I want you to turn in your Bibles
to Hebrews chapter four. We've been studying through the
book of Hebrews a little bit, and we have talked about in chapter
four here about entering in to the Lord's rest, showing how
every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who has
been brought by God to faith in Christ, and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, has literally entered in by faith to His rest. It says here, look at verse 9
of Hebrews 4, there remaineth therefore a rest, that's a Sabbath,
or the keeping of a Sabbath, to the people of God and what
is that rest verse ten for he that is entered into his rest
and that's a key uh... term his rest Christ is at rest
he also has ceased from his own works Christ has ceased from
his own works as God did from his as God did in the creation
he created the the earth the heavens and the earth in seven
days or in six days, and then on the seventh he rested. Doesn't
mean that God got tired or he got rid of all of his energy
and had to sleep. It means that he finished the
work, he completed the work. Well, that's what Christ did
in his obedience unto death for his people. He finished, he said
it, John 19, 30, it is finished. And so he finished the work,
and the work that he finished was the work of redemption. It
was the work of putting away our sins. It was the work of
satisfying the justice of God, redeeming us. Redemption accomplished. That's what the gospel is. The
gospel is not do something in order to get God to shine with
favor upon you. The gospel is the proclamation
of a work that has been accomplished solely by Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory, for his people, which work? secures and demands their
eternal salvation. And that's what he, anytime he
spoke of his death, he didn't speak of it as a blanket pardon
or as an attempt to save people. He spoke of it as the assurance
of the eternal salvation of all for whom he died. That's how
he spoke of it. So what he says and look at verse
11 now. This is our text. I'm staying
in just this one verse today Let us labor There's labor when
you think of labor you think of work Therefore that is because
Christ has entered into his own rest let us labor Therefore to
enter into that rest we enter into his rest lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief. That example of unbelief was
the Hebrew children who did not enter into the promised land
because of unbelief. And essentially they too did
not enter into that eternal rest because they didn't believe.
And so every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ keeps
the Sabbath by faith. How? By entering into his rest. We believe in Christ as the author
and the finisher, completer of our faith, of our salvation.
He did it all. What can wash away part of my
sins? No. What can wash away all my
sins? Past sins, present sins, future
sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see? We keep the Sabbath
of faith, a spiritual Sabbath, not a carnal one, not one that
you can put on the calendar. We rest in Christ, trusting him
as the Lord our righteousness, his finished work. He rested,
he seated, he's done what no other high priest could ever
have done. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why
did he sit down? Because he finished the work. The believer's life is a perpetual
keeping of a Sabbath. What Sabbath? What day? No day,
Christ. The finisher of our faith. Keeping
this spiritual and eternal Sabbath by faith in Christ, you know
what he does? He gives us rest from our labors. He said, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest. I'll give you rest. And this
eternal Sabbath rest includes the complete pardon and justification,
our complete pardon and our complete justification before God. And
it's all based upon his blood and righteousness. It's not our
contribution. It's not our affirmation. It's
not our decision. It's all the will of God, the
grace of God, through a righteousness that reigns unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. It includes perfect reconciliation
to God. God reconciled to us, us reconciled
to God, on the same ground that honors and glorifies God alone,
and that's the righteousness of his Son. It's the absolute
security of eternal life and glory. It's Christ resting, seated
at the right hand of the Father, that saves us, that keeps us
saved, and that will bring us unto glory. I read out of John
chapter six, I often quote that verse on this issue. John 6,
37. When he said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. And so what he commands those
who are sitting under the gospel like we are today, He says, let
us labor, verse 11, therefore, for this reason, for what reason? For Christ, the reason that Christ
has finished the work. Labor to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. You know, when he talks about
the Hebrew children, He says back up in verse 19 of chapter
three, we see they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Now I want you to think about something. Give you these three
things. Number one, all of us by nature,
and I mean by that as we are naturally born into this world,
