Shall we open our Bibles, please, to the
first chapter of Hebrews?
I've been enjoying the book of Hebrews of
late, and I've been speaking from it considerably.
Each series that I use, this blessed portion
of Scripture, the Lord seems to give a
little bit more upon us, and I trust
that this week will be no exception, that
our hearts will be made glad.
The book of Hebrews was written to those
Jewish Christians and for the admonition of those
who did not know Christ, that is, those
who had embraced Christianity as a religion, but
had somehow missed the person of Christ.
The epistle is written for their specific benefit.
We'll not talk about the authorship of this
book tonight, but as to why the book
was written, and something of the truth, the
precious truth, and the application of those truths
to your heart and to mine.
The book of Hebrews was written to give
substance to the shadows that the Old Testament
saints had.
The Jewish religion was a very striking religion.
It was a beautiful, of a beautiful ritual.
The temple, even the temple of our Lord's
Day was a grand, grand edifice.
It was so grand that the disciples on
one occasion said to the Lord, as they
looked at that temple, Behold, what manner of
buildings you see here.
And the Lord said at that time, He
said, The time will come when there will
not be one stone left upon another stone.
That which the disciples thought of as being
so grand, and every Jew was proud of
that temple of that day, it was forty
-six years under construction.
And the disciples thought of it as being
a grand edifice.
But the Lord said, It's all going to
be torn down.
The Jews, by their national background, had been
led to see tangible things.
As a matter of fact, we read in
the scriptures that the Jews require a sign.
The Greeks speak after wisdom.
They required something miraculous, something remarkable.
Their very beginning in history, in the land
of Egypt, their beginning under redemption, the night
of the Passover was a remarkable series of
miraculous dealings of God with Pharaoh that the
children of Israel might be delivered out of
the slavery, the bondage of Egypt.
Now that's how their national history began, was
by miracle, wonderful miracles.
And all down through their history, God delivered
Israel in wonderful ways, in miraculous ways, through
angelic intervention in some instances.
And even up to our Lord's time, the
Jews still required a sign.
They asked the Lord for a sign.
Lord, show us a sign.
We want something visible.
We want something grand.
Now, for a person of that background, to
just have simple, trusting faith in Christ alone
was a tremendous step for them to take.
And the book of Hebrews shows those Old
Testament saints that all they had was just
a shadow of the reality of what we
have in Christ.
Now, we want, with the help of the
Lord this week, to make Christ very real
to our hearts.
Very, very real.
Not a shadow.
The language of the Apostle in this portion
of Scripture, I think, is contained in a
verse that we read in the 8th chapter,
in verse 5, in regard to what the
Jews had.
Chapter 8 of Hebrews, verse 4.
We'll read for the sake of connection.
For if we were on earth, that is,
Christ, he should not be a priest, seeing
that there are priests that offer gifts according
to the law, who serve unto the example
and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to
make the tabernacle.
For see, saith he, that thou makest all
things according to the pattern shown to thee
in the mount.
Now, we have several things mentioned here.
We have the example.
The Jew had only the example of the
reality.
He had only the shadow of the substance.
He had only the pattern of the real
thing.
Now, that's all he had.
Now, that should speak to our hearts, because
there are those in the world today, and
oh yes, in the book of Hebrews, we
have the figure.
The word figure used, as to what the
Jew had.
Now, there are four words, if you please.
Figures, patterns, shadows, examples.
But that's all they had.
Now, a shadow is a faint indication of
something that makes that shadow.
We can gain certain knowledge from a shadow.
I recall that on one occasion I was
hiking up in Rocky Mountain National Park in
Colorado, and I was the lead man on
the trail.
We were way up high, way back in,
where automobiles didn't travel.
And I had my head down as I
was going up the trail, and it was
a bright, sunny afternoon.
Two others were, or were, I was with
two others on this occasion, and we were
hiking up around the tree line.
And as I was on the trail, a
tremendously big black shadow just come across the
trail like this.
Well, I jumped, because I knew instinctively something
makes a shadow.
I looked up just in time to see
a huge eagle sweep up just a few
feet away and land in a tree.
He had been sitting in a tree beside
the trail.
And he was so big that he had
to dive to get flying speed.
