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1:03We've come to a culminating point in Hebrews this morning, dealing with rest and the exhortation to rest, one of the major exhortations in the book of Hebrews. Pay attention to Jesus being one of them. Make sure you do not have an unbelieving heart. See to it, and be diligent to rest. To enter into the rest that God has for you. My goal and prayer and desire through this whole study has really been twofold. Number one, that many of us here at Emmanuel would enter into a much greater spiritual rest as a result of this study and being exposed to these truths, that we would be and enjoy a much greater spiritual rest than we've ever known before. The second prayer and desire has been to call those among us who have never truly believed the gospel to come into the fold, to come to Christ and to rest in Him.

2:22Now, some of you have been going to church a long time. Some of you may even profess that you're a Christian, but you are outside the faith. You've never truly believed the gospel, even though you could articulate it. You have not truly believed in it. And so I'm calling you to come into the fold of Christ and rest in Him. You can tell to a certain degree if you're really in Christ by the degree to which you rest in Him.

2:52To what can I compare Sabbath rest? Well, many in that. But it basically boils down to taking time to enjoy something that God has done. Growing up, my dad really loved cheeseburgers. And I remember this happened many times. He really loved a brown bag special at Sonic. You can buy one and get one free. And I remember on many occasions, my mom would prepare a nice dinner. And we would come in, and there would be this wonderful meal, all kinds of special entrees and vegetables. She never just made one. She made a whole spread. And on multiple occasions, especially on Tuesday night when they were having the brown bag special, my dad would look at me and say, Come on, Tom, let's go to Sonic. Okay, of course, you know, I'd jump in the car and we'd go.

4:05How many of you would do well with that? My mom was a good sport about it. She felt like, well, that's good. Father-son time, that's really good. Very gracious about it. But what's a Sabbath rest? It's taking the time to enjoy the meal together, to enjoy that labor which has gone in. To preparing something. So, a rest, a Sabbath rest, is taking the time and the occasion to enjoy something that God has done. Think of a wedding celebration. There's a lot of time, effort, and emotion, and energy that goes into planning all the details and organizing the wedding. There's a lot of hard labor involved in it.

5:00Now, think about it. When the day that the celebration comes, wouldn't it be a tragedy if after all that labor and all that time and all that mental energy, you didn't go, even the bride and groom didn't show up, and there was no celebration. Well, it would be tragic because there's an outcome. So, what is a Sabbath rest? It's that time and that occasion to enjoy all of those things that have been prepared. And God gives us and wants us to take the time to enjoy, to reflect upon what He has done, what He is doing, what He has promised. We can only rest in something that is perfect. And God checks all those boxes and everything that He has accomplished. Accomplished and finished is perfect, and what is lacking is our enjoyment of them. That's why he goes to all the trouble to make a glorious and beautiful world so that people would enter in and enjoy it. Why he provides salvation and the gospel.

6:25Then, what do we need to do? Enter into that rest and enjoy it. We need to take time to enjoy what God has done. We get the first glimpse of this Sabbath rest in Genesis chapter 2, and God had finished creation, or certainly the world, and put everything in motion, and it was all very good. And He took the Sabbath day, the seventh, the seventh, and he reflected upon it. You see, the Mosaic code provided the marks of outward devotion to God, and they were very good.

7:16There was the civil code, how people should relate to one another. There was all that associated with the temple worship, sacrifices, all that was good, great, wonderful. And the Sabbaths that were part of that code, they were all very good. The problem was in those who didn't combine it with faith. They saw all these things, they walked through all these motions, they talked about them, they participated in them, but they didn't combine what was happening with faith.

7:55If you look back at Hebrews 4:2, the writer says this, for indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they did also, speaking of the Exodus generation. But the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. We are to take the words of Scripture, we are to combine it, mix it together with faith, believe in it, and it produces God's effect. Same is true about the gospel. We must unite the good news with that that we have heard with faith. And what does the gospel call us to do? It calls us to spiritually rest in Jesus. And so, what does obedience to the gospel look like? It looks like entering in and enjoying the rest that is in Jesus Christ. That God has provided through his finished work.

9:08He is the banquet of life. But many of us, let's go to Sonic. Don't be like that. Enjoy him. Come to him. Be diligent to enjoy Jesus Christ. The directive under the gospel is summed up nicely in verse 11. Our text this morning, look back at verse 11. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest. Therefore, in light of what has been said previously, and there's quite a lot up to this culminating point, in light of the glory of Christ, he is greater than the angels, he is greater than Moses, he is greater than Joshua because of who he is. He is God's Son.

