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We're going to turn now to Hebrews
chapter 4, and we will look today particularly
at verses 9 through 11. This is something of the centerpiece
of the chapter, and it really belongs with verses 1 through
8, but in light of the difficulties and complexities of this entire
section, I hope you'll agree with me that it would have been
even more difficult to put it all together in one piece. So
let us stand together as we hear from God's word in Hebrews chapter
four verses nine through eleven. This is the word of the Lord.
May we hear it with reverence as though hearing God himself
speaking from heaven. So then there remains a Sabbath
rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's
rest has also ceased from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter
that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word. You may be seated. Probably many of you in this
room will remember what used to be known as blue laws. These were the laws that in this
country required places of business to be closed. on Sundays. There is a general recognition
that this day is different than other days and is to be observed
as the day of worship and all of the mainline denominations,
whether the Presbyterians or the Baptists or the Methodists
or the Episcopalians and Anglicans and others and the Roman Catholics
agreed that this was an appropriate thing to do. I don't need to
explain to you that that's not the case anymore. A seismic shift
has occurred in the way that our nation views Sunday. In the middle of the 19th century,
the Presbyterian Church, United States of America, in its General
Assembly declared, the church without a Sabbath is apostate. Would that same statement shock
many of the churches in our land today? Why do I mention that? Because as we come to this central
piece in Hebrews chapter 4, there is an emphasis on what the author
refers to as a Sabbath rest, or more literally, a Sabbath
keeping for the people of God. These are the New Testament people
of God, as I hope to show you, and what the author is stressing
here is this basic point, that we are driven to trust in Jesus
Christ alone, and in doing so we are presently entering into
what he has called God's rest, so that in the future we may
enter God's rest in its perfection and glory. In the middle of this,
the basic conclusion is, in light of the present rest you have
in Christ, the future rest you hope to have in Christ, there
still remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. I'm going
to do something today in this text that I try studiously to
avoid in normal circumstances, and that is that I'm going to
make most of my points from the Greek text. And I hope, even
without knowing Greek, you'll see why that's the case as we
go through, because there's a clear difference that stands out between
verse 9 and everything else in the surrounding context. So,
what we're going to see today from this text is that the Sabbath
rest of God's people is a great means of entering God's rest
in glory. Our present Sabbath, in other
words, is a means of directing us and looking forward to our
future Sabbath. And in this, I hope to show you
that this theme of the Sabbath in the book of Hebrews is actually
presenting to us the gospel and what it means to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to look at this text
in three basic parts, and that does purposefully correspond
to our three verses. We're going to see that there
remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God in verse 9.
We're going to see the grounds of this Sabbath-keeping in verse
10. And then we're going to see the purpose of this Sabbath-keeping
in verse 11. First, we're going to begin with
the fact that there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. And we
do see that in verse 9 once again. So then there remains a sabbatismos
for the people of God. I want you to hold that Greek
word sabbatismos in your mind. I don't think it's too difficult
to figure out. What does it sound like? It sounds like Sabbath.
Because it's taking the Hebrew term for Sabbath in the Old Testament
and it is transferring it directly into the Greek language. Now,
you may say at the outset, what's the big deal? Well, if you read
through Hebrews chapter 4, and maybe after you leave today,
I recommend you go back and re-read the text with these types of
questions in mind, you will see that the main theme throughout
the chapter is God's rest. And you would perhaps expect,
as you go through, you see references over and over and over again.
The promise of entering his rest remains. We must be diligent
to enter his rest. He swore in his wrath that they
would not enter his rest. And then verse nine. Therefore,
there remains a Sabbath rest to the people of God. It would
all be the same term. But actually, the entirety of
the chapter uses the Greek word Catapalsis. What does catapalsis
mean? Rest. But then suddenly there's
a shift in vocabulary in verse 9. Now what we need to recognize
is when we come to verse 9, this is actually the crux of the chapter.
