It's on the screen for you, but it also, if you're using the Pew Bible, it's page 832, if you are using that. And this is the text we will be looking at this morning. So I'll read the first verse, the verse there that's highlighted, we will read together. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And let's look to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you that we can come before your throne of grace. And so, Lord, this morning we come before your throne asking for your mercy and grace to help in this time of need. We pray, Lord, that you will help our attention to be focused upon your word. I pray, Lord, that you will give great clarity to what I say today. I pray that you will fill me with your spirit. I pray that I might be yielded completely to thee and that your word may be made very clear that Jesus Christ may be preeminent. So Father, I ask that you will just open our hearts, our minds today to hear what you have for us this day. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. A little more than a month ago, Pastor Endeen asked if I would preach this morning. And immediately, almost immediately, the Lord put this text on my heart. I say that because when we look at this text this morning, the subject about entering into his rest, there is a rest for the people of God. You may think that I chose this text this past week based on the circumstances of the week. God knew ahead what we needed. And so I find that amazing to see how God led to this particular text. several weeks ago, before any of the events this past week took place. There is a rest, the Bible says, to the people of God. And this text, actually chapters three and four of Hebrews, really probably should be one chapter. It really, both these chapters are discussing the same subject matter. How that God promised Israel he would give them his rest. I was reading a few weeks ago and I believe it was Numbers or Deuteronomy. And there clearly the Lord tells him if you obey my commandments, if you obey my word, I will give you my rest. But this text tells us that they did not have that rest. Verse 8 says if Joshua had given them rest and he would not have afterward have spoken of another day. They failed to enter his rest, our text tells us, because of their disobedience. We live in a world today that is increasingly restless. That is, there is little peace. This coronavirus has brought a panic rarely seen in this world and in this country. And it makes you realize how sensitive people are to the events of the world. And I've had people ask me interesting questions. Someone asked the question, well, is this a sign of the second coming? And there's actually a couple answers to that. In and of itself, no. It's very foolish and dangerous to take individual events and say that, oh, this is a sign, this is it, this is the apocalypse. My son called Leslie yesterday and said, asked if she could go to Costco with him. He said, I want to experience the apocalypse. I haven't experienced it yet. And they're a little disappointed. It wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. But yet, on the other hand, the Bible does tell us in Matthew 24, in the days leading up to the Great Tribulation, there'll be earthquakes, and one of those things is pestilences, and so my answer was, these are things that I frankly expect will get worse before the Lord returns. Someone told me the other day, I hope you're right about this rapture thing, because I don't wanna, if this is the way it is now, I don't wanna be here during the Tribulation. Well, you know, we chuckle about that, but that's true. The world is groaning. in travail, waiting for the coming of the Lord. And a secular society and people who have no comfort, no hope in God, no relationship with God, really have no answers for the deepest questions and deepest needs. And yet here in this text in Hebrews, particularly as we come to chapter four, we are reminded that there is something better. The book of Hebrews was written to the people of God that were scattered around and facing terrible persecution and terrible trials. And it is a reminder that we have something better. We have a better covenant with Jesus Christ. We have a better hope. We have a better sacrifice, a better priesthood, a better high priest. All these things are a reminder of what our relationship is with Christ and the beauty of that and the wonder that we have in our relationship with God. But here he tells us that even though Moses, who was a faithful servant of God, the people he led rebelled and they departed from the living God because of a heart of unbelief. Therefore God swore in his wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And yet he says in verse nine, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. It's interesting, preachers are a little bit hesitant to talk about rest because people interpret rest as laziness or inactivity. There is a rest for the people of God. That means it's not that we do nothing, that we sit back and say okay, No, but there is a peace, there is a confidence, there is a trust, there is a dependence, there is a place where we experience the blessings and the rest from God. There is a rest for the people of God. Rest is not idleness. In chapter four, one through 10, he sort of summarizes the lessons learned in chapter three of Hebrews. regarding the example of Israel who did not believe God and his word, and therefore they failed to obey him. Israel having heard, verse 16 says, rebelled against him. And those who God was angry with caused them to wander for 40 years, and he swore that they should not enter into his rest. When you think of Israel, it is amazing. In our Bible reading, we've been going through the history of Israel. And it is really incredible. I was really struck this time reading through the history of Israel, just the blatant unbelief of God's people. I mean, they were delivered out of Egypt through all these