Rest

If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4. We're looking at verses 1 through 6. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way.

God rested on the seventh day from all of his works, and again in this passage he said, They shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news fail to enter in because of disobedience. Bow with me as we go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray for our sick and our infirm today. We pray for Ralph Ingram, who has knee replacement surgery coming up this week. We pray for Diane Joyner, who's having surgery on her back done tomorrow. We pray for Lisa Menzel, for Jeremy Carriker, for Jim Belk. We pray for Brenda Torrance and Kim Oudy and Nicole Lowes. Father, I pray for our lost loved ones and for families struggling with marital difficulties. I pray for our elders, that you would give us wisdom in our decisions.

May you be glorified through these decisions. Heavenly Father, today we look at a passage of Scripture that teaches us about your rest. We think of rest and we look at it as a break from exhaustion or a time of needed sleep and relaxation.

We're fallible human beings and we need that kind of rest. But the rest that you're speaking of here today has to do with our salvation. You're teaching us here that Jesus purchased our rest. He shed his blood and died that we would be saved. And we live for Jesus, not to gain salvation, but to bring him glory as his children. Use this passage today to make us more dependent on Jesus than we've ever been before. And it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Several months ago, Eric Schwimm told me that he was meeting with Amy Hicks. Amy Hicks is what I call a missionary to our public school. She is a Bible teacher at Central Cabarrus High School. She is a faithful Bible teacher.

I have great respect for her and for what she is doing. She is just a lady of God. Well, Eric told me that he was going to meet with her and I said, When you talk to Amy, tell her or ask her, how can I best pray for her? And so Eric came back the next day and he said, Doug, Amy said that you could pray that the Lord would use her to help get the word of God into the hearts of the Christian students and that she might be a great witness to the lost. But also pray, she asked, that you might give her, that the Lord might give her rest. That the Lord might give her rest. Amy has battled cancer for several years now. And the work that she has, has not slowed down even a bit.

She has worked hard with her students there and the things that she does at Central Cabarrus High School. Her request hit me hard. She prayed for rest. What kind of rest? Physical, emotional and spiritual rest. You know, her job, her work, her ministry is very demanding. And cancer saps your energy. And so she has gone through a tough time.

But she has hung in there. And when she asked me what to pray for, she said, Tell Doug to pray that I might have rest. Today we are looking at the subject of rest. It's not physical or emotional rest that we are looking at today. The rest that we are looking at today is the salvation of the Lord.

And I've got five points that I want to share with you. My point one is just the word therefore. In chapter one of chapter four, it starts off with one word and that word is therefore. What is he telling us to do?

He's telling us to go back to chapter three and to remember what chapter three is about. For in chapter three he's given us an illustration of Israel's rebellion in the wilderness. Now God had done everything for Israel. God had cast the ten plagues on Egypt. God had opened the Red Sea that the children of Israel went through on dry land.

God had destroyed the Egyptian army in that same Red Sea. God had led them by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God had given them food from, manna from heaven for food.

And he'd given them water out of a solid rock. But now God is getting them ready to enter into the promised land. And God said to Moses, Moses I want you to choose out twelve men, twelve leaders, one man from each of the tribes of Israel. And they are to go into the promised land and they are to spy it out and check it out. And then after that they are to come back and they are to instruct Israel on how they are to go in and take the land.

And so these twelve spies did that. They went into the promised land, they checked it out. It was absolutely beautiful.

Beautiful lush green pastures, gorgeous vineyards. It was everything they could possibly want. But ten of those spies came back with hearts that were absolutely filled with fear. They were scared to death. And they came back and they gave a negative report to the people of Israel. They said, yes the land is beautiful but we can't take the land because there are huge walled cities. They have sophisticated weaponry. They have giants in the land. And we would look like grasshoppers in their sight.

We got to use a little common sense here. We cannot take the land. Caleb and Joshua when they heard that were terribly upset.

And they said, wait a minute. It was God who gave us the command to take this land. God said that we are to take the land. Who is this God? He is Jehovah. He is Yahweh.

