The transcendentalist, philosopher, poet, essayist,
and lover of nature, Henry David Thoreau, famously
said, the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
In other words, people are not at rest. But we
live in a world that is obsessed with it. People
talk about needing a break, getting away. unplugging,
taking a vacation, protecting their peace. And
yet for all the ways that people try to find
rest, very few people actually are at rest. Truth
is, you can lay your head down at night and not
be at rest. You could take a week off from work
and not be at rest. You can lay with your feet
in the sand on a beach. be listening to the waves
crashing in and not be at rest. Because real
rest is way more than just physical. It's even
way more than emotional. Real rest is not just
the absence of noise or activity. There is this
deeper kind of rest that human beings are longing
for and looking for whether they know it or not.
What we're going to do this morning as we continue
in the book of Hebrews We have now been led to
this very idea of rest. What is rest? How do
we get it? Can you fake it? And those are all
questions that we're gonna be wrestling with
and dealing with this morning So I will ask you
to turn to Hebrews chapter 4 we're gonna read
the first 13 verses and look at the rest of God
Hebrews 4 verse 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. 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 said, as I swore in my
wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And 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. from all his works. And again, in this
passage, he says, they shall not enter my rest.
Since therefore it remains for some to enter
it, and those who formerly received the good
news failed to enter it because of disobedience.
And 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. 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 spirit, of joints and 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 an account. Amen. Before we talk
about striving for this rest, we need to understand
what this rest actually is that the author is
talking about here in Hebrews. Because the entire
warning of this passage only makes sense if we
understand what is being offered. This rest that
is being offered, the warning makes sense because
we have to, because we understand the rest. And
so the writer of Hebrews is assuming something
about his audience. He's assuming that the audience
knows something about this category of rest.
Okay, he's assuming that the original Jewish
hearers would know that when he uses the word
rest they had categories for this already The
the idea of rest in Hebrews chapter 4 is not
something that is new to the Jewish mind And
what the author is doing here is not a new idea.
He's not going to do something here that the
entirety of the New Testament does not do because
what he's going to do is he's going to take this
old category of rest and he's going to interpret
it for them. He's going to say, listen, the Old
Testament uses this word rest. Our fathers talked
about this word rest. We understand this idea
of rest, but we're not interpreting it properly.
We need to interpret and understand what this
rest really is. What does God actually mean by
rest? And so he's going to do what the New Testament
does, interpret the Old Testament for us. Jesus
does this, by the way. Jesus says in Luke chapter
24 verse 27, It says that beginning with Moses
and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Now the name Yeshua of Nazareth was not used
in the Old Testament, but you know what Jesus
did? Is he took the Old Testament and interpreted
it for them in light of himself. These are what
all of this actually pointed to. He does the
same thing in John chapter 5 verse 39 when he
says you search the scriptures because you think
in them you have eternal life and It is they
that bear witness about me So the Old Testament
scriptures were always pointing to something
greater that's why we use the language of fulfillment
Jesus is the fulfillment of all of this Old Testament
language And of course Jesus says that about
himself. The apostles do the same thing. Paul
in Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 and 17 says
the laws, the festivals, the Sabbaths are all
shadows of the things to come but the substance
belongs to Christ. So the writer of Hebrews is
doing the very same thing. He's taking something
that is in the Old Testament and he is interpreting
it for them in light of Jesus. The rest that
the Old Testament talks about was never ultimate.
It was a shadow. It was a picture. It was preparing
them for something greater. So he takes this
concept of rest and he interprets it for them.
Now, most people, most Jewish people, when they
were to first read this, when the idea of rest
popped up, they would have immediately gone to
the promised land. That would have been the first
place that they went to. The idea of rest. We
enter out of slavery, we've wandered in the wilderness,
God has promised this land to us and we come
into it and now we are at rest. The author knows
this and so that's why he begins talking about
the rest of the promised land. The land flowing
with milk and honey. A place that was promised
to Israel and they were looking forward to this
rest and what they would experience in this rest.
In Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses 9 and 10. while
they're in the wilderness, as they're making
their way toward the promised land, but not yet
there. Here's what is said, for you have not
yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that
the Lord your God is giving you. But when you
go over the Jordan and live in the land, and
when he gives you rest from all of your enemies
around so that you live in safety. So here's
the promise that God gives them. You're gonna
eventually get out of this wilderness, you're
gonna cross over the Jordan, and God is going
to give this land to you and you will experience
rest. We talked about that when we did our Joshua
series. And eventually they do receive this promised
land of Canaan from the Lord. As we read in Joshua
21, 44, it says, the Lord gave them rest on every
side, just as He swore. to their fathers. So
God promised the land, now they're in this land,
and for Israel they would have felt like that
was the end of the story at first. Enemies defeated,
land secured, promise fulfilled, but the author
of Hebrews forces us to ask a question. If the
rest was the promised land, then why does scripture
talk about another rest? If that was it, Then
why does the scriptures talk about another rest?
As we read in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 8, for
if Joshua had given them rest, God would not
have spoken of another day later on. So the rest
cannot be the promised land. The rest cannot
be Canaan. Now some young Jewish theologian may
jump up at that point and raise their hand and
say, oh, I know what it is. It's the Davidic
kingdom. So it wasn't just getting into the promised
land. It was once God set up his chosen king,
then we have this later day rest. It's the Davidic
kingdom. That's the height of Israel as a nation.
Well, the author anticipates that as well. So
we go to David. Because after the conquest, after
the land was settled, after Israel was established,
there was another season that looked like even
more rest than the following one. Speaking of
David, the author of 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse
1 says, when the king lived in his house and
the Lord had given him rest from all of his surrounding
enemies. That language sound familiar? Didn't
we just read that language about the promised
land? Now we're reading it about the Davidic
kingdom. If Canaan looked like rest originally,
then the Davidic kingdom looked like even more
of it. This is the golden age of Israel. This
must be what all the rest is pointing to. This
is it. But again, the Bible does something unexpected
for us. Because David himself writes in Psalm
chapter 95, remember last week when brother James
was quoting Psalm chapter 95? Well, David does
something in Psalm chapter 95 that lets us know
that God is even going further than that. Because
David writes in Psalm 95, today if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts. And God says
again, they shall not enter. my rest. Now I need
you to stop and think about that for a minute.
In the promised land, in the Davidic kingdom,
enemies have been subdued, land has been secured,
Israel is at its peak glory, and David writes,
today don't harden your hearts but enter into
the rest. Now he's not writing that to people
who are in the wilderness. He is not writing
that speaking of people outside of the land.
He is writing Psalm 95 for people who are already
living in this Davidic Kingdom in the Promised
Land. He speaks of entering God's rest as something
that is still open and out there for them to
go get, which means the Davidic Kingdom cannot
fulfill the rest that God was speaking about.
Even at the height of Israel's history, the land
did not exhaust it, the kingdom did not fulfill
it, and the promise of rest was still open. And
the author of Hebrews grabs one word out of that,
and it's the word today. I need you to catch
what the author of Hebrews is doing. He's saying
listen, when David wrote Psalm 95 and he said
today to those people who are living in his kingdom,
today don't harden your heart so you can enter
into the rest. Hebrews grabs the word today and
says it still applies now. That today is still
this today. This is helping us understand what
kind of rest we're talking about today if you
hear his voice. So the author is taking Psalm
95 and he's applying it to this today, the today
that they were living in. I would say we are
to do the same thing. We're still living in the
Christian age. If it was today for the writer
of Hebrews and those that read this, it is today
for us as well. The opportunity of God's rest
is still available. It is not closed. It has
not expired It's still being offered and that's
what he says in Hebrews 4 7 again. He appoints
a certain day today saying through David so long
afterwards in other words long after Joshua long
after the land long after what looked like fulfillment
God was saying Enter into my rest Okay, you get
that so far It's it wasn't the promised land.
It wasn't King David in his kingdom We can't
reduce it to that. It must be something greater
something deeper something that those things
were pointing to all along So to define this
true rest the author is going to take us to the
beginning He goes back to Genesis In Hebrews
4 ,4 he says, for he has somewhere spoken of
the seventh day in this way, and God rested on
the seventh day from all of his works. This is
where now he begins to make the rest clear of
what God meant. Because God's rest was not like
Israel's rest. God was not resting because he
was tired on the seventh day. It's not like God
was like, man, all this creation stuff has worn
me out. Let's take a break. God didn't grow weary.
