True Rest: Finding True Rest | Weekend Sunday Service | Josiah Smith

A message by Pastor Josiah Smith on Hebrews 4:6-10

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Transcript

Why Today Is A Special Service

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, today is a special day for a variety of different reasons. Today we are, again, like I mentioned earlier, in a new location, and the Lord is just so graciously providing for our every need in the early days of our church. And also today is special because we will be as a church just observing the Lord's Supper together, remembering and reflecting on the sacrifice of our Savior and the significance of that, specifically as it connects to Hebrews and entering into the rest that God offers us in Christ. But then even after that, we have baptisms that we will celebrate today, where really the reality of the gospel will be on full display. That's what a baptism is intended to show and demonstrate to the body is the reality of the gospel transforming lives. God in Christ through the gospel making new creations. And even as we connect baptism and being made a new creation and believing in the gospel, that's really what we're going to see, even in Hebrews 4, 6 through 10, because the rest that the author of Hebrews has been talking about for quite some time now, even beginning earlier, back in chapter three, is salvation in Christ. The rest that is still open, the rest that is still offered is salvation in Christ. And baptisms at the end of the service will really be a great exclamation point, I trust, to that reality, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. And we want to see those people that are professing faith and that are getting baptized. Of course, there's an already but not yet component to that. They await their future final rest with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. But nevertheless, they are in Christ's rest through the gospel. And so we'll celebrate that together at the end of the service. But I want you to see this rest that is the gospel, this rest that is found only in Jesus. True rest that only the true Messiah, the true Son of God, the true Savior could provide. We're going to see that today in Hebrews 4,

Reading Hebrews On Entering Rest

SPEAKER_00 2:11

6 through 10. So if you've got your Bibles, please go there. Hebrews 4, 6 through 10. I'll read it for us and then we'll kind of work through this together as we think about rest in the reality of entering the rest that God provides through Christ, through the gospel message. But Hebrews 4, beginning verse 6, it says, since therefore, now remember these words, since therefore, for, are pointing us back to what we've already discussed. So don't forget the context of chapter 4 specifically, and beginning in verses 1 and 2, where the author of Hebrews kind of gives that warning. Let us fear lest any of us should fail to enter, to reach that rest. So there's a warning that's given. There's a reminder of the rest that God even displayed and patterned for us in creation. And in verse 6, it says, Since therefore, talking about those things, it remains for some to enter it. There are still some who have not yet entered into that rest that God offers. And those who formally received the good news, that's Israel. That's the comparison that's been made up until this point, where God through the author of Hebrews is quoting from Psalm 95, that's David reflecting on the wilderness generation of Israel that didn't make it into Canaan because of their unbelief, because of their lack of faith. Those who formally received the good news, the good news of God's steadfast love, they failed to enter because of disobedience. They failed to enter because of unbelief. So then in verse 7, it says, again, he appoints a certain day today. So those in Israel that they didn't make it. They were offered rest, they were offered physical rest in Canaan, the promised land, but they didn't make it because of their unbelief. They were not united with those who believed. But today, he appoints a certain day today, saying, Through David, so long afterwards, that's the quotation from Psalm 95. In the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, if you hear the voice of God, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. Now, Joshua, of course, is after the wilderness generation and the wandering generation that didn't make it. Joshua is the one that ultimately led them into the promised land, where they did experience the physical rest that God had promised them in the promised land. So it says that Joshua did in fact give them rest. That's talked about in Joshua, Joshua chapter one, and Deuteronomy has made mention of that as well. But there's a even a greater kind of rest still. For if Joshua had given them rest, ultimate rest, true rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Now, tonight this morning is going to be a little bit different. I want to kind of start with one broad, overarching point, and then see some supporting truths from the passage that kind of gives some clarity along the way.

