Well, let's turn to the portion we've just read, turning again then to the part of Scripture that we were considering last Thursday evening, here in the opening verses of this fourth chapter in the epistle to the Hebrews. I'll read then from verse 1 through to the beginning of verse 3, the text we were considering last week. Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any view should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest."

He sought to say something then concerning what he's referred to in the opening sentence as his rest, gospel rest, that was the theme that we began to consider a little last Thursday evening. So returning to this passage once more, I said on that occasion that we would simply consider what this present rest in the gospel is, And amongst other things we considered how it is really the fulfillment of all the Old Testament rests that have gone before.

And of course, there are those two principal rests that we read of, God's rest after His great work of creation. And that is spoken of here in verse 4, He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise And God did rest the seventh day from all his works, and as God rested on that day, so we're told how God ordained and instituted the day of rest. It's a creation ordinance. We have the account in Genesis 2, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them, and on the seventh day God rested from all his works which he had made.

No more any creation, that work was finished, but God of course is ever active in the realm of providence and also in the realm of grace, but there was a rest from the work of creation. It wasn't something that was continuing through millennium, which those who would speak of God creating as it were by evolution, it's an utter nonsense. God completed the work, he could have completed it, Surely in one moment of time he could have simply spoken everything into being at once, but God in his wisdom worked over six days and then instituted the Sabbath day. And so when we come to the commandments, the fourth commandment concerns the keeping of a day of rest. Remember the Sabbath day. to keep it holy. It goes back to what God did at the beginning in creation. And so we were trying to emphasize the fact that when we think of the gospel it's the fulfillment really of that great rest, the rest of God after creation.

But also there's another rest that we have mentioned in the Old Testament and that is the rest that God's ancient covenant people were to enter into in Canaan, the promised land. And surely that is also spoken of in the context we read last time at the end of chapter 3 And remember the final verses there, verse 17 following, With whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? That generation that came out of Egypt, but were full of unbelief when the spies came back with their evil report. And verse 18, to whom sweary 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. There was a rest for them to enter into as they came into the possession of that land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But it was unbelief that prevented their entering in and so a generation were to fall in the wilderness during the 40 years of wanderings. And it's interesting because when the Ten Commandments are recounted in Deuteronomy chapter 5 we see that the deliverance from Egypt was also something that the Israelites were to remember when they kept the Sabbath

those who entered into the possession of the land they were not only to remember what God had done in creation but also what God had done in their deliverance from Egypt and so in that sense the promised land directs us, points us to gospel rest. As it says in verse 8, if Jesus, that is Joshua in the Old Testament that's been spoken of, if Joshua had given them rest, then we did not afterward have spoken of another day. There was another day, another work, another great work of deliverance that God would accomplish in the fullness of the time.

And so, besides speaking of the fulfillment of all those Old Testament rests when we come to the New Testament and the Gospel, we also try to say something last time with regards to the fullness, the fullness of that rest that we have in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember how In creation we see quite clearly that man stands at the pinnacle of all God's great work of creation. It's not till the sixth day that man is made. And so different the creation of man to that of the rest of God's creatures, rest of creation. Whereas God had simply created by fear, simply speaking, he spake and it was done, he commanded, he stood fast, but now we have that consultation in the Godhead, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. Man is to be God's image bearer and he is a final part of that great work. And then God rest, God rest in now in his creation and pronounce it all to be very good.

But Adam fell. Genesis 3, the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, they're dead, in sin they're lost. But then we come to the Gospel, and when we come to the Gospel we find God resting in another man. There's another man. There's a second man, there's a last Adam. Remember how Paul speaks of these things in 1 Corinthians 15. The first man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam is made a quickening spirit. Adam is a type of Christ. There was another Adam to come. Though God will rest in that man, Here God, in a sense, can rest forever in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Zephaniah 3.17, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee will save. He will rest in his love forever. And so when we come to the Gospel and that wondrous rest that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, we see God delighting in him this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased he says at the baptism of Christ as Christ begins that public ministry and the heavens open the spirit descends in the form of a dove and the father speaks those words this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased or this man No man like this man. Then again, in the Mount of Transfiguration, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. It's in Him that we have the Gospel then. And what does Christ say?

Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. and my burden is light.

And so we thought of that fullness, the fullness of rest that we have when we're trusting in Christ, when our faith rests in Him and only in Him. But I said that we would go on, last week I said we'd go on to look at the parts of this rest And we'd finish then with the paradox of it. That's what I want to turn to this evening.

First of all, the parts of gospel rest. And what are the parts? Well, there are two parts that we have to experience before we really come into the experience of this rest, and that is faith and repentance. faith and repentance. We have the ministry of the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. What is the message of John? Well, when we read of his preaching there in Matthew 2, his message was, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He is preparing a way. for the coming of the Messiah. And that's the message that he proclaims, repentance.

