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  BEYOND RELIGIOUS
  by Fred Tomlinson
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Summary: This sermon delves into the book of Hebrews, emphasizing the
importance of understanding the two covenants - the Old Covenant
primarily outward and the New Covenant inward and spiritual. It
highlights the contrast between human effort in religion and the rest
available through Christ in the New Covenant. The speaker urges
listeners to cease from their own works and enter into God's rest,
emphasizing the power of the Holy Spirit to break the chains of sin and
provide a new heart. The sermon concludes with an invitation to respond
to the truth of the gospel and enter into the rest that remains for the
people of God.

Topics: "Covenants", "Rest in Christ"
Scripture References: Hebrews 4:9, Hebrews 4:10, Acts 1:8, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:2

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the book of Hebrews, emphasizing the importance
of understanding the two covenants - the Old Covenant primarily outward
and the New Covenant inward and spiritual. It highlights the contrast
between human effort in religion and the rest available through Christ
in the New Covenant. The speaker urges listeners to cease from their own
works and enter into God's rest, emphasizing the power of the Holy
Spirit to break the chains of sin and provide a new heart. The sermon
concludes with an invitation to respond to the truth of the gospel and
enter into the rest that remains for the people of God.

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CONTENT
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Now, what I'd like to do is talk to you in this session around some
verses in the book of Hebrews. If you have your Bible and you want to
open them there, you certainly may. The writer to the Hebrews is unknown
to us.

There are those of us who believe it was the Apostle Paul who wrote it.
Others have a different idea. And in the final analysis, it doesn't
really matter.

We believe that it's Scripture that is inspired by the Spirit of God and
is tremendously profitable for us. We're so grateful to God for it. The
people that the writer is addressing are the people of God.

They're Jewish people, and of course that's where the title of the book
comes from. And specifically, I believe the writer is writing to Jewish
people who have become exposed to and have responded to the Christian
message, the Christian gospel. And the Apostle here is writing this
very, very important document to them.

It's been said before, and by me many times, that the book of Romans is
the great doctrinal statement of the Christian faith. And then we come
over to the book of Hebrews, and this is, it's different in so many
ways, but once again, it's a doctrinal statement with particular focus
to the Jewish believers, but is a tremendous help and encouragement to
us. And I hope we'll see something of that as we proceed.

It seems as though, without a doubt, the Apostle in writing is anxious
to point out to these Jewish believers the importance of the two
covenants, which will be referred to as the Old Covenant and the New
Covenant. I know there are others who see the multiple covenants and so
on, but we're just dealing with this very simply and directly here in
this session. The first covenant, which is referred to as the Old
Covenant, is primarily an outward covenant, not exclusively by any
means, but primarily outward and pertains to physical, tangible things,
as well as addressing the moral issues of the heart, as we know very
well from the Ten Commandments, which are part of it.

The second, or New Covenant, is inward, it's an inward covenant, and its
focus is primarily spiritual. Of course God is the one who made both
covenants with men, and I think it's been helpful to think of the word
covenant in terms of it being an arrangement. God made a first
arrangement in terms of his dealings with men and women, and then he
made a second arrangement.

To understand more about these two covenants and how they relate to one
another and so on is a tremendously important study, and it's been a
thrilling study of mine for many, many years now, but it would take far
more time than we're able to give in this session. I just wanted to sort
of lay some groundwork here by saying this already. Let me just move on
then and say that in fact, in respect to God's Old Covenant, man's
unregenerate heart rendered him utterly incapable of keeping his side of
the covenant, and yet at the same time, man found some degree of ease
with the outward religious rules and practices.

I've already said he was unable to keep and give and provide the
response that was demanded, but nevertheless, I think, thinking of my
words carefully, he found a degree of ease with the concept of outward
religious rules and practices. You know, the old man, as Paul speaks to
the Romans in chapter 7, the old man is a worker, and he's predisposed
to working, which in fact is alien to the new covenant. And more needs
to be said about that, but that'll have to be another time.

