HEBREWS 4 ENTER INTO HIS REST // INTRO I want to begin this morning by telling you the reason why I love sleep… - I’m really good at it, and the reason that I’m really good at it is because I practice And the older I get, the more I practice! Now some of you can remember your dreams, even for a long time, but I generally do not remember my dreams, as others do But I do love sleep! One of the places that I love to sleep is in my hammock in the summertime, under the cedar trees in our backyard, with the wind blowing through the property Some of those naps are hours long when there’s a good breeze I don’t even care that it makes me sound old! I’m slowing down in some ways at 50 years of age I don’t have the energy levels that I once had And life has a way of catching up to you I’m now in a season of life whereby I can see more in the rearview mirror, than what is still ahead Some of what I see is regret, which leads me to wishing I had been a better husband, father, and pastor But that regret also pushes me to be a better man with the time the Lord allows me And the older I get, and the more I see in retrospect, the more I yearn for the Presence of the Lord - not only in this life, by His Holy Spirit, even more so in the life to come In this life, we all work at something, even if we end up working to be lazy (which is the height of irony) But 2 Thessalonians 3:10 tells us, “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” What this means is that God commands us to work at something in order to honor Him, and I can say definitively because even He worked, and THEN He rested So you and I expend energy on something, and we call that work So in addition to the “Honey-Do” list at home, Jesus continues to guide us into situations and circumstances that are meant to grow us up in Christ’s likeness, and sometimes those things require effort Sometimes those things are hard And sometimes those things He calls us to do are glorious and enjoyable But in either case, it is glorifying to the Lord when we engage in obedience, and press into Him to do what He commands us to do Now someday, (soon? I hope!) our work will be over It will cease, and we will be with the Son, and the Father, and the Spirit who dwells in us Can you even attempt to conceive entering into Jesus’ rest? I can’t now, but I know it’s coming I just don’t know how quickly it’s coming! So as we turn to look at Hebrews chapter 4 this morning, I want you to hold fast to the tension between WORK and REST as we know it now It’s hard to conceptualize something that you have never (nor are able) to conceptualize fully, which is why God’s Word tells us, “...No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of Man what God has in store for us!” So with that, let’s jump into the text! // TEXT & EXPOSITION [1] 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. [2] 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. There is a promise that is still in effect for a little while longer - it still stands It is the promise of being able to enter into God’s rest Being with God, in His Presence forever is something that none of us can even really comprehend 1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” The same assertion that no one has ever seen God can be found in other parts of Scripture, like John 1:18 But what does this statement really mean, especially in light of Moses, Gideon, and others who seem to have seen God? While no one has ever beheld God in His essence, He has manifested Himself numerous times in human form and engaged in conversation with His people These theophanies (appearances of God) in the Old Testament foreshadow the Incarnation, whereby God the Son assumed (took on) humanity in the flesh And I’ll add (as I am want to do) that there is little time left when it comes to those very precious promises regarding entering into His rest! We must call out to those who do not yet know Jesus as you and I do And there are many in the Church today who suppose that showing up and hearing the right things about Jesus and salvation is enough for them to be saved themselves But it must be apprehended by the individual for themselves No one else can make the choice for you Now can you make that choice for anyone other than yourself It is not even enough to know the right facts about Jesus - that won’t get you access to Heaven It is only a personal relationship with the God of Creation that will save a person So let us work while it is still today!! Now, the Scriptures proclaims that no one has seen God because God is a spiritual being, and our eyes are limited to perceiving only physical, material objects—and even that has limits God is invisible Just as we cannot see the wind, we cannot see God Therefore, entering the promise only comes by belief/faith You can’t see the promise with your eyes, at least, not now But you will when we are with Jesus in Heaven But until then, it is unseen by our human eyes The Promise was and still is the Gospel - the promise to save/deliver God the Father is the BENEFACTOR, making possible the escape from the penalty of sin And we are BENEFICIARIES of His work, and also of His grace which abounds to us JESUS was the sacrifice that the Old Covenant was pointing to So one need only put his or her faith in Christ to be a recipient of that grace But if you are not united with Christ, there is NO benefit And that is why, in addition to the grace we’ve received in Christ, we have a mission from our Lord to seek and save the lost [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. [4] For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” There is a promise from God which is related to entering into His rest Again, God publicizes the well-meant Gospel offer God’s ultimate rest has