And then when the Lord Jesus begins his ministry, after that John was put into prison, we're told how Jesus comes into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled. Repent ye and believe the gospel. and so that's the message that Christ is preaching repentance and faith and that's the message of course of the Apostles in the Acts as we read through the Acts of the Apostles and when Paul is giving charge to the Ephesian elders there in the 20th chapter of the Acts and he reminds them of his own ministry testifying both to the Jews, he says, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance and faith. These are the parts then of Gospel rest. Repentance. Now what is repentance? In a sense, it is rest in the idea of a cessation. if God's rest at the beginning is a rest from the work of creation, the Sabbath rest, so with repentance there's a cessation, a cessation from sinful works, a turning from sinful works. You know that the basic meaning of this word that we have throughout the New Testament, to repent, the verb to repent, It has that idea, really, of a change of mind. It's those two words brought together to change the mind, as it were. But it's so fundamental, a change, that the person who repents, his life is now turned around. His life is turned upside down, his life is turned inside out. He turns from sin. He turns to God. It's such a fundamental change, really. There's a cessation now from the life of sin.

And this is the message that the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching, as with the Baptists before him, as with the Apostles after him. Repentance towards God. But Christ didn't only preach, or doesn't only preach repentance, He is the one who also gives it, He is the author of it. As we read in Acts 5.31, Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. We only know the forgiveness of sins as we know that grace of repentance. And what is this repentance? Well, it's born of a godly sorrow. There's the conviction of sin, there's the compunction of conscience. The apostle again, St. Quentin 710, godly sorrow worketh repentance of salvation, not to be repented of. The sorrow of the world worketh death.

this repentance then we're to see it as an evangelical grace evangelical repentance it's not legal we often sing those lines of Joseph Hart law and terrors do but harden all the while they work alone but a sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves the heart of stone the heart must be dissolved the heart must be broken A contrite spirit is broken and a contrite heart God does not despise. There's a difference, isn't there, between that self-centered remorse that we see in Esau, spoken of there in Hebrews 2, verses 15, 16, and 17, Repentance that only centers in self and that repentance that really centers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The sense of blood-bought pardon. That's the evangelical repentance that we all stand in need of. And of course it goes hand in hand with faith. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Faith must always have the priority. The faith and repentance are together, yes. but there must be that sense in which faith has the principal place. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

But what is faith? Well, if repentance is the cessation of works, sinful works, faith is the cessation from our own imagined good works having any place in our justification. What do we read here at verse 10? He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. If we're entering into this rest by faith, we're ceasing from our own works in every sense of the word. It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone.

Remember the the preaching of the Lord Jesus himself, or the ministry we might say, not so much a sermon, but the Lord's dealing there in John 9 with the man who was born blind. And the Lord wondrously restores his sight and then the man is cast out of the synagogue, excommunicated from Israel as it were. But we are told, aren't we, at the end of that ninth chapter, how the Lord deals with the man. Verse 35, in John 9, Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. and he said Lord I believe and he worshipped him

or does thou believe on the Son of God how that question comes to each and every one of us are we those who believe Peter's confession thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God if we but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that's salvation that's all our salvation It's in the Lord Jesus Christ and only in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's interesting, isn't it? There's what God says in relation to that fourth commandment in Exodus 35-3. The Lord says, Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitation upon the Sabbath day. They were not to kindle a fire. They were not to kindle a fire. Now, I think in some ways there's a gospel lesson, a gospel application there. I think in terms of Isaiah 50 and verse 11 and what's said there to those who would kindle a fire as it were. Behold all ye that kindle a fire that accomplish yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled, this shall ye have at mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow."

If we think we can kindle our own fire and make ourselves Christians, in any sense, it's an impossibility. Our good works, whatever we might think of them, our good works cannot save us. And yet, if we're honest, we know how hard it is to deny righteous self. How often we want to justify ourselves in our lives. We do it time and again. We want to be in the right, we want to be those who are right and others are wrong, and so forth. I think I've told the tale before, probably more than once, but that man James Hervey who was one of those in the Church of England back in the 18th century, the time of that great evangelical revival and he was a great advocate of justification by faith and was in controversy very much with a man like John Wesley and Wesley's Arminianism really and Hervey didn't have the best of health, he was a Church of England minister, he was incumbent at Western Favel, somewhere in Northamptonshire.

But he used to try to get out into the fresh air, he liked to go out into the fields, he liked to follow the plough and to breathe in the air after the ploughman had been about his task. And he was familiar with the ploughman, who was a member at the independent church in Northampton. I can't remember the name of the minister there now but Philip Doddridge, Philip Doddridge was the minister in Northampton and this ploughman didn't go to the parish church he went to the independent chapel and heard Doddridge

Doddridge wrote a good number of hymns himself of course and he knew this was a godly ploughman and Harvey would seek to enter into conversation with him as he walked beside him and profitable conversation on spiritual matters, and he would ask the man questions. And he asked him on one occasion, what would you say is the hardest thing in the life of the Christian? And the man was very conscious, of course, of himself, as was Hervey, and his continual warfare with the old nature, his battle with sin.

