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[0:00] Amen. You may be seated. Kids, you can be excused to your King's Kids class. And if you would open up, I would ask that everybody open up their pew Bible because there's something I want you to see in an actual Bible this morning to Hebrews chapter 3.

[0:17] I'm going to be preaching on an extended section, but it's on 1188 and 189 of your Bibles. But before I get to preaching, I just want to say, Jenny and I had a great time last weekend at the Weekend to Remember in Madison. And so we are grateful for the time to refresh our marriage.

[0:37] One of our favorite parts was seeing John and Terry Tipman in their element, serving people. We got the sense that God was significantly at work in many people's lives.

[0:51] And if you're wondering what a weekend to remember is, I would just point you to the Tipmans. Would you guys raise your hands? It is designed to help husbands and wives who are getting married or are married.

[1:03] It's an enriching. There's a couple in our area. They're about to happen. It's not too late. Now to Hebrews chapter 3. I'm going to read this extended section.

[1:14] It's one unit. It's one argument. So 3.7 through 4.13. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Take care, brothers, sisters.

[1:53] 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's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

[2:07] 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.

[2:18] 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?

[2:30] Was it not those who had 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.

[2:45] 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. For good news came to us just as to them.

[2:57] But the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we have believed, enter that rest. As he has said, as I swore my wrath, they will not enter my rest.

[3:10] Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said, he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

[3:21] And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore, it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.

[3:33] Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through David, so long afterward, and the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

[3:49] So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his work as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

[4:06] For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

[4:17] And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

[4:29] May God bless the reading of his word. Every Saturday in Kenosha at 10.30 a.m. on the nose, there's the testing of the severe weather warning system.

[4:47] Sirens blare. You can't miss it. In fact, those sirens are tested every Saturday in order to tune your ear, so that when July rolls around, and we have some of these big thunderstorms come in, or tornado watch warning, when those sirens blare, not only do you hear them, but you heed them.

[5:15] You take shelter. If you don't, you're in danger. Now, there's a danger being spoken about in this passage, this extended passage.

[5:28] It's the danger of a hardened heart. A hardened heart is a heart that doesn't care about God. A hardened heart hears God's word, and God's word just bounce off.

[5:46] It's a very dangerous place to be. And what this passage is, is its own warning. The book of Hebrews is one long exhortation to hold fast to Jesus Christ all the way to the end.

[6:02] In Hebrews, the book contains five warning passages. And this morning, we're looking at the second warning passage. The first was in chapter, at the beginning of chapter 2.

[6:12] It's not a blaring siren. It's the Holy Spirit speaking. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

[6:23] When you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. If you chronically, habitually harden your heart to God speaking, you're like the wilderness generation of Israel, who left Egypt but did not enter God's promised rest because of their hardened hearts.

[6:54] No. What we're being called to hear is not to harden our hearts, but to open our hearts. To let God's word penetrate our hearts so that we can strive all the way to the end into God's promised rest.

[7:09] His full, final, and forever rest. And so what I want you to help you to see, I'm going to walk through, is this one extended passage has four alarms in it.

[7:21] It's a four-alarm warning. First alarm is the quote in Psalm 95. The second alarm is an unbelief alarm. The third alarm is a no-entry alarm.

[7:32] And the fourth alarm is a judgment alarm. So today, if you hear God speaking, don't harden your hearts. Open your hearts.

[7:45] Let God's word do God's work. So let's look at this first alarm. The Psalm 95 alarm.

[7:56] And this is in chapter 3, verse 7 through 11. And there's a few things I want you to notice. The first one is this. If you just look at the layout in your open Bible, Pew Bible, you're going to notice something.

[8:11] And so you're going to notice that verses 7 through 11 are indented. And then you see they're indented quotes. And then you'll see another series of indented quotes in verse 15, in verse 4, verse 3, and 4, verse 5, and 4, verse 7.

[8:26] And they're all references back to this original quote from Psalm 95. So you have these quotes that are indented, and then you're followed by blocks of words.

[8:37] And you know what's going on? The writer of Hebrews is taking Psalm 95, 7 through 11, and he is expositing it to the original hearers.

[8:52] He's explaining and applying it to them. So what I want you to see is the nature of this is pretty elegant. This is a written exposition of a section from Psalm 95.

[9:03] The next thing I want you to notice is the location of this warning, the context of it. If you look at 3.6, where Les was preaching last week, we read this, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house.

