Turn your Bibles to Hebrews 4, 1-10. Hebrews 4, verses 1-10. Reading out of the NASB, "Therefore, let us fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

For we who believed enter that rest just as he has said, 'As I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.' Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again in this passage, 'They shall not enter my rest.' Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day today saying through David, 'After so long a time, just as has been said before, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that. 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 from his." Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for being patient with us.

Help us to discern the thoughts and intentions of our own hearts, Lord God, as your word is taught. We know that you have ordained it. It would be our food, the source of our comfort and strength, sanctification, or salvation. So we pray, Father God, as the word goes forth, as you have ordained, that it would not return until it has accomplished your purpose.

We desire to honor you. We desire to worship you. May this time be acceptable before your eyes. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, so as you guys know, we had VBS run this week. And for many of the parents and children, it's the highlight of the year. So much time and effort goes into preparing, and so many volunteers come.

And so, you know, it was kind of sad because it was our last VBS for our youngest child, so next year he won't be doing VBS. And I was talking to Isaiah, and Isaiah was, you know, he's already kind of missing it. And he said, "Can I at least help next year?" And I said, "Well, you have to be baptized and be a member." And so he said he's going to be baptized.

So again, it was a long week. A lot of people, you know, volunteered. So Friday night, I'm sure everybody was exhausted. And, you know, at the end of a long week like that, you know, you naturally tend to think, "What am I going to do to rest?" So maybe some of you guys were able to get some rest yesterday.

And I know for some of you guys, yesterday was another long day. But what do you do when you're fatigued, when you're tired? Right? Sometimes if you have small children, if you went on a vacation, you're probably more tired after the vacation. But what do you do to rewind?

What do you do to find rest? Right? Some people will sit on their couch and watch Netflix. Some people will go grab something to eat or sleep in. We're all doing that because we need to recuperate so that we can get back to work. Right? The text that we're looking at today in chapter 4, the theme of the whole chapter is about rest in Christ.

We've been talking about how the warning about not drifting from this God, from Christ, who he's greater than the angels, he's greater than Moses, and so the danger of drifting away from God. And so the previous chapter, in chapter 3, it was a warning against if you hear his voice today, not to harden your heart because tomorrow you may not hear his voice.

And there's an ordained time for people to repent and come to Christ. And if you ignore that, if you sweep that under the rug, he says, "The next time you come around, it may be even more difficult." Chapter 4 is leading us to the "let us" statement. So if you read through chapter 4, you'll notice that there are four "let us" statements.

The first one we find in verse 1 where he says, "Let us fear if a promise remains of entering the rest." The second one is found in verse 11. He says, "Therefore, let us be diligent to enter the rest." And then verse 14, it says, "Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens," did I get that right?

"Let us hold fast our confession." And then verse 16 is, "Therefore, let us draw near with confidence." So all these "let us" statements together are kind of guiding us through if you hear his voice and you believe and you're taking his warning seriously, these are the things that we ought to do.

These are the things that we need to apply. So I remember back in seminary, my professor would always say, we repeated it so many times in our hermeneutics class, in interpretation class. He says, "If you apply the Bible without proper interpretation, it's a miscarriage." Because if you don't know what the Word of God says or you have a very superficial understanding of what the Word of God says, then the application is obviously is going to be wrong.

So oftentimes, without study of the Bible, we begin to project unto God, "Well, since you're loving God, you ought to be doing this. Since the church is this, the church should be this. Or since you are this way, you ought to be this way." And so our application of what we know of Scripture or we think we know of Scripture can be wrong without careful examination of what the Word of God says.

So application without interpretation is miscarriage. But then the flip side of it, he would often say, "But interpretation without application is abortion." Because the whole point of the study of the Bible is not just for us to say, "Aha, I know, I understand," and to be able to take a test and say, "I got the answers right." The whole point of exposition and study of the Word of God is to lead us to these let-out statements, this application.

