Untitled Sermon (3)

Bible Talk:

There is a door leading to rest open for all of us TODAY, not just in the future!

The writer of this letter is writing to those who have believed in Christ.

Those who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit

Who are holy.

Who are new creations in Christ.

What they’re struggling with is perseverance.

In the face of persecution and hardships, they need encouragement.

Friend, maybe you’re like these brothers and sisters in Christ this morning.

You remember the day when you first heard the good news of Christ, of his death for you in your place on that cross, and his resurrection, and you believed.

You put your hope in him.

You came to him with your sin and brokenness, and as he took it from you, he clothed you in forgiveness and wholeness.

You remember the feeling of rest, of peace, of joy.

But that day seems like it was a long time ago. That feeling seems like a distant memory.

If this is you, hear God’s living and active word speaking to you this morning.

God says his rest remains for you to enter in to TODAY.

It wasn’t just for when you first believed.

It’s not just for when you reach heaven.

It’s for you to enter into and experience TODAY.

Maybe you’ve never experienced God’s rest before.

You’ve never known the feeling of being unconditionally loved, indescribable peace, joy, freedom, wholeness and acceptance from God.

Well, this message is likewise for you.

God’s rest is for you to enter into TODAY.

We remain in God’s rest the same way we first enter into it.

All of us have tried all kinds of things to create life and ease our brokenness and restlessness haven’t we?

Food

Porn

Sports

Shopping

Real Estate

Job

Movies

OCD Picking

Mindless internet surfing.

We’ll try anything to find rest.

To find peace.

To find love and acceptance.

To find joy.

Wholeness.

To feel complete.

But our attempts are like bungy cords.

In the brief moment we feel the thrill of the escape, the joy of peace, but then the cord goes tight, and we spring back to where we started, but this time we’ve got a bruise to show for it.

All our attempts actually make us more broken, more desperate, more restless, more enslaved.

The end result is that if we die in this state of brokenness, in this state of unbelief, we’re forever shut out from his rest.

We enter into a place of eternal restlessness, brokenness, agitation.

There’s one word that sums it up, from the mouth of Jesus.

And that’s torment.

There’s a real warning to this group of people and to us.

V1: “Therefore, since the promise to enter his rest remains, let us beware (fear) that none of you be found to have fallen short.”

How do we fall short?

By neglecting God’s Promise.

By continuing to pursue our bungy cord attempts at rest, seeking our methods of fixing our brokenness, instead of God’s method.

Many of us have heard this before. We know what God has said.

We’ve even experienced the rest that comes from trusting in God’s love shown at the cross where Christ died.

We’ve experienced the Holy Spirit work in our hearts as we’ve gazed at Jesus, filling our hearts with peace, wonder, joy, amazement, rest.

But we’ve so easily forgotten his word, and become trapped again by sins deceitfulness.

We have to combine what we hear with faith.

V2: For we also have received the good news just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, since they (were not united with those who hear it in faith). “did not combine what they heard with faith.”

There is some disagreement here among translators as to whether the issue was them not being united with those that heard with faith, being Joshua and Caleb.

Or whether the issue was them not uniting their faith with what they heard.

The point of this whole section is the need to combine faith with hearing.

It doesn’t help us to hear God’s promises of rest.

Hearing only benefits us if we combine it with faith.

As Jesus said, ‘whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

They all had ears to hear what he was saying, but only some of them believed what he was saying and made choices based upon it.

All of us are in real danger of not entering God’s rest TODAY.

Why?

Because of unbelief:

- Too much to lose, we’re content with our bungy sins and we don’t want to lose them.

- We don’t believe all the good things will really be found in him.

- We don’t believe God’s really that generous and good

- We Fear that we’re too trapped in slavery to our sins to ever change

- Ultimately we don’t combine faith in what we’ve heard

- Thinking it’s all wishful thinking

But there are some of us, hopefully many of us who have entered God’s rest, and our continuing in that REST.

Why?

Belief:

- We Reckon the promises our own

- We see with eyes of faith and receive God’s Word and apply it to ourselves.

- We see sin clearly for what it does to us, and we’ve run to Christ.

- The rest is so joyful and so satisfying we’re content. We don’t want to go anywhere else.

V3a: For we who have believed enter the rest...

Result:

o We don’t incur God’s anger. We don’t remain in slavery.

§ INSTEAD, we enter HIS rest!

V3b: ...in keeping with what he has said. “So I swore in my anger, they will not enter MY rest.”

This is what God was offering to the people of Israel. HIS REST.

And God’s rest has been going on for 6000 thousand years and counting! Since he finished his work of creation.

V3bb-5Even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all his works. Again, in that passage he says, “They will never enter my rest.”

The big issue here was not that they were shut out from Canaan’s rest, although they were.

They were shut out from God’s rest.

This was God’s intention for them.

God’s rest has been ongoing since the creation of the world.

Adam and Eve enjoyed it for a short time.

It was lost when they fell.

And straight after, God made a promise that this wasn’t going to be permanent.

He would make the way back into his rest.

This good news was announced to Adam.

To Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

To Moses. To Joshua. To David. And to all of us today.

And since the beginning of time, those who have had faith in the promise of his rest have entered into it.

Those who have rejected his promise in disobedience have not.

V6-7; Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, he again specifies a certain day – today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time: “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

It’s easy to get distracted with a physical place isn’t it?

To put country before Christ.

To seek peace in politics instead of in the prince of peace.

God always speaks to us in ways that we can understand, and being physical beings as we are, he often uses physical examples that point to a spiritual reality.

This was the case with the people of Israel and the promised land.

