Share with me in your Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. I do not wish to diminish the
Old Testament sacrifices. They were ordained of God for
that time period. But that time has ended. That
time has ended and now offering anything unto the Lord by way
of sacrifice or by way of service as any part of your salvation
or any part of my salvation is taking the place of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what it's doing now. Because
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. So I don't
want to diminish the Old Testament sacrifices, but I want to tell
us that Christ is the fulfillment of all of those Old Testament
sacrifices. They all pointed to Him. They all point, everything
about the Old Testament sacrifices, the ordinances, everything pointed
to Christ. I've titled this message Resting
or Restless? Either we're resting or we are
restless. If we're resting, we're resting
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness
before God. If we're restless, we're not
resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
working still. We're offering sacrifice still. We are doing still as part of
our salvation. At least we think we are. We're
one or the other. We're either resting or we're
restless. Some people may think that they're
resting, but they're not. They're restless. You can ask
yourself this simple question, am I resting or restless? And
see what I mean by restless. Is, are you doing anything as
part of your salvation? If you are, you're not resting,
you're restless. You can believe 99% of the gospel and still be
restless. You can have all the doctrinal
facts down and still be restless. You can have complete understanding
of God's gospel and still be restless because it's not what
you know and it's not what I know. To rest is the gift of grace. It's something that the Lord
has to cause us to do, something that's given to us by grace alone. Men are restless and they say
things like, oh, well, I don't do that. or I don't go there,
or I don't drink that, and that's part of their righteousness.
They're restless. They don't even know it. It's part of their
righteousness. We had a man come in. I think
it may have been the first month we were meeting in this building.
The lights were on. He came in, a young man. He came at the end
of service. He had a cross around his neck, and he had a shirt
on that said, Soldier of the Cross, and he came up to me and
he asked, What time do we meet and I said seven you you just
missed it but you're welcome to come back next week he's like
yeah I would love to man you know we don't do the things we
used to do we don't go to the places we used to go we don't.
We don't- and he gave me a big long list I just kept listening
and I said. I understand what you're saying
has like come come back in in in here come back and listen
well I ain't seen him since so. But if I would have said yes
absolutely we don't do those What are we doing at that point?
We're justifying one another. What does the Lord say? He's
not accepting what I'm doing. He's not accepting what you're
doing. He accepts one, the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to have
him. I've got to be resting in him.
Either we are resting or we are working. There is no in between.
It's so simple. And yet, unless the Lord reveals
it, We can't find it out. We can't just figure it out.
We can't come to the realization, oh, I'm not resting. I need to
start resting. It has to be revealed, doesn't it? It has to be revealed.
Well, let's read our text here, Hebrews chapter 10. I want to
read three verses, 11 through 13. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Every priest stood every day offering sacrifices
that could never take away sin. Multiple reasons this was done.
Number one, the Lord ordained it as their worship, looking
to the cross. Another reason is to show us you can sacrifice
all that you want to. I can sacrifice all that I want
to, but God is never gonna take that sacrifice and put away sin
with it. It's not possible. It's not possible. God did not accept the offerings
under the law. They were insufficient to put
away sin. And the sacrifice you and I do
the Lord will not accept it. He accepts one sacrifice to put
away sin. What is that sacrifice? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It's his finished work.
Think about these priests. They had to offer the sacrifice
one day, wake up the next day, offer the sacrifice again, wake
up the next day, offer the sacrifice again. And you had to be a Levite
to do it. You couldn't offer up your own sacrifice. And now
men offer sacrifice of service. They offer sacrifice of lifestyle. They offer sacrifice of clothing.
