I. Time in the Beginning.
A. Intro.
1. Time is something that we usually don’t think about until it’s almost gone.
2. And when we do think about the time we’ve been given, we tend to think about the past or the future, but we seldom think about the best use of our time in the present.
3. Ps 90:12 “Teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”
4. That is the goal of these next messages on time. We will look to the scriptures to understand that time is one of God’s works of creation and that He has given us all a measure of time to seek Him, enjoy Him and glorify Him.
5. Eph 5:15-17
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
a. The difference between foolish and wise Christians is how they use their time.
b. The wise Christian will understand God’s will for their time and use their time in accordance with His purposes.
B. Time created on the first day.
1. Gen 1:1-5
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
2. Light and time go hand in hand. God’s first act of creation was to separate light from darkness and in so doing, He created the first day, the first measurement of time.
3. We could say that the first thing to be created was time. We often think of creation in terms of what was created on what day, but we overlook the fact that Day One was the first thing God made.
4. For God to create time, He gave His own light, the light of His own essence and nature. The sun, moon and stars were not created until Day 4 (Gen 1:14), and yet for the first three days there was evening and morning, with the light of God to divide the day and night.
a. 1 Jn 1:5 “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
b. 1 Tim 6:16 God dwells in unapproachable light.
c. Jn 8:12 Jesus, the light of the world,
d. Col 1:16) all things created by and for Him
5. The bible actually begins and ends, and it reveals that our history begins and ends, with the light of God giving light to the earth.
a. Rev 22:5 “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”
6. So we can see from Genesis and from Revelation that God exists outside of time and that He has created time for His purposes on the earth. When His purpose is fulfilled, time will end or change to something else, but we will continue to live with God in glory in what scripture calls “the ages to come.”
B. Time was created to provide a context for life.
1. Genesis 1:14 “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years…”
a. The sun, moon and stars give us times and seasons.
2. In addition to creating days, God also established the seven day week.
a. The Hbr. word for week is shebhua’, derived form the the word for 7, shebha’.
b. ‘Sabbath’ was used for ‘week’, to denote the time from Sabbath to Sabbath.
c. The seven day week most likely spread throughout the world from creation, as the Babylonians were using a 7 day week before Abraham.
3. The French Republican Calendar.
a. From 1793-1805 France used a calendar based on 10 day cycles (weeks)
b. An attempt to “de-Christianize” France (they also abolished Anno Domini) and year one was the first year of their independence.
c. Caused worker fatigue (1 day off in 10), eliminated Sunday worship, made international trade difficult, animals still needed to rest every seven days, etc.
d. Very unpopular and most Frenchmen didn’t observe it.
e. We’ll see this again when the antichrist tries to change time
f. Dan 7:25 “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times (set times) and law (decrees).”
4. So time was created for us by God to provide context for life, to give us insight into how we are to live. There are times for work and rest, for fellowship with God and one another.
a. Gen 3:8 God walked with Adam in the cool of the day.
b. Heb 10:25 Don’t forsake coming together, there is a set time for fellowship.
5. God measures time and has purposes for it.
a. Ecc 3:1 To everything there is a season.
b. Ecc 3:11 He makes everything beautiful in its time.
c. Gal 4:4 “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son…”
6. Our times are in the Lord’s hands. (Ps 31:15) He has written every one of our days in His book before they came to pass. (Ps 139:16)
C. Two types of Time.
1. There are two different types of time, kairos and chronos.
a. Kairos: the set times and seasons of the Lord, the appointed times of the Lord.
b. Chronos: is the calendar, time that is marked off into measurable quantities.
II. The pattern of Creation.
A. Adam’s life began with rest.
1. Another lesson we can learn about time from creation is that the Christian life begins with rest, not work.
2. Adam was created on Day 6 and he was the second to last of all God’s creation. On Day 6, God gave Adam his commission and his allotment of food, (Gen 1:26-31) but before any of Adam’s work started, he rested with God on the 7th day. Adam’s work of naming the animals don’t take place until after the Sabbath rest.
3. God created Adam’s light, land and time before creating Adam. God created the universe Adam was to live in before creating Adam and placing him in it. This establishes a pattern for us and a spiritual principle for us to understand if we are to number our days and gain a heart of wisdom.
4. This is also a foreshadowing of Eph 2:10, that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, the Last Adam, for good works that God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, or carry them out.
5. The order then, is like this: Light, time, land, Adam, rest, work. This is a pattern that we will see repeating and it reveals an important principle about time.
B. The pattern seen in the nation of Israel.
1. Just as God created these things for Adam, He did a similar thing with Israel. Although the order is not exactly the same, because God was not starting from scratch, like at Creation.
a. Creature: Born out of God’s works of deliverance from Egypt, a nation born in a day, through the waters of the Red Sea.
b. Light: Ex 13:21&22 the pillar of cloud and fire (God’s light/presence was in the
cloud.) (Neh 9:19)(Many other instances, Sinai, Moses face, etc.)
c. Time: Ex 12:1&2 before they even left, time starts now, then a full calendar, civil
and religious.
d. Land: Canaan
e. Rest: Leave Egypt in Ex 12, arrive at Sinai 3 months later (Ex 19), camp there for
approximately 1 year. (Num 10:11)
f. Work: Cross the Jordan and take the land (Jos 3)
2. Light: The pillar of cloud and fire were most likely the same thing and not a separate cloud by day and fire by night. The same pillar shone with the Glory of God by day and appeared as fire by night. The light of the Glory of God led them out of Egypt.
3. Time: Ex 12:1&2 the Passover was to be New Year’s Day for them.
a. Consider a people who were enslaved for 400 years. They had no ability to control their own time, they were told what to do with their time by the Egyptians.