He is the great I AM. And if God commands us to do something and we refuse to do it, then woe is us. Well, the scripture says that the hearts of the people of Israel, their hearts melted within them. When they heard the negative report from the ten faithless spies and they said, well the spies are right. They just kind of pushed Joshua and Caleb out of the way and said, we can't take the land. There's no way that we can do it. We would be killed. We got to use a little bit of common sense.

We cannot do it. So God gave them a message and that message is found in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Numbers. And I want to read you verses 33 through 38 to see what God said. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land forty days, a year for each day. You shall bear your iniquity forty years and you shall know my displeasure. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Surely this I will do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall come to a full end and there they shall die. And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land. The men who brought up a bad report of the land died by plague before the Lord.

Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephthah, remained alive. That's why the writer of Hebrews starts off chapter four with the word therefore. He is comparing the Israelites' rebellion in the wilderness to the problem that can happen in the church if the church walks away from the gospel in unbelief. All right, point two is a godly fear. Look with me at verse one.

Therefore, while the promise of entering Israel still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. The writer of Hebrews says to the early church Christians, let us fear. Did you realize that there are 365 different scriptures in the Bible that tell us not to fear? That's a different scripture for every single day of the year.

Cindy and I have calendars. And their calendar has given us a different verse to not fear for every single day of the year. Folks, what are we not to fear? We're not to fear people. We're not to fear the devil or disease or demons. We're not to fear death. We're not to fear circumstances. We're not to fear the enemy's lies. What are we to fear? We are to fear God. And one of the ways that we fear God is to fear being disobedient to him. Look at verse one again.

The promises of entering Israel still stands. What is he saying there? He is saying your salvation can be sure. He said you can have genuine assurance of salvation. How? By perseverance. Not perfection, but by perseverance.

So let me stop right here and ask you something. How did you get saved? By being good? No. By keeping the law of God? No. By never sinning?

No. How did you get saved? You got saved when you heard the truth of what Jesus Christ did for us. That Jesus Christ went to the cross and he died.

A substitutionary atoning death for us. That he died in order that he might take our sin and give us his righteousness. You believed what the scripture says about the resurrection of Christ.

That he rose from the dead to break the power of death. But you got saved when you understood that you weren't saved by what you did for Jesus. You were saved by what Jesus did for you. And if you're truly saved, then you won't back down from that. You will not recant from your faith. You won't walk away from Jesus to go back to your old sinful life.

You won't do that. Notice who the writer of Hebrews is talking to. He says, let us, that's plural. This is a call to the church, folks. We are to encourage each other to persevere.

Richard Phillips said it this way. Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I have a stake in the spiritual affairs of others here. And a responsibility not merely for my own salvation, but for theirs as well. This is not an invitation for destructive meddling, but for the mutual building up that is to define life in the church. So important is this to the life of the church that the apostle James concluded his epistle on this very note. Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Simon Kistemacher is right when he observes, we ought to take careful note of members who may be drifting from the truth in doctrine or conduct and then pray with them and for them.

We are constantly looking for spiritual stragglers. A good church, therefore, will not be defined by the size of its building, nor by the number of people attending or the amount of money raised. Rather, by God's standard, a quality church will be one that leaves no stragglers to lag behind or perish in unbelief. The kind of church the writer of Hebrews is looking for is one where they're discouraged or propelled forward by encouragement, where the weak find strength in the care of others and those in danger of being deceived or a call to the truth in a spirit of love. On a Sunday night two or three weeks ago, I saw a lady in the back of our church and there were four of our men that were gathered around this lady. This particular lady was struggling with assurance of their salvation and these four men were encouraging her with all their heart. They were giving her scripture. They were telling her not to believe the lie of Satan. They were sharing with her times when they had doubted and how God reassured them.

