God Finishes the Created Kingdom

Thank you for sharing that, and I thank God for what He is doing. I love Anna's testimony—how the Lord can take a situation like she was in and redeem her story. That is the gospel: it is about God redeeming our stories, taking our mess and turning it into a message for others, turning our mess into His masterpiece. She has Jonathan and a wonderful church family. Thank you so much for being willing to get up here and share that, and for offering ideas on how we can serve in our own community and live on mission.

If you have your Bible this morning, turn to Genesis, chapter two. I have a one-point sermon this morning. Genesis chapter two, we will be looking at verses one through three. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. It is a good number here, a good crowd. I am thankful for a church that loves each other, that loves the Lord, and that really does reach out to its community. This is known as a loving, welcoming church—a church always willing to assist, always willing to reach out—and I want to see us grow in that more and more.

My one point this morning is that God finishes the created kingdom. For the past several weeks, we have been studying this creation account. We have covered how God framed the created kingdom out of nothing—how, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We then discussed how God formed the created kingdom with lights, limits, and land. Following that, we talked about how God filled the created kingdom, and now we will discuss how God finishes the created kingdom.

Let us look at Genesis 2, verses 1 through 3: "Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." After all was finished, God finally rests on the seventh day.

God created all things out of nothing, *ex nihilo*—and God does not stop until the job is done. How many of you are good at getting started? How many of you perhaps begin a project but then lack the discipline to follow through? Maybe you have good intentions: "I am going to start this project," but then you find it is harder or more expensive than expected, and so we just quit—leaving it halfway done. Friends, God is not like that. He finishes what He starts.

God finished what He started. The Bible says in Philippians 1:6 that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. He is faithful to complete it. Friends, I want to encourage you this morning: if He has saved you, He has far too much invested in you to ever lose you, give up on you, or let you go. He has saved you. He is sanctifying you. And as Romans 8:30 promises, He will also glorify us. So from the womb to the tomb, He holds us in His hands. He has already elected and chosen us in eternity past. He has justified us. He has called us by the gospel. He is sanctifying us, and He promises to finish His work in glorifying us and seeing us all the way to heaven. God finishes what He started, and God rested.

What does it mean when the Bible says that God rested? He rested from the labor of creation. Does it mean that God was tired? Was He exhausted after six days of creating, as if to say, "I need a nap"? No, that is not what it means at all. The Bible says in Psalm 121 and Isaiah 40 that God never slumbers or sleeps—God never gets tired, God never becomes fatigued. So what does it mean when the Bible says God rested? It simply means that God ceased from His work of making because the creation was now complete. He rested because there was nothing more to do.

It also means that God stood back and admired what He created. He could look at it and say, "It is very good"—nothing needed to be added to it, nothing needed to be taken away from it. It was complete, perfect, and finished. Additionally, the Bible says that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. This is the first time the word "made holy" or "sanctified" is used in Scripture, and it is used to hallow a specific day.

This creation week would later provide a model for the Israelites regarding work and rest on the Sabbath day. Although the word "Sabbath" is not used here, its idea is implied because the Israelites would later, under the Mosaic law, be commanded to take every Sabbath day off to remember their Creator, as a time of rest, reprieve, fellowship, worship, and reflection. We can find this in Exodus 20:8–11. "God says, 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work—nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.'"

Why is that? Because of the creation model. Because in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Why does God give us a day of rest? Why did God model the day of rest in the creation week? I believe that God created us as creatures who need rest, who require sleep, to remind us how frail and dependent we are. We need rest, we need sleep, as a reminder that we are not God, that we are not almighty, that we do not have the universe in our hands.

It reminds us that we are human. Therefore, He sets aside a day to rest—but also a day for us to enjoy life. How many of you feel so busy sometimes? Do you ever feel like you never take time to rest? We can take it to the extreme and become couch potatoes—where all we do is rest. We become accustomed to a lack of productivity; that is equally imbalanced. But when we work, we need a day of rest. We need a day for our bodies to restore and rebuild. We need a day to enjoy life. The Lord convicts me about this very often because I pour myself into my studies, into my sermons, and I am a full-time seminary student, and will be for the next two or three years, hopefully. The Lord has to remind me, "Take some time to enjoy life. Be with your wife. Spend time enjoying your children. Do something that you love." Friends, I am going to encourage you this morning: take some time to be with your family this week. Take some time to enjoy the good things of God because God never created us to run a rat race. He created us to thrive. He created Adam and Eve to work the Garden of Eden, but also to enjoy the Garden of Eden.

