Sabbath Rest

after one, we're going to take a look at this, we're going to be taking a look at this issue of Sabbath rest, Sabbath rest. Listen to these words, this is the seventh day of the creation week. We've looked at the first six days, the ultimate of those six days was on the final and sixth day when God creates man in His image and blesses him three times. Now we find the ultimate end, actually the sixth day is more like the penultimate end, but this is the ultimate end of the week in which God finishes His work and rest. Notice what the text says. In Genesis chapter 1, thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts, everything that was included in that creation. By the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and made. Notice this, God's rest here is at the culmination of His work. Why does He cease from His labor? He ceases from His labor. We are told three times because He finished it. Most of you guys are probably like me. There's very few things in life that you actually finish. Everything is a project in progress. God finished His work. He finished the creation and because He finished the creation He ceases creating. Now the work that He's referring to here that He ceased from was this work of creation. It doesn't mean that God became inactive. This isn't like deism that says that God created the universe like a clock, wound it up and walked away from it.

God continued to be engaged with His creation. Jesus tells us in John 5-17 rather that God has worked from the beginning. He has not ceased His activity but He has finished His work of creation and so He blesses the day. As you know, as we've looked through this text in Genesis 1, this word blessed is always associated with fruitfulness and dominion which are both connected with what it means to be created in the image of God. So we have a completed creation, a context in which everything can thrive and grow and be fruitful. And God blesses this day because it was on this day that He rests from His work of creation and He blesses it with fruitfulness and holiness because it pictures the completed creation.

Now out of this text flows several things that we want to look at. God rests here from His creation. It's a pretty simple thing and yet it's profound thing that God has actually finished His work and He rests from His work and we find out from the rest of the scriptures that God calls us into this rest and it's the very thing that we resist. When we get to Genesis chapter 3, we'll see that Adam and Eve refuse to rest in the creation of God but said that something more needed to be done than what God had provided in His creative act of the first six days. But notice the second thing that flows out of this and that is Israel's rest. If you will turn with me to Exodus chapter 20, second book in the Bible, Exodus chapter 20, the book in which we are given the account of the giving of the mosaic law.

God has brought the nation of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, brought them to Mount Sinai where they are to worship Him. He forms them into a nation and He begins to bring them into the promised land. The promised land is a picture of rest. The nation of Israel is going to be brought back into a place of rest after the fall. He chooses a nation and He forms this nation and He brings them into the promised land and in the midst of their wilderness journeys, in fact at the very beginning of them, God gives His law to the nation of Israel to guide them while they are in the land in this place of rest that God has provided. Notice Exodus chapter 20, beginning in verse 9, the fourth commandment. God says, in verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your solejourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens in the earth, the sea, and all that is in them and rested on this seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now, turn with me, secondly, to Deuteronomy chapter 5, where we have an explanation of this commandment. As you know, if you Bible reader, that Deuteronomy, which means the second giving of the law, is given to the nation of Israel just before they're brought into the land.

This is after 40 years in which an entire generation, those who refused to trust God, believe him, but were captivated by unbelief, all of them died except for Joshua and Caleb. The rest of that nation, that generation passed away in the wilderness. They fell in the wilderness. And so now Moses gives the law again, and he explains it to them as they are about to go into the land, the place of rest, the place where God is going to give them rest from their enemies and from their slavery. And notice how he explains the Sabbath law in Deuteronomy chapter 5, beginning in verse 12. God says, through Moses, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you, which he did in Exodus chapter 20 at the first giving of the law.

Six days, you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath. And the word Sabbath simply means to cease, to stop your labor. The Sabbath, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God in it. You shall not do any work. You are your son and get this. Notice the detail now. You are your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And then he gives this word of explanation. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. And the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.