[9:21] If indeed we hold fast, our confidence and our boasting in our hope. So Jesus Christ, superior to Moses, hold fast to him. That's 3.6.

[9:32] And then I'll look at 4.14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. And so this extended kind of exposition of Psalm 95 is a warning in between a call to hold fast to Jesus in 3.6 and a call to hold fast to Jesus in 4.14.

[9:53] Do you see it? Which means that this is a warning passage. What will keep you from holding fast to Jesus all the way to the end?

[10:08] Now that sheds light on why the author chose Psalm 95, 7 through 11. It's a warning. It's a warning. It's a warning.

[10:24] Psalm 95 was originally written by David. And what David is doing, this is a thousand years before Christ. And David wrote Psalm 95. It starts with this call to worship and ends with a warning.

[10:37] And what he's doing in the warning in verses 7 through 11 is he's taking that warning and he's writing the warning actually to David's generation.

[10:49] But he's looking back on the wilderness generation hundreds of years before. The wilderness generation that came out of Egypt but didn't make it to the promised land. And David is writing this to warn his generation of the failure of that generation.

[11:07] You following? And so what the writer of Hebrews is doing is he's taking David's warning to his people about that generation and now he's using that same thing to warn his generation.

[11:20] And here we are in the 21st century taking that same warning and applying it to us. We've got four generations of God's people here. What happened in the wilderness in verse 8?

[11:37] Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. What was the failure? What happened? Well, if you turn back into Psalm 95 in your Old Testament, you will see that there's actually two places named in Psalm 95 8.

[11:57] Massa and Meribah. There's an event that happened, Numbers 20 at Massa. There's an event that happened in Exodus 17 at Meribah. In both situations, Israel started to grumble and complain because they were in the wilderness and they were like, we just want something to drink.

[12:15] Oh, Moses, you take us off. We want to be back in Egypt. Start getting really mad. They get fighting. God eventually provides water from them in God's gracious fashion.

[12:29] But you know what gets revealed about Israel? They're grumblers. It's a mark of unbelief, of disobedience.

[12:39] In Numbers 13 and 14, do you remember this story where the spies are sent out into Canaan to check out the land? And so Joshua and Caleb were part of that group, guys.

[12:51] They go out. They check it out. They come back. They bring back a cluster of grapes. And Joshua and Caleb are like, let's do it. Let's trust God. Let's go in. But everybody else is like, oh, the people of Canaan, they're just too big.

[13:04] We can't handle them. We can't do this. And they respond in fear, which is another outworking of unbelief. And God, it provoked God.

[13:16] And he said, I will swear in my wrath that this people will not enter my promised land, my promised rest. For 40 years, they provoked him like this.

[13:27] And what it is, it's an example of habitual, settled unbelief. And because of that, God did not allow them into his promised rest of that land.

[13:46] So David has picked this note. So the writer of Hebrews has picked Psalm 95 in order to warn his people, the original audience, of what will happen if there's chronic habitual unbelief among them.

[14:03] God will not allow them into his rest. It's an alarm. It's like a check engine light in your car.

[14:15] Psalm 95 is blinking, 7 through 11. And the question is this morning, are you going to pay attention to it? Are you going to allow Psalm 95 to do its work in your heart? Are you going to allow it to penetrate you? Or is it just going to bounce off you?

[14:29] In fact, Psalm 95, 7 through 11 was not only alarm to David's generation, and then to the original audience of Hebrews, but it's meant to be alarm for us.

[14:40] To say, okay, let's heed these words. Let's not harden our hearts. Let's open our hearts. And did you notice? That it's the Holy Spirit who's saying this in verse 7?

[14:57] The second alarm is the unbelief alarm. And that's in verses 12 through 19 of chapter 3. And the writer begins explaining and applying Psalm 95, 7 through 11 to his original audience.

[15:14] And there's a couple things about this that I want you to notice. There's a warning. In verse 12, it says, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

[15:25] Technically, that take care, technically, it's watch out. Now, keep your eyes open. Watch out, brothers and sisters. Lest there be in any of you an evil and unbelieving heart.

[15:39] Now, biblically speaking, the heart was the center, the controlling center of a person's life. It was the seat of their thinking, of their feeling, of their will.