Main Point: True Rest In Christ

SPEAKER_00 5:08

So here's the main point of this morning. Believe that true rest is only found in Christ. Believe that true rest is only found in Christ through the gospel. Now, there's all kinds of rests being talked about. There's the rest of creation that's mentioned here, there's the rest of the promised land that's mentioned here, that ultimately they failed to enter. But there is the rest that Joshua led the nation of Israel into. But there's only true rest that's found in Christ. That's verse eight. For if Joshua had given them the kind of rest that we're talking about, God would not have spoken of another day later on. But God did speak of another day, and he appoints a certain day today for those who are listening and hearing the voice of God through his word. It says, Do not harden your hearts. Do not make the same mistake as the wilderness generation. So we need to believe that true rest is only found in Christ. And to help us with that, I want to give you five things from this text to kind of unpack that and hopefully make sense of that and clarify that as we go.

An Open Invitation To Believe

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Let's start with this letter A on our note sheet. Uh, in terms of true rest, there is an ongoing invitation to rest. Now that's somewhat obvious, but of course it's there in the text, so we need to address it. In verses six and seven, there's an ongoing invitation to rest, to rest in Christ, to receive the message of the gospel, to be united by faith with those who have listened. Verse 6, since therefore it remains for some to enter, there's an invitation that is still open. There's a door that still remains open. It remains for some to enter. And those who formerly received the good news, they failed to enter because of disobedience and unbelief. Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Now I start with this, of course, because it's right there. You can see it in verses six and seven, and where the rest is still open. The invitation is still extended. And this is an invitation to believe in the message of Christ, to believe in the gospel, to believe in the good news. That's the phrase that's mentioned there. Do you see that in verse six? Those who formerly received the good news, that's Israel in the Old Testament, which by the way is an aside. The good news, the gospel spans the Old Testament and the New Testament. Sometimes we like to separate them and act like maybe God changes between the Old and New. That's just fundamentally wrong. The gospel, the good news is prepared and preached and delivered to them in the Old Testament, it says, but they failed to enter because of their disobedience, because of their unbelief, because of their lack of trust in God and his promises. And so the invitation still stands today for you to not make the same mistake, for you not to hear the good news, not to hear about Christ, who is the Son of God, who lived a perfect life, who died on the cross to pay for your sins. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That invitation, that rest, as the Bible defines it here in Hebrews 4, is open. And your response should be to believe, to be united by those, even in this room, that have trusted in Christ by faith. There is an ongoing invitation to rest. And in fact, even after the service, when we go and have four people in this church be baptized, that's what they're proclaiming, that they received, they believed in the promise of rest. They believed in the gospel that gives them rest. That when Jesus said, Come to me, all who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, they trusted in that. They believed in the gospel. And now, as an evident sign of that, as a testimony to that, publicly, they're proclaiming that through baptism, a means of grace for the church to grow in our faith together. There is an ongoing invitation to rest. It remains for some to enter it. Today, if you hear his voice, church, do not harden your hearts, do not ignore what God has said in his word about the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The door is open, the rest invitation is still extended. And even here in the author's argument, he's trying to plead with them: do not make the same mistake as Israel. Do not be hardened in your unbelief. Do not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That was what he said earlier in chapter three. Believe in what God has said. Believe in who Christ is. And even in chapter one of Hebrews, there is string after string after string of Old Testament quotation trying to show that Jesus truly is the Messiah, that he is the one that we look to, he is the one that can provide salvation, he is the solution to our problem of sin that began all the way back in the garden in Genesis 3. The invitation for rest still stands. There's an ongoing invitation. That's what we see first.

