The Book of Hebrews 4:1-7 "My Rest"

Good morning. I thank Wayne for enduring this expanded and explained. It gets a bit wordy at times, but it's in order to get the full understanding of the passage in place there. You have it as the first slide in your handout, and so hopefully you're able to follow along there. Let's take a look at this passage. We're continuing kind of in a series here in the part of Hebrews that talks about resting, and it makes continued comparison between how Israel did not enter its rest when they had the opportunity to do so, but we, right now, have that opportunity. And so to do that, we'll look at some slides that we looked at last week and just kind of refresh our memories. The Israelites, compared and contrasted with the church, is the first one here. The Israelites were all baptized into Moses. That's an insight that we have from 1 Corinthians 10, verse 2. All of them were to enter the land of Israel.

They were told by God, God would fight for them. They were to take the land of Israel and so rest from their enemies But they refused that generation refused and so wandered in the desert for 40 years until that generation Had all passed away They had 40 years of funerals day after day after day And God supplied their need they daily got manna and And they kind of wondered, you know, how do I make this interesting after 40 years of manna, right?

And so maybe you put hot sauce or something like that on it. But nonetheless, they got their manna. They had shoes that would not wear out. They had clothing that would not wear out. Hope you like the style you got, because that's what you got for the next 40 years.

But we in the church, however, have a different opportunity. We have been baptized into Christ, not baptized into Moses. We are called to rest in dependence upon who we all are in Christ and who Christ is in each of us, and to encourage that among each other. You see, there's actually an aspect here that's important. We have a ministry among each other encouraging that walk with and dependence upon the Lord. That's a ministry that we are called to.

Just to explain, we have baptism being a complete immersion, as they did with the swords that they heated white hot, and a complete immersion also of dye, of cloth into dye. Something was immersed in baptism, that was the use of the term, immersed in baptism and coming out completely changed as a result of that immersion.

All right, now the other thing that we talked about last week is there's resting and then there's resting. Well, what do I mean? There's Israelite resting and then there's church resting. The words are the same, but the meaning of resting is different.

First, the Israelites, although they were told by God that God would fight for them, God promised to them they could take the land and he would fight for them and he would be faithful. They were discouraged, however, from doing that Because as they sent up spies into the land of Israel, twelve spies, ten of them came back and said, oh no, oh no, you don't want to do that.

We'll be overcome. Those people are big. They're well fortified. We won't do it. And so, who did they listen to? Not Joshua and Caleb, the two that said, yes, you can take back the land. Let's believe God and go for it. Instead, they listened to the ten who were naysayers, who said, no, you cannot do it, and we cannot trust God for this. And so all those who didn't believe Joshua and Caleb, but believed rather the ten that were discouraging them, had no rest for 40 years, all from unbelief.

But we in the church are encouraged to enter God's rest diligently. That's something we'll be touching on next week. Diligently and daily. diligently and daily, depending upon who we are in Christ and who He is in us by, and we have the three E's, by the Spirit's enabling, energizing, and empowering to live this life.

We're not told as some delegated responsibility, okay, you go ahead and live life and when you're done with life, just check back with me and we'll see how you do. That's not the way it works. We instead are told to live life by His power and not our own.

Okay, so now, as we in the church, as we in the church look at the Jews coming from the land of Goshen, going to Mount Sinai, and then coming up to Canaan, is it our job now to take the land of Israel? You ready to do that? Not so much. We in the church do not have that task.

For them, that was their opportunity to enter God's rest. Our opportunity is different, and that's what we'll be taking a look at here as we study today. Entirely by God's provision, we have an opportunity to rest. We in the body of Christ have an opportunity to rest not in our works, not in what we do, but in God's works and His empowerment And that is provided for us entirely by grace, 100%. It's all gracious.

The opportunity is so great, impacting outcomes for all eternity. Let's talk about that. How is it that we can have an opportunity now that impacts all eternity? How is that possible? We have something that happens in time that impacts all eternity well for one thing the opportunity that we have Impacts all eternity because when we go home to be with the Lord right there are things happening now while we're on this planet that have Eternal impact and I'll just talk about a couple of them one is there is eternal reward and that reward That the Lord has for us That reward that the Lord has for us depends on our depending upon Him now. Depending upon Him now. So that's one thing. The other thing is the Lord is using things in our lives now to conform us to the image of Christ. To prepare us for eternity. So this is a getting ready kind of place.

Paradoxically, The resting that God has offered, provided for, and desires for us is the only way to really get anything done. If you really want to get anything done, you have to rest. If you really want to get anything done, you have to rest. If you get real busy and start doing a bunch of things just to do a bunch of things, you'll get nothing done at all. What? Yes. If you really want to get anything done, you have to rest and depend upon His accomplishment and His empowerment and His life and His enabling.

Now, truth won't do us any good. And if that got your attention, that's what I meant. Truth is absolutely essential. We need the truth. That's why we're gathered here this morning. If we're going to go anywhere in this life, falsehood will get us in plenty of trouble. Falsehood will get us in plenty of trouble. The truth won't do us any good at all if we don't believe the truth when the truth is presented to us. The truth won't do any good if we don't believe it when it's presented.

Israel was offered God's rest based on God's promises. The promises that God gave were all truthful, every single one. He was going to be faithful to follow through with the Israelites if they would take on the task ahead of them to take the land. But they didn't believe Him. Did they have truth? Yes, all that they needed. But they didn't believe. Our rest is different, but we also still must believe.

It doesn't do any good for us to be presented with truth that we don't believe. Truth by itself is useless. Truth by itself is useless. The great danger is that we're presented with truth that we don't believe. In fact, that's a huge hazard. They were presented with truth that we don't believe. Now, what's interesting here, believing falsehood and not believing truth are nearly the same thing. Now, I don't know about you, but so far as I've seen, very few people like the idea of believing something that's actually false. Anybody like being lied to? Ever enjoy that? Anybody here? I've got no hands raised. Okay. It's a rare person who likes to be lied to.

So if you don't, you know, think that's a good thing, then that's all right. The truth is none of us really enjoys being lied to. However, not believing the truth ends up with the same result. Not being the truth has given a lot of people, something that, boy, it's got a lot of appeal. There's an awful lot of people out there who don't believe the truth. It's actually pretty popular, not believing the truth. The result is the same as believing a lie, if I don't believe the truth.

Here's one. Good people go to heaven, don't they? Is that true? No, not so much. But a lot of people believe it. I remember at the community college I went to, one of the journalists took a survey around the campus and he asked this question. But the question he asked prior is, he said, Do you think you're good enough to go to heaven? And a lot of people said yes. A lot of people thought they were good enough to go to heaven. And what amazed me is that 85% of the people said they were better than average. I'm not sure how that statistic works out. So that's a skewed percentage there. I think that's a good thing for people to kind of get hold of.

Nobody likes being lied to and nobody certainly wants to believe a lie. But there are a lot of people that are just fine with not believing the truth. And really the end result is no different. Israel got the truth from God everything God told them was true No exceptions, and he was going to follow through faithfully on everything That he said he would do they believed Instead of God who told the truth they believed the lies of the ten spies. Oh, we can't take this land They believed those lies And so rejected the truth. Rejected the truth. And so believing a falsehood and not believing the truth are nearly the same thing. The end result is the same. Now, believing God is the only way to rest. When we've had truth presented to us, and we believe God's truth, then we're able to enter the rest that God intended for each one of us.

One of the things we're going to see as we go through this passage here in Hebrews is rest is intended for every believer. Rest is not just for certain ones. Not just, oh, that guy over there, that Christian, yeah, he rests. But the rest of us, we're not there yet. No. Rest is intended for every single believer. And we're going to see that underscored. Rest is intended for all of us.

Does God have a plan B when it comes to resting? With resting you can believe or... No. God has no plan B when it comes to resting. It's believe or believe. That's it. It's always that one. There is no backup plan. There is no plan B. Now, believing is not our meriting anything. Believing doesn't gain us some brownie points or something, but rather our trusting in God's merit and character and his works and his accomplishments.

