Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Hebrews chapter 4 and reading
from our text, verse 2. Verse 2. This verse really is
an explanation of what is said before us in verse 1. Verse two,
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. Hebrews four, verse two. And the exhortation in verse
one is that we should fear lest a promise being left us of entering
into his rest Any of you should seem to come short of him. And it is then an explanation
in our text that the children of Israel that were going through
the wilderness, that as well as the gospel preached to them,
it was preached to us. we might think, well, would it
not be put in the other way around? That it be a stated fact that
the gospel is preached to us, but it was also preached to them. But no, it is put in the order
as it should. The gospel was preached to the
children of Israel. The Gospel was preached to Abraham. Abraham saw Christ's day and
rejoiced at it. The good news of salvation has
been right from the first promise in the Garden of Eden, right
from the fall. The good news of salvation is
the reason why those that were saved were saved. They believed
that. That is why Abel is numbered
amongst those who, by faith, he offered a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain. He saw and believed the blood
sacrifice, the blood that was needed to be shed, that the law
might be satisfied without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission, and that sin might be put away in the way that God
had ordained it should. And so there is a gathering together
of the Old Testament signs and New Testament signs, and that
which is gone before us in the old, the reason why they did
not profit under the preached word is to be a warning to us
because the very same reasons are with us as well. We are not to say, well, because
they had it into the types and the shadows of the Old Testament
and we have it in the clear line of the New Testament, then those
warnings don't apply to us. They do apply to us and it is
very clearly set before us here in this passage. And so what
is upon my spirit is profiting from the word, or we might say
is put in the words of the text as to why, the reasons why we
will not profit from the word. And so, with the Lord's help,
I want to look firstly at the source of profit that is set
before us here, and that is the word preached. Our text says,
for unto us was the gospel preached, and then the word preached did
not profit them. So it's the gospel preached,
the word preached is the source of profit. And then secondly,
the profit that is to be expected. What is the profit that should
be expected through the preached word? And that is abundant in
these passages here, and really summed in that word entering
into rest. And we look at that in more detail
under the second heading. But then thirdly, the reason
for the word not profit in them that heard it. We read in our
text, 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. Faith was not mixed with
it, and we'll look at those reasons as to how that faith is seen. not to be mixed with the word. But firstly, the source of prophet
which is set before us as the gospel preached or the word preached. It's good for us to really have
this again rehearsed before us. Now the apostle is very clear
when he writes to the Corinthians that it hath pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. In other words, that those that
believe, they believe through the preaching of the word. The preaching is the authoritative
declaration of the word of God. The gospel preached is the good
news of salvation. It is contrasted with the law
the law comes in a very different message than what the gospel
does. That is very evident as set before
us in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, where we have a comparison of
the law of God as being in verse 18 of Hebrews 12, that it is
like the mount, Mount Sinai, that might be touched, that burned
with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and
the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they
that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to
them any more." And it is very dramatic, a picture that is set
before us. They could not endure that which
was commanded. If so much as a beast touch the
mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
So terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear
and quake." And this is the picture of the holy law of God in all
its severity, in all the condemnation. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. By the law shall no man living
be justified. That is the law. The gospel is
different. And so we have in verse 22 of
Hebrews 12, but ye are come unto Mount Sinai, unto the city of
the living God, unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable
company of angels. And it points then to heaven,
it points to the rest that God has provided, and it points to
Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, the New Testament,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. Abel's blood that was shed by
his brother, that could never redeem a soul because it was
a sinner's blood. But the blood of Jesus is the
sinless blood of the Lamb of God, the spotless, pure Lamb
of God. What a contrast you have right
at the very beginning there. And the promise, see, to the
woman that she'd bruised the serpent's head, able seeing the
need of shedding her blood, his blood is shed, but God says,
no, cannot be that, cannot be the blood of a sinner that should
even redeem his own soul. It must be the blood of a spotless
lamb. And that was so reinforced right
the way through the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ, not a
sinner, made in the likeness of sinful man, made the seed
of Abraham, but not partaking of that sin. There was no cause
of death in him at all. And so the gospel that is preached
is a good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a message that is to be
proclaimed and is to be declared right through the world. My mind
is going to the Deuteronomy and the messages that were given
there and how that the tables there were broken in Deuteronomy
10 but then restored in the Lord Jesus Christ and Moses rehearsed
the matter before them that they had asked that there should not
