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Collision With Prophecy

Collision With Prophecy #10:
No Rest for the Wicked

Introduction

Good evening everyone. Before we venture into tonight's topic, I want to spend one moment reviewing where we've already been.

On virtually every evening of these meetings up to tonight, I've shared with you from the Word of God how the Bible has been mistakenly approached, how sin has been misunderstood, or how a false version of Jesus has been preached. On several nights we've been able to share positive helps on how we can let Scripture interpret Scripture. We've made strides here as a group in our understanding of the Bible and its message for us.

In our last meeting, we saw God's people, His Church in the Wilderness, plowing on through all the persecutions and tortures of the dark ages. And still they came out victorious at the other end, overcoming through the blood of the Lamb.

Tonight, we're (mostly) in the New Testament again and on a topic we'll call, "No Rest For the Wicked." This phrase comes out of Revelation the fourteenth chapter (Revelation 14:11), and has to do with the punishment of those who, in the end, are lost. It tells us that their torment ascends before God like a smoke. That's quite an interesting picture. It says that those who are lost, are, to God, like the smell of something burning. Revelation 14:9-10a makes clear that whoever ultimately experiences this fate is someone having the mark of the beast: "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God . . ."

Notice this: those who "have no rest" are those who have received the mark of the beast. Very interesting. Very meaningful I think. Listen, friends, the New Testament speaks of our entering into rest now; did you know that? And let me ask you this thought question: could it be that those who have no rest in final punishment, also, in the present, choose having no rest? After all, those having entered into the rest of the Christian don't receive the mark, but those refusing to enter into Christian rest do receive the mark. Don't forget what Revelation 13:17 says: "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark . . ." Are you weary, my brothers and sisters? Are you running to and fro through the earth, busy as a bee, yet falling farther and farther behind? Does it sometimes seem even now as if you have no rest? And here's the ultimate question for tonight: does entry into the Christian rest have anything to do with the end-time, or the mark of the beast? I'm going to spill the beans right now.

The answer is a crisp "yes." Let me share with you the reason why. In a moment we'll turn to the place in your Bible where we find the Christian rest especially mentioned. Our main study tonight will be from the book of Hebrews, the third and fourth chapters.

The Commandment God Asks Us to Remember

But first, in our recent meeting, we looked at eight identifying marks of the "little horn" of Daniel seven, the beast of Revelation 13. Among those marks was his attempt "to change times and laws" (Daniel 7:25). But did you ever notice as you go through the Ten Commandments, that only one of the ten specifically relates to time? The fourth of the Ten Commandments, which says,

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11).

In fact, out of all of the commandments, this one is particularly unusual, because instead of "thou shalt not," it begins with the idea of "remember;" no other commandment starts that way. Did you notice also that this commandment has to do with "the seventh day," Saturday, and not Sunday? Just check the calendar and you'll see that the seventh day of the week is Saturday, not Sunday.

Now in these meetings we've seen that in the center of the nation of Israel was the sanctuary of God, and that in the most holy place of the sanctuary, in the center, was the ark of the covenant, and that within the ark of the covenant, the most central features were the two tables of God's Ten Commandment law. Furthermore, we've seen that the section of Revelation we studied two meetings ago, (Revelation chapter twelve) is bracketed by references on either end of that block of Scripture to God's law and obedience to it in the end-time (Revelation 11:19-12:17). Not only that, but in our very first meeting, we saw that the issues in Revelation 13 trace back to two major Old Testament stories: the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel, and the three Hebrews that in Daniel three refused to bow down to the golden idol, and for their refusal were cast into the fiery furnace. And in both of those cases, we saw that simple, raw-naked obedience was the bottom line.

In fact, I believe that God's Sabbath was at the center of the conflict between Pharaoh and Moses when God delivered His people out of slavery. Do you remember what Moses asked Pharaoh? "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness" (Exodus 5:1). But did you know how long they wanted to journey to hold this feast? Look at this in the third verse: "let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God." Now just do the math: three days journey into the desert, one day spent in worship and holding the feast unto God (the Sabbath day), and then three days journeying back. Interesting. Now I'm not going to be dogmatic here about that, but its quite interesting, especially when we hear pharaoh's complaint in response: "wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? Get you unto your burdens" (Exodus 5:4). God had purposed to deliver His people so that they could worship Him, and they couldn't do that in any effective way without keeping His Sabbath.

Well, you ask, what does this have to do with the last days, and entry into rest? And why would any certain day be so important? Let me tell you, that this has a great deal to do with the mark of the beast. There are many things that as a Christian preacher I'd enjoy talking to you about today, but we've carefully limited this series so that we really are dealing with only one key topic: discovering the biblical facts surrounding the mark of the beast. Two meetings from now, when we look at what the Bible has to say about "The Sealing," some of this will come much clearer. But for now, let's proceed with our study of Hebrews chapters three and four. Its time to get some answers.

