 We'll begin reading together here in Hebrews 4 at verse 1, and I'll read to you to verse to verse 4, and we'll get into our study Hebrews chapter 4 beginning at verse 1 reading to verse 4 The writer writes therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest Let us fearless any of you seem to have come short of it for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them But the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it For we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swore in my wrath They shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world For he has spoken in a certain place on the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his Works, we'll stop there. We're going to be looking at all of these verses up to verse 13 in just a moment But the writer of Hebrews here is encouraging the people not to fall short of the promises of God last time We looked at this in chapter 3 verse 19. He was speaking of the people who had In the Old Testament who had who had not entered into the promised land And they gave the reason why he said they couldn't enter in because of unbelief And so he's speaking here now saying that you need to be careful that you enter into the rest that God has prepared for you You see within the confines of every congregation are people who are informed but unresponsive They know what the claims of the gospel are they just don't respond to them And so these are the ones who are being warned by the writer of this particular letter remember with me that the letters would be Read within the confines of a church congregation And so there would be people there who are being tempted to return to the Jewish religion And so this letter is being written to warn them to remind them that that the children of Israel in the wilderness Had refused to trust the Lord and to follow him completely and as a result of that they had perished in the wilderness And so he's speaking to these people who are informed but are unresponsive He knows that they're hearing what God's word has to say but they need to respond what God is saying to them also And so he had concluded with a very sober reminder unbelievers do not enter into the rest of God because of unbelief now as we're looking at this We're really looking at entering into his rest. That's what we're going to be looking at And so he's writing concerning finding rest of faith the rest of faith. What does it mean to find rest? Well The rest simply means to cease from work of any kind It speaks of freedom from worries and anxieties. It speaks of lying down No longer anxiously seeking for God because you're settled in him It it speaks of resting in him because you are confident and and when you rest in the Lord You're leaning on him because he is your support If you don't have your rest in Christ, you're going to try and create a rest for yourself And in your own efforts, you will never satisfy the demands of God in your own efforts You're only going to fabricate something that is never really fully effective anyway because when we try our best no matter How good we are at what we're trying to do We will always fall short because God's demands are much beyond anything that we could ever do Our our fabrications our attempts sometimes fall so short of what could be done if we only had God's help our father's help I was talking to one of my kids the other day I don't know if you'll think this is funny Perhaps you will I was laughing at it and I'll laugh again because I think it's funny if you don't I'll laugh by myself and And I'll just dub in some laughter for the tape for those who will buy it and they'll think everybody laughs, but I Was noticing in our video bulletin that we have Pine a pine car kind of derby and and I was remembering something when I was about nine years old I was a cub scout and We had pine wood derby basically the same thing and so we all were you know for like a quarter or whatever We all bought these little blocks of wood that were made out of they were they were pine and They gave us a kit. They gave us the wood and they gave us two axles with tires And so we were supposed to to whittle we were supposed to carve this little block of wood Into a car and then you know you fasten the tires on it and and then you you race down this little platform and everything And and so I went home and and I was just remembering this the other day And and I didn't know how to whittle you know I don't come from a whittling family and I didn't know how to do that We were whittling challenged people and so I I had this knife And I had the little pine block and I went to my dad's garage and maybe for about ten minutes I tried to kind of shape it into what I thought a car would look like right and and then I got some glue or something and I And I put the axles on and the tires and and I brought that's what you know It looked like it was just a block of wood with just a front end kind of peeled off a little bit. I Just remembering that I remember going in and all of my friends Had their dads had whittled and shaped And painted they had numbers on them and flames and you know and and you know Windows that had been painted in and and I came with a block block of wood, you know Then we raised I'm sorry mine didn't make it down the track, you know, I got stuck, you know Sitting there with tires We can do the very best that we can But without a father's help, we're not going to make it I Didn't even know my dad was supposed to be involved in that see so I tried to do it myself And as I was thinking about that the other day I realized that also in my walk if I don't have a father's help, I'm not going to make it The best I can do is whittle a little bit off the block, you know, but I'm going to get stuck down the track I need somebody to help me to be able to achieve the the the goal that I desire to achieve And and if I'm not resting in the Lord fully relying on him confident in him Then I'm going to be relying on myself and my own efforts are never going to be enough I'm never going to win the race Because my efforts are never going to be perfect God's efforts of course are perfect And so that's what he's speaking about. He's saying we need to rest in faith in Christ The people who didn't enter into the Promised Land didn't do so because they were operating in unbelief not trusting God To provide and so he's giving a warning and that's what we pick up here in verse 1 in chapter 4 is the warning He says therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest Let us fearless any of you seem to have come short of it And so we are to enter into God's rest because there's a rest that remains for us to enter into God's promise that he gave in other words is still in effect and they need to make sure that they receive this promise They still have an opportunity to be saved and and in being saved They can come to the end of themselves and enter into the rest of God and when you enter into God's rest Your life can be radically absolutely radically Transformed there. There's an individual by the name of Mal Trotter I doubt very very much were whether many of us in this room have ever even heard of his name, but Mal Trotter was a was a preacher of the gospel and and I was reading about Mal Trotter and and the writer speaking Concerning him said that Mal Trotter's children were starving Because he spent his money on alcohol His little girl died of malnutrition when she was about four years old So the neighbors gave enough money to buy her some new clothes and a casket to be buried in In the middle of the night Trotter broke into the mortuary Took the clothes off his dead child and exchanged them for a drink Not long afterward. However, he got saved the Lord changed his life And he became one of the great preachers America has ever known God can radically Transform your life When you trust him and you enter into his promises through faith And so that's what he's exhorting his readers to he says there remains a promise of entering in his rest In other words, that promise is still applicable. You need to just take him at his word. He says, but he said you should fear He says let us fear unless any of you seem to have come short of it When he says let us fearless any of you seem to have come short of it Let us fearless any of you think that somehow you have missed out on being saved His point is there's there's only one way into the rest of god And that's through total trust in the finished work of jesus christ And you need to remember how god treats unbelief which causes you the motivation to fully trust him Notice how he says in verse 2 indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them But the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith and those who heard it The gospel was preached in the old testament in a sense that it it called people to a salvation arrest And sometimes we think of the old testament and we think of the laws and we think that well If I if I kept the law perfectly then I could enter into god through efforts of my own Nowhere does the bible ever teach that you are saved by works of righteousness that you've performed nowhere The bible makes it very clear that the that the commandments that were given to us by god Were really intended by god to reveal to us our weakness and our inability to be pleasing to him They actually exposed us to ourselves in all And so every saint is saved in the same way whether old testament or new It's always been by faith that we're saved I think of a man by the name of abraham abraham has mentioned all through the bible but in romans chapter 4 And abraham has spoken of in romans chapter 4 and verses 3 through 5 and And as I think of him he who is called the father of the jewish nation I think of a man who who is looked at as being a very faithful man But when paul's speaking about him he says what does scripture say? abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness Now to him who works the wages are not counted as grace, but it's as debt But to him who doesn't work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness abraham believed god and he became righteous as a result of his faith It wasn't the actions alone. It was the faith that motivated the work And so you hear god's word and you respond to it So he says the gospel was preached to us as well as to them They had a message preached to them that they could enter into the rest through faith But the word which they heard did not profit them white. Well, that was not mixed with faith and those who heard it So it's like tonight hearing a bible study you hear it, but you don't apply it He says that's the danger. That's what keeps you from entering into the rest of god Because hearing without action isn't sufficient to be saved you believe and adhere to the gospel Hearing the good news isn't beneficial to the one hearing if they don't act on it And so he's pointing that out. It was not mixed with faith and those who heard it 4 verse 3 we who have believed do enter that rest as he said So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world Now notice we who have believed do enter that rest assurance is given to the believers We can rest it's the point he's making we can rest we can rely on god and trust him and actually have confident Relaxation if you will in him we have this assurance because we can rest in the work of god that has been finished through jesus christ We can have rest because we have believed the message of god We can have rest because we receive jesus christ as lord and savior, but in verse 3 continues to say So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest if you don't believe You don't enter into rest Although the works he says were finished from the foundation of the world After the world was created god initiates that period of rest He rested from his work of creation and this rest began on what is called the seventh day And he goes on to clarify that in verse 4 for he has spoken in a certain place Of the seventh day in this way God rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this place They shall not enter my rest Since therefore it remains that some must enter Enter it and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience Again, he designated a certain day saying in david today after such a long time as it has been said today If you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts For if joshua had given them rest then he would not afterward have spoken of another day The remains therefore arrest for the people of god Now god rested from all of his works. That's what he speaks about in verse 4 following. He rested from all of his works All of his works I want you to think about this for a moment because when it says god rested from all his works that would include all works That he was to perform Including the work of salvation If he rested from all his works That would include salvation a work of salvation that