10:09In light of the tragic example of the unbelief in the Exodus generation, therefore, in light of our high calling in Jesus Christ, therefore, in light of the promise of entering his rest, that it still remains today, therefore, Therefore, be diligent. Let us be diligent to enter his rest. Look at what he said in verse 9. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did his. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest. Which rest? The Sabbath rest, just spoken of in verses 9 and 10. That kind of rest. That one.

11:09Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter. What does it mean to enter something? To move from the outside of something to the inside of something. Instead of just talking on the outside, many of the peripheral things associated with Christ come on the inside. Enjoy being in Christ. To share in who he is, to share in what he has done. These are perfect. He's a perfect individual. He has done perfect things. And we can find rest in him and in relationship with him. And that's why the gospel calls all of us to come to Christ and come into Christ.

11:53Get out of the outside and come to the inside. Don't be satisfied with just some. Lukewarm confession of Christ. Embrace him. Be diligent to embrace him. He is the banquet of life. That's this exhortation of the gospel. Enter that rest. Be diligent to enter that rest. Rest means calm, stillness. You remember when Jesus on that raging sea and the fishermen were scared for their lives? He's asleep. There's the rest. And he wakes up, peace, be still. And this raging sea becomes perfectly still.

12:54And it scared the daylights out of the disciples. Who is this? But that's the picture. Cease. Rest. Be still. Now, curious duty. Be diligent to rest. Kind of an oxymoron. You know what an oxymoron is? Something that apparently contradicts itself. Jumbo shrimp. Freezer, burn. Be diligent to rest. Say it like this. Make every effort to cease. Hasten to slow down. Be aggressive to be still. What a curious heavenly calling we have. To motivate us, to motivate his audience and us to answer this heavenly calling, to be diligent to rest.

14:21Our author gives us two reasons why we need to be diligent to rest in our text this morning, and that's what we want to look at. Be diligent to enter God's rest. First of all, because most people fail to enter it. Most people fail to enter it. Remember the Exodus generation. 600,000 didn't enter that rest. Two did. People fail to enter the rest. Look back at verse 11. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of obedience.

15:20You see, you either follow Christ into the rest that God has for you, or you follow the path of those who are disobedient. And the gospel is: follow Christ into the rest that God has for you. So that no one, the reason you need to be diligent to enter that rest is so that no one, so that not any one of y'all will fall, should fall. But we translate that, it's an active verb, it's not a passive verb, as if to fall, oops, I fell into perdition. No, that's too weak. It's an active, so that none of you would collapse under pressure. That might be a little bit better to go astray, to turn around. But the same word.

16:30Is used to describe the walls of Jericho collapsing inward after being encircled. The writer of Hebrews uses this same word. It's a unique word, it's unusual, not completely unique, but very unusual. Hebrews 11:30 says, By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for several seven days. You can imagine how that original audience was feeling. They were feeling the pressures from the Jewish community to abandon their confession in Christ, to go back to Judaism. There was the pressures from Rome under Nero, all kinds of pressures they were facing to weaken their confession of Christ.

17:29We feel it today, don't we? We live in a time where there are many forces around us that would like for us to weaken our confession of Christ. We are pressured to minimize him, to compromise his words, or to reinvent him altogether. But to do so is to collapse, is to collapse or to fall into that same category as that Exodus. Generation and to fall under the same judgment as that Exodus generation. So we feel those pressures to weaken our confession of Christ. I'm sure you have felt it at the job site, you've felt it in the workplace, you have felt it in school, you have felt it everywhere. But in addition to this, sometimes the pressures of lives themselves can feel like an encircling army, can't they? Seeking to trample our faith to the ground.

18:43And such faith-testing moments drive the majority of humanity away from God to trust in themselves, to look for other solutions than in God. That's what happened to the Exodus generation. They had giants. They had giant concerns. They looked into the land. There's giants in that land. We can't overcome them. They're giants. What are your giant concerns? Theirs were literal giants. Well, if you're 10 years old, You might have some giants in your life. You're a teenager, you might have some giants that you're facing. Very different than if you're 80, you might be facing some different giants.

19:45But here's the exhortation: whatever giants you are facing, they're not really giants. And you put God in the mix, combine your situation with faith who God is and what He has promised. But look back. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that none will fall through following the same example of disobedience. They gave us an example of disobedience. He's literally saying, do not come under the same pattern as that Exodus generation. Trials produce one of two outcomes. Every trial you face is going to produce one of two outcomes.

