Rest In Peace - [Hebrews 4:1-5]

Rest Through Christ Instead of Rest in Peace

To go across the street or down the street to the cemetery. I tell the men, bring your Bibles and off to the seminary we go for preaching practicum. And we go over to the tombstones and find a nice little spot there and I make the men preach to the tombstones.

Some of you are smiling, you've been there. As an object lesson, you say, what kind of object lesson could that be? Well, men, you need to preach the word of God and your words will fall on deaf ears unless God quickens them and makes them active in the life of people.

There's another illustration. If you preach to unbelievers, they're like dead men walking, dead women walking, and it takes the power of God to make them alive through the word. And so get used to preaching to tombstones and to dead men walking.

Now, when I look at some of those tombstones, they have interesting things on them. They have death angels, right? The soul will be taken away by a death angel unto heaven. Maybe they have, I've seen some here that have Red Sox banners on the top of them, big poppy signs, things like that.

I know I can't control what you do to my tombstone once I die, but please, no Celtics swag. Sometimes I see something at the top of a tombstone, very common, says R .I .P. on top of it. What does that mean, R .I .P.?

Why would you put that on top of a tombstone? Well, it's an abbreviation of the Latin requiscat and passe, rest in what? Peace, rest in peace. Now, the good thing about rest in peace is it recognizes there's a judgment day.

You could rest in anxiety, you could rest in torment, you could rest in fear, you could rest in the presence of Almighty God and His judgment. It recognizes that one day that body will be reunited with the soul and stand before God.

Is it okay to pray for someone to rest in peace after they die? This year, members of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland called on Protestants everywhere to stop using the phrase rest in peace. Wallace Thompson, the secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society, said on a BBC radio show, stop using R .I .P.

Quote, from a Protestant point of view, we believe that when death comes, a person either goes to be with Christ for all eternity or into hell. When death comes, that decision has been made and no decisions are made after death.

Since there's no purgatory, since we can't pray people out of the grave or out of hell, why say rest in peace? Now, there's something called a requiem or the requiem mass, and it starts off with grant them eternal rest, O Lord.

As you know, the Roman Catholic catechism teaches, quote, from the beginning, the church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffragette for them above all the Eucharistic sacrifice so that thus purified they may attain the vision of God.

Here is the mass for the dead. Quote, it starts off this way, eternal rest give to them, O Lord. Rest in peace. And let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn, O God, becometh thee in Zion. A vow shall be paid to thee in Jerusalem.

O Lord, hear my prayer. All flesh shall come to thee. Eternal rest give to them, O Lord. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. O Lord Jesus, King of glory, deliverer of souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the deep pit.

It goes on, gentle Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, grant them eternal rest. May light eternal shine on them, O Lord, with thy saints forever. For thou art kind.

Eternal rest give to them, O Lord. And it closes with the words, may the angels receive them in paradise. At thy coming may the martyrs receive thee and bring thee into the holy city, Jerusalem. There may the chorus of angels receive thee.

And with Lazarus, once a beggar, may thou have eternal rest. I can't think of anything more sad than that prayer. It's heartbreaking to think that people are going to pray for one that's already deceased to give them rest.

Would you like eternal rest when you die? Did you know you can have eternal rest now? Do you know you can know that you have eternal rest now? Please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews. Rest for your soul.

You congregation, you Christian, you unbeliever even, you don't have to wait until you die to know you have hope and rest in Christ Jesus. You don't have to have a mass for you when your dead body lays there to have somehow people pray you out of purgatory.

You can know today. How would you like to have spiritual rest for your soul? It's found in the person and work of Christ Jesus. This is so fantastic because we are freed from the slavery and the shackles of somehow being in a works system.

And then when we die, we hope our friends pray us out. How about when you live, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? It's about trusting in Him, the one who gives eternal rest now. You can know for sure that you have rest before God, spiritual rest.

Everything is accomplished for you to get to heaven. You need to add nothing. Good thing because if we had to add something, what would we add? How much would we add? How sincere would our additions have to be?

How perfect would they have to be? But everything is done. You can rest in peace now, Christian. And even if you're an unbeliever, you can trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and have rest for your souls. Now, what's so great about the book of Hebrews is that everything spirals around Jesus and he is better.

There's language of he's better than angels, better hope, better covenant, better promises, better sacrifices, better country, better resurrection. And if I was going to have a practical application, better funeral services, better memorial services.

