Entering God's Rest

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

If you’re like me, you rarely read the warning labels on products. But perhaps that’s a shame because they can actually be a source of a good laugh. Here are some actual warning labels found on products you may use:

[Pictures of warning labels]

Tension

Today we will look at a warning that is far more serious and far more important. Today’s passage begins the second of the “warning passages” that we will run into during our study of the book of Hebrews. Hopefully you’ll remember that when we looked at the first of those warning passages at the beginning of chapter 2, we talked about the fact that there are several different schools of thought regarding how we should approach these passages.

I am going to approach this passage the same way I did that first warning passage. As we come to these warning passages I become more and more convinced that the writer of Hebrews intends for these passages to be used pastorally. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Every week when I preach I know that I am speaking to people who are at all different places in their walk with Jesus. There may be some who are just being introduced to Jesus for the first time. There are some who have been exposed to the gospel and understand it intellectually, but who have never made a genuine commitment to make Jesus the Lord of their lives as well as their Savior. There are some genuine disciples of Jesus who are struggling in their walk, either because of some trial or even because of some sin that they can’t seem to get past. And finally, there are some who are doing pretty well right now, but who are nonetheless in danger of drifting away from Jesus or being caught up in some sin. While different messages I preach may tend to address one or more of these groups more than the others, I do my best to make sure there is something that everyone can take away to help them in their walk with Jesus.

I think the writer of Hebrews is doing the same thing here. While he is undoubtedly writing primarily to those who are genuine disciples of Jesus but who are considering going back to their old Jewish faith, his message is also being heard by those who would fit into the other groups I just mentioned.

I say all that because I believe with all my heart that the message today, perhaps more than almost any other message I’ve preached in quite some time, has something for every single one of us today, regardless of which group we might be in. So my prayer is that you would listen attentively and ask God to help you respond appropriately. With that in mind, we’re now ready to read today’s passage.

Truth

Hebrews 3:7–19 ESV

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.

Before we identify the main idea from this passage, I want to point out what is undoubtedly one of the most important principles we can take away from this passage, but which we could easily miss. The author begins this section with these words:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says...

First, the verb “says” is a present tense verb so he is pointing out that the Holy Spirit is speaking right at that point in time. But how is the Holy Spirit speaking? Anyone want to take a stab at answering that?

That’s right - He is speaking through the Scriptures, specifically through the last part of Psalm 95, which the author quotes here. So, we have confirmation of an important principle that we talked about in our last sermon series. The Bible is not just a bunch of words written down by its human authors. Every word of it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, essentially we can rely on the Bible because God Himself is the author.

With that in mind, let’s identify the big idea we’ll explore today:

Unbelief will always keep me from entering God’s rest

To me, this is one of the most fascinating passages in the Bible. Think about this. Today we ware studying a passage of Scripture that was written almost 2,000 years ago, but it is just as relevant for us today as when it was written. In that passage, the author is quoting from Psalm 95, a Psalm which had been written by David over 1,000 years before that and he is using that passage to teach the audience to which he writes. And in Psalm 95 David described events that occurred in the life of Israel over 400 years prior to the time he wrote that Psalm to teach those who read the Psalm in his day. So essentially we are learning today from events that happened around 3,500 years ago.

Since his audience would have been familiar with both Psalm 95 and the events that are referenced there, the author doesn’t really go into much detail here. But he is covering a lot of ground in only a few sentences. Unfortunately I don’t have time this morning to describe these events in detail, so I’ll try to give you enough of an overview so you can understand how those events apply to us.

Psalm 95 is primarily dealing with the people of Israel after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. But even though the people had witnessed miracle after miracle, it wasn’t long before they began to complain to God about their lack of lack of food and water. So God miraculously provided manna, quail and water. But still the people rebelled and complained.

But God remained faithful to His promises. When He promised to give His people rest in the Promised Land, the people didn’t really believe or trust God, so they sent spies into the land. And 10 of the 12 spies came back and basically talked the rest of the people out of taking the land that God had promised to them. So instead of entering the Promised Land, an entire generation was sentenced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and die rather than entering the Promised Land and enjoying God’s rest. Only Joshua and Caleb, the 2 spies who urged the people to take the land God had promised, remained alive and entered the land.

This is just once more proof that Jesus is superior to Moses. Even Moses disobeyed God and as a result he failed to enter the Promised Land himself and he also failed in leading God’s people to enter. Jesus, on the other hand, always leads those who trust in Him to experience God’s rest.

In our remaining time, I want to do two things. First, I want to call your attention to 2 key truths that will help us to understand and apply this passage appropriately and accurately. Then I want to talk about what this passage teaches about how to avoid the kind of unbelief that will keep us from experiencing God’s rest.