Why Vigilance Protects Real Rest

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Letter B on your note sheet. We also see that vigilance is not an enemy of rest. Now, the reason why I say this, that vigilance is not an enemy of rest, is that you'll kind of hear in pockets of Christianity people getting really uncomfortable with the idea of being encouraged or exhorted or urged towards urgency. There's a sense, even in the Christian life, where we don't like that. We don't want to be told to live a life of vigilance. But I want you to read this with me in Hebrews 4, 6, and 7, because the language here is one of appeal. It's one of urging, it's one of imploring. It's again a warning ultimately of unbelief. Vigilance is not an enemy of rest. Unbelief is. I want you to see this if you have the Bible, Hebrews 4, 6 again. Since therefore it remains, the invitation still stands for some to enter it. And those who formally received the good news. You hear the warning in this? There were those who didn't make it, there were those who didn't receive the good news, or at least embrace it by faith. Those who formally received the good news, what happened? They failed to enter because of disobedience. And disobedience, as we talked about last week, is a sure sign of their lack of faith. They're not united by faith. And so there's this vigilance that the author of Hebrews is saying, hey, heed the warning, live with urgency. That's why, even in verse 7, again, he appoint he appoints a certain day today. He appoints today, saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Do you hear this? Do you hear the urgency? Do you hear the imploring, the the sort of uh warning that is being given? This is a kind of Christian life that we are being called to, to live with vigilance. And so often I find, as Christians, we get uncomfortable with that and we just automatically put it in this bucket of legalism, as if seeking to be obedient to the Lord, seeking to do what he has said, hearing his voice and responding with faith is legalism. No, that's not what we see here. We see the author of Hebrews calling us to a kind of Christianity that isn't comfortable, that isn't complacent, but that is vigilant. And I know that some of you in this room, perhaps even in the book of Hebrews, are uncomfortable with the language that we see here. Maybe you're uncomfortable with the constant sort of warning and urging, and you're going, I get it, Pastor Josiah, I get it. But I don't know that we do because the author of Hebrews is again and again and again saying the same things. From now we've been talking for two chapters about rest, and we've been talking for two chapters about those who didn't enter the rest, who didn't make it because they were not united by faith. This is a serious warning. This is why, in as it starts in chapter four, he says, Let us fear lest any of us should fail to reach it. That's a warning. And some of you might be uncomfortable with that. But again, Hebrews calls us to a new kind of Christian life, one of vigilance. And vigilance is not the enemy of rest. Unbelief is. Unbelief is the enemy of true rest. Because even if we just do a quick survey of the urges and the warnings and the encouragements of Hebrews so far, we're in four chapters in. The first one is in chapter two, pay much closer attention. If you were there with us, you remember this? Pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. That's the really the first warning, even in that same context. Do not harden your hearts, chapter three. Take care, brothers, lest there be in you an evil, unbelieving heart. Exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, and every day is today, because today is today, right? Exhort everyone, lest there be in any of you an unbelieving heart, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Let us fear, chapter four, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Again and again and again, we're called to a life of vigilance, a life of urgency as Christians. And that encouragement, that reality, again, it's not contradictory to rest. That's how sometimes we can think of it. Living vigilant, having a sense of urgency somehow is going to drain us. And we would think of that as antithetical to rest, but that's not what the author of Hebrews is saying. He's the whole thing is about rest. And he's saying, watch out, live a life of vigilance, stay on guard, stay alert. Vigilance does not rob of joy and assurance. That's how we can sometimes feel. It does not rob us of true rest. I mean, soul rest. That's the rest that's deep in your bones. It doesn't rob us of that. That's what Christ offers. Come to me, those who are heavy and burdened, and I will give you rest, Jesus says. Vigilance does not rob of joy and assurance. In fact, it promotes it. I mean, that's the whole point of Hebrews: to make you confident, to keep running, to press on with faith, looking to the founder of your faith, Jesus Christ. You see, true vigilance focuses not only on the boundaries and the dangers of crossing them. That's often what Hebrews is addressing, but it's also focusing on what can be experienced behind them, so to speak. The life that you can have, the joy that you can have, the contentment, the satisfaction that you can have in Christ. Vigilance not only focuses on the boundary, the warning, but it also embraces and rejoices in what we have in Christ. And so true vigilance then rejoices in what you have been given in Christ while simultaneously being watchful of the dangers of ignoring Christ. I want you to understand that vigilance is not the enemy of your rest in Christ. In fact, your lack of vigilance may be just that. It may be the enemy, your unbelief. And so we see here that a life of vigilance, a life of staying alert, a life of remembering, paying much closer attention is a part of our rest in Christ.

