Danger of Missing Rest

As we are studying the book of Hebrew, I want to remind you that the underlying theme of Hebrews is that God wants us to go all the way with Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is superior in every way.

First of all, Beware of the Danger of neglecting your salvation.

Hebrews 2:1–3 KJV 1900

1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

Second of all, Be careful of the Danger of Unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7–8 KJV 1900

7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Remember, the author is quoting Psalm 95:7-11

Again,

Hebrews 3:13–16 KJV 1900

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

and again

Hebrews 4:7 KJV 1900

7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

The illustration that is used all through here is don’t harden your hearts like Israel did. Israel turned away from Egypt.

They began to go toward the promise land but on the way to the promise land they stopped. And they did not believe God, they did not put their faith in God, therefore, they did not ever enter in to the full rest of Canaan. They turned away from Egypt, they never went, that generation that died, never went into the promised land. They halted at the crucial place of decision. And so the warning of the Spirit of God in this passage is do not do what Israel did, do not be taken away from the old life but never commit yourself to that new relationship with Jesus Christ but hang on the balance and the longer you hang and the more you hear the message and the more you hear the gospel the easier it is to reject and pretty soon you find one day you’ve woken up to realize, you’ve awaken (I’ll say it right) to realize your heart is hardened, you have an evil heart of unbelief and you have departed from the living God.

Now we found in 3:7–19 the reason those Jews never made it to Canaan because of unbelief.

Unbelief forfeits rest.

And the word rest used back there in Psalm 95, which is being quoted here, has reference to entering the land of Canaan, resting from the wanderings and the persecution in Egypt and so forth and so on. It’s the rest of finally getting into your own land, not being persecuted, not being pressured, not being killed, not being made slaves; it’s rest from all of that. And they never entered into that promised rest because of unbelief.

Nobody experiences God’s rest apart from faith that’s the key to entering into rest.

Now if you go back to Moses’s situation in Numbers 14, you find in verses 22 and 23 these words,

This is God talking to Israel.

Numbers 14:22–23 KJV 1900

22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

God said because you’ve never believed Me but you’ve constantly thought you needed to put Me to the test, you’ve never accepted Me, you’ve always wanted to prove Me, you’ve never believed, you’ll not enter the land. The Bible says their carcasses will die in the wilderness.

Now even under Joshua when the other, of course you realize that was a whole generation that died off and then the younger. generation went into the land, but even when the younger generation went into the land they did not enjoy the full rest that God had planned for them. And the reason they didn’t enjoy their full rest was simply because when they got into the land, instead of doing what God told them to do and believing God in obedient faith, they rejected God’s information to them and God said because of that I’m going to drive you right back out of the land and that’s exactly what He did, at a later time. So even the generation that went into the land never experienced full rest. It was a hassle all the time fighting against every imaginable group and they got messed up from beginning to end of their time in the land.

So there was no rest in either Moses’s case or Joshua’s case.

The people who died in the wilderness or who entered the land because of unbelief. And may I say this, there is still a rest available. The rest of Canaan pictures a divine, spiritual rest that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. It’s a picture of salvation rest and that salvation rest which we shall see in a moment is still available but it is only available to those who believe God, who commit themselves in faith to Him. Israel never entered full rest because of their unbelief and Moses couldn’t make it happen and Joshua couldn’t make it happen but God has a rest far greater than Canaan. God has an eternal rest that’s available to you by faith in Jesus Christ and it takes a greater than Moses and a greater than Joshua to make it a reality. And that greater than both is Jesus Himself.

Now when we talk about rest what are we talking about? I want to define the word or else all through the message you’re going to be wondering what I’m referring to. In this passage, you’re going to have to stick with me on this, there is rest promised. Now rest in it’s fullest sense. And I looked up in the dictionary and found some interesting definitions of rest that fit beautifully in the typical or I should say into the instruction of the word of God here. First of all, the dictionary defines rest as ceasing from action or motion. Now these are just different definitions of the word rest, the English word. And the word in the Greek or the Hebrew is identically the same definition.

So first of all rest means to cease from action or motion, you stop doing what you are doing. The action and the motion is over. It means to stop from labor or exertion. Now applying that to God’s rest it means no more self-effort. No more trying to please God by your feeble, fleshly works. And the moment you enter into God’s rest works cease as a way to please God, they don’t please Him anyway because you can’t do enough works to be perfect. And so rest then involves cessation from legalistic activity. It is a rest in free grace.

