Don't Miss This Rest!

I'd ask you to take your Bibles now and turn to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 4. However, in order for us to get the full context of what we're going to see, let's look at Hebrews 3. I will read Hebrews 3, verse 7 through chapter 4, verse 13. Follow as I read. therefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years therefore I was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart they have not known my ways as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest take care brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end as it is said today if you hear his voice do not harden in your hearts as in the rebellion.

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? But to those who were disobedient.

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said.

As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this passage he said they shall not enter my rest Since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience again he appoints a certain day, today, saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Let's pray. Father, now as we look into your word, we pray that would be powerful and active in our hearts, exposing those things that need to be exposed, giving us hope where we need hope. Father, help us to think carefully about what is said here today. We have not come to play games. We have not come just to hear a sermon and to see how entertaining it might be.

We have come that we might hear the voice of the living God. Speak to us now, we pray then, in Jesus' name. Amen. The story is told of a man whom a small Baptist church called to be their pastor. The first Sunday of his ministry there, he got up in the pulpit, read a text, and preached a theologically accurate, powerful sermon. the next Sunday his second Sunday he stood in the pulpit and read the same text and preached a theologically accurate and powerful sermon same one he preached the week before and the third Sunday he got up read the same text and preached the sermon he'd preached the last two weeks well the people started getting concerned about that so they went and talked to the elders and so the elder said okay we try to deal with this thank you And next Sunday his fourth the pastor got up read the same text and preached the same sermon.

Well, the elders came to him and said, hey, you know, we're wondering, do you have any other sermons? And he replied, of course I do. But this church hasn't obeyed the first one yet. Now, it seems to me that the writer to the Hebrews is like that pastor. As you read, as I've just read through most of chapter 3 and part of chapter 4, it's the same text, Psalm 95, and the same sermon.

It seems like he keeps hammering away at the same thing. Well, let's remember where we are. Let's get some idea of what's happening here. Starting in chapter 3, the writer begins to tell us that Jesus is superior to Moses, and as we will see, to Joshua as well. Beginning in chapter 3, verse 7, where I read today, all the way through 4.13, he has only one apparent message.

A writer is like that pastor. He takes Psalm 95 and he keeps hammering away at the same theme from that text. Be careful that you do not fall away because of unbelief. In chapter 3, verses 7 through 19, he says, Be careful of an unbelieving heart that would cause you to fall away from the living God. That's what the wilderness generation teaches us. So be diligent, exhort one another, and persevere.

And now in our text, chapter 4, verses 1 through 5, he says, Have a healthy fear, lest you fail to attain God's rest. And then in chapter 4, verses 6 through 13, you must strive for that rest. So let's look at our text this morning one more time, verses 1 through 5. Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened For we who have believed enter that rest As he has said as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest.

Therefore, he says, therefore, what kind of conclusion can we draw from the experience of that faithless disobedient sinful rebellious wilderness generation i think there are three things here here's what here are the three conclusions we can draw fear failure believe the good news and know the hope fear failure believe the good news and know the hope. So verses 1 and 2, he says, fear failure. That is failure to enter God's rest.

Now evidently, according to Psalm 95, which is the text of this sermon, according to Psalm 95, a promise still stands. It was a promise made to Israel on their way to Canaan. It was a promise that was still standing when 400 years later, David wrote Psalm 95 warning his audience. And it's a promise that remains open right now to you. The promise of that rest still remains.

It's the promise of entering God's rest. And he warns us, you may fall short. one day let's say you decide to run to the office which is five miles away and so off you go you take off running let's just assume it's let's just assume it's tim pasma and not andrew bb who's doing the running all right within a few miles i'm starting to tire My legs, each of them feel like they weigh 50 pounds. And it doesn't seem the universe has enough oxygen to even fill my lungs.

And so I stop. And I call my wife and she drives me the rest of the way to the office. But I've fallen short. I haven't made the goal. I haven't made it. And that's what he's saying. to us when it comes to reaching the goal of God's rest.

You should fear such a possibility that you may not attain it. But this is the kind of fear that is not supposed to paralyze you. It's not supposed to disable you. It should motivate you to take the necessary measures. He's saying, he's saying to us, be careful, fear, let us fear. And by the way, I want you to notice something there real quickly.

The writer includes himself in that. Do you see that? Let us fear, right? But it's not the sort of fear that should paralyze or disable you. It's the sort of fear that should motivate you to do what's necessary to reach that rest. Now, my brother Andy, last month, jumped out of an airplane.

Now, don't let him know this, but he's always been the guy in our family that takes foolish risks. It's always... In our entire life together, that's the nature of the way he lives. So he's in this plane, and they're climbing to 13,000 feet before they tell him to jump, right? As you're getting close to 13,000 feet, I don't know for sure, but my guess is maybe my brother had a bit of fear, some apprehension about what he had signed up to do, right?