Everything before and everything after revolves around verse 9
in the text. And instead of using katapausis,
rest, the same verb he's used the whole time, he suddenly shifts
to sabbatismos. Now, if you are a Greek reader
in the first century, I don't think you need to use your imagination
to realize that this is going to jump off the page. There's
another reason why this is going to jump off the page. This is
the only time where the word sabbatismos appears in the entire
New Testament. So, it's not just a different
word. It's an unusual word. So, the author here, in other
words, is striking at something, he is underscoring a point, he
is highlighting something, and he is, as it were, grabbing our
attention even by his use of terms. In light of what I have
said, the conclusion is, therefore, there remains a sabbatismos for
the people of God. Now, here's the question. What does it refer to? Think about it this way. If you
are getting ready to run in a race, what we're really asking here
is, what is the finish line? What's the goal? What are you
aiming towards in this particular thing? So, what is the author
saying in terms of there remains a sabbatismos for the people
of God? Most commentaries will say something
like this. What it means is that in heaven
there remains a rest for the people of God to enter into. Now, I realize the logic and
the connection of the text last week was particularly difficult,
and maybe this is a good point to reconnect everything we've
done up to this stage in order to ask what's going on here.
God said through David in Psalm 95 certain people didn't enter
into God's rest, and God's people under David now must enter into
God's rest. Under Moses, or rather Moses
wrote in Genesis, that when God created the heavens and the earth,
he rested on the Sabbath day. You see the picture? God did
a great work of creation, God rested. Then you see Joshua bringing
the people into the land, and the end of the book of Joshua
explicitly says, I believe in chapter 21, they were at rest
from all their enemies. But the author of Hebrews says
they didn't enter the rest from Genesis 2. You see, God did a
work of creation, God rested. Joshua did a great work of bringing
the people into the land, the people rested. David says that
even though the people entered under Joshua, they didn't enter
into the rest of Genesis 2. Now, I realize this is complex,
but there's a rest that God is setting before our eyes that
we must enter into in the very pattern of our work week. Joshua
didn't do it. He didn't bring them to the anticipated
end. But he's going to argue that
Jesus does. Jesus brings us into the rest
of God. So people will say the Sabbatismos
in verse 9 is heaven. That's the rest that's being
pointed out. And so it's all future oriented,
something you look forward to, not something you do now. The
problem is the entirety of the argument begins in verse 3. And
there he says, we who believe are right now presently entering
into God's rest. Then in verse 11, therefore let
us be diligent to enter the rest. We are entering now, therefore
let us enter even more. Let us go further. Let us come
into the last fulfillment of God's rest. This reminds me of
the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia, which, frankly, I
don't recommend in many ways, because it's got strange theology.
But one thing that happens is all the characters die, and they
end up going to heaven. And Aslan is leading them, and
as he is, he keeps saying, further up, further in. And what's going
on is, he's saying, you're already here, you're already safe, you've
already arrived, But if you really want to experience the glory
of the place, you have to go further up, further in. That
is exactly what the author of Hebrews is doing. Not simply
in heaven, but in this life, if you are a Christian, if you
are trusting in Christ and only in Christ as your Lord and Redeemer,
you have entered now so that you anticipate the perfection
of your rest and entering in the future. You are in, you are
safe, and you're going further up and further in. And that's
the basic idea the author is arguing. There is a present rest
that you experience today as a Christian, and a future rest
that you must experience. Now, why does he change to this
term sabbatismos? I'm trying my best to make this
clear, and I want to say at the outset, this is one of the most
difficult texts I've ever had to wrestle with. He's saying
something like this, I believe. Just as God rested at the original
creation, and there was a Shabbat, now God has rested from His work