Then the dictionary secondly defines rest as to be free from whatever worries or disturbs you. Some people can’t rest mentally because they’re always bugged by everything. Every little thing just pounds away in their brain and they can never just rest because they’re always hassled by everything. To rest means to be free from whatever hassles you, from whatever disturbs you or creates worries in your mind. It means, in this sense, to be quiet, to be still, to be peaceful, be free from guilt and the things which drive us to neurosis, psychosis etc.

And so bringing that across to God’s rest we would say that to enter God’s rest simply means to be at peace with God. It means to possess the perfect peace that God gives. It means to free from guilt. It means no need to worry about sin because sin is forgiven and we’re at rest all of a sudden, no more anxiety, no more pressure, no more guilt: peace.

So God’s rest involves cessation of works and it involves a rest in the total forgiveness of God.

Thirdly, rest in the dictionary is defined as to lie down, to be settled or to be fixed. No more flux, no more flow, no more shifting around and we can take this again to God’s rest and say that God’s rest is the kind of rest where a man is positionally established in Christ. No more running from philosophy to philosophy, no more being blown about by every wind of doctrine, no more floating over to this and floating over to that, he is established he is rooted, he is grounded, unmovable. That’s rest.

Fourthly, rest in the dictionary is to remain confident, to put your trust in something, in other words, you rest in something in the sense of confidence. And to enter God’s rest logically means to enjoy security, no more fear you have absolute trust and absolute confidence in God’s care and charge of your life.

Fifthly and lastly the dictionary says that rest means to lean on and to enter into God’s rest means that for the rest of your life and eternally you can rest on God and you can lean on Him and you can be sure that He will never topple over.

So when it talks about rest in the Bible, it’s talking about a new relationship to God that is available to a man whereby that man can depend on God, can impose on God that means totally depend on God for support, for health, for power, for everything he needs. It is a new relationship which man is confident and secure that he’s committed his life to God and God holds his life in an eternal trust. It is a new relationship that involves being settled and fixed, no more flux, no more floating around: all of a sudden you know Whom you have believed you know why you believe it and you stand on it. It is a new relationship with God that means we can be free from that which disturbs us, sin is gone it’s been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, therefore guilt is gone, therefore we have no reason to worry we have only reason to be at peace with ourselves and with others since we are at peace with God.It is, then, a new relationship with God that means the cessation from works and legalism as a way to please God. That in total is what rest is all about.

So when the Bible says here in Hebrews 3 and 4 that God offers you rest it means all of those things which we have talked about A new relationship with God that is multifaceted as I’ve just explained it to you. It’s full, it’s blessed, it’s sweet, it’s satisfying. it’s peaceful. And this is exactly what God is offering to every man.

And this is exactly what was pictured in the Canaan rest that Israel never understood and never entered into because of unbelief. And just as Israel never entered Canaan rest because of unbelief so soul after soul after soul since the time of Israel and even before has also missed God’s rest spiritually because of unbelief.

Now there are also two other dimensions that the dictionary doesn’t handle in defining rest. One of them is kingdom rest which is the millennium and the other is eternal rest which is heaven.

The fullest kind of relationship with God that takes care of you in this life, in the kingdom and in heaven forever. That’s what God is promising and that’s what He calls rest.

But men don’t enter into that rest. There’s only one reason that they don’t and what’s that one reason? Unbelief. Men won’t believe God that He means what He says about rest. It’s unbelievable to think about it but it’s true that when God offers a man all of this; men won’t believe it.

And so the warning from the Spirit of God is harden not your hearts. Don’t be like unbelieving Israel and miss God’s perfect rest.

The Strength of the Gospel is not in how hard we work, but in how well we rest.

Isaiah 30:15 KJV 1900

15 For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: And ye would not.

Spiritual maturity is not always found in how hard a person works, but rather in the rest we find in Jesus.

Overworking leads to medical conditions, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidental injuries, and cirrhosis of the liver, just to name a few …

Overworking destroys families.

I understand , work is necessary.

“If you don’t work, you don’t eat”

Therefore, we take extra jobs to make more money to make life easier.

Therefore, work becomes our identity.

This becomes a constant striving to prove ourselves and please people.

This is what the author of Hebrews is addressing.

He is letting us know that if we don’t neglect our salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and don’t entertain unbelief, we can actually find rest.

However, if we fail in these areas, we will run the Danger of not entering rest.

Hebrews 4:3 KJV 1900

3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

The gospel provides rest.

