BLESSED TO REST

BLESSED TO REST

Genesis 2:3
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

BEFORE THE FOUNDATION

Before the fall in the Garden of Eden God blessed the 7th day, setting aside a day where he rested from works.  Even before the fall the plan for man to rest was on God's mind.  Before the fall, God knew man would fall. Before the fall, when man was still at rest, God knew they would need to re-enter that rest. God rested from his own works leading the way for man to enter into a rest! Because he rested, we can enter into a rest! The bible says Jesus was already slain before the foundations of the earth were laid! God was not surprised at the fall and had already provided a way for mankind to be saved!  God isn't limited by present knowledge. He sees that past, present and future all at once!   In fact Jesus had to be slain before the foundations of the world because he is the foundation!  In order to build on Christ he must come first and he did!  Before God created the earth, his son was already set aside for the purpose of redemption! This is an awesome truth!

Revelation 13:8
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

1Peter 1:20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you

Isaiah 28:16 b

Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,  A tried stone, a precious cornerstone

DAY OF REST FOR MAN

God has designed the human body to need a day of rest.  This is a day that we stop our labor and our toils and both rest our bodies and worship him.  While physical rest is one day a week, rest in Christ is eternal.  The number six represents the number of man. Six days we labor and on the 7th we rest.  The number seven represents perfection.  In Christ, the perfect one, we enter an eternal rest from our own labors and rely on Christ.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

In the Old Testament the actual day mattered. The Old Testament was a type and shadow of the New. In the Old Testament the Jews worked for 6 days but at the end of the 6th day they could do no labor and they entered into a 24 hour rest.  The New Testament teaching is that we enter into a spiritual eternal rest (not just 24 hours) representing the 7th day-the day we accept Christ as Savior.  It's on that day we rest from our own labors and rest in what he has done for us.  We know all of our own labors and toils can never provide the permanent eternal rest in God that was lost in the fall.  The day of the week doesn't matter but the day you accept Christ does!  Some denominations put an emphasis on the actual day.  You can work Monday through Saturday and wind up like a clock and visit a church on Sunday but that doesn't save you.  You can do the same thing Sunday through Friday and then grace the doors of a church on Saturday and still have a heart that hasn't been cleansed by the blood of Christ.  The actual day doesn't matter but the day of Christ matters.  We must ask ourselves have we found the day that we set down self-reliance and yielded to Christ and his forgiveness?  It's on that day, we find rest! That's when the 7th day, the day of rest becomes an every day experience! That's when we enter back into the place man had in the garden before the fall!  It's an eternal day of rest! Amen!

The Promise of Rest

Hebrews 4: 3-7   7-For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:“ So I swore in My wrath, ‘ They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:


 “ Today, if you will hear His voice,
  Do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

This passage shows the true rest was not entered into in the Old Testament but that true rest is for those who believe in Christ. Those who don't believe have no rest. Those who do have entered into that rest! He who has entered that rest, has ceased from  his own works!  Praise God!

TODAY IS THE DAY

So there is a promise of rest and that rest is today!

The 7th day is today!

Today is the day of salvation!

Today is the day to make Christ Lord (if you haven't already!)

Today is the day to rest from works just as God did!

We have no guarantees about tomorrow!

I want to thank each person who takes the time to read this post.  If you've never asked Christ into your heart  you can do that right now.  He is present and hears every word you speak from your heart.  If you want to accept his death and the payment for your sins and if you want to accept the rest from your own works and an eternal rest in life with him, just ask him now.  You can simply say, "Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart.  Forgive me of my sins.  I give you my life.  Take control and be Lord of my life TODAY!"  Amen!

If you said that prayer, the bible says you are saved~

Scriptures used taken from:  http://www.biblegateway.com/