{"id":266,"date":"2011-12-27T21:39:58","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T21:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/articles1\/?p=266"},"modified":"2014-10-21T13:55:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T13:55:38","slug":"a-heart-for-the-lords-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/a-heart-for-the-lords-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A Heart for the Lord’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gordon Cook<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again turn in your Bibles to that great prophet of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 58. <\/p>\n

I think I said last Lord\u2019s day that we had the last message on the Lord\u2019s day in terms of Sabbath Lord\u2019s day (when do we worship? we worship God on a special day) but there\u2019s one \ufb01nal message and that\u2019s going to be this evening, Lord willing. <\/p>\n

Isaiah 58, verse 13. (Again when you read that word Sabbath, it has no negativity in it, it simply means rest. It\u2019s a rest day.) Verse 13, <\/p>\n

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable and shall honor Him not doing your own ways, nor \ufb01nding your own pleasures nor speaking your own words and you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have been doing some mountaineering\u2013that\u2019s right, climbing mountains\u2013seeking to appreciate the biblical panorama with respect to the whole subject of worship. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big subject. It\u2019s hard to \ufb01nd a bigger subject and a more important one in the Word of God because you and I were made to worship God. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Westminster Larger as well as the Shorter Catechism prioritizes the matter of worship by asking this question and making it the very \ufb01rst question, <\/p>\n

What is the chief end and highest end of man?
\nAnswer: Man\u2019s chief and highest end is to glorify God and to fully enjoy Him forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s right. You and I were made, I was made to worship God, to glorify and enjoy Him forever. That\u2019s why God saved us. He redeemed us to worship. We were created to declare the praises of Him who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light, 1st Peter chapter 2, verse 9. <\/p>\n

I like the way Pastor Ted Tripp has put it in one of his books, \u201cWe were made to be dazzled by God\u2019s greatness and to respond in worship.\u201d <\/p>\n

And to help us to that end, God has given us a worship day. Jesus made it very plain (did He not?) in Mark chapter 2 that the Sabbath was given to man as a gift. The Sabbath was made for man. It was made to bene\ufb01t man. It was made to help man. God gave the woman to the man to be a helper and He gave us the Sabbath day to help us in our relationship to Him, to cultivate and maintain both a body rest and a soul worship. <\/p>\n

Man, as man, needs a day of rest and worship and from Genesis to Revelation you do \ufb01nd man worshipping God on one special day. Under the old covenant it was the seventh day, a Saturday, under the new covenant it is the \ufb01rst day, Sunday, but it\u2019s clear (is it not?) as we have seen through a series of messages (this is message number eight) but in those \ufb01rst six messages, we saw clearly that from the beginning God established a day of rest and worship. <\/p>\n

Adam had a rest and worship day. Moses and the prophets had a rest and worship day. <\/p>\n

Jesus and His disciples had a rest and worship day and the apostles and the early church honored and esteemed a rest and worship day. <\/p>\n

Yes, the day has been modi\ufb01ed and changed under the new covenant (we no longer worship on a seventh day) but the day, as a day of worship has not been rescinded or abolished. It was a gift from God, a gift worth cherishing, treasuring, protecting and keeping and we must \ufb01ght against the world\u2019s prejudices as well as our own sinful biases to keep this day, but we also need, brethren, if we are to keep a day unto the Lord, to maintain and cultivate a proper heart attitude. <\/p>\n

I say that because we can easily focus upon the externals, can\u2019t we? We can develop a list mentality and lose sight of the heart. Remember that\u2019s what happened to the Pharisees. They had a list, \ufb01fteen hundred rules. They lost sight of the heart and so, tonight, what I want us to do, in seeking to help you and to help myself (I trust) to keep Sunday special is to focus upon the heart. <\/p>\n

Think of David. How is he described? As a man after God\u2019s own heart and David was a great worshipper, wasn\u2019t he? Is there anyone under the old covenant than David? Think about it. It was David who brought the ark back to Jerusalem. He made it a priority. It was David who gives us most of the songs in the Psalms. David wrote most of them. It\u2019s David who brought music to the fore by integrating a variety of musical instruments and it was David who also saw the need of having skilled musicians and David had a heart after God. That\u2019s the key to worship: having a heart for God. <\/p>\n

