Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.
Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said,
They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart,
leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today,
that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have come to share in Christ,
if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
As it is said,
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?
Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
And with whom was he provoked for 40 years?
Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest,
but to those who were disobedient?
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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,
but the message they heard did not benefit them,
because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For we have believed, sorry, we who have believed enter that rest,
as he has said.
As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way,
and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
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,
again he appoints a certain day, today,
saying through David so long afterwards,
in 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.
So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works 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.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing 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 whom we must give account.
Good morning, everyone.
Can I encourage you to have your Bibles open at Hebrews chapters 3 and 4?
I'm about to embark on the sheer madness of trying to teach this entire passage in one talk,
a passage which refers to the books of Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Psalms,
and it has something to say about each of them.
So I think we're going to need God's help.
So how about I'm going to need God's help,
and you're going to need God's help to listen.
So let's pray and ask for God's help.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can spend this time together meditating on your word,
and please give me clarity of thought and expression as I teach it,
and may my words be faithful and true.
And we pray that all of us might draw encouragement from this portion of the scriptures today.
In Jesus' name, amen.
What do you think is the defining feature of our day?
Is it computer technology, smartphones, social media, the internet, artificial intelligence?
Over the last 50 years, computers and associated technologies have moved from being something marginal
to something that pervades every aspect of our lives.
And now that the AI cat is out of the bag, some jobs are disappearing,
many other jobs are changing, and the world will never be the same again.
Is that the defining feature of our age?
Maybe the defining feature of our day is gender confusion.
The ideology of expressive individualism has run roughshod over science,
over natural law, over logic, and over common sense,
so that now the midwife who makes the plain observation and says it's a girl
is guilty of the crime of assigning gender at birth.
Maybe that's the defining feature of our day.
Or is the defining feature of our day political polarisation?
A hardening of positions, progressive and conservative, left and right,
and a decay, a consequent decay of public discourse, a decay of reasonable debate.
Everything's political spin and name-calling and accusations and demonisation and scaremongering.
And increasingly, people are locked into online echo chambers
where they only hear their own opinions voiced back to them.
Maybe that's the defining feature of our day.
Or maybe the defining feature of our day is climate change, environmental degradation,
the age of the Anthropocene where human activity has become,
the impact of human activity on our world has become so great
that the natural world is starting to collapse under the weight of it.
No, we live in anxious times.
Things fall apart.
The centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
That's how William Butler Yeats described the atmosphere in post-World War Europe in 1919.
But they're words that could fit our day.
The doomsday clock has been set to 89 seconds to midnight.
According to its custodians, this is,
the world is the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.
We live in a world on the brink.
And yet for all this, the Bible says there is another,
much more important defining feature of the present time.
Today is the day when the voice of God is heard.
Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
today, if you hear his voice.
The first part of that verse are the words of the author of Hebrews.
The second part of that verse,
in the second part of that verse,
he begins to quote from Psalm 95.
Psalm 95 verses 7 to 11.
And Hebrews takes that Old Testament passage,
Psalm 95,
and applies it directly to the New Testament Christian readers and hearers of this book.
This is what the Holy Spirit says to you today.
Down in verse 13, he says,
exhort one another every day so long as it is called today.
He picks up that idea of today and says this entire present time is a succession of today's.
A sequence of days in which the voice of God is heard.
If you're flying on a plane and sipping a cup of tea and doing a crossword and listening to some music on your earphones
and suddenly the captain's voice comes across the speakers,
attention, the plane's engines have failed.
We're gliding over open sea and we'll crash into it within the next three minutes.
Listen carefully and I'll tell you how you can survive.
Well, you would first regret that you hadn't paid any attention to the safety briefing at the start of your flight.
And second, give the captain your full attention.
Cups of tea and crosswords would be forgotten.
The most important feature of today,
as long as it's called today,
is that we hear the voice of God and give it our full attention.
But the word of God we hear is not a new word.
