The Better Rest
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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It continues to be a pleasure to steward this pulpit and share the Word of God with our church.
This morning, we are going to be talking about something that all of us are familiar with. All of us know what it is. Most of us probably wish we had more of it. Some of us are better at it than others. We are going to be talking about Rest.
This is an appropriate time of the year to be thinking about rest. Fayette County school will be dismissing for the year this coming Wednesday, I believe. People are gearing up for vacations and times of rest away from the regular hurdles of everyday life.
But here’s the thing, at least with me, I typically need a vacation after my vacation. We think of vacations as a time to go sit around in the sun and enjoy time with the family. And I can get down with that, but I always seem to turn a vacation into an adventure. Just ask my wife. I decided to look back at some of the movement data from a random trip we took a few years ago. I found out that in our two day vacation I made us walk over 42,000 steps which was right around 20 miles in just those two days. There was just so much to see and try! But afterwards, we were whipped!
The need for rest, even when we mess it up by over-cramming a trip with activities, is written into the very nature of humanity. We need rest. People are not robots that can work nonstop without taking a breather. In God’s grace, He built rest into both His design of humans and His Law. Look with me at Exodus. Here God is giving the Law to Moses and He gets to the fourth commandment:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
God tell His people to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. That is to have it set apart from the rest of the days of the week. then explains He made the world and everything in it in 6 days and rested on the seventh. God Himself blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.
Now, as we have been walking through the first four chapters of Hebrews, we have seen the mighty power with which the triune God brought our universe into existence. We have looked at how the eternal Jesus was the Hand of Creation, how He holds everything, including the laws of physics, gravity, and time, together. We can see this mighty power. So the question is, if God is so powerful, if Jesus is so mighty, why did He need to rest on the seventh day? Well this has an easy answer. The almighty God did not need to rest but He modeled such rest for His creation that does need to rest. In His great grace and mercy, God showed us what we needed.
You see we all need rest. We all need physical rest. If you push yourself without ever taking a break eventually you will involuntarily break either by physically becoming unable to carry any more weight, or by crippling mental exhaustion. We all need physical rest.
But more than that and where we really need to land before we continue on in our study of Hebrews 4, everyone needs to understand the desperate need there is for spiritual rest.
Jesus said
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
The rest that Jesus offers, the rest that we will be talking about today supersedes any temporary rest. What is the temporal compared to the eternal?
I want to focus on two aspects of this rest. First is the eternal nature of this rest. In Revelation we are given a sneak peak at the final state of things and let me tell you, it’s good! If I asked you to imagine the most restful experience you could think of, it wouldn’t even come close to this:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Dwelling with God! All the tears will be wiped away. There is no more death. No more mourning the loss. No more pain. All of the former things, all the consequences of the sin that plagues us, it’s gonna be done for. God says NO MORE. None of that. Enjoy rest, and Jesus gives that rest.
On a cultural level, most people have some concept of eternal rest, whether they even really believe in it or not. The concept of heaven is fully engrained into our culture and makes it way into films, tv shows, and novels all the time. The rest that Jesus offers has eternal implications and most definitely includes the scene we read from Revelation. But while the day of that particular rest is somewhere off in the future as chosen by God’s perfect timing, the rest the Jesus offers also has immediate implications for all those who receive it. We’ve gone from looking at the eternal nature of God’s rest, to the immediate nature of God’s rest.
For just a moment, think about what rest really is. (pause). Rest is ceasing from action. When you really rest, you stop doing what you were doing. The action stops. You take a breath. Relax. Labor ceases. Your effort is done. As one theologian puts it (MacArthur), When this idea is, “applied to God’s rest, [this] means no more self-effort as far as salvation is concerned. It means the end of trying to please God by our feeble fleshly works. God’s perfect rest is a rest in free grace.”
Remember Jesus said:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Those who labor and are heavy laden are those who have realized that they cannot, by their own efforts, make themselves right before God. There is nothing we can do to obtain perfect righteousness. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves holy. When we realize that we are utterly incapable of doing it on our own it is then that we see Jesus as the precious Savior that He is. He is the one who did what we could not. He is the one who saved us from our sins. He is the one who took the penalty for our sins. He is the one who bore our heavy burden of sin on the cross so that it may be removed from us. He is the one who gives us rest.
Resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ has massive implications to our everyday lives. Through this God-given rest we are freed from the weight of legalism. We can wake up everyday knowing our sins are forgiven and we can work for His glory rather than running the rat race of scoring enough “righteous points” to feel good about ourselves. Through this God given rest, we can be anchored in God’s Word, knowing that it is the sole source of His revelation and wisdom and that is profitable for us in all things. Through this God-given rest we can remain confident and hold tight to the truth of Jesus. Through this God-given rest, we can lean on and enjoy the Lord with whom we will be spending eternity with.