But this is all relevant to us because I think today the evangelical
company, the evangelical crowd, speaking in the broadest sense, tends to
be entertained more by the unholy than seeking the knowledge of the
holy. That's a very serious indictment to make, but I do believe it's
true. I know something of this from my own experience and certainly from
observations and conversations with countless numbers of people over
these many years, that they're more comfortable being entertained by the
unholy, whatever that may be and whatever falls into that category, than
with seeking earnestly the knowledge of the holy.

I think so many, and I'm being a little bold in saying this, but so many
like fools allow the things that are precious to slip through their
fingers, as it were, like so much sand while they're playing with the
baubles of this world. While the evangelical people don't engage in the
sacrificial system, which was so much a part of the old order, the old
arrangement, they tend nevertheless to drift toward religion and being
religious. The kind of religion I'm thinking about is the religion of
human effort.

A religion that's centered, I think in so many cases, more upon the soul
than it is upon the spirit. Of course there are exceptions, many, many
exceptions, but I'm speaking very broadly from my own observations. It
seems to me, you judge whether you agree with me, but it seems to me
that few today in our present culture truly think and sincerely question
the important things of the Christian faith and the Christian life.

And I think seldom do people truly grasp the distinction and the
contrast between these two covenants that I've been referring to, the
old and the new covenant. And as the result of that, they tend to
conveniently drag Old Testament concepts and mix and mingle them with
New Testament teaching. And frankly, they don't fit.

And nobody seems to notice, or perhaps I should rephrase that and say,
but few seem to notice. You know, today we have, well, let me put it
this way first. I'm thinking of something that the Apostle Paul said in
the course of his writing on one occasion.

It's just a phrase that I want to pick out. He referred to the Jews'
religion. He does it twice within the space of about three or four
verses, the Jews' religion.

Well, I think today we have the Christian religion, this religion of
human effort. You know, a number of years ago, I think most of, if not
all of us were familiar with the initials WWJD. People would live around
people's hats, coats, t-shirts, bands around their wrists and so on.

WWJD, what would Jesus do, is what was represented. And the issue behind
that was really a sense of need or an activity of attempting to copy the
Christ of history. But that is not true authentic New Testament biblical
Christianity.

The issue is not calling us to try to be like Jesus. There's a much
deeper message that the New Testament brings. I'll be jumping ahead of
myself a bit, but I must emphasize what that is.

Of course, it's what Paul also states this way as Christ in you, the
hope of glory. That lies right at the very core of the New Covenant
experience. Christ in you.

It is no longer I that liveth, but it's Christ who lives in me, said the
Apostle. But in this, that I'm referring to as the Christian evangelical
religion, and I'm an evangelical just to keep the record straight, but
there's an acceptance with the human struggle not to sin. And it's
accepted as being part of the normal Christian experience.

You know, I love the words that Charles Wesley has put together in such
wonderful ways for us. And as someone mentioned, I think earlier that in
so many of these hymns, they're just like doctrinal statements. But less
known and we're less familiar with this fact that Charles Wesley had an
incredible ability with sarcasm.

And one of his poems that he wrote, which is quite long, and I won't
attempt to read it all, but it goes like this. Sinners and saints at
once they are. They send forth bitter streams and sweet good trees, yet
evil fruit they bear.

And Christ in them and Belial meet. Their pure in heart are all unclean
and born of God, they can't but sin. You know, I think if the Apostle
Paul had been exposed to what's going on today, I mean, he had his own
issues to deal with as we all know so well.

But in our culture and with the kinds of things that I've been alluding
to in this kind of introduction here, I think Paul would say something
very similar to what he said to the Galatians in Galatians chapter
three, right at the outset of the chapter. He raises the question, he
says, who has bewitched you? Another translation puts it this way, who
has cast a spell upon you that you should, and then he goes on to
enunciate what he had in his mind. But it seems as though for so many, a
fog has settled upon our thinking, there's an unthinking acceptance of
glaring inconsistencies and incongruities that no one seems to pay
attention to, few seem to notice.