fallen sons and daughters of Adam, we fell in Adam, do you
believe that? We fell into sin and death. Well
that's what the scripture teaches. You weren't born innocent, I
wasn't born innocent. We weren't born with some spark
of goodness. Now if you wanna be a humanist,
believe on. But if you wanna believe the
Bible, that's not the case. We weren't born good. We didn't
start out good and then turn evil when we made our first bad
decision, no. We were destined to make bad
decisions because all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. But here it is, all of us by nature are unbelievers. Did you know that? The Bible says it. It says in
Romans 3, there is none that seeketh after God. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. You must be born again. Why must you be born again? You
were born once, I know, because you're sitting here, I can see
you. Well, in order to see and believe and receive and enter
into this rest of Christ, you gotta be born again. And that's by the sovereign work
of God, the Holy Spirit. So none of, all of us by nature
are unbelievers. Secondly, if left to ourselves,
we will never enter this rest by faith. You know what? I'll never forget when I first
realized this. But if God had left me to my
own, what people call today free will, I would have never believed. I would have never entered this
realm. I would have never come to Christ. You believe that about
yourself? You say, well, I didn't feel
that way. No, I'm not talking about how you felt, because that'll
change. I'm talking about what God's
word says. You will not come to me. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me drawing him.
And then, thirdly, the Bible tells us that God has chosen
a people to glorify himself through salvation by his grace. Christ
has redeemed them by his blood. They're justified in Christ,
and he's going to give them spiritual life. He's going to change their
wills. Somebody asked me one time, he
said, are you telling me that God brings us to Christ against
our will? And I said, no, I'm telling you
God powerfully and sovereignly changes our will. We can't do that, only God can. And then he brings us to believe
in Christ and repent of our dead works and to stop trying to work
our way into his favor and to work salvation out for ourselves
and we enter his rest. He says here in Hebrews 4 in
verse 6, he says, seeing therefore it remains that some must enter
therein. God didn't leave this to chance.
He didn't leave this to the will of natural man and woman. Some must enter in. Why must
they enter in? Because Christ died for their
sins. Because Christ brought forth
an everlasting righteousness. They must enter in. And then
he tells us, therefore, in verse 11, To labor, let us labor, therefore
to enter in. Now this term labor does not
mean that salvation is attained, accomplished, maintained, or
sealed by our works. Doesn't mean that at all. If
it means that, then there's a contradiction in the Bible. And salvation is
not by grace. But it doesn't mean that. Salvation
is by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves is the
gift of God, lest any man should boast. And if I'm a sinner saved
by grace, I'm his workmanship, his workmanship. In other words,
if you're a believer, you're the work of God. You're the product
of his labor, not your own. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus, there's the ground and the power of our salvation,
Christ Jesus, unto good works, not because of good works, but
unto the fruit, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in. So when he says, let us therefore labor, or labor
therefore, he's not talking about salvation by our works and our
efforts. That would be opposed to the
gospel. That would be opposed to the rest that we have in Christ. I read at the beginning of the
service, John 6, 27, labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but labor for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life.
This word labor in Hebrews 411 doesn't mean work. It means to
endeavor. It means to be diligent. It means to be zealous in exerting
ourselves. It means to make haste. This
is an urgent matter. It's not something that you should
put off till tomorrow. You know why? Because you're
not promised tomorrow. You remember the rich man who
Filled up his barns and he said, well what am I going to do now?
I'll build bigger barns. I got more stuff to put in these
barns. Well see, that's sometimes our
problem. We've just got too much stuff, don't we? And then in Luke 12 20 it says,
thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Think
about it. Do you know This same word labor
in Hebrews 4.11 is translated in another passage, study. 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. Now I ask the question,
have I truly entered into this rest? You know, he said over
in Hebrews 3.15, He said, while it is said today, if you will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
as did the Hebrew children in the wilderness when they provoke
God. That's what unbelief does. It's a provocation. And he said,
don't harden your hearts. How do people harden their hearts?