Friends, Jesus has come to give us life and life more abundantly. So enjoy your friends, your community, your church. Enjoy the life God has given to us. Also, the Sabbath was a day of reflection, a day to slow down, a day to refocus on what is truly important. It is easy for me to get my life out of focus. It is easy for me to mix my priorities up, and I need a time to refocus. It is a time to enjoy relationships, and also a time set aside to worship.

I come from a medical background as well, so I understand what it is like working every other weekend. And many of those weekends, the preacher was me. So I would get off work Friday night, then Saturday night, go preach Sunday morning, and then a quick nap, then right back at it Sunday night. That was pretty miserable. I learned what it means to need rest. But also, I realized that I need to set aside time to worship because work will consume your life. Other priorities will compete for your affection.

You need to prioritize worship. You need to say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," not if I get a chance, not if it is convenient. Friends, we never have time. We make time. We make time for what is important. We make time to go to work. We make time to eat. Friends, you need to make time to be in the house of God and to worship. That is not legalism. That is simply what we need to do as believers. That is what I need. I need the fellowship of the local church. I need to be here with you. I need to hear you sing. I need your prayers. I need to worship with you.

Let us set aside a time to rest. I want to note something about this word, "rested." Moses wrote to the Israelites who were surrounded by pagan nations. They would be familiar with this term, "rested." In pagan cultures, when the temple was built and completed, the deity was said to have come into the temple and to rest in it. So Moses is making a profound theological point. He is saying that the true God, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Creator, created the entire earth to be a temple in which to dwell. And the Garden of Eden acted as a Holy of Holies, where He would dwell with His creation, where He would walk with them in the cool of the day.

This theme is continued in the New Testament. In John 2:19, Jesus refers to His body as the true temple. He said, "Destroy this body, this temple. I will raise it again in three days." It took Herod 46 years to build this thing. And you say you will raise it up in three days? Jesus is saying, "I am talking about the temple of My body." He is the true temple of God with man. He is the true presence of God dwelling upon earth, walking with man. He is Emmanuel, the God with us.

And friends, one day He will renew this earth. He will create a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. And it will be the new, restored Eden, where we will dwell in perfect harmony with our Savior. I am looking forward to that day when all things are made new. Sin corrupted Eden. Sin drove Adam and Eve out from the presence of God. But thank God, He came on a rescue mission, and He came to dwell with us. When my sin separated me from Him, He came to me. He is the true presence of God with man, and He promises He will make all things new. And we will live in a restored Eden, in an Edenic city called the New Jerusalem.

This language of rest is intentional, inspired by the Holy Spirit, because in Genesis 1:31 we read that God sees His work—it is finished. He stands back and says, "It is good. It is complete. There is nothing that needs to be added to it or taken from it." Here is our Christ connection this morning. Christ is our Sabbath rest. The word Sabbath originates from the Hebrew word *Shabbat*, meaning "to rest" or "to cease," just as God rested or ceased from His labor. This command to rest from labor carries over in the Old Covenant, in the Ten Commandments.

Throughout the law of Moses, we see this pattern of work and rest tied to Israel's religious and civil calendar. For example, there is a Sabbath year, observed every seven years. Every seven years, you give your land a rest. Additionally, there is the Year of Jubilee, which occurs every 50th year—seven groups of seven. In the Year of Jubilee, debts were forgiven, prisoners were released, the land was given rest, and property was returned to its original owner. This is a Sabbath of Sabbaths. It is seven sevens, Leviticus 25.

Therefore, the Sabbath was a time of rest, renewal, release, and restitution. The Israelites were to keep this Sabbath day holy, under penalty of being cut off from their people. Here is an important theological question: Are Christians required to keep the Sabbath? The answer is found in the Word of God in Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 9 through 10. Hebrews 4:9–10 says, "For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His."

