Turn with me now to Hebrews chapter
4. The message this morning is about
entering into His rest. Before I get into the message,
let me give you just a few things that have taken place in the
earlier chapters before we get to chapter four. First of all, Paul, as only an
apostle taught of Christ himself could do, establishes, he establishes
Christ himself as the gospel incarnate. God come into the
flesh to save a people. with the glory of his great name. He tells us in chapter one and
verse two that he hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
son. Or as it reads in the original,
in son. That's how God speaks. We speak
in English. Down in Mexico they speak in
Spanish. God speaks in son. That's how he speaks. And this Son, it says, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds,
who being the brightness of his glory, and expressed image of
his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. His Son is not just The Savior,
He's the Sovereign Savior. He's the Eternal Savior. He's the Eternal Justifier. He's the Eternal Redeemer. He
is the Eternal Son. He is the Gospel, the Savior
of sinners, the God-Man Mediator. Well, how did He accomplish the
work? by representation. Listen to this, Hebrews 2 verse
16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
What's that mean? What's that mean, he took on
him the seed of Abraham? Well, turn with me over to Galatians
chapter three. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. Hebrews chapter four is not gonna
mean anything to you unless you understand what he said in chapters
one through three, because it leads up to this. So what's he talking about when
he says he took on him the seed of Abraham? Well, listen to this,
Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Now you remember God told Abraham
his seed, through him all the nations of the world were going
to be blessed through Abraham. He said, I'm going to make your
seed to be as the stars of the sky and as the sand of the seashore. So that's what he's talking about
here, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. A brethren, he said, I speak
after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet
if it be confirmed, that is confirmed by God, no man disannulleth or
addeth thereto. Now watch this. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So now, when he tells us over
here that he took not on him the nature of angels, but the
seed of Abraham, he's telling us that he took on the seed of
man as the Christ. You follow what he's saying here?
This man, Jesus, was a representative man, and He is the Christ of
whom all the promises were confirmed of God way back yonder when He
spoke to Abraham. He took on Him the seed of Abraham,
the Christ, the surety of the covenant. All right, what's all
this got to do with you and I? Hebrews 2, verse 3. How are we going to escape? We've been condemned of God.
We were born in sin. Death passed on us. How are we
going to escape these things? How are you going to escape your
nature? You're born with a fallen nature. That nature dictates
and rules over all your thoughts, all your actions. I don't say
man don't have a will. I just say he don't have a free
will. His fallen nature dictates his will. I'm not saying that
men don't make decisions. You're going to make a decision
one way or the other. You're going to make a decision.
But your decision is biased by your nature. You see what I'm
saying? How are you going to escape that nature? Oh, wretched
man, Paul said that I am. Who's going to deliver me from
this body of death? Who's going to deliver me from
this nature? How am I going to escape? You
see what he's saying here? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation spoken of by Christ Himself and then confirmed
unto us by them that heard Him, God bearing them witness? Miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by Him in their midst. All right, fourthly, Hebrews
3 verse 1. He tells us to consider the apostle
and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. What's he mean,
consider him? Consider him. It means to examine
him closely, thoroughly, and completely. You know, back under
the law when they took that lamb. For a sacrifice, they were to
pin it up so many days and watch that lamb carefully, inspect
that lamb closely, make sure that lamb had no flaw. If that
lamb had a flaw at all, it wouldn't be accepted by God because that
lamb pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. When he tells us to consider
the apostle and high priest of our faith, he's telling us to
examine him closely. Thoroughly. Completely. It means to do this by the Word
of God, the Spirit of God, and the assistance of God's ambassadors. It means to consider who He is,
and why He came, and what He did, and where He's at. Now, the natural man, he doesn't
receive these things. He receives not the things of
the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to it. But hearing is always preceded
by a new birth. When a man says, I hear what
you're saying. I hear what you're saying. That's
preceded by a new birth. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God who were born not of the
Not of blood, and not of the will of the flesh, and not of
the will of man, but of God. They're born. He gave them power
to become sons of God. This hearing is always preceded
by a new birth, and that new birth enables the sinner to receive
it, to consider it, and to be willing to be taught and reasoned
with. Based not the work of men, but
the gift of God, and where it's given, it leads to obedience,
humility, and rejoicing. I'm tired of people when I stand
up here and talk to you about receiving things, and I stand
up here and beseech you to receive things, and they say, well, you
can't tell men to do what they can't do. Oh, yes, I can. I can
absolutely tell you to do what you can't do, because I know
it's God who worketh in you, both the will and the do of His
good pleasure. There comes a time when a man
born of God and that man born of God, you can reason with him.