They offer sacrifice of music. I was raised in a home that I
was not allowed to listen to anything but what they called
gospel music, and it wasn't even the gospel. Now that I know the
gospel, it wasn't even gospel music. But of course, naturally,
I listened to whatever I wanted to, and they didn't know about
it. They're not gonna tell me. That's the rebel. That's all
that the law can do is either make a rebel or make a Pharisee. That's it. That's all that it
can create, a rebel or a Pharisee. It cannot make one wise unto
salvation. It cannot save anyone. So keeping
the law and offering these sacrifices will never put away sin. Men believe that they can be
good enough for God by what they do, never realizing that they're
just adding to the mountain of iniquity God has them charged
with. Every time that you and I do something as part of our
salvation, every time, if we were to do one thing as part
of our salvation, we're just adding iniquity. That's all we
can do. That's all we can do as far as
spiritual things goes. You know what the Lord told The
people, he said, you're gonna come to me whenever at the judgment
seat, you're gonna come and say, but Lord, we've done all these
wonderful works in thy name. We've cast out demons, we've
healed, we've went on missionary trips, we've tithed, we've done
all these things in your name. And the Lord says, depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. He called all of that iniquity.
He said, I never knew you. That's all that we can produce
if we're trying to work for our salvation. Either we are resting,
or we are restless. I'll explain that a little bit
farther. Number one, someone who is restless cannot cease
from their works. Someone who is restless cannot
cease from their works. They hold on to what they do.
They hold on to what they do. The Pharisee will come to the
scriptures. and they will justify themselves by the scriptures.
They'll make it say what they want it to say, they'll justify
themselves. The sinner, the God-made sinner comes to the scriptures,
seeing that he's a sinner, he needs a savior, he needs a substitute.
That's the difference between resting and restless. The Pharisee,
the one who thinks that they're resting, They're not resting
at all because they're, what did the Lord say? I'm gonna disannul
your covenant with death. You've made a covenant with death
and with hell you're in agreement. I'm gonna disannul that covenant.
No, you don't have rest. There's only one rest and it's
found in Christ, not in us, not in what we do, not in what we
don't do. It's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone who is
restless cannot cease from their own works. They have a righteousness. false righteousness, it's a self-righteousness,
which is not righteousness at all. But it's completely and
entirely based upon them. Them. What they do. What they
are doing. What they are going to do and
or what they haven't done or what they've never done or not
ever gonna do. That's the mentality. That's
the mentality and none of those, none of that mentality can bring
about the remission of sin, it can't. Now you'll agree with
me, I'm sure when I tell us we're narcissistical by nature, every
one of us, that's just how we are. We got that from our father,
Father Adam and Mother Eve, that she wanted to be God and he thought,
he obviously thought it was a good idea or he wouldn't take the
fruit also, but we're narcissistical by nature, we think of ourself.
But I'm talking about, well, first of all, the Lord's people
are given the love of Christ one for another, so we put one
another before each other. We still deal with his whole
flesh that's still selfish, but these people that I'm speaking
of are more than just narcissistical. They're someone who is restless. They believe themselves as self-righteous.
That's more than just being narcissistical. To think highly of yourself is
one thing, But to be self-righteous means that you're good enough
for God the way you are. And this is what all false religion
teaches, is that you're good enough for God because you have
done fill-in-the-blank. Doesn't even matter what it is.
Or you have not done fill-in-the-blank, whatever that may be. But what
does the Lord say? What does the Lord say? These
priests offered sacrifice. They stood daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could never,
never, never take away sin. How many years did they do that?
How many years did they do that? And yet, we see it in our society,
we see it in all forms of religion, we see it all over the world.
Men are making sacrifice still unto the Lord. Not animal sacrifice,
but sacrifice of their lives, sacrifice of their service, sacrifice,
they're more disciplined than others, so to speak. So they
justify themselves and then they condemn others based upon, well,
you're not, I would never do that. Have you ever had that
thought? Well, I'd have never done that.
Yeah, we would. The Lord left us to ourselves.
We'd be the worst. We would be the worst. It's by grace. It's
by grace. A lot of people have a victim
mentality. What do I mean by a victim mentality?
