If you take your Bibles now and
turn with me to Hebrews, chapter 4. Hebrews, chapter 4. And I've entitled this, Admonitions
of Rest. Admonitions of Rest. Now, the apostle begins this
with this admonition, and we're going to see four admonitions
in this this book, this chapter tonight. It always begins with
this, let us. He says, let us therefore fear,
lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any
of you should seem to fall short of it. Now in the previous chapter,
the Apostle sets forth the account of those Israelites, and I want
you to remember the The occasion of this book, these Hebrew believers,
these ones who professed faith in Christ, were being tempted
to go back to the law. They were tempted to go away
from the covenant of grace and move toward the covenant of works. Or somehow mix the covenant of
grace with the covenant of works. And so the apostle in his heart,
longed for these believers not to leave. He longed for them
to understand that leaving the gospel was to leave God. It was to leave Christ. And so
his admonition, it says, he said, let us therefore fear, lest we,
like those Israelites of old, would fall short of the promise. And so in the previous chapter,
you remember the account? The Israelites had left Egypt.
God delivered them from Egypt. They went through the Red Sea.
They heard God speak. They saw the fire on the mountain. They witnessed it. They received
the law of God. And God promised them that they
would enter into a land of rest. The land of Canaan. The land
flowing with milk and honey. And you remember what happened
when they got to the border of Canaan. They sent out those spies. Twelve spies. And remember what
they saw. They saw clusters of grapes where
two men had to carry them. They were so big. They saw this land who had great
cities, and the harvest was ready. And you remember that only two
of them believed God, Caleb and Joshua. But all the other men
of Israel, they looked not at the promise of God, but rather
the obstacles, and said, it's too hard. They did not believe
the promise of God. And what did God swear? In chapter
3 and verse 11 and in verse 18, He sweared this. He said, They
shall not enter into my rest. They entered not because of one
thing. Unbelief. Unbelief. Now the rest of Canaan, we know
this, that was promised to Jews, that is only a typical rest. When they entered Canaan, did
they really rest? Was it all peace and joy when they entered
the land of Canaan? No. Entering into the land of
Canaan was a type of the true spiritual rest that God promised. Just like Israel was a type of
the elect, the promise of rest is a type of spiritual rest,
not physical. Look at chapter 4 and verse 7. He's using scripture again to
prove his point about this rest. And he says, Again, he limited
it to 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 hearts. For if Joshua, that word Jesus
and Joshua are interchangeable, not saying Jesus, our Savior,
But he's talking about Joshua. He said, if Joshua had given
them rest, then he would have not spoken of a day after. He's
not speaking of another day. If Joshua truly gave them rest,
then it would not have spoken of another day of rest. David said today. Now when did
David say that? Well, he said that long after
they had already crossed over into Canaan. But this today was many years
after the rest of Canaan. Eventually Joshua did lead them
in there, but that's not the rest God is talking about. This
promise of rest is one that is not found then in the things
of the world. Have you found that true? Have
you found any rest in the things of this life? There is no rest
here. There is no rest in the things
of this world. Therefore, when God is speaking
about this rest, entering into His rest, He is talking about
the rest that is in Jesus Christ. He is talking about the spiritual
rest in Jesus Christ. And this message of Jesus Christ,
I want you to understand, it was preached to Israel. When
they rejected the promise of His rest in Canaan, what they
were doing was rejecting the rest that is in Christ. They
had the gospel preached to them that day. Although the message was then
hid in types and shadows and ceremonies, it still pointed
to Christ, didn't it? Every time they'd offer a lamb,
it pointed them to Christ. When they were at the border
of Canaan, going into that promised land, that was a picture of entering
into Christ. They had the gospel preached
to them. Look at that in verse 2, it says, For unto us was the
gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached did
not profit them. Why? Not being mixed with faith
when they heard it. Today I declare the gospel to
you. I want to declare the gospel
of the rest of God that is in Jesus Christ. I want you to see
him as the only begotten son, because God is only pleased with
him. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Behold, today I preach it was
Christ alone who honored the law of God in perfect righteousness. He's the only one. I declare
to you that he honored the law of God in righteousness. I preach
to you that Christ alone bore the wrath of God for the sins
of His people, that it was Christ alone who satisfied all the demands
of God's law, both in obedience and in suffering. Christ did
it. Christ honored it. And when He had finished His
work, and God raised Him from the dead, what did He do? He ceased from working. He entered into His rest. He entered into His rest. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, in
Matthew 11, He makes this statement, coming to me, all you that labor
are heavy laden and I will give you what? Rest, rest. And that's what I want to talk
about first, is this matter of rest. These. Israelites came
short of entering into rest. And so I want to ask, what is
the rest? From what are you resting from? When God says enter into my rest,
when Christ says I will give you rest, when Christ entered
into His rest, what is this rest from? Well, I think it's important
to know what rest means. It means to cease from work.
Isn't that right? To rest is to cease from work. And so the first thing that we
rest from is the labor of the law. Those who enter into the
rest of Jesus Christ, they rest from the labors of the law. They
cease from it. All men by nature, we know this,
are under the law of God. Whether they heard the law of
Moses or not, because the law of God, Paul says in Romans 2,
is written in the heart of man. The law of God is in the heart
of man. And what do we find about this
law? We have all broken it. This is consistent among all
men wherever they are. We have all broken the law of
God and are guilty. We have rebelled against God,
we have lied, we have coveted, we have stole, we have lusted,
we have broken the law of God. You who believe and have entered
into His rest, you understand this more than anybody else,
that we by nature were children of wrath, even as others. Haters of God, even as others. But behold the gospel, Listen
to the gospel of rest that is preached to Israel, that is preached
to you. That Christ came not to destroy
the law, but what? To fulfill it. To honor it. To magnify the law and make it
honorable. And He came to do what none of
His people could. None of us could magnify the
law. But He came to do it. Therefore, He subjected Himself
to His own law. He became a man and became subject
to the law of God. And as a man, He became obedient
unto God. And fulfilled everything the
law requires. Everybody thinks of the law immediately.
You just start, we start thinking about the Ten Commandments and
things. That's just natural for us to jump right there. Surely
he did all of that. All of those commandments, those
Ten Commandments, surely he did every one of those things. But
I'm not just talking about those things. I'm talking about the
dietary law. You're talking about the ceremonial
law. He honored the governmental law. Remember when He healed
those lepers? What did He do? He sent them
to the priest. Why? Because that was the law. He
honored the law and magnified it. But this righteousness of the
law that He obtained was not enough. It was not enough to
save His people just to be righteous. Imagine if Christ was righteous
and then ascended to heaven. What's missing? What part of
the law is missing? Justice. Righteousness is only
half. He obtained righteousness, but
not only righteousness, He also suffered the justice of the law
demanded. He suffered what the law demanded
for sin. On the road to Emmaus, when He
rose from the dead, His disciples were sad. Our Lord came to them,
and He reminded them of this. He said this in Luke 24, 46,
He says, Thus it is written, And thus it behooved Christ to
suffer. I want you to remember that word,
behooved, because we just talked about that in Hebrews chapter
3. It says, It behooved Him to be made like unto his brethren,
behooved him. That word behooved means he was
obligated. He said it is written and thus
it obligated Christ to suffer. It was necessary that Christ
suffer and be raised the third day. That repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among the nations beginning
at Jerusalem. In other words, it behooved him
because it was the only way It was the only way for Him to
save His people. Behooved Him to suffer under
the justice of God and be made sin for us. It was necessary. There was no other way. In Isaiah 63, Isaiah sees Him
coming and says, Who is this coming in this glorious apparel? And this is Christ speaking.
