"Entering God's Rest" - Hebrews 4:1-11

And after talking to a lot of you guys this morning and through the week,

it sounds like a lot of people had a long week, me included.

I don't know what it is that some weeks or more than others you can walk in

and everyone just a little more tired.

Just a little more kind of, man, this was a long week as somebody yawns in the back.

I love you. I love you. And as I was studying this passage this week,

it's one of those passages that you read and you think, okay,

like, I think I have a pretty good handle on how this is going to go.

I got a good layout of how I want this to be put together.

And then you go back and read it again and you go, you know,

I don't actually think that's what that means.

I don't actually think that's what that is. And I have found myself as I study

Hebrews doing that a lot, I say this as partly as a way of encouragement is Hebrews is a hard book.

It's a hard book to read at times. It's a hard book to study.

It's dense and it's pulling from the Old Testament a lot. It's pulling from

a lot of different places.

And part of why I wanted to do Hebrews is to say to you, hey,

number one, you can do this.

I think a lot of people are intimidated by their Bibles. And so they lean on

devotionals and they lean on YouTube videos because they're just not real sure what their Bible is.

And they get nervous about getting it wrong.

I'm not opposed to either of devotionals or good YouTube videos or good podcast.

But I want you to know that when you read your Bibles, if you get to a place

where you go, man, that does not make sense to me.

I'm not exactly sure why he said it that way or what he's trying to get me to

see. That's not the worst thing in the world.

It's not. If you've ever done anything and you've been around somebody that

knows something better than you, like you had a job and you're being trained

by somebody that's just a little smarter than you. They've been doing it a long time.

It can be intimidating when they do something and you look at that and go,

I will never, ever be able to do what you're doing.

I remember the first time I saw somebody hang and cut sheetrock when I was 15.

And I thought that would have taken me 19 hours to do what this guy's doing.

And this guy's 56 years old. He's got a bad back. He's smoking two packs of

cigarettes and he knocked it out in 15 minutes.

And I'm thinking, how in the world do you get to this place?

And the truth is you get there by just repetition, by staying in the word,

by reading and by studying.

In the same way, I used to read my Bible and be overwhelmed at times.

And now I get to a passage like this and I think the first thing I need to do

is just pray and ask for wisdom.

And the second thing is just stay at it. Just stay at it. Just read your Bible, study your Bibles.

I promise you it's like getting to know anything else.

There will be times where you feel like it is a pointless endeavor and you're

not learning anything and you're not getting in and it's not making sense.

And then a year later or two years later, you'll realize, oh,

God's been working on me the whole time.

I'm a different person because of my Bible. I'm a different person because of God's word.

So again, I say that as an intro to say, if you've had a hard time reading through

Hebrews at times, you're in good company.

I think it's a tough book at times. And so this morning, as we get into chapter

four, I wanted to give you that and again, say that this is a continuous thought from chapter three.

This is not a natural chapter break.

He's really continuing his thought from chapter three. He's going to finish that thought.

Next week, once we get to verse 12, we're going to get to a verse that a lot

of us know, The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It's living and active.

We've heard that verse before, but he wants to finish this argument he's making.

And he's gonna do it by again, saying that we should fear something.

Anytime you see the Bible tell you, you should fear something,

your ears should perk up because it oftentimes tells you that you should fear nothing.

That if you know who God is, that there's nothing you should fear.

And there's certainly some truth to that.

But remember, the whole book of Hebrews is written to wake people up.

He's writing to a group of Jewish believers who have been lulled to sleep by

comparing Jesus to angels and Moses and making him a better high priest or a

different high priest or trying to fit Jesus into their lives as they know it.

And the writer of Hebrews writes them to say, if you do that,

if you try and just make Jesus is a part of the life that you want to live.

If you try and fit Jesus into your own world, you will miss him.

And as he said in chapter three over and over again, you will be like the Israelites

in the wilderness who, even though they knew who God was and they saw God move

and they saw God do miracles and he was merciful and kind to them,

they will not find rest because they do not trust him because they try and make

God like every other God.

