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We thank the Lord for what He has been showing us about the Sabbath rest. God could never find His full rest in heaven, because heaven is not the place where His eternal purpose is fulfilled. God’s full rest is on earth with man. Regardless of how wonderful or excellent the angels may be, God’s rest is not with the angels in heaven but with man on the earth. This is why the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Eventually, the Bible reveals that God’s full rest, His full Sabbath, will be on the earth with a living composition of all the redeemed people.
Beginning at Gen. 2, this matter of the Sabbath rest develops progressively. In Genesis 2 we see that God’s first Sabbath was immediately after He had gained a man on earth in His image to express Him and with His authority to represent Him. Immediately after securing a man on earth in His image and with His dominion, God rested. That was the first Sabbath. God’s second Sabbath was with the children of Israel. After the children of Israel had gained the good land of Canaan and had built there a temple which was filled with God’s shekinah glory, God had His second Sabbath on earth. The temple in the good land filled with God’s glory signified that God had secured on earth a people to be His dwelling place, a place where He could dwell, express Himself and exercise His dominion. This was God’s second Sabbath with man on earth. Thus, in the Old Testament we have two outstanding stories concerning God’s Sabbath: the first in Genesis 2 and the second in 1 Kings 8.
As we saw in the last message, when the Lord Jesus came, He also was God’s Sabbath. Following the Lord Jesus, we have the church as the Sabbath rest to God. Christ is the Head and the church is the Body. When we come to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, we see that the glory of God filled the temple once again, and God again secured a habitation with man on earth for His rest. We may say that this is the third Sabbath. God had gained a man on the earth. Although God did have something with Noah, Abraham, and with the Lord Jesus Himself, in this message we need to focus on the three main Sabbaths: the first Sabbath after the creation of man in God’s image and with God’s dominion; the second when the temple was built on earth and filled with God’s glory; and the third when the church, as the new man, was built with people in God’s image.
The first two Sabbaths, the Sabbath after the creation of man and the Sabbath after the building of the temple, both were pictures; neither of them was the real thing. The first real Sabbath that God secured with man on earth was the building up of the church. The church is not a Sabbath rest in figure but in reality. The Sabbaths with Adam and with the building up of the temple were types, but the building up of the church is not a type — it is the fulfillment.
God’s way is a progressive way. We can see this in His creation in Genesis 1. Why did not God create everything in a single day? He could have completed everything in just a few minutes. On the first day God simply called for the light, and on the second day He created the expanse. If we had been there, we probably would not have been very patient, saying to God, “God, the light is here, but we need air.” Sometimes we are faster than God. God’s way is often contrary to ours; He always does things in a progressive way. One day, God became a man, sowed Himself into mankind, and after the death and resurrection of that man, the church was produced. But God did not accomplish everything once for all. Although God has sown Himself into us as the seed, the harvest has not yet come. Whatever we have received, secured, and gained today is the seed, not the harvest. God is patient. Although the seed was sown nearly two thousand years ago, God did not accomplish all the work once for all at that time. When God sowed Himself into mankind, a wonderful age, the New Testament age, began. Before the Lord Jesus came God had never sown Himself into mankind. Adam and the children of Israel were types. God never sowed Himself into the soil of Adam or into the soil of the children of Israel because they were types. Only in the church is the real soil into which God has sown Himself.
Consider the natural law of the growth of a seed. If you sow a seed into the ground, you do not expect to have a harvest the next morning. Not even a mushroom grows that fast. The best harvest will always take the longest time. According to natural law, life takes time to grow, and the highest life requires the longest time to grow. A dog may grow to maturity in less than a year, but a human being needs at least eighteen years to grow into maturity. Parents do not expect their children to grow as quickly as a dog grows. Nevertheless, all the pastors, preachers, and ministers are dreaming, thinking that we Christians can grow up overnight. We need time to grow, time to ripen and mature.
