How to Get a Hard Heart, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. A heart that is not surrendered to its creator is often a restless heart. To that heart, Jesus calls, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Today Pastor Rich will share from Hebrews 4, 1 through 10 in this message titled, Rest in God.

Let's listen in. So the context before we get to Hebrews chapter 4 is the second warning of the book of Hebrews, which is the restlessness of a hard heart. And so He called us to rest.

Rest is the opposite of restlessness. And the second warning is the restlessness of a hard heart. We find that in the latter part of chapter 3. To beware of being distracted by what looks hard, as if following God is a hard thing, as if trusting God is a hard thing. And that's what the people of Israel found. God had called them into the land. They sent spies in and they looked at the land and they said, You know, it's a beautiful place, but you know what?

There's people there and we consider them to be a threat. It looks hard and we know God has called us in and God goes with us, but it looks hard and they were distracted by what looked hard. And therefore, their attention, their focus drift off of God and onto their hardships. And when their focus drifted off of God and onto their hardships, then they became deceived by how they thought they knew better than God. And when they followed that deception, then they disobeyed and they said, We want to go back to Egypt. And then the hard heart manifested itself because then they accused God by saying, God, You have let us down. You didn't come through for us.

And what is that? They were not then able to enter the land. They were not able to enter the rest that God intended for them. Because they had this hard heart. They were restless and they remained restless for 40 years in the wilderness. And during that time, a whole generation of Israelites died off. That was their restlessness. And the Lord said, I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest.

Why? Because of a hard heart. And so as last time we discussed how to get a hard heart, we continue then with the second warning of Hebrews. Look with me at chapter four, verse one. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Interesting that he would mention fear and rest in the same sentence. That compels us to understand what it really means to fear God, to fear his calling, to follow him. This is a word that sometimes we think, well, what fear actually means is reverence. Yes, but it means more than that, because the word from which this word comes is the word from which we get the word phobia.

It means being afraid. And so he says, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it, it being the rest that God intends for his people. So what is this rest? God calls it my rest.

My rest. And my rest that God has intended for us is a rest that he has ordained and planned from the very foundation of the world. Look what he says very briefly at the very end of verse three. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, this rest that God has intended is a rest that he ordained for his people from the beginning of time.

Let us look at it this way. If I am God and I am not, if I am God and I'm not, but just for illustration purposes, OK, if I am God, then everything that ever has been and everything that ever will be, he knows it. He sees it all right here.

That's it. He ordained it all. That is the sovereign power of an infinite God. He does not exist.

He does not bound by space and time like you and I are. And therefore, as he ordained it all, he said, this is what I have for my people who love me. This is the rest that I intend for my people who love me.

And he established it from the foundation of the world. Therefore, it is necessary for us to know and understand because he has revealed it to us. What is this rest that God has ordained and intended for the people who love him, for those who love him? Rest means no longer striving.

It means ceasing from labor. Success and satisfaction, these words that we use and we love and we desire and we're chasing after. Listen, you cannot understand success and satisfaction. You cannot recognize them, let alone realize them until you know the why of your existence. You take anything that is formed, anything that is created, anything that is molded, fashioned.

You cannot. It is not a successful tool. Let's take this, for example. We all know what this is.

We have these. It's a man's favorite toy, right? Because you know the difference between men and women? Women want to see what's on TV. You know what men want to see? What else is on TV, right?

Okay, so men, this is the only thing that we have complete control over in the house, right? Now, what is this? This is a remote. This tool has a design to it. We have no, let's say you come from outer space, you've never been on earth before and you come across this thing and you see it lay in there and you have no idea what it's for. How on earth can this be a successful tool if we don't know why it exists? This must have been a tool fashioned by earthlings hundreds of thousands of years ago so that they could calculate numbers. Really. Does this work as a calculator?

No. If you sit down and try to do math on this, it ain't going to work and you're going to be confused and you're going to be frustrated and you're going to say, this thing doesn't work. You see, the only way this thing can be successful is when it does what it was designed to do. Now, what were you and I designed to do? Listen, I have a question for you.

Do you know the answer to that question? Because if you don't know the answer to the question, what were you and I designed to do, you're having a hard time making sense out of life. You cannot know rest and success until you know the answer to the question, what was I designed to do?

Here's what scripture reveals to us. You and I were designed to fellowship with God, to know Him, to walk with Him, to enjoy Him forever. That is the very purpose of our design. When I do that, I am successful. When I do that, I know satisfaction. And so from the very beginning of time, God ordained that for His people, they would enter into this rest and it had everything to do with God.

It had everything to do with being with Him. And so the basic questions of mankind, the questions that everyone asks to some degree or another, where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?

How should I live? Those questions can be found only in the revelation of the One who created us, the One who made us for Himself. And He has said, I have revealed this to you, I have revealed Myself to you, so that when time is done, when everything is done, what you have is Me, God says. What you have is Me. What you have is Me and I am the reward of your souls. That's My rest, My rest, He says. Now think about this for a minute.

What I want to do here is present a disclaimer. What I'm not saying is, we're not just, it's not just simply a sermon on heaven, okay? This is a sermon for now because one of the words in the text today is today. We're not in heaven today, by the way, okay?

Just so you're aware of that. It might be a really good day for you, you might be totally happy, but we're not in heaven, we are far from it. However, today as the people of God, we can still know and experience the rest that God has for us. Rest means cease from labor, but it doesn't mean we do nothing. So we need to understand what that means. And it has everything to do with who God is and what He has planned for us. So we have our future established for us and the rest that God has already ordained for us.

Now what would that look like? Let's try to understand for a moment how God has revealed Himself to us. Because when we are forever with the Lord, that's the very definition of rest in itself, isn't it? Only Christ, only in Christ can our basic questions be answered. That's Paul's favorite phrase in the New Testament, by the way, in Christ. We are complete in Christ. Now let's think about this with me for a minute. When we are forever with the Lord, what is it that makes heaven, heaven?

Oh every tear will be wiped away, we'll be walking on streets of gold. It's not what makes heaven, heaven. What is it that makes heaven, heaven? It is God. He is there and we are with Him. And who is God?

But absolute good. So as we move to the next frame here, in your notes you've got that triangle. At the bottom of that triangle, at the very foundation of what rest means, is the presence of God. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.