And all your conflicts past. This life’s
full of conflict,
isn’t it? It’s full of things that we have
to face,
things that we don’t want to face,
that bring us trial, bring us pain,
bring us hurt. We face these things and we
have an anticipation for a time where
we don’t face those afflictions,
where all things are past. Isn’t it a
beautiful thing to know that this world
isn’t
all there is?
That on the other side there is no
conflict.
On the other side, there is rest.
If we follow God’s way, if we do His will.
Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 show us how we can
ensure that we enter into
the rest God has for us. At the end of
this life,
when it’s all said and done, when all of
those hardships are all but memories,
we can know what is on the other side.
But how do we do that?
Hebrews 3 and 4 show the dangers that can
cause us not to enter into rest.
Show us the dangers that are between us
and our Lord if we allow them to be.
But it also shows us how to overcome
those.
The Israelites were about to enter into
rest.
They had wandered in the wilderness,
or not they had not wandered at this
point.
They were at Sinai. They received the law
from God,
and then they go and they head toward the
land of Canaan.
Well they are about to enter into the
land,
and then they show a lack of belief in the
Lord,
and then they don’t enter. They’re told
you’re going to go and you’re going
to wander for forty years in the
wilderness because you did not listen,
because you did not trust. And then they
went out,
that generation passed, and it was a new
generation that came.
That generation that received the old law,
except for the Levites, except for Caleb
and Joshua,
none of them entered into the land.
They never got to see that physical rest.
What was the danger that was before them?
Starting in verse seven, Hebrews three,
seven, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,
Today if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts as in the day as in
the provocation,
in the day of temptation in the
wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me,
and saw my works forty years, wherefore I
was grieved with that generation.
And said, They do always err in their
heart,
and they have not known my ways.
So I swear in my wrath, they shall not
enter into my rest.
They allowed their hearts to do what?
They allowed their hearts to be hardened.
Now what does this hardening have to do?
There’s multiple things shown with their
hearts being hardened,
but ultimately it shows that they had a
lack of belief where the things that God
did
Their hearts were hard, so hard it didn’t
touch them.
It did not sink in enough for them to
change what they were going to
do to believe what the Lord said.
Now what is it that we can do to ensure
that we do not become hardened,
or we have this unbelief? Verse twelve
Take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God.
For the Israelites there was this danger.
But for us today there can be this danger
as well.
Therefore let us fear. Now verse Hebrews 3
12 says,
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief.
Skip down to the first verse of the next
chapter.
Let us therefore fear, lest a promise
being left of us of entering into
his rest any of you should seem to come
short of it.
There is a promise that is left to us of
being able to enter into rest.
But we must fear the ab possibility of
falling.
Now, do you fear something that can’t
happen?
Now, there are times that we don’t fear.
What would we think of a parent that says,
You better fear that monster in the
closet?
You know there’s skeletons in there that
are going to come get you.
No, the parent says, listen, there’s
nothing in that closet.
There’s nothing that’s going to come get
you.
You’re fine. You are safe. Our God is not
a God who says,
listen, you better be scared about this
when something isn’t there.
Now we have a world, what do they say
about the ability to fall away from God?
Well, you’re fine, you’re safe.
God’s not going to care. It’s going to be
fine.
No, our Lord, because He actually cares
for us,
because He actually loves us, tells us
tells us,
you ought to fear.
Because there is a chance you can fall
away.
There is a chance you cannot enter into
rest.
There is a religion that says,
you might fall from grace. As Peter shows
it,
Peter shows the idea of falling from
grace.
They say, you can fall from grace,
but only just a little bit. You’re not
going to fully fall.
You can get really close, but you’re not
going to quite fall.
The Lord says you fall from grace,
you fall from grace. There’s not an in
between.
There is the opportunity to fail to enter
into rest,
and therefore we should fear that,
because it is real, it is a possibility.
We must fear lest we be hardened against
the evidence.