We don't seek God's word in visions and dreams.
The word of God we hear is the ancient word indelibly written down,
passed down through the centuries and spoken afresh to each generation by the Holy Spirit.
The ancient word is the present word.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to us today in the words of the scriptures.
Now, the author of the Hebrews,
the author of this book,
takes the ancient word of Psalm 95 and applies it to the Christians he's addressing.
We can go a step further.
We can take this entire passage,
Hebrews 3 and 4,
as an ancient word addressed in the present to us.
This Hebrews 3 and 4,
an ancient word which includes the even more ancient word of Psalm 95.
So what is the Holy Spirit saying to us today from Psalm 95 and from Hebrews chapters 3 and 4?
Well, verse 7 again,
therefore it begins,
therefore.
Now,
that is what he's going to say in this passage is an implication of what he's just said before.
What has he just said before?
Well,
earlier in chapter 3,
he said in verse 3 that Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.
Won't go into why Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.
That would be to repeat the message from last week.
But the point is,
the one we follow,
Jesus,
is more glorious than the one the ancient Israelites followed,
Moses.
The one through whom God has spoken to us,
Jesus,
is more glorious than the one through whom God spoke to them,
Moses.
Because Jesus is greater than Moses,
therefore,
as the Holy Spirit says,
verse 7,
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.
As I swore in my wrath,
they shall not enter my rest.
That's the ancient word that the writer to the Hebrews quotes as a present word for his hearers.
We're not going to spend much time on verses 7 to 11 directly here,
partly because we've got another 21 verses to get through.
But more importantly,
because what the Bible then does is draw out three specific things from that quotation from Psalm 95.
This is what Psalm 95 is saying to you today.
But I do want to make one further observation before we get to those three things.
And that is,
so far I've been glossing over a nuance of the text.
Notice verse 7 actually implies two acts of hearing.
As the Holy Spirit says,
today if you hear his voice.
Perhaps we could say two moments of divine speech.
There's an initial moment of divine communication,
if you hear his voice.
And then there's another moment,
as the Holy Spirit says.
That is,
the Holy Spirit is instructing us in what to do when we hear God's voice.
To put it another way,
the words quoted from Psalm 95 are not the complete word of God to us today.
Rather,
they are a word about how we respond to the word.
The Holy Spirit telling us how to respond to the word of God.
But that logically prior word,
which Psalm 95 instructs us in about how to respond to,
that could in a sense be any word of God.
But in context,
it is a specific word.
The word which the writer calls in chapter 4,
verse 2,
the good news.
Good news came to us,
just as to them.
It's the good news of Jesus Christ.
That's the voice of God for us today.
That's the word that is being proclaimed in this day throughout the whole world.
And it's about that word that the writer to the Hebrews instructs us in terms of how we respond to it from Psalm 95.
This word about how to respond to the word.
Okay.
So what do we see from this word about how to respond to the word?
Well,
three things.
First,
verses 12 to 15,
a warning.
Then verses 16 to 19,
an example.
And then in chapter 4,
a promise.
And then finally,
the writer rounds it out with a meditation,
a solemn meditation on the word of God in chapter 4,
verses 12 and 13.
Well,
first,
let's think about a warning for us today.
Look at chapter 3,
verse 12 with me,
a warning for us today.
Take care,
brothers,
lest there be in any of you an evil,
unbelieving heart,
leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day,
as long as it's called today,
that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we 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.
Now,
this isn't the time to take a deep dive into the doctrine of the perseverance of
the saints,
which I fully believe.
But the implication of these verses is that it is impossible,
it is possible to make some kind of beginning.
And yet to fall away from the living God.
You fall away,
or you depart from,
a position,
a path,
a course of action,
that you previously occupy.
You fall away from a place you already are.
It involves turning away,
it involves leaving something behind.
That's the sense of this word,
wherever it occurs throughout the New Testament.