Because an individual who's constantly studying with very little application, all it does for that person is becomes a puffed-up individual who becomes an expert, expert on what the Word of God says, but has no idea of who God is. So let's look at the first let-out statement. So I'm going to take some time each week going over these let-out statements.

But the first one we begin with, he says, "Let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest." So the fear that he's warning us of is that we would fall short of that rest. So the first question we need to ask is, why would he tell us to fear so that we could enter the rest?

Because it sounds like an oxymoron. Doesn't it sound like maybe the fear itself is what's causing the unrest? You know, you don't think of having fear of wanting to rest, because rest, we typically think of just doing nothing, relax, right? I mean, an individual who's living his life in fear is constantly anxious.

We don't think of a person who's resting. In fact, if you look at later part of that verse, or later part of it, it not only tells us to fear. In verse 10, it says, "For the one who has entered his rest," sorry, it calls us in verse 11 to work to enter that rest.

So working to rest, fearing to rest. It sounds like an oxymoron if you understand it superficially. If we begin to project our understanding of rest to what he is saying, it doesn't make much sense. So the first thing that we need to tackle is, what does he mean by this rest?

And why is it so important that we need to be working, we need to be fearing to make sure that we're entering this rest? Well, he answers that question in this text in verse 4 and verse 10. He said that the rest that he is referring to is the rest that God entered into on the seventh day, on verse 4.

"For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, 'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.'" So in other words, he's not simply talking about not working, even though that is part of the definition of the word rest. He's referring specifically to the rest that God entered into in creation.

After six days of creation, God entered into that rest. Verse 10, "For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his." So in order to understand the biblical definition of rest, we need to understand what it means. What does it mean for God to enter that rest on the seventh day?

In Genesis 2, 2-3, it says, "By the seventh day, God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." In other words, set it apart. "Because in it, he rested from all his works which God had created and made." Our natural inclination is to think he worked for six days and he got tired.

And so he needed to recuperate on the seventh day. And so he rested in order to get back to work on Monday. Because typically when we think of rest, that's what we think of. We've spent our energy, we're tired, we're going to go relax, not do work for a while, and then when I feel rested, then I can go back to work.

Now that would be blasphemous, to think that God rested from his work because he was tired. Because clearly the scripture says, in Isaiah 40-28, "Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired.

His understanding is inscrutable." In other words, he is immutable. The same energy and power and vigor that God had Monday in the beginning of creation is the same energy and vigor that he had on Saturday. He didn't... He's not like us, where we... Usually when we have VBS, we start out with a bang on Monday, Wednesday is a hump day, right?

Just like your work day, we call it a hump day because it's difficult. You've already gotten wearied, you know, and then Friday is like, "Yeah, thank God for the weekend." And then you go to the weekend and then you have things to do to recuperate, right? And then you start over on Monday.

So by the time VBS comes, Wednesday is a hump day, and then Friday, we finish with a bang because it's over, right? Is that what he means? Six days he labored, and then on Wednesday, he got fatigued, and then at the end of it, he got tired. So he entered into the Sabbath, he's like, "Oh, let's take a break." Clearly, that's not what the Sabbath is referring to because God is immutable.

He does not grow weary or tired. He is not man. So what does it mean then for him to enter the Sabbath and for mankind to enter the Sabbath with him? Well, I think it helps us to understand what happened after the fall. One sin entered, they were separated from God.

In Genesis 3, 16 to 19, it describes the penalty of this sin. God said, "You shall surely die if you eat of this tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you disobey me, you shall surely die." But when they eat it, they don't fall to the ground and physically disappear.

In fact, they live for many, many years after that. But the description of this spiritual death is mentioned in Genesis 3, 16 to 19. And in that passage, it describes for the woman that she will bear children in much pain and that there's going to be contention between her and her husband.

Now, if you look at that, her very reason of why God created her is described in that fall. God created her to be a suitable helper because it was not good for man to be alone. God created a partner to help her and that her primary role is to help her to be fruitful and to multiply.

But the penalty of this sin, this spiritual death that comes in, is that the very thing that she was created for now is going to create contention and restlessness. She's going to still be with her husband. There's going to be contention in the home. She's going to bear children, but it's going to be very painful.