in Christ, and there is a Sabbatismus. Now, if you are a Hebrew Christian,
and you need to use your imagination a little bit, and you are reading
your Old Testament, not in Hebrew, but in Greek. And you come to
Genesis 2 and Exodus 20 and other places in the Old Testament,
essentially you see some sort of Greek equivalent of the Hebrew
word Shabbat, Sabbath. And it's not quite Sabbatismus,
but it's something like that. And so you're reading this over
and over and over again, God rested in creation and therefore
we keep the Sabbath. I believe what the author of
Hebrews is saying here is that Christ rested from redemption,
therefore you keep the Sabbath too. Because there is a promise of
entering into God's rest, the people kept the Sabbath in the
Old Testament. Because there is a promise of
entering into God's rest for you in Christ, you are to keep
the Sabbatismos in the New Testament. There is a new Sabbatismos for
the people of God. And notice he does say, there
still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Maybe
the easiest way to do this is to tell you what I think he's
saying and then come back and try to prove it. I think what
he's saying is something like this. Because of what Jesus has
done in his life, death, and resurrection, you are to keep
the Sabbath day. As you keep the Sabbath day,
you are to anticipate heaven. Because in the Old Testament,
God rested at creation and the people kept the Sabbath day in
order to look to heaven, in order to look ahead. And he's essentially
telling the church that if you want to enter the rest that God
has promised, you must believe in the Lord and you must keep
the Sabbath. There's my summary. I think that's
what he's saying in the text. Now I want to back up and try
to demonstrate it. Again, this is a present rest that we have
entered into. The terminology and the vocabulary
unmistakably relates to the Old Testament Sabbath, and it is
clearly distinguished and related to the term rest in the rest
of the context. There is a rest, a katapausis, for the people
of God, therefore keep a sabbatismus, to look to God and to trust in
him. Well, really, this isn't going
to become completely clear, I hope, until we get to verse 12. But
I want to make a general application in light of what I said here
last week, as well as what we're getting into in Genesis in the
evening service. The basic cycle that God had
embedded into the creation itself was six days of labor followed
by a day of rest. This is not a sacred day for
rest. But this is, as John Owen put
it, a day for sacred rest. Now, what's the difference? I
just changed the order of the phrase. In other words, this
is not a day for idleness. This is not our day. This is
not a day to go and do what we please and what we want to do.
This is a day that is God's day, a day that in the creation He
set apart as holy, a day of sacred rest, a day of rest in which
the people in the Old Testament came to worship morning and evening
and dedicated their time to the Lord in the synagogues as well
as in the temple. A day which, just like the temple
itself, the priests, the vessels, everything else that was in the
service of God, was set apart as holy. A day that exclusively
belonged to the worship and to the service of God. What the
author of Hebrews is doing is writing to these Hebrew Christians
and saying, you've lived this way for centuries, one day a
week. You have kept this holy day to
the Lord because you hope to enter God's rest. And there is
this cycle embedded into the very fabric of creation that
God has designed to direct your heart and mind to heaven. And
what the author of Hebrews is saying is that's still here.
It's not gone. There's still a Sabbath keeping
for the people of God. Now, there's so much more that
needs to be said here. And I realize the issue that
I'm pressing is not as simple as it may sound on the surface.
For example, why are we here on Sunday instead of Saturday?
There are other issues involved. But hold that thought for one
moment. What the author is saying is
that this cycle continues. They were looking to the promise.
They, in verse 2, heard the gospel, just like you. They didn't believe
the gospel. You must. They didn't profit
from their Sabbaths and from entering into the land under
Joshua that you should by keeping a Sabbath to the Lord and looking
to heaven. This is why, by the way, the
PCUSA back in the 1840s said that a church without the Sabbath
is apostate. Because without a Sabbath day,
the church is essentially, whether it realizes it or not, declaring,
we don't need heaven. We don't need the pledge of it.