be that word spoken to them anymore. And the Lord has said, no it
wouldn't, that there would be another provision. There would
be a provision in the gospel and the Lord would fulfil that
law and the Lord would do what the law could not do in that
it was weak through the flesh. And it is then the that word
is to be preached and it was preached in the wilderness. It
was preached especially through the types and the shadows of
the sacrifices, but it was preached through the word of Moses. Moses
saying, a prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto you like
unto your brethren, him shall ye hear. And that is the word
that is set before us here in Hebrews, that it is not the law,
but it is the gospel. It is not that in which men cannot
fulfil and had not fulfilled that was broken in the Garden
of Eden, but is that which is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is this that is the source
of profit, God promising that though he has withheld from men
the ability by their own wisdom to find out God, yet through
preaching he will bring men, women and children to faith in
the Son of God. The opening up of the Word of
God, the showing forth of Christ as the way, the truth and the
life, that is what God has promised. That is the commission go into
all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. It is the commission to his servants
to preach the Word, and the Word is Christ, and the Word is the
Holy Bible. That is why we base the preaching
upon a text of Scripture, and open up the scripture, the same
as our Lord did on the way to Emmaus, the same as Philip did
to the eunuch. It is the word of God that is
opened up, the same as what is being done through the book of
Hebrews here. And so we need to be very clear
on where that source of prophet is. God has given the commission
to preach. It's not man's institution. And also then he is given the
matter to preach, which is, as the apostle says, I determine
to know nothing among you, the Corinthians, save Jesus Christ
and him crucified. It is the Lord Jesus Christ is
to be preached or lifted up. on the pole of the everlasting
gospel. What the Lord Jesus did, he fulfilled
the scriptures, he is the promised seed, he is God's way of salvation,
Jesus of Nazareth is the son of the living God, he is God
and man in one person, Emmanuel, God with us, Now, Lord said,
if you have seen me, you've seen my father also. I and my father
are one. And the Jews, they sought to
kill him because that in their view, and as in their words,
they said that thou, as a man, makest thyself God. But Emmanuel
is God manifest in the flesh, not the other way around. And
so The message is that the Son of God hath come. The Lord has
brought about that salvation he has promised and our minds,
our attention is drawn to all what the Lord did from the time
that he was born to the time that he died and then rose again
from the dead and ascended up into heaven. And all that he
has done there constitutes the gospel. The good news is that
the Lord Jesus Christ has by his own life, perfect life and
obedience, brought out righteousness to give to believers. And that
in doing so as well, he bore witness that he truly was the
sinless one, as the man that was born blind and given sight
testified, if this man were not of God, He could do nothing. He certainly couldn't give a
man sight that had been born blind. The many miracles that
the Lord did bore witness of who he was and that he was indeed
the promised seed of the woman. He was the one that was to come.
He was the one that was to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And so when in the Garden of
Gethsemane, He was pressed down, sore amazed. He had laid on him
the iniquity of us all. In the Old Testament, they laid
their hands upon the head of the sacrifice. They identified
with it. And the sins of the people of
God were to be born in Christ's body on the tree and to bear
those sins away. He was not a sinner. He never became a sinner. but
he bore the sins of his people and he put them away at Calvary. And the seal of that is the empty
tomb, the rising again from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel, the word priest,
is a substitutionary offering, the same as Isaac was taken off
the altar by Abraham and the ram put in his place So it is
that Christ is put in the place of sinners and to suffer in their
place. His sacrifice is a wrath-ending
sacrifice. It takes away the wrath of God
to those that believe on his name. And it is the wrath of
God taken away from those that God gave to him to redeem and
for those that he shed his precious blood for. And this gospel is
to be proclaimed in all the world. And we must make that very clear. It's not a gospel to be proclaimed
to the elect. It is to be proclaimed in all
the world, to all men, and without distinction, is not to be withheld
from any. It is through the preaching of
the word that men are profited and in their profiting it is
shown whose they are and the work of God in calling his people. And perhaps just to confine that
just to this one point in our subject this morning, it is the
profiting under the word that makes known the people of God. They're not shown by any other
revelation, whether they are elect or unelect, whether their
sins are put away or not put away. It is how they profit unto
the preached word in the context of our text here that makes the
distinction and the difference. We have a people pictured that
under the preaching of the word, do not profit, doesn't help them
in any way, is not used for their good in any way. And then we
have a people that it is, and it does work for their good. There is a profit. that comes
through it. So I want in this first point
to be very clear the source of this prophet is the preaching
of the word, is the subject or matter of the preaching, which
is Jesus Christ and him crucified. And we may add a third, that
the source of that prophet is through the power of God. through
the preaching. Paul says to the Thessalonians
that the word came not in, or the gospel came to them not in
word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. And that source then of profit
is not from within ourselves, but is the power of God. So The subject of the gospel
is all what the Lord Jesus Christ is and has done. The preaching
