Hebrews chapter 4. The eminent preacher of years
ago, George Whitefield, whom the Lord mightily is sitting
in his study one day and a young man came in a young man in his
early twenties came in and the man was under conviction and
he began to weep and began to confess to Mr. Whitfield what a terrible sinner
he was. And he began to tell him what
things he'd done, where he'd lived, what he'd been in, gone
through, and what a terrible, terrible sinner he was. And after
he finished, Whitfield said, Is that all? Phil said, Is that all? And then
he went on to tell him a little more about his sinful life, what
he'd been doing. what he'd been through, how wicked
the man he'd been, and weeping. And after he finished, Whitfield
said, is that all? The fellow said, is that all?
Oh, Mr. Whitfield. And he began to say
some more of his wickedness and tell some awful things he'd done,
just pouring out the secrets of his heart. And after he's
finished, Whitfield said, and is that all? And the fellow said, what more
is there? What more can I say? Whitfield said, where you've
left out the worst sin of all, you failed to mention that which
made you do everything that you did. Unbelief. He said, you failed to mention
that you're an unbeliever. before God, that damning sin,
that which will damn your soul before all these others. The unbeliever, the person who
has not yet come to Christ by faith, the
person who does not truly worship God in spirit, I mean really
and truly and sincerely worshiping God Almighty, and rejoice in
Christ Jesus, that salvation that's in Christ, and renounce
self, that person is, in essence, saying, there's no God. There's no holy God to face.
I'm not going to face him. There is no God. That person
is saying, I hear what the Bible's saying, but I don't, it's not
for me, I don't That person is saying, I hear that somebody
supposed to be the Son of God came down here and named Jesus
Christ and died that awful death on that cross. I hear that, but
it wasn't really necessary. I don't need it. That's what unbelief says. And
all will be forgiven. Murderers. There will be murderers
in heaven. I don't think there's anybody in here who's actually
murdered or killed somebody unless it was in the war, unless you
just haven't told anybody. But there are going to be some
murderers in heaven, some actual murderers. David, Saul had people killed. Paul the Apostle was a murderer. There are going to be some thieves
in heaven, one prominent one. There are going to be some idolaters,
people who worship idols, false gods. Aaron made that golden
calf. Oh, he said it just appeared.
He said he threw a little brass or gold in there and it came
out. He was an idolater. Solomon. There are going to be
some harlots in heaven. Can you think of anybody that
people think less of than a harlot? There are going to be some harlots
in heaven. But no unbelievers. None. No unbelievers. None who have
not come to God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's really a very plain and
a simple thing to believe Christ. No unbelievers. How serious this
ought to make what I'm doing this morning, what we're doing
this morning. I'm proclaiming the gospel. I'm going to proclaim
the gospel. And if God gives you the grace
to send his Holy Spirit just to receive it, say, yes, I believe
that. Christ saved me. That's it. You've granted, I
don't care what you've done, where you've been, what you're
going to do, you're granted entrance. into God's heaven. But refuse,
I don't care how moral you are
or what you have not done, you're not going to be there. That's
how serious this thing is. No unbelievers. This is why he
says in Hebrews 4 verse 1, let us fear. Let us therefore fear. Who's the us? Well, us. Here we sit, this Sunday morning
crowd, got on our Sunday finest. We, most of us, profess to be
Christians and all. Here we sit, us. Let us, me,
preacher included, fear, fear, lest, fear, lest a promise being
left us of entering into Christ's rest. Any of you should seem
to come The Scriptures are full of promises. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Promise. Blessed, precious promise. Promise of eternal life. Come
unto me, all ye that labor, and I'll give you rest. Precious
promise of rest. Salvation, forgiveness of sin. Acceptance with the Father. blessed,
precious, inestimable promises of God, privileges, rare and
honorable privileges. You may join heirs with Christ,
to be seated in the heavenlies with Christ, to enjoy eternal
bliss and happiness, precious promises of God's Word to all
who merely come to Christ by faith. left by God, and yet, he says,
some people will come short. His arm's not short that it cannot
save. The promises aren't excluding
anybody. Are they, Brother Terry? No.
All. He's able to save the uttermost.
