Listen Again: They Shall Rest From Their Labor

This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network. It's about to start in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious.

I read this quote this afternoon, and I thought, man, this is so true. It's by Steve Lawson that says, he says, stop with secular wisdom in the pulpit and counsel the entertainment in the church and fire the drama team. Get rid of the shtick, unplug the colored lights, put the pulpit back in the center of the church building, stand up like a man, open the Bible, lift it up, let it out, and let it fly. That's what we're going to do right now because that's really the only hope for any of us is the Word of God. We don't worship the Bible. We worship the one the Bible points us to, but the Bible is a treasure, and it's where we get wisdom. It's where we find hope. It's where we come to know Jesus, and tonight, you know, we're going to dive into Hebrews chapter 4 and say, I want you to take your Bibles now, and I want to welcome everyone I've entitled tonight's message, They Shall Rest From Their Labor. For 40 years, the Israelites wandered in the desert.

Do you know why? Because of unbelief. They did not trust God even after witnessing the most incredible miracles you've ever seen in your life. Remember, God delivered them out of Egypt by signs and miracles that Moses performed before Pharaoh and all of Egypt. God parted the Red Sea in order that several million Israelites could escape the approaching Egyptian army.

Then they got to the other side and turned back and watched as the waters returned and drowned their enemy. However, after seeing all that, only three days journey into the desert, the Israelites began to grumble because they had no water. So God miraculously provided water.

Soon thereafter, they grumbled once again because they had no food. So God miraculously provided both manna and quail. This grumbling continued even while God provided for them day after day after day. Later, they even made a golden image in the form of a calf even though the ink was not yet dry on the Ten Commandments. And then when they finally came to the entrance to the Promised Land, they refused to believe that God could and would defeat their enemies in spite of the encouraging report from Joshua and Caleb.

And so finally God had enough. In Numbers chapter 14 verses 20 through 22, it says, The Lord said to Moses, As surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert, but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times, not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it, but because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Do you want to have a different spirit like Caleb?

Do you know what our country needs right now? He needs Caleb's and Joshua's who are men who have the Spirit of God. Of the 600,000 men who were delivered from Egypt, only two men made it into the Promised Land.

Who are they? Joshua and Caleb. All the other men who had witnessed the miracles of God perished as they wandered restlessly in the desert for 40 years. Such is the fate, men, of everyone who refuses to believe God. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 19 which we read last week says, So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief. Unbelief is the unpardonable sin.

Think about it. He can't forgive you if you won't believe in Him. So that's the only sin that He cannot forgive. And that brings us to Hebrews chapter 4 where we're going to get some very good news. Follow along with me beginning with verse 1, Therefore since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful men that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, have we not, for the last 17 years, just as they did. But the message they heard was of no value to them.

Do you know why? Because those who heard did not combine it with what? Faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, So I declared on oath and my anger they shall never enter my rest. And yet His work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in these words, and on the seventh day God rested from all His work. And again in the passage above He says, They shall never enter my rest. Do you want to enter God's rest?

You better say yes. Therefore since it still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them did not go in because of disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day calling it what?

Today, tonight if you want to say that. This He did when a long time later He spoke through David as was said before. Today men, listen, if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts. Now I'm going to stop here for a moment and from these verses I want to show you four truths or four aspects concerning God's rest. Number one, be careful not to miss it, verses one and two. Number two, we enter into God's rest by faith. And number three, God's rest is still available. And number four, God's Sabbath rest is here and catch this and it is coming. So let me read verse one again because we're going to dive deep into this. 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.

Men, don't fall short of it and you don't have to. Now I want you to notice that verse one is both a command and a warning. Furthermore, it is much stronger in the Greek than what we have in English, particularly in the NIV. The ESV has it better set as the New American standard, but the NIV says be careful, but the Greek says therefore let us fear. Y'all see the difference?

Y'all see the difference? The word therefore, it points us back to Hebrews chapter 3 verse 19, which I just read. So we see that they were not able to enter. This is talking about the Promised Land because of their unbelief. The Israelites were not allowed to enter the Promised Land due to their unbelief.

Listen, no one likes to hear this in this age of political correctness, but here's the truth. Any person who continues in unbelief and refuses God's grace will never enter heaven. Three times in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 God says they shall never enter my rest. The rite of Hebrews is warning us to fear the wrath of God. I was in Ezra chapter 8 verse 22 and it says the gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him. Hebrews 10 31 says it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Why is it? It's dreadful only if you don't know them. If you know them, it's a wonderful thing.

