Updated Striving to Enter God’s Rest 4:8-13

Rapport

Welcome to Round 2 of the Underground True Church Conference

I have laughed at this notion as have some of you and thought yeah right. This is nothing close to the level of the True Church Conference.

Then as I was rocking my daughter the other night and praying about her salvation and her future it hit me.

If we are not diligent to work, to train, to teach, to preach, to faithfully serve the Lord our God and whatever flock we are given then there won’t be a True Church Conference for our daughters, for our sons.

Brother Jeff, Dr. Seal(sorry), Brother Steve, and others are not getting any younger and while right now they are the backbone of AIT along with many other brothers around the country they won’t be around forever.

At some point, they will have to pass the torch to men like me and you.

At some point, they will have run their race with endurance and will finally enter God’s rest and it will be our mantle to carry.

We will have to work to keep this legacy this God glorifying network alive.

So today guys, as we talk about Striving to Enter God’s Rest, think about the work and road you have ahead of you. Think about the journey we have before we enter God’s rest.

If we want our sons and our daughters and their sons and daughters to have a faithful church and network of Church’s to serve God in then we must be diligent to work.

Which brings us to our sermon today which I have entitled.

Striving to Enter God’s Rest

Today we will be in Hebrews Chapter 4 verses 8 through 13 but we will be specifically focusing on verses 11-13.

I will be teaching today out of the ESV.

So while you are turning there lets start with a little context about the Book of Hebrews

Context

This book of Hebrews is a bit of a mysterious book. There is a lot we don’t know and can’t know about at least not 100%

First is the author. The author is anonymous and thats okay. I could sit up here and guess as others have for 2000 years but in reality it does not matter. We know that as it says in 2 Peter 1:21

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The real author is the Holy Spirit so our souls can rest in God’s sovereignty.

Another mystery is the timeframe. My best guess is ad 68-70 because the temple is destroyed in ad 70 and in reading this book it appears that animal sacrifice and temple worship were still active.

Another mystery is the audience. It doesnt specify but it does appear to be a pedominantly Jewish Audience because of its heavy stress on old testament prototypes, its push agains the levitical system, the appeal to and authority of the Old testament and the stress the author places on begging his audience not to fall back to the way of their old faith in Judiasm.

But the mystery can be beauty to us because we can trust it as a beautiful powerful message from God!

So what is the main theme of this book?

Well the main theme is that God’s Promises have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Let me say that again, the main them is that God’s promises have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And the pastoral theme for the book of Hebrews is perseverance in hope while enduring the cost of discipleship and that is rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

These people were enduring suffering and were being tempted to leave the faith. To persevere, they need to understand Christ is the fulfillment of everything and their only hope.

Which bring us to our scripture today. where we are dropped in the end of a section where the author is arguing that there is a greater rest is still to come.

As we said, these people are being tempted to fall away, as we see in verse three of chapter 4 this letter is written to those who have believed so he is not concerned with their saving faith but more with their perseverance in that faith.

We see the author arguing in the middle of chapter 3 to the end of chapter 4 that Isreal never entered the rest God promised them in the Promised land because of their failures.

Those Isrealites heard about God’s rest and the promise was of no value to them because os their lack of faith and unbelief.

Therefore we are warned not to ignore those failures and work to enter God’s rest by faith.

We see that he is not speaking about Joshua’s rest but the ultimate rest of eternal life with God

And we know that we are only able to enter that Rest by Christ alone and we believe that we cannot lose our salvation but part of the way that God keeps us is by warnings like this through scripture warnings and reminders not to fall away, not to keep striving not to stop running our race and fighting this fight until we have entered God’s race.

Right now we have to work but when we enter that ultimate rest, we will get a rest from our works just as God did from his.

Please stand in honor of God and the reading of his word.

As I said, we are going to read verses 8 through thirteen of chapter 4 but we will be focusing on verses 11-13.

Reading of Scripture

Hebrews 4:8–13 ESV

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.

Prayer

Dear Lord, we come to you today asking that you be close to us. You are not a God who is far off but a God who is near. You have said in your word that your word will nor return void and we ask Lord that in spite of our sin and our unfaithfulness that you remain faithful to that promise. That you fill me and my hearers with the Holy Spirit to preaching only what is true and builds up my brothers in Christ. Give me words to speak and them ears to hear. We thank you that though we deserve eternal wrath that you have promised eternal rest. Lord bless the preaching of your word tonight that we might go out from here and glorify your name. Its is in Jesus precious name we pray, Amen.