All of them that come to God by him. All. They're not excluding
anyone. They're all who come to God by
Christ. All. Now, here's the problem in me. That the gospel promises the
good news. Look at it, verse 2. He says,
under us now, the gospel has been preached. Under us. Who? Us. Under us. This little assembly here, this
little church, this little group of people, this little flock, this is the most blessed people
on the face of the earth. One of the most blessed congregations
on the face of the earth. Why? Don't the gospels preach
that to you? Not this mamby-pamby, free will,
another gospel. Not this gospel that cannot save,
but the gospel of your salvation. How did God reign and rule? And this holy God, you're in
his hands. Yet in mercy and in grace, he
sent his Son down here to save a chosen people. And all those
that come to God by him in faith, he'll impute that righteousness
to. He'll grant forgiveness to. And it's not up to you. It's
nothing you do. You don't have to do anything.
You don't have to be a certain way. You don't have to act a
certain way. Just come to Christ. Just believe Christ. I know they
talk about easy-believism today. There are many of them. But no,
it's hard. Self-righteousness is hard. It's
hard to work your way to heaven. They say, now, if you'll lead
the victorious life, you'll do this, you'll do that, God will—no.
Since Christ, God will save you. That's the gospel that is preached
here, the good news of full free pardon in the blood and righteousness
of Christ. Come. The gospel was preached, he said,
as well as unto them. He'd been talking now, he'd been
talking about the Jews in the wilderness, out there in the
wilderness. He said the gospel was preached
to them, and it's now preached to you. But he said they didn't
hear it. I didn't believe it. Have you heard it? This gospel,
I mean, really heard it. Not with these ears. All having
ears, they hear, or they don't hear. Having eyes, they don't
see. But have you heard this gospel?
Has it touched your heart, your soul? That's what I'm talking
about. Have you heard it? Well, he said the gospel was
preached unto them forty years. Forty years this straggling bunch
walked in the wilderness. Forty years and they heard the
gospel. They saw the tabernacle. They saw the rock. They saw the
manna. They partook of the manna. They
saw the miracles. Forty years they had the gospel,
the good news of freedom. of the promised land, preached
unto them. Forty years of God's glory, the tabernacle, and all
these things, yet it says here that it did not profit them. The gospel didn't profit them. Now it says their carcasses rotted
and they died in the wilderness. Only two people over twenty years
of age, Joshua and Caleb, entered into the promised hundreds of
thousands perished. How many thousands of you all,
have some of you heard the gospel? How many times? Some of you getting
up in here, you've heard a lot of messages from this poor kid. Have you heard it? How many times? How many times? My sister and
I, we grew up in a true gospel church, a place where the The
gospel of God's sovereign grace was preached. We heard message
after message after message, countless messages. I went 20
years. I heard 20 years' worth of messages
that were able to save my soul. I didn't hear it. I heard them.
I didn't hear it. But thank God one day I heard
it. It was all up to Him, too. All up to Him. And I ask you,
have you heard it? How many of you sat in? How many
messages? Why didn't it profit these Jews?
Because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard. It
wasn't mixed with faith. There was no true heart for God.
They came, they sat, they listened, they went on. No true heart for
God is Christ. They heard, but they didn't care,
they didn't commit, they didn't follow Christ. And there's some people in here
this morning. There's at least a person. maybe more, that I'm going to
have trouble preaching your funeral. When your body's laying in a
casket right down here in front of us, I'm going to be at a loss
of words about your profession or your confession of faith. I'm just going to have to preach
the gospel and say, well, Christ saved sinners. He'll have mercy.
And the thinking in my mind, I don't know if they believe
Christ or not. I don't know. They heard, but
it sometimes appeared like they weren't hearing the gospel. I'm
going to have a hard time. I'd like to know. I don't know.
I don't know the state. God does. But I'd like to have some confidence.
I'd like to be able to stand up there and say, well, so-and-so,
they trusted Christ. They knew Christ. They heard
the gospel and received it with open arms and believed it. I'd like to be able to do that.
You know, the gospel's like food. It's like water. It's able to
quench your thirst. It is. The gospel food is able
to satiate your hungry soul. It's able. It's good food. It's good food. And thirst is
the hand that takes it. That's all faith is. There it
is. There's water. I'm thirsty. I need it. Better
drink it. It's like food, good food. And
how many of you parents, can you imagine, wouldn't it be inconceivable
to watch your child die of starvation right before your eyes? Ginny,
what if you fixed meal after meal like you did last night
for Sarah? And just have her waste away
to nothing? Because she wouldn't eat it.
