Better Than Religion - Part 4

If you don't know the theme of Hebrews four, it's rest. And if you've been following our series, this is not about a second experience. It's not about you trying to be a super Christian, a restful Christian who's leveled up like in a video game. No, remember the context that resting, entering God's rest, going to that promised land is actually salvation. It's not salvation plus. It's not a second blessing. It's not a second experience. Every Christian in this room, every believer listening right now, we have the privilege and the right to relax with God because Jesus has qualified us. He's qualified us to enjoy the Father. And so we're going to talk about entering God's rest, but remember, if you're a believer, you're in. You're in the rest. You're in the promised land. So as I said last week, maybe just kind of notice where you are. You know, squeeze some fruit. Look around, climb a tree. You're in the promised land. Catch the views, some panoramic views of God's grace. You're in Christ and that's your location. You were in Adam. Now you're in Christ. You were in the flesh. Now you're in the spirit. You got transferred across a great chasm.

Now you're in Christ. Enjoy where you are. So you don't have to get someplace new. Do you hear that? So much theology, so much teaching out there is about trying to get someplace new. You know, we've got to fix you. We've got to change you. And we've got to measure you and analyze you and get you some new place. God's in love with a future version of you that does more. No, you're in. You're in. So take a look around and notice you're in the promised land. Now let's journey into Hebrews 4. Of course, we begin in the first verse. It says, "Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any of you may seem to come short of it." So who's he talking to? You got to know you're reading somebody else's mail. This is written to Hebrews. Are you a Hebrew? No, you're a believer. But this is written to people that are riding the fence. They're right there standing on the top of the wall. They're not in Christ yet. They're flirting with Jesus. They're thinking about mom and dad's temple religion. Mom and dad have the money.

Mom and dad have the big budget religiosity. They got the temple and the pump and the circumstance and the animal sacrifices and the altar. And they have the popularity. Everybody attends the temple. I'm talking about Judaism, right? And so mom and dad and grandpa and great grandpa and the lineage and the heritage for these folks was Jewish. And all of a sudden you got Jesus and he's born as a Jew and yet he's the table turner. He's bringing in a whole new way. And so these kids, they're stuck. I mean, do I go with mom and dad's religion or do I believe this new way? You know, it doesn't look very big budget. The new way, they got like a home Bible study over there. You know, there's like 14 of them and they're in a living room and they're talking about Jesus being Messiah and I'm not even sure they're right. And there's all these people, hundreds and thousands going to the temple and mom and dad are there. So what do I do? I'm caught. I'm stuck in the middle. I got peer pressure on all sides. And then the author of Hebrews writes that little home church and anybody that might visit and the author of Hebrews says, be careful. Don't come short of entering the promised land.

Be careful. Don't fall short of entering into God's rest. It's like, man, we have handed you a ticket. We have packed your bags for ya. We gave you a passport. Now guess what? All you gotta do is get on the plane. Get on the plane. You're this close. You're right there. Take a free fall and to Jesus plus nothing, you'll never be disappointed. They've had good news preached to them, but what have they done with it? So this is evangelistic. It also, I think as we talk about entering his rest, it also reminds us of the atmosphere we're in. Do you realize you're in a restful religion that is no religion? Do you realize you're in a place where God wants you to relax? This is not some trendy theology. It's not like I woke up and decided to emphasize rest. Jesus said, come to me, all of you who are exhausted, "My yoke is easy." That's not my word, it's his word. Jesus is saying it's easy. Religion says it's hard, Jesus says it's easy, who's right? He says it's easy and light, and you will find rest for your soul.

That's God talking, not me. So, religion says it's hard, Jesus says it's easy. Religion says it's heavy, Jesus says it's light. Religion says you better get busy. God says, "Hey, you wanna rest?" Do you see, we got a problem on our hands. Who are we gonna listen to? Legalistic busy religion or the call of our God who at first created two humans in a garden, there was no church there. There was no Bible study at that time, two people in a garden hanging out, naming animals or something, running around in the cool of the day, walking with God, enjoying Him, and then they, not he, they ruined it. They ruined it by going rogue, and they dove into religion, and they said, "I'm gonna have good and evil." That's what I want. I don't need God, I want good and evil. I don't need the cool of the day. I need to know what is right and wrong so that I can do what's right and avoid what's wrong and be a good person. And that was the first sin. The first sin was trying to be a good person. You see that? They were walking in the cool of the day. They were pure, they were innocent, they were with God.

