You know, it's when we sing,
we always we want to sing songs that are magnifying to our Lord
and scriptural. Those last two were. And. In that first one. I was looking
at those words and thinking that's a. That's a quote, I'd have to
look it up. that last line in the chorus. You know, if you just listen,
and let the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, let God's Word
defend itself. God's Word is God's Word, and
it's right. It's alive. Here's what this last line said
that we sang, He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life. Now let
me tell you what that didn't say. It didn't say, to have everlasting life you must
believe first. It didn't say that. It says, he that believeth on
the Son. Here's the evidence of having everlasting life. God Almighty gives life. He makes a man new. He makes
a woman new. He calls them out of darkness. He gives them a new heart. He
gives them a new life, a life, mind, eyes, ears, will. And they believe. The evidence,
the evidence of life is belief. That's the evidence. That second
one, pass me not. I'm telling you, every believer
says that. Lord, don't pass me by. And only a believer will
say that. A believer knows something of
God's sovereignty and God's will and God's purpose. And that's
what he says, Lord, don't pass me by. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews.
I'd like to look at one verse of Scripture tonight. Actually,
I'd like to look at the last few words of one verse of Scripture. Hebrews chapter 4. I want to read the third verse,
then we'll have a word of prayer. But I'm actually preaching tonight
on the last line of this verse. Let's read the third verse, Hebrews
chapter 4, verse 3. 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." And here's what I want to preach
on right here, although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening we approach
you only in and through and by our great
High Priest, We realize that, Lord, there is no approaching
you without a priest, without a mediator, without an advocate,
without Him who is altogether holy, God Almighty, the Word, and man. Father, help us tonight to worship
Help us to hear. Lord, direct this service, I
pray. Order my thoughts. Help me as
I preach. Bless the Word to our understanding
and all of our comfort and peace. Lord, honor Yourself. Thank You
for letting us be here tonight. Thank You for the privilege to
be able to be in the house of the Lord. assemble ourselves
together. Lord, if this be the last time
we ever meet together. Oh, bless this word. I pray. I pray you'd call out your people.
Save our children. Lord, I pray for our families. I pray, Lord, that you'd have
mercy according to your everlasting will and purpose. We look to
you and wait upon you and know that without you we can do nothing.
Thank you for Christ's sake. Amen. The last time we looked in the
book of Hebrews, we started this third verse. This is where I
was preaching, and I preached through, and I just didn't finish
that last line. The Apostle starts, For we which
have believed do enter into rest. Now, we know that there is a
future rest. We know that there is an eternal
rest. A rest from the presence of sin. A rest from the trials and tribulations
of this world. No more tears. No more trouble. Eternal rest. But that rest that we do look
forward to begins in this life. Look at 2 Corinthians 1.22. Let
me show you. 2 Corinthians 1.22. Let me show
you how this rest, 2 Corinthians 1.22. who have sealed us and given
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." Now, the only way that we are
able to rest, to rest from our laboring to try to establish
our own righteousness. And that's what it is. Let me
tell you, rest. Do you know what the rest of
a believer is? It's regeneration. God calling
a man, a woman out of darkness. And by the grace of God, they
realize The Lord Jesus Christ has finished
the work. And what's left to do if He's
finished the work? It's finished. It's finished.
Obedience to the law of God that I could never do. because of
the weakness of my flesh, how can I obey God? You see, we just
don't realize the seriousness of obedience before God. I'm talking about one infraction. You know, to disobey in one point,
if I ever thought anything, if one thought ever entered my mind
in a disobedience, I've broken the whole law of God. And there's
no reprieve. Ain't no going back on that.
No plea bargaining here. The soul of this sinner is going
to die when the Spirit of God, in regenerating
grace, quickens a man. That man, by the grace of God,
knows something. And we do grow in grace. We don't
grow in sanctification. If we just understood what sanctification
means, it means holiness. Sanctification, saints, sanctified. That word means separated, holy. You don't grow in holiness. Christ is our sanctification.
But we do grow in grace and in the knowledge. Now, we're learning
something. I want to learn. I want to be
taught. I want to search these Scriptures. And I want to find out something. I want to know, what does the
Lord have to say? So God's people do enter and
to rest. We rest. Rest from our trying
to establish a righteousness. You see, if somebody says, well,
I'm resting. I believe. I believe. I believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. OK, let me ask you this. Are you resting? Are you resting
in your faith, or are you resting in Christ? My question is this. Do you find a rest in your heart
because you believed? Then you're resting in your faith. We don't look to faith. Faith
didn't die for us. Faith didn't lay down His life
for us. Christ did. is the grace by which we look
to Him. He is our rest. He is our rest. In regeneration, we perceive
that Christ is our rest. We don't rest in our rest. We
don't rest in our faith. We don't rest in our baptism.