God’s rest has both an immediate and eternal application to the life of the believer and it is a great grace that such a rest would even be offered to such a sinful people.
With all of this in mind, if you have not already, open your bibles to Hebrews 4. We are going to be starting in verse 1 today and working through verse 11. As you are turning there, I will go ahead and give you a bit of a spoiler, the first word in verse 1 of Hebrews 4 is therefore. As we’ve said many times, when you see a therefore, you have to make sure you are connecting what is about to be said with what has already been said. If you will remember, as we finished up chapter 3, we were given a stern warning not to delay in proclaiming faith in Jesus. We do not want to be like the Israelite people who were given so much evidence of the greatness of God and yet hardened their hearts and rebelled. We must believe and belief is made evident through obedience. Those who do not believe will not enter God’s rest. It is from that point where we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 4.
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.
There are two amazing truths in this verse that we must give our attention in regards to God’s rest.
First, we need to understand the promise to enter God’s rest still stands. This means that it is still open. God is still calling His children home.
This should give all of us hope and it should give all of us zeal!
We are given hope that goes along with the phrase I like to throw around, “If you got breath, He ain’t done with you yet.” You may look at the state of things around us, the pure wickedness we see and think that God has to be done with us. Why would He save us when there is so much that is deserving of His righteous Judgment? Well, His righteous judgment will come. But the promise to enter His rest still stands! We still have hope. Everyone living in the muck and mire of a debased culture can still be saved from such circumstances. All of our hope comes from Jesus.
The knowledge of His promise still standing, should also give us zeal. Zeal to serve the Lord through telling others about the salvation He brings? Why should this give us zeal? Because just as the promise of entering His rest is available for us, it is also available to every other sinner with breath in their lungs.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
We have been given the duty to be ambassadors of Christ imploring unbelievers to be reconciled to God through Him. We can do this with zeal because those whom we are imploring are not yet dead, and thus their time of ultimate judgment has not come. Through the presentation God’s Word, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and faith in Jesus as Lord, anyone we come across has the potential to repent.
One commentary had the story of Mel Trotter in it. He was about as debauched as a person could be. He couldn’t provide food for his family because he spent everything he could get on booze. One of his daughters died of malnutrition as a toddler. The story goes that his neighbors gave him money to provide her a casket and some new clothes to be buried in. In the middle of the night he broke into the mortuary, took the clothes off of his dead child, and exchanged them for a drink. (MacArthur)“Not long afterward, however, Jesus Christ reached down and changed his life, and he became one of the great preachers America has ever known.” He started a mission house that would reach out to alcoholics. At his funeral, “One recalled that he would pray with an alcoholic, "then stand him on his feet and say, 'Now go home and get the wife and kiddies and come down to the Mission tonight.' Then as they parted, he would slip a dollar bill or a silver dollar in the poor drunkard's hand. I heard one of those men say, as he stood outside the Mission door, after such a parting, 'I will die before I spend this dollar for booze.'" (Wikipedia)
God’s promise still stands for all those who will repent of their sins and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, no matter how much sin there may seem to be. When you share the gospel that person you are sharing with very well may be next Mel Trotter. That’s for the Lord to decide. But we can share with zeal because we know God is still saving sinners, even today.
Return to verse one with me:
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.
The second amazing truth we must give our attention to in this verse may initially sound controversial. This verse shows us that entrance to God’s rest, or salvation as we may call it, is through fear.
Let us FEAR lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
What does this mean, Brad? You said that Jesus said when I’m weak and heavy laden He will give me rest. How does that involve dear? I don’t like to be afraid.
Point taken.
But we have to understand what is meant by fear in this context, because the truth is we are called to fear God:
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
Even
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
We see all throughout Scripture that it is fear of God is a good thing. This concept is foreign to us. But when we return to Hebrews 4:1 we see that fear of God is intertwined with entering His rest.
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.
The fear of God we are talking about here is Reverential fear. It is standing amazed in the presence, oh how marvelous, oh how wonderful, I am unworthy, fear. This is a fear rooted in respect and honor. It comes from beginning to understand the utter majesty of the Lord. It is not some cowardly fear of condemnation and uncertainty, or terror from repulsion. It’s the exact opposite. Fear of God is being completely overwhelmed and joyfully confounded by His glory.
No one who lacks fear of God will enter His rest. No one who lacks fear in God can understand the weight of their sin. No one who lacks fear in God can understand their need of a Savior.
May we all have reverential fear of God. For we are weak and He is Strong. We are unworthy, but He is gracious.
