God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton as we head to the book of Hebrews, chapter 4.
This is The Encouraging Word. Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here, is a well-known evangelist, pastor for 25 plus years, including being pastor to Dr. Billy Graham and so much more. If you want to discover who we are, visit our website at www.tewonline.org. You'll discover not only great resources like The King is Coming, a special book and a message from Dr. Wilton called Is This the End, but other resources that will help you grow in your faith like the daily encouraging word devotional from Dr. Don. You can sign up to receive it via email or a hard copy.
Both are free on our website at www.tewonline.org. Now let's dive into the second part of An Unbroken Promise, today's message from Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word. We battle from birth, but I tell you, you watch a baby's 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. 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. 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.
You'll notice something here very interesting about the Israelites. What was lacking in their lives? It wasn't that they did not hear the gospel, that they did not see the gospel. It was that they did not appropriate the gospel by an act of faith. Now it took the world a long time to understand this. 1517 Martin Luther suddenly woke up one morning, nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle and the essence of everything that precipitated the Protestant Reformation was the fact that the just shall live by faith.
Oh, I'm so glad about that. Because those of you who know me know how we struggle to understand how to explain God. I cannot explain God any more than you can explain God. God is unexplainable. You cannot explain who God is.
We must get to the point as a people where we simply accept what God says concerning Himself. That's faith. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton. Please don't go away. He'll be back with the rest of today's message in just a moment. But we want to remind you that we're available for you connecting both on the phone at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 and online at www.tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, we receive letters every single day, emails especially to Dr. Wilton about what God's doing through the teaching of God's encouraging word. If you'd like to email Dr. Don, he would love to hear from you, love to pray for you. His email is Don at www.tewonline.org. That's Don, D-O-N, at www.tewonline.org.
www.tewonline.org. He would love to hear from you. He would love to pray for you. Now let's dive back into today's teaching, An Unbroken Promise from Hebrews 4 with Dr. Don Wilton. The thing here that is vital and that is that we attain this rest through an understanding of the finished work of God. Now I want you to note there in the second part, the third part of verse 3, the Bible says, And yet God's work has been finished.
Well, I asked myself a lot of questions. Why does the Lord bring this up to us at this point in the context of teaching us concerning His rest? In the context of this incredible invitation to trust Jesus Christ? Because, my friends, we cannot attain this salvation outside of an understanding of the finished work of God. Now what is the finished work of God? The finished work of God is two things. It is seen first of all through the God of creation.
Look there in verse 3. Yet His work has been finished since the creation of the world. Why is the finished work of God important in our understanding concerning first of all His creation? Well, what happened in God's creation? Bible tells us.
It's no mystery. God created the world. How long did it take God to create the world? Somebody tell me.
Six days. What does the Bible say concerning the work of God concerning creation? The Bible says that He labored, He toiled, He worked in the creation of the world. Some of you are going to say, well, pastor, how do you explain that God worked? I cannot explain it. How do you explain that God toiled?
I cannot explain it. But I do know this, according to the Scripture, that on the seventh day, what did God do? God rested. God rested.
Friends, someone who rests needed one. You're going to say to me, well, pastor, how do you explain the fact that God rests? How can God need rest?
I don't know, but He did. God rested. What do we have in the picture or in understanding of the God of creation?
What do we have, folks? We have a picture of the salvation of God through the sovereign work of God from before the foundation of the world. What is God trying to show to us concerning His rest?
Well, He goes back. He illustrates it with the Israelites. They were taken captive.
They were humiliated. They were offered their freedom, but they wandered around in the wilderness. And yet God's promise still remains the same. And when we trust Him, when we exercise our belief through faith, we receive that promise in Christ Jesus. So how do we attain His rest? Number one, through an understanding of the God of creation, but number two, as seen through the Christ of the cross.
Now watch this, folks. Here are your two primary illustrations of the work of God. You might say to me today, pastor, how do I describe the work of God? There's only two ways to describe the work of God, the God of creation and the Christ of the cross. How does that have significance concerning His unbroken promise? Because it was upon the cross that Jesus Christ, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
This was God at work through His Son. Well, what happened upon the cross? What is the finished work of Christ upon the cross? Which is God and His finished work, Jesus upon the cross?
What did He say? He announced to the world, it is finished. And when He said, it is finished, He sat down at the right hand of God. Thank you very much.
His work was finished. Can you feel it? Here I am preaching, bursting a blood vessel. You know, I'm looking forward to having a Diet Coke. Can you feel it, folks?
If I was to say this in modern day southern terminology, how y'all doing? Folks, listen to me, listen to me. What God is saying to us here is that we cannot attain the rest, the salvation that we have in Christ unless we understand the finished work of God. Unless we appropriate what God has done for us, number one is the God of creation and number two, the Christ of the cross.