And the word,
the words in verse 12 are addressed to brothers.
Although brothers,
they're used in an inclusive sense,
brothers and sisters.
But it's to believe it's believers that this,
these words are addressed to brothers,
brothers and sisters.
A non-believer doesn't fall away from the living God because a non-believer has not
come to the living God in the first place.
It is a Christian brother or sister who might.
See brothers,
sisters,
it matters not only how we begin the race,
it matters how we complete the race.
Verse 14,
we share in Christ,
if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Marathon runners train carefully so that they can sustain their race pace from beginning to end.
They start their race conservatively so that they can finish strong.
And few marathon runners fail to finish the race because they've been tripped over by a spectator
or bitten by a stray dog.
When a runner falls short,
it's because their own physical or mental stamina fails.
Likewise,
in the Christian race,
the greater threats are internal,
not external.
It's not persecution or hardship or difficulties,
although these of course may play their part.
The real danger though is within.
Take care lest there be in any of you an evil,
unbelieving heart
leading you to fall away from the living God.
What we must guard against,
verse 13,
is that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
The battleground is within.
It's over the contested territory of the human heart.
And our enemy,
sin,
does not fight in the open field.
It's a Trojan horse.
Sin's strategy is to deceive
so that we open the gates of our heart to it unawares.
Richard Baxter wrote this,
the devil is a greater scholar than you
and a nimbler disputant.
He can transform himself into an angel of light to deceive.
He will get within you and trip up your heels before you are aware.
You see neither hook nor line,
much less the subtle angler himself,
while he is offering you his bait.
And his bait shall be so fitted to your temper and disposition
that he will be sure to find advantages within you
and make your own principles and inclinations betray you.
Sin deceives us.
See the first step in forsaking God's word
may even seem to us like virtue.
So one rejects unpopular teachings of the Bible
under the guise of compassion and inclusion.
Or on the flip side,
another sees himself as a staunch defender of truth
and under that banner abandons love and grace and humility
as slowly his heart is consumed by self-righteousness.
See, because sin's strategy is to deceive,
our defence against sin is to be part of a community
committed to speaking the truth to one another.
Verse 13,
exhort one another every day,
as long as it's called today,
that none of you may be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin.
Notice a couple of things about this.
First,
this is everyone's responsibility,
not just the pastors.
The New Testament is full of one another's.
Now,
we're to love one another,
be kind to one another,
forgive one another.
Well,
here we are to exhort one another.
Dave Bott needs us to exhort him
as much as we need him to exhort us.
Pastors are as vulnerable to temptation as anyone.
And the fact that sin deceives
means that the person being deceived by it is unaware.
That's why we need a community,
all of us,
where we are committed to speaking the truth to one another.
Second thing to notice is that exhorting one another
is essentially a verbal activity.
The author of Hebrews calls this book,
the book of Hebrews,
a word of exhortation.
Another way you could translate that is encourage one another,
a word of encouragement.
The purpose is to strengthen,
it's to build up.
And it's true,
we do encourage one another by deeds of love.
But the central idea here is that we exhort one another.
We speak the truth to each other
so as to expose sin's deceptions
and so as to fortify each other in faith.
And we don't fulfil this instruction to exhort one another.
We don't fulfil it by being hypercritical.
You know,
by pulling each other up for every minor fault.
That's not what this is saying.
We don't fulfil it by constantly berating ourselves
for how awful we all are.
In 1893,
18-year-old Winston Churchill
qualified to enter the Royal Military College
at Sandhurst as a cavalry cadet.
His father was disappointed
that he hadn't qualified for the infantry.
And so his father sent him this letter.
He said,
The first extremely discreditable failure of your performance
was missing the infantry.
for in that failure is demonstrated beyond refutation
your slovenly, happy-go-lucky,
harem-scare-em style of work
for which you've been distinguished
at your different schools.
