Hebrews chapter 4 beginning in verse 9, For there
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Now keep in
mind that this rest of which he speaks here is in contrast
to that which was spoken to the descendants of Abraham Jacob
and spoken of as the Lord said that he would give them rest,
but in verse 6 he said, ìSeeing therefore it remaineth that some
must enter in, and they to whom it was first preached entered
not in because of unbelief.î Now that is, of course, speaking
of natural Israel, those who are of the house and lineage
of Jacob, and they did not enter into the promises of God. And
the reason that they did not enter into the promises of God
primarily was, first of all, because it was not given to them
to enter into it. Because if they had been, they
would have entered into it. But the reason that they stumbled
at it even as those natural descendants of Jacob stumble today is because
of unbelief. They do not believe that Jesus
Christ is who He said He was. And so it is in the same fashion
that the writer of Hebrews here is pointing this out and is saying
to them that these If there is a rest, which he plainly says
there is a rest, and if there is a rest that God has made,
then some must enter into it. Now that's one of the most glorious
things that we can understand is that if God has made a rest,
then some must enter into it. God doesn't do things only to
fail. He didn't make something and
then say, oh, what am I going to do next? Or He's not waiting
upon the world to see what happens. Now I know that's a popular view.
You know, is it God just somehow sitting in heaven and He's hoping
that men will do something right and let Him do some things? Well,
that would be no God at all. The God with whom the Scripture
speaks about is a God that does things. and they are done. He says things and that's it. There's no backing up from it. And He has made a rest for the
people of God. And so if He's made a rest for
the people of God, then it remains that some must enter into it. Now, those to whom the truth
was first preached, which was to the nation of Israel, But
he did not give them faith that they might enter into it. But
he did tell them about it. They can't say we didn't know
because chiefly unto them, to the nation of Israel, was committed
the oracles of God. The prophets of God came to the
nation of Israel. I mean, think about the Amorites
and the Perizzites. and all of the other heights
that are mentioned in the Scripture. The Lord didn't even come to
them and tell them anything, did He? But He told the Israelites
the truth of God. And yet in order to display what
man is by nature, they didn't enter into it. They didn't believe
Him. They didn't follow Him. And so
it would be in the same fashion today if God, who is rich in
mercy, did not visit His people with grace, open their eyes that
they might see and behold the things of God, we wouldn't believe
it either. We wouldn't embrace the things
of God. Why do some men believe the gospel? Because of the grace
of God, the mercy of God. The fact that God opens men's
eyes to see causes men to hunger. and thirst after righteousness.
And so he says here, saying, Therefore it remaineth that some
must enter in, and they to whom it was first preached didn't
enter. Then coming on down here into verse 8, he said, For if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. So if that was the rest, if the
nation of Israel Which you see, natural man, he looks at the
times and seasons and days, and the Israelites said, well, we've
entered into the rest of God. It comes once a week. It's the
seventh day of the week. That is the rest of God. And
so if we do that, we're in. We've got it. See, that's the
natural way of thinking of men, is that they can do something
of their own self. to perpetuate the blessings of
God toward them. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? Now, he's
not speaking of the Sabbath day as a day of the week, but there
is a rest to the people of God. Then would he not afterward have
spoken of another day? There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Now what that literally means
is, there remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping to the people
of God. There remaineth therefore a rest.
