[Prayer]
Today’s message is from Hebrews 4:1-13. The NIV give this passage the title A Sabbath Rest for the People of God. It’s really a continuation of the Lord’s warning to make every effort not to fall short of his Sabbath rest from chapter 3.
As always, as we read the passage, remember that we are reading the word of God. He is revealing himself to us through his written word.
When I talk about the word of God... When I encourage you to believe the there is power in the word of God, sometimes I quote Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” That verse is in today’s passage.
Also, as always, I encourage you to read your Bibles every day. Study and meditate on the word of God. Seek to discern what God is telling you. Be diligent. Pray for understanding. Let the word of God (and the Holy Spirit) convict you. Let the word of God show you your heart. And something I usually don’t point out (I assumed it went without saying until Tom pointed out that it doesn’t)... Don’t be hearers of the word only; be doers. (James 1:22) Obey the word of God. Obey God!
Now let’s read the passage—Hebrews 4:1-13:
1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:1-13)
As I said before we read the passage, this is a continuation of the writer’s exhortation to not fall short of God’s Sabbath rest in last week’s passage from chapter 3. In chapter 3 the writer of Hebrews quoted from Psalm 95 )actually, the second half of Psalm 95). I’m going to read it (and notice that he says, “The Holy Spirit says,” not “The writer of Psalm 95 says.”):
7So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,
9where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
10That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
11So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” (Hebrews 3:7-11)
The writer of Hebrews was comparing our situation with the situation of the Israelites when they were in the desert on their way to the land that God had promised them.
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The Egyptians had enslaved them because they were afraid of them—that they might become too powerful and turn against them. But the Lord had promised Abraham over 400 years earlier before there even were any Israelites that he would rescue them from their slavery in Egypt. (Gen. 15:14, 15)
Four hundred and some years lter, the Lord said to Moses, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.” (Exodus 3:7, 8) The Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt to tell him to let the Israelites go.
Everything that happened back then is very much analogous to our own situation. We were rescued from slavery to sin and we are now on our way to heaven. (We even call heaven “the promised land”.) But do you know what happened when Moses told Pharaoh to let the Israelites go? Life suddenly got a lot harder for them. Pharaoh said, “They must not have enough to do. Give them more work.” (I think that when we are deciding to follow Christ, Satan makes it a lot harder for us, too.) In any case Pharaoh finally (after ten plagues) let the Israelites go. They were finally in the desert on their way to the land flowing with milk and honey. But then Pharaoh chased after them with his army. (Satan chases after us, too.) Before the army caught up with the Israelites the Lord stopped the army. They all drowned in the sea. You know the story. The Israelites had to trust God while they were on their way.
As for us, we used to belong to the devil. He didn’t want to let us go either. Nevertheless, we are on our way to heaven. But right now, we are in the desert and we have to trust God while we are on our way.
The quote from Psalm 95 says that the Israelites didn’t trust God to bring them to Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. They rebelled against him. God declared an oath in his anger: “They shall never enter my rest.”
The quote from Psalm 95 starts out, “Today if you hear his voice,...” Psalm 95 was written well after the Israelites were in the desert—hundreds of years before. This was a message to the Israelites after they were in the promised land, it was a message to the Jewish believers who were the recipients of the book of Hebrews and it is a message to us, also: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts!”
You know, the writer of Hebrews, a few verses after he quoted the passage from Psalm 95 back in chapter 3, repeated part of it. Guess what part he repeated: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as they did in the rebellion.” When God says something twice—a message to anybody—a message to us—that means it’s really important! Guess what: God repeated this for the third time in today’s passage: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” That’s in verse 7.
The writer repeated something else from Psalm 95, too: “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”— Very important. For us this is talking about never entering heaven, but going to hell.
The last verse in chapter 3 (in Hebrews) is, “So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” Salvation depends on belief—on trusting God. Do you trust God?
Now let’s look at verses 1 and 2 in today’s passage:
1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. (Hebrews 4:1, 2)
The promise still stands because it’s a different promise from the one made to Abraham and to Moses and to the Israelites thousands of years ago. It’s the promise of salvation from sin and death—the promise of eternal life and righteousness—the promise of becoming like Jesus.