Same thing with the husband. Adam was created so that he can be the ruler of all creation to subdue the land. But as soon as sin comes in, what does it say? By sweat of your brow, you're going to be laboring and it's going to produce thorns and thistles.

And after all the hard work and restlessness and labor, what comes after that? He says it's death. From dust you come to dust you will go. So the very thing that they were created for, now it's going to turn into restlessness, contention, weeds. Thorns and thistles are going to be created by that same labor.

So what does it mean to enter the Sabbath and to break the Sabbath? Well, Exodus chapter 31, 12-13, God makes a covenant with the nation of Israel. And this is what he said, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'But I ask for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe my Sabbath, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generation, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.'" Of all the things that God could have used as a covenant symbol, he says the Sabbath was one of the covenant symbols that God makes with the nation of Israel.

That this Sabbath is going to symbolize the relationship that God had with the nation of Israel. Now, the key to this is the second part when he says, "The reason why this is a covenant symbol is so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you." Now, if you are New Testament savvy, whenever you hear the word sanctify, you automatically think justification, sanctification, and glorification.

So you say, "Oh, sanctification, he's talking about our spiritual maturity." Not necessarily. The word sanctify just literally means to be made holy. Literally means to be set apart. So it's just a broad word to describe salvation. So in other words, God set aside and appointed the Sabbath to remind them that God is their salvation.

So Sabbath is a symbol of salvation, if you follow. Sabbath is a symbol of salvation. So the definition of the Sabbath is, when Adam and Eve had fellowship with God, he was with God in the Sabbath, in rest. Did they work physically? Yes. If you read the book of Genesis, before they fall, they were working.

But it was work in joy. They had fellowship, right? They had communion. They, you know, not this communion, but they had communion, right? But as soon as sin enters, they're doing the same work, but they're no longer in rest. There's a restlessness that comes into mankind. So the Sabbath is broken.

So when you are with the Lord, you are in his Sabbath. But because of sin, you are expelled from the Sabbath. And then there's restlessness. Now, the reason why this is so important is because if you read the Old Testament, Sabbath is a key part of his law. You can almost say it's the central part of his law.

If you look at the Ten Commandments, all of the Ten Commandments are all very— like, we can understand why those Ten Commandments are there. It's a relationship with God, right? "Worship no other gods, no other graven images, shall not use the Lord's name in vain." And then he says, "You shall keep the Sabbath," which is one of the only ceremonial law that is embedded in the Ten Commandments.

And then every other law from the commandment after that is a law between other people. So you have this vertical relationship and horizontal relationship, but right at the center of that is the Sabbath. And why is the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments? Why was this particular law so important that he kept it in the Ten Commandments and repeated?

In fact, if you break the Sabbath, the penalty for breaking the Sabbath was stoning. They took him outside and they stoned him to death. And there was a heavy emphasis on keeping the Sabbath holy. You can see why the Pharisees in the New Testament were so concerned about breaking the Sabbath.

Every time Jesus did something that broke their law—not God's law, but their law— they had a huge fit because they understood the weightiness of this law. The purpose of all of this is to bring us to understanding because the purpose of the Sabbath was not the Sabbath itself. It wasn't the rule keeping.

In fact, it's spelled out in Colossians 2, 16-17. "Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to festivals or new moons or Sabbath day, things which are mere shadows of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." All of this, all of the Sabbath was to prepare for the one who was going to fulfill this Sabbath.

What was broken because of the broken fellowship with God. Christ was going to come and restore that Sabbath. So all of this was just a preparation to point to the coming of Christ. So when Jesus Christ comes, he says, Matthew 11, 28, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden," in what?

"I will give you rest." He's speaking to people who are weary and heavy laden because of the broken Sabbath. And he says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." What is yoke? We're not talking about the egg yoke. We're talking about the yoke that is put on an animal so that the animal can labor.