The flip side is if we havent found rest, then we are still under the wrath of God.

The Availability of Rest

Hebrews 4:1 KJV 1900

1 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.

What’s the Holy Spirit use therefore to indicate? That means go back because of what we saw in Israel, because we saw Israel forfeit rest, because they blew it and never entered into God’s promised rest look at that and let us therefore “fear”. Why? Because when you don’t believe God, my friend, you don’t enter into His rest. That’s something to be afraid of, that’s something to be afraid of.

So having reminded the readers in chapter 3 that the generation which came out of Egypt did not enter Canaan rest because of unbelief he then warns them of a possible failure on their part to enter into God’s perfect rest and he says you’d better be afraid lest you miss it. It’s not a trifling thing, dear ones, it’s not a trifling thing to dilly-dally around with the salvation of God. It’s not a trifling thing to fool around with the rest of God that He offers. That’s not something you fool with, that’s something you consider with great fear for God is a God of judgment, our God is a consuming fire.

Now notice in verse 1 it says, “Let us, therefore, fear; lest a promise being left us”. Now there is a promise left. The word means being left behind and remaining. What the Holy Spirit wants them to know, those reading the book of Hebrews, those Jews and also us today, is when Israel fell because of unbelief, watch this, when Israel fell because of unbelief that didn’t mean rest was done. When Israel fell in the wilderness God didn’t say, OK Israel, out the door, you’ve had it, I’m done with you, move down a few miles and pick on somebody else.

The Authority of Rest

Hebrews 4:2–7 (KJV 1900)

2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

The Gospel is Good News.

What is the Good News of this passage? REST!

“For unto us was the good news preached as well as unto them”, and by that it doesn’t mean that they preached under the people of Israel the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again, it just means that they got the good news about rest. “So unto us the good news of rest is preached and unto them it was preached but the word preached to them didn’t profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

Our Part

It doesn’t do a bit of good to hear if you don’t believe, that’s the whole point.

Faith - Trusting God enough to Obey Him.

Israel heard the good news of salvation rest by faith, Israel had heard it all along they heard it as far back as Exodus chapter 6 verses 6-8,

Exodus 6:6–8 KJV 1900

6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord.

They heard God say believe Me and you’ll be blessed and enter My rest. They knew what it was.

Numbers 14, they get to the edge of the promised land, a land of rest, and only 2 agreed with God. The rest saw theirselves as grasshoppers.

Notice in verse three, he continues the argument for faith.

Hebrews 4:3 KJV 1900

3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

“For we who have believed do enter into rest”, that’s simple. We who believe we enter into God’s rest, we come into salvation experience by faith.

It doesn’t say we are entering into rest, we are on the way to rest it says we are in it. It’s a positive. We who believe are in rest. That’s a positional fact. Every Christian is in rest. We all live in God’s rest.

Then he says on the negative side, quoting back again Psalm 95 which we saw is his text all the way through here, he quotes Psalm 95 because Psalm 95 was David describing Israel in the wilderness and so he quotes from David’s sermon, “As I have sworn in my wrath”, now watch this translation, “they will not enter in My rest”, the if should be a not later in the statement. I’ll say it again. As I have sworn in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest.

God’s own rest and God’s rest is not a rest of weariness or inactivity but a rest of finished work. God has finished His work. God has done it all and if you want to enter into the finished work of God it’s available by faith.

Now God’s rest began after His creation. You see, put it all together in six days, I believe six 24-hour days, He put it all together. And once He had put it all together, He did what? He rested.

And God said, “It’s done, I’ve made a wonderful world for man and I’ve plopped him down there and I’ve given him a wife and everything is set, and I’m going to let him enjoy his relationship with Me”.

Adam was a saved man. Adam was walking and talking with God, he was at rest. He was at God’s rest. He leaned on God. He had no anxieties, he had no worries, he had the complete freedom to fellowship with God while he was living in God’s rest. God had finished His work and God rested. That’s what it says in verse 3 at the end. “Although the works were finished from the foundations of the world.

Hebrews 4:4–5 KJV 1900

4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day from”, this certain place is Genesis 2:1-2, “and God did rest the seventh day from all His works.”

Now stay with me on this, “My rest”, verse 3, right?

Hebrews 4:3 (KJV 1900)

3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

“My rest” verse 3 is defined as the rest when God finished His works and rested on the seventh day. That’s it, right there, a definition. God’s rest began right after the sixth day of creation. God was satisfied.