Stedfast Unto the End

The first six verses of Hebrews three illustrate the superiority of Christ over Moses, and urge us all to "consider the apostle and high Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." But of special interest to us are these statements:

[Christ] whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6).

The fourteenth verse says just about the same thing:

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.

Holding firm our confidence in Christ, we may be joined to His household and made a partaker of Him, but there are big "if's" in there. "If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." Do you know that a lot of preachers leave out the "if's"? They preach peace and safety (1 Thessalonians 5:3) without any "if's." Some will even say--even openly--that accepting Christ as your personal Savior removes all the "if's." Well, I have no problem with that--so long as the Bible says it. But if it doesn't say it, then we have a big problem.

We need to get something real clear here. What is this "rest" we enter in to? Let's spend the remainder of our time on that.

Israel Refuses Jesus, Turns Back at Kadesh

The main teaching of our text (Hebrews chapters three and four) builds off of the story of Israel's refusal to enter the land of Canaan in the wilderness at Kadesh Barnea, a story that we find originally in Numbers chapter fourteen. And what did we learn in our first meeting? If we want to understand a latter Scripture, go back to the original story found in earlier books of the Bible and get the original context (the broader sense surrounding the whole background of the story). So before continuing in Hebrews three, turn to Numbers fourteen . . .

God had delivered His people. The original request to pharaoh had been so that that they could go into the wilderness three days' journey to worship God. In the end, He had, in fact, delivered them altogether from an intransigent pharaoh. They had soon passed through the Red Sea, gone on to Sinai, and had now finally come to the very border of entry into the promised land, their true homeland. But at Kadesh something went wrong.

They had, in fact, been following the pre-existent Jesus, present in the cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:18, 21-22). But as they came to the border, they had sent out scouts to "spy out the land (Numbers 13:2, 17-20), before their entry. The reports they had brought back had been glowing--the land was indeed a wonderful and fruitful one, exactly as the Lord had promised. But their heavenly Father now had let them also see the present inhabitants of the land. It had not been left uninhabited those 400 years during the Hebrews' sojourn in Egypt. Now, two entirely different mindsets among the spies (today we would call them scouts) manifested themselves: most saw the task of taking the land from an entirely secular standpoint: the cities were walled, mightily defensed, the peoples there were strong and numerous; apart from a perspective charged with faith in their God, thinking of accomplishing the task merely with their human strength alone, there was no hope of victory at all. But two of the 12 twelve scouts saw the future with eyes of faith. They looked upon the conquest of the land with their sure knowledge that God had led them there, remembering His mighty miracles and deliverences already experienced. "They are bread for us," the Lord has given them into our hand (Numbers 14:9)," they said.

A rebellion ensued. God intervened and saved the faithful. Faithless leaders were slain. But next was the painful pronouncement. To the overwhelmingly faithless bulk of the wilderness travellers came the word of God:

As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men which have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it . . . As ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun [the two faithful scouts]. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know My breach of promise. I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against Me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. (Numbers 14:21-24, 28-35).

Now I could comment on this right here, but let's let a Bible writer do it. Its safer. Turn to the 95th Psalm, and let's look at all of it:

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. To day if ye will hear His voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways: Unto whom I sware in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.

Notice the divine analysis of Israel's problem: in spite of all of God's attempt to work with His people, they willfully persisted in erring in their heart, and refused to learn who He really was. They were like Judas. Jesus was right there, leading and guiding and trying to teach them, but they refused. When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples--including the feet of Judas--he had turned away and betrayed Jesus. When Israel came to the edge of the promised land, they too had turned away betraying Jesus.

The plea goes out from our Father through the words of the writer of the 95th Psalm: Hear His voice today. Don't harden your heart, and turn away from Jesus, and turn away from entry into the rest He offers us.

The New Testament Warning is Identical

But it is not only the plea of the Old Testament Psalmist. The last half of the Psalm, from the plea not to harden your heart, is the very text of Hebrews 3:7-11. And now, after reminding his readers of Israel's turning-back at Kadesh, we hear Paul's own Holy Spirit-inspired commentary. Read Hebrews 3:12-19 with me:

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Here, from Paul--speaking to Christians many years after Jesus' sacrifice upon the Cross--the same plea goes out: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." And don't forget, the reason Israel turned back to die in the wilderness was that, "they could not enter in because of unbelief."

But how could they have failed to enter in? Continue reading in Hebrews chapter four: "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Hebrews 4:1-3).