And so, that\u2019s what I want to set before you this evening: seeking to improve, maintain a special day of worship, cultivating an attitude and disposition or a heart for God and that means this, brethren\u2014I have \ufb01ve things: <\/p>\n

We keep this day holily, or with reverent hearts. <\/p>\n

Secondly, if we are to maintain a special day of worship we need to keep this day joyfully or
\nwith enthusiastic hearts. <\/p>\n

Thirdly, we need to keep the day soberly, or with humble hearts. <\/p>\n

Fourthly, we need to keep the day truthfully, or with sincere hearts. <\/p>\n

[Fifthly] we need to keep the day expectantly, or with hopeful hearts. <\/p>\n

Okay? Let\u2019s consider, then, this whole matter of keeping the day or keeping the heart and cultivating a right heart attitude. <\/p>\n

First of all we need to keep the Lord\u2019s day, or if you want to call it the Sabbath day, this day of rest and worship we need to keep it reverently or with holy hearts or keep it holily with reverent hearts. <\/p>\n

We worship a holy God. That attribute\u2014the attribute of His holiness, has been called the master attribute. I\u2019ve told you that before, I believe from this same pulpit and that\u2019s because this attribute colors, shapes every other attribute. It is God\u2019s greatest attribute if you will, you never hear the angels or the seraphim giving a three-part hymn, Love, Love, Love (do you?) but you do hear them singing to God, holy, holy, holy, Isaiah chapter 6, Revelation 4. It\u2019s found in both Old and New Testament. They sing praises to a thrice holy God. <\/p>\n

Now, holiness isn\u2019t a very popular subject in our day, I\u2019m afraid. Most people prefer (even Christians) to talk about God\u2019s love. His holiness tends to make us uncomfortable, but His holiness is not something peripheral. It\u2019s not something we can ever afford to ignore because it is who He is. His holiness shapes everything He does. His works are described as holy. <\/p>\n

It touches everything God touches and that\u2019s why in Exodus chapter 3 you \ufb01nd Moses in his \ufb01rst encounter with God and God says to Moses, \u201ctake the sandals off your feet, I\u2019m here and the ground you\u2019re standing on, Moses is holy ground.\u201d <\/p>\n

And Moses was uncomfortable, wasn\u2019t he? That might even be a little too light of a word. He was scared. He hid his face, was afraid to look at God, but that word, holy, brethren, helps us to understand how great God is. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a word that really speaks of His separateness, that He\u2019s so different from you and I. Perhaps another word that helps us understand the word holy is the word majesty. I would even have you turn to Exodus chapter 15. Sometimes you \ufb01nd them side by side and here\u2019s one example of that, Exodus chapter 15, verse 11, notice the language here, Exodus 15, verse 11, <\/p>\n

Who is like You, oh Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another translation, not the New King James here, but another one translates it \u201cmajesty among the gods, majestic in holiness,\u201d and you do \ufb01nd that word majestic used again with holiness in other portions of the Scripture. <\/p>\n

Listen to what David Wells says about these two words, holiness and majesty. He says they belong together and they interpret one another and then he references Exodus 15. This word, holy, speaks of God\u2019s separateness, His greatness, but so does the word majesty. He makes that point that they belong together and they interpret one another. <\/p>\n

So, when you think of God, you think of a holy God, a majestic, kingly being and if you are thinking of God in that light, how in the world can you ever become casual or \ufb02ippant when you approach this God? <\/p>\n

It demands, brethren, awe, respect when we come into the presence of this thrice holy God who demands from you and me full orbed obedience, and to make sure we keep this day holy, God even takes that attribute of holiness and applies it to the day itself. <\/p>\n

Notice Isaiah 58 again. He uses it twice here to distinguish this day. Isaiah 58, twice the Lord specializes or sets the day apart with this word, holy, <\/p>\n