God said creation was good. Everything was fine. It was peaceful, it was restful. We ruined it when we invented religiosity, and we started to measure ourselves. And that first couple, that first married couple, you know, Adam and Eve, well, they measured themselves, and the first conclusion they came to is we're awful. We should be ashamed. We need to go cover ourselves. We're not right. When you measure yourself according to a standard that God doesn't give you, you end up ashamed and hiding. And Jesus says you're holy and righteous and blameless, and I find no fault in you, and nothing is wrong with you so you don't have to hide. Verse two, for indeed we have had good news preach to us. That tells you what the gospel is, it's good, just as they also back in the day in the Old Testament, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. I mean, look man, you can have the greatest message on the planet preach to you, and you could even go, yeah, I understand it. Hmm, if you don't believe it, what does it matter? What does it matter how good the gospel is if you're not gonna dive in and say, I'm fully invested and I believe it.

I'm all about it, I trust you God. You're right about me. If you don't believe it, what's the point? It's like somebody gives you the cure for whatever you're dealing with. You've dealt with it for decades. They give you the cure. You look down at the medicine, oh man, look at this label. So clearly printed, whew. Look at the prescription and the instructions are so clear. Oh, the doctor's name is here at the bottom, he's terrific. Let me tell you about this doctor, oh my goodness. And you go on a dissertation about the doctor and the clinic and the description of the medicine and the instructions for how to take, but you never take it, you never take it. That's the obvious. Well, what good is it to you then? It's just information. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. Look, we came to you. You had the best news preached to you. You got Peter, James, John. You got the apostles themselves in the heart of Jerusalem. You've seen miracles, signs, wonders. People have been healed. You saw people raised from the dead. I mean, what have you not seen? You have had the best news preached by the best available messengers.

Are you gonna take the next step and swallow the pill? Are you gonna take the next step and invest in the message? Otherwise, what do we even do in here? We're playing church. Verse three, he says, for we have believed, we who have believed, notice its past tense, that's Christians, we who have believed enter that rest. Just as he has said, as I say, "although his works were finished "from the foundation of the world." The work's done. I mean, when you check into a hotel, I went to Lubbock recently. I usually stay in a hotel in West Texas when I go visit the Saints in Lubbock. Good morning to you. When I go visit, I stay in a hotel room typically, and the first thing I do is clean the room. No, I don't clean the room, the room's clean. The work's done. How foolish it would be for me to get out of vacuum and ask the front desk for some cleaning supplies, and I start cleaning the room. Ludacris, the work's been done. I check in, I lay on the bed, I enjoy the room, I turn the TV on, I'm in, I'm relaxing, I'm chilling because the work was done, the room is already clean. Do you see, God's done the work, and when you look at creation, that's a shadow of what we're talking about.

Watch this. How many days was the world created in six days? What did God do on the seventh He rested? When did you show up? When did we show up? Did you notice it's not day one, three, or five? It's at the end of the process, day six, we show up. Already everything's in place, the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe, the solar system, the planet, the oceans, the land, the animals, everything's in place, and God says at the last minute, now I'm gonna create man and woman, enjoy. You show up at the last minute, the work was done. Again, you get invited to name stuff, and that's about it. You don't help God with creation. Now, can you see the parallel, the analogy? It wasn't six days, it was three. Crucified, buried, raised. Jesus did His work, it's finished. You don't help Jesus finish it. You show up at the end, and all you can say, just like with creation, all you can say is wow, and thank you. Thank you for this amazing universe, it is good, and thank you for the finished work of Jesus Christ, it is good, and you had no part in finishing it. All you can do is respond to it and say wow, and that's what faith is. And so, this analogy brought to us by the author of Hebrews is brilliant, and he says in verse four, for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day,

and God rested on the seventh day from all of His works. Again, go back to the Creator. It makes me think of a painter. Last time, I believe I mentioned my wife and I were shopping for art. We were shopping for art, but copies of paintings by Monet and Picasso and all of the greats, Renoir, because we like how they look, but we prefer the $19 version at Tarje. But when the original painters painted these paintings, what do they do when everything's done? What do they do when everything's perfect? They sign it, they sign it at the bottom. God rested, that's His signature. He says it's good, it's over, it's done, I can't improve upon it, it's perfect. And on the seventh day, He rests as if to sign His name on the portrait of creation. Now even more folks, even more, Friday was brilliant, Sunday was perfect, the cross worked, none of your sins were left out. You were freed from the law, all of it, not some of it, a perfect freedom, a perfect forgiveness, and God signs the portrait. But not until Sunday is accomplished, the perfect resurrection giving you perfect righteousness. Friday brought forgiveness, Sunday brought righteousness. You started at negative 10, I want you to imagine a scale. You started at negative 10. Friday makes you forgiven, it brings you to zero.