It's fascinating when I think about that. Mark Westcott's funeral, for instance. Mark Westcott's home going to heaven. Do you think, you know what? Far from a perfect man but trusting in the perfect one.

When he dies, what happens? Absent from the body? I hope they pray for my rest. To live is Christ. To die is, please, I hope my friends and family won't forget me. Pray me out. I need rest. Of course not.

Absent from the body, present with the Lord. To live is Christ. To die is what? Gain. Because someone has gained it for you. Someone has earned it for you. Besides the word better in Hebrews, there's another word in Hebrews that is often used and that's the word great.

Great salvation. A great high priest. Great tabernacle. Great cloud of witnesses. Great shepherd of the sheep. Something, someone who's great and his name is Christ Jesus. If you'd like to know the summary of the book of Hebrews, it's this.

When you understand the great high priest, the person who's the God man, who stands between the Father and us as representative and substitute, as a high priest who offers not a sacrifice of lambs, but he himself is the sacrifice.

That knowing that you have a high priest, that should drive you to Jesus, not away. That should make you think, I have comfort in Christ Jesus. I have access through Christ Jesus and it should make me draw toward him, not away from him.

These people were Jewish, most of them, receiving this letter, this sermon, and they realized trials were making them run away. And the writer says, no, don't do that. He says back in chapter one, I know you love the prophets.

Jesus is greater than the prophets. I know you think angels are impressive and they are. Jesus is greater than the angels. Why? Because angels aren't human. Humans need a human representative, not an angel representative, to identify with humanity, to destroy the devil and his minions.

And so we move to chapter four today. Some of you I know last week didn't think I really was done with chapter three. You know what? Technically you're right, because we're going to start four, but dip our toes back into chapter three today, as we march through the book of Hebrews verse by verse.

If you're a visitor here today, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church. We are a church that teaches you the Bible. Here's my goal. One of my goals is that if you go home and read Hebrews 4 tonight, you'll understand it better.

Not because you'll say, well, Mike gets things from that text that I could never see. If that happens, run. What I want you to say is, I can now see things in context, and I see where he gets those things.

I can see for myself. You have very generously and graciously paid for my bills so I could study all week. Instead of me going out to be an electrician and then try to study at night and when I could, you've said, Mike, we'll take care of you and your family, as Scripture talks about, so you can study, so you can bear down on the Word so that we can understand God's Word better and then praise God commensurate to what we know.

And so that's what we're about here today is just teaching the Bible. I remember Steve Nelson years ago. I was thinking about him because he called me this week and we talked a little bit. He was a member here before he moved and disobeyed God's will for his life.

When Steve would visit churches, he would sit out in the parking lot to see how many people carried Bibles in because if they didn't carry Bibles in, this was especially before electronic Bibles, he'd be like, I don't really want to go to that church because I want to go to a church where they open the Bible.

Churches are even called that sometimes, the church of the open Bible. So I want you to see with your own eyes the glories of Christ in this book because I can't be there when you have trials always. I can't be there when you're talking to other people about Jesus, so I want you to see so you can have this book open.

So let's read Hebrews chapter 4 to start. We're not going to exposit or preach on the whole chapter, but I want you to see it and here's the main reason I want you to see it. There's a repeated word in Hebrews 4 and that's the key to the chapter.

It's the word rest, resting in Christ Jesus, resting in peace because Jesus has done the work. You will see the word rest over and over and over and the theme is entering God's rest. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, reading from the ESV.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

For we who have believed enter that rest. As he said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God has rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day, today saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

Hebrews 4 .8, for Joshua had given them rest. God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Since then 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews chapter 4 is about rest, entering the rest through faith. This is an often overlooked topic, the concept of rest. In 1933, Gehard Varad said, among the many benefits of redemption offered to man by Holy Scripture, that of rest has almost been overlooked in biblical theology.

It's true, how often do you hear sermons about rest? But it's to our own detriment. Maybe we'll call today systematic theology that discusses rest, termed by Mike Abendroth as restology, a study of the word rest.

Now going from chapter 3 to chapter 4 is pretty amazing because it's a stark difference. Unbelievers in chapter 3, be careful. With the backdrop of Psalm 95, the people are dying in the wilderness, they're not entering into the rest of the promised land physically, temporally.

Be careful, watch out, be on guard. And now he's talking to Christians about promise of entering the rest. F .B. Meyer said, the contrast between the third and fourth chapters of this epistle is very marked.

