But it's good to be back with you. It really is. Always, when Debbie and I come up to visit, we have the blessing of visiting our grandsons and in-laws and acquaintances, but the special blessing of coming here to worship and hear Brother Jim preach. Our folks down at Eager Avenue, we love to hear you preach.

And quite often we watch the the TV, what is it called? Internet, whatever it is. But no, I'm doing pretty good. I'm trying to just get by these problems, but that's okay. This is the providence of God, and we'll take what comes. It's for His glory and our good. Sometimes we don't see the good of it, but it's there, and God will bless us.

Tonight, I want to talk to you, as I told a couple of the men back in the study or outside the study, that I'm going to preach on something that you all have already heard, and that you all love to hear, and that you all won't mind hearing again, because you love it. And I'll tell you why you love it. Because it's exalting to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So I'm going to talk about the Sabbath. What our Sabbath really is, I've entitled the message, Our Eternal Rest. Our Eternal Rest. And he starts off in the book of Hebrews here, chapter four, let us therefore fear, verse one, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest. And whose rest is he talking about? Well, you know he's talking about the rest that our Savior occupied himself with after he finished his work. And the Bible says that after he finished his work, he ascended into the Father, and he did what? He sat down. He sat down, he rested because the work was done. And that's what we're gonna talk about in the Sabbath.

But you know, it's amazing how many people who claim to believe the Bible, and of course we know there are multitudes who claim to believe the Bible, but they don't know the Bible. They don't know Christ, who is all in all. Christ is all. In this book, from Genesis to Revelation, nothing excluded. And they don't know Christ.

But it's amazing how, even in the simple study of words on a page, how many people are ignorant concerning the Sabbath, or what people call the Christian Sabbath. Now, you know most people today, beyond the pale of where the gospel is preached, they'll tell you that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. It is not the Christian Sabbath. Sunday, we'll say it's the Lord's Day. It's a day that providentially God has enabled us to set aside to meet with the people of God and worship corporately under the preaching of the gospel. And we should be there. We should be here with the people of God on Sunday. But every day's the Lord's Day.

And in fact, I had a Seventh-day Adventist ask me several questions about it. You know, the first question he asked me one time, he said, where in the Bible did God change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? And I said, well, he didn't. God never changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. And he was shocked because most of these Baptist pastors around there, he told me, he said they try to answer him and they trip over their own tongues. Because it's not in the Bible. that the Sabbath was changed.

Now, under the Old Covenant, there was a Sabbath, and it was very important. And it's very important to us, too, the Sabbath that we keep. But I just wanna read before I get into this real heavy. I wanna read you a passage from Exodus 31. The Sabbath, under the Old Covenant, there wasn't just one day a week Sabbath. There were Sabbath weeks, there were Sabbath years, In fact, you know, there was a Sabbath of the land. They were to let the land rest from cultivation every seven years. And up into the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah, they failed to do that, which indicated unbelief, not following God's commands. And that's one of the reasons most scholars say that he sent them into captivity in Babylon for 70 years, because they failed to keep that land Sabbath, as well as others.

In Exodus chapter 31, verse 12, it says, And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths, there's the plural, my sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. That's how important it was. And if you go down and read the rest of it, It talks about how those who fail to keep the Sabbath are under the penalty of death. In other words, it was a necessity.

But what has happened now? Go back to Hebrews 4, our text. He says in verse 9, he says, there remaineth therefore a rest, and that word rest there is a Sabbath, keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God. And who are the people of God? Well, that's His elect. That's those who are justified through the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God. They're His children redeemed by the blood of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, converted to the gospel truth that leads us to Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith. And that truth that bolsters our assurance

The assurance we get from understanding the truth of what we might call the Christian Sabbath is so important because it, as I said, bolsters our assurance, but it also provides the right motive, a godly motive for obedience. The only right motive for obedience, godliness, is grace and gratitude and love. It's not law. It's not legalism. You're not a mercenary, you see. You're a bondservant of Christ, serving him because of his glory. All of that. And so the Sabbath is one of those great truths of God's grace that establishes that in our hearts. A heart established with grace. Isn't that beautiful? There remaineth therefore a rest.

The fellow I was telling you about, he asked me, he said, do you keep the Sabbath? I said, every day. Every day I keep the Sabbath. And he said, every day? And he said, what day you keep it? Well, I told him the Sabbath is not a day. It was, under the old covenant, that was one of those Sabbaths, plural, that there was a year, there was weeks, all of that. But the Sabbath is not a day. The Sabbath is Christ, our Savior, who finished the work and rested. And it's not because he got tired. I know he did get tired in his humanity, all of that. But that's not what that means when it says he sat down at the right hand of the Father. He didn't sit down because he was tired. He sat down because he finished the work of redemption. And he did it, listen to this, he did it as the representative of his people, he did it as the surety of his people, he did it as the substitute of his people, he did it as the redeemer of his people, and now he's doing it as the preserver of his people. And that's all. There's nothing else to add to it.