of the gospel is the authoritative declaration of that. And the
power of God is the application or blessing on that word so that
there is profit to those that hear the word. I want to then look secondly at
the profit to be expected, what profit should be expected. And again, I want to confine our thoughts to the context here. We can think of many things that
may be a prophet through the preaching of the word, we may be brought into conviction
of sin, we may be called by God's grace, we may be given direction
and guidance in providence, and especially in spiritual things,
taught and instructed in the word, But I want to confine the thoughts
here to what is so evident, so brought before us here. It doesn't
aim to come short, and you can have those that say that they
have conviction of sin, but they never go further from that, and
really evidence that that feeling and conviction of sin is not
real, it's not deep, because it doesn't bring them to see
what is set before us here, which is a gospel rest. The Apostle Paul said to King
Agrippa, when he said to the Apostle, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian, And it provokes such a, such feeling
with the apostle. He says, I would that thou would
not almost, but altogether, such a one as I am, accept these bonds. He wouldn't wish on him his bonds,
and none of God's people would wish on any, their afflictions
and temptations and those things that they pass through. that
are very painful things, but to be a believer, to be a true
Christian, an altogether Christian, it should be the desire of everyone
that knows the gospel, that they want others to know it as well,
others to receive it and to believe in. If we attained many, many
things in this life, but did not attain unto the rest that
is set before us here, then we have not profited. We've come
very, very close, and we've had some things that are the ingredients
of the blessings, the true blessings of God. We've come, maybe like
the children of Israel, right to the borders of the promised
land, the Canaan, but we have not entered in, we've been turned
back from it. So I want to really highlight
what is being said before us here. In verse 18 of chapter
3, we have, to whom swear he that
they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe
not. And we have then said before
us is this word, enter into his rest. Enter into his rest. Now before we explain more on
this, I just want to highlight how much this phrase, this idea,
this teaching is said before us in this passage. That's in
verse 18 of chapter three. Then we have in chapter 4 verse
1, lest a promise being left us
of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short
of him. So in verse 1, we have the mentioning
of entering into his rest. Then we have in verse 3, For we which have believed to
enter into rest, 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. So in verse three, twice, we
are mentioned of entering into his rest, my rest. Then we have in verse four, and
God did rest this seventh day from all his works. We have an
illustration. And again, it is set forth rest. Then in verse five, if they shall
enter into my rest, and it is A quotation back from the Psalms,
Psalm 95. We have again and again a setting
before us, a rest. Verse 8, if Jesus or Joshua had
given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken another
day? Verse 9, there remaineth therefore
a rest. to the people of God, margin-keeping
of Sabbath. Verse 10, he that is entered
into his rest. Verse 11, let us labour therefore
to enter into that rest. And all the time that has been
set before us is this rest, rest, rest. This is what they didn't enter
into. This is what they did not profit
from. This is the real profit of the
gospel, to enter into rest, a gospel rest. This is what they came short
of. So what is that rest? Let us look at the examples first
of it. Let us think. the right at the
very beginning of the world, before man fell. How was rest
set forth then? The Lord formed the earth in
six days. He spake and it was done. The
word of God was used. The world was formed. And on
the seventh day, God rested from all his works. He hallowed, he
sanctified that day. He did no work on that day. Why? Because the work had already
been done. It was finished. The work was
completed. There was no more work for him
to do. So he rested on that day. And that was given to the children
of Israel. that they should then have the
seventh day as a day of rest. That they also were given six
days that they worked first and then rested upon the seventh. What was their work? What was
the work of the Old Testament? Apart from secular work and everything
that had to be done in a normal way, there is the picture set
before us of all of the sacrifices, all of the work in the temple,
in the tabernacle. If you've read and thought of
what you've read, of the passovers, the daily sacrificing, morning
and evening sacrifices, there is a lot of work in all of the
types, in all of the shadows. And what was said regarding the
veil in the temple, the fact that it was not rent, the fact
that they could only go in once every year and that without blood,
it was signifying that, as yet, that way into the holiest was
not yet made. It was to be made through the
precious blood of Christ, through Christ himself, which was to
be the way and a way consecrated for us through the veil, that
is through the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, it was
not yet made. So they worked and then they
rested. They also had the type and the
type that is said before us here, the children of Israel, they
had a promised land. They didn't just have the wilderness,
they were going to a land of plenty, a land that was already
prepared for them, a land that they would enter into, would
not have to make their vineyards or build their houses, everything
was done. You think of in the creation
again, we have Eden, everything was made and was done, and then
man was put into that finished work to enjoy it. Yes, he had
to dress it, but it was already prepared for him. Then we have
with Canaan, who was already prepared for the children of
Israel. We have what our Lord speaks
of with heaven. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again, receive you unto myself. Heaven is a
prepared place for a prepared people. But then we have the gospel.