We don't rest in our profession. We don't rest in our church membership.
We rest in Christ. This is what we believe, that
the Lord Jesus Christ before the foundation of the
world entered into an everlasting covenant. Father, Son, Spirit. And the triune God in an everlasting
covenant of grace. God purposed to show mercy. And in time, God calls His elect out of darkness. And they realize salvation is
all of grace. It's all of Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. And God has shown mercy to me.
And I believe that. And it's not that I rest in my
belief, but I believe Him. We rest in Him. We which have
believed do enter into rest. A resting place. That's what
it is. Christ. We enter into Christ. We enter into the knowledge and
understanding of that which He's done for us. We're not trying
to establish a righteousness. We rest right now. Think about this. You which believe. I rest in this thought. He's put away my guilt. He shows mercy to me. He chose
to show mercy to me. He chose to give me life and
to teach me of Himself that He's put away all of my guilt. That He was made sin. Hanging upon that cross, harmless Lamb of God, spotless
Lamb of God, made sin. And there upon that cross is
the guiltiness. Here is God, God Almighty. He hath made Him sin. God made Him sin. As I've said
before, how a deep breath I take every time I consider that passage
of Scripture. And there's the Lamb of God.
Perfect. Made what I am. He who knew no
sin, He hath made Him sin. There's two words. The source
of and the evidence of. One of them is transgressions.
You and I can understand something about that. The transgressions
of it. The evidence of it. We think
evil thoughts. We do. We say evil. We're mean. That's the evidence of it. Where
did it come from? What was the source of it? That's
what He was made. That's what the Word is. He has made Him the source of
it. And Almighty God in infinite
wrath put away the source of it, the dead of it, put it away. He hath made him sin for us,
he who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God
in him, not in ourselves. Now, we rest right there. That's
where we rest. We rest right now from the sting
of death in the grave. What if God takes me tonight? I rest in Him. I'll tell you
this, He's all we've got. He's all we need. He's all in
all. We rest. This rest is the present
rest of the soul. established in regenerating grace. As long as there's doubts and
fears in our minds, there's no rest there. Ask somebody, in water, in whom do you rest
your eternal soul? Well, I made a decision for the
Lord. Well, let me ask you this. When
you made that decision, have you ever deviated before or after
that in yourself? Oh, yes, I have. Well, let me
tell you something. You don't have any hope. Not in works of righteousness
that we've done. Well, I trusted the Lord. If
you're trusting in your trusting, I'm telling you, Salvation is
all of grace, all in myself. I'm nothing. I can do nothing
but rebel against God. That's all I can do. That Almighty
God would have mercy on this sinner. That He save me by His
power, by His grace, by His mercy. Charge imputed to me His righteousness. What righteous, what right do
I have to stand before God? Accept it, accept in the beloved. Do you think a man will ever
stand before God and claim his self-righteous works? I can show
you in the book of Matthew where some will. The Lord says, many
will say to me in that day. I'm talking about this is a day
of judgment. Many will say, we prophesied in your name. We cast out devils in Your name.
We've done many wonderful works in Your name. And He'll say,
those that were trusting in themselves that they were righteous, depart
from Me. I never knew you. Listen, there's
rest only in Christ. There's rest only in Him. There
is no other rest. I'm telling you that the high
priest himself, the great high priest, my federal head, that
he lived for me and died for me and answers for me even now. That's all my hope. That's all
my hope. Nothing that I've done, nothing
that I've done could ever answer for me. As I've said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest." What he said right
there is, I swear in my wrath, they shall not. All that believe
him, we which believe, do enter into rest. And that second part,
as I've sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
means that all that believe not God, concerning God's work of
grace for the sake of Christ in Christ. If a man refuses that,
he has no hope. None. This is God's rest established,
maintained by God Himself. He's sworn His wrath. They're
not going to enter in. All that believe, not the Son. A few weeks ago, I preached a
message on what it is to come to Christ. I'll tell you, one
of the things that I do remember, those seven or eight points,
forsake everything else. And I use that Scripture where
Paul says, I was born of the Hebrew of the Hebrews, the tribe
of Benjamin. I was circumcised the eighth
day, and on and on and on and on. And he said, all of that
I count but done, that I might win Christ. Looking unto Him. Don't look to your profession.
Don't look to your profession of faith. Your profession of
faith is going to fail you. I'm going to tell you right now.
Christ said, I'll never leave you. There's a big difference
in looking to your profession of faith and looking to Christ.
It's the difference of life and death. We which believe do enter into
rest, as He said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter
in my rest. Although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Now I'm going to, I want to,
I want to look at four things, four works, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. Four things, and
I don't under any circumstances want to say that I'm going to
exhaust the works of God finished from the foundation of the world,
but there's four things that I I want to just mention concerning
the rest that we enter into right now. Now, we enter into rest,
you that believe, do enter into rest right now. The Spirit of
God has taught you that. He sealed you to the day of salvation. His Spirit bears witness with
your spirit that you are the sons of God. You have no confidence
whatsoever in the flesh. You're resting, resting in Christ. Somebody asked me one time. I've
mentioned this to you before. They said, well, how do you keep
people in line? How do you keep people in line?