He didn't need to recover. He wasn't exhausted.
You know what it was about? Completion. Genesis
2 .2 says, on the seventh day, God finished his
work that he had done and he rested on the seventh
day from all of his work that he had done. Notice
the connection. He finished, he rested. This
is the rest of finished work. This is the rest
of satisfaction. This is the rest of everything
being as it should be. And there's something
very important I need you to understand about
the seventh day. In Genesis chapter 1, when God
creates, He always at the end of that day, at
the end of that yom, He always says, and the
evening and the morning were the first day. He
puts a completion on the day, an ending phrase
on every single day. You know what you don't
have on day seven? Evening and morning. That's
very important theologically. God did whatever
He did on day one. evening and morning end, day
two end, day three end, day four end, day five
end, day six end, day seven, no end. Why is the
author of Hebrews bringing up rest and day seven?
Because he's letting us know the rest of God
is not just something that God did, it is something
he's inviting humanity into. The seventh day
is open. God is perpetually in His seventh day.
No ending formula, no closing statement. God's
rest did not stop. It continued. It's an ongoing
reality. And that is exactly why the writer of
Hebrews is taking us back to Genesis chapter
2. Because if God's rest is still ongoing, then
it's something that can be inserted into. And
now the writer of Hebrews is going to connect
us to that. Verse 10 of Hebrews four, for whoever
has entered God's rest has also rested from his
works as God did from his. So God stops his work,
completes it, fulfills it, satisfies seventh
day, open -ended. Here comes human history and
God says, enter into my rest. Enter into being
satisfied, enter into being fulfilled, enter
into being complete, but you don't do it by working
your way in. This is the key. It means the rest
of God means that we stop trying to justify ourselves
before Him. It means that we stop trying to earn
our way. into God's rest. It means we stop trying
to work for our righteousness and we begin resting
in a righteousness that can only be given to
us. You know the first person we read about this
explicitly being said about was Abraham. Abraham
believed God and it was credited to him as a
righteousness. I would argue that what we're
learning in Hebrews four is that Abraham believed
God and entered into God's rest. Abraham experienced
that rest. Whether he was in the promised land
or not, he entered into this rest. He was credited
to him as righteousness. That's why Romans four,
five says, to the one who does not work, but
believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, His
faith is counted as righteousness. That is rest.
Rest is when a human being doesn't come to God
and say, let me tell you why I should be justified
before you. Let me tell you while I'm righteous.
Let me tell you why I'm good. Let me tell you
why I deserve to come to heaven and be in relationship
with you. You will never have rest that way.
Why? Because you're always trying to measure
up. You're always trying to earn it and do it
and work it and God says that is not my rest.
It is trusting instead of striving. It is believing
instead of earning. And guess what? All of this
finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. All of
it. Because he is the one who the finished work
is all about. Remember what Jesus said on the
cross? It is Finished. The way into this rest
is done. He accomplished everything necessary
for our salvation. He lived a life we could not
live. He died a death we deserve to die. And
he rose again in victory. And now he offers God's
rest to us, not by us adding work to his work,
but by us trusting in his work. That's why Jesus
says, Matthew 11 28, come to me, all you who
labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest. Not a break, salvation. He is inviting
us into the rest of God. Dennis Johnson writes,
the rest of God is an uninterrupted, unthreatened
communion with God himself. So now we can finally
say what this rest is. It's not Canaan. It's
not the Davidic kingdom. It's not external peace.
It is entering in to the rest of God through
the finished work of Christ. It is being reconciled
to God. It is resting in a righteousness that
is not your own, but that is given to you. And
it is this ongoing, unbroken relationship with
God. But there's one more element we need to
see here. Because the author doesn't just stop.
with the definition of it's being justified before
God. This is what theologians call realized eschatology.
I like to say it better like this, already, but
not yet. That's another way that it gets explained.
