A Rest For Today (Hebrews 4:4-8)

Kootenai Church

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And please turn now to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, and before we begin, we're going to read verses 1 through 13 of Hebrews 4.

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Therefore let us fear, if while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

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For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

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For we who have believed enter that rest, just as he has said, as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

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For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

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And again in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day, today, saying through David, after so long a time, just as has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

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For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a

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Sabbath rest for the people of God, for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

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Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.

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For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two -edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are opened and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

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Let's pray. Father, it is our desire that you would speak to us through your word today.

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Help us to understand these difficult concepts in this passage. I pray that my words may be clear, and the intention and thoughts of our hearts may be laid bare before you, who see everything and know everything.

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We pray that you would encourage us, and equip us, and edify us, and exhort us, and even rebuke us from your word if necessary.

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Encourage our hearts together this morning as we read and study this passage, and may you be glorified through our time and our study that we may know your word, and in knowing your word, we may know you, the only living and true

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God, and that we may obey you and give glory to you, for you are due all of that and so much more.

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So, we pray your blessing to that end today in Christ's name. Amen. Well, this idea of rest that we have been looking at here in Hebrews chapter 4, it is,

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I think, one of, not necessarily the, but one of the most beautiful ways of describing salvation that we find anywhere in Scripture.

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There is something about that just as a picture of salvation, and a beautiful one at that, that captures an element of salvation that we very seldom really think of.

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We think of salvation in terms of being delivered from God's wrath. We think of salvation in terms of having our sins forgiven, and even being justified and declared righteous in the sight of God.

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We think of salvation in terms of its permanence and its enduring quality and heaven, but we seldom think, at least we who are

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Gentiles in the Western Hemisphere, seldom think of salvation in the terms described here in chapter 4 as rest, and yet it is a beautiful picture of salvation, because it captures the essence of salvation that kind of focuses on the peace and the tranquility that comes with being in Christ.

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It captures that part of salvation where we stop striving from our own works of righteousness and our own efforts and the treadmill of human achievement and human merit, and simply trust in the works of another.

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It kind of pictures the idea of ceasing from our activity and our striving and our wandering and our worrying, and just simply basking in and receiving and enjoying and delighting in the salvation that God has promised to us.

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It's a stopping, it is a ceasing from striving and a stopping from anxiety and work and labor and effort.

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And so many of the religions of the world are attempts at works righteousness and human merit and human achievement, and the salvation that is offered in Jesus Christ is just the opposite of that.

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We who are believers do not trust in what we do, we trust in what somebody else has done for us. We trust not in our own doing, but in the doing and dying of another who did and died in our place.

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All that he did gives us his righteousness, and in his dying he provides us forgiveness and atones for our sins.

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And so to be saved and to trust in God and to believe upon that is simply to rest, to settle oneself in what has been done by another, and then to confess and to live as if that is entirely sufficient for all that I need.

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And that's one of the greatest struggles of being a Christian is simply to rest and to acknowledge that what he has done is entirely sufficient for my salvation, not just my salvation, but my continuing progress and sanctification, and ultimately my security to bring me to everlasting joy and bliss, secure in his kingdom, secure in heaven.

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Everything he did is sufficient for all of that, the forgiveness of my sins and giving me all the righteousness that I need, completely sufficient.

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And we simply rest in that. We stop our working, we stop our striving, we just settle into that.

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And we enter that rest of God by faith. It is described here in Hebrews in terms of rest, and I found this interesting.

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This is the only place where salvation is described in these terms anywhere in Scripture.

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It is a uniquely Old Testament concept, a uniquely Jewish concept. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, this passage, this warning passage, is the only place where this word rest is used like this.

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So this passage, Hebrews 3 and 4, it is isolated in that sense, it's unique in that sense, it's not used anywhere else outside of this passage in this way.

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The closest thing to it is when Jesus said in Matthew 11, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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And that is the closest approximation to the use of rest as a synonym or a picture of salvation that we find anywhere else in Scripture.

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It was a concept that was familiar to the Jews. Think of all the resting that they did. They had their

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Sabbath day, which was one day out every seven that they devoted to resting and not working. But on top of the

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Sabbath days, they actually had Sabbath years. Do you remember that? Every seventh year was supposed to be a rest for the land, and they were not supposed to plant anything or sow anything.

