WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:06.000 So this fall we are journeying through Hebrews chapter four, not just chapter four, all of Hebrews today. 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:07.280 We're in chapter four. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:10.400 Let me read Hebrews four, six through ten. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:19.359 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:28.960 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. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:34.399 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:45.439 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. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.479 Let's pray and we'll try to make sense of this passage. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:01:05.519 God, thank you for your goodness to us, that you give us rest from the toil that we know as we're trying to earn our value and worth in this world, and the toil we know that even within faith, we so easily make it about what we do. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:15.439 And it wears us out, and we are so thankful we get to come this morning and hear that there is a Sabbath rest for us, and it is you. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.719 Help us to know this in a greater way this morning. 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:19.599 In Jesus' name. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:20.079 Amen. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:26.640 So point number one coming out of these verses is that we enter God's rest by belief. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:30.879 By grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, and nothing else. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.239 We enter God's rest by belief and nothing else. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:42.640 Last week, uh, after dinner, our little family, and sorry, Christine, didn't ask you for permission for this story, but we went into the backyard to play Capture the Flag. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:47.280 Now, if you remember the rules of Capture the Flag, you've split the field into two. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:50.239 You have two sides, you put a flag at the end of both, right? 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.760 Maybe a flag or a ball or something like that. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:52.879 I think we had two different balls. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:58.079 And so at the end of both, and we had our little girls on one side, one team, Christian and I were on the other side. 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:02.959 And you try to move into the other team's territory, work your way through the territory without them tagging. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:07.519 If you get tagged, you go to their jail, get their flag, bring it back to your territory. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:10.240 If you get back to your territory, you have won that round. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:13.439 And then maybe you reshuffle teams or you just keep playing new rounds. 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:18.800 And so we line up flags on each side, territory, we establish the line, we're on the line. 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.159 Now I'm the kind of dad that likes to dominate my kids, so I'm ready. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:23.120 I'm warmed up. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.240 I did a few stretching, you know, warm-up drills and stuff like that. 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:26.879 And I'm ready. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:28.400 I'm giving the stink eye. 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:30.560 I have a I'm confident in my partner. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:35.360 We've been married 16 years, she's athletic, she's smart and savvy. 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:37.120 We're ready, we're ready. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:38.479 So we say game on. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:48.800 As soon as we say game on, Christy runs across the line, and that dear woman tags one of our children across on their territory and says, I got you. 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:55.439 To which that child, very confused, tags her and says, You're in jail. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.759 And of course, we all laugh, you know, with mom, you know, not at her, you know, with her. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:11.199 And we then reviewed the rules, and it turns out Christy was playing tag, not capture the flag, which was the game we were playing. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:16.000 Now, we reviewed the rules, and then we kind of, oh, let's start over, and then everybody was on the same page. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:17.199 We're all on the same page, right? 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:24.000 But let's say, let's just say Christy had kept playing Tag while we were playing Capture the Flag. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:27.840 Well, she would have just ended up in jail over and over and over again, right? 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:33.840 Just like if you or I were playing one particular game when actually we were playing another game. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:34.479 Right? 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:41.520 Like you can be really, really good at one game, but if the game's actually something else, it just won't matter. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.280 And Jesus changed the game when he fulfilled the law. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:52.319 You can keep playing the game of trying to fulfill the law, be enough to be accepted by God, do enough to be accepted by God. 00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:56.639 But the game changed from a religious merit structure to the gospel. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:00.080 By grace through faith in Jesus. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:06.479 And this is why he is our Sabbath rest, because we can rest from our works as he did his. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:05:04.720 Because when it comes to these things like forgiveness of our sin, like our actual sin, our mistakes, not theoretical, but our actual mistakes and our fears and just everything that we should be and we're not, and our worth and our value and our righteousness. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:09.839 This is all coming from God to us as a gift, and we receive it. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.160 That's why we're at rest. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:14.240 Verse 11. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:16.319 Alright, so that's all good news. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:18.000 Verse 11 transitions over. 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:25.839 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:37.519 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:47.040 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.560 Now, without the grace of God, that could be quite scary. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:56.480 With the grace of God, you know that you are fully welcome and delighted in by God and Jesus. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:02.879 Point number two is this in the gospel of Christ, earning is over, but effort is not. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:04.399 And we need to distinguish those two. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:05.839 We need to say all that. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:08.639 Earning is over, but effort is not. 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:23.199 So God gives us rest from the endless toil of trying to be enough in the world or be enough with him or be enough in the church, and yet we're called in the grace of God, already in that secure relationship, to enter the very rest already given to us. 00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:30.079 This week I heard this list is from this book, Twelve Steps for the Recovering Pharisee Like Me. 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:31.120 That's the title of the book. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.160 And we could kind of title this list 12 steps to rest. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:35.920 I mean, it's sort of like our confession. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:40.879 You'll hear the sarcasm, but the truth as I read through these 12. 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:48.079 We admit that our single most unmitigated pleasure is to judge other people. 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:55.439 We have come to believe that our means of obtaining greatness is to make everyone lower than ourselves in our mind. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:57.199 See, these are our confessions. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:04.240 We realize that we detest mercy being given to those who, unlike us, haven't worked for it and don't deserve it. 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:11.040 We have decided that we don't want to get what we deserve after all, and we don't want anyone else to either. 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:15.680 We will cease all attempts to apply teaching rebuke to anyone but ourselves. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.040 We are ready to have God remove all these defects of attitude and character. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:26.480 We embrace the belief that we are and will always be experts at sinning. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:33.920 We are looking closely at the lives of famous men and women in the Bible who turned out to be ordinary sinners like us. 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:40.639 We are seeking through prayer and meditation to make a conscious effort to consider others better than ourselves. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:45.759 We embrace the state of astonishment as a permanent and glorious reality. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:50.560 We choose to rid ourselves of any attitude that is not bathed in gratitude. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:08:01.439 And having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we will try to carry this message to others who think that Christians are better than everyone else. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:11.279 That's a right confession, a right diagnosis in those first handful of steps of what we sadly tend to do and where we need to move. 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:15.680 This passage is right when it says that the scriptures cut us open, right? 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:24.800 I mean, it cuts us, it cuts our souls wide open because the truth of the scriptures of what we should be cut us open for us to go, well, I'm not that. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:26.639 And what do I do now? 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:33.919 And we have to have a confession and give an account, and the account is I'm a sinner in need of grace. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:35.519 Thank you, God. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:44.240 I live in astonishment of this lavish and secure love, and that we get to live in response to that. 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:48.480 Christy and I have an older mentor couple, their names are Rod and Linda. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:58.720 We met them years ago, probably 15 or so years ago when we were in Atlanta at the church that we served at down there, and they hosted a Bible study for us, and we became friends over the years. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.120 And we've watched the relationship closely. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:11.120 You know, you watch somebody maybe is a little bit older than you, and they're in their 60s, and we're in our 40s, and so we're watching them and what they do and how they do their marriage, how they do their relationship, and then we'll talk about it. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:17.840 We try to see them about once a year at this point because they live in Denver, and now we live here in Marietta, but we try to see them about once a year. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:28.799 Last year we were out there seeing them, and we lived, we lived one day with them, like in their house, and they did they work, and we kind of did our own thing, and so we had one day just kind of in their normal life. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:38.000 He went to work, she did her work, and then the evening they kind of came back together, we had dinner, and they sat out on their patio and we had drinks and just talked. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:41.039 And at some point I asked Rod, I said, like, is this your normal rhythm? 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:42.000 Like, what's a normal day? 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:43.279 He says, Oh no, this is normal. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:48.720 Like, we both do our own thing, and then we come back together and we sit out here and we talk. 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:50.879 I'm like, and that's one of the things that we love. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:10:01.120 Is like they each have like their own thing, but then they come back and they talk either in the patio or they walk to a restaurant together and they talk or they take a trip together or they hike together, right? 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:04.000 Like they do this, and we try to do this. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.440 And they're already in relationship, right? 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:17.440 They've already given relationship to each other, they're already in marriage, and yet within the security of covenant marriage, they're still striving, still striving to enter. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:23.120 And this is the image we have here that we have Sabbath rest in Jesus. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:30.320 We are at rest from our work, and yet within that we're called to diligently know that rest more. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:32.639 But it's not to earn anything. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:35.279 And isn't that give us so much peace? 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:40.639 It's just to know the rest even greater in deeper ways. 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:46.480 And I know when it comes to church and faith, there's no shortage of being weary, right? 