Now you may be wondering why I have this addition problem, send more money. Let me explain. I think I can. A little over 30 years ago, I had this brilliant idea to go back to the place where I went to high school and teach high school. Turns out it was not a really good idea. I didn't have a lot of fun. First of all, I was a small high school, and I taught several different subjects that seemed rather incongruous. I taught algebra and Spanish and biology and judo.

But one of the things I did in the algebra class is I would give the students extra credit, which of course they liked because some of them bombed the tests. So I'd give them, every week I'd give them two problems up on the wall and they could give me the solutions to those things and get extra credit. And one I gave was this. Send more money, and you actually work this out and and each letter represents a certain number And you need logic your way through it and actually figure out what that is so please don't do it now I'll let you do that later, okay? so But my point in doing this is I gave the students extra credit for working on these problems.

God doesn't work that way. God doesn't work on a merit system or gaining points or anything. It is entirely all by grace. It's His work and His accomplishments and His merit and His character, not ours. We didn't come to help God or have God help us. We came to be replaced because it's entirely God's doing that God wants to pull this off in our lives. Believing God and what He has done and His merit and His character and His work and His accomplishments is entirely what God has in mind.

There is no autopilot for resting. Where's the autopilot button for resting? There isn't any such thing. Resting is, in fact, not a natural thing to do. And that's why we're going to see in the passage ahead to be diligent to enter God's rest. You don't just automatically wake up and, boy, I'm just resting.

There needs to be a diligence. There needs to be an understanding of it. We've got to have the truth and we must believe it. Okay? Got to have the truth and we must believe it. One of the two isn't going to work. It must be the truth and believing it combined. That's what this passage makes clear.

Now, God hit the rest, no, reset button with Israel. The Israelites were shown God's truth. They didn't believe Him. So they wandered for 40 years until those who didn't believe all died off. He hit the reset button on Israel. Israel was going to enter the land, but not this generation. Not this generation. He hit the reset button.

We can't expect to rest by accident. Rest by accident or by unbelief that by some fluke ends up with us resting anyway. Lo and behold, I don't know how it happened, I just ended up resting. No, that doesn't happen that way. Resting doesn't work that way. It doesn't happen by accident.

There needs to be an understanding of truth and there needs to be a believing of it. There needs to be a deliberate and diligent entrance into resting. God will not permit accidental resting any more than He has a plan B. He will not allow any resting that bypasses believing Him. We don't just kind of wander around and then just, lo and behold, here I am. I'm resting.

I don't know how it happened. That's not the way God works. We have truth that he has revealed and we believe it. And it's not accidental. There is no plan B. And you're not just going to wake up one morning and say, whoa, now I'm resting. I've got no idea why that happened. Right? Here's a diagram I think is real helpful for lots of things. And it's especially helpful because our culture is teaching us quite differently.

Biblical faith is founded in facts. One of the ways I've heard it said is we have faith in the facts. Biblical faith is founded in the facts. The facts are revealed in God's Word. We put our trust and confidence in what God has revealed in His Word, and our feelings are built on top of that.

Our culture has been telling us for decades for decades with songs, with movies, everything. Our culture's been telling us for decades to trust our feelings, Luke. And how can it be wrong if it feels so right? For a long time our culture's been sending that message. Even if you feel some certain way, it's spiritual. Or even at some churches, the pastor is expected to deliver a feeling. Boy, I tell you, I'm not going back to that church anymore. I don't feel right when I come out.

Well, it's not about manipulating feelings. Feelings are to be judged by the Word of God, and feelings are to be built upon our faith in the facts. We use the Word of God to judge our feelings, not use the feelings to judge the Word of God. We don't use our feelings to determine what's faith.

That's the message our culture has given us, and much of Christendom has bought into that message. But we have faith in the facts, our feelings are built on top of it, and let me add to feelings, experiences. Our experiences are to be judged by our faith in the facts. Our traditions are to be judged by faith in the facts. Our relationships are to be judged by faith in the facts. Our culture will tell us different. But that's not a life of faith. And our relationships, our feelings, our experiences are not to be used to judge faith or the facts. They're to be built on top of faith in the facts. In Hebrews 4, 3 and 4, we get into a different topic, but it's there on purpose.