And the dive took him right within just
a few feet of my head, and then
he swooped up into this tree.
And while that majestic bird was folding his
wings in, I was getting my camera ready.
But he took off for parts unknown before
I had proof of the experience.
But I know that some of you trust
me.
The point I'm telling the story about is
this.
I was frightened, because I knew something made
that shadow.
Now, the shadow gave some indication of what
it was.
It wasn't a land creature, because it came
between me and the sun.
We gain certain things by shadows, but oh,
we gain such little knowledge by shadows.
We want the reality.
We want the substance, don't we?
Now, all that you had was a shadow
of the good things today.
And I think that, you know, I think
that this truth is applicable to this day
and age, because I think that all some
people have in the world today is a
shadow.
They have a ritual.
They have, perhaps, a religion.
They have an outward form of worship as
the Jew had.
But there is no reality.
There is a kind of an idealism.
Christ is more or less an ideal, instead
of a living, warm person, a friend, a
living reality.
Sometimes we ask in regard to whether or
not a person is safe, do they know
the Lord?
I might ask that question here tonight.
Do you know the Lord?
Now, the question is not, do you know
about the Lord?
No, that's not the question.
You may well know all about the Lord,
and still not be saved.
The demons knew all about the Lord, and
they were saved.
Do you know the Lord?
Is he a living reality?
Is he a person, warm, real, friendly?
Do you talk with him?
Do you feel that perhaps though you have
been alone all day, humanly speaking, yet you
haven't been alone?
You have felt his presence.
You have talked with him.
Now that was something that was hard for
the Jew to do.
To leave it tangible.
To leave that ritual that he had, and
depend entirely upon faith.
And there are many religions in the world
today that exploit the shoy.
They have buildings that aren't quite worth looking
at.
And I do look at them.
I always, if I'm out on a walk
in a strange city, and see a church
edifice, I'll go out of my way to
look it over.
But believe me, it's not our pride in
an edifice.
It's not our desire to be linked with
something that is reputable.
No, that doesn't satisfy.
The Jews had the only religion that God
ever opened the heavens to give.
They had something to be proud of nationally.
And there are those today that are proud
of the history of the church that they're
in.
But that does not necessarily mean that they're
saved or that they know Christ.
There is a very real difference.
Now the book of Hebrews was written to
give substance to the shadow that the Jews
had.
But all they had was the shadow.
Those things that they had were simply types
of the great anti-type, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is a real person.
Do we know the Lord?
Is he very real and very personal to
us?
Now it's notable that in the book of
Hebrews, our Lord Jesus Christ is compared with
four groups of, well I can't say persons
because one of the groups is the angelic
host.
And they are personages rather than persons as
we know them.
But he is compared with the prophets.
In the first three verses of the book
of Hebrews, our Lord Jesus Christ is compared
with the prophets.
Then he is compared with the angels.
Then he is compared with the apostles, two
that are spoken of as apostles, I believe.
And then he is compared with priests.
Now those are all people.
They're all personages.
They have personalities.
Later on in the book of Hebrews, our
Lord Jesus Christ, there are comparisons made between
that which surrounds him and that which the
Old Testament saint had.
But he is not compared with saints, except
perhaps as sacrifice.
Now, but they are always related to the
high priest.
We have him presented as high priest first.
And then because he is the high priest,
there was a change made in the law.
There was a change made in the covenant
because of the fact of this great person,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he is compared, first of all, with
the prophets.
And I'm just going to teach, or touch,
rather, on that very briefly because I want
to borrow from some of the nights ahead
and think of our Lord Jesus Christ as
an apostle and as a high priest tonight.
But shall we read in Hebrews chapter 1?
God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also he made the world, who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by
the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sin, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high.
Now, it just seems that the Holy Spirit
of God throws everything at us at once
in these first three verses.
There's no gradual introduction into the subject.
We are brought face to face with the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as compared
with the Old Testament prophets.
For their message to the people of God
was intermittent, sundry times, and fragmentary in divers
manners.
He spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets.
Fragmentary, intermittent.
But God in these last days has spoken
to us in the full blaze of glory
that surrounds our Lord Jesus Christ.
I got a great list out of Ardell's
song tonight, How Great Thou Art.