[15:51] And so whatever reigned supreme in one's heart, that controlled your life. And so if you can imagine evil or unbelief kind of reigning in your heart, it's controlling your life.

[16:04] And so the writer of Hebrews is saying, Hey, remember that Psalm of David and the warning that he gave because of the wilderness generation? Take it to heart. Let there not be evil, habitual evil.

[16:18] It's chronically setting your heart on the very things that grieves God and provokes him to wrath. Watch out for an unbelieving heart.

[16:34] The Greek word for that literally translates into apostasy. Unbelief. It's not a season of doubt or questioning. It's a settled posture of heart.

[16:49] It's a state of being. It's habitual. And so what he's doing here is he's warning. Watch out that there's not this kind of heart, these things controlling your hearts among you that would cause you to fall away from the living God.

[17:08] Remember, this is in between two calls to hold fast to Jesus all the way to the end. Now you might be wondering, Hey, what would I be looking for in myself or in others that would be kind of manifestations of evil in unbelief?

[17:33] Well, you can just point back to the wilderness generation. Grumbling, infighting. Complaining. Fear.

[17:44] Being ruled by fear that God can't act for his people, for the glory of his name and the good of his people. Chronic postures of heart like that.

[17:57] One of the things that Hebrews is going to raise is when God's people don't gather together, we neglect the coming together, that can become a sign of a settled unbelief.

[18:17] The book of Proverbs talks about that this way, 18.1. Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment. These are just some things that evidence a settled posture of heart that is grievous in God's sight.

[18:37] You could call it like a virus. Unbelief, unchecked evil is a virus in a body of Christ, in a church.

[18:48] And the way that you kind of like address it, the antidote for that virus is in verse 13.

[18:58] But exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So we are being exhorted to exhort one another.

[19:11] And if you're wondering what an exhortation is, it's like you're using your words to urge people on. Maybe you've been to a cross-country meet or a marathon.

[19:21] You know someone who's running in them. And what you do is like the person is running, and you go up to a place where they're going to pass. And you're like, you keep on going. You run, run, run, run, run. Give me more cowbell.

[19:32] Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And then they pass you, and then you run to the next place where they will be, and you're like, go, go, go, go, go. Don't give up. You're urging them on.

[19:43] You're exhorting them. You're not going to say, listen to your body. Don't stop running. Don't do it. You're going to tell them, press on. Go to the end.

[19:54] What we're being told to do here is we're to exhort one another. A Christian church spurs one another on.

[20:11] We encourage one another. We exhort one another to not give up, to hold fast to Jesus, to watch out for the deceitfulness of sin. Don't let that rule your heart, but press on to Jesus.

[20:26] It's the priesthood of all believers, brothers and sisters. It's the household of God. It's not just the pastor's job. We're all to be doing it together, to be encouraging one another, exhorting one another.

[20:40] And do you notice we're to be doing this daily, but exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today? That's impressive. It also gets to the sneakiness of sin.

[20:57] Daily, needing to be exhorted. I mean, we gather on a Sunday morning every week to be exhorted by God's word, to press on, to not give up. We send out the word of encouragement to our people in our church every Thursday, to press them on, to encourage them, to not give up.

[21:15] Do you know what? I don't know if you know what this is. This is called a cellular phone. It is a computer. I can send messages to people with it, and I can exhort people with it.

[21:28] I can send, today, fix your eyes on Jesus, dear brother. Today, don't give up. He is worthy. Today, remember Jesus is the treasure hidden in the field. Today, today, run for him.

[21:41] Look for him. Don't give up on him. See? See? We can exhort one another. Daily. It's to keep us from being hardened.

[21:54] The Old Testament talks about it as becoming stiff-necked. I hope you're seeing what's going on. The preventative from hardening your heart to God's word is by being exhorted by God's word.

[22:12] That's the content. We exhort one another with God speaking. We send texts to one another of God's word addressing them.

[22:25] Don't give up. Now, I want you to see something. Do you remember? It's the Spirit speaking in verse 7. And in chapter 1-1, we read, Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his Son.

[22:47] Today, if you hear his voice, Jesus is the incarnate voice of God. One of the greatest ways we can exhort one another is by aiming one another at Jesus, the one we are to hold fast to all the way to the end.

[23:07] He is our great high priest. He's seated on his throne. He has grace to give in time of need. We exhort to him. So there's a warning. There's an exhortation.