It talks about God resting from His works, and here's the reason it's there. God didn't rest because He was exhausted. It's like He wasn't creating, and then after He created woman, He was really tired, right? God didn't rest because He was really exhausted. Between this Adam and Eve thing, this has just really blown His circuits. No, that's not the case, is it? God was not tired or exhausted or confused or anything of the sort.

What it means by God rested was God ceased His work because the work was complete. God ceased His work because the work was complete. That's what it means by God rested. When we enter the rest God intended, our work is done. This is very important. When we enter the rest God intended, our work is done. When we enter the rest God intended, our work is done. Very important. Our rest will be a reliance upon God's works entirely. Our work is done and His work is through us. He will work through us. It's not our job to do it. It's not our job.

Now you might wonder why I've got this trophy sitting there. Here's why. The rest God intends will glorify Him and not us, because He is the One who works. Don't expect to get a resting trophy. Don't expect to get a resting trophy. It's like the pastor who got a humility award, and the first time he wore this button that said, I got the humility award, he lost it. They took it away. You can't expect to get a trophy for resting. It's God who is doing the work. We're ceasing our works, not getting awards for it.

All right. Here's a song that I've been singing for the last two weeks. What I'd like to do is I will sing it through once and then I'd like to have you join me for the second time through. And we'll do it acapella. OK. Rest, rest in Him, your work is through. Lean back on His great power, He'll work through you. Rest, rest in Him. Your work is through. Lean back on His great power. He'll work through you.

This, I think, it's a quick, brief little song, but it's got a fundamental truth that this passage in Hebrews, and we're not done with it, keeps delivering. And it is a matter of God working through us and our resting in His working is the key truth that keeps being brought out here.

Now we have, and this is verses five and six, motive means an opportunity. And you might think, well, that sounds like what the detectives and the prosecutors work towards. Yes, it is. But our motive, means and opportunity is different. The motive that we have is always grace, motivated by grace.

And Ephesians 4.32 is an example of that. Whereas the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the Jews under the law, you must forgive or God won't forgive you.

However, Ephesians 4.32 says forgive one another. Why? Because God and Christ has forgiven you. Very important distinction. The motive is grace. Because you've been forgiven, that's why you forgive. The means that we have is by God's empowering by God's energizing and God's enabling, the three E's. And scripture actually speaks of all three of those. We'll talk about one of those in a minute here.

From these we have the opportunity for productive rest. You see, it isn't resting just lounging around and having the muscles atrophy. It is productive rest, and as we said before, it's really the only way to get anything done. If you want to get anything done at all, you have to rest.

That's the way God does things. It's an opportunity so great that we won't want to miss it. And that's what these warnings are here in this passage in Hebrews. It's an opportunity so great we won't want to miss it. I don't think the Lord's going to say, you know, those people at Holly Hills aren't resting. I think I'll have them die. I think I'll have them wander around the church for 40 years. No, we're not going to do that. The Lord doesn't work that way.

But we do have an opportunity in front of us And he particularly points out the timing of that. So the question we have here, we're going to answer that by looking at Colossians 1, 28 and 29. And I have it here on the slide on page 2. And it goes this in verse 28, Paul is writing to the church at Colossae, and he talks about their ministry that he's having with all the believers, and he spells it out, each individual one. He does it this way, we proclaim him, that is Christ, admonishing, and that means placing in the mind, every man, and teaching every man with some wisdom, no, all wisdom, So we may present every man complete in Christ. Does that leave anybody out? No, it doesn't at all. Now, that sounds like quite an undertaking. Every man, three times, all wisdom and complete. That sounds pretty extreme to me. This is full on, full out, pedal to the metal. Every single believer. Now, how does he do that? Does he just lie down and rest? Let's take a look at that, the next part.

For this purpose also I labor, to admonish and to teach every man, every man, every man, okay? For this person also I labor. This word for labor means to labor to exhaustion. What? I thought he's resting. Well, he is. We'll find out about that in a minute. Here is this huge undertaking, every man, every one teaching and admonishing, every single one, complete in Christ, And how does he do it? He does it by laboring to exhaustion. How is that resting? Well, we're not done.