We don't need the promise of it. And there's no longer a sabbatismos
for the people of God. We rest in Jesus Christ. Now,
here's the first thing that I want you to realize. I've heard many
people say at this present day, and by the way, I think we are
largely people of our times. We don't live under the blue
laws anymore. We don't live at the time where
everybody virtually took it for granted. that there was a Christian
Sabbath, a Sabbatism lost for the people of God. We can't take
it for granted anymore. But the presumption used to be,
if you're a Presbyterian, you're a Baptist, you're a Methodist,
you're a Catholic, you're going to be keeping Sunday as the Sabbath. But now it's the other way around. This Sabbath rest is for the
people of God. I think this is an Old Testament
phrase. God tells the people in the book of Exodus, remember
my Sabbath, to keep it holy, to sanctify it, as a sign to
you that you are holy, that you are sanctified. In other words,
the Sabbath keeping of the people of God is a sign that you are
the people of God. that you've been set apart by
God to be His own. And the author of Hebrews is
writing and saying, Jesus has come and this hasn't changed.
The day has come, the day has changed, the ground of the rest
is different. The fullest expression of the
promise is here in a way that no Old Testament believer ever
knew. But there's still a Sabbatismus for the people of God. Maybe
the broad application I want to ask you is do you realize
the importance of the question? People dismiss it, oh not a big
deal, whether you believe there is such a thing as a Sabbath
day or not. Does the author of Hebrews think
that? Did Moses think that? Did the first century Jews think
that? And there are a host of other questions that we need
to study, but in my book, for example, on the Sabbath day,
I spend the first two chapters simply arguing with people why
you need to think about the question, because frankly, most people
don't. They don't want to. Now, here's how this functions
in the text, and this is the key. The Sabbatismos for the
people of God is an advantage. It's not a yoke and a heavy burden.
It's a blessing. It's a means that God has given
to direct them to eternal rest and all of the promises of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is where he makes the
transition, not only from the duty to keep the Sabbatismos
to the Lord, but the grounds for it, the reasons for it, and
this goes into verse 10. Now, I'm going to depart here
from the ESV in two ways, in verse 10 and verse 11, so I'm
telling you ahead of time. Here in the ESV it tells us,
whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works
as God did from his. Now, frankly, that stacks the
deck, because how does that read? That seems to mean anyone, anyone
who believes in Jesus, anyone who walks in his ways, anyone
who follows the teachings of Christ, who believes in his gospel,
he, whoever, man, woman, and child will enter into God's rest.
That's possible. That's a possible way of reading
the text. But I don't think it fits the
context. A better way to translate this is, he who has entered into
his rest has ceased from his works as God did from his. Not
whoever, but he. There is a shift here throughout
the chapter from the plural, addressing all the people of
God, to the singular in verse 10. And I don't believe that's
accidental. He's been stressing the fact
that all of you, every single one hearing this, must believe
in Jesus. You must enter God's rest. You
must persevere in the faith. But now He is saying that He,
singular, not y'all, but you, He, has ceased from His works just
as God did from His. Now, there's two ways to take
this. Either that it's referring to the believer, or that it's
referring to Christ. If it's referring to the believer,
you have something like this in view. He who has believed
in Jesus has stopped trying to earn his salvation. And he ceased from his works,
just as God did from his. So, he's entered into his rest.
Or maybe the variation of that is the believer, trusting in
Christ, enters into heaven. And he enters into heaven and
he rests. Now, that's possible. But this is where you need to
stretch your brains for just a moment, because I know this
is hard. In fact, the next chapter, the author is going to tell us
that a lot of this is difficult to explain. The other interpretation is that
Jesus rested from his work of redemption in a way that is comparable
to God resting from his work at creation. I believe that's the only thing
that fits. Just think about the argument. Let us fear lest we come short
of God's rest. God rested on the Sabbath day. After six days of creation, he
set not only a pattern for your rest, but he sent a promise for
your rest. Joshua did not fulfill the promise
when he brought the people into the promised land, but someone
else did. And that is he who has entered
into his rest. That is Jesus, because He has
ceased from His works in a way, in the only way, that is comparable
to God ceasing from His works in the six days of creation.