They try and fit God into their own mind and their own lives,

and it doesn't work that way. So it is with Jesus Christ.

So let me just read 4, 1 through 10. Therefore, so again, because of what we

just said, in fact, let me just start in verse 19 of chapter 3 so we can catch this therefore.

It says, so we see that they were unable to enter the promised land because of unbelief.

So because of that, 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 has said, as I swore my wrath,

they shall not enter my rest, quoting Psalm 95 again.

Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Let's just stop there. That's a lot. That's a lot.

So the first thing that you're going to see is let us fear.

Again, not usually a Christian message, if you were driving by a church and

it said, this week we're talking about how to be fearful, you would read that

and think, that's not the Christianity that I'm used to seeing, right?

I remember doing a D now, a disciple now, that the whole theme was fearless.

It had a line on it because we were cool.

The whole idea is that we're not supposed to have fear.

And yet he begins in verse 1 by saying, let us fear, lest any of you should

seem to have failed to reach it.

So it sounds like you should live your life fearful that you won't reach the

promised land, that you won't reach God's rest, that heaven is not going to be for you.

That's the conclusion he's drawing.

Verse 2 drives this home with an example. He quotes, again, the example he's

used in chapter 3 and verse 19.

In verse 19, he applies it to the Israelites. This is why they didn't enter

God's rest. In verse 2 of chapter 4, he applies it to us.

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.

In other words, they heard good news, just like we've heard good news.

And that didn't mean that they automatically got in to God's rest.

They didn't automatically receive the promised land.

Now, again, I want to encourage you to think when you read Hebrews,

and this will help you when it gets tough, is what's the point?

What's he trying to do? What's he trying to accomplish?

When you read verses like, let us fear, or hey, you've heard good news,

they heard good news, and it didn't do anything for them. What's he trying to do?

I think what he's really fighting here is a carelessness that we tend to have with Christ.

They have a carelessness about Jesus. They think Jesus is just another good

guy, another Moses, another Abraham, another angel, another high priest.

And the writer of Hebrews' point for the whole book is, no, Jesus is better than that.

He deserves your attention every day. He deserves your eyeballs every single day.

You deserve to be listening to him and seeing him.

He deserves that. He's fighting this carelessness.

And so he uses these examples to try and wake his readers up,

to try and get them to see you are valuing Christ far too little, far too little.

This verse asks a good question. He says, good news came to them just as it came to us.

And I don't know about you, but I don't remember a Red Sea crossing in my life.

I don't remember God coming down from Mount Sinai, right?

And I certainly read the Old Testament plenty of times, and I don't remember

the good news coming to them the same way it comes to me.

John 3.16 is a New Testament verse, right? It's not an Old Testament verse.

So how did they have the good news just like we did? Maybe you've heard this distinction.

Maybe you've heard the, well, God is the Old Testament God and the New Testament

God. He's mean in the Old Testament, but he's grace in the New Testament.

Maybe you've heard that God interacts with people in different ways at different times.

I think that's false. And I want to show you that.

Listen to what God says in Exodus 34, right in the middle of him giving the law.

This is Exodus 34, 6-7, The Lord proclaimed his name,

the Lord, the Lord, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,

abounding in loving kindness and faithfulness, who keeps loving kindness for

thousands, who forgives iniquity and transgression and sin.

That's the good news that they received. And that's the good news that you received.

Certainly the message that we hear is more complete. We have a full picture

of who Jesus was. We know what Jesus came to accomplish.

But that is the gospel, that God is gracious and kind, that he is loving,

that he forgives sin and iniquity, that he will do those things.

Certainly, Jesus came to secure the gospel, but the promise was always true.

The message from God was always consistent. He loves in the Old Testament the

same way that he loves in the New.

We have an aversion to laws and we have an aversion to God telling us what to

do because we're convinced that all he really cares about is being merciful and kind.

So when we hear law and when we hear commandments, we tend to push back on that

and go, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, God just loves me.

