R680 An Unbroken Promise Pt.1

Welcome to The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and today's message, An Unbroken Promise. The promise is kept and the promise is broken.

Sometimes they can rip our relationships apart, and today we think about an unbroken promise from Hebrews chapter 4. That's where Dr. Don takes us in just a moment as we open God's encouraging word together. While we do so, we want to remind you we're connecting on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org, a place to discover great resources like, Is This The End? A powerful answer to a question we're all asking at this time, Is This The End Times? You'll discover more on our website.

That's www.tewonline.org. But now, today's message, An Unbroken Promise from Dr. Don Wilton as we open God's encouraging word together. I'm going to invite you to open your Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 4. I want to speak to you about an unbroken promise. Far too often promises are broken.

We find it very difficult to keep our promises. If you were to say to me today, well pastor, what is the essence of this message? It's found in chapter 4 and verse 1. Chapter 4 and verse 1 is one of the most wonderful verses in all of Scripture.

It's about the only promise that has never, ever been broken. Because God cannot and will not go back on his word. His love is unchanging.

His grace is absolute. Let me read it to you, and then we're going to read the rest of a number of verses up until verse 11. Therefore, and by the way, we have another therefore. Every time I see a therefore as a pastor, I know that what God is doing is he is inviting me to go back and to analyze in great depth the basis upon which he's about to say what he says based upon what he has already said.

Therefore, based upon all that God has told us about himself concerning the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. If you would watch me just for a moment, I'm going to put my Bible down right here. And I'm going to come and I'm going to stand over here. Clint, would you come and stand here for me, please, sir? And Clint Smith is going to stand here, and what Clint is going to represent for us today is the Israelites. Clint is going to represent history.

All right? Sal, would you come and stand here, please, sir? And Brother Sal is going to stand over here. Sal, you're going to represent us today, the future. I'm going to stand in the middle here where I am reading the Scripture, this Bible.

This is when this was written. And I'm representing the people to whom this was written. So the royal we, the us, the personalization that we notice here right throughout Hebrews is written to these people. But it is illustrated by those people because those people are my people. Those are the Israelites. I have a rich tradition and a rich history as a Jew. But as it is written to those of us who are Jews at the time of the institution of the New Testament church, God's Word is looking toward where Sal is who represents us to the future. Now watch this.

Jesus Christ is the same what? Yesterday, today, and forever. Thank you, gentlemen.

Now watch this, folks. Let's go back to verse 1. Since the promise of His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did.

But the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard it did not combine it with faith. Now, we who have believed enter that rest. Just as God has said, so I declared on oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest. And yet, God's work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere God has spoken about the seventh day in these words.

On the seventh day, God rested from all His work. And again, in the passage above, He says, they shall never enter my rest. It still remains that some will enter that rest.

And those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in because of their disobedience. Therefore, God again set a certain day, Albarone calling it today, which was the time this was written, but it's also January 12th, today, 2003, when a long time later, He spoke through David as was said before. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had had the authority to give them rest, God would not have had to have spoken later about another day. There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His work.

Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. May the Lord give us an understanding of His Word through His Spirit. We must begin to try to understand the meaning of this unbroken promise by considering the Israelites. I'm going to show you something very interesting. Now remember we're going to look back to the Israelites. There are just four things that I want to say about them in context.

It will help us to understand what God tries to teach us here concerning His rest. Number one, the Israelites were taken captive. We know that. We know that historically.

We know that factually. They were taken captive. Now what happened to them in captivity? They were in bondage.

They served the wrong master. They were made slaves in captivity. I want you to just think of ourselves just very quickly. What happens to people like you and me? The Bible says we are born, how?

In captivity. We're born in sin. We are captives. Who do we serve? We serve the wrong master. We have Pharaoh over us. I'm going to tell you something, folks, very interesting here. Because everything in the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi is a picture of the sovereign grace of God.

You've got to hold on here and watch this because I promise you your life will be changed forever as God by His Spirit speaks to you. Number one, the Israelites were taken captive. Number two, they were humiliated. Friends, these were a highly dignified, highly religious group of people. They were humiliated in their captivity just by virtue of their slavery, by virtue of what was done to them. Just think of ourselves. What does sin do to us?

Sin humiliates us. I remember some time ago, some years ago, a friend of mine, a man, married with children, committed adultery. I remember speaking to him. The thing that broke my heart was that he was a preacher. He was a fellow pastor.

And I remember it so well. You know what happened after he committed adultery? His wife forgave him. Do you know what the most difficult thing it was for him to accept? Was to accept and understand that his wife would forgive him. And I will never forget that fellow pastor friend of mine saying to me, remember, I am so humiliated by my sin.

Now I want to tell you, she forgave him, their marriage was restored, and they are still together to this day, and God has blessed them despite this terrible sadness that came in their life many years ago. God has blessed them because of the spirit of forgiveness. But he said to me, and I've never forgotten it, he talked to me about the humiliation that he suffered because of his sin. Sin humiliates humankind. There's a third thing about these Israelites that is very important.

