Deut 12:10+11, When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God shall choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. 
       	Moses, in this morning’s reading, continues to give instructions to the second generation which is preparing to enter into the Promised Land. There are many things that they need to do in order to fulfill their covenant agreement with God. The commandments of the Lord are very clear and distinct and to be taught over and over again to the children in their daily comportment of behavior before the Lord. It is not enough to just tell the next generations how to conduct themselves as would be honoring to the Lord. Each parent and grandparent and great-grandparent needs to live the manner of life that they expect their posterity to practice before the Holiness and the Sovereignty of the Lord God Jehovah.
	As they do so, unlike their parents who died off in the wilderness wandering, the people will be given the very rest of God in the land of their habitation. This was something that was a concept with which they had very little actual basis of understanding. They had grown up on the move for these past decades. They were continually being attacked and harangued by other nation states. They had no place in which to sink their roots and put away their swords and just live in a settled community of their family and friends. Throughout the past 40 years they had been moved by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire until they had reached the banks of the Jordan River. They were ready to cross and conquer and inhabit the land of their covenant Promise with God.
	In this light, one can almost hear the longing in the words of Moses as he highlights what will be their heritage before the Lord if they obey and honor Him in the every detail. There is that undeniable sense of longing after that which God will accomplish in the succeeding generations as the land is inhabited by this, His Chosen Nation. It is also tinged with those warnings of the need to follow through to the maximum degree in order to not bring upon them the righteous judgment of God if they fail to completely honor and obey Him. 
	  The whole matter of rest was put before the Children of Israel in a most effective manner of expression in Ex 31:14-17, with regard to the weekly honoring of the Lord as per His so specific instructions. It was also set before them, in very harsh reality, what would happen if they did not honor the Lord in this very precise observance of His required obedience. Accordingly, they had a sense of how important this whole concept of rest was in the heart of God and was to be in their own lives.
	Ex 31:14-17, 'Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 'For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. 'So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.' "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed." 
     	In Ex 33:13+14, The Lord made it very evident to Moses that the rest of the Lord was something that He would make available, even in the midst of the journeys of this nation of God. There was the promise that the Lord would give His people rest in the assurance that the Lord God Almighty was going with this nation in their sojourn. Even then, they would know the rest of the Lord as part of their promised inheritance.
	Ex 33:13+14, "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people." And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." 
	Later, it would be the man of war, Joshua, who would declare the immeasurable and awesome faithfulness of the Lord in absolutely fulfilling all His great and tremendous promises to the people in Josh 21:44+45. This was after the people had conquered the Promised Land and made the appropriate distribution of the land to the tribes in full accordance with the plan and purpose of God.
	Josh 21:44+45, And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass. 
Notice that it was always set in the truth that it would be the Lord Who gave them rest. Whether it was in the heart of Moses as so promised by the Lord, or in the actual fulfillment of the inheritance of the land, given by God to His Chosen Nation, it was all and always the work of the Lord which surrounded His people with the great rest of His faithful promise. 
As voiced by one of the greatest kings of Israel, King David, in 1 Chron 22:17-19, it was because of the rest that the Lord gave to His people that they could begin to build the temple of the Lord. David was encouraging all the leaders to join together in the support his son, Solomon, to build the House of the Lord. This was to so honor God for the rest with which He had surrounded them. The Lord had given David the victory over the manifold enemies that had threatened them. It was the means whereby the tribes were united together as one nation. 
David was a man of the sword. Because of his bloodied hands, he could not build the temple, as was his earnest desire. However, with the peace that the Lord provided, the rest from the need of war, the next king, David’s son, Solomon, would be able to bring to a resting place all the holy articles in the soon to be constructed Temple of God.
1 Chron 22:17-19, David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon, saying, "Is not the Lord your God with you? And has He not given you rest on every side? For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and before His people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise, therefore, and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord." 
    	At the dedication of the temple, in 1 Kings 8:56, Solomon gave voice to the truth of all that the Lord had done from the very beginning to that point in the history of His people. The Lord’s rest was the fulfilled promise of our morning’s text. Solomon also made it abundantly clear to Whom all the credit and the glory belonged in declaring all the exceedingfaithfulness of the Lord. 