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day and call the
\nSabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s also shown to be a holy day because its this day that gets inscribed on that tablet of stone in Exodus chapter 20. Its put into the form of a commandment, the fourth commandment. Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you are to set that day aside for God. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a holy day. It\u2019s not a fun day. It\u2019s not a work day. It\u2019s not a common day. The very word holy sets it apart. It sets it apart from anything that\u2019s ordinary. It\u2019s a distinguished day. It ought to be set aside with honor and reverence. We are to keep this holy day with a reverent heart and who can do that but you, Christian, because you are a holy people, hearts that have been suffused with the grace of holiness. <\/p>\n

So, we are to keep it with a reverent heart. We are to keep it holily. <\/p>\n

Secondly, brethren, seeking to develop and maintain a proper heart attitude to this day, we can say this, in terms of having a heart after God and developing a proper disposition that is consistent with this day called the Lord\u2019s day, is that we ought to keep this day joyfully, or with an enthusiastic heart. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you know people, maybe even in terms of your past thinking, as soon as they hear the word, Sabbath, they think negatively, don\u2019t they? They immediately associate that word, Sabbath, with legalism or asceticism. They think killjoy. They think long faces. They think of a censorious, hypercritical attitude. <\/p>\n

Why? Why has the day got such a bad rap? Well, I believe it\u2019s because more often than not its been associated with the Pharisees as though they invented it but they didn\u2019t invent the Sabbath anymore than former President Gore invented the internet. It was God\u2019s invention. It was God\u2019s creation. It was given to man as man when man was in that perfect place of Eden. It was given to man, the perfect man, as a gift. <\/p>\n

And certainly Jesus understood that, did he not? When we turn to Mark chapter 2 (which I believe is one of the most critical passages to understanding the Sabbath day), here in Mark chapter 2, Jesus in the very outset of His ministry engages in controversy and con\ufb02ict with the Pharisees and here\u2019s a statement He makes that really sets the tone for everything else, verse 27 of Mark chapter 2, <\/p>\n

The Sabbath was made for man. <\/p>\n

He takes the creational language: made for man. God made man but He also made the Sabbath. It was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. In other words, it was made to help man. It was made to bene\ufb01t him. It wasn\u2019t made to burden him. It was given as a treasure, a blessing, not as shackles or chains or as a curse. It was given to put smiles on men\u2019s hearts not frowns. But tragically and as we\u2019ve seen, the Pharisees perverted it. They perverted it just like Hollywood and the pornographers pervert the gift of sex. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why Jesus again and again enters into Sabbath wars with the Pharisees. Just like the Allies invaded Western Europe to set Western Europe free during World War II, Jesus comes to earth as the Great Liberator; and He will set souls free; but He will also set the Sabbath free from the shackles and the chains of the Pharisees. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a very happy day in the days of Jesus because the Pharisees had imposed a tyranny, a tyranny of man-made rules. I kid you not: people were afraid even to look in the mirror on the Sabbath day. You say, \u201cWhy?\u201d Well, according to the Pharisees, if you happen to see a grey hair\u2014and that\u2019s where most of us would now get ourselves into trouble, once you reach 50 and over you start to see grey hairs so up to this point you could\u2019ve looked in the mirror, but after 50 you stop looking in the mirror because if you saw a grey hair and you plucked that grey hair, shame on you. That was a violation according to Pharisaical tradition. That was work. <\/p>\n

What an ugly day. That\u2019s how bad things had gotten. It wasn\u2019t viewed by most as a happy day, not as long as the Gestapo Pharisees were around. It wasn\u2019t what it ought to be; and what God had intended it to be and He\u2019s intended it, purposed it to be, brethren, to be a day to enjoy Him, a day to delight in God. Joy is not the exclusive note but it is by far the dominant note in our Bibles when it comes to worship. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you a sampling. Let\u2019s turn to the Psalms, Psalm chapter, Psalm 5. Notice the language here, I\u2019ll simply quote the verses and I trust you\u2019ll feel the impress of them upon your souls. [This] ties into what we heard in the Sunday school hour with regard to religious affections. Psalm 5, verse 11, <\/p>\n

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You. Let them ever shout for joy. <\/p>\n

Again, the latter part of verse 11, <\/p>\n

Be joyful in You. <\/p>\n

Psalm 9, verse 1, <\/p>\n

I will praise You, oh my Lord with my whole heart. I will tell of all Your marvelous works. <\/p>\n