He was infinitely satisfied and He rested and He said—Well, men, there’s where you can enter into My rest, I made you a lovely world, you and I are going to get along, just fellowship from here on out, you can enjoy My rest and there was only one condition.

What’s always the condition for God’s rest? One word, what is it? Faith, belief.

What happened? Did Adam and Eve believe God or did they believe Satan?

Satan, they questioned God to the point they disobeyed God and ate the fruit.

What happened? Unbelief forfeited Rest!

Adam became restless. No longer seeking God but instead began making clothes and hiding from God.

You see, what happened immediately unbelief brought the forfeiting of rest and it was over with. And God’s great rest that He had provided for His creation, man was lost.

And do you know what the history of the Bible is and the history of man? It’s the effort of God’s part to get man back into His rest.

Now God had to do one other thing to make it available to man.

What was that? He had to accomplish the taking care of sin. And so the coming of Jesus Christ took care of the sin issue and through that death of Christ men may enter back into God’s rest.

And even the people who lived before Jesus were saved on the basis of what God was going to do through Christ, right?

We who are saved on this side of the cross are saved on the basis of what God has done in Christ. But Christ bore sins past and future. So through Jesus Christ God’s rest still continues and men may still enter His rest and the history of God’s dealings with men were an attempt on God’s part to get men to enter His rest of which Canaan was a symbol.

And so God finished His perfect work and men blew it. And man became restless because of unbelief. And verse 5 says, “And in this place again”, they’re quoting Psalm 95, “they shall not enter into My rest.”

God says because of unbelief man can’t enter. God provided a rest on the seventh day and it’s been going on ever since and the only people who ever enter into it are those who believe.

God’s Part

Hebrews 4:6 KJV 1900

6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

“Seeing, therefore, it remains”, what remains? “Rest, that some may enter into it but they to whom it was first preached because of unbelief.

Do you see what happens here. Rest still remains. Why? God couldn’t cut off rest.

Do you know why? Because that would mean that God had started something that didn’t have any purpose. He started rest, everybody blew it so He just threw it away. God doesn’t do that. God isn’t like you and me, He doesn’t do things that doesn’t matter.

Did you get that? God didn’t start rest for nothing and if God started a rest then somebody’s going to enter that rest. That’s exactly what it says.

And so when God established His rest and man lost it then God had to get into a recovery process through Christ to get some people back into it because He put it there for the purpose of fellowship with man and so He had to have somebody in it.

Immediate Action

Hebrews 4:7 (KJV 1900)

7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

The author again quotes Psalm 95:7-8 again where David said it,

Psalm 95:7–8 KJV 1900

7 For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Before the flood,

Genesis 6:3 KJV 1900

3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (KJV 1900)

2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

The Attribute of Rest

Hebrews 4:8 KJV 1900

8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

Now the rest that the Spirit is speaking of is not the physical rest of Canaan that’s only a picture. If it were Canaan rest He were speaking of Joshua would have given them that because he got them into Canaan, that wasn’t the issue.

But they got in the land and they didn’t experience, they may have experienced a partial, physical rest but God’s talking about a spiritual rest. The true rest comes not through a Moses or a Joshua it comes not even through a David it comes through Jesus Christ. And so He says in verse ?, it’s spiritual rest that He’s talking about not Canaan rest, not physical.

Hebrews 4:9 KJV 1900

9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Cults always promise everybody happiness and wealth and health and so forth in this life but that’s never the promise of God, never.

God promises that His rest is spiritual not physical.

God’s rest is future in it’s fullness, present in it’s manifestation.

Some people who are experiencing the greatest amount of the rest of God are the busiest, hardest working, non-resting people from a physical standpoint imaginable. So the kind of rest that He’s talking about is not Canaan, if that were the case Joshua would have given them that but he spoke of another day, another coming rest.

The word in verse 9 for rest is the same word translated Sabbath.

Sabbath Rest was to remind the people that

God is the Point.

We were not created for a job, we were created for God.

God is Our Provider.

God never wants us to forget that ultimately we depend on Him, not ourselves, for provision.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 KJV 1900

12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

Time of Reflection on God’s Salvation

Back to Hebrews

Jesus is the Ultimate Rest

Hebrews 4:8–10 KJV 1900

8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

The Attentiveness to Rest

Hebrews 4:11 KJV 1900

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

“Let us labor”, but we do not consider that to be working. The work means to make haste or work diligently. And the idea of this is simply that we would with intense purpose and intense concern enter into that rest.

