of that chapter four. It said, excuse me, 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. 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. 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. For he spake in a certain place
of the servant of the seventh day on this wise. And God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. And in this place again, if they
shall enter into my rest, Seeing, therefore, it remaineth that
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief. Again, he limiteth a certain
day, saying in David, Today After so long a time, as it is said,
today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest He also has seized from His own works as God did from
His. So that's where we want to speak
to you from this morning. And let's pray. Our Father in
Heaven, we come to You this day, Lord, knowing, Father, that You are on the throne. You rule
supreme, Lord, in heaven and in earth and in all the deep
places. We know, Father, that you have
a people that you love, that you've given to your son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that he came willingly to suffer and die instead
of his people to pay the sin debt of them that he chose. Thank you, Lord, this day for
each one that's gathered here, for all who may hear this message
this morning. We ask you, Father, to remember
the request made We have many on our prayer list, Lord, you
know each one. We thank you, oh Lord, that you
hear our prayers. We know, Father, that you love
your people and you pity us as little children. So we ask you,
Lord, to be with us this day. Help us, Father, The message
today, Lord, to honor your word and lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray, Father, that you
would grant us liberty. In Christ's name we pray, and
amen. All right, our next hymn, Jimmy,
is 235, I think. Hear my humble cry While others are calling Do not pass me by
? Hear my humble cry ? ? While
all others now are calling ? ? Do not pass me by ? ? Let me at
a throne of mercy ? ? Find a sweet relief ? Feeling their indignation,
held by unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my awful
cry. While all others now are calling,
do not go. Would I seek thy face? ? Hear my humble cry ? While on others thou art calling
? Do not pass me by ? Thou the spring of all my comfort ? More
than life to me Whom am I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. Oh Do I need to do something else?
Oh. All right. There's not a whole lot of us
here. Steve, why don't you come up? I told you I wasn't good at this. Our Father, we approach you again
looking to Jesus, our only hope of salvation. We come to you, Father, knowing
that all that we have, all that we have, you've given us in Him. We thank you for that. Great
salvation, Father. We thank you, Father, for all. because it is you, Father, that
worketh good in our hearts and in our lives. We ask you, Father,
to help us, Father, to realize, knowing that you've given us
all things that we might give back to you liberally. Okay, Jimmy. Sing another one. I guess that's my signal. All right. All right, let's go back to where
we read today. I need your prayers this morning. Getting a little more feeble
every time I come, it seems like. Now, in these first 10 verses, we've read here the fact that
unbelief prevented the people of Israel from entering into
the promised land. That was the rest. And equating
that to the danger that unbelief presented to those who heard
the gospel, it hardened their hearts. The rest in this passage is not
the eternal rest of all the saints in glory, but rather the present rest of the saints. I'm speaking about now, right
now, not in the future. A rest that's born of faith in
the finished work of Christ. Paul is addressing the current
issue of the danger of hearing the gospel and returning to the
Old Covenant. The eternal rest of the saints
cannot be experienced in unbelief. Only believers enter into that
rest. Keep in mind that the concept
of rest is embraced It's not embraced or understood in religion
of works, which is prevalent in our day. That's mostly what
you hear. That's mostly what comes from
the pulpits of today. As a general rule is to labor
and work for righteousness. Paul uses two examples in the
Old Testament to teach believers about resting, believing, in
Christ. Number one, God resting after
finishing creation is a picture of the rest of the believer enters
into. Secondly, the rest of the promised
land that unbelievers were barred from, the fulfillment of those types
is found in the rest that believers enjoy because they believe that
Christ has accomplished or has finished all the required work. These two rests have passed away, and there is a third. rest that God instituted the
seventh day, the Sabbath. God set aside the seventh day and
made it holy. And it was the Sabbath day to
the Jews, to Israel. All men are in bondage and slavery
by nature. And the harder he works to free
his chains, the farther he misses peace and rest. You know, I remember my dad bringing
home, one time he brought home one of these little things. that was made out of a woven,
a little tube that was made out of woven material. You put your
fingers in both ends of it, and the harder you pulled, the tighter
it got. The harder you pulled, it made
it more impossible to remove your fingers. And I thought of
that when I was studying this. That's not probably a very good
example, but I know most of you can relate to that. The only
way to get your fingers out was to reverse course. That's where
religion's at today. In most cases, it's opposite
of what God has told us in his word. Now, all men are in bondage by
nature and slavery. Men don't understand that. They
don't believe that. They don't believe they're in
bondage, but they are by nature. A man can't be anymore or anything
other than what he is, and he is born into this world in bondage
and slavery to Satan. Now, in that being the case, is it
possible for the chains to be broken and man's labors end in
this side of the grave and enter into perfect peace and rest?
