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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's one unit. It's one argument. So 3.7 through 4.13.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
Take care, brothers, sisters.
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 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 forty years?
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.
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, enter that rest.
As he has said, as I swore my wrath, they will not enter my rest.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's not a blaring siren.
It's the Holy Spirit speaking.
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And the fourth alarm is a judgment alarm.
So today, if you hear God speaking,
don't harden your hearts.
Open your hearts.
Let God's word do God's work.
So let's look at this first alarm.
The Psalm 95 alarm.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Now that sheds light on why the author chose Psalm 95, 7 through 11.
It's a warning.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
But you know what gets revealed about Israel?
They're grumblers.
It's a mark of unbelief, of disobedience.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
God will not allow them into his rest.
It's an alarm.
It's like a check engine light in your car.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's chronically setting your heart on the very things that grieves God
and provokes him to wrath.
Watch out for an unbelieving heart.
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.
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.
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?
Well, you can just point back to the wilderness generation.
Grumbling, infighting.
Complaining.
Fear.
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.
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.
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.
You could call it like a virus.
Unbelief, unchecked evil is a virus in a body of Christ,
in a church.
And the way that you kind of like address it,
the antidote for that virus is in verse 13.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What we're being told to do here is we're to exhort one another.
A Christian church spurs one another on.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Look for him.
Don't give up on him.
See?
We can exhort one another.
Daily.
It's to keep us from being hardened.
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.
That's the content.
We exhort one another with God speaking.
We send texts to one another
of God's word addressing them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So how do you know
if you are someone holding fast to Jesus
or if someone is holding fast
or Jesus or not?
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?
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.
that unbelief kept them
from entering God's rest.
It's a stark warning.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Anybody been through
an airport security?
You know,
you walk into the tube thing
and this thing goes around you.
And then you get flagged
and you walk out
and then you get wanded.
That's how this is functioning.
So this passage,
this unbelief alarm
is like God's word
passing over your heart.
Beep, beep, beep.
Got some unbelief in there?
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.
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.
Therefore,
while the promise
of entering his rest
still stands,
of entering his rest.
See that in 4, 1?
Now look at 4, 11.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just think about Eden.
God dwelling
with his people,
Adam and Eve,
in his place.
Eden experiencing
his peace
in his rest.
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.
It was before their sin.
It was a place
of perfect peace
and rest.
Them with God
in his finished
work of creation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So this is a
different kind
of rest.
The rest
of Psalm 95
is addressing
a full,
final,
and forever
rest
of God.
Not in
Canaan.
The rest
that's being
talked about
here,
this God's
rest,
well it's a
rest that
still stands.
Look at
4.1.
While the
promise of
entering his
rest still
stands,
we can still
enter the
rest.
Look at
4.6.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Peace.
that's God's
rest.
Starts in a
relationship with
Jesus, and
it comes to
fruition in
the heavenly
Jerusalem.
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.
Nothing but
peace, nothing
but rest.
With God, with
yourself, others,
in the seven
Siberian tigers
I'll have as
pets.
No threat.
Do you know
what will keep
you out of
that?
No.
Chronic
unbelief.
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.
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.
This is a
no entry
alarm.
Do you have
Jesus?
Are you holding
fast to him?
Now,
today,
are you trusting
him?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is
the no
entry alarm.
alarm.
The last
alarm is
in chapter
three,
chapter four,
excuse me,
verses 12
and 13.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
But for
those who
have hardened
hearts,
God is
sworn in
his wrath,
you will
not enter
his rest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
If God's
word is
piercing your
heart,
exposing your
sin of
unbelief,
ingratitude,
neglect of
getting together,
you know what
you do?
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.
It keeps
our hearts
tender.
Be warned,
!
hold fast
to Christ
all the way
to the end.
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.
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.
Amen.