This chapter speaks about rest and
what it is to rest in Christ, which means, chiefly, to cease
from trying to work your way to heaven. And when you enter into that
rest, it's a comforting thing, just a rest in Christ, His finished
work. visitors here today. I wish that
there were Mormons here. I wish there were Seventh-day
Adventists here. I wish there were German Baptists here. I wish
there were free will. Baptist people who obviously
don't know what it means to rest in Christ, but are, as Paul wrote,
going about to establish their own righteousness. I wish they were here, but they're
not. But we are, aren't we? So, let's hope that we will rest
in Christ. Verse 1, though, begins with
solemn warning, but us, therefore, fear Unless a promise being left
us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. So this is to us. Let us, all
of us, fear. Fear is a good thing. We were
talking about this just last night, weren't we? Fear. Fear
is a good thing. Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. People that don't fear the Lord That's a sign of the last days. No fear of God before their eyes. People that don't fear the Lord
are not wise. They're fools. Fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord. And he says, let us fear. David wrote one time, unite our
hearts to fear thy name when the world is mocking God and calling His name,
just tempting God every time they use His name. A God in whose
hands our breath is and all our ways. mocking and taking his name,
even little children. There's no fear of God. Let us
fear the Lord. Do everything we do in His name
tempered with fear and respect and reverence. Fear. Fear. Let
us fear departing from the Lord. Falling away. He says it's a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. In this
very book, it says, Our gods are consuming by our fear. Let us fear sinning against the
Lord. The Lord hates sin. Fear of the Lord is clean, the
Scripture says. It makes us watchful. He said,
let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His
rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. A promise. A promise. God, we're
saved. Peter wrote, we have many sure
and precious promises. Sure and precious God who promised
us eternal life. I cannot lie. It's a promise.
And it's certain. It's as sure as God is God. It's certain for all those who
believe Him and trust Him and look to Him and walk with Him. It's a promise, Brother John.
That means we're not there yet, doesn't it? It means we haven't
arrived yet. Paul said, I haven't arrived
yet, brethren, Philippians 3. I haven't arrived yet. He said,
but this one thing I do. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ. A promise. And
lest, he said, lest I come short of it. Lest we come short of
it. Scripture says, Brethren, now
is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. We're closer. Brother Henry,
I don't know how old you were when you first started coming
here and hearing the gospel, but it's been a long time. And
now you're, oh, past three score and ten. Well, getting well past
that. It's over. You're almost in glory. That's exciting. For you, I mean,
we'll be sad when you go, but that's real exciting. Almost
there. But you're not there. And come short of it. It'd be something,
wouldn't it, to come short. Come right up to the door. That's like the Israelites. That's
why he uses the Israelites throughout this book as a picture of how
you can walk for 40 years. He said, they proved me for 40
years. They saw my wondrous work for
forty years. We read through the Psalms 105,
106, 107. They forgot His work. And they came up short. Right
at the door. Right at the door and didn't
enter in. My, my. So fear is a good thing. Let us fear. Let us fear. Some older believers have departed. So professed believers have departed. They sure have. And you know,
Paul was afraid for some of the Galatians, the Galatians that
he preached to. He said, I'm afraid for some
of you. I fear for some of you. He said, where's the blessedness
you once spoke of? That first martyr used to call
it sweetheart love. Sweetheart love. Go over to Hebrews
10. And there's no way to preach
this except solemnly. It's us. It's to me too. It's
all of us. All of us, let us fear. Hebrews
10, there are these solemn words here. And you remember he said
this to exhort one another. He said that back in chapter
3. Hebrews 10, verse 23 and following,
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for He is faithful. He is faithful, that promised.
Just a little while. Remember Psalm 37? A little while,
you'll see. You're going to see. Wait. Wait
on the Lord. Wait, I say. Let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good work, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the matter of some is, but
exhorting one another. So much the more as you see the
day approaching. Exhorting one another. Look,
we're almost there. Can you see? We're almost there. You can see the end. You can
see the end. Look at the sky. But verse 26,
if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there's no more sacrifice for sin. There's a certain fearful
looking for of judgment, fiery indignation. Fearful looking. If we sin willfully, that means
And people don't just miss Christ. They leave because there's something
else or someone else that they go after. You don't just miss
Christ. You forsake Him. You don't just
miss God. You forsake Him. That's what
it's talking about. So, let us fear. It's a needful
word, isn't it? Lest, I promise being left us,
any of us should come short of it. Enter it into his read. Look
at chapter 4, verse 2. Verse 2, it says, The gospel,
the gospel, unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.
