Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Genesis

Genesis 2:1-3 10/07/01

Introduction: Anyone remember the movie 'Chariots of Fire'? It was a true but modified story of a Scottish seminary student named Eric Liddell. He represented Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics in the 100 meter dash. But when he found out that the qualifying heats for his race were to be held on a Sunday, he withdrew from the race. He believed that Sunday, the Lord's Day was to be kept holy and that he could not race on that day. He became famous for his stance and for the fact that he was offered a chance to run the 400m instead...he did and won the gold medal.

     The movie was a huge success and evangelical Christians flocked to see it because of its sympathetic portrayal of one of their own standing up for the law of God. What I find interesting is most Christians would not have done what Liddell did. In fact, most Christians would have said Liddell was being legalistic, even unbiblical because the Sabbath and the Lord's Day are not the same thing. And besides, that was the law and we are no longer under the law...we are under grace.

     Who was right? Liddell or those Christians who admired Liddell for a completely unnecessary crises of conscience? Is the holiness of the Sabbath an obligation for us today?

    I know that the 4th commandment says we are to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. And I realize that text is found in Exodus 20 and we are in Gen. 2. But if you remember, I said in the introductory message to this series, that the basis for the 10 commandments is found in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Well, the Sabbath Law is based on Genesis 2:1-3.
 So what about the answer to the question...was Liddell right not to run on a Sunday based on the 4th commandment and Gen. 2:1-3 or was he being legalistic? I'll tell you at the end of the message.

     Let me say that I think he and many other Christians misunderstand the purpose of the 4th Commandment and Genesis 2:1-3. Let me explain. I believe the purpose of the 4th commandment was to show that since God worked 6 days and rested on the seventh that He was setting a principal for us to learn, not just a pattern for us to follow.

    His main purpose was not to say that we should work 6 days and rest 1. Think about it...If that was true then we would be breaking that commandment if we only worked 5 days..of 4 or part time. There has to be more to this commandment and to Gen. 2:1-3 than giving us a specific number of days to work and rest.
 Let me give you the Big Idea now and I will attempt to defend it in this message.

     As we work, regardless of how many days a week that may be, we must understand first and foremost that life, life in Christ, being a Christian, is not found in our work....in our doing ...life is found in our being.....being in the presence of God, resting from our work and depending on and resting in His work.

     Life, the Christian life is only found, and maintained  IN CHRIST... not in our work. It is in His rest that we find life...Retgardless of how many days we work we do not live until we rest in the finished work of God through Jesus Christ.

     Genesis 2:1-3 and the 4th commandment is much greater than keeping just one day holy unto the Lord....it is keeping all your life holy unto the Lord by depending on, trusting in, His work...and not your own.

Trans: Are you tracking with me? Or have I completely lost you? Let's try to find the road...open your bibles to Genesis 2:1 where we will examine the Sabbath rest of God.

Read: Gen. 2:1-3

2. The words 'and there was evening and morning, a 7th day'
     The account of all the other days of creation closes with the phrase 'and there was evening and morning a ---day' But there is no reference to this connected to the 7th day. I find that significant.

    It seems that the author is trying to tell us that there is something special about this 7th day. In some way, it is not to be understood like the rest of the creation days.  Perhaps, there is an indication of the 7th day as continuing...not having an end. That is our fist hint to understanding the Sabbath Rest.

3. There is no command to rest on a specific day, to keep the Sabbath.
     This text is about God, humanity is not mentioned here or hinted at. This text is descriptive of what God had done.  Again, I believe God is setting a principal to live by and not a pattern to follow.

     It is saying that the work God had begun in creation, he had completed, finished. His work of creation was behind him.

2. God rested on the 7th day from all his work. (vs2)

     The Hebrew words for the number 7, for Sabbath and rest are all from the same root..shabat. The heart of the word Sabbath then is rest. That is it's primary significance.

     But we must not misunderstand the word Rest. It does not mean what we do after we are tired and worn out. It simply means to end  activity, the cessation of effort. God was not tired because of his works of creation...he stopped, rested because he was done.

     This is the first mention in Scripture of work and it is first associated with God's work and not man's.

     This is another clue to understanding the true meaning of the Sabbath rest. You see, the Sabbath rest is not so much the keeping of a specific day but the ending of a specific effort.

3. God blessed and sanctified the 7th day. (vs 3)

     Our last clue to the true meaning of Sabbath Rest is found in the words Blessed and Sanctified.

