Well, we're turning to Hebrews
chapter four this morning, continuing this study through the book of
Hebrews. When I was, I remember being
much younger, being in my teens at school and becoming increasingly
aware that there must be a God. that there must be. I hadn't
swallowed, I wasn't strongly taught evolution and theories
of godlessness like that. And I became more and more aware
that there was a God, there must be a God. How could I explain
life? How could I explain the fact
that I'm a conscious being if there's not a creator? But here's
the question. How to know him? How to know
God? How to, as that old catechism
says, to enjoy him forever? You see, in the book of Job,
the question is asked in chapter 11. verses seven and eight, it
says this. Canst thou, by searching, find
out God? Can you, by searching, can you
find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is as high as heaven. What
canst thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst
thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. You can't find God just
by your own efforts. In chapter 23 of Job, In verse
3, Job here speaking, that was one of his so-called comforters,
who spoke a lot of truth. But here in chapter 23, Job says,
Oh, that I knew where I might find him, where I might find
God, but I don't, I don't know where to find him. That I might
even come to his seat, that I might even come to his presence. Oh,
that I knew that I might find him. Behold, verse 8, he says,
I go forward, but he's not there. and backward, but I cannot perceive
him. Verse 9. On the left hand, where
he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the
right hand, that I cannot see him. We can't just deduce things
about God, because we're separated from God, as the prophet Isaiah
says, your sins are separated between you and your God. We,
although you say, I'm living and I'm moving and I'm having
my being, but spiritually, we're dead. Spiritually, there is no
spiritual life in us. But God is a gracious God, and
God is a merciful God, and he does reveal himself to some. How does he reveal himself? We've
been seeing in this book of Hebrews, we've been seeing, it opens with
chapter one, verse one, God, who at sundry times, at different
times and in different ways, spoke in time past to the fathers,
to our ancestors, by the prophets. God speaks. It is the revelation
of God to man, dead in his sins and trespasses. It's the revelation
of God. We can't find him by searching,
but he reveals himself to those that he's chosen to reveal himself
to. And he's spoken in these last days to us not just by the
prophets as to the ancestors, but by his Son, by the Lord Jesus
Christ, by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also He made the worlds. The Son of God is our Creator
God, by whom God made the worlds, by whom God is manifested to
us. This is how He reveals Himself,
in His Word, the Scriptures, because the Son of God is the
Word of God. That's His name. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He says, this Son of God, this almighty, glorious Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He says, as a man in John 14 verse 9,
to Philip and the other disciples gathered there, this one that
the Pharisees looked at him and they saw no comeliness that they
should desire him. And he said to them, he that
hath seen me hath seen the father. Show us the father, that's all
we need. He that has seen me has seen the father. Because
as it says in Hebrews one, verses two and three, He, Christ, the
Son of God, is the brightness of the glory of God. He's the
outshining of the hidden being of God. No man's seen God at
any time, but the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father.
He has made him known. And he was made man, as we were
looking at in chapter two of Hebrews. He was made man, he
was made the same flesh and blood as the children whom he loved
before the foundation of the world. Why? To redeem them. Because the price of redemption
is death. And the life is in the blood,
and he must shed his blood that his people's sins might be paid
under the justice of God. He died, he came, he became man.
in flesh and blood, to die and shed that precious blood as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot, to pay the sin debt, as
it says in verse 16 of chapter 2, of Abraham's seed, of those
that believe the same as Abraham, as those who are descended from
Abraham by faith, not by genetics. He came to destroy Satan by death,
to destroy him that had the power of death. He came to destroy
Satan. He came to populate the kingdom
of God with sinners, people, people, human beings, justified,
justified from all their sins. Because why? Because their sins
are not just paid for, they're taken away. He came to build,
as we saw in the first part of chapter 3, He came to build His
living house out of living stones. It's elsewhere in the Scriptures
called His temple. Know you not that you believers
are the temple of the living God? It's His church. It's his
ecclesia, his church. It's his body, of which he is
the head, and all of the people are members. He is the chief
cornerstone of that temple. He is the chief cornerstone of
that church, and his people are the living stones built together.
