I'd like for you to turn back
with me in your Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. What I read to you earlier was
the account of the Jews of the whole house of Israel
that God had delivered out of Egypt, gave them passage through
the sea, and sustained them, and proved the Lord, proved Him,
proved His word of blessing, proved His honor, faithfulness
for 40 years in the wilderness. They had been a long and perilous
journey, but not an arrow had been shot, not a spear had been
thrown, or a sword swung and the whole house of Israel had
been delivered from one of the most powerful nations on the
face of the planet. And then they were taken out
to this sea and made passage through its midst. And as they
turned on the other side and looked back, saw Pharaoh and
his army swallowed up in the sea. And they sang praises unto
God, and then they went out in that wilderness, and for forty
years they were out there. But after a few years out there,
He brought them to the land of promise. I don't know how much
time had passed, at least two years, maybe a little more. And
He brought them right to the edge of the land of promise.
And they sent out spies into the land. And the spies went
over and sure enough, everything over there was what God had described
it to be and more. The Word of God says they brought
back grapes on a pole between two men. Fruits just unimaginable in that
place. But only two out of the twelve
that came back. Believed God. And actually entered
in to that rest. Caleb and Joshua. Ten of those
men stood up before God and brought back an evil report. They went
over there, and I know what they expected. They expected the same
thing we think. When a man comes down the aisle
and makes a profession of faith, or he's baptized, or joins a
church, or whatever it is that he does, he expects to walk into
this place, and it's a land of plenty. And it's all there for
his taking. He just has to go in and pick
it and eat it and it's ready for him. And it's just pie in
the sky and a sweet by and by. That's what he thinks it's all
about. But he gets there and he looks and he finds giants
in the land. Giants there. Those spies didn't
expect to see anybody. They expected to cross over that
Jordan and cross over that mountain and look down on this Fertile
plain like Sodom and Gomorrah. Look down there on that fertile
plain and just walk right in with their herds and their children
and settle down and build their houses forever. And camp right
there. But they got over there and that
ain't what they found. They found the fruit all right.
But it's full of people. It was occupied. Somebody stronger
than them had already taken hold on it. Already laid claim to
it. Already built cities. There was walled cities there.
Huge cities. Jericho was a mammoth city. Mammoth city. They said that
you could put four chariots side by side by side by side all the
way across that wall. And it had towers on it. It was
defended by organized armies and it was well defended. They
couldn't walk into this place. It was already owned by somebody.
And there was giants there. Giants. You remember Goliath? The story of Goliath? He had
a sphere as big as a weaver's beam. That's about like a porch
post in comparison. a spear like a porch post. Can
you imagine? Huge. And they come back and
they said, we can't go in there. There ain't no rest in there.
We can't rest in there. It's full of enemies. We can't
rest in there. There's walled cities. There's
armies. There's people defending that place. We can't go in there.
God don't know what he's talking about. There's no rest in there. That's what he's talking about
here when he's talking about their provocation. Their provocation. Provocation. Don't be like them.
Don't be like them. Harden not your heart, he said. When these men come back, these
ten men, with their evil report, when they'd had their say, And
I've already told you how many millions of people were out there
in that group called Israel. Ten men stood up and described
the promised rest of God as an evil thing and turned the hearts
of the whole outfit against God. And the Lord spake unto him in
his wrath, and he said in Numbers 14, verse 28, As truly as I live,
saith the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do unto
you. Your carcasses, verse 29, shall
fall in the wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according
to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me, Doubtless you shall not come into the land
concerning which I swear to make you dwell therein, save Caleb
the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little
ones, which you shed, would be a prey." We can't go in there. Our little ones would be a prey.