        Blessed: to place or bestow favor, a special grace. When God blessed the 7th day it was for mankinds  sake, that we
        might look back on the finished work of God and worship, praise and enjoy communion with Him. That we might find
        blessing in His rest.

        Sanctified: to set apart (consecrate) for sacred use, to make holy.

     The Sabbath Rest is only found where there is holiness, where there is separation (remember from last week) from that which is unholy and being set apart, to that which is holy. Is holiness and separation only to happen one day a week regardless of whether it is a Saturday (Jewish Sabbath) or Sunday, the Christian's Lord's Day?

ILL: Augustine: 'Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee.'

     Augustine was saying that our life goal is to find the rest that is found in God alone.

     We can be restless for many reasons; the fast paced nature of change, in the world and even in the church; the anxiety over the uncertain times we live in, even the overwhelming desire to have more, to move up the ladder of success. But this is not the restlessness that Augustine is talking about.

     Our restlessness is caused by our sin. Sin disrupts life, little sin disrupts in small ways perhaps but compounded over time, these little sin disturbances build up. And big sins disrupt in major ways. Sinner or saint, we must recognize that much of our restlessness is the result of our sin and not the changes in our lives, not the anxiety over an uncertain future or our insatiable desire to make it in this world.

     So how and where do we find rest, Sabbath rest? Lets turn to the Book of Hebrews Ch. 4 vs 9-10

Read: Hebrews 4:9-11

     The author of Hebrews is connecting what he has to say with the Gen. 2:1-3 account of the Sabbath rest.  He shows that although God created rest for his people, his people are not at rest. They wander in the wilderness even though rest in the Promised Land was within sight. He says, 'let us be diligent to enter that rest'. How? By casting aside sin, which is what kept Israel in the desert and out of the Promised Land. Cast off everything that keeps you from Christ. Come in the fullness of Faith and rest in His finished work.

     You see, you can't handle sin. You can't deal with it or defeat it. Only Christ can.  He came, died and paid the penalty for your sin, he opened the door into the presence of God for all who believe in Him. Then God, based on the finished work of Jesus Christ, declares you forgiven, justified, standing before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

     And God not only promises forgiveness but rest and there we find blessing.  But if you want rest, true Sabbath rest, and the blessing that comes with it, it will only be found  in the way God provides it, in a life of holiness.

     Let me make this easy. The secret to true Christian living, to experiencing the true Sabbath rest, to upholding the 4th commandment:  is to cease from dependence on your own activity and rest in complete dependence upon the activity of Christ who dwells within you. That is fulfilling the Sabbath. It is saying with the Apostle Paul 'Not I but Christ, I no longer live but Christ lives in me!'

     You will receive what God has promised... Blessing, fruitfulness and abundant victory in the Christian life. How, by trusting in God's activity and not in your own ability.

Conclusion

     Let me say that since Eric Liddell believed it was sin for him to compete in the Olympics on a Sunday, then it would have been sin for him to compete on a Sunday. It is a matter of personal conscience.

     Second, let me say that I think he and many other Christians misunderstand the purpose of the 4th Commandment and Genesis 2:1-3.

     We strive to compartmentalize life. We want everything to fit nicely and neatly in their own little spaces.  And the Christian often places things in the spaces according to whether they are spiritual or sacred.

         In the spiritual boxes we place things like prayer, Bible reading, going to church, ministry and Christian friends.

         In the secular box we place things like work, family, recreation, our home, and finances.

     We divide our lives into the secular and the sacred . But in reality, for the Believer, there is no such distinction. And as long as we maintain that artificial separation between that which is for God and that which is for me, we will always be restless, and we will never fulfill the Sabbath rest, no mater what we do or don't do on that particular day we may call the Sabbath.

One last text.  Matt. 11:28-30

Read: Matt. 11:28-30

     Notice that twice in this passage we see the word rest. One  is given the other is found.

        One is experienced when you first come to Christ. That is the promise of eternal rest in heaven.

         The other is found when you take on Christ's yoke and learn from his ways. When you give up trying to live your way and rely on your effort and give it over to Him and depend on His effort. You will find rest...each and every time you rest from your efforts and rest in His.

     The reason so many Christians do not experience true rest is not because they work on Sunday or play football or something else. It is because in one way or another they are protecting a part of their own work and saying 'God this is mine, I can handle it'. As long as you do that you will never find rest...and you will miss the blessing of the True Sabbath.

     When you leave this place thismorning and go back to your 'secular' lives....How will you look at the Sabbath? Will it be just some restrictions on your activities for a particular day? Or will it be the ceasing from your efforts every day and trusting in the finished work of God to bring rest for your soul?