The former is like a dreary November day, when all the landscape is drenched by sweeping rain, and the rotting leaves fall in showers to find a grave upon the damp and muddy soil. The latter, chapter 4, is like a still, clear day in midsummer, when nature reveals in reposeful bliss beneath the unstinted caresses of the sun.

Now that's a little too wordy for me, that reminds me of 8th grade creative writing class. But the point is still true. There's a difference between Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, and then you turn to the smiling face of chapter 8, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

It's almost the same kind of contrast as we move into chapter 4. There's an encouragement for the Christian, rest in Christ Jesus. There's an encouragement to people who aren't Christians, rest in Christ Jesus.

The promise of rest for those who believe to rest. Arthur Pink said, There is no sin so great, but it may be pardoned if the sinner believe. But he that believeth not shall be damned. And so Hebrews chapter 4, verses 1 to 5, let's call entering God's spiritual rest, and let me give you three words to help outline this section, chapter 4, verses 1 through 5.

Or maybe I could give you three statements, if you like, three certainties. Number one, found in verse 1, if you're looking for an outline, rest is a big deal. That's in the vernacular. I could say this, there's nothing more important than to rest in Christ Jesus.

You should be motivated to rest in Christ Jesus, verse 1. Let's read it and then look at it a little bit. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

And the first thing you realize is there's a connection between chapter 3 and chapter 4, because how does verse 1 start? Therefore. Lots of times in Hebrews, he gives a therefore, because he wants to spur people on to do something, or to believe something, and that's similar here.

He says the same thing in verse 11 at the end of the thought paragraph. Therefore, let us strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sword of disobedience. So he's talking about rest, and of course, that's not physical rest.

It's spiritual rest. Salvation was accomplished by Jesus. Salvation was achieved by Jesus. Remember, there are two religions of the world. This is what I was taught in seminary. The religion that says work to get to heaven, be good to get to heaven, be nice to get to heaven, be baptized to get to heaven, go to confirmation to get to heaven, have people pray for you to get to heaven when you're dead.

There's all these things you have to do, do, do, do, do. And by the way, if you had to get to heaven that way, would you have any kind of rest? There'd be no rest for you because how much do I do? I mean, I say this all the time, but if you thought you'd have to do N to get to heaven, the algebraic equation when you have N, it would be N plus 1 in your mind.

I always need to do more. I never can do enough. I mean, how perfect is God? How imperfect am I? How sincere must my works be? It is work, work, work, work, work. Can you imagine building the Tower of Babel to try to get up to heaven and earn your salvation?

It's exhausting. The perspiration, the sweat, the toil. You wouldn't want to go to bed at night, would you? If you really had to get to heaven by your good works, would you ever stop? On my less than nicer days, when Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door and try to give me spiritual strychnine, trying to damn my family by telling me, you get to heaven by works, I've been known to say a variety of things to them.

I didn't mean that. That's funny. I've said to them, this is my property. You can stay as long as you want. As soon as you begin to talk though, you can get off my property. If you want to listen to me talk, this is my house.

They're like, you don't have to be so uppity. I've also said to them, you know, by the way, I know your doctrine and there's 144 ,000 of you that get to the real heaven. In the last 20 years of my life, I've met a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses that work a lot harder than you do.

You better get a move on. I hope you're not calling it quits at 5 p .m. Because you've got to work to get to heaven. How many shoes would you have to wear out to work, to work, to work, to work? But there's another religion, and it's the only religion, it's the true and undefiled religion, that says this, somebody else did all the work.

When Jesus got baptized by John, it wasn't because Jesus was sinful, it's he was accomplishing my salvation and it was righteousness that he was earning to credit to my account by perfectly keeping the law.

How many times do you have to break the law to be condemned? James 2, verse 10 says, one time, work, work, work, work, work is that religion. This religion is simply rest, rest by faith, rest by trusting, resting by saying, Jesus in the Bible said he did all the work and he accomplished the Father's will and I take his word for it.

If I don't take his word for it, like, well, Jesus, I don't think you did enough. I think maybe some of your deeds were sinful, you don't have the right motives, Jesus, that you didn't accomplish this properly, you could have had a better attitude, you just did it externally but not internally and the list could go on, shaming Jesus instead of saying, do you know what?