Wouldn't eat it. That's what this gospel is. Okay? It's good
food. He's able to make you wise and
salvage, save your eternal soul. Would you eat it? Would you receive
it? Would you listen to what I'm
saying this morning? Look at it, verse 3. It says,
We which have believed do enter into rest. That sounds real good to me right
now. Oh, y'all know. Now y'all are real relaxed here
this morning. I'm not. You know, the opposite of rest
is what? Work. Work. You work and you
rest. You work, you rest. Some of you,
you know, there's nothing more needful than rest. After a long,
hard week of work, many of you have worked long and hard all
week long. Many of you, six days. And this
is your only day off, and you come in here and you're sitting
down, here you are, real rested. Some, a little too rested, I'm
afraid. But it's relaxing, rest, relaxation. But that's not the rest he's
talking about here. That's not what he's talking about. There's
a much more needful and enjoyable rest. This rest right here is
not going to last long. You're going to get up tomorrow
morning and you're going to say, Hey, where would Sunday go? Where
would my day of rest go? That's not the rest he's talking
about here. That's not it at all. He's talking about here,
rest of mind. Just rest your mind. You need
rest of, you need your mind at rest? You need your heart, your
conscience, a guilty conscience to rest? Do you need that? At
peace? Huh? Do you? Look over at Matthew
11, verse, with me. Matthew 11, verse 28. I do. I need this rest, this peace
of conscience and mind. I need to be at rest inside. I need my conscience. I need my conscience cleared
and at rest. There's only one place to find
this sort of rest, and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at it. Verse 28, "'Come
unto me,' he says. All ye but labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest." Rest. Come unto me, all ye but
labor. Now, there are some people in
here right now, this morning, that are truly interested in
knowing God. I really believe there are some
people that are truly interested in knowing God. I hope you are. But you're trying to do something.
You want to know God. You really do. You want to be
saved. You want to know what it means to be saved. You want
to know this true and living. You believe He is. God is. But
you're trying to do something. You're trying to do something.
You're trying to be a certain way. Right? I know. Trying to be a certain way. You're
trying to act a certain way. Trying to look a certain way.
Trying to feel a certain way. Right? I don't feel like a believer. I don't feel religious enough.
I don't feel sinful enough. You try to do so. You try to
quit this. Try to do that. Right? Try to go to church. You try to pray, and you can't
pray. Try to read the scripture, you can't read. Try to sit and
hear the gospel, you can't do that much. Labor. That's labor. That's soul labor. That's inward labor. Labor. Trying
to do something. If only I could get to God. And
you're heavy laden, maybe, with this problem. Heavy. It's a burden.
Guilt. You suffer with guilt, guilty
conscience. Your mind bombards you with things
you've done in the past. Are you guilty over your failures,
your setbacks? You try, you think you make some
progress, then all of a sudden you're right back where you started.
Guilty. And you're burdened with a terrible
struggle with sinful thoughts and desires. and you'd do anything
and everything if you could only get rid of it. If you could only
get rid of this, I'd like to know, God said, Christ says,
come to me. You're laboring, you're heavy
laden, you're struggling, you're having a problem here, come to me. I'll give you rest. Rest, the Son of God says, come
to me. I give you rest from all that.
Rest. We need to quit trying and start relying on Christ. Quit trying and start relying
on Christ to save you. You and I can't. We can't do enough to please
God. We can't feel enough. We can't
feel religious enough. We can't feel sinful enough,
we can't repent enough, we can't read enough, we can't pray enough,
we can't be good enough, but Christ is enough. He can and
he did. And he says, you got problems?