It's the best thing. Hebrews 10 28 Jesus said do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather be afraid. Now these are the words from Jesus's mouth. Rather He says be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. The problem with our world today, there's no fear of God.

If you read through Romans chapter 3 verses 10 through 18 it gives you a litany of sins. There's no one righteous. There's no one who seeks God. All have turned away that together have become worthless. Their mouths are full of bitterness and envy and rage and anger, cursing, lying.

They're quick to shed innocent blood. The way of truth they have not known and it gets to the end verse 18 it says there's no fear of God before their eyes. The reason the world is so rebellious and so wicked is simply because it does not fear God.

So what should you fear? You should feel standing before the Lord one day and hear Him say, Depart from Me, I never knew you. Because listen when the Lord returns the day of grace will be over. Then there will be no second chances and God will say to every single unbeliever, You shall never enter My rest. And the reason He's going to say that is not because He wants to but He's given them their will. They don't want to be with God.

They've made that very clear. Knowing the Bible and knowing what it means to be a Christian is not enough. The ancient Israelites heard God's promise of rest. They understood what He was talking about. But it did them no good because they refused to believe.

You see hearing it has to be combined with what? Faith. Verse 2 says, For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Faith is always accompanied by obedience. Obedience is the evidence that actually shows that a man believes what God says in this book. You're going to slip and you're going to fall.

He'll forgive you. But the general direction of your life is one of obedience. The Israelites did not enter the Promised Land due to unbelief followed by disobedience. Likewise many who claim to know God will not enter heaven due to unbelief and disobedience. And this is why we are given this strong warning in verse 4, Therefore since the promise of entering His rest still stands, men let us be careful that none of us is found to have fallen short of it.

How do you fall short of it? It never transitions from the 18 inches from your mind to your heart because it's in your heart, man, that God is looking to see if you really believe Him. That's what Jesus saw in the thief on the cross. He just looked in his heart and saw belief.

The thief didn't say much. He said, Will you remember me? So how can we enter God's rest? Well here's the good news. The door to heaven is still open. The promise of entering His rest still stands. So what must you do? Well when you hear the Word of God, what should you do? Believe it. Place your trust in Jesus. Verse 3 says, Now we who have believed enter that rest just as God has said. And then you will experience it. You see that's the way it works.

Understanding always follows belief. After God finished His work of creation, He rested from His labor. Do you know why? Because His work was finished. After Jesus died on the cross, was raised on the third day, and then later when He ascended into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of God. Do you know why?

Because He was resting from His labor because His work was finished. In Fritz Ridenhauer's book, How to Be a Christian Without Being Religious, he defines being religious as trying to reach God, find God, please God through your own futile efforts. And that's what they are. They're futile.

That's what they are. They're futile. You see in the end, all of our religious striving will come to nothing. This is why Jesus when He died on the cross said what? It is finished.

Nothing else needs to be done. All anyone has to do to enter God's rest is to believe in the work that Jesus did on the cross on your behalf. It's so simple that even a five-year-old can understand it.

Here's how simple it is. Romans 10 13 says, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is how you enter God's rest. And listen, once you enter His rest, all of your religious striving comes to an end.

You don't have to do anything else. Once you enter God's rest, you will experience joy and peace and satisfaction, the likes of which the world has no concept of. This is why in Philippians 4 6 it says that God gives us this peace that passes all understanding.

You can't even understand it. You see, this is why God created us, to know Him and to enjoy this rest forever. Listen, be careful not to miss God's rest. And God's rest is still available. All right, now look at verses 6 and 7. Therefore, since it still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them did not go in because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day calling it today.

This He did when a long time later with jumping from Moses several hundred years to David. And David writes in, was it Psalm 95 I believe? Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Do you remember last week I talked about the inner calling of God? You hear His still small voice calling you to come to Him?

That's the voice He's talking about. Today when you hear that voice calling you, come to Him. Today the door to heaven is wide open.

Jesus is looking at the world saying, come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, gentle and humble in heart, and you will find what? Rest for your souls. Did you know that you're not a body that has a soul? You're actually a soul that has a body. Or say, who are you talking to when you talk to yourself? You ever thought about that? You're talking to that inner person in there.