Introduction

The bible is full of paradoxes. Things that on the surface seem like opposites but in reality are truth. Things that the world scoffs at but we as Christians rejoice in.

The fact that God is one but also three persons.

The fact that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

That fact that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

Exaltation by God because of Humility

Receiving through Giving

Freedom through servitude

Living through Dying

Divine election and human responsibility.

Eternal life through a death on a cross.

Him he knew no sin becoming sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

Well today, we are going to talk about one of those paradoxes.

The fact that we are called to strive and labor to enter a rest that we can only enter by simple faith in Christ alone apart from works.

We can’t enter this rest by works alone but we are called to strive

The word striving here means to make every effort or to be zealous.

It can be an intense desire or impatient expectancy.

We are supposed to be striving to enter God’s rest with that type of attitude.

Like we can’t wait to get there.

Like we must fight until our dying breath and then fall across the finish line in exhaustion into God’s rest.

That is the way we should be running our race that is set before us.

Like Christ did.

We are to be zealous in our desires to keep working so that we don’t fall like the Isrealites did who were unfaithful and never entered God’s rest.

So today i will ask you. Are you striving to Enter God’s rest? Or have you decided to rest early before the journey is done?

Well today I am going to urge you to Strive

I want you all to be encouraged to run your race and be able at the end of your life to say like Paul.

2 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Part of that reward is rest for those works, so

If we are going to remain faithful to the end we must

First Strive to Enter God’s Rest by Obedience.

Second we must Strive to Enter God’s Rest Together

Third, we must Strive to Enter God’s Rest by the Power of the Word

Fourth we must Strive to Enter God’s Rest In Christ Alone

My goal today is that you leave here striving to enter God’s rest by the power of the Spirit

1. Striving to Enter God’s Rest by Obedience

Hebrews 4:11 ESV

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Same sort of disobedience.

The author is warning us here that there the Israelites fell because they were disobedient to God’s commands.

They did not enter God’s rest because they were disobedient.

Disobedience is the failure to submit to the law, custom, or practice of authority,

It can also be a rejection of belief.

But they disobeyed in a lot of ways, just like we do.

Every single day we fail to live up to God’s commands.

We fail to meet GOd’s commands

I mean just start with the greatest commandment.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart soul, mind and strength.

I have failed at that in the last 20 minutes

But it seems to be calling out specific sins it wants to warn us against so what are they.

Well lets look back just in this section to get an idea of what sort of disobedience the author is talking about here.

First I see a hardened heart.

Hebrews 3:7–8 ESV

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,

Sin hardens our hearts. When we disobey more and more the more calloused we become to the call of the holy spirit toward repentance.

The less we hear the exhortations from God’s word. The less we feel the sharpenss of our disobedience.

God was telling the Isrealites here that they fell because they had hardened their heart.

Their hearts because of their sin weren’t maluable to the corrections of God.

And as I said, this comes form an evil unbelieving heart

Hebrews 3:12–13 ESV

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.

That evil unbelieving heart leads you to fall away from God and become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Evil unbelieving heart- 3:13

Hardened heart- 3:8

Wandering Heart- 3:10

Put God to the test- 3:9

Unable to enter because of unbelief- 3:19

Lack of Faith- 4:2

Thats what they did. THey rejected the plan laid out to them by God and went with what they wanted and felt. THey didn’t trust God enough to persevere in obedience.

So if disobeying led them not to enter God’s rest what should we do.

We should do the opposite.

We must strive in Obedience.

Obedience to what you might ask?

Well we won’t do an exhaustive list of God’s commandments but we will be general and then specific.

Our sanctification journey is a bitter fight. We must fight to put sin to death.

Not just yearly, not jsut monthly, not just weekly, not just daily, not even hourly.

We must strive to put sin to death minute by minute!

There are days where I feel assaulted from the moment I wake up with temptations.

There are times where I feel my blood pressure rising where I feel my heart pounding because I can feel the assault from temptation.

So what do we do in that moment?

We have to battle.