Come to me. Come to me. Come to me. Take your
burden to the Lord. And what? Leave it there. Leave it there. Rest in Christ. Rest. Rest of conscience, heart,
peace. And I can't give this to you,
and I can't even explain it to you. You've got to experience
it yourself. Just lean, just repose upon Christ. Lord. Give up! Cry, uncle. Cry, uncle. To yourself, to Satan,
and sin, just cry, uncle. Say, cry, Lord. Satan. That's it. And then there's an
eternal rest in heaven for all those that come to Christ by
him. Now, look, he goes on to talk about a couple of different
rests here. I'm preaching exposition. I'm
going verse by verse here. Let's go through this. Verse
3 through 8. I'm going to read all those verses. He's talking
about a couple of different rests. Stay with me. Now, he contrasts
here. He says in verse 3, we enter into rest. We which
have believed do enter into rest. Now God said, I have sworn in
my wrath, this is Psalm 95, I have sworn in my wrath that some people
will not enter into my rest. Although, Paul says, although
the works were finished, that is God finished creation from
the foundation of the world, so evidently he's not talking
about that rest because he said on the seventh day, verse God
did rest the seventh day from all his works, and now here again
he's talking about another rest. In this place again he says,
if they enter into my rest. So he says, see therefore it
remaineth that some must enter into some kind of rest, but he's
not talking about rest from, that first rest, creation. And
they to whom it was first preached, that is the Jews, they didn't
go in. They didn't enter into that rest. Canaan, in other words,
that promised land, that wasn't the final rest in place. He,
in a certain day, he said, because today, after so long a time,
after so many years, you still need to enter into that rest,
if you'll hear his voice, harden not his heart. If Jesus, if Joshua,
that's Joshua who led the people into the promised land, he said
if Joshua had given them rest, if the people had gone in there
and they'd had final rest, then he wouldn't have spoken of another
resting day, another resting day later on. So therefore, verse
9, there remaineth therefore a rest, a real rest, to the people
of God, to God's people, from beginning to end, a real rest. And I talk about the rest of
creation. It's a difficult passage, but this is what he's saying
here. He's not talking about when God rested from his works
in creation. He's not talking about the Canaan,
the promised land. He's not talking about heaven
either. No, God's not talking about heaven. Talk about a rest
for all of God's people, a rest. Now listen, God spoke to Moses. Let me tell you what this is
about. God spoke to Moses and he promised,
he gave the good news to the people in the wilderness. He
gave the good news that they'd be free from bondage, free. free, free. God set them free.
Freedom from fear, freedom from death, and final entrance into
the promised land. God gave them that promise through
Moses. But some refuse to believe that.
They say, well, didn't they all go out of Egypt? Well, yeah.
They were driven out. They were driven out. But some
refused to ever believe it. They really didn't. They really
didn't ever finally believe that this thing was going to—God said,
I'm going to give you a promised land, full of milk and honey,
grapes, big grapes. Didn't I say that I'll give you
the proven land? God promised them this. Yet some
refused to believe it. God gave them the tabernacle.
Okay? But yet some really, in their
heart and their mind, refused to enter into it. And some just
went along for the ride. Listen to me. It's a ploy. They'd
just eaten the manna, drinking the water out of the rock. They,
even after a while, they longed to go back to Egypt, didn't they?
Ah, I wish we was back in Egypt. Getting tired of this manna,
didn't they? Didn't they? That proves, Henry, their hearts
weren't right. Their hearts weren't right. Some of them didn't believe.
They really didn't trust and worship God Almighty. They longed
to go back to Egypt. You're going to leave us to perish
in the wilderness?" We'd like to go back to Egypt. Let us turn
around and go back. They had no eye to the promised
land. And even so, this is written to religious people. That's everybody
in here who've heard the gospel time
and time and time again, yet may be only along for the ride. Just look in the park, you know,
going to church on Sunday morning every now and then, who don't
really believe God and trust God and love Christ and have
come to Him by faith, who don't really, are not really seeking
after, following after, wanting to know and win and be found
in Christ, not having your own righteousness, but being actually
saved from this sin and from this guilt. There's something
in you. I know it. But just kind of, you know, kind
of interested in heaven, who wouldn't be, Terry, the way people
talk about it today? That's about all men talk about
it, promisely. No more tears, no more sorrow,
you know. Who wouldn't be interested in
that? God'll give you everything you want. And that's what they're talking
about more than anything, aren't they? Eternal happiness. That's not
the rest he's talking about here. Heaven. Because, listen to me. Some people back then entered
in to rest before they got to Canaan. Moses didn't get there. Moses
did not walk into the promised land, but he was resting. He was. Joshua, Moses said, here's
what Moses said, Lord, I sure would like to see the promised
land. I sure would like to go in, God. No, that's not what
he said. Moses said, Lord, I want to know
you. Show me your glory. I've seen these miracles. These
things don't interest me, but you do. You sure interest me. I want to know you. I want to
live in you. I want to abide in you." Joshua. Joshua said, "'As for me and
my house, now we're going to enjoy, we're going to zippity-doo-dah,
zippity-day, in the sweet by and by, for the circle won't
be unbroken, the pie in the sky, the cabin in the court.'" Now
he said, "'As for me and my house, we're going to serve our Lord.'"
