Resting in the Promise

0:01Warning. You may have noticed that there was no um sermon notes. Two reasons possibly for that. One is that I uh we were out of out of town last yesterday and and I just forgot. The other reason behind that is um I've been somewhat convicted recently that perhaps I'm relying too much on my manuscript while while I'm preaching, and I'm not gonna get into all of this, but um I will say, church, pray pray for me as I work through the the manner in which I deliver uh sermons each week, um, that not only that the Lord's will would be done, um, but that however I deliver, or however the word is delivered to you, it is uh spirit-led, um biblical, and and edifying and and um growing uh for us all. However that looks. Um so all that to say, on my mind, I've kind of been thinking of um perhaps trying to uh deviate a little bit from the manuscript at times. Um so that's just something that I've been kind of thinking, and so please pray for me in that respect. Um this is uh somewhat of a part one through Hebrews. So if you want to go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, we're in chapter four this morning. This section really covers one through verse 13. We're going to be covering just verses one through five, and again, this is uh really part one of this idea of rest, specifically uh eternal rest. And this passage uh in Hebrews comes to us at an appropriate time, as we are just now wrapping up a season in which very likely uh many of us, perhaps all of us, got a little more time off of work than usual. I know I did, praise be to God. Uh maybe not a lot of extra time, but I do hope that at the very least this notion of rest is perhaps a little more front of mind than usual. If not, and this season has turned the dial up in your life, as I think it has for some, then I do hope today serves as a cool drink of water on a parched throat. If you haven't guessed this morning, we're talking about rest. We're talking about rest, more specifically, resting in the promise of the gospel by faith. We're also going to be talking about what that means for us spiritually and in our lives. The beginning of the year, especially in light of all the things you inevitably know that you need to get done or planning to get done. This is a great time to be reminded of our eternal rest. Specifically the eternal rest that our gracious God has given to us. And I pray that we all leave today resting in the promise of the gospel. So, please stand with me then once more as we read Hebrews 4, 1 to 5. 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, Isaac swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of on the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this passage, he said, They shall not enter my rest. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Lord, again for your word. We pray and ask that you would speak for Christ's sake. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. As we begin this morning in the text, let us first establish a priority of faith. Or a priority on faith. It might be better stated then that we need to establish a or the necessity of faith, a priority on faith or the necessity of faith. And to do that, we're going to first kind of zoom in on those first two verses. And that was, 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. The benefits of hearing the good news only come to us by and through faith. Faith, then, is the necessary condition to receive the benefit of the gospel. The writer of Hebrews, again, uses the Israelites and their wilderness wandering as the basis to prove his proposed priority on faith. Consider those Israelites then. As they are coming out of Egypt and entering into the promised land, they heard the good news, but failed to benefit from it. This is what the text said. And surely we cannot say that it was the fault of the gospel that hindered them. And if you're saying at this point, well, did Israel even hear the gospel? Yes, they heard it. Of course, Israel heard the gospel. They were given a promise of peace and rest from their exile and from their slavery, weren't they? A promise to enter into a land flowing with riches and blessings, where they would live with God and he with them. A promise of freedom, a promise of inheritance. Those are all gospel promises, good news, that they would have received if only they had trusted in the God who issued those promises. So the gospel was certainly not at fault for them. Not having benefited from that good news. Surely there was no fault in God as the deliverer of the message. As though if he would have just delivered it more winsomely, perhaps they would have believed. Nor can we say that it was somehow Moses was to blame. Further, God confirmed his promises through many varied signs. And these signs were an assurance that he could do what he promised to do. He literally parted a sea for them. He guided them by pillars of smoke and pillars of fire. He gave them food from heaven. He gave them water from a rock. The good news was clearly given and it was adequately confirmed for them. And even more, we cannot blame the Spirit. As though the Spirit of God was somehow lacking or silent in them. Quite the opposite, actually. The text says that they rebelled against the Spirit who spoke to them. This is Isaiah 63 and 11 through 14. Then he remembered the days of old, if Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put them in the midst, put uh put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit? Who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths, like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Isaiah also says, but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. And further, God continues to speak through his spirit even now, saying, as we talked about a number of weeks ago, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So the fault was not the message, the fault was not the messenger, the fault was not the spirit of God, but rather lands squarely on their unbelief. They did not believe. What then were they not believing? They were not believing in a promise. They were not believing in a promise that extends beyond what was right in front of them. Right? They were not looking to and trusting in the rest and the blessed freedom that is offered to us and to them by faith. They were not trusting beyond their present circumstances to that promised end. Hear the words of Charles Spurgeon on this subject. Where there is no faith, men remain slaves to the present. If they did not believe in the milk and honey of Canaan, you see why they hankered for cucumbers in Egypt. An onion is nothing comparable to a state beyond Jordan, yet, as they think they cannot get the estate, they pine for the onions. When men do not believe in eternal life, they naturally enough cry, give me bread and cheese. Let me have fortune here. They keep their nose to the grindstone, always thinking about this passing life because they do not heartily believe in heaven and its glories. They are as dumb-driven cattle. They do not see into another state. This life seems real to them. But the next life they suspect to be a dream. As long as there is no faith, this world is all. And the world to come is nothing at all. End quote. Hear me then, church, when I say that faith in Christ is not some abstract concept. It's not something we just pretend to possess because it's a churchy word we can throw around. Faith is real. It's alive. Because it's grounded not only in a real person, but a real future. A real promise. When it sets in, it causes us to look around and to trust in that promise of freedom, that promise of inheritance, that promise of blessing both now and in the ages to come. Causes us to cast aside our sins and our worldly desires and our selfish ambitions so that by all means we may enter into that rest that is so graciously promised to us. The good news is that this promise of rest still stands. Still stands. That's what our text said. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, the promise of the forgiveness of sins, the promise of justification before God, the promise of being transformed into his image, the promise of joy and peace and this life. And the eternity till come still stands. Do you want this peace that transcends all understanding? Then surrender your life and your future to him today. Stop all of the but what about this or the if only that. Stop grumbling and complaining and hardening. Stop chasing a passing life that you're never going to catch. And start living in the freedom and the joy of a promised eternity that has already begun. And if you believe that God has promised that you will never be in lack, if you believe that God has promised that you will never be in lack, that you shall not want, that you will always be provided for. That he will always protect you. If you believe that he has a place prepared for you in glory that is so grand that your mind cannot comprehend it, then won't you live by faith? Please, Lord, help us to live by faith. As we consider then the priority of faith or the necessity of faith, we need to also consider this promise of peace. And that contrasted against what our text says is a command to fear. I need to be clear here that this fear that is mentioned in the text, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Excuse me. This fear, failing to enter this rest on account of our disobedience or a lack of merit, this is not the fear that he is talking about. We have already said now that disobedience is not the instrumental cause, but only a symptom of unbelief. Okay? Disobedience is not the instrumental cause of unbelief, but only a symptom of unbelief. To fear on account of disobedience or lack of merit is to fear the symptom and not the disease. Further, we have to understand that this command to fear cannot conflict with our promise of peace. They can't conflict. Why would God offer to us rest and peace in the gospel only to put us back under the bondage of fear? He cannot do that. He won't do that. We may do that to ourselves through our misunderstanding of the word, but God certainly does not do that to us. So how do we reconcile fear and peace then? Because the scripture clearly says, Let us fear. Thomas Schreiner says that this command to fear can be considered in a similar way to a mountain climber who, through fear or awe of the height of the mountain, perhaps his trust in the law of gravity, this climber will take extra care to ensure that his equipment is functioning properly. It's not a paralyzing fear, but a stimulating fear. It's a fear that causes us to act. One that provokes us into rest by pushing us to trust and to obey. How much more peace and how much more joy would the climber experience if he can have confidence right in the middle of his climb that his equipment will hold. In much the same way, this fear of God, which drives us towards deeper trust and to a greater obedience, is at least one of the contributing factors of our peace. It has to be. And this is why the author implies that a lack of this fear will lead us to seeming to have failed to enter into his rest or reach his promise. Unbelief, which leads to disobedience, causes unrest. Again, not that somehow our disobedience disqualifies us, but nevertheless it causes unrest. In Christ, though, we have been given a promise of peace, and this peace comes when we are driven by our awe, our fear of Him, through trusting in Him alone by faith. Let me give you some examples then of how unbelief leads to unrest. Perhaps you are going through a season of financial difficulty, and you have failed to trust that He, God, is going to provide for your financial needs. And this unbelief and that promise that He will provide for you and take care of you, that the Lord is your shepherd and that you shall lack nothing causes you to make disobedient decisions with money that lead to unrest. I can confess to you, church, that that's a pattern I have fallen into many times. Maybe you have failed to trust that his word is sufficient for you, or that his word is authoritative to guide your life, so you make disobedient life choices which lead to unrest. This is the, it's my life. At the root of this is unbelief, a failure to fear, leading to unrest. Maybe you have failed to trust in his timing. So in your unbelief, you become impatient. You make regrettable decisions that cause unrest. Again, these are issues of the heart. They are issues of unbelief or failure to see beyond the present, right? How often in our lives are we not at peace? As though we could better arrange our peace if God would just let us do it. So often we live as though we have a better handle on our peace, right? But does it ever work like that, though? When you finally do the thing you thought was the thing that you must do for peace, and it doesn't produce what you expect, the assumption is that you must have done something wrong, or you just need to keep doing something else. So the cycle of perpetual striving continues. In an effort to grab a thing that has already been promised. It's already been given. He is the Prince of Peace. And by believing and trusting in Him and in His work and in His promises, we find ourselves recipients of His everlasting peace for all eternity. Why then do we not live as though by that same belief and trust in Him alone, that He will not also give us peace now? It is only by and through the comfort that comes to us from trusting in Christ that we can receive this promise of peace. This way better than I ever could more than 500 years ago. Question one What is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer that I, with body and soul, both life, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood hath fully satisfied for all my sins. And he delivered me from the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Yea, all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore by his Holy Spirit, he assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto him. That's the only comfort in life and death. That you are not your own, that you have been bought with a price. And there is for us a promise of peace. We must cling to that blessed reality that we are not our own. But by his loving grace, he has purchased us. And he will surely bring us through this life and into his eternal rest. The final piece of the puzzle then we need to put in place is the establishment or the pattern of rest. Our text notes that the works of God were finished before the foundation of the world. That is verse 4. Verse, into half of verse 3. Also says that he quotes Genesis 2, 2, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. This brings to mind an interesting question. How much is enough? How much is enough? Further, why did God stop creating? Could an infinite God just never stop creating? Why did he stop at the number of trees that he said, this is done? There are, as far as we know, and perhaps there's been more created or formed, that there are a set amount of stars, the sum at which only God knows. And that sum was fixed when he finished creation. Why that many? Couldn't he have just continued creating? In fact, doesn't it seem that his infinite and eternal glory demands an infinite creation? Well, why did he stop? Many contend, myself included, that he stopped. That is, he finished his work to establish not a pattern of perpetual busyness, but one of perpetual rest. A pattern that reflects the eternal salvation that has been promised and secured for us. Imagine someone working in a garden. And they work so hard in it that they never stop working in it. And because they never stop working in it, they don't ever enjoy the actual thing that they are working on. So much so that they convince themselves and others that they just love working in the garden. And sure, that's fine to love working in the garden, but do you stop long enough to love the garden? And joy and peace come when we admire not just the work, but the thing, or perhaps the one whom we are working for. This is true for our lives, and I wish I had more time to work out and establish the patterns of rest and our lives, and God willing, I think we're going to do that a little more next week, and certainly throughout the year. This is especially true when it comes to faith. And I do think the aim of the text is addressing peace and rest, it's relating it to faith, primarily. Okay, certainly apply these principles in your life, as I've done, and I think we can continue to do, but applying them to our faith is non-negotiable. We have firmly established the priority of faith, that is, that salvation comes only by and through faith. Hearing the gospel, even liking its message of freedom from sin, is insufficient to receive its benefits. We must be united to the giver of this gospel by faith in him who delivers the message. Okay? And in him who made and secured for us these promises. We've established a promise of peace, both in this life and in the life to come. Not that everything is always going to be peaceful, but that in this life there is always an undercurrent of peace that flows in and through everything, knowing that because we are united to Christ by faith, everything is actually going to be okay. It is. I promise. The pattern of rest then is a pattern of opening the window to let the cool, fresh air into an otherwise stale and stuffy spiritual life. It's a glimpse into the eternal rest that has been prepared for you. This idea of rest necessarily includes our fellowship with him. And I wonder how often we go to his word out of an obligation or an attempt to solve some problem that we are having. I wonder how many times we search the scriptures to work out some answer to some question. I wonder how many times our prayers are filled with petitions and questions and pleadings about things that we have no control over. I'm not saying that any of those things are necessarily wrong, but I am saying that at some point you have to put down the shovel and enjoy the garden. You have to stop. You have to open the window. You have to breathe the fresh air of his promises. Church, Christ has saved you. He has called you by faith into a salvation that he has secured for you. He has offered to you forgiveness from all your sins. He has. He has offered you adoption into his family. He's offered you an eternal inheritance. He's offered to you paradise that was lost in Adam. A place where all sorrow will cease, where joy and peace will never end. Do you want that? Then by his spirit may he give to you or renew to you the faith to cling to those promises and experience his peace. That's really good news, isn't it? Providentially, as we close this morning, I've been reading this excellent work. I'm going to uh recommend it to you a thousand times. Psalm 23. Uh it's called The Lord of the Psalm 23. It's by David Gibson. I wrote that on my notes, but now I'm questioning that, but I think that's right. Brother Stephen uh recommended to me. Having Psalm 23 opened to me has been one of the highlights of this past year, honestly. And when we're talking about our faith in Christ and our trust and his promises, our resting in him, I can't think or say it any better than what God has already said to you through Psalm 23. And my prayer is that Psalm 23 be the theme really of our year, our lives, certainly our spiritual walk with God. So I'm just gonna read it. I'm gonna turn to it actually, because I want to read it from my Bible and not my notes. Turn with me if you want to, to get to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We have spoken this morning about our present peace and the eternal rest of God. And this is a matter of infinite significance. If unbelief shuts some out or hinders some from entering into its spiritual rest, then it is faith alone that opens the door to our rest. Simply hearing the gospel is not sufficient. Simply living a good life or going through the motions is not sufficient to have peace. The rest comes to us through a promise that all who believe in Christ, all who call upon his name, all who trust in him alone will find rest both now and for all eternity. Where do you find rest and peace? Do you have any rest or peace at all? The promise of rest still stands for us when we rest in his promises. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for the rest that you have secured for us, Lord. And I pray and ask that you would help us, Lord, to believe, to trust in that rest that you have given to us through the work of Jesus Christ. May we cling to that hope, that promise, Lord, that promise of rest. And in doing that, may we find and experience rest now, Lord. May you give us a peace that transcends all understanding. Lord, may we be often surprised by joy and by your rest, even in the midst of otherwise unrest. And that can only come by trusting in you. Help us trust in you. Ask all these things in Jesus' name.