Episode 123 — Rest— Part 1

[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hello everybody and welcome to the unveiling. My name is Mark and along with my partner Ajay, we'll be pulling back the curtain on the one true gospel. We are so glad you joined us today, so let's dive right in. Hello everybody and welcome to the unveiling. We are so glad that you took the time to invest in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning. It is one of the most wonderful pursuits in life, in my opinion, really is the heartbeat of my life, is seeking to know Christ better, to understand the gospel and the ramifications of all that. You know, watch. I've said that before to you and we've talked about it, but it's like the ramifications of what we read, having the time to sit and think them out, to meditate upon them. Like my little catchy quip phrase. I said we, we don't really need to be in scripture. We need scripture to be in us. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Amen. [00:01:08] Speaker A: And that means more than just reading it. It means considering it, what it means in general. But for my life specifically, what are the ramifications of the Gospel and of grace? What does it mean by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone? [00:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, you know, in terms of ramifications, it's huge, Right? We know like when we believe the gospel, you know, we know everything is given to us, but the thing is we don't know that everything is given to us. And then like you said several times we go on this gerbil wheel, right? And we live as though we are not saved, in fear and condemnation and anxiety and all that kind of stuff. But you know, when we start really understanding the gospel, everything changes and it is a journey. It's not a one day thing. But the ramifications are huge. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Yeah, they are mind blowing and awesome. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:09] Speaker A: So, Ajay, today we are going to talk about a word that it seems nowadays is not in a lot of people's vocabulary, sometimes my own. And that word is rest. Why don't you give us your initial thoughts on rest and then we'll dive in. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Mark, you know the scriptures that I've been meditating on for this is from Hebrews. Right? I'm going to kick off with this one and then we can go into the discussion, deeper discussion on that. In Hebrews 4, 9, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. So we can go into the rest of the chapter in a little bit. But the truth here, or what God is saying, is that there is a rest for the people of God. And that's his goal, you know, like he wants us to rest. You know, he doesn't want us to be striving all the time. But there is a rest that remains for the people of God. And we are going to go into that a little more today and see, you know, where it takes. But do you have any initial comments, Mark, before I jump in? [00:03:24] Speaker A: Well, that was actually the first. You know, Ajay and I always do our preparation for this podcast. We talk during the week via texting, but pretty much on our own. We don't compare notes and things like that. But that was the first scripture that I had down as well as Hebrews 9. But I'm going to read just a little further if I might and comment. So Hebrews 4. 9 again in the NIV says, There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. Now, I want to comment and talk about a couple lines there, and that is one of the few places you're ever going to see the word effort used in our relationship with God is right here. When it says, let us make every effort to enter the rest, that almost sounds like a bit of an oxymoron or a paradox we're entering to. We're. We're laboring or efforting to enter rest, work to get into rest. And that's because not being in the state of rest is so much a part of our lives that it takes. Effort's not the right word as far as, like, physical labor, but it takes that contemplation and coming into understanding to be able to enter the rest. And one point my old pastor used to make out was when God created the earth and the heavens and everything that are in them, he rested on the seventh day. And he always used to say, it's not because he was tired, it's because the work is done. Done. And that's the same reason we rest. The work has been done. Jesus Christ, the last thing he said before he committed his spirit to the Father on the cross and breathed his last was, it is finished. All the work has been finished. Of salvation, sanctification. We have everything in Christ. There's no more work for us to do other than work to enter into his rest. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Mark, you know, in fact, if you think about it right, our default state as human beings is working because we are always Performing, right. If you take out the gospel, right. If you don't consider the grace element or grace itself that comes to us through the gospel, everything else works. You know, nobody is going to give you anything without working, without performing. It's a give and take system. And the whole of the law is a performance based system. If you perform, you will get something. If you don't perform, you will lose something. Right? You know, that's the basic core principle of the law. So we are always in this mode of doing something, doing something, performing something, not only towards God, but also towards one another. You know, everybody is working, right? If we go to work and say, you know, I'm going to rush, you know, nobody is going to pay you. So. So it does take effort for us, in fact, you know, to step back and rest in the Lord. Because our default mode is if there is something for us to do, we go in this mode of performance, we go in this mode of anxiety, we go in this mode of trying to do something to get to the outcomes we want. So it does take effort to say, hey, you know, I'm going to rest again. You know, when we are talking about rest here, we are not