Well, they harden it by rejecting God's word. You hear the word
of God preached, the scriptures read, You walk away saying, well,
I'm gonna believe what I wanna believe. And probably, more than anything
else, sinners harden their hearts by just simply ignoring God's
word. Not embracing it, not loving
it. You know, you remember over in 2 Thessalonians 2 when he's
talking about the end time just prior to the second coming of
Christ, that Satan will come as a great deceiver with lying
wonders, and he calls it the deceivableness of unrighteousness. What unrighteousness is deceptive? Think about that. Sometime you
go over and read that whole passage, 2 Thessalonians 2. I'll probably
preach on that pretty soon. Talking about the man of sin
and all that. But he says Satan's gonna come
and he's gonna deceive people with the deception unrighteousness. Now what kind of unrighteousness
deceives people? Is it murder? Is it pushing drugs? Prostitute? What? I'll tell you
exactly what, it's false religion. Especially false Christianity. The Lord said in Matthew 24 that
in those last days they will come and they'll say, here's
Christ, there's Christ, I'm Christ, blah, blah, blah. He said some
of them will be so close that if it were possible, they could
what? Deceive the very elect. Sometimes they'll say the right
words. And you say, well, those are
good words. But here's the problem, they
can't stay with it, because their heart's not there. They're transformers,
2 Corinthians 11. But there in 2 Thessalonians
2, 9, he talks about those who perish. Here Satan comes with
his deception, the deceivableness of unrighteousness, and there
are some who perish, and you know what he says about why they
perish? Because they receive not the
love of the truth. It's not that they're out there
like raven lunatics trying to rob banks and kill people. They
just don't love the truth. They just don't love the word. They don't love the gospel. They don't love Christ. He is
the word. And that's the problem. You say, oh, well, what you say
is pretty good. You know, I like to hear what
you preach. Do you love the truth? I'll tell you what. Can you get
along without it? Remember when Christ turned,
the multitudes were going away from him because they saw what
it cost? And he turned to his disciples and he said, will you
go away also? I believe this is in John 6 also.
And Peter said, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
life. That's what these are. That's what it is. This labor
here in Hebrews 4, you know what it is? It's a gift from God.
Even the labor is a gift from God. A labor that God gives us
and God brings us to. It's not salvation by our works
or our labors, but in salvation by God's grace, He brings us
to labor. To be diligent. This labor is
the work of Christ within us by the Spirit and by His Word. It's the labor of faith that
rests in Christ. Brother Randy read it over there
in Psalm 127, so I had him read this. He said, you know what?
He's had a lot to say about the house of God here in Hebrews
3. Remember he talked about Christ as a son over his own house?
Whose house are we? Talking about the church, the
building of God. Christ said, upon this rock I
will build my church. Over in Psalm 127, remember what
he started out saying? He said, if the Lord doesn't
build the house, They that labor, labor in vain. You see, this is not working
for your salvation. This is not endeavoring because
you want to earn your way into God's favor or put yourself into
a position that God will be pleased with you. Oh, we want to please
God if we're saved. He's our Heavenly Father. He's
given us everything we have, and we didn't deserve or earn
any of it. But what is this labor? Well,
think about it. We don't work for our salvation.
Christ did all the work. He finished the labor, that labor. But when God brings a sinner
to rest in Christ for all salvation, there is an endeavoring. There's
a diligent, diligent labor, you might say. And think about it. First of all, it's the labor
of faith that leads sinners to repentance. Turn to Philippians 3. You know repentance. Repentance from dead works and
idolatry comes with faith in Christ. It has to do with turning
to Christ by the power of God and turning away from everything
else, turning away from self. And one of the most glaring,
brilliant examples of this is right here in Philippians 3.
Look at verse 3. Paul writes, for we are the circumcision. Now he's talking about heart
circumcision there, the new birth. which worship God in the spirit.
