The Faithful Son

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Introduction

Operation Child Rescue is an initiative of Child Impact International. It has 30 ongoing rescue projects in 16 countries helping children and women escape forced child marriages, exploitation, bonded servitude, abandonment, and abuse. Here’s a short introduction:

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In Palowan, Phillipines teachers at a mission school run by ChildImpact noticed that when children go home for summer break, they have nothing to do, they consume more of their parents resources, and they take up space in their small, open huts. As a result of the drain on resources, many girls are married off as adolescent children and they never return to school.

Michelle, one of the teachers, went to find 9 young students who didn’t come back to school. Each one had been married during their summer break, but only one of them, Railan, said she wanted help.

Railan’s mother was a child bride at age 10 and Railan was born when her mom was only 12. In their mountain culture a man would indicate that he wants to marry a girl by giving her money, often 100 Philippine pesos. If she or her family chose to refuse his offer of marriage, they would need to give him twice that amount back—200 pesos. The economic benefit is so heavily weighted in favor of the marriage that often the parents will accept the money on behalf of their child and then threaten or even beat the girl until she agrees to the marriage.

Can you imagine a 12 year old being forced into a marriage?

Railan’s parents were so disgusted that she wanted help out of her forced marriage that they burned her clothes and rejected her as their child. They told the teacher, Michelle, that if the school wanted her back then she was their problem to deal with—she would no longer be their child. Without hesistating, Michelle offered to adopt Railan as her own child and when they got back to school she began the process to make that a legal adoption.

Now Railan is living with her new family, going to school, and growing up in a much healthier environment. But her story isn’t over.

Railan’s story reminds me of the caught-in-the-middle Christians in Hebrews. She is caught in the middle too. It’s a good middle. It’s not where she was, but it’s also not where she hopes to be.

Child Impact could tell you hundreds of stories of kids they have rescued who have experienced exploitation and abuse. The impact of their abusive history doesn’t go away the moment they are rescued. Those horrible experiences leave deep wounds in the mind and heart. Wounds that often take decades to heal.

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Railan was rescued, but she is not yet at rest. She is safe, but not yet what God intends for her to become.

Let’s go to the scriptures and see if we can find these in-between Christians again in Hebrews 3 and 4.

Hebrews 3:1–19 NLT

And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest. For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house. But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself. For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God. Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’ ” Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.

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Hebrews 3 follows the themes already introduced in chapters 1 and 2. You might remember that chapter 1 outlined Jesus divinity and then chapter 2 began with the idea that we must “earnestly heed” the things we have heard so that we don’t drift away. Jesus is God, have faith in His salvation and don’t let the secular world or the religeous right pull you towards man-made philosophies or theology.

Hebrews 2 goes on to talk about Jesus’ humanity and how because of His death and resurrection he can call us brothers and sisters and present us to the father as His own children. When we believe and are baptized we are saved. We are born again as sons and daughters of God.

Now in chapter 3 we see Jesus is the faithful son of God.

Jesus is faithful, like Moses, but so much better than Moses.

And Jesus is faithful, in contrast to the unbelieving multitude that stood at the edge of Canaan and said, “No way! We’re not going in there with those giants.”

Let’s stop for just a moment and consider that story of the Israelites that Paul is using as an illustration of unbelief.

The story starts with when Israel had been in slavery to Egypt for many generations. God sent 10 plagues on Egypt to force them to let the Israelites go. The first few were annoying, but not horrible and Egypt refused to let them go. The next few wiped out the Egyptian economy but they hardened their hearts and still refused to let Israel go. Finally, in the tenth plague, God threatened the life of every firstborn in Egypt. He gave the Israelites instructions to put blood on the doorposts of their homes and stay inside. For everyone who didn’t have blood on their doorposts, a destroying angel went through the land and killed the firstborn. It took faith for the Israelites to believe and put the blood on their doorposts, but they did. and they were saved.

God SAVED Israel from slavery with the tenth plague. Egypt let them go and off they went with joy and singing and praises to God.

And then the got to the red sea and they all broke down wailing because it looked like they would be killed by the Egyptian army that was now marching up behind them. God worked a miracle and the sea opened up to let them cross and then swallowed up the enemies who had been chasing them.

Then they got thirsty and they complained. Were they saved from slavery? Yes. They had been rescued! But they hadn’t yet entered the rest that God had promised in the land of Canaan.