You can sit down with him one-on-one and talk to him and he'll listen.
He'll sit in that pew wherever you're seated here this morning.
When God in power gives you a new birth, I'll be able to stand
up here and reason with you. I'll be able to stand up here
and give you arguments. And you'll listen. You'll submit. You'll find out in the Word of
God that man's called of God, that man's used of God. God's
speaking to me through him. And I need to listen. Don't tell me I can't reason
with a man. Sure you can through the Spirit
of God. Otherwise, what would be the point of preaching? I'd
just be up here speaking to the air. Paul said he's made us able
ministers of his new covenant by the Spirit. Not just a man's
words, not just a man's opinion. That's what it is until God gives
you the new birth. When he gives you that new birth,
something else takes place. This hearing's always preceded
by a new birth, and that new birth enables the sinner to receive
it and consider it and be willing to be taught and reasoned with.
Well, what do we consider? It says, consider Him. That's
what it says. Consider Him. Consider who He
is. You want to know something about
God? You consider Him. You consider Christ. What do we consider? Well, consider
this. Salvation's in His hands. There was a day when that scared
me to death. And then there was a day when
I said, I'm glad it is. I'm glad it's in his hands, not
in mine. What would I do with it if it
was in my hands? I'd throw it away, just like the Jews did. I'd throw it away. It's not in
my hands, it's in his hands. Oh, consider him. that every soul God has chosen
to save has been given to him to save, and he's gonna save
them, every one of them. All which the Father hath given
to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out. Who's coming? Those given to
him by the Father. How they gonna come? They're
gonna be drawn of God, and be taught of God, and they're gonna
come to Christ, every one of them. Every soul God has chosen to
save has been given to Him to save and He's going to save them.
Consider this, He appeared as a man for them, lived His life for them, died
on a cross for them, rose from the dead for them, intercedes
in glory for them. He says, wherefore. Wherefore. Hebrews 3 verse 7. Wherefore. Now I read to you the Psalm where
this is a quotation from Psalm 95 that I read to you just a
few moments ago. Wherefore, Hebrews 3 7, as the
Holy Ghost saith, today. Now let that sink in, that's
capitalized. That means God means for you
to look at it. Today, not after a while, today, today,
if you'll hear his voice, will you? Huh? Will you? Can you? You will if you can. Can you hear the words inspired
and revealed by the Holy Ghost in the Word of God in the preaching
of the Gospel? His Gospel has been read to you. And even now, you're hearing
it preached. Now, He said today, if you'll hear His voice... Oh, now wait a minute, preachers.
Wait a minute. How can I tell the difference between his voice
and the voice of my twisted heart? How can I tell the difference
between his voice and a false prophet? How do I know I'm hearing
his voice when you preach? How do I know that? But his voice agrees with the
word of God. That's the first thing. His voice, secondly, points you
to Christ alone. It doesn't say Christ and, it
says Christ. His voice speaks of grace and
mercy. Never talks about works. Talks
about grace. Talks about mercy. His voice glorifies God. God gets all the glory. Doesn't
leave anything for you to glory in. That's how you know if you're
hearing His voice. Now today, if you'll hear it,
if you'll hear His voice, harden not your hearts as Israel did
in that provocation in the wilderness. He tells us in verse 16, Hebrews
chapter 3, for some when they did hear, some that had heard,
did provoke. How do you provoke God? You don't
listen to Him. You don't take heed to His commandments
and to His Word. You ignore Him. You put it off.