Remember that this is an evil heart of
unbelief.
Think about those Israelites for a little
while longer.
Think about the things that they saw.
They had this heart of unbelief,
but what is it that they experienced?
They saw Moses come to them, and he did
the miracles that proved that
he was from God. He had his hand become as
though it was leprous,
a few others in that moment, and then
after that there were the ten plagues.
They saw the frogs, they saw the locusts,
they saw the firstborn of it of Egypt die.
They saw a darkness that was unlike
anything they had ever felt.
They saw the power of God for themselves,
and yet
What did they have later on? The after the
ten plagues,
what else did they see? Well, they saw the
Red Sea.
They saw they were between a rock and a
hard place,
or more specifically, an army and a sea.
And God was going to say, You are going to
be safe.
They then that night the waters were
parted,
and that morning they walked between the
walls of water on each side.
And came to the other, and then when the
Egyptians decided,
you know what, we’re going to risk it and
go into that water,
what happened to them? Well, that water
came crashing back down.
And then the Israelites were singing songs
of joy and of the fact that
God won and that they were safe because
they were gods.
They n because they belonged to God.
They were not gods. They were safe because
they belonged to God.
They saw and they had belief in the Lord
in that moment.
They saw the ten plagues, they saw the Red
Sea,
but what else? Turn to Exodus chapter 13.
Exodus 13.
Every single day that they were wandering
in the wilderness,
they had something among them that was
showing them God was there.
There was no question, there was no doubt.
And the Lord went before them by day in a
pillar of cloud to lead them the way,
and by night in a pillar of fire,
to give them light, to go by day and
night.
He took not away the pillar of the cloud
by day,
nor the pillar of fire by night,
from before the people. Imagine they have
had they’ve seen the ten plagues,
they have seen the Red Sea parted,
and now every single day they are
wandering in the wilderness.
They have a pillar of cloud leading them
by day.
They have a pillar of fire leading them
back by night.
They have everything they need to know God
is there.
And yet what did they end up having?
An evil heart of unbelief.
Brethren, not believing in our Lord,
even when we feel like it’s obvious that
we should know what He is doing,
it’s possible to fall. It is possible to
have this heart of unbelief.
If it was possible for them, it’s possible
for us.
But now let’s look not only at the
Israelites.
But the specific people to whom the
Hebrews writer was writing this letter.
He was writing to Christians. Turning back
to Hebrews chapter three
and looking at verse one. He is going to
address them
and show who they are to God.
Hebrews chapter three, verse one wherefore
holy brethren and partakers
of the heavenly calling.
Consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession,
Jesus Christ. He is writing to those who
are partakers of the heavenly calling.
He is writing to those who are holy
brethren.
These are not the lost, these are the
saved,
these are Christians. And these are not
only Christians,
these are first century Christians.
Now, what is it that they had?
They they shouldn’t have fallen away
either,
but what is it that they had to keep them
from doing it?
Turn to Hebrews five verse twelve.
For when the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again,
which be the first principles of the
oracles of God,
which are become such as have need of milk
and not strong meat.
In this context, the Hebrews writer is
about to show them
how incredible the priesthood of Christ is
by comparing him to
the order of Melchizedek. But before he
can go any further,
he has to said, You’re hard of hearing,
because you have not been learning.
Now something that is
Vital for us to know is when God commands
us to do something,
we are always capable of doing it.
Now it might be that we’ve put ourselves
in a situation where it’s harder,
but when God commands us something,
it is possible to do it. They had been
commanded to learn,
to grow in the word, and since they were
rebuked for not growing in the word,
we therefore conclude they were able to
grow in the word.
First Peter two one and two.
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word that ye may grow thereby.
We are to desire the milk of the word.
Now, yes, there is when we look at the
word of God and it is like milk.
We we take it and we absorb the simple
principles.
And then there’s the time that it is
strong meat,
where we can look at a passage that maybe
a few years back we looked at
it and we got the milk out of it.