Okay, the next one, striving according to his power, that word for striving, it means an athletic effort. Okay, not only is he laboring to exhaustion, but he's putting forth an athletic effort. Ever see an athlete that just kind of lies around? Kind of an athletic couch potato? Ever see that?

No, here is, so he not only works to exhaustion labor, but this guy puts forth an athletic effort in admonishing and teaching every man with all wisdom to present everyone complete in Christ. Oh, wait a minute, have we got the insights on resting here? Well, we're not done. Okay, according to his power, which mightily works within me. And actually, power and mightily works are the same word in different forms. And this is the word where we get our word, energy.

Paul, on the outside, you would look at him and you'd say, man, that guy's working himself to the bone. That guy is laboring hard. As a matter of fact, he's putting forth an athletic effort to teach and admonish every man to present everyone complete in Christ. On the outside, you'd say, this guy is really working hard. But you know what he's doing? He's resting. That's how he's getting all this done. As he's resting, he's depending on God's power and God mightily working within him. That's how he gets it done.

And because of that, if we didn't have that last part there, Paul would be unbiblical. Because it's according to his power, not Paul's. And it's not Paul Generating the effort from his own. This is God's power working within him. And that's that's where he says that's where it comes from Not because I Paul I'm some really hard-nosed guy and I just push to the max all the time But because it's God's power working within him energizing So here's Paul Working himself to the bone. Here's Paul putting forth an athletic effort all the while resting. I Resting in the Lord's power and accomplishment to do it. Isn't that amazing? It's hard to figure out from a human standpoint, but that's resting. That's resting.

Now, in Hebrews 4.7, and this is the last part of our passage here, David saw the today opportunity. You see, David, several centuries after the time of Moses, after the Israelites had been through their 40 years of wandering, and after the next generation of Israelites came in, and they did come in and conquer most of the land, then here's David, several centuries later, writing, and that's what the author of Hebrews is alluding to here. Here's David writing, seeing that, you know, They had an opportunity back then and we have the opportunity today.

A fundamental characteristic of all resting is that it only has opportunity for today. That is key. A fundamental characteristic of resting is that it only has opportunity for today. This is the only time when you get to rest Not yesterday's rest, not tomorrow's. Now. Today is the opportunity.

That was true in Moses' time. Hey guys, here's the opportunity to come in the land, take advantage of God's promises and God's rest. It was true in David's time and David saw it, enough to write about it. It's true in our own time. The opportunity to rest is today and it's now.

All resting must be done fresh. I can't say, well, you know, I rested yesterday, so let me put that in the freezer and I'll come out tomorrow and take out that yesterday's resting and have that work. No, it doesn't work that way. OK, I can't put it in the freezer. I can't dehydrate it and desiccate it. There's no way to save it up. I can't say, you know, I rested really good yesterday. I think I'll just kind of pack some of that away and then let that go for the next few days. No, it doesn't work that way. All resting must be done fresh. No frozen. There's no resting jerky. There isn't any such thing. There's no coasting on past resting. Boy, I really rested yesterday. I really rested last week. Boy, I really rested so good. No, there isn't any coasting on that.

We can't catch up on our resting tomorrow. Today is the only chance that we have to rest. While it's today. Resting is good for today only. That's it. And tomorrow you need to start afresh. You can't coast on yesterday's resting. Today. Right now. That's the opportunity that we have to rest. Fresh resting. Fresh resting.

Always fresh. That's what God has in mind. He wants us to rest freshly with Him all the time. Every day. While it's today. Not store it up. Not say, man, that resting was really cool two days ago. Today. Right now. Let's go to it. Lord, thank you for the truths revealed in this passage and thank you for the daily freshness that you want us to have with you. Lord, there is an intimacy and a beholding you and a dependence upon you that you want to see all the time. You want to have a relationship with us all the time, every day, every moment. And we thank you for that freshness that's made available because you love us so very much and you provided everything we need for us to rest in you for all that is to be done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.