So when he says, "Take my work," yoke is just another word in the New Testament or in farming to describe work. So when Jesus says, "Take my work upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul," what is the work that he is referring to?

It's pretty clear. Jesus clearly says that he came to do the Father's will, to do his work, and the work is to atone for the sins of many. He was going to give his life as a ransom. He who knew no sin became sin, that you and I can become the righteousness of God.

So he said, "If you hear my voice and you take my work upon you, then and only then will you find true rest." So a distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian is a state of restlessness in a non-Christian, because he is constantly staggering from one place to another, seeking rest.

A non-Christian cannot rest until his circumstances are exactly the way he desires. Until he eats what he wants and he drinks what he wants to drink, and he has the circumstances that he desires and he works for, he cannot truly find rest. Jesus says in John 4, 13-14, "Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life.'" In other words, he's describing an individual who drinks the water of Christ, who's taken his yoke upon him, and he has found true rest in Christ. Again, he says that in John 6, 35, people who ate the miraculous bread and the fish, they're coming to him because they want more.

I mean, let's make him king, because if we make Jesus king, he's going to feed us. Not only is he going to feed us, I mean, if you're blind, he's going to give you free medication. He's going to make you walk. If you're a leopard, he's going to cleanse you.

Who wouldn't want to make him king? So they stagger all over looking for him. When they finally see Jesus on the other side of Galilee, Jesus says to him, "You're coming to me not because you know who I am. You're not coming because you understand what I've come to give you.

You're coming because you ate bread and you want more." And Jesus tells them in that chapter, "I am the bread of life. The bread that you eat, that you have eaten, you will be thirsty again. But the bread that I give you, if you eat of it, you'll never go hungry again." Obviously, he's not talking about a physical bread.

And then right after that, he says, "If you do not eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, we have no relationship." He's talking about his work on the cross. That until you take your yoke upon you, you will always be staggering from place to place looking for the next fix.

Now, whenever we talk about the next fix, we think of drug addicts or somebody who's done something illegal. But every non-believer who does not know Christ is always looking for the next fix. It may not be sin. It could just be the next experience. It could just be the next job.

It could just be comfort of bank accounts. Whatever it may be, a non-Christian is always looking for the next fix because they are always hungry and always thirsty. There's a sense of restlessness. You may sense a feel of rest momentarily because you took a nap, because you watched a movie, because you took a vacation and you went somewhere and came back, but it's never permanent.

So the state of a non-Christian, state of a world who's dominated by sin is a constant need to find rest. The problem is that the rest is not here. Jesus says in Mark 2, 27-28, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was created so that man could understand that his true Sabbath was to point to Christ. But they made it into these rule-keepings that if they kept all these sabbatical laws, that somehow they were going to earn their rest in Christ." And Jesus says, "If you do not understand that all of this was for me, in fact, the very thing that was made for you, you end up working for it." In other words, if we don't find Christ as our Sabbath, Christ will eventually become our burden.

Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You may have started out your walk with God because you heard about His grace and love, and you couldn't wait to come to church, sing songs, surf, and fellowship was awesome, but at some point in your walk with God, you drifted away, your heart drifted away, and it just became work, something to do, something to do to appease God.

Worship is not a place where you come to find refreshment, to be restored. Just like VBS, you work hard, and then when it's done, you go watch TV, relax, travel to find your rest. But church has become work. If Christ is not your Sabbath, Christ will eventually become your burden.

Sunday mornings, I mean, think of all the things that you could be doing. I mean, especially us. We have access to movies, to travel. I mean, all the things that are at the tip of our hand, right in your pocket, in your phone, to distract you, and yet you're sitting here, listening to some short, dumpy guy who has something to say every single week, sounds the same every single week, and you put in your time for an hour and a half, and you're just putting up with me, right?

And then afterwards, to reward your patience, we're going to collect your money. Yeah. That's what it feels like. If Christ is not your Sabbath, Christ becomes your burden. It is a burden that you're not going to bear for long. If coming to church and serving God, and worshiping, and giving, and evangelism, if all it is is an obligation that needs to be carried out, you won't do it for long.