I said, I don't. I don't. I'm going to keep you
in line anyway. They that are led by the Spirit
of God, they're the sons of God. You don't have to worry. No.
God will lead His children. He's the shepherd with the sheep.
We hear the voice of the shepherd and we follow Him. You preach
the gospel. This is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to preach the gospel and I'm going to just wait on
the Lord. And God will direct His sheep. You try to drive a
sheep and I'm going to tell you something. You don't drive God's
sheep, you scatter them. You preach the truth to them
and you comfort them. That's what you do, comfort the
people of God. Four things, four eternal acts. Although the works, that's what
I'm looking at, the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. Here's what we want to look at
for just a minute. What has Almighty God done, established, finished, from the foundation of the world,
that now has taught you, you that believe, and you rest in Christ concerning
these four things? What are they? Here's the first
one. His love for His people was an
everlasting love. Jeremiah 31.3, Yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Now you know this. You know that
no man can come. That has to do with ability.
No man can come except the Father, which has sent me, the Lord Jesus
Christ said, draw him. I don't want to get ahead of
myself, but I want you to just turn. I saw something today that
was so... Turn to John 1. I don't want
to go too far in this because, Lord willing, I'm going to preach
on it here in the next few weeks. Turn with me to John 1. Look at verse 43. The day following
John 1, 43, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find a Philip
and saith unto him, Follow me. The Lord found Philip. Now, Philip
was of Bethsaida, city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip, the one
that the Lord found, said, Follow me. Findeth Nathanael, saith
unto him, We found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets
did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael
said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip said unto him, Come and see. Now, let me tell you that
all the wisdom of that answer right there. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth is what Philip said. Just come see. You know what
I would do as I've told you before? Just invite somebody to come. Just come and see it. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Just come. Just
come. Now look at verse 47. Jesus saw
Nathanael coming to Him. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
Him. Did Nathanael know that He was
coming to Christ? No. Nathanael heard Philip say
something, and Philip said, We found Him spoken of by most prophets. Jesus of Nazareth. Can anything
good Anything good, come out of Nazareth." Philip said, come
see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to Him. It was provenient grace. Grace
before quickening grace. Somewhere along the line, you
came and you sat under the gospel. You sat under the gospel of God's
free grace. How'd you get there? I don't
know. Mark, you and I were Catholics. Don, you're Catholic? I came
up Roman Catholicism, and my mother converted over to Southern
Baptist. Brian panned into the fire. How did I get here? Somewhere
along the line, One day my mother told me, said, I'd like you to
come hear this preacher, you know. Who is he? I said, Henry
Mahan. I said, who? I came and heard
him in time. Now, I'll tell you this. The
Lord saw me coming to Him. I didn't know it. I didn't realize
what was going on. Maybe you came here. Maybe some
of you fellas came here. Maybe y'all were dating somebody.
I don't know. I don't know. How'd you get? I'll tell you
how you got here. He drew you. He put you here. Why did he put you here? I've
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, have I drawn thee. All those that God Almighty has
everlastingly loved, He's going to put them unto the gospel.
And they're going to hear. And I'll tell you this, all those
that He's everlastingly loved and all those that He's chosen
in Christ are going to come to Him. His people are going to
be willing in the day of His power. Boy, I can rest in that. You mean to tell me I just didn't
get here by luck? You mean to tell me I just didn't
happen to just show up one day? No. No, you see, He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. He doeth as He will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
Now, Mike, I can rest there. I can rest there. You see, that's
God. That's God. God Almighty. Here is the second thing I know
that was finished from the foundation of the world. Our rest is established
in God's eternal election. Ephesians 1 verse 4, According
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Well
then, you mean that our rest, the rest that we enjoy now, the
rest that we have in Him who is our hope. We rest in Christ. And you mean to tell me that
this rest that I experience, there's a word right there, you
know, we don't want to ever use sometimes, but I'm going to tell
you something. Don't tell me that you don't experience it.
I mean, it's an actual, yes, it happened. It's regeneration.
It's new life. It actually happened. You mean
to tell me that my coming to Christ because He drew me, because
of His everlasting love for me, that He, before the foundation
of the world, chose to show mercy to me? Yes. He absolutely elected, chosen. That's what Ephesians 1-4 says.