It's already, but not yet. In one sense, The
rest that God offers is something that Christians
have already entered into. Amen? You are justified
before God right now, by faith. By faith, you
have been made righteous before God. You are
right with God, by faith. That is something that
we are in right now. You've trusted Christ, you've
stopped trying to earn your way, you've stopped
trying to work your way, and you rest in the
finished work of God. You're already in the rest.
However, That present rest is not all of the
rest Because at the same time that we are at
rest we have not experienced the fullness of
the rest We still live in a fallen world. Don't
we? We still struggle with sin. We still Deal
with the effects of the curse. We still suffer
and we still die So we are already experiencing
the rest of God and the same time we're wanting
the fulfillment of all that rest. That's why
Hebrews chapter four, verse nine says, so then
there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of
God. You're at rest by faith, but there still
remains a Sabbath rest that is coming as well.
So you got it and you're gonna get it. That's
why we talk about salvation as being something
that did happen, something that's happening,
and something that will happen. You entered into
the rest of God the moment that he brought you
into new life and by faith you entered in you
are you are in it right now and Experiencing
that rest and you are waiting for the day that
you will experience that rest in its fullness
This is still something that is ahead something
some kind of greater rest that we're waiting
for and this rest is not just spiritual You see
when this is why we talk about new heavens and
new earth around here And let me clarify a couple
things real quick about new heavens and new earth.
This is in the notes, but I feel like I need
to clarify this. When the language of new heavens
and new earth is used in the New Testament, they
are quoting from Isaiah, okay? Isaiah uses the
language of new heavens and new earth. Often
in the New Testament, they just say new heaven
and new earth. And what some people think is
that means the heaven where God is is gonna be
made new. That is not what that means. It is
not God saying, I'm going to make where I'm at
new. It's talking about the literal heavens.
Okay? The atmosphere that we're in, outer space,
the cosmos, all of the heavens and this earth
are gonna be made new. Does that make sense?
God doesn't need to make the present heaven where
he is at right now new. We're gonna fix this
first. That doesn't make any sense, okay? He's
talking about the heavens. So when we say new
heaven and new earth, that's what we mean, okay?
The cosmos, the universe, the creation. And a
lot of people do not understand this idea of
new heavens and new earth. Because a lot of people,
praise God, not around here, but a lot of people
in a lot of churches don't talk about the new
heaven and new earth. They just talk about the
present heaven. When you die, you go to the present
heaven. When you die, you go to the present heaven.
And is that wonderful? Of course. To be absent
from the body is to be present to the Lord. Paul
said, I'd rather be with the Lord. But then Paul
says, but I don't want to be naked. You know
what he means by that? I don't want to be without
a body. Everyone that has died up to this point,
that is in the present heaven, does not have
a resurrected body yet. I cannot tell you how
many funerals I've been to, where, praise God,
Brother James hasn't said this, or I haven't
said this, but where I've heard the minister
say that they're up in heaven with their new
body, and I'm like, no, they're not. There's
the dead body right there, and that body's gonna
get resurrected. They don't have a new one yet.
And the reason why that all works its way in
is because we got this idea, by the way, from
Plato, philosopher Plato, this is where all this
comes from, and it's worked its way into Christianity,
the idea that all of this flesh earth stuff is
bad and wrong and we need to get out of here
to the spiritual plane. That's Platonism. Plato
made that up. That's not, that's not. Christian
doctrine. When we die, we do go to the present
heaven. But the rest that is coming for us is
not just a spiritual rest. It is a physical manifestation
of the rest. That's why in the book of Revelation,
it says, behold, the dwelling place of God is
with man. Where? On the new earth. Behold I saw
a new heaven and a new earth and the dwelling
place of God is with man why because God Unites
in all of its fullness heaven and earth back
together again When God made everything at the
beginning heaven and earth were united sin caused
a a rip and a separation of heaven and earth
Guess what Jesus did when he came back He brought
him back together. He was heaven on earth 100
% God, 100 % man. We call it the hypostatic union,
the connection between God and man in one person.