And so many people never get beyond merely being religious. You know, it
was Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who made a very, very bold statement. He
made many of them, of course.

But on one occasion, he said this, if your life is unholy, then your
heart is unchanged. And you are an unsaved person. It's amazing that he
got such crowds to listen to him, when you think about it.

But there you are. In the fourth chapter of Hebrews, let me just read
one verse. I'd like to read all the chapter, and I'd like to deal with
it consecutively.

That would be impossible in the 40 minutes or so I've got here. But in
verse nine, we read these words, and I'm using the King James
translation. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

What that statement is saying, if I can just reduce it down to something
very, very, very simple and succinct, it is stating that there is
something more that is clearly not enjoyed by everyone who professes to
be Christian. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. This
was very poignant for the Jewish believers, new Jewish believers, that
he was addressing.

I believe it's very appropriate and important to you and me today. There
is something more that is not enjoyed by everyone. You know, in and as
part of God's covenant with his ancient people, Israel, he bequeathed to
them a land.

It was, and it's referred to in this way on one occasion, it's referred
to as a rest. God was giving those people a rest because these were
people who had been held up in Egypt in bondage and suffering greatly in
that bondage, crying out to God for deliverance and for help. I mustn't
get into this story because it's so many parts and so many factors are
so relevant.

But the fact is that God made this statement that there was something
ahead that he had in his heart for them, an inheritance. He bequeathed
it to them and it would be a rest, a place of rest, so contrasting to
everything that they had known in Egypt. When we move into the new
covenant, we find that in and through the person of the Lord Jesus and
under the umbrella and within the context of this new covenant, God has
bequeathed to his people a rest.

Let me just read a few more verses here. I'll just break in in verse 8,
for if Jesus, and that really should read Joshua, that's the same word,
and he's referring back to the fact that of course that all of those
people who came out of Egypt never did get into that promised rest. Only
two, Caleb and Joshua, made the entire journey from Egypt into Canaan.

But the rest of them were held up in the wilderness under the judgment
of God until they all died because of their unbelief. In fact you'll see
that right in the text here. If you just look back into the third
chapter, where we see a reference to them in the very last verse of the
chapter, it says verse 19, so we see that they could not enter into that
rest because of their unbelief.

And it was not Moses who led them into the land of Canaan eventually,
but it was Joshua. He was, if you like, the Jesus. He was the saviour at
that sense and in that limited way.

He was the one privileged to lead them in. And so the writer says, for
if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. At that point he's actually referring back to a
statement made by David in one of his Psalms, I believe 95.

And David makes a reference to this particular day, another day. And so
the writer of the Hebrews is wanting to make this point. Yes, God was
promising a rest and did promise a rest for the ancient people, which by
and large they didn't experience because of their unbelief.

But the next up and coming generation, together with those two men
mentioned, they did inherit that land. And what the writer is saying
here to these Hebrew Christians who are aware of the Old Testament and
of these records, he said, now if that had completed their entering into
Canaan, had completed all that was in the heart of God when he promised
a rest to his people, he argues then why did David speak of another day
when he came on the scene far later than Joshua? And this is what he
said. So then, this is his conclusion, verse 9, there remains to this
day, there remains therefore a rest to the people of God.

This former prophetic statement of God never found its consummation by
the children of Israel entering into Canaan. But he's saying now, verse
10, for he that is entered into his rest, God's rest, he also has 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.

Amen. What he's saying here is that he that's entered into this rest of
God, this fuller, more complete significance of the concept of rest, he,
whoever it is, he's saying this to those Christians he was writing to, I
believe the Holy Spirit's saying it to men and women today, he's saying
these things to you and to me today. He that has entered into this rest,
his rest, the rest of God, whoever he or she is, has also ceased from
their own works.

I've been talking about a religion of works, outward activities, efforts
to produce holiness of our own strength. He said he ceased from that.
Cessation from our own works is the promise extended to each one of us
as a focal feature of this rest that remains to this day for the people
of God.