The Lord rested on the Sabbath day, did He not? As He might
typically set forth, the work was finished. Now again, there
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. There is a
Sabbath-keeping. for the people of God. And he
said in verse 10, For he that is entered into his rest hath
also ceased from his own works as God did from his. He said if a man has entered
into the rest that he is describing to the Sabbath keeping of God,
which is not one day of the week, it does not have anything to
do with that whatsoever. But the rest which the Lord has
set for the people of God is the one whom the Sabbath is typical
of. He is the rest of God. He is
the one who hung on Calvary's cross and said, It is finished. When the Lord had finished His
work, what did He do? He rested on the Sabbath day. He was done. When Jesus Christ
said, it is finished, it was done. There's nothing left to
be done. There's nothing to be added to
it. It's complete. He said so. Now, do we believe
what He said? He said it is finished. For he that is entered into his
rest, that is, those who have entered into the rest of Christ,
has ceased from his own labor. If you've rested, you can't be
working. Can you? I mean, when you've
done a task and then you're resting, you're not working. And when
a man is resting in Christ, he's not working. That is, he's not
seeking to perform something that will make God happy with
him. But he's waiting in Christ. He's
satisfied. For he that is entered into this
rest hath also ceased from his own works, as God did for his."
And then he says one of the most strange things, if you think
about it. He said, let us labor to enter into this rest. Isn't that a strange thing? Let
us labor and enter into the rest. Well, the labor, that means let
it be the thing of our desire to enter in there, laboring to
enter in. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Because here is where men stumble. It's when they come to Christ
and they see that He has finished the work, but then they come
along and they want to add something to it. Now, these Jews, they
wanted to add circumcision to it, as we read in the book of
Galatians, as Paul writes to those Galatian Christians and
the Judaizers had come among them and said, yes, you need
to believe in Christ, but that's not enough. You need to be circumcised. because it's the thing God said
to do. And so it doesn't make any difference
what it is, dear brethren. Anything that men would put in
addition to Christ is not to enter into the rest of Christ,
because Christ is the salvation of His people. It's not Christ
plus anything. It's not Christ minus anything.
It's Christ and Him alone. Let us be mindful that we enter
in lest we fall after the same example of unbelief. Brethren,
if a man would add something to the work of Christ, it's the
same as not believing that Christ has done the work. Is that not
true? I mean, if you can come up with
something that causes you to be more perfected than that which
Christ has already done, then you've added something to it.
And it is a work that you are performing and you have not entered
into the rest of Christ. Now this is the place that the
natural Jews were and those that Paul is writing to. They were
having a real struggle with this. I mean, we've got all of this
stuff. It just doesn't seem right that
we wouldn't just be doing something. I mean, we've got to do something,
don't we? Can't we enhance our standing
with God? I mean, let's be faithful. Let's
go to church every Sunday. Let's tell other people about
the gospel. Now, none of those things are
bad. But dear brethren, if we're doing those things because we
seek to enhance our position with God, then we have not rested
in Christ. He is the rest of God. He is our righteousness. For
the Word of God is quick, is living, is 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. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Now why does he put that in there?
Because he knows the natural tendency of man to think that
he can make himself pleasing in the eyes of God. If it's not in doing righteous deeds, it's
in stopping a sin, not doing this, not doing that. and thinking
that by not doing that we've caused God to be more pleased
with us. That's not being the rest of
God, because He accepts His people as they are because they are
in Christ. And He loves His people with
an everlasting love because they are in Christ. Now does that
cause the people of God then to say, well, oh, well, man,
great, we'll just go hog-wild in the flesh because it doesn't
matter. No, you see, that's a man that's
not rested in Christ because he says, here, the Word of God
is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. You see,
the same One who causes men to rest in Christ is the One who
sends the Spirit of God with the Word of God into the heart
and mind of God's people and pierces their heart and pierces
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. And our flesh
will deceive us and tell us, oh, well, you can go along this
way and you can enjoy this and you can do this for a while.
But dear brethren, I'm telling you, God, if you belong to Him,
He is bringing you down the path exactly where He wants you to
be, to bring you to the place that you might see that there
is no good dwelling within you, that Christ alone. is our hope. Now, you know, it's
easy to kind of get low to sleep, is it not, as a child of God? And we just kind of, our hearts
get cold, our outward, you know, countenance, I mean, as far as
the things that we're doing, somebody might look at us and
say, well, he's doing all right. And we get to thinking, well,
we're doing all right. But oh, when the Word of God comes to
us, He reminds us we are not doing all right. No, there is
nothing within us but the depravity of our heart, and we will depart
from the Lord tomorrow. We will cease to follow the Lord
tomorrow. We will deny that we even know Christ tomorrow if it is not that He keeps us.