Well, they'll, when they're told that they're wrong, they will
immediately deflect what's being said. Well, you know, and then
they'll defend after that. They'll defend. And when that
doesn't work, they'll attack. That's a victim mentality. That's how
they do. And men, when they hear that they're a sinner, they'll
say, well, I'm not as bad as so-and-so. They're defending
themselves. Oh, I've not done this or I've not done that. And
then they'll attack back. That's what they do, the victim
mentality. And it's it's in every church, except for the Lord's
church. And whenever they have this mentality,
they'll sacrifice, and they never realize that they're taking the
place of the blood of Christ in their sacrifice. You remember
last Sunday, we looked where he says either accusing or excusing,
and that's what men do. They accuse others, and when
they're accused, they deal with it by excusing themselves because
of this and this and that. Not the Lord's people. See, we're
resting. If you see the confusion in everything
I've talked about thus far, it's understandable, but how miserable
that is, of having to live a life where you, well, what if I do
this? What's gonna happen? What if I don't do this? What's
gonna happen? What about looking to Christ? What's gonna happen?
You're gonna rest. Oh, we need to rest. There's
so much turmoil and chaos in our world. Nevermind the world. There's so much turmoil and chaos
inside this creature. Lord, I need to rest and I can't
rest in trying to figure out what I need to do as part of
my salvation. That's foolishness anyways. Give
me Christ. That's what the gospel teaches
us. The Lord's people rest. They ceased from their works.
They who have not ceased from their works, they're restless.
But the ones that are enabled by God's grace to cease from
their works, they're resting in the finished work of Christ. By nature, we are so prone to
work and then rest, aren't we? We wake up in the morning, we
go to work. It doesn't matter. You don't
have to leave your house. There's always something to do,
isn't there? It doesn't matter if it's whatever chores around
the house has to be done. Something always needs to be
done. That's just how it is, isn't it? We wake up and we get
everything done that we need to, and then what do we do after
that? Well, we may do something that we actually want to do,
something that we enjoy, but at the end of the day, what do we
do? We rest, because our work is done for that day. Is that
not right? My work's done for the day I can rest. When it comes
to salvation and spiritual matters, that is totally contrary to what
God says. Totally contrary to what God
says. By nature, we are prone to work
and then rest, but in spiritual things, it profits nothing, because
nothing done in the flesh can profit anything done in the spirit.
Nothing done in the flesh can profit anything done in the spirit.
Turn to Romans chapter eight. When I say nothing, I mean the
full definition of that, nothing. Romans eight, let's read five
through 11. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things
of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, But to be spiritually minded is life in peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh,
but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God
dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
The body is dead because of sin, and the spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwelleth in you. If you are in the flesh,
if I am in the flesh, we cannot rest. We cannot rest, not spiritually. We cannot rest because we are
in the flesh. But if God has chosen to give
us his spirit, that's all that our spiritual man does, is rest
in Christ, always. That's all that the new man can
do, is rest in Christ, always. The new man never doubts and
never wavers. The new man's given faith to
believe God, to rest in Christ. That's what he's talking about
here. That's the whole key to the question, are you resting
or are you restless? Well, if you've been given God's
spirit, you're resting. If you've been given faith to
believe Christ, you're resting. And if you have not, you're still
in the flesh, you're still dead and trespasses and sin, and you're
restless, you're restless. Ask yourself this question, are
you working? Or are you looking to Christ as all your righteousness
before God? It's one or the other. Are you
working? For righteousness, or are you
looking to Christ as all of your righteousness before God? All
of your acceptance? Lord, don't look at me. Don't
look at me and and what I've done is my acceptance before
you look to Christ, my substitute. Because if you're looking to
me, oh, I'll be restless. I can't do anything that would
be pleasing unto you. But he did. The Lord Jesus Christ
did. Look to him. Look to him. Christ be in you, the body is
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. The spirit is life because of
righteousness. They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But they that are in the spirit are looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ and resting in his finished work. They that are in the spirit. are resting because of his election,
because of his choice in election, his choice in redemption, his
choice in regeneration, his power in keeping us. We rest in all
the fullness of his salvation, knowing that we have no part
in it, nothing that we can add to or take away from it. Can't
add to or take away from it. We can rest in that. We can rest
in that. Therefore, his chosen people
are the only ones who can rest. He has enabled us to rest. And
everyone else is restless because he is not enabled. Do we see
how the Lord gets all the glory in this? He gets all the glory
in this. It's not something that we do.
