Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Hebrews chapter 4 and reading
from our text verse 11. Hebrews 4 and verse 11. Let us labour therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Hebrews 4 and verse 11. What is set before us here is
the rest of faith in Christ. We are told very clearly that
those that believe, they do enter into rest. And that rest is said before
us here. There's also the rest of the
Sabbath, the creation rest. God worked six days, the earth
was formed, and God rested on the seventh day, hallowed it
and rested from all his labors. The children of Israel, were
commanded to remember that rest. They labored for six days and
then they could rest. And we have then the rest of
Canaan. The children of Israel, when
they went through the wilderness, they had the prospect set before
them. of Canaan. We know, of course,
when they got to Canaan, there wasn't a rest there. There was
the wars there. But as they were going through
the wilderness, compared with the wilderness, that was the
rest. And God did bring them to their
own land to rest in that land. And that is the time that is
set before us here, those that entered into that rest, those
that were not consumed in the wilderness, but came into that
promised land. So that was a type of rest that
was set before them in all of their wilderness journey. Canaan,
of course, again, is a time of heaven, which is also a rest
for the people of God, where they shall cease from all their
toils, their labours, their sorrows, here below, and to be with Christ,
which is far better. And that rest is set before the
Church of God, looking for the Lord's coming, looking for that
new creation wherein dwelleth righteousness. But here below,
there is to be a gospel rest, a rest of faith in Christ. And I want to look, with the
Lord's help, firstly, at the rest of faith in Christ, what
that is. And then secondly, the exhortation
in our text to labour to enter into that rest. And then thirdly,
the alternative to follow the unbelieving Israelites and to
perish. Our text says, let us labor,
therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief. So it is the rest of faith first
that is set before us here. We have in verse 3, for we which
have believed do enter into rest. Really a very simple, concise
description of what that rest is. It is a rest in believing. The opposite, is being left in
unbelief. Now, Abraham is set before us. Paul, when he writes to the Romans,
he speaks of Abraham and the faith that he had. In Romans 4, verse 19, we read
of Abraham, who being not weak in faith, He considered not his
own body, now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither
yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform. And we have a picture there,
Abraham looking at his own body, looking at his years, looking
at Sarah, her condition, and here was his promise. So shall
I seed be, who against hope, believed in hope that he might
become the father of many nations, According to that which is spoken,
so shall thy seed be. And so all things seem to be
so opposite. But the word of God had said
that it should be through his seed, the promised seed of Christ
should come. And our Lord said, Abraham, he
saw my day and he rejoiced at it. We read in the catalogue
of those that walk by faith that Abraham believed that even if,
even if Isaac had been slain when he was tried on Mount Moriah,
God would raise him from the dead, that that promise would
be fulfilled. Such a strong belief he had,
so clear picture of God's purpose, of what God would do, that all
those things that so went against her were as nothing. He could
rest in the Lord. He could rest in what the Lord
had promised and said. And so this rest of faith, it
is when that soul by faith fully sees Christ's finished work,
sees as it were that plan so perfectly, the law of God fulfilled,
God and sinners reconciled, the wrath of God appeased. When he
believes not only in what Christ has done, but believes that he
has a personal interest in it, it was done for him, the hymn
writer says, all is settled and my soul approves it well. It is when faith views those
scriptural evidences of a call by grace. He realizes he is not
what he once was. God has made a difference. He
has been quickened. She has been quickened into life. There is now a hearing ear giving.