And the Word of God is quick, it's living. See, the people
of the world, they can hear somebody preaching about the Word of God
and what sin is and all of these things, and it might have some
little lasting effect on them for a few minutes, or they might
hear a few things and wonder about it. But you see, the people
of God are affected by it. The Word of God is quick. It's
alive. God's people won't be able to
withstand it because it will pierce them. Oh, it might. You know, we might put up a defense
for a while. The old flesh is pretty wily.
I mean, it will come up with ways to kind of block out the
things of God. And he'll think, oh, I'm so smart.
But no, the Word of God is quick and powerful because God will,
in the work of the Spirit of God, divide soul and spirit. Now that's a pretty fine line.
I've never been able to figure out exactly what the difference
between the soul and the spirit is, but evidently there is a
difference in it. And that's what he says here.
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You
see, the Lord is able to cause us to see what it is that is
actually in our heart. And that is not usually a pretty
sight. You know, when we look within
our heart and we see everything is just rosy, You can be pretty
sure that we're not listening to the Word of God, because when
the Word of God comes to us to show us the thoughts and intents
of the heart, that's an humbling thing, is it not? And it reminds
us that if we don't have a rest in Christ, I mean, if we're going to do
something that's going to enhance that or cause us to gain it,
we're in trouble. How are we going to ever do it?
We can't. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He goes on to say in this
book later on, He said, Our God is a consuming fire. That's a scary thought. He's
a consuming fire. I mean, He burns the dross. He shows us what we are by nature. He gives us no ground upon which
to have any satisfaction in self. He causes us to see that our
only satisfaction is in Christ. Seeing then we have a great high
priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession." See, we have professed that we
believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. Let's hold it fast. Let's labor.
to enter into it. Oh Lord, give us a mind to trust
Christ and Christ alone. Don't let us get caught up in
the ways of religion and the world's religion and the mindset
that men have about what it is to serve God. When a man looks at, if he would
define what it is to serve God, as something he is doing in the
flesh, then he has missed the boat. Because serving God is that which
is a work of the Spirit of God which causes a man to fall down
on his face and worship Christ alone as that One who is our
rest. You see, He is the One. It is
not anything out here that we could do or would do that would cause us to have a
place of acceptance before Him. We have a great high priest.
He's passed into the heavens. Now, why did he pass into the
heavens? He's not waiting to pass to the heavens. Why? Because he sat down at the right
hand of the Father, which is in heaven. Now, what do you do
when you've sat down? You rest. Why do you rest? Because you're finished. I mean,
it's done. At least you're done. In the
case of the Lord Jesus Christ, he sat down because the work
was done. And we have a high priest that's
passed into the heavens. Let us hold fast our profession,
which is that Christ has passed into the heavens, so we have
not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. Oh, we have infirmities, dear
brethren. You see, the Christian life is
not in overcoming infirmities. It's recognizing that all of
our infirmities are handled in Christ. We have infirmities. You're going to have infirmities
and troubles until the day that you are laid to rest in the grave. It's the nature of things. But
we have a high priest that can be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. Why? Because he was tempted in
all points like as we are, yet without sin. Now dear brethren,
he is without sin. You and I are not without sin
in this world, but we are without sin. Why? Because Christ is without sin.
And he said, I have finished the work that I came to do. He
says, I came to redeem a people, to sanctify them, to set them
apart unto myself because they belong to me. He says, I've done
the work. He can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. because he was in all points
tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need." Now when is our time of need? It better be always our time
of need. Dear brethren, our time of need
is not just when something big happens. Our time of need is
now. Why? Because the Word of God
is sharp. It's powerful. It's living. It pierces to the divining asunder
of soul and spirit. It shows us what we are by nature.