They were set free from their oppression. You'll remember how it happened, how that Moses came and all the story about the plagues and all the rest of it. Don't you love that? My favorite part of that has to do with the frogs. I love that story about the plague of frogs. Do you know that?

Because it reminds me of myself. I love that story about the freedom that the Israelites got through frogs, don't you? There was something about that. There's something about being set free from oppression.

Number four, number four. I know it sounds hard to understand after all of this. I mean, after all, they were taken captive, they were humiliated, they were set free, and yet they wandered around the wilderness for 40 years. I believe we've got a picture of ourselves here today, born in sin, humiliated because of sin, offered freedom in Christ, and yet so many of us are wandering around the wilderness for years and for years and for years in our unbelief. And, friends, it goes without saying that it is what God says here in chapter 3 and again repeated in chapter 4 that because of their unbelief, what did God say to him? God said because they had hardened their hearts, they would not enter their rest. As far as they were concerned, that meant the promised land. They would never get into the land that flowed with milk and honey, but they would never get into that eternal rest with Jesus Christ.

They would be banished forever from his presence because of their unbelief. And yet, the promise still stands. And yet, the promise is unbroken. Consider ourselves for just a moment. What about us? Well, number one, we battle from birth.

But I tell you, you watch a baby, babies battle from birth. Number two, we fight against time. All of us who are human beings, we have a fight against time. Number three, we struggle to survive. We're trying to make payments. We're trying to build a bank balance. We're trying to educate our children. We're trying to be healthy. We struggle to survive. Number four, we wrestle against our human nature. Paul put it like this. He said, the good that I would that I do not, and the evil that I would not that I do, a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?

I can identify that. You know how many times you wake up in the morning and life is wonderful? The next morning you can wake up and feel terrible. We struggle with our human nature.

Why? Because the heart of man is exceedingly wicked. Number five, we cry out for love and for forgiveness. Number six, we crave for peace. We want peace in our land. We are praying in our hearts for our country right now. We pray for the peace of our land. We pray for peace in our hearts. I don't know how many times, how many people have said to me, Pastor, I have a wonderful home and I have a wonderful spouse, but there's conflict in my life. There's conflict in my home.

We crave peace, and Jesus said my peace I give to you. Forgive the interruption, but Dr. Don insists I interrupt to remind you this is not just a presentation, this is also a conversation every single day. As a matter of fact, so far we've had 12,000 plus calls, texts, and connections to pray with friends, to talk to them about their relationship, to talk to you. If you're interested, make that call right now to 866-899-WORD.

Jot the number down, store it in your cell. We're available for prayer 24 hours a day. As Dr. Don would say, let us be one of your 2 a.m. friends at 866-899-9673.

Or if you'd rather connect keyboard to keyboard, we're online as well at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's the place you'll discover great resources like I mentioned earlier. The message Is This The End by Dr. Don Wilton, a powerful end times message, plus other ways to say connect with Dr. Wilton on a daily basis. He sends out a wonderful email every morning about 6 o'clock in the morning. It's the daily encouraging word devotional, and you can sign up right now on our website, T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. If you'd like to call and let us sign you up, we'll do that for you as well at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. The Bible teaches that the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Number seven, we make war against the devil.

Number eight, we long for rest. It's one thing to consider the Israelites. It's another thing to talk about the Jews in the time that this was written. Although many of them had come to believe in Christ, they were being persecuted. They were suffering in every kind of way physically and emotionally and spiritually. They needed to be encouraged.

They needed to be taught. They need to understand the doctrines of God's grace. But I tell you it's another thing to think about ourselves. And we cry out and we crave and we make war and we long for rest. In Revelation 14, 13, God's Word says, I heard a voice from heaven, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor. Do you remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, come unto me, all of you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You see, friends, I have a difficulty sometimes within my human context and from my human perspective trying to understand what it is that the Lord was saying, not only concerning the Israelites yesterday and not only concerning the Jews to whom He wrote, but concerning my own heart and life. You'd be interested to know that the word rest itself has several offshoot meanings that may give us a little bit more of a handle on trying to understand what God is saying to us here.

I'm going to share with you just five different shades of the meaning of rest according to the Word of God. Number one, it means that someone else will do it for you. When Jesus says, when God says the promise of entering His rest still stands, it means that someone else will do it for you.

You know, you ever had someone come up to you and you're just under so much stress and strain and they say, look, don't worry about it, I'll do it, you just, you take a rest. That's what this means. You see, it refers to salvation in Christ that only He can do. Lean on me.

Take my yoke upon you. Number two, it means freedom from worry. We become liberated from concern. God alleviates us from our search for peace. Number three, the word rest there means to be set free from the search. I think God knows our hearts because He created us.

Human beings are engaged in an unprecedented search, trying to find the answer, looking here and there, looking to marriage and to love and to family and to business and to bank accounts. But God says, my rest will be sufficient for you. Number four, it means confidence is established. It means that there will be no more fear.