Never have I received a really good report
of your conduct in your work
from any master or tutor,
always behind-hand,
never advancing in your class,
incessant complaints of total want of application.
Do not think that I'm going to take the trouble
of writing you long letters
after every failure and folly you commit and undergo
because I no longer attach the slightest weight
to anything you may say
about your own accomplishments and exploits.
Make this position indelibly impressed on your mind
that if your conduct and action
is similar to what it's been in the other establishments,
then my responsibility for you is over.
because I am certain that if you cannot prevent yourself
from leading the idle, useless, unprofitable life
that you have had during your school days
and latter months,
you will become a mere social wastrel,
one of the hundreds of the public school failures,
and you will degenerate into a shabby,
unhappy and futile existence.
If that is so,
you will have to bear all the blame
for such misfortune yourself,
your affectionate father, Randolph SC.
LAUGHTER
That is not a word of encouragement.
LAUGHTER
Yes, each of us is an incredibly complex mix of good and bad.
Yes, each of us is subject to temptation
and prone to weakness.
But we exhort one another,
not by constantly telling each other how bad we are,
we exhort one another by telling each other how good he is,
by reminding one another of the goodness of Christ,
the beauty of Christ,
the one who's better than angels,
better than Moses,
crowned with glory and honour,
our merciful and faithful high priest.
The aim of exhorting one another is,
as it's expressed in verse 14,
that we hold our original confidence in Christ
firm to the end.
And so the chief theme of our exhortation
is the goodness and majesty and sufficiency of Christ.
After all, it's not being a sinner
that means I fall away from the living God.
It's rather being an unbelieving sinner,
an evil, unbelieving heart.
It's being an unforgiven sinner,
a sinner so hardened by sin's deceitfulness
that I no longer even realise I am a sinner
and that I need a saviour.
The heart of our exhortation is to remind one another
of our perfect saviour and say,
keep trusting in him.
Well, alongside the warning for today,
the words Hebrews quotes from Psalm 95
also give us an example for today.
Look at verse 16, chapter 3, verse 16.
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 40 years?
Was it not those who sinned,
whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did he swear
that they would not enter his rest,
but to those who were disobedient?
So we see that they were unable to enter
because of unbelief.
The example that Psalm 95 draws on
is the generation of Israelites
who were led by Moses.
They'd been, God had brought them
under Moses' leadership
out of slavery in Egypt.
They'd witnessed the 10 plagues.
They passed through the Red Sea.
They were led by the pillar of fire
and smoke in the wilderness.
They drank water from the rock.
They ate manna from heaven.
They saw my works, God says.
They made a beginning.
They experienced redemption.
They came out of Egypt.
But that's as far as they got.
They did not enter the promised land.
Why?
Well, Hebrews 3, verses 16 to 19
uses a variety of terms for their apostasy.
Verse 16, they heard and yet rebelled.
Verse 17, they sinned.
Verse 18, they were disobedient.
Verse 19, unbelief.
There were a string of instances
of Israel's disobedience and unbelief
in the wilderness.
But the key moment came in Numbers
chapters 13 and 14
where Israel arrived at Kadesh Barnea
at the edge of the promised land
and instructed by God,
they sent out 12 spies
to scout out the land.
And the spies returned
and they reported that the land was good
but they also reported
that it was heavily defended.
The people were strong.
The cities fortified.
The descendants of Anak,
giants were among them.
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb,
pleaded with the people,
do not rebel against the Lord.
But the people were too afraid.
They did not trust God.
They refused to enter the land.
They were unable to enter
because of unbelief.
Verse 19 says here.
And so God confirmed them in that fate,
sentencing them to 40 years
of wandering around the wilderness
until an entire adult generation
had perished.
I swore in my wrath,
they shall not enter my rest.
They were unable to enter
and they shall not enter my rest.
Well, the word of God drives home
the message of this example
in chapter 4,
likening us Christians
to Israel at Kadesh Barnea,
poised at the edge
of entering the promised land.