He's that body of Christ. The church is that body of Christ,
of which he is the head. His living house. He came to
be the bridegroom to his bride. He came, as we read in Hebrews
2 verse 10, he came to bring many sons to glory. He came,
that doesn't just mean male, that means male and female, there's
no difference there. He came to bring many of his,
all of his people, but many, not all people that were ever
born, but he came to bring many sons to glory. But here's the
question, are you? Am I, are we members of his house,
that house he speaks of in the first five verses of chapter
three? Are we partakers of Christ, as it says in verse 14 of chapter
three? Are we partakers of Christ? Has Christ been revealed not
just to us, but as Paul says in Galatians, when it pleased
God to reveal his son In me. In me. Are we partakers of Christ? Are we partakers of the blessings
of His grace? What are the blessings of His
grace? Forgiveness of sins. A certain hope of glory. A guarantee
of eternal bliss. There are many examples of those
who professed to be the people of God, they merely professed,
they proclaimed that they were, who fell far short and didn't
attain that rest. Old Testament Israel, as in What
we were reading last week in Hebrews chapter 3, they didn't
enter in because of unbelief. Verse 19 of chapter 3, we see
they could not enter in because of unbelief. They didn't believe
God. If you read 1 Corinthians chapter
10, It talks of exactly the same thing, that all of those people
were with Moses and they passed through the same experiences
of the hand of God upon them. The cloud, the pillar of cloud
by day and the pillar of fire by night, the opening of the
Red Sea that they walked through on dry land. and that the Egyptians
pursuing them, their enemies were drowned. All of those things,
they saw all those things. They were fed miraculously with
manna from heaven. They complained, and yet despite
their complaints, when God legally, strictly would have destroyed
them, but because Moses prayed to him, he fed them with flesh. He sent quails, he sent flocks
of quails. And they ate until they were
sick of eating quails. So anyway, we come to Hebrews
chapter four this week, and I've got three points out of these
first 13 verses. The first one is a holy fear. The second one is a Sabbath rest. And the third one is labor to
enter that rest. So first of all, a holy fear. Look at verse one, where we're
told, let us therefore fear. Lest a promise being left us
of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short
of it. Let us fear. You've been promised
that there is a rest to the people of God. You've been promised
that. But let us fear in case any of us should come short of
it. You say, well, doesn't John say in his first epistle, chapter
four and verse 18, where are we? Down here. John says this,
there is no fear in love. But perfect love casteth out
fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. And yet, here in Hebrews 4, let
us fear. Is that not a contradiction?
No, no. The fear that John is saying has nothing to do with
the believer is the fear of judgment for the redeemed objects of grace. If Christ has redeemed you from
the curse of the law, what shall we fear? If God before us, who
can be against us? There is nothing to fear because
he has paid the price of redemption to redeem us from that curse.
But there is a proper fear. There is a proper reverence before
God. It's not fear of condemnation
under the justice of God. Well, Christ has dealt with that.
But there is a fear, a proper reverence before God. We read
in Proverbs 1, verse 7, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. It's the beginning of wisdom.
In the song of Moses and of the Lamb, the redeemed in heaven,
Revelation 15, verse 4, they sing this. Who shall not fear
thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. You know the perfect angels.
When Isaiah saw them in Isaiah chapter six, in the year that
King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord in the temple. And we know
from John 12 that it was the Lord Jesus Christ that he saw.
It was that manifestation of God, which is Christ. And his
train filled the temple. And there were the angels crying,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The whole earth is full of his
glory. He's holy. He is holy. He dwells in unapproachable light. He is supreme. Before Him we
should bow in reverential fear. To face the Almighty God, if
you're a redeemed sinner, then there is no fear in that. There
is no fear of judgment. But if you're an unredeemed sinner,
you're a sinner before the justice of God. To face the Almighty
God in judgment, it says later in Hebrews, it's a fearful thing.
It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. Because our God is a consuming fire. Don't believe these that
paint this picture that God has gone soft compared with his Old
Testament days. Our God is a consuming fire against
sin. We need to beware of casual familiarity
with God. In Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and
verse 2, I won't turn to it now for the sake of time, but it
says there, be careful what you say when you come into the presence
of God. Be reverential. Keep your mouth shut, say as
little as possible, for God is in heaven and you are on the
earth with your feet firmly on the earth. So don't come casually
familiar and presumptuous into the presence of God. But as God
speaks to his people, as he reveals himself in Christ, he speaks
peace. He speaks peace. He speaks to
his friends. He says, I call you no longer
servants, I call you my friends. For I have told you all things
that the Father has revealed to me. All things the Father's
given me to tell you, I've told you. You're my friends. True
friends share one another's secrets. He calls us his brethren. His
brethren, it's in chapter two of Hebrews. He calls us his adopted
children. We've received the adoption of
sons. So why does Hebrews 1 verse four
encourage us to fear? It's because of what you read
in verse 12 of chapter three. Take heed, brethren. Lest there
be in any of you, listen, an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. Take heed. Lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God. There's a hymn that we haven't sung for a while, but it's got
the verse in it that says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Because of the weakness of the
flesh, prone to leave the God I love in this weak flesh, let
us fear that though we profess faith in Christ, though we hope
for eternal rest in him, we end up falling short of it, as those
many examples did. Old Testament Israel, verse 2. For unto us was the gospel preached,
as well as unto them. Who's the them? The Old Testament,
wilderness-wandering Israelites. Having come out of Egypt, they'd
had the gospel preached to them. They heard the gospel preached
from the lips of Moses in type, in symbol, in pattern. I'm sure, too, explicitly applied
by Moses. I'm sure he would have pointed
out, all these things point to the one that's been coming, the
promised seed of the woman, to redeem his people from the curse
of the law. I'm sure that they heard the
gospel preached, but That word preached did not profit them.
Why not? It was not mixed with faith.
They didn't believe it. They all saw God's works for
40 years. Look at verse nine of chapter
three. Your fathers tempted me and proved
me and saw my works for 40 years, but they did not believe. Let
us fear lest, as it says in verse 12 of chapter three, there be
in us an evil heart of unbelief. We need to work out, as Philippians
says, Philippians 2 verse 12, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, knowing the weakness of the flesh and constantly
pleading with the Lord to keep us because of that fleshly weakness.
and heed the warnings. There are plenty of warnings.
Jesus gave plenty of warnings in his earthly ministry. In Matthew
25, and again we won't turn to it for sake of time, but there's
the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins. The wise, five
of them, had their lamps ready for the midnight wedding. They
had their lamps primed with oil. so that they could light the
way for the bridegroom. But the foolish hadn't prepared
their lamps, and they were lackadaisical about it. And they said, oh,
we haven't got oil. Oh, can you give us some of your
oil? No, no, we won't have enough. No, you can't. There were warnings
that... And the foolish virgins that didn't have oil were shut
out of the wedding feast. It pictures the fact that they
didn't enter that rest of God. And those who trust in their
own goodness, are there not lots? Jesus himself said, Matthew 7,
21 to 23, he said, many will say to me in that day of judgment,
many will say to me, Lord, Lord, Didn't we do all of these good
things for you? Didn't we preach in your name?
