Campbell Chapel Bob Bradley, Pastor
Believe God s Word and Enter into Rest Wednesday, September 05, 2012 Bob Bradley Hebrews 4 1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time; as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I think these verses and this portion of scripture is a lesson that we should talk about a lot. It is a lesson that we should look at a lot. As we go through life, I think sometimes we just don t think about a lot of things many times. However, there are some dangers and dangers in life whether we like to think about that or not, but there is danger. The writer here is going to warn us that we fall after the same example of unbelief. He is going to warn us. He is going to tell us that there is a possibility for us to fail and for us to fall. I think sometimes we don t understand that. We don t see that. We don t want to accept that. I m not saying in any way that Salvation is weak. I m not saying in any way that God will not keep us. I m not saying that at all. The weak thing is not with God. The weak thing is with man. We are the weak part here. We are the weak one in this whole thing. The writer says some very serious things that I think are good for us to know. 1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. The writer is talking about rest. When you look at the word rest it means a deep sense of fulfillment.
There are things in life that we experience that gives us rest; or we have a deep sense of fulfillment. He is going to talk about the creation here in a minute and we will talk about that if we have time. When God saved me I know that I am saved. There is a deep settled I have security tonight. There is a deep settled fulfillment, completeness in my life that I know I am saved. I rest in that. I rest in the fact that I know that I have been born again. I know that. That brings comfort to me. That brings comfort to you. We can rest in that fact. We have a deep settled completion, a fulfillment that we have in our hearts that we know there is not anything that is separating us from God. We don t have anything else that we need to do. We know that we are saved. We know that we have been born again. We can rest in that fact tonight. That gives us deep settled fulfillment on the inside. There was a time in my life that I did not have that. There was a time in my life that I was not fulfilled. I told this story before. Many years when I working construction, making more money than I could spend. I was buying this and that. I thought that would fulfill me but it did not fulfill me at all. We bought this and did that. We went through all this stuff. A few years later I got married. That still yet did not fulfill me. There was still yet something missing on the inside. The great thing is that one night I went to an altar of prayer in a little country church a long way up in the head of a holler and I found fulfillment. I found completeness. I found something that satisfied my soul. Hallelujah! God does that. Doesn t He? We need to fear lest we fall into a trap that we miss that. 1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. The writer here is writing to people who are drifting. When you read the book as I said Sunday night or maybe Sunday morning you read about people who are drifting. They are drifting along in life. You read about people who are departing from the faith. You read about people here who are despising what God has done. The writer wants us to understand some things here. That is we need to fear; we need to understand there is a danger of us drifting away and missing this fulfillment in life. If I did not have the fulfillment or the completeness, or the security that I have tonight in knowing that I am saved then life would not be worth living. Life would not be an enjoyment at all. There is no wonder there is so many people today who are going to and fro, running here and there. They are trying all this stuff. We understand that. However, I wish we could get them to try Jesus. If they would try Jesus, they would something in someone that would fulfill them. Amen! We know that. Don t we? I can rest in the fact that I am rescued, saved and born again. I rest in the fact tonight that I have salvation from my sin. Not only that but also I have a deep settled fulfillment or completeness that there is going to be a new day one day. I am going to a new land. I am going to a new place that I am not going to have to worry about all the trials and temptations of life. I have a settled deep down on the inside; I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this place is not all there is. I know that. I rest in that. Don t you? I am settled.
Rest does not mean inactivity. Sometimes when we get saved we want to sit back and do nothing. Rest means something we know that we are looking forward to; we know that we have, and we know that we possess. Thank God, that we can feel and we do have completeness tonight in Jesus Christ. He gives us a warning: fear. The word fear is a good word here. It means that we should be actively afraid and be concerned lest we miss the rest that God has for us. I know a lot of people who goes to church but they are not settled on the inside. They are not complete on the inside. They don t really know whether they are saved or not saved. They don t really know whether they have been born again or not born again. They don t really know whether they are going to heaven or not going to heaven. Listen. There is something here about this thing that you can know. You can know you are saved. You can know you are going to heaven. You can know that your life has been changed. You can know that you have been forgiven. You can know that your name is written down. You can know those things tonight. Don t miss those things. Don t miss that. Don t let the enemy slip you a counterfeit into thinking that just because you have signed the card, or did this or that; you are going to go to heaven. It does not work that way. There is something here that we can know. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. He is talking about the Jewish people. Todd read here from the book of Exodus and he was talking about Moses leading the children of Israel out from the land of Egypt. The writer here of the book of Hebrews is talking about those people. He says here 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. He says the gospel did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith to them that heard it. They heard the message of God. The children of Israel, when they were traveling, as they were traveling, and even when they got to the land of Canaan; they heard the Word of God. They knew what God had said. God had sent them Moses. God had sent them people to teach them and tell them the truth and tell them what He expected out of them. They heard the preaching. They heard what God had to say. However, it did not do any good because they did not believe it. They did not believe what God had to say. That is what he is saying here. It did not profit them not one bit because they did not put any faith into what God had to say. Do you know what I am glad of today? When men will put faith in the Word of God; God will change our lives. God will give us rest from our sins. I can remember many years ago, when I lived in sin, how horrible a life is sin really does, how lonely, how sad, and unfulfilled life really was. When we exercise faith in the preached Word of the God of heaven; He changed my life and He changed your life also. Isn t that great to know? It is because we put faith in the Word of God. However, the Word of God did not profit the children of Israel any because they did not believe it.