If you happen to be an A student, and you went to a good college, and you know how to get good grades, you can do that for a while, because you're just good at getting A's. But no matter how good you are, no matter how disciplined you are, you're not going to do something that's a continual burden to you for a long time, because all you need is one excuse to stop it.

You'll be a good Christian. You'll be a good, responsible citizen. You'll be good for a while, until there's a little excuse. Something goes wrong, and that's enough. Ah, forget it! Because Christ is not your Sabbath. Because this is not where you come to find rest. This is not where you come when you are lost.

Christ is not the one that you run to when you are hurt. He is not your refuge. And so everything about Christ has become a burden. If Jesus is not the source of rest, then heaven will not be a place of rest. Because the only reason why heaven is a place of rest is because the source of rest dwells there.

That's why heaven is heaven. Heaven isn't heaven because it's nicer, and the paint hasn't faded, and the roads are nicer. Heaven is heaven because that's the dwelling of the source of rest. That's where God is. He entered the Sabbath, and that's where we were at, and that's where Jesus is trying to take us.

And that's why this health and wealth gospel is so not only deceptive, but destructive. Because what the health and wealth gospel does, it takes the reward to be the health and wealth. And Jesus is only an avenue to get to the health and wealth. Be careful if you think that because you're at a Bible-teaching, gospel-believing church, that health and wealth gospel hasn't penetrated into your own hearts.

Because the principles of health and wealth is always Jesus as an avenue to get somewhere. So if I don't appease God, if I don't do the right thing, I won't get into the right school. I won't meet the right wife. I won't have the right relationship. And so Jesus is only worshipped when he's the avenue to get to the health and wealth.

But the teaching of the gospel is not Jesus is the way to life. Jesus is the life. I am the way and the truth and the life. He didn't just open the door and say, "Here's the right way." He didn't just pave the path for us to go. He says the end product of this path is Christ himself.

That's what he means when he says, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life." So the gift of salvation isn't the path. The gift of salvation is Christ himself because Christ himself is our rest. That's why becoming a member of the church and working hard and being disciplined and knowing the scripture, all of this can just produce more burden if you do not know Christ.

That's the invitation. That's why he says, "Let us fear that we do not enter this rest." Ecclesiastes 1, 2-4, 8-10. It reminds us that every generation tries to prove the other generation wrong. Most young people look at the previous generation and can immediately tell you what they did wrong.

What did the politicians do wrong? What did this nation do wrong? So we can easily see because it's already mapped out. These are the mistakes that the United States made. The previous politicians did this. My mom and my dad, they did this. My grandparents did this. So when we are older, we're not going to do this.

So every generation thinks that if you just tweak certain things and did certain things differently, I'm not going to repeat the same mistakes my parents did. And they were trying so hard to prove the previous generation wrong. But over and over again, history repeats itself. There's nothing new under the sun.

"Vanity of vanity," says the preacher. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work, which he does under the sun? A generation goes, a generation comes, but the earth remains forever." You know why he's saying that? Because rest is not here. You're looking in the wrong place to find salvation.

If you keep looking to this world, to politics, for money, for family, for relationships, for communities, to look for rest and satisfaction in life, he says all it does is repeat over again. The end conclusion is the same. Whether it was a thousand years ago, or whether it's today or a thousand years later, they come to the same conclusion.

It's not here. Verse 8, "All things are wearisome. Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.

So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything which one might say, 'See this, it is new already, it has existed for ages, which were before us.'" He says the difference between a Christian and non-Christian is that a Christian hears the voice of God, and he believes, and then so he follows him.

Verse 2, "For indeed we have been for indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard." The word of God went out. The gospel was preached.

The same promise and same warning has gone out, but the followers of Christ, and there's those who do not follow Christ, are the ones who believe and believe and not believe. And then verse 6, it says, "Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, those who formerly had good news preached them fail to enter because of disobedience." Their disbelief resulted in disobedience.

