Disobedience & Divine Rest

Hebrews 3:7–19 ESV

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.’ ” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 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. 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.” 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.

Intro - I’ve had trouble sleeping the past couple of years. It got bad where there’d be many nights where I’d only get 2-3 hours of sleep for a week straight. I didn’t know what to do since I was so stressed. I started stretching before I went to bed and taking sleep aids. Once I did that I got a good nights rest....but was I at rest?

This is the question for the Christian....is the alleviation of discomfort the same as being delivered to rest?

The Deliverance

Consider Jesus (3:1). Consider Him as what? Superior to all else.

His calling is superior, His word is superior and his faithful pattern is superior.

“Therefore...”

If Moses is great, how much greater is Jesus?

Moses was faithful in God’s house as a slave but Jesus was faithful over God’s house, as a son. And we are that house.

Because of that don’t respond to Jesus the way your brothers in the faith responded to Moses.

Although they believed in God enough to deliver them from Egypt, they didn’t believe in Him enough to deliver them to rest.

So you’re wandering in the wilderness....delivered from slavery but not quite at rest.

Using the same illustration as before. When black folk were freed from slavery they were freed to a world that still didn’t want them as they were. There was one person in particular named Booker T. Washington that believed if black folk could just become industrious and provide items, craftsmenship, etc. that white folk liked then they would be accepted. Yet, come to find out, those white folk would buy the work of their hands and still hate the hand that gave it!

Yet the church is doing the same, believing that if we’re just loving enough, assimilate enough, don’t cause too many waves culturally that we’ll be accepted.

This world will accept the gifts from your hands and still hate your God! Here’s the scary thing though…you will accept the gift of God’s hands and still reject the God of Scripture.

That’s exactly what the Hebrews did! They knew the truth of God, the truth of Jesus Christ yet rejected it believing that rest could come by other means.

The issue with the Hebrews weren’t that they didn’t know God…it was that the clung to the old and didn’t embrace the new.

They were caught up with the rules and regulation that they had comfort in but not in the freedom of Jesus.

We must continually remind ourselves that the problem with the Hebrews here wasn’t their knowledge of God…they had the law! It was their lack of faith in that knowledge!!!

That is what threatens us today.

The idea that in order to find rest you must conduct yourself the way that you know how to.

The way that this world has taught you through trial and error, pain and suffering, victory and defeat.

So you shelter yourself, hedge, lie, conform, seek your own rather than sacrificing, all in an attempt to get that rest!

There is a rest that you will never experience achieve through your strength, ingenuity and by clinging to your personal comfort.

This rest isn’t something you can will yourself into, no amount of determination can achieve, and no amount of support can help you arrive at....it is the rest of God that only occurs through Jesus Christ.

SO WE MUST EXHORT EACH OTHER!! Meaning call each other alongside ourselves.

It carries with it the connotation to encourage someone to face a situation with courage and bravery.

Advocate for each other. Argue with each other until people are provoked to not go astray!!!

What leads people astray???

The Deception

The thing that robs you from resting in God is the deceitfulness of sin which leads to unbelief

“fall away from the living God.”

There is a hardening that comes from having a knowledge of the truth but then denying it.

One of the most dangerous things to do is to keep getting exposed to truth and then turning to your own methodologies.

This is my fear for the American Christian. We have no problem pointing out obvious sins. We’ll point to the homosexual or the abortionist and say “sinner!”. Truly those are sins. However, we’ll have no problem stuffing our belly in gluttony, selfishly using that promotion to upgrade our home/car/vacation, and then have the nerve to thank God for how comfortable our lives are. That rest didn’t come from God…it came from you!!! This world has done a great job at subtly moving our confidence in God to confidence in items.

Sin is one thing but it is the deception that is the danger.

The deceptiveness of sin is when it presents itself either AS a blessing or it PERVERTS a blessing.

then that deceptiveness hardens you to where you’re not even receptive to the truth anymore. That should terrify you!

This is what happened in the wilderness when the people cried for food, the Lord gave them manna and they horded it!!! (Perversion)

After that the people cried for meat and the Lord gave them quail (as a curse) and then they initially celebrated it until they were sick of it.

Now here we are thinking, in our lives, that the comforts that we have ARE the blessing of God rather than having God himself.

I can know this because once they are removed than so does your REST!

God’s rest is NOT CIRCUMSTANTIAL!!! It is not SITUATIONAL!!

The writer of Hebrews is pleading with them saying “I know you’re being ridiculed and persecuted for not adhering strictly to the law…but you can still find REST in that situation. Don’t harden yourself to the truth of Jesus Christ.”

No one would take poison if it was labeled poison, only when it is mislabeled is it ingested.

The real question is how have you been deceived???

The deception that comes from a physical abuse victim. How that relationship is stronger than a healthy relationship.

“For we have come to share in Christ IF indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end”

The connotation here for “hold” is that it is trying to get away.

This world, your flesh, and the enemy are all trying to get you to place your confidence on something other than Jesus.

Think of the Hebrews that left Egypt…when God first delivered them they sang, worshipped and were in awe.

It happened gradually at first then deception crept in. The awe turned to familiarity then turned to contempt.

INCREASE INTENSITY

INCREASE INTENSITY

Some of you still don’t believe in Jesus Christ!!! I’m not saying for salvation but for REST!!!

BELIEVE!!! Jesus will give you rest!

“they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (v. 19) enter what??? REST!!!!!

The Promised Land was purely the place where God’s rest was going to take place but the land itself wasn’t God’s rest!!!

Listen, JESUS IS THE REFUGE FOR GOD’S REST!!! It isn’t America, your 401(k), your vacations, your jobs, homes, friends, family

BELIEVE IN JESUS!!!!

FINISH WITH INTENSITY

We are a family displaying Christ’s love to Kansas City…why???

Because there are people out there that believe that this world offers them rest…offers them peace and WE KNOW IT DOESN’T!!!

Yet how can we lead them to the rest in Jesus Christ if we’re finding rest in everything that they already desire?

At that point we’re not Christians....we’re simply successful Americans. And that my friends…is the deception of sin.

CALL PRAISE TEAM UP AND CLOSE IN PRAYER.