Within the restlessness and brokenness of our world, God set aside a pocket of rest that was meant to point those who tasted it to the real feast that was on offer for them.

What was the real feast?

God

God is the real feast.

Nothing that God gives even comes close to comparing with God himself.

If you have God you have everything.

If you don’t have God, you have nothing.

However, the people of Israel had mistaken this crumb to be the real meal.

The argument he is making goes like this:

1) God has offered rest in all its facets and fullness to us humans.

2) It’s HIS rest as he says in v3.

3) His rest is entered into by believing what he says.

4) His rest is not enjoyed due to disbelieving what he says.

5) Joshua led the people into the promised land.

If that were God’s rest, then David, who lived in the promised land, would not have written about a rest that was still being offered to those who were in the land.

V8; For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

6) No.

The land was so temporary and was meant to point all of them to the everlasting rest that was found in God, in relationship with him.

In alignment with his word.

V9; Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.

7) The Israelites had good news preached to them.

The good news was that a land flowing with milk and honey was theirs.

All they had to do was take God at his word and walk into the land.

He would fight for them.

All they would have to do was watch as each step they took, God did the work.

It was a call to rest in God and his promises.

Not to strive to achieve something they didn’t have.

8) They didn’t believe the good news and so remained in slavery, wandering, agitated, aimlessly walking around the desert until they died in their unbelief.

9) We too have been preached good news.

This good news is far greater than the good news they were told.

It’s the good news that the eternal rest that is found in relationship with God has been won for us, and is available to us TODAY.

Our job is to believe this.

To stop striving.

To stop grumbling.

To come to Christ, and find rest for our souls.

V10: For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.

Brokenness Wholeness

Restlessness Rest

Oppression Love

Slavery Freedom

Agitation Peace

Distress/Worry Joy/contentment

Clamour Order

Disturbance Calm

Striving Acceptance

WE can refuse God’s offer of rest in one of two ways.

Israel did both of these when they were on the border of Canaan.

Firstly, they just flat out rebelled.

I know what you’ve said God and I know what you say you’re offering, but I don’t believe you.

I don’t want what you’re offering.

I’m not going in.

I’m doing my own thing.

Living my own life.

I just don’t trust you.

Secondly, they tried to enter in their own strength.

After realising their mistake, they then tried to enter Canaan not according to God’s word, but according to their own way.

And they got smashed.

There was no rest when they tried to do it their own way.

There was only death and greater pain than they had before.

Like the bungy they got snapped back into slavery bruised and battered.

There’s only one way to enter God’s rest.

It involves going by the way he has opened.

And that way is through Christ.

He was overcome with distress so that we could have rest.

He was abandoned so that we could be welcomed.

He was rejected, so that we could be accepted.

He willingly was nailed to the cross, so that we could be released from sin.

This is God’s way.

The way to life and peace is wide open.

There’s no obstacle still in the way.

Only a refusal to accept this gift will prevent you from entering his rest.

This is God’s word. It’s his promise. And with every promise comes a warning.

Just as he swore on oath to those in the wilderness, they will never enter my rest.

There is also no rest for all those who reject God’s gracious gift of rest and peace in Christ.

This is God’s Word. And his word stands.

In him is eternal joy and rest forevermore.

Outside of him, there is absolutely no rest or joy whatsoever.

Friends, these are the words of the living God.

Are you hearing them this morning?

Not just hearing them.

But do you feel your heart being stirred within you.

If so, this is God’s Spirit prompting you to combine faith with what you’re hearing.

If you’re restless this morning, hear God’s Word. Don’t stay there. Don’t harden your heart and go back home to continue being restless.

TODAY, he is offering you rest.

Bring everything to his throne of grace. Whatever it is, he already knows it all. And he doesn’t condemn you. Christ was condemned for you.

Let him bear your burden.

Let him take you on his shoulder and carry you.

Let him speak his words of love and mercy and kindness over you.

Let him share with you his plans for you.

Let him show you his power to completely smash sin, guilt, shame and fear.

His word penetrates right into the core motivations and desires of our hearts.

God reigns over both his world of rest, and his world of brokenness.

Every creature that he made is his, and all of us will give an account to him.

What will we give an account for?

What we did with our brokenness?

And what did we do with his offer of rest?

V12-13; For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

There’s no escaping the throne of God.

Every single human being will approach it.

Don’t approach the throne of JUDGEMENT on that FINAL day.

Approach the throne of GRACE TODAY.

We have a great high priest who has entered right into that place of rest.

And guess what, as our representative, we get full access too.

He entered God’s actual presence offering his own blood as a payment for all our sin and rebellion.

And now there’s nothing stopping us from full access to God’s rest.

V14; Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens – Jesus the Son of God – let us hold fast to our confession.

He not only gives us access to relationship with God and his rest, but because he is fully human, he knows us perfectly.

He went through the same hardships and sufferings that we face.

He’s been tempted in every way.

In fact, Jesus has been tempted more than us.

How is that possible?

Think about it.

You and I give in when the temptation gets too much.

We read that Jesus never sinned.

He never gave in.

He rode out the temptations to their full end.

There’s not one of us who’s further into the heat of temptation than he’s been.

V15; For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

And that means two things:

Not only is he with us in our brokenness, our weakness, our temptations, and our failings.

He’s also able to provide exactly what we need at every point along the way.

This is true rest isn’t it?

This is true peace isn’t it?

This is real relationship isn’t it?

So what are we to do?

V16: Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

We approach him in our failing and sin and in our brokenness to find mercy.

And we approach him in the midst of temptations to receive perfectly timed help for each situation.