That's the real you. You see when you die, this physical body is the Bible compares it to a tent. It's going to go in the ground and disintegrate, but you'll keep on living. Your soul goes immediately somewhere, either to heaven or hell. Your soul is your inner being where you have emotion and will and conscience.

It is your soul that experiences joy and sadness, peace and worry, light and darkness. In Psalm 43 verse 5, the psalmist cries out, why so downcast, oh my soul, put your trust in God. The rest that God wants to give you in me, men, is His rest. It's called God's rest, and it's for our weary souls.

You see, Jesus is the only one who can break this cycle. Right now, He is standing at heaven's door saying, come to Me, and I will give you rest for your soul. So let me ask you tonight, have you truly come to Jesus by faith?

Have you? If so, then you should be experiencing this rest because it begins in the here and now. Look at verses 8 through 11. For if Joshua had given him rest, God would not 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.

Let us then make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. When Adam and Eve were first created, they enjoyed uninterrupted rest in the Garden of Eden, and that does not mean that they sat around doing nothing. You remember, they worked the garden.

They took care of it. However, their work involved no physical toll. That is, their work was not tiring. They never experienced exhaustion.

Moreover, they never experienced anxiety or stress or worry. Every moment had purpose and brought fulfillment, peace, and joy. However, in a moment, all that changed.

Here's the good news. When Christ came into our world, He opened the door for us to experience God's rest once again. It's called a Sabbath rest. We can enter that rest now, but I believe that God's Sabbath rest is here, and the Sabbath rest is here, but it's also coming.

It is now, and it will be. When we come to Jesus by faith, here's what happens. The Holy Spirit invades our soul, and the Holy Spirit is known as the Comforter, and He gives comfort to the brokenhearted. He begins to remove the stress. He begins to fill your mind and your heart with peace, particularly as you spend time in His Word.

That's why I mean you've got to be in the Word. However, God's rest in the here and now is not the final rest. The real Sabbath rest a believer will not experience until the moment of his death, and that rest will be like no other rest he's ever experienced. It will be the rest that one can only experience in heaven in the full presence of God.

Perfect rest. Revelation chapter 14 verse 13 speaks of this rest. John writes, then I heard a voice from heaven say, write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor for their deeds will follow them. Last Tuesday, I received a phone call from Stephanie Pera. I could hear her. The moment I answered the phone, she was softly crying on the other end, and I knew instantly that something was wrong because Chris, her husband had, you know, he went home for Christmas, but he had to go back to the hospital because he was going downhill, and here's what she said. She said, Russ, the doctors have just informed me that they believe Chris has entered his dying stage.

Chris is 35 years old. He married to Stephanie. They have a wonderful marriage. I've really enjoyed getting to know them.

They have two children, a son Wiggs who is six and a little baby, a little girl, Ann Carlisle who is just four. Now this is so interesting to me. Chris called me last March and told me that he wanted to come talk to me, and I didn't have a clue who he was. When he met with me, he informed me that something was wrong with him. He didn't know exactly what it was yet, but he knew that something was wrong. In fact, he said, do you want to see what I look like?

And he pulled up his shirt, and he had these large bruises all over his abdomen and chest and back, and a few days later, he learned that he had a very aggressive form of leukemia and thus began to battle to save his life. And when Chris and I met in my office back in March, it closed the loop on what had begun 30 years earlier when I began to connect the dots and I began to realize who this was. See, I knew him as Christopher Perri, but I kind of forgot about him.

His father, William, and his stepmother, Ruami, were the office managers at a condominium association where I owned a little condominium, Atlantic Beach. And so, up until the age of eight, I would see Christopher in the parking lot and out on the beach when I was down there in the summer. And so, I knew him, but I had not seen him since he was eight. I hardly remembered him, and now he was sitting in my office. He told me that he had gone to the sign-up we had at North Hills Club.

Didn't know anybody there. I mean, he didn't know anybody before he went, but he just felt drawn to the men's study, and he went there and signed up, and he was in Neil's group. And sometime, he and his wife Stephanie placed their trust in Jesus. However, Stephanie told me, actually she told me this afternoon when I talked to her, I said, when did y'all really get counted on fire for the Lord? She said, well, it was after Chris joined the men's study, and we sort of recommitted our lives to Christ. Lord, did they realize when they were getting three years ago back on fire for the Lord, how much they were going to have to lean on Jesus. Now, over the course of the last few months, when Chris was over at UNC Hospital, I had the privilege of visiting him several times, and every time he told me the same thing.

