“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28 KJV
“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.”
Genesis 2:2-3 KJV
“And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.”
Exodus 16:23, 26, 29-30 KJV
“Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one 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. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”
Exodus 31:13-17 KJV
“and hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.”
Ezekiel 20:20 KJV
“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, In the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, And saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, And said, They do alway err in their heart; And they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. while it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 3:7-12, 15-19 KJV
“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. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do 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 in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached 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, To day if ye 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. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
Hebrews 4:1-11 KJV
This rest in which God’s people are to enter into is both spiritual and physical. This rest is two-fold spiritual being Christ and being in the heart and mind by faith. By faith, we choose to do God’s word. Faith and works are one and cannot be separated. Just as Sabbath, God’s law, and obedience cannot be separated from the love of God, from believing on Christ—we are to be hearers and doers of the word of God. It is by the Holy Spirit that God puts in us to dwell within us that we are hearers and doers of the word. We in and of ourselves can do nothing without God.
Going back through holy scriptures, and in those listed above; there is a clear call unto the people of God. There is clear command of God to His people. God commands His people (Israel: whether Jew or Gentile: birth and by adoption—(no Jew in existence in that time).
Christ our Rest is simply He is our Creator and Redeemer. Sabbath is Christ our very rest from all our labor—stop, cease as He did from His work of creating. And Christ has redeemed our lives from destruction. He gives us rest from our works of living selfishness, self-righteousness, living in ignorance, living the ways of the world being imprisoned by Satan through various aspects of life, various ways Satan uses to snare us.
Christ has justified us. We are justified by the word. Yet, this is only the beginning of the process of salvation. We go on living by faith believing (by faith doing, living Christ righteousness). He is literally He who makes us free from sin, from the power of sin as well as free from the penalty of sin which is death. We repent and are converted. We are baptized as an outward demonstration of us dying with Christ, dead in the grave; and resurrecting with Christ having victory over death, victory over sin, the power of sin. He sanctifies us daily for the remainder of our lives. He is our Lord and Savior.
There is life to live by faith in the Spirit the righteousness of Christ. The just shall live by faith.
Just as Christ brought His people (Hebrews) out of bondage in Egypt (Out of sin and death, out of imprisonment to Satan, out of physical and spiritual oppression, slavery, bondage those four hundred years; Christ makes free all who surrender their will to His will, give up self to being governed by God—He makes us free from Satan and sin the same way.
Entering into Christ rest, we cease from our labor throughout the six days; we cease from all commonness in our living. We give up all self to God: We die daily. We live worship unto God from the east unto the west (sunrise unto sunset). How we live throughout each day reveals if we truly keep Sabbath holy or not; whether we truly are believers, if we truly enter into His rest.
We live Isaiah 58.
This spiritual rest is rest in Christ our Rest from the toil that living daily under the attack of Satan brings—we need rest and reviving spiritually. We need physical rest from our physical labor of working literally in the fields, in the cities, laboring in our homes with chores and on our land all that need be done: cooking, cleaning, finances—paying expenses, banking, buying and selling; one’s own pleasures that is not edifying self or others in the Lord. We are not men pleased obeying the commandments of men, the desires and wants of man; but, we do live by faith pleasing God not by our night but by the power of God—the Holy Spirit.
There is preparation for this rest, Rest, we who are God’s true people enter into. We prepare for it spiritually throughout all the six days prior to it. We prepare for it daily, and on the six day all final preparation is done in our surroundings, our habitation—we clean, our clothes, our body all clean and ready to usher in the seventh day, rest, Sabbath—and we enter into Christ: Rest. All is prepared in us, in our habitat to receive His presence; to receive His freedom, to receive His covering: His righteousness. We have waited for Christ, He comes every seventh day. In the seventh day is filled up the very holy presence of God—all about Him. No distractions. Satan will try, but if Christ Spirit be in us, we will not choose to sin.
Yes, God is with us daily, all our living is worship unto God or Satan. The seventh day of the week (Saturday) reveals Who we belong to. Sabbath is the sign that we belong to God, that we are sanctified by God. No other day is the sign.
Yes, many others keep the Sabbath. Yet, they have not true knowledge of God but are unequally yoked mixing truth and error, being in darkness. The Sabbath is the very seal of God. The sign
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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, and hallowed it.”
Exodus 20:8-11 KJV
God commands us: Remember.
Be don’t deceived. Repent and be converted that your sins be blotted out, that you be born again.
Maranatha