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They were in-between rescue and rest.

It was a difficult several months. They ran out of food. They ran out of water multiple times. God repeatedly met their need and tried to establish trust in their hearts.

Why do you think that they kept turning back to complain? They had started out believing, and it was based on their simple belief that they were rescued, but somehow every difficulty became an opportunity to express doubt.

We are in between rescue from sin and rest from sin. If you believe and have been baptized then you are rescued. You are God’s child. You are saved. But you’re not yet at rest.

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In Hebrews 2:1 Paul tells us in-between Christians that we need to give our earnest attention to the promises that God had given us so that we don’t drift away. This is a warning against cherishing doubt and complaining. “Keep believing,” is what he’s trying to say.

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Hebrews 3:12-13 warns us to to beware that we don’t have an evil heart of unbelief… don’t let your heart become hard.

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In Hebrews 6:4-8 Paul warns that it is very difficult to pull someone back to faith after they’ve jumped off that spiritual cliff of unbelief. How can someone who knew the saving power of God but then rejected it, nailing Jesus to the cross with their rebellion, turn back to God and allow Him to bring them to repentance?

It doesn’t happen very often. So, keep believing. Don’t drift away.

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Hebrews 10:26-31 tells us that if we continually and deliberately choose to sin after we know the truth of God’s promises, then there’s no more sacrifice for us. You can’t continue to intentionally trample of the Son of God and treat God’s covenant promises as common or unholy and think that God is going to just pat you on the back and say, “no worries, you’re my child.” No, if you insult the Holy Spirit and reject God’s conviction then you have trampled on God and “the Lord will judge His own people.”

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Hebrews 12:25 adds this advice, don’t refuse to listen when God is speaking to you by his earthly messengers. Listen carefully and follow all that God has revealed. Keep believing.

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A person could argue that the entire book of Hebrews is structured around these ideas of rescue, faithfully waiting, and resting in Jesus. Don’t be like the Israelites, Paul says, because they refused to believe. And because they didn’t believe they wouldn’t obey and go into Canaan. For their unbelief God sentenced them to wander in the wilderness for forty years—living in tents, with little to eat besides manna and the water God poured out of a rock for them. It was a soul-searching 40 years, and then they all died—every adult who had refused to believe.

They were the caught in the middle generation. They saw God’s salvation—his rescue—but they refused to enter His rest.

Let’s keep reading the first few verses of chapter 4 and see what Paul’s advice is for us so that we don’t find ourselves in the same situation as the unfaithful Israelites:

Hebrews 4:1–13 NLT

God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’ ” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.” But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.” So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

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Paul points out two aspects of rest in this passage:

The first aspect is the place and destination of rest. It’s a future-looking, hope-filled place. It’s the place were going. The Israelites called it the land flowing with milk and honey, and us Christians call it heaven. We know we’ll receive this place of rest when Jesus returns and we are raised to life and go home with Him.

But Paul also claims that this rest has been ready for us since God made the world. It’s not just a destination or a future-looking promise. There is a sense in which God’s rest is a present-tense reality. The eternal reward God promises isn’t just a future state of perfect existence, it’s a present-tense opportunity. And its illustrated in the time and place every week when God invites us to join Him in rest—the weekly Sabbath.

God’s rest is available. Today. For those who choose to enter.

I love verse 7. Paul has just said that they failed to enter God’s rest because of disobedience, but then he adds:

Hebrews 4:7 NLT

So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”

But Sabbath rest is only a foretaste of heaven while we are faithfully waiting. When Israel finally came into Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, Paul argues that they didn’t really enter the rest God had promised. There was still something in the future—the same place that we are waiting for, heaven. Paul calls it a “Sabbath rest” but he’s clearly looking forward to the time when we are rest from our labor, from our struggle with sin.

And again, in verse 11, Paul calls us to faithfully wait for that rest,

Hebrews 4:11 ESV

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Conclusion

Paul ends this section of his sermon to the Hebrews with an odd statement.

Hebrews 4:12–13 ESV

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.

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This is true, of course, but why would he say this after telling us to strive or be diligent to enter God’s rest?