But the old ploughman was a wise man, and he says to Hervey, well, you're the clergyman, you tell me, you tell me, what is the hardest thing in the life of a Christian? And Dodgidge was ready with an answer. He said, well, it's the denial of self, isn't it? It's the denial of sinful self. We have a wicked world around us, we have a great adversary in Satan, but who has self? how hard it is to deny sinful self.

But then the ploughman came back and said, there's something I find so much harder than that. And Harvey asked, what could that be? He said, the denial of righteous self. The denial of righteous self. It was a lesson that Harvey learned, and learned it well. He saw that there's no other righteousness really for the sinner except that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What of good works? I'm not saying there's no place for good works. We know that good works are the fruit of faith. If there is faith, saving faith, by their fruit ye shall know them. Paul speaks of the Galatians of faith which worketh. faith which worketh by love he says to the Ephesians by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works again to the Philippians work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure

It is a place of works. It made me think, and I thought of the 39 articles of the Church of England, the Reformed Church of England, I should say. I mean, I suppose, I wonder if there's anyone who believes these articles anymore in the established church, but there are articles on the matter of works, and I want to read just a brief extract.

13th, of works before justification. This is what the Church of England says is its doctrine. Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not to faith in Jesus Christ. Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit are not pleasant to God

In other words, there can be no good works before there is grace in the soul of any man and the work of the Spirit in his soul. And then, the previous article, 12, of good works says, albeit the good works which are the fruit of faith and follow after justification cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgment, yet they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith."

So there are good works and good works that follow saving faith. Of course we We dealt with this in some measure last Lord's Day when we were looking at those words at the end of James chapter 2 and considered something of the faith of Rahab the harlot.

The whole passage there from verse 20 to the end of that second chapter where James is speaking of the works that justify the faith as it were, the work that shows that the faith is a genuine faith. He says in verse 20, Wilt thou know, O valiant man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abram our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? and the scripture was fulfilled which said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called a friend of God.

He would do what God commanded, he would obey the commandment of God, that was a good work, the act of faith. You see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

All there is that place in for works because by their fruits. that work is the fruit of faith. And clearly enough there, the works of Abraham, his willingness to obey God and the command to offer the sun, to kill the sun, contrary to God's commandment, they shall not kill, they shall do no murder. And as I said, the faith of the harlot Rahab, how she transgressed the 9th commandment no falsehood, you see, but she she lied was in obedience to what the commandment says thou shalt not bear false witness it was contrary to that, she did bear false witness and yet in that very act we see the reality of her faith the parts then, the parts of gospel rest, there will be that true saving faith, that justifying faith, that is looking only to the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be also that real evangelical repentance, that sorrowing over sin in a godly manner.

And then just briefly, the paradox, the paradox of gospel rest, and there is a paradox here, How do we enter into this rest? Well, we're not to come short. We're told to strive and we're told to labour. Here at the beginning of the chapter, let us therefore feel as the promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you seem to come short of it. We're not to come short. verse 11 he says let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief there's a there's a laboring there's a striving the Lord Jesus strived to enter in at the straight gate for I say unto you many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able oh there's a striving the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence is Christ The violent take it by force. There is to be all this activity in the soul of the sinner, surely that's what it's speaking of, all that seeking, all that crying, all that calling.

And yet, and yet, what does the Psalmist say? Psalm 27, 14, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, He shall strengthen thine heart, wait, I say, on the Lord. Let us not think that that waiting is sloth and passivity and inactivity. That's not waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is holy activity. There's all that crying, all that calling, all that seeking. There's the paradox. We have to strive to enter in.

And then, once we're in the gospel world, how the paradox continues. We're resting in the Lord Jesus Christ and all our salvation is there in the Lord Jesus Christ and yet, we sometimes sing the words of the hymn concerning the believer when his pardon is signed and his peace is procured. From that moment his conflict begins. Oh, we know a conflict in the way of faith. The flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these contrary one to the other, says Paul, and you cannot do the thing that you would. Oh, there's a battle there, and there's a conflict.

What does it say there in the previous third chapter? In verse 14, we are made partakers of Christ. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, we have to hold on, hold on to Christ tenaciously. We have to know that salvation day by day, moment by moment, that's only in Christ. We have to fight the good fight of faith. We have to lay hold on eternal life. That's the way of the Christian. We have to deny self and take up our cross, and we have to follow the Lord Jesus.

Well, let us therefore fear, lest the promised being left us of entering into his rest, and if you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest."

May the Lord bless this word to us. Amen.

Let us worship God as we sing our second praise. Hymn 639, the tune is Hanover, 807.

Return to thy rest, my soul, and rejoice.
Let Christ be thy boast, for thou art his choice.
And though sin and Satan and their hellish guest
do vex and dishearten,
Jehovah's thy rest.

The hymn 639, tune 807.