He's comparing creation and redemption. Why should you keep a sabbatismos
to God? Because Jesus Christ died and
He rose from the dead. And He rose from the dead to
die no more. He has ceased from his works,
and just as God rested on the seventh day, Jesus sat down at
the right hand of the Father, and that's how the book of Hebrews
begins. This is the only possible rest and work that is comparable
to God resting in creation. Now, think about it. Is he really
saying, let us keep a Sabbath as the people of God, because
you, the Christian, have rested from your works in Jesus Christ
in a way that is comparable to God resting from his works of
creation." I think that's nonsense. Maybe
someone can show me different. I think he's saying this. You
need to keep the Sabbatismos because Jesus' rest parallels
God's rest. God created and brought in a
Sabbath. Jesus redeemed and brought in
a Sabbath. This is why we see in the New
Testament that when Jesus rose from the dead, have you ever
noticed the dimension of the days in the New Testament? It
doesn't say Jesus came and he met with Peter on the third day
of the week. The church gathered in the book
of Acts on the fifth day of the week. Never, not once. There are only two days that
are actually mentioned in the New Testament. The Jewish Sabbath,
in which they still gathered on Saturday in the synagogues
and the first day of the week or the Lord's Day, as John uses
the phrase, is it really accidental? The author of Hebrews is saying
there's a Sabbath for you based on the redemption of Christ. And if we're to ask the question,
when is that Sabbath? Well, then we would ask, when
did Jesus enter into His rest? Really, the answer is it began
at the Resurrection. Now Christ has moved from being
humiliated and suffering, bearing the wrath of God to the beginning
of His exaltation. And His work is coming to a close. It is completed. And in His glorified
state, His resurrected state, rather, He appears to Peter on
the first day of the week. He appears to the disciples of
the seaside on the first day of the week. He meets with the
church gathered in Acts 20 on the first day of the week. He
commands to Paul that the church take the collection in 1 Corinthians
16 on the first day of the week. John is in the Spirit, in the
book of Revelation, on the Lord's Day. And maybe that last reference,
though it seems the most obscure, relates most directly to our
text. The author of Hebrews is saying, keep a sabbatismos, keep
a Sabbath, to look to glory, to look ahead, to look to rest
in the future in Christ. And what's going on? John is
in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And what does he have visions
of? The day of the Lord, the coming of Christ. He has visions
about other things. There are present, real-life
events going on then that the book of Revelation addresses
immediately. But how does it end? It ends
with the return of the Lamb and the final completion of the new
heavens and the new earth. On the Lord's day, he had a vision
of the day of the Lord. His sabbatismos was pointing
to God's katapausis. It was directing him to this
heavenly rest and this glory to come. And in some sense, him
being on the Spirit on the Lord's day sets the tone of the entire
book, even though it seems incidental. Now, let's bring this back to
ourselves and figure out what this is saying. It's saying something
like this. You must be Sabbath keepers if
you're the people of God. Just as the people of God have
always kept a day holy to the Lord, you need to keep a sabbatismos. And why do you need to do so?
Because Jesus has finished His work. And Jesus' finished work is so
great and so glorious, the only point of comparison that you
have is God making the heavens and the earth by speaking it
into existence in six days. And Jesus far outshines those
original six days. And He's essentially telling
you this, that every Sunday, every time you gather to keep
this Sabbatismos as the people of God, You are celebrating the
glorious finished work of Jesus Christ. Every time you walk in
these doors on the Lord's Day, if you're thinking about what
you are doing, you are making a confession that Jesus is risen. It's Easter today. It's Easter
last Sunday. It's Easter next Sunday. It's
Easter the Sunday after that. Jesus is risen. That's why we're
here. And I ask you as you come into
these doors this day, are you keeping a sabbatismos to the
Lord? Are you regarding the day as a great means to point to
him who entered into his rest just as God did from his? This
day is screaming to you that Christ's work is finished. That
you must rest in his finished work, not your own. That you
must trust in the one who entered into his rest. so that you may
enter into yours. And God has given you a day to
remind you of it every single week. And what a glorious thing
that is. Do you see, dear friends, how this is a benefit? Owen mentions
at this particular stage that some vainly assume the Sabbath
belonged to the Old Testament church and not to the New. And he asks an interesting question.