I want to show you guys a video of how they catch monkeys, but let me set this up, okay? All right. You may have seen this before, because this is an old video. Where we live, monkeys aren't a problem. We don't see monkeys out on the street, but there's certain parts of the world that you travel, you'll have monkeys climbing on your cars, and India happens to be one of those places.

Right? I had a missionary friend who lives in a big city, and he lives on the 17th floor, and he says that if he doesn't close his window, and sometimes he'll go out, come back at night, that he might sometimes find a monkey in his apartment. They climb 17 stories, and they come into the apartment complex.

So it's a big issue. But in India, they don't kill monkeys. They don't kill anything, because they think it's bad karma. So this is probably a nuisance in many other parts of the world, and I don't know which nation this is, but just watch the video. It's better if you watch it.

Okay. Oh. Then he sort of knows that the room is good. The room doesn't look like a human being at all. So he says, "Cool." But he doesn't know what he is in that confounded hole. Finally, this is the room that can save the democracy. He doesn't know what's in there.

So in this illustration, the monkey is the world, right? The hunter is Satan. And the seeds is the things that we covet, right? I don't know where I found this video, but I saw it years ago. So I thought it would be a visual effect, right? So he says, "The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is a Christian is an individual.

The whole world obviously needs to eat, right? If you're a hungry monkey, why not get it?" The problem was not that he went to get it, but then once he got enticed, he couldn't let go, even though he saw the danger coming. A difference between a Christian and non-Christian, the Bible says, "My sheep, they hear my voice, and they follow me." And the voice of the master says, "Let go." He says, "He who finds his life will lose it." Because the whole reason why that monkey is holding on to that is because he wants to eat to live.

But he's deceived to think that the only way to live is this thing, and if he lets go, he might not be able to live. And he hears his master's voice, and the master's voice says, "No! If you do not let go, you will die." And so the ones who believe in Christ are the ones who hear the voice, they believe him.

They believe him. So they choose to obey the master's voice, and he lets go, which frees him from that trap to follow his master to eternal life. But an unbeliever, no matter what he confesses with his mouth, he hears the voice, but he does not believe that that's where life is.

Even though he may profess it, even though he may come to church, he does not believe, so he cannot let go. And so as long as he is holding on, he is trapped. When the author of Hebrews is warning, "Let us fear that we do not fall short of entering this rest," is that warning.

If you do not let go, if you do not trust my voice, and you keep holding on to what you covet, you do not know that your profession and your action betray you. My sheep, they will hear my voice. John 5, 23 says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." That was the sin of Eve.

God told them, "If you eat of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die." But Satan came and said, "Shall you really die?" And Eve decided to believe Satan's words and disobeyed instead of believing God. And that's the distinction between a believer and unbeliever, is what you believe.

And that's why I go back to verse 1, it says, "Let us fear, considering the consequence." Considering the consequences of just drifting and becoming apostate and having our hearts so hardened. We can't stand to hear the truth after a while because Christ has become a burden to us. And we're living on the edge, and any little pin that drops to hinder the comfort that we have, we think we have created, we go off.

Let us fear. Those who fear will have nothing to fear. An unbeliever will hear the warning, but it's not going to sound like warning because he doesn't know the danger that's coming. An unbeliever doesn't believe the warning. So you can say, "Let us fear," but an unbeliever, it will not produce any fear in that person.

An unbeliever doesn't believe anything you say. But a child of God, you give the warning, and the warning is not given to a bunch of unbelievers, it's given to the church. A child of God who recognizes and believes in eternity, spiritual things, and what Christ has done, and says, "I'm warning you.

If you keep going down this path, there is judgment coming." Only a believer will be in fear. Those who fear will have nothing to fear. Those who have no fear while slipping will end up with much greater fear. Romans 3, 17, 18, "In the path of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes." But if you notice this passage, even though it is given in warning, you see God's patience and grace in that same text.

"Let us fear while the promise remains of entering his rest." While the promise of entering his rest. The whole reason why the promise of entering his rest is still here is because God's being patient. If God wasn't being patient, he wouldn't have to give warning. He would just strike.

