Lamoille Valley Grace Brethren Church
October 5, 2025

      • Matthew 11:28NASB95

  • Like a River Glorious
  • Complete in Thee

      • Exodus 31:12–18NASB95

      • 2 Corinthians 9:6–7NASB95

  • Scripture Reading: Exodus 31:12-18
    Kids Time:
    Rest: Cessation of activity. Illustrated by the promised land, Canaan. People look for utopia. They imagine it can be achieved by our effort. They think that we can make utopia here on this earth. Politicians promise some form of utopia. The problem is
    The Israelites were wandering around the desert for 40 years. There was no rest for them. No permanence, no settled home. They were hoping for the Land of Canaan to be their land, their home, their cessation of wandering. Because they refused to believed in the goodness of God. The author of Hebrews uses this as an illustration.
    4 Truths about God’s Rest

    I. His Rest Can Be Missed

    A. Be Afraid of Missing It

    Hebrews 4:1 NASB95
    1 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.
    Therefore - continuation of the same line of thinking. We are still talking about non-believers in this passage.
    “Let us fear” - Identifying with the Jewish people in general
    “Any one of you” - Jewish people who heard the gospel but had not yet believed.
    Rest - 3 kinds—
    Rest of Salvation. Not by works. We rest in Jesus Christ and His finished work.
    Rest of Sanctification. The rest from the self-life. Our christian life is to be lived by faith. Sometimes called the faith-life rest.
    Rest of the Kingdom.
    “Think they might have missed it” — The promise is still on the table. Anyone who hears the gospel should be afraid to miss the opportunity. The Jews did not have to worry that if they turned to Christ apart from the law in this age of grace, they would miss out on God’s promised rest.

    B. Without Faith You Will Miss It

    Hebrews 4:2 NASB95
    2 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.
    gospel = good news. Not the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The good news that God’s rest is available.
    Matthew 11:28 NASB95
    28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
    Matthew 11:29 NASB95
    29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

    II. Faith Brings Rest

    Hebrews 4:3 NASB95
    3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
    Hebrews 4:4 NASB95
    4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
    God is the example of rest. He worked for 6 days creating this world and filling it with all good things, but on the seventh day, He ceased from His creative work. That rest continues. Every day is a Sabbath rest for Him.
    Adam and Eve enjoyed that rest, but because of their unbelief in the goodness of God, which manifested in them disobeying God, they were cursed with pain and toil. Living now required hard work. They lost the rest that God had provided.
    God’s plan of salvation was to restore Adam and Eve and their offspring to that rest. The Son became a man, under the curse but untouched by it and He did the work to restore humanity to God. When Jesus died on the cross He said, “It is finished!” The work needed to restore mankind to a right relationship to God was completed.
    Pattern: mankind tastes the rest of God, then doubts God, disobeys and is separated from His rest and suffers the physical consequences. The reverse is Jesus comes and calls mankind back to faith in Him, He acts in righteous obedience by giving His life on the cross, we are brought back into peace with God through faith and then God restores the physical world to its pristine condition.
    Do you believe that He finished the work? Are you trusting in the work of Jesus or are you trying enter God’s rest by working?
    Hebrews 4:5 NASB95
    5 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.”
    If we aren’t believing in Jesus then we aren’t resting.
    Charles Spurgeon — Some people are always fretting and fuming; they appear to have been born in stormy weather, and to be perpetually agitated in mind so that they cannot rest. Only the other day, a gardener I knew of, was complaining greatly of the heavy rain, which had done some, damage to the garden where he was working. A Quaker, who stood by said to him, “Friend, thou oughtest not to complain of the rain, for if it has not done this garden any good, it has done good to the fields of many of thy neighbors; therefore thou oughtest to be glad on their account, and to thank God;” and then the good man very wisely added, “I do not think that, after all, we should have the weather any better managed by thee than it is by God, if it could be put into thy hands.” That is the right way to look at all things; they are far better ordered by God than by any man. Christian, thou couldst not order them better if thou hadst the ordering of them, so be thou perfectly content, and say, “Not my will, Lord; but thine be done.” The more faith grows, the more rest grows; but when our faith begins to forget the Lord and we commence to worry and to fret, then our rest goes at once.

    III. Joshua Didn’t Give Rest

    Hebrews 4:6 NASB95
    6 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,
    What was their disobedience? They refused to trust God!
    John 6:29 NASB95
    29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
    Numbers 14:39–45 NASB95
    39 When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly. 40 In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.” 41 But Moses said, “Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed? 42 “Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. 43 “For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.” 44 But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.
    Hebrews 4:7 NASB95
    7 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.”
    Hebrews 4:8 NASB95
    8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.
    Though entering the land of Canaan was a type of rest, it was not the ultimate rest that God had promised. If it were, how could the Psalmist offer that rest in his day?
    Jesus is greater than Joshua. Joshua lead them into the land of Canaan, but he could not give them true spiritual rest. Even after they crossed over the Jordan, they had to defeat the Canaanites. In David’s day there were still Philistines that had not been removed. The physical Millennial Kingdom is is the hope that all Israelites looked forward to. It will be the only time they will have true rest from all their enemies.
    What a picture of our salvation! We have crossed over the spiritual Jordan the moment we place our faith in Jesus Christ. But as Christians, we still have enemies of sin that we battle. And though we have entered and appropriated the promised rest it is not yet perfected in us. We are still being sanctified. Someday though, when the King returns, we will be perfected in glory.
    We rest now and we will rest ultimately, but that does not mean that we are idle. But, it is not selfish work or a prideful work. It is a satisfying holy work of love for the Savior who has provided rest for our souls

    IV. Rest Is Still Available

    Hebrews 4:9 NASB95
    9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
    It had come in the person of Jesus. He offers the rest and it is available now. Don’t delay, Have a sensitive heart toward spiritual matters and enter His rest through faith.
    Hebrews 4:10 NASB95
    10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
    You have to give up your own merits. Don’t think that going to church, giving money to charities, getting baptized, your self discipline, or your obedience to rules will gain you a good standing with God. Cease working for you salvation and just rest in Jesus Christ. There is peace, there is security, there is satisfaction.
    Like a plane flying in the air. Can we do anything to make it fly? Will it help to stick our hands out the windows and flap as we taking off from the ground? How ridiculous and dangerous. What should we do? Trust the powerful jet engines and the scientific principles that lift the wings into the air. The best thing you can do is sit back with your seat in its upright position, your tray table secured and your seat belt buckled! Enjoy the flight!

      • Hebrews 4:1NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:2NASB95

      • Matthew 11:28NASB95

      • Matthew 11:29NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:3NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:4NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:5NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:6NASB95

      • John 6:29NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:7NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:8NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:9NASB95

      • Hebrews 4:10NASB95

  • What Grace Is Mine
  • He Will Hold Me Fast
Lamoille Valley Grace Brethren Church
pastorethan@lvgbc.net
8028883339
http://www.lvgbc.net
25 members