The Rest Of God 5
HEB. 4:9-11

One of the most important scriptures in the Bible. We need to understand it.
A. Vs.10. Most have never read or understood this verse.
1. It could make the Church the most dynamic force in the world today.
1. Most are like Israel: Neither seen God’s rest, nor understood it, nor lived in it.
(A) Israel came to Kadesh Barnea, looked across river, doubted, turned and walked away.
(1) Wandered in a meaningless, restless wilderness until they died.
(2) Didn’t know they were saved, or what they believed. Uninvolved with God.
(a) The Result was they missed the exhilarating life God prepared for them.
(1) Many Christians stand at Kadesh Barnea having never entered God’s rest.
(B) Last week we looked at the background story in HEB. 4:4. That’s a reference to
GEN. 1-2, and the 6 days of creation.
(1) God created the World in 6 days. On the 6th day God created man in His image.
(a) The first day Adam saw the world it looked like been there a billion years.
(b) God created the world aged and full-grown to reproduce after its own kind.
(c) Everything was mature and ready to be harvested by a mature Adam and Eve.
(2) God created a perfect world to be a place of perfect provision for Adam.
(a) God created man to enter into this perfect creation and provision.
(b) The first lesson Adam had to Learn was to be satisfied with what God has done.
b. You don’t try to improve it or change it. Just live in what God has already done.
(A) God said, “Adam, here’s a Peach, now say, ‘Thank you God.’ That’s all you have to do.”
(1) All Adam had to do was live his whole life in the rest of God.
(a) Have an attitude that says, “What you did God was enough and I am completely
satisfied with your care and provision. With you my life is perfect and I need
nothing else.”
(b) Everything Adam needed in body, soul and spirit was provided.
(2) When Adam learned to eat and live in God’s perfect provision and then say, “Thank
you!” It was symbolic of the entire meaning of life.
(a) There was total provision for the total need of the total man in body, soul and
spirit.
(b) God was all man needed and all man had to do was rest in that and be content
and praise God.
(B) That doesn’t mean Adam did not work. The first work did not come with Adam’s fall.
(1) Work, as we know it today came with the fall. The Bible not say Adam did not Work.
(a) Before the Fall, man was commanded to externalize himself in God’s work.
(b) In that work, creation cooperated. Earth and all in it yielded to his every need.
(c) Animals were not a threat. The earth yielded abundantly.
(2) Work was not difficult, tiring, wearying. No muscle aching, back breaking labor.
(a) Adam’s work was taking from God and at the same time drawing strength from
his maker.
(b) Adam worked out of divine strength, not out of human strength. He did not live
and survive out of his own wisdom. He lived and worked out of the wisdom and
ability God supplied Thus Adam’s whole life was cradled in the rest of God.
2. But in the fall man declared himself to be independent of God. I can be my own God,
a. Rejects the divine declaration that God did it all and that Man takes from God and in
taking and correctly using what is given, expresses the love, glory and goodness of God.

b. Everything man is, has or does is to be for the purpose of glorying God and not himself.

(A) Man refused that order and became the center around which his world revolved.
(1) What happened deep inside expressed itself on the out side---Creation turned
against man.
(a) Man refused to work out of what God gave. Now man must labor in the sweat of his brow for the little he gets in life.
(b) What was once joyful occupation becomes hard, tiring, difficult.
(1) The earth’s bounty is no longer given freely. It must be extracted in tedious, tiring, perspiring, painful labor.
(2) Man now has a new signature---Restlessness---Just the opposite of the rest of God
(a) Man was created to rest in God’s rest. To be satisfied with God as his life,
source and supply. ACTS 17:28.
(b) Man rejected God. He sinned and lost the rest of God and what followed is
stated in ISA. 57:21.
(B) Now man sweats on the outside. But that’s only the echo, shadow of what’s happening
on the inside. Now he works at sin, sweats at sin and when he fears being caught, he
sweats it out.
(1) Now, man is sweating at the worst kind of sin. Sweating at trying to be good.
(a) The first sin was, “You can be good without God, you can be your own God.”
(b) Read about it in GEN. 3:5. And ever since, man has been working and
sweating in a frantic effort to be like God. Trying to be righteous by his own
efforts.
(c) GAL 5:19-20.
(d) That’s talking about people who worship their own way and seek spiritual
guidance apart form God. It’s called WILL WORSHIP.
(2) Contrast that with the fruit of the Spirit in GAL. 5:22-23.
(a) We need to understand the concept of fruit. Fruit never sweats to become—it
just is—There’s a great moral to that truth!
(b) What is it? Any thing you try to do without God you do in the sweat of your
soul and your brow.
(3) JNO. 15:5.
(a) PHIP. 4:13.
(b) The only way you can go from NO THINGS to ALL THINGS is by resting in God
through Jesus, who is our rest.
(c) ACTS 20:32.

Spur - 12/24/2000 am