Fear of God is directly tied to submission and obedience. We have faith that Jesus is the Savior. We have reverential fear and awe for the gracious God who rightly judges and graciously saves. When we do not fear God we are virtually saying we do not need His rest. Fear the Lord.
In the next verses the author shows us what fear of God looks like in the life of the believer.
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.
Those who enter God’s rest, those who fear the Lord,
Have Faith
Have Faith
We see all throughout Scripture why God is worthy of reverential fear. He is the great judge who made all things, from Revelation. Fearing God is the beginning of knowledge, from Proverbs. We could go through all of Scripture and see countless examples of why God is Holy and worthy of reverence.
But hearing of all the goodness of God, including and especially the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, is completely useless, of no benefit, no profit, no worth at all, if the hearing is not, as it says in verse 2, by faith. “Being a true Christian under the New Covenant is not a matter of knowing the gospel but trusting in it. Having a Bible, reading it, knowing it, taking it to church every Sunday, and even teaching from it does not make us Christians. Only trusting in the One to whom it testifies makes us Christians. (MacArthur).”
Those who enter God’s rest, those who fear the Lord, have faith. They trust and believe that Jesus is Christ. Let’s see what else distinguishes this group:
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.”
Those who fear the Lord also
Depend on the Lord
Depend on the Lord
Notice in verses 3-5 who is the owner of the rest. It is spoken from God’s perspective when it is called “His Rest.” Those who reverentially fear the Lord depend upon Him because they know nothing they have nor nothing they will receive comes from them but everything comes from the Lord. The rest is His. He is the creator of the Rest.
Our focus is drawn back to the Creation once more. For six days God created everything, all of the cosmos. Then the seventh day there was rest in this pre-fall world. Prior to the entrance of sin through the transgression of Adam, the world was in a state of rest akin to what we read from Revelation. Who created that rest? The Lord! Who is bring that rest back? The Lord!
It is His rest! That is why we have no option but to depend on Him. We can’t create such a thing on our own.
Those who reverentially fear the Lord, have faith depend on Him. but there’s more:
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.”
Those who reverentially fear the Lord have faith in Him, they depend on Him and now we see they
Respond to Him
Respond to Him
Those who fear the Lord respond to him through obedience. The “Those who formerly received the good news” is talking about the Israelites who we have been looking at for the last few weeks. They knew what God had done and the rest He was taking His people to, but they did not fear Him as made evident through their disobedience.
But the Spirit writing through the Author, tells us it still remains for some to enter God’s rest! God is still drawing a people unto Himself. This is the blessed hope and fuel for zeal in evangelism we were talking about earlier. As people learn of the good news, some are going to be unbothered and disobedient, but to those who have their hearts softened are able to enter God’s rest, they are saved! They are part of the many sons being brought into glory! And the true marker of that they believe is that they Respond! Today! Now, is the time! Respond! The New Testament shows us that this response should be bold and public! If fear of God and faith in Him is real there is going to be PROFESSION.
Those who truly fear the Lord have faith, depend on Him, and respond rather than rebel. They are those that enter His rest. And let me tell you again, His rest is better than anything we could find on our own:
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.
Joshua was the one who eventually brought the Israelites into the Promised Land. This was a good rest, but it was not the complete rest God has in mind for His people. God’s true rest comes not through Moses, or Joshua, or King David, but through Jesus Christ. Verse 9 says there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. This is pointing to the fact that the promised Land was only a small glimpse, a blurry picture, of the rest that will come. This is talking about the eternal rest in the presence of God that we see in Genesis before the fall. We have already seen that this rest is both eternally glorious and immediately beneficial. This is a glorious rest.
So what do we do with everything that we have gone through this morning?
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
If you understand how glorious the rest is and how transcendently holy the Provider of that rest is, then Strive to enter it! The eternally glorious, immediately beneficial rest there is from God is accessible only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. You will not find it anywhere else.
Understand with joy and reverence that God is worthy to be served. His way is so much better than our way. Submit to Him by repenting of your sins and believing in Him. I’ll say it once more as I have many times before. It really is that simple, but it is not easy. All throughout the New Testament we see people who are presented with the gospel. There are those that are resistant to the message and mock the messengers. But there are many who truly grasp the great salvation and great rest there is from faith in Christ alone. They are told to repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus. From that point on they are encouraged to continue on serving the Lord for His glory and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. They were not given a promise of a comfortable life, but they were given peace through the pain. A good portion of those faithful servants of the Lord were persecuted. But I can tell you this. All those who truly believed in the Lord are going to be in the new heaven and new earth. Dwelling with God and God with them for all eternity. That rest is still made available for those today who will repent and believe. Do you want that rest? Obey the Lord, repent and believe, publically proclaim today. Come now.
Let’s pray.