[23:22] Unbelief should be alarming. We've got to take these kind of measures in order to kind of prevent it from taking place. There's an assurance in verse 14. It's conditional. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

[23:41] It echoes what we read in chapter 3, verse 6. Notice the writer of Hebrews includes himself. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

[23:58] He's not being presumptuous. He's saying, I'm going to press on and hold fast to Jesus too. One of the things I want to keep on reminding you through this series is that a genuine saving faith is a persevering faith.

[24:19] The way that genuine faith will be ultimately demonstrated is if you follow Jesus all the way through the end. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 24.

[24:35] That those who will be saved will persevere to the end. And so what's being told to us here is yes, there's no denial that Jesus is the anchor of our souls.

[24:47] The focus here is on our responsibility to remain faithful to him. We're to persevere all the way to the end. And when you are holding fast to Jesus, not perfectly but faithfully, it should be a confidence.

[25:05] So how do you know if you are someone holding fast to Jesus or if someone is holding fast or Jesus or not?

[25:16] It's when you exhort them, how do they respond to God's word? Are they hardened in heart? Does it bounce just off? Or does it penetrate their heart?

[25:27] Causing them to strive strive to hold fast to Jesus all the way to the end? What happens in the rest of chapter 3 in verses 15 through 18, we have a series of rhetorical questions that's an example of people who claim to be part of God's people who started but didn't finish.

[25:51] that unbelief kept them from entering God's rest. It's a stark warning.

[26:05] What I want you to notice is in verse 12, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart. See the word unbelieving? And then look at verse 19. So we see that you were unable, that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

[26:19] It's that word unbelief. It bookends this little passage. It's what's being emphasized here. It's an unbelief warning. An alarm. And the way that we address the alarm is by asking the question, oh God, is there unbelief in me?

[26:38] Is there something in my heart that I'm not trusting your word? Either I'm grumbling or complaining or I'm living in fear. I'm overly anxious.

[26:50] I'm withholding myself from fellowshipping with brothers and sisters. Is some kind of unbelief virus in me? And this week, as I've been asking myself the question, God in his grace and mercy showed me some things.

[27:05] Showed me some things. I needed to confess. And so we respond by allowing God's word to do its work, but then we exhort one another with God's word.

[27:17] So we gather on a Sunday morning. We are exhorted by God's word. We listen and read and watch faithful preaching and healthy teaching. Text one another with his voice to spur each other on.

[27:33] Anybody been through an airport security? You know, you walk into the tube thing and this thing goes around you.

[27:43] And then you get flagged and you walk out and then you get wanded. That's how this is functioning.

[27:59] So this passage, this unbelief alarm is like God's word passing over your heart. Beep, beep, beep. Got some unbelief in there?

[28:09] Beep, beep. The way you do it is you confess it. Don't let it bounce off. Let it penetrate. Let God's word do its work.

[28:24] The next alarm is the no entry alarm. And that's in chapter 4, 1 through 11. And what you'll notice is this. Just as unbelief bookended that last passage in verse 12 and 19, we have a phrase bookending this passage.

[28:44] Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, of entering his rest. See that in 4, 1? Now look at 4, 11.

[28:56] Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. So this idea of entering God's rest, it frames this next section so it's a no entry alarm.

[29:13] What will keep you from entering God's rest? Remember, what we're talking about here is not an unbelief that you see and confess to the Lord.

[29:27] we're talking about an unbelief in someone that they will ignore and disregard because they have a hardened heart. They don't care. The question is, what is this rest?

[29:44] What is this rest that it just permeates this passage from verses 4, 1 through 11? It shows up in so many different ways. As I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, verse 3.

[29:58] They shall not enter my rest, verse 5. Verse 8, if Joshua is able to give them rest. 9, there remains a Sabbath rest. What is this rest? Let us strive to enter this rest.

[30:09] What rest are we talking about? It's God's rest. And the writer of Hebrews says something very interesting. He connects it to Genesis chapter 2. Look at verse 3 and 4 of chapter 4.

[30:22] For we who have believed enter that rest. So, belief in Jesus gets us into God's rest where unbelief keeps us out of his rest. And then he says, as he said, as I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

[30:39] For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. So what the Hebrews writer is doing is he's connecting Genesis 2 rest with Psalm 95 rest.

[30:51] What is his rest? What he's saying is God's rest actually began in Genesis 2 when he was finished from his work of creating the world.