But that fear did not cause him to all of a sudden grip his seat and say, turn the plane around, I don't want to go, right? Instead, that kind of a fear causes you to what? check your equipment make sure everything's in place listen to instructions carefully so you do the right thing when you're supposed to do it right it's that kind of fear that motivates you to do what's necessary so you check the equipment you make sure you know the instructions you do everything that's necessary all right that's what he's talking about here you ought to fear you ought to fear but not the fear that paralyzes and none of you should leave here today saying oh man i hope i can hold on as we talked about last week right i hope i can hold on to jesus long enough right it the kind of fear that should say what am i going to do now What do I need to do And at least such fear should cause you to ask exactly how can you miss God's rest? This is what she talks about in verse 2.

What is it that can cause you to miss God's rest? It is a lack of faith, a lack of faith. Verse 2, for good news came to us just as to them. He's referring to that wilderness generation. But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. It is a lack of faith.

The failure consists in not believing the good news. Now look again at the wilderness generation. They should have responded with a faith like Caleb and Joshua. They should have been united with them in belief. They should have been united with those men in terms of saying, yes, we will do what God says because we believe his promises. Now notice, they had heard the good news.

What good news? They had heard the good news that Canaan was theirs. God had promised it to Abraham's descendant in the covenant in which he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God said over and over, not only that, but God said over and over on the way to Canaan, look, I am going to give you this land if you take it. Right? You've got to cross the Jordan, enter into the land, and I will give it to you.

They just needed to believe that. Now look, we've had better good news than they had. Their good news only pointed in the right direction to Jesus, but we've heard all about Jesus, haven't we? we've heard about his suffering for sinners we've heard about the fact that he makes intercession for us we've heard about the fact that he's been resurrected from the dead we've heard incredible unbelievable good and gracious news but what it doesn't benefit you unless it's joined with faith unless you believe it and hear what God says to you right now let's forget about that generation back.

Let's talk about you right now. What does God say to you? Simply hearing the gospel will not attain that rest for you Simply hearing it simply hearing the gospel will not attain that rest Just believing the right things about Jesus will not attain the rest either Some can say, you know what? Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for sinners in order to reconcile us to God.

They can say all that. That doesn't save them. That doesn't save them. my friend russ kennedy's pastor pastor at clear creek has a great phrase to describe the kind of faith necessary here he says you must believe in an obeying way you must believe in an obeying way now what does that mean well how do you know that the wilderness generation did not believe God's promise.

How do you know that? How do you know for sure they really didn't believe God's promise? Here's how you know. They refused to cross the Jordan. They refused to cross the Jordan. They didn't do anything.

They didn't obey the command to cross the Jordan, which meant by the very fact that they refused to take that step, what does it say. We really don't believe what God says. Okay? They did not believe in an obeying way. Let's say you're on the third floor of a burning building with the firemen below with that trampoline-looking catcher, right? I don't know the technical term for that, but they're all standing in a circle holding that thing, right?

And one is shouting to you, we're going to catch you you'll be safe believe me jump now if you really believe that they can catch you safely what will you do right do you really believe what he's saying now you've heard what he said you've heard what he said and you stand in the window and you say well I heard him and I know that they're experienced in this sort of thing with that thing they got down there that can catch me. But what will the onlookers conclude if you just stay in the window? What are they going to conclude?

And rightly so. That you really don't believe what they're saying to you. If you believed it you would jump Now listen to me The same thing is true with the gospel What does it mean to believe the gospel in an obeying way It means that when God commands you to entrust yourself to Jesus, not just believe things about him, but actually believe it enough that you will say, I give up.

I rest in Jesus. He's my only hope. I believe that what you've done is what God requires. I'm going to stop striving, and I'm just going to entrust myself to you. You are my Lord now. You see that?

You must believe in an obeying way. You must actually trust not just the good news of Jesus, but you're going to trust him to save you. that is why we saw last week right if you do trust him it will show up in action not just in that initial step of obedience to the command for faith but you will obey jesus then it will show up in action that is why we saw last week that unbelief inevitably leads to rebellion, disobedience, and sin. What's the reverse of that?

What's the reverse of that? Faith. True belief will lead to obedience and submission and growing righteousness. So, have a healthy fear of falling short of God's rest. Next thing he says is believe the good news. Verse 3. for we who have believed enter that rest as he has said as i swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although his works were finished from the foundation of the world i know this one's a hard one to get your mind around but i believe he's saying to him he's saying believe the good news again our pastor makes the point that this rest is accessible to those who believe this rest this rest of God is accessible to those who believe but notice how he puts it here do you see did you notice this for we who have believed to enter that rest wait a minute wait a minute do we enter the rest now or in the future because he keeps saying And the promise remains, it's still out there, you know, it's still, it sounds future, but now it looks like it's present.