20:35They're going to drive you to either trust and obey and rest in God or disobey Him. That's what trials do, they reveal something about us because they drive us to our ultimate base, our ultimate safe haven. And the gospel says, make that safe haven Jesus Christ. And every trial you face, every encircling army, every you take it to him, you immediately hasten to him with that concern. What a glorious calling we have to make haste to enter the harbor of rest whenever those trials or those pressures to deny Christ come around us.

21:28Disobedience. So you have two options before you when you face any kind of these pressures in life. You can either rest or rebel. You choose. And those who rebel will never know eternal life. And that's what this author of Hebrews is saying. Rest and be diligent to rest. Do not weaken your confession in Christ. Go on. Take hold. Be diligent. Make sure that not a single individual among us falls under this same pattern as the Exodus generation.

22:23Be diligent to enter God's rest because most people fail to enter it. Second reason to be diligent to enter God's rest is because God means what he says. God means what he says. The next two verses show us two things. First, that we are accountable to the word of God, and second, we are accountable to the God of the Word. First, we are accountable to the Word of God. Look at verse 12. For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

23:20It's interesting, as you study these carefully, these verses do not seem to distinguish between the spoken word and the one who speaks it. You look ahead to verse 13. The word of God is clearly referred to as a he. There is no creature hidden from his sight. You see, we are accountable to the word of God because we will be judged by the word of God. Not a distinction between the word of God and the one who speaks it. You can't separate the two. And it's not separated in our text. Yes, the spoken word comes from the God of the Word.

24:13You can't separate the two. Just like you cannot separate my words that I'm sharing right now from me. We're connected. What our writer shows us in verse 12 is that the word is competent to judge. The word is competent to judge. Five characteristics of the word of God. And by the way, that's what they referred to Christ throughout. The logos. The logos. But there's five characteristics of the word of God. This will be true of the spoken word. It's also true of the incarnate word. But five characteristics of the word, the spoken word, what his teaching, his words. Number one, the living, it's living. The spoken word is living because it cannot be disconnected from the living one who speaks it. So when you're dealing with the word of God, as in scripturated, you are dealing with God Himself. When you come under the sense and the meaning, you are dealing with the words. Dealing with God Himself. And that is why you should be careful to pay attention to every detail.

25:40Living. Second characteristic: active. Word for active is it's powerful, it's effective, it effectively accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent. The one who sent the word, the word, will go and accomplish what it intends or the reason for which it was given. Isaiah 55:11, words you're very familiar with. So will my word, which goes forth from my mouth, it will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. You see, the word has an ability to accomplish things. See that at the very beginning of creation. Let there be. Pow, there it was.

26:36So the power to enter into God's rest is going to be connected to the word of God itself. Enter. Come in. God wants to have a relationship with you. Believe, and you shall enter. So the word of God has the power to call people into that rest. But it also has the power to reveal and to condemn the disobedient. The Word of God has a penetrating insight into the heart, soul, spirit of man. That's what the next verse is going to show, as the next metaphors next goes on to describe. Third characteristic. So the first characteristic of the word, it's living. Second, it's active. Third, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's sharper, meaning it has power to cut.

27:43More like a dagger. But it speaks of it that it's well-suited to cut. It's sharper than anything. It's well-suited to cut things up into pieces. It's well-suited to dissect anything in the most teeniest little cut that needs to be made. It is sharp enough. It can dissect anything it needs to dissect, meaning it can separate things into its individual components. Fourth characteristic, it's piercing. It's piercing. As far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, it is piercing, even to the extent of the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. So it's piercing. Not only is it well suited to cut, it's well suited to go deep into its cutting ministry.

29:00It goes through, that's what penetrates, it goes through, it's able to pierce thoroughly. So, not only is the Word of God able to cut things up and dissect things into pieces, it's able to cut through anything it needs to cut through. It's thoroughly piercing, and it completely dissects every layer of the human makeup. Soul, spirit. You're with us in our Horizons Bible study this Thursday. We talked a lot about this division. Not going to get into all that.

29:47But there's a connection: joints and marrow, soul and spirit. You just meter this thing out grammatically. Soul seems to connect with joints. Spirit with marrow. Think about that for a second. What are joints? If we're talking about the inner being of humanity, soul, spirit, joints, marrow. Joints are like the place where the bones connect. We know what joints are: it's a place where bones come together. Marrow, some see it as muscle, that which is able to move the joints. But marrow probably goes a bit deeper into the very internal makeup of the bones themselves.

