Hebrews chapter 4. The title of the message is, Rest,
Rest, Rest. Rest is something that is very,
very difficult for us to do. I reckon it's probably the most
difficult thing for us to do is just to rest. We don't know how to rest. Counselors and therapists make
big money trying to give people rest, some peace of mind, quietness
of conscience, but to no avail because of sin. The rest they attempt to give
is temporary at best and never reaches the soul. It never reaches
the soul. They are like the physicians
who treated the woman with the issue of blood. They were called
physicians of no value. No value. There's one physician.
There is one physician that can truly give you and me real rest. Oh, I tell you, it's to have
soul rest. It means a lot just to be able
to rest physically, doesn't it? A couple nights ago, for the
first time, and I cannot remember when, I slept all night long. I went to bed about 1030, I woke
up at seven. I thought, oh man, how'd that
happen? How did that happen? I rested all night long, and
that felt so good. But there's nothing to compare
to the rest of the soul in the Lord Jesus Christ, where there's
real quietness in the heart. the world and all of its hustle
and bustle, can do all that it's running and here and to and fro,
and while you can sit back and not feel drawn into that, but
you can really sit back and rest and find real contentment in
Jesus Christ, that He's that real to you, and what you have
in Him is that real. Now you can't put a price on
that. True rest can only come through Jesus Christ alone. He
said, in Matthew 11, 28, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest, soul rest, peace, peace with
God, Now we need to keep in mind as
we go down through these verses here. I'm not going to go through
all this, but we'll go as far as we can. Keep in mind that
the Apostle is writing to his Hebrew brethren as well as unto
us. This is unto us too who believe.
He's writing to them concerning this rest encouraging them not
to turn back. We saw this last Thursday. And remember this, the Word of
God here, the Scriptures, was not written in chapters and verses.
This is just one letter. This is in his heart. I can,
and I was reading this, I've been reading this for the last
few days, but I can just feel his heart in this. You can just
feel it. He just, just like he said, listen
to me. Don't turn back. Don't be disappointed. No matter how hot the battle
gets, there is a real rest that we have in Jesus Christ that
Israel of old never attained to in the wilderness. He knew that not all who professed
to believe really believed. He knew that. And that's painful.
That's painful. There will always be tears among
the weak. Always. Always be tears among the weak.
And this is why he points back to their ancestors as an example
of missing the mark. And the reason they missed the
mark, they didn't believe God. It says, the word they heard
preached The gospel, they heard preached, and he says they heard
it. It was not mixed with faith. Because of their unbelief, it
wasn't united to their hearts. It wasn't real to them. It wasn't
real to them. They didn't believe God was good
for His Word. They did not believe God was
good for His Word. Now he says here in verse 1,
Let us, including himself, let us therefore fear." Now,
it may seem strange to speak of fear and rest at the same
time. That seems like a paradox, doesn't
it? To speak of fear and to speak of rest. Because it says in 2
Timothy 1.7, For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. But He hasn't given to us a spirit
of fear, and yet He says here, let us fear. This is where we
must rightly divide the word of truth. This is where God must
give us wisdom and understanding of His Word. There's a right
fear of God and there's a wrong fear. A right fear is one born
of knowledge. You come to know Christ. You
come to know God in Christ. It's born of experience and it's
born of grace. A wrong fear is born of ignorance
and darkness. Let us fear. Let us fear. Let us stand in awe Let us not
take this for granted," is what he's saying. Solomon said this
in Proverbs 14, 26, "...in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence."
Strong faith. That's what confidence is. It's
faith. It's to believe God. It's having confidence that God
will do just as He said He would do. And he says here, "...in
the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and His children
shall have a place of refuge." And that refuge is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's our place of refuge. It says in Proverbs 28, 14, "...Happy
is the man that feareth always." Always. "...But he that hardens
his heart shall fall into mischief." That's exactly what Israel of
old did. They hardened their heart. God
said, don't harden your heart. When you hear the gospel, don't
harden your heart. Don't turn from it. Don't turn
from it. Let us soak in. Soak it in. Take it in. We are to fear God with a reverent
fear for who He is. He's God and He's our Father. He deserves our fear, our respect,
our all. And let's not take it for granted
that we always had this. Let me read a scripture here.