And we need a rest. We need a place where we can
come and just pour out our soul unto the Lord, knowing that He
is our help. That's what he said. Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace. Now why does he put the
word boldly in there? Because he's done the work. You
see, the man that comes timidly, he's not quite sure if Christ
performed it. He said, well, you know, I've
got this over here and I don't know if I can come in here, Lord,
because I'm expecting to have some kind of something to, I'm
going to bring you a good report. You know, when you have to go
to the, when you're sent to the principal's office and you had
to go in there and tell him what you did, that wasn't a very exciting
thing. You didn't look forward to that.
You couldn't very well go boldly there. Why? Because you were
guilty. You knew you were guilty. And
you knew you was going to get something that you didn't want.
But you see, He doesn't say, Come timidly to the throne of
grace. He says, Come boldly. Why? Because we come before that place
as those who have never sinned. What? See, we can't believe that,
can we? The hardest thing on earth for
a man to ever do is come to the place where he really believes
that to be true, if he's been awakened by the Spirit of God.
Now, there are plenty of people out here in the world that don't
believe they've sinned. I mean, I've met a lot of religious
people that don't think they've sinned. But you see, a man quickened
and awakened by the Spirit of God to know what he is by nature,
It takes a work of grace for him to come to the place where
he sees that he has not sinned before Almighty God. Oh, not
in himself. He knows what he is by nature.
But you see, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God. And the Lord said, Come boldly
to the throne of grace. Why? Because we have somebody
who has already borne those things for us. He is our great high
priest before the throne of God. We can come boldly there. Not
presumptuously. Not as those who think we have
some reason or right to be there. We don't have a reason or right
to be there, but we have a compulsion by the work of the Spirit of
God to know that Christ is there. And if he can be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities and has indeed satisfied the
claims of the law which are against us, dear brethren, we can labor
to enter into that rest. And it is a place where we delight
to come. It's hard to believe. That's
why the Lord gave us this supper. He knew it was hard for us to
believe it. The body and the blood of Christ. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply
to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress.
Help us look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash
me, Savior, or I die. You see, that is to have found
the rest of Christ. That One who is our hope, He's
our expectation, dear brethren. It's not what we can do. Well,
we're not going to come and pray today. We're going to wait until
tomorrow because we'll overcome our sin tomorrow, and it'll look
a little better when we come to the Lord tomorrow, you know,
after we've worked on it a while, and we'll, sure enough, have
made a mess of it by then. And then we'll come, and the
Lord will be more happy with us after we've labored and had
effort. You see, that's not to have rested
in Christ. To rest in Christ is to confess
what we are by nature and cast ourselves upon the mercy of God.
And that's exactly what He's shown us here. He went to Calvary's
cross and He said, as often as you
do this, eat this bread and drink this cup, You're going to show,
you're going to manifest the Lord's death until He comes.
That's the only thing I want to say. You're talking about
the memorials, you know, that people raise up to their self
and big tombstones and all that stuff. The only name that we ought to
be interested in and being remembered is the name of Christ because
He's the only one worthy of praise. He's the one whom we're resting
in if we be in Christ. Oh, that the Lord might give
us grace to enter into that rest, to wait upon Him. Because you
see, He works in His people both the will and the do of His good
pleasure. And He does indeed cause them to see that sometimes
it's in a fleeting vision You know, it's just every now and
then we get that, it's like a waft of fresh air on a hot day. That we come and we can see it
clearly, yes. But sometimes it's not long before
the old flesh will get going again and it'll get to thinking,
well, we've got to do something to enhance our position with
God. Oh, no. No, it's Christ. You see, it's
Christ Christ is all or He's not our Savior at all. It's not a joint effort. We're
not earning anything, but He's done it for us. Now, that's what
you call free grace. That's a glorious word to a sinner,
somebody that's convinced he doesn't have anything to bring
to the Lord. The Lord has done it all. May
the Lord give us grace.