Notice several points:

  1. A promise remains for us that we can enter into rest.
  2. A danger remains for us that we will come short of it.
  3. The gospel was preached to them too--not just to ourselves--but a lack of willingness to have faith in God was their downfall, and we are at risk of its becoming our downfall as well.
  4. We which have believed do enter into rest.
  5. It has always been God's purpose ("although His works were finished from the foundation of the world") that His people enter into His rest.

We have to grasp something now: what exactly is the "rest" that our Father desires our entry into?

The Rest

Tracing the phrase ("rest") back, we find help in Numbers 14:22-23 and Deuteronomy 12:9. Remember, Numbers 14:22-23 told us, "Because all those men which have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it." Here, entry into God's rest is spoken of as entry into the land of Canaan. Again, in Deuteronomy 12:9-11, 14 before Israel goes over Jordan into the promised land, God speaks to them through Moses, saying, "For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you. But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when He giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there . . . there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee." Here they are told that coming to the rest and the inheritance that God would give them meant going over Jordan, dwelling in the land of promise, and worshipping Him in His sanctuary/temple.

But just entering the land is not the whole of the story. Those who enter into rest offer their offerings, and their rest experience includes the doing of all that God commands them. And there is much more in this line. Did you know that way back in Exodus 33:14, God promised His people through Moses, that "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest"? And the prophet Isaiah writes of the triumph of the redeemed in the end: "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter in" (Isaiah 26:2). Again, Ezekiel 44:7, 9-10 tell of God's indignation with Israel for allowing the "uncircumcised in heart" to enter into His sanctuary. In Ezekiel 20:38 we hear God's assurance that He will purge the rebels out from among His people so that "they will not enter into the land of Israel."

Nor is the testimony of the New Testament any different. Entering into the kingdom of God, says Jesus, means exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees (Matthew 5:19-20). It means doing the will of our Father, and departure from iniquity (sinning) (Matthew 7:21-23). In John 10:9, Jesus, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6), says "I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Revelation 21:27 tells us that nothing that defiles will enter into heaven, and Revelation 22:14 says that those who "do His commandments" are the ones finally having the right to eat of the tree of life and to enter into the heavenly city.

The bottom line here, is, that entry into God's rest is not merely a visit to the literal land of Israel. It means a spiritual entry into rest, a participation in these biblical realities:

  1. It means God's presence going with us.
  2. It means becoming a righteous nation.
  3. It means keeping truth.
  4. It means letting God truly circumcise us in our heart.
  5. It means forsaking our rebellion against Him, departing from sin.
  6. It means doing our Father's will.
  7. It means entering in through Jesus, the Door.
  8. It means doing His commandments.
  9. It means worshipping Him as He intercedes for us in His heavenly sanctuary.

Now don't miss this: When God's people disobeyed Him in the wilderness, He refused to let them enter into His rest. Even after they entered the land, the Holy Spirit admonished them in the time of king David, through his Psalms to enter into the rest that God longed to give them. God renewed His promise and plea to His people who still had not entered into His rest. Finally, even after Jesus dies on the Cross, Paul writes to Christians of his own day urging them still to enter in, because "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."

The Rest That Remains

In the closing verses of Hebrews 4:14-16 we find that we receive rest and grace only through looking to Jesus. In Hebrews 4:12-13 we find that the means of entering into rest is obedience to and faith in Jesus through God's Word. Unless we are willing to follow Him in obeying His Word, we will not, and do not enter into His rest. Remember, "For we which have believed do enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:3).

Tonight however, what should be most interesting to us is what the writer of Hebrews says in verses 4-11. Our attention is here focused on the seventh day Sabbath. We are reminded of the Sabbath in the fourth verse, and of God resting from His works on it. Then we are reminded of the statement in Psalm 95:11 that in light of Israel's wilderness rebellion He would not allow their entry into His rest. Then the Bible tells us that "therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein" (vs. 6). The promise of entry into God's rest is still in effect. We can still enter in. It has always been His plan to populate this world with holy and happy beings, but those who will do so, first enter by faith into His spiritual rest. Israel's failure, then, at the time of Paul, the early church's failure, and even friends, her failure today to enter in, has not negated the promise.