By the way, something that is a pattern in Scripture is when it speaks of God creating the universe, it calls it his finger work. It's as though it's a small thing for God to create the universe. But when it talks about his salvation of his people, God's work of salvation, it speaks of it in terms of his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, his right arm being made there. In other words, it's an expression of great exertion of power. God did a mighty thing when he brought his people out of Egypt as a picture of the salvation of all of his people throughout the ages. And notice what he says. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand by an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Now, if you notice in this text where he explains Moses interprets and explains and expounds to this new generation of Israel that are about to go into the land, he explains to them the meaning of the fourth commandment and its importance. You may have wondered about it if you've read the Bible in the Old Testament, some of the most alarming passages to many people is to find out that God would actually have a person executed, stone to death for breaking the Sabbath. For picking up sticks on the Sabbath, the woman in Israel was stone to death. Imagine that. How seriously God took the Sabbath law among the people of Israel.

But if you notice in verse 15, the second part of verse 15 means this, that is why Yahweh, the Lord, gave you the Sabbath commandment. That is, verse 15, provides the reason the law was given in Exodus. Why did God give this Sabbath law? What is the reason for the commandment? Why was it so important in the nation of Israel that they keep the Sabbath? I don't know if you've ever heard the word Sabbatharian. Some of you haven't. Some of you haven't. The word Sabbatharian simply means a Sabbatharian is a Christian today who keeps the Sabbath, who believes that God still requires us to keep the Sabbath. There are no consistent biblical Sabbatharians. No one keeps the Sabbath the way the law under Moses was given.

For one thing, Sunday is not the Sabbath. This is not the Sabbath. Yesterday was the Sabbath. And there is nobody who is keeping the Sabbath whether they call it the Lord's Day or the seventh day of the week, like the Bible commands that it be kept in Israel. Why did God give this law? What was the reason for this commandment? He uses an analogy. An analogy is drawn here between Israel's six days of slaving while they were in Egypt with God's six days of creating his work of creation. Now he does this by using some key words in the text. In verse 13, the word labor is the word abad, which is a word that means to work or to become a slave. And then when he refers to the time that God works, he uses the same root word of God laboring in those six days.

So on the seventh day, they were deceased from their labor. They were to be worked free. And what was that to symbolize? It was to symbolize the fact that Israel had been redeemed from slavery. I think that's hard for us to get a handle on because there are no slaves in this room in the sense that Israel was in slavery. All of us are slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. But no one owns us in this world. You may feel like your company owns you, but they don't. You are free. You can quit tomorrow. They don't own you. Israel was owned. They were slaves in Egypt, and they worked as slaves in Egypt seven days a week. And as you remember before the Exodus, the Egyptians poured on the work and God used those terrible circumstances to call, to cause the children of Israel to turn to their God and cry out for deliverance.

And so they cried out for deliverance. Sometimes God does that in our lives, doesn't he? He lets us get into situations where we finally realize that no one can deliver us from this, but God himself. And so we cease from our striving and call out to God for help. And he delivers. And that's what happened to the nation of Israel. They were set free. They were from their slavery and brought into this promised land, which was a place of rest from their labors. It doesn't mean that they were totally inactive. It meant that they were free from slavery. They were free to live as freemen before God. And the blessing of the seventh day in Genesis 2 is fulfilled when Israel occupies the promised land, the place of rest.

They come out of slavery. They are redeemed by the right arm of God, and he brings them into the promised land. Now we are told in Ezekiel chapter 20 that when Israel got into the land, this place of rest that God gave them, and he gave them freedom from all their enemies all around them, that they began to profane the Lord's Sabbath. You see, God wanted them to use the Sabbath to remind them to cause them to remember that they had been delivered from slavery. And we are such forgetting people, aren't we? I had a professor who used to say, your forgetaries are always better than your memories. And it's really true, isn't it? It's so easy to forget that we have been delivered from slavery. And it was easy for the nation of Israel to forget that.

They forgot that they were slaves, and they stopped keeping the Sabbath. And the reason they stopped keeping the Sabbath was because of their idolatry, their unbelief and their idolatry. Why didn't Israel's possession of the land bring the rest that God had promised them? It was because of their unbelief, and their unbelief was manifested in their idolatry. And the Old Testament ends with the promised rest still in the future. They had not experienced the fullness of God's rest because of their unbelief. That's how the story ends, but it also ends in the Old Testament, but it also ends with a promise of a coming rest. And that's what we want to look at now is our rest as it is unveiled to us in the New Testament.