Look at chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.
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,
but the message they heard
did not benefit them
because they were not united by faith
with those who listened.
The last part of verse 2 there
is a little bit difficult,
but I think what is meant there
because they were not united
by faith with those who listened.
The they there is Israel,
the Israelites,
and the those who listened
I think are Caleb and Joshua,
the two spies who did heed
the word of God
and said we must enter.
But the rest of Israel
would not unite themselves
with the faith of Caleb and Joshua
and so were sentenced
to perish in the wilderness.
But we, like Israel,
are promised rest.
I will bring you into the land,
the Lord had promised Israel.
Whoever believes in the Son
has eternal life,
the Lord has promised us.
two different forms
of the one promise,
the promise of entering God's rest.
Good news for Old Testament Israel,
good news for New Testament
disciples of Christ.
And the point chapter 4 makes
is that the promise
of entering God's rest
still stands.
It's open,
it's available.
The promise of entering
his rest still stands,
chapter 4 verse 1.
So let us fear lest any of you
should seem to have failed
to reach us.
Notice again that God's word
calls us,
as in chapter 3 verse 12,
God's word calls us
to a corporate responsibility
for one another.
Let us fear lest any
should seem to have failed
to reach it.
3 verse 12,
take care brothers
that there,
lest there be
in any one of you
an evil,
unbelieving heart.
Each one of us
is to be concerned
not only with our own faith,
but all of us
are to care for everyone.
When I was at Bible college
in our year,
there were,
we had a few classmates
who struggled academically,
who struggled to learn Greek,
or who struggled
at writing essays.
And others in our class
would get alongside them
and assist them
and provide tuition
and help them
with their study.
Because as a class,
all of us
wanted everyone
to reach the goal.
But we,
of course,
have a much greater goal
before us,
don't we?
Which is nothing less
than the goal of life,
the goal of entering
God's rest.
In Hebrews 4,
verses 3 to 10,
the Bible gives us
a brief history of rest,
and the main point
is just to reinforce
the point that's already
been made,
the promise of entering
his rest still stands.
I'll fly through it.
Quickly,
a brief history of rest.
In verses 3 and 4,
we read of rest established.
Rest established.
From halfway through
verse 3,
God's works
were finished
from the foundation
of the world,
for he has spoken
of the seventh day
in this way,
and God rested
on the seventh day
from all his works.
The point
God's word is making here
is that from the very
beginning,
rest has been available.
God created things
and then he rested.
If you look,
and if you look at
Genesis chapters 1 and 2,
you see that the seventh day
is the only day
in the narrative
which doesn't end.
For every other day,
we're told there was evening,
there was morning,
the first day,
so on.
But the seventh day
is open-ended.
God created
and then rested
and he's resting still.
Now,
God resting still,
of course,
doesn't mean that he's
sitting back doing nothing.
Jesus said,
my father's working
and I'm working
until now.
God is sustaining
the world he's made.
But with the work
of creation completed,
he established
his rest
as the goal
to which creation
is heading.
The goal
for which
we were made
that we might share
in his rest.
From the beginning,
God rested
and that rest
has always been available.
Rest established.
Secondly,
in this brief history
of rest,
we hear of rest
rejected.
Again,
in verse 5,
again in the passage,
he said,
they shall not enter
my rest.
And verse 6,
those who formerly
received the good news
failed to enter
because of disobedience.
Israel had no one
but themselves
to blame
for their failure
to enter.
Rest was available.
It was promised
to them.
But they rejected it.
They disbelieved
the promise
of God.
thirdly,
in this
brief history
of rest,
we read of
rest
promised
again.
Verse 7,
and so again,
God appoints
a certain day
today,
saying through
David so long
afterward,
in the words
already quoted,
today,
if you hear
his voice,
do not harden
your hearts.