And I'd like to show you something of
the greatness of God that is presented to
our Lord Jesus, that is presented in verses
2 and 3 of this first chapter.
I don't know how the Schofield Bible ever
missed this one.
There are so many seven-fold in the
Schofield Bible that I don't know how they
ever missed this one.
But there is apparently one seven-fold in
verses 2 and 3 that they missed.
They are the seven-fold personal glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Count them as we read.
First of all, He is the Son.
Then He is the Heir.
Then He is the Creator.
Then He is the Redealer.
Then He is the Sustainer.
Then He is the Redeemer.
Then He is the High Priest.
How could you have anything more concentrated than
that?
Now that's in contrast to the prophets.
And God just seemingly, the Spirit of God
just brings the full glory of Christ before
us.
You know, that was the way the Apostle
Paul was reached when he was on the
road to Damascus to apprehend the Christians and
bring them into captivity because he considered them
a sect, because he considered Christ an imposter.
The Lord Jesus Christ met him that day
in a blaze of glory.
And he arrested him on his path away
from the Lord.
You know, I think sometimes that God meets
us sometimes with a full blaze of glory.
We've heard about the Lord Jesus Christ all
our lives.
And then the Spirit of God, in His
own way and in His own power, brings
us face to face with Christ and with
the glory of His person.
We think of it as being a religion.
We think of it as being ideal.
And then suddenly, like the Apostle Paul, for
salvation is a revelation, suddenly we're brought face
to face with the Christ.
And we know that He's dealing with us
personally.
And we know that He's speaking to our
hearts personally.
And it shakes us up.
Believe me, it shook the Apostle Paul up
on the road to Damascus.
I wonder, have we ever had a meeting
with Christ?
Have we ever been brought face to face
with the fact that He is dealing with
us?
That He's speaking to our hearts?
And have we ever been truthful enough to
say, like the Apostle Paul, Who are thou,
Lord?
I don't know you.
Who are you?
The Apostle Paul didn't know the Lord at
all.
He had to ask who He was.
But that is the way that God speaks
to us in the book of Hebrews.
He brings us face to face with the
glory of this person through whom God speaks.
And the book of Hebrews is written with
a specific purpose of showing the glories of
Christ and making Him real to your hearts
and to mine.
The word better is frequently used.
Some call it the key word of the
epistle.
The better things that we have in Christ.
It's a book of contrast.
It's a book of comparison.
And I'll tell you that knowing Christ, and
I speak from experience.
I know whereof I speak.
Knowing Christ is just as different from a
religion which we may have as the difference
between Judaism and Christianity.
The difference is just that great.
For after we know the Lord Jesus Christ,
in our lives personally, things take on a
different perspective altogether.
It's a living reality.
I think it's the most real thing in
this life to know the Lord Jesus Christ
as one's own personal Savior.
Oh yes, we can talk about Him perhaps
even more or less intelligently.
But do we talk to Him?
Is He a friend?
Is He a Savior?
Now, in the last two of these seven
personal glories of the Lord Jesus, we have
Him as Redeemer and High Priest.
Now, you might say, in what sense is
He a High Priest because He sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on
high?
Well, the book of Hebrews refers to that
several times.
I'm not going into it now because I
want to develop the truth a little bit
about His apostleship, why He came into this
world.
But we see Him as our Redeemer, as
an apostle.
We see Him as the High Priest, the
one who takes us back to God.
Now, we are asked to consider, in the
third chapter of the book of Hebrews, and
you'll turn to it with me if you
please, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the apostle and High Priest of
our profession Christ Jesus.
Now, the word wherefore is put there by
the Holy Spirit.
It's a conjunction that links us with what
has been gone before.
Wherefore, because of what I have just said,
or what I have said before, consider Christ,
consider the apostle and High Priest of our
profession Christ Jesus.
Now, the word apostle is an interesting word.
It means a sense one.
And our Lord Jesus Christ was a sense
one.
He came into this world.
He was sent by His Father.
Now, there are two men with whom our
Lord Jesus Christ is compared as an apostle.
They were apostles of a sort because they
were sent.
One of them was Moses, and one of
them was Joshua, because they were sent of
the Lord for the deliverance of His people.