In Hebrews chapter three, you'll turn there with me. Hebrews chapter three, verse 19. The writer of Hebrews in this section is talking about how Jesus is superior to Moses. That what Jesus, that Jesus is not simply a servant in the household, but he is the son, he is the head of the household, whereas Moses was a servant in God's house. And in this section, notice the last verse in chapter three. If you're there opening your bibles to Hebrews chapter three, if you don't have a Bible and you need one, by the way, you could raise your hand and one of the decons will or ushers will get you one real quick. Hebrews chapter three, verse 19. He says, so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

Now he's talking in the context about that generation that did not believe God, and therefore we're not able to enter into the land who died in the wilderness. He says they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, therefore, therefore, there is a lesson to learn from this, the writer of Hebrews says, since it is true that there was an entire generation that was not able to enter into his rest because of unbelief. He says, therefore, let us fear. Let us fear. If, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

For we who have believed, entered that rest. Just as he said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. That generation who was unbelieving shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. In other words, there was a rest available to them, but they would not believe. And so they did not enter into his rest. For he has said, verse 4, somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them fail to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day today saying, through David, after so long a time, just as has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest when he took them into the promised land, he would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. Now notice in the text here, notice in chapter 3, verse 19, he warns that it was unbelief that kept the people of Israel from entering into the promised land and the rest that God had promised them. God had promised them rest, but they never experienced the fulfillment of that promise because of their unbelief.

Back in chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, notice what it says, take care, brethren, that there be not be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, but encourage one another day after day. Encourage one another day after day. You hear that? He's speaking to believers and he says, encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We must care enough about each other, the right of Hebrew says, that we encourage each other not to let unbelief take hold of us and to destroy us and to keep us from the rest that God has promised and provided. The implication here is that unbelief is such a constant and dangerous temptation that we have to help each other fight it off.

And the fact is, we all know it's true. The greatest struggle we have in our lives is unbelief. Persevering faith, that is faith that perseveres to the end, is a community project. Why do we meet on Sundays? We meet on Sundays, some people think, well, that's when we worship. Oh, no, that's not it. We do worship when we hear, but that's not the reason, the primary reason we meet. If your life isn't worship every day, then coming to church and worshipping for an hour and a half out of a whole week, you're in big trouble. I got to tell you, your life is to be worship. Your whole life is worship. The way you live your life, the decisions you make, the righteousness that you practice, the life that you live, that's worship, but the reason we come together like this as a group is to encourage one another and to incite one another.

Why? Because unbelief is such a great danger among us. We are all so vulnerable to unbelief. And so the writer of Hebrew says every day, we are to be encouraging each other. The reason that we have house fellowships in this church and other kinds of small groups is because it's crucial for this very reason. We must form relationships of mutual accountability where we encourage one another, love each other, incite one another, attack this enemy of unbelief. I have never ever in my life been in a counseling situation over the last 30 years where I've counseled people for whatever reason when the primary issue was not unbelief. Will you believe the word of God? Will you believe the promises of God?

Will you believe the commandments of God? Will you believe the work of God? Will you trust Him? It's the greatest struggle that we have. And our entering into God's rest depends upon our faith. And so he says it's such a crucial issue that our rest is something that we have to fight for. We must fight against unbelief because unbelief is always creeping into the hearts of believers around us. And sometimes we see it and we don't say a word. Somebody will open up to us and tell us about what's going on in their heart and what they're thinking about doing and deciding to do. And it is just a manifestation and expression of unbelief. And what do we do about it? The writer of Hebrew says we have to fight it.