Joshua Points Beyond The Promised Land

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Now, here, letter C on your outline, there's this also reality that Joshua pointed forward to a greater rest. Joshua pointed forward to a greater rest. Now, I say that for a couple of reasons. I mean, the first one, and most obvious one, is it's right there in the text, number 8. For if Joshua had given them rest, so Joshua pointed forward to something greater. Now, this does two things for us today. Uh, the first thing that it does is it shows us the shape of the Bible, that God did things intentionally, sovereignly, providentially in the old testament that set a trajectory, that sort of set a pattern that would point forward and ultimately find its fulfillment in Christ. Do you see that there? And even in verse eight, for if Joshua had given them rest, Joshua led them into the promised land. That's what he did. He did give them physical rest. And the author of Hebrews is not denying that, he's not denying that he gave them physical rest. That's exactly what it says in the book of Joshua. But he didn't give them ultimate rest. The way that he led Israel into the promised land pointed forward to something greater, to someone greater that would lead a new people to a new promised land that's even greater. I mean, the promised land in the Old Testament is described as flowing with milk and honey, and yet that pales in comparison to the promised land that we are being led to by Christ. And by the way, even just as an aside here, the author of Hebrews most often quotes from the Septuagint. That's the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Now, in doing that, do you realize that the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Joshua is exactly the same? It sounds exactly the same as you say it out loud as Jesus. And the author of Hebrews is doing that intentionally. He knows his audience, they're Jewish Christians, and he is doing that to make that connection, to show them that the Old Testament prefigures, patterns. It's the shadow that finds its substance and its fulfillment in Christ. That's what we see here. Joshua pointed forward to something greater. He pointed forward to Jesus, who would lead a new people to a new rest, ultimately found through the gospel. That invitation that still stands today. And again, he's quoting from Psalm 95. That's the day, that's the rest that's spoken of here. Verse 8. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. And he's referencing Psalm 95 there, which has been kind of the backbone of his argument for what we're seeing here. So Joshua pointed forward to a greater rest. He patterns, he prefigures what Jesus ultimately will do for those who believe and are united by faith. Here's the next thing on your outline.