They shared scripture with her, a lot of scripture. They went to John chapter 10 and verse 28 where Jesus said, And I will give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of My hand. John chapter 6 verse 37 where Jesus said, All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me, and he who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. In 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13, These things have I written unto you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Romans chapter 8 verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 8 verses 38 and 39 where Paul said, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let me tell you something. When I saw these four men doing that, it blessed my heart. Because that's exactly what the writer of Hebrews is telling us to do. That the church is supposed to encourage those who are struggling with assurance of their salvation, and that's exactly what they were doing. And you know they could have just taken this lady straight to this verse that we are looking at today. And the word for rest here, which means a promise, remains of entering the rest.

The Greek word for that is katapasis. When applied to God's rest, it means no more self-effort in the area of salvation. It is the end of trying to please God by our frail, feeble, and fleshly works. God's perfect rest is a rest in free grace. Folks, to enter God's rest means to be at peace with God. John MacArthur said, it means to be free from guilt and even unnecessary feelings of guilt. It means freedom from worry about sin because sin is forgiven. God's rest is the end of legalistic works and the experience of peace and the total forgiveness of God.

Rest can also mean to lie down, to be settled, fixed, and secure. In God's rest, we are forever established in Christ. We are free from running from philosophy to philosophy, from religion to religion, from lifestyle to lifestyle. We are free from being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. To be at rest means that you are saved and that you know it, that you know it. So why do we need to hear this truth? Why do we need to understand it?

Here's the answer. Because they are true believers who have such tender consciences that they are always being plagued by false guilt. Folks, that happens, doesn't it? The lady that was talking to the four men in the back of our church a few Sunday nights ago, I might be wrong, but I believe with all my heart that she has a very tender, soft conscience and the enemy is lying to her heart trying everything he can to take advantage of a tender conscience. Folks, if you had genuinely repented and trusted Jesus Christ for your salvation, there may need to be examination from time to time because we need to be walking holy before the Lord and we need to examine ourselves, but God does not want you to live in fear and trepidation with no assurance. God is a judge, but he's not a judge of believers that will bring condemnation on believers. Folks, it was Jesus in Luke chapter 12 verse 32 who said this to a group of believers, of children of God. He said this, Don't be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The fear that we have for God should not be terror or fear of condemnation.

It should be a reverential awe that we have for a God that we look to as Daddy. All right, point three, the elements of rest. Look at verse one and two. For good news came to us, or verse two, for good news came to us just as it did to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, but they were not united by faith with those who listened. Read verse three also. For we who have believed enter the rest as he has said, as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. There are two elements of rest and one of them is personal faith. In verse two he says that the word that they heard did not profit them.

Why not? Because it was not united with faith, or it was not mixed with faith. This is a good verse for explaining the difference between having a head belief in Christ and having a heart belief.

Hearing and knowing and understanding what the Bible says, the gospel facts of the gospel, is not enough to save you. It has to be, you have to mix it with faith. What kind of faith? Active faith. Because faith without works is dead being alone. If you had asked me when I was in high school if I was saved, I think I would have told you yes. I would have told you yes.

Why? Because I believe the facts of the gospel. I believe that the Bible was the inherent word of God. I believe that Jesus was the virgin born son of God. I believe that Jesus died and went to the cross to purchase our salvation. I believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

But you know what? I had never repented. I had never submitted my life to Jesus as my Savior and as my Lord. Listen to what James said in James 2 verse 17 through 18. So also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. But someone will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works. I will show you my faith by my works. The question is this. Is your faith real biblical faith? Let me give an illustration.

I think it's poignant. There was a man years ago who went to Niagara Falls. He took a tightrope and he strung it all the way across Niagara Falls. He then brought in a wheelbarrow and he stood before this huge crowd of people. He said how many believe that I can take this wheelbarrow, go all the way across walking on that tightrope?

Everybody in the crowd raised their hand. They said yes we believe you can do it. We want to see you do it.

Go for it. Then he said all right let me ask you another question. How many of you would jump in the wheelbarrow and let me take you across? And everybody's hand immediately went right back down except one little boy. And the little boy ran over and he jumped in the wheelbarrow. And he said let's go. And the man looked at him he said son he said I'll have to get your parents permission for you to go on that trip across the Niagara Falls. And the little boy looked at him and smiled and he said okay daddy can I have permission? And his daddy said yes sir son you sure can. And he put the little boy right there in that wheelbarrow and he walked him right across. Folks that whole crowd was there.