occurs when jesus christ came and died on the cross One of the things that I find interesting to note is that salvation was not an afterthought with god He was not in other words surprised that man fell. It was not an afterthought with him He didn't look down from heaven see adam and eve and And we discover what they did and then suddenly say now what am I going to do? The bible is interesting when it states that his rest were all completed when god rested on that seventh day When you go to the last book of the bible revelation chapter 13 verse 8 The bible tells us there That jesus christ is the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world And so salvation wasn't an afterthought. It was actually something that god had already intended to do to save people In first peter chapter 1 verse 20 the bible says he indeed was for ordained before the foundation of the world But was manifest in these last times for you So god has what is called a seventh day And the seventh day is the seventh day rest now It's referred to as a moral rest In the seventh day God gave this seventh day rest To the children of israel and this might answer some questions that i've been asked a question I've been asked in the past too as I as I take this direction for a moment God when he gave the law to the children of israel as you first see it being mentioned and itemized in exodus chapter 20 When god gave the law to the nation of israel in chapter 20 verse 11 He gave to them a Sabbath rest I have been asked by people in the past If the lord god gave the Sabbath day rest that rest from from work And commanded people to take that Sabbath day rest Then why is it that the church meets for for services on on sunday When the jewish nation observes Shabbat You know Friday at dusk into saturday at dusk. That's the seventh day. Why do we meet on sundays? And not on saturdays if god commanded that there should be a day of rest The basic answer comes in two in two ways one is the church meets on sunday To remember the day of resurrection The first day of the week When jesus christ was resurrected on the first day of the week The church began the habit of meeting on the first day of the week to commemorate the resurrection of christ And so that's why we gather together on sundays Now paul made it very clear that one man thinks one day is special and another man treats every day alike Each person is to decide that within the confines of their own conscience We don't believe that the only day to worship god is sunday We believe that you worship god and serve him seven days a week But we gather together Specifically on sunday because jesus was resurrected on the first day A second reason though is in exodus chapter 31 the bible tells us i believe at verse 17 That the sabbath is a memorial Not for the church of course, but for the nation of israel And so the sabbath day is what israel commemorates or rests on Whereas we the church Recognize the first day of the week as the day that we gather for services because of the resurrection of jesus christ But when you're looking at the rest what he's basically pointing out here in this passage before us Is salvation rest was already Instituted by god when he rested on the seventh day because all of his works have been complete Now of course jesus was yet to come to be delivered to die and and all that he did But as far as god was concerned when he rested on that day That's because all of his works had been fulfilled even though yet in the future They would actually take place And so that's what we have now the sabbath is really a picture of rest We as christians understand it now as being the rest that we have in the lord jesus christ We recognize it as a picture of the finished work of salvation what god has done for us in jesus And therefore we rest because he has rested on our behalf Now notice in verse 6 how he says it remains that some must enter it Now the generation under moses did not enter in So that promise is still yet to be fulfilled Israel's earlier failure doesn't mean that the promise no longer is being offered though Because he says in verse 7 Again, he designates a certain day saying in david today after such a long time as it has been said today If you will hear his voice do not harden your heart So he's designating a certain day and notice how he speaks of it as being david david is the one who wrote the song That's being referred to and and david wrote that song some 400 years after moses And so even though moses had been given the command to rest 400 years after moses came david and yet it's still applied And yet god is saying today today if you hear his voice Now when he says today, that's a call to immediate action One of the things that grieves me is how sometimes people will say I'll listen to you about this on another occasion. Let me think about this God's call is always one of urgency It's always now I have never met an individual who's ever said to me Perhaps I have someone in here and maybe you'll approach me later on but I I have never met anybody not up to this point Who's ever said to me man. I wish I would have waited longer to get saved I just have never met anybody who's done that I just haven't the people that I have met and said I wish that I received christ earlier Why because man my life would have been blessed and I would have saved myself so much pain I wish that I'd have gotten saved earlier before I went through the crises that I went through I wish that I've gotten saved the first time I heard the gospel I'll tell you the truth though. I I lived a crazy life and everything I can tell you Man, I wish that I was raised in a christian home I wish that I was raised with the word of god and and the things that are appropriate to a true faith I I wish that I didn't have that And I was I was still young when I got saved I was 20 But man, I wish I'd have heard the gospel in a clear way before I started doing the drugs and the alcohol I can tell you that And so I've never met anybody who says that I wish I waited longer And so god's word is always one of urgency It's when I say to my kids and I say, you know, follow the lord From the time they were small follow the lord love the lord serve the lord Open your heart to the lord, you know, let god move in your life Don't put it off. Don't think that you have to fashion your own testimony Don't think you've got to go out and taste the world to see what it tastes like Because I've tasted of it and I can tell