The good news of the gospel is also a prepared work, a prepared
rest for the people of God. When our Lord suffered on Calvary,
he fulfilled all of the Old Testament times. The only sacrifice that
this world has ever known is that which the Lord brought out
of Calvary. Not the blood of bulls and of
goats. That is a very clear message
of Hebrews, that the blood of bulls and of goats could never
put away sin. But Christ being come, he has
come, that one sin-atoning sacrifice. And after the Lord had offered
that sacrifice, he declared on Calvary that it is finished. It is finished. The work of redemption
was done. The blood was shed. The types
and the shadows were finished. The work of redemption was finished. He had finished it. He had done
it. He had completed that work. He had paid the debt. He had
made satisfaction for sin. The law of God was fulfilled
in him. The wrath of God was extinguished
in him. And this is the gospel. It is
pointing to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
those that believe in that finished work of Christ, that is to be
proclaimed and preached and set forth, will enter into rest. What is a soul doing that does
not believe it? They're doing just what Paul,
the apostle Paul, saw the Romans were doing in Romans chapter
10. He says, they were ignorant of
God's righteousness. Yes, they had a zeal of God,
they had a form of God, they were diligently trying to work
out a righteousness of their own. That does not look like
rest, does it? In Romans 10 and verse 3, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. That's not a people in rest.
That's a people that's working, diligently working, They're trying
to work out their own righteousness. They're trying to fulfil the
law. They're trying to make themselves
acceptable to God. They're trying to do what Christ
has already done and declared as finished. and they're not
in rest at all. There's no rest for the wicked,
and there's no rest for those that are seeking rest under the
law. Apostle says that the law is
a schoolmaster unto Christ, to bring us unto Christ. And the
law is a hard schoolmaster. And we are to prove that there
will be no rest for our souls under the law. I wonder how many
of us, how many of you are proving that now, that you do not have
rest and peace and comfort and assurance and hope of heaven
in your soul because you are striving, striving to fulfil
that law yourself, striving to be a good Christian, a believer
even, striving to be a fulfiller of the law, striving to be the
master of your own salvation, looking for something that God
will look upon you and say, I approve of that, that's good, you can
go to heaven, looking for something that will recommend you to God.
What a picture we have with our Lord speaking of the two in the
temple, The Pharisee, speaking of all his good works as he viewed
them, but the publican just beating upon his breast, God be merciful
to me a sinner. And it was he that went down
to this house justified rather than the other. He was seeking
mercy from God. He believed God was able to give
mercy. And the mercy that God gives
is a blood-bought mercy from a finished work. that the Lord
Jesus Christ has done. And so the emphasis here on rest
all the way through, and that tied the illustrations of the
Sabbath rest, the illustrations of the rest in the promised land,
the rest of heaven that remains to the people of God, but it
is the rest in these gospel days of seeing the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and believing what the gospel message is, that the
Lord's work is a finished work, a complete work. I can trust
in it entirely, wholly. I'm exhorted to believe in. I
will believe in. I believe the witness, the testimony,
the preaching of God. I look for no other salvation
than this. A soul that is utterly and completely
convinced of the suitability of Christ's work and that he
has done what he has said he has done and of the witness of
God in raising him from the dead. A soul that is brought to believe
that and to rest in that, the quietness, the peace, the satisfaction,
the complete calmness in being able to rest in what Christ has
done. That is a peace that this world
can never afford and no form of religion can ever afford. It is a complete resting in Christ,
a complete believing and resting in all that he has done, saying,
I do not need anything other. I do not need to rest in any
other but that. And that is the gospel rest.