Nobody else jumped in the wheelbarrow but that little boy trusted his dad. Many of us have heard the word, know the word, and understand. But we've not mixed it with faith. James 2 19 James said thou believeth in one God thou doest well. The demons also believe and tremble. Do you realize that the devil believes the gospel? The devil believes that Jesus died on the cross.

He was there. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. The devil believes that Jesus is the son of God. But the devil and the demons aren't saved are they?

Because what they had their head believe was not mixed and united with faith. But what's true in this verse for salvation is also true of life. The word of God is not going to benefit you unless you mix it with faith. You can't have just the promises.

You have to believe those promises. Go through the book or the chapter in Hebrews chapter 11. It's the greatest chapter in the Bible on the subject of faith. And just take a look at all the different people that he mentions there and how faith is expressed in their life.

Very, very interesting. The scripture talks about Noah. That Noah was moved with godly fear and he built the ark. That Abraham lived in a tent instead of living in a mansion when he could have because he was very rich. Because he was looking for a city whose builder and foundation was God. That Abel offered a sacrifice unto God.

Why? Because Abel obeyed God and God told him to do it. I think of Joshebed who was Moses' mama who weaved a basket, put little Moses in that basket, put him out in the Nile River in order that she might save his life. The writer of Hebrews is saying that faith is wrapped up in obedience that leads to action. The writer of Hebrews is saying that. So you've got to have it in your life. And it's a bad habit. And it's a habit that you know is displeasing to God. You have scriptures that teach you that God can help you in the breaking of the habit. But it's just not happening in your life yet. Why is it not happening yet? Probably because you're not fighting sin.

Probably because you haven't got to the point where you're casting down every imagination. Every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. You have a promise of God's provision. But God tells you how to get a hold of that provision. And in Luke chapter 6 verse 38 it was Jesus who said, Give and it shall be given unto you.

Good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. And then what about tithing? Why should you tithe? God said, Prove me, test me with the tithe, and see if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. I think about people that tell me they want to experience sweet intimacy with the Lord.

But they say, Doug, it's just not happening. Why about going to Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13 that says this, And you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. So the first element of entering into God's rest on the human side is personal faith.

Let's take a look at another element. And that other element is God's sovereign decree. Notice it says that the gospel was preached unto them. Faith has to be expressed, doesn't it? Faith has to be expressed and that faith is a gift from God. The scripture says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 23, Peter said, So there was a need not only for faith, but also for the sovereign decree from God's holy word. Let me share this verse with you. Verse 10-14, All right, point four is God's Sabbath rest. Look at verse four. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from his works. Sabbath rest was instituted as a symbol to us of the true rest that will come to us in Christ. In Genesis chapter 1 verse 31, we read these words. And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. And there was evening, there was morning, the sixth day. On the seventh day, God rested. And what does that mean? God took a nap?

No. It means that God's creative work was complete. And he didn't need to do anything else. And folks, so it is with the rest that we have in Christ. It's complete in what Jesus did on the cross and one day we will experience fully that completeness. Adam and Eve were completely righteous when God created them. They walked and they talked with God.

And it was just as natural as if Adam and Eve were just by themselves talking with each other. They were at rest and they were at peace. They relied on God for everything. They had no anxieties, no worries, no pain, no anguish, no frustrations, none of that. They did not need his forgiveness because they had never sinned. They didn't need his consolation because they had never grieved.

They did not need his encouragement because they had never failed. What did they need? They needed fellowship with God. And that's why Adam and Eve were created, that they might have fellowship with God. Something terrible happened. When Satan began to impugn God's integrity and his character and his love, then Adam and Eve believed Satan instead of believing God. And they trusted Satan and they bought in to his lie.

How dangerous was that? Folks, when they lost their trust in God, they lost their rest. And from that time until now, man apart from God is not only sinful, but we're also restless. And for all these years, what has God been doing? All these years, God has been bringing back man into his rest. Now how did God accomplish that? Well, a barrier had to be broken, didn't it? And the barrier that is between us and God is the barrier of sin. How did God break that barrier?