You dismiss it. You lay it aside. I don't know what you think about
the things that I preach, but I'm telling you this. Faith is
not a suggestion. It's not an option. It's a commandment. It's a commandment. The sovereign
God of glory commands men to believe. He commands you to bow
before His Son and obey Him and believe on Him and enter into
His rest. But Israel wouldn't do it. I'm
gonna tell you something, if the God of glory tells you to
go in and you go in and look and there's walls, cities, and
giants, you can go on in because God commanded you to do it. If he's not planning on being,
Moses said, Lord, if you don't go, he said, I'm not going. He said, Moses, I never intended
for you to go alone. What could you do? What are you
gonna do against the power of Egypt? It must have sunk in because
when Moses held that staff up at sea split, he didn't hesitate
to hold that staff up. He didn't hesitate after that
at all. God was with him. God tells us to believe. Oh,
I can't believe. You can if God commands you. That man with the withered hand,
he couldn't but he did. He said, stretch forth thine
hand. He couldn't. His hand been like this all his life from birth. He said, stretch forth thine
hand. He couldn't, but he did. He told that man paralyzed, been
out there almost 30 years, laid down there at the pool of Bethesda.
He said, take up your bed and walk. Can you imagine? Little pencil looking legs where
he laid there and hadn't walked on them in 27 years. Take up his bed and walk. He
couldn't. But he did. He did. What did Israel do? They refused
to believe God concerning the salvation of the soul. Sovereign God of Glory commands
men to believe, but Israel would not. And so, Hebrews 3.11, he
said, I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. They will not live in the land
of promise, they will not reap the benefits of my peace, and
they shall not enter into my rest. Hebrews 3.18. Now, here's the
question. Why not? Why not? Hebrews 3.19. So we
see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. What makes unbelief such a great
sin? What makes it such a great sin?
Well, first of all, because it looks upon God as unworthy to
be trusted. I understand if you don't trust
me, but I don't understand when a man won't trust God. God's righteous. He cannot do
wrong. He can't do wrong. Everything
he does is right. He's just. He's not intimidated by men.
He does what's right and holy and good. There's no reason in
God not to trust him. None. He looks upon God as unworthy
to be trusted. What's the first thing Satan
said to Eve in the garden? Hath God surely said? He knows when you eat of that
fruit that you're going to be just like him. You're going to
know good and evil. distrust god unbelief is that which disregards
the word of god and it does so by wicked and ungodly reasoning
second unbelief disregards the authority of god does god have
authority to command us to believe he sits on the throne We're the work of his hands,
he's the potter, we're the clay. Does God have the authority to
command men to do his bidding? The gospel's preached and you
hear it and you understand it, but you ignore it. Now what is
that except a total disregard for the authority of God? That's
exactly what it is. You think God's playing games? Huh? You think the living God's
playing games? These unbelieving rebels got
away with their insolence nine times. Nine times. Going through the wilderness. Nine times. They got away with
their insolence. And they thought God wasn't going
to do anything about it. But he was, and he did. After
the first time, the second time was easier. The first time was
a struggle. After that, it became a little
easier. The third time, it was even easier yet. And the fourth
time through the ninth time, it was just second nature. What
is that but the judgment of God on a man? But then came the 10th time,
and God said, that's enough. They're not going to be a number
11. He said, your carcasses are going to fall in the wilderness.
You're not going into my rest. No more mercy, no more tolerance,
no more patience. Your carcasses shall fall in
the wilderness. Unbelief disregards the authority
of God. Thirdly, it reveals the heart
of a rebel. Oh, we want folks to think we're
believers. We want folks to think we're
interested. We want folks to think this, that, and the other.
Let me tell you something. Unbelief reveals the heart of
a rebel. Rebel talk's a good talk, but
in his heart, he's still at war with God. His mind is enmity
against God and it's not subject to his word and it's not subject
to his law and his commandments. Believers obey God. Now you write that down. He tells
us in Romans 6.16, he said, what know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey? Don't you know that? And now
what he told those Israelites, they wanted to pretend, these
scribes and pharisees wanted to pretend that they were friends
of God and guardians of God and teachers sent from God. And our
Lord said, they said, we have Abraham to our father. He said,
you despise me. He said, this Abraham didn't
do. Abraham didn't do this. You say
God is your Father, but you despise me, and I come forth from the
Father. He said, I tell you who you are. You're of your father
the devil, and the works of your father you will do. That's who
servants you are. Unbelief reveals the heart of
a rebel. Fourthly, what makes unbelief
such a great sin? It disregards the testimony of
God concerning His Son. It sets aside the only way of
salvation. It calls out Christ. Now before
I come down here to preach, I worked construction up in Lexington,
Kentucky, and my boss built big subdivisions. He subdivided and
made big housing developments and stuff. And out in the front
of one, we had this big stone entryway laid up. You know, it
was a gated community, and they had a little guard shack set
out front, and this big stone wall. And my job was overseeing
all the work on this, and we had a stonemason come in and
laid that stone up. And I noticed he'd pick a stone
up, and he'd look at it all over, and then he'd throw it aside.
And he'd get another one, and he'd look at it, and maybe he'd
chip a little here, and he'd lay that in the wall. And then
he'd pick up another one, maybe he'd lay it, and then the next
one he'd throw over in this pile. And I said, what are you doing? He said, we're culling out stones.
He said, I can tell by the grain of it and the shape of it and
things if it's going to fit in this wall. And I said, well,
you want me to go get a loader and get rid of these? He said,
oh, no, no, no. He said, we got a use for them. These stones
over here that we called out, they're going to fill in the
voids. They're going to fill in. That's what
the Jews, this is the stone, Peter said, that you builders
disannulled. You threw it aside, but you didn't
throw it away. You just used it to fill in the
voids. That's how Christ is used in
the average church, to fill in the voids. But he said, you know this, Christ
made him head of the corner. Upon this rock, he said, I'll
build my church. This is the rock you culled out,
you threw it away. You didn't give him any part
in your temple. You just left him in a pile to fill in space.
And then fifthly, unbelief despises the spirit of grace. Spirit of
God teaches salvation by grace. It reveals the sovereign grace
of God in Christ. Unbelief will rest on anything
else. Don't matter what it is. It'll rest on it. It'll rest
on it. You rest on anything natural,
but nothing spiritual, because he's a natural man. All right,
Hebrews 3, 19, so we see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief. Now watch this, Hebrews 4, verse
one. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise being left up us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. They saw the lamb sacrificed.
They knew what it was. They saw that lamb cut up and
laid on the altar. They saw the high priest take
its blood and go beyond the veil. They saw those things. The gospel
was preached to them just like it is to us. But it didn't profit
them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. I do the very best I can each
week to preach and teach the gospel to anybody and everybody
that comes into this place. And some, I honestly believe,
are profiting by it. They're being grounded and settled.
They're growing in grace and knowledge of Christ. But others,
they hear, but they do not profit because it's not mixed with faith,
and then they hear it. Not just so, and it's that way
in every church. Well, how do you know this is
true? Hebrews chapter four, verse three. For we which have believed
do enter into rest. We rest in him. Believing on
Christ is synonymous with peace and reconciliation and joy and
rest. He's synonymous with these things
because this is how the living God is pleased to reveal Him.
He's the one who accomplished these things. He's the one who
manifested these things. The love of God's manifested
in Christ. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. You can say the same thing of peace. He is our peace, which
broke down the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles. We're all one in Christ. You
can't know Christ and not know peace. You can't know Christ
and not enter into His rest. To know Him is to know rest.
