We're going to go back to Hebrews. I thought that John was going
to ruin everything. But it's interesting how the
Lord puts things on people's hearts. We don't talk to each
other. I didn't know if John talks to
me anymore. It's good to see my old Sunday school class and
I know John. get together like this occasionally. We're going
to go back to the Hebrews, to chapter 4, and I'm going to read
a verse to you and then... John actually quoted this, let
us labor, Hebrews 4.11, let us labor therefore to enter into
that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Four, the word of God is quick. What is this we're talking about
here, the laboring? Well, if you were to read all
this section, you would see back to verse 1 in that chapter, let
us therefore fear lest a promise being left us entering into the
rest. Any of you should seem to come short of It's a promise
of rest. He tells us here in verse 9,
there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Now you
know the rest belongs to the people of God. That's the people
who are going to be given the rest. There is a rest that remaineth
to the people of God, for he that is entered into his rest,
he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Our
Lord created the heavens and earth in six days. And it was
six days, and when he got done, he was done. Nothing else has
been added. That's what it meant for him
to cease him. It didn't mean he was idle, but he ceased. He ceased. And when the Lord
did that, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent here, and He came here
to do a work, the work the Father gave Him. He finished that work.
He sat down. And so we are to strive to enter
into the rest. Enter into rest. Let us labor,
therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief." Now, what's he talking about?
Numbers 13, Numbers 14, when the Jews came, they came up to
the promised land. And while they were standing
there, waiting to go in, the Lord told Moses, you pick some
men out and you send them in there to spy out that country.
And they picked 12 men, one from each tribe, and sent them in.
And they were in there 40 days. And it was a place of milk and
honey. You know, when they found some
clusters, imagine how much wine you could make with one cluster
being carried by two men on a pole. Now that, milk and honey. And when they came back, Caleb
and Joshua were saying, look, these people are bred, we can
take this. Let's go take the land, go. But
the other, there were 10 others that raised up false, slanderous
report about the land. They said, you know, it is a
land flowing with milk and honey, but I'll tell you something about
that place. There are big men over there. There are wall cities
over there. Wall cities, impregnable fortresses. How in the world? All these difficulties. How are we going to ever enter
there? How? How? How? The land itself will eat us up. That's what they said. What we've
got to do is go into that place and it will chew us up and spit
us out. And boy, I'll tell you, the people
believed it and started moaning and weeping and crying all night. Crying all night. How? How? They fell into unbelief. That's
what this is talking about. Lest you, lest you, you enter
the rest. Those people didn't go into that
Canaan because they didn't enter that rest because of unbelief.
And listen to me. The scripture says God swear
in his wrath that they would not enter in. You know that?
God has only one oath that he has ever taken in reference to
sin and it's the sin of unbelief and he is engaged, engaged to
deal with that. But, look, let us labor therefore
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief, for the word of God is quick." Now, you say,
what in the world has that got to do with everything? Everything.
The word of God is quick. Now, I'm preaching tonight, and
you're thinking, well, he's talking about preaching. No, he's not.
Next verse down talks about this, how everything's open, with the
eyes of Him whom we have to do. And the next verse down talks
about a great high priest. It's talking about a person.
That's what that's talking about. Now, I know that there's another
sense, but I'm telling you, this is talking about the Word of
God, and He is quick. Now, what does that mean? It
means He's alive. That's what it means. Here's
a verse I know you know, but I'm going to quote it to you
anyway. John chapter 1 says, In the beginning was the Word.
The Word of God is quick. And the Word was with God. Oh,
distinct personality. You can't get around it. Father,
Son, Spirit. There are three that bear record
in heaven. And the Word was God. No doubt, no doubt. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made and in Him
was life. In Him was life. He's the Word
of life. What does it mean, in Him is life? You have life. I have life. You got dogs, cats,
chickens, they got life. Grass is life. Trees have life. There's life all around. But
the life we have is a derived life. It's something that's been
given to us. And the Word of God was never given life. He
was before all things. In the beginning. He says that
because He had no beginning. He's the Word of... And why is
that? Why do I point that out to you? How we ought to be encouraged. Now I'm telling you something.
