Work of God: faith in Christ

Numbers 28:16-25 (KJV)
And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the passover of the Lord . [17] And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. [18] In the first day shall be an holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work therein : [19] But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord ; two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year: they shall be unto you without blemish: [20] And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil: three tenth deals shall ye offer for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram; [21] A several tenth deal shalt thou offer for every lamb, throughout the seven lambs: [22] And one goat for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you. [23] Ye shall offer these beside the burnt offering in the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. [24] After this manner ye shall offer daily, throughout the seven days, the meat of the sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord : it shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering. [25] And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work.

Fourteenth day is the passover.. In the fifteenth day is the feast. From the monthly atonement, we now move on to the yearly, the Passover. The day after the Passover, is to be the beginning of the feast. We are reminded of the words of Paul:
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (KJV)
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: [8] Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Christ has been sacrificed for us, that we may begin to keep a joyous, but holy feast unto the Lord. Passover was when Israel was rescued from the bondage of Egypt, saved from the wrath of God by the blood of the lamb. It was when God's judgment passed or skipped over them, only because of the blood, not because of their own righteousness. God gave them freedom. We are also reminded of what God did for us in Jesus Christ. His wrath passed over us because of the blood of Jesus He Himself applied to our soul. The judgment that was looming over us skipped over us, not because of anything we have done, but because of the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. God shows no partiality to no man, and His judgments are without favoritism. There was nothing in us that moved Him to pass over us, but only that the righteousness of Christ's blood was applied on our souls. By only grace He freed us from the kingdom of darkness, bondage to sin and the devil and made us free from the curse of law. Shall we not then have a feast? Shall we not that rejoice in the Lord?

But we are to rejoice in a solemn, pure and holy manner, with unleavened bread. What is this leaven according to Paul? Malice and wickedness. A little leaven is all it takes to puff up the whole lump. A little sin can ruin the whole being of a man. That Christ has died for our sins does not give us right to be loose with sin. It instead gives us to duty now to cleanse out every little sin remaining. Why? Because God was so kind to pass over our sins by the merit of what His Son has done for us. We turn from every sin BECAUSE we are saved, not in order to get saved. Christ died for us while we were sinners. Now it is our duty to turn away from the smallest sin, in thanksgiving to God. Let us not become loose with sin, but gird of the loins of our minds, and cast out every grain of sin. Christ gives us freedom not to sin. He gives us no freedom to enjoy sin. We are to become slaves of God and righteousness.

Ye shall do no servile work therein. Israel was a slave of Egypt, and groaned under the bondage and the hard labour they were put through. But God through the Passover freed them from slavery. God also saved us from the bondage of the Law. We were under the hard labour of it, being condemned by it. The Law was our school master that gave us burdens more than we could bear. The Law only showed us our own hopelessness, and only made our sins become more sinful. God also saved us from this world and the rule of Satan. We were by nature children of the devil, doing always his will and having no other options. We only did what this evil world told us to do, and even though we finally saw that this world is dark, there was no light for us to find, for we were also blind. God also saved us from the fear of death that ruled us all our lives. Because this fear led us about, we did all we can to 'make the most of this life', because we knew we only had limited time. This life was all that mattered, because the fear of death was what controlled our lives. We were slaves. But when Christ appeared, we realized that Christ died under the Law of God for us, we finally saw the light, and became children of God by His grace, and God gave us the hope of everlasting life, freeing us from the fear of death.

How can we then become servants to these things again? Ye shall do no servile work, must be our rule. We must serve Him who died for us. How can we again serve this world, from which we were rescued from, and be conformed to what the world tells us to do! We must become free from all these things that made us prisoners:
John 8:36 (KJV)
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
We shall truly be free, if Christ frees us, and makes us a child of God like Himself. We have become sons and daughters of God. We have become the friends of Christ and brothers and sisters of Christ. We have become the family of God.

Since Christ has freed us from these dead works, we are to rest. We are to do no servile work anymore. Christ has granted to us eternal sabbath from the works of darkness and the hard labour of vanity. Let us rest from sin as Lord of the Sabbath has come, and stop doing all evil.
But ye shall offer offer a sacrifice made by fire. Though God has won sabbath from dead works for us, we are now to start doing good works unto the Lord. Here is the shocking thing: before we were saved, we have never done ONE good work acceptable to God. It was ALL sin. It was ALL wickedness. Even our best works were filthy rags before His eyes. But now, having been cleansed by His word, our good works, though imperfect, are accepted through Christ's sacrifice.

We do good because we are now accepted, not in order to be accepted. So then, even though we are now in the Sabbath from sin, our Sabbath from righteousness has not yet come, for it is written:
Matthew 12:12 (KJV)
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.
And:
Hebrews 4:9-11 (KJV)
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. [10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. [11] Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
We must be busy with good, and therefore cease from doing evil. If we Christians work that which is evil we break the Sabbath that which Christ has won for us, and offend Him deeply. Let us cast off the works of darkness, as we are so commanded by the Apostles. He gave us rest from those things. Let us not grieve the Spirit of God.

Also, we are to now be busy preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as is shown in these 7 day offerings unto the Lord. We are to preach the word of God in season and out of season, whatever lawful way we can. Priests rested not even though everyone else rested. We are the priests of God. Let us offer the sacrifice of faith by preaching the Gospel of Jesus unto the world. We must do this, lest the wrath of God be upon the congregation. Faith in the Gospel is the only thing that will stop wrath upon the unbeliever. It is the only thing that will keep Christians from sin. Let us not cease doing this work, until we enter into His final rest.

Also our labour is to ourselves believe in the sacrifice of Jesus. As it is written in the above verse, Let us labour to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of UNBELIEF. We must work to believe, 7 days a week. We are not to only believe on Sundays, nor on Christmas and Easter. Every day we are to believe. Listen to Jesus Christ:
John 6:29 (KJV)
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Believing is our work for which we strive for. This is the work that which men are to do cease the kingdom of God by force. Even every good work that we do must be faith in Christ, for it is written:
Romans 14:23 (KJV)
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Any work that is not of faith in Christ is sin. Any good work that we have ever done that was not a result of faith in Christ is sin, since we are depraved sinners apart from Christ. Let us labour to enter that rest that God has ordained the people of God, not by works, by but faith that is alive, the faith that works by love.

On the seventh day.. You shall do no servile work. There is a Sabbath Day waiting for us, when after on the Day of Judgment God's wrath comes upon all who are without the blood of Christ, after saints shall also be judged but not condemned for their sins, after we will be rewarded for our good deeds, all earthly work will be laid aside, and it will be a Day of feast for us, forever. Let us press on by faith for that Day that God has promised for us. Let us labour while we are on this earth here for others, that souls may be saved, and believers edified. Our rest from our good works has not come yet. How thankful must we be to God, who allows us to do good works, since we were not able to do them before we were in Christ. Jesus Christ's righteousness as our foundation, let us do good works that are now pleasing to His sight. God is already pleased with us, but we want to please Him more. That is our ambition. Let us work, for night comes when no man can work.