But we look at it a few years later and we
see the beauty of it,
we realize it in its full context.
And we realize the meat in it.
The fact that God has shown us something
beautiful.
But even when we have come to the point of
being able to chew on the meat,
we constantly desire it like a baby does
milk.
Now, is a baby going to let you just let
let you just skip a meal with it?
No, it’s gonna be crying. There’s not
going to be any hope of that baby going
on a fast. He is going to let you know
what he needs and when he needs it.
We need to have let the word of God be
like that to us.
These brethren, they had the opportunity
to learn God’s word,
but they weren’t doing it. And we’ll hit
on that more later.
But remember, they were not growing in the
word and they should have been.
If they we must be learning in the word,
or otherwise we are going to be in the
same position as them.
The Israelites had all they need.
These brethren had all they need,
both in the word that they had,
but also in the miracles that they saw.
or the miracles that they had full proof
of.
Hebrews ver ch sta Hebrews 1 1.
God who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake in time pasts unto
the fathers by the prophets. Remember we
talked about the Israelites.
They God spoke to them through the
prophets,
but through whom did cr God speak now?
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by
his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
and by whom
He made the world. God now speaks to us
through his son.
We received the teaching we need.
They received the teaching they need,
and they received it not just through the
prophets,
they received it through Christ Himself,
God incarnate. And yet they still had to
recognize the fact that they could fall
away, that they could disbelieve.
They are also going to show the Hebrews
writer will also show that they.
Had the proof of miracles of God of Christ
doing these miracles,
but yet they were still capable of falling
away,
of not believing. The Israelites were
capable of falling,
the Hebrew Christians were, and we are
today.
Let us therefore fear the potential of
falling away.
Not allow it to just go on the back
burner,
not just allowing it to be where we come
and we sit in the pews and
We know that we’re listening to the
sermons and we’re coming back on
Wednesday,
but we recognize that there is a potential
of falling away.
Now later we want to look at the fact that
we also have assurance in God.
But before we can appreciate assurance,
we need to appreciate the fear of eternal
damnation and how real it
is if our hearts are not focused on God.
We can live our lives denying that we
aren’t really focusing on God,
thinking that just because we go to
church,
we’re fine.
But if we are not focusing on our Lord and
desiring to show the love to
Him that He has shown to us, brethren,
we’re not following His way. We’re not
walking in the light.
We can fall with a heart of unbelief if we
do not look toward the evidence given
to us and apply it in our lives.
It happened to the Israelites,
it could happen to the Hebrew Christians,
it can happen to us. Let our hearts not be
hardened against the evidence
God has given us. The evidence that is not
only evidence in itself,
but allows us to follow his way after we
hear it.
Let’s not be hardened against the
evidence,
but also let’s not be hardened in sin.
Verse 13: Exhort one another daily while
it is called today,
lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin.
The Israelites were hardened against all
the things that they saw.
They had all the evidence they needed.
The Hebrew Christians had all the evidence
they needed.
But what is the thing that they went after
instead?
Lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin.
See, God gives everything that we need to
trust in Him,
to believe what He has to say and apply it
in our lives,
and yet sin comes over and it creeps up
close in your ear and says,
You know, this would be okay. This is
going to be perfectly fine.
Sin is deceitful because it seems like a
little thing.
So often it can be easy to just let a word
slip,
or let or just go get
One little sip of that drink. It can just
be so easy to go do this little
bit because it’s deceitful. Because it
doesn’t show you what’s in store when
we allow this to take over in our lives.
Now, sin can be little, but why is it so
important?
It’s deceitful because it doesn’t show you
what it costs when we do it.
We need to remember our God who made this
world,
that He is God.
Now, being God, He is the most amazing,
the most righteous being you could ever
imagine.
Sin is when we decide that we want to go
against the perfectly good,
infinite, and ultimate nature of our God.
When we decide that going in a way that is
not according to His nature
is worth more than following Him.
