Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

Life today is busy. We’re often pulled in so many different directions. We have to spend a lot of time at work. We want to make time for our family. We want to make time for church. We need to fit in Farmville, and Words with Friends, and YouTube. As we try to balance so many different things, we get exhausted. Sometimes we get exhausted just thinking about all the things we need to do. I often think, “If I can get through this week, I’ll be okay. I’ll be able to rest on Saturday.” But then Saturday comes around and there are pressing responsibilities for that day as well.

And then there’s God’s Word. We look at all the commands and wonder how we can possibly measure up. We don’t want to be hearers only, but doers of the Word, yet there are so many commands that we don’t know where to start. We want to honor God, but every time we try to do something for Him, we feel like we fail.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, I’ve got good news for you this morning. There’s a better way. God invites all of us to enter into His rest, where we can stop worrying as much about our schedules and responsibilities, and simply find refreshment and satisfaction in Him.

Read Hebrews 3:7-4:11

Our passage this morning begins with a “therefore,” so someone tell me what question we should ask. What’s the “therefore” there for? If you back up to chapter 3 verse 3, it will remind us of how the chapter began (3:3a). Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses was a great prophet, but Jesus is greater. And when we have a relationship with this Jesus we have confidence and hope in Him (v. 6). We are His house. So our passage this morning will tell us how we might begin and continue to have this confidence and hope in Christ. In three words, it is this: enter God’s rest.

The invitation to enter God’s rest comes from God Himself (v. 7-8a). God still speaks today. We must listen to God. It’s important to note how the Holy Spirit speaks in this passage. The quote is from Psalm 95. God is speaking through Scripture. God can certainly speak in other ways. But God speaks most often, most clearly, and most authoritatively through the Bible. We should not even seek after a Word from the Lord outside of the Bible, because God has told us everything we need to know and do through His Word. It is our guide for living. So we need to be very careful to hear its message and obey it.

In this passage, the writer of Hebrews reminds us of some who did not enter God’s rest (v. 8-11). As I said, this is a quote from Psalm 95. King David wrote about how the Israelites hardened their hearts even after God had led them out of slavery in Egypt. They were ready and in place to go into the Promised Land, but they didn’t believe that God would give it to them. And while they wandered in the desert, they grumbled. The writer of Hebrews goes on to explain Psalm 95 a bit (v. 16-19). When it came down to it, their sin was unbelief.

Many, if not most, if not all, of our sins boil down to the same thing. We sin because we don’t believe God’s promises. We sin because we think we know better than God. And because the Israelites didn’t believe God, they were not able to enter the Promise Land (4:5).

But God invites us to rest (v. 6-7). But in order to enter that rest, we must believe God. Believe God when He says you’re a sinner. And believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin. This is the application of the story of the wilderness wanderings (3:12-15). We must soften our hearts to God. We must not only hear God’s voice, but we must believe God’s voice. God spoke through Caleb and Joshua. They encouraged the people to trust God and take the land. But the people rebelled.

Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts. Do not merely be a hearer of the Word, be a doer also. If we do not become a doer of the Word, we deceive ourselves. The primary way to become a doer of the Word of God is to truly believe the Word of God. When we truly believe God, we will obey Him. And we will obey Him not merely out of duty, but out of joy! It’s one thing to read a command and strive to obey it. It’s quite another thing to read a command, understand and believe that God loves you and wants what’s best for you, and then with that knowledge and joy, respond to God in obedience to His commands, being thankful and full of joy because of what Christ has done for you.

This is why it’s so important to practice our faith in community with one another (v. 13). We need encouragement from each other to be doers of the Word. We were never meant to practice our faith in isolation from the church. And not just worship services, but it’s important to be involved in small groups. And it’s important to be involved in each others’ lives outside of this place. Christianity is not a lone ranger religion. We should care not only about our own faith, but the faith of our brothers and sisters (4:1-2). We don’t want any of our family in Christ to make the mistake of the Israelites at that time.

But what can we do about that? (v. 2) We often treat our faith so individualistically. But in order for us to have a faith that stands firmly rooted in Christ, we have to be united in faith with one another. When you drift from church, it’s easier to compromise in other areas as well. Of course, we’re all sinners, saved only by the grace of God through faith in Christ, but if you cease to strive to obey God, you’ve got to wonder if your faith is genuine saving faith. Your works don’t save you, but if you cease to work to obey God, then you’ve lost sight of what it means to enter God’s rest. So let’s examine this rest that God invites us to enter (v. 3-4).

God’s rest is not something that starts at some point in the future. It’s open to us today! There is a rest in the future if we trust in Christ. Heaven will be a place where there will be no more sin. No more unbelief. There will be no more pain, and no more impossible schedules. Work will be a joy! But God’s rest isn’t just about the future rest (v. 9-11). But there’s a rest today that God invites us to enter. It’s a rest from work. It’s a rest of faith. It’s a rest of joy and peace, one in which we can find contentment and satisfaction in God. It’s not a rest from work in that we’re invited to stop working, but rather that we realize that our work isn’t what we strive for. It’s not what we live for. It doesn’t define us. We’re to work as if we’re not working. Work as if serving the Lord, not as a means to anything but simply out of joy. We don’t strive to enter Heaven. Heaven is our home if we trust in Christ. But there is a rest here that we cannot enter unless we fix our eyes on Christ.

In summary, when you hear God’s voice through His Word, soften your heart to God. Trust in Christ. And encourage one another in the faith. And never give up, because your salvation, your life in Christ, your everything, is found when you rest in Christ.