30:36The very core part of the bone, the very core part of man's soul is the spirit which is driving the movement of the soul. But taken together, these metaphors, there's a lot more that can be said on that. But taken together, these metaphors are descriptions that speak of the word's ability to cut into and through every disguise, every pretense, every false hope of the disobedient. It goes deep and it cuts thoroughly. And these qualities are the reason why the word is called. Competent to judge rightly, which takes us to the fifth characteristic. It is living, it is active, it is sharper than any two-edged sword, it is piercing, even as far as the spirit, soul, and spirit joints in marrow. And number five, it is able to judge. See that? Able to judge. It's competent to distinguish, it's competent to separate the good from the evil the thoughts and intentions of the heart, the inner deliberations, the thoughts. The Word of God is able to go in, penetrate deeply, to understand and dissect the inner deliberations, the inner dialogues of the heart, the inner reflections.

32:21And not only that, it knows what's going on, what a person is thinking, but also the intentions of the heart, the motivations of the heart, the attitudes of the heart. The Word of God is able to go deep, parse out, separate the thoughts and intentions of the heart, whether they be of faith or whether they be of unbelief. See, we can deceive ourselves. In fact, many people, I think, live life in. Deception. Many people in the church live in a live their lives much in deception, thinking that they are in Christ and they really are not.

33:15It's true that Exodus generation thought they were in, but they were not. Now, suppose you happened to be in a high school classroom and you heard this professing Christian trying to presenting a paper trying to combine creation and evolutionary theory. What would you think about him? Would you think that such paper was an expression of faith or unbelief? I mean, there he is. You just happen to be sitting in there, and here's this guy. You know, he's a Christian, professes to be a Christian, and here he is taking, trying to mesh and reconcile in his mind and convince everybody that there is harmony between modern science and creation about the origins. Of humanity.

34:32Well, that was me. Remember in high school, I'm going to present a paper on this. But you've got to understand a little bit about where I was at. I grew up all my life in a very intellectual town, and it had completely, there was, I didn't, I'd never even heard of a creation theory. It was evolution put down before us. Community, very much high-minded scientists. So the Bible had no place. But then I came to Christ.

35:18And I knew right away God's word is true. And so I start reading my Bible, and it says that God said, Let there be light. So I write this paper. Okay, look, I'm presented. And I'm there against the grain. And I said, you know what? We should not throw the Bible out. Because evolutionary theory starts with this idea, a big bang. And let me tell you what happened. God said, let there be light. There's the big bang.

35:56That was my analysis. And it was an expression of faith. I was trying to reconcile my new faith with what I had heard all my life. Now, since then, I have studied more, I have come to understand that theistic evolution is neither good theology nor good science. It took me a while to get there, to understand that. But at that moment in time, if you just look at things, you could see deep within the struggle I was having and the dissonance I was trying to reconcile. I was holding fast to the Word of God.

36:48And that Word of God is able to go down deep and to judge the thoughts and intentions. So sometimes what we see may not speak of the trajectory that we're on. And even some things that might at surface value might see as a compromise of faith may be an expression of faith as somebody goes deeper. We can't judge all that, but the Word of God does go down, does see what's happening. And that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying. You can't hide. The Word of God goes deep.

37:27It is true. On everything that it says, and it goes deep, it penetrates, it understands the universe, and it understands those who believe it and those who do not. Here's the point: we are all going to be judged by the Word of God, which is able to competently judge every thought, every motivation, and every detail of our lives. But not only are we going to be judged by the Word of God, we're going to be judged by the God of the Word.

38:13And that's what the next verse teaches us: not only are we accountable to the Word of God, what He has spoken, we are accountable to the God of the Word, to the One who spoke that Word. And the Word which He's spoken is going to be what judges us, because ultimately we are accountable to the God of the Word. Look at verse 13. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. So, as the result of the penetrating insight into the hearts of people, no one is able to hide their disobedience at any cost. Level.

39:02There is no creature. There isn't such a creature out there that is hidden, invisible, that cannot be seen by God. There's no creature like that anywhere out there at all. And that includes us. There is nothing that is hidden from his comprehensive insight and omniscience. Notice the scope of what he sees. All things, every detail of the universe, including every minutiae detail of our lives, physically, spiritually, thoughts, and intention. Everything, all things, look back, are open and laid bare before him.

40:04Every detail of our lives opened up, exposed. There is nothing concealed. It is completely uncovered. So not only are our deeds known to God, but every thought and attitude and motivation behind them are in full view of God. It's like your thought life, your motivation life. Is like on this huge jumbotron with the highest resolution right before the presence of God. That's how God sees us. How would you like for your every thought and motive to be put on high-definition trumbotron for everybody to look at? That's how we go through every single day. God sees it all in perfect clarity and in perfect detail and the whole scope of it all.