God has sown Himself into a part of mankind which became the church and which includes everyone who has received the Lord Jesus. But after receiving the Lord Jesus there is a problem: How are we going to allow the Lord to grow in us? In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, we see four kinds of soil. Although each type of soil received the same seed, the issue, the result, was different in each case. Have you been regenerated? Have you received the Lord Jesus? What will be the issue? This is the very thing that many Christians miss today. Yes, the church life is a Sabbath rest to God, but it is not a Sabbath with maturity. It is good, but it is not altogether good; it is not yet good enough. The church life is wonderful as far as the seed goes, but we have not yet reached the harvest. There is a Sabbath for God in the church life today, but this Sabbath is not yet complete, perfect, or mature. Hence, there will be another stage of the Sabbath — the age of harvest at the time when the Lord Jesus comes back. When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, that will be the age of the harvest. It is wonderful to see the field growing, but this could never be as wonderful as the harvest. Undoubtedly, there is a real Sabbath for God in the church life because God has sown Himself as the seed into the field and the field is now growing. Nevertheless, we must remember that we are still not in the harvest. Will you be ripe when the harvest time comes? If you inquire of farmers, they will tell you that some of the crop is not ripe at the harvest time. Today’s Sabbath in the church life is a real Sabbath, but it is not a Sabbath with perfection or maturity. That Sabbath will be in the next age. In 1 Corinthians 3 we see the field growing, and in Revelation 14 we see the harvest being reaped.
We all can be in the growing Sabbath, but whether or not we are in the harvest Sabbath depends completely on our maturity. Look at the situation: millions of Christians have been saved, but only a small minority have come into the church life to enjoy the riches of Christ. This Sabbath is for all Christians, but not all of them have come into it. This is the very reason why the book of Hebrews was written. It was written with the purpose of encouraging the saved ones not to forsake the church life but to endeavor, strive, and be diligent to enter into it because it is today’s Sabbath rest. The Sabbath rest today cannot be found in any religion, organization, or free group. Today’s growing Sabbath is the real church life with the riches of Christ, and all true Christians should be encouraged to be diligent to enter into this Sabbath. If they are not diligent, they will miss the mark, as did the majority of the children of Israel who came out of Egypt. At least two million of the children of Israel who came out of Egypt at the time of the exodus died in the wilderness, and only a very small number came into the rest. That was a type. Today, in the church age, we have the fulfillment of that type. Although millions of Christians have been saved, where are they? They are either still in Egypt or wandering in the wilderness. When the book of Hebrews was written, the Hebrew believers were in danger of becoming another people wandering in the wilderness and eventually falling away in death. Therefore, Hebrews was written to encourage them to be diligent to enter into the present Sabbath rest. How much Christians need this kind of encouragement today!
We are in the church life as the growing Sabbath today, but the problem is how we are growing. Are we growing properly and adequately? Are we growing in such a way as to cooperate continually with the Lord’s grace? How we grow in this growing Sabbath determines whether or not we shall share in the next Sabbath. Practically speaking, the Sabbath in the next age will be a prize for our proper growth during this present Sabbath. The next Sabbath, the Sabbath of maturity, will be actually and practically a reward for those who have grown properly in this present growing Sabbath. In other words, if you do not grow well in this growing Sabbath, you will miss the next Sabbath, the Sabbath of maturity. The thought here is very logical; it is God’s wisdom. God is wise to use the coming Sabbath as a reward to encourage us to enjoy the present Sabbath. If we miss the present Sabbath, we shall certainly suffer the loss of the coming Sabbath.
At this point we need to consider Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 9:24-27. Verse 24 says, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” The word obtain here does not refer to obtaining salvation, for we have obtained salvation already. The word obtain refers to gaining the prize. “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (v. 25). The crown in this verse is a reward, a prize, for completing the race. Verses 26 and 27 continue: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The matter of being a castaway mentioned in verse 27 does not refer to being a castaway from salvation but from the prize. First Corinthians 10:1 immediately continues the thought of chapter nine (There were no chapter or verse divisions in the original Greek text.) Verse 5 of this chapter says, “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” This verse begins with a very important word, “but.” In a sense, all the children of Israel were in the race. When they came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they were running the race, but many of them fell away. In the picture depicted here by Paul, we see that he was running a race, fearing that he himself might be a castaway and miss the prize. What does this mean? Simply put, it means to miss the coming Sabbath in the millennium.
Our wise Father uses the coming Sabbath in the millennium as an encouragement for us to run the race properly today. How are you running the race? Do not run sloppily. If you do, you probably will not mature very well. Perhaps now you are in the church life enjoying today’s Sabbath, the growing Sabbath, but will you be there in the next Sabbath, in the Sabbath of maturity? We all must be careful about this. As Paul was running the race during the early days of his ministry when 1 Corinthians was written, he was not sure that he would gain the prize.
