'm trying to

make is that this was serious what he said when

he commanded to keep the Sabbath day. And I think

sometimes we can get calloused to these stories in the Bible,

especially in the Old Testament, there's a lot of a

lot of brutality and just shedding of blood. But this

was this was this was real. This is something that

these people observed and witnessed. And you know this, this

man went directly against God's command. It was a decision

he chose to make, and that decision costs him his life.

So how do we observe the Lord's Day? Or what

should we be doing or not be doing on the

Lord's Day? And I want to try to make this

a little more practical for us today. I realized we've

been looking at the Old Testament and we're not living

in the Old Testament times any more. But the Lord's

Day should be refreshing, it should be a refreshment to us.

In Exodus thirty one seventeen, it says it's talking about

the Sabbath day. Here it says it is a sign

between me and the children of Israel forever. For in

six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on

the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And I

want to think about this word refreshed a little bit.

Refreshed here has the idea of breathing, of respirating, breathing

in and breathing out. Okay, it also has the idea

of being breathed upon or being refreshed by a current

of air. And there's a couple of things I thought

of as I as I meditated on this here. You

know what, what do we do sometimes when there's maybe

a child or someone is they're they're overwhelmed, they're panicking,

they're experiencing something that is out of their control, and

they're just besides themselves. They just they can't think logically.

And I at least use this on my children sometimes

we tell them to just calm down, take a deep breath,

breathe in, breathe out, and just try to to bring

your bring yourself under control. Now. I know that this

maybe isn't a perfect example here, but I think I

think there's maybe something that we can take away from

this that a day of rest is a day when

we can catch our breath. We can sit down and

we can just breathe, and we can calm ourselves, and

we can we can experience rest and experience relief from

the pressures of our daily lives, and it helps to

clear our minds and to help us think more logically

and to refocus and to make sure our priorities are

where they should be. The second thing I thought of

here in regards to refreshment is you think of yourself

on a hot summer day, maybe a day in August,

when the sun is beating down. We'll say it's it's

close to one hundred degrees and you're outside just working

away in the sun, and it's hot, and you work

up a sweat, and you become tired and fatigued, and

you decide it's time to stop and take a rest,

and maybe you sit down in the shade of a

big maple tree and you just enjoy the rest and

the coolness. And as you sit there, a breeze blows

across your face and across your body, and it helps

to cool your body down and it is refreshing. I

think we can all relate to that feeling. It just

feels amazing. I think a day of rest can also

be like this in our lives. We take time to

stop and to lay aside our duties and let the

breeze blow over us, so to speak. We can be refreshed,

can clear our mind and give us energy to face

the week ahead. A day of rest is not a

day for selfish pleasures and pursuing one's own desires, but

rather it should be a day focused on God and

his kingdom. And there's there's different things that that we

can do on a day of rest. Obviously, worship services

are a big part of our days of rest, and

I think that's good. It's good to come together and

to worship in a collective way and to be refreshed

and encouraged together. But I think there's also other ways

that we can we can experience that on our own.

There are also some things, you could say, some duties

or activities that are are good things to do, even

if it is a day of rest, things that help

to further God's kingdom. You know. Usually once a month

we go to a nursing home and we sing or

go to helping hands and serve food and sing there.

I think the these are things that are fine and

good to do on the Lord's Day. There are things

that will hopefully further the Kingdom of God. We can

also visit the elderly or the sick. The Lord's Day

should be a disciplined day. And I might get some

flak for this next point. I'm not sure it's okay.

I think I can take it. But I don't think

Sunday should be a day that we just sleep in

really late in the morning and then get up half

an hour before church starts and goes scrambling off to church.

I just don't think that's a good day to start

a day of rest. I think we need to I

think we need to be a little more disciplined than that.

I think we miss out on a lot of blessings

when we just let let our disciplines slip. I think

it's good you can sleep in. I'm not saying you

have to get up at five o'clock on a Sunday morning,

but I still think it's good to get up and

prepare for the day. Take time to read the Bible

and to pray before you come to church. Take time

to prepare your heart for worship. Pray for the service

and the people who have part in the service. Ask

God to speak to you through the songs and devotionals

and the message the Sunday school. It's a just a

way that we can prepare ourselves for a day of rest.

Don't think don't think that a day of rest just

means that we are we are undisciplined in our lives.