Sin is when we decide that the one who
made this world isn’t worth it.
Now it costs something. We talk
Our brother Philip in his prayer talked
about the idea that this is
a word written in blood. Well,
this word cost blood for us to have it.
We need to remember the person who had a
debt to pay.
That un that servant who had a debt to
pay.
He came to his master and said,
Lord, if you just give me time,
I’ll repay the debt. With the amount of
money he owed,
he was never going to pay it back.
But that’s master forgave him.
Now when he forgave him
We usually think about, that’s great for
that servant.
He doesn’t have to take anything.
But what does it mean for that master?
There is still a price that is needs to be
paid.
Or in his case, there is a price that he
now has to absorb himself.
There is money that he has given,
and there is now a consequence for it.
In the same way, sin costs something.
When we go against the nature of our Lord,
it costs ~ him, or it’s going to cost us.
It’s going to cost somebody because it is
that important.
Now, God decided that we don’t have to
bear the price.
Romans 5.8, God commendeth his love toward
us,
and that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Instead of us having
to suffer for eternity because of our sin,
God allowed his son to go on the cross.
He allowed deity to be put on that cross
so that we could be saved,
so that we could follow his way and be
saved in the end.
Sin is deceitful because it doesn’t want
you to know that.
It doesn’t want you to know what it costs.
But when we realize what it costs,
we are all the more ready to repent of the
wickedness that can creep
up in our lives. We are all the more ready
to say,
Lord, I want to follow your way.
I want to do your will. Let us not be
hardened against the evidence.
Let us not be hardened in the
deceitfulness of sin that doesn’t show
you how wicked it really is. And finally,
let us not be hardened in complacence.
Now we already looked at
The idea of studying God’s Word of being
invested in it.
First Peter two. These Hebrew Christians,
they should have been invested.
Later on, they are going to be described
as those that they were willing
to suffer for Christ’s sake. They were
willing to suffer and do his will,
even when it hurt. Chapter ten verse
thirty two.
But call to remembrance the former days in
which after ye were illuminated.
you heard the gospel, ye endured a great
fight of afflictions,
partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock
both to reproaches and afflictions,
and partly whilst ye became companions of
them that were so used.
These were Christians who, in their zeal
as young Christians,
they had done God’s will. They had
followed his way.
But now, when they should have been
growing,
what had happened to them? They had let
their gr their spiritual growth fallen
by the wayside. At first they were willing
to suffer for the Lord.
But now they are going to have to be told
you need to pick up your Bibles and read.
They are also going to have to be told you
have not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. They still had a
path to follow,
and they weren’t quite following it.
They had become complacent. Complacency
can creep up on us.
It’s amazing how a heart can be hardened
by me decid deciding not to decide.
A heart can be solidified in that which is
wrong.
By not making a decision, and instead
letting the things of this world creep
up and become more important than the
things of the Lord.
We cannot be hardened in complacence,
that which says, you know what,
I’ll do it later. It’s going to be fine.
I’ll study later. It needs to be willing
to say the Lord is what is important.
The Lord is who I will follow.
When we make sure that we do not become
hardened against the evidence,
we ensure that we are not hardened in
sin’s deceitfulness and we are
not hardened in complacence that wants to
creep up.
We can maintain our belief in the Lord.
Let us fear so that we maintain the fact
that we can have rest one day.
But not only let us fear, let us exhort.
Going back to Hebrews chapter three,
verse thirteen.
But exhort one another daily while it is
called today,
lest any of you be hardened through
through the deceitfulness of sin.
Now we looked at the idea of how wicked
sin is and how powerful it really is,
and it it doesn’t want to show you how
what it is.
But we have something that helps us
through it,
helps us not fall to its wiles.
We have a God who has given us one
another.
Exhort one another daily while it is
called today.
Exhortation is encouragement. It is a
defense.
