Money and success won't make you happy or content.
!
I was rich. I had everything.
I guess it's like the old songs about movie and pop stars who want to commit suicide.
They have everything and yet they are so unhappy.
It is true. I had nothing on the inside.
We could quote film star after music icon after business tycoon and they would have a similar tale.
All the money, no peace.
All the success, no contentment, no satisfaction.
Mick Jagger was right all those years ago.
Mick Jagger was also right that we try and we try and we try to find it in all the same places.
We still believe that money and success are the answer.
Because we believe that we are the exception to the rule.
You see, money and success won't make you happy and content.
It's advice that we hear all the time but we think that we would actually be okay with it.
If we were trusted with it, if we had money, if we had success, we wouldn't fall for those old trip wires that everyone else tripped over.
All the testimonies are the same.
They don't work.
You get money, they solve one problem, they create another.
You get success, it solves one problem, it creates many others.
We think though that we're the exception.
If we just had those things, we'd be content.
We'd be happy.
We would have that inner peace that we're all striving for.
And so we just follow the same path.
It is, when you think about it, the definition of madness.
And part of the reason it is just so crazy, so crazy to live that way, so crazy to continue down the same path that everybody says don't make you happy, don't deliver contentment.
And the people that have got the things that we think if we had them, they'd make us content, they say it doesn't make you content.
The reason why it is so crazy to live this way is that actually satisfaction and contentment and peace and joy are actually available.
You see, the longings that we have for these things aren't some cruel trick that our hearts play on us.
Those desires and longings that are there exist because in God's design, there is actually a way that they can be met.
And that is in relationship with Him.
You see, we were made for God.
And it's true.
All of us know this.
The Christian life is beset in the present by frustration and struggle.
Yes.
However, many of us, most of us, if we're absolutely honest with ourselves, we know that those who follow Christ can and do know contentment of some degree and joy of some degree in our lives.
But more than that, we know that those things in their fullness, contentment and joy and peace, those things in their fullest sense are our future.
That's what the writer to the Hebrews is describing when he talks about rest in our passage this evening.
Quoting Psalm 95, talking about God's people in an earlier generation, he says, chapter 3, verse 11,
As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
He talks again in 4, verse 3.
Can you see?
The good news came to, for he who has believed, for we who have believed, enter that rest.
As he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest.
The rest that the they that he's talking about failed to receive was the peace and prosperity of Canaan, the promised land.
But the writer to the Hebrews is applying this to his first century hearers and the future that they look forward to.
He is holding out to them, entering his rest.
His rest is the state that God is in eternally.
You see, before God created the world, he was at rest.
That's how he describes his perfect communion of love and joy as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He entered time to create our world, his work of creation.
And when he had completed that work, he rested.
So one commentator says this, quote,
The goal of human existence, here it is, here's why we all exist.
The goal of human existence is a share in God's own glory.
It is stated explicitly in chapter 2, verse 10, that God is leading, do you remember last week, many sons to glory.
And this must mean a share in God's own way of existing, a participation in God's own presence and power.
This rest is therefore to live as God lives, end quote.
Life in the presence of the supremely wonderful, supremely joyful, supremely content God.
That's actually what we talk about when we talk about eternal life.
You know, when we talk to people about, put your faith in Jesus Christ and you'll receive eternal life.
That can sound a bit like you'll receive existence for a very long time.
Now, eternity is a very long time.
But that is what we're talking about when we talk about the life of eternity.
When we come to Christ, this is what we receive.
This is what we look forward to.
Life in the presence of the supremely wonderful, joyful, content God.
And the perfect fullness of this, and the full experience of this,
is what we look forward to as God's children, as we were described last week as brothers of Jesus.
Now, for most of us, that future day is a long way off.
At least we hope it's a long way off.
And this text reminds us that if we're going to partake of this rest, we need to persevere to the end.
Chapter 3, verse 6.
Can you see?
And we are Christ's house, that is, we belong to Him,
if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Look down 3, verse 14.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
He's saying you've got to keep going.