primarily talking about physical rest, not working in terms of the, in this world. Right. Like our work and our relationships. We are not talking about that here. We are talking about resting in terms of our relationship with God, resting in terms of our salvation, resting in terms of our righteousness. We'll get into that. But it's not, you know, making an effort to rest is not that much of an unnatural thing. [00:07:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. And I like the point you made out that although resting does involve physical rest, as you mentioned, it's. Well, let me just read Matthew here. Because Jesus was the one who said, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, 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 will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is comfortable and my burden is light. And as I started to contemplate on what exactly what type of rest scripture in the Gospel commend to us, that's the first thing that I came to mind. It's a soul rest. It's a. It's a mind that is resting, a soul, a heart, our emotions, our will. We're resting in what Christ has done for us in the Gospel, the message of God's grace, Jesus Christ and him crucified, we rest in that. And, and that's. I Mean, you know, a lot of people nowadays are very busy physically as well. But the rest that we all need is just that mind, a mind that is resting in the Lord. And that was the first way I started to contemplate. I found a couple other applications as well. But let's talk about that a little bit. Rest for our souls. And what I love here, he says, for my yoke is comfortable, my burden is light. That yoke is the gospel. When I think about it, it is the good news of resting in the finished work of the cross. It's really the only way to get that rest in your mind and your soul. As we deal with strife and turmoil and trials and all the things that we have in our busy lives, to have that blessing of just having our souls and our hearts and our minds resting in the finished work of Christ. There's nothing for us to add. We don't have to sit here and wallow in grief and condemnation and shame over our sin or over the things that we want to do that we know we should do, but that we're not doing. And I just want to remind everybody, the word should is not a part of the gospel because that should means there's something you need to be doing to qualify for that gospel. [00:09:56] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, that is true. The rest for our souls, right? In our souls. The rest definitely includes the rush for our souls. And there is one layer deeper than that, which is the rest for our conscience. The reason we are not resting is, you know, our conscience is not satisfied. It's constantly telling you that you are guilty, you are guilty, and you are guilty. But when we understand that our sins are forgiven, you know, when our conscience is at rest, then everything else follows suit. And in fact, you know, the gospel is about that, right? That Lord Jesus Christ took away all our sins and through this man, it's preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. When we understand that our sins are forgiven, the soul rush begins. [00:10:45] Speaker A: There's a place. I don't have the scripture now because it just popped into my mind, but there's a place where the Apostle Paul said that Christ not only cleaned or washed our sin away, but he cleaned and washed our conscience as well. Do you have that one offhand, by any chance? [00:11:03] Speaker B: It is in Hebrews again. I can look that up. Let's see. Okay, so we have multiple scriptures here. The first One is Hebrews 9:14. Hebrews 9:14 says, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God? Cleanse your conscience from dead Works to serve the living God. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Wow. [00:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah, [00:11:34] Speaker A: I didn't even remember that part of it, but it's telling you what our conscience are being cleansed of. They're being cleansed of the dead works of the law. That's awesome. I got to remember. [00:11:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:45] Speaker A: What's the address on that one? [00:11:46] Speaker B: Hebrews 9:14. [00:11:48] Speaker A: I gotta remember that. Hebrews 9:14. [00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Mark. So in fact, you know, it is in the book of Hebrews and the same rest is carrying over to other chapters in Hebrews. And it talks more in detail what this rest is about. And we said the rest is primarily rest in the conscience. Hebrews 9:14 says, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serving the living God? [00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah, that blows me away. He's not only telling you that the blood of Christ has cleansed our consciences, he's saying exactly what they're cleansed of. And that's the dead works of the law. And I would posit that when Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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 will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is comfortable and my burden is light. I would say that that's one of the primary things that he's talking about, because he's speaking this to the people of Israel whom he went to first. And these are people that had lived for centuries, millennia under the law. That's what they believed was the way they earned righteousness. And it still applies today because I think the majority of believers believe they still have to add righteousness by keeping the law. And when they fail, when they fail at that, their consciences are just filled with condemnation and guilt and shame. And they feel like they've been distanced from God and that they've got to now work to get back closer and earn their way back into his good favor and smile. And that's a rest. That, oh boy, is what a blessed rest that is when we finally come into it. And that's not a snap your fingers thing. Even though the minute I put my faith in Christ, I was cleansed to the hilt, every part of me was cleansed. 