It's to know reconciliation. It's to know the love of God. Isaiah said, in that day, There
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of
the people. And it shall, to it the Gentiles
shall seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Now an ensign is
a flag, it's a banner. And when I look at the American
flag, I'm reminded of the many wars and victories and the many
conflicts and triumphs fought and won by men who were rallied
under its colors. And the same thing is true of
Christ. he'd been how many battles as
he fought and won? All of them. What about the people
that was rallied under his banner? They were all victorious. Every
one of them. Even so, in Jehovah Nissi, the
Lord our banner, God has sent him forth and rallies his people.
What's he done? He has abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. He's reconciled
us through the body of His flesh through death to present us unblameable
and unreprovable in God's sight. He's our peace. Through Him we
both have access by one Spirit under the Father. He blessed
us in Him with all spiritual blessings. He predestinated us
under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, made
us accepted in the blood, redeemed us through His blood, and abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known unto us His redemptive
will in Christ. And the most contrary thing in
the world is to believe on Christ and not find rest for your souls.
If you believe on Him, you enter into that rest. You see what
I'm saying? He is rest incarnate, peace incarnate. He's reconciliation in the whole
of his person. We which have believed do enter
into rest. But there's more. Hebrews 4.4,
For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest on the seventh day from all his works. God entered into rest. He created the world by his son. That's what he tells us over
in Hebrews 1 verse 2. He's the heir of all things by
whom he also made the worlds. And having made those things
and given those things to Christ, he trusted in Christ and rested
in Christ. The Father did. Then in time
when he calls us to himself, we obtain our inheritance being
predestinated according to him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who done what? First, trusted in Christ. Who
did? God did. He spoke in a certain place of
the seventh day on this wise, God did rest on the seventh day
from all his work. and in this place again if they
shall enter into my rest." This rest is what the Holy Spirit
speaks of there in Ephesians 1.12. And the rest which our God sanctified
and commanded to be kept is that eternal rest purposed and accomplished
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke of this rest immediately
after creation, but many of natural Israel did not enter into it.
Verse 6, Hebrews chapter 4, seeing therefore it remaineth that some
must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief. All right? Now look at verse
7. Again, he limiteth a certain
day, saying to David, today, after so long a time, as it said,
today, if you'll hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if
Jesus, who's that talking about? That's
not talking about Jesus of Nazareth. That's talking about Joshua. the old testament name joshua
and the new testament name jesus are exactly the same and if i'm
not mistaken the name hosea is the third one it's the same it
all means the same thing and he said for if jesus joshua
had given them rest they would not afterward have spoken of
another day joshua led them into the promised land led them into
that land of Milk and honey, that land of rest, that promised
rest. But they got into that promised
land and God said there's more rest. There's rest. This ain't
it. There's rest. Hebrews 4 verse 10. For he that
is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
works as God did from him. he ceases from all works to reconcile
himself to god he ceases from all his works to make himself
righteous before god he ceases from all his works to justify
himself to god and he does what god did he rests in christ god doesn't look at the death
of christ and then goes over here and tries something else
When He appointed Christ as our Savior, He rested in it. You see what this is saying?
God rested in that. He rests in the blood of Christ.
He rests in the righteousness of Christ. He rests in that eternal
justification of Christ. He rests in it. And you'll rest
too if you ever see it. And you'll cease from your works
just like God did from His. said well god works in all kind
of ways. Oh no he don't, he works in Christ, period. He sees from
his works. And it says in Ephesians 1 verse
12, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and you were sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise. What about you? What about me? What am I going to do with this
gospel? What am I going to do with this command? Will you harden your heart as
they did in unbelief there back in the wilderness? Is that what
you're going to do? Are you going to enter into His
rest? You follow what he's saying? Now I want you to go through
chapter 3 and chapter 4 and see just how many times that word
today is capitalized every time. every time he uses it. And then
he said, today if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart,
lest you find yourself with all the rest of this unbelieving
word. There are carcasses all around
us falling in the wilderness. May the Lord help us, enable
us to enter in to that rest.