[31:06] Just think about Eden. God dwelling with his people, Adam and Eve, in his place. Eden experiencing his peace in his rest.

[31:20] You know, one of my favorite verses is Genesis 3, 8 where God comes a-walking in the cool of the day, calling out for Adam and Eve.

[31:30] It was before their sin. It was a place of perfect peace and rest. Them with God in his finished work of creation.

[31:42] but because of their unbelief and disobedience God removed from his rest and then they had to toil. And we were born into sinful toil.

[31:57] And so that's the, that's where rest began in Eden, right? But then there was another kind of rest promised. rest. In 4, 2, for good news came to us just as to them, the wilderness generation.

[32:14] But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. Verse 6, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, rest, those who formerly received the good news, the wilderness generation, failed to enter because of disobedience.

[32:28] So there was a promise, good news, proclaimed to that wilderness generation. Do you know what it was? I'm going to bring you out of Egypt and I'm going to bring you into Canaan, my promised rest, my promised land, flowing with milk and honey.

[32:44] It is my place. You will dwell with me and we will dwell together and it will be good. We'll be together. You just need to trust and obey me. And they didn't trust and obey him.

[32:57] For 40 years they provoked him. So he swore in his rest or his wrath, you will not enter my rest. No admittance, no thank you, you can't come in here because of your unbelief.

[33:13] And then in Psalm 95, David is talking about a different rest. Because Joshua had brought Israel into the promised land and David wrote Psalm 95 after Joshua.

[33:29] So this is a different kind of rest. The rest of Psalm 95 is addressing a full, final, and forever rest of God.

[33:44] Not in Canaan. The rest that's being talked about here, this God's rest, well it's a rest that still stands.

[33:56] Look at 4.1. While the promise of entering his rest still stands, we can still enter the rest. Look at 4.6.

[34:06] Since therefore it, God's rest, remains for some to enter it. Look at 4.9. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, the new covenant people of God.

[34:18] There remains a rest, brothers and sisters, that we can enter. what is this rest? Well, let's think about this rest in two ways, as a person and as a place.

[34:39] God's rest as a person, Jesus. Here, Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[35:03] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly and hard, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus is rest incarnate. And so our rest as Christians begins with a relationship with Jesus who is alive.

[35:19] we don't have to work anymore for salvation. He's accomplished it for us. He is our peace. But this rest is not just a person, it's a place.

[35:36] Jesus, starting a relationship with him is the beginning of our entrance into God's rest, but the full, final, and forever rest, that's a place.

[35:47] and the writer of Hebrews talks about it. Would you open up to Hebrews chapter 11? Let me just show you a couple spots. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 10.

[36:02] Speaking of Jacob, for he, Jacob, was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. Our full, final, and forever place is a city not built by human hands, built by God.

[36:21] In verses 13 through 16, we see this, these all died in the faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them, this is chapter 11, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, for people who speak thus, make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

[36:41] If they had been thinking of their land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed that he called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

[36:57] The place of full, final, and forever rest. Chapter 12, verse 22, but you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels and festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God, the judge of all, and the spirit of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

[37:20] It's a city. Revelation 21, 22, talk about this heavenly Jerusalem as when after Jesus returns, it descends upon the new earth, and God dwells with his people forever in his place in perfect peace.

[37:41] Peace. Peace. that's God's rest. Starts in a relationship with Jesus, and it comes to fruition in the heavenly Jerusalem.

[37:56] Full, final, and forever peace. Do you remember? Before you became a Christian, God was a threat to you, you were a threat to yourself, relationships were threatening, this creation was threatening with claws and teeth at you, but now what we're looking at is in the new Jerusalem, there is no more threat.

[38:19] Nothing but peace, nothing but rest. With God, with yourself, others, in the seven Siberian tigers I'll have as pets.

[38:33] No threat. Do you know what will keep you out of that? No. Chronic unbelief.

[38:48] Unrepentant, unchecked, unbelief. That's a rejecting of Christ. Jenny, Mary, and me were in New York City this past summer and we were riding the subway and you have this key card and in order to get on the subway you have to go and you'll either get up and you're locked or you'll get a green light and a and so if you have the right key card, you can enter.

[39:30] The right key card is Jesus, the one who died for our sins, the one who's been raised from the dead, the one who sits on his throne, the one who's coming back and we're one day closer.