100% that hangs on. And we still, even the person that understands grace and the message of God's grace, they still have to grow. And that's what our last series, Growing in Grace was about it's that we are all in this because we're all. So it's just the way that seems right to a man. Proverbs say, said, but leads to destruction. Because even though we know from a mental assertion or in an academic way that our consciousness have been cleared, it's very natural when we make a mistake, when we sin, when we fall short for us to feel guilt and condemnation. And one of my litmus tests has been in my life to when I can make that mistake, I can sin. We'll just call it what it is. And yet my immediate response is, I don't need to confess my sin. I don't need to be, you know, feeling shame and guilt about my sin and walk around with heaviness on me. I need to confess my Savior, confess what Christ has done to me, preach the gospel to myself. As we've been talking about recently, that. That's one thing every believer needs. In fact, Martin Luther himself, father of the great Reformation, said, we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day because works in the things of this world, the elemental spiritual forces of this world, which is the law, they're so ingrained to us that, you know, I think it's such a great litmus test. Not that by not feeling guilt or shame or condemnation means that sin isn't bad and terrible. Of course it is. And I could see feeling bad when our sin hurts somebody else, but not in our standing or relationship with God. We have been set free from that. Our consciences have been cleaned of the dead works of the law. So when we don't fulfill those dead works. Okay, they're dead anyway. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Mark, you know, in fact, you said in the Scriptures that you quoted from Matthew, it's one of the primary things. I believe it is the primary thing, because, you know, the comparison there is the Jews were under the yoke of the law, right? And the yoke of slavery, that's what Paul calls. And like we just said, you know, the whole world is under the system of work. You know, they were working under the law, trying to earn their own righteousness, but they could not. And that became a yoke of slavery. And that's why, you know, Lord is saying. He's using the language, right? A symbolic language. Hey, you are under this yoke instead of that yoke. Take my yoke, the yoke of grace. You know, even though he's calling it a yoke, you know, he's saying, my yoke is easy, my yoke is light. So. And then I'll give you Rest the rest for your conscience. And there are a couple of more scriptures from Hebrews on the same thing. Right? [00:17:01] Speaker A: Can I throw one little thing in there on what you just said? Ajay, before we go, what I love is the way you just tied the yoke of slavery into this scripture. Because that is very interesting and important that Paul over and over again tells us, and I'll give you one example, in Galatians 5:1, he tells us that it's the law that is the yoke of slavery. He says, do not be burned again by a yoke of slavery to people who had just started to add the law back in to their perfect gospel of faith by grace alone, through faith alone. It is a yoke of slavery. It's bondage. It's the law of sin and death. And just, just what's one of the things I love about scripture, and especially about the Apostle Paul, is he's got almost like a mathematician mind. And when you put the things he said together in almost a formula, it brings you into this by, by putting two truths that he expounds together, it brings you into a new light and a new revelation of his meaning. And when you think about Jesus talking about he came to take away that yoke and give us his yoke, which is comfortable. He's taking away the yoke of the law, which is just an impossible, heavy yoke that you, you and I have shared, Ajay, that for years we carried that yoke on our bath on our backs until we came in to the understanding and knowledge and receiving of the one true gospel. And that's that Christ has done it all. The righteous will not only be saved by faith from first to last, but Romans 1 says that we live by faith from first to last. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Yes, Marcus, indeed. And couple of more scriptures from Hebrews on conscience, Hebrews 10:2. For then would they not have ceased to be offered, for worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. You know, again, it is talking about consciousness of sins. Because of the consciousness of sins they were doing these dead works. But they never end, right? You sin and then you go and do the dead work. Then you go back, you sin again, then do the dead works. It's a never ending loop. And it is also talking about the offerings under the old covenant. You know, under the old covenant, yeah. You know, there was a law that was given the Ten Commandments, but nobody kept it, right. If they kept it, there wouldn't have been a problem. But because they broke the ten commandments, now Lord gave us this system of sacrificial system. Hey, you know you need to bring the blood of bulls and goats, right? You know you need to. And there's a day of atonement where an atonement is made for all their sins. And you know, in fact, you know these atonements and these sacrifices are pointing to the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it's also pointing one more thing that you know, you're bringing these atonements but they are never enough, right? If those atonements, if those blood of bulls and goats brought forgiveness of sins, you wouldn't be here next year. But you're going year over year over year, you are going to offer the atonement. That means the atonement has more than cleansing your sin, it has become a reminder of your sin. That's what it says in these sacrifices. There's a reminder of sin every time. So whenever you're going to the temple to offer these sacrifices, you're basically reminded again, hey, you are a sinner. This is never going to end. You have to come