He brought us out in this wilderness to die, and our children are
just a prey to the predators, and a prey to the wilderness,
and a prey to the enemies in that land. Your little ones,
which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in. I'm going
to bring them in. And they shall know the land
which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses
shall fall in this wilderness. You'll live out your days wandering
around in this hot sun and this hot sand without promise, without
hope, and without joy, knowing that the wilderness is all you're
ever going to have. That's all you're ever going
to have. Why? Because they murmured against
God. They murmured against God. And
then the Holy Ghost takes this typical and applies it to the
spiritual. And He says in Hebrews 4, verse
1, Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left to 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,
but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
in faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Now there's four things in my
text this morning that I want you to see. I want you to see
that the promise was freely proclaimed to everybody in that congregation. Everybody there heard the gospel. That's what he said. It was preached
to them. And then secondly, some believed
and some did not. I want you to see how those things
jive up. I want you to see, thirdly, that
believers are all identified by the character of their faith
and not just the profession. And then, fourthly, those who
died in the wilderness died in unbelief. So here's the first
thing I want us to look at, that the gospel was preached to everyone
in that congregation freely, indiscriminately, and without
prejudice. He didn't stand up there and
he said, well, now there's a, you know, there was a mixed company
that came with him when they came out of Egypt. And he said,
well, now there's some Canaanites and Hittites and different ones
out there. And I'm not going to get on this. I'll just, we'll
go over on this. And we'll just leave that out.
No, he preached the whole thing. He preached the whole thing.
And he preached it indiscriminately. He preached it to the strangers
and he preached it to the fellow citizens. And he preached it
without prejudice. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. What is the gospel? What in the
world is he talking about? What is the gospel? The gospel
is the good news of reconciliation, redemption, and salvation in
the person of Jesus Christ. That's what Moses preached. That's
what he told and taught that congregation. That God chose
a people to save for the glory of His great name. It's very
obvious that God had chosen a people because Israel is who He delivered. He didn't deliver anybody else.
He didn't go with anybody else. He didn't split the sea for anybody
else. He didn't drown the enemies of
anybody else. He didn't bring them up to this
land of plenty. He didn't sustain anybody else. He sustained Israel. God chose
a people to save for the glory of His name, and that God was
not pleased to leave them in their Adamic bondage. He wasn't
pleased to leave His chosen people, His highly favored people, those
He loved, He wasn't pleased to leave them in the bondage of
Egypt. And God was not pleased to leave His church in their
Adamic bondage and oppression, but He made a covenant with our
fathers to bless all nations through His seed, through His
Son, who is heir of all things. The gospel, then, is a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. A person. They look for a person. Those
of faith did. They looked for a person. All the chosen in Him are God's
elect. We say God looked down through
the telescope of time. No, God looked in one spot. He
looked in Christ. He chose us in Him. Isn't that
what it says in Ephesians 1 before the foundation of the world?
Chose us in Him. And all those chosen in Him are
God's elect. All those represented in Him
are heirs of His righteousness and His glorious atonement. All
those given Him by the Father stand or fall in their covenant
head. All of His gifts and graces are
given to them based on His accomplished redemption. It's all in Jesus
Christ. And from His throne in glory
is our great High Priest. He's able to save to the uttermost
all who come unto God by Him. Let me tell you something. Hebrews
chapter 3 tells us that Christ had a house and Moses had a house. Christ was counted worthy of
more glory than Moses inasmuch as he who hath builted the house
hath more honor than the house. Moses was faithful in all his
house as a servant for a testimony, Paul said, of those things which
were to be spoken after, as we're speaking here to you this morning.
But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we
if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end. Now in natural Israel, both houses
are represented. That's what Paul's doing here.
He's taking natural Israel and he's representing both houses.
Both the house of Christ and the house of Moses. congregation gathered together
by the preaching of a man's sin of God, and a people gathered
by the sovereign Christ who are without reservation the very
house of Christ. And this is true in every church.