Now some translations capitalize the word spirit there, but here's
what it means, and that's okay. When we're born again by the
spirit, he gives us life, our spirits, and we worship God as
we are guided by the Holy Spirit, as we are motivated by the Holy
Spirit. In other words, we don't worship
God as we think he is. You know, a lot of people today,
that's why they think about Christianity, say, well, you can go, you know,
you read the Bible and you see what you want to see and I see,
we all get something different out of it. You worship your way,
I'll worship my way, blah, blah. No, we worship as the Spirit
of God leads us in the Word. And I'll tell you what, I don't
care what assembly you go to, if they're not preaching the
Word of God, as the old Irishman said, from kiver to kiver, The
Spirit of God is not leading you there. That's self. So we worship God in the Spirit
as He reveals Himself. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
That word rejoice is to have confidence in. It's to boast
in. We boast in Christ. I'm gonna brag on Christ this
morning. I'm not gonna brag on you. I'm not gonna brag on me. If you've come here wanting something
to be recognized, forget it. This is not the place for you.
You need to be here. But if that's what you want,
if that's your goal, we don't have any plaques on the windows
around here, do we? Nobody has earned a pew. I know some of you may get upset
if somebody gets where you normally sit, but that's not your pew. We're not here to recognize men.
We're here to brag on Christ. Well, why not? He's my rest.
So we have confidence in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. Now, Paul in verse four here,
he says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
He said, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more. And then he goes through his
religious past. I'm always afraid of a person
who claims to believe this gospel, but they talk a lot about their
religious past. I'm gonna tell you about my religious
past. It was idolatry. That's what it was. That's right. And that's not an easy thing
to admit because I was trying to learn to be a preacher, a
preacher of a false gospel. But look what happened to Paul
here, verse seven. But what things were gained to me, the things
that I thought gained me favor with God, recommended me to God,
those I counted loss for Christ. It's all loss for Christ. Yea,
doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may
win Christ. That's pretty, pretty graphic
language. Let me tell you about my religious
experience. What I'm concerned with is this.
Are you looking to Christ and resting in him today? Today. When I first moved to
Albany and came here, everybody I met had a religious experience.
I felt like I had to memorize them and talk about them from
the pulpit to keep people happy. And I'm saying this, when God
the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to a saving knowledge of Christ
and rest in Him, He brings that sinner under the preaching not
of a lie, but of the truth. And whatever you did under the
preaching of a lie, I know God is sovereign, I know it was His
providence that brought me through that, but I'm going to tell you
what it is, it's dung that I may win Him and be found in Him. Think about that. That's not
an easy thing to do, is it? You know what? It takes the Spirit
of God to bring a sinner to admit that. But that's what it is. Entering into His rest means
leaving all else behind. That which we thought was our
salvation, we now see as our shame. It was dead works. It
was fruit unto death. And then secondly, listen to
this, the labor of faith that engages in spiritual warfare.
Do you know that once you enter into Christ's rest, You go to
war. You get into a fight. It's the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And it's a labor. Not to attain salvation, not
to make yourself righteous, but because God has brought you into
this battlefield. We put on the whole armor of
God. We follow after righteousness and godliness and faith and love
and patience and meekness. We look to Christ for all salvation. We fight the good fight of faith. And it's an everyday battle.
It's a warfare. Why? Because we're sinners. We're
sinners saved by the grace of God. But we're still sinners. And it won't let up. We're the
old wretched man. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? It's a struggle. It's never easy. It's never fought
in our own power or our own goodness, for we have none. It's all fought
in the power and the goodness and the grace of God. He puts
us there, He gives us the equipment, and He's the one who's going
to win the battle. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death, this struggle, this labor? I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. Who's conquered death and hell
and the grave? Christ has. He said in the world
you'll have tribulation, that's trouble, but be of good cheer,
I've overcome them. You notice what he said there?