If God was done with us, all he would have to do is just wipe off the dust and just move on. Why go through the drama of warning, of preaching, bring it to repentance? It's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. So even the hard preaching, even the warnings about judgment and hell, it's because God is being kind.

He's being patient. He says in verse 8, "For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that." So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. People are asking, even in the first century, why doesn't he come? Peter answers them in 2 Peter 3.9, "The Lord is not slow about his promise, but at some counts slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance." The reason why Jesus hasn't come in 2000 years is because he's been patient and he is patiently waiting for the sinners to repent, for his children to hear his voice to come.

And so we are in a period where the promise still remains, where there's opportunity still to repent, where God is still waiting for us to let go and come to him. But there will come a day when that promise is going to be done. And when the white throne judgment comes, there is no pleading, there is no warning, there is no waiting, because it is done.

And when he wipes his feet from the dust of the sinners, there is no waiting after that. You and I are not in that period. You and I are in the period of grace that even in strong preaching, even in warning, God is patiently, patiently, patiently waiting for us.

That's why he says, "Today, if you hear his voice, recognize it's the grace of God. If you've been praying, 'God, where are you? I don't know you. I don't see you.' The fact that you hear his voice, the fact that you understand what is in the scripture, that's evidence of his presence in your life.

Because if God was not present in your life, you wouldn't understand what I'm saying. You probably think you're sitting there just sick and tired. Just get over with it. But the fact that your heart is softened and the word of God is penetrating your heart is because the Lord is near.

While it is still called today, do not harden your heart because tomorrow it may not be there. In Isaiah 55, 1 to 3, "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why do you spend money for that for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. And delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live and I may make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercies shown to David." All that has happened, all of it is to bring us to Christ.

And finally, in Revelation 22, 17, God ends the book of Revelation with a plea. The Spirit of the bride says, "Come and let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost." Where do you find rest?

Physically, we know what to do. Stop working so hard. Take a nap. Take a vacation. What do you do with the restlessness of your soul, of your heart? Where do you go for that? Do you believe that Christ is the only one who can give you this rest? Have you been looking for this in other places and other things?

Have you been seeking rest spiritually by resting physically? Has Christ become a burden or is he truly your life? The whole reason why we have the communion table is to remind us. It has to do this in remembrance of me, that we may remember that this is the yoke that he bore on our behalf.

"Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for your souls." So I pray today as we participate in the communion that we would truly find rest in Christ.

Repent of whatever it is that caused us to drift away from God, hardened hearts, disobedient life, that we may hear his voice of our master and follow him. So today I ask you if you are a baptized believer to come to the middle when you are ready, come to these aisles and use this middle aisle to exit.

If you are not baptized and you're here as a guest, we ask that you would stay in your seat. There is no superpower in these communion elements just because you take it, only if there is genuine faith of repentance. And so we ask that you would stay in your seats and just contemplate and think if any part of the message made any sense to you.

You don't need to come through a pastor or any leader, just come before God and honestly confess, "Lord, if you're real, open my ears that I may hear you, that I may see you." If you have questions that you want answered, you can come to the leaders or anybody at the church.

It would be more than wanting to sit down with you and try to answer some of the questions for you. But otherwise, for the communion table, we ask that you would remain seated until we're done. In 1 Corinthians 11.23, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given things, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" So let me pray for us and open up the communion table. And again, when you are ready, one by one, please come up. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you.

We thank you for sending your only begotten son to die for our sins. We thank you, Father God, that you've given your son's work on our behalf, that our sins may be atoned for. That we know that it's not by our hard work, but it's simply by your grace and our faith in that grace that causes us to enter into that rest.

I pray that you would help us to know, not just in theory, but in practice and fruit, what it means to truly be in your Sabbath. Help us, Lord God, this morning as we participate in this sacred event, that we would truly be refreshed, renewed, and re-strengthened, that we may truly worship you in spirit and in truth.

We ask for your blessing over this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.