We still need to be disciplined even if we are

not engaging in our normal work other wholesome activities that

could be done. Engage in wholesome activities and not just

frivolous time wasting. Read a good book, spend time with

your children. If you have children, take a walk and

enjoy nature. You can spend time meditating on what you've

read or what you've heard that morning at church. And yes,

I'm not opposed to taking a nap. I think it's

good to catch up on our sleep as well as

the Sunday can be used for that too, and I

think it's good. Don't spend your time just frivolously. What

would you say wasting the hours of the day. I

think we should engage in wholesome activities. Don't just sit

on your phone scrolling all day and wasting the day away.

I don't I don't think that actually refreshes us. The

Lord's Day is a day of rest, that all business

dealings should be put aside, and all our plans and

our thoughts and what we're gonna do next, and how

we're gonna make things work out for the week with

work and business. We just need to put those things aside.

Those things don't need to be a part of our

day of rest. They will rob us from our refreshment.

Or maybe what about if the I apologize if it's

a boring sermon, But what about when the sermon is

boring and maybe you're making your to do list for

the week. I don't think that's very wholesome activity for

a day of rest. I think that could wait till Monday. Also,

think all other normal work activities outside of of our

our normal business and work, things like mowing the yard,

weeding the garden, washing the car, doing the laundry, cleaning

the house. I think a lot of those things can

just wait. I know that sometimes emergencies happen, and you know,

maybe you have a sick child and they they throw

up in their bed, or so you know, that's okay

to I think it's okay to clean that up and

wash the blankets, whatever. But I don't think we need

to be making a point out of using our day

of rest to catch up on the laundry and do

things like that. As I said, though, sometimes there are

emergencies and sometimes things happen that are out of our control.

I've I've been a part of a runaway cow. I'll

chase on a Sunday morning and help them to fix

the fence. So I don't know, maybe that's maybe that's

a confession there. But sometimes things happen that are out

of our control and we need to take care of them.

Maybe you're on your way to church and you get

to the end of your driveway and there's a tree

across the lane. It's probably okay to go get your

chainsaw and cut a little hole in it so you

can get out. You don't have to cut it all

up and split it that day. But I think it's

I think it's okay if you want to get out

and go to church. So just some things to think about.

I'm sure the list could go on. That's not an

exhaustive list, but just some things I thought of. So

what does a day of rest signify or what does

a day of rest imply? Well, one thing that it signifies,

I believe, is it signifies Jesus' resurrection from the grave

and victory over death. After Jesus' death and resurrection, the

Disciples began gathering on the first day of the week

to commemorate Jesus rising from the dead, and this was

obviously the day following their sabbath. And I believe that's

what our day of rest can be as well. We

can remember jesus death and resurrection. There are also a

couple of other places in the New Testament where it

mentions the first day of the week, and one of

them was I believe Josiah talked about it the other

Sunday when the apostle Paul was preaching on Sunday. They

gathered on Sunday and Uticus fell out of the window.

That was just one instance of that. The New Testament

mentions meeting on the first day of the week, and

that signaled that is signaling the disciples meeting on the

first day of the week, and then these other accounts

is signaling the switch from the Sabbath day to the

first day of the week. A day of rest signifies

that Christ's work was finished when he died and rose

again and ascended to heaven. And when Christ ascended, he

entered into his rest. It can signify a trust in

God to supply our daily needs, and this is shown

by a cessation or a ceasing of our daily work

and duties and a reliance on God to supply our needs.

It can signify submission to God and his design and

a desire to follow him and do his will. It

signifies that we are part of a kingdom that is

not of this world. We are part of a different kingdom.

And to a lot of people that are not a

part of God's kingdom, Sunday is Funday, and a lot

of these people spend Saturday and Sunday partying, partying and

just living it up. They're just having a good time.

But you know, I've worked alongside some of these people

in my life, and when seven o'clock Monday morning rolls around,

let me tell you, they don't always look very reflect refresh.

They're pretty bleary out of the eyes, and they just

look a little hungover. I don't think they had a

proper day of rest. A day of rest points toward

a day when we can enter into an eternal rest

with our Lord and Savior, if we are faithful. A

day of rest helps us keep our hearts and minds

oriented in such a way that we can achieve the

goal of entering into that rest. It helps remind us

of where our priority should lie. I want to look

now at entering into God's rest. You can turn to

Hebrews chapter three. I'm going to be reading some verses

here the end of chapter three and on into chapter four.