41:12And he means what he says when he says, be diligent to enter his rest. And he can tell who is responding in faith. Exhortation is today if you hear it, even now as you hear it, even as you hear my voice, you move in the direction of faith. This is the one with whom we have to do. The end of verse 13. This is the one to whom we are ultimately answerable. We will all appear before him. He is our judge.

41:54The author is exhorting the generation there. He's saying, look, it's not the Judaism. Of the Hebrews generation, they're not the ones you're going to stand before. It's not Rome, it's not Nero's bench that's going to judge you. It's not the USA or any court, any individual that you're ultimately responsible to. It's not the cultural trends of our society. It is not mom, it is not dad, it is not friends, it is not employers, it is not your co-workers, it is not your colleagues, it is not the trending voices in society, it is Jesus Christ and the Word of God and the God of the Word to whom we are accountable and will ultimately appear.

42:51Boy, time goes. We're going to get there pretty quickly. I can tell because my sermons, how fast a sermon goes and how much more I have to say on this. Certainly won't be able to cover. But let me just take a step back for a moment and look at the broader picture of what we've been looking at these past few weeks. What was the sign of the Noahic covenant? Rainbow. God restraining his judgment. God doing something on his side of the fence to restrain judgment. What was the sign of the covenant to Abraham? Circumcision, something within man. A cutting away of something unclean in man is needed. What was the sign of the covenant under Moses? The Sabbath, a rest, reflecting upon God's work. Now, all these are intimating, pointing to a greater reality: Jesus.

43:49He is the one who absorbed God's wrath. He is the one who, he is the one within God Himself who restrains by virtue of absorbing God's judgment in Himself. He is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and removes that unclean heart and puts a new one in. Jesus is the one in whom we are to rest. He is the Sabbath rest. He is perfect God, perfect man, perfect Savior, perfect shepherd. So, what is the sign of the new covenant? A lot of people have offered many suggestions. I'm going to submit to you that it's Jesus Himself.

44:45Jesus is the sign. And Luke 2:34, remember when Simeon sees Jesus, he blesses, says all these things. Luke 2:34. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed. And a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that the thoughts from many hearts will be revealed. Jesus has already made it clear that we are going to be judged by his words.

45:29In John 12, 47, we read it earlier in the service. If anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. You see, we are accountable to Jesus. The way you relate to him says everything about how you feel about God.

46:06Are you content to see Jesus' name trampled under the mud? Are you content to trample his name under the mud or go along with it? How do you feel about Jesus? How do you relate to Jesus? That says everything about who you are. Seeing Jesus is seeing God. Coming to Christ is coming to God. When you boil all this down, Christ says, Likeness is not just a good moral idea, it reveals how you feel about God.

46:41And those who refuse to love one another like Christ loved others, they scorn God. We are to receive Christ's words, we are to receive Christ Himself. The way you relate to Christ says all that the judge needs to know about how you think about the country of Christ. The way you receive the flag, or the way you relate to the flag, says something about how you relate to the country for which it stands, Jesus Christ. The way you relate to Him says everything about who you are and what your ultimate destiny is going to be.

47:41Well, the gospel calls us to spiritually rest in Jesus. Go back to the title of the message: Be diligent to rest. Two reasons. Be diligent to rest. Enter into that Sabbath kind of rest. First of all, most people fail to enter it. So there's a warning for us: do not be like those who fell. The consequences of not entering into this Sabbath rest that God has for us after all that He has worked and all that He has prepared, the consequences of not entering are tragic. And so the first exhortation, you can see it in the title itself, is to rest.

48:37God wants us to rest, but the Sabbath kind of rest, His rest. Second reason we should be diligent to enter God's rest is because God means what He says. Nothing's hidden from His eyes. And this is the exhortation to the first part of the title: Be diligent. God means what He says. Enter that rest, or you will fall by the same disobedience and judgment at those who would not exercise faith, even in spite of the giants.

49:20Let such giants in your life cause you to run to the safe haven of God's. Rest in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, so much more to take in this phrase and exhortation to be diligent to enter into your rest. Help us, Father, to be people who quickly come and seek you in prayer. Seek you as our refuge when the encircling armies of difficulties and naysayers and those who profane, try to pressure us into reducing our confession of you, when whatever we're encircled by that challenges our faith, Father, help us to be a people who immediately and quickly and hasten and to call upon your name, to reflect upon your promises, to lay our requests before you. Father, help us to spiritually rest in you and to be a people who more and more rest. And Father, I pray for those here today who don't know you, who are outside, that today would be the day that they would come inside by calling upon you, by repenting of their sins, just choosing to believe in you.

51:01Take your word at face value. That is what we do here. And want to do better. In Jesus' name, amen.