KEY TRUTHS

The root of all sin is unbelief

Right after quoting Psalm 95, the author gives this command:

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart...

We see here that the heart of the issue is an issue of the heart. The reason that the people of Israel had disobeyed God and rebelled against Him in the wilderness is because of their unbelief. They didn’t really believe that God had their best interests at heart and that being obedient to Him was the very best thing for them.

And just to make sure that his audience doesn’t miss that point, the author comes back and repeats this idea again at the end of the passage:

…they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Beginning in the Garden of Eden, every sin that man commits is a result of not believing God in some way. Adam and Eve refused to believe that the best thing for them was to obey God and not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They thought they knew better than God.

And the same thing is still true in my life and in yours.

If I commit sexual sin, it is ultimately because I don’t believe that God’s plan for sex within the marriage of one man to one woman is what’s best for me.

If I buy things I don’t need with money I don’t have and get myself into debt that I’m unable to repay, it is ultimately because I don’t believe that God will do what He promised and meet my needs.

If someone harms me in some way and I try to seek revenge and refuse to forgive, it us ultimately because I don’t believe that handling the situation like Jesus commanded is the right thing to do.

If I try to earn favor with God through my own good works rather than trusting in Jesus, it is ultimately because I don’t believe Jesus when He said He is the only way to God.

“Rest” does not equal salvation

I am convinced that this is where a lot of people go wrong in trying to explain and apply this section of Scripture. We’re going to talk more about the nature of the rest that is written about here next week, when we get to chapter 4. But for now, I want to show that “rest” does not equal salvation. And why is that important? Because if God’s rest is the same thing as salvation, that means that the penalty for rebelling against God, is a loss of one’s salvation, even for those who have genuinely placed their faith in Jesus. And, as I shared with you a few weeks ago, from my perspective, that just doesn’t line up with the rest of Scripture.

So let me ask you a question that we tossed around in our study on Monday morning:

Were the Israelites who rebelled against God and who did not get to enter the Promised land “saved”?

We don’t have time to get into a detailed discussion of whether people in the Old Testament could actually be “saved” and if so, how that happened. But what we I can tell you for sure is that God did forgive those who had rebelled against Him.

Numbers 14:20–23 ESV

20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

God clearly says that He had forgiven the people who had rebelled against Him. But He is also clear that there is a consequence to their disobedience - they will not enter His rest.

It’s also important to recognize that Moses experienced exactly the same consequence as the rest of the people. Because of his disobedience in striking the rock rather than just talking to it, he was also prevented from entering the rest of the Promised Land. But, as Ryan pointed out last week, Moses is included in the “faith hall of fame” in Hebrews 11. So I can’t imagine that anyone would argue that his disobedience cost him his “salvation”. But it certainly cost him the blessings of God’s rest in the Promised Land.

So while I am confident in saying that this section is not in any way saying a genuine believer can lose his or her salvation, it is clear that our disobedience does come with a great cost - the loss of blessings that accompany obedience.

I hope that these two truths help you to understand why...

Unbelief will always keep me from entering God’s rest

That is true regardless of where you are in your walk with Jesus. If you’ve never committed your life to Jesus, that unbelief will keep you from the rest that accompanies “salvation”. If you have committed your life to Jesus, you won’t lose your salvation, but you will very likely miss out on His blessings, and as we’ll see in chapter 12, you may incur His discipline.

Application

So let’s see what we can learn about...

HOW TO GUARD AGAINST UNBELIEF

Spend consistent time in the Bible

I know you’re probably really surprised at this principle since it is one we’ve never talked about before, right? Seriously, there is a reason that we constantly come back to this idea over and over. Reading the Bible in a systematic manner on a consistent basis is the key to developing a right belief in God.

In Psalm 95, David revealed the underlying reason that the people rebelled against God:

...”They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways...

The people had developed unbelieving hearts because they did not know God’s ways. And nothing has really changed in the nearly 3,000 years since David wrote those words.

So how do we get to know God’s ways? While there might be a number of ways we can do that, God’s primary method of revealing His ways to us is through the Bible. As we talked about earlier, every word in the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit speaking to us. And as He speaks, He reveals God’s heart.

So one of the questions we should always be asking as we read the Bible is “What does this reveal to me about God’s purposes, plans and ways?” If we’ll come God’s Word with that thought in mind, it will help us to better understand God’s ways. And the better we understand His ways, the more likely we are to believe in Him and obey Him.

Obey even when it doesn’t make sense to me

I’m sure for the Israelites, they were eager to get free from the bondage in Egypt, but the way God did that probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense to them. I mean their leader was a guy who had to hide for 40 years after committing murder. And after a whole string of plagues they had to escape the final plague by putting blood on the doorposts of their houses. And then they had to cross through the Red Sea and finally wander around in the wilderness, depending on God to send them food and provide water as they prepared to enter into the land that God had promised them. It’s easy to understand why they had such a hard time believing God and obeying Him.