When we deal with the New Covenant, the Gospel that we hear today, we read continuously of added
benefits. That's the whole purpose of Hebrews
8. It's a new covenant. It's a better
covenant. It has better promises. And these
people under the lesser covenant in the Less glorious promises
had one day a week to direct them to heaven and really to
the coming of Christ. Are we less privileged than the
Old Testament saints? Has God taken away the greatest
advantage that he has ever given to human beings to direct into
a heavenly life? Can we really imagine such a
thing? Now, again, that raises more questions than it answers,
I'm sure, for some of us. But in the providence of God,
this is our text. We're not dealing with everything
the Bible has to say about this, simply what I think the author
of Hebrews is stressing. Do we value this Sabbath rest
of the people of God? And then he ends with an exhortation
which I want to adopt as my own conclusion. Verse 11. Let us, therefore,
strive or be diligent to enter that katapausis. Now he goes back to the terminology.
You have a sabbatismos that remains for you to keep as the people
of God. It's grounded in the finished work of Jesus Christ,
which is comparable to God's work in creation. Therefore,
let us strive to enter the katapausis, the final rest of God. We keep
the Sabbatismos, we observe the Sabbath day, we rest in Him who
has rested from His works. Therefore, let us be diligent
to press onward and upward. Let us go further up and further
in by faith in Jesus Christ and by resting in Him in all things. What he's saying is you can't
put off thought of heaven for tomorrow. I've had the experience,
and maybe you've had it as well, that there are certain people
that you will talk to, and when they're well, they don't want
to talk about death, because it's a morbid thought and it
depresses them. But when they're ill, they don't
want to talk about death, because they want to live. And the question remains, when
is the good time to talk about it? Is there no time? What the author
of Hebrews is stressing in some sense is it's always time. Not
because we want to think about our end, not because we want
to die, but because for the believer we can flip that over. There
may be a dreadful end and a dreadful judgment to those who are not
resting in the finished work of Jesus and who don't know the
true and living God. But there's a catapalsis for
the people of God. There's a rest that is awaiting
you. And so direct your attention to it and you have one seventh
of your time dedicated by God himself for no other purpose
than to make you think about verse 11. Let us be therefore
diligent to enter that rest. When shall I do that, Lord? Well,
every day, preferably, but at least one seventh of your time.
I've used this illustration in a different context. If you thought
about, if you lived in another country for one-seventh of your
life, what would happen to you? Well, you would probably pick
up the customs. You might start wearing the clothes.
You might pick up the accent. If there's a different language,
you might learn the language. And there's going to be something
in you, something inbred into you, maybe that you yourself
can't even put your finger on, that is going to reflect the
culture that you spent one-seventh of your time in. I spent, I'm
only 35 now, and I spent about 10 years in South Carolina. And
there's a certain sense where I'm a Californian, and there's
another sense where I'm a Southerner. And I've got both of those things,
interwoven, from spending the time in a different place. Many
of you in this room are from other countries, and you know
exactly what this is like. Moving to this country, there
are certain things that still define you, in terms of where
you've lived, where you've come from, your family, your culture,
and so on. But there are other things that you pick up here.
Language and speech and behaviors that are appropriate here, and
maybe not be other places. This is what the Sabbath is like
for the Christian. It's like spending one-seventh
of your life in heaven, at least in a foretaste of it. Therefore, let us be diligent,
he says, to enter into that rest, lest one may fall by the same
sort of, here it has disobedience. I want to translate this unbelief.