Jesus Fulfills The Sabbath Pattern

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Letter D, Jesus is our Sabbath rest. Now, this is a huge topic. And because of everything we've got going on this morning with baptisms and communion, we don't have time to unpack it as much as I would love to. But you need to recognize that the author of Hebrews says, just like Joshua prefigures and sort of sets a pattern that finds its fulfillment in Christ, the Sabbath in the Old Testament does the exact same thing. It is instituted in the Old Testament, but it prefigures, it sets the pattern that finds its end, its fulfillment in Jesus. And so you've got kind of some debate and not much, but some debate in Christianity about the Sabbath and whether or not we have to observe Sabbath as Christians. And Sabbath typically was Saturday. So should we be worshiping on Saturday? Today you're here on Sunday. So in some part you don't believe that, maybe if you don't even know why, but we're here on a Sunday. We're not on a Saturday. Why is that? Why is that? Well, because here in Hebrews 4, Jesus is said to be our Sabbath rest. We find rest in Jesus. The Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus. Look at verse 9 of Hebrews 4. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Now, when it says there remains, it's not saying that the Old Testament Sabbath in the Mosaic Law is what remains and what we are compelled to observe. That's not what he's saying. We'll unpack that. But it does say there is a Sabbath rest. There's a kind of rest that is connected to the Sabbath rest in the Old Testament that finds its fulfillment in Jesus that we get to experience. There is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Now, as we've been talking about, there's five different primary kinds of rest in the Old Testament. Now, two that we'll talk about right now is the rest that God patterns at creation, six days he created, on the seventh he rested, and the Sabbath that is connected and sort of welded to that. The Sabbath was six days they were to work, the seventh they were to rest, and not even just week to week, though that was their regular pattern. They would also do that with their fields. Six years they would work, on the seventh, they would let the field rest. For 49 years, they would do certain things, and it's called the year of Jubilee. People would be set free, debts would be paid off, all kinds of different things on the 50th year. So there's these sets of sevens that all are bound up in the Sabbath that are connected to God's creation rest in Genesis. So God's creation rest and Sabbath rest are intended to do a couple of things. There's a couple of baked-in reminders that they were intended to provide to the nation of Israel, again, that point forward and find their fulfillment ultimately in Christ. So let's start with God's creation rest. When God rested from creation on the seventh day, it wasn't because uh he was tired, it wasn't because he had had a long day at work, it wasn't because he was tired of his pestering co workers, it wasn't because he was just done with corporate jargon and lingo, it was because he was instituting a pattern, and this pattern uh was to remind the people of God. Of certain things. First, it was to remind them that God is their creator. So they were living this weekly rhythm. Six days they worked, on the seventh day rested. Six days they worked on the seventh day rested. For what purpose? To be reminded that God is the creator. They patterned their week, just like God patterned and made this pattern that he established and instituted in creation. Six days he worked on the seventh, he rested. So it is a reminder that God is their creator. But it's also a reminder that God made a very good creation that he intended to dwell in relationship with. In fact, he did with Adam and Eve for a short time until Genesis 3, and you know the story. God is creator, so it's a reminder of that. That's why he institutes this. And it's to also remind us, the remind the people of God, that this very good creation that he created, us humans, he intended to dwell in relationship with. So that's you think about it, God's creation rest that he patterns. And then there's the Sabbath rest that's connected to that. How are they connected? Well, the Sabbath rest does remember those things. It does remember that God is creator, it does remember that he intended to dwell with his people in relationship. But Sabbath rest became this weekly and yearly uh rhythm and reminder of what mankind lost through the fall. Think about it. God creates on the seventh he rested. It was a rest of completion, it was a rest of relationship where he's engaging with Adam and Eve before the fall. And this pattern is a constant reminder for Israel of the garden. It's a constant reminder of what it was that they lost, of the relationship that was severed because of Adam and Eve's sin that Israel now is plagued by. So the Sabbath rest that God instituted in the Mosaic covenant was to remind them of that. But it was also to remind mankind and the people of God specifically of what they could regain through the Messiah. This weekly pattern of remembering what they lost and looking forward to what they gained was again fulfilled in Jesus. And really, in the Sabbath, God's weekly, he's weekly forming his creation into something new. That's the whole point. God is forming the nation of Israel. In fact, he takes one guy, Abram, turned, changes his name to Abraham, makes him a father of a great nation, father of many nations. He forms something new. And this weekly pattern, this six days they worked, seventh they rested was to remind them of what they lost through the fall, to remind them that God is their creator, God is their God, and to remind them of what mankind can regain through the Messiah, that they can have a reestablished relationship with God. So our Sabbath rest in Jesus is, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, we are new creations in Christ. That is not coincidental language. He could have said that in any number of ways. He could have even said what Jesus said in John chapter 3, being born again. He chose to use new creation. Why? Because he's connecting that to the Sabbath to creation, God's rest at creation. All of those things are bound up and in Christ. We are made a new creation. That is pointing to the reality of the Sabbath in the Old Testament. That's pointing to Jesus in the new. So the Sabbath rest in Jesus is that we are a new creation in Christ. That's what we'll celebrate with baptisms in a moment. But it also is a re-established relationship with God in Christ by faith, the righteous living by faith. And it's also the promise that God will once again dwell in perfect relationship with his people. That's the book of Revelation. If you read Revelation, it talks about this city coming down and God saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. And there it is, the story from creation to new creation completed. But in that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's rest in creation, the Sabbath rest that was instituted in the Mosaic covenant. Those things point forward, they prefigured, they find their substance, they find their completion in Christ. This is how Paul talks about this in Colossians 2, 16 and 17. He says, Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink. These are Levitical categories. Food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. So here's the point in all this. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. Jesus is the means that you can be made a new creation. Jesus is the solution to the problem that began all the way in Genesis chapter three, where God intended to dwell with his creation, but because of sin, there was separation, our iniquities created a separation between us and our God. And it's through Jesus entering into his rest, his Sabbath rest for us, that now we can have dwelling relationship with God again. That's what Jesus does. That's who he is. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. And the Old Testament is the shadow, as Paul says, Jesus is the substance. They find their fulfillment in him. Finally, letter E on your outline.