next time. So in those sacrifices there is no rest for your conscience. But here we see that for they would have ceased, they would not have ceased to be offered. For the worshippers once purified would have no more consciousness of sins. So the blood of bulls and goats didn't do that. But the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ cleansed all our sins and we no longer need to go back. You know, he's talking to the Hebrews. You no longer need to go back to the temple. Therefore you have rushed for your conscience once for all. Because the once for all sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:21:31] Speaker A: That's awesome. Anjay, you know you used the term there, you used the term sin conscious. The life of the believer is not meant to be lived in sin consciousness. It's meant to be lived in Christ consciousness. And we're even told by the apostle Paul that the very reason that the law, rules and regulations, performance, performance system and behavior modification by the law, the very reason those were given was to make a sin conscience conscious. It says that, that it was given to make us conscious of sin. Why? To make us feel guilty and ashamed and condemned. No, it was meant to make the unbeliever feel conscious of his own sin and the weight of it so that he would look to Christ who said, come to me, I'm going to take that weight away. And, and, and it, you know, it's just you, you can understand why so many believers live in that sin consciousness when they're going to a church that every Sunday is heaping sin on them. You know, it's constantly reminding them of what we are told by the Holy Spirit that he remembers no more. He remembers our lawless acts and sinful deeds no more. So, you know, I always hate to be kind of critical of pastors because it's a hard, hard job, but it's not their job to heap sin consciousness on people. It's their job to encourage people in Christ consciousness. [00:23:12] Speaker B: Yeah. In fact, Mark, the next verse I was going to read talks exactly about that in Hebrews 10:22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. You know, the Bible here is calling sin consciousness as evil consciousness. You know, if you are constantly focused on your sin, sin and sin, that is actually an evil consciousness. And he's saying that let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having your heart sprinkled from evil consciousness or evil conscience. You know, as long as we have this evil conscience on our mind, you cannot draw near to God. So he's saying that first understand that the blood of Lord Jesus Christ was enough to wash away all our sins. Only when we know that you know, no matter what you do, if you do not understand that the blood of Jesus washed away our sins and God forgives all our sins, you will not have rush in your conscience. You can brainwash yourself, you can keep on convincing yourself, okay, I am good, I am okay, I am okay. Even if I sin, it's not going to happen. Only when you understand the blood of Jesus took away all my sins, then you will have rest for your conscience. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Great point, Ajay. You know, so many believers, and I think pastors too, which may be one of the reasons they preach sin so often, is they believe that one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit is to convict the believer of sin. And if you're being convicted by the Holy Spirit, your conscience is not going to be clean. And you know, we just finished what turned out to be an eight part series on the Holy Spirit. We only meant it for maybe, maybe one or two, two episodes. But it was so rich and so deep that you know, and we only scratch the surface. But the Holy Spirit is given to convince us that we are in Christ, to reveal Christ to us, to take the things that are of Christ and declare him to up to us so that we know what we have in him. And in one of the points I made in that series was that a pastor's job is to align his preaching with the purposes of the Holy Spirit. If he wants to have a demonstration of the Spirit's power, he needs to align himself. And when they believe that the Spirit was given to make us sin conscious, they're not aligning with the Spirit. That's not the job. The Spirit's job is opposite that. He's trying to convince us that our sin has been removed as far as the east is from the west, that our sin has been, though it be as crimson, is washed whiter than snow, though it be scarlet washed whiter than wool, that he remembers our sin and lawless deeds no more. And finally, the newest one that came to him. I'm constantly finding scriptures that are just leaning into that. In, in, in psalms, it says, blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not impute to him. If you are in Christ, there is no imputation of sin. In other words, when you sin, it's not put in your account with God. Oh, look, he sinned. No, that sin is shot away at warp 9. As far as the east is from the west, he remembers it no more. So I. I just think it's. It's a sad state of affairs nowadays when so many of us believers don't understand that we're not to men, we're not meant to live in sin consciousness, but Christ consciousness. And when you think about it, Ajay, when you are sin conscious, that's moving out the Christ consciousness. You can't have them both sitting together, working harmoniously for you to focus on sin. You're pushing Christ out. But when you bring Christ in and rest in him the way that a branch rests in a vine, there is no sin consciousness because you're only conscious of your Savior and the great love and grace of God that it took for him to come and give his life for us, give his everything for us, because of that great love. [00:27:42] Speaker B: Yeah. In fact, Mark, you know, if you think about that, the pastors and preachers who are pounding people with sin, I believe that, you know, they themselves have a sin consciousness. Right. You know, they are trying to get over, get rid of that sin consciousness by works. And they are preaching the same to their congregation. And, you