He says, I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none
with me. I did it all by myself. I did it all by myself. For I
would tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury,
and the blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment. Behold, this is the gospel that
Christ has purged our sins by himself. Isn't that what the
apostle said at the very beginning? He said this in chapter one. He's being the brightness of
his glory and the express image of his person upholding all things
by the word of his power and he had by himself purged our
sins. What'd he do? He sat down. He rested from His work. The Apostle uses this in our
text here. He's talking about the seventh
day. He said in verse 4, He said, For a certain place on the seventh
day, in this wise, that God did rest the seventh day from all
His works, and in this place again, if they shall enter into
my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter
therein, and to whom it was first preached, in or not, because
of unbelief. And so then Christ, Christ as
God, when God on the seventh day ceased from His work, what
is that a picture of? It's a picture of Christ. When
Christ had finished His work, He sat down and rested. He rested, having purged our
sin. In Galatians, it tells us when
the fullness of the time would come, God sent forth his son
made of a woman made under the law. What purpose? To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. See, Christ came to deliver us
from the curse of the law. How do you do that? By being
made a curse. by being cursed by the law, He
removed us from under the labor of the law and set us free. So when we enter into Christ's
rest, we rest from all the works of the law because He is the
fulfillment of the law. Secondly, we rest from salvation
by works. That's what we enter into. We
are no longer under the law. We are under grace. Therefore,
all our salvation, we cease from works in order to save ourselves,
in order to merit this salvation. Now listen, I'm telling you,
Christ, His work is perfect. Now then, knowing this, that
Christ's work is perfect, how do you get it? One thing to know his work is
perfect, but how in the world can you receive it? By what right
do you have to receive such a perfect work? Can you merit this work? Can
you earn it? No. How can we or sinners enter
into rest from the works of the law? How can we merit God's favor?
Can a man invent a way of pleasing God in order to receive the work
of Christ, the rest of Christ? No. We cannot obey the law, what
man's what what makes man think that they can satisfy him by
their own law in this how religion works. They say, well, you know,
we can't obey the law of God. So what they do, they start making
up other laws. They set the bar pretty low. Friends, Jesus Christ came to
accomplish these things because no man could merit. The favor
of God. Jesus has come to be the end
of the law for righteousness. He came and died for the sins
of His people in the flesh so that we might be free from the
curse of the law, that we might be saved without works. If we are to be saved, if we
are to be accepted of God, it will never be because of anything
we have done, anything we are doing, or anything we can do,
ever do. The only way for one to enter
into the rest of the law, rest from work's religion, rest from
sin's guilt, power and penalty, is the only way, is to enter
in by faith. It's the only way. Faith in the work of Christ alone. In order to receive the work
of Christ, we must completely cease from our own works. You can't enter into His rest
by working. Have you entered into the rest
of God by faith in Christ? Have you not seen that His work
has earned rest? I like that text in Revelation,
The Lamb, you know, here it is. Who is worthy to open the book
and loose the seals thereof? And John's over there weeping,
and there's nobody, nobody in heaven, nobody on earth is able. And the guy comes over and says,
hey, don't cry, it's alright. Behold, the Lamb of God hath
prevailed to open the book. And here comes the Lamb as it
had been slain. And He comes up to God, and He
grabs the book out of His hand. It was His right to grab the
book and loose the seals thereof. He obtained it. He did it by
right. He earned this rest. He earned
it. If Christ has earned the rest
of God, then why would you try to add your work to His? Why will you not come to Him
for rest? Oh, that you'd come today. No,
no, you'd come now. Come now and find all the rest
you need. So then, to you that have or
make a profession to have entered into this rest, all of you who
believe, you who profess to believe, You have entered into the rest
of Christ. Now then, Paul, or the Apostle
here, gives us four admonitions. You who profess. You profess
to believe. Listen, there are four admonitions
given in this text to you and me. Let's read these together.
The first one's found in verse one. We've read it already. Let
us therefore fear. Four. Lest of promise being left
us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. Because we have this example
of the Israelites that did not enter into His rest, they didn't
enter in because of what? Unbelief. Unbelief. Outwardly, they had all the right
signs of entering. Didn't they? Weren't they all
redeemed by the blood? Weren't they all carried out
of Egypt by the blood? Weren't they? Didn't they all
go through the Red Sea? Didn't they all hear the voice
of God and receive His law with trembling and fear? They did. Did they not see the signs and
wonders of God? They did. They all saw it. They
all had the same experience, didn't they? What was the difference
between Caleb and Joshua and the rest of them? One word, faith. Faith. Caleb and Joshua had it
and the rest of them didn't. So it is with many who profess
to believe in Christ. All those who profess to believe
in Christ profess to be redeemed. They profess that Christ's blood
is shed for the redemption. They all come to faith seeing sin in a new light. Everybody
who professes faith sees sin in a new light. We once loved
it, but now what? We hate it. We saw sin as the change and
bondage and not as freedom. We see sin not as freedom, but
bondage. These Israelites, they all went
through the Red Sea. Even so, all who profess faith
in Christ go through baptism. Baptism is a wonderful picture
of our salvation is that we stand in the water professing to be
in union with Christ. We are immersed into the water. We confess that Christ's blood
and death and burial has washed away our sins. We come up out
of the water and what are we confessing? His resurrection,
our cleansing by his power of grace. So all who profess, they
have the ceremony of baptism. As Israel trembled before the
law of God, we too trembled. We saw the holiness of God and
the need of a sacrifice. We see the beauty of God's rest.
Everyone who professes faith in Christ sees the beauty of
heaven, the glory of heaven. Therefore, Paul says to us, let
us fear. that after having heard God's
word of Christ, having made a profession, having departed from sin, having
been baptized, having seen the holiness of God and the need
of the sacrifice of Christ, having seen the goodness and benefits
of Christ, let us fear lest any of us should fall short of genuine
God-given faith. See, friends, there is no rest
in morality, is there? We won't find any rest there.
There's no rest in departing from sin. There is no rest in
religious ceremonies. There is no rest in knowing the
law of God or theology. There is no rest in knowing if
there is... You can know all there is to know about the personal
work of Christ. You can. I've got books and books and
books. If you studied them all, memorized
them all, that would be no rest. Be no rest in your knowledge. There are some who will strive
to hold on to their knowledge and their goodness and their
morality and their religion and their church attendance, their
baptism. They'll hold on to something.
There is no rest in those things. You won't find any assurance
or comfort in your work, in your abilities. Many people seem religious, they
seem to have all the outward signs, but they fall short of
the promise being left to them in this, they do not believe
on Christ alone. They do not believe on Christ
alone. but rather they turn from the
living God embracing some unholy mixture of their work and His. They want to find rest by mixing
their work with His. This is nothing but unbelief. It is to fall short of true faith. So then true and living faith
is not in one time action, one time decision, It's not in our
works or our abilities, but rather it is a lifetime of constant,
persistent looking to Jesus Christ. That is the. That's true faith. That's true faith. Is finding
rest in his work alone. So the question is, have you
looked to Jesus? It's not, really it's not if
you look to Jesus, are you right now looking to Jesus? Have you ceased from your own
work? The second admonition is verse
11, look at this. Let us therefore labor to enter
into that rest. lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. Let me ask you this, is there
anything more important than to know that you are resting
in Christ? Is there anything more important
than to know? Is there anything greater of
greater comfort than to know that Jesus Christ is all my standing
before God. Is there any greater comfort?
No, not to us. So this admonition to labor to
enter into his rest, what does this mean? Well, Pastor, didn't
you say that to believe on Christ is to be at rest from all labor,
to stop working in that labor? And now you're telling me to
labor to enter in. What does that mean? This verse is not
saying we must labor in works or that we are to add to the
labor of Christ to find rest. But what it means is this that
we are to labor to cease working. That's what it means. You remember what the scripture
says, if you do add your work in that altar, he told Moses,
he said, if you were to make an altar of stones and you put
your tool to it, It defiles the sacrifice. If we put any labor
into the work of Christ, any addition to the work of Christ,
we've defiled the sacrifice. To labor to enter into his rest
is nothing more than to labor to cease from laboring. To rest is to cease from laboring.