It's what he's done. It's not something that we choose.
That's what he has chosen. It's not something that we work,
but it's the salvation he wrought on Calvary's cross. Which brings me to my next point.
Someone who is restless, they don't need a substitute. Not
really. They don't need a substitute.
Romans 10.3 said, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves into the righteousness of God. That word ignorant means
they're not taught. They're unlearned. They're unlearned. And what did the Lord say about
his people? They all shall be taught of me. This is not something
that we can come to the conclusion of based upon studying. This
is something that the Lord has to teach us, and he does it all
by grace, all by grace. Christ said, they all shall be
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh, cometh to me. This is they who are resting,
the ones that have heard. We heard last Sunday, he that
hath ear to hear, let him hear. Well, if we're hearing, that
means we're resting. Only those that hear, rest. Only
those who are made alive, live. Only those that have legs, walk.
Only those that have been given eyes, see. Only those who have
been made hungry, eat. Only those who have been made
thirsty, drink. They're the ones that's resting because Christ
is the focal point of every single one of those points I just made.
Christ is all in this salvation. The Lord said no man. No man
come to the father. Except the father which sent
me draw him. Now back in religion. Men would
say, well, you're being drawn. And so now you need to do something.
You're being you ever heard that before you're being drawn. Now
you need to pray a prayer or you're being drawn. Now you need
to make a choice to accept God. That's what they would say. But
this drawing is not a drawing to a choice. It's to a person. When the Lord draws us, he doesn't
draw us to do something. He draws us to bring us all the
way to Christ, who is our righteousness. He draws us all the way to his
son and causes us to rest. You know, resting, the definition
of resting is literally doing nothing. Doing nothing. Resting. Completely I'm doing
nothing whatsoever. Somebody said, yeah, well, you're
still breathing, aren't you? Well, that's not a work. That's the gift of
grace. That's faith. That's what the faith is. The
breath. That's what it is. It's all of the Lord. If we're
resting, it's because of what he has done, what he is doing
and what he is going to do. Those who are not drawn will
go about trying to establish their own righteousness. They'll
look at the life that they're living, the things that they're
performing, the work that they're doing. I know somebody, I don't
know if I have this in, you may hear this twice this morning,
I don't know if it's in this message or not, but I don't see it yet
in my notes, but I'm working with somebody, or I was around
somebody, and She, we were talking a little bit, we got on the subject
of religion. I didn't bring it up. I don't
try to ever bring it up if I can help it, just because as soon
as they find out I'm a pastor there, it's the same thing as
the woman at the well with the Lord. Well, here's my righteousness
here. And then they want you to accept it. And you're like,
I can't accept that. You know, God's not going to accept that.
And so you want to try to help them. You want to be tender and
loving towards them, because you don't want to make them mad. The gospel's offense enough.
You tell them Jesus doesn't love everybody, they're going to get
fighting mad pretty quick. It's just how it is. You've taken the righteousness
away. Anyways, they said to me, whenever I stand before God,
I've been a good person. So I'm just going to talk to
him. And I believe he'll let me in. That was the exact words
of this person. And in my mind, I'm thinking,
what about that sin that you, has not been put away yet? And
that's what we're talking about, resting or restless. Her hope is that
she stands before God, and they get to have a conversation, and
she's gonna talk him into letting her in because she's been a nice
person. Oh, that's a, what a poor soul, unlearned, ignorant. Don't know what she's saying.
Don't know what she's saying, she has no idea. What's she saying? But they who are of the Lord
are drawn by the Lord to the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who says, if you're not in Christ, it doesn't matter how good you've
been in your eyes or how bad you've been in your eyes. If
you do not have Christ, hell will be your home forever. It's
just how it is. It's what God said. Aren't you
glad that he said, no man come to the father but by me? I'm
going to draw you. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them. What do they do? They follow me. Why? Because
they know my voice. Because I'm drawing them. And
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
My sheep, his people. Nobody can pluck them out of
his hand, out of his father's hand. He's greater than all. These who try to establish their
own righteousness, these who want to present what they've
done unto God, That's why they cannot rest. They're blind leaders
of the blind, the Lord said. They're broken cisterns that
can hold no water. They approach the law to establish
righteousness, never understanding that all the law can do is expose
sin. There's no justification by the
law. Justification's found in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no redemption in the law. Redemption is found in one
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The law never sanctified anyone.