know, in fact, I think they also probably didn't come to the realization that the cure for their sin consciousness is the blood of Jesus. You know, it's not more works, it's not trying hard. Again, we said this several times, right? You know, we are not encouraging people to go and sin, but the Only way not to sin, really is to understand that, you know, we are no longer. Our sins are upon us. Like the only way to. In fact, you know, the more sin consciousness you have, the more you end up sinning, you know, because you will do what you are, right. If you think you are a sinner, then you will continue to sin. But if you think you are righteous, you will continue to commit righteousness. It is actually very easy to understand. But, you know, because our minds are clouded, we think that sin consciousness is a good thing. In fact, you know, if you think about it, there is like the Old Testament, sacrifices, there is no end. You go and confess your sins and you preach from the pulpit that, hey, don't go sin, be careful, you know, have this principle, that principle, these rules and that rules. But next Sunday you're preaching the same message. The following Sunday you're preaching the same message about your sins. That means whatever you're preaching is not working, right? You're again reminding people of sins over and over again. So that is not working. The only way is to understand that our sins are forgiven and they're taken away once and for all and then come to a place of rest. That's when you start living out the righteousness that God made us. And that's when you will start being led by the Spirit. Until that point, you cannot be really led by the Spirit because you are constantly being led by these measures or works that you are putting in place to stop yourself from sinning. [00:30:00] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great point. When you think about it, it's sad because it's such a futile endeavor and makes no sense at all to try to use the very thing that was given to make you sin conscious, to make you guilty and condemns you, to try to use that, to take you out of that, to gain righteousness. The law wasn't given to make you righteous. It was given to show you that you can't be righteous apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and the perfect righteousness that he gives to you when you put your faith in Him. [00:30:36] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark. So there's one more verse in Hebrews. So we went a long time just with these verses. So Hebrews 9, 9. And it says it was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. So when they were offering these gifts and sacrifices, the blood of bulls and lambs, you know, it is saying that it cannot make you perfect in regards to your conscience. You know, there's Always guilt on your conscience. There's always a reminder of sins. No matter how many times you offer these bulls and goats, it cannot cleanse your conscience or it cannot give rush to your conscience. But what happens is, like we said, you know, when we understand that Lord Jesus Christ, he offered himself once and for all time for everybody, then our conscience is made perfect. And then that's when, you know, we start entering the rest of God. [00:31:44] Speaker A: Excellent, excellent, excellent. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So, [00:31:46] Speaker A: Ajay, you want to. You got something more? [00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I want to go back to Hebrews chapter three, but if you have something, go ahead, because I'm. [00:31:53] Speaker A: No, we'll finish up with your thought first. [00:31:56] Speaker B: Okay. All right. So, Mark, I think we started with rest, right? You know, therefore, there remains a rest for the people of God that actually starts in Hebrews chapter three. And we are going to talk about, you know, how we enter this rest, right? And in Hebrews chapter three from verse seven onwards. I want to point out two things here, but let me read this Scripture. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear your voice, hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial, in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works 40 years. Therefore I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. And I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren, lest there be, if 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 today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. And then it goes on to say, for who, having heard, rebelled indeed, was it not who came out of Egypt led by Moses? Now, with whom Was he angry 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpuses fell in the wilderness? And with whom did he swear that they would not enter his rushed? But those who did not obey. So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. So in all this, right, you know, the key thing is God, the Holy Spirit, they're hearing the Holy Spirit's voice, right? But their hearts are being hardened because of unbelief. And the conclusion is clear here, right? They could not enter rest because of unbelief. But you know, God, the Bible said there is a rest for the people of God. He has rest for everyone. But they are not entering into that rest because of unbelief. And then if you go to the next chapter, it talks about how we enter into that rest. And it says, you know, therefore, since a promise remains of entering the rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard. For we who have believed do enter their rest as it is said. So I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. I have a couple of points here, couple of important points, you know, first of all, the rest that the Lord is talking about is he said my rest. You know, it's not just about, oh, I stopped striving hard and now I'm not doing nothing, right? That's not the rest God is talking about. He want us to enter into his rest. And then the second thing is, he said, you know, the gospel was preached to them and to us. You know, it's interesting, right? It was not the law that was preached to them