7. Hebrews 4:1-10 Jesus Gives Rest

[Music] let's get into the word together this morning if you would open up your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4 I'm gonna read our text this morning which you'll see it listed on the thing verses 1 through 10 but I'm gonna touch on verse 11 as well so let's stand to give reverence to the word of the Lord as we read here Hebrews chapter 4 beginning now at verse 1 therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest let us fear lest any of you seemed to have come short of it for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it for we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this place they shall not enter my rest since therefore it remains that some must enter it and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience again he designates a certain day saying and David today after such a long time for it has been said today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest he would not have afterwards spoken of another day there remains therefore a rest for the people of God for he who has entered his rest has himself also cease from his works as God did from his let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience father we thank you for your word thank you Lord for this privilege of that you give us in following Jesus after Jesus and we pray now that this morning you would open up the eyes of our understanding so that we would understand this Lord not merely intellectually but also spiritually within the heart of every person here to understand and to gain hold of this rest that you speak of thank you for it Jesus we pray it in your name amen you may be seated as I mentioned last week in a lot of ways what we're doing this morning is really continuation this is one things that I really love about the book of Hebrews the book of Hebrews is a very logical book where each section is built upon the previous section and last week at the end part of Hebrews chapter 3 we saw him really bring up and begin to emphasize this idea of the rest of the people of God and what we emphasize last week was how Jesus promises us this rest and he reveals the key to this rest that is faith belief and what keeps people out of this rest that God has for them is unbelief but we were very careful to define last week that this idea of faith or belief that God calls us to is that it is not just the idea of intellectual agreement that is primarily the way that our culture and even many people within the church today see this idea of faith when I say faith many people think of intellectually agreeing with an idea or a certain doctrine well actually the biblical idea of faith it includes the intellectual agreement but it actually goes much further than intellectual agreement to go on to this idea of trusting in of relying on of clinging to and that's really the idea of when we have our faith in Jesus Christ it's not just that you agreed that he lived and died and was a really real person who walked the earth 2,000 years ago as it says in another place in the Bible the devil's believe that and they tremble at it but the difference is it's a biblical faith is you put your trust you trust in who Jesus is and what he did for you especially what he did for you on the cross now he's gonna continue on that idea here starting in Chapter four speaking about looking right there in verse one he says therefore since a promise of entering his rest remains or remains of entering his rest that unbelief kept the generation that escaped Egypt from entering into Cain and therefore this remains this remains this promise of entering his rest and we can enter into it by faith but again that faith should be understood as trusting in as relying on as clinging to Jesus Christ and I can imagine that this morning I'm speaking to more than just a few people you understand the intellectual ideas or concepts surrounding the Christian faith and I'm glad that you do understand them or even agree with them that's wonderful what are you trusting Jesus do you trust in him today do you trust in him for your past to make sense of your past do you trust in him for today and what you might terms in a biblical idea your daily bread do you trust in him for tomorrow and all eternity that idea of active trust of a relying on Jesus that's what we're speaking of and if you do the Bible says that you are given access you were put into this place of rest what is this rest you know last week I didn't even really carefully define it I knew we'd be talking about it more this week but what is this rest that God has for us that he speaks about in the Christian life well first of all we should understand it's not just speaking about a ceasing of activity the person in the Christian world who has rest is it well I do nothing it's not like you're on a perpetual vacation in a sense and you're following after Jesus Christ no that's not the idea some people I know who really grasp this concept of rest there's some of the hardest working people for the kingdom of God that I know but they do it with a certain mentality they do it with a certain spirit it's all marked by this rest with God there was an old Puritan commentator rider named John Owen and he defined this rest in five ways now just quickly mention them he defined them in five aspects first of all he said that this rest means peace with God and a satisfied soul and conscience I don't know if you know what it's like to live with the tormented conscience I don't know if you know what it's like to live with this idea that you're not at peace with God but rest means you know that you and God are right and it's not based on a delusion it's based on a biblical truth rest also means freedom from a slave like bond it's like spirit in the worship and service of God in other words we can come to God freely and boldly and if you want to put in these terms with an open heart towards God that is what rest means rest means thirdly deliverance from the burden of the ceremonies of the Levitical law for some people there's certain aspects of Levitical law that hang over them as if it was a great burden rest means you know that these things are fulfilled in Jesus Christ and it just adds an entirely different dynamic to your life rest also means the freedom of true worship of God according to the gospel and then finally John Owen said that this rest means that it is the rest that God Himself enjoys not think about the rest that God enjoys it doesn't mean that he has ceased from all activity God is a very busy God don't you think he's at work he's doing stuff every day God is very much a busy involved you know working God nevertheless do you think that God is anxious in heaven often think about this scene I often just tell myself II because I need to be reminded of it that God is not pacing the throne room in heaven you know with his hand on his head worried about how things are gonna turn out you know thinking oh man I had everything going great and and then they invented the internet what am I gonna do now I know it's not like God is worried about such thing it just doesn't bother him is that perfect peace and perfect rest it's sort of this state of a satisfied soul that is at rest God has this for you not a sense of anxiety not a sense of fear and foreboding about the future you could say that this rest that God promises to us it is only perfected in heaven that's where it's going to be perfected for each and every one of us yet you could say in a sense that this rest is a piece of heaven that God has for us right now yes it for you sort of the existence sort of the live sort of the peace the assurance that we assume everybody will have in heaven God has it for here here for you right here right now now this rest does not mean and I need to clarify this rest does not mean an easy life if you want to confirm that to your soul think about the life of Paul the Apostle Paul the Apostle did not have an easy life matter fact there's a few places in his writings where he describes his life and you look back and you say whoa I don't know if I could handle that nevertheless there is a note of peace and confidence and triumph of an undefeatable man in the Apostle Paul the kind of man who can say this to live as Christ to die is gain what can you do against a guy like that if I live I'm gonna live for Jesus if you kill me well then I gain heaven it doesn't matter to me I'll take it either way such a man has such a rest such a peace in his soul and I would say this he cannot be defeated that's why this rest is so profound it's so great it's so meaningful in the Christian life that that's why he says here in verse 1 did you see this phrase let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it this place of rest in the Christian life is so wonderful that it should concern us when we or when others seem to come short of it it isn't enough it isn't enough to almost enter into this rest don't want to come short of it in any way it's kind of funny I see the followers of Jesus today worried and concerned about many things and some of them are very legitimate things to be concerned about they're concerned about the state of the church they're concerned about biblical faithfulness they're concerned about cultural dangers they're concerned about this aspect of the church or that aspect and I'm not gonna say that those concerns are necessarily illegitimate many of them are very well founded but I just thought to my mind when I read this when's the last time that somebody really worried over the fact I have not entered into God's rest that I'm living an anxious worried deprived conscience-stricken Christian life then that's not what God has for me God has for me a place of rest you know sometimes we act as if it's the job of the preacher and in some sense it is to sort of calm anxious Souls and that's true I hope I create some anxiety and some of you here this morning I want you to be worried if you don't have this rest I want you to understand that there's something that God has for you and you're following of Jesus Christ that if I could be so bold to say it it's your birthright as a follower of Jesus Christ and if you don't have it it should bum you out if you don't have it you should have a determination rising up in your soul saying God you've appointed this for me why don't I have it now I would say this that some people have this rest obviously and some people don't you know this passage to the Hebrews makes no sense whatsoever if no one does actually come short of it in some sense now as I say those words I'm a little bit cautious about them because we are always careful about implying that there are sort of the haves and the have-nots in the Christian life but certainly you can't read a passage like this without coming to the conclusion not everyone has this rest but God intends it for everyone now why doesn't everybody have this rest well some people don't have this rest because they have never given their lives to Jesus Christ they've never initially put their faith in it's as if Jesus says Here I am I took the punishment on the cross I took the pain and the judgment that all your sin deserved I took it on myself on the cross and now I call you to myself Jesus says I call you to trust in me I call you to trust in what I did for you on the cross and some people have never really done that at least not in the sense of trusting in relying on and clinging to Jesus Christ I bet if we could pass out little slips of paper with you know boxes you could check did Jesus of Nazareth live each a yes did Jesus of Nazareth die on a cross yes did he don't you check all the right boxes on that and wonderful if you do but do you trust have you put your trust in and some people have never done that initially and by the way let me just say this if you never have then why would you delay another day why would you not put your trust in such a wonderful Savior here he is right now right here for you for you to trust upon so some people never put their trust in Jesus but then there's other people there are other people who actually have this place of rest in Jesus great they do they just don't really know the theological or the biblical terminology around it and I bet that that's more than just a few people here as you hear me talk about this you think about it you sort of look within your own soul and you're wise enough to not only look within your soul and so but to ask the Holy Spirit to look into your own soul and to speak to you about it because sometimes we don't even judge accurately our own condition do we but even right now as I'm speaking you're sort of having a conversation with the Holy Spirit which I don't mind that at all I recommend it highly you're having a conversation with the Holy Spirit saying Holy Spirit if this is me would you please speak to me about it I want to know I want to know if this is me and you haven't assurance no you do have this rest you've just never been able to articulate it and this kind of biblical terminology that's okay you know one of the things I'm very grateful for in the Christian life is that we can actually have an apprehend a spiritual experience even if we don't know exactly how to describe it biblically isn't that beautiful that following after God isn't merely a theology test I think theology is very important but we're not limited by a lack of knowing how to describe things until we can actually live it but then there's other people who don't have this rest they trust Jesus in a general sense or especially in a past sense for their sins and for their salvation but they're not trusting him right now at the particular point where God calls them to trust him at the particular moment and if I could say this morning those are the people that I'm especially concerned about and I think that the writer the Hebrews is especially concerned about he says you got to grab a hold of this just as he says here in verse 2 for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them in other words in the wilderness Israel heard the Word of God they heard God's good news of how they could enter into what God had for them yet so many of them didn't believe him they didn't trust in God and this tells us something very heavy it tells us that hearing God's Word isn't enough those words seem strange for me to say I'm a preacher I love to talk to people about God's Word but hearing God's Word isn't enough even though I'm delighted that I trust you're hearing it this morning you've got to receive it by faith it's not just hearing but it's receiving by faith and then actually do it I mean ancient Israel heard the Word of God but as the writer of the Hebrews says it did not profit them because they did not receive it with faith hearing gave them the opportunity but the opportunity only was provided to them or fulfilled I should say if it was mixed with faith did you see that phrase in verse 2 where it was mixed with faith ancient Israel says that was not being mixed with faith in those who heard it in other words you can hear God's Word you can even hear amazing preaching yet it may do a very little effect in your life and it may not bring you into this rest that God has you until you hear the word and it is mixed with faith you know I love the history of God's working in his church through the centuries and I think back I take a special interest in thinking of God's great preachers that he raised up and if you know me it's no mystery to you that I have a special fancy for Charles Spurgeon that great preacher of Victorian England I mean I quote him all the time it became such a joke in my Bible college classes when I was in Germany that if I didn't quote Spurgeon in a particular class students would want to know what's wrong how come he didn't quote Spurgeon this particular class I think even if I could be transported back into a time machine and sit in that congregation in London and hear Charles Spurgeon preach with his own voice and in his own words that great preacher might do of not have little effect in my life if the word he spoke I didn't mix it with faith now look I'm all for preachers trying to be the best they can be and working hard to be good preachers but can we be honest about something sometimes the problem isn't with the preacher sometimes problems with the hearer and two people can sit side-by-side and hear the same Word of God and for one person it delivers them it leads them into rest it is of tremendous spiritual profit to them and the person sitting right next to them it does very little for them why because it wasn't mixed with faith I like what the old commentator Adam Clarke said about this word mixed with faith he says it has the idea of digestion in other words we can eat the food of the Word of God but without faith we don't really digest it the way that it does the way that it should be in our life and sometimes this faith comes suddenly sometimes you just grab a hold it and say yes I believe I believe these words but you know sometimes this faith comes very gradually doesn't it I remember hearing the case a few months ago about a mind talk about C everett Koop you remember him he was a Surgeon General of the United States and he was a wonderful believer but but he wasn't a believer all of his adult life and this is how he described his conversion C everett Koop Scribner's conversion this way he started going to church with his wife and when he first walked into that church he heard the preacher preach and this is what he said to himself he said I don't agree with just about anything that this man is saying I disagree with him almost on every point but you know out of you know kindness to his wife or just wanting to be together as a family he kept going to church and about a year later he sat in the church and it suddenly occurred to him I agree with almost everything this man says no there was no dramatic moment of faith that he could point to but just over time now he's coming to that position of faith and for some of you it's that way and to me it doesn't really matter much whether you come to a point of immediate faith or whether it's been a gradual work in your life I'm just saying that today today you need to have that faith because without it all the spiritual opportunity all the privilege will do you no good Israel came out of Egypt with so much triumph with so much celebration yet that first generation could not enter into the Promised Land because it wasn't coupled with faith and this is why he continues on in verse three continuing on that same theme he says for we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this place they shall not enter my rest you see verse three says it very powerfully there we who have believed do enter this rest this is a contrast some people are kept out of the rest by unbelief some people enter into it by faith and please notice it's by faith it's not by religious ceremonies it's not even necessarily by church attendance but it's by faith and they enter into what God says is his rest did you notice that phrase in verse three where he says my rest very plainly and powerfully says they shall not enter my rest that demonstrates that the rest is God's it belongs to him it's the same kind of rest that God enjoy when he finished the work of creation it's the same kind of rest that he offered to Israel coming into the Promised Land it's the same kind of rest that's held forth with the people of God in Psalm 95 this rest remains for the people of God and you could say that the rest is after the pattern of the rest that God had on the seventh day of creation when he rested from all his works now going on here now to verse 6 since therefore it remains that some must enter it and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience again he designates a certain day saying and David today after such a long time as it has been said today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest he would not afterwards have spoken of another day there remains therefore a rest for the people of God friends here's the point God did not create this place of rest in vain he did not make this opportunity for people to be at peace and in the ease of conscience and of great confidence of God he did not create this place so that nobody could enter into it no he made this place so that all who believed him could enter into it and so he speaks to you and I today verse 7 today if you will hear his voice again he's drawing on Psalm 95 proving that this rest remains for us and we can enter into it today and it's when we trust in Jesus the way that we should aren't you grateful that the test for entering into this rest isn't how smart you are some of you would be in by a longshot others of us what we'd have a hard time aren't you glad that it's not necesarily how pure you've been morally in your past some of us would be excluded others of us we'd do pretty good aren't you glad that this place of rest isn't given this requirement or that requirement or another one but it's really something that's accessible to each and every one of us every single person in this room can put their trust in Jesus Christ now I'm gonna admit for some people it's easier than other some people because of maybe just the way that they are as a person they find it easier to trust Jesus other people maybe it's because the experiences of their life I readily agree for some of you it's easier than others of you to put your trust in Jesus but I guarantee you this everybody here can do it everybody can have this relationship of trusting love in Jesus and enter into what he has you look at it there in verse 9 there remains therefore a rest for the people of God you see together this proves that there's rest for the people of God arrest that spiritual yet it's patterned after the rest that God gave to Israel under Joshua I don't know if you've done much study on the book of Joshua the book of Joshua concerns Israel coming into the promised land previously here on Sunday mornings we talked about the book of Exodus and that was all Israel coming up out of Egypt so they came out of Egypt they were in the wilderness for a whole time for a generation of unbelief to die off but then a new generation that would trust God God brought them into the promised land under Joshua and this is the pattern that God gives for us to the man of unbelief must die so to speak in the wilderness so that under Joshua under our Jesus we are led into the promised land did you know that the name's Joshua and Jesus are identical in the ancient Hebrew Jesus would be called Joshua Jesus is just the Greek way of saying the Hebrew name Joshua when Jesus grew up and around his home in Nazareth and all that everybody called him Joshua and isn't this beautiful that there was an Old Testament Joshua that led the people of God those who would believe him into this place of rest and now God has it under our Joshua Jesus the Messiah and so this is another beautiful idea that not only is Jesus superior to Moses as we've seen in previous weeks but we can also say that he's superior to Joshua because Jesus leads God's people into a rest that's far greater than Joshua ever did you could say that Canaan was a picture of this rest the Sabbath was a picture of this yes rest the year of Jubilee was a picture of this rest yet all of these are pictures the reality is Jesus it isn't about a geographical place you don't have to go and move to the Land of Israel to be in this rest it isn't about a day of the week you don't have to wait for a certain day of the week to have this rest no it's not about geography it's not about a day of the week it's not about a season of life it's about Jesus but I'll tell you this pretending you have this rest that won't get it for you Spurgeon C I'm gonna quote him right now Spurgeon told a story about an old preacher who was given an assignment to speak on the subject here was a subject joy in God and as his godly old preacher stood up before the audience to speak to the congregation about the subject joy in God he stood before them and said this I am sorry that I've been requested to speak upon this topic for the sad fact is I am NOT walking in the light but I am crying restore unto me the joy of that salvation I have grieved my Heavenly Father and I am in the dark wouldn't it blow your mind if the preacher got up and said that Spurgeon said that the man then sat down and cried and he said there wasn't a dry eye in the entire congregation Spurgeon said about this he said quote this honest confession did far more good than it if he had patched up a tale and told of some stale experience years before if you have not entered into this rest do not say that you have and that's my word to you to me it's some it's maybe completely understandable from sort of a human nature standpoint but it's sad even tragic how often will pretend with ourselves even within the walls of church or maybe I should say especially within the walls of church how many people are afraid to weep a tear over their spiritual condition why because it might mess up their makeup I wish I could say that that only applied to women these days he could never really tell but how many people are ashamed to to truly allow themselves to be broken in any visible way before God because they wonder what others would think about them let me say two things about that first of all who cares what others think about you you are a soul dealing with God secondly have you not deceived yourself about what others would think about you would not others find such a stirring joy in their heart and instead be led to stop pretending for themselves and say Lord take me just as I am friends if you don't have this rest please don't sit here and pretend that you do would you come with a broke and honest heart before God and whether you can sense unbelief on your part or not just come honestly before God and say God you have this for me and yet I do not experience it would you please break me and mold me until I trust you the way that I should look at what he says here verse 10 for he who has entered his rest high himself also ceased from his works as God did from his what do you do when you're in this rest you cease from your works now please understand it's not that you stop doing good works not at all no matter of fact I would say you should do more good works under this rest than otherwise but you stopped from yourself justifying works I was searching for a way to illustrate this and I couldn't think of anything but so I'll just give a personal example and I hope it's not too personal but it sort of strikes from my own heart I'll explain why just just this last week I got a letter from a woman that I donated a kidney to about a year ago it was the first that I ever heard from her and it was weird because there were just some strange mix ups in the delivery because he kind of have to do it through intermediary and such and so it really just went like that honestly I mean I just forgot all about that I did I did a little over a year ago to me that's like ancient history let's see what's happening today but this letter from this 33 year old woman and just how thankful she was that she no longer had to be on dialysis and how she could be there for her nine-year-old son and how her nine year old son didn't have to worry about her being stuck at the hospital or dying because she was on to us it was just very very sweet and I thought back to that thing that I did of donating a kidney and I said David did you do that to try to justify yourself before God in others did I do it with the thought Oh God will love me more oh this will get me into heaven and Friends I can say that as much as I can read my own heart before God which isn't perfect I could say I did it for none of those reasons I really believe that for whatever reason I did I did it out of the rest that God has given me in Jesus Christ out of this place of peace and just clear heart before the Lord just to say just to say God I know you love me I know you're with me I know your grace is poured out upon me what good can I do for someone else so please understand I believe that we do works from this earth sometimes even wonderful works but they're not done with the sense of justifying ourselves or making us right with God no instead verse 10 he has seized from his works as God did from his I believe God is still busy at work but God isn't justifying himself he is at peace so verse 11 and we're gonna end with verse but we'll pick it up at verse 11 next time where it says this let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience friends god has this place a place of rest of a peaceful conscience of a lack of anxiety with God in this world he has that for you in Jesus Christ let's be diligent to enter it you're not gonna fall into it there's gonna be a sense of diligence where you have to be sort of rigorous with your own heart and your own mind saying no I choose to believe on Jesus but let me say this and I'll sort of conclude with this you can't really put your trust in Jesus until you've taken it off of yourself and this is the stumbling block for many of us isn't it there still remains within us this desire this instinct to trust ourselves in our own wisdom in our own abilities know God helping us will say Jesus I renounce this trust in myself and I look to you I look to who you are and what you've done for me and that is my trust father I pray that you would take this word this beautiful word about the rest that you have for us in Jesus Lord I have to say I feel weak I feel unable to adequately explain this I pray that in and around any of the words I've spoken that your Holy Spirit has done a work here to explain it with a precision and with a persuasiveness certainly greater than what I possess the Lord I simply ask here now would you help everyone here in this room now to be honest with themselves about where they are and how they need to trust in Jesus revealed to a specific points in our life where we need to exercise that trust some of them may be familiar some of them may be a surprise but Lord would you please reveal it Lord my earnest zyre is that every person here who hears us would truly enter into that rest would you do it among us thank you Lord Jesus we pray this in your name [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

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Length: 35min 59sec (2159 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 19 2019