The Rest Of God

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

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

the first 13 verses and look at the rest of God

Hebrews 4 verse 1, therefore, while the promise

Hebrews 4:1

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

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

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

Luke 24:27

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

John 5:39

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

Colossians 2:16

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

Deuteronomy 12:9

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

Hebrews 4:8

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

2 Samuel 7:1

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

Psalms 95 · chapter mention

chapter 95, remember last week when brother James

was quoting Psalm chapter 95? Well, David does

Psalms 95 · chapter mention

something in Psalm chapter 95 that lets us know

Psalms 95 · chapter mention

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

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

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

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

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

Hebrews 4:2

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.