The gospel is preached here. That's why. The gospel. Paul said, there's another gospel
that's not the gospel. He said, now this is the gospel. Paul called it our gospel, didn't
he? Paul called it, he says, my gospel. And this is the one that saved
me, and I rest and trust in my gospel. We hear the gospel, the
gospel of God's sovereign mercy and electing mercy and grace
and love and eternal salvation that's in Christ,
Christ alone. The gospel of a full, free and
final and effectual salvation in Christ. Good news, it's not
us doing anything, it's done. The gospel. A gospel that means
our salvation is completely in the hands of a sovereign, all-powerful
Lord and we're kept by the gospel. The gospel. We hear it all the
time. All the time. The gospel. It's
preached undone. The truth we hear. time and time again. So he uses Israel as an example
and said the gospel was preached unto them, verse 2. It was preached
unto them, but it did not profit them not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. After a while, The Gospel was
removed from the Jews. Remember, Paul preached. Our
Lord said, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. And he
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He said, Go first
to Jerusalem. Beginning at Jerusalem. It's
to the Jew first. He said, Go. They're the worst
sinners. Go to them first. Chief of sinners.
And so he did, they did, and the gospel went to the Jews,
didn't it? Christ preached to the Jews. And the apostles preached
to the Jews. Well, Paul preached for many
years to the Jews until finally, he said, and they didn't receive
it after a while, and finally he said, you judge yourselves
unworthy. He said, I'm worthy Gentile. And God let them. Man, God left
them, and the gospel went to the Gentiles. Thankfully for
us, the gospel came to the Gentiles. Well, it can happen. He wrote
in Romans 11, it can happen to us. The gospel preached here
as well as unto them, but the Word was not mixed with faith.
That's it. Not mixed with faith. After a
while, the words of Moses were just words. Good sermon. Words
of Isaiah. Or just word. Good sermon. Look
at Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel chapter 33
with me. Ezekiel 33. Look at this. This happens. This happens. Ezekiel. Wouldn't you love to
hear Ezekiel preached? Well, the people did. And after
a while, it didn't matter. Daniel, Isaiah,
Jeremiah. I don't know how many times it
says in the Scriptures, the Lord spoke to them rising early, sent
the prophets rising early. And Stephen, remember Stephen's
message? He said, which of the prophets
did they not kill? Have your fathers not killed?
They rejected them all. After a while, Ezekiel 33, verse
30, the Son of Man, the children of thy people are talking against
thee, or about thee, in the walls and doors of their houses. They
are speaking one to another. Everybody is talking about the
preacher. Everyone to his brother is saying,
Come, I pray you, hear what the Word that cometh forth from the
Lord. And they come, and they sit as the people come, and they
sit before thee as my people. They seem to be, and they hear
your words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth
they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Lo, thou art unto them as a very
lovely song, one that hath a pleasant voice, can play well on an instrument.
They hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this comes
to pass, and it will come, And there'll come a time when this
little church, and if the Lord doesn't come in the next, you know, decade or
century, this church won't be here. It just won't. Rarely, rarely is there a congregation
that lasts, and I'm telling you from history. Rarely is there
a congregation that lasts more than 50 or 60 years. Doesn't
do it. Don't. You can count on it. And when this comes to pass,
you'll know. You know, so he says, let us
fear. The gospel has been preached
here. I'm kind of glad that my dad is not here this morning,
because I'm going to say this. You all know what a wonderful
preacher he is, has been and is. How many people have been
greatly blessed by his preaching? And how many of the Lord has
saved through his preaching? Well, there are some now, those
who claim to have heard the Gospel from him, who wish he were gone. I wish I had never heard his
name. That's a fact. That's hard to
believe, isn't it? Somebody claimed to have heard
the gospel from that man. And there's supposed to be a
real special bond there with the man that the Lord sent to
you. And I'm telling you the truth. There's some that can't stand
the name mayhem. That's sad. It happens. It happened. Well, it says in
verse 2, the gospel is not mixed with faith. And if you have a
margin, I like what it says here in the margin. It says in the
margin, the marginal reference says, because they were not united
by faith. to Christ. The Word was not mixed with faith.