Where are we getting the promise from? It's just our privilege
and our happiness and our joy to know Him and to know that
He knows us. Real rest. And some of you in
here, if you know what I'm talking about, I see the smiles on your
faces. I tell you what it is, it's the difference between coming
to church and sitting here and saying, And sitting here and saying,
this is the greatest thing I've ever been in on. It's the difference between sitting
here and saying, I don't understand a thing he's saying. I just,
oh, gracious. And sitting here and saying,
thank God for revealing this gospel to me. I love this. And I can't give it to you, can't
even explain it to you. You just have to experience it. And I'll tell you what you need. I tell you, we're not in this
thing to get to heaven. We're not in this thing to get
to heaven. We're in this thing because Christ got to us. Right, Henry? You're not in this
thing to get to heaven. You're in this thing because
Christ got to us, got to you. And that person who has Christ
is the most rested and relaxed person. Or should they? Should they? Unworried and unhurried. Rest in free and easy. I tell
you now, there's freedom from guilt. God's not mad at me. He ought
to be. And there's times when I think
he is, but no, he's not. God's not mad. God's not angry.
He's angry with the wicked. You say, aren't you wicked yet?
Yeah, I am, but I'm righteous in Christ, though. Say, he's
well pleased for his righteousness, though. Say, he deceived me. Accepted in the blood. Say, I'll
accept it. No condemnation is what he said. I deserve to be
condemned. He said there's none. Them that
come to God by Christ. Them that are in Christ. Freedom from bondage to sin.
You say, doesn't sin seem to rule over you and have dominion
over your time? It does, but it doesn't. Really, it doesn't?
It feels like it does at times, but it doesn't. Here I is. I'm
not at Joe's bar. Like I said before, I'm at Joe's
church. No place I'd rather be either. He's plain that. Freedom from bondage to religious
superstition. I ain't wearing no robe, and
you never will see me wearing one. And we're going to have service
tonight. Why? Don't have to. Don't have to. Nobody said it did. Nobody said
I had to have it now. Did Christ say that? Hmm? Say that in the Bible? These
guys are making mountains out of molehills, huh? I'm not worried
about trying to keep the law. I want to. I'm striving to. But I ain't worried about not
keeping it. You understand what I'm saying? I want to keep it. I'm striving to keep it. But
I ain't worried until I come short of it. I don't have to
worry about it. Christ kept it. He kept it. I'll always come up short. Christ
didn't. He won't. God's not paying attention
to what I'm doing anyway for salvation. That's good news to
me. You can rest in that now. There
remains therefore a rest, and this is what he's talking about,
a keeping of the Sabbath. Do you see that? Do you have
that in your margin, a keeping of the Sabbath? That is a perpetual
keeping. That's present tent. Keeping
of the Sabbath. Now listen, Sunday morning folk. Like I just said, there ain't
no such animal as a Christian Sabbath. that I don't care what
these guys say, just show me where God said, no, you'd better
meet on Sunday morning. You're going to hell. You remember that quote back
a bulletin or two ago that said, life shouldn't contain acts of
worship. It ought to be an act of worship.
You remember that? My week shouldn't contain one
day of rest. One day of worship, Terry. All
week ought to be worship, right? Ought to worship Him every morning.
As much as the new every morning. The Sabbath, do I just rest on
Sunday, you know, to quit working on Sunday? Some people, now listen,
there's some poor John Cheesley guy, he's got to go to work,
he wouldn't have a job with an early. What are these fools going
to say about that? I worked for years on Sunday,
couldn't help it, wouldn't have a job if I didn't work on Sunday.
But blessed God, I was in the service when I could be. But
while I was working, I was resting in Christ, you see. He is my
register. That's what the Sabbath was instituted
in the first place for. Sabbath never was instituted. Sabbath ain't Sunday anyway,
it's Saturday. And you'll not find it in the
Bible anywhere where he instituted a Sunday Sabbath. It just says
they met together on the first day of the week, doesn't it?
It just says they met together, doesn't it? Are you a believer?"
