Rest in God, Part 4

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. A clear view of God's character and purpose will make us intensely aware of our own brokenness. Surrendering is what makes us whole again. Today, Pastor Rich continues in Hebrews 4, 1-10, showing how finding our rest in God will free us from the desperate striving to find meaning and purpose on our own.

Let's listen in. So the second warning of the writer of Hebrews to his readers is in the end of chapter 3, and we continue it in chapter 4. Look at verse 1 with me. Therefore, since a promise remains of endering is rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

Rest in God. The second warning is the restlessness of a hard heart. Beware of a hard heart. When you become distracted by what looks hard, when you become distracted by what makes following God look hard, and then you become deceived and you become disobedient by that deception and you get to the point where you charge God of not coming through for you, you have arrived at a hard heart.

And it is a very restless position in life. And the background for this text today is that we have in chapter 3 is in Numbers chapter 13, where the children of Israel under the leadership of Moses were in Kadesh Barnea and they were about ready to go into the land and they delegated 12 spies to go in and look out the land and they come back and they say, yes, it's a beautiful land, but the people are big. They're bigger than we are. We can't take it. And you know what? They were right.

We can't. But what about God? And Caleb said that.

What about God? But the people decided to focus on what looked hard and they marginalized. They forgot about trusting God. And therefore, for them, trusting God became a hard thing to do.

And therefore, they experienced for 40 years the restlessness of a hard heart. In that context, the writer of Hebrews says, be careful, be careful. Look at verse 1 again. Since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Whose rest is this? This is God's rest.

It's my rest, he says, my rest. That is at the end of verse 3, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, it is the rest that God has designed for those of us who surrender ourselves in faith to him. When we place our trust in God says, this is the rest that I have for you. So if this pulpit represents time in space in which we live before the foundation of the world, God saw the end and he says, this is what I have prepared for those who trust me, for those who love me.

This is the rest that I have for them. Finished before the foundation of the world. And rest means no longer striving.

It doesn't mean that we're doing nothing. But if we are going to understand success and satisfaction to very elusive concepts in our culture, in our world today, if we're going to understand them and realize them, we cannot until we understand the why of our existence. The why of our existence is to walk with God, to fellowship with him and enjoy him forever.

He made us for himself. You and I exist for the very purpose of walking with God and enjoying him forever. And until I recognize that why to my existence, I will never recognize, let alone realize success and satisfaction.

Can't happen. And so he says, enter my rest and beware that a hard heart doesn't arise. So to know God, to enjoy him forever, and as we look to the end, and this is why we can look to the end at what God has for us. When time and space are done, what is for us at the end, puts us in the very presence of God.

And we read this in the scriptures and God has given us just enough glimpse of what is in store for his people. But as we are with him for eternity, when time and space is done, we are delighting in the very presence of God. Consider how awesome and great and wonderful he is, how perfect he is.

He is absolute good. And so I am delighting in the presence of God. And as a result of that, I am consumed by his praise.

And that's what I do. And as I am consumed by his praise, I am living the ambition of his purpose. I'm not sitting around doing nothing. I am living, I am consumed with his praise. I'm living the ambition of his purpose. And when all of these come together, when all of this is a reality in my life, then what I experience is the peace that he has for you and me. And that word peace, the Hebrew word shalom, means wholeness. It means everything is as it ought to be. No more curse, no more disappointment, no more death, no more destruction.

Everything is as it ought to be. That is the rest that God has ordained for those who trust him and love him. Listen to this verse from Revelation chapter 21. This is verse 3. I'm going to read you one verse, one sentence. And listen to how many times it mentions about God being with people.

Listen to this. Revelation 21, 3. Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. What makes heaven heaven?

God does in his absolute goodness and perfection. And I am in his presence and I'm consumed by his praise and living the ambition of his purpose and enjoying the peace of God, wholeness of God. Now, the writer of Hebrews and using that context of the people of Israel going into the promised land, he says, listen, that's not the ultimate rest that God has for his people, just living in a certain place. There is another day. We know that because David quoted, David used this of entering into the rest and David lived 400 years after Moses. And so if David presents the rest of God entering into the rest, it wasn't just about getting into the land because by the time David came around, Israel was at its historic apex.

And they had a lot of land and they were in the land that God had promised them. So entering into the land wasn't the final and ultimate rest. But what he talks about in the text here is that there is another day that there is a certain day. And what is that certain day? That certain day is today when we know the rest that God has for his people. That is everything to do with the very presence of God. Today is the day. God's rest for us can be understood and guaranteed today, even enjoyed to a degree so that it characterizes the life of his child.

Now, how does that happen? This is a promise of scripture. God's rest is available to you and me today. And the question then is how?

Well, here it is. There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. Look at verse three. For we who have believed do enter that rest. It does not say someday we will enter that rest. It says we who have believed do enter that rest.

That's now. We can know it and have it guaranteed today. That's very important for us to understand that rest does not mean doing nothing. When we get the idea of rest, we say, oh, we're going to sit down on a couch or lounge around or lay down on the bed.

Rest. And that's not the rest that it's talking about. It's not talking about doing nothing. But it is the rest of a life that is an outflow of our rest in him. And we'll unpack that a little bit as we go on. But it's for those of us who have believed. Believed what? Well, the gospel. What is the gospel? It is the good news of rescue. The gospel is the good news of rescue. Rescue from what? The wrath of God.

The justice of God. We've been rescued from that because that's what we deserve. So the good news is that we have been rescued from the necessary wrath and justice of God. And we hear and we understand that gospel. So is that all there is to it? OK, yeah, I heard the gospel. I hear it and I understand it. That means I have rest, right?

No, because how is it that we attain that rest? Faith. Look with me at verse two. Look with me at verse two. 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. So just hearing the message, just understanding the message doesn't bring rest. If you hear and understand the message and you surrender yourself to it, that brings rest. Because the word faith is the word pistis, which is oftentimes translated to entrust, to give yourself over to.

And so faith is a response of surrender to entrust yourself like the children of Israel going into the promised land. They said, we can't do it. They're too big for us.

We can't get in there. They were absolutely right. So what should they have done? Entrust themselves to God who can take them into the promised land. But this following God thing is hard. But who is God? Instead, what did they do?

Thinking that they had to do it themselves, they decided that they wanted to go back to Egypt and they were actually drawing up plans to get themselves a leader to take them back to Egypt. Nonsense. But we can do the very same thing today. And that's what the writer of Hebrews is challenging his readers, some of them who are considering, you know, this following Jesus thing is hard.

Let's just go back to the way things were before, where things were predictable and comfortable. And, you know, this faith shouldn't be a hard thing. We who have believed do enter the rest of God. It was not mixed with faith.

They heard it, but they did not entrust themselves to it. And so the writer of Hebrews, that's why he begins chapter 4. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you have seemed to come short of it.

Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. He is speaking to us of the rest of salvation. What is the rest of salvation? It is that I am in Christ.

Paul's favorite phrase in Christ. It means everything. It defines me.

It's my element. It's who I am. 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.