Number five, it means that there is someone else to lean on. You see, my friends, the Israelites were worn out. They were worn out physically. They were worn out emotionally. They were worn out spiritually. The Jewish people, the context in which this was written, they were worn out physically.

The new believers were being persecuted. They were worn out emotionally. They were worn out spiritually. They had grown up believing that you had to go to a priest, that you had to make sacrifices, and here was Jesus Christ, the new covenant.

These people were torn. They were worn out, and Jesus Christ has given to us rest and peace. My peace I bring to you. Look at that verse in verse one. Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

And so the operative question is this. How can I attain this rest? How can I acquire this salvation? How can I make certain, how can I be careful that I do not fall short of what the Israelites fell short of?

People are dying all around us every day. How can I make absolutely certain that I too am going to go to heaven? Well, let me show you in this text what God tells us.

It's a fascinating study. Now, you've got to read this in the Word of God with me. There are five indicators here. There are five mandates in this passage, five instructions that God gives to us concerning this unbroken promise and how we can attain this rest for ourselves. Number one, we can attain this rest through an understanding of a promise that still stands.

Look at verse one. Since the promise of entering His rest still stands. Now, here's the question that we're asked of ourselves today.

Here it is. Do you believe that God's promise that He gave to our forefathers and then through the Lord Jesus Christ is unbroken, that it still stands, that God's grace is made available to you and to me, that Jesus Christ died upon the cross, that by His Spirit He guarantees that my name is written in God's book in heaven and that one day I'm going to enter His eternal rest forever and forever and forever, or have you given up through unbelief? We must understand and accept this promise that still stands. Number two, I can attain this rest, salvation in Jesus Christ according to this context through an understanding that faith comes by hearing.

Now, watch this, folks. Look at verse two. For we also have had the gospel preached to us just as they did. By the way, have you ever asked the question, what kind of message was preached to those in the Old Testament?

Can I tell you what kind of message? The gospel. You say, how can these things be? I don't understand at all, but I'm going to tell you that the Bible affirms itself. God's Word tells us that the same gospel which was preached to the Israelites is preached to those in the context of the letter to the Hebrews is preached to us. It concerns God's grace and God's sovereign act of salvation from before the foundation of the world. And the Lord God Almighty through His Spirit contextualizes this for us and tells us that in order to attain the salvation, we must understand that faith comes by hearing. Now, what does the Word tell us? The Word says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Powerful truth through the Word of God and through God's servant, Dr. Don Wilton. That's who you've been listening to, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and he'll be back in just a moment to wrap things up for today. But you need to know that we're here for you. Perhaps God has stirred your heart with questions about today's message on an unbroken promise. There's more to come on this particular message tomorrow, but right now it may be the ideal thing is to talk with one of us and let us pray with you. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Or, of course, meet us online as well at www.tewonline.org. But before we get away, you've heard Dr. Nunnies has been preaching from the pulpit. Now, as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much, and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you, and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life, I pray. In Jesus' name, I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. If you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton moments ago, congratulations. We're so excited to see you step out, and we're excited to see what God's going to do in and through you.

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866-899-9673. If you gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life today, we want to put those free resources in your hands as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, as Dr. Don reminds us, we need to be sharing our faith.

If we just got engaged to someone and said, Now don't tell anybody, what kind of relationship would that be? You need to share your faith, and we have resources that will help you do that on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. And the resource everyone's asking about right now is the one that Liz is going to tell you about next called Is This the End? Believers around the world are asking these questions. Is Jesus about to come back? Is this the end of the world? Join Dr. Weldon as he answers these questions straight from God's Word in his message, Is This the End? Also, as a bonus, you will receive The King is Coming by Erwin Lutzer, renowned theologian and friend. Both of these ministry resources will greatly bless, motivate, and encourage you in anticipation of our Lord Jesus' return.

Be assured, God has everything under control. He is our living hope. Call us at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. And request Is This the End? in the bonus book, The King is Coming, for yourself or your friend today. Thank you for listening, and thank you for supporting The Encouraging Word. Now it's time to spread the Gospel. It's a powerful resource. I hope you'll consider getting that or discovering more resources on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. You'll discover not only that resource, but Dr. Don Wilton's new book, the book called Saturdays with Billy, about his time being the pastor to America's pastor, Dr. Billy Graham.

Again, that's on our website at www.tewonline.org. And there's also opportunity to discover more about who we are at The Encouraging Word. It's our goal to lift up the name of Christ through biblically-based teaching, like you've just heard today from Dr. Don Wilton. Now, more than ever, in all that we've gone through as a country and as a world in these last two years, we need true, clear biblical preaching to help lift up the name of Christ and see lives changed. If you believe that biblical preaching is what we need to be doing more of, well, we're right on the same page and would love to partner with you. You can consider getting involved by becoming an Encourage. All the details are online at www.tewonline.org. Or you can call for a brochure, as Dr. Darnwood would say, a brochure on what The Encouraging Word is all about. The number is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.