He chose us before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy. Holy in ourselves, without blame
before Him in ourselves, only in His Son. I can rest at that. God Almighty. How can it be that God would
show mercy to this sinner and choose me in Christ? Here's the
third thing. Our rest is eternally established
by our relationship to the bridegroom. Now, he's the bridegroom. And
if he's a bridegroom, which he is, he has a bride. He has a
bride. Hosea 2.19, I will betroth thee
unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and in judgment, in lovingkindness and in mercies.
Our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ is His bride established
in righteousness. For me to be robed in the wedding
garment, that's His righteousness. I'm robed in Him. I was just going over some of
the notes the other day, yesterday, trying to rewrite them. And I was reading one of the
verses there, and the Lord says, And I will give them My new name. The Lord said, I will give them
My new name. Can there be anything said to
be new concerning the Lord who is eternal? What the verse of Scripture means
is it's new to my understanding. Not new to Him, but He said,
I'm going to give you My new name. I'm going to understand
in time, in regenerating grace. You're my husband. You are my
husband. He said, I betrothed you to myself
before the foundation of the world. You've always been my
bride. I loved you before the foundation
of the world. I loved you in the fall. I loved
you when I redeemed you. I've always loved you and I called
you, robed you in my righteousness. Before I ever knew Him in regenerating
grace, He looked upon me as His beloved. I am my beloved and
He's mine. Go back and read Song of Solomon
sometime. Refresh your memory. We went
over that. Remember, we studied that book. A bride, oh, she speaks
to Him. And here she is just looking
at herself and struggling and struggling. Can it be that He
would look upon me in mercy when I have such a hard time even
reading His Word and I can't even keep my mind straight while
I'm trying to pray And I'm his wife, his bride. Can it be that
he still would have mercy on me? And I go back and I read
in Song of Solomon where the Lord said to his bride, He said,
You've ravished me with one of your eyes, stolen my heart. Can you imagine that he would
look upon one that he's everlastingly loved, washed her? in His own blood, washed her
from the guilt of sin and rebellion, robed her, looks upon her in absolute mercy
and compassion. He said, I've always been your
husband. I can rest in that. And then
lastly, our rest is established by the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. That's what Revelation 13, 8
says. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him. That is, if you read that in
that context, you'll understand that it's the beast. He's talking
about all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast,
whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb,
slain from the foundation of the world. Do you know when the Lamb's Book
of Life? Remember this? Lamb's Book of Life. When was it written? If you want
to see it, Revelation 17, verse 8. The beast that thou sawest
was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and
go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder whose names were not written in the Book of Life
from the foundation of the world. I told you before, I'd always
heard that there was a recording angel, that when someone gave
their heart to Jesus, the recording angel wrote their names in the
Lamb's Book of Life then. Well, the only problem is that
that's not what the Scripture says. The Scripture says that
the Book of Life and all the names were written in that Book
from the foundation of the world. Almighty God looked upon His people in mercy
and compassion and justified them. Justified them from the
curse of the law. Justified them from eternal separation
from Him. Justified them from eternal death. Justified them in Christ the
Lamb. who was slain before the foundation
of the world. Remember, He said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. He always saw that blood. He
said, but He didn't die until about 2,000 years ago. God Almighty
always saw it and first trusted in Him and justified us freely
by His grace based totally on the Lord Jesus Christ. God the
Father was the first one to trust in Him. Let me ask you this. Is He not worthy of our trust?
God the Father trusted in Him. The God-Man, the Son of Man. There's a Man. There's a Man. The God-Man. There's a Man in
heaven seated on the throne of God. There's a man that God trusted
in. Carl, you think about that. There
was a man that God trusted in. The God-man. Totally man. Totally God. God Almighty trusted
in him our surety and all that he accomplished. God Almighty imputed that to
me. and accepted me totally in Him,
the Beloved. This is my Beloved Son, whom
I'm well pleased." Now you think about it. What are you resting
in? Are you resting in your profession?
Are you resting in your baptism? Are you resting in your church
membership? Anything that you're resting in that is not Christ,
who is our hope, you're resting in that which is going to absolutely
be to your condemnation. When Christ, who is our hope,
shall appear, then we're going to appear with Him. These works. God's people are going to enter
into rest in time. Regenerating grace, they're going
to know it. God's going to teach them. They're going to perceive
it. And they're going to walk in this world struggling with
sin. Struggling, struggling, struggling. And while they're struggling,
they're resting in Him. And that old flesh is going to
war against the Spirit and vice versa. They struggle. They're
contrary one against the other. But I'm going to tell you something.
You rest assured. There's coming a time when God
Almighty is going to put away even the presence of sin. So shall we be with the Lord.
Father, I will that those that You've given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory. Oh, the rest of a believer. We rest from our works, self-righteous
works. Before, that's all we had. Self-righteous works. And rested
in them. In our minds, our dead minds,
we rested in them. Well, I've done the best I can. Oh, listen. There's one hope. Look to Christ. Rest in Him. For Christ's sake. Amen.