I passed it over, but listen. Let me see if I can find it here.
Paul, speaking here in Romans 11, he says... well, turn over
to Romans 11. Let me read more of it. I just
got a couple of scriptures written down there. In Romans chapter 11, I'll tell
you the verses when I get there. Let me see what it is. In verse... I'm going to end
in verse 20. Let's start in verse 18. "...Boast
not against the branches..." That is, against Israel. He's
speaking here to Gentiles. "...but if thou boast, thou bearest
not the root, but the root deeth. Thou wilt say then, The branches
were broken off, that I might be grafted in." Well, that's
kind of an arrogant attitude, isn't it? Well, he said, "...because
of unbelief they were broken off. And thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear."
fear. For if God spared not the natural
branches, take ye, brethren, lest he also spare not thee." That's what he's saying. Stand
in fear. We may not always have this.
We have it today. Today's the day. We have it today. And brethren, let's thank God
for that. Give attention to it. Because
who knows what tomorrow brings? Who knows? Now the thing the
Apostle says we are to guard against here is unbelief, or
missing the Lord Jesus Christ. let us therefore fear lest a
promise," a promise being left to us, of entering into His rest. Any of you should seem to come
short of it. You missed the mark. That's why
he's saying, for a promise to be applicable. I want you to
get this. For a promise to be applicable to me, I must fit
the description of the one described in the promise. If I'm going to enter into His
rest, then I must be one who believes
God. No one who did not believe God entered into the rest, entered
into the promised land. I must fit the description of
the person described in the promise, if that promise is applicable
to me. Now to come short of the promise is to come short of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's to come short of faith,
of real genuine faith in Christ. I didn't write this scripture
down, but I know you'll remember when I repeat it here. There
was a time when Paul recommended Demas. Remember in the scriptures,
he recommended him. And then came a time when he
said, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
There was a time he recommended him, And then there was a time
he wrote and he said, Demas has forsaken me. Demas has left the
gospel. And Demas heard the gospel under
Paul. And he was following Paul. And
Paul recommended... Even Paul himself recommended
this man. Paul was so convinced that this
man was genuine that he recommended him. And then later on he says,
Demas forsook me, having loved this present world. To come short of the promise
is to come short of Christ. Turn over to Mark, Mark chapter
12. Mark chapter 12, and look in verse 28. And one of the scribes came, and having
heard them reasoning together, and perceiving he had answered
them well, asked him, commandment of all. And Jesus answered him,
the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all
thy strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second is like namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these. And the scribes said unto him,
Well, master, thou hast said the truth. For there is one God,
and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the
heart, with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with
all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more
than whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." This man learned
something, hadn't he? And when Jesus saw that he answered
discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom
of God." Now listen to me. Not far is not in. Not far from the kingdom of God
is not in the kingdom of God. It's like saying you make it
to the door out there, but you never come in the room. That scribe, he had learned something,
and the Lord said, you're not far from the kingdom of God,
but I'm telling you, not far from it is not in it. And that's the heart of this
message, is don't stop short, don't come up short, lest a promise
be left to us, you come up short of it. That's what He's saying.
You come up short of it. God has promised rest to the
believers, but only believers. With so much at stake, let us
be diligent in this matter of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ,
O that I might know Him." Some of you have been around here
for years. Are you satisfied with your knowledge
of Christ? Do you want to know Him more
than you do? Paul did. Paul said, O that I might know
Him. And no one knew Him better than Paul in that day. But Paul
said, Oh, that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings. That I might know Him. That I
might find real rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says, For
unto us was the gospel preached, that is, unto... And he's speaking
here of the first century Hebrews. Unto us was the gospel preached,
that is, unto us was the good news, the good news, the good
news of redemption preached, as well as unto them. But the
word, the gospel, the good news preached did not profit them. It did them no good. not being
mixed with faith, and them that heard the good news from bondage
was preached to them. The gospel was preached to them."