great miracles and plagues. And yet, almost as soon as they leave Egypt, they are questioning and complaining about what God has done. They finally come to the, to the promised land, just cross the river, the promised land, and they send the spies. The spies come back with negative reports. The people are fearful, and they refuse to go in. They're scared to go in. So God says, all right, you're going to wander for the next 40 years now in the wilderness till this generation dies off. And they say, oh, no, no, no, we'll go, we'll go. And God says, no, don't go. You'll die. You'll get killed. And sure enough, they send an army, and many of them are killed. The sons of Korah. gather against Moses, and they say, you've taken too much responsibility. Who gave you this right? And they begin to rebel against Moses' leadership. So God causes an entirely new thing, and Moses tells them to separate the people, and those who stood with Korah on one side were all together, and God opened the ground and swallowed them up. You know, what a visual lesson. You think he wouldn't forget that, right? Almost the very next day or very shortly after, they come and complain and says, you have killed God's people. I mean, I read that this time. I just about burst out laughing. I mean, amazing, amazing hardness of heart. And then we come to Kedesh and they are begging Moses for water. They complained against God at Mount Hor for leading, for the fiery serpents that God sent among them. They committed immorality with the daughters of Moab. We can go on and on, not to mention their complaints about the water, they're crying for food, God gives them manna, they complain about the manna, so God gives them quail to eat. They just constantly were bickering and complaining. But it's easy to point back at Israel, isn't it? Because they are, you know, ancient Israel, we can look back thousands of years and say, you know, tsk, tsk, tsk, you shouldn't have done that. But don't we do the same thing? We fail to obey. We fail to live by God's word. We fail to honor the Lord. We fail to trust God. So verse eight says that if Joshua, it's interesting that King James says Jesus, but it's the same name there. I think most of you understand that. If Joshua had given them rest, that he would not afterward have spoken of another day. but there does remain therefore a rest for the people of God. Not just a physical rest, but a rest for the soul. The question that often arises when looking at this text and this subject is, does this rest take place now or is this referring just to eternity? One commentator said that this is after death. As seen in Revelation 14, 13, it says, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them. Another commentator said, this is an experience which they do not enjoy in their present mortal life, although it belongs to them as a heritage. And by faith, they may live in the good of it, here and now. I would reverse his order a little bit and say this, that this is a rest into which a person enters through salvation. Salvation means to cease from one's works and rest securely on what Christ has done. And there is a sense in which we rest in him and which we enjoy that rest and that peace which comes from our relationship with him. And it does ultimately find its ultimate fulfillment, ultimate reward in eternity when there is no more trial and no more issues and troubles and we will live with him forever and ever. So I believe this is a rest that we as believers can know and experience today. And I think in the context that I'm gonna show you this morning, I think our context makes a big point of this. That this is not a rest just for eternity, this is a rest that you and I can know today. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. So based on that, there are three admonitions in the following verses. Verse 11, excuse me, through verse 16, there are three uses of the word therefore. Now the writer of Hebrews loves that word. It's all throughout the book of Hebrews. But there are three therefores. And as you always heard, so you always stop and see what therefore is therefore. There are three therefores that I think give us three admonitions in light of the fact that there is a rest for the people of God. Since there is a rest for the people of God, what must we do? What does that mean for us? So beginning at verse 11, it says, therefore we enter this rest by eagerly believing the word of God. He says, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is a warning here, first of all, he says, let us therefore be diligent. to enter that rest, lest, just in case, anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience as Israel did. It's a warning that we do not follow and make the same error that Israel made of unbelief that manifested itself in disobedience. The word here, diligence, or make diligence, means to make haste with eagerness. And what are we to do? We are to be eager to believe the word of God. The word that's translated as disobedience comes from the word petho, which means to persuade or convince. It's an interesting use of the word here, translated as disobedience. Israel's disobedience came about because they were not convinced of the word of God, the truth of God's word. That's why you have in the context verse 12, which we often quote, and often quote out of the context, And it's true, the power of the word of God, but the failure of God's people was not to believe, not to be convinced by the word of God. If we are to have the peace of God, if we are to enter the rest of God, we need to be convinced, persuaded of the truth of God's word. When I enter into salvation, I am convinced that I am a sinner. I am convinced that Jesus' death on the cross was sufficient for my sin. I'm convinced that Jesus paid the penalty for my sin. I'm convinced that if I put my trust in him, he will save me. I put my dependence on him. And we illustrate that in so many ways