Verse 2, <\/p>\n

I will be glad and rejoice in You. I will sing praise to Your name, oh most High. <\/p>\n

Psalm 13, verse 6. Psalm 13, verse 6. <\/p>\n

I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me. <\/p>\n

Psalm 30, verse 4. Psalm 30, verse 4, <\/p>\n

Sing praise to the Lord you saints of His and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. <\/p>\n

Psalm 33, verse 1, Psalm 33, verse 1, <\/p>\n

Rejoice in the Lord, oh you righteous for praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with the harp. Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the emphasis, brethren, and I could quote a few more texts to make my point. <\/p>\n

When you move from the old covenant to the new covenant, the harp playing doesn\u2019t stop, the hand-clapping or the rejoicing. No you have language like this: <\/p>\n

Ephesians 5:19,
\nMaking melody to the Lord in your heart. <\/p>\n

Colossians 3:16,
\nGiving thanks, singing psalms,
\n(the same psalms that we just quoted)
\nhymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts. <\/p>\n

And notice the emphasis in both of those texts: the heart (right?), the heart. Not just the tongue but the heart. God wants more than good vocals. He wants more than just hearing us shout for joy, but He wants that joy to \ufb01nd as its spring board the very heart. <\/p>\n

This is the day to rejoice in the Lord and be glad in it. <\/p>\n

How could it not be a day of rejoicing all the more so when you take the perspective from the New Testament with respect to this day and the great works that God has done. This is the day in which Jesus rose from the dead. This is the day in which Jesus conquered the enemy death itself. How could it not be a joyous day? <\/p>\n

You remember those disciples? I mean, talk about being depressed, in one sense they had every reason to be depressed. On that Saturday prior to the resurrection, gathered in one of those little homes in Jerusalem hiding. They were afraid. Jesus was dead, buried in the tomb. Will we ever see Him again? Most of them said, \u201cNever in this life.\u201d All of their dreams and hopes and aspirations had been smashed by His death. Boy, were they depressed until they saw Him eyeball to eyeball: He\u2019s alive. <\/p>\n

And oh, do you think they rejoiced? Oh they sure did. There was never happier men on the face of the earth than those disciples. What joy, what excitement, what praise, what thanksgiving when the truth and reality of the resurrection \ufb01nally took hold of their minds and hearts! He\u2019s alive, never to die again. And all of the terrible fear and the doubts that had ransacked their souls, they were delivered from them and the greatest of all fears: death itself. Christian, keep the day with a reverent heart. Keep the day with a joyful or an enthusiastic heart. <\/p>\n

But thirdly, if we are to keep the day and maintain a proper attitude towards this special day we need to have it kept soberly, brethren, or with humble hearts. <\/p>\n

The Puritan Stephen Charnock, two excellent volumes on the very attributes of God, but listen to what he says about God: <\/p>\n

\u201cGod is a spirit, in\ufb01nitely happy. Therefore we must approach Him with cheerfulness. He is a spirit of in\ufb01nite majesty. Therefore we must come before Him with reverence. He is a spirit in\ufb01nitely high. Therefore you must approach Him in the deepest humility.\u201d <\/p>\n

And as I said earlier, David was a man after God\u2019s own heart. The psalms give us ample testimony of his joyous worship. David loved to sing and play his harp and praise and thank God, but David\u2019s worship, if you read through the psalms wasn\u2019t happy, happy, happy. It can\u2019t be, brethren, not if you understand real life. At times David\u2019s heart was crushed. You know what crushed his heart more than anything else? His own sin. Read Psalm 32. Read Psalm 51. Psalm 32, I acknowledge my sin. I confess my transgression. <\/p>\n

And that psalm, by the way, ends on a happy note; that\u2019s a point that should be made. David didn\u2019t stay in the dungeon. He didn\u2019t mourn and wear a perpetual frown, either. He didn\u2019t wear a perpetual smile, but neither did he wear a perpetual frown. <\/p>\n