"Again He limiteth a certain day" (verse 7), reminds us that during the time of David, God again issued His call for His people to enter into His rest. That was the plea of our Father to His people in the 95th Psalm. In fact, His plea to His people in the days of David proves that Joshua had not led Israel into the promised "spiritual" rest heaven had then offerred to them. Look at verse eight: "For is Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day?" (This is actually speaking not of Jesus, but of Joshua from the time of Moses. In Greek, "Joshua" is translated "Jesus.") Joshua had, in fact, led Israel into the promised land. But because the people had been unwilling, the spiritual rest had not been entered into. If they had, God would not have had to again present His promise and plea to His people in "another day"--the time of David. Again He called, and again His people stalled-out. And so we come now to the plea of God current to us. Hear our last verse in Hebrews 4:9-11:

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 labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The rest that remained to them in the time of Paul and in our own time, is the spiritual rest promised originally to literal Israel. What remains must already have been there to begin with. Friends, the rest that is spoken of here is the rest of grace. That's why the author of Hebrews began (Hebrews 3:1) this section of Scripture urging us to consider "the high Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ." When we exercise faith in Him, when we listen to His voice who said, "if you love Me, keep My commandments," we'll enter into His rest. Half-way obedience to Christ is really no obedience at all. God called His people out of Egypt so that they could worship Him fully--something not possible under the constant toil of slavery to the Egyptians or the taskmaster's refusal to let the Hebrews keep the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is an essential reminder both of God's creative power and of His ongoing efforts to save us. God's special rest day regularly turns our thoughts to the fact that, in co-operating with His work of saving us, we receive no credit, while joyfully renouncing any dependence upon our own works for salvation.

In fact, there is no other commandment more plainly reminding us of the gospel than the Sabbath. But did you hear also the urging in Hebrews? God was fully aware that down in our day a cheap, dry, empty version of Christianity would continuously be pitched by those making merchandise of the gospel, redefining grace and making it into license to sin (Jude 4). Thus they deny Jesus, turning back, just as Israel did in the provocation in the wilderness. And so we read, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." What had Israel done? They had turned back from following God. They could not enter in because of unbelief. They had refused to co-operate with their Maker, who for 6000 years has longed for persons to approach Him and enter into His rest. The counsel of these two chapters reminds us of our deep need for His present ministry in the courts of heaven and the experience of rest that only comes in wholeheartedly following Jesus.

Conclusion and Preview

Satan wants us to misunderstand the gospel, so we will think that our works somehow off-set the price of Christ's gift of salvation. The keeping of Sunday--a day coming to us not from the Bible, but manufactured from the traditions of men--is a work to please God. It is not His day, it was not His command, and is in fact a "work" day, as opposed to the seventh day Sabbath, which biblically is a "rest" day. The devil tried to change the Sabbath which referred to both, God's finished work of creation and to His ongoing work of delivering humans by the same power from the bondage of sin.

Christians who observe the Sabbath day are hearing and obeying--the very thing those who fell in the wilderness because of their unbelief did not do. Such Christians are responding to the life-changing Word of God. The Bible Sabbath, made for all humanity at the very beginning (Genesis 2:1-3; Mark 2:27-28), (and not just for the "Jews," a group not even existing at that time!), far from being a human work done to attain salvation, is a weekly reminder of our resting from our own fruitless, powerless attempts to obey God apart from His imparted strength. It is a continual reminder to turn to Him, to come boldly before His throne of grace for the life He gives, enabling us to endure in our testings here.

Entry into God's full salvation here and now--the very thing neither Israel in the wilderness, nor in the time of David, nor in time of Christ, nor even in the time of Paul, nor even finally now, in our day has ever done enmasse--is what God is calling us now to do. Before Jesus comes, He will have a believing people who step out in faith to follow Him fully and keep His commandments, including the Sabbath, the day our Father plainly calls "My holy day" (cite>Isaiah 58:13-14). Those receiving the mark of the beast are those refusing to experience God's rest. When the state says "bow down," obey it instead of God, all who have not entered into God's rest will bow down. What will happen then will only be a confirmation of what we are or are not living now. Are you and I willing to labor to enter in Christ's rest? Are we willing to obey God's commands? Even to keep the seventh-day Sabbath?

Some of us have been Christians for years, but we recognize a dryness within. Could it be that even if we've been going to church week after week on Sunday, or even on the true Sabbath, Saturday, that because of unbelief we've failed to enter in? If so, my brother or my sister, I tell you by the authority of God's Word, our Father in heaven is calling you tonight to enter in to His rest. He wants us to trust in His full power to change us by His gospel, and to keep His Sabbath day as a witness to that power. He doesn't call us to keep "a" Sabbath, but to keep "the" Sabbath. He didn't call His people to enter in to any land, but into a certain land--Canaan. Likewise, He calls us to enter into a certain rest--a rest of Holy Spirit empowered obedience to His commandments.

We've used up all our time for tonight. But in our next meeting, we are moving to what the Bible teaches about Jesus' second coming--when our planet really once and for all collides with prophecy! Don't miss our next meeting: "Janet Reno's Worst Nightmare." Let's pray.

Larry Kirkpatrick, Last Modified 9 November 2000

Contact us at larry@collisionwithprophecy.org