But because of our natural man, the old man. It is our constant
fight to cease from labor than the natural man, that's all he
wants to do. All he wants to do is find something he can do
to merit something. We have to labor to cease from
doing that. Faith is to labor to put off
the old man and his deeds. Is this not a struggle for you
that believer is or is it just me? You not struggle with doubts
and fears, thinking that we've not done enough. Are we not often downcast because
our faith is weak, our love is low? Our good works, can you
call them that? It is then true in living faith
to labor to keep Christ in view. It is a true labor to believe
only on his work and rest in it, regardless of the circumstances
that surround us. Don't you labor against that? When all is ill, when everything
is going against you, Is it not a labor to constantly look and
see? When you doubt and fear God's
love for you, God's care for you, isn't it a labor to constantly
enter into his rest? It is. Paul said, let us therefore
labor to enter into his rest, constantly looking to him by
faith. Faith friends, believing the word of God. We should continually
believe the Word of God. He says the Word of God in verse
12 is quick, it's living and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword. The Word of God, by which we have entered into
His rest, we should believe it. It will be by believing his word
that we are given strength to continually put off the old man. What do you mean by mortify the
deeds of the body? A lot of people think, well,
that means you need to stop drinking or stop this and stop that. You
know what the worst thing is for one who professes faith? The worst thing is to be tempted to go back under the
law. to be looking around for something we've done as evidence
that I'm in Christ. I mean, I read some Puritan authors
today, and by the time I got done, I wasn't in Christ. I was so far from Him, I didn't
even have any hope at all. And listening to Him, He was
so high above me that He was looking down and saying, ha ha
ha, look at all of you. And finally rest in that. Why? Because that's all that all of
us are that way. All of us are that way. We're tempted to try
to look for some outward signs. Instead of just relinquishing
all ourself to the perfect work of Christ. That's what it is to mortify
the deeds of the body, that's what it is to labor to enter
into his rest. It is to labor to cease from laboring. You know, Paul had this labor
and this struggle. He said this in Philippians 3,
he said, My desire is this, I count all, he said, I've counted all
my righteousness as dung. All my works, I count and do
count them as dung. Why? That I may be found in him. not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may
know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings be made conformable to His death, if by any means
I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Even so, we labor
at this to count all our works as done. That I might win Christ and be
found in Him. That I might rely completely
on His righteousness and none on my own. Labor in that to enter
into His rest. Paul labored by faith to cut
himself free from all his religious deeds. And so should those who
have living faith labor to count all our goodness as nothing to
be found in Christ. Why? So that all the glory may
redound to Christ. Thirdly, let us hold fast our
profession, verse 14. Verse 14, seeing then we have
a great high priest. that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession. There will be some who have professed
faith in Christ, but have no true faith. There will be some
who endure the gospel of Jesus Christ, but when troubles arise
and difficulties arise for the gospel's sake, they will by and
by just wither away. Some will profess faith in Christ
but the things of this world will take hold of them and they
will seem to have all the leaves but no fruit. No faith, no love,
no joy, no peace, meekness, temperance, none of those fruits of the spirit.
Why? Because they're holding on to
what they have done. To some profession they made.
But they cease to hold fast faith in Christ alone. They will gladly take the doctrine
of devils and any other thing that might ease their conscience,
but it matters not what they believed in the past. If they
do not endure in faith, it is not true faith. Paul said, let
us hold fast the profession of our faith. How long? To the end. Why? Because only true faith endures
to the end. You want to know if your faith
is real? It will endure. Jesus said, they
that endure to the end, the same shall be saved. I believe it's in chapter 3 in verse 6. He said, But Christ is a son
over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast in confidence
and rejoicing of hope firm. When? To the end. You see that
these men were tempted to go away. And he said, Look, no,
rest in Christ. Don't go back to the law. Christ
freed us from the law. Salvation is not by works, it's
by grace through faith in Christ. Don't go away. Let us therefore
fear that we go not away. I tell you what, I often fear.
That's good, because Paul said you should. Let us therefore
fear, lest we should be like them. You know who says, well, that
I'll never. You know who says that? Those that do that. I never. Remember when the Lord said that
one of you betray me? How'd the disciples act? They
say, well, it's gotta be Judas. You know, it can't be me. It's
gotta be him. No, they all feared it would
be them. You know the old one didn't fear?