at that time. He's saying, clearly, the gospel was preached, preached to them. And the gospel of entering rest, entering God's rest is preached to them, and they did not enter. Why? Because of unbelief. But how do we enter? He's saying that, okay, at that time, the gospel was preached to them. Then he's saying, today, after so many days, the same gospel is preached to us again. And he's saying that the way to enter this rest is simply by believing. When we believe the gospel, when we stop working for our salvation, when we stop working for our righteousness, when we stop working for our forgiveness of sins. And we just simply believe in the gospel that, you know, Christ died for us and he took away our sins and he rose again on the third day that Christ has finished the work. Then we enter into God's rest. And then he's saying, as you mentioned, Mark, you know, God worked for seven days and he rested on the seventh day. That's called the Sabbath rest. And we enter into the same rest. You know, it's like God is resting. We enter into his rest. It's not like, okay, I've been striving hard and now I'm not working. That's not the rest. You know, we are entering into God's rest. And in Fact, you know, when we go deeper, one more step, we can talk about that as well. But I'm giving the conclusion here is the rest that God is talking about is Jesus himself. You know, entering Christ is our rest. You know, he is a lot of Sabbath. You know, it's not about, okay, I've been working really hard, now I'm doing nothing. That's not the rest. The rest is you go from the system of the law, you know, system of works, and then you enter into the Sabbath rest, which is Christ himself. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Excellent, Ajay. And I love that at the end of that, the whole time you were sharing that, I kept. Every time you said the word believe or belief, in my mind it was saying, but believe, Belief in what? And then you, you said it over and over. At the end there, it's believing in the gospel, who is Jesus Christ. That's what we believe in. That. That's why we need to understand and know the gospel, the one true gospel. And as Paul said in Galatians 1, any other gospel is no gospel at all. Sort of what you're believing in or what you're hearing preached at you or shared with you in small group or wherever is not literally good news. You can't rest in bad news, which is the law. You can rest in Christ himself, the gospel, Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I love that. So we've been mainly talking about conscience now, but I feel like conscience is really tied in very deeply with our souls and our minds. I, I can't sit here and try to draw you a pie chart of how they all relate to one another. But our minds are, I would say, the home of our conscience. And maybe our minds are in the. The soul is the home of our minds. I don't know. That's not the important part I'm making. But I wanted to read, and we read this a couple weeks ago, but it's such. It's from the message and it's a paraphrase translation of what Jesus said in Matthew 11:28. But it show just so encapsulates the freedom and the peace that the gospel brings. So it says, are you tired, worn out, burned out? Burned out on a roof? Sorry, let me start that over. Matthew 11:28 says, Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you, keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. That is just so beautiful, the unforced rhythms of grace. And that's how we are to bear fruit in our lives. It's unforced, it's effortless. And I've given this metaphor a few times, this illustration, but I think it's a perfect place to reiterate it here and just think of an apple tree. How does an apple tree bear fruit? Does he work real hard? Does he try real hard? Does he get in an accountability group with other apple trees? Does he go into a giant business building on Sundays where an expert apple tree cheers him on, encourages him, guilts him, shames him into, into producing more apples? You know, is he, is he in a study of the app of the apple producing book? No, he's not. Not that those aren't all good things. But what does an apple tree do? He sinks his roots deep into the good soil, he drinks in the living water, he turns his leaves to the sun and just remains there, resting there. And what happens, beautiful apples are, are produced through unforced rhythms of grace, effortlessly. And that really is the. The believer's life. We're meant to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The same way that a vine, a branch rests in a vine and produces fruit. [00:41:05] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, you know, totally right? You know, walking in the unforced rhythms of grace, you know, that's how we enter rest and also we remain in rest. There are two things, right? One is entering the rest and once you enter the rest, you want to remain in rest. And I'm also thinking that, you know, when this was, like you said, you know, when Lord gave this call to people, it is to the people under the law, right? You know, they were the Jews and they did not know who Jesus was. He said, you know, come unto me all your labouring, and I'll give you rest. And take my yoke upon me and learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart. And like you said, you will find rest to your souls. You know, the rest is in our soul that comes through rest in conscience. And it says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So again, you know, how do we come to Lord Jesus Christ? He is not really here physically and telling me, come to me. It's not the physical coming obviously for us. So how do we come to him and how do we rest? Right? Again, it goes back to resting in the finished work of Lord Jesus Christ, which is resting in the gospel. And how do we do that, Rashid, is simply by believing. Because, you know, if you think about the gospel, you know, I've been thinking about it, you know, the gospel is that Jesus died for your sins. The very reason Jesus died is for our sins. And you cannot do anything to basically, you know, get