It will be an end to that moral code of ethics. It will be an end to the
commandments imposed upon people with unregenerate hearts. It will be an
end of their slavish duty to keep the commandments of God.

It will be an end. It will be a cessation to human attempts to attain
holiness, which is impossible, but it will be an end to it all. Amen.

It will be an end, can I say this? It will be an end and an abolition to
that which I've called a Christian religion, that trying to copy the
Christ of history, that struggle to stop sinning, that crippling
knowledge of failure. And here lies the radical contrast between the Old
Covenant and the New Covenant, or at least this is one focal feature of
that contrast, and that is that the Old Covenant sees sins plural. The
New Testament sees sin singular.

Reread the book of Romans. Paul understood this very, very plainly. It
was not merely that man was sinning and he couldn't help but sin, but
God made a sacrificial system work for the time then present, which
provided forgiveness for their sins.

But the New Covenant, through the redeeming life of Christ and the
shedding of his better blood than the blood of bulls and of goats,
provides the very power of the Holy Spirit to break the slavery of man
to sin. He breaks the chains that bind the heart. Hallelujah.

And let's just keep this very simple and very clear in our minds. So the
Old Covenant was, with its sacrificial system, provided forgiveness for
sins. The New Covenant, through Jesus Christ and his redeeming work,
breaks the power of sin.

Amen. Another fascinating thing in reading our scriptures, and we know
that we're reading as a whole, we believe this, what Paul said to
Timothy, that it's all scriptures given by inspiration of God, but it's
the product of different writers who were inspired by God. And it's
wonderful to see how they were all saying the same thing as I read
through the New Testament here.

They're saying the same thing, but they're expressing it in different
ways. Sometimes we fall into the trap of making separate experiences out
of different phrases or different concepts and lay traps for ourselves.
But think of it this way, and let me just give you an example.

It was John the Baptist, the man who was sent from God, who made the
statement concerning the one who would follow him, the one whose
shoelaces he was unworthy to unloose. He said, I'm baptizing you with
water, but he who's coming after me, he will baptize you with the Holy
Ghost and with fire. And it was Jesus, we read this in Acts chapter one,
he refers back to John the Baptist and what John had said, this quote
I've just given to you.

And Jesus on that occasion, after his resurrection, he authenticates
that, he said that was exactly right what John said. And then Jesus went
on to say that that which had been forecast or prophesied by John the
Baptist would be fulfilled not many days hence. And that was clearly a
reference to what took place as is recorded in the next chapter of Acts,
Acts chapter two, when suddenly there was this sound of a rushing mighty
wind coming from heaven and so forth and so on.

That was clearly the outworking of Jesus' ministry, which John said
Jesus was coming to make possible, to accomplish. He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost and fire. Jesus is saying, okay,
get ready, it's going to happen.

It's going to happen just round the next corner, that's of course. Amen.
And Paul then in writing, he would say, and I've already quoted this
text from Galatians 2.20, he would say, I am crucified with Christ, yet
nevertheless I live.

But it's not really me that's living, it's Christ who lives in me. And
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He would also write in
Romans chapter eight, that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made me free from the law of sin and death.

And now the writer to the Hebrews is saying, there remains a rest for
the people of God. And he said, those who enter into it will cease from
their own works, their own efforts, as God did when he had finished his
work. Amen.

If we just play that back in our minds, we're saying that these writers,
these speakers, they're all saying the same thing, but they're
describing it differently. Entering into this rest involves the death of
Christ. It involves being a spiritual experience for men and women of
being baptised into the death of Christ, as Paul will state it.

And it's produced by the operation of God, the Holy Spirit. Amen. I hope
that I'm making this as clear as it needs to be.

Amen. I'm trying to elevate the wonder of the new covenant in this one
perspective. There are other perspectives that we could look at.

But what a wonderful thing. It comes to a head in my thinking with this
simple statement of chapter four, verse nine of Hebrews, there remains a
rest for the people of God. It was Charles Wesley who said on another
occasion, I cannot rest in sins forgiven.