because we are convinced that if I call upon the Lord, whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved. I'm convinced of that. Likewise, as I grow in the Lord and continue my Christian life, I need to learn that just as I trusted the Word of God and were convinced by the Word of God for my salvation, I need to be convinced by the Word of God in every area of my life and let the truth of God's Word saturate my life and dominate my life and be the foundation for my actions. Notice how this is repeated in these chapters. Chapter three, here in Hebrews, verse 12, talks about how, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Chapter four, verse two, says, indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them. being mixed with faith in those who heard it, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. In other words, God's word was given clearly to the children of Israel. You read through the promises in Numbers, Deuteronomy. You read those promises through. God said, I will bless you. I will take care of you. I will defeat your enemies. I will do all these things for you. I will keep you from the pestilence. I will do all these things for you. But you need to trust me. You need to obey me. Keep my commandments diligently. The Word of God was preached to them, but it did not profit them because it was not mixed with belief, with faith. You see, this promise and this warning are both based on the Word of God, which is living, which is here described in verse 12 as sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces through the joints and marrow as quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the hearts. You see, God's word can reach to the innermost recesses of our being. We cannot bluff our way out of anything, for there are no secrets hidden from God. Therefore, to run from the word of God is to run from our sense of right and wrong and pursue selfish desires. You see, most people in this world live superficially. Most people really live in this world superficially. They do not live by conviction. that live by convenience. And sadly, even many professing Christians oftentimes live by superficial convenience rather than by conviction. And when we get into the word of God, the word of God cuts through all of that. And it begins to deal with our conscience and deal with our relationship with God and reveal us bare as who we really are. But that is the foundation upon which we have peace. Allowing God to do His work, knowing that I'm right with God, knowing that I've been saved, knowing that that I am depending and living by the truth of God's Word. My confidence is not in my actions. My confidence is not in what I do. My confidence is in God. My confidence is in the Word of God. And if I am following the promises of God's Word, I can take great confidence in Living by faith, not because I believe in myself or my own strength, but I believe in the truth and my confidence is firmly placed in the word of God. So here's the problem with Israel. The gospel was preached unto them, as he said, as it was to us, but did not profit them. Think of this. God spoke to them on Mount Sinai. They heard his voice. They saw the fire, they saw the cloud descend upon the mountain. In fact, they pleaded with Moses, no, you go speak to God. If he speaks to us, we're gonna die. So they heard his voice, but then they saw the ground swallow up Korah. They still rebelled. That's why the book of Hebrews a little earlier on says, therefore, we must give them more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels and proved steadfast, and every transgression and every disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, but was confirmed to us by those who heard him? Let me just challenge you for a moment. How will you escape the judgment of God, if you ignore what God has put in your life, the opportunities God has given you to listen to, hear, and to respond to His Word. Think about it just for a moment. How do we escape if you ignore the opportunities God's given you to hear the Word of God? We have more Bibles in our homes, typically, even unsaved people have more Bibles in their home. We have more access to the Word of God today through computer technology, internet. You can set that on your phone and you can, you probably got several different versions available to you at a click of your finger. We have the opportunities today to hear God's Word, to study God's Word, to have helps to study God's Word. How will we escape if we don't listen to what God's Word says? Many of you have had parents who have faithfully taught you God's Word. From a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures. You've been made wise to salvation. You've had parents who've lived godly lives before you, who have prayed for you. You have a church and pastors who have faithfully preached God's Word. I don't think the average person realizes how much an average pastor, Pastor Ken, for example, labors over the Word of God each week to present God's Word to you. It's not just a matter of so I can have a little speech to give. It's a matter of knowing what does the Word of God say? I want to present what God's Word says. Any true preacher of the Word of God who has a passion to communicate God's Word labors with that. I want to proclaim what the text says. I want to be able to present to my people so they understand it clearly. What does the text say? You have a church of pastors who faithfully preach and teach God's Word. Your knowledge and your awareness of the truth of God's Word, we know the Bible. Man, if we had a Bible trivia quiz, some of you could You know, hit the, I mean, you'd hit the jackpot if there was a reward for it. Think of what opportunities we have. And yet, I know what people do. They blame somebody else. I mean, that's human nature, isn't it? Well, my parents were inconsistent. Maybe they abused you and professed to be Christian. Maybe they did