But verse 2 says that you can only receive what has been promised by faith. They had the gospel preached to them and we have the gospel preached to us (gospel means good news by the way, just in case you didn’t know). They had the gospel preached to them and we have had the gospel preached to us. They didn’t receive it by faith. How do we know they didn’t receive it by faith? Because, instead of trusting God, they rebelled. (See. What you do shows your faith. It shows whether you have faith or not.) Let me quote what the apostle Paul (speaking through the Holy Spirit) has to say about the situation of the Israelites in the desert. He is telling us about how God dealt with the rebellion of the Israelites. This is from 1 Corinthians 10:1-11:
1For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3They all ate the same spiritual food 4and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
6Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” 8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did-- and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9We should not test the Lord, as some of them did— and were killed by snakes. 10And do not grumble, as some of them did— and were killed by the destroying angel.
11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10:1-11)
You see? What happened to them in the desert—how God dealt with them—was recorded to provide warnings for us. And Paul says “for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come”. We are talking about God’s kingdom and about eternal life—the fulfillment of the ages. The Israelites who rebelled in the desert didn’t make it to Canaan. And we may be in danger of not making it to heaven!
Verse 1 in the NIV translation of today’s passage says, “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” Be careful in the NIV translation is literally be afraid. All the other translations I looked at say, “Let us fear...” It’s really serious! Let us fear!
Verse 10 in the 1 Corinthians passage says, “And do not grumble, as some of them did— and were killed by the destroying angel.” I need to be especially careful about this verse. I grumble. Do you grumble? Do you complain about things that happen to you that you weren’t planning on? Did “circumstances” do it to you? God is sovereign over all circumstances. When you grumble, you are grumbling against God! Don’t grumble!
But did you notice that Jesus was with them in the desert? Verse 4 says, “[they]drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” We have Christ with us right now, too! They apparently didn’t recognize him. We do!
Now let’s look at verse 3 in today’s passage:
3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world.
“We who believe enter that rest.” I think that, actually, this part of the verse is parenthetical. (The HCSB renders it that way.) The writer’s point is that the Israelites didn’t enter God’s rest because of their unbelief, but we are entering God’s rest.
Now let’s look at verses 4 through 8:
4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. (Hebrews 4:4-8)
The point is that we have a rest that’s much better than the rest that the Israelites had when they finally entered the land of Canaan. Verse 8 says that if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day, “today, if you hear his voice”. Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan but he was not able to give them eternal salvation. The rest we are entering into is the rest of eternal salvation, the rest of no more sorrow or pain or suffering or tears, but of healing and of rejoicing in the Lord’s presence. That’s a much better rest than the rest the Israelites had! Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
Now let’s look at verses 9 through 11:
9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9-11)
Verse 10 says that anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work. I don’t think that the rest in verse 10 is the rest of “when we all get to heaven”, but rather our rest here and now. When we accept God’s salvation by faith, we rest (rest, by the way, in Greek means stop working). When we accept God’s salvation by faith, we rest from trying to work for our salvation and trust that God has provided the necessary work, the work that Jesus has done by letting himself suffer and be put to death in our place. (We and our are plural, by the way, not the generic we and our that refer to each of us as individuals. Jesus died for all of us. There used to be a saying that went around: “If you were the only person on earth, Jesus would still have died for you.” Maybe, but you aren’t and it doesn’t say anything like that in the Bible. Jesus died for all of us and for the sins of the whole world, in fact.) Anyway, the bottom line is that we don’t have to earn our salvation. That’s a big relief, isn’t it?
Verse 11 says, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” Let us stop trying to work for our salvation so that we fall by following their example of disobedience! Let us trust Jesus for salvation.
Let’s look at verses 12 and 13:
12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12, 13)
God knows our hearts. He also reveals what’s in our hearts to us through his word. It’s God’s Holy Spirit by whom we are sealed for the day of redemption who points these things out to us. God knows everything that’s going on everywhere. (Accepting that by faith is a big help in your ongoing sanctification, too.) God is the Judge but he is also the Savior!
(When I was a little kid and I’d do something I shouldn’t have done, and when I’d ask my mom how she knew, she’d say. “Oh, a little bird told me.” She knew me, but God know us much better!)
Well, I’m going to finish by reading all of Psalm 95 from the book of Psalms. The writer of Hebrews quoted the second half of it. I’m going to quote the second half of it first and then the first half. Listen:
7bToday, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
9where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.”
11So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” (Psalm 95:7b-11)
Now listen to the first part:
1Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
3For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
4In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
6Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. (Psalm 95:1-7a)
[Prayer]