Hear His Voice, Enter His Rest
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Dense passage. I thought about dividing it up, but it is all one extended argument. Let’s look at it in 6 Sections.
Where did we leave off?
Jesus is like Moses (who lead the exodus, who gave the Law, who was faithful). Moses was a faithful Servant, but Jesus is greater! Moses is a servant in the house, Jesus is the builder of the house!
Christians are in that house - so long as they remain Christians. You need to hold onto Jesus to stay in Jesus’ house:
And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
The church needs to hold fast to Jesus. If we don’t hold fast our confidence
With the comparison between Jesus & Moses, there is a question natural hanging in the air. Jesus is greater than Moses, are Jesus’ follower’s greater than Moses’?
What happened to them?
A Failure of Faith (3:7-11)
A Failure of Faith (3:7-11)
Author uses a section of Psalm 95 as the basis to make his point. First he quotes a larger section, and then he will focus on two specific verses.
So, what does Psalm 95 tel us about the followers of Moses?
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
Ok, lets break it down:
The Holy Spirit says - The author understands that the Scriptures are God speaking. In is inspired by God - he breathed it out. This combats the idea that the scriptures are fallible human attempts to talk about God. The Bible is God speaking through various people down through time. it is the HS speaking. If you want to hear God, open your bible!
The HS speaks through David in Psalm 95 as David reflects on what happened in the Exodus
God heard their cry and saved them out of Slavery
God brought them into the wilderness and entered in covenant with them.
God promised them a good land, a beautiful fruitful land.
They had to go in, with God, and clear out all the evil & wickedness.
The people grumbled and complained on the way, and when the got close to the promise, they became afraid and shrank back.
This Psalm refers specifically to an incident at Meribah where the people of Israel were complaining against God’s prophet and ultimately against God. They had no water in the desert, they Didn’t trust God, so they quarreled with God.
Now God would give them water, but he would not sanction their rebellion. in David’s Psalm he summaries the situation as a rebellious people who rebelled against God, despite the fact they had seen God working, and thus because of their rebellion and disobedience God rejected a whole generation from the earthly blessings.
God’s covenant Didn’t fail, but there were people who rejected God’s covenant and they missed out on the blessings.
Instead of coming into a Promised land and receiving the blessing of a properous, fruitful abundant place to call home, they we kept out and they wandered the desert till the whole generation died.
Will Christians fail like Israel did in the wilderness?
Exhortation to Believe (3:12-15)
Exhortation to Believe (3:12-15)
Hebrews warns the church, the brothers, that we face the same danger, of becoming hard-hearted, of forgetting God, of rejecting his covenant, of having unbelief:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Take care - Not just a once and done - something we need to pay attention to
What are we looking for? evil, unbelieving heart -
What is the result of an unbelieving heart? Fall Away - Apostatize, turn your back, forsake. Apostacy - The word we use to describe people who have turned to Christ, but then turn their back on him!
What should we do instead?
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Day by day encouragment and exhortation!
That is why Church gathering is so important, we come together to egg each opther on.
The regular confession of sin - why? so you are not deceived by it.
We speak to one another the warning and good news so that we are encouraged not to fall away.
Daily building each other up - such as in personal & family devotions.
What must we not fall away from? Faith in Christ:
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
In faith we are united to Christ - trusting that his death was for us, and his resurrection is for us, that he has come as the Son who is the High Priest who brings us to God.
But you must hold onto this, and not harden your hearts toward God’s Gospel in Jesus Christ.
We return to the example of Israel when we do not hold fast to the confidence firmly to the end.
Unable to Enter because of Unbelief (3:16-19)
Unable to Enter because of Unbelief (3:16-19)
We might think we’re excepted from needing to strive in faith, because we’re “in” already. We’re under the covanent. We’re in God’s family.
Yet there were those who had tangibly before them the power of God revealed, and they sat at the mountain while God covenanted with them, yet they also rebelled.
Those who were disobedient would be excluded.
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Who heard? Exodus Israel
Who was he provoked with? The sinners,
Who was excluded from rest? The disobedient
Ultimately it was unbelief. Their actions revealed a heart of unbelief.
They heard, but did not beleive. They complained and quarreled.
They heard, but they sinned against God.
They heard, but the were disobedient to the covenant.
What about you? Do you have unbelief?
You have heard the Gospel, but do you doubt.
You have heard, but do you live as if it’s not true, as if Christ is not on the throne, and coming to Judge?
You have heard, but do you live as if the enemies of God have more power than the one who splits the red sea? Who flooded the whole world? Who made the earth?
He flung a million million star into space! He buried the armies of Pharaoh in the red sea! He overthrew the Babylons, the Persians, the Greek, the Romans. Yet you will fear men and their pagan Gods?
You have heard the commands but do you think you can sin against God?
The Exodus generation failed to beleive.
Thankfully, we have received a better message than those of the wilderness generation!
A Better Gospel (4:1-2)
A Better Gospel (4:1-2)
They were unable to enter because of unbelief, but the opposite is implied, we can enter with true belief, true faith.
They missed out of God’s rest, we can still enter His rest, as we are commended to in the next verse:
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
The promise still stands (more on this soon)
We must fear - have a holy and healthy fear of rejecting God!
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
Both us and them received a message, but because they didn’t have true faith, they were left out.
Same goes for us, you may have heard Christ, but if you are not united to Christ by faith, you will fail to receive the promises!
Christian parents, regular church attendance is not the same thing as being united by faith with other who hear the Gospel and actually beleive it.
Enter the Rest (4:3-11)
Enter the Rest (4:3-11)
Hwo do we wnter the Rest?
For we who have believed enter that rest, 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 somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”
Allusion to the Rest of the 7th day.
God rested on the 7th day, and david makes a connection to the Rest of God’s people. They can enter that rest!
God’s 7th day rest is in some sense ongoing.
Some will not enter, those under God’s wrath. But we who have believed do enter the Rest of God.
And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Today - David talks as if the Rest of God was open to the wilderness people, it was open in his own day, and then the author of hebrews says today is still called today, eneter the rest today! It’s still open!
Don’t harden your hearts!
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
This rest was not reached through Joshua - ist was a little foretaste, but not the whole thing.
So we need to rest from our work, in what way?
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
God will expose Unbelief (4:12-13)
God will expose Unbelief (4:12-13)
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
So What?
So What?
The Wilderness Generation is an Example to us
They received a great Gospel message - leave slavery, receive a promised land, enter covenant with YHWH.
They hardened their heart, they turned away from God, and God rejected them.
We have received a greater Gospel message - leave Sin, receive eternal rest, enter Covenant with YHWH through Jesus.
SO
Take Care
Don’t harden your heart
Exhort one another
Let us fear
Strive to enter rest