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They were supposed to save up for six years, and that was sort of like a big picture of the mini picture, which was the

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Sabbath. And then they even had feasts and festivals, which accompanied days of rest. So there were festivals and feasts that would begin with a day of rest, and they might be 10 days long, and they would end with a day of rest.

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And of course, in some time in that period of time, there was a day of rest that fell in there, depending on how it fell on the calendar.

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So you might have a feast or a festival that had three days of rest as part of the festival, or as part of the feast.

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And then they had Sabbath Sabbaths for the years. Do you remember the year of Jubilee?

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So every seventh Sabbath. So not only did they have every seventh year set apart for rest, and every seventh day set apart for rest, but every seventh of seven years they had set apart as a

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Sabbath rest for the land, and a return of all the debts, and a washing away of all the debts in that year of Jubilee.

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And then you remember when God took them into captivity in the land of Babylon? Why was it 70 years? Because for 490 years, they hadn't observed the

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Sabbath of the Sabbath years. So God had some catching up to do. So He said, I'm going to give the land rest. You refuse to give the land rest,

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I will give the land rest. 70 years in Babylon. There'll be no planting, laboring, buying, and selling, or all that.

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He sent them all off to Babylon so that His land could have the rest that He had appointed for it, but that they had neglected to give it.

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So the Jews were big on rest. Now, why were the Jews big on rest? Because they were lazy and they liked to rest?

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Was that it? No, it wasn't it at all. The Jews were big on rest because this Sabbath, the

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Sabbath structure of the seventh day, and the seventh year, and the seventh, seventh year, as well as all of the

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Sabbaths that accompanied the feast and the festivals, all of that was worked into the law that they got from Moses.

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It was part of their culture. It was part of the entire religious structure of the entire nation. Why was it so much a part of their culture?

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Why was it so much part of their religion? It was because there was something about rest and all of their observance of the

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Sabbaths that was to point them to something in the nature of God. It was to remind them of something about the nature of God.

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Every rest, every Sabbath, every ceasing of work was to direct their thoughts, their attention, their affections toward the

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God who had redeemed them. And they were to stop their working and their striving and simply settle into what

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God had provided for them, what God had provided for them in the land, what God had provided for them in the sacrifices, what

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God had provided for them in the feast and the festivals. They were simply to enjoy that and to delight in it. All of the

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Sabbaths pointed to something in the nature of God. That's why it was so essential. It pointed to this profound reality that God is a

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God at rest. God is a God who is rest. And He was a God at rest and a

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God who is rest in the Garden of Eden. He was a God at rest and a God who is rest in the promised land.

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When He offered to bring them into the promised land, they were simply to trust and to enter into what God had provided.

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And God is a God of rest and God is a God at rest today. It is part of His essential nature, His character,

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His essence. And it is something that He shares with men. It is something that He shares with His people,

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His peace, His righteousness, His justice, His holiness, His mercy,

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His love, His goodness. These are the things that He shares with us. These are the aspects of His nature that He calls

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His people in to enjoy by faith and to delight in by faith. And salvation is a ceasing from our work and a ceasing from our striving so that we can enter into and enjoy that part of God that He shares with His people, which is

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His righteousness and His grace and His joy and His blessedness. Now, understanding all of that about the rest is essential for us to understand the warning passage in Hebrews 3 and 4.

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And we're looking today at verses 4 through 8 of chapter 4. It's in that passage that we read at the beginning.

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This is part of the warning passage. The first part, which was in chapter 3, gave the negative example of the children of Israel came out of Egypt and yet failed to enter into the promised land because they would not believe.

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And so they perished in the wilderness. And then in chapter 4, the author is using that negative example to make an argument that there still remains a rest for the people of God and we should be diligent to enter into it.

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We ought not to fall or fail like them and to refuse to enter in or to remain in unbelief and thus miss the rest that God has for us, which is this salvation rest.

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And so we see in verse 9 that this is the goal and this is what we're looking at next week. We see in verse 9 that there is a conclusion.