If you want this rest, you've got to keep going.
But the truth is, like these first hearers, we're beset by temptation.
Temptation from within, temptation from without.
And the thought of struggling on for 2 or 3 or 4 or hopefully 5 or 6 more decades,
well, it feels like an impossible task.
Yes, we want the contentment.
We want the joy.
But how do we get there?
That's the question that we're dealing with this evening.
The contentment, the joy, the rest, sharing in the presence and the power of God.
That is what is held out to us.
That's what we're looking forward to.
How do we get there?
Well, Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us.
The answer runs right through these chapters, and it's this.
We get there by faithfulness.
We get there by choosing faith and choosing obedience to Christ
and by rejecting the alternative, which is unbelief.
To make this point, Hebrews has us learn the lesson of history,
the history of God's people.
And the author says first,
If we're going to get there,
first of all, we must hold fast to the faithful son.
We must hold fast to the faithful son.
That's chapter 3, verses 1 to 6.
3, verse 1.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
who was faithful to him, who appointed him,
just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.
For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
As those who are in Christ's family,
we are called to consider or to contemplate Jesus.
And to do so because he is both, do you see,
our apostle and our high priest.
Now, that's an interesting phrase
because it's the only place in the Bible
where Christ is called an apostle.
The word we heard this morning means sent one.
So an apostle is sent,
and he is sent with the authority and the commission of the one who does the sending.
So Christ's apostle, apostles, the 12,
they were sent out by him and they had his authority.
That's what we saw in Acts 9 this morning.
Here, though, Christ is the apostle.
So what's going on there?
Well, it is he has been sent by God the Father
and represents God to us.
At the same time, he's also called our high priest.
That is, as one of us,
he is to represent us to God.
The priests were chosen from among the people
and stood before the people to represent them to God.
So for Christ to be our apostle and high priest
means that he represents God perfectly to us
and us perfectly to God.
So when it comes to thinking about your standing before God,
in Christ you have one who has been faithful to his calling
and he has done all that you need.
Boys and girls, how much is left for you to pay?
Zero.
He has done all that you need.
And that, I want to say, just to be clear,
that is where our journey to glory, to rest, must start.
If you want to know God,
if you want to be in relationship to the God of all the earth,
you need to put your faith in Jesus.
One of the most compelling invitations that Jesus makes
during his earthly ministry
is when he calls people who were stubbornly rejecting him
in Matthew chapter 11.
And he says this,
very familiar to many of us.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
That's the offer.
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.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Rest for your soul.
No religious system.
No secular vision of life.
No spiritual practice can give you this deep, enduring soul rest.
But because he is a faithful apostle and high priest,
Jesus restores us to the relationship where this rest is available.
That's why, in the context of chapter 3, he is greater than Moses.
Remember, Moses is the great hero of those who want to go back to the old shadows of old covenant Judaism.
The author uses the image of a house.
3 verse 4,
Remember at the start of this series,
I talked about this lesser to the greater argument,
that you see again and again and again in the book of Hebrews.
Here it is again.
So he's not saying,
Moses was bad,
Jesus is good,
old covenant bad,
new covenant good.
Both are described, you see here, as faithful.
Moses was faithful in all God's house.
Christ is faithful over God's house.
Both are faithful.
But Moses was a servant in God's house.
Therefore, how much more greater,
and worthy of glory is Christ as a son.
Moses was faithful as a servant.
His ministry pointed forward to Christ.
Christ is greater than Moses because he brings a better, fuller salvation.
We see this in that Christ is both the builder of God's house and Lord over the house.
And the house that he's talking about here,
the house that he built,
was composed of people.
Do you remember in 1 Peter chapter 2,
as you come to him,
a living stone rejected by men,
but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
you yourselves,
like living stones,
are being built up as a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
He's talking to a congregation of the people of God
and he's saying,
you're a spiritual house.
You're building blocks that have been built together
into God's house.
When it comes to the Christian house,
there are three classes of people.
Some are never in the house.
They have no interest in the house.
They don't go to the house.