He is speaking of the Israelites failing to enter the promised land because of unbelief. But he says, "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God." Who enters this rest? Those who believe. Those who place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1 says, "Therefore, a promise of entering His rest remains. Let us fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it. For they heard the gospel as well, but it did not profit them, not being mixed with faith." Therefore, if you desire to enter into the rest of God, you must place your faith in the Lord Jesus. Because He Himself is our Sabbath rest. Under the New Covenant, we are not under the Mosaic Law. Under the New Covenant, Jesus fulfills the Sabbath day. Among the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath is the only one that does not explicitly carry over into the New Testament because it is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Contrary to the belief of some very well-meaning Christians, Sunday is not the Sabbath day. Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. We celebrate Sunday, the first day of the week, in commemoration of the Lord's resurrection. This was observed in the early church in the book of Acts, and we are still observing it today. The fulfillment of the Sabbath is found in Jesus, who, according to Matthew 12:8, is the Lord of the Sabbath. The Pharisees did not like Jesus very much for desecrating their Sabbath day rules. They accused Him of picking grain on the Sabbath day, untying a knot on the Sabbath day, walking more than 1,500 feet from His house on the Sabbath day. They came up with all kinds of rules and regulations in addition to God's Word, things that God's Word never said. Jesus trampled all over their religion. Jesus says, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." He says, "I am the Lord of the Sabbath." And in saying, "I am Lord of the Sabbath," He is saying, "I am the Creator who initiated the Sabbath day at the end of creation week. I am the fulfillment of the Sabbath. I am the true rest."

This is why Jesus invites us in Matthew 11, verses 28 and 30. It says, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." All of you who are weary and heavy laden. All of you who are burdened by sin. All of you who are being strangled by the pressures and anxieties of life. Come to Me and I will give you rest. It is in Christ that prisoners are set free. Those who are bound in the chains of sin can be liberated. It is in Christ that the weary and the worried find true and lasting peace. It is in Christ that the debts are paid. In the Sabbath year, the Year of Jubilee, debts were paid. Friends, Jesus, your Sabbath rest, has paid your sin debt and mine in full. Therefore, we do not have to labor to pay it off. Jesus is the true Sabbath rest, and He is making us new. In Jesus, we can find rest. His work of redemption is finished. There is nothing to add to it or to take away from it.

I believe that these words in Genesis 2:1 foreshadow Jesus' cry from the cross. It says that the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. And in John 19:30, Jesus Christ cries from the cross, "Tetelestai," "It is finished." Just as God looked at His creation on the Sabbath day and said it was complete, perfect, and finished, Jesus cries from the cross, "It is complete. It is done. It is perfect." This word "tetelestai" is the word that an artist would use when he was complete with his masterpiece, or when a debt was paid. It signifies it is complete.

When Jesus died on the cross and He cried, "It is finished," He was proclaiming that the wrath of God against sin and sinners was appeased. Divine justice was upheld. The price for mankind's redemption had been paid. There is nothing to add to it, and there is nothing to take away from it. It is a complete work. How do you receive it? You receive it by grace through faith. It is a gift of God. It is not something you have to work towards. It is not something you have to earn. It is not something you have to merit. It is something you rest in. You rest in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He is our Sabbath rest. Therefore, His invitation is "Come to Me."

You have to come to Jesus. If you are weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus. If you need peace, come to Jesus. If you need to be set free, come to Jesus, who is your Sabbath rest. And He will give you peace. And because of the cross work of Christ, God can look on the sacrifice of His Son and be satisfied. God can look at the cross and say, "It is good." He can look at you and me, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and say, "You are good. You are accepted." And your salvation is complete. There is nothing that you have to strive for. There is nothing you have to do to earn it. Your sins are atoned for. Your redemption is secured. Your sins are forgiven.

I want to encourage you this morning. Stop working and striving to be forgiven. Simply receive His forgiveness as a free gift. Stop striving to merit His salvation. Receive it as a gift that is already purchased for you. Come and find rest in Jesus. Stop striving and start resting. Rest in Jesus' person and His finished work. Come and rest in Jesus our Sabbath. For He died on that Friday. And then His body was laid to rest on that Sabbath day. His body lay in the tomb Saturday for the full Sabbath. The next day He burst forth in triumph. And He said, "I am the true Sabbath. The Sabbath is fulfilled in Me. The debts are paid. Prisoners are set free. Come and find your rest because I am the risen Lord."

As they come and give us a hymn of invitation, I want you to come find your rest in Jesus and what He has done for you. If you will confess that Jesus is Lord, and you will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Will you come and find rest? Will you place your faith completely and totally in Jesus' work for you? If you need prayer, this altar is open.