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There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That's the argument he's making through chapter 4, that there still remains this

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Sabbath rest, this part of God that he shares with his people by faith, that remains for us. And so verse 11, we should be diligent to enter into that rest and not fail and fall like the negative example of the children of Israel in the wilderness who failed to enter because of their unbelief.

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Now, it is in chapter 4 verses 1 through 8, kind of a complex argument that he is developing.

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And it's somewhat difficult. It's partly difficult because we are not as familiar with the concept of rest and the

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Sabbaths and what that points to in the nature of God as a Jewish audience would have been. And I understand that for some of you here, this is your very first Sunday.

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You happen to show up right in the middle of a difficult warning passage on a difficult subject in the most difficult book in all of the

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New Testament. I promise you what will get better after we get out of the warning passage in chapter 4. Not my preaching, but the ease of the passage that we are in will get better after we get out of chapter 4.

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So, we're looking today at verses 4 through verse 7, sorry, verse 8.

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And I think that it is probably easiest to capture the flow of the argument if we can see that the author is trying to answer three concerns, three specific concerns of those who may fear that they have missed

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God's rest. Okay? Three specific concerns of those who might fear that they had

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God's rest. Here are the three concerns. I'll give them, the three to you, and then we'll, one of them is a point of review from last week, and then we'll look at the next two.

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So, here are the three concerns. First, that by being in Christ and abandoning and walking away from all of the old covenant sacrifices, the feasts, the festivals, and all of that, that by just turning from all of that that God had given to them to Christ and Christ alone, that they might fall short or come short of achieving

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God's rest. That was a genuine concern. Having walked away from everything God gave me, might

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I be found by God to have fallen short of that rest? That was a fearful thing.

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That was the first concern. We looked at that last week in verses 1 to 3. The second concern is that I might have missed

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God's rest because it was a one -time offer, something offered to the wilderness generation coming out of Egypt and presented with the land, and something then fulfilled by Joshua's generation.

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It was a one -time offer, never to be repeated and not available to us. And the third concern is that this offer of rest had been fulfilled by Joshua when the children of Israel went into the promised land, and therefore, it doesn't remain for us.

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Now, the author is going to deal with all three of those concerns so that he might bring us to the point of, in verse 9, of acknowledging that there remains for us today, the people of God, a rest that we can enter into.

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So, he wants to alleviate these concerns that we might miss God's rest by being in Christ, that we might miss

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God's rest because it was a one -time offer, or that we might miss God's rest because it had already been fulfilled and there was nothing left for us.

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You follow that? Those are the three concerns that he is dealing with as he works through this argument. He has to get us from the point of thinking that we might have missed

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God's rest or that we could miss God's rest to understanding that there remains for the people of God a rest, and that we can enter in and we ought to be diligent to enter into that.

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That's verses 9 through 11. So, now we're going to track through that argument. The first, those three concerns, we'll go through all three of those.

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The first by way of review, and this one will be really quick, verses 1 through 3, and this is what we looked at last week. Just turn back to verse 1.

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Therefore, let us fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may think, and I suggested to you that's the meaning of the word seem, or appear, or be regarded, that you may think or regard yourself to have come short of it.

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And he is alleviating this concern that a Jewish Christian might have had, that having left the sacrifices and just embraced

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Jesus Christ and turned their back on the entire old covenant, that they might then be found to have or think themselves to have come short of God's rest.

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And the author is saying you ought to fear coming to a point where you no longer think that Christ is sufficient, where you think that you're actually going to miss what

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God has for you because you're in Christ. And of course, he answers that by showing that there's nothing to fear there because, verse 3, those of us who have believed, we enter that rest.

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That's the promise of God. This is the promise that remains, that we have entered that rest because we are in Jesus Christ. So, that's the first concern that he alleviates, is the concern that being in Christ, I might miss

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God's rest or might miss God's best. The second concern is that I might have missed it because it is a one -time offer.

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This is verses 4 through 7. Let's start at verse 4. For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

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And again, in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day today, saying through David, after so long a time, just as has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

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So, he is dealing there with the concern that I may have missed this because it is a one -time offer. And here's the concern described in other words.

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In chapter 3, he described the land of promise as God's rest. They had entered into that. God offered that to the wilderness generation.

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And then when they refused and disobeyed and would not enter in, God swore they shall not enter my rest.