Now, they were not apostles in the sense
of New Testament apostles, because the definition of
a New Testament apostle was one who had
seen the Lord.
And I don't know about what they would
qualify on that score, too.
They had seen the Lord, certainly.
And no doubt they had seen the one
that Paul had seen, because the theophanies of
the Old Testament are really a presentation of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the
Jesus of the New.
So they had seen Him in that respect,
and they were apostles sent for the deliverance
of the people of God.
Now, Moses, you know the Jews thought so
much of Moses.
Now, here we are considering Moses before we
have compared our Lord with the prophets and
with the angels.
Be patient with me.
Because of this being in a special way
a gospel meeting tonight, we want to consider
why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this
world, why He was sent into this world.
Shall we let the scriptures themselves decide for
us the question of why our Lord Jesus
Christ was sent into the world?
Now, turn with me, please, to the fourth
chapter of 1 John.
1 John chapter 4, verse
9.
Now, in this was manifested the love of
God toward us, because that God sent His
only begotten Son into the world that we
might live through Him.
God sent His only begotten Son into the
world that we might live through Him.
Herein is love, not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Our Lord Jesus was sent into this world
to be the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins.
Now, shall we notice the gospel of John,
if you please?
We see why Christ was sent into the
world.
He was an apostle, because He was sent
from God with a deliverance.
The third chapter of John's gospel, if you
please.
Verse 16.
For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
For God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved.
Now, the fifth chapter of John's gospel.
Verse 24.
The Lord Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life.
Now, our Lord Jesus Christ says plainly, God
sent me into this world.
He sent Him into this world for a
purpose.
He sent Him into this world to die
as a sacrifice for you and for me.
He died for our sins on the cross
of Calvary.
So our Lord Jesus Christ was an apostle.
He came into this world having been sent
of the Father.
Now, let's go back, if you please, to
Exodus chapter 3.
This is quite a study, but I have
a point to make, and I intend making
it before this hour has passed.
Exodus chapter 3 is, first of all, compared
with Moses, our Lord, because Moses was an
apostle in this sense.
Verse 10 of the third chapter of Exodus.
Come now, therefore, the Lord says, and I
will send thee unto Pharaoh.
I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou
mayest bring forth my people, the children of
Israel, out of Egypt.
And Moses said unto God, Who am I
that I should go unto Pharaoh, that I
should bring forth the children of Israel out
of Egypt?
And He said, Certainly I will be with
thee, and this shall be a token unto
thee that I have sent thee.
When thou hast brought forth the people out
of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this
mountain.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I
come unto the children of Israel, and shall
say unto them, The God of your fathers
hath sent me unto you, and they shall
say, What is his name, and what shall
I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I am that
I am.
And He said, Thus shalt thou say unto
the children of Israel, I am hath sent
me unto you.
Now, four times in this passage, Moses has
spoken out as having been sent.
He was an apostle in a very real
way, and he had seen God.
He was sent with a deliverance.
He was sent to deliver the children of
Israel from bondage, from slavery in the land
of Egypt.
Egypt is a type of this world, and
our Lord Jesus was sent to deliver the
people of God, the people that became the
people of God, out of the land of
Egypt.
Pharaoh is a type of Satan, and they
were delivered from Pharaoh.
Now, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent to
deliver us from slavery, the slavery of sin,
a slavery far greater than the slavery of
Egypt.
He was sent to deliver us from the
devil, a far harder taskmaster than the Pharaoh
of Egypt.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was sent with a
greater deliverance than was Moses.
But now, just to prove who this person
was, Moses asked him, he said, Now, who
shall I tell them sent me?
What's your name?
And God said, Tell them I Am hath
sent me unto you.
Well, now, you say that's not grammatically correct
at all.
Well, when you consider that I Am is
a title of our Lord Jesus Christ, it
is perfectly correct, grammatically speaking.
I Am is a title.
I Am hath sent me unto you.
Who is the I Am?
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his earthly ministry,
especially in the Gospel of John, which presents
our Lord Jesus as the Son of God,
he uses that term, I Am, he uses
it seven times in a very wonderful way
in the Gospel of John.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I Am the
bread of life.
I Am the joy.
I Am the good shepherd.
I Am the resurrection and the life.