The point
the Bible's
making here
is that
in Psalm 95,
God is
reiterating
his promise
of rest
several hundred
years after
that generation
that fell
in the wilderness
through David.
Now,
you might say
Psalm 95
sounds a bit more
like a warning
than a promise.
Where's the promise
in Psalm 95?
It's a stern warning.
But let me say
a couple of things
about that.
Firstly,
that the warning
actually implies
a promise.
if you were
to go to the zoo
and go to an
enclosure and
there's a sign
at the enclosure
that says,
do not feed
the chimpanzees,
you would expect
to see chimpanzees
and feel pretty
ripped off
if you didn't.
Likewise,
the warning
of Psalm 95
is don't
harden your
hearts.
It implies
the promise.
God's promise,
God's offer
of rest
is still
available.
Don't
harden your
hearts
so that
you don't
miss it.
But indeed,
secondly,
if you look
at the whole
of Psalm 95,
the first
half is
indeed
an invitation
to come.
The second
half,
which Hebrews
quotes,
is a warning
not to reject
the invitation.
So how does
Psalm 95
start?
Psalm 95,
O come,
let us sing
to the Lord,
let us make
a joyful noise
to the rock
of our salvation.
Let us
come into
his presence
with thanksgiving.
Let us
make a joyful
noise to him
with songs
of praise,
for the Lord
is a great
God and a
great king
above all
gods.
Psalm 95
is an invitation
to enter
God's presence,
to share
in his joy,
and then a
warning not
to reject
the invitation.
Rest
is promised.
But another
might object,
hold on,
yes,
a generation
of Israel
perished in
the wilderness,
but what about
the next
generation?
Didn't
they enjoy
rest?
Didn't
Joshua
lead them
into the
promised land
and God
gave them
the land
and they
enjoy,
in fact,
even if you
look at the
book of
Joshua,
the book
of Joshua
says,
in chapter
21,
verse 43
and 44,
thus the
Lord God
gave to
Israel
all the
land that
he swore
to give
their
fathers
and they
took possession
of it
and they
settled
there and
the Lord
gave them
rest on
every side
just as
he'd sworn
to their
fathers.
Didn't
they get
rest in
the land
after all?
Well,
the writer
of the
Hebrews
replies to
that potential
objection
in verse
8.
If Joshua
had given
them rest,
God would
not have
spoken of
another day
later on.
So then
there remains
a Sabbath
rest for
the people
of God.
The
reiteration
of God's
promise
through
David
hundreds of
years after
Joshua
demonstrated
that the
promise was
incomplete.
It
demonstrated
that the
good things
Israel enjoyed
in the
land from
the time
of Joshua
onwards
didn't
exhaust
God's
promise of
rest.
that at
most it
was a
foretaste
but not
the true
rest
which God
offered his
people.
True rest
was not
temporal and
earthly
but eternal
and heavenly.
It's not
something that
can ever be
satisfied by
our present
fallen
broken world
world.
Whether in
the land
of Israel
or the
land of
Australia.
No matter
how good
your long
service leave
that's not
true rest.
No matter
how good
your retirement
that's not
true rest.
Not even the
12 weeks of
holidays a
year that
school teachers
get are
true rest
as I'm
sure they'll
testify.
True rest
is entering
the presence
of God
with
thanksgiving
with songs
of joy
and sharing
in his
rest.
And that
promise
remains
open.
The
promise of
rest
remains.
Verse 9
again.
There
remains a
Sabbath
rest for
the people
of God
for whoever
has entered
God's rest
has also
rested from
his works
as God
did from
his.
So the
main point
of this
brief
biblical
theology
of rest
is that
the promise
remains for
us today.
Indeed we
who live
after Christ
enjoy a
privileged
position
because all
of history
has been
building to
this point.
The goal
of life
anticipated
since
creation
promised to
Israel but
constantly
slipping out
of their
grasp.
Promised
again by
David,
by God
through
David.