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And all of that generation, everyone above 20 years old and upward died in the wilderness.

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Their bodies fell in the wilderness as a judgment upon them for their unbelief, a judgment from God for their unbelief.

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The very next generation, Joshua, who had replaced Moses as the leader of the nation, led the next generation who rose up in their place.

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He led them to enter into the land. And then it was described when they entered into the land as being at rest.

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And so, here is the concern. Was this just a one -time offer to enjoy this rest from God? Was this just a one -time offer to the wilderness generation that they having rejected it and others having entered in the next generation, it is no longer available to us?

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Was this something that is available to them and not to us? Or is it something that remains for even us who are

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Gentiles now, 2 ,000 years after Hebrews was written to enter into? So, in order to answer that,

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He takes them back to creation. This takes us back to the end of verse 3. Look at it. We have believed, enter that rest.

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Just as He has said, I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. He's drawing a distinction there between believers and unbelievers.

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We who have believed, enter the rest. Those who do not believe, God has sworn that they shall not enter into His rest.

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Then He says at the end of verse 3, although His works were finished from the foundation of the world, He takes us back to creation here.

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And He is answering this subject. Was this rest, offer of rest, a one -time offer?

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Now, if He takes us back to the creation of the world to make the argument that it was available at creation, that God Himself rested at creation, then is it a one -time offer?

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Was it something isolated at that one point in time when they came out of Egypt and I had an opportunity to enter into the promised land? Or is it something that God has shared and is willing to share and invites people into by faith even since the beginning of creation?

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He takes us back to creation in verse 3, and then in verse 4, He says He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all

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His works. Notice the indistinct citation there at the beginning of verse 4. He has said somewhere. Was the author ignorant of where you would find that?

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Now, this author knew His Old Testament like we know the back of our hand, right? He was familiar with it.

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He's not saying that because he's ignorant of where he might have found that. It's not scratching his head. I think I remember somewhere saying somewhere in the

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Old Testament, I'm not sure where, that God rested on the seventh day. Because if we heard that citation, we all probably in this room could immediately go back to Genesis 1 and 2 and just by skimming find it, right?

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So, why is He a little bit indistinct? It was kind of a common way of referencing ancient documents, and He's using a very common way at the time of referring to other written documents.

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He does this elsewhere in Hebrews where His citations are very indistinct. He'll say, as someone has said, or as it says somewhere, and He does this throughout the book.

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Another reason that He might be doing this is because this exact phrase is quoted, appears three times in the Old Testament.

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Once in Genesis and twice in Exodus. So, rather than citing one particular example, He is actually citing probably all three of those citations from the

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Old Testament. And let's just take Genesis 2 verse 2, which if you're wondering where would that come from, you could turn to Genesis 2 verse 2.

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Exodus 20 verse 11 is the second one, and Exodus 31 verse 17 is the third citation of that phrase.

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But here's Genesis 2 verse 2. By the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all

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His work which He had done. Now, why did God rest on the seventh day? Since the author quotes this, let's deal with this idea of God resting for just a moment.

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Why did God rest on the seventh day? It is not because His rest was a cessation of all activity.

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When that says that God rested, He created everything in six days, and then He rested on the seventh, that is not to say that He ceased all activity on the seventh day.

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Do you know what would happen if God ceased all His expenditure of power and activity on the seventh day?

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Do you know what would have happened? Everything would have immediately fallen apart. Because Hebrews says that God upholds all things by the word of His power.

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The very fact that anything actually exists rather than nothing existing is because God continuously and continually upholds and holds together everything simply by the exertion of the word of His power.

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So, if God had ceased all of His activity on day seven, everything He created on six days would have immediately gone into non -existence.

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So, God didn't cease His activity on day seven. Instead, He continues to uphold all things by the word of His power, and the exertion of His energy and effort results in working out

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His providential will and His sovereign plan. He continues to redeem sinners. He continues to work out by His providence and secret and mysterious will in all things for the good of those who are

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His. God continually does this. God is always at work. Remember, this was Jesus' argument in John 5, after He healed the man who had been lame at the pool of Bethesda, and the

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Jews came to Him and criticized Him for working on the Sabbath. Do you remember what Jesus said in John 5? The Father has been working until now, and I am working.

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What was He doing? He was simply saying, since the beginning of creation, the Father has been doing and working even on the

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Sabbath day, and I have a right, a divine right to do what the Father does, because I and the

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Father are one. That was what He was saying. So, He has the right to work, and He does work, and He cited the Father's work.

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So, even on day seven, the Sabbath was not a cessation from all activity, nor was it an expression of God's need.

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When God rested, He didn't rest because He needed to rest. He didn't need to take a break. He didn't need to catch

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His breath. He didn't need to fall asleep. Remember, as a kid, hearing the creation story, thinking

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God rested after six days of labor, I would be tired too. Of course, in my mind, I was just thinking of God in human terms, as I would imagine.

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I would be tired after creating all of those things. But God didn't rest on the seventh day because He was tired or because He needed a rest.

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God doesn't need to rest. God doesn't need anything. He needs nothing. You can never say the words,

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God needs, and then fill in the blank. Unless you say, God needs nothing, that is the only orthodox statement.

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That's the only thing you can put, nothing in that blank that would make that sentence orthodox. You say, God needs, and you fill it with anything else, you're a heretic.

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God doesn't need anything. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. He doesn't need this world.

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He doesn't need our fellowship. He doesn't need the angels. He doesn't need creation. He doesn't need to rest. He doesn't need our worship.

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He doesn't need our cooperation. He doesn't need our belief. He doesn't need our faith. He doesn't need anything. God has no needs.

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So He didn't rest because He needed anything. Why did He rest? Two things. He was setting a pattern for us to follow in our working of six days and laying aside one.

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This was something that would be brought into the law of Israel. But the second thing that He was doing was demonstrating something about Himself and His own nature.

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That God, having created everything, sits upon His throne and rules over all of it as an uncontested sovereign in a position and state of utter rest and repose.

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That He is not striving. He is not laboring. He is not working. He is not fretting.

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He's not vexed over what is going on in creation. He simply rules from a throne of rest.

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And this, He invites His people by faith to step into and to enjoy. And it was there with Adam in the garden.

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We lost it because of our sin, because of Adam's sin. But it is something that by faith we can enter into and enjoy that aspect of God's nature and His purposes and His blessedness, that state of being, life itself, righteousness and peace that we get to enjoy because of who

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God is and because He has shared that with us. So God rested not as an expression of His need but as an expression of His nature.

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And that's careful to remember. You need to remember that. God rested not as an expression of His need but as an expression of His nature.

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That He is a God who rules over everything. He is the triune God who delights in His own work. He sits enthroned in the heavens and He does what

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He pleases. He is at peace. He is utterly righteous. He is without any need.

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He rests and reposes Himself in what He has provided. When He created everything, it was sufficient, it was good.

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He brought it all into being and He had man there and everything was as it should have been, as He intended it to be.

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And then it fell into the state of chaos that we see today. But God is still a God of rest. God is not anxious over the state of the world or over the future of the world or over the future of anything because He knows it all.

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He understands it all. He has predetermined it all. He has written all of history before it happens. He sits in thrones and He is the sovereign

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God. And so He is at rest. And that resting on the seventh day was a demonstration of His nature.

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And He invites us to rest in Him, to stop from our own striving and to rest in what He has done. To stop from our own attempts at our self -righteousness and rest in His righteousness.

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To cease from our anxiety and to rest in His peace. And so salvation is being at rest.

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And as long as there has been a creation, there has been a God at rest. In fact, as long as before there was a creation, there was a

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God who was at rest and a God who enjoyed that rest. And the triune God existed and enjoyed fellowship with one another, the three persons, in a state of rest even before He created anything.

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So He takes us back to creation to show that this was part of God's nature at the creation event. That's in verses 3 and 4.

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And then look at the second passage that He cites in verse 4. And God rests on the seventh day from all His works in verse 5.

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And again in this passage, they shall not enter My rest. There are two references to rest, one at creation and one thousands of years later at the incident in the

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Promised Land with the children at the edge of the Promised Land with the children of Israel coming out of Egypt. So there was this rest at creation, and then there was this opportunity for rest that the children of Israel were given, and they turned away from it in unbelief and in rebellion, and then they were punished for it.

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Now those two references are juxtaposed, the first at creation and the second at the Promised Land for this purpose, to show us that from creation to the

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Promised Land, this rest was available. Noah enjoyed it. Noah enjoyed it.

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Abraham enjoyed it. Men who have basked in and enjoyed the imputed righteousness of God all the way through the

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Old Testament, they all partook of this rest. So this rest was at creation, and all the Old Testament saints enjoyed this.

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This rest was at the Promised Land, that is God's nature. And those two are put back to back in order to show us that this rest was not a one -time offer.

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It had been offered at creation. It was back at creation, part of God's nature even back then, and God still shares that with us even to this day.

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That's the argument that He's made. Now notice that He cites Genesis 2 .2 in order to show us that the rest was not a one -time event, and the rest at the

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Promised Land was not the end of that rest. It was not just offered at the Promised Land, and it remains today for some to enter.

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Just as it goes from creation to the Promised Land, so it remains even still today. And who enters it?

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Does everybody enter that rest? Look at verse 5, or verse 6. Therefore, it remains for some to enter it.

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Who is it that enters and enjoys God's rest? Everyone? No. No, we are born in a state of hostility against God, not enjoying

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His rest, but at war against God. At war against God and guilty in our minds through our wicked works, in our hearts through our rebellion against God, we are born into a state of hard -hearted, rebellious unbelief, and we do not, we are not born into that state of rest.

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It remains for some to enter it, and the some who enter it are those who respond to the gracious offer of the gospel by faith.

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Verse 6, therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, what is it that brings us into God's rest?

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Obedience. And those who fail to enter, fail to enter because of their disobedience or due to their disobedience.

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So, he says in verse 7, since it remains for some to enter it, that it was available to David. He again fixes a certain day today, saying through David, after so long a time as has just been said before, today if you hear

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His voice, do not harden your hearts. Now, that's a quotation from chapter 3, verse 7 and 8, from the warning passage, from the beginning of the warning passage, and chapter 3, verses 7 and 8 is a quotation from Psalm 95.

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You remember that? So, we're still dealing with the passage that he quotes at the beginning of the warning passage back in chapter 3. So, he says in verse 7, he refers to something that took place in David's day.

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Now, follow the argument. Here's the concern. Was the offer of God's rest a one -time offer?

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He takes us back to creation. At creation, God rested. Then we fast forward to the next event, the promised land.

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They had the opportunity to enter and they did not enter. They did not enter because of unbelief.

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So, God swore, they shall not enter my rest. And then hundreds of years later, David in Psalm 95, looking back upon the event of the promised land, speaks of the rest of God to those in his own generation, saying, do not harden your hearts, but enter into God's rest even today.

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And do not be like the unbelieving Israelite generation. So, if the concern was this was a one -time offer to the promised land generation, he dispatches with that concern by going back to creation.

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It existed at creation and at the promised land, and David later makes reference to it. Was it a one -time offer?

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It's not a one -time offer. Therefore, he says it remains for some to enter it. You can enter into that rest.

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It remains for some to enter it, verse 6, those who fail to enter, fail to enter because of disobedience and unbelief.

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And so, then he quotes David, and that takes care of that first concern. Notice the emphasis on today.

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He says in verse 7, today, saying through David after so long a time, today, if you hear his voice, it's interesting to go back and look at all the references to today.

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In verse 7 of chapter 3, he speaks of today. In chapter 13 of chapter 3, he mentions today.

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In verse 15 of chapter 3, today, here in chapter 4, verse 7, today, what is he emphasizing? There is a most certain and urgent need to enter into that rest because it will not always be the case.

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You will not always have the grace of God available to you. If you leave this life and you die without Jesus Christ, your opportunity to enter rest vanishes the moment you breathe your last breath.

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The moment you inhale the final time and your heart beats its final time, your opportunity to avail yourself of the grace of God is entirely gone.

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And if you miss it in this life, it will be gone forever. The author is writing to his readers, today, today is the day of salvation.

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Do not put that off. Today is the day that you do not harden your hearts. Today is the day that you enter that salvation.

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In our evangelistic efforts, we are to implore people to enter in while it is still called today.

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Today, do not harden your hearts. That is when salvation is most available is today. None of us sitting here, if you're not in Jesus Christ, none of you sitting here, not in Jesus Christ, have any guarantee that you have a tomorrow.

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All you have is today. And you're not even sure that you have the rest of today. All you're sure is that you have now today.

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And thus the encouragement today, do not harden your hearts. Because you harden your hearts and tomorrow may come and you may not have tomorrow.

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You only have today. That's the second concern. Would I miss God's rest if I'm in Jesus Christ and Him alone?

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Verses one to three answers that. Is this offer of God's rest a one -time event? And so,

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I would miss it because I wasn't part of the wilderness generation. And the third concern he answers in verse eight is, is this offer of God's rest something that has already been fulfilled?

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Look at verse eight. If Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that. If Joshua had fulfilled this offer of God's rest, he wouldn't have spoken of another day after that.

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Speaking of this is God Himself in Psalm 95. So, here is the concern as would be expressed in other words.

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The offer to enter the land is something that was called in the Old Testament, God's rest. In fact, in the next generation, after that first generation fell and died in the wilderness, the next generation entered in under Joshua.

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And when they had entered into the land, it is described as a time and a period of rest and receiving the rest that God had promised.

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So, we read in Joshua 21 verse 44, and the Lord gave them rest on every side. This is after Joshua's conquest of the land and all the children of Israel entering it in.

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They divided it up and they are at peace. They are at rest. They are settled in what God has promised for them. They've taken possession of their inheritance as it were.

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And so, Joshua 21, 44, the Lord gave them rest on every side. According to all that He had sworn to their fathers and no one of all their enemies stood before them, the

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Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Joshua 22 verse 4, and now the Lord your God has given you rest to your brothers as He spoke to them.

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Joshua 23 verse 1, now it came about after many days when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all the enemies on every side.

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So, entering into the land is called God's rest. So, here's the concern. It was offered to the wilderness generation, those who came out of Egypt.

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They didn't enter because of disobedience. Those who went in under Joshua entered into the land and that was called receiving the rest of God.

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So, my first concern might be that this was a one -time offer and therefore not available to us. My second concern is even if it was not just a one -time offer that somebody else might have fulfilled it for me, namely the children of Israel who did enter into the land.

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They might have fulfilled that offer. And so, if the offer has been offered and then eventually fulfilled and somebody else has stepped into the rest, what would remain for me?

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That's the argument. But look at how the author of Hebrews answers this. He says in verse 8, if Joshua had given them rest, he could not have spoken of another after that.

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Now, Joshua is the one who led them into the land and him leading them into the land is called rest, but it obviously did not fulfill all of what is intended by that word rest.

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Because if Joshua had fulfilled it, then he, that is God, would not have spoken of that rest after Joshua.

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Where did God speak of this rest after Joshua's time? In David's day. Remember?

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In David's day. In Psalm 95, which we read at the beginning, David says, come, let us worship before the

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Lord. Let us bow before our maker. He is our shepherd. We are the sheep of his pasture. We belong to him. Let us enter into joyfully and shout joyfully to our

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God, who is the God over all the gods and the king over all the kings. Let us enjoy his blessings and enter into our worship and our praise of him and do not harden your hearts as that other generation did, but rather enter into this rest by worshiping and obeying this

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God who is our God. That's Psalm 95. Now, if Joshua had fulfilled the rest, how would

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David then 400 years later say, look, enter into this rest? So you see what he's saying? Has it been fulfilled by the children of Joshua?

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No. If Joshua had given them all of that rest, there would not remain anything for us.

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But instead, years later, David said, enter into that rest. So here's the argument he is making.

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It was available at creation. The wilderness generation passed it up. It was offered to them. They responded in disobedience.

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The next generation responded in faith. Don't be like them. Instead, be like the righteous generation responded in faith and don't think that they have fulfilled it and that Joshua brought them in and there's no more rest.

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There remains yet a rest for the people of God. And if there did not remain a rest for the people of God, David would not have spoken of it hundreds of years after Joshua entered the land.

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Therefore, verse 9, there remains for the people of God a rest. And verse 11, be diligent then to enter into it.

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So let's tie all of this together. Try and bring all of this together. We'll deal with sort of the conclusion of it in verses 9 through 11 next week when we get together.