They don't knock the door or nothing.
They're never in the house.
Others look like they're in the house for a while.
They behave like they belong for a time,
but then they walk away.
Then there are those who truly belong,
the elect of God.
And they are those,
verse 6 of chapter 3,
who remain holding fast their confidence to the end.
See what he's saying?
Jesus is greater than Moses,
so hold fast to the faithful son.
So you go from here.
I say to you,
hold fast to the faithful son.
You say,
great,
I'm going to hold fast to the faithful son.
What does that look like?
Thanks for asking.
Point number two,
here's what we do.
Cultivate a faithful heart.
If the first point is,
he says,
hold fast to the faithful son.
The second point,
how do we do that?
We cultivate a faithful heart.
And there are two key aspects
of what this means.
The first is this.
Heed God's word today.
You can't miss the refrain from Psalm 95
running all the way through.
Chapter 3, verse 7.
Chapter 3, verse 15.
Chapter 4, verse 6.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts,
as in the rebellion.
The word today, here,
is used most often
in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy,
where the people are told
of the demands of the covenant
on them today.
Deuteronomy 4,
particularly,
repeated there.
Here,
the book of Hebrews,
God is speaking by his son.
Remember,
chapter 1, verse 1.
And again,
chapter 3, verse 7,
by his spirit,
through the scriptures.
And because God is outside of time,
his word is always today.
And the emphasis here
on listening,
hearing,
and responding in faith
is to us in the moment.
You see,
this is not what the people
in the wilderness did.
Look at verse 8.
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 40 years.
Therefore,
I was provoked
with that generation
and said,
they always go astray
in their heart.
They have not known my ways.
I said at the beginning,
the author here
is taking us
on a history lesson,
as it were,
from the people of God
under the old covenant.
And he's saying,
when the people of old
rebelled against God,
they were faithless
in three ways.
He outlines it there.
Verse 8,
they hardened their hearts.
In the Bible,
the heart is the seat
of both knowledge
and choice.
And to speak of it
being hardened in this way
is to describe
a conscious choice
to refuse to hear
and to refuse
to obey God's word.
That's what it means.
A hard heart,
that's how a hard heart
is expressed,
to refuse to hear
and obey God.
Secondly,
their hearts
went astray.
Verse 10,
this has the sense
of allowing their hearts
to wander morally,
to be led off
after sin and foolishness.
Their decision was,
actually over here
looks better,
I'm going to go
in this direction.
I'm going to believe
the promises
of the culture over here
and I'm going to go
in that direction.
Their hearts went astray
and then thirdly,
they saw,
verse 10,
three verse 10,
and they saw God's ways
and ignored them.
See,
he says there,
they have not known
my ways.
Their not knowing there
isn't about ignorance,
isn't about knowledge.
They saw what God did
among his people.
They knew that he had
given them his law
for how they should
live to please him.
It's about rebellious
disobedience.
It's about saying,
I know what God says
and I'm going to do
something else.
And that's what
the people did.
God was speaking today,
in the moment,
in the present,
and that was how
the people responded.
They were faithless
rather than faithful.
And that is why
he was angry
with that generation.
That is why
he refused
to bring them
into his rest.
That is why
they did not get
to the rest
that lay ahead of them.
And our author
applies the same
warning to the Hebrews
as he does to us
today.
3 verse 12.
Take care,
brothers,
lest there be
in any of you
an evil,
unbelieving,
that is,
faithless 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.
He's saying,
watch out.
If you refuse
the word of God,
if you don't receive
it with faith,
if you consistently
choose folly,
making bad choices
that lead you
away from God,
and if knowing
how God's word
calls you to live,
you choose another
route,
you're in danger
of falling away
from Christ.
Watch out.
So,
we need to take
an honest heart check,
don't we?
If you play around
with sin,
you cannot expect
to persevere
to glory.
You will fall
away.
You will forfeit
your rest,
just like
3, 16 to 18,
those in the Old Testament.
Their example is
very sobering.
Look at verse 16.