If the word profits us, if the word preached profits us, then
that will bring us to rest solely in Christ. And it will give a peace, a quietness
that none other will do. To see so clearly the gospel
plan and to know that God has revealed that to us and the reason
why he's revealed it to us is because we are in that plan and
that he has died on Calvary's tree for us and he has put away
our sins. by the sacrifice of himself. Man, we were made under the law
and we revert to it again and again and again. The idea that
we can rest in what another has done without any of our works. Remember Paul when he writes
to the Ephesians he says, by grace ye are saved, through faith
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. But all the time we're looking
for works. And this was what with Martin
Luther. The church that he was in, the
Roman church, all the time was works. Something must be done. something performed, something
added to Christ's work. But then when he came to this
17th verse in Romans 1, For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. And the apostle said, for I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. See how clearly he saw the gospel,
not ashamed of it. And Luther said, it's not works,
it's by faith. And so we must come to the third
point here. And our third point was to gave
the reason why the Word did not profit them that heard it. In our text we have set before
us, 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. That's why it did not profit
them. We're told very clearly the reason
it was not mixed with faith, and we just quoted that from
Ephesians, that we are saved by grace through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. God gives grace,
gives faith. The Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews
12 is set forth as the author and finisher of our faith, And
so we know where the Lord gives faith is sovereignly, is freely
given, and where he gives faith, then it will cause a person to
profit under the preaching of the word. If you and I need to
know whether we have faith, saving faith, then we will profit under
the word of God. And so I want to look then at
some of those things that are the reasons why the Word did
not profit. And the first is this, that there
is to be, and using as a basis that beautiful chapter in Hebrews
11, which is speaking of faith, And in verse six, that without
faith it is impossible to please him, he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a reward of them that diligently
seek him. Very often the reason or where
it is evidenced, and that the word will not profit, is because
we do not really believe in God. Not having faith, we do not believe
that he is. There's not the fear of God before
our eyes. And many is evidenced in really
the whole preaching of the word. Many will say, most solemnly
today, yes, they are Christian or they're a believer, but they
undermine the word. They don't believe from Genesis
to Revelation that this is the word of God. If we cannot receive
the word of God, how can we receive the gospel of God? If God tells
that his word is pure and we say it's not, or do not receive
it as the word of God, Paul, he says, of the Thessalonians,
they received the word preached not as the word of man, but as
it is in truth the word of God. And therefore many of them believed.
And so very often the root of where we do not enter into rest
we're not actually receiving or hearing the Word of God as
the Word of God. We may ask ourselves, when we
come to hear the Word of God preached, are we coming to hear
the Word of God? Are we listening for the Word
of the Lord? Are we listening to His Word?
Are we receiving the Word of God as it is in truth, the Word
of God? It will not profit us if we are
thinking this is not the Word of God. We're undermining it
in some way. Then in chapter 11, again in
verse 3, we have this word, Through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. Reinforcing
again our belief in the creation right from the beginning, if
you and I are undermining and not believing the creation account,
we're in effect saying we do not have faith. But what I draw
your attention to on that is just those first words, through
faith we understand. You think of the eunuch, he was
reading the word of God, He did not understand it, did not understand
who he was reading, the prophet or some other man, what was being
spoken. When Philip came, he preached
the word, and Philip then understood that the man that was being set
forth there was Christ Jesus. His testimony was Jesus is the
Son of God. When the Lord rose from the dead,
he appeared unto the two on the way to Emmaus, Again, he opened
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself so they'd
understand it, and later on very clearly to the apostles, then
opened to their understanding that they would understand the
scriptures. And so, where men do not understand
the word of God, it is a very clear evidence that they do not
have faith, and therefore they try and rest or twist it Peter
says of some of Paul's writings that they that are unlearned
and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures, to
their own destruction. It's always a warning thing. There are things that we can't
understand. Faith, it receives it, it believes
it, though we cannot understand or cannot fathom it. And in due
time, the Lord does open the understanding. And I say it's
the encouragement of any of those places you can't understand.
Think of the disciples, think of the eunuch. They couldn't
understand, but God gave them to understand. And through the
preaching of the word, if you and I can come at times when
there's been a text, you haven't understood it, you're brought
to understand it through the preaching. It's the Lord that
gives understanding, and it is through faith. that there is
an understanding of the Word of God. And so, again, the reason
why the Word does not profit is because we don't understand
it. That's why we try in the ministry to be very clear in
preaching, so that the people do understand it. With Ezra and
Nehemiah, they read the Word, they gave the sense, read the
Word distinctly, and cause the people to understand the reading
of the Word. We're seeking to use the means
and present the Word as clearly as we can. But even knowing that,
we know it is then the gift of God and the blessing of God.