There's only one gospel. They did not have a different
gospel than we have. They looked, the ones whom God
saved, they looked to the One who was to come. You and I look
to Him who has come. Same person. Same person. They had it in type and picture.
Go read Isaiah 53. Wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. That's the gospel. You can't get any plainer than
Isaiah 53 on the substitution and satisfaction. There's no
chapter in the Word of God that's any clearer on substitution and
satisfaction than Isaiah 53. Look over in Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11. Let's see, look in verse 24. Look in verse
24. Hebrews 11. Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season." Now listen to how this verse
26 reads, esteeming the reproach of Christ. You reckon he knew something?
you reckon he knew someone. It says that Moses esteemed the
reproach of Christ greater riches and treasures in Egypt. For he
had respect and to the recompense of the reward. For by faith he
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured,
as seen him who is invisible. He was looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ, just as you and I look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He looked to Him as the Messiah.
He looked... He knew the Messiah. Now He didn't know Him by the
name Jesus Christ. That name was given to Him, or
Jesus anyway. Christ is His office. That's
His office. He didn't know Him by the name
Jesus, but He knew Him by the name... You know what He knew
Him by the name of? Lord. Lord. He knew who the Messiah
was. The Lord. the Lord." And so he
says, "...Here by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath
of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible."
Have you seen Jesus Christ? I haven't seen Him. Moses didn't
see Him. And you know what? You and I
right now, we too are enduring as seeing Him who is invisible. We have His Word, yes. But I've
not seen Him other than in His Word. And I would 10,000, 10,000,
10,000 times rather see Him in His Word than have a physical
appearance. Much rather. We have the gospel now in its
fullness. See, they look to the They look
to Him through the types and the pictures. We look to Him
through His Word. We have the complete Word of
God. But it's the same person. We look to the same person. But
it says, "...the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard it." Faith is the bond
that fixes the gospel to the heart. Faith, and I believe I
told you this last time, maybe on Sunday, I remember saying
it, But faith is what makes real that which is real. It makes
it real to you. It makes it real to you. But
they did not believe God, so the promise of God and the rest
that he promised in Canaan wasn't real to them. They couldn't lay
a hold of it. They just couldn't grasp it. He's like, no, that
ain't gonna happen. No, that's not gonna happen.
But faith says, yes, it is going to happen. Faith watches and
waits. That's what faith...faith believes
God. It believes God will do just what He said He'll do. Come
unto me, all you that labor, and have you laid, and I'll give
you rest. Every one of you that believe it will do it. You'll
come to Him. If you believe it, I guarantee
you'll come to Him. And you'll come to Him again,
and again, and again for that rest. But if you don't believe
Him, you'll just go out the door and you'll go back on your way
to work tomorrow and that'll be the end of it. Then when next
Thursday rolls around, next Sunday rolls around, you come back and
you just go back and do the same thing over and over and over.
But faith lays hold of it. Faith lays hold of eternal life.
Faith lays hold of Jesus Christ. And faith follows Him. The just
shall live how? By faith. That's how you'll spend
your life, that's how you'll wake up in the morning, that's
how you'll go through the day, that's how you'll go through
the week, the month, the year, your life, and you'll do it by
faith. And you'll pick up the Word of God and you'll study
it, you'll read it looking for Him. Looking for Him. Faith is the bond that fixes
the Gospel to the heart, makes it real. If the gospel is not received
by faith, it will not save anybody. It won't save anyone. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. We do enter into His rest. As
He said, this passage 3 of 4 is not an easy one to decipher.
or to articulate, especially for me. I mean, I don't find
it that easy, and most of the writers I've read, some were
here, some were there. But we have, he said, "...we
which have believed to enter into his rest, as he said, as
I have sworn in my wrath, that they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
Now he's bringing back in creation, back to Genesis 2, of this Sabbath
There's a real rest that God... What was the first type given
in Genesis? You going to say the seed of
the woman? I would have. But I was looking at this today
and doing some reading. The first type was the Sabbath,
God's rest. When He created...in six days
He created everything. On the seventh day, God rested.