He didn't say like these false preachers. In the world you'll
have tribulation, but buy my book and look within yourself
and find the positive thoughts that you can have that will win
the battle. He said, be of good cheer, I have overcome this world. And when Satan attacks, and he
does, and he throws his arrows of accusation toward us, how
do we combat him? We labor to enter into that rest. We plead the blood of the lamb.
And his arrows of accusation will not stick, for who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Don't you have to
be reminded of that all the time? I do. That's one of the reasons we
have these assemblies, because it's a reminder. Thirdly, it's the labor of faith
that endures trials. Hebrews 12 talks about that.
We're gonna be chastised by our Heavenly Father, not as legal
punishments for our sin, for Christ took all the legal punishment
that we earned and deserve, but for our correction. We need to
be corrected all the time. Don't we? And he says these chastenings,
look at verse 11 of Hebrews 12, now no chastening for the present
seem to be joyous, it's not a time of joy, just going through the
trial. It's grievous, it's burdensome,
it's heavy. Nevertheless, he says, afterward
it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby. Now what is that peaceful fruit
of righteousness? It's coming out of that trial by the goodness
and the power and the grace of God, looking to Christ, resting
in him even more. And you know what that's called?
Growth in grace and in knowledge of Christ. It's not you getting
holier and holier or better and better. It's just you growing
in grace and in knowledge of Christ. I see even more that my only peace, my only comfort,
my only rest, my only assurance is in my Savior. You all been through some hard
trials, haven't you? Going through some now, we all
have. I believe I've experienced, Debbie
and I, we've experienced the hardest trial that any parents
can go through in this life. But I can tell you what, I sure
didn't come out of the other end of that one, and I may not
be out of it yet, feeling good about Bill Parker. I didn't come
out of it bragging about how well I did, because I did not
do well. I'm telling you the truth. But
I know this. I have come out of it, and I'm
still coming out of it, knowing that I have one hope, one salvation,
and that's my Savior, my God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have
one righteousness, and that's Him. And He's all I have, and
that's okay, because He's everything. We endure trials. Saving faith
will be tested. But trials don't produce faith.
They reveal and strengthen our faith by being used of God to
drive us more to Christ. And then fourthly, this is the
labor of faith that perseveres unto glory. I love those verses
over in Philippians. Philippians one and Philippians
two. When it talks about the good work that God does. And
you know, I've noticed a lot of people, they'll quote part
of verses, just a part of a verse. Listen to this. Philippians 1,
6. He says, being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, that's
God, isn't it? He will perform or finish it
Until the day of Jesus Christ. What God started in his people. That's in the new birth, isn't
it? Guess what? God's gonna finish it. Don't
you love that? Wait a minute, preacher, I thought
it was up to me. Boy, you better go home and get
on your knees and pray it's not up to you. Or to me. If we, somebody said one time,
if salvation could be lost, it would be. If God didn't save
us and preserve us, keep us by his grace, none of us would make
it. Not even this preacher. And I
stand in Christ, having his righteousness imputed to me, and I can say
with confidence, if God were to mark iniquities, I would not
stand. How about you? But blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And look over in chapter two
of Philippians, verse 12. Here's one that people sometimes
will quote parts of. It says in Philippians 2.12,
wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in
my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, if you stop
there, you're not gonna get the full thought of what the Holy
Spirit intends through the Apostle Paul. He says in verse 13, for
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do His good
pleasure. I have been brought by a sovereign
God through His grace and power to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and rest in Him. Ventured into His rest, And the one who brought me there
initially is the one who keeps me fully and will bring me to
glory. We persevere. Over in Hebrews
12, it's called a race. We're in a race. Endeavor. That's what that labor means.
Endeavor to run the race. Well, how am I gonna run it?
Hebrews 12 too. Looking unto Jesus, the author,
And the what? The finisher of our faith. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Now what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation. My whole eternal well-being is
committed to Christ. And he's the author and finisher
of my, now labor to enter into that rest. Rest in Christ. Come unto me, he says, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden.