God's Rest for the Believer — Anton Bosch

All right, let's get back to Hebrews chapter four, and I'm going to read verses one through 11. Hebrews chapter four, verses one through 11. This is a difficult passage, not because it's difficult to accept, but it is difficult to understand because there are multiple layers to the passage, and he deals here with rest, and so we'll try and look at that.

We did read, we did study the first two verses last week, but let's read chapter four of Hebrews, verses one through 11. Therefore, since the promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which was heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said.

So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again, in this place, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Again, he designates a certain day saying in David today, after such a long time as it has been said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

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. So he is speaking about the idea of rest. The complication here is that there are different rests that he is talking about.

He's talking about the rest of God, that God rested. He's talking about the rest of the people of Israel when they entered into the land at the end of Joshua. Chapter 21, it says, and they rested from the enemies.

So they were settled in the land, the battles were fought, and they were settled and they were at rest. But then it speaks about the fact that there is another rest that they needed to enter into. So I've lost count now how many we already have, five at least.

Then he applies that to us as Christians. And he is saying that to us as believers, there are two rests. There is an immediate rest in Christ and there is a future rest in heaven. So I've given you the summary of the whole thing and now we're going to tease that out bit by bit as we go through the passage.

Now, I think that one of the other important lessons from the passage is that how we need to, when we deal with these passages, when you read them and you look at it and it's just so much information, the way to deal with that and the way to come to terms with it is exactly the way that I teach, the way that we're going to do it tonight.

Take it verse by verse, take it step by step. What is this talking about? What kind of rest is he talking about here? What is it here? How does that work? And then, of course, we've got to get the whole thing together.

And of course, that takes a little bit of time. And in our personal and private reading, we often are just in a hurry to read the chapter and get it done with and to move on. All right, so I'm not going to read you verses one and two because we spoke about the issue of faith and or trust and obedience from these two verses.

But we skipped over this idea of rest, which begins actually in chapter three. But in chapter four, verse one, therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

So he says it's important for us to understand that we must enter into that rest. And we need to fear, and we're going to come across this idea of fear again a few times in the book of Hebrews. So we need to be afraid, not in the sense of a dread, but the same way as there needs to be a certain amount of fear when you get into your motor car and you drive home tonight.

And you say, well, what do we fear? Well, you need to fear the other fools on the road. You need to fear the drunk people. You need to respect the machine that you're driving, which is a very powerful thing.

And if you don't control it properly, particularly if it's raining or something like that, is a very dangerous thing. So there needs to be a certain fear, a certain respect. And when we lose that fear, as we see here on Sunland Boulevard, just about every week, somebody wipes out, somebody gets killed, somebody's fence goes for a loop because people have lost their fear of driving a very dangerous machine.

Now, we don't get in there and say, well, I don't think I can do it. Well, I hope you don't. But at the same time, we get in and we are aware that we are in a dangerous situation, particularly in the city of LA.

And I think I've shared with you before that in the Air Force, the pilots had a saying, and that is that there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. The moment the pilot loses his fear or his respect for what he is doing and for his environment, he is in a dangerous place.

If he doesn't do his checks before he gets in and checks the machine that everything is working and everything is functional, because he's done it so many times, that's when pilots crash. And that's the same thing for Christians.

So he's saying that there is something that we need to get, we need to get into that rest, and there needs to be that fear and saying that I don't wanna miss out. I don't wanna lose out on this blessing that God has for me.

And so entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to come short of it. For indeed, the gospel is preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

So we spoke about the importance of faith being mixed with the word. So we're receiving the word with faith that it might profit us and might be able to achieve in us what we need to do. Now let's start in verse three.

For we who have believed do enter that rest. Now, remember he said that they did not enter because of unbelief. Remember he uses unbelief and disobedience interchangeably. As we sang that hymn again tonight, trust and obey.

If we believe, we obey. And so we who have believed enter that rest. They did not enter into the land. Remember those who died in the wilderness, they did not enter into the land because they did not believe.

So again, so he's saying now, that was them thousands of years ago, but we who have believed, so we who have believed do enter that rest, as he said. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest concerning the people of Israel.

Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So here it gets a little hairy already. So they will not enter. Who's he speaking about? Israel. But now he says, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

So what works is he speaking about here? Well, if we go, let's jump forward to the next verse and then we'll come back to verse three again. For he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

What is that speaking about? Creation. God created for six days, and then it says he rested on the seventh day. And so when was that? At the foundation of the world. So clearly that's one of the things he's talking about, but there is something more to it.

So let's go back to verse three. They shall not enter my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So did God finish creation in the six days? Yeah. He did not continue to create new things.

The whole thing was created. Man was created on the sixth day, and that was it. And God rested. Now we'll see in a moment that that doesn't mean that God stopped doing things. He rested from the work of creation.

Does God still work? As far as creation is concerned? Yes, because it says that he upholds all things by the word of his power. So he keeps the worlds in motion. He keeps things going. Even though we mess things up, he still keeps the planets in space, in their positions.

He keeps things spinning around. He causes the seasons and so on. And so he is still the... And remember, we spoke about this from Peter, and where if God has to withdraw his power from the universe, it would implode.

It would disappear. It's God's word that is keeping it all in going. It's God's power. It does not have its own power, although we tend to think it does. It doesn't. It's God who upholds all things. And when he does withdraw his power at the end of the age, the heavens will pass away, the book of Peter says.

So he finished creating, but it doesn't mean he stopped working. And of course, he then also, so I've jumped ahead now, but God also has been working from the beginning in another area, and that is in the area of our salvation.

And so he works out our salvation for us. He planned the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus that he might die in our place. He has been working towards the salvation because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God is still working towards the salvation of everyone. Now, it doesn't mean everyone is going to be saved because many reject the offer of God. Many reject God's workings in their lives to bring them to salvation.

And obviously God cannot overrule or does not overrule or override our free will. And so, but God is still working. God is working, I trust in our church. I trust that God is working in our own hearts and lives.

So God is still working, even though he has finished creation. All right, now. So they will not enter my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So now he's speaking about rest.

Did God work towards rest for mankind? Yes, he did. Does God work towards a spiritual rest for us? Yes, he does. As we said earlier, that he is working towards our salvation. He's working for us in order for us to be saved.

And so while he finished the work, he is still working. All right, so now we've said that this is speaking about creation. But when you see those words at the last line, for though the works were finished from the foundation of the world, you must immediately remember that there's another scripture or two other scriptures, and I'm going to show you the one from Revelation chapter 13, verse eight, which says that all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.

So when was Jesus slain? Well, 2 ,000 years ago. Why does it say then from the foundation of the world? Well, obviously, because that was God's foreordained plan. When God made the world, even before Adam sinned, God knew that man would sin.

God knew that he would have to make a plan if he was going to save mankind and not just write us all off, which obviously he had the option to do. He could just say, well, because he told Adam, the day you eat, you're gonna die, and he could have just wiped us all out.

But he made a plan, and he made the plan of salvation that we might be saved. When did he make that plan? Well, in fact, there's another scripture that says even before the foundation of the earth. So even before he made the world, he already made the plan that Jesus would die, the work of salvation, the work of grace.

So God has done the work that will bring us into rest. Where do we find rest? Well, there is no rest outside of the Lord, outside of Christ. And so how do we find that rest for our souls? Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls.

How do we get that rest? By following his teachings? No. By living a good life? No. By trying to be positive and not to overworry about things? No. I get rest when I find him as my savior. Obviously, speaking about the work that we do in order to be saved.

So let's move on, and I'm going to come back to that in a moment. So verse four, for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, that God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

So God rested. God stopped working in the work of creation. But there's something else that he's talking about here, because remember, he's only using God as an example. Does God need to rest? No. God is not like us who get tired.

We can work for a certain amount of time, and then we get tired. Whether it's during the day, or whether it's over the week, or whether it's over our lifetime, we get to a point where we're tired, and we have to rest.

God doesn't get tired. God has all power. He has limitless energy, if you will. So God doesn't need to rest. So why does God rest? Well, he rests because there is a lesson in that for us. He wants to teach us the principle of rest.

Now, the principle of rest in the seventh day obviously is a physical principle, but it is not just, but there is also a spiritual principle. And so what is the physical principle? Physical principle is you cannot work for seven days, day in and day out, year in and year out.

You can maybe do it for a short period, but the time comes when you will burn out. There are societies that have tried to abolish the idea of a rest day, and try to get people to work for seven days a week, and they soon found out it doesn't work that way, that people cannot, their bodies are not wired to be able, and their emotions, their minds are not wired to be able to deal with work 24 -7.

We need to rest. Sometimes that rest just means doing something different. It doesn't mean doing nothing. Sometimes we think, well, rest means you just do nothing. Well, as we've seen with God, it doesn't mean God did nothing.

He just did something else. And so he institutes for us this principle of labor and rest. Of course, we overemphasize sometimes the principle of rest, and we forget, but there's another side to the coin, and that is labor.

We need to work for six days, and then rest for the seventh. And so God institutes this principle for Israel, and it feeds right through all of their culture, through all of the laws, not just as far as they were concerned in terms of working for six days and resting the seventh day, but the land was to be worked for six years and was to lie fallow for the seventh year.

The land was to be arrested for the seventh year in order that the land might recuperate. And if you don't do that, well, today, we have different ways of dealing with that. We fertilize, and we do it artificially, and we rotate crops, and we have other ways of getting around the seventh year, but if you don't rest the land, eventually the land becomes infertile.

And so the land needs to be arrested. Slaves were to be enslaved, to be employed for six years. They were to be set free on the seventh year. Not only did you have the seventh year, but you also had the 50th year.

So the 49th year would be a year of jubilee, seven times seven, but the 50th year would also be a year of rest or a year of jubilee for the whole nation. And so God builds this idea of work and rest, work and rest into the nation of Israel, into all of the laws and everything that they do.

So God sets the principle, sets the pattern of working and resting. But now it's important also to remember, when did God make man? On what day? On the sixth day. So God made man on the sixth day. Why did he make him on the sixth day?

Why didn't God make him on the first day? Well, I think because again, the principle was that it wasn't Adam building everything or making everything, it was God. So God does it without Adam. And I think that's an important principle is that God can do stuff without us.

God chooses to use us as he used Adam. And he says to Adam, now you need to, yeah, I've made everything, I've set everything in order. Now you need to take charge and you need to run the business if you will, of the world, of the earth.

And so God involves Adam, but he does the heavy lifting, he does the creation. But Adam's first day is a day of rest. Adam's created on the sixth day, so his first day is the next day. And that is the seventh day, the day of rest.

And so Adam begins his life by resting. Now, I've just said to you that God's principle is that you work and rest. And yet Adam didn't work and rest, Adam rested and then worked. So why does God turn things upside down?

Again, because he is showing us the principle that he does the work. And as we will see over and over in this passage, we enter into the rest. So God does the work, we enter into the rest. And so God did the work of creation, Adam enters into the rest of God on the seventh day.

So God rested on the seventh day. And verse five, and again in this place, they shall not enter my rest. So he's reminding us of Israel. Could they rest in the wilderness? No. Well, obviously they slept and they kept the Sabbath and those kinds of things.

But you don't rest very well when you're traveling. I know when I'm traveling, I get very tired because I'm always moving, always sleeping in another place, always different experiences. It's hard to be on the move all the time.

And so they could not rest. Was it God's will for them to be in the wilderness for 40 years? Clearly not. What was God's will for them? To get to the promised land and to enter into the rest. So God wanted them to be in a place of rest, but they did not get into the rest that God had for them.

And so they end up for 40 years laboring. Can you imagine every day? Well, not every day because they would be in a place for a little while, but then having to pack up everything again, pack your tent and get all your stuff together, find all your animals and get everything going and off you go again and your journey again for a certain amount of time, walking by foot, carrying your stuff, having your stuff on camels and donkeys, and then getting to the next place.

And you've got to pitch your tent again and you've got to start all over again and you stay there for a little while and then you've got to move again. There is no rest. There's no sense of saying, we've arrived.

We're finally here. Now we can settle. Now we can build our house and we can be at peace. That never happened. So God wanted them, but because of their disobedience and unbelief, those two things coupled together, he said, you will not get into that rest.

And so that generation died in the wilderness, never getting to a place where they could just rest, moving all the time. All right, now, and so of course, the warning again is to us. There's a rest for us.

We need to be careful as Christians that we do not lose out on the rest that God has for us. And this is the problem. There are many Christians who have not entered into or who do not have the rest of God.

And so they are constantly moving. They're constantly working. They're constantly ill at ease because they have not entered into the rest that God has for them. And we'll speak a bit more about that. Since therefore, it remains that some must enter it.

And those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. So he's still speaking about us. And he's saying, we must enter into God's rest. Now he's talking about a present rest. He's not talking about the future rest when we get to heaven.

He's gonna get to that. So in what sense does God want us to be at rest? Well, particularly in the sense of our salvation. Remember that in some face, you always have to be working in order to earn enough points to get into heaven.

And so you have to do this and do that and do the other thing and pay money and be in the services and keep the celebrations and do various things. Say no to working, working, working, working all the time in order to find some kind of peace with God.

And obviously, that is not what God has for us. As I quoted from Matthew, come unto me all he that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. So he gives us rest from the work of trying to save ourselves.

So many people are just trying to save themselves. They're just trying to do the good works, trying to not do the wrong things, just working, working to try and... No, he says, come to me and I'll give you rest.

Now, on what basis does he give us that rest? On the basis that he did the work. Where did he do the work? At the cross. At the cross, he did the work of paying for our sin and of purchasing our salvation and with that rest.

So there is nothing that we need to do that we can do in order to earn our salvation because he's done it. And so all I now need to do is I need to enter into that rest, enter into what he has already done.

But there's another level, another area of rest and that is the area of being at peace because together with the idea of rest is the idea of being at peace. If you are not at peace within yourself or with things around you, you cannot rest.

I remember spending many Sundays on the front in the war in Southern Africa and South Africa. And while it was a rest day and the military gave you the day so we wouldn't have, generally would not have operations on that day, so you would be in the base and you would generally have the day off.

There was no rest because you're in a conflict and you can be attacked at any moment, at any time. So the guards still have to be out there, the airplanes still have to go and fly reconnaissance missions to make sure that we're, so there is no rest while there's conflict.

And that's where many Christians find themselves today, that they have no peace, they have no rest because there's always a battle going on, the battle within themselves with their own issues and battles with people around them and battles with what's happening in the world today.

And we say, well, do we just accept what's going in the world today? In a sense, yes, because our rest is in Him. You see, there's nothing you can do to change what's happening and what happens in Washington.

People get themselves in a state about what's happening in Washington. And I'm not talking about whether it's Republican or Democrat, just generally what happens up there. But what does your worrying and your writing Facebook posts and talking about it endlessly and reading about it, what difference does it make?

Absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. So what's the point of getting yourself in a state about the government, about Sacramento? Well, I guess the only thing you can do is move. If you don't like it, well then you gotta go somewhere else.

Many people are leaving California for exactly that reason. Problem is that wherever they go, they find they have other problems when they get there. So how do we live? We have to rest in Him. And why did they not enter?

Because of unbelief. Why do Christians not have rest in God? Because they don't trust God. They say, well, God, you see what's happening. You see what's happening with inflation. You see what's happening, we're not even gonna be able to buy presents for Christmas.

The new Omicron virus is out. This problem, that problem, God, what's going on? Well, what's going on is we're not trusting Him. And we think that everything's out of control. No, it's not out of control, God is in control.

And while we may not like what's going on, God is working out His great and glorious plan. In the meantime, it may be chaos, but God is working His plan. The point is that I need to come to a place of trust.

And I'm not asking you to trust the Democrats or the Republicans. I'm not asking you to trust Sacramento. I'm asking you to trust God. Oh, but what if I get the virus? Trust God. I'm not saying that we shouldn't take precautions, that we shouldn't do the right thing.

You can't just stay at home and say, well, I'm trusting God, He's gonna provide for my finances. No, you gotta work, gotta get a job, unfortunately. Oh, but what if I lose my job? Then you have to trust God.

So there's something we have to do and the rest God takes care of. But the problem is we think we wanna do what God needs to do and we don't wanna do what we have to do. And God says, leave the worrying to me.

Didn't Jesus say, who of you can change anything by worrying? Look at the lilies of the field. They don't labor, they don't toil, they don't worry, they don't stress, they don't fear, and yet they're clothed with more glory than Solomon and all of his riches.

In fact, more than ever before, Christians need to learn to trust God and to rest in Him. Yes, things are falling apart in the churches. Every day, we're reading about some new church leader, well, not new, but another church leader that's got into immorality or stolen money.

Just read about another guy today who got three life sentences who was running a Christian TV station. And my response to a friend of mine was, is the synonym for Christian crook? Because that's what it looks like sometimes.

No, God is in control and God is going to work out His plan. And so I need to trust Him. We don't have to make, we don't have to fix the church in America. We don't have to fix the church in the world.

We don't have to fix the economy. We have to just trust Him. And you say, well, you know, it means I just sit there and do nothing. No, remember trust and obedience, faith and obedience. The two things go together.

And so when He tells me to do something, I do that. But I trust Him for the results. I trust Him for the things that I don't do because I'm just doing what He tells me to do. And it's really a simple formula.

And that hymn is just so simple and just so real, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. He's not going to tell us to do more than we can do. He's not going to tell us to do what is impossible for us.

And when He told Israel, get into the land, cross the river, He had already sorted it all out. He had planned out how the battles would be fought and how the victories would be given. And they said, no, we don't trust you.

We'd rather go into the wilderness. They didn't intend His rest. We as Christians do exactly the same thing. God says, I want you to come to rest. And we say, well, I don't trust you. So I'm going to fight my own battles.

And we end up years and years and years in the wilderness going around in circles because we're trying to deal with stuff that God didn't want us to deal with to begin with. So they did not enter because of unbelief.

Verse seven, again, He designates a certain day, saying in David, today, after such a long time as it has been said, today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. We've seen this over and over and over in chapter three and chapter four.

Now, He's reminding us again, and He's saying, this rest is today. I'm not going to re-preach that whole section about today because He's saying today, if you will hear His voice, but He's quoting the verse here to remind us that there is a rest for us today.

Many Christians say, well, maybe one day I'll find peace. Maybe one day I'll come to rest. No, today. In fact, we need to determine for ourselves, and I was ministered to by the Lord as I was working through this passage, that I need to learn to trust God today.

Not say, I'll trust you tomorrow. No, trust Him today and find His rest today. And then verse eight, now, here is another deep verse. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day.

All right, so now there's a whole bunch of stuff in these three lines. The first is, if Joshua, if you have a King James Bible, it says, if Jesus, so which is it? Well, in fact, it's both. Joshua is the Hebrew for Jesus in the Greek.

Or Jesus in Spanish. So Joshua and Jesus is the same name. They're not the same person. It's the same name. So which word must we use in this verse? Do we do what the King James does and say Jesus, or do we say Joshua as this, which is the new King James says?

Well, in fact, it doesn't matter which one you put in because both are applicable. Because what he is saying is Joshua didn't give the people, or Joshua led the people into rest. Jesus leads us into rest.

Jesus is our Joshua. So what did Joshua do? Joshua was the man who took them into the land. Remember, Moses could not enter in because of disobedience. And so Moses dies outside of the land, Joshua takes over, and Joshua leads them into the land, leads them in their battles and their conquests together with Caleb.

And then at the end of the book of Joshua tells us that they had settled the land, they'd cleared the land of the enemies, and they were settled, and God gave them rest. So Joshua is the man who leads them into the rest.

Moses led them out, but Joshua leads them in. And that's part of the point of these chapters is that there is an aspect in which God brings us out, but he doesn't wanna leave us out, he wants to bring us in.

He brings us out of the world, but he wants to bring us into rest. And so the same way as Joshua was the man who took them in, Jesus is the one who's gonna take us in. All right, but now here's the other spanner in the works.

If Joshua or Jesus had given them rest, then why would he not afterward have spoken of another day? Now, I've just told you that he gave them rest. It says in Joshua 21 that they had rest, and yet it speaks of another day.

And this is where heaven comes in, just to take a shortcut. So Joshua gives them rest, and yet the scripture speaks about a rest to the people of God, which is clearly different to entering into the land.

So there is a temporal rest. As they get into the land, and they inherit, and they settle themselves, and they begin to farm, and to live, and to do life in the land, there's still another rest, and obviously that rest is heaven.

And so for the Christian, there is a rest now, today, as we are rested in what Christ has done in terms of our salvation, but there is also a rest that we are looking forward to when we get to heaven.

And I'm just calling it that because otherwise we get too complicated. Now, verse nine, and I'm trying to rush through because we're over time, and yet we have to finish, otherwise I have to redo all of this again next week to catch up.

So there remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God, just what I've said. So for Israel, there was a rest beyond the land. For the Christian, there is a rest beyond resting in him now in terms of the finished work of the cross and in terms of trusting him for life.

So 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. Now, you need to pay attention to the details. For he, who's the he?

The person, the Christian, who has entered into his rest, whose rest? God's rest. So the Christian must enter into God's rest. Adam was made on the sixth day and he enters into God's rest, not his. Adam did not deserve the rest because Adam had not worked.

So Adam couldn't say, well, this is my rest. No, it was God's rest. And Adam happened to be the beneficiary of it. And so that's what the Christian does is the Christian does not work and then say, well, now I've earned a good rest.

I've served God for 10 years. Now I can rest. No, we enter into his rest, into God's rest. God has done the work. He has finished the work. There is nothing new that needs to be done towards our salvation.

It's a finished work at the cross. Jesus, in hanging on that cross, says it is finished. The price is paid. It's done. There is no more to be added to the work. So he who has entered God's rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his.

So it's important that we come to the end of working. Doesn't mean that we don't continue to serve God, but that's no longer, you see, we're not working in order to get something, in order to get into heaven as a rest or to get to some kind of rest in our spiritual life.

He's done that. So he who has entered his rest has himself ceased from his own works. So why do Christians not have rest? Very simple. Because they haven't ceased working. They're still working. It's a little stupid if you have a job to do.

Let's say we have to paint this building and we finish painting. It's all painted and it's all done. Everything we've checked, there's no holidays. It's all done. And you say, well, I'm gonna start all over again.

I'm gonna start here. I'm gonna start painting again. That's stupid. The work's done. There's no need to redo it. So once the work is done, what do you have to do? You have to rest. And it's simple. And so God has done the work.

He's done the work for our salvation. He's done the work that we might be at peace and at rest in him. Come unto me all who labor heavy laden. He's done it. So I need to stop working. I need to stop working.

I need to enter into his rest. Last verse for this evening. Let us therefore. Now here's again another spanner in the works. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.