Didn't we do these good works in your name? And he will say
to them, depart from me. I never knew you. Isn't that
going to be a shocking statement? Isn't that going to be a shock
to professing religious presumers? All had heard the gospel preached,
but some heeded and others were careless. When you hear the gospel
preached, when you hear it preached truly, and you've got to sift
out true preaching, which is the true presentation of Christ,
from that in so much of religion, which is nothing other than just
flesh works. You've got to heed it and not
be careless about it. It says, take heed how ye hear. Don't be careless about it. By
preaching the truth of the gospel, it says, by the foolishness,
what the world regards as foolishness of preaching, God is pleased
to save them that believe. By preaching, God stirs his flock
from soul sleep into action. Just a word to younger people. As this world grows more evil
and dysfunctional all around us, I'm increasingly aware of
some young people, I've had some conversations which have been
very powerfully affecting of how some young people are really
thinking about eternity and the state of their souls. And as
the world grows more and more evil like this, and young people,
some start to think about life and eternity, and they find a
gem of divine truth in the Bible or by talking to other people,
and they get some sort of soul satisfaction, and they're happy
to continue in what you might call a do-it-yourself religion. Can I just issue a word of warning? Beware. Beware. Take heed to
listen to sound preaching. That's where God will feed your
soul. Feed your immortal soul so that you grow in grace and
knowledge of Christ. That's the thing you need. You
need fellowship. You need to listen to the word
of God to feed your soul. You need other fellow believers
to help you. Beware of DIY religion. So then, a holy fear. And then
we see a Sabbath rest. Let us fear lest a promise being
left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem
to come short of it, a promise of entering his rest. We sang
earlier on, let me find it here, in 1055. 1055 in verse two. Sweet
as home to pilgrims weary, light to newly opened eyes, flowing
springs in deserts dreary, is the rest the cross supplies. In what Christ accomplished at
the cross, There is rest, there is rest for your souls. Come
unto me, he said, all you that labor under heavy laden, under
a burden of sin, and you will find rest for your souls. Is
the rest the cross supplies? All who taste it, all who taste
it, listen, shall to rest immortal rise. There's an eternal rest. There's an eternal Sabbath. And
the Sabbath, the word Sabbath is that rest, that rest. It's a Sabbath rest. The majority
of so-called churches make Sunday the Sabbath day in its Christian
form, the fourth commandment in Exodus 20, the fourth commandment.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In it you shall do no
work, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. legal restrictions, and
many so-called churches make Sunday the Sabbath day in its
Christian form. How they think that they are
lovingly obeying the commandments of Christ by treating this day
like an Old Testament legal day, when in actual fact they don't
come anywhere close. The Sabbath day was Saturday,
the seventh day. That was the Sabbath day. It
was strictly legally Enforced that you should do no work if
anybody amongst the Israelites even picked up sticks to light
a fire They were to be stoned to death. We don't do that. Do
we today talk about keeping the fourth? Talk about keeping the
fourth commandment. We don't do that. No, sorry.
Just check that. This is all wrong Yeah, I think that was all right.
Okay, so we don't do that, do we? We don't do legal restrictions,
no. Beware of them. What is the Sabbath
rest? Well, look at verse four of chapter
four. He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. It's
a creation pattern. In the week of creation, when
God created the heavens and the earth, Six days he did it, and
then the seventh day he rested from all his works. It was the
culmination of God's creation. The culmination of his creation
works was then, is now, eternal rest. It's eternal rest. It's the kingdom of God triumphant
against all foes, all opposition. It's the bliss of heaven attained
and experienced. its eternal perfection and completion. But then it was patterned, in
the Old Testament, in legal ceremonials. The Sabbath, the rest, it was
patterned. The rest which God is pointing
to is that rest which is in eternity. It's that rest from the trials
of the flesh and of sin, and it was patterned in Old Testament
legal ceremonials. So, there was the seventh day
Sabbath on a Saturday, which was to be kept weekly, and no
work was to be done. Why not? Because it pictured
that the true believer rests in Christ and his finished work. The true believer doesn't seek
to add anything to what Christ has accomplished to make himself
better with God. That's what that seventh-day
Sabbath pictured in the Old Testament. I might add that in the New Testament,
Colossians 2 will tell you if you read it, that we're forbidden. In the New Testament age, in
the Gospel age, we're forbidden from keeping a Sabbath day. We're
forbidden from it. Then there were the seven-year
Sabbaths. Every seven years, the land had
to be given a rest for a year. There was the seven sevens, which
was 49, and the 50th year was the year of jubilee, when complete
liberty was proclaimed, the trumpet was sounded, the slaves were
set free, the mortgages were cancelled, the debts were fulfilled.