Is it present or future? And the answer is yes. It's yes. It's present and future. always remember that when Jesus came the age to come invaded this present age and we live in the overlap of those two if you will, if you want to put it in a picture form we have one foot in the age to come we're already experiencing the age to come the wonderful fruits of that age like God's rest we have another foot in the present age we're still subject to all the temptations and the fact that we live in unredeemed bodies at this point.

We experience now partially what's yet future. We've not entered the fullness of that rest yet. But we have to continue to believe and obey until the end to obtain its fullness. and God makes it God makes absolutely obvious the necessity of faith why does he say here you know why does he say here as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest wait a minute I thought we were talking about if you believe you enter God's rest so why does he support it by saying like I said I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest pointing back again what in the world well notice what he says here as i sworn my wrath they shall not enter my rest who's they the unbelieving generation who's not going to enter the rest those who do not believe those who do not believe he makes it absolutely clear that unbelief keeps you from attaining the rest that god has for you therefore faith belief is what is necessary.

And the fact is that God's rest was always available to God's people, which is why he says, although his work was finished, from the foundation of the world. God rest began at the foundation of the world Now you can attribute this generation failure to enter the rest on the fact that God rest was not available It was available. It's been available since the first seventh day.

And there's only one reason why they haven't entered that rest. They did not believe. They did not believe. It was available to them. It was open to them, but they did not believe. You know, sometimes more in the older days than now because there's more people with keys than me.

But, you know, I could drive up here on a Wednesday night, let's say, when we used to have our prayer meeting. I could drive up here on Wednesday and I'd see people standing in the cold. What are they doing? They're waiting for me to open the door, to unlock the door. But you know what was funny about it? The door was already unlocked.

The warmth of the building was open to them. They just didn't go and open the door. In fact, they didn't even try to open the door. They figured it was locked. It was available to them, right? So this rest has been available to that generation.

It always was available to them. And the reason they didn't enter was not because it was not available, but because they did not believe. So God says, let's be clear about this. believe the good news because faith is the only way you're going to attain the rest of God last thing he says is know the hope verses four and five God's rest has been available since creation and remains your only hope so he quotes Genesis 2 verse 2 here looks familiar to you by the way and he says in somewhere he says he's not thinking like where is that in the old Testament.

I can't quite figure that out. It's Genesis chapter 2 verse 2. He knew that. But he wants you to see somewhere God says, right? God's the one speaking in the scriptures. So he quotes Genesis 2 too in order to make the point that the rest again has been available from the foundation of the world.

Now God did not rest from his labors because he was exhausted or because he was weary. That's not why he rested from his labors. He rested because his labors of creation were complete. They were done. Nothing more to do. And so he rested And God rest has been available since creation And while human history lasts it will remain available No one, no one will be able to say, I had no hope.

Yes, you did. It's always available. And then for the third time, he quotes Psalm 95 verse 11. They shall not enter my rest. He doesn't want you to miss the point. On the one hand, you live in the day of opportunity. all of you should leave here this morning with this burned in your brain you live in the day of opportunity the door has not been closed the door is not locked for entering the rest of god It is wide open.

It is available. The opportunity is yours. On the other hand, the wilderness generation shows that some have repudiated the rest God offers. And so you should not follow their example. Know the hope. God's rest is still available. so don't fall short of it.

So, again, our pastor has given us the sermon. The pastor here in the text. Don't miss the rest. First of all, fear failure. Believers should fear missing out on what God has promised. But the fear God summons you to is not a disabling fear but a motivating one.

You're going to understand and do what's necessary. Believe the good news. Don't just say you believe. Don't just say the right things about Jesus. You've got to actually entrust yourself to him. He is your only hope.

Believe in an obeying way. And know your hope. While the rest remains, while God's rest remains, it is your only hope. It is your only hope some of you sitting here today do not know that rest Some of you sitting here today have maybe heard this for the first time. Maybe you've heard it several times. There's a rest waiting for you.

And to you who've never believed in Jesus, who are still characterized by unbelief, I don't know if I buy that. Let me say to you right now, there is a rest available for you you can enter it today but you have to believe when I say believe I mean you have to believe that Jesus can do what he's going to do and then ask him to save you to actually do it some of you may be here and you believe all the right things, but you've never, never really said, so Jesus, because that's true, save me. Don't be like that generation.

Believe. You believers here today, what has God said to you? what has God said to you you keep believing you keep on in faith you believe in an obeying way believe that not only what God says is true and what you need to do do it the rest is there don't miss it Father thank you for your word Lord God it penetrates our hearts and we thank you for that I pray today Father for those who are here today who have never believed the good news of the gospel that you would bring conviction upon them that you would bring a thirst in them for the hope that still lays future and that they would be able to lay hold of that hope today if they only entrust themselves to Jesus and ask him to save them. I pray for your people here today.

I pray that this would spur them on to greater faith, that they would be intent on knowing the promises of God and believing them. Oh God, help us to believe and obey. way. Thank you for your goodness in telling us these things. Thank you for the hope that we have in Jesus. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.