A Dependable Promise

I invite you to turn to Hebrews 3, verse 7 this morning

I am so thankful for a God who will always be who He says He is and will do what He says He will do

Every 4 years we have an election cycle and every 4 years our presidential candidates make big promises

And they sound good but it’s not until they get into office that we know if they are going to follow through

One website tracked a certain president’s promise keeping abilities

They said that out of 99 promises that he made

he kept 33

he compromised on 32

he broke 34 of them

And that’s probably about the best that we can hope for when it comes to politicians

But when it comes to God, we serve a God who, when He makes a promise, it is a dependable promise, and He will always keep it

So, let’s get back to our study of Hebrews

ENDURE

Remember:

No believer can cope with adversity unless Christ fills his horizons, sharpens his priorities and dominates his experience.

The writer has already gone to great lengths to make these points:

JESUS IS BETTER

He’s better than the angels

He has a superior name

He has a superior role

His work is superior

In every way Jesus is better than the angels

He is the Founder of our faith

He is, in fact, better than Moses!

JESUS IS BETTER

And then in light of who Jesus is

The writer includes some warnings

Be careful! Don’t drift!

Be careful! Don’t allow your heart to become deceitful and hard!

Rather, let’s exhort and encourage each other!

Because there are some very important things at stake here!

And one of those is something that the writer introduced the last time we looked at Hebrews

The Promise of Rest

And there is a lot to this

He packs a lot into this passage

What I would like to do is is read this entire passage starting in chapter 3, verse 7, and reading through chapter 4 verse 13

Hebrews 3:7–19 “7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 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. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

English Standard Version Chapter 4

4

The Promise of Rest

Past promise

We see this mainly in chapter 3.

God’s intention for bringing His people out of captivity was to give them a place of rest

a very literal place of rest

a land that they could call their own

being protected from their enemies

not being enslaved and forced into hard labor

Enjoying the blessings of God as they remained faithful

it was very literally a place of rest

But what happened?

the people rebelled and developed hard and deceitful hearts

And God swore in His wrath, “They shall never enter my rest”

And sure enough, because of unbelief, a whole generation of people died in the desert

eventually, though, Joshua did lead them into the land and again, the promise of rest was offered if they would just be faithful and follow exactly what God had commanded

But again, because of unbelief and hardened hearts, they did not do everything that God had commanded

They did not drive out all the people who lived there

they married foreigners and began to adopt their practices and worship

and again, because of unbelief, they did not experience God’s rest

And it’s in this context that the writer is making his plea

God’s intent was for His people to experience rest, but their ability to attain rest was always in question

However, God’s plan was never in question. His plan was never thwarted

Because, this writer says, there is still the

Present and future promise of rest

This is the case that this writer makes: It has always been God’s intent that His people experience rest

And this promise still stands

And chapter 4 opens like this: Therefore, while the promise of rest still stands

It still stands!

The unfaithfulness of God’s people did not thwart or derail God’s plan

It did not ruin God’s promise

Not at all!

Because, you know what? God’s faithfulness is not dependent on our faithfulness

God’s promises are not dependent on our ability to keep our promises!

God’s promise of rest was given, and He has not retracted it

And in order to make this point, the writer does a very interesting thing

He points us toward Creation, verses 4-5

He says, “Look. God finished the work of creation and He rested”

that is consistent with the account in Genesis

It says in Genesis 2:2 “2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”

We know that is what it says. This is why we emphasize taking a rest every 7 days...a Sabbath day rest

But what do we do when that Sabbath day is over? We go back to work, right?

And that might be the way that we kind of think of God: He rested on the 7th day, kicked back for a day, and then went back to work

But I believe that this writer wants us to get something

That is, that God, in fact, did NOT go back to work.

The Bible never says that He simply took a day off and then went back to work.

Rather, it says that on the 7th day, He rested. Period, full stop

Now, this does not mean that God completely disengaged from His world and never did another thing ever again?

Clearly not!

But what it does mean is that God rested completely from His work in Creation

And the writer uses this to make this case.

That God rested from Creation and He invites us to rest with Him

He is saying basically in verses 3-5 that the basis for God inviting His chosen people into a place of rest is that He Himself had set the example by resting from His labors of creation.

God was inviting His people to rest because He had invented rest. He had demonstrated rest. He had already set the example

It was meant to be a gift to His people. And for them to spurn it because of their unbelief and rebellion was a slap in the face of God!

Nevertheless, the writer makes the case that God never withdrew the offer of rest.

Verse 1, again, “The promise of rest STILL stands”. It is, in fact, an offer that stands for all of eternity. It is a dependable promise

And the question for us today is, have you taken God up on His offer, and His promise of rest?

Do you know what it is like to experience the rest of God?

There are some who might say that this promise of rest refers mainly to our heavenly rest.

and it does refer to that,

but I believe that it is talking about then AND now

We don’t have to wait until we pass from this life to the next to experience rest. It is available right now

And the question for us is, “Have you experienced that rest? Do we know what it’s like?”

This past summer we did a short series on the Psalms. One of those Psalms which we read was Psalm 131 where the Psalmist gives us this picture of a quiet heart before God:

“I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother”

To me, this gives a picture of someone who has found rest in God

The promise of rest is available for the people of God.

Jesus Himself offers rest

Jesus: “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

And these, indeed, are welcome words for us, because we know well what it is like to feel weary and heavy laden.

physical weariness is one thing.

we can often take care of that by taking a break from whatever we are doing, or by getting a good night of sleep

But weariness of the soul, or the heart is quite another thing all together!

being restless and weary in our heart is something that probably most of us are also familiar with

And it’s not a good feeling, is it?