That was the year of Jubilee. It was all picturing and pointing
to that perfect rest which is fulfilled in the Gospel Sabbath. We live in the Gospel Sabbath
time. There's a Gospel Sabbath rest
in Christ. There's a Gospel Sabbath rest
in completed salvation. There's a Gospel Sabbath rest
in accomplished redemption. Accomplished redemption. the
guarantee of eternal security because of this Sabbath rest
accomplished by Christ. There is the comfort to the believer's
heart when we read in the scriptures, we read it in Isaiah 45, about
God being a just God and a savior. If you mull that over and think
about it, you'll think, how can that possibly be? How can God
be just when he hates sin and must punish it? And yet he's
a savior of sinners. How can it be? Only in the redemption
that Christ has accomplished. Only in the Sabbath rest that
he has procured. He's just and justifier of his
people of sinners. But unbelief barred many Old
Testament professors. Verse six, seeing therefore it
remaineth that some must enter in, some entered in, God has
decreed that he will save some, but unbelief kept out many to
whom it was first preached. Seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered not in, why? Because of unbelief. Again, verse
seven, he's fixed, he limiteth, he's fixed, he's fixed a certain
day in David. What's he talking about? The
Psalm that we read last week, Psalm 95, which speaks of this. It speaks of not being like those
Old Testament wilderness wanderers who didn't believe God and therefore
didn't attain to the rest of God. He limits, he fixed, he
appoints a certain day, saying in David, today. After so long
a time, as it is said, today, if you will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts. This is the gospel day. He's
quoting Psalm 95 there. This is the gospel day. This
is the gospel day when the Old Testament limited patterns and
types find fulfillment in completed redemption in Christ. He's completed
it. We look back to completed redemption. So don't harden your hearts against
the gospel truth that you hear, like so many have done. Don't
harden your hearts against it. In what Christ has done, if you
believe, he says, this is why he says, he that believes in
me has everlasting life. He that believes in me shall
not see death but shall live. All of those promises are based
on the fact that Christ has accomplished the redemption of his people
from their sins. In verse eight, in verse eight,
it says there, as I was explaining earlier, for if Jesus, If you've
got a margin Bible, it says quite clearly Joshua. If Joshua, the
one who took over from Moses and led them into the promised
land, if Joshua had given the people rest, it was a picture
rest. The rest of the promised land,
the rest of Canaan that was held before the children of Israel
in their wanderings, that was a picture rest. And Moses, by
the law, had failed to bring Israel into the symbolical rest
of the promised land. And Joshua took over at the decree
of God and went a stage further. But it was still only symbolical,
and it was still only part accomplished. Joshua had given them rest, and
that was completed, but it wasn't. Then would he not afterward have
spoken of another day? What day? The gospel day. The gospel day when our Joshua,
our Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ, our God shall save, for that's
what the name means. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. When our Joshua secures his people's
rest. So verse 9, there remaineth therefore
a rest, a keeping of the Sabbath, a resting in all that Christ
has done. There remains a rest to the people of God. It's a
rest which is here and now by faith. This gospel rest of complete
pardon for sin, of perfect reconciliation of sinners with their holy God. the absolute security of God's
will. You know, I love where in the
Scriptures the Lord Jesus Christ in his ministry, such as this,
in John chapter 6 and verse 37, he says to the crowd listening
to him, he says, all that the Father giveth me Because the
Father gave a multitude to the Son before the beginning of time.