Believers, we've got some fenced cities that we deal with in our
lives. This ain't easy. They're fenced
cities. There are strong men, strong
things that come out against us. And there are times in this
world I feel like, this place is going to eat me up. Don't
you feel that way? I feel that way. I got troubles, things that I
have to face. Giants, walled cities, all kinds
of troubles. You know, they also said, well,
the Amalekites are in the south, the Hivitites are over here,
the Jebusites are over there, the Canaanites are over there,
and over here we've got the Moabites, and they named all these bites,
all these people. They were saying, we are surrounded,
we can't go in there. And I feel that way myself sometimes,
as if I just say, too much, too much against me to ever believe
God. But listen to me, they focused
on the problems, they focused on what they saw with their eyes,
and they did not focus on the power of the One called the Word
of God." That's what this is saying. We make sure we enter,
labor to enter. For the Word of God is quick.
He's alive. He's alive. He's the living God.
The Word of God is quick and powerful. He's not, when he talks
about him being powerful, we're talking about one that speaks
the worlds into existence. That's powerful. We're not talking
about a powerful engine. You know, I've got a neighbor
who's got one of these big cars that's got five or six hundred
horsepower. He starts it up and I just sit and listen to it. The God of heaven is not just
some motor, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty million horsepower. No
sir, he is not idle. That's right. Everything in this,
everything. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Everything in Providence. You're
not here by accident. I'm not here by accident. All
these things are in His plan in the world. The eternal purpose
of God. He's powerful. He's omnipotent.
In Him is life. Has power to exert. And it says
here, and it's sharper, he's quick and powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword. Sharper than any two-edged sword.
He's a surgical instrument. Surgical instrument. And a divider. A divider asunder
of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart." Anybody here can divide
these things asunder. Can you tell me where your soul
starts and your spirit starts? I can't. They say that a soul
that a man possesses is something that is the unregenerate part
of us, the thing that we get when we come into this world,
when we become living souls like Adam. We have this unregenerate
thing called a soul, and then one day when God quickens us,
we become a living spirit. And I've sat and listened to
people argue about how they can't see. They tell me, I've heard
preachers say, I look within my heart and I can't see any
indication of a new man. You ever heard that kind of stuff?
God sees it. God sees it. He can discern these things.
Discern them. The soul, soul, it's no problem
for the word. The invisible things around us
are open, clear. Nothing's hidden, joint, marrow.
I hope, I don't hope to see anybody's joints or marrow today. You're
covered, you're covered. But I'm telling you the God of
heaven knows everything about every one of us. When I preach, I try to assume
that many of the people here are not believers. You know why?
Very good chance that's true. And there's nothing, neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight. Oh,
nothing. We can't hide. You know that?
We cannot hide. The darkness will not cover us.
There's nothing. It doesn't matter if you're a
man. It doesn't matter if you're an angel or a devil. It makes
no difference. Makes no difference. Many people,
and I know this, profess to be believers at all. And nobody's
being fooled. We might be, but the Word of
God is. How would you think He's going
to be able to judge one day? How will He ever be able to stand
and judge? Bring us up before Him and judge
us. I'll tell you how. He knows everything about us.
Everything we are and everything we'll ever be. He's the Word
of God. He knows our minds, our thoughts,
our affections and all things are naked with this One with
whom we have to do, have to do, have to do. You can be an enemy of Christ.
You can be a person that hates me. I'll get over it. But I'm telling you, this One
with whom we have to do is One that knows all things. He knows
our enemies. He knows those who hate the gospel.
He's the One with whom we have to do. He's the One that is our
concern. Our concern. What do I mean?
I mean, even now He is our concern. We need to be concerned about
Him because He is the way to the Father. The way to the Father. There's no man that comes to
the Father but by Jesus Christ. Now you read these things, and
this is one of the great things I love about the book of Hebrews. In
a book like this that has such comforting verses like the scripture
in chapter 10 that talks about by one sacrifice he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Ah, I love that verse. Then we
read stuff like this about taking heed. Taking heed. He's the way to the Father now
and then. He is our Savior and He is our
Redeemer with whom we have to do. We have to do with His blood,
His sacrifice. We have to do with Him for cleansing. We have to do with Him for pardon
and for righteousness and justification. If you don't have to do with
Him in those matters, my friend, you're lost. We have to do with
Him. We have to do with Him as our
King. People say, I've accepted him as my savior. Tell me who
your king is. That's right. A great king, the
one who sovereignly rules, not only rules his people, but he
defends his people. That's what a king does. Sends
out the armies if he needs to. He's our great prophet, the one
who speaks God's last message. There's nothing been added since
the book of Revelations curses a man who adds anything to this
book. And he's our priest, my goodness.