There is a hearing of the Lord when the word is preached. There's
a still small voice. My sheep, they hear my voice,
they follow me. There's a realisation. Instead
of going our own will and our own way, it's like the apostle
Paul, Saul as he was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? There's
a looking at those scriptural evidences. We know that we have
passed from death unto life in that we love the brethren. We may not know the time, the
day of our new birth, that instantaneous gift of eternal life, but we
will know that we have life. The dead know not anything. And
there was a time that all of God's people, as concerned the
things of God, they knew not anything, had no concern, no
knowledge of the worth of their soul. They sought not the Lord
nor His ways. But the apostle says, when God began that work, pleased
to quicken me, call me by his grace, separated him, brought
him to believe, and brought him amongst the people of God, this
rest of faith views clearly the Lord's work believes it is the
Lord's work, rests in the Lord's work. The doubts, the fears,
the uncertainty, they're gone. Love and joy and peace is there. That rest of that soul believes,
feels, knows that heaven is their destined place for eternity. The Lord is their God. They're
able to say with David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. They're able to say with the
apostle, we know that all things work together for good, to them
that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose,
to be fully persuaded of the security, none shall pluck them
out of mine hands. that neither death, nor life,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. This is the rest of faith, to
rest in Christ's finished work, to truly believe there's not
of our works Not our righteousnesses, but Christ's work, Christ's righteousness,
His blood, that when our Lord pronounced on Calvary, it is
finished. It is finished. It was finished. And the MD2 gives assurance unto
all men. Now, dear friends, we're often,
we're beset with unbelief and doubts and fears. We have surrounding
us many things, like Abraham did, that so discourage. And we don't have that rest.
We profess to be Christians. But there are those times we
do not have that peace and that comfort and that joy. And we're
beset with many fears. But this is why we have this
exhortation here in our text. The rest is set before us. What
is to be attained is set before us. Really a full assurance of
faith. More happy, Emreiter says, but
not more secure, the glorified saints in heaven. And those us
sacred, sweet times may not last long upon earth, where we believes
so fully, so clearly, that all doubts, fears are all gone. It
doesn't last long. But those are sweet times. Those
are blessed times. And it is this rest that is set
before us here. You know, the Israelites, they
had to work for six days, then they could rest. But the Christian
Sabbath, They rest on the first day and then the rest of the
week they work out that salvation. It is so emphasised in the Christian
Sabbath, in the first day of the week the Lord is risen, that
here they may immediately rest in Christ. Here they begin and
they hear of Christ's work. see what he has finished, what
he's accomplished and what he has done. And they go on their
way refreshed and strengthened and to show forth the praises
of him who hath called them out of nature's darkness and into
his marvellous light. Now be honest, how many of us
would really say, well, we would long to have faith that clearly
saw that we were a child of God? Long to have that peace and joy
and rest and to be so fully in the spirit and spiritually minded
that we almost had heaven on earth and enjoy the things of
God in our souls. The new man of grace so triumphed
over the old and faith so laying hold upon the hope that it almost
becomes sight. We know that it is not. Hope
that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for? But we are saved by hope. And
those that are listed in Hebrews 11, they walked by faith, they
died in faith, being persuaded that Christ, who had been promised
the seed of the woman, and he that was shown in all the types
and the shadows, He would most certainly come. He would put
away their sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as the Lord had
given them faith to view it, to believe it, and to embrace
it, they knew it was theirs. The Lord is the author and finisher
of faith. And it is this, this blessing,
this joy, this attainment, as it were, of a full believing
that blots out those torments and doubts and slavish fears. Again, I bring before you verse
three. We which have believed to enter