That is a picture of Christ. God finished His work. Jesus
Christ finished His work. And there is a rest that remains
for the people of God. And that rest is in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. He is our Sabbath. We don't keep
a day. We worship a person. Our rest is a person. It's a
person. And it's soul rest. said, Although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world, for he spake in
a certain place of the seventh day on this wide, and God did
rest the seventh day from all his works." You know, it gives two types
of rest here. The Sabbath God rested the seventh
day in Canaan. And that was a typical rest,
that the people of Israel, if they had entered over into Canaan,
and they did enter over into those 20 years old and younger.
Now Joshua did take them over in there, but that group that
came out of Egypt originally, every last one of them died except
Joshua and Caleb in the wilderness. They died because they didn't
believe God. They called him a liar. They called him a liar. But when a sinner believes God,
that sinner enters into the rest that's in Christ. In Christ we
rest from the curse of the law. You know, that's a very real
curse. That's not a voodoo curse. You know, you've seen so many
goofball programs on TV and somebody puts a curse on somebody. If
you go over to Haiti, they put these voodoo curse on you. You
voodoo me all you want. There's only one curse that I
care about. That's the curse of the law. That's a real curse. That's a real curse. The others
are a joke. Any curse that a man or woman
tries to put on you is ridiculous. But the curse of the law is very
real. Cursed is everyone that does not do everything written
in the book of the law to do them. That's a real curse. And
we have arrest from the curse of the law, we have arrest from
the dominion of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you." It can't condemn me because the law satisfied me. Now listen,
and sin does not rule my life anymore. It may feel like it. It may seem
like it, but I'm telling you, sin does not rule over me no
more. It's not my master. Jesus Christ is my master and
He's conquered sin. He's conquered it. And it's rest from the power
of darkness. We have in Jesus Christ a real rest, a real soul
rest. The rest that we have in Christ
is a rest that He produced, a rest that He accomplished. He accomplished by His work,
and listen, He finished that work and it'll be done no more,
just as God hasn't created one thing on this earth." I'm not
talking about that new creation of a believer, but as far as
the creation of this earth, God hasn't created one thing since
the beginning. Not one. He rested. He rested. Now what if He started
creating some things again today? Then that rest was not a real
rest. That means he had to get back
up and work again. You know what I'm saying. What the Apostle does, he takes
us from the typical rest of that Sabbath in Genesis and that rest
in Canaan to the real rest that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He takes us from the lesser rest, that's typified, to the real
rest in a person. God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Seen therefore, it remaineth."
It remains, and the Greek of this is that it remains over.
It's still here. It's still today. There's still
a rest. Seen therefore, it remaineth
that some must enter there. There are some that, listen,
when God, when the Lord brought them out of Egypt, and he promised them the land
of Canaan flowing with milk and honey. They were going to go
into it. Now those who didn't believe
didn't go into it, but now God's not going to be, His purpose
is not going to be put aside, not going to be nullified. God's
going to have a people. God has a people. And there's
a rest that remains for them in Jesus Christ. A rest, a real
rest. God's purpose will not be defeated
by unbelief. He's going to take a people,
and that people, they're going to find their rest, their joy,
their peace in His Son, Jesus Christ. They're going to find
it. But not all, he says here, he
said, but not all who hear will believe it. You know, Paul said
in one place in Romans, not all that are of Israel are Israel. There is a remnant according
to the election of grace. They're going to obtain it. Not all who hear will believe.
They to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief.
Our Lord said this, many will say, Lord, Lord. Preached in your name. That's
what I'm doing. Cast out devils in your name.