[39:48] This is a no entry alarm. Do you have Jesus? Are you holding fast to him? Now, today, are you trusting him?

[40:03] There's two responses from this passage itself of how to respond. God's love. We see the one in chapter 4, verse 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.

[40:22] The fear is that someone in this room fails to enter God's rest. That's the fear. Because of unbelief. Because sin had hardened their hearts.

[40:35] Because the other way to respond is in verse 11. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience of the wilderness generation type of unbelief.

[40:54] That strive to enter his rest might sound like an oxymoron in your ears, like a contradiction in terms. But it's what the writer of Hebrews has been saying all along.

[41:06] It's just another way of talking about holding fast to Jesus all the way to the end. Strive to enter that full final and forever rest.

[41:21] The strive means to do your best. What's being talked about here is not minimal what you can do, it's maximal what you do. It's not casually drifting into the new Jerusalem, it's purposefully striding into the new Jerusalem.

[41:43] It's finishing strong, it's doing your best, not because your salvation depends on it, because you have been saved, genuinely, and you're just working it out.

[41:57] This is the no entry alarm. alarm. The last alarm is in chapter three, chapter four, excuse me, verses 12 and 13.

[42:09] And for the sake of time, I just want to point you to two things, that the word of God is living and active. It penetrates.

[42:20] It's sharper than a two-edged sword. The two-edged sword is a sword that was designed for not slicing and cutting, but for piercing. For penetrating, for dividing, for doing deep damage.

[42:35] In this case, deep good. This word of God that pierces dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

[42:49] Do you know what's being described here? It's the opposite of a hard heart. It's not a hard heart that God's word just bounces off because of the hardness and unbelief of the person.

[43:04] No, this is a heart that is open to God's word and says things like, oh God, have your work in me. Show me any unbelief in my heart.

[43:18] Help me put to death what grieves you and would you bring to life faith and obedience. Use your word to deeply address my innermost being so that I can wholeheartedly live for you.

[43:37] This word of God is literally logos of God. And this section begins with 412, for the logos of God and it ends with a logos to whom we must give a logos account.

[43:52] It's framed with word, framed with giving account. And so that last verse, verse 13, is this judgment alarm. All of us in the room will stand before the living God to have to give an account, a word, for every single day of our lives.

[44:12] Every day. For those who strive to enter the new Jerusalem, God's rest, who have opened their hearts for God to do the piercing work of his word that judges our hearts to kill sin and bring to life what pleases the God, that day is not something you fear.

[44:34] That's a day you look forward to, where you hear your Savior say, well done, good and faithful servant. Come, enter the joy, the rest of your master.

[44:49] But for those who have hardened hearts, God is sworn in his wrath, you will not enter his rest.

[45:01] You can't hide from him. You can't pretend you're something you're not. He sees all, everything is revealed before nothing is hidden from his sight.

[45:14] So if you are aware of unbelief in your heart, and God's word is getting through enough where it is registering, what you do is you confess it to him.

[45:27] That's normal Christian course. When God pierces your heart, you confess it to him and that's why 416 is in your Bible. Then we draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and grace in time of need.

[45:44] It turns out we're in need a lot of the time. Do I have an amen? Every Saturday is in Kenosha, 1030 a.m.

[45:56] It's a testing of the weather warning system. Sirens blare. It's a four alarm warning. And today, this day, March 23rd, 2025, are you hearing the warning of God?

[46:16] Are you hearing the Holy Spirit speaking? Are you allowing his words of Psalm 95 to penetrate into the recesses of your heart or are you just going to let him bounce off?

[46:31] If God's word is piercing your heart, exposing your sin of unbelief, ingratitude, neglect of getting together, you know what you do?

[46:42] You thank him for it. It's his kindness to you. it's normal for those striving to enter God's full and final rest. That's normal. So we draw near to him and find grace in that time of need.

[46:57] It keeps our hearts tender. Be warned,! hold fast to Christ all the way to the end.

[47:10] Let's pray. God in heaven, Lord, would you address things in us and purify us, your people, so that we would live wholeheartedly holding fast to you all the way to the end and we're doing that together.

[47:30] God, thank you so much for Hebrews chapter 3, 7 through 4, 13. Would you make much of your word in our lives? In Jesus' name we pray.

[47:41]  Amen. Amen.