you as a person of experience It doesn't have anything to offer and so I would tell my kids that I still do it their age I'll say, you know what stay straight with christ. Say close to jesus christ Don't go off into the world because it's going to kill you do it today Don't do it tomorrow. Don't do it next week. Don't do it next year Do it today today if you hear his voice and that's what the cry is According to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2 Now is the acceptable time behold now is the day of salvation And so in verse 8 continuing he says if joshua had given them rest Then he would not afterward have spoken of another day Joshua was moses's assistant Joshua was the one that the lord used to bring israel into the promised land Now he brought them into canaan, but he didn't bring them into salvation He could only bring them into that which was physical But he did not bring them into that which was spiritual only god can do that And so Jesus today is capable of taking us Not just into a physical property like they were entering into the promised land Jesus is able to bring us into a spiritual life Jesus is the one who gives that to us in john 6 verse 35 Jesus said i'm the bread of life He who comes to me will never go hungry. He who believes in me will never be thirsty In john 651 he said i'm the living bread that came down from heaven If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever This bread is my flesh which i will give for the life of the world And then he went on in john 6 at verse 54 and he said whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood As eternal life and i will raise them up at the last day joshua moses No prophet could bring you to the place that jesus brings you to Jesus said if you drink of my blood if you eat of my flesh you have life Within you fully partake in me Open your heart to me And i will give to you what the world cannot give to you And i learned a long time ago that all the world gives to you are broken promises That's all the world cannot fulfill the promises It only gives you a hope that it can and it keeps you going and pursuing but always leaves you disappointed But on the other hand jesus christ is the one who never disappoints because he never breaks his word And when you come to a relationship with god through jesus christ He sets you free Now he says in verse nine there remains therefore a rest for the people of god For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as god did From his so entering into a relationship with god through faith in jesus christ causes us to cease from our labors I can still remember More than one time as a young person crying out to god saying god help me i can't take this anymore Something has to change here i'm going to go crazy I can remember that especially my 19th into my 20th year I can remember doing that more than once i can remember crying out saying and i literally would cry out to god and i'd say god unless something is done Unless something happens i i just don't know that i i i just i got to the point where i just don't want to live anymore I just do not like my life And lord i wish that you would do something i wish there was something that could be done I wish that there was something and there was something to be done Just resting in him just coming to him I can remember having conversations with friends on occasion and we'd speak about spiritual things and all and And how i how i would have this hunger in me to have some contact some connection With with with god and and i didn't have that and i remember one time dropping some uh Some hallucinogenics and and trying to read the bible and because i believe that god somehow could communicate to me And i had been hearing that you know if you drop acid and these other hallucinogenics That you could actually come into contact with that which is spiritual and i and i started trying that on occasion not all Not often but i did Read the bible see what it has to say You know try to open yourself up to something else you know some power And it wasn't until i heard the gospel of jesus christ it wasn't until somebody actually said you know it's by grace that you're saved through faith Not by works It's it's through opening yourself up and just trusting god and i thought that sounds too too easy You know there obviously has to be something that i do that can get me to the position of of uh receiving this there's gotta be and And the answer to that question was no there's nothing that god calls you to do other than believe him and trust him And so that's entering into the rest of god when you finally as he said when you finally hear his voice And you don't harden your heart to him You can enter into his rest and in doing so you you seize from your works even as god did from his You stop trying to earn heaven and you simply begin to live as one who's going there Therefore verse 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience for the word of god Is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit And of joints and moral And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart And there is no creature hidden from his sight But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account God's word actually distinguishes From the true believer the one who really clings to christ and the one who doesn't believe Because god's word actually reveals the thoughts and intentions of a human being's heart In the day of judgment God's word is going to open up every human heart and reveal its contents Whether I believed or whether I did not believe One of the things that I believe as a pastor teacher that is really important to me Is that god's word needs to be read and studied and divided and applied Because we're living in that season of last days Where people are caught up with wanting to feel god experience god But not necessarily to know him And one of the things that I have discovered is that god communicates to us by his word His word is that lamp and that light to our path and to our feet God's word is that which that opens our hearts up to reveal the contents So that we might be convicted of our sin and and and and call on god for help God's word declares to me what he wants from me and god's word gives to me promises that he will do on my behalf It's god's word. It's all about his word And so he's saying to us listen. It's god's word that is alive It's god's word that is powerful and it's god's word that is sharper than