We have to encourage each other because unbelief can take such a strong stand in our life. Secondly, we must fear. This is another implication of verse 19 of chapter 3. In fact, if you read these two verses together, look again at 3, 19 and 4, 1. So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, let us fear. We need to fear unbelief. What is it that you fear most? What do you fear? What drives you every day? What kind of fear affects you every day in the way that you respond to life and respond to people respond to situations? What are you most afraid of? What are you afraid of losing? You know, that's one of the ways that we can tell what our idols are. Is what is it that terrifies me?

If I lost this, I don't know what I would do. What do you fear? The writer of Hebrew says we have a fear unbelief. The fact that Israel was not able to enter into God's rest because of unbelief should cause us to fear. A healthy kind of spiritual fear. Why should we fear? He says, so we won't come short of God's rest. Now, he warns you throughout these passages. If you look back at chapter 3 verse 6, but Christ was faithful as the Son over his household, whose house we are if we hold fast better confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast. The beginning of our assurance firm until the end. But what is it that we fear?

What is it that we should fear? What do we fear? What should we be fearful of? Well, in verse 19 of chapter 3, the thing that we are to fear is unbelief. We're to fear unbelief. Think about that. Why should we fear unbelief? Well, in chapter 4 verse 1, he tells us that's what keeps you from entering into God's rest. Now, in the context and in the context of the scriptures, rest speaks of our salvation and ultimately heaven itself. What's going to keep a person from experiencing the rest of salvation and the rest of heaven? unbelief. And so therefore, he says, we should fear unbelief. Verse 2 gives us the reason for verse 1. We should fear because we'll keep us from experiencing the rest that God promises.

He compares Israel's situation in the wilderness and the situation of the new covenant believer. You and me who have come to believe on Jesus Christ. Both had good news priests to them. What did they mean by that? Was the gospel priest in the Old Testament? Did they priest the death and burial resurrection of Christ, salvation, and Christ alone in the Old Testament? Not exactly. As the message was being unveiled, we've come to understand this because of the event itself. Christ has come and died for our sins and has been raised in the dead. But they did have good news priests to them. And their response to that good news that was priest to them. In fact, if you turn back to Exodus chapter 34, when God declares his name to them, Moses wants to know who God really is.

Now, how do you find out who a person is? Well, in the Old Testament, especially, you learn by a person declaring their name because their name was supposed to be a description of their character. And so Moses says, Lord, I want you to reveal yourself to me. And so God says, I will declare my name to you. And here's his declaration. Verse 5 of Exodus 34, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed. Here's God speaking to Moses. He proclaims this to Moses. The Lord, the Lord God compassionate and gracious, slaughter anger and a bounding and loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness.

And that means covenant love. He means God keeps his covenant. When he enters into covenant with you and he makes you promises, he will keep his promises. That's why God hates divorce. You can't have a divorce without somebody breaking a promise. God hates divorce because he is a promise keeper. And he's the only one, by the way. He's the only true promise keeper. He's the only one who cannot break his promise. And so when he says, he keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity, the transgression and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers and the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. And then Moses did the only same thing a person will ever do when they are really aware of the presence of the living God.

He made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. They had the good news priest to them. The good news of love, of mercy, of forgiveness, of every kind of iniquity and sin and transgression. That was the good news that was promised to them that God would keep his covenant. Now that covenant was going to be kept ultimately through the work of Jesus Christ. Good news. Good news of God's promise that God would bring them into the land of milk and honey, that he would protect them, that he would give them rest, that they could trust him. And he would give them rest from all their enemies. See, God had preached good news to them. Why didn't they enter in to the fulfillment of the promise which was rest?

The Israelites had heard the gospel just like the readers of the book of Hebrew, just like you have had the gospel priest to you. You've had the promise of God. There are those who are sitting in this morning who've never entered into the rest of God. But you've heard the promise made a hundred times. You've heard the good news. You've heard the good news that God saved sinners like you, like me, and that he gives us life and rest in Christ. But the reason you have entered into the rest is because the same reason Israel didn't enter into the rest because of unbelief. Unbelief. The point is this. This good news was not believed by Israel and so they didn't enter God's rest. And God's promised joy.