to do with the ending of the Age and being with Him forever, face-to-face And all of this has to be with being in the Presence of the Lord and His holy angels We will rest during the 1000 year millennial reign of Christ, and we will be at peace And then eternity just goes on and on, and I have no idea what we’ll be doing But isn’t that just like humans to ask the question, “What are we going to DO?” That rest that is promised it predicated on one being IN Christ It is not for everyone who has ever lived on the earth, but only those who trust in Christ But there is also a warning! If one does not believe (on the Lord Jesus) than that one cannot enter into the rest, just as I was saying Sin and disobedience cause a blockade in being with Christ Those who do not repent and believe on Jesus will find eternal torment (and if you’ve ever stopped to think about that for more than 30 seconds, you have only a tiny sliver of how horrific that will be into eternity!) And still, some Christians get aggravated with me for talking about this at all, as if this were some secondary or tertiary thing in the Bible NO! It is primary! God came to earth and took on flesh to save humanity - you and me, and all the others who are living and breathing, and also those in the past and future But they do not understand that we are primarily on a RESCUE MISSION! The Church on Sunday and midweek is great, and edifying for our growth But the MISSION is to go and tell what Christ has done in making salvation available to humanity All the more reason that we are to take the Gospel beyond these 4 walls So, God rested, and now He’s inviting us to rest with Him And I am all in for that! But in the interim, we work in the fields with Him, gleaning and harvesting until the Appointed Time [5] And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”[6] Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, [7] 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.” Henry Alford was a Bible commentator born in London in 1810 Here’s what He has to say about this section of our text this morning: "It entirely depends on yourselves that the invitation of the 95th Psalm be not a mere invitation, but also an actual enjoyment." Regarding Heb 3:15 (which was last week’s sermon) he says that as proof, that we must "hold to our confidence unto the end in order to be "partakers of Christ.…our privileges by Christ under the gospel are not only as great, but greater than those enjoyed under the Mosaic law… We have a promise left us of entering into his rest; that is, of entering into a covenant-relation to Christ, and a state of communion with God through Christ, and of growing up therein, till we are made perfect in glory. I quite agree, and can’t hardly wait to receive it But the question of WHY still lingers for many, despite the clarity of the text The simple reason that the Israelites of old could not enter into His rest was that they were set on the works of the Law in order to merit that rest They worked in their flesh to attain it, but what they needed was the grace of the Lord And by the way, as we’re currently speaking about that rest, did you know that we are on the cusp of 6000 years of human history? Don’t pay any attention to Darwin, nor college professors, nor their textbooks positing BILLIONS and BILLIONS of years That’s just made up nonsense! Please allow me to tell you why… James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 - 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland He was a prolific Irish scholar and church leader, Bible commentator, and Ussher, ties the chronology to the final deportation of Judah in 584 BC He is today greatly ridiculed for declaring that the world was created in 4004 BC But a week is 7 days, and according the Lord, and we are to rest (sabbath) on that 7th day And that “day” corresponds to the 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth, having finished and fulfilled God’s timeline for humanity! However, this date was widely accepted until people began to believe in ideas such as billions of years of Earth history In other words, people started trusting in the latest secular findings based on fallible dating methods, instead of the only absolutely reliable method—consulting the history book provided by the Eyewitness account (the infallible Word of God)! He used the chronologies in the Hebrew text of Genesis 5 and 11, together with other Bible passages to simplify the calculations So how is it even possible that the population of earth has reached billions in only 6000 years of human existence, and we started with only 2 people? Well, you have to start with one male and one female (duh! Even now many can’t seem to figure that out!) But now let us assume that they marry and have children, and that their children marry and have children and so on Then let us assume that the population doubles every 150 years So after 150 years there will be four people, after another 150 years there will be eight people, after another 150 years there will be sixteen people, and so on It should be noted that this growth rate is actually very conservative In reality, even with disease, famines, and natural disasters, the world population currently doubles every 40 years or so After 32 doublings, which is only 4,800 years, the world population would have reached almost 8.6 billion That’s 2 billion more than the current population of 6.5 billion people, which was recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau on March 1, 2006 This simple calculation shows that starting with Adam and Eve and assuming the conservative growth rate previously mentioned, the current population can be reached well within 6,000 years I wasn’t trying to be precise as to how many people are