Listen, if you don t believe the Word of God; He can t do a thing for you. If you don t believe it, it cannot do a thing for you. The thing that is so important is that we don t miss the rest that God has for us. In a world that is rocking and reeling, they have missed the rest that God has. Do you know why? It is because they don t believe the Word of God. I don t know if any of you watched the history channel today or not. I was watching the history channel today and they had a program on there about the apocalypse and the seven signs of the apocalypse and so forth. They were talking about some of things that evangelical Christians were talking about in their explanations about what was going to happen in the last days and what God was going to do. It was sad to sit there and listen to some of those people who were so smart. Do you know what? They did not believe God s Word at all. They did not believe God was going to do what God said He was going to do. The Word of God has been preached. The Word of God is being taught today. If there is anything that we need to make sure of it is that we need to believe the Word of God. The most critical thing, the thing that you should be more concerned about than anything in your life is Are you believing the Word of God? It has eternal consequences, my friend. You may buy a Ford or a Chevy. You may live in Ironton. You may live in Ashland. Those things may not have real consequences. However, I will tell you tonight that if you do not believe the Word of God; that has eternal consequences. It is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of going to heaven or going to the lake of fire. If you believe the God of heaven, you believe His Word then we can thank God that we can go home one day to be with Him. However, if we do not believe what He has to say, if we do not put faith in His Word then there is going to be a day that we are going to go to a lake of fire and spend eternity there. That is where we are going. It is very serious that we understand and believe the Word of God. The Bible says here when he talks about the gospel being preached that should be a reason for us to believe it. It has been preached. The warning is here. The Word of God has gone out. There is a warning in that. If God had not come and told us what He expected out of us then God would never judge us. God would never do that. However, since the Word of God has been preached, since the gospel has been preached, since Jesus Christ has suffered, bled and died and rose from the dead; the warning has gone out. We need to be very concerned. We need to make sure that we believe the message of the gospel. It is serious stuff! There is a WARNING there. The gospel has been preached. If we do not believe it then we are going to be judged. If we do believe it then we are going to enter into His rest. The choice is yours. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Do you know what he is really saying in that verse? He is saying very simply and plainly that If you don t believe what I said, you cannot enter into my rest. It is very simple is what he is saying. If you will not believe what I have said in my Word then there is no way that you are going to be able to enter into my rest. That s truth! Isn t it?
I wish we could get the world to understand that. I wish we could get a lot of church members to understand that. Listen. If we want to have rest, if we want to be fulfilled in our relationship with God, if we want to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we are saved and on our way to heaven; we can know that by simply exercising faith in what He has said. Isn t that great to know tonight? If you don t know that tonight, if you don t know tonight that you are saved, if you are not fulfilled, if you don t have a deep settled sense of fulfillment in your life, if you really don t know for sure if you are saved or not, if you really don t for sure that if Jesus Christ came tonight that you would go to heaven I want to invite you to come and pray. I am not going to ask you 10,000 questions. I am not going to ask you to embarrass yourself. I am not going to do that at all. I want you to go to heaven. On the way there, I want you to enjoy getting there. I want you to be fulfilled in your relationship with Him. I want you to make sure when you lay down on your pillow tonight that you know if you don t wake up in the morning that you are going to heaven. I want you to know that. If you know that tonight, it will change completely how you feel on the inside. No. Maybe all your problems won t go away, but you can lay down with a deep settled peace and comfort and assurance in your heart to know that you are in the hands of an Almighty God. Knowing that He is going to take care of you; there is nothing like that tonight. There is nothing like knowing that tonight. Wherever you are at this evening, wherever you are listening to me from tonight; if you don t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, I invite you to find you a safe place to pray. If you want to come to this altar tonight, that is fine. If you are in your home, if you are in a hospital, driving down the road, in the barn or wherever you are at; find a place to pray. Get alone with the God of heaven. Ask God to forgive you of your sin. Do you know what He will do? He will forgive you tonight. He will give you peace. He will give you assurance. He will give comfort. He will give you completeness. Get this! HE WILL GIVE YOU REST. Find a place to pray! Come