They believed it. They heard it. They believed
the truth of it. But it was not mixed with heart
faith. They were not united to the Lord
Jesus Christ. One with Christ. The old writers
all the time talked about a union with Christ. Paul wrote, he said,
in speaking of marriage, For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, leave everything and everyone to cleave,
lay hold of his wife, and the two become one. They can't live
without one another. He said, this is a mystery. He
said, I'm talking about Christ and His church, that they're
one, united together, so in love with one another that nothing
and no one can separate them. They wouldn't dream of being
separated. It is with the heart, man, believe
it, under righteousness, not the head. If you don't bypass
the head, it doesn't mean there's no knowledge in the head, but
that's not where it's, my son, give me thine heart. The heart, out of the heart are
the issues of life. The heart, it's your heart. Set your affection on things
above. What things? Where Christ sits. If there's love there, That person
will be there. And if not, eventually. Nothing can keep them. So that's
what he's talking about. The children of Israel, they
had the law. They had the prophets. They believed. We had Moses. They trusted themselves
that they kept the law. But they weren't looking and
in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. And one can believe the truth
in the head and the heart, not love Christ, and we will come
up short if that's the case. But now verse 3, we which have
believed, talking about this rest, we which have believed
from the heart, look to Christ, trust Him. We
do enter into rest. We enter into rest. Those who look to and trust Christ
And we're going to see in a little bit how this rest is more than
just believing doctrine. But we do enter into rest. Not
shall, but do. Right now, enter into rest. Speaking
of this rest, we're talking about ceasing from your own works.
And this is the most comforting thing about the Gospel, especially
those who are in religion. When you hear this Gospel, It gives you rest, comfort, peace,
knowing that Christ is all your salvation. You cease from your
own work, not trying to establish a righteousness, not trying to
earn heaven. You know that somebody did that
for you. Rest. Verse 1 says, His rest. Verse 3, he says, We which have
believed do enter into rest, as I have sworn in my wrath,
that they shall enter into my rest. Verse 5, he says, my rest. Verse 10, he that is entered
into his rest. Verse 11, that rest. What rest? His rest. Christ, our Sabbath. Christ, our resting place. It says in verse 4, God did rest
the seventh day from all his works. The word rest means when
you rest. When you rest, you're not necessarily
resting from being tired. God wasn't tired. God rested
from His work. It doesn't mean He was tired.
It means He finished the work. The works of creation were finished. There's nothing left. It was
complete, wasn't it, John? It was complete. There's nothing
to add to it. Nothing left to be done. Nothing missing, nothing
lacking. It's perfect. And God saw his
work. And the last thing he created
was man in his image. And God saw all his works and
he said, it's very good. And he rejoiced in it. He rejoiced
in it. He took great joy and pleasure
in his finished work. And it says on the seventh day,
he rested. He rested. Nothing left to be
done. What's all that talking about? Talking about Christ. Talking about the work of salvation.
And when we rest in Christ, they that love thy salvation, David
wrote, They see that it's complete. We're complete in Him. And we rest, not in a day, but in a person. In a person. That Sabbath is a picture, a
type of Christ in whom we rest. He's the Lord of Sabbath. When
He came to this earth, you know, He broke the Sabbath. They thought
many times, those Jews who trusted in the Sabbath day, that they
kept the Sabbath like the seventh-day Adventists do today. They trust
in themselves that they are righteous because they keep the Sabbath
day. But our Lord said of those Jews then, you're lost because
you're trusting a day. A day won't save you. Keeping
a day won't save you. Keeping the law won't save you.
By the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified. All these books are written with
that in mind, Romans especially. He says, but now we're justified
freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Jesus
Christ, through the work that Jesus Christ did for His people. And God made Him our Sabbath. That's what he's talking about
here. Read on. It says, verse 6, seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter. Some must enter therein. They
must. Who's that? The Lord added daily to the church
those that must be saved, should be saved. His people, those he
gave to Christ, those he put in Christ, must enter therein. And they to whom it was first
preached entered not in because of unbelief. Unbelief? Well,
they believed in Jehovah. They believed in rules and regulations
and a lot. They believed in themselves.