God's promised life. And then notice in Hebrews, chapter 4 verse 2, for indeed we, like them, have had good news preached to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith to those who heard. In other words, they didn't believe it. They doubted God. They doubted God. They wouldn't believe him. They distressed him. That's what unbelief is. Unbelief isn't just doubt. We can all have doubts. In South America, there's a language in South America that, one of the Indian languages, that the word for doubt is a word picture. And it pictures a man standing with his feet in two different canoes. That's what doubt is. Have you ever experienced that?

Have your foot in one foot in one canoe and the other foot in the other canoe? You're uncommitted. You're full of doubt. Now doubt isn't necessarily a sin. Unbelief is sin because unbelief refuses to believe the testimony in the promise of God. And the writer Hebrew says it is unbelief that keeps them, that kept them from the rest. They didn't have faith in the promise to give them a future. A better future than they had had in Egypt as slaves. And so they gave up on God. In fact, it says they wanted the old life. They wanted the leaks and onions of Egypt. They wanted to go back to Egypt as slaves rather than to trust God to bring them into the promise land. That happens in the life of people who profess Christ and then walk away from him.

Jesus said this would happen. There would be those who respond to the gospel and immediately begin to follow Christ, but as soon as the pressures of life come on because of their faith in Christ, they will abandon Christ and go back to their old life. Just as the Israelites did, it was because of unbelief. And this is why we should fear unbelief. That is the main point. Fear. That this is happening to you. Fear hearing the promises of God and not trusting them. Do you ever fear that? You ever fear that you will hear the promises of God from his word and you will not trust him? A lot of times this happens when his commandments come to us and his commandments seem burdensome to us and we can't trust him.

The same thing, the writer of Hebrews says, will happen to us as to them. We won't enter God's rest. We won't enter his salvation. We won't enter his heaven. We won't enter his rest if we do not trust his promise. You see, that's the basic prerequisite. The basic thing that God requires is that you believe him. That you embrace his promises. That you trust his promises. It's the same way in your daily Christian life. How do you grow? How do you experience the rest on a daily basis? You believe the promises of God. And our greatest enemy is unbelief. The third thing he says is we must be diligent. Be diligent to enter God's rest. Notice verse 11, therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience, through following the example of disobedience of Israel.

Having the promise delivered, there are millions of people in this world who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ one time. Think of this. There are people in this world who have never heard the name of Jesus, who have never heard the promise of salvation in Christ. You have heard the promise. Most of you have heard the promise over and over and over again. The writer of Hebrew says we must be diligent to enter God's rest. Israel fell from the promised joy of God because of the disobedience of unbelief. That's the disobedience, unbelief. And he says the same thing can happen to any professing Christian. You see there were professing Christians that he was writing to or a part of this group who did not enter in to the rest because their heart was filled with unbelief.

Here's how to keep it from happening to you. This is what he's telling us. Here is how to keep it from happening to you and to show that you are not merely a professing Christian, the diligent to enter God's rest, God's heaven, God's peace, God's joy, God's salvation, how do we do it? The diligent. Now if you go back in the text, it's amazing how many times he repeats this throughout this passage. Back in chapter 2 verse 1, pay close attention to what you have heard. Verse 3 of chapter 2, 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 against the deceitfulness of sin.

And the deceitfulness of sin that he's referring to in this context is the deceitfulness of unbelief. It's unbelief, refusing and failing to believe the promises of God, fear unbelief that will keep you from your promise rest. There's a vital truth here. The vital truth is this, that the Christian life is a life of day by day, hour by hour, trust in the promises of God to help us and guide us and take care of us and forgive us and bring us into this future holiness and joy that's going to satisfy our hearts infinitely more than if we forsake the promises. I would say that the great majority of us this past week have been tempted to unbelief. You didn't think of it in those terms, but that's exactly what it was.