It’s not the idea that you work your way to salvation, it’s the idea that you diligently seek to enter God’s rest by faith. This isn’t something you play with, something you put off; this is something you move into rapidly, urgently with great diligence.

And so you see what he’s saying to them is enter into that lest you fall, like they did, through unbelief in the wilderness. They are the example he’s talking about in verse 11, don’t be like them, don’t fall because of unbelief but you enter into that rest.

Don’t die in the wilderness but strive, make haste, hasten, give diligence to enter into rest while it’s still available. You see, God can’t be trifled with and that comes out in verse 12 in startling terms,

Hebrews 4:12 KJV 1900

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

That’s a great verse and we use it for many things. Let me tell you what it means in the context. He is saying you better give diligence to enter into God’s rest because the word of God is living and powerful and it will pierce right down in the most inner part of your heart to see if you’re really real or not.

You can’t trifle with God.

God’s word will penetrate your heart and see if you’re for real.

You may say well, I believe and I confess Jesus Christ but if you’ve never observed a real repentive saving faith, my friend, when judgment comes the word of God will cut you wide open and it will reveal the hypocrisy and the sham of your profession to Christ.

The word of the Bible knows the condition of your heart and it will tell you whether your profession to Christ is a real one or a sham. It will show God and on that basis God will judge.

Now we often take this verse and we use it to say isn’t the word of God wonderful it’s an instrument of salvation. That’s great. Isn’t the word of God wonderful, it’s a tool of comfort to the soul and a source of joy and a source of food and I agree but right here in this verse the word of God is a source of terror cause that sword that penetrates in and cuts your innermost being and lays bare the thoughts and the intents if it discovers them to be sham then becomes a sword of execution.

And if you want to see the sword of execution you can read about it in these words, Revelation 1:1?, “Jesus had in His mouth a sharp two-edged sword”, 2:16, He said, “Repent or else I will come unto you and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” That’s His words, that sharp two-edged sword and He will fight with them against those who do not obey.

And then a startling indication in Revelation 19:15 says this, “And out of His mouth”, here comes Christ in judgment, Rev. 19, “out of His mouth came a sharp sword with it He shall smite the nations”,

Revelation 19:15 KJV 1900

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Revelation 19:21 KJV 1900

21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

verse 21, “And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of His mouth.” That’s His word. The word of God is not only saving, it’s not only comforting, it’s not only feeding but it’s the tool for execution. And some day in great judgment the word of God is going to dive into your heart and lay it bare and the sham and hypocrisy shall be revealed and though you made the profession the sword will not make a mistake.

And if the revelation is hypocrisy then that sword becomes a sword of execution.

Then in closing a powerful word in verse 13, because of the incisiveness and devastating power of the word of God

Hebrews 4:13 KJV 1900

13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Don’t think that you can find a religious activity by your profession of faith in Christ by having turned from the old life and kind of facing toward Jesus Christ fool God into believing you’re for real if you’re not, you can’t. Everything is open and naked before Him. The word means then all the disguises are ripped up, the facts are laid bare. God can see what you are.

The phrase “opened unto the eyes of Him” is tremendously interesting because that word itself is very unique, it’s rare and it’s unique. Let me give you what it means.

The word that is used here opened unto the eyes of Him all of the meaning of this is wrapped up in two little thoughts. It’s a word used in connection with wrestling and it’s used for a seizure and a pull by the throat in such a way that he can’t move. And what it’s saying is we can’t run from God continually for there comes a time when God grabs us by the throat and holds us face to face. Sooner or later we face God.

The second use of the word is in ancient times it was used in reference to a criminal.

And when a criminal was under judgment they would strap a dagger around him pointing upward and the reason was they didn’t want his head bowed, they wanted him face to face with his accusers. That’s the very word that is used here. And so both uses of the word have to do with a face to face death situation and when the Bible says all things in your life are opened to Him it means the very sword of God lifts your chin to a face to face confrontation with God.

Don’t you ever think for a minute that you’re going to live your life the way you want to live it and God’s not going to know and don’t you ever think that you’re going to live and go your way and never face God. You’re going to face the living God.

You will face the living God whose word will penetrate and lay bare your heart and you will have to lift your head face to face to reveal openly and totally to Him. And therefore we conclude today we are to hear His words, harden not your hearts.

Are you going to “hear” God and obey or are you going to “harden” your heart in unbelief and disobedience.