Through the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Through Christ's death, men are again offered rest, which means life as God meant it to be. I want you to listen to how Isaiah describes the plight of the unbeliever and as I read these verses to you from Isaiah 57, I want you to understand that the word wicked here doesn't mean just extremely evil person. It means every unbeliever.

All right, listen to what he said. But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked or for the unbeliever. In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon gave a warning to be careful not to succumb to the lure of an immoral woman. And you know, when we sin, the scripture describes that sin as spiritual adultery.

Now I'm going to read you a passage out of Proverbs chapter 7. And you might say, well Doug, I don't have a problem with lust. It's not my problem.

Well, I'll guarantee you, you've got a problem somewhere. And that problem may be a besetting sin. And your besetting sin might not be mine at all. It might be lying or pride. It might be laziness. It could be, it could be covetous.

It could be, it could be anything. So when I read these verses, I want you to take your particular sin, the sin that besets you, and put it in here instead of lust. The adulterous woman says this, Come, let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight ourselves with love, for my husband is not at home. He's gone on a long journey, took a bag of money with him.

At full moon he will come home. With much seductive speech she persuades him. With her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver.

As a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me. Be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. For many a victim as she lay low, and all are slain, are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. What a powerful betrayal of what sin does. It destroys the rest of God. All right, my point five is Jesus, who is the door to God's rest. Verse five and six. And again in this passage he said, They shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news fail to enter because of disobedience. He tells us that it is true that there will be many that will not enter into his rest.

And why will they not enter into it? Because of disobedience and unbelief. They were presented with the claims of Christ. They understood the facts of the gospel. And knowing full well what the consequences would be, they said no to Jesus, which meant no rest. The writer of Hebrews adds this. He says, Don't despair, because there are some who will indeed enter his rest.

I want to read you a quote from Charles Spurgeon that I just absolutely love. He said this in one of his sermons. If Jesus Christ were to stand on this platform tonight, what would many people do with him? If he were to come and say, Here I am, I love you, will you be saved by me?

Not one of you would consent if you were left to your will. He himself said, No man can come to me except the Father who sent me draws him. Ah, we want that. And here we have it. They shall come. They shall come. You may laugh, you may despise us, but Jesus Christ shall not die for nothing.

If some of you reject him, there are some that will not. If there are some that are not saved, others will be. Christ shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. They shall come. And nothing in heaven, nor on earth, nor in hell, can stop them from coming.

Can I hear an Amen? In other words, both Spurgeon and the writer of Hebrews are telling us that God's plan will not fail. Many will not enter into his rest. And in that last day when they stand before Jesus at the final judgment, they will say, We did not enter into your rest because we did not want to. We did not enter into your rest because of our unbelief and our disobedience. We stand before a holy God right now and we are condemned and we are condemned because it's our fault. Some of us are saved and we will enter into God's rest.

So what are we going to say when we see the Lord in that final judgment? Are we going to say, Oh Lord, I was a pretty good person. I tithed of all that I had. I fasted twice a week. I was more obedient than most people. I was more spiritual than most people. I was a pretty good guy. Is that what we're going to say?

Absolutely not. We're going to say this. The only reason that I'm saved and somebody else is not is because of the sovereign grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The only reason I'm saved is because of what Jesus did for me. That Jesus opened my spiritual eyes. That he opened my spiritual ears. That he opened my spiritual will. That he opened my spiritual heart. That he saved me for all of eternity. I was a sinner headed for an eternal hell and Jesus did the work. If I'm saved, all I can say is this. I'm not saved because of what I did for Jesus.

I'm saved because of what Jesus did for me. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we've been studying a very humbling passage today. We've been warned of the danger of spiritual neglect. We've been reminded that our salvation is a gift of God. A gift that calls Jesus his very life. So help us to not only appreciate the gift but to never ever take it lightly. Lord, help us to persevere in our faith. Help us to finish the race for our good and your glory. For it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.