But we haven't experienced the fullness of that
yet. That was the beginning. What we're experiencing
is the beginning. What is going to happen is
Jesus is going to come back. He's going to make
his dwelling with human beings on the new earth,
and we will experience the kind of rest that
Hebrews chapter four is saying, or Hebrews chapter
four verse nine is saying is coming for the people
of God. This is only the beginning. This is just
the taste of the Sabbath rest that is coming.
What we're experiencing now is kind of like a
down payment, a promise of the ultimate that
one day we will not just rest by faith, we will
rest by sight. We will dwell with God forever
and we will finally experience the fullness of
the rest that God has been offering from the
very beginning. As John Owen writes, believers
enter into God's rest by faith in Christ and
yet there remains a fuller eternal rest to come
in the enjoyment of God forever. Amen? That's
point one. We have two more. So, but that's what
you got to do first, right? Before you can get
to the urgency of God's rest, which is the second
point, but before you get into the second and
third point here, we have to define what is the
rest of God? What is it the writer of Hebrews
believes about the rest of God? Now he can talk
about the urgency of this rest, the weight of
why we can't miss this. That's why he says in
verse one, 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.
In light of this rest, in light of what is at
stake, let us fear. Not panic, not despair, but
a serious sober awareness. that it is possible
to miss this. You don't enter this rest just
because you're a human being. As Hebrews chapter
4 verse 2 says, for good news came to us just
like it did to them in the Old Testament, but
the message they heard did not benefit them.
Why? Because they were not united by faith. That
is the issue. Same message, same promise, same
opportunity, two completely different outcomes.
They hear, but they do not enter in. They were
exposed to truth, but they did not receive it
by faith. And that tells us something very important
for us today. Hearing the gospel is not the same
as believing the gospel. Being proud of the things
of God is not the same as belonging to God. Using
religious language is not the same as having
a relationship with Jesus. Proximity to truth
is not the same as possessing the truth. And
you can sit in church every week, you can hear
every single great sermon by everybody that's
ever preached it, you can know all of the language,
you can understand all of the concepts and still
not enter the rest of God. That is the urgency
here. The author knows this and he says, let
us fear lest we should miss this. This is too
important to miss. There isn't just the danger
of rejection, there's a danger of self -deception.
Oh, I'm good. I go to church. Hey, do you know
Jesus? Yeah, I go to this church. Hey, do you
believe the gospel? Yeah, I do this thing. He
says, lest any of you should seem to have failed
to reach it, you can appear to be on your way
and never actually arrive. You can look like
you belong and not truly be his. This is why
this passage calls us to fear and then verse
11, to thrive, to strive. Look at it, verse 11,
let us therefore strive to enter this rest. The
word strive here, it's a strong word. It means
with every effort. It means to press in. It means
to pursue with urgency. It is a striving to enter
the rest. It is the kind of striving that refuses
to drift. It is the kind of striving that refuses
to settle for appearances. It is the kind of
striving that says I will not just be content
with hearing, I must believe. And that brings
us. to making sure we define faith properly.
If the writer of Hebrews is going to say, listen,
the way into this rest is faith, it's belief,
then we better understand what faith and belief
means. Because I'm convinced the reason why this
is so dangerous is because people can say they
believe and have no clue what actual biblical
faith is. Because to our ears, the natural man
goes, wait a minute, I believe and I enter the
rest and yet I'm supposed to strive for the rest?
That doesn't make sense. It does if you understand
the definition of faith. If you understand what
real faith is, you have no problem with the language
of, by faith we enter into the rest, now strive
for the rest. Biblical faith says both of those
things. You're like, what, how? Listen, this
is why it is so important that we understand
this definition. We strive to enter into this
rest, but it's not the kind of faith, but it's
the kind of faith that holds fast. It is the
kind of faith that transforms. It's the kind
of faith that enters in and not. not the kind
of faith that just says, I believe this thing
mentally. I agree this thing is true. I'm accepting
the concepts as if they are real. But then there's
actual no transformation, no pursuit. See, biblical
faith is this thing that is given to us by the
grace of God, whereby we never stop going after
God. And if somebody comes to the place where
they say, listen, I'm not into this Christian
stuff anymore, then you never have biblical faith
to begin with. Because biblical faith never stops
striving. It never stops going. Real faith lays
hold of Christ. Real faith rests in Christ. And
once it does, it never lets go. That's why James
says, this is a passage that confuses people
so often, because they don't understand the definition
of faith. People say, or they read James 2 .17,
faith by itself, if it does not have works, is
dead. Guess what that means? If you say you have
biblical faith, but you do not pursue Jesus with
everything that you have, not perfectly, but
it's the deepest desire and so you're going after
Jesus, then that's not biblical faith. There
is salvific faith and there's these false professions
of faith that people have where they just say,
I believe, but then they don't pursue Jesus.