Let’s face it, still today there are some things in the Bible that are not only counter to our culture, but they just don’t make sense to us from a human perspective.

It’s not natural to turn the other cheek when someone wrongs us.

It’s not in our nature to put the interests of others ahead of our own.

It doesn’t make sense that the way we get right with God is to trust in someone who died on the cross and then rose from the dead.

But if we believe that God is powerful and wise and loves us and has our best interests at heart, then we can choose to obey even those things that don’t make sense to us.

Confess and repent quickly

When the new shade structure was installed last year, I watched them pour the concrete for the slab. when that concrete first came out of the mixer, it was wet and mushy. But as the workers continued to work and finish the slab, that concrete eventually became hard. But it took hours for that to happen and it wasn’t fully cured for days.

Our hearts are a lot like that concrete. We are warned in this passage not to allow our hearts to be hardened. But that is not something that happens all at once. It takes time for our hearts to harden. The first time we reject God and His ways, it might be something that seems insignificant. But the more we do that, the easier it becomes to rebel against God. And if we do that enough, eventually our hearts become hardened.

That’s what happened to the Israelites. They didn’t reject God completely at first. They began by complaining when the Egyptians closed in on them at the Red Sea. Next they grumbled about the water and food. Eventually their hearts became so hardened that the majority failed to do their part in taking the land that God had promised to them.

The way we avoid developing that same kind of hardened heart is to make sure that we keep short accounts with God. We need to let His Word speak into our lives and reveal our sin. We need to pray and ask God to show us our sin. And as soon as we become aware of that sin, we must confess it and take practical steps to make sure it doesn’t become a lifestyle that hardens our hearts.

Be my “brother’s keeper”

This is an idea that we’ll be coming back to frequently in the Book of Hebrews. One of the surest ways to develop a hard heart and become disobedient is to isolate ourselves. But in verse 13, we find this command:

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.

As we see here, sin is deceitful. And so it often goes unrecognized in our lives. So we often need other brothers and sisters who will come into our lives and help us to see that sin.

But obviously we need to do this with the right attitude. Our goal is not to “catch” someone else in their sin so that we can feel better about ourselves or superior to that other person. Paul describes the attitude that we need to have in this process:

Galatians 6:1 ESV

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

In the church, we definitely ought to be our “brother’s keeper”. The responsibility for the spiritual health of our body belongs to all of us - not just to me and Ryan and the Elders. If we truly love our brothers and sisters in Christ then we will do all that we can to keep them from developing a hardened heart that will cause them to miss out on the blessings God has for them.

Action

As I mentioned at the beginning of this message, this passage speaks to all of us regardless of where we are in our walk with Jesus. So as we close, let me encourage all of us to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and respond appropriately today:

If you have never committed your life to Jesus Christ, then you desperately need to do that today. He is the only way you can be made right with God and experience His rest.

There may be some of you joining us today that honestly think that you are disciples of Jesus. Maybe you grew up in a Christian home so you think that automatically makes you a Christian. Maybe you prayed the prayer that someone told you would make you a Christian. Maybe you think that just coming to church on a regular basis or putting something in the offering plate makes you a Christian.

But if you evaluate your life honestly, you realize that your life bears no evidence that you really believe God to the point that you desire to be obedient to Him. If that is true of your life, then today you need to make a genuine commitment to surrender your life to Jesus and put Him in charge of your life.

Probably the majority of you have already done that. You have made a genuine commitment and put your faith in Jesus alone. You really are doing your best to let Jesus control your life. But maybe you’re struggling with some command in the Bible that you just don’t agree with or maybe you’re trying really hard to get control over some sin in your life. While you’re not going to lose your salvation because of that, you are missing out on the blessings that come with obedience and you are setting yourself up for God’s discipline.

If that describes your life, then you need to confess your sin to God and repent by taking concrete steps to make sure that sin doesn’t become a lifestyle that robs you of God’s rest.

Finally, there are probably some of you who have pretty smooth sailing in your life. Your relationship with Jesus is going well and you are growing in maturity. You’re not going through any major trials or struggling with some sin and so you are experiencing God’s rest first hand. If that’s true, I can assure you that you are not immune from the kind of disbelief that will rob you of that rest. So be diligent to keep on doing those things that will keep you from falling.

Inspiration

Most of us are probably smart enough that we really don’t need the warning labels that we looked at at the beginning of the message. But the warning that we’ve looked at this morning is a serious matter because none of us want to miss out on God’s rest. The good news is that we don’t have to.