So what is this rest? It's the finished work of Christ. as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people whom God gave him before the world began. And I love that passage in 2 Timothy 1, which talks about how God, when he chose us, he gave us a salvation in Christ before the world ever began. Now, how do we know this? Well, let me give you these thoughts.

First of all, in the first three verses of this, let us therefore fear lest a promise be left to us of entering into His rest. Now you see that? It says His rest. Now somebody may say, well, now we need to rest from our labors, and we do. But that won't save us. His rest is our salvation. That's a possessive. Entering into Christ's rest. We enter into his rest, and we do cease from our labors, which simply means we stop trying to save ourselves by our works. And we put those works on the dung heap of false religion and cling to Christ. But it's his work.

Any of you should seem to come short of it. Don't come short of it. What does that mean? Paul wrote it this way in 2 Timothy. He said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Now, what have I committed unto him against that day? My whole salvation and eternal well-being. All of it. Christ is all. All of it, not part of it. If part of it is on you, you'll come short of it.

Resting in Christ. For unto us was the gospel preached." That's the same gospel that we preach today. Moses preached the gospel. Christ said Moses wrote of him. The prophets preached the gospel. They looked forward to the Messiah who was to come. Jeremiah called him twice, the Lord our righteousness. What righteousness is he talking about? The finished work of Christ and his obedience unto death as the substitute, the redeemer, surety of his people. And so that gospel was preached unto us as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Now where do you get that faith? It's God-given. For by grace are you saved, through faith, in that note of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

So he says, verse three, for we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

In the mind and the purpose and plan of God, the work was already done, wasn't it? I preached the message not too long ago called Eternity in Time. And you know, I've heard you talk about this, Jim. You know, we really don't have a language to describe eternity. I mean, everything we say is either in past tense, present tense, or future tense. That's not eternity. Eternity has no tense. There's a tense, a verb tense in the ancient Greek. And it's said to be the closest thing we have to describe eternity. And it's always translated in the New Testament in past tense with an E-D. We can't describe it. Just like you said, old eternity. And we're coming into new eternity. But we don't have a tense for it. This is of God.

And you might say, well, I just want to understand God. Well, my friend, the only thing we can understand is the understanding he gives us in his word. And beyond that, we can't go any further. But this is what it is. Everything in God's mind and purpose, like the justification of sinners. You know, when I talk about eternal justification and justification from eternity, you know what really convinced me of that more than anything else? Just a simple sentence out of Romans 8, I believe it's verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And you know what? God doesn't change his mind. There's no point in time that God sat down and said, I think today I'll choose Jim Byrd and save him. You've always been in the mind of God. There never was a time you weren't in the mind of God. Now chew on that for a while.

But that's the God we worship, folks. He's so high above us, we can't even begin to get started to describe Him, to put Him in our little understandings in the vastness of eternity. The works were finished from the foundation of the world. And there are works in time that God, He created the world in time. Man fell in time according to the purpose of God. Salvation's older than the fall. And so, all of the history of Abraham and the Israelites and all of that coming through, that all occurred in time. And then the Lord Jesus Christ, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. God sent forth his son, that's his deity, made of a woman, that's his humanity, made under the law, that's all of our salvation, conditioned on his law-keeping, his obedience unto death, that he might redeem us. Redemption took place in time, in his obedience unto death on the cross. He was resurrected three days after that. He ascended unto the Father, he sat down, at the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for us. And He's doing that right now for His people.

And so we rest in Him who came in time and finished the work. He said, it is finished. Daniel predicted it in Daniel 9. He's gonna finish the transgression, make an end of sin, establish righteousness, all of that. And it all occurred in time. The eternal, what God purposed before time, has its fulfillment in time. And there's a time when it pleased God that he brings his sheep, lost in their sins, into the fold, from darkness to light. And, you know, of course, a lot of people, you know, they get hung up on that. Well, what day were you born again? Well, I don't know what day I was born again. I just know I was born again. And how do you know that? Because today I'm looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. I rest in his blood for the forgiveness of all my sins. That's a finished work. You read it this morning, Hebrews chapter one. When he purged our sins, that means they're cleansed. There's nothing more to do as far as purging us from our sin. Yes, we're to fight sin. Yes, we're to be engaged in the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. But the detriment of sin, the condemnation of sin is totally, totally, totally removed. How? By the finished work of Christ. Righteousness is established. Righteousness, the perfection of the law in its in its precept and penalty, which can only be found in Christ and His finished work." Can't be found anywhere else. You can start today and say, now I'm going to begin today, I'm going to be the best person I could ever be. And you may succeed, but you still will fall short of that perfection. Because that's based on a finished work. And that's what our Sabbath is. It's based on a finished work.

He says in verse 4, Hebrews, for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this watch. Now, what he does here, he uses two illustrations to show what this rest is. Here's the first one is God's rest after creation. He says, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Now, God did the work of creation, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through Christ. Without him was nothing made that was made. And then he rested, not because he got tired, because the work was finished. And that established the idea of a Sabbath, resting in the finished work of God.