Every true church in the land, God has been pleased to raise
up in this world. Every one of them. There's these
two houses. There's two houses. Men and women
who for whatever reason, have come into the camp of Israel
and have chosen to journey with her to the promised land. And
that congregation here, this congregation that's sitting here
this morning, is no more the pure congregation of God's elect,
any more than Moses' congregation was. Both houses are represented here. But even though There was a mixed
company there. Every man and woman in that camp
heard the Gospel. It was preached freely to them
and indiscriminately to them, and it was given to them in type
and picture. It was given to them in the ancient
prophecies. It was given to them daily by
exhortation, and it was given to them in the hearts and lives
of those among them who truly believed. In Paul's farewell sermon, And
what I'm saying to you this morning is we have a mixed company here.
I'm not just talking about our visitors who walked in, but there's
always a mixed company here. There's no such thing as a pure
congregation in this earth. I know it, and you know it, and
the Bible never describes any such thing. There's those who believe and
those who do not believe. But no matter what, when you
come into that congregation of the church and the gospel is
preached, it's preached to you the same as it is to those who
are the few. It's preached to both freely,
indiscriminately. There's nothing there to keep
you from believing except your own evil heart and your own rebellion. It was preached. indiscriminately,
freely given to them in type and picture and so on. And Paul
in his farewell sermon to the Ephesians, he said, I take you
to record this day. I'm free from the blood of every
man here. Why, Paul? Because I have not
shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. Believer
or unbeliever, I told you the truth. I told you the truth. You read about that on Acts chapter
20. The gospel is freely declared
to every man who in God's providence is brought under its sound, male
or female, black or white, rich or poor, learned or ignorant,
servant or king. It doesn't make any difference.
You've heard the gospel. Everything God has for poor sinners
like us is all together in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God,
whatever else he has, he has not life. Now, if you don't have the Son
of God, as He set forth of God in the Scriptures, if you don't
have Him, you don't have life, then what have you got? And what
good is it to you? It will do you no good. It will
do you harm. These men journeyed with Israel. They were all in
one big congregation. They came out of Egypt with them.
They went through the sea with them. They were out there in
the wilderness with them. They did all those things. And
they come right up on the brink of entering into that rest, that
promised rest. And they said, we can't do it.
What do you mean you can't do it? You ain't done anything since
you come out of Egypt. You didn't get yourself out of
Egypt. You didn't get yourself through the sea. You didn't get
yourself through the wilderness. And now you expect to get yourself
into that rest? Oh, we can't go in there. There
are giants in there. Giants in there. Everything that God has for poor
sinners like us, He freely gives us in the person of His Son.
And He gives it to all those who believe. Now here's the second
thing I want you to see. Why some entered in and others
were left to die in the wilderness. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2. For
unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the
word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it." What is faith? Hebrews 11, verse 1
gives us the definition of faith. He said, faith is the substance
of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I want you to pay close attention
to what I'm about to tell you. Everything that faith believes
and understands and embraces and rejoices in, it finds in
the Word of God alone. If I can't find peace in this
book, I can't have it. This is the only basis. If you
have a peace today based on a profession or based on an experience or
based on something some man told you, you don't have peace. The man of God is not just going
to tell you about peace. He's going to show you where
it is in here. And in here is where you're going to camp, not
on his words, but on the word of God. Everything that faith believes
and understands and embraces and rejoices in, it finds in
the Word of God alone. You don't find it in His Word
mixed with the philosophies of men. Well, I think, boy, you
don't want to go there. You don't want to go there. Because
there's a way. Solomon, the wisest man who ever
lived, said it twice. Twice. So we don't miss it. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof is everlasting destruction. You
don't want to do what seems right to you. You want to do what God
says, what he says. And it's not the word mixed with
our own sense of right and wrong, and not the word mixed with the
concepts of false religion, but the word of God alone. Paul tells
us that the household of faith is built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone. And those who truly believe take
God at His word. If you'll read Romans chapter
1, Paul deals with the heathens. He deals with their rebellion
against God's testimony and creation and God's testimony of conscience.