How Rest Changes Your Works

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Fifth thing that we see from this text is that works don'ce cease, but they transform through rest. Works don't cease, but they transform through rest. And that's sometimes a category that we think. We think of rest, maybe even biblically, as the absence of maybe doing something. That's not exactly the case that we're going to see here, but Hebrews 4, verse 10 says, For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. So there is a sense in which we rest from works, but what does that mean? Well, there's a lot of debate out there, even in the scholarly world. If you read different commentaries, if you live into listen to different pastors, there's a lot of debate as to what exactly this means. Here's my best attempt to make sense of this and the flow of this passage and the argument that the author is making. There's a comparison being made here with similarities and dissimilarities. Comparison, of course, between us and Christ and us and the rest that we find in Christ and God's rest in creation. You see that there in verse 10. For whoever has entered God's rest has also, that's the rest that is all connected and bound up in the Sabbath, God's creation rest, Jesus being that Sabbath fulfillment, whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. So there's comparison with similarities that we do something similar to what God did, and dissimilarities. And the way that we did it, the way that we do it is different. So what are the similarities? The similarities you see there in verse 10 are the ceasing of work and the entering of rest. Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested. So there is some level of ceasing of work. We need to define what that means, because it's not just an absence of works altogether. We'll get to that. So similarities are a ceasing of work and an entering God's rest. Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works. Now, what is the dissimilarity? What's not the same? It's the kinds of work. Of course, you and I weren't there at creation. You have never spun up a universe in six days. I mean, I certainly haven't. That's not what he's talking about. So the works, and that's the works that are being referenced here. The six days God worked and the seventh he rested. The works are different in kind. So God's works are very good. God's work is the work of creation. That each day, the the repeated emphasis is that it was good. It was good. It was good. And then climaxing in the creation of those made in his image, it was very good. So that was God's works. What are our works? We don't create like that. We don't do things like that. So there's a dissimilarity, the kinds of work. And even God's work, that was very good. It was a it was a rest of completion, a completion of his work. What's what's man's work apart from Christ? And that's the analogy here. What's man's work apart from Christ? Well, think about this just as a broad category. The works that you cease to do, the works that you rest from are evil works, according to the Bible. That's the category. I'm just keeping it broad. The category is evil works. This is even what Jesus talks about in John when he says, This is the judgment, the light has come into the world, but men preferred the darkness because their works were evil. If you think about what Psalm 14 talks about, it says that God is sort of evaluating mankind and he's recognizing that no one does good, no one seeks after God. And that's what's quoted by Paul in Romans chapter one, where he's talking about uh unrighteousness and God giving people over to their sin because of their evil works. So our works that we rest from are evil works. Even if we were trying to do something in our own strength, there's a category for that self-righteousness. God says in his word that your righteousness is but filthy rags in the sight of God. So evil works, more broadly speaking, self-righteousness, trying to earn salvation on your own. All of that is bound up in what you cease, what you stop. Even this is what Paul talks about in Colossians 1:21. You who were once alienated and hostile in mind. So think about this category: there's a bifurcation: those who have not rested in Christ, those who have. So use you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, not resting yet, what were they doing? They were doing evil deeds. That's what Paul says. You who were once alienated, who once were not resting in Christ, and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. Their works were evil. That's what it says. Your works, apart from Christ, are considered categorically evil. And when you are resting in Christ, you cease from doing works that don't lead to completion, but that lead to destruction. That's what your works lead to. That's what the scriptures say. So when it says, Whoever has entered God's rest, that's salvation in Christ, has also rested from his work. This is a dissimilarity. We rest from our self-righteousness, we rest from our evil deeds, we rest from the things that are wicked as God did from his. Now, God is good in his works, very good, but ours are wicked and not good. And in Christ, we of course rest from those and we experience the salvation that God offers us in Christ. So, according to this passage, works before Christ are many. Works outside of Christ are many. You can do many works outside of Christ, but they are all categorically evil according to the scriptures, and they are empty. This made me think of just this past week, Tyler and I went to Wing Stop for lunch at 10:45 in the morning. Um was that Thursday?