And then verse 5 says, and in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest. Now he comes to the rest of the promised land of the Israelites who wandered from Egypt And you remember how they came up on the brink of the promised land, and they sent spies over. And you came back with a majority report and a minority report. The majority report says, hey, we can't take this land. Those guys over there, they're giants. I mean, it's a land flown with milk and honey, but we just can't do it. Well, the problem with that is God never told them to do it. He didn't say, I'm gonna bring you to a land and then if you can muster up enough strength and weapons, you can go over and conquer it. No, it was always conditioned on God and His word. They weren't trusting God except for two men, Joshua and Caleb, who represented Christ and His faithful. That's what that's about.

And so he says, he says here, and in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter in. Somebody's gonna enter in. And we see later on that the next generation did enter into that land. But think about this in terms of salvation for God's spiritual people. Some must enter, all of them must enter in. Not everybody's going to enter in because of unbelief. That's talking about the natural man who receives not the things of the Spirit of God. He won't enter into that rest because that rest isn't good enough for him. He's got to add his work, his labor. I got to work my way. You mean we don't have to do anything? Won't receive the things of the Spirit. But some must enter in. Who's that? That's God's elect to whom he chose. and redeem, justify, and to whom He gives faith to enter in therein.

And they to whom it was first preached enter not in because of unbelief." That's spoken back in Hebrews chapter 3, how that first generation believed not. Verse 19 up there says, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. And you know it's interesting when you read about that. Think about all the great, miraculous things that generation saw. I mean, they saw the plagues of Egypt. They saw thousands of them coming out of Egypt. They saw the parting of the Red Sea. Don't you love that passage in Exodus 14? Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. That's beautiful. And then, when they They saw people perish for worshiping a golden calf. And then they saw things in the wilderness, Moses striking the rock and bringing water out of the rock, all those things. All those things that they still didn't believe. And that just shows you the extent of man's depravity. You want to see the extent of man's depravity, just tell him the truth. of Christ and salvation conditioned on Him and His blood and righteousness and see how they react. You can give them a bottle of liquor. You can give them a drug or whatever. You'll see sin if they take it, but that's not the extent of depravity. Preach the gospel to them. How do they respond to the gospel? They believe none. That's depravity right there.

So there they are. Some must enter in, and they to whom it was first preached to enter not in because of unbelief. Verse seven, again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, today, after so long a time, as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Oh, Lord, take away this stony heart out of my life and give me a heart of grace.

That's what he does in the new birth. He gives us a new heart, a new mind, new affections, new will, new way of thinking, new way of acting, all of that, a new life.

And then he says in verse eight, for if Jesus, now you know as well as I that Jesus there is not talking about our Lord, that's talking about Joshua. Jesus is the New Testament or the Greek way of saying Joshua or Yeshua. Well, Joshua, you know how he came back and he led them over into the promised land. And that was called a rest. It was typically a rest. They went over there, their wanderings were over, and they made their home in the promised land and they rested. So if Joshua had given them rest eternally or spiritually, that's what he's saying, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

Now what day did he speak of? Of an eternal spiritual rest, the day of Christ, the day of the Messiah. So, verse nine, do we keep a Sabbath? Is there a Christian Sabbath, you might say it that way? Well yes, there remaineth therefore a sabbath to the people of God. Well what exactly is that? Look at it, verse 10. For he that is entered into his rest, the sinner who's been brought to by God, by God-given faith in the new birth to enter into Christ rest. All right, He also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Christ ceased from his work just like God did from his in creation. It's finished, he said. It's finished.

And so he says in verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Now think about that. Does that mean we're to work for our salvation? Oh, no. No. That labor there is the labor of grace. And why is it such a labor? Let me give you these things and I'll quit. Just a couple of things here. It's not salvation by our works and efforts, because that would be opposed to the gospel. Not of works. But it's to endeavor and to be diligent and zealous and exert ourselves to make haste. It's an urgent matter. And not put off to cling to Christ. And that's a labor. It's not salvation by works. The seriousness of this is life and death. So we labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

What did Christ say? He said, come unto me, all ye that labor, all ye who are weary, and I'll what? I'll give you rest. Give it to you. You don't have to earn it, you can't earn it. All you can do is receive it by the grace of God. And when you enter into His rest, think about it. It's His power, it's His goodness, it's a labor that God gives us and brings us to salvation, not by works, but in salvation by God's grace. And it's a labor because by nature we don't want it, And he gives us a heart to want it.

I had a fellow ask me one time, he said, are you telling me that God brings people to Christ against their will? And I said, no, I'm telling you that God changes their will. And I said, that's something you and I cannot do. I can't change your will, God can. He makes his people willing in the day of his power. And that's why Christ told him in John 6, 27, he said, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed." And why did He seal Him? Because He finished the work. The work of putting away our sins. The work of establishing righteousness whereby we're justified and God is just to justify us. He sends His Spirit to bring us to cease from our labors and rest in Christ. And Christ is our Sabbath.

Now that's the foundation of our assurance and the motivation of our obedience, serving the Lord as we rest in Christ. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts.