I want to begin this morning
in the book of Ruth. Turn with me to the book of Ruth,
chapter one. Ruth chapter 1, look at verse
8 with me. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with
you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant
you that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband."
Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and wept. Rest. It's a good subject for
the morning, isn't it? Rest. I heard him start that
and I thought, hey, I hope he preaches every word of my message.
And then I hope I stand up and say it again. What a good subject. Rest. I have one great desire. We were on vacation last week. I sat there for a whole week,
I literally sat, you'd think I would have done something because
I sit all the time. But we went out to that beach
and that ocean and I sat there all week long and I thought,
that's what you do, you think. The Lord has caused me to be
so content with what he's called me to do, where he's called me
to be. I'm so content in Kingsport. Irene said, welcome home. I said,
that's right, welcome home. But you know, I'm a human, I'm
a man, and I sat there a little bit and I thought, what do I
want in life? All those people have
all that money and they go and buy all that stuff and I'm down
there borrowing it for seven days. I sat on somebody else's
property. It wasn't mine. Is it a beautiful place? Would
I love to have access to that whenever I want to? Sure, but
that's not what I want. That's not what I want. I have
one desire for myself. I have one desire for my wife,
my two children, and I have one desire for my family and my relatives,
but you my family. It's that we may all find rest
in the house of our husband. That's what I want for us. Rest
in the house of our kinsmen redeemer. David said, one thing have I
desired of the Lord that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of
the Lord and to inquire in his temple. I just want to rest right
there. That's it. That's what I want. Look at chapter 3 here in Ruth.
Ruth chapter 3 verse 1 says, Then Naomi her mother-in-law
said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that
it may be well with thee? She said, Ruth, if you find rest
in the house of your husband, it'll be well with you. It's well, isn't it? It'll be
well with your soul. Is there anything really that
you desire more than true rest? I loved every minute of last
week. I really did. Think about it. Is there anything
that you desire more than true rest? And I'm not talking about
physical rest. I'm not talking about physical
rest. Physical work is good. It can be very enjoyable. I love
our church workdays. I love them. We have church workdays
and come the end of the day, I don't feel like I was at work. I feel like I was at fellowship
all day long. Our Lord said in Isaiah 65, my
people, he's talking about in glory, shall long enjoy the work
of their hands. Long enjoy the work of their
hand. Turn over there with me to Isaiah 65. He's talking about a new heaven
and a new earth right here. And look at verse 21, Isaiah
65 verse 21. They shall build houses and inhabit
them. And they shall plant vineyards
and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another
inhabit. They shall not plant and another
eat," what he's saying is their work is not going to be in vain. They shall not build and another
inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat, for as the days
of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall
long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in
vain nor bring forth for trouble for they are the seed of the
blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them. I am, I'm
holding on to that line. I mean, I'm clinging to that
line. Really? God save our children. He said
he will. Verse 24, and it shall come to
pass that before they call, I will answer. He knows what I need
before I know what I need. You know that? Before they call,
I'll answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall
eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith
the Lord." Do you know what our Lord is saying right there? There's
going to be rest. That's what He's saying, rest.
Inner rest. There's going to be outer rest.
rest of mind, rest of soul, peace, peace, happiness, contentment. There is nothing greater on this
earth than contentment. You know that? Contentment. Rest. Well, turn with me to our
text now. It's Hebrews chapter four. Here's
the message that I have for us this morning. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 9 says, There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God. There's a rest. That remains
for us an inner rest, an outer rest, a rest of mind, a rest
of soul. Good news. I always think whenever
we hear good news of that paper boy hollering. Come and get read all about it.
Good news. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. You know what that verse of scripture
is saying right there? There is no more work to be done. That's what it's saying. Not for salvation. There is no
more work to be done. Not only is it saying there is
no more work for us to do, it's also saying there's no more work
for God to do. None. He ordained a work from
before the foundation of the world, didn't He? He ordained
a work. And He finished that work on
the cross of Calvary, didn't He? Isn't that what He said?
It is finished. You believe he would have said
that if it wasn't finished? It's finished. He said, Father, the work which
thou gavest me to do, I've finished it. I finished it. I finished
it. Now look at what verse 11 says
here in Hebrews 4. It says, let us labor therefore
to enter into that rest. Lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. How do we enter into that rest? Let's labor to enter into that
rest. How do we do that? Look at verse
three. Verse three says, for we, which
have believed do enter into rest. We believe him. We believe him. We stop trying to work our way
to heaven. And we stop trying to work to
please God. And we do that when we believe
that Jesus Christ has finished the work for us. We were just
talking about this. There's no work to be done. Rest. That work had to be finished.
Here's the thing that I want this town, I want Kingsport to
learn. This work had to be finished.
It had to be finished. We don't cry peace, peace when
there is no peace. This work had to be done. Verse 12 says, For the word of
God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart." We've seen that this flesh is no good,
haven't we? It's no good. We've seen that
this flesh does not please God. It just doesn't. This verse says
that the Word of God finds every bit of that out. Every bit of
it. Go with me to John chapter 12. John 12, look at verse 48. This is our Lord speaking. He said, He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath
one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken. The same
shall judge him in the last day." This Word right here, this Word. You know we talk about the importance
of believing this Word. Believe this Word. Believe the
Word of God. Believe the Word of God. Do you
know what believers believe? Every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. We just read in Isaiah 65 that
he said, my people will build houses and inhabit them. What
does that mean? I don't know, but I believe it. Is it literal? Is it spiritual?
I don't know. But if he said it, I believe it. We believe
his word. This word is quick. It's quick. That means it's alive. It's living. This is what Peter said. He said,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. It's alive.
It's living. It's never going to die. Never
going to fail. Not one word. This word is quick
and it's powerful. Whatever it says will come to
pass. Whatever law it decrees will be upheld. This word convicts. It makes us convicts. This word sentences. This word slays. Slays. It's quick, it's powerful,
and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. One man said, The Word
is all edge. It's all edge. It has no blunt side. You cannot
come near the Word of God without it having some effect on you. It's either going to be death
unto death or it's going to be life unto life. But it's going
to leave its mark. It will leave its mark. Now go
with me back to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 verse 12 says, For
the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of the joints and marrow. The soul and the
spirit are invisible. They're invisible. The joints
and the marrow, it's all covered up in here. You can't see it.
It's all covered. But even they cannot hide from
the judgment of God's word. It discerns all the way into
the thoughts and intents of the heart. A sinner who sees that,
I wish more sinners would see that. I really do. I wish that people
would not be so at ease. Yeah, we have a beach house.
We like to go down there every couple of weeks. Oh, life is
great, is it? If the sinner ever sees what
this word does to sinners, all of that sinner's rest will
go out the window. All of his comfort will go out
the window. Every bit of it. It'll be shattered,
gone. I wish that would happen for
more people. I truly do. Verse 13 says, neither is there
any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
That's what Adam and Eve saw, isn't it? That's what Adam and
Eve saw. As soon as they realized that,
they started sowing fig leaves together. They were never doing
anything like that before. They had a lion over here, he
was eating with a lamb. But as soon as they saw this,
as soon as they saw what breaking the Word of God causes and does,
they went to work. They all went, hand me some fig
leaves. They went to work. If hearing this and if seeing
the truth of God's word causes all of your peace to run for
the hills, listen to this. Hebrews 4 verse 9 says, there
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. To the people
of God. There's a rest. to the people
of God. Every word of this will hold
true, including verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Let me show you what that is. Go with me one more time back
to Ruth chapter 3. Ruth chapter 3, look at verse 18. Then said she, sit still my daughter
until thou know how the matter will fall for the man will not
be in rest. until He have finished the thing
this day. Do we not hear our Lord speaking
through His Word? Do we not hear our Lord speaking
to the hearts of us, His people, through His Word? Sit still. Sit still. Sit still. She said, Ruth, you
sit still. You rest. Because He's not going
to. He's not going to. He will not
rest until every bit of this is taken care of. Every bit of
it. Isn't the gospel the most wonderful
news you've ever heard? It's so wonderful. It's just, people would say too good to
be true. It's too good and it is true.