Real faith makes you pursue Jesus. You have to
because it transforms your will and your mind
and it changes everything about you and so you
go after Jesus. This is what Paul means when
he begins talking about faith moving and faith
enduring and faith pressing Philippians 3 12
I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ
has made me his own Paul doesn't see the contradiction
there Paul says if Christ has brought me into
the rest then guess what I go after the rest
of my life rest Because I know where it's found
I know what it looks like to lay hold of the
rest, to strive for the rest, to go after the
rest. I press on. That's the Christian life.
You're not striving to be accepted. You're striving
now because you are accepted. You do not pursue
Christ to earn him, but once he is freely given
himself to you, then you pursue Christ to grab
ahold of him. Years and years and years ago,
I did a series on Wednesday night called Thirsty,
and I talked about the paradox of thirst. Jesus
says, come and drink, right? Come and drink,
come and eat. We talked about that on Easter
Sunday morning. Come and drink and come and eat.
So we come and we're thirsty and we drink the
river of the spring of life. We drink it and
we take it in and guess what that spring of life
makes us the rest of our life? Thirsty for more
in all of it. We don't drink it and go, okay,
I'm done with this. I got it. Thanks Jesus. It
makes us desperate to drink more. Once we enter
into the rest, then we're desperate for more
of that rest. I want it spiritually. I want it
in my day -to -day life. I'm longing and pursuing
for the day that Jesus brings it all in its fullness,
and I go after it with everything I am trying
to take hold of it. This is what theologians
call the perseverance of the saint. We persevere
to the end. We do not drift away permanently.
We do not remain unchanged. We do not stay indifferent.
We persevere. Not perfectly, not without struggle,
not without weakness, but we keep going. You
may be so in the mud that you feel like you're
not moving. But you know what God calls us to?
Just reach an inch further. And you're like,
right now that's all I got. Okay. Okay. God's
excited that that one inch took place. You keep
going. And you keep going. And you keep going.
And eventually, at some point, you're gonna get
out of the mud. And maybe with your death. You're
like, man, the last 30 years of my life, I look
like I barely moved. I just sludged around in
the mud forever and I could barely. And God says,
yeah. But that faith I put in you wouldn't let
you sit there, would it? Yeah, you didn't feel
like you moved very far. Well done, my good and
faithful servant. Now come enter into the fullness
of this rest. This passage says both, we who
have believed enter the rest and let us strive
to enter the rest. Faith does both. It rests
and it presses on, it receives and it pursues.
John Calvin, one of his most famous quotes, he
says this, It is faith alone that justifies,
but the faith which justifies is never alone.
Now we come to the sobering reality of this text.
The exposure of false rest. You cannot fake this
kind of faith. You can't fake it. After calling
us to fear, after calling us to strive, after
showing us what the real faith is and how we
enter in, the author reminds us of something
that we cannot escape. God sees everything. Hebrews
412, it says, for the word of God is living and
active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing
to the division of soul and spirit, joint and
marrow. This is not a dead word. This is not
a distant word. It is a living word. It is an
active word. It does not just inform you, it
examines you. It doesn't just speak to you, it
searches you. It pierces you deeper than anything
else can to the division of soul and spirit of
joints and marrow. In other words, there is no
place in you that God does not search and seek
and look and see. And He discerns the thoughts
and the intentions of the heart. Not just what
you do. but the motivation for why you do it.
Not just your actions, but why you do what you
do. And that is what makes this so serious, because
it is possible to fool people, isn't it? It is
possible to come to church, do all the religious
stuff, and fool everybody. Maybe even fool yourself.