I Am the light of the world.
I Am the we, the truth and the
life.
I Am the true life.
Our Lord Jesus shows himself to be God
in that seven-fold presentation of himself as
the I Am.
Now, you remember in the Gospel of John,
and it's interesting that it's only in the
Gospel of John that this is recorded, the
soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane to
apprehend the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they asked for Jesus of Nazareth, and
the Lord Jesus says, I Am he.
Now, if you'll notice in your authorized versions,
the word he is italic.
The Lord Jesus Christ just simply said, I
Am.
Do you remember what happened on that occasion?
It says that they went backward and fell
to the ground.
I often wonder what those soldiers felt like.
I wonder what explanation they had for that.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, when our Lord
Jesus Christ seemed to be a helpless victim
completely at the mercy of circumstances, he said,
I Am.
And they just fell over backwards.
Much as a row of dominoes set up
by children is touched, and they all fall
over.
Our Lord Jesus simply used his name.
Now that was the person that talked with
Moses.
Now, in the third chapter of Hebrews again,
our Lord Jesus is compared with Moses.
Because that was vital to the Jew, Moses
was a hero in their sight, but ah,
here was a greater one than Moses.
With a greater deliverance.
And he was able to do something for
the children of Israel that Moses never did
for them.
And I hope that our Lord Jesus Christ
will do that same thing for you tonight.
Let's talk about it.
Hebrews chapter 3, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of
the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession Christ Jesus, who was
faithful to him that appointed him, as also
Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more
glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath
built the house hath more honor than the
house.
For every house is built by some man,
but he that built all things is God.
And Moses verily was faithful in all his
house as a servant, for a testimony to
those things which were to be spoken after.
But Christ has a son over his own
house, whose house are we if we hold
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the
hope firm unto the end.
Now Christ was the son.
I'm not going to develop the sonship of
Christ tonight as the reason for his authority,
but I'll say this.
Moses was only a servant.
And who gave Moses his orders at the
burning bush?
It was Christ himself, the great I Am.
Now Moses did not leave the people, the
children of Israel, into rest.
The Lord Jesus Christ in this portion of
Scripture is compared with another person, and that
is Joshua.
Let's read about that rest.
In verse 7, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith today, If ye will hear his voice,
pardon not your hearts, as in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and
saw my works forty years.
Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation, and
said, They do always err in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.
So I swear in my wrath, they shall
not enter into my rest.
Now Moses did not leave the children of
Israel into rest.
At the waters of Kadesh Barnea, the children
of Israel paused in unbelief.
They wanted to send spies into the land
of Canaan to see how they should go
up.
When those spies came back, ten of them
brought a very evil report.
They said, Yes, the land is all that
God said it is.
The land is beautiful, but there are giants
there, and the cities are walled up to
heaven.
They didn't want to go in.
They faltered in unbelief.
You know, it's odd how we can make
excuses when we don't want to do a
thing.
They said that the cities have walls that
are high up to heaven.
Well, now, I doubt if they were that
high.
But that's the way they put it.
And they said, Well, there are giants, and
in their sights it were grasshoppers.
I hardly think that was a fair comparison.
Do you?
They didn't want to go in.
My, you and I are that way.
When we don't want to do a thing,
especially some night when it's storming a little
bit and we don't want to go to
meeting.
My, that wind must be blowing at least
70 miles an hour.
And my, the temperature must be at least
40 below.
And when we don't want to do a
thing, oh, I'll tell you we can find
excuses.
They didn't want to go in.
With Joshua and with Caleb, they said they'll
be red for us.
We'll team up.
Now, that's the difference between faith and unbelief.
But you know, Joshua didn't give the children
of Israel rest.
He gave them war.
Joshua and Moses failed as apostles.
They didn't deliver the children of Israel.
They didn't give them rest.
David in the 95th Psalm speaks of a
rest that yet remains for the people of
God.
Let's notice that rest a little bit.
In the fourth chapter of Hebrews, verse 6,
for sake of time, for our time is
getting away from us so quickly.
Seeing, therefore, it remaineth that some must enter
therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered in, not in because of unbelief.
Again he limiteth a certain day, saying unto
David, Today, after so long a time, as
it is said today, if you will hear
his voice, heard not your heart.