Sin broke him. Sin, sin humbled him. There were tears, there were sighs. And that\u2019s why we should sing psalms or songs, hymns in minor key. At times David had a face like Nehemiah. Remember the king said to Nehemiah, \u201cNehemiah, your face looks sad\u201d? <\/p>\n

In Psalm 51 this is why he was so sad at times, because David came face to face with his own inner corruption: \u201cAgainst Thee, against Thee only have I sinned.\u201d <\/p>\n

And one of the reasons why God gave us His holy law is to humble us before the dust, or in the dust before Him and when you stand in front of God\u2019s holy law as it was meant to be applied to our life, you cannot help but cry out, \u201cOh wretched man that I am!\u201d <\/p>\n

When we come to worship God in this day, brethren, we come face to face with the divine lawgiver, a law that forces us to examine our words and our thoughts and our actions. <\/p>\n

I would recommend brethren, just as a devotional time, take the larger Shorter Catechism \u2014Larger Catechism and just read the section on the Ten Commandments and see how those Puritan forefathers took those commandments and applied them. You\u2019ll see sins you never saw before, like Jesus, when He opened the seventh commandment and the sixth commandment in the Sermon on the Mount. He showed the Pharisees, and all those who were listening to Him that the law of God has application that goes far beyond the external. Whosoever looks at another woman to lust has violated the seventh commandment. Whoever has anger in his heart has violated the sixth commandment. You can\u2019t read God\u2019s law and not be humbled by it. We come here on the Lord\u2019s day and face God, the Lawgiver. It\u2019s a day to remember Him. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a day to remember Him, not only as Lawgiver but as Creator. Here\u2019s the God who made everything. We are dependent upon Him for everything, every drop of rain, every breath of air. That\u2019s humbling. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a day to remember the Redeemer. That\u2019s what Israel would do. They would look back to what God had done in terms of that \ufb01rst exodus, bringing them out of Egypt. (Deuteronomy chapter 5.) And we look back, too, (don\u2019t we?) to what Christ accomplished and set us free on Calvary. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s humbling to stand before the foot of the cross. To use the words of Isaac Watts, “When I survey the wondrous cross upon which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a day for God\u2019s people and if you are to prosper from this day, if it is to bene\ufb01t your soul, dear people of God, you need to maintain a reverent heart, a joyful heart, a humble heart. <\/p>\n

But fourthly, if we are to keep the day and pro\ufb01t from this day (it was made for man), we need to keep the day truthfully or with sincere hearts. <\/p>\n

Why did Jesus say so many negative things to the Pharisees? Why did the Pharisees see so much of the Jesus the Lion and not Jesus the Lamb? Why did the Pharisees hear so much of the loud roar of His anger rather than the small, soft voice of His gentleness and His graciousness? Why did Jesus pronounce seven woes upon the Pharisees? <\/p>\n

Well, in large part it was because they were so blind and so deceived with respect to themselves. They played the game of a hypocrite. They look good on the outside but on the inside, full of dead men\u2019s bones. <\/p>\n

Whited sepulchers! Oh, you look pretty. You look \ufb01ne on the outside but you don\u2019t fool Me. I know what\u2019s on the inside. <\/p>\n

They were content to wash their hands in clean cups while they had rotten, bad hearts and wicked thoughts. There was a gross inconsistency between the outside and the inside; and God doesn\u2019t want hypocrisy when we come and worship Him. He wants transparency and honesty and sincerity. <\/p>\n

Psalm 51, “Behold You desire truth in the inward parts.”<\/p>\n

Turn to Psalm 15. Here\u2019s another text of Scripture where that\u2019s certainly is given emphasis by the psalmist here. Another psalm of David, he begins this psalm, psalm 15, by asking two questions, two very probing questions about worship. Notice, Psalm 15, verse 1, “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?” That\u2019s the \ufb01rst question. Second question, “Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” In other words, Lord, who can worship You? Here\u2019s the answer, verse 2, “He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart.” God focuses upon the heart. You might never be able to carry a tune, but if you worship God with your heart, He is well pleased. He looks on the heart, not the outward appearance. <\/p>\n