Now, he doesn't say that. He says, you will because you're
a believer. And so you better not have to
go to work. Now, is salvation by grace, or
is it by works? Which is it, man? Salvation by
me keeping Sunday and Sabbath, or is it Christ, because Christ
kept them all? Which is it, man? It's not vacillated
here. Isn't that your way to know preaching? I'm here because
I want to be. If you're here because you're
supposed to be, you don't want to hear anyone. Right? If you give because you're
supposed to give, don't give. God won't accept it anyway. If
you pray because you're supposed to pray, don't pray. God's not
hearing it. Right? Starts in the motive,
right? He knows. He knows. In the Sabbath, Christ is our
day of rest. It was always meant to be a picture
of Christ, wasn't it? We'll see that here in a minute.
The psalm says, every hour of every day I'm arrested. Not just
Sunday. Now listen, there are some people
now who may, Paul talked, you talked about it last night, I
quoted it. Paul said if a man wants to regard a day, let him
regard it on his Lord. If a man doesn't regard a day,
now if Paul would have demanded that you, that Sunday be a Christian
Sabbath, he wouldn't have said that, would he? Huh? He wouldn't
say, man, it doesn't regard the day. He doesn't regard it either.
Paul would have said, no, it'd be better. He better. No. Christ didn't. He said the Sabbath. He said
man wasn't made for the Sabbath. Didn't it? The Sabbath was made
for man. He said, beside that son of man,
the Lord over the Sabbath anyway. I'm Lord over my people. Don't
you dare bind my people to a day. to a ritual and to a rule and
regulation and all that. Well, look at verse 10. Here
it is. He says, verse 10, now listen,
don't get me wrong here. This is a privilege to come here. And you need to take advantage
of it. You need to avail yourself of every opportunity of being
here. It's the only thing God uses. One of the chief things
that God uses to It's a salvation of souls for peace, for comfort,
for joy, for maturity, preaching the gospel. If you miss out on
it, you're going to suffer terribly. If you're not a believer, if you're not, but if you are
a believer and you miss out, you'll suffer terribly, terribly. Verse 10, they said, Now he that
is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own
works as God did from his. Who's that talking about? Us?
Yeah, that's talking about Christ. That's not talking about us.
He says, now, there remains a rest to the people of God, and he's
going to tell you what that rest is. It's Him. There remains a
keeping of the Sabbath. What did Christ say? He that
loves me will keep my word. Right? Keep me. keeping of the Sabbath, there's
a trusting, a clinging to, a resting in, a depending upon, a coming
to Christ, a keeping of the Sabbath. Remember, he talked about, he
said, after talking about the Jews and all, he said, but there
is a rest to the people of God, a keeping of the Sabbath, and
it ain't a day, it's a person, it's a deity, not a day, it's
a person, because He, you see that? For He, Christ, who has
entered into his rest, he's also ceased from his works, like God
did here. Now, you remember, Christ came
down here, he had a work to do, right? The Father sent Christ
down here with a work to do, a job to do. Christ came down
here to work out our salvation. He came out here to work our
way to heaven. We don't have to. He did. He
came to work our way to heaven, you and me. He came down, he
had a job to do. He said, my father works, and
I do too, didn't he? And for thirty-three and a third
years, he worked out a perfect life so that you don't have to
fret with it. You don't have to. He worked
out a perfect life as a man. He was perfect in thought and
word, indeed, just like God demanded of you and me. And because Christ
did it, we don't have to be perfect, be that absolute perfection.
We don't have to. And He did this for some people,
and then He went to the cross to finish that work, and while
He was hanging there, what did He say? He said, He heartily
cried with a loud voice after thirty-three and a third years,
and after going to the cross and being made sin, all the sin
of God's people laid on him, he had a job to do. Put away
those sins. Pay for our sins. Suffer the wrath, the punishment
we deserve. And after hanging there on the
cross for so long a time, he said, It's finished! And then he rested. Went back and what did he do? Sat down. Sat down. What are we going to do? Oh,
got to work for Jesus. First thing you got to do is sit down
and sit down. Rest in Christ. See that? Somebody said, we meet on the
first day of the week because we rest first and then we go
to work. You don't go to work and then
rest. No, Christ went back. He became that day of rest, right?
He became that rest. He Himself, He worked out and
then He rested. Now, we rest first. And then
we go to work, not for salvation. I'll show that to you. He went
back to heaven and sat down and now He said, you come to me.
Just come on, just sit right here on my lap. Let's rest together. Let's rest. He sees from his
works like God did his. There's nothing left for Christ
to do, Terry. There isn't. He did it all. Finished. Nothing
left. He said to the Father, he looked
God right in the eye and he said, the work you gave me to do, I
finished it. I did it. And the Father said,
well done. Sit down. Good. People saved.