unknown 32:50

Brunch.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

It was brunch. We had wing stop for brunch at 10 45. I'd gotten to the office at 7 that it was Thursday. I got into the office at 7 that day. So by 10:45, you know, three and a half, three, you know, almost four hours. I'm hungry. So we went to Wing Stop and they opened at 10:30, if you were wondering. And we we ate there. So we both got we both got boneless wings, we both got fries. Uh, and no, I don't eat bone in wings. I think it's a it's a distraction, it's an obstacle. We can fight about that later. But I ate this whole meal. And and the first thing, Tyler can tell you, the first thing I said as soon as I walked out the door was, I'm still hungry. It was empty. I mean, I'd eaten a lot of food. We had been there for a little bit, but I said, I'm still hungry. I wasn't satisfied. That's a picture of your works outside of Christ. Before you enter into the rest of Christ, there are many works that you can do, but all of them categorically are evil, evil deeds, it says, evil works, no one does good, no one seeks after God. They are evil and they don't lead to satisfaction. They don't lead to rest, they lead ultimately to destruction. Now, when you enter into Christ's rest, when you enter into God's rest in Christ, your Sabbath rest, your works are, they don't cease, at least you cease from your evil works, those stop, at least categorically. Your works are altogether another kind. And now, all of a sudden, you are now pursuing good works to the glory of God, right? This is Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. For by grace you are saved through faith, that not of yourselves, that is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. Not of works, evil works, so that no one may boast, but you are his workmanship in Christ Jesus, created for what? Good works. So your works are transformed into something different. So they were evil before, they led to a lack of satisfaction, they led to emptiness, just like my wing stop wings on 10 45 in the morning on a Thursday. They led me to greater hunger. In fact, we went to the fruit stand here in Cuna and got more food after that because I was still hungry. When you enter into Christ's rest, your works are altogether another kind. You now are pursuing good works to the glory of God. So just like Adam and Eve, by the way, were commanded to work in God's rest. Think about that. Six days got to work, the seventh day rest. It's a rest of completion, it's a rest of relationship. And rest does not mean no work because Adam and Eve are given a command to do what? To be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, work it, keep it. So they're working in God's rest, and we work in Christ's rest. We are pursuing good works. So our works are of a different kind. They are transformed by the glory of Christ through the gospel of Christ. Works don't cease altogether, our evil works do, but they are transformed to good works that we are to be zealous in pursuing, be zealous for good works. God is purifying for himself. This is Titus 2, 14. For people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So your works are transformed and we pursue them and cultivate them for the glory of God. But of course, all of this hinges on the reality of the gospel, the reality of believing by faith in the promise of God through his son, Jesus Christ, that you can have salvation today, it says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And for those of you in this room that have received that rest, that know exactly what I'm talking about, the kind of rest, the kind of good works that are not antithetical to rest in Christ, we are going to take some time to reflect on the reality of Jesus' crucifixion, his death that made it possible for you to experience that rest.

Preparing Our Hearts For Communion

SPEAKER_00 36:21

So I'm going to invite the ushers to come and we're going to distribute the communion elements. And I want you to think about specifically the death that Christ had to die in order to lead you as the new Joshua, the better Joshua, into a new promised land that it has a greater benefits, that has a greater fulfillment, that is greater satisfaction, a deeper sense of even fulfillment that we see throughout the scriptures. The communion is a great time for us to think about the death of our Savior that allowed us to have a restored relationship with our God.