I realize I contribute nothing but sin, but God, I trust what you did. There's two religions, human accomplishment or divine achievement and this second one is the one where we can say, and since we're saved, of course, we do things in evidence of our salvation.

But what's happening here in chapter 4 verse 1, you might think of it wrongly, if you see that word, let us fear, like it's a perfect love cast out fear, why is he saying fear here? Well, this is certainly, everyone would agree, a godly fear.

This is a fear that says, in light of the truths of chapter 1, 2 and 3, I need to do something about this. I've only jumped out of an airplane twice regarding skydiving, but if I was the jump master, there would be a godly fear that I would have to go check the chutes to make sure they were right before I gave them to my mother and my daughter and my wife.

I would want to check and recheck to make sure, that's the language here, action oriented, stimulating me to make sure everything is right, all the equipment and the, I almost said zip line, but zip line doesn't work with parachuting.

All the cable ties were just right. Ah, you know what, they're packed by the government, their old army issue, they're going to open up, no big deal. They're disastrous consequences to not resting in Christ by faith.

Israel was the example, all the bodies are on the ground. So they're disastrous consequences to not taking faith in Christ seriously. So let us fear to make sure we're entering that rest by faith. Jewish people, don't go back.

Don't fall short. Now the word is phobeo, it means where we have our word phobia, and it could mean just general fear, I'm afraid of something. But most every commentator will say something like this, quote, the kind of fear which is recommended here, is that which leads to caution and care, end quote.

The reformed expository commentary says this, the point is to say, therefore let us be alarmed at the prospect, given this decisive age of opportunity and testing, that any of you should not press on to salvation.

And the writer here, brings himself in, does he not? Look at chapter four, verse one. Let us, not you, but us, every one of us, needs to make sure we persevere in our faith. It's a big deal. The sin of unbelief we saw last week, is the worst sin, not taking God at his word.

John Owen said, the fear intended in this verse is a combination of two things. First, it is a reverent understanding of God's holiness and greatness, and his severity against sin. Second, it is using the means of grace, carefully to avoid the evil of unbelief and disobedience.

Since God is such a great creator, since God is such a great redeemer, since God is such a great saving God, we need to make sure we enter by faith. And amazingly, there's this promise. In a day where promises, are few and far between, or at least people keeping their promise.

Chapter 4 verse 1 says, while the promise of entering his rest, still stand our stands. I don't know if you have those little books, God's little promise books. When we used to go to CBD, we could buy a lot of those, God's promises, and they had all the promises of God, found in the Bible, and you could just read the promises of God.

The bad news about that little book was, sometimes it would take promises for Israel, and make them for us, and Jeremiah 29, 11, and all these things. You think the promises of God. If anybody could make a promise, it would be God.

If anybody could keep his promises, it would be God. His promises probably should be something like, you know what, the wages of sin is death, and let's make sure we judge all these people. Well, that's true, except God's promises stem from his loving nature, and his gracious nature.

And did you know, what book in the Bible, has the word promise in it, more than any other book? Galatians is number 2 at 10, talking about the promises of God. If you want the promise book, not sold at CBD, but found in the Bible, it's the book of Hebrews.

14 times, the word promise is found. And here, as you look at the verse, the promise of entering his rest still stands. In other words, you're not a believer, you're alive today, believe the promise of entering his rest, where God says, you come to me by faith, it's still open for you.

Hebrews chapter 6, if you just turn there quickly, discusses the promises of God. Everywhere you go in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, promises of God. Let's just look at this one for a moment. God makes promises.

Hebrews 6, 11, and we desire each one of you, to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope, until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those, who through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he has no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly, to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge, might have strong encouragement, to hold fast to the hope set before us. Now for me this is important, for you it's important, to just sit and think, God makes promises, and he keeps them.

The faithfulness of God, therefore, know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, Deuteronomy 7. By faith even Sarah herself, received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful, who had promised.

Deuteronomy 32, the rock his work is perfect, his ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without injustice. God is faithful to promise, rest for people. And I would say this, good thing God has made this promise, and will keep it by his power, because if we could unsave ourselves, or prevent salvation, we would.

Look back up at chapter 3 for a moment, Hebrews chapter 3. It's almost like the promise of God, is set against, the deceitfulness of sin. You see what's going on in 3 .13, remember? But exhort one another every day, to keep believing as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened, by the deceitfulness of sin.

Good thing we have the promises of God, because sin is a deceiver. Sin advertises one thing, and gives you another. Some of you have, heard the story about P .T. Barnum, that circus showman. And he had an animal museum in Manhattan, long ago.