It was the same kind of unbelief that Eve exercised when Satan said to her, you will not die. God doesn't want you to have this because if you eat of this tree, you will be like God. If you participate in this sin, if you will simply disobey God in this way, you will be full and you will have joy and you'll find relief. This day by day, hour by hour, trust in God's promises is not automatic. Is it? It's not automatic. Is it? No. We have to intentionally obey him, believe him, trust him. It's the result of daily diligence and it's a result of proper fear. Do you really fear unbelief? Do you fear unbelief? Do you fear failing to believe God in His promises in His commands? That's what the writer of Hebrews is telling us.

Fear unbelief. Now there's two questions that we have to ask that this text answers. The first is, and some of you are probably wondering this right now, must we live in constant fear of being lost? Is that what he's saying? That we should be constantly fearful of losing our salvation? Of being lost? Can't we live in rest? Can't we enter into the rest of Jesus promised? No, we are not to live in constant fear of being lost. But we should take this warning seriously because you've got to understand, please write to if you notice back in chapter 3, verse 1, are the holy brethren. He's warning a group of Christians that among them, there are going to be those who don't enter in because of unbelief.

And this is consistent with the New Testament. The New Testament is continually warning us about this. Luke chapter 12, verse 5, Jesus says, fear the one who has the authority to cast you into hell. Philippians 2, 13, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Romans chapter 11, you stand fast only through faith, so do not become conceded, but fear, fear unbelief. Don't take it lightly when you are tempted to not believe God in His promises. But are we supposed to live our lives in fear of missing heaven? No or not. If you turn back to chapter 2, verse 15, it says, he might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Jesus came to deliver us from fear. Christ died to deliver us from the slavish fear that they had experienced.

He wants a fearless people. God wants a fearless people. Christ produces fearless people, a people who live in the most dangerous neighborhoods without fear because of their trust, their belief in Christ. God wants people who will go to Uganda without fear. God wants people to speak to their neighbors about Christ without fear. God wants to produce people who are not gripped by fear continually, but are free and courageous. Fade in the promises of God makes you fearless to the threats of them. That's what he says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34, trust in the promises of God will deliver you from fear. So the only thing that we should fear, the only thing we should fear is not fear itself, but faithlessness.

The only thing that we should fear is unbelief, faithlessness, fear unbelief in the promises of God. Do you do that? Do you fear unbelief in the promises of God? Because as long as you're trusting in the promises of God, you can utterly be fearless in the face of anything, even death. You can be fearless in the face of death. I have sat beside the bed of a dozen people who passed out of this life. Great majority of those were believers, and I can tell you believers can face death without fear. It is an amazing phenomena as they enter into the presence of Christ. But you should think of this what the right of Hebrews is saying is somewhat like training your children to fear those things that will hurt them.

My grandson Cole, a few months back, he's first there walking around and everything, and he would get around the horse, and he would walk right under the horse. And if we didn't watch him, he would walk right into a stall and walk underneath the horse. Now that's a dangerous thing to do. You got a three thousand pound horse who might just step back and crush him. And so what do you do? You train him to fear the horse, to fear that situation. You teach a child to fear running out in the street after a ball. Now you don't want them to live in constant fear. You don't want them to live a life of fear, afraid of everything, but you do want them to have a healthy fear of that which is dangerous and will destroy them.

The right of Hebrews says fear and belief. I hope that sinks in. I hope it sinks in. I think one of the greatest problems we have is Christians is because most of us are so lazy when it comes to the Word of God and coming to the Word of God that we're never being stretched by the Word of God. We're not being stretched to believe as promises because we don't know them. But when we get into the Word and we begin to be confronted with the promises of God, it should stretch us. And what we should fear is fear in believing. Fear of unbelief of those great promises of God. Now the fear of unbelief is not a constant bad feeling. It's only when those temptations to distress God come into your life. You get into a situation, you know what God wants you to do.

But you're so tempted not to obey him because it's not what you want. The New Testament Paul says that you should instruct younger widows to marry and have children and keep a home because they will be tempted to abandon their commitment to Christ, their commitment to marry in the faith. It's a danger. Every one of us, Paul, Timothy, youthful us, every phase of life, there are things that are so tempting to us, so tempting to not believe the commandments and promises of God in our situation that he really is enough, that he really will need every need and to act in an unbelieving way. The second question is is there rest for you? Is there rest for you? Is there a rest for you, personally? This text answers that question.