We find a similar thought in Phil. 3:12-13, a book written during Paul’s later ministry. Philippians 3:12 says, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected, but I pursue after, if that I may gain that for which also I am gained of Christ Jesus” (Gk). Paul was saying that Christ had gained him for something but that he had not yet gained that for which Christ had gained him. Christ has gained us for the purpose that we might gain Him, and now we are on the way toward gaining Him. Have we gained Christ in a full way? No, we have not yet gained Him in full. He has gained us that we might gain Him in full. Even at the time when Paul wrote the book of Philippians, he was still on the way, not having gained Christ in full. In verse 13 Paul continues, “Brethren, I count not myself to have gained: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Gk.). The word “high” in verse 14 means from above, that is, heavenly; thus, the high calling here is equal to the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. In these verses we see that Paul was still pressing on. Even when he wrote the book of Philippians he still did not have the assurance that he had gained the prize.
In 2 Timothy 4:6-8, however, Paul was sure that he had the prize: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Paul wrote these words just before he was martyred. Will we be able to say such a thing at the end of our life? Will we be able to say that we have fought a good fight, finished our race, kept the faith, and that a crown of righteousness is laid up for us? Here it is not a matter of a crown of grace but of a crown of righteousness. Paul knew that the Lord, the righteous Judge, would give him a crown of righteousness according to His righteousness in that day. What is the day referred to here? It is the Sabbath in the coming age, the Sabbath of maturity. Paul said that this crown would be given not only to him but to all those also who love the Lord’s appearing.
How are we growing now? How are we running the race? The answer to these questions will determine our future. Will you be there in the Sabbath of maturity during the millennium? Many Christians hold the mistaken concept that as long as they are saved they will share in the kingdom in the thousand years. Although I was taught this for years, from a further study of the Bible I learned that this concept is not accurate. While salvation is by faith, the reign with Christ for a thousand years is not a matter of salvation but of the prize which encourages us to run the race properly. The Father’s wisdom is shown here.
Is not the church life a Sabbath today? Yes, praise the Lord that the church life is the growing Sabbath which leads us into the Sabbath of maturity. But whether or not we shall partake of the coming Sabbath of maturity depends on how we are growing today. This is very logical. Our Father is very wise. Even an earthly father may tell his children, “Children, if you do well in school this semester, passing your final exams, there will be a big prize awaiting you. But if you do not pass your finals, you will suffer, and I will put you into a dark room for a day. While you are sitting in that dark room, your brothers and sisters who passed their finals will enjoy a special prize and a full day’s rest.” I know of some fathers who have this practice. A father may have five children: one receives the top prize, another receives a secondary prize, a third, barely passing the final, receives the smallest prize, and the two naughty ones who fail their final exams are put into a little dark room. Is not such a father a good, wise, just, and loving father? Certainly he is, for he encourages all of his children to do their best. Our heavenly Father’s practice in the New Testament is the same. Our Father, a Father of love, is wise, knowing how to encourage His children to grow up. There are many verses in the New Testament related to this and we shall cover them in the following messages.
Paul was an apostle, but he was still running the race. Although he was so faithful and was doing a marvelous and excellent work for the Lord, he still feared that he might have been a castaway. Do you think that Paul was afraid that he would be lost? No, as we have seen, being a castaway does not mean to be lost but to miss the prize. Even at the time of his writing to the Philippians, Paul was not sure that he had gained the prize. It was only at the very end of his life when he was about to be martyred that he could declare, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” Only then did he have the assurance to say this. We need to pay close attention to these verses. However, few Christians pay much attention to them, only caring for spiritual “candies.” I ask you to read and pray these verses in 1 Corinthians, Philippians, and 2 Timothy again and again until you get into them and are fully enlightened. Although these verses may not appear to be so sweet, they certainly are nourishing. They are the real health food. On the one hand, we all need to be excited that in the church life today we are in the growing Sabbath enjoying the riches of Christ. But, on the other hand, we must be careful how we grow, run the race, and fight, for that will determine whether or not we shall share in the coming Sabbath, the Sabbath of maturity. May the Lord’s grace be with us in this matter!