He's acquainted intimately with us, with who we are. Now this
has been talking about Jesus Christ, the word. But you know,
it is also true that this can be said about the gospel, the
written word, the spoken word. It's powerful. The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. If you're ever saved, you're
going to hear the gospel, you know it. And anybody that preaches
a gospel according to 2 Corinthians 2, those who preach the gospel
are people that always triumph. They always triumph. There's
always a sweet savor in their message. God causes them to triumph. There's a message they preach
and there are different responses. One man smells, oh, the sweetness
of that gospel, the sweetness. Another man says, that's death,
death. It's a dead skunk in the middle
of the road, preacher. You're telling me I don't have any righteousness.
Right. You're telling me, Mama, raise
me as a good man. And I've always been thought
of as a good man. You're telling me that means
nothing. I mean zip, zero, not. That stings to me. That's right. The gospel always has an effect.
You know, the Lord... Turn over to Isaiah 8. Why are
you going there? When the Lord was brought to
the temple, when he was a boy to be circumcised, and Simeon came out. You remember
Simeon? Simeon came out there and took that child in his hands
and, oh, he says, I'm ready to go. Let me die. I've seen the
great salvation of God. And then He turned to Mary and
He said to her in Luke 2, He said, Behold, this child is sent
for a fall and a rising again of many in Israel, for a sign
which shall be spoken against this child. Now in Isaiah 8,
which is where I took you here, look here at verse 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself. You set Him apart. Don't worry
about it. the things going on around you. And let him be your
fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary
but for a stumbling, a stone of stumbling and for a rock of
offense. to both the house of Israel and a gym and a snare
for the inhabitants of Jerusalem." He's going to be a stone, a stumbling,
or he's going to be a sanctuary. One person will hear the gospel
and they will be raised up. He's been set to raise people
up. People are raised up. They're raised out of their self-righteousness. They're raised out of their spiritual
death. They're raised up by hearing
the gospel. That sweet smell and other people
stumble. It stinks. That is true. It's true of the word, the person,
Jesus Christ, and it's true of the preaching of the gospel also. One believer says, this is my
sanctuary. He's my sanctuary. Another man
just stubs his toe and falls. We preach, and it is powerful,
and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, which
means reasonings. That's what, when people start
reasoning, that's just imaginations. Reasonings! And every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringeth
us, bringeth into captivity. all our thoughts into obedience
to Christ. That's what it takes. I grew up, talk about blind and dark. Religious, so blind and dark. One day, you know now for years
I thought I was seeking God. I'm sure you folks thought that
too, but you know the scripture says there's none that's seeking. I found out God was seeking me. I stumbled across this preacher.
Saw him on TV. Went and talked to him. I said,
my wife and I would like to start coming to church here. And he
said, well, that'd be fine as long as you don't think that
means you're saved. I said, oh no, I've heard enough of you
to know that. But I liked him, he smoked a
pipe. Did that for years. Well listen, this one we've been
speaking about then, it says here, seeing then that we have
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the son
of God, let us hold fast our profession. Why should we be
encouraged? We should be encouraged because
the word of God, the powerful word of God, is engaged to keep
us. We should be encouraged because
even though everything is manifest before His eyes, that should
scare you if you're somebody that's hiding as a hypocrite.
But if you're a person that really loves the Lord Jesus Christ and
is sincere about it, that ought to make you feel good. To know
that He knows that. An encouragement. We have a great High Priest,
and I love this. This Word of God, this Christ,
I love it. We have Him. We have Him right
now. It's not we had Him. I grew up
hearing how I could lose Him every week. Praying through. Praying through. I'm glad you
didn't have an altar caller. I never got up every time. Praying
me through every weekend and Monday mornings. I was lost.
Wednesday night, I had to get saved again. All this stuff.
We have a great High Priest. It's not something I'm going
to have. It's something I have now. Speaking of Christ, the
Word, This is talking about the preaching of Christ as we know
and it's also this one we have. It simply means that we have
an interest in Him and He has an interest in us. He was called,
called to this office and invested with this power to make a sacrifice
for sin once and for all and put it all away. He came down here to do that.
He performed that sacrifice on this earth and then he went to
the Father, went behind the veil. Now listen, once a year, once
a year in the Old Testament times, there was a day when they would
make atonement for sins. They would bring the goats, two
goats, and they would pray and put the sins on the tops of the
goats. One of them would be slain, the other one would be Azazel's
goat, the devil's goat, and he would be sent out into the wilderness
so that it was a picture of our sins being carried off and never
to be seen again. And this high priest would take
this blood, and he would go one time a year behind that veil.
Nobody was in that temple with him. He disappeared from sight. He took off his fabulous clothes. And I mean, they were wheat.