All that the Father gave to me shall come to me. They will come
to me. They will come believing. And him that cometh to me, you
say, well, I'm maybe not amongst them. No, come to him, because
him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven, not to do mine own will, said Jesus the man,
but the will of him, the Father, who sent him. He sent him. And this is the Father's will,
which hath sent me, that of all the people which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing. I won't lose a solitary one,
but should raise it up, raise them up at the last day. And
this is the will of him that sent me. that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life,
and I will raise him up at the last day." Wow. Can you get your
head around that? Can you meditate and chew on
that and ask God to open its meaning to your darkened heart? That he might show you that this
is the will of God who sent Christ into the world, that everyone
of us, which sees the Son by faith and believes on him, may
have everlasting life, and not only have it beginning now, but
will be raised up at the last day. We will spend eternity with
him in eternal glory. To keep the Sabbath is to rest
in the completed work of Christ, and to trust Him, and to cease,
as it says in verse 10, he that is entered into his rest, he
also has ceased from his own works, just as God did in that
creation pattern. He ceased from his own works
and that rest of which God's seventh day rest at creation
was a foretelling of that which would be the eternal rest of
God with his people. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. That's what it's about. He ceased
from his own works. We cease from our own works. We quit trying to earn favour
with God. And we trust, we trust and we
rely on and we lean on the Lord Jesus Christ who has done all
things. And we confidently know, as Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able I'm convinced that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day, that day of judgment, that day when all things will
be reckoned, that day when everything will be straightened out. I trust
him. I lean on him. There's nothing
of my own that I bring. That's what the true Sabbath
rest is. That's the true Sabbath rest.
It isn't what the legalists say. It's not spending one day a week
in physical deprivation and austerity. Oh no, we can't go there because
it's Sunday. Oh, we can go in your car. I mean, who makes up
these random laws? I do not know. But that's all
that they are. To rest, to keep the Sabbath,
is to trust Christ, not to spend one day a week in physical deprivation. It's to look confidently to that
day of eternal rest, when we pass from the realm of time. It's the eternal end of this
journey of faith to the celestial city, as pictured by Bunyan in
Pilgrim's Progress. We rest here and now by faith. As we live in this sinful flesh,
in spite of this sinful flesh, we rest here and now by faith. But then, when we're freed from
this sinful flesh, Isaiah 11 verse 10, his rest shall be glorious. The rest of God in Christ is
glorious. But unbelief Lack of faith will
keep us out. How do we avoid it? I'll be very
quick. Final point, labor for rest. Verse 11, 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
and 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. Labour to rest. Sounds a contradiction,
doesn't it? Work hard to enter into rest. Work hard to avoid unbelief. Labour in verse 12, the Word
of God. Labour in the Word of God. It will divide, as it says there,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. It
will divide the true from the false. Read it. Read it a lot. Meditate upon it. Pray about
it. You know, every time you're doing
other things, think, I could be laboring more in what God
has revealed in his word. Meditate about it. Pray about
it. Ask for understanding. You know,
the Lord Jesus Christ, risen, He came, you read it at the end
of Luke's gospel, chapter 24, and he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures. Oh, that he would give us understanding
of the scriptures. And then encourage one another.
This is why I think, don't just do DIY religion. Get together
with others. Oh, you say there isn't anybody
nearby. There's the internet. in your wilderness separation
from this world, get together with others. Join things like
this. Listen to others. There's more
of this. There are more sermons fully
rich in the gospel of grace, easily accessible online than
there have ever been before. Make use of it. But if you possibly
can, get together with others. Talk together about it. Verse
13 of chapter 3, exhort one another daily while it is called today,
lest any of you be hardened, unbelieving through the deceitfulness
of sin. Speak about the gospel together.
Grasp every opportunity to hear it. Faithfully preach. This is
what it is to labour to enter that rest. Feed your soul on
it daily. Believe its message. Seek to
grow, as Peter says at the end of his second epistle, grow in
grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
Word of God. He is that Word of God. Rest
here in trust in Christ and rest for eternity when he takes each
one of us to his people's eternal home. In my father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. Amen.