Well, number four, we can attain this rest through an understanding that no one else could provide this rest. I love verse eight. You see verse eight here, for if Joshua, note the condition there. And by the way, here we again have one of these great men of old that are being invoked and brought up to the minds of these Jewish believers and unbelievers. Why Joshua? Because by now he was General Joshua. Some people regarded him as the Pope.
Some people regarded him as the ultimate spokesman. What God is saying in verse eight is simply this, that not even Joshua had the authority or the power to grant the promise that only God can give in Jesus Christ. And you are wasting your time when you look to anybody else and to anything else outside of Jesus Christ.
You're wasting your time. Would you give your heart to Jesus today? That's what God is saying to us. We must understand that nobody else can provide this rest. And number five, number five, the way in which we understand this and appropriate and attain this rest is through an understanding of the urgency of today.
Two of the greatest, most challenging verses in Scripture are verse seven and verse eleven of chapter four. Therefore God again set a certain day. Why God again, folks? What is that little word again? Do you know what the word again speaks to? It invokes all the deep spiritual understandings of the grace of God. The word again, my friend, is just simply a human understanding of God's unmerited favor.
That's what it is. God again is long suffering. The God of provision, the God who has time without number, made it possible despite the sin of disobedience, despite the countless numbers of times people have let Him down and turned their backs on Him, despite the wickedness of the hearts of man, God by His grace. What has He done? He's done it again and He's called it today. What is today? It's January 12th, 2003. That's what today is. What is today? Today was when this was written to the Jews to whom it was written. What is today? Today is tomorrow if tomorrow becomes today. That's why the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 2, Now is the accepted time. Today, now is the day of salvation. I'm sure that there are people from time to time who suggest to me, Pastor, I wish when we would preach, when we have church that we could just close and go home.
I say this out of the love of my heart, my friends, it hasn't happened for a long time. We've even had people leave this church in years gone by because they couldn't stand the fact that we had a public invitation, an insistence, a demand. Today, today, there are churches all over America that are dying because all the preachers are doing is telling them about God and telling people to go home and think about it. God says today, today.
Why? Because you and I have got tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And my beloved friends, if you and I cannot hear the heart cry of a God of grace who from before the foundation of the world hanging upon the cross says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And when he had given up the ghost, he died. And on the third day, he rose again. And then he ascended to be seated at the right hand of God the Father, his work completely complete and yet his ministry continuing.
Why? Because God the Son is making intercession for you and for me today. Today, right now, this is shouting time. What is God saying? An unbroken promise from the heart of God. I want you to know, my brother and sisters in Christ, that the promise of entering his rest still stands. This is God.
This is not Don Wilton. Is there anybody here today who would give their heart to Jesus Christ? I want Jesus Christ in my heart and in my life. Today is the day that God has given to me. It's not tomorrow.
It's today. This is the most wonderful, most precious, most awesome thing that God could ever give us. What powerful teaching from Dr. Don Wilton. And if the Lord is stirring your heart, you need to know we would love to pray with you, to give you some resources that will help you grow. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.
That's 866-899-9673, not just now during the broadcast, but 24 hours a day. 866-899-9673 will connect you with one of us, happy to talk, listen, and pray, and even connect you with resources that will help you grow in your faith. But rather than call us right now, perhaps the most important thing is to open your heart to what Dr. Don 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. Welcome to the family of God. I'm convinced that some of you were praying along with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Christ or to rededicate your life and affirm what you want to be as a woman of God, as a man of God, going forward from this day.
If that's the case, boy, we would love to celebrate with you, to pray with you, and to put some free resources in your hands that will help you grow in that journey. Whether you just gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life today, give us a call at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673, or you can meet us online as well. We'd love to communicate with you there at www.tewonline.org. That's our website, www.tewonline.org.
It's also a place you'll discover great resources like this. Believers around the world are asking these questions. Is Jesus about to come back? Is this the end of the world? Join Dr. Wilton 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. Our time's gone for today, but oh, tomorrow's going to be another great teaching from Dr. Don Wilton as we continue in the book of Hebrews.
Perhaps you can invite a friend. Now if you missed today's broadcast, you can go to our website at www.tewonline.org not only to hear today's broadcast again, but the weekend video program. All the resources are right there at www.tewonline.org and we had texts earlier about Dr. Wilton's email. Yes, Dr. Wilton would be thrilled to hear from you, to pray for you. His email is Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Perhaps you gave your life to Christ earlier today. Know that he would love to celebrate with you and pray for you. Just email him, Don at T-E-W online dot O-R-G and give him a couple of weeks. There's an enormous amount of email coming in, maybe even a little longer than that. He will respond if you email Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Until next time, take care and join us again as we open God's Encouraging Word together with Dr. Don Wilton.
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