If you and I, through that means, understand the Word, then this
is the profiting of that Word, that we then understand that
Word. Then we have our Lord reproving
those in his day that made the word of God of none effect by
their traditions. And we can easily work that way.
We can have gospel standard traditions. We can have traditions. Well,
you've got to have a word for this. You've got to have a direction
to be baptised. It's so painful sometimes to
see those that so very clearly They are believers, they do rest
in Christ, they believe in Him, but they've never been baptised,
they've never put Him on in open profession because they say,
I need a word from the Lord. Well, where do you find that
set forth in the Word of God? He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved. You do not need a specific word
from the Lord. You need to know you're a believer,
then those that were gladly received the word were baptised. And we can somehow have in our
mind this tradition, this is what is needed, this is what
is required, and it is undermining the word of God. Or as our Lord
says, by your tradition, you make the word of none effect.
So you hear the preached word, you say, I hear that, yeah, but
I'm told this in this obituary, and I'm told this by this other
minister, hadn't preached the Word of God, and it undermines
it. Be very careful. We keep to the
Word of God and not have that undermine. It won't profit us
then. Our aim should be to enter into
that rest. That is why the Apostle says,
let us labour to enter into rest. Not just labour to have a word
from the Lord for this and that. Not just labour to do this or
that. but labour into, enter into a
rest to so believe and have peace and to rest solely in Christ's
work and unbelief. May we view unbelief as the enemy
that it is, the enemy that it is. Never take unbelief as a
evidence and a sign. God's people are plagued with
unbelief, yes. But never nurture that. You think
in these chapters here, it is unbelief, why they could not
enter in. And so the Lord deliver us from
traditions that undermine the word of God. And then there is
looking, where we look to the law. And all the time we're going
back to that for some, help and for strength. He says, for if
they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and
the promise of none effect. And so where the person is looking
to the law, they are actually making the promise of none effect. They are undermining that promise. And so We mentioned that with
Romans 10 as well. Be very mindful of this. How much are you looking back
to the law? Galatians as well. They'd first
received the gospel, then they said, oh no, we must be circumcised,
we must do that. And it's again looking for works
and deeds and righteousness which we have done. or licentious, or liberty to
sin and live carelessly. No, it will lead to holiness
of life, but not to be looking for that as our warrant for heaven. Our works are to be fruits, and
those fruits flow from a love to the Lord who has loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own heart's blood. Other
reasons we could perhaps say the word not profiting. We don't
really hear. We think of dear Martha. She
loved the Lord, but she has had so many busy cares that she couldn't
even rest under the word of God and not then enter into rest. She couldn't even rest to hear
it. And how we need that come apart and rest a while to hear
the word and like Elijah, away from the Mount Carmel and to
hear the still small voice of the Lord and to be encouraged
and strengthened in his way again. There are those reasons why the
Word did not profit them and it's centred in not mixed with
faith. The Word was heard, but faith
wasn't mixed with it. And yet faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. But is it like both are needed
at the same time? The Lord gives faith through
the Word, but without faith being mixed with the Word, we will
not have the promise of a blessing upon that Word. And the aim,
the real prophet that is set before us here, is to so clearly
see Christ's finished work and how suitable that is for us and
to believe what Christ has done and to rest in that souling,
to lean upon that souling. Now in a natural sense, if someone
had done something for us and we believed that they had done
for it, we would not keep trying to do what they had done for
us and to do it ourselves. We would rest in what they had
done. Do we believe what Christ has
done? Do we rest in that? Do we lean
on that? Or are we leaning still on our
own works? Leaning still on our own understanding? What a message then we have here. May our aim be, our desire be,
And the whole is summed up at the end of that. When we believe
that, when we are to enter into rest, we come to our high priest
above, we come boldly to the throne of grace. What to do? Just what I said about the publican
in the temple begging for mercy, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. If you and I believe what
Christ has fully done, that's what we'll do at the end of this
chapter. He'll bring us to come boldly
because there is the provision. There is every blessing already
purchased, already done. May the Lord bring us then to
enter into that rest. The Lord bless the world.