They didn't want any part of it. They changed the glory of
God into a corruptible image made like unto man and four-footed
beasts and so on. In Romans chapter 2, he begins
to deal with Israel and the Jew and false religion. These men
who thought they were saved but didn't know God. And in the light
of Jewish traditionalism and ceremonialism and legalism that
he exposes in Romans chapter 2, he says in his leading verses
in Romans chapter 3, he said, let God be true and every man
a liar. A liar. Faith receives God's account
of the fall. Sometimes I preach the fall of
man. People just do this, roll their
eyes up and look all around the room like I'm from another planet
somewhere. Isn't that what it says over
in Romans 5, verse 12? By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin. You read down through there,
by one man's offense many were made sinners. Isn't that what
that says all the way down through there? That's God's account of
the fall. Man's account of the fall is that you're born in innocence,
and you live your life out to the age of accountability, whatever
that is. And then at that point, you have
to make a decision which way you're going to go. Well, you're
already on the way. We went astray as soon as we'd
be born speaking lies. That's what David said. There
is no why in the road. The road is straight. You follow
the road on which you were born, you're going to go to hell. There's got to be a change. There
has to be a way revealed. Faith receives God's account
of the fall, that man was ruined in Adam and so on, that in his
flesh dwelleth no good thing, that we're carnal, sold unto
sin, that we love darkness rather than light, and drink iniquity
like water. That's God's account. None righteous,
none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. Well,
preacher, how do you know that? What makes you so sure of that? Why is it you're so bent on preaching
that? What makes you just so sure that
that's right? Because it's the plain testimony
of God's Word. And faith takes God at His Word. We receive God's record concerning
man's fall and depravity, and we receive God's account of the
way of salvation. Salvation is by the free and
sovereign grace of God, not according to our works. He says that over
and over. We're not born according to our
works, but of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace given us in Christ
before the world began. And it's all of grace and nothing
owing to man, not of works, lest any man should boast. And then
the way of grace is the person of Christ. Grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. We want to talk about the grace
of God in our lives, and we call this grace and that grace and
something else grace. Brethren, rain ain't the grace
of God. He rains on the just and unjust. That ain't the grace of God.
The grace of God is in the redemption of Christ. The grace of God is
in His person. That's the grace of God. If you
don't have Christ, you don't have grace. You don't have grace. It's all in Him. You have no
Christ, you have no grace. Have no Christ, we have no election.
Have no Christ, we're not predestinated. Have no Christ, have no justification. Redemption in Him, the forgiveness
of sin. He's the head of the body. All
preeminence in Him. If we don't have Christ, we don't
have anything. of God and everything of man. He's all and in all to those
who believe. Faith takes God at His Word,
and faith understands the way. The way is Christ, the way is
grace, and the way is the way of faith. And then true saving
faith arises in the heart from three things. It arises from
a sense of our need. until God reveals in you your
need of grace, your need of Christ, your need of redemption. You're
never going to seek Him. You're never going to seek Him.
You'll seek other things. A man's life goes sour. He doesn't want it to be sour.
He wants it to be sweet. That's not the same thing as
seeking God. He just wants his life sweet.
His marriage goes sour. He wants a good marriage. That
ain't seeking after God. That's seeking after a good wife. It comes from a sense of our
need. All his promises are directed to the needy. Do you ever notice
that? He doesn't have these blanket
promises that religion talks about. promises to everybody. There are no blanket promises.
All His promises are directed to the needy. Come unto Me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest
for your soul. If any man thirst, let him come
unto Me and drink. And then he said to the Pharisees
this, he said, the whole need not a physician. He said, you
go learn what this means. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. Because I'm not come to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. Now you go learn
what that means. True saving faith will never
come but through a sense of need. And then secondly, true saving
faith comes as a result of our understanding of God's willingness
to show mercy on the helpless. When a man gets in need, and
he finds out that the only one who can supply his need is God,
the only way God is going to save him is through this man,
Jesus Christ. I tell you, you find out he is
sovereign, you find out who he is, and what this whole thing
is all about, and the next thing you are going to seek with all
your heart is a willingness from God to save your rotten soul. Is he willing? That leper fell
down at his feet like a dead man. His face was rotten and
off. He was covered with pus. It was
a nasty thing to look at. And he fell down on his face
before the Lord. And he said, if you will. Who
will? Him. If he will. He said, you can make me whole. If you will. Now, let me tell
you something. He already believed in the willingness
of Christ before he ever came there, because he was forbidden
to be there. But he came anyway. He came. Where does the sinner find this
willingness? He finds it in the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He finds in the gospel where
God spared not his own son. He must be willing. He must be
willing. He spared not his only begotten
son. He must be willing because he's
made preparations. He made preparations. He devised
means to recover his banished. He finds it also in the freeness
of the promise. Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. Huh? That's pretty free, ain't
it? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That's a pretty free promise. I find it in the commission of
gospel preachers. I find it in the giving of His
Holy Spirit. I find it in the preservation
of the world. Peter preached that the preservation
of the world is something that we ought to take comfort in and
see the willingness of God there, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. We ought to be able to find the
willingness of God in all of these things, and especially
in the personal providence that led you here to hear this morning.
And then quickly, let me look at true character of faith which
identifies God's true house. Every last one of them that believed,
you read the text carefully, all of them entered into His
rest. The believer finds rest no matter
what the problem is. What's the problem? What keeps
you from this rest? What keeps you from leaning your
whole soul upon Christ? What holds you back? What holds
you back? Is it the giants in the land?
What is it that holds you back? What bars the door? What keeps
you from coming? The believer finds rest no matter
what the problem is. Is the problem sin? He finds
rest in the promised Redeemer who put away his sins. Is the
problem righteousness? He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes. Is the problem your
depravity? You hath he quickened who were
dead. Is your problem faith? By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God. Is your problem service? It's
God who worketh in you, both the will and the do of His good
pleasure. Is your problem perseverance?
We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Is your problem death? To be
absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. What's
the problem? What holds you back? Is your
problem this body of death that we live in, oh wretched man that
I am? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death when I would do good, evil's present? Is that
what holds you back? Oh, He shall change our vile
body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according
to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things to
Himself. You see what that character of
faith is? It sees. It sees the rest. It's God's
rest. It's God's rest. Is your problem judgment? There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Christ
is the rest of the true believer, and His faith is known by their
entering in. They enter in. They enter in. No matter what the trouble, persecution,
problem, or trial, they find rest in Christ. And then let
me give you this word of warning. Hebrews 3 verse 19. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. As it is with faith, so it is
with the true character of unbelief. The one true mark of unbelief
is that it cannot find sufficiency in Christ to rest. That's it. Well, how do I know if I'm an
unbeliever? You can't rest. That's why. You can't rest. You can't find sufficiency in
Jesus Christ to rest. You can't rest your life on Him.
You can't rest your soul on Him. You can't rest your children
on Him. You can't rest your job on Him. You can't rest your death
on Him. You can't rest anything on Him because you ain't got
any rest. Rest is in Him. And those who see it rest, they
enter in. They sit down. They stop their
labors. Here's my rest. Here's my rest. Unbelief finds no rest in Canaan
because of that which stood to prevent them from having it.
And because they wouldn't have God's rest, they were damned
forever to walk in the barren wilderness until their carcasses
fell in the sand and went back to the dust. I want to read this
for you, and this will be my closing statement over in Romans
chapter 4, if you want to turn over there. Romans chapter 4, beginning in verse 20. We're talking about entering
into His rest. Rest for your soul. The character
of true faith, it rests. It rests. Now listen to this,
Romans 4, verse 20. Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. and being fully persuaded that
what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore,
it was imputed to him for righteousness. And it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and raised
again for our justification. These all entered into rest. All that believed entered into
rest. Do I mean by that that they entered
in with no doubts at all? No. No. But they did enter in. They did enter in. And no matter
what the situation of life is, no matter what the economy is,
no matter what anything else is, they rested in Christ. May God be merciful and grant
us all this rest.