Well, Christ told us that. He said, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, come unto me. and I'll give you rest. That's
where the rest is found, it's in Christ. Not in works. Come unto me. So what is this
rest he speaks of? With the Old and New Testaments
is all testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. From Genesis to
Malachi, It testifies that somebody is coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, which are called the four gospels, says he has arrived. And from Acts to Revelations,
it says that he's coming again. All of these books. All the Old and New Testaments
is a declaration of the gospel, the good news to dead sinners,
dead in trespasses and sins, bound in chains of darkness. Moses, the law, and the prophets
all declared the who that was to come. All the ceremonies and
the rituals of the priests to atone for the sins of the people
were all types and shadows and pictures of the Christ that would
come to put away sin. Now rest is spoken of. all through
the Word of God in different ways, in creation. He tells us that God created
all things in six days, and on the seventh day He rested. Under Moses, the law gave the
Sabbath as a day of rest for the people, and the animals In
Exodus 35, too, it says, six days shall work be done, but
on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath
of rest to the Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein
shall be put to death. I always thought when I was a
young Christian I'd study that, and I thought that's an awful
That's an awful harsh punishment for somebody to go out in their
yard and pick up sticks. But that was the law. But it
meant something much more than that to us today. So our Lord entered into rest. His
first recorded words was, it's time that I was about my father's
business. And the last words that he cried
from the cross was, it is finished. The work was complete. His people, the works to redeem his people
was finished. There was nothing else to do.
Now in Hebrews 12, 2 it says, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God at rest, because the work
is done. Remember that the tabernacle
in the wilderness was furnished, but not with chairs. The reason was because the work
of the priest who served was never finished. In Hebrews 10, 11 through 14.
Let me read that to you. Hebrews 10. 11 through 14 it says, And 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. So you see that he entered into
that rest. And there's a rest for God's
people, for those who believe on Him. So the rest spoken of
here has a higher meaning that is especially relevant to the
Sabbath. It is a real rest, and true believers
do enter into it. Well, who are these people that
enter into this rest? Verse 3 tells us so. It says,
We which believe do enter into that rest. So most folks say
that they believe, but they don't know anything about this rest. Religion doesn't know much about
the rest he speaks of here, because religion is all about doing.
and not doing certain things and denying themselves in order
to be looked upon by God and her peers as righteous. The apostles
described this as the bondage of the law. And it is a bondage. Satan has the natural man in
bondage and in darkness. He doesn't say we who have been
a churchgoer or member. He doesn't say he who has been
a good giver to the church. He doesn't say who is good to
our fellow man. He doesn't say Sunday school
teachers or deacons or preachers. He said many will say unto me
that day, Lord, Lord, So many of the Israelites fell
in the wilderness because of unbelief. None of the original
people who left Egypt were over 20 years old, were allowed to
enter into the Promised Land because of unbelief. Our Lord was speaking to the
people after he had fed five thousand, and they asked him.
Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work
the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. Religion says that's too easy.
There has to be more to do than just believe. So in Matthew 11,
28, he said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. and you shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. You see, his yoke is not bondage,
but his yoke is freedom. His burden is light, because
he has borne the burden in my stead. I wish I had a voice this morning,
but I don't. Religion says this can't be. We must work that we may have
a righteousness. They are in bondage and servitude,
always afraid that they might fail and be rejected in the end. why wouldn't they feel that way
preachers are standing in the pulpit today telling you that
God loves everybody that Christ died for everybody but yet he's
going to send you to hell if you don't walk a straight line
why wouldn't they be afraid to lay down at night and say I wonder
if I've done enough today to keep me out of hell why wouldn't
they think that way well My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Come unto me, I'll give you rest. That's the mantra of the Christian. So, Paul said in Galatians 5.1, Stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. and be not entangled again in
the yoke of bondage. Take care, believer, that you
live in a perpetual Sabbath, rest of rest. Christ is our Sabbath. The Sabbath of rest and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, of your ascended Lord. Remember
that your legal righteousness is complete. You have ceased
from your own works as God did from his, and let no one provoke
you to go back to the old bondage of the law, but stand firm in
the blessed liberty of grace, rejoicing in the perfect work
of your substitute and surety." So in Romans, Romans 10 says,
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to them
that believe. So, let me go back to Romans 4, 6
through 8. It said, It remaineth that some must enter
therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not
because of unbelief." Again, he limited 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. For if Jesus
had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day? There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from
his." What a wondrous thing it is to know that our sins are
under the blood. that we've entered into His rest. And if that's not your case,
if you still think there's something for you to do, then you are not
in the rest of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you're still in
trouble. So entering into God's rest is
all about believing on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe
on Christ requires FAITH, and where does faith come from? It
is a gift of God. Romans 10 and 17 says, So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The
Bible declares that not all men have faith. It is a gift of God. Romans 10, 13 through 15, he
said, For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. How then shall they call on him whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? So when the Holy Spirit breathes
life and light into a dead sinner and God reveals the beauty of
his dearly beloved through the preaching of the
gospel, he will come to Christ. That soul that has been labored
and heavy laden will cease from trying to make peace with God.
He will find a righteousness that his works could never attain
and will find rest in the Savior. He will finally see by that precious
faith that his sins have been effectually punished in Christ
Jesus. And knowing that God is just
and justice can never demand two penalties for the same crime
or two payments for the same debt. For he has peace and rest
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. As in the law, the Sabbath,
those who done any work on the Sabbath day would be put to death. So also men and women in our
day who refuse to trust Christ at His finished work and continues
in their religious works to establish a righteousness that God might
accept will likewise perish, as did Israel in the day of provocation. Father, we thank you. Thank you,
Lord, for this day. Oh, your precious word. Help us and guide us, Lord, that we may honor and glorify
your name. In Christ's name we pray, amen.