Done many mighty works in your name. We've done a lot of things
in the name of Christianity, in the name of Christ. He's gonna
say, depart from me. I never knew you. You never believed
on me. You never believed me. Again, he says here in verse
7, again he limiteth, he set a certain day, saying in David,
Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if you'll
hear his voice, harden not your heart. He set a definite day,
and that day is today. It's the gospel day. And when
you hear the gospel, he says, Believe it. Believe it. Don't
turn back from it. Follow Him and follow Him all
the way home. Don't you draw back. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
that thou shalt be saved. When you hear that, do it." He
said, do it. For if Jesus or Joshua had given
them rest, then would He not have afterwards spoken of another
day. And he had quoted David there in Psalm 95. He just quoted
him. And what he's saying here, if
Joshua had really given them rest in Canaan, if that was the
rest, remember he talked to his Hebrew brethren, if that was
the rest, if that was so, and they had
obtained it, then David many, many years, many years, hundreds
of years later, would not have spoken of another day of rest.
If that had been the rest, he wouldn't be speaking of another
day. But since he's speaking of another day, that was not
the day. That was a typical rest. That's all it was. You know how
hard it was to get them to come off of that? I mean, they were raised from
childhood. It was ingrained in them. You go over there in Exodus
and they say, you teach this to your children. You sit down
with them. You tell them about coming out
of Egypt. You tell them how we came out of Egypt. And I tell
you, that was just drilled into them. And those false teachers, and
Satan is so subtle. Satan is so subtle. He knew that. And every chance opportunity
he was allowed to have, he would try to cause, just like Eve,
put a question mark. You want to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ? That's okay. That's okay. Go ahead. But you need to keep the law,
too. You need to go ahead and offer
the sacrifice. You need to keep the ceremony.
Let's keep this thing going now. Let's add to it. Let's add to
it. For if Joshua had given them
rest, David would not have spoken of another day. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. There's a real, genuine
rest waiting for the people of God. There's a complete rest
for God's children, a rest that is beyond comprehension. I wish
I could put it into words, but I don't have the words to really make this stand out. Rest, my soul. You have to know
what guilt is to appreciate rest. I understand that. Just like
you have to know what it is to be exhausted, totally physically
exhausted, to really appreciate what it is to lay down and rest.
Rest. For he that is entered into his
rest, now over that word his, that name his, just write the
name Christ. Just write the name Christ. For
he that is entered into Christ's rest, He also has ceased from
his own works as God did from his back in creation." God rested. He said, it's finished. It's finished. Brethren, you
and I who believe the gospel, we have entered into the rest
of Jesus Christ. It's finished! It's finished. There's nothing that'll quiet
your conscience and give you peace until you find in Christ
that real rest, that real soul rest that comes through knowing
Him and knowing that it is finished. The work is done. There's no
more work to be done. Rest in Him. Rest in Him. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, that rest He provided, that rest He worked
out by His sweat and blood, by His obedience, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief." Let us labor to rest. We must
strive each day to rest in Christ. We do, don't we? Every day. Self-righteousness raises its
ugly head, doubts, fears, because of sin, because of what we still
are by nature. We still have that old Adamic
nature with us. And we have to strive to rest. We have to strive against our
self-righteousness and rest in His righteousness. You know,
you do something good, you think, hmm, you know, you feel pretty
good about yourself. We've got to strive against self-righteousness,
looking down our nose at somebody else, because they've done worse
things than what we think we've done. If God has really, really
saved me and you, No one is beneath us. No one. We must strive against false
teachers and rest only in His Word. Take my yoke upon you and
learn of me. The believer's life is not one
of ease. It's watch and pray. It's strive
to enter in. It is labor. Labor to rest. Labor to rest. Never rest short, and let me
close with this serious note here, never rest short of Christ. I had someone call me and was
talking to me, and I think the Lord's doing something, but they
said it's really been troubling this person. Do
I really know Christ or not? Do I really know Him or not?
My advice is, don't rest till you do. Don't rest till you do. I'm not going to give you that
peace. I'm not going to give you that rest. I'm not going
to say, don't worry. I'll tell you what, if you're troubled,
don't rest till you find rest in Him, until He is your rest. If you believe the gospel, if
you believe God, stay right there till he comes. Stay right there
till he comes. All right, Craig.