And so when we hear a command like we do in Hebrews 4, fear lest you miss this,

our reaction to that is to go, well, that can't mean what it actually means.

God can't be telling me to actually be fearful of something because God would never do that.

We sound a lot like the Israelites when they look at God's law and go,

well, I know God said this in his word, but that really can't mean what it means.

There's no way God would actually mean that.

But no, the gospel came to them. The good news came to them.

And what was their response? We see their response in this scene from Numbers

13 and 14, where Moses sends out the spies, right?

We've talked about this children's song, 10 were bad and two were good.

In case you didn't know that song, you just learned the chorus.

10 were bad and two were good. The two that were good were Caleb and Joshua.

And they come back to the people after they go spy on the land and 10 of the

spies are going, well, we can't defeat those people because they're tall and

they're big and we're not.

And remember, they've seen God deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians,

the most powerful nation in the world.

They've seen him give the Egyptians plague after plague so that he can deliver them.

They've experienced him in Mount Sinai. They've experienced his mercy and grace at Mount Sinai.

They made a false God and God still is bringing them to the promised land like he promised he would.

They've seen all those things. They've experienced all those things.

And yet when it comes time for them to trust the Lord, what is their response?

Well, first, Caleb and Joshua are going to tell them in Numbers 14,

do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear, here's that word,

do not fear the people of the land.

For they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them.

I hope you hear the theme of God's sovereignty in here.

Their protection is removed. In other words, God has been protecting these people.

He's been letting these people come to power and raise themselves up for one

reason, so that he would be able to show his goodness and grace towards his

people by conquering these people.

By saying, I'm going to protect these pagan evil nations.

I'm going to allow them to do what they're doing so that when the time comes,

I'm going to show how good and gracious I am.

I'm going to bring these slaves out of Egypt and have them conquer the most

powerful nations in the world.

Why? Because I promised to them that I would.

He removed, Caleb says, they removed the protection from them and the Lord is with us.

Do not fear them.

This is what exhortation looks like again. This is what it looks like when somebody's

facing a challenge to look them in the eye and say, has God not told you?

This is what Caleb and Joshua are doing. God told us he would do this.

He promised us he would give us this land. Why are you so scared of these people?

Because they're tall and big.

Has not God given us the promise that we'll enter this rest if we trust him?

And of course, the people look at them and go, you know what?

You're right. we were wrong, right?

Isn't that how people respond to you when you try to give them exhortation at times?

Isn't that how you respond to exhortation when you're down in the dumps and

you're scared and someone goes, why don't you just trust in the Lord?

Like God's gonna come through for you. He's promised to do that.

Your response is always, you're right. I just need to trust the Lord.

No, your response is, my response is probably more like the people in Numbers

14, 10, the very next verse, then all the congregation said to stone them with stones.

Awesome. Part of that's encouragement to you, because if you try to exhort one

another, just know that's coming.

If you're going to exhort someone, they're going to be like,

you know what would be better if you were dead?

Because I'm so tired of you telling me to trust the Lord and to press on.

Listen, they had the promised word from God, but they had no faith and they failed to enter.

The writer of Hebrews says, there's a healthy fear.

Don't fear big, strong giants, right? Don't fear death. Don't fear sickness.

Don't fear what anyone can do to you. Don't fear what somebody can hurt you with.

But there is a healthy fear to say, fear what happened to them happening to you.

That no matter how good God has been to you, no matter how gracious God has

been to you, no matter how long you've known him, no matter how long you've

been around him, that when it comes time for you to trust him,

you say, can't do it. Can't trust you.

Can't trust your word. Can't trust your promises. Can't trust you to come through

like you said you would. I can't do it.

That's the warning in Hebrews.

That's a good thing to fear. He doubles down in Hebrews 4.11 as he finishes

this passage and he says, let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that

no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Remember, these Israelites had already sinned. They had already built a false God.

They had already complained. They had already not trusted God.

And yet he was continuing to be faithful to them and gracious to them and merciful to them.