And the thing is, when people would go into this animal museum, they so liked it, that you, had a hard time getting them out. It's like when you go see the, the jewels of England, and the crown jewels.

I don't know if you've been there, in London, but there's a little kind of conveyor belt. Who's been there? And so you look at them. Some people proudly raise their hand. Yes, I have. And when you look at these crown jewels, you're on a conveyor belt.

Because it's slowly moving you across, like, stop. No, go. We've got other paying customers. So that's why you have to do the Michael Jackson thing, right? I've never done that in the pulpit in my life.

So, Barnum didn't have electricity to do anything, so he thought, you know what, here's what we're going to do. Over the door of this entrance to this animal thing, he put tigress. Everybody, you know, walked in there to see these great tigress, and her cubs.

So he thought, how do I get people out of here? And so the exit door, he put to the egress. For those of you that know English words, egress. The tigress is in here, and egress means just to go out. It's like an exit sign, but it rhymes with tigress.

Thinking they'd go see some other animal, they walked out. There has to be the promise of God kept by God, made by God, insured by God, because sin is going to trick us. It's going to deceive us. You might ask, how does sin deceive?

Let me give you a variety. I mean, this is really the bulk of what I want to talk about today, is how sin deceives. Because if you recognize the insidious nature of sin deceiving, you'll think, oh, I'm standing on the promises of God.

Reminds me of my friend who, his wife died of cancer. They had the choice. She was pregnant with little Whitney, and they'd made the choice, either chemo kills Whitney, or they delayed the chemo, have Whitney, and then give the wife chemo, and my friend lost his wife, and Whitney's now alive, and a Christian young lady.

And there's that ultimate questions book by John Blanchard, and it shows a man standing on the Bible, and he's doing it with disdain and displeasure. Like, this is God's Word. I'll stomp on it. And little Whitney, when she was little, said, Daddy, that's a little picture that's standing on the promises of God.

I said, yes. Sin is so deceitful you've got to watch it. And maybe there are unbelievers here today tricking themselves by their own sin to not enter into the rest provided by the risen Savior. Let me give you some of these.

One, sin deceives by delaying repentance. Sin deceives by delaying repentance. So you can just imagine, the unbeliever says, well, you know what, I'll repent later. It's like Augustine's stages with sin.

Lord, make me good, but not yet, step one. Step two, Lord, make me good, but not entirely. Step three, Lord, make me good. 2 Corinthians 6, Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Sin is tricking people into delaying. Secondly, sin deceives by not showing all its cards at the beginning. The dire effects of sin are not seen early on. Listen to what Jesus says the end game of sin is.

Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 2 Peter 2 .4, For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

Three, sin deceives by saying hell isn't real or it doesn't last forever. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6. Let me tell you another way sin deceives. Sin deceives by saying live like you used to, but think you're fine with God.

Live like you used to, but think you're fine with your Maker. 1 Corinthians 6. We need the promises of God. Great is thy faithfulness, because sin personified will do everything it can to attack. It was attacking people back in the book of Hebrews by saying it was better to go back to Judaism.

1 Corinthians 6 .9. This kind of language is used here. Do you not know? Remember the Corinthians, they thought they knew everything. So he says, do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Why does he write that? Because it's easy to be deceived. Sin deceives. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, idolaters, what?

Shall not inherit the kingdom of God. A man came to my office one day and said, I'm struggling with the assurance of my salvation. I said, I'm sorry to hear that. Tell me about your life. He's living with his girlfriend.

I said, how long have you been living with your girlfriend? Ten years. He said, you call yourself a Christian? Yes. I read these verses. I said, friend, based on your own profession, I don't know your heart, but based on what you told me, in light of this verse here where it says, fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God, your problem is bigger than what you think it is.

If you were to die today without believing in Christ Jesus, without entering into his rest, you're going to go straight to hell. He had a panic attack that day, an anxiety attack that day. I'm not trying to drive anybody to a panic attack, but at least he had a conscience.

You watch the sinfulness and deceit of sin in our country today with leaders with this scandal. Calvin said it this way, the adulterer will condemn adultery in general, but privately flatter himself in his own adultery.

That's how sinfully deceitful sin is. If you're a Christian today, you're like, well, you know, this is going to help me or it should help me as I evangelize people who are ensnared to sin and slave to sin.