yourself from out of your sins. You know, you can do all the good works that you can, but still that won't take you out of your sins. Because under the law, it says if you sin once, you sin forever, right? You know, if you kept the whole law and you broke on one point, you sinned forever. And the law requires that you have to continue to obey the law. You have to continue to do the works of the law. Not just one day, the entire life. And then you should not break the law your entire life. So if you think about it, if you broke once, then you are under the condemnation of the law. So it doesn't matter. Like you can keep on trying to be a good guy. You can maybe, you know, you actually, from today, you will never sin. But that doesn't help you because you already sinned. So if you think about it, right, the gospel is Jesus Christ died for our sins and he paid and he took the punishment for our sins and he paid our dues. And because of that, God raised him on the third day. That is the gospel. So the only response we can give to a gospel, to the gospel, is belief. There is no other response you can give. You know, if you heard the gospel and if you say, here, now, I'm going to reform my life, now I'm going to stop sinning, that's not going to help you because you're still under your sins. So the only response that the gospel requires is believing. And that's how you enter your rest. And that's why Romans says, you know, we are called to the obedience of faith. That means our obedience to faith. That means the response to the gospel is believing. If you simply believe the gospel, you have obeyed the gospel. If you don't believe the gospel, you have not obeyed the gospel. So it's not going to help you. So when Lord Jesus says, you know, come to me, I'll give you rest, it is basically saying that hear the gospel and believe the gospel. When we believe the gospel, when we understand that Christ has done everything for us, there's nothing for us to do, that's when we start resting. You know, that's why the yoke is easy and the burden is light. Because now the yoke that we are carrying is the yoke of rest. You are continually. It's a yoke of righteousness. It's a yoke of well done, my son. The yoke of God is pleased in you. And the yoke of you know, Holy Spirit is carrying you. Now you don't have to do anything, you know, that is the rest. You know, that's how we enter the rest, where we realize that Jesus did everything. And now all I need to do is every day remind myself the finished work that Lord Jesus did. And every day remind myself of my identity that I'm not a sinner, I'm righteous and Holy Spirit, God is in me and God loves me. So this is a totally different kind of yoke. That's why this yoke is called. This yoke is easy and the burden is light. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah, good stuff, Ajay. Really good stuff. So as I thought about the word rest in preparation for today, the reason we can rest is because all of these things we're talking about have come and rested on us. Because that's another definition of the word rest. And that is for something to remain, to stop and stay there. It says in Acts 2, 3 that when the Spirit was given, it came and rested on the believers. When you put your faith in Christ, the opening doorway you go through is forgiveness of sins. And then we are imputed the righteousness of Christ, we're given his Holy Spirit, the riches of our glorious inheritance. All those things rest on us. They're never going to move. In fact, the the first birth announcement when Christ was born by the heavenly host was glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. If you've put your faith in Christ and his finished work, the favor of God rests in you. Your salvation rests in you. There is no rest if you believe you can lose all those things by not performing well enough. You just won't. It's like we always call it a gerbil wheel, where that little gerbil runs faster and faster on that wheel and never gets anywhere. I'm also reminded, rj, I don't know how much you watched cartoons when you were a little boy, but whenever a cartoon character would get scared and would start to run away real fast before he ran away, his feet would start to spin really fast, but he wasn't moving because he hadn't gained traction on the ground. And he just stood there and spinning before. Before he took off. That's what trying to live by the law is. You're running fast, but you're just staying right where you're at. You're not going anywhere. It's all in Jesus Christ, resting in the things that rest on you because of your faith in him. [00:47:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great point, Mark. You know, in fact, all those things have rested on us and we are never going to lose them. In fact, you know, maybe in the next episode, we didn't know how long we are going to go, but I'm thinking that we should touch upon that one, right? You know, all the things that we received, you know, resting in the fact that we are not going to lose our salvation. Resting in the fact that we are not going to be sin will not be imputed to us against. Resting in the fact that we will never lose our righteousness. Resting in the fact that, you know, we will never break our relationship with God. You know, resting in the fact that Holy Spirit will never leave us and God will never abandon us. You know, I think, in fact, you know, when we start resting in that, right, you know, we start living a life of rest. I think we talked about two things, right? One is how do we enter that rest, that is by believing the gospel, right. And how do we live a life of rest? I think that is the next one. It will be awesome to touch upon that as well, because living the life of rest consists of understanding that resting in the fact that none of the things that rested upon us, like you said, will be removed from us. You know, maybe we can talk about that in the next podcast, Mark, if you're open to that. [00:49:04] Speaker A: Sure, sure. And let me just. Let's maybe we can begin to wrap up now, Ajay. So first of all, we need to learn