	1 Kings 8:56, "Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant. 
    	Please open in your Bibles to the account of a later King of Judah who also knew the precious rest of God during his reign. This is recounted in 2 Chron 14:2-7, as we will read about King Asa, one of the few later kings who obeyed the Lord and honored the Lord in the manner of bringing before the people the fact that the holiness of God was to be at the forefront of their daily lives. The rest that resulted for the nation brought with it prosperity as per the Lord’s promise if they would so honor Him.
	2 Chron 14:2-7, And Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God, for he removed the foreign altars and high places, tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was undisturbed under him. And he built fortified cities in Judah, since the land was undisturbed, and there was no one at war with him during those years, because the Lord had given him rest. For he said to Judah, "Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side." So they built and prospered. 
The Prophet Isaiah has much to say about the rest of God that will be in place when the Lord is honored and obeyed in full accordance with His majestic Sovereignty and Holiness and Majesty. The full plan of God in Jesus was set before the people through the prophet, in Isa 11:1-10, as it is detailed in a most beloved passage that is often quoted. This highlights the rest that is to the glory of God in the Lordship of Jesus. 
    	Isa 11:1-10, Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; Their young will lie down together; And the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. Then it will come about in that day That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious. 
        This is a wondrous and detailed picture of what is our rest in Jesus Christ. We will know the righteousness that He is to us and with which He covers us. We are the recipients of His counsel and His wisdom through His Holy Spirit. Our fears of this realm are fully set aside in Him and His Sovereign ruling and overruling as each day brings us closer and closer to the recognition by this whole of creation of what we now, today, know. Jesus is the Lord of all of creation and all must bow down to Him and are under the Hand of His dominion even at this precise moment. 
	Isaiah, in Isa 32:15-18, points to that which is being established even this very instant in our day to day walk with Jesus. It is not some picture of the great by and by. This very moment we can see and appreciate and live in the peace and the rest that passes all human understanding. This is true especially in the midst of the greatest earthly crises and storms. He is our rest and our foundation of peace and joy. 
	Isa 32:15-18, Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fertile field And the fertile field is considered as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness will abide in the fertile field. And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation, And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places…
	Finally from Isaiah, we have the delight of the Lord expressed as His rest is enjoyed by the people for the sake of His glory in their midst in Isa 60:17-21. All the implements of war will be changed into the peaceful and prosperous elements of tranquility and the bountiful supply of praise.
	Isa 60:17-21, "Instead of bronze I will bring gold, And instead of iron I will bring silver, And instead of wood, bronze, And instead of stones, iron. And I will make peace your administrators, And righteousness your overseers. "Violence will not be heard again in your land, Nor devastation or destruction within your borders; But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. "No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory. "Your sun will set no more, Neither will your moon wane; For you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be finished. "Then all your people will be righteous; They will possess the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified. 
    	We conclude with the Writer to the Hebrews as we have highlighted the full measure of the spiritual rest that is ours in Jesus Christ. There is much that is part of this rest, tracing back to the foundational truth of the Sabbath rest as presented to Moses in the Law of the Lord. The key, however, is that we can know this rest right now as our portion if we will listen to the Holy Spirit opening the Word of God in our hearts and in our minds today. We must not be like that first generation of Hebrews who gave up the rest of God for the fear of what they imagines was ahead of them. Their complete lack of faith in the Lord to go before them and to be their protection and their salvation set aside His rest. It brought upon themselves their own demise in the desert regions of their wanderings. Please open to Heb Chapter 3, verse 7, and we will read through to Chapter 4, verse 9.
	Heb 3:7-4:9, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing  Me, And saw My works for forty years. "Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart; And they did not know My ways'; As I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end; while it is said, "Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me." For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. 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. 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. For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; and again in this passage, "They shall not enter My rest." Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 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." For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 
    	In Jesus Christ, we have that complete Sabbath rest. It is that which was spoken by both Joshua as the people enjoyed the fruits of the conquest of the Promised Land and by Solomon at the dedication of the temple of the Lord, all those so many years ago. "Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant. That is our rest in the truth of all that God has given in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ today and forevermore. So be it!
When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God shall choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 116:5. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate. Amen.