0b. When God gave them the Law, He also gave them a calendar. He gave them set times and appointed times for meeting with Him just as He did with Adam.
4. Land: God had given the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants for all time. (Gen 12:7) Like Adam, the land had been already prepared for them.
5. Rest: After God worked His signs and wonders in Egypt, the Hebrews were born into the rest of the wilderness, where God fed them, gave them water and protected them
6. Work: Take the land.
7. Notice the pattern.
C. The pattern seen in the saints.
1. As New Creation Believers, we follow a similar pattern, but there is at least one major difference… our spirit was re-created first, unlike Adam whose body was created first.
2. 2 Cor 4:6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
D. The Christian life begins with rest.
1. Just as God did with Adam and the Hebrews, He has done with us. He gave us light, time, land and work, but we rest in Him before we work.
2. For the Christian, rest always comes before work. The pattern of this world is to work first in order to be rich or to survive, then to rest by indulging in the flesh. The Christian is to rest first in the work that God has already done, then do the works that God has prepared for them.
III. The Christian life begins with rest.
A. The principle in Ephesians 2.
1. Eph 2:4-10
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
1. Vs 5 God made us alive together with Christ, that is new life, new creation life, born again by the Holy Spirit.
B. Born out of God’s labor, born into rest.
1. Vs 6 God has made us sit together with Christ in heavenly place. That is rest.
2. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father because His work is finished.
3. In the OT, in all of the instructions that God gave for the building of the Tabernacle and in the building of the Temple, there is no chair, no seat. This is because the priest’s job was never complete, there was always a need to offer prayers and incense, burnt offerings for sin. The only One resting in the Tabernacle was the Lord, over the Mercy Seat.
4. But Jesus, the High Priest forever, has finished the work of atonement once and for all time, so He has sat down, now at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. (Heb 10:12)
5. When we are born again, we are born in Christ, already seated with Him. This is not something we strive to attain, we are born seated with Christ, because He has done the work.
6. Just as Adam was born into the work that God had done for him, and just as the Hebrews were born out of the work that God had done for them, we are born out of the work that Jesus has done for us to rest in Him and then to do the works that God has prepared for us.
7. Vs 8 We have been saved, born again, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not from any works that we could have done. Faith comes before works.
C. Work follows rest.
1. Vs 10 “…created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.”
IV. Rest comes before work.
A. The danger of putting work before rest.
1. When we put work first, we risk wasting our time and energy on works of the flesh that have no eternal value.
2. 1 Cor 3:11-15
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
B. What does it mean to rest in God.
1. How am I supposed to rest when I have a busy schedule?
a. When I have bills to pay?
b. When I have serious medical issues?
c. When I have family problems?
d. How am I supposed to rest when my kids are so little and require so much attention?
C. In Hebrews 4, God tells us how to enter His rest. (Four steps to enter His rest.)
1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 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.
1. #1: Rest is a promise, not a duty. (Vs 1)
a. Matt 11:28 Jesus said “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
b. Rest is not something we do to check a box & consider ourselves obedient.
c. Rest is a promise of God that says when we give Him our anxiety, He gives us His peace.
2. #2: The promised must be believed in faith. (Vs 2&3)
a. The Hebrews did not enter God’s rest in Canaan & died in the wilderness because they would not believe God. They would not trust Him.
b. The Word, the promise, was not mixed with faith. This is how we work together with God, He speaks and we believe Him.
c. Vs 3 “We who have believed do enter that rest…”
d. God promised me rest and I receive that promise by believing Him.
3. #3: Stop striving. (Vs 10)
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. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
a. Vs 10 “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
b. If we really believe God from our heart (not just words) we will see the evidence of that trust, we will notice a lack of striving.
c. Striving means exerting natural effort to reach a spiritual goal. Using any natural means necessary to get what you’re after.
d. Vs 11 “be diligent to enter…” (some trans say ‘labor’) and that means ‘to endeavor’ to ‘try hard’ to rest by trusting God.
4. God promises to give us rest if we trust Him to care for us and we stop using natural means to get what we want.
V. Closing.
A. Practical application.
1. Rest is a posture of the heart. It is an attitude of trusting God in everything.
2. When we feel ourselves getting anxious over a desired outcome, it’s a pretty good indicator that we are not resting in God.
3. Striving looks like working too much, working in the flesh like lying, manipulating, etc. we need to learn to recognize those things because they will keep us from God’s rest. Also…
a. Materialism, never enough, greed, etc.
b. A moving goalpost, wen you reach a goal, it’s not enough, etc.
B. What about work?
1. Rest comes before work. While we are resting in the Lord, we are seeking His revelation and will for the works that He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
2. Just as Jesus, the Last Adam, spent time in prayer and rest, He did nothing of His own, but only what He saw the Father doing.
a. John 5:19&20
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
3. John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
a. We enter the rest through the blood of Jesus.
b. We go in and out of the presence and find pasture, find our grazing land.
C. Application.
1. The pattern: We were created out of God’s labor to first rest with Him and then to do the works that He has prepared for us.
2. Have we gotten this pattern mixed up by following the way of the world instead? Have we been working first and only rating after we are exhausted? Do we look for rest in things that do not feed our spirit?
3. If we are going to gain a heart of wisdom to use the time we have left wisely, we must begin by obeying God’s command to rest first and work later. We should not expect God to bless our time and effort if we are going to spend our time and energy in ways that are contrary to His design.
4. So let’s examine our hearts and repent for striving. What have we been trying to attain by natural effort? What natural efforts are we indulging in to get what we want?