He will not rest until every bit of this is finished. You
just sit still. You need to be redeemed. You have nothing to bring. You've
lost it all. Sit still. He won't rest until
this is finished. Did He take care of it? Did He
finish it? Did he redeem her from everything
she lost? Look at Ruth 4, verse 13. It says, So Boaz took Ruth and
she was his wife. She found rest in the house of
her husband, didn't she? Look at 1 Kings 8 with me. Turn over a few pages to 1 Kings
chapter 8. 1 Kings 8 verse 56. See if the
Lord will let us all enter into this verse. This is fantastic. 1 Kings 8 verse 56. Blessed be the Lord that hath
given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised
There hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which
he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. It says promise
three times. And not one word of it is going
to fail. It has not, it will not. Not one word to his people, Israel. Who are his people? Who are His
people? There's a rest for the people
of God. Not this whole world, but for
the people of God. Well, who are they? Go to Matthew 11. Matthew 11 verse 28 says, Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. That's his people. That's his
people. I wondered while I was sitting
down there how many people on this beach right now are just
burdened over their sin. Oh God, I'm going to go meet
you with all this sin on me. How many people? Not many. You know who his people
are? It's those who are troubled over
their sin. That's his people. That's his
people, burdened, labored over their sin. If we are those people,
what should we do? Should we try to fix it? Try
to straighten everything out? No, he said, come to me. Come to me. Come to him. Let's labor to enter into rest
by coming to Him. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. I'll give you rest. So back in
Hebrews 4, back in our text, seeing that and hearing our Lord
say that, verse 14, Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. We have a high priest that is
passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Seeing then that
he has appeased God for us, One of these days I want to enter
into that like I ought to enter into that. Seeing then that He has appeased
God for this sinner right here, seeing then that it is finished,
it is finished, let us hold fast our profession. Let's believe
Him. Let's believe Him. Let's rest. Inner rest. Outer rest. rest of mind, rest of soul. Verse 15 says, for we have not
in high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are
yet without sin. What that means is if we come
to him, we're not only going to find rest, we're going to
find sympathy. We're going to find pity. We're
going to find compassion. We're going to find that He knows
our frame. In all points, He was touched
with the feeling of our infirmities so that He could put them away.
Put them all away. They're gone. What about the
penalty? It's gone. Don't you know what I did? Yes.
No. God does. It's gone. Well, what about the guilt? It's
gone. It's gone. Jeremiah 50 says,
In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. It's
gone. Look at Hebrews 8, verse 12. Hebrews 8, verse 12. He said,
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. And their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. Why? Because they don't
exist. Christ finished the work of putting
them away. So back in Hebrews 4, our text,
verse 16, it says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace. Boldly does not mean arrogantly.
It means, let us come without the fear of being turned away
because of our sin. Some are going to come to Him
and He's going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. Cast
them into outer darkness. Let us come without the fear
of being condemned by our sins. They don't exist. Not in Christ. Not in Christ. Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace. Had Christ not finished
this work for us, we would have to approach the throne of judgment. So many people are going to approach
this throne, and they're going to be shocked to realize it's
a throne of judgment. Had Christ not finished this
work, that's what we would have to approach. But because Christ
made rest for us, That throne of judgment has turned
into a throne of grace. A throne of mercy, a throne of
help. Verse 16, let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. That sounds restful, doesn't
it? That sounds restful. So what
do we need to do? What do we walk away? What's
the moral of the story? Rest. Rest. Rest in Christ. He's saying, come up here to
this throne and find a seat right here at the foot of the throne
and just rest. Just rest. I pray the Lord will
enable us to do that. Rest. Rest. All right, let's
stand together.