what is resting on us as we put our faith in Christ, because that's where the rest comes from. Knowing that all these things I have in Christ are never ever going to leave me because they don't depend upon me. They depend upon his perfect work, his perfect fulfillment of the righteous requirement of the law that was fully met in us. It's not according to us. It's just so logical that if there's nothing we could do to earn salvation, how could there be anything we could do to lose it? And I want to finish up right here with this scripture. Ephesians 1:13 says, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When were you included in Christ when you heard the message, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glorious grace. Now, you know what that reminds me of, Ajay? It reminds me of you can't pretty much buy any electronic gear, a computer or a tv. And what happens after you unpack the box? There's always a card in there. And it's the warranty, it's the guarantee you usually need to go on your computer and register. Well, once our names are registered in Christ, we have got a guarantee. The fact that the spot the Spirit was given to us guarantees our inheritance. It says we are God's possession now. He has marked us in Christ, who with the promised Holy Spirit. It's a stamp. Boom. It's like when you go through line at. At the electronics store and you buy the lifetime, you pay extra for a lifetime guarantee. Christ paid for that lifetime guarantee. And scripture is just filled over and over again with scripture that tells us that. That salvation, all we have in the gospel, rests on us and will never leave. Yes, I understand. There are those that try to bend scri and take it out of contrast to scare you into thinking that if you don't follow the law and all the rules and regulations well enough, you could lose your salvation. I don't know what their intentions are there, but the results of that are not good. They put you back under the yoke of slavery. So I think, Ajay, I would just finish up for all our people listening. [00:51:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, I just want to say this thing quickly and we can wrap up. So, you know, when you said, you know, when we believed we were included in Christ, right? That is our entering in rest. You know, when we enter Christ, we are entering rest. That happens by the Holy Spirit. When we believe, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and we enter Christ himself. And I just want to say this, you know, when we talk about, you know, God finishing his works, you know, there are two works, right, that God finished. You know, first is the work of creation. In Hebrews 7, we saw that God rested on the seventh day. You know, that is more of a type and shadow, right? You know, God created heaven and earth, and then he entered rest on the seventh day. But that is a work of creation. But the second work of God is the work of redemption. You know, that is a real work that is being referred to here. Christ Jesus, he finished the work of redemption, right? That was the biggest work God did. And then now he's seated. He is seated in heaven at the right hand of God, right? So now Christ is resting. He has no more work to do because the redemption is finished. And now we enter into that rest and we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. You know, that is the rest of God. You know, God is talking about when, when we believe the Gospel. What does the Bible say in Ephesians, you know, he has taken us, right? He has made us sit in heavenly places in Christ, you know, that is a rest. That means that there's nothing for us to do. You know, if our sins are not forgiven, we wouldn't be in heaven sitting with Christ. And now, you know, even if we sin, nobody is going. We are not going to fall from heaven. We are going to touch upon this more. But you know, God finished two works. One is the work of creation, the other is a work of redemption. There's nothing for God to do in terms of our redemption. So because Jesus and God himself are resting in our redemption, we also rest in that redemption. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Wow, that's good, Ajay. That's good. So I just want to reiterate in Ephesians 1:13 to kind of tie up today is that in this whole paragraph when it talks about us being included in Christ, becoming God's possession, that we are guaranteed the redemption of our bodies when this life is over, that we are guaranteed the receiving of our inheritance. Paul calls it the riches of our glorious inheritance. To get that, you don't have to tithe. You don't even have to go to church. You don't have to read the Bible. You don't have to do anything other than what it tells us here. The only condition is that when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed when you believed, all those things flood into you and they rest upon you and will never leave. So we would just commend you all this week just to enter into his rest and just let those things stay in your mind no matter what you're doing through the week. Just try to have an awareness. I am resting in all the riches of my glorious inheritance in Christ, Jesus and man. I just pray for, for me and Ajay to do that too. So that when we talk about these things, we're talking from experience. And you know what? It's it comes as we come into greater revelation and understanding, those things will effortlessly start to become our default setting, if you will. So God bless you all. This week we pray that the spirit of wisdom and revelation continues to reveal Christ to you and his glorious gospel gospel so that you may know him better. All right, everybody, we'll see you again next week. Take care. We hope you were encouraged by today's discussion. If so, please subscribe and share with your family and friends. The Unveiling podcast is available on most major podcast apps. Thanks for listening and we will see you again the next time. All of my days, Lord, I will [00:56:12] Speaker C: delight in you. Days of my life, you I will delight in you. I will delight you. I will.