One that did it. When I did it. I know this, if he lets me go. I can't keep myself. Is it me? Is it me? True faith always endures, looking
to the great I preached. Let us Hold fast our profession. What is our profession? Seeing
we have a great high priest. Don't you know you have a great
high priest? Don't you know you have a better
high priest than those old high priests? And the whole rest of the book,
I want you to understand, the whole rest of the book he's going
to show how he's a great high priest. Hold fast because we've
got a great high priest. He's an eternal high priest.
His priesthood's eternal. He doesn't die away like all
the other priests. Hold fast to our profession because
our high priest, his blood actually atoned for sin. Hold fast to
it. His blood atoned for sin. Those
other priests, all their offerings didn't. Hold fast to our high priest
for we have one that is touched with the feelings of our infirmity.
was in all points tempted as we are without sin. Hold fast
to Christ, our great high priest, who has passed into the heavens,
whose blood has made peace with God. Hold fast to Him. Oh, I pray that you who believe
and hold fast to Him, because He is the one who alone can give you rest. And fourthly, look at this. Let
us come boldly to the throne of grace. Look at verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Believer in Christ, this life
is full of trouble. If you're not in it, just wait
a minute. We all in this life, like Peter,
often trust in our own strength. I'll never deny you. I'll never
run away from you. Though everybody forsake you,
I'll die with you. A couple hours later, he was
tempted to deny Christ by a little girl. And he failed. The moment he trusted in his
own strength, he failed. We, like Peter, may walk upon
the water for a while, but let one little wind and one little
wave come our way and we'll sing. But consider this, the Lord knows
our frame that we are but dust. He knows our weakness in every
trial because. These come by his own hand. Are
you in trouble? Who sent it? Are you in pain? Who gave it? It was God. It was God. So when we fail in our faith
and we are come overcome by our flesh, when we are taking our
eyes off of Christ, we are fixed on our troubles. What then must
men of faith do? Let us come boldly. Let us come quickly. Let us come
without delay, let us come constantly and continually to the throne
of grace that we may find mercy and help. Oh, the joy of this, that we
must not come through any other man but Christ. You got that? We have one by which we may boldly
come. Every time I read this, I can't
help but see that picture in my mind of John F. Kennedy and
his son. And there he is sitting at that
presidential desk and his son underneath the desk playing. Could you imagine any general
doing that? Any head of state coming into his office and playing
under his desk? No, his son was bold, wasn't
he? Why? is his son. What are you? What are you? What has he made
you to be? We are now the sons of God. And your father says, come to
me. Come boldly to me. Do you need
mercy? Let us come boldly before the throne of grace. What are
you gonna find? Condemnation? There is therefore
now no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus. What
are you gonna find? Mercy and help. Those are two things that I need
every day. And those two things are promised
me when I come to God. I find mercy and help. What an admonition. You that
are in bondage, you that have no rest, come to God by Christ
and you will find rest. You will find rest because he
fulfilled the law that you can't fulfill. His work was so perfect that
God doesn't require anymore. I cannot add one thing to his
work. What does that give me? Rest. The work is done. So what's our admonition saying
the work is done? Here it is. Let us therefore
fear lest we fall short of his. Let us therefore labor to stop
working. And enter into his rest. Seeing that we have a great high
priest hold fast. By faith to his rest. And when
you're in trouble. Come to him and rest. Come to
Him and rest. I pray God will bless this to
your hearts and give you peace. That's what it's intended for,
isn't it? I pray God will even now instruct
our hearts, do we rest in Christ? I pray so. Let's stand and be
dismissed in prayer. Father, I do pray that you give
us grace, Father, that none of us fall short of entering into
Christ's rest. I pray, Father, that you'd be
gracious to cause us to labor to cease from laboring. that
we may see that his rest is perfect. He's our Sabbath. I pray, Father, that you would
give us such grace to hold fast to Christ, always looking to
our high priest. I pray that you give us grace
to constantly come before your throne and find mercy and help
in these things. Forgive us our sins. us back
again according to your mercies in Christ's name. Amen.