Sanctification comes through and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by his spirit, according to his will. No one can be saved by doing. If you could, if you could be
saved by doing, then why did Christ have to die? If you could
be saved by what you do, or I could be saved what I do, why did Christ
have to die then? See, we can't be saved by what
we do. That's why he had to die, or
we would have been lost. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
two. Let's read verse 16 through 21
together. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourself also are
found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live
unto God. He's saying we don't go back
to the law to find life, we're dead to the law now. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. See, you can keep God's law to
your very, very best, and it's nowhere close to being good enough.
The Lord demands perfection. We're going to hear about that
the second hour. The Lord demands perfection. It will only condemn
you. As soon as you start approaching
the law, it'll say guilty. There's only one that approached
the law, and it said innocent, and it was the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's only one, only one. What men do is they try to go
about establishing their righteousness by the law, but what did it just
tell us? Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of
the law. That's simple, isn't it? You were not justified by
the works of law. We're justified by the faith of Christ. That
doesn't mean we're justified by our faith. That means we're
justified by him and his faith and his work and everything that
he's done. You remember the tower of Babel,
they got together a bunch of men and women too, I'm sure.
And they decided, well, let's build a tower to God. We're going
to build a tower to God. And this is a picture of all
false religion. Men are trying to get to God their way. It's
all false religion. They're restless. What are we
going to do? We've got to get to God. So let's build a tower. Now,
ironically, they build the tower in the middle of a desert. And
this desert gets really, really hot. And what did they use to
build the tower? Well, they used bricks. They
made their own bricks. That's clay. And then they used
slime. It's pitch. It's the same thing
that Noah put on the outside of the ark. It's slime. It's
called atonement. That's another term for it. Did
you know that? Atonement. But the problem with their atonement
of their clay, and the clay represents the dust that we are. It represents
man. The problem with their atonement
on man is that the sun melted it, wouldn't it? The sun's gonna
cook that. It's gonna melt. It's gonna fall
apart. But that didn't even have to happen because they had disagreements
because their language was confused. All of a sudden, the Baptists
got mad at the Presbyterians, and then they got mad at the
Catholics, and I might be sounding funny or facetious, but honestly,
that's what that's a picture of. All these religions couldn't
agree on anything anymore, so they had to break ways, and they
never got to God, and everything that they had for their atonement,
it all just melted, fell apart. They're restless. They went their
own way, believing what they wanted to believe. They believe
what they want to believe, and we see all the religions around
us, don't we? Why do you think there's a church on every corner?
And somebody thinks that they figured out how to get to God.
Somebody thinks I know what to do to get to God. I can build
a tower. I built this, look at my tower.
I build a tower, God's gonna accept it. I'm just gonna talk
to him, he's gonna let me in. Perish the thought. No, he's not. No, he's gonna say, depart from
me that work in equity. I never knew you. There's one
he accepts. and it's the one you and I must
be resting in, and his name is Jesus Christ. If we're not resting
in him, then we are restless, then we are in darkness. You
ever stumbled around in darkness? That can be a little bit of a
restless situation, trying to get, if you're in a hurry and
you're in darkness, you really are restless, you're trying to
get out. Well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Lord, turn
the light on for us. Cause us to see your light, your
son, and cause us to rest in him. Man cannot get to God by doing,
Christ is the way. And that, we hear that because
we've heard that before, but think about that. Man cannot
get to God by doing because Christ is the way. If we're not in Christ,
we're not in the way. Us doing doesn't determine us
being in the way, Christ does. And everyone that comes to him,
he's the doer thereby. He's the one that says, come
unto me. All you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. Seek ye my face. When he sends his spirit and
power, he gives life and light through his gospel. Oh, his gospel's
not complicated. Men just refuse to believe it
because it strips them of all their righteousness. God elected
a people before time ever began, a bunch of dead dog sinners.
a bunch of dead dog sinners. I said that one time and I think
Greg's the one who's repeated it to me a couple times but I've
hung up on calling us that because that's what we are, dead dog
sinners. We're aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, we're
outcasts, we're dogs, that's what the Lord called the, every
one of the Gentile, or a couple of the Gentiles that he came
into contact with. But that's what we are, we were dead in
trespasses and in sin, we're dogs by nature. and we're sinners
by nature, but he chose to elect us for a purpose for salvation. And then he sent forth his son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, being born of a woman, being born of a virgin, born
under the law, to redeem his elect that were under the law.
And he did, he accomplished it. He said, it is finished. He was
resurrected as evidence of our justification before God, and
now he's seated making intercession. And we're kept by his power unto
the very end. He's not gonna lose one sheep.
That's the gospel. What part of that do we take
part in or have part in? Did he confer with us before
he hung the stars in the sky? Did he confer with us before
he put the exact number of grains of sand on the sea? He made them
that number, that was his choice. And did he confer with us whenever
he chose to save us from our sin, from ourself, and to give
us a place of rest? No, we didn't confer with flesh
and blood. He conferred with himself by
the determinate counsel of God in his sovereignty. He knew the
only way that we could be saved is if he did all the saving.
The only way that you and I would rest is if he causes us to rest. Otherwise, we're gonna be restless. Question is, are you resting
in this God? In this God that I preached to
us this morning, are you resting in this God? Are you wrestling
him? Are you resting? Are you wrestling
him? Are you restless? Let's go back to our text in
Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 11, every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his
footstool. These priests never rested like
so many poor souls. Their work could never could
never cease. You know, there was not a single
piece of furniture in the temple or in the tabernacle that was
designed for resting. There was no chair. There was
no stool. There was no bed. There was nothing
there for the priest to rest. But our priest, he's seated. He's resting. And the Father
is resting on his Sabbath, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and
I are to rest on his Sabbath if he would enable us to. That
would be our only way that we could do it is if he would enable
us to. This brings me to my last point. Those who are not resting do
not need God to save them. They do not need God to save
them. They believe that they can save themselves based upon
what they do. Those that are not resting in
the finished work of Christ, those who are restless, do not
need God to save them. The sad reality is if someone
doesn't know God, they will make up a God in their mind, one that
conforms to the way that they think, that gives them justification,
that makes them feel accepted, that makes them feel like they
have approval. But really, it's a figment of their imagination,
isn't it? That's all it is. That's why every man, you saw
all the Old Testament tribes and nations, what would they
do? They would make graven images, wouldn't they? And they would
say, well, this be our God. And they would worship that God. But really, that was
what they wanted. And then they would give credit to the God
whenever something good was happening. And then they would think that
they angered the God if something bad was happening. So they would
try to make atonement for it, or they would try to make penance
for it under the God by sacrifice. And that's all false religion
today. The difference is most of the time people don't have
an actual image physically in their house. Some might, but
most of the time the image is here and it's here. We're born
idle factories. We just are. Most of the time,
you know who that image is? It's Nebuchadnezzar is the one
that showed us. It's an image of self. It's an image of self. We love ourself by nature. And
so if the Lord doesn't leave us to our, if the Lord leaves
us to ourself, we'll be restless. We'll never be good enough, but
we'll think that we're good enough. We have to do more. We'll have
to do more like these priests sacrifice and sacrifice. No rest,
no rest. They use scripture, but I want
to turn the scripture to justify themselves. Back up what they
believe, but I want you to turn to Romans chapter one. If you go to any church nearby. Don Fortner always called him
goat barns. Either you have a place where sheep meat or you have
a goat barn. He's not wrong in that, and I don't know. any other
church nearby that preaches the gospel, but if you go there,
you'll hear these words, you'll hear Jesus, you'll hear blood,
you'll hear grace, you'll hear mercy, but you'll hear something
else that'll throw off everything that they just said, do. That's
the difference between our gospel and all the other false gospels
out there, is they're saying do, whether it's big or little,
we're saying done. They're saying do, we're saying
it is finished. That's the difference between our gospel and the other
gospels. Look here in Romans chapter one, verse 20 through
25. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like it
to corruptible man. and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than
the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Understand something, we
are the creature. We are the creature by nature.