This is pretty much verbatim. I'm not afraid to die, Russ, because I know the Lord, and I know where I'm headed. I'm just going to be sad to leave my family, my wife Stephanie, and I'm going to be sad that I won't be able to watch my two children grow up. He went on to say, however, if only one person comes to Christ because of what I'm going through, you know, I'll be worth it. When Stephanie called me last Tuesday, she told me that she wanted me to come over there and visit with just she and Chris alone, and of course, I was glad to do it, and in fact, I wanted to.

I have to be honest with you. I don't really love going to hospitals, but I have enjoyed going to visit with Chris, and every time that I could visit him, he was on the fourth floor at UNC-Kansas Center, and he had a corner room, and you could see the sun out there and the Carolina blue water tank with UNC on it. So I went there last Tuesday, this is last Tuesday, one week ago, and Stephanie, I met her in the hall. The doctors had just come out of there where they had explained to Chris that he was not going to make it, and there was nothing to do with it, and they were getting ready to move him to hospice, and Stephanie and I, that's the first time I've ever met her in person, even though we'd been texting and talking to each other. I felt like I knew her.

She felt like she knew me. We talked for a few minutes out there in the hall, and then we stepped in, and we went in. There were a couple nurses in there taking care of Chris, and they were propping him up in the bed so that he could sit up and talk to Stephanie and what I witnessed when I saw Chris was a man facing death's door with total peace, and I'll tell you, several times I was there for about an hour, several times he had a smile on his face, and he wasn't in a whole lot of pain. He was in a little bit. He was on some drugs. Every now and then his eyes would go to half mass, so I asked Chris, I said, Chris, what do you want to talk about? He said, I don't know where to begin.

I don't know what to expect. I decided in that moment to tell him, the Lord just put Stephen on my mind because in the Bible, see, the Bible doesn't think, doesn't really describe a Christian as dying, but of what? Falling asleep, and so I thought of Stephen. In Acts 7, we learned that when Stephen was stoned to death, and here's what it says in Acts 7, verses 59 and 60. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell to his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against him. When he has said this, he fell asleep. I read that to Stephanie and Chris, and then I looked up at them, and I said something like this. When a believer dies, it is so temporary that the Bible refers to it as sleep. The believer falls asleep and immediately wakes up in paradise. The Apostle Paul said, to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. So Chris then asked me what he should say to his children.

Yeah, that's a tough one. I said, well, don't say goodbye to them. Just tell them you'll see them again, and Chris will, and that's what he told them. It was sad and difficult for all the family members and friends that went by that hospital to say goodbye to him, but one day a great reunion will take place in paradise. This afternoon, when I spoke to Stephanie, you just, I wish you could have heard a voice on the phone. It sounded like the voice of an angel. She said, Russ, I just can't believe how much peace I have.

I'm so happy that Chris is in heaven, and he's no longer suffering. Then she shared with me, because I told her about Maggie, this black woman that worked for my family who's like my black mother. She didn't have any children, so I'm her son. She's my mother, and when she went through a surgery at Pittman World Hospital about six years ago, and she basically died on the operating table or something happened, because she said she was transported to heaven, and she said she was floating up to the pearly gate on a crystal clear river, and she hates the water, so I know she was telling me the truth. Plus, I don't think she's that familiar with revelation, and she said Jesus came to the door and said, I'm not finished with you and sent her back. So I shared that with Chris and Stephanie.

So she shared with me this afternoon. She said, as right as Chris was dying, his breathing was becoming labored. She said, Chris, what are you seeing? She said, are you floating in on that river that flows by the throne of God?

See, Revelation 22 verse 1 says, then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. Did you guys know that one day we're all going to gather if you're in Christ by that river crystal blue water like the Caribbean that flows by the throne of God, and Jesus will wipe away your tears, and there'll be no more pain or death or mourning for the old, older things will have passed away, and He's going to make everything new. Are y'all ready for that? You see, that's the hope we live with. One day we shall gather by the river, and I hope I'll see you there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for Chris's life, and thank you dear Heavenly Father that you've used it to draw not one, but I believe many people, and I believe you continue to use his life and his death, his falling asleep to draw many more into the kingdom. I pray, Lord, that we will not fall short, that we will place our trust in you so that we can experience your rest now, and then we will enter that Sabbath rest one day when we die. Lord, we love you, and we need you. We praise your name.

Amen. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.