For if Jesus, and it should be Joshua,
for if Joshua had given them rest, then
would he not afterward have spoken of another
day.
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God.
For he that is entered into his rest,
he also hath ceased from his own works,
as God did from his.
Let us labor, let us strive, therefore, to
enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief.
Now when the children of Israel sinned in
unbelief against the Lord in the wilderness, God
says, You will not go into the land
of Canaan.
And he caused them to wander in that
wilderness forty years, till the men of that
generation died off.
No, they didn't enter into rest.
But David said in the ninety-fifth psalm,
Today, if you will hear his voice, heard
not your heart, as in the provocation.
Yes, there does remain a rest for the
people of God.
But our apostle, does he lead us out
of Egypt, out of the place of condemnation,
out from underneath the bondage and the slavery
of Pharaoh, into rest?
Yes, he does.
Because he says, Come unto me, all ye
that labor, and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.
Now I would like to show you just
one verse, the twelfth verse, and show you
its connection with this subject.
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.
Neither is there any creature that is not
manifest in his sight, but all things are
naked and open unto the eyes of him
with whom we have to do.
Now the children of Israel, as they failed
at Tadespharnia, their failure was so apparent, they
even spoke of stoning Moses and making him
a captain and going back into the land
of Egypt.
Oh yes, their failure was a visible one.
Now, the apostle says, the failure among you
people to enter into God's rest may not
be so apparent, but he says there is
a way to check on you, and the
way is this.
This is the connection of this verse.
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.
You know, as we're here tonight, we're here
because of the fact that we have an
interest in these matters, and as you and
I look at each other, it's hard to
tell whether or not we have entered into
rest, but there is an agency that pierces
into the innermost regions of the heart, and
it will make it evident to us whether
or not we have entered into the rest
of our apostle, and he came that we
might have rest.
Rest of soul.
Sweet, happy rest.
Have you got it?
You know, the scripture says that he that
has entered into his rest hath also ceased
from his own works, as God did from
his.
There are many people in the world today,
they're working to make themselves acceptable with God.
What does it prove?
It proves they have not entered into rest.
It proves to them, and the word of
God will do it, I don't have rest
of soul.
This apostle has not led me into rest
yet, but it's not our fault.
He can and will lead us into rest,
and the apostle warned, don't let us falter.
Let us labor, let us strive, therefore, to
enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief.
Let me ask tonight, simply, have we got
rest of soul?
Are we working for our salvation?
Do we think that we have got to
make ourselves acceptable with God?
Do we think that through our own efforts,
our goodness, our hopes, our high resolve, that
we're going to make ourselves somehow acceptable to
God?
If you, in your heart, are feeling that
there's anything that you've got to do, you
have not entered into God's rest.
Because if we have not ceased from our
own works, we do not have rest in
us.
Are we depending on Christ tonight?
Are we depending on the fact that Christ
has died on the cross and completely satisfied
all the claims of God against my soul,
so that there's nothing against me?
Is that the way I feel about the
work of this great apostle?
That's why he was sent, that I might
have rest.
That you might have rest.
Are you resting in Christ tonight?
Is your soul at peace and you say,
Yes, thank God.
I know my sins have been paid for.
My Savior died upon the tree that I
might have this sweet, happy rest.
Or have you faltered in unbelief and have
faltered at the greatness of God's redemption through
simple trusting faith in Christ, that I receive
salvation from His gracious hand?
How about you?
Have you entered into rest?
Ah, the word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
And it will cut.
And it will show us and make apparent
to you and to me, though no one
knows what we're thinking, God knows what we're
thinking.
And He can bring the word of God
to apply on our souls in such a
way, we shall have to say, No, I
don't have rest.
I'm still working to be saved.
And Christ has not brought me into the
rest of dependence upon Him through faith.
Now that's the rest that our Apostle can
give.
Have we got it?
You know, I love this comparison between our
Lord Jesus Christ and that of Moses and
Joshua who never gave the people of God
rest.
There remains a rest for you and me.
Have you got it?
I've got it.
Thank God tonight it's settled.
I know I'm saved.
Is it settled with you?
Christ came for that a purpose.
He was an Apostle.