Paul is revealing the spiritual nature of this rest. It’s not sufficient to turn off the TV or put away your homework or go to church on the 7th day of the week and say that you have “entered God’s rest.” Sabbath rest is a heart rest more than it is a physical rest.

The other day one of my friends who lives out of state asked me an interesting question.

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“I had a thought the other day… if we are commanded to rest one day out of seven and we are expected to “labor” six days, then is it a sin if we aren’t productive on those days?”

My suggestion was that our modern work-a-day lifestyle thinks of work in the context of the 8 or 12 hrs a day that we get paid for a job. Home chores and school and entertainment and all kinds of other non-employment stuff make up the rest of our lives. Somehow, we make a distinction between the nonemployment activities and what we call work. That wasn’t the case for the Israelites when God gave them the 10 commandments. To the wilderness Israelite every moment was labor. Hauling their belongings on their back as they moved from place to place… making sure they had water for all their family members to drink… gathering and measuring out a portion of manna to make sure there was enough for the day but not too much. So, God told them to not even pick up sticks to make a fire or try to go out and collect manna on Sabbath because he wanted to separate out a day where they would truly rest. Physically stop.

And in that moment of rest they could align their hearts with God. Choose to believe and to stick with Him.

Do we need to work and be productive for six days a week? We don’t need to go to a job 6 days a week to fulfill this command. We do work six days a week. We go about our daily routines and busy lives for six days, and like the Israelites we need a physical break—a distinct day of rest.

Unfortunately, we worry too much about what is OK to do on the Sabbath and what should be forbidden. Let’s make it simple, we should clear our day of the clutter that prevents our hearts from connecting with God. For us to faithfully wait—to believe—we need to set aside space and time that are not distracted by the hurry and business of normal life. Entertainment should not distract our hearts from connection with God and His family. We shouldn’t be doing business or studying for school or flittering away our time on nonsense social media.

Instead, we need to reconnect our hearts to God.

Even Jesus needed this heart rest.

Ministry of Healing The True Medical Missionary

In a life wholly devoted to the good of others, the Saviour found it necessary to turn aside from ceaseless activity and contact with human needs, to seek retirement and unbroken communion with His Father.

Ministry of Healing The True Medical Missionary

We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

This kind of rest isn’t accomplished by simply attending church or by not mowing the lawn. It require us to clear our schedule and hush the whirring noise that’s constantly flowing through our lives. But for us to get to the heart—the place that God already sees so clearly—for us to faithfully wait with God and believe, that requires us to also listen for God’s voice.

We can do this when we go to church, but it’s not just Sabbath School or church that makes this happen. You have to tune your heart to listen for God and let your spiritual ears be open to His Spirit.

We can do this when we take a hike with friends or eat lunch with our church family, but it requires that we invite Jesus to go with us and have our ears and eyes open to the things He is revealing to us.

We can do this when we go out to serve on a Sabbath day, but it require that we have our hearts tuned to God’s leading as we minister to others.

And so, Paul tells us to strive to enter God’s rest. There is a focus… a discipline to this Sabbath rest that God provides for us today, as we wait for His eternal rest in the future.

And maybe that’s why so many people push away the idea of Sabbath rest and say that it was for the Jews in the past, or that’s just a promise for the future. Sabbath isn’t just a religious activity , it’s something that cuts deep into the heart and exposes our sinfulness. kind of us open in a way and that’s uncomfortable.

It is FAITH in God’s promises and belief in his grace that allows us to enter His rest.

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We have been saved through faith in God’s amazing grace at the cross. Like the passover lamb of old, we spread the blood of Christ on the doorposts of our hearts and know that He has rescued us from slavery to sin. That’s a done deal—a guaranteed reality. Our salvation has been accomplished.

The Israelites were saved from slavery to Egypt. It was a done deal. And yet, they stood at the edge of the promised land and doubted. All they had to do was believe in God and follow His lead by walking into the land. But they didn’t believe—they didn’t have faith in what He had already promised. They looked at the obstacles and the defenses and the problems and they doubted God.

We have already been saved, but we are not yet inside the promised land; the heavenly Canaan. As we wait we can practice the discipline of Sabbath rest by choosing to believe and letting God look into and direct our lives and our hearts.

Faith is the only way to enter God’s rest. And Sabbath is a weekly opportunity to practice that faithful rest.

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Please stand with me and sing a song of faith.

Faith is the Victory