It is the fact that when one of us
suffers,
when one of us faces trial, we are able to
pick up one another and
go through it together. The Lord did not
just baptize us and then hang
us out to dry. The Lord has us be baptized
for the remission of sins
and then added to his church so that we
can follow his will together.
Exhortation is a defense against sin.
But also it is a common defense.
It’s not just exhort, exhort one another.
You support me, and I support you.
We do this together. Exhortation is a
defense.
It is a common defense, but also it is a
daily defense.
Exhort one another daily. It’s not just
Sunday and Wednesday we exhort one
another.
It’s not just whenever we have a game
night.
It is we exhort one another daily.
Remember Acts chapter two.
They went from each other’s house daily,
breaking bread. They went and they were
fellowshipping with one another.
Now exhorting one another daily is not
just about being willing to grill grill
hot dogs and hamburgers or go have a
fellowship meal.
But we certainly want to ensure that we
have this time together,
and this congregation is wonderful at
ensuring that its members are close
together,
and thank you for that. Let us exhort one
another daily,
but also let us exhort one another
urgently.
Hebrews writer says,
Exhort one another daily while it is
called today.
Earlier we read, Today if ye will hear his
voice,
harden not your hearts as in the day of
provocation.
This idea of while it is called today is
while it is still available.
Today if ye Today if ye will hear his
voice while it is called today.
You see, there is a day coming where they
weren’t going to be able
to hear the voice. They had to do it when
they had the opportunity.
And the same is true here. We exhort one
another while it is called
Today, while we have the opportunity to
help one another in this way,
we can’t just start any day. We start now
because we don’t know when we won’t have
a chance, when we won’t have the
opportunity to help one another.
Exhort one another in this common defense,
in this daily defense, in this urgent
defense,
in this needed defense. This opportunity
that we have with one another
is what saves us from that which mocks the
face of God.
It is what helps us stay in his way and
not fall to this deceitfulness of sin.
Let us fear the possibility of falling.
Let us exhort one another because we need
not fall.
And finally, or not finally, we have two
more points,
but this last one is very short.
But let us labor.
Going to chapter four, verse one,
let us therefore fear.
Lest a promise being left of us of
entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of
it.
For unto us was the gospel preached as
well as unto them,
but the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it.
For we which have believed do enter into
rest,
as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest,
or otherwise translated, they shall not
enter into my rest.
Although the works were finished from the
foundation of the world,
For he spake in a certain place of the
seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest on the seventh day from
all his works,
and in this place again, if they shall
enter into my rest.
Seeing therefore it remaineth that some
must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached,
enter not in because of unbelief,
again he limiteth a certain day,
saying in David, Today, after so long a
time as it is said,
Today if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had
given them rest,
Then would he not have afterwards spoken
of another day.
There remaineth therefore a rest to the
people of God.
For he that is entered into rest,
he also hath ceased from his own works,
as God did from his. At the beginning it
showed the fact that God worked
in those six days and creation,
and he rested the seventh. And now what
does it say?
Well, there remaineth therefore a rest for
the people of God.
But when do we have that rest?
Verse ten, for he that is entered into
rest,
he hath also ceased from his own works.
We enter into rest when this life is over.
We enter into rest at the end.
We do not enter into rest before then.
Hebrews five verses nine and ten Therefore
there remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God, for he that is
entered into his rest is.
He also also has ceased from his own
works.
We have not entered into this rest.
We do not have rest until we enter into
rest.
And the time that we enter into rest is
when we go to be in the same place that
God is in eternity. And until that time
comes,
we are not in that place of rest.
Now, brethren, that doesn’t mean that
there’s not times we need to seek
r rest before we go out and work more.
Christ would tell his apostles to rest
awhile.
And come aside and then get back to work.
Now funnily enough, when he told his
disciples to do that,
the people came, the Lord had compassion,
and then their rest became a time of
feeding thousands of people.
But they had an opportunity where the Lord
said,
You need to come rest. The Lord realizes
that he has designed us as humans.