earth at this moment, but simply demonstrating how 2 humans (Adam and Eve) could be responsible for the human race And the admonition from V.7 still stands: “Today, if you hear his voice,do not harden your hearts.” [8] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. [9] So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, [10] for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Joshua did not give nor provide anything for the Israelites - only God Hence, Joshua doesn’t receive the glory - only the Lord receives glory Not only so, but had Joshua been the one give them a sabbath rest, it would have been similar to how many Chistians take a Sabbath once a week It’s a blessing to set aside one day a week to be with family and rest from your regular work, and to have the freedoms (that many take for granted) to worship the Lord our God with others who have like hearts, but this was something different And we’re explicitly told here in the text that this there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God That would be a literal 1000 year “day” because when it comes to the Lord, “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day You and I are on the cusp of seeing Jesus face-to-face! I believe that the Rapture of the Church is imminent, but even if it’s not the next thing, we’re going see some amazing things [11] Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. [12] 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. [13] 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. Don’t you LONG to be with our Lord and Savior? If you do, take care not to stumble as you strive to enter His rest! And we read this warning about the Word of God Did you realize that the only offensive weapon among the armor of God is the Sword of the Spirit? Everything else is defensive to protect us in the battle But then, you have to enter into the battle to be effective, and I see too many professing Christians sitting on the sidelines, when there is a battle to be fought in the Heavenly places He’s given us HIS ARMOR to wear, so that we are protected We have all that we need in the Spirit, if we stay in step with the Spirit And do not suppose that you can hide from the God who knows all things past, present, and future He is omnipresent (everywhere at once) He is omnipotent (all powerful) He is omniscient (all knowing) Now, hang on cause Kent Hovind had a GREAT response to this several years ago… and some of you might have heard this already, but it’s worth repeating Hovind had just been asked about God’s origins… // Your question, “Where does God come from?” assumes that you are thinking of the wrong “god,” because the God of the Bible is not affected by time, space or matter If He is affected by time, space or matter, He is not God. Time, space and matter, or what we call a continuum, would have to come into existence at the same instance, because: If you had matter and no space, WHERE would you put it? If there was matter and space but no time, WHEN would you put it? You cannot have time, space or matter independently, they have to come into existence simultaneously. The Bible answers that in 10 words: In the beginning, (there's time), God created the heavens (there's space), and the earth (there's matter) So you have time, space, matter, a trinity of trinities: Time - has past, present, future Space - has breadth, length , height Matter has solid, liquid, gas We have a trinity of trinities created instantaneously, and the God who created them has to be outside of them If He is limited by time, He is not God The God who created this universe is outside the universe He is above it, beyond it, in it, He is not affected by it So [if you have] the concept that a spiritual force cannot have an effect on a material body, then you have to explain to me why there are emotions, and love, and hatred, and envy, and jealousy and rationality I mean, if your brain is only a collection of chemicals formed by chance over billions of years, how on earth can you trust your own reasoning process and the thoughts that you think? Your question, “Where does God come from?”, is assuming a limited God And that is your problem The God that I worship is not limited by time, space or matter If I could fit the infinite God into my 3-pound brain, He would not be worthy of worship, that is for certain // This is the God to whom we must give an account! [14] Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus IS that great High Priest who has passed through the Heavens He came to earth to take on flesh, and was born as a baby in Bethlehem No one knew but the shepherds in the fields that night, the angels who sang His arrival, and the animals in the manger So our High Priest, being fully God as well as fully human, is the only intermediary that we have access to who knows both sides of that coin! And that is what makes Him the PERFECT intermediary and the perfect, sinless Son of God // APPLICATION So, God rested, and now He’s inviting us to rest with Him And I am all in for that! But in the interim, we work in the fields with Him, gleaning and harvesting the souls of men and women until the Appointed Time! May the Lord find us diligent and working when He comes! Let’s pray! // PRAY // SING // GO God came to earth and took on flesh to save humanity - you and me, and all the others who are living and breathing, and also those in the past and future But many do not understand that we are primarily on a RESCUE MISSION! The Church on Sunday and midweek is great, and edifying for our growth But the MISSION is to go and tell what Christ has done in making salvation available to humanity All the more reason that we are to take the Gospel beyond these 4 walls And with that, EMMAUS ROAD CHURCH, YOU ARE SENT!