Where is the earnest of my heaven? That's what the new covenant is
about. It's presenting the earnest of heaven. It's the down payment of a
future consummation that God has in store for all of us who are truly
his.

But we enter into the blessings of it today by his grace and by the
power of God's Holy Spirit. What a wonderful thing. And this rest, just
look into chapter four again.

I'll read the first verse. 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. I want to just play on the word seem really.

Lest any of you should seem to come short of it. From that, I'm deducing
this great idea that this promised rest actually works. This is not
merely some pie in the sky, vague sort of religious text or statement.

But this is a promise of God, which God has made possible through the
death of his son on the cross of Calvary and by the giving of the Holy
Spirit and making the benefit of Calvary available to men and women such
as you and me. And it works. Glory to God.

Little wonder that we heard Jesus saying that when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you, Acts chapter one and verse eight, and from Luke 24, I'm
thinking perhaps particularly, but he said that you're going to receive
power from on high. There's going to be an endowment, an outpouring and
an infilling of divine power, and you shall be witnesses unto me. Your
life shall witness.

It's not merely that we'll all go around talking about the gospel.
That's there somewhere. But the primary thing is that by this miracle,
power and grace of God, there's a provision that will reconstitute us
inwardly, spiritually, and give to us a new heart and a new enabling to
be by our lives and through our lives a witness unto Jesus Christ, that
the chains of sin will be smashed.

This is the gospel. And the soul life, the life that Jesus lived as a
man will be manifest through our mortal bodies. It's taught very plainly
and very simply.

Amen. The availability of this rest is right before us here. This rest
remains.

What a thought. My brother Peter was saying something earlier in the
opening of this meeting, and he was thanking God, and I've heard him do
this many, many times, and he's sincere every time he does it, I know.
But he thanks God and he's quoting a famous text from the Old Testament,
or at least it's wrapped around it.

But he's thanking God for keeping him alive for such a time as this. But
that God, and let me tell you this, beloved, I don't know who you are. I
don't know what's going on in your life and experience.

But, you know, we all have an enemy and he's seeking to discourage and
ruin and steal from us the richness of this great blessing of God, if he
can, if we'll allow him. But what a wonderful thing that today, no
matter what your life has been about in earlier days and earlier years,
that as we're here right now, or what your life is about in this moment
for that matter, but the fact is that in the grace of God toward you,
this blessed rest, someone referred to it centuries ago as the saint's
rest, remains. It remains for you, my dear friend.

No one is excluded, as surely as you hear his word, I'm telling you it
is available for you. You know, there are some people who teach today,
many people as a matter of fact, who teach that well all of these kinds
of things that I'm referring to and so much more that scripture teaches,
it's all done, it's all provided, all you need to do is just believe it.
You know, just, I'm plucking out some words, I think taking them then
out of context is, it's just know this, reckon this, and that's that.

It's all true in you. It was A. W. Tozer who once, he cautioned against
what he called logical deductions drawn from proof texts. The fact is,
truth, truth that is presented in scripture, truth that the Holy Spirit
quickens in our hearts as we read the scripture and we're exposed to the
scripture, truth must be understood.

We need to hear, how shall they hear without a preacher? Because faith
comes by hearing the word of God. The word of God ministered by the
Spirit of God brings light to our understanding and it quickens faith
within us. It reminds me, as I'm saying this, of not Charles Wesley but
John Wesley who had a struggle with these very things that we're talking
about.

But there's one, I'm seeing James Laney here in the meeting. I've known
him in different locations but I'm thinking of, he reminds me of
Chicago. And I remember being in Chicago many years ago now and someone
gave me a little cassette recording that had been made by the Moody
Bible Institute and it was a series that they were doing on important
people from Christian history.

But they were sort of playing, it was all on audio but they were acting
it out. And I'm thinking of one moment in that recording that was given
to me while I was there and it was a recording that was, this is how it
was, it was John Wesley sitting in a meeting and he was hearing
something which to all intents and purposes seemed very dry. He was
hearing the preface to the book of Romans by Martin Luther.