not live consistently. Or the church was filled with hypocrites. Or someone did not treat you fairly or were judgmental. Or the Christian school you went to may not have been fair or consistent. All of those things could be true, but none of it will stand in giving account of your soul before God. So he says here, let us be diligent to enter into that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. We enter this rest by eagerly believing and trusting and committing ourselves to the word of God. That's how we enter this rest. But secondly, we maintain this rest by clinging to our confession of faith. He says in verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Our confession is the acknowledgement that Jesus is our great high priest, that his work is finished on the cross. And as he has passed through the heavens to sit on the throne at the right hand of God the Father, he is not a human priest who makes atonement daily for us, but he has become sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Therefore, he says, let us continually and tenaciously hold fast this confession as we are challenged that the work is not finished and that we must somehow earn God's favor. For verse 10, he says, for he who has entered into his rest himself has also ceased from his works as God did for his. Just as God at creation looked at his works and said it was good so we can look to the cross of Christ his atoning death for us when he says it is finished and likewise say it is good. And I can now cease from my works to earn and merit the favor of God and trust completely in Christ and hold fast my confession, my standing before God. You know, some of the most intense conversations I've had with people regarding the gospel has been with those who have been convinced that Christ's death was not sufficient. and that somehow they must earn or deserve his favor. You know, you talk to people, especially those who have been involved with cults, those who have been involved in some type of works-based religion, and they will just argue with you till they're blue in the face, I have to be good enough, I have to earn, I have to do good, I have, there's no rest in that. There's no peace in that, because you never know whether you are good enough. whether you have attained, and if you think you have, you're just kidding yourself, because you really don't know that. Reminds me of the story of Naaman in the Bible, in the Old Testament. Remember, he was the great commander of the Syrian army who had leprosy, and his little servant girl said, there's a prophet of God in Israel who can heal you of this. And he comes before Elisha, bringing his soldiers and his following and gold and all the riches that he had and seeking to be healed. And the Bible says that Elisha didn't even go out to meet him. He sent a servant out, Gehazi out, and says, tell him to go dip seven times in the Jordan River. He'll be healed. Well, he was incensed. I expected him to come out and say some great thing, to wave his hand over me or do something. And he storms off in anger, and one of Naaman's servants says, Master, if he had told you to go do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? Why don't you just go do this simple thing that he's asked you to do? And the Bible says that Naaman went and he dipped in the Jordan, and the seventh time he dipped, he came up clean and cleansed. Likewise, there are many people today who are offended that their works are not good enough for God. We are often challenged to depend upon human schemes rather than depend upon the arm of God. That's why he tells us here, believer, hold fast your confession. Know what God has done for you. Live in light of the promise, live in the reality of your standing before God. Don't be swayed by the opinions of men. Be firm, hold fast to your confession of faith. This rest is entered in through by eagerly believing the word of God. Secondly, it is maintained by holding, by clinging to our confession of faith. But thirdly, it is nourished by coming boldly before his throne of grace. He says in verse 15, for we do not have a high priest, who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You see, we have a high priest who sits at the right hand of the throne of God. He knows our weaknesses, and he sympathizes with our weaknesses, And we are told to approach the throne of grace. This is the only place in scripture that I'm aware of where this term is used. It points to the sovereignty of God and his love for his children. And the grammar here literally is, let us keep on coming before the throne of grace. It's not just a one-time deal, but we continually come before the throne of grace. Notice that we approach the throne of grace. There is no human mediator. There's only one mediator between man and God. That's the man Christ Jesus. And we are to come boldly with confidence, not in ourselves, but in the word of God, and in our confession, and therefore standing before him. Our boldness is not brashness of faith, but it is confidence, it is dependence upon our God, and the word that he has spoken to us. We come that we may obtain mercy, that we may obtain mercy and find grace, to help in time of need. I don't suppose that you have ever needed God's mercy or his grace to help you in a time of need. Maybe with you, you have never had a loved one who is seriously ill or you yourself have been seriously ill or in danger. Maybe you've never faced financial hardship where you don't know what you're going to do or what's going to happen. Maybe you've never had problems in your relationships at home or at work that have left you restless and discouraged. Probably you've never been discouraged and depressed, finding any thought of life itself futile. You know, suicide in our society, among all ages, has become a tragic epidemic. As for many people, there appears to be no hope. Maybe you've not experienced any of life's hardships or disappointments. Well, I