Neutral is great, but it's not enough. Sunday brings you to positive 10. Sunday brings you to an 11, off the charts, the righteousness of God. He cleansed you of all unrighteousness in order to make you fully righteous. Go past zero, don't settle for neutral. You are the righteousness of God Himself, that's what He did for you. And so he has signed the... He's not trying to change you fix you make you different He accepts you and loves you and calls you his own. He gave you a new last name. He's crazy about you You're in the family. He likes you. He loves you We're so fixated on being fixed We're so in love with the idea of destroying ourselves. I must die to self. I must die daily I must get rid of me. It must be all of him and none of me more of him and less of me We are convinced that we are ugly and dirty and distant and the gospel is ready to turn that upside down He has signed the portrait. Look at you You don't need to be fixed. You're wholly righteous blameless believe it and be happy Verse 5 and again in this passage they shall not enter my rest What is it that he's talking about? He's talking about those Israelites long ago. We mentioned it last time We saw it in the previous chapter. They're stuck in a wilderness. They're in a desert. They won't believe God These are the ancestors of the people. He's writing. They're stuck, you know out in the sandy desert trying to make sense of life They they smelt a golden calf at one point to try to make life work It's like it's like you have an all expense paid vacation and Everything's ready for you. You're ready to go to Bermuda and it's going to be amazing No charge to you. Everything is free, but then you you decide well, you know I just looked at my inbox. I got a lot of emails, man I really I need to catch up on those emails and you don't get on the plane you stay back

You decide you choose work over an all expense paid rest How crazy that's what the Israelites did and they should be ashamed of themselves For not believing in God's goodness when he said the Promised Land is yours. He meant it It's your destiny. It's your future. It's your hope It's your everything and you can trust me. My word is solid. Now. How does that apply to you and me? When we hear the gospel God says I got you it's all expense paid everything is free. You want to be forgiven done You want to be righteous done. You want to be close to me? BAM. It's over. It's finished I've done it all expense paid everything is free and Then some people hear that message and they go whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no No, no, no, I mean I need to be I need to make sure I'm being a good person Yeah, you you're checking your emails. You're trying to work. You're trying to pay for what's paid You're hanging back and choose an effort over rest The gospel invites us to rest in Jesus. I get it. There's people in churches in Christian churches with steeples and crosses and they're saying do who careful of that easy Believism have you heard that careful of that easy Believism they're in churches saying that with steeples and crosses on top and Jesus hanging on their wall a statue And they're saying watch out for that easy. Believism and Jesus is saying it's easy and light and If you believe in me, you will not perish but have everlasting life. It's easy and it's believism There's people in churches that can't tolerate that They're in our churches in our nation and it's popular to reject Lots of great places of worship out there. All I'm saying is not everybody is Really putting confidence in Jesus and resting in his finished work. That's what we're invited to Therefore since it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of what? disobedience now Somebody who just wants to be radical is going to take this verse ago. Are you being disobedient? Are you living right? Are you doing right? Are you doing enough or are you disobedient to God? But now watch let's slow down because this is verse six. We just finished reading five verses

What kind of disobedience is this? Is it lying too much? Is it cheating and stealing too much? This disobedience is unbelief. What's the number one reason they're in the desert? Unbelief. What's the number one reason they won't enter the Promised Land? Unbelief, they won't trust God. Have you trusted God? Did you know you're a believer? Say it slower, think about it. I'm a believer. The person whose unbelieving was crucified with Christ. The unbeliever in me died and was buried. I am a believer, I believe. The scripture says, though we do not see him, we believe him. That's true of you. That's your nature. You are a believer by nature. You will never stop believing and you'll never stop loving Jesus. That's your heart. So there's a warning here. It's not for Christians. It's for people who are Hebrews and in this case, they're looking at their grandfather and great grandfather. They're seeing what happened when great granddaddy didn't believe God and they're going, "Gee, I'm at a point of no return here. I mean, I'm at an intersection of fact and faith.