They were great. With his mitre that said, Holiness
to the Lord. And he put on common linen, washed
himself, and took that blood back there into the presence
of God. And when he came out of there, it was done. The sacrifice
was done. The atonement had been made.
And I'm here to tell you, that's exactly what my Lord and Savior
did. And when He came back out, before He went out to see the
people, He put them fancy clothes back on. And He stood out there
and He raised His hands and He blessed the people. And that's
what has happened by our Lord, our great High Priest, who raised
His hands after it was all done and blessed His people. He's our great High Priest. And
I'll tell you how great He is. He's passed into the heavens.
He's been received gloriously, sitting at the majesty of God
on high, right hand. He's a great High Priest. He's
no mere man. He's no mere creature. None of
us could ever undertake what He has performed. You realize
that? There's not a person on the earth that could ever. He
had to come God in the flesh had to come because our sacrifice
required that someone in our nature pay that debt. It couldn't
be blood of bulls and goats. It had to be a man. And it just
couldn't be any man, it had to be a holy man. Holy, harmless,
undefiled. He's a great high priest. And
it's this oneness with God and His equality and oneness with
us that makes Him such a great, great high priest for us. He's a great high priest. Who
is He? Jesus, the Son of God. That's what I was talking about,
the Son of God, the Word. The Son of God. Let's hold fast our profession
of our faith. How often? John and I apparently
have one thing in common tonight. We're here talking about this.
Because these things need to be remembered for this very reason.
They're valuable. You let go of everything you've
got in this world, but you hold this. Hold it with strength and
courage and not wavering. It's valuable. Don't you worry
about the giants. Don't you worry about the walled
cities. Don't you worry about that stuff. You hold on to the
Son of God. He prays for us now in heaven. pities us and supports us and
intercedes for us. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are. Yet without saying. You see this whole section here
is an encouragement for us. He can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He sympathizes with us. He doesn't just pity us from
afar. You know, my daughter got sick,
and you folks sympathize with her, and I thank you for the
contributions you made. She's got a lot better. Not just
this church, but a number of churches. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
doesn't just sympathize with us. He goes way beyond that. He has experienced suffering. He said that in 2.8. 2.18, for in that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he's able to secure them if they're tempted. He's
able to do that. He's tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. Now I'm tempted and you're tempted.
You know what happens when we're tempted? We usually sin. You
know why? Because it's so natural for us.
That's right. The greatest source of my sin
is me. My sin, sinfulness, that's the
greatest source of my sin. I'm not going to blame the devil. But when Christ was tempted,
He never, never sinned. He didn't sin. Satan found nothing
in Him. And I read these things about
Him, how He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
and it strikes me as I read these things that it's obvious, it's
obvious that He intends to help us to be compassionate with us.
As the psalmist said in Psalm 103, like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, worship him,
reverence him. He pities them. Reckon why? He knows our fright.
He remembers we're dust. He remembers we're dust. No,
we generally don't. Or as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. Now listen, so all this we've
been preaching about, about entering into this rest, and about the
word of God, what do you think? Well let us therefore, let us
therefore, Come boldly, come boldly on the throne of grace
that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Come before the throne of grace.
Let's talk about the mercy seat. Let's talk about where the blood,
where the blood is offered. Atonement was made. Child of God, do not doubt your
acceptance before Him. Our prayers, you know, I know
what it's like to not feel like I can pray. Many times I've thought
that way. It's like John said, what am
I doing here? What am I doing preaching? What am I doing ever
praying and asking the God of heaven to do anything? I understand
that. But there is a rest that remaineth
for the people of God. And we're to enter that rest.
We're to enter that rest. And I'll tell you, as I said
a moment, I'm apt, like you are, to look at myself when I'm trying
to find a reason why the Lord would let me speak to Him. And I'll tell you what happens
when I do that. I find myself out in the garden with Adam hiding. Ephesians 3.12 says, "...in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him."
We have boldness? I love that word. Access? You
know, my daughters are grown up, but if they want something
from me, come on. My grandkids? Come on. Have you seen them? I'm telling
you. No, no, we have access with this
confidence, this liberty. He's willing to fulfill all His
promises. Apply today, do not delay. That's right. Today is the day
of salvation. We shall, we shall obtain mercy,
not merit, mercy and find grace to help in time of need, whatever
our needs are. And boy, we got them. Talked
about them giants. Talked about them wall cities.
All those things. And being swallowed up by the
world. We've got them. Tough times. Necessities. We
all have special needs. Sometimes you feel like you're
deserted, don't you? David did. Well, when these things happen,
we can come boldly. Boldly in times of need, I bow. Thank you, folks. Appreciate
your patience.