There are times that we need rest.
But when we do rest, we don’t rest just
because it’s enjoyable.
We rest because we want to get up the next
day and get back to work.
The Lord wants us to labor for Him,
and the time that we have to rest comes
later on.
Notice also that we labor until the end,
but also we labor in conviction.
All of this has been about a wicked heart
of unbelief and not letting
it letting it keep us out of heaven,
not letting us it keep us from following
the Lord.
Verse 2 For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them.
But the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it.
For we which have believed do enter into
rest.
Those who believe are the ones who enter
into rest.
But what else do they do? Verse eleven Let
us labor therefore
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief.
Notice when one does not believe,
Is he going to labor or will he not labor?
When one believes, will he not labor or
will he labor?
When we believe in our Lord enough to
allow him to affect our lives,
we are going to labor for him.
This labor is one
This belief is not one that just says,
Lord, I believe you’re there, and then
doesn’t do anything about it.
It serves the Lord who created us,
it served the Lord who commands us to
labor until the very end.
We serve until the end. We serve in this
belief.
And finally, we serve for a God who knows
all.
Verse 12: After saying,
Let us labor therefore to enter into that
rest.
Verse twelve for the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than
any two edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart. Neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in his
sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the
eyes of him with whom we have to do.
See our God knows all, and he sees all,
and because of that we labor. We have a
word that when we read it,
It reflects upon us like a mirror.
James will talk about the fact that the
one who goes to the Word of God
and who does not listen to it,
he is the one that he is like a man
beholding his face in a glass,
and then goeth forth st straight away,
forgetting whatever manner of man he was.
But if we look into God’s word,
it is certainly a mirror, and it shows us
who we are.
It doesn’t leave any doubt, but if we
continue looking and we ensure that
we are following that word, we can grow
In following what it desires for us to
become.
The Word shows us who we need to be to us,
and the Lord knows who we are Himself.
The Word is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart,
and we can know our thoughts and intents
if we look into it.
And the Lord Himself knows as well.
Neither is there any creature that is not
manifest in his sight.
Our Lord knows what we’re thinking,
he knows what we are doing, therefore let
us labor.
The idea of not entering into rest is one
that should frighten us,
one that is scary, one that we should
fear,
one that we should exhort e and one that
causes us to we should want
to have a desire to exhort one another so
we do not fall into this.
And finally, it causes us to labor for our
Lord because we do not want
to fail from this rest. But there is
something the Lord gives to
us as encouragement in all of this.
Verse fourteen.
Seeing then that we have a great high
priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our
profession.
For we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points
tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need.
This life has trials.
This life has a sin that wants to deceive.
This life has those who want to persecute
and say,
you know, you shouldn’t be following God
in the first place.
But we have a great high priest who has
passed into the heavens,
a great high priest who knows what it’s
like to live on this earth,
and a great high priest who makes it
possible for us to come boldly to
the throne of grace, so that we can follow
God’s will.
So that we, not just so we can follow
God’s will,
but so that we can come to God.
And that He can offer us the forgiveness
that we so dearly need,
so that we can find grace to help in time
of need.
If you are in need of God’s grace and
mercy,
He desires to offer it to you.
We have a world that wants to instill
disbelief in whatever way it can,
whether it be twisting who God is or
saying God isn’t there in the first place,
but He wants you to come to Him.
He wants you.
If you are not a Christian, He shows how
to become His.
And if you desire to know that way,
we would love to study with you.
Love to dig into God’s Word and present
it.
Or if you have questions, please do not
hesitate to ask,
Am I a Christian? Am I following His will?
But if you are a Christian and you have
fallen into sin,
if you have fallen into that which is so
deceiving,
the Lord wants you to come to Him.
He wants you to come to that throne of
grace so you can have your that help
in time of need.
If you are in need of the forgiveness God
offers,
so that you can live your life with a soft
heart,
with full conviction in Him, will you come
forward as we stand and as we sing?