And the disobedience that they fell to was not just a sin. It was unbelief,

was that they didn't trust the Lord.

Again, this would be a tough place to leave us. You better be scared.

Be fearful that you might not make the promised land. Let's pray.

I just want you to leave here and be scared all week that you're not gonna make

it. Is that encouraging? I hope so.

But I want to remind you, why is the book written? The book is written,

Hebrews is written, to draw people out of a faith that is half-hearted and divided.

That's the whole point of this book, is to make Jesus look bigger and bigger

and bigger and better and better and better so that these Hebrews,

first and foremost, and secondarily, you and me as we hear this word would wake

up out of a funk that says, I'm just not that excited about Christ.

I don't really care that he's there. I'm glad I'm going to heaven,

but the rest of this just doesn't matter to me. He's trying to wake them up out of that.

We're only four chapters into Hebrews. Listen to some of these verses in Hebrews

2, 1, pay attention to what you have heard.

2, 3, don't neglect your great salvation.

Chapter 3, verse 1, consider Jesus.

Chapter 3, verse 8, do not harden your hearts. Chapter 3, verse 12,

take care against an unbelieving heart.

Chapter 3, verse 14, exhort one another every day.

Chapter 4, verse 1, fear unbelief. Over and over and over again,

four chapters in, the writer of Hebrews is saying.

Don't think that you are immune to unbelief because you are something special,

because you've prayed a prayer, because you grew up in church,

because you live in East Texas, because you have a cross necklace,

whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

I used to wear WWJD bracelets and think that Satan could not ever do anything

to me because who could touch me with this rubber bracelet on?

I'm not opposed to them. If you're wearing one, I'm not a big fan, okay?

What I'm saying is there's no superstition. There's no one thing you can do

that makes you immune to this kind of thinking.

And the writer of Hebrews knows that. And he is again and again and again saying,

listen, pay attention to yourself.

Look out for this kind of unbelief in your life. It creeps up on you.

You don't see it coming until you stand on the precipice of the promised land.

And God says, trust me. And you say, I can't do it.

The enemy's too great. I'm too scared.

Again, we have this idea that Christianity is like a vending machine that once

we put our coins in and we type in the right code, it spits out what we want.

And once it spits it out, it's ours.

And Hebrews is trying to fight that to say, listen, Christianity is a daily

walking with and growing with and coming to know the God of the universe through

the person and work of his Son and the power of His Spirit, that is Christianity.

Not you doing something so that you get something out of Him,

but you learning to trust Him more and more and only fearing one thing that

you would come to unbelief.

And so you would say, so should we just constantly being afraid?

Are we just always supposed to be afraid that we're going to fall away?

I would say not at all. Not at all. You're not supposed to live in constant

fear of losing the salvation that you didn't do anything to earn.

He says as much in chapters 2, verse 15.

It says that Jesus came and came to deliver all those who through fear of death

were subject to lifelong slavery.

No, in fact, your life should be fearless.

You shouldn't fear anything that life has to throw at you.

Again, death and disease and destruction and bank accounts, crazy people,

crazy things, loneliness, depression, all these things that are real, losing friends.

The Bible says don't fear those things. Those things have no ability to keep

you out of the rest of God.

Those things have no ability to take your peace away from you,

but there is something that does, and you should fear that and that is unbelief.

This is like a father warning his kids, don't go running through the parking lot.

It's an amazing thing when you

have kids and you realize that they can be sick and tired and mad at you.

But the second you get into a parking lot, they become Olympic sprinters,

right? I don't know what it is. I don't know what happens.

But the second their feet hit the ground in the parking lot, dude, they are gone.

They're taken off. And so you spend half the time trying to warn them first,

maybe nicely. Hey, buddy, don't run in the parking lot.

You know, you can get hurt, you can trip out here. And then when that doesn't

work, what do you resort to? Do you see that car?

Did you see that car? Right. And then you hit him with a full Nelson and go,

that car is going to run you over and squash your head and you will be dead on the ground.

It will kill you. If that car hits you, it's going to kill you.