into rest. Joy and peace in believing. Sometimes you might say, well,
the very simplicity of it What? Just believe? Just believe? What a difference! It's a blessed
thing if we know the difference between a belief that just gives
an assent about something and a belief of which we feel it
in our whole being and it gives with us such reality and joy
and peace that those things, they really, they really belong
to us. I really know that it really
is so. You think of the hymn writer
that, praise, show me a token, Lord
for good. And the Lord is pleased to give
those tokens here below, and sometimes those tokens, they're
the forerunner of that blessed belief and embracing. You know,
dear Jacob, he was told by his sons that Joseph was alive and
in Egypt. And we read his heart, fainted,
he failed because he believed them not. No doubt he wanted
to believe it, the wonderful tidings, but how could he really
believe it? But you know, we read that when
he saw the wagons, when he saw the provision, when he saw what
had been given that could not have been conjured up by his
sons, Yeah, they deceived him about Joseph being slain, but
could they really go to this lengths now to deceive him? That we read, when he saw all
these things, then the heart of Jacob, the spirit of Jacob
revived, and Israel said, Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I'll go
and see him before I die. And there's a difference. The difference of one belief
and another belief being fully persuaded. And yet, you know,
there must have been still some doubts. As Jacob ventured, the
big thing to go from Canaan to Egypt, But the Lord met with
him and blessed him. Very often it was like that with
Jacob's life. As he left home, the Lord met
with him when he lay with the stones for his pillow. When he
left labor, the Lord met with him that night. And when he ventures
and he goes to Egypt, the Lord meets with him. How many are
like that? They venture, they venture may
be with fears, but they do believe. And as they venture, the Lord
draws near and so blesses them and so favours them. Here's one
of you tonight, exercised about venturing, venturing in the Lord's
name, venturing on upon a profession of fame. Think of dear Jacob. Venture, and the Lord bless thee
in that venture. And there is the rest, then,
of faith. But secondly, there's the exhortation
to labour into that rest. The Word tells us this. Let us labour, therefore, to
enter into that rest. Now, we may get very clear, this
is not a labouring. to make ourselves perfect. It's
not a labouring to fulfil the law. It's not a labouring to
do what God only can do. But it is a labouring of pleading
with the Lord that He would do it, that He would perform it
and He would bring it about. in our hearts and in our lives. How are we to labour? And you know the very word labour,
it implies that there is a need of perseverance, there's opposition,
there's discouragement, there's difficulties, and there will
be. Heart corruptions, the evils
of our hearts, the temptations, our habits, our besetting sins,
the world, the flesh, the devil, all of these things, they all
come against it, all the time, all the time hindering and stopping
it. But when a soul has this aim
in view, this end in view, they want this blessing, they want
this belief, they want this faith, And who can give them faith?
God only, the Lord, the author and finisher of it. Who can banish
all of our fears? How many fear nots in the word
of God and they're spoken by the Lord? And so the first thing
in that label is seek it in prayer. Do you and I have an aim in prayer? Is it something we're asking
the Lord for? And is this one of the things?
Lord, banish my unbelief. Grant me joy and peace in believing. Grant that clear assurance that
I am Thine. Do we ask the Lord? Do we labour
that we might enter into that rest and into that blessing as
if the Lord would set it before us? And so does it mean anything
to you? You have no power, you have no
might to bring yourself into it, but that path of labour is
a seeking that the Lord would do it for you. He'd perform it
for you. Continue in prayer. Watch in
the same with thanksgiving. How many times I've felt in the
attitude of prayer, And the Lord has come so suddenly and softened
my heart and draw my affections. And those have been some sweet,
sacred moments. They've been very, very precious. Then there's the reading of the
word of God. How many times the Lord has shone
upon the sacred page. So he him whom my soul loveth. And as you read the scriptures,
your desire is that you might see Christ, you might believe,
you might receive these precious truths, you might hear his voice.