any two-edged sword God's word cuts both ways God's word can be something that wounds and god's word is something that heals God's word does that and so the lord works through his word And he works in such a way as to demonstrate his love for us I was talking to somebody a couple days ago a lady And I said, you know, I don't know if I ever told you this but when I was 14 years old I said, uh, I got stabbed. I got stabbed in the side You know, I have a scar right here from when somebody plunged And and cut across here. I was 14 when that happened and uh And I was sharing with her about that and I said, I don't know if you know that she said I didn't know that I said, yeah, I said and the thing that really was weird about that is my mom was there when it happened And she let it happen As a matter of fact, my mom gave permission for it to happen And she goes you're kidding me. I said no, I had an appendix that was removed And they plunged the scalpel into my side And sliced it open I said they had to do that Because if they hadn't removed my appendix, it was about to burst and it would have poisoned me and I could have died Sometimes the scalpel plunges deeply And it slices But being guided by the hand of a skilled surgeon, it removes that which is going to destroy you God's word Plunged into my life removes the cancer or the tumorous things that are destroying me The things that need to be removed. It is sharper than a two-edged sword So rather than me just kind of like oh, that's just your opinion. Oh, I don't really believe that Oh, I'll listen to this some other time The writer says you need to enter in today today. Do not harden your heart Today when god is speaking to you respond Because god's word opens you up and reveals and says to you you say that you know me Here's your heart. Do you really? And god's word will cause me to to look at it like a mirror in a sense And I see myself and I say in reality No I don't know you and then god says this is a way for you to know me Because his word is so sharp it divides not only that it it reveals What is within us even the thoughts and intents of my heart are revealed to me So god's word does that and it's through his word that he brings us to relationship with him When he says there is no creature hidden from his sight all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom We must give account God knows our movement at all time. I've shared with you how that when adam took of that forbidden fruit And and the bible says that he and his wife fashioned these fig leaves And they were basically hiding from the presence of god and and how the voice of the lord comes wafting through the Garden of Eden and and the and the voice of god as you read your scripture It says that god cried out and god said adam. Where are you? It wasn't that god didn't know where adam was My my grandson josiah the other day. He's three years old and I played hide and seek Playing hide and seek with a three-year-old is just unfair Because they don't know how to hide He doesn't know what to do and so he'll say hide hide and and so I he's laying on my couch He's laying on my couch and and I took a blanket and I put it over him and his feet are hanging out And we were hiding him from grandma And so marie comes walking in and she says and I I put my hand over my lips and I said And I said and she goes she stops at the door and I said I said honey Josiah is hiding from you And there's his big old feet hanging out of the blanket, you know And and and she says he is well. I wonder where he is And he's laughing under the blanket You know And I said I haven't got a clue I can hear him But I don't know where he is and marie and we'll walk around him and we'll sit next to him and And he'll stay under those blankets And then he then he'll take the blankets off and say here I am and we act like so surprised like there you I didn't see you well Adam where are you There he is behind a fig leaf Anybody ever feel a fig leaf They itch He was not a very bright man Adam, where are you? Was that cosmic hide and seek? Now, you know what when the bible says that god said adam, where are you? It was god calling from adam for confession So adam can say I'm in this condition because I did this that's what that's all about It's not that god doesn't know where adam is. It's that adam doesn't know where adam is Adam's in sin God says, where are you so that adam could have some introspective moments to reveal himself I'm hiding from you Because I have broken your word So god's word is sharp And god sees our movements I can't hide from him So the wisest thing to do is simply be found by him And agree with him Lord I blew it And god will put his arm around And he will forgive you My Josiah once again another Josiah illustration My Josiah sometimes because he's a clumsy little baby He's only three He will drop his milk or he he may be doing something and And it falls out of his hand and it may make a mess and he does that Often as three-year-olds do And the first thing my Josiah does First thing is he looks at me and you'll go Oh papa, I'm so sorry He does that and he has such emotion. I'm so sorry papa And I'll look at him and I'll say you should be you little rat. I hate you Get out of my sight you maggot No, that's his mom when I speak to him When I speak to him Man That's okay That's all right I'll pick it up and I kiss him and hold him Because I don't want him to be feeling bad I want him to know that. You know what? Papas here take care of it. No big deal. It's all right Thank you for saying you're sorry because sometimes we make mistakes and we need to say that But you want to know something? It's okay. Let's take care of it. Listen. I'm an evil man. You know that And I'm an evil grandpa because I am a sinner like any other person in this room But if I being evil Know how to love my grandson My god who is not evil knows how to love his son or his daughter He watches you he keeps his eye on you. He's aware of you He loves you. His word makes it clear what he wants He reveals to you so that you can turn away from your sin and turn to him And like he said to adam, where are you? That was so that he might bring him back into relationship with him Because sin makes separation But when sin is dealt with fellowship is restored And so the writer is simply saying listen Unbelief kept the children of israel from entering into the rest of god Do not let it keep you from enjoying the presence of christ Don't let