Now, does that warning ruin their whole life? No, no, it saves them.

You hope, right? We're going into this store probably to get you something,

groceries, food, diapers.

I don't know what we're getting, but chances are we're doing this for you.

We're at Walmart at 930 to get a poster board that you've read to tell me about. We're here for you.

But if you take off running through this parking lot, you might get killed.

It can kill you if you aren't careful.

Again, that is not a warning that's meant to ruin your whole life.

It's a warning that's meant to save your life.

In the same way, that's what this warning is.

That when you begin to see in your life unbelief, when you begin to see in your life sin,

rule, and reign, when you begin to see in your life that you just don't really

care a whole lot about Jesus and the Bible and the Holy Spirit and doing what

God's called you to do, when you begin to see God's commands as burdensome and thinking,

why would he ask me to live that way and talk that way and do those things?

Why do I need to do that? When you feel that, you should hear this warning in

your head, like a child hearing the warning of the parking lot,

careful, there's death on the other side of that.

There is no rest, right? That's the warning. There is no rest if you have unbelief.

When you feel that way, that's what the exhortation is for.

That's what the warning is for to remind you, okay, I need to get this figured out.

If I do nothing else in my life, I need to figure out why I don't believe and trust the Lord.

I need to find friends. I need to find church. I need to find my Bible.

I need to be praying. I need to figure out why I don't trust the Lord.

And I need to do everything I can to rectify that, right? Because God has promised

if you seek Him with your whole heart, you'll find Him.

And if you're seeking Him to make sure that you find rest, you'll find Him.

But again, the issue is with so many people that no doubt each and every one

of us know, there's just a carelessness that sets in.

I've been there for sure. You just get in a rut. You think, I know how to do this.

I know how to study my Bible. I know how to tell people what they want to hear.

I can make a lesson plan. I can do those things.

I can sound smarter than I am. I can study. I can throw out some Greek words.

I just kind of get in this flow of here's what I'm supposed to do.

Here's how I'm supposed to do it.

And there's certainly times where I've woke up and been like,

you know, I don't really think anything in my life is causing me to trust the Lord.

I think I have an education. I think I'm decently smart guy.

I think I've figured some things out, but nothing I'm doing in my life is causing

me to actually trust the Lord.

And without a doubt, anytime that happens and I pray, there's a friend,

there's a verse, there's a passage, there's a prayer that comes along where

God brings me back and says, yeah, you need to believe.

He closes this passage by walking us through, recapping the history of Israel

and why there is a rest that remains, that there's a rest that remains for us.

He begins in verse four by speaking of creation, that he rested from all his works.

In other words, God has himself rested.

God is a restful God. He doesn't just keep working and working and working.

He has rest and there's rest for his people.

We're going to go in chronological order, so we'll skip around a little bit verse-wise.

But in verse 5, he talks about the wilderness wandering that we've talked about over and over again.

They shall not enter my rest, which bears the question, if his people didn't

enter rest, well, does that mean we're not going to enter rest? And he says, no.

So verse eight talks about Joshua. For if Joshua had given them rest,

God would not have spoken of another day later on.

So Joshua comes and he conquers all of these enemies in the promised land and

he sets them up and we're studying judges right now.

We've seen really quickly, there's not a lot of rest.

Even though Joshua came and did what he did, there's not a lot of rest in the

book of Judges. There's a lot of sin and a lot of rebellion. Thank you.

What about David? Did David do it for them? Again, he appoints a certain day.

Today, saying through David so long afterwards in the words already quoted,

today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

So he's doing what he's been doing. This writer, he goes, do you want rest?

Do you want to have God's rest? Well, guess what? Moses didn't do it.

Moses didn't do it. He couldn't get those people into the promised land.

Joshua didn't do it. He took him into the promised land. He led them on this

military conquest. rest? Couldn't do it.

Or is it David? Do you think David gave them rest? The great king of Israel?

Nope, David couldn't do it.

So he gets to verse nine. He says, 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.

So there remains a Sabbath rest.