And while you and I can fool just about anybody in terms of the outward, God is never fooled. He sees the smallest little spider on that little wall in the back of that little small corner and He sees every thought. Pretty sobering isn\u2019t it? Every time you come here to worship He sees every thought: every wandering thought, every negative thought, every sinful thought. He sees every thought. And you can look very nice, can\u2019t you? You can be dressed up to the hilt and have a beautiful tie on and cuff links and wearing the \ufb01nest of apparel; but all the while your heart is engrossed with worldly thought. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re sorta like the little boy, or sometimes we all are like the little boy aren\u2019t we, who sat down in his chair, outward conformity, but there was no inward conformity, and at least he was honest with his mom, he said, \u201cme sitteth down on the outside but me standeth on the inside.\u201d I look good, mom, it looks like I\u2019m obeying you, Mom, but in reality I\u2019m not. <\/p>\n

You can have your Bibles open. You can sing hymns to God. You can have a smile on your face. You can look very attentive under the preaching. You could fool Pastor Cook a hundred times over, but you don\u2019t fool God and Jesus said there are people who draw near to Me with their lip, or draw near to God but their hearts are a thousand miles away and I don\u2019t want that kind of worship. I want sincere worship. I want truthful worship. I want you to have a consistency with what you see on the outside with what is taking place on the inside. We are to love Him, brethren, with all our hearts and all our minds. That\u2019s the \ufb01rst great commandment. <\/p>\n

How do we worship God on this day called the Sabbath or the Lord\u2019s day or this holy day? Well, we worship Him with our hearts. What kind of hearts? Reverent, joyful, humble, sincere, and then \ufb01nally, brethren, if you are a man or a woman after God\u2019s own heart you will worship Him expectantly or with a hopeful heart. <\/p>\n

Did you know that the Christian is to be a person who is constantly\u2014that is, constantly\u2014 looking backward and constantly looking forward. Isn\u2019t that right? Every time you come to the table, (right?) if you\u2019re remembering the table, and worshipping the way Jesus told us to worship when we come to the Lord\u2019s table you can\u2019t help but be a looking back Christian (right?) and a looking forward Christian. <\/p>\n

And this day, this whole day really has been given to us, brethren, to look back but also to look forwards. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the key word in Exodus 20? Remember the Sabbath day; and we\u2019re to remember it as we look back to God\u2019s work of creation, the six days He made everything and then He rested on the seventh day, that\u2019s when He rested, that\u2019s when He \ufb01nished His work. We\u2019re to look back to the work of Christ, \ufb01nished on the cross manifested by that great vindication of rising from the tomb. <\/p>\n

We are to look backward but we are to look forward. No one should look more forward than you, Christian. You see what the mortal eye cannot see. You look with the eye of faith. You look with the eye of hope and what are you looking towards? Well, you\u2019re looking towards the future, \ufb01nal rest, right? <\/p>\n

Notice Hebrews chapter 4. Both Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4 picks up this rest concept and applies it, but its used in a very multifaceted manner here. It\u2019s even hard to sometimes exactly know what rest was in view, but he does make it very clear that God\u2019s rest was in view. Personal pronouns all point to God. Hebrews 3, verse 11, \u201cSo I swore in My wrath that they shall not enter My rest,\u201d speaking of old covenant Israel. Many of them died in the wilderness. They never entered the rest of the promised land. Verse 18 of that same chapter again speaks of His rest, chapter 4, verse 1, again identifying it as His rest. Verse 3 of chapter 4, \u201cMy rest.\u201d Again, verse 5 of chapter 4, \u201cMy rest.\u201d God\u2019s rest is in view. <\/p>\n