He is the creator. He is the creator. In man's foolish
wisdom, they change the truth about God into a lie. What is
the lie from the beginning? And we've had 300 messages, and
I've repeated myself so many times. I've talked to someone
and said, I kind of sound like a broken record. I mentioned
that Sunday, and he said, good, good, that's a good thing. I
was like, okay, well, I guess it'll be all right to say it
again then. What is the lie? We've heard this so many times.
In Genesis chapter three, what was the lie? Serpent told Eve,
the day that you eat of this tree, you shall not surely die,
but you'll be God. It reads as gods, but it's the
same word as God right before. It's the same exact word. So
the translators just put an S at the end of it. They thought that
was more helpful. No, he said God. He said, God, you'll be
God if you eat that. And she said, I think I will.
I think I would like to be my own God. And she did. Ate of the fruit. That's what men are doing today.
They're changing the truth of God into the lie. I can be my
own God. I can make my own choices. I
can live my own life and it will be pleasing unto Him. When I
stand before Him, I'll just talk to Him. He'll let me in. I'll
just talk to Him. Know you'll bow and confess Jesus Christ
as Lord, either here or there. We all will. Oh, for the grace
to rest now, to bow now. You know, it's, Greg Elmquist
said this and I, You put little things in your pocket and they
come out every once in a while. But he said, you spell the word
bow and bow the same. And I'm like, well, yeah, I've
never thought of that. And the only difference is that the Lord
allows us to make it a short bow sound or a long bow sound.
Bow and bow. If we're bowed up against God,
if we're bowed up against his truth, we're restless. We're
not resting. But if we're bowing, we're resting. By definition,
bowing is resting. If men believe they're their
own God, it leads to eternal restlessness and self-justification.
But I want to tell us something. Hell itself is not enough to
make a man believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a rich
man and a man named Lazarus. Lazarus was a beggar. And Lazarus
sat by the gate of the rich man, desiring to eat the crumbs that
fell from his table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. He was a poor beggar with sores.
They both died. Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom.
The rich man died and went to hell. And the scripture says
there was a great gulf fixed in between them. And the rich
man lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and he called out,
said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may
dip his finger in water and cool my tongue. He didn't ask for
the fountain of living water. He didn't ask for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He didn't say, have mercy on me, the sinner. He said, I
want one more drop of water. I want one more drop of water.
That's us by nature left to ourself. God has to give faith. God has
to give repentance. And he ended up telling him to,
he said, send Lazarus back from the dead that he may warn my
brothers of this. So they don't come to this awful
place. And what did he, what did Abraham say? Well, they have
the law. They have the prophets believe on them. He said, no,
no, they won't believe that. But if you send one back from
the dead, they'll believe this man's in hell. And he's not believing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about that. No, hell's
not enough to cause a man to believe. It is the gift of grace
by God to his people. He gives repentance, he gives
faith, and we rest. We rest in the finished work
of Christ. My closing question is this,
are you resting or restless? Are you resting or restless? Don't misunderstand this morning.
We're not saved because we rest. We're not justified because we
believe. We're not sanctified because of what we do or don't
do. We're not righteous because of the way that we live. We are
saved. We are saved because the Lord
saved us, therefore we rest. We are justified because Christ
justified us, and therefore we're justified. We are sanctified
because of what he accomplished, and we have redemption through
his blood alone. Therefore, we're given faith
to believe. Are you resting? Or are you restless? Are you looking for God's approval
on your life? Are you restless? Are you resting in Christ as
all your righteousness before God, all your wisdom before God,
all your sanctification, all your redemption? Or are you restless? Or are you restless? You're either
restless or you're resting. Are you resting? Let's pray. Father calls us to rest. Bless
us to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name.