Sovereign Grace of God - Sticks and Stones

SOVEREIGN GRACE OF GOD Concerning 'The Gospel' LORD JESUS CHRIST Grounded In Biblical Truth
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32: And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 33: And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. 34: And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. 35: And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. 36: And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

In the Old Testament, God has given us this account of a man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath Day. The Old Testament Sabbath Day was a day on which an Israelite was to rest. He was not to make a fire. He was not to do any work at all. So when this man picked up sticks, he was, in a very mild way, violating the Sabbath Day. It didn't seem like a very grievous thing. He wasn't going to his job, or anything. He was just picking up a few sticks.

But as a result of this violation, The LORD commanded unto Moses that this man be stoned to death. Now that's an astounding punishment for a very minor kind of a sin. Why was he stoned to death? Now the reason for this is that in the Old Testament, the Sabbath Day was a figure of salvation, or the rest that we enter into when we are saved. Even as the Jews were not to work on the Sabbath day at all, but were to rest, so we who have been saved are saved not because of our works, but because we're resting altogether in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the man who picked up sticks violated that rest in a very minor way. But he is like someone who adds a little tiny bit of his own work to the salvation that God has provided. And by virtue of the fact that this man was stoned, it indicates that when I have added a little work to the salvation Christ has provided by grace, I too am still subject to hell. I am subject to God's wrath even as this man was subject to God's wrath. That's how important this question is.