And as we meet in the Lord's name and meet under the preaching
of the word, let this be the aim, this be the desire and the
labour, praying before and praying after and begging of the Lord,
Lord, do come, visit my soul today. Those are precious times,
precious times for us in the ministry, while we've been preaching. And we may have prepared, we
may have had our points, but the Lord opens it up in such
a way that it is precious. Our souls are melted, and then
may be the hymn is given out. We may have chosen it ourselves
several days before. It has its song, the tears flow,
the joy is reaped. Read the words as we enter into
the spirit of those precious truths sent forth. And those
are precious, precious times. If we are laboring, and we have
this aim in view, we truly, as it were, won't settle for second
best. We want the best. Oh yes, the
devil sometimes has said to me, You had a blessing last Lord's
Day, you can't expect that this. You were softened and drawn to
the Lord as sweet assurance and comfort in the morning service,
you can't expect it in the evening. May we be delivered from such
a tempter. The apostle said, for me to live
is Christ, so that I might be found in him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, and that which is by faith
in Christ. It's a blessed thing where we
see so clearly what our righteousness is, what Christ is, and that
he has imputed that to us that believe, and that he has put
away our sins upon Calvary, and all is settled and is done. He
has passed by us, bid us live, quickened us, made us alive,
shown us the secret of the Lord. If we follow on to know the Lord,
dear friends, may we labour for that blessing, not just wishfully
think, well, I want it, or Think, well, it's all right, others
have got it, but not me. But labour for it. Have we? Do we labour for the blessing? Now Hannah was able to say concerning
Samuel, for this child I prayed. It's a blessing if we can say,
for this blessing I laboured. I sought the Lord and he heard
me. This poor man cried and the Lord
heard him and delivered him out of all his troubles. There are
those that labour, crying to the Lord, crying for deliverance. Well thirdly, what is the alternative? In our text we read, let us labour
therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief. What is that example? Well, as
the children of Israel went through the wilderness, there were those
that perished in the wilderness. There were those that perished
actually right at the border of Canaan. the ten spies that
brought out an evil report, those that were going to stone Moses
and Joshua and Caleb, those who limited the Holy One of Israel,
those who said He's God among us, those who murmured, complained,
those who were bitten with the serpents and did not look to
the brazen serpent. There are those that fell in
the wilderness and we are told here in the end of chapter three,
to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest but to
them that believed not. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. That should really spur us to
labour because There's no middle way. There's either believing
or unbelieving. There's either entering into
rest or there's perishing in the wilderness. And that is what is set before
us here. Lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. May we never, never nurture unbelief. May we never think of it actually
as a praiseworthy grace. May we never think it is humility
to actually deny the work of God in our heart, deny what He
has done for us, that may we magnify what He has done, be
encouraged in the least, in the smallest thing. Where we have
tasted the grace of God, the help of God, may we latch hold
of it, plead it before His throne, be encouraged in it. Why would
we be put to shame by the servants of Ben-Hadad when they were put
to the worst Syria was before Israel, and wicked Ahab was the
king of Israel, but they said, we have heard that the kings
of Israel are merciful kings. And so those servants, they came
and they humbled themselves before Ahab. And they said, thy servant Ben-Hadad. And Ahab
said, Ben-Hadad, he is my brother. And they immediately caught at
it. Here was something that they had heard that gave them hope. It was a relationship. And they
managed to get the freedom of Ben-Hadad. Well, Ahab had to
pay with his life because he let that man go without the shedding
of blood. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
shed his precious blood. He's redeemed his dear people.
And when he gives them those tokens, when he opens their heart
and opens their eyes and blesses the word and opens their ears,
then those are true tokens. Give me a true token. That was what Rahab said to the
spies. What if it wasn't a true spoke
token? She'd be destroyed with the rest
of Jericho. What did they give her? They
remembered. What was it that saved them in
Egypt? The blood. When I see the blood,
they looked at the cord that used to let them down through
the window. What color was it? Scarlet. Ah, that's the sign. You hang that. You hang that
in the window. That's the sign. We'll see it. And God saw it, God honoured
it, that part of the wall didn't fall down. There is only two alternatives. There's either heaven or hell.
There's either believing or unbelieving. There's either a rest in Christ
or to perish in the wilderness through unbelief. They would
not discourage any, any humble, Believe us, any little faiths,
but greatly encourage that you labour to enter into that full
rest, full assurance and comfort and joy of the Lord. That this word has encouragement
for your soul. Yes, all the oppositions, all
of those things that you labour against, and you say it is a
labour, But you know, every time one has been blessed in that
way, it is worth it. It's precious to enter into that
rest, such peace, such joy, such relief. All of the legalistic
labour, slavish labour and fears is gone. The Lord settles the
matter. He is my Lord, my God, the Lord
is my shepherd. Let us labour therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. The Lord bless us with that labour,
with that aim and desire, for the fullness of the blessing
of our belief in Christ that drives away all our fears and
all our doubts. The Lord bless the word, amen.