They believed in their religion. But they weren't looking to Christ
for salvation. See, they were the types, the
symbols, the ceremonies, all of that. They were going through
the motions. They drew near with their lips. One time God said
in Isaiah 66, He said, Well, all the way through Isaiah. Through
Isaiah, he said, your new moons, your Sabbaths, he said, I'm sick
of it. He said, I'm way with it. God said this through Isaiah.
He said, I don't want, don't bring any more oblation to me.
He said, I'm sick of it. In Isaiah 66, he said, those
that are bringing a lamb now might as well cut a dog's head
off. That's what God said. Might as well cut a dog's head
off. And you know, religion all over this world and this land
and Christianity so-called, with all its goings on, all the flesh
and all of this, drawing near with their lips and their hands
and making all this way. Where is Christ? Like Isaac said
to his father, Father, here's the wood, here's the fire. Where's
the lamb? Where's the blood? Where's the
talk about mercy and grace and forgiveness for sinners? Everybody
gets together for a prayer meeting. What are they praying for? Well,
bless our town or bless our country or bless our this or bless our
that. Not like Daniel, we're going to read a little bit. Daniel
said, forgive us our sins. Save us from sin. Save us and
our children. Have mercy on us guilty sinners
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the blood be
propitiation on the mercy seat for us sinners. God will hear
that. That's faith. Look into Christ. That's why He came. Jesus is
the reason for the season. I need to say it as strong as
I can, don't I? Going through the motions of
Christianity when they're not looking to Christ. God says,
I have a people, though, who come who are poor and needy and
broken-hearted sinners who need mercy and grace. Don't deserve
it. Don't think God owes it to them. Don't think they have it coming
to them, but they're looking to Christ by faith. Oh, Lord,
please be merciful to me, this senator, through Christ my substitute. God says, I'll hear that man. I'll be near that man. I'll save
that man. I'll give you rest. I'll give
you comfort. I'll speak peace to your heart.
And He does. Gives them rest. That's what
believing Christ is. That's what believing Christ
is. The Jews looked to Moses, and then they looked to Joshua,
verse 8. It says, if Jesus, see that? If Jesus, that's Joshua,
if he'd given them rest, the Lord wouldn't have spoken about
another day, another time. When he says day, you know that,
that the day is a time, a period of time. The day is a thousand
years. A thousand years is a day, Peter
wrote. There remaineth therefore a rest, a keeping of the Sabbath,
Martin said, to the people of God. Ironically, I brought up
the seventh-day Advent, and even the German Baptists try to pretty
much meet on Saturdays, and ironically, they use this very chapter to say that, see here, in the
last days, true people of God are going to keep the Sabbath
day. They do. They use this very chapter of
Mother's Day. And when Paul wrote in other places like Galatians,
he said, it's not the keeping of a day.
It's not the Sabbaths. Not the Sabbaths. All of that.
It's Christ. It's all about Christ. Salvation
is all in Christ. It's not me in Christ. It's Christ. It's His work. Oh my. So there's a keeping of the Sabbath,
that is, resting in Christ to the people of God. Verse 10,
And he that is entered into his rest, is entered into his rest,
he ceased from his own works. You see that? As God did. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest. Rest. Let any Paul, after the
same example of labor, enter into that rest. Maybe we'll look
at that next week. But let me say this about rest
also, in closing. Rest has something to do with
relaxation. Comfort. If we're full of fears
and worries about the world and even about ourselves all the
time, we're not really looking to Christ. We're not resting
in Him. We need to do that. Look to Him.
It also has something to do with rest. It has something to do
with enjoyment. The older you get, the more you
look forward to resting. Sitting on the porch. We've been
camping this weekend. Just sitting, looking at the
fire. Just sitting. The older you get, the more you
want to do that. It's rest. It's relaxing. It's enjoyable. This gospel is
a joy. Paul wrote this, we lay hold
of the hope and rejoicing. of the hope, confidence and rejoicing
of the hope. The gospel ceases to be help,
a comfort and a joy and a rejoicing to us. And, ah boy, come sit,
lie down, rest and cry and find great joy in the Lord.