I'm not going to go into all the reasons, because it's the
same reason I took the terms at the end of Chapter 3 as unbelief
instead of disobedience. The idea here is not that they
are disobeying a command of God so much as they are neglecting
a promise of God. They are not believing what God
said He would do, and because they are not believing, they
are not acting. They're not responding in obedience
because they have responded in unbelief. and their unbelief
led them to disobedience. The ideas are connected, but
it's the same term, it's the same idea that we saw earlier.
So here is the conclusion of the whole thing. These people
in the Old Testament under Moses in the wilderness had all the
same promises preached to them that you're hearing as Christians
today. And they died. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness,
they didn't believe God, They didn't obey God, even though
they had all of these advantages and all of these blessings. And
now what he's really saying is, what are you going to do? There
remains a sabbatismos for you, a means God has appointed to
look ahead. There is this great grounds to see the finished work
of Jesus Christ as the grounds for your resting in God. And
therefore, listen. Don't follow the bad example.
And I'm not saying this hypothetically, I'm addressing you directly. Don't follow the example of unbelief. Look to him who finished his
work. Use the Sabbath as a means to make you a heavenly-minded
Christian. Flee from your sins, from your righteousness, from
anything other than Christ, and rest in him who rested from his
works. Be diligent to enter that rest,
lest you fall in the same example of disobedience. I want to close
with a few simple observations here about the Christian life
in relation to this text. Owen says that the pattern God
created that the creation was something like this. Six days
you work and then you rest. But the pattern now that the
Christian has is rest and then work. What does he mean? Well, in light of the text, what
he means is, look to him who entered into his rest, that is
Christ, who ceased from his works. Trust in Him, not in yourself. And then, in light of it, work
because you're at rest. Because you have peace with God,
you can work, you can strive, you can press onward. And if
you've not begun here, by looking to Him who has entered into His
rest, then anything else you want to say about a good and
obedient life is on the wrong foundation. You're beginning
on the wrong foot and not starting where the author takes you to
start. Go back to my runner. This is
like the runner and he's running the race, but he's on the wrong
track. And he's got the wrong shoes.
And he's going the wrong way. Are you beginning? The rest of
Christ. from his finished work, that
you may work and you may labor. Those who were here for the Sunday
school class heard me mention verse on five. We are told that
if we love him, we will keep his commandments. And the commandments
are not burdensome, and the question has been raised. Some say, well,
the commandments are pretty burdensome. They show me I'm a sinner. They
show me that I am disobedient and that I'm condemned and I
can't do anything about it. That's a burden. And therefore,
what the text must mean is, I need to look to Christ who bore the
burden for me. That's true. That's emphatically
true, but it's the wrong doctrine from the wrong text. What he's really saying is something
like this, and I want to superimpose that text with the one I'm preaching. You who believe in Jesus Christ
are already resting in Christ and have peace with God. Therefore,
out of that love for Christ, out of that rest in Christ, love
Him and keep His commandments. That's what the author is saying
here. Why should I persevere as a Christian? Why should I
continue to do good to others with no thanks in return? Why should I exercise hospitality? Why should I persevere with children
that frequently, continually disappoint in not listening to
instruction? Why should I persevere against
sin and temptation? Much easier to ignore it. The answer is because Christ
has entered into his rest and you're entering it. Now work. Get to work. Because you're at
rest. And you're at peace. And it's
then and only then that his commandments will not be burdensome. Let us
pray. Father in heaven, we thank you
for your word. We thank you for your kindness and your love to
us. We ask that you would help us to understand this great portion
of scripture better. And we pray that we would rejoice
in this blessed Lord's Day as a means to direct us to Christ,
as rested from his works, even as you did from yours, O Father,
in the creation of the world. Bless us as we continue in worship
and be glorified through all that we do and say. In Christ's
name, Amen.
#26 A Sabbath Remains for the People of God
Series Hebrews
| Sermon ID | 82414157258 |
| Duration | 46:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 4:9-11 |
| Language | English |
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