Am I gonna put my confidence in this Jesus? Am I gonna believe that he is who he says he is? This is a big deal. This is life and death. Jesus, again, fixes a certain day. God fixes a day calling it today, saying through David, after so long a time, just as he has been said before, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. What do we learn from this? There's always today. There might not be tomorrow, but the idea that God is gonna save somebody, man, God wants none to perish. He wants all to believe. He wants everybody to come to repentance. I see two huge truths in this verse. First of all, the idea that, well, are you pre-picked, that God pre-chose certain people, others have no chance? Uh-uh, I'm not seeing that. Today's the day of salvation. And then who's gonna harden your heart? Did God harden your heart? Is that what it says? Do not harden your heart. Who's that written to? It's written to the reader of this letter. Don't harden your own heart toward the gospel. There are people teaching that God hardens hearts,

that God hardens some people, and he softens other people. And so the whole thing is a charade. It's all a puppet show. That the people who come to Christ, it's 'cause God caused them. The people that don't come to Christ, it's because God hardened them. That is not the truth. God wants none to perish, scripture says. He wants everyone to come to repentance. That means everybody. John 3 16, who so ever believes in him? For God so loved the world, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So what's your job? Don't harden your heart because you could, but don't. So there's a response, there's a choice, there's an option, accept Messiah, reject Messiah. It's on you, but you've had good news preach to you. And God is wooing you. Jesus says nobody comes to the Father and unless the Father draws them, that's scripture. But you know what else is scripture? Jesus says, when the Son of Man is lifted up, He will draw all people unto Himself. You gotta be drawn, you gotta be invited, but you are invited. He draws all people today if you hear His voice,

don't harden your heart. Verse eight, for if Joshua had given your great granddaddy, some rest, then he would not have spoken of another day after that. What's this talking about? Well, I mean, remember that Joshua's the one that brings him in, not Moses, but Joshua. Joshua brings him in and yet God's still talking about another rest. He's talking about a different rest, not a physical rest, not a promised land rest. He's talking about how that is a shadow, a picture, a symbol of another rest. And of course, we can see now, you got 20, 20 vision, you're looking back on this pretty easy to see, right? I mean, he's talking about resting in Christ. So everything that Israel experiences is a shadow or a picture. Like, think about a tree, when you see a shadow and if you're really clever, you can look online and you can figure out how to calculate the height of the tree. By looking at the shadow and the position of the sun, you can figure out how tall the tree is. So the shadow will tell you some stuff. It'll tell you the shape and the size of the tree, but the shadow is not the tree, and the tree is not the shadow. The Old Testament law is a shadow of things to come. The reality is Christ, and in the Old Testament, we see a shadow of rest, but get this, you have the real thing. You have the real thing. It's better than the Joshua rest. It's better than the Promised Land rest. It's resting eternally right now, starting now, resting in Christ. Christianity, the real thing, is about chilling out in Jesus. I know when I say that, it's almost like I shouldn't say chilling out in church because people get nervous. Andrew, where are the works going to be? Andrew, where's the fruit? Here's the thing. It's chilled fruit. The fruit comes from chilling. You doubt me on that. Watch this. How are you going to love

unless you're chilling in Jesus? How are you going to be gentle unless you know his gentleness? How are you going to be kind unless you're basking in his kindness? You got to be chilling in Christ to bear that fruit, and it is chilled fruit. It's coming from a soft place. The Pharisees couldn't produce it. They were mad and hardened. They were angry and stubborn and stiff-necked, and they had no love. That fruit comes from a place of chilling, chilling out in Christ, and enjoying the finished work of Jesus. Christians should be the most relaxed people we meet. It's not always the case, is it? It's actually kind of hard to find a relaxed Christian. Why is that? Because man, we're so busy trying to make life work and then have God like us. We've got a double job here. Most people are just trying to make life work, and we're trying to make life work and then make sure God's not mad. That's double duty. No wonder we're stressed. Christians can be the most relaxed people on the planet. I'm not talking about how circumstances are easy. They're not. Circumstances are not easy. In my life, I've had unanswered prayers for 34 years, 34 years of a medical condition, 25 doctors seen. Conditions, symptoms like a strange fatigue, a weird headache, all kinds of symptoms that affected every ounce of my life for 34 years. Praying, "God, what is this? What is this? What is this?" Then I find out 34 years later, I have a blood disorder that affects all kinds of things. It dehydrates me in three hours if I don't have enough water. It takes and zaps all my energy if I don't take care of myself. Unexplainable symptoms, no name for it. God, what is this? Or is this you God? Are you trying to do something to me? As a teenager going through that? As a young person? You have your thing. You have your struggle. Planet Earth is hard. God's not making it worse. God's on your team. He's on your side. Christians should be the most relaxed people that we know. You see what I'm saying? We make it twice as hard and we do double duty when we throw God in the category of "gotta impress him. Gotta keep him on my good side." Musical chairs. Trying to get him in the right mood. That's not him. You can relax with him. He's your comforter, your counselor. So, verse 9, "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." Wow. That's talking about you. Now, you know the Sabbath, right? I mean 2,000 years ago and further back than that, the Sabbath was about no work. Saturday, all the way until Saturday night. From Friday night at sundown, all the way to Saturday night. And you're supposed to refrain from working. You know, there's some Jewish communities in Miami Beach and they still observe the Sabbath today. You're not allowed to go from one building to another, transporting goods and a wire around Miami Beach and now they can call it an enclosed area so they're free to