God is a God of rest. You can rest in the Lord if you believe in him.

But again, they didn't get in the wilderness and Joshua didn't provide it and

David couldn't fulfill it, but there is a rest for the people of God found in Christ alone.

Do you want rest? Do you wanna rest from your works?

Do you wanna rest in something? Do you wanna fear nothing? Rest in Christ.

This whole book to this point has been making this point.

Right? He's about to shift gears just a little bit, but he spent the first four

chapters saying, this is what I'm saying.

You can try and trust in angels. You can try and trust in Moses.

You can try and trust in Joshua. You can try and trust in Abraham.

You can try and trust in yourself.

And if you do any of those things, you should be terrified because all of those things lead to no rest.

But there is rest for the people of God, found in His Son, Jesus Christ.

He says this at the very beginning. We'll close right here. Chapter 4, verse 3.

For we who have believed enter that rest.

Not we who have done something cool or awesome.

Not we who have planted a church or we who have gotten baptized.

We have walked an aisle. We have signed a card.

It's just we that believe have entered God's rest. Do you believe? Do you trust him?

Is he the one that you trust? Are you still trusting in other things?

Are you half-hearted in your belief? Does it not bring you any joy or excitement

when you think about Christ.

Christ alone offers you rest, not some sign or wonder, not conquering or understanding

the next big theological issue in your life, not depending on your own works to bail you out.

He simply says, we who believe enter that rest.

And the only thing that you have to fear in your whole life is not believing. That's the only thing.

If you can sit in here and boldly this morning say, I trust him. I believe him.

I trust that God's promises are true. I trust that no matter what he puts in

front of me, he's going to deliver me, that he's going to bring me to rest. And guess what?

There's nothing in your life that you have to fear.

Not one thing. Not loneliness, not disease, not depression, not finances,

not your life goals, not what's going to happen tomorrow, not what's going to happen in three years.

There is nothing you have to fear. It's so interesting If you hang out around

students a lot, this message usually resonates because their whole life is fear.

What's going to happen next? Half the people spend their lives when you're a

student, right? And you guys would testify to this.

Everybody's always asking, well, what are you doing next? Where are you going

to college? Where are you going to be?

What's going to happen next? Where are you going to go? Are you going to make

enough money? Where are you going to live?

Are you going to get married? How many kids are you going to have?

What's going to happen next? What's going to happen next? And the whole time

you're like, I just want to go to Dairy Queen.

I just want to do this one thing. I don't know what's going to happen next.

I just want to do one thing.

Man, this is a verse for you, Hebrews 4.3. If you have believed in Christ, you enter his rest.

And God's sovereign hand on you has promised, he will deliver you to the end.

He will bring you to that place. Your only job is to trust him.

I promise you, it will not look how you think it's going to look.

It will not happen how you think it's going to happen.

Every single believer I've ever known has said, I had this plan and God had

this plan. And thank God he did.

But do you trust him? Let's pray.

Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the chance to open your word.

Thank you for the chance to be in this room with these people.

Thank you for Trinity Bible Church.

God, I pray that the only fear that we would ever have is that we might not

trust you, that we might not believe in you.

God, that you give us this warning from your word, not to make us a people who

spend our lives in fear, but to remind us that there is one thing that we should

have a healthy fear of, but the only thing is unbelief.

God, like the Israelites in the wilderness, they feared not having food and

you gave them manna. They feared not having water, and you gave them water from

a rock. They feared not having comfort.

They wanted to go back to Egypt, and you delivered them to the edge of the promised

land. And no matter what you did, they did not trust you.

They were scared of the enemies in front of them, and they wanted the comforts

of slavery that they were so accustomed to.

God, my prayer is that we would not be those people. We would not be comfortable

being slaves to the world around us, being enslaved to what people think of

us or how much people like us or how cool or not cool people think we are,

God, even as a church, that we would just be faithful to you. We would trust you.

We would have no fear of what the world offers us or can threaten us with.

We would be a people of belief. Here I pray. Amen.