In verses 4-10, the writer focuses on five points of history. He mentions five points in redemptive history to show how God keeps opening his rest for believing people. He does it over and over and over again. He shows how they fail to enter in because of unbelief. In verse 4, he mentions creation. God rested on the seventh day. Adam and Eve refused to remain in that rest because of unbelief. In verse 5, he speaks of Israel in the wilderness and the wilderness wanderings. God offers them rest but because of their unbelief, they didn't really enter into the ultimate rest. Verse 8, he speaks of the time of Joshua. When he led the people into the Promised Land and finally in verse 7, he speaks of David and he says there that God is still in time of David holding out to his people and offers of salvation rest.

And from this, he draws this all-important conclusion about God's Sabbath rest. The rest of God's Sabbath, he says in verse 9, today. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. The rest is still open. That is the message to you today. As you look at this text, the message to you is there is a rest that is available. There's a rest open to you today. God offers rest. The door isn't shut. The time isn't passed. God is still offering rest. He's still saying to people, there is rest that you can enter into. There remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. The door is open. The time is now. And you may be saying, wait a minute. That's for the people of God and that excludes me.

But if you look back at verse 3, he says, we who have believed enter that rest. There is one door to God's rest. One door to this rest of salvation and safety and peace and happiness in God and that door is Christ. And you open that door by faith. Anyone who puts faith in God's promises, anyone who places faith in this one who has brought the promises of God to us will enter in to rest. In fact, listen to the words of Jesus. Jesus is speaking to a group of religious people who are working like crazy so that they would feel accepted by the living God. And Jesus says to them, all things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

What this text says so clearly is the only way that you can come to know God and know His rest and know His joy is if Christ wills to reveal the Father to you. And then he says this, come to me. Come to me. This is what Jesus Christ is saying to you today. Come to me. All who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. That had great impact on the audience he was speaking to because they were yoked to the law. That was a common expression. They were yoked to the law so that they might have a right relationship with God. And Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. And learn from me. You see what Christianity is. Christianity is a relationship with Christ.

And the only way you can enter into Christianity is to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. You have to learn from Him. You have to learn from Him. He has to take hold of your hand. And he says, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The yoke of religion is so uncomfortable. The burden that religions put on the back of people is so heavy that Jesus says, if you will come unto me, I'll give you rest. You take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Because my yoke is comfortable and my burden is light. What a glorious promise that is. For us who have believed, for us who have entered into this yoke, we need to be reminded of this.

That when you're tempted not to believe the promises of God, when you're tempted in the flow of your Christian life and you come up against things and you know what God wants you to do. And you cannot trust God to do the right thing. Fear, unbelief, and trusting. You ought to fear unbelief more than you fear what God may ask you to do. You ought to fear unbelief more than you fear what it's going to cost you to be obedient to Christ. Because unbelief will rob you of rest. Come unto me, rest in me. Let's pray. My Father, we thank you for the promise of rest in Christ that we have experienced. And the rest that we look forward to when we enter into your presence, we confess to you as believers in Christ that there are so many times that we believe we've entered into rest but we act as though we must still labor on our own and in our own strength and according to our own ways.

We pray, O Father, that you would restore to us in a deep and profound way and appreciation of this freedom that we have experienced in Christ. And I pray today, Father, for every person in this room who's never entered into this yoke of Jesus Christ who've never placed their faith in Him, who've never turned to Him, who've never responded to his invitation to come to Him and to receive rest for their souls. I pray that the Holy Spirit would impress upon their hearts today that Jesus can be trusted and when He invites, when He says, come unto me and I will give you rest that they can believe Him, they can trust Him. I pray you'd put a healthy fear in their hearts of unbelief, of a refusal to believe His promise and that the Spirit of God would turn their hearts in faith.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.