move about Miami Beach and do their business and make deliveries because it's the biggest loophole in the law. They created it and that's what we have to do under the law, create loopholes. The law is an all or nothing curse, it'll get you one way or another, 613 things staring right at you. And the Sabbath was one of those but the Sabbath was put in there really as a long-term symbol, a long-term shadow of resting in Christ, they didn't work physically, you don't have to work spiritually. That's what it's about. Think about it. God is wasteful. How wasteful, Lord, I mean you go thousands of years with the Jews asking them to observe a Sabbath only to show it to us as a symbol, a shadow, a picture of resting in Christ. He's like, "Yeah, I want you to see it, I want you to see how big it is." And I don't mind being wasteful. Look at the universe, kind of wasteful, millions, billions of stars will never see, that's wasteful. And so he lavishes us with his symbols, his pictures, his shadows to show us the importance of relaxing in Christ. Verse 10, "For the one who has entered his rest has himself also, dare I say it in church, rested from his works as God did from his." Jesus took the final exam. My son Gavin, he's in his first year of university right now, University of Toronto, and he's in astrophysics, speaking of stars. He loves the stars. He probably wants to live on a planet or a star or something. I told him, "Wait till we're dead," because when you launch, maybe we'll see you sooner than you think. But yeah, he wants to live out there. Now, he just finished exam week of his first year. And what we're seeing here is that we saw it during worship.

Carson mentioned the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death, Jesus died. He paid the wages, there are no wages left. He scored 100% on the exam. He credited it to you. And now you can exit the course. You graduated. It's over. You scored 100. We can rest from our works. You scored 100 on the exam, and you're still filling out bubbles. You're still filling in the bubble sheet, the Scantron. You scored 100% on the exam, and you're still frantic at the back of the class, right in essays. You got 100. You got an A plus. You can rest from your works, just as God did from his. Therefore, in light of all this, let us be diligent, he says. Let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through the same example of disobedience. Again, what is that disobedience? It is unbelief. You saw what they did, how stupid it was. Don't be stupid. That's what he's saying. Your forefather, your great-grandfather, all those people. They fell in the desert. They fell dead. They had tickets for the promised land, and they ended up in graves because they were stupid.

They didn't trust God. Don't be stupid. That's what he's saying to these Hebrews and to all of us as humans. It is genius to trust Jesus. It is foolish to not. So the word of God is living an active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. What can we say? The word of God is incredible. It's like a scalpel. It shows you the difference between the core of your being, your spirit, and then your personality, your soul. The Greek word for soul is sukk or psyche or personality, and then you have a deeper place inside of you, a spirit, not talking about the Holy Spirit, the human spirit that God gave you. You have his spirit and your spirit. And first Corinthians says, you're one spirit. The Word of God is sharp. in this context, he's saying you've had the word of God preach to you really sharply, really accurately. Total forgiveness in Jesus. Total freedom from the law in Jesus. Total new identity in Jesus. Don't ignore so great a salvation. The word of God is powerful and sharp and up right up in your face. And whoa, wow, this is it. The most important message in human history. Don't fall short of it. Make sure you're relaxing in God. That's what he wants. Come to me. All of you who labor. All of you who are tired, exhausted, freaked out, scared, guilty. Come to me. All of you. And I will give you rest. It's going to be easy and light with me. And I'm not going to make life harder. I'm with you and I'm in you and I'll never leave you. And I'm the best counselor you've ever heard of in your life. That's the invitation from our Savior. And he does it and he's faithful and he's good. Let's pray together. Father, we are in awe of what Christianity is. I could have sworn it was going to be me as a stress bucket for the rest of my life. I thought that's what it was

going to be. Me, rededicating, going up to the campfire at the retreat, doing the altar call, rededicate, recommit, try harder, do more, be more. And then you come to us with this. What? This turns everything upside down. It did not meet my expectations. I am shocked. Father, thank you for such a gospel. A gospel of rest, a gospel where we get to have peace with you. And oh my goodness, a gospel where everything is free. Are you kidding me? Everything with you is free. Thank you, Father. We're forgiven freely. We're liberated from the law freely. We're given a new heart freely. We're close to you forever for free. It costs you everything, it costs us nothing. Wow. Thank you. All we can say is wow. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You [BLANK_AUDIO]