To act like a Christian, to talk like a Christian,
but you cannot fool God. Verse 13 even presses
this forward. No creature is hidden from his
sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes
of him who they must give an account. No pretense
here, no pretending here, naked and exposed before
God. Most theologians agree this is courtroom
language. It means fully seen, fully known, fully
revealed, one day you're gonna stand before God
and it will not matter what you appear to be.
It will matter what you really were. And he's
gonna know it. A .W. Pink wrote, God knows us
as we truly are, not as we appear to others or
even to ourselves. So do we have true faith in
Christ? Have we entered into that rest or have
we just been around it? Have we just been exposed
to that kind of rest? Maybe the language of rest?
Maybe the language of the gospel? Maybe the language
of satisfaction? Or have you actually entered
in? And this is why this passage presses us the
way that it does at the very end, because it's
not about religious activity. It's not about
outward appearance. It is about real faith, real
rest, and real salvation. And the Word of God
exposes the difference. God's judgment will expose
the difference. This is a heavy passage. Like
it starts off, we're like, yes, enter into the
rest. I love this is rest and it's the rest of
God and satisfaction and completion. And then
it's like, yeah, and be fearful and strive for
it because it's very possible that you don't
get it. Because you've never actually had real
faith. And you could fake everybody else, but
you can't fake out God. And also in the end of
this little section here, you go, whoa. And it's
meant to be heavy. It's meant to be very weighty.
But I want to end this way. The rest of God is
open right now. And I'm convinced the author
wants you to feel the weight so that he causes
you to do something with this. He's not just
trying, it's not a scare tactic. This is getting
down to the real of it and demanding that you
deal with it. Do something with this. You can't
just read this and walk away, not different.
He's demanding you do something with this because
the rest of God is open. The invitation still
stands. And the question isn't whether or not
the rest is available. The question is, Are you
going to put your faith and your life into the
hands of Christ by faith and enter into that
rest? Have you entered it? Do you want to enter
it? Are you willing to enter it? He's never going
to turn anybody away. He's never going to stand
there and go, my rest is available. Oh, but not
you. Oh, no. You've done too much. You've gone
too far. You're 95 years old, not you. Come to
me all who are weary, heavy laden, those who
labor, those who have worked, those who have
gotten to the place where they're like, I can't,
I'm so done with myself. God goes, yeah, that's
right where I need you. Now come into my rest.
And those of us that call ourselves Christians,
we have to treat each other like Christians.
based on our profession. Right? You have no clue
whether I'm a Christian or not. I could have
fooled all of you for all these years. You don't
know. God's the only one that really knows. You're
going by my profession. Okay? Because there may
have been some times that you looked at my life
and gone, well, that dude ain't a Christian.
Look at those things he's doing. Just like the
man that had a heart like God's or was a man
after God's own heart. Just depend on when you
looked at his life, whether or not he was a man
after God's own heart, right? You're like, you
know that whole murder and sexual abuse thing
and everything that went down? I don't think
that's someone after God's own heart. So only
God really knows. And so you get passages like
this that say, guess what? Keep going. Keep pursuing
Keep going after it keep striving One day it's
all gonna be worth it because one day Jesus is
gonna come back and This rest that we've we've
gotten a little foretaste of Those these moments
in life where we can time where we kind of just
go I'm just resting in God right now for a moment
and then our flesh gets in the way and we start
trying to like take control of stuff again and
we, you know, start messing things up, right?
We all do this. But there are these moments where
like, okay, right, I'm resting right there. Those
moments are a taste of the infinite meal that's
coming. And so we don't quit until the day he
comes back. If you got a real faith, we keep
going. and I'm gonna go, and you're gonna go,
and I'm not gonna have a clue whether or not
this is real, because you may quit next year.
And then I went, oh, well, thought you were running
with me. But those of us that will persevere
to the end, that will be the demonstration of
a real faith that we've put in Christ. And if
you're here today, and maybe you've been around
the religious stuff, Maybe you can talk the talk,
you can walk the walk, you can say all the words,
you get the concepts and principles, and you
get it all, but you're like, I have never truly
taken my life and entered into the rest of God
by faith through Jesus Christ. The rest of God
is open today. Do not harden your hearts. Do
not harden your hearts.