Hebrews three, verse seventeen. But with whom was he grieved

forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned,

whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom swear

he that they should not enter into His rest? But

to them that believe not? So we see that they

could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore

fear lest lest a promise being left us of entering

into His rest, any of you should seem to come

short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached,

as well as unto them. But the word preach did

not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them

that hurt it for we which have believed, to enter

into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in

my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although

the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

For he spake in a certain place of the seventh

day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh

day from all his works, and again in this place,

if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it

remaineth that some must enter therein, And they to whom

it was first preach entered not in because of unbelief.

Again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David to 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 he would

not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore

a rest for the people of God. For he that

has entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from

his own works, as God did from his let us labor.

Therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall

after the same example of unbelief. For the word of

God is quick and powerful, and 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 desernor of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in

His sight. But all things are naked and opened unto

the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

There's a lot in these verses that we could talk about,

and we're not going to cover all of it. But

we see here that there is a promise in these

verses that there is a rest for the people of God.

There is an eternal rest for the faithful and obedient people.

And I believe that this is speaking of the eternal

rest of Heaven and going to be with God and

entering into His rest. And this is a rest that

you and I do not want to miss. So how

do we enter this rest? There's three things that I

wrote down here, and they're not in any particular order.

But the first one I have here is through faith

in Jesus. Do us have faith in Jesus to enter

into God's rest? The second one we enter through perseverance.

We cannot give up. We must keep pressing forward and

persevering to the end. We must be faithful to enter

into the rest. And the third one I have is

through obedience to the word. We must be obedient to

God's word to enter into his rest. And I think

it can be easy for us to underestimate the power

of God's Word, and we should not underestimate it. You know,

we live in a world that is constantly changing. People change,

things change, people come and go, babies are born, and

people pass off the scene. They pass away into eternity.

But the Word of God will stand forever, and it

has stood for many, many years, and it will continue

to stand until the end of time. One Peter one

twenty four and twenty five says, for all flesh is

as grass, and all the glory of man is the

flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof

falleth away. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever.

And this is the word which by the Gospel is

preached unto you. And so we see the steadfastness and

the unchangeableness of God's Word. The Word of God is

quick and is powerful. It's alive and active working in

our hearts. The word of God is sharp, and it

can pierce into the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds,

convicting us of sin. It says, the word of God

is sharper than any two edged sword. And here again

it's probably not the best example, but you just have

to pardon my examples. I guess thinking of this sharp sword,

this two edged sword, I like knives, and I really

appreciate a sharp knife, a razor sharp knife. And I

had to think about when an animal is harvested for food,

maybe it's a beef or a deer, or an elk

or something. And once that animals has died, one of

the first things you do with that animal is is

you start to peel the skin off. And that is

usually achieved with a razor sharp knife, or that at

least makes it easier. I guess you could do it

with a knife that's not as sharp, but you're gonna

be You're gonna be working pretty hard. But you know,

the hide of that animal is very, very tough. It's

it's made do to protect that animal from the elements

and and whatever else it may face. It's it's a

it's a very tough covering on the outside. And you know,

even that tough hide is no match for that razor

sharp knife. That razor sharp knife easily slices through and

peels back that skin, and there's nothing hidden after that

knife passes through. And I'd like to think that's how

the word of God is. As a sharp sword. It

pierces through us and it it it peels back our

tough outer layer that we have on the outside of

our hearts. It lays that aside, and it lays bare

the thoughts and the attitudes and the intents that dwell

within us. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of Him

to whom we must give a count. God knows what

is in our hearts, and he can see right in

us and right through us. He knows exactly what's there.

You know, the Bible says God is not willing that

any should perish. Hear the word of God and let

it work in your heart. It may be painful sometimes,

as cutting usually is, but let it cut and let

it pierce whear it needs to, because it is working

for our good. The heart of God is that each

and every one of us will someday enter into His rest.

And as I mentioned earlier, one of the ways of

achieving that is by obedience to the word of God

so in closing. Let us be careful to not fall short,

but to labor and make every effort possible to enter

into God's rest. God bless you. Let's have a song.