For those,
for who were those
who heard
and yet rebelled?
Was it not all
those who left
Egypt,
led by Moses?
Who was it
that rebelled?
Some who'd
experienced
the glories
of the Exodus.
They'd seen
firsthand
the miraculous
rescue through
the Red Sea.
God had done
great things
in their time.
But they hardened
their hearts
and wandered away
and so fell
in the desert.
You hear people
say from time
to time,
if God just
turned up
and showed
himself in a
miraculous way
in my life,
well then,
I would absolutely
follow him
no matter what.
That's what I want.
If he did that,
then I'd be able
to believe
and I wouldn't
be so faithless
or I wouldn't
struggle in the
way that I do.
Well,
that's not true.
That's not true
because those
who left
Egypt,
led by
Moses,
did the same.
Imagine talking
to one of them.
Say to them,
were you actually
there?
Did you see
the sea part?
Oh yeah,
I walked
through the Red Sea.
Dry land.
We got to the
other side,
we all sang hymns.
Thinking back
actually,
it was quite a
thing now that
you mention it.
Well,
that's quite a
story to tell.
Do they get you
up at church
to share that
and talk about
what it was like?
Well,
I don't really
go to church
anymore,
to be honest.
It was a bit
tough in those
early days in the
wilderness.
We had some
struggles as a
family and to be
honest,
I found the
preaching after a
while didn't
really connect
with me.
Plus,
we were trying
to make things
work and I
needed to provide
and I was
working very hard.
I needed to be
on the road a
fair bit.
looking back
now,
it was quite
impressive,
but I'm in a
different place
now.
Is that even
possible?
It sounds
absurd,
doesn't it?
That's what
Hebrews tells us
happens.
That's how
deceitful our
hearts can be.
None of us
can presume
on past
experience
or the
soundness
of our
church.
These guys
heard Moses
preach to them.
or the
ministers
we've heard.
These guys
heard Moses
preach to them.
Whatever it
might be that
we think,
well,
because I
grew up in
that family
or I went
to that
church or
was part
of that
group or
I read
that translation
of the
Bible or
whatever it
might be,
we cannot
presume on
the basis
of those
things that
we are in
the right
with God.
How do
you know
that you're
in the right
with God?
You hear
his voice
and today
you heed
what it
says
and you
follow it
wherever it
leads
no matter
what.
That's
actually the
basis of
what it
means to
believe.
Chapter 4
verse 3,
have a look.
4 verse 3,
for good news
came to us
just as them,
them being a
wilderness
generation,
but the
message they
heard did
not benefit
them because
they were not
united by faith
to those who
listen.
For we who
have believed
enter that
rest.
the root
of all
of our
problems
is that
we believe
other things
over God's
word.
He speaks
to us in
scripture.
Today we
open it up
and we
read it
and then we
do what our
first parents
did in the
garden.
We say,
did God
really say
that thing?
Does what
appears to be
absolutely
crystal clear
and obvious
here really
mean what it
says?
because you
know,
I really
like living
this way
and what I
read here
seems to
rule that
out,
so it
can't mean
that.
There are
scandalous
and really
obvious ways
that people
do that,
but all of
us,
if we're
honest with
ourselves,
are tempted
in that
direction.
We battle
hard,
wandering,
faithless
hearts,
and so we
need to
watch out.
God's voice
has never been
more accessible
to us
than it is
now.
You can
listen to
it,
you can
read it,
you can
access it
in all
kinds of
different
formats,
listen to
it today
and heed
what it
says.
Now the
author knows
heed God's
word today,
that's how
you cultivate
a faithful
heart,
that's the
first step,
but the
author knows
that we
can't do
this on
our own,
and he
doesn't
expect us
to either.
The second
aspect of
cultivating a
faithful heart,
313,
exhort one
another every
day as long
as it is
called today,
that none
of you may
be hardened
by the
deceitfulness
of sin.
The first
aspect of
cultivating a
faithful heart
is heed
God's word
today,
the second
is heed
God's word
together.