He said, someday you're going to present all these people to
the Father, and behold I and the children, you've given me.
I've brought them all here. Trophies of what I've done. My
grace. I did a good job. And the Father's
going to say to the Son, not you to me, but to the Son, good
job. They're all here. Amen. Not because
old John remained faithful. Oh, he will. But it's by his
faithfulness. Right. Not because Deborah kept
herself from sin. No, because she kept by the power
of God. Ready to be redeemed, be redeemed,
ready to be redeemed. Ready. Now, verse 11. Now, here's the paradox in this
thing. You see that, that verse 10?
That's what my Christ sent me. Verse 11, he said, Now let us
labor, therefore. See, remember this rest. His
rest, that rest. labor to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after the same example of these Jews of old,
disobedience. Labor. Now, he's not talking
about working your way to Christ. That's not what he's talking
about. He's not talking about it. Well, how does any man come
to Christ? Christ comes to him first. Right? Call on Joel 2.32, it says that
whoso shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, as
many as the Lord our God shall call. He calls, he does the calling
first. Right? Why are you here this
morning? Because you decided to? No, because
God decided to. If you hear the gospel this morning
and you haven't heard it before, it'll be because God Almighty
determined for you to hear the gospel this morning. Right? And if you believe you've come
to Christ, it'll be because God Almighty determined for you to
come to Christ before the foundation of the world. And he gave you
the thing. He says, all right, right now,
March the 3rd, 1991, at 1137, or 1157, so and so will receive
me by faith. Got it written down right here. Said they would. going to rest. He's talking,
he's not, he says labor. Now, it's hard work. Listen, it's hard work just to
rest in Christ. It's hard work. It's hard work
to rest in Christ. Listen, sin and self-righteousness
are laborious, hard work, hard work. But it's a warfare and
a struggle just to rest in Christ, too, isn't it? Because we're
so full of superstition and religious traditions and preconceived notions
of what we're supposed to be and how we're supposed to act.
And because these fellows, these fools, have drummed in our heads,
you better, you better, you better, you better. Because of that doo-doo-doo-doo-doo,
you know, that drummed in our ears and our heads and our minds
and our hearts that we better be this, better be that, and
we better be in Christ is where we better be. And it's hard work
to make a man just lay down your gun now, get a self-righteous
rifle and lay her down. All right? Put the ladder down, you can't
climb it. Where's the word of faith say? Who shall ascend up
into heaven? Who'll go to Christ? How are we going to get to Christ?
That's what we're talking about. Come unto me. How do I, how do
I do that? Jesus, sit still! That's what Scott was talking
about when he said, come to Christ but don't move a muscle. You can, we can sit right here
and call on him. A blind man can look to him.
A deaf man can hear his voice. I know, we've seen that. People
that can't hear the gospel have heard it. People that can hear
it, deaf people, really can't, they've heard it more than some
people in here that can hear it with their ears. It's plain
mad. Because my sheep will hear my voice. But it's a struggle
and a warfare just to force ourselves to come hear the gospel, to force
ourselves to this and that and the other, when we're just to
rest. And alas, how many people seem
to come short of it. Come short of it. This is what's
so exasperating about this thing of preaching. Like I was saying,
how horrible, how terrible it would be to watch your child
waste away before you. And to see people sitting in
here right now, and I just, I trust Christ. You need Him. You need
Him desperately. And yet to see somebody go home?
So there was. You know, you've talked to people
that are blue in the face. You want to convince them. You
can't do it, can you? I hope God, by His Spirit, by
His grace, will convince everybody in here that heard this message
this morning of your desperate need of Christ and show you how
you just need to rest and cry. Rest. I tell you, once you rest,
though, you will serve Him. But you won't think you have.
You won't think you have. God's people, they do serve his
cause, but they don't think much of it, do they? When did we do
these things? You did. And never look at the
works. You're always resting in Christ.
When you've done all that's required of you, when you've done the
best that you can do, still no good, right? Still got to rest
in Christ, don't you? So I say to somebody in here,
everybody, I say to everybody, Come to Christ. Trust Him. Just trust Him. Rest in Him. Take Him by faith. You'll realize
later on that my soul, what a great privilege this has been. What
a blessed gift. Let's stand and sing number 67. M number 67.