And in this recording you could hear John Wesley speaking to himself and
you can hear his responses. I can't quote all that was part of this but
he's listening and he's listening and then he says, I see it. You know,
as we used to say in England, I don't think we do it anymore, the penny
dropped, the light went on.

Faith gave him sight and it was quickened in his own heart. He goes
around, he leaves that meeting, he goes right around to Charles Wesley's
house. Charles Wesley's upstairs in bed from the street, he calls to
him, Charles, Charles, he wakes him up.

Charles opens the window, looks out and John's in the street and he
says, Charles, I've got it, I've got it. There remains therefore a rest
to the people of God and it's not automatically mine but it's got my
name on it and it's got your name on it but it's got to be acted upon.
This gives no merit to us, it's all of God's grace, it's all of God but
he is the one who's revealing it to us, he's made it possible.

Now he's revealing it to us by his Spirit who is visiting us
individually. He's quickening the truth of it in our hearts. All I have
to do is just open to it with all my heart.

That's the action that's called for. I don't have to, it's not going to
be earned by my effort or by me doing anything. I just say, I don't say
anything for that matter.

I just open my heart to God and insofar as I do that, I can actually
allow the experience of it to flood into my heart. Without that
response, the provision is irrelevant to me and that's the big concern.
So we don't want to go around telling people, well it's all done, just
believe it, okay, pray this little prayer, now you're saved, now you've
got it, now you've got everything, off you go.

It can be so deceptive and so misleading to us and is to so many people.
Amen. You know, if I was to receive an email from someone and it
indicates that they're making a bank transfer to me of $10,000, just
imagine that, wow.

So with that, I can be so excited about it, I can rush to the rest of my
family and I can say, listen to this, you know, I've just received
$10,000. You know, I could get that email and for weeks, for decades, I
could study that email and read about this amazing gift and this
provision that has been made for me. It's got my name on it here.

You know, I could go to church, I could stand up in church and tell
everyone about this, I mean, we wouldn't do this of course, tell them
about this marvellous email that we've received and just how exciting
this is. If I was a preacher, I could stand up in the pulpit and preach
about this amazing provision, but you know what, beloved? It's not mine
until I take action. It's a very simple act under those circumstances,
but it's not as simple as this and the benefit is not to be measured
with the amount of money I just referred to.

Glory to God. Be sure, my dear friend, whoever you are, that you are not
merely a hearer of this truth, but be a doer, a doer who responds with
their whole heart. Amen.

You know, if what I've, I think, but I'll put it a different way, I've
shared with you what I believe is the truth of the gospel. It's not
everything, but it's a narrow field, but it's a core issue of the truth
of the gospel. If it's resonating in your heart as you've been listening
to me, I believe that faith is being quickened in your heart to respond
and to receive this blessing.

I want to encourage you, I couldn't encourage you too strongly, invite
the Holy Spirit to bring you into this rest that is remaining for you as
a man or a woman of the company of the people of God. Amen. I've asked
him if Bob is, I hope Bob's back again, I don't know if he is or not,
I've asked him if he will sing to us a hymn, another one of Charles
Wesley's.

If, perhaps just before he does, if I could just say this on a different
note, I never know where this fits in, but you know, if some of, I know
that there'll be many of you listening to me who don't know anything
about me at all, and I've written just a little brief, referred to a
bio, we never called it that when I was younger, and it's on our
website, and you know, if you're interested, do check it out. The
address of the website is quite simply mackenziefellowship.com. Someone
had trouble getting there because they were spelling Mackenzie, M-A-C,
but it's not M-A-C, it's M-C-K. Mackenziefellowship.com. And if this
ministry is a help and a blessing to you, do let us know one way or the
other, because we appreciate the comments and the encouragement.

So God bless you. I'm handing over back to Pete or to Bob, whoever's
going to take it from here. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/7j1M35Cxwb4.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-tomlinson/beyond-religious/
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