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Let's tie everything together here that we've talked about so far today. Consider the audience to whom he is writing.

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Remember, he is writing to Jews who could not even conceive of a life or a religion or a faith apart from the land of Israel.

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He's writing to people who were connected to the land because the temple was there. The sacrifices were there.

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The priesthood was there. Jerusalem was there. The holy city was there. All of their history had been there. This had been given to Abraham.

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They're looking forward to an inheritance, but in their mind, they are thinking of the totality that God has for them.

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It is somehow connected to the land of Israel and it is connected to the old covenant. Now, these are Christians who have walked away from all of that.

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They've abandoned all of that, and so their concern would be, if I'm not tied to the land and if I'm not tied to what

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God gave to the children of Israel and if I'm not tied to my people and the temple and the sacrifices, the feast, the festivals, the priesthood, and all of that, if I'm not intimately tied to that, then how can

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I say that I am enjoying God's rest if all of that is God's rest?

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The Sabbaths, the feasts, the feast days and the rest days, how can I enjoy the rest if I have walked away from all of that?

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And the author is saying this rest that God has, that we enjoy in Jesus Christ, it is not just tied to the land.

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It is not a physical reality. It is a spiritual reality available from creation back before there was a land of Israel, in that sense, back from creation all the way through the promised land and even in David's day, and he is saying in the time of Hebrews that rest is today, and so we are here 2 ,000 years later, and that rest is available to us.

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It is in the person of God, and so the offer of God always is enter into that rest.

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Enjoy me. He created a world, and He created people, and He created all of this creation so that we could enjoy fellowship with Him.

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We could enjoy the creation that He has given to us. We could bask in His righteousness and enjoy intimacy and fellowship with the triune

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God. That was His goal in creation, and now having fallen from that position, we are invited by faith to step into and enjoy that, and that rest remains for some, not all, for some, for those who respond in faith to the gracious offer of the gospel, for those who acknowledge that they are sinners, that they are desperately in need of salvation, that they have violated the terms of God's law, that they have accrued for themselves a heaping helping of God's wrath because they deserve justice for their sin, and when you come to a point of understanding that you are a sinner, and that you are desperately in need of salvation, and you are hopeless, and you are helpless because you are dead in your trespasses and sins, and you are unable even to turn from the sin that you love and that you cling to, and that is so much a part of you, and that your problem is not things that are outside of you.

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The problem is the condition and situation of your own heart. You come to an understanding of just how desperate and depraved and needy you are.

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That is when you are able to enter into God's rest by faith. You understand your need, and then you understand that God sent the

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Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, the second person of the Trinity, to take upon Himself a human body, to live amongst us for 30 years, to do nothing but righteousness, to be sinless in everything, and then to die on a cross to satisfy the wrath of God on behalf of all, any and all, who will enter by faith and believe upon Him.

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And when we trust in Jesus Christ, turning from our sins and trusting in the Son, there is this great exchange that takes place where all of the righteousness of Jesus Christ is credited to our account, and all of our sin is credited to His account.

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He takes our sin debt upon Himself so that He might give to us the righteousness that we need to stand in the presence of God and to enjoy that rest.

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And when we enter by faith, we step into communion with the triune God to enjoy the blessings of His grace and eventually that eternal blessedness.

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If you don't know Jesus Christ, I would implore you to do that today. Let's bow our heads. Father, You are so gracious and good and merciful, to purpose to save a people even from before time, that that people may glorify and honor

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You by responding to the gracious message of salvation by faith and faith alone, and then to display

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Your righteousness to a watching creation and ultimately to be trophies of Your grace through all of eternity. You have done far above, beyond, exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even think.

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Your grace is abundant, and we thank You that Your grace is available even today. We pray for any who are here today who have never trusted

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Jesus Christ, they may reach out and embrace the Savior by faith and enter into that rest.

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For those of us who are in Christ, we pray that You would encourage our hearts with the knowledge that we who have trusted in Christ have entered that rest.

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We shall not miss it. We will never miss it because You are a promise -keeping and a covenant -keeping God, and You are worthy of our trust and our confidence.

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We thank You for Your love for us. We thank You for our salvation, and we thank You for the fellowship that we enjoy in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.