And then, verse 9 of chapter 4, it does appear that he focuses upon this rest that remains for the people of God. He uses a different word than He\u2019s used already through those other parts of Hebrews, but now, remember the writer of Hebrews is writing this epistle because he\u2019s concerned that these Hebrew Christians are going to turn back. They aren\u2019t going to persevere. They\u2019re going to go back to old time religion, which was Judaism, and so he\u2019s seeking to encourage them and he picks up this rest word to encourage them to persevere and he illustrates the Old Testament from Joshua. He entered the rest, he entered the promised land, but some of them didn\u2019t make it (Hebrews 3, verse 19). But it\u2019s clearly he wants to encourage them to a diligence and a perseverance with regard to entering God\u2019s rest, the \ufb01nal rest, Hebrews 4, verse 11. \u201cLet us therefore be diligent to enter that rest.\u201d He has them looking towards heaven, the future rest. Canaan was a shadow of heaven. The promised land was a shadow of heaven. That was a rest land but there is this ultimate, there is this \ufb01nal rest. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting if you read the hymns in our hymnal on the Sabbath day or the Lord\u2019s day almost all of them\u2014not all of them, but most of them\u2014draw attention not only to the here and now of rest but to the future rest. Did you notice that of that hymn we sang? 322. Listen to another one. This is by John Newton, “Safely through another week, God has brought us on our way, Let us now a blessing seek waiting in His courts today. Day of all the week the best, emblem of eternal rest.” This day is to get us ready for heaven. We are to experience a foretaste of heaven today to excite us, to encourage us to persevere and keep on persevering until we enter the \ufb01nal rest. You see, we are to look backward. The Sabbath day, or the Lord\u2019s day is something like a memorial, like the Lord\u2019s table, we are to look backward, but it\u2019s also like a prophetic telescope and we are to look forward to that day when we shall be called up yonder. <\/p>\n

Do you think about heaven today? Have you? Well, if you\u2019re going to use the day the way it should be used, you have think back but you have think forward, too. You have to be thinking expectantly, looking to the ultimate, the heaven of glory. Jesus promises us perfect rest. Think of it: a rest, a perfect rest. We experience something of rest today. We experience something of rest when we look to Christ because we enter into His rest, rest from all our works. Christ is the rest we \ufb01nd in terms of salvation. We experience something of those foretastes of heaven, rest. As we come here, we are able to at least for some of the day, maybe not all the day, seek to put aside all of those worldly cares. We are taken up with the things of God. That brings rest to our souls and we are able to get an afternoon nap, that\u2019s rest for our bodies, but it\u2019s not the ultimate rest. It\u2019s not the best rest. It\u2019s not a perfect rest. But in heaven, it will be perfect. Think of it. You won\u2019t have to wake up in the middle of the night and say, \u201cMan, oh man, I wonder if I\u2019m going to have a job tomorrow.\u201d Right? You won\u2019t have to hear a child crying in the night and say, \u201cOh no, one of the kids are sick.\u201d You won\u2019t even have one of those pesky black \ufb02ies or mosquitoes. Perfect rest! Perfect rest! We can\u2019t comprehend it, can we? Perfect rest: no more sighs, no more tears, no more pain. I won\u2019t need a walker. I won\u2019t need a hearing aid. I won\u2019t need to fear or have any fear or anxiety plague my soul. No frustration, no irritations\u2014not in heaven. You see what you\u2019re missing if you\u2019re not a Christian? You\u2019re missing out. You sometimes, some people think the Christian\u2019s missing out. No, you\u2019re missing out. You\u2019re missing out on the greatest joy, the greatest delight: God Himself, and you\u2019re going to miss out on heaven if you don\u2019t have Christ as your Savior. You say, well, how, how can I get to heaven? Put your trust in Christ. You have to rest your soul in Him by faith. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Throw your soul into His arms and heaven will be yours. But listen, Christian, persevere. We are going to have a Sabbath that will never wax or wane. An everlasting Sabbath, perfect peace and harmony. Using the words of Bonar, “A few more years shall roll, a few more seasons come, a few more storms shall beat upon the shore, a few more Sabbaths here and we shall reach the endless, the endless rest.” And here\u2019s how Bonar says get ready: “Oh wash me in Thy blood and take my sins away.” Find your rest in Christ and heaven will be yours. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gordon Cook Again turn in your Bibles to that great prophet of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 58. I think I said last Lord\u2019s day that we had the last message on the Lord\u2019s day in terms of Sabbath Lord\u2019s day (when do we worship? we worship God on a special day) but there\u2019s one \ufb01nal message … Continue reading A Heart for the Lord’s Day<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-lords-day","tag-gordon-cook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}