You were
never meant
to make
the pilgrimage
to glory,
to your rest
on your own,
because you
wouldn't be
able to do
it on your
own.
Some of you
think you
will,
but you're
wrong,
sin is really
deceitful,
and we are
all really
prone to
being self
deceived.
The house
that God
built is
the church.
If you
belong to
that house,
you should
belong in a
meaningful way
to a local
church.
We all
need to
belong to
a group of
people who
will exhort
us every
day that
God gives
us breath.
As long
as there
are days
called
today,
we need
one another
to exhort
us towards
a deeper
and a more
faithful
devotion to
him.
alongside
that,
the clearest
foretaste
of that
future
rest is
experienced
now when
we gather
each
Lord's
Day.
4 verse
9,
there remains
a Sabbath
rest for
those who
have entered
the rest
of belonging
to Christ.
You enter
your rest
when you
put your
faith in
Jesus,
but there
remains a
Sabbath
rest that
future
day,
and it
is on
the Lord's
Day when
we come
together
under the
preaching of
God's
Word.
Look at
chapter 4
verse 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.
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.
Where is
the two-edged
sword of
God's Word
unleashed in
the context
where God
has promised
that he
will visit
that by
his Spirit?
It is when
the church
gathers.
And it is
here where
that work
is going
on,
where the
Spirit of
God
recalibrates
our hearts
to keep
us going
so that we
make it
to glory.
I want to
suggest that
the main
today of
Hebrews 4
is the
today of
the Lord's
Day.
There is
nowhere more
important than
you can be
on a Sunday.
Look at the
work that is
happening,
verse 12,
when God's
Word is
opened and
proclaimed,
piercing to
the division
of soul
and spirit,
joints and
marrow,
discerning the
thoughts and
intentions of
the heart.
It is there
that we
bring our
hearts,
we lay our
hearts bare
before God's
Word.
He searches
us,
He recalibrates
us and
changes us
and urges
us on to
glory.
If you're
holding fast
to the
faithful Son,
you have
entered your
rest.
You know a
measure of
contentment and
satisfaction and
joy, but there
remains a
rest that you
don't want to
miss.
You don't want
to miss.
So we must
strive on.
Allow God's
living and
active Word to
search us, to
search us together
each Lord's Day
and to cultivate
a heart of
faith that
listens and
obeys Him all
the way to
glory, all the
way to
contentment in
its fullest
sense, to
joy in its
fullest sense, to
the rest of
the power and
presence of
God.
Let me say
in closing a
word to
those among
us who are a
bit more
sensitive.
Now these
warnings exist
here because
our hearts are
prone to
wander, but I
know that some
of you are
prone to
doubt.
And you
worry, chapter
3, verse
12, that you
have an evil,
unbelieving heart
that's going to
lead you to
fall away from
the living God.
You worry that
you're not really
a Christian.
You stumble, you
get up again, you
think, right, I'm
going to keep
going towards
glory and
towards this
rest, and you
stumble again and
you think, maybe
I'm not a
Christian.
Saving faith, faith
that will get you
to glory, looks to
Christ and His
promises.
It looks to
Christ and His
promises.
It doesn't focus on
the presence or the
absence of faith
itself.
So the idea, me
believing is not the
object of faith, Christ
is.
So yes, if you
think about it like
this, out of your
peripheral vision, by
all means ask the
question, do I trust
Christ?
Am I aware of my
sin in the way I
should be?
Do I believe that
Christ died for my
sins and rose again
for my justification?
Do I repent of sin
when I know that I'm
aware of it?
Look at those
questions out of your
peripheral vision.
But as you look
straight on and look,
you must look to
Christ and trust Him.
He is the object of
your faith.
Remember what the
children were told a
few minutes ago.
What has He done
that is left for you
to do?
Zero.
He took it all.
Look to Christ and
keep trusting Him and
don't overthink it.
Martin Luther, the
great reformer,
said this, do you
doubt whether you're
elected to salvation?
Then say your prayers,
man, and you may
conclude that you are.
It is as easy as that.
Let's pray together.