That
promise of
rest is
offered to
us in
the gospel
of Jesus
Christ.
Come to
me,
Jesus
said,
all who
labour and
are heavy
laden,
and I
will give
you rest.
But what a
madness it
would be to
come to the
one who
gives rest
and yet
refuse to
enter the
rest he
gives.
So,
verse 11,
let us
therefore
strive to
enter that
rest so
that no
one may
fall by
the same
sort of
disobedience.
Consider all
that God's
rest means
in terms of
what we
leave behind
and in
terms of
what we
enter into.
we leave
behind labour
and struggle
and hardship.
We leave
behind grief
and pain
and tears
and death.
we leave
behind temptations
and stumbling
blocks.
We leave
behind loneliness.
We enter
into the
love of
God.
We enter
into his
joy and
gladness.
We enter
into a
life of
eternal
blessedness.
rest.
So,
let us
strive to
enter that
rest.
At a
cross-country
race in
2013,
Kenyan
distance
runner,
Abel
Mutai,
was in
first place
approaching
the finish
line.
But as
Mutai
approached
the finish
line,
he was
confused
by the
signs
and
stopped
short,
a few
metres
short,
thinking
he'd
finished
the
race.
Spanish
athlete
Ivan
Fernandez
was in
second
place,
right
behind
Mutai.
He
could
easily
have
just
run
past
Mutai
and
finished
first.
Instead,
realising
what had
happened,
he started
shouting
at Mutai,
keep
running.
Mutai
didn't
understand
Spanish.
So
Fernandez
came up
behind
him,
speaking,
pointing,
pushing
him,
urging
him on,
so that
Mutai
could get
across the
finish
line
first.
There
remains a
Sabbath
rest for
the people
of God.
So let's
push one
another
towards
that
goal.
And in
this
day,
today,
while the
voice of
God is
heard,
let's
not
harden
our
hearts
to
it.
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 marrow,
and discerning
the thoughts
and intentions
of the
heart.
God's
word is
living and
active.
It's
powerful and
effective.
It will
accomplish the
purpose for
which he
sends it.
God's
word
penetrates to
the very
core of
our being,
judging the
thoughts and
attitudes of
our heart.
it leaves
us utterly
exposed.
Dave
asked the
question for
us.
Are these
words
hopeful
or are
they?
I can't
remember the
other word
Dave used.
Terrifying?
Fearful?
Fear-inducing?
Intimidating?
Thanks,
Dave.
Are these
words hopeful
or intimidating?
They sound
ominous,
don't they?
But this
is exactly
the instrument
we need for
our hearts.
Sin may
deceive us,
but it
can't deceive
God.
And the
word of
God is a
sharp
scalpel.
It slices
through our
pretenses and
rationalisations.
It reveals the
secret workings
of our
heart.
God cuts
away sin's
deceptions so
that we may
hold on to
the promise
of God.
So,
brothers and
sisters,
do you hear
the word of
God?
Do you hear
the word of
God's promise
drawing us
into his
rest?
Do you hear
the word of
God's
warning?
cutting away
our doubts
and unbelief?
Well,
let's heed
the warning.
Let's hold
on to the
promise
and let's
exhort
one another
daily
so that
all together
we might
reach that
goal.
Will you pray
with me?
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
we thank you
for the
promise of
rest that
still stands,
that all
who come to
Jesus and
trust in
him
and cling
to him
our
saviour,
our
Lord,
will enter
your rest.
We thank you
that this
promise is
certain.
We thank you
that it
doesn't depend
on us
but on our
saviour who
went before
us.
and so
we pray
for each
and every
one of us
here
that you
might guard
our hearts
from the
deceitfulness
of sin.
Please keep
us trusting
in Jesus
until the
very end
and help
us as a
church to
exhort and
encourage one
another in
this so
that none
of us might
stumble and
fall.
We ask
all of this
in Jesus
name.
Amen.