And this seems to be what Jesus is talking about: “You will find rest for your souls”

It is an internal rest first and foremost

But, we say, “I don’t understand. How can Jesus say, take my yoke, or my burden on yourself and you will find rest?”

We come to Him weary and heavy laden and He basically says, “Exchange one burden for another one, and you will find rest”

How can this be?

Well, here is where we find a bit of a paradox when it comes to understanding the rest that God is offering

A paradox is a statement or idea that seems to contradict itself

And there does seem to be a paradox when it comes to grasping what the author is talking about here

There seems to be some tension here as we talk about rest

The paradox of rest

The paradox is summed up in verse 11:

Let us strive to enter that rest

Striving is putting forth effort, exerting yourself

When i was flying, we often talked about certain phases of flight being a maximum performance maneuver.

That means, you had to be all in. Striving to be the absolute best that you could be

landing and takeoff

and when the airplane is stopped and secured and all the duties are taken care of, then you can rest

in sports, they talk about playing a full game. That means you put maximum effort until the game is over and then you can rest

but You know, when we think of rest, we don’t tend to think of striving for rest

Rather, we tend to think, “I’ll rest when I’m done with whatever I’m doing.”

Rest is sometimes like a second thought for us

sometimes we are ashamed to admit that we need rest or that our souls need rest

Even the rest that God offers, we might tend to think, “Well that’s for the weak. The Christian life is supposed to be about toil and struggle and pain. And I’ll just bear my cross the best that I can.”

But as we study this passage, it becomes clear that this offer of rest from God should be far more than a second thought for us.

it should be a primary thought for us

something that we pursue intentionally and seriously and actively

There should be some urgency here as we search for rest

And that urgency comes through in this entire passage:

Hebrews 4:1 “1 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.”

Verse 6: Some failed to enter that rest because of disobedience

verse 11: Let us strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience

And finally these verses that we know so well: Hebrews 4:12–13 “12 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. 13 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.”

These verses lend urgency to exhortation to respond to God’s invitation of rest.

The verses that I just read about God’s word being living and active and sharp are verses that we have heard growing up

and usually when we hear them, (I, anyway), think about the Bible

And there’s probably some truth to that picture, but you have to remember that the Hebrews did not have Bibles like we have

And so this author isn’t thinking of a Bible.

He is thinking about the words that God has spoken.

And in this context, he is thinking specifically about the fact that God set before His people, and He sets before us, the invitation to enter His rest

And he uses this picture of a sword to make the point that you can’t disregard God’s offer and not think that you aren’t going to suffer some consequences

God sees your thoughts, He knows your intentions. His words, His message sharper than any sword and get right down to the root of things

But not only that, God’s word is living and active

which means that His words have the power to bring new life to your heart

So, we get this picture of urgency when it comes to entering the rest of God. His promise still stands because it is a dependable promise

So, let’s enter it! There’s a sense of urgency there!

But let’s not look at this in a negative light

Because when he says, Let us strive to enter that rest: The word “strive” can also speak of eagerness. “Let us be eager to enter that rest”

Not because we are afraid of what might happen if we don’t

But because of what He has to offer

We enter because we dare to trust in His love and His goodness and His sufficiency in times of trouble

And this brings us to my final point

The definition of rest

So, what is he talking about here? What is this rest that God is offering?

Are you sure it’s not just Heaven that He’s talking about?

No, I don’t think that it’s just Heaven that he’s talking about. And the reason is because of how he talks about rest and what seems to be saying rest is

He doesn’t give a firm definition of what rest is

But one thing is clear when it comes to rest:

Obedience and rest go hand in hand

Faith in what God has promised is directly related to rest

We see this expressed in different ways in this passage

Faith and obedience=rest and life

distrust and rebellion=restlessness and death

Because what was it that kept the people in the wilderness from experiencing the rest that God had promised?

Unbelief!

3:19—So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief

But on the flip side, chapter 4:3, “For we who believed enter that rest

4:6 “6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,”

Hebrews 4:11 “11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

Do you see this pattern? Faith in God and in what He has promised, and obedience to His word: you enter the rest that He offers

on the other hand, unbelief, doubting His promise, rebelling against what He has said, you not only don’t enter the rest that He promises, but you also receive His discipline.

I hope that you can understand what I’m talking about this morning

I hope that you have lived this experientially

I know what this author is talking about.

When my heart is feeling restless and I’m tired and weary, and I feel like I want to give up, and God feels distant

Then I better take a good look at what I’m believing about God at that moment

Not the things that I know with my head. I know plenty of things about God with my head

But what I’m actually believing about Him

Do I believe that He is absolutely loving, absolutely sovereign, absolutely just, He’s all-knowing. He sees the past as well as the future, and He knows every detail of my life. There is nothing that escapes His knowledge,

Because, if I believe that, can I not release my life to Him, take a deep breath, relax, and rest in Him?

Now, does this mean that my life will get easier? No.

Just like these folks in Hebrews were experiencing, there will still be persecution. There will still be sickness. There will still be death, and hardships

But in the midst of it all, God’s rest is available because the promise that He made is a dependable promise.

And I believe that as we hold fast to what He has promised and are obedient to what He has said, we will experience the rest that He has promised

Looking forward to that day when we will experience perfect rest.