thank you for visiting us from heaven. But the rest of us need God's mercy and grace to help in time of need. And that grace and mercy comes as we boldly approach the throne of grace, dependent upon his word and his revealed will. I read a book a few months ago that has greatly impacted my prayer life. It's a book entitled Praying Backwards. And the point of the book is that we oftentimes, at the end of our prayer, tack on to the end of our prayer in Jesus' name. What does that mean, in Jesus' name? What that means is that we are asking the authority of Jesus Christ. We are submitting our prayer to the authority, to the will of God. And the point of the author was we should begin our prayer that way. We should start and say, what is the will of God? What has God revealed? What do we know to be the will of God in this matter? and then pray in accordance to that will of God. And when we do that, our confidence then is not in our prayer. You know, the Bible, Jesus talked about faith in a prayer, if you believe in a prayer. And sometimes we think, oh, our faith, our belief has to be in my prayer. I have to believe I prayed hard enough. I have to believe that I'm sincere enough. I have to believe that this or that about my prayer so that God will answer. No, our faith, our belief is in the word of God. sing God and if I am praying in the will of God and know that this is in line with the will of God, the Word of God, I can pray with great boldness because I know this is God's will. Obviously there are things sometimes we're not sure. what the will of God is. And those are things that we oftentimes pray and seek God's will about and submit our desires to the will of God. But we need to begin our prayer thinking about the will of God. And if we do that, we can come boldly before that throne of grace. So there remains a rest for the people of God. So what is that rest? try to, it's not a simple definition, but somehow define it for you. God's rest is the redemptive relationship we enter into through faith in God and his word. It's maintained by our knowledge of our standing in Christ and is nurtured by our continued access to his throne. There remains a rest for the people of God, a redemptive relationship we enter into through faith in God and his word, maintained by our knowledge of our standing in Christ and nurtured by our continued access to his throne. There's a rest for the people of God. What did Jesus say? Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and what? I will give you rest. He goes on a verse later to say, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. So I ask you this morning, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. Have you entered that rest? Is your rest in the God of the Bible? Is your rest in your relationship with him? Is your rest found in your standing before him? Is your rest found in your ability to go boldly before his throne so that you can receive grace and help in time of need? Have you entered into his rest? Let's bow our heads for prayer. And as we go to the Lord in prayer, I would just simply leave you this morning with that question, have you entered that rest? Do you know by faith that you have put your trust in Jesus Christ? Because you have faithfully believed, eagerly believed, accepted his word, Do you know you're standing before God, that you have a great high priest, that your sins have been atoned for? Do you know that? And with that, because of that, do you know that you can boldly come before his throne of grace? I may be speaking today to people who have never entered into his rest. It's interesting, in crises like this, where there's some type of issue going around, be it war or disease, people often go to church. I realize this is a little unusual, people often, because of the fear, staying away from assemblies. But you might be here and not know Christ as your Savior, wrestling with what is going on. I pray that God, who is in control, will use the events to draw people to Christ. Maybe this morning, one of those individuals is yourself, because you don't have the peace of God. But as our heads are bowed, eyes closed, you say simply, Pastor Ball, please pray for me. I am aware of my need. I know I need to get that need settled. God, speak into my heart. about my relationship with Christ. I need to enter that rest. And so heads are bowed, eyes closed. If you just indicate by a raised hand, I will not draw attention to you, call you by name. But I would like to remember you in our closing prayer this morning. I'm not sure of my salvation. I don't believe I've entered that rest. Pray for me. I know I need to be saved. Are there ones like that this morning? Pray for me. Just by upload the hand. I wonder, as a Christian, then, are you maintaining that rest through reminding yourself of your relationship with Christ? Are you nurturing that rest by approaching Him boldly, that throne of grace? I encourage you this morning, God, speaking to your heart, just quietly do business with the Lord. Quietly seek to have access to that throne of grace this morning. Father, we approach your throne boldly based on the merits of Jesus Christ and the work that he has done for us because of our standing in Christ and because of what you have promised us in your word. Lord, may we walk in faith. May we boldly approach your throne that we may obtain mercy and find help in time of need. Help us to be not like the children of Israel who did not enter into the rest that you had for them. But Lord, help us to enter into that rest. freely, eagerly, depending upon you and your word. Help us, Lord, to walk before you and to live confidence in our relationship with you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to stand and sing 366. Have thine own way, Lord. Let's stand together. God is speaking to your heart about some issue. Maybe you didn't raise your hand about salvation, but God is still speaking to your heart.