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:55.440 There's no shortage of books or sermons that can tell you what to do and what else you need to do and how much you need to do to kind of like actually get the blessings of God or something like that. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:57.679 That's not what this passage teaches. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:10:59.039 It's not the gospel. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:08.720 The gospel is that God's already given you fully all the righteousness and forgiveness and standing and belovedness you could ever need in Jesus. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.679 And by belief and nothing else, you have that. 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:14.480 You're at rest, there's nothing to add. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:22.559 And you're called, therefore, diligently, to strive to know it in a greater way. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:26.399 God has no shortage of rest and peace for you. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:32.240 The only thing in the way is our deep-seated self-righteousness. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:38.080 And the growth in the gospel is to say, ah, I don't have to do that anymore. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:39.200 I don't have to self-justify. 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:40.399 I don't need that self-righteousness. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:42.480 I don't have to live by comparison to other people. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:48.559 I get to be fully his, fully righteous, fully forgiven, fully justified by Jesus alone. 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:54.639 Verse 14, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:12:07.759 Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:20.799 Let us then, so because of that, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:26.320 So, verse 15 about who Jesus is as a high priest who can sympathize with us. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:37.600 Verse 15 grounds, verse 14 and verse 16, and here's the point, point number three: God knows how we feel and is with us in all of our weaknesses. 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:45.600 Dane Ortland wrote this book just released a couple months ago called Gentle and Lowly, wonderful book about Jesus. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.080 And about Hebrews chapter 4. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:54.159 He wrote this in our pain, Jesus is pained. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:59.120 In our suffering, he feels the suffering as his own, even though it isn't. 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:08.879 Not that his invincible divinity is threatened, but in the sense that his heart is feelingly drawn into our distress. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:19.759 His is a love that cannot be held back when he sees his people in pain. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:25.679 So I think there's two gospel implications for us coming out of this this morning. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:34.960 And number one is what we've been seeing in Hebrews all along, we can bring our weaknesses, wounds, and range of emotions to God. 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:38.799 We have a high priest who sympathizes with us. 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:44.799 And that is good news because it turns out we are more emotionally volatile than we let other people know. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:48.799 And we're more morally volatile than we let other people know. 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:57.679 And we need a high priest who can be with us and know how we feel and bring it to him. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:02.240 If we're not bringing this to God, what is it we're doing in the relationship? 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:05.200 This is what it means to grow in the grace of God. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:11.279 And the Holy Spirit, who is inside of you, is waiting in those moments of confession. 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:22.240 Not disappointed, not to strike you, but waiting to counsel, maybe convict, but to comfort. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:36.399 Number two is this gospel invocation number two, because of Christ's work, not our work, praise God, not our work, we get to live in calm confidence with God. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:41.279 I know for me, for a long time, confidence came by what I was doing for God. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:45.519 Unfortunately, that is over because earning is over, but my effort's not over. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:51.600 So I get to, because of his work, I get to live in a calm confidence with God. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:59.919 Most of my weariness, at least for me, that I have in the world or in faith, it always reverts back to the fact that I've reverted back to law. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:04.960 Some sort of merit-based living that I'm trying to do enough, to be enough. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:07.440 But that's actually over. 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:11.120 In Jesus, I have my Sabbath rest. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:13.039 You have your Sabbath rest. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:16.480 And we are beloved by grace. 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:18.240 We are maintained by his grace. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.480 We are sustained by his grace. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:23.679 And our striving is in his compassion to us. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:27.600 That's why we can have calm confidence. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:41.200 This passage is showing us the gospel that our true rest is in Jesus alone, not by Joshua by living in the right place, not by Moses by living by the right rules, but by grace to us, Christ's righteousness to us. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:46.720 That's why the passage says, and I'll close with this, may this come alive in your heart as I read it. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:49.519 I reread it, verses 7 through 10. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:57.919 Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:03.840 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:10.080 So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:20.559 For you, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:21.919 Let's pray together. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:24.559 God, thank you for your goodness to us. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.200 That you are sufficient. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:39.200 And while your work is enough, we can be at rest from our work, that the earning is over, and inside that great gift, that you have called us to know you more. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:47.200 God, would we live in right confession that we are in sinners in need of your grace? 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:52.399 Would we receive the right diagnosis that we are not perfect? 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:57.840 And would we receive the rescue that your love is perfect for us in Jesus' name? 00:16:58.159 --> 00:16:58.639 Amen.