Obedient Faith Brings Divine Rest
Text: Hebrews 3:7-4:11
Maybe you’ve heard in the news that a large percent of Americans today are suffering from sleep deprivation. It causes road rage, traffic accidents, health issues and conflict at work and at home. We suffer from the curse of not enough rest. For many it’s not that we don’t have the time to rest, it is that we don’t have the motivation to say no to the demands and desires that keep us from rest. And even for those that do slow down, there is that gnawing sense of incompletion that prevents peaceful rest. In fact, there is the illusion that life is made up solely of what happens here and now so that you have to get it all now or you’ll never get it at all. But when you look at what people are chasing after that is supposed to bring satisfaction, what do you find? Who succeeds in getting what they are after? Looking for the fulfillment that brings rest, everyone charts their own course in life instead of following the way that God has set before them. So many people are striving to enter the wrong rest. They are chasing after the wind.
But is there a rest that we may enter and find true joy? Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us about God’s rest that he has prepared for us to enter. It is that sense of satisfaction where the soul finds completion and the heart finds the joy of fulfillment. It is that quality that everyone pursues, but in all the wrong directions, fruit of the Spirit that cannot be found anywhere but in Christ.
Listen to Jesus words in Matthew 11: 28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
30 "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
Even in the Old Testament this was understood. Listen to Jeremiah’s testimony in 6:16 Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, ’We will not walk in it.’
The NIV translates David’s testimony in Psalm 62:1 My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation comes from him.
The Hebrew writer bears witness to a blessing from God here that speaks to all people of all times and in all places. We all want the joy and fulfillment that brings peaceful, divine rest. Rest for our very souls. What a beautiful picture! What do you think of when you see a sleeping baby? What cares and worries stir in the heart of a sleeping infant? Would you like to have unburdened rest? God has much greater rest in store!
Lets just look together at the text and see what divine rest God has planned for our lives, what hinders that rest and how we may enter that rest.
Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.
10 "THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ’THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART; AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;
11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ’THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’"
This is a quote from Psalm 95:7-11 and the context is a Psalm of worship. But at the last third of this Psalm he breaks into this warning. Notice the four sections here. It opens with the word “TODAY” and says, if you hear God’s voice. Then it says what not to do. And we see three things God says of the people of Israel that angered him: They hardened their hearts, they tested me, they saw my works for 40 years! God then becomes angry and says: They always go astray in their hearts, they did not know my ways!
Finally, what consequence did Israel suffer for hardening their hearts and testing God and rejecting his ways? God swore, “They shall not enter my rest.” Hell must be a place where endless futile labor continues forever with no rest. Some people have already entered that kind of labor! Let’s continue…
12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.
13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Did you hear those words? Look at them again. In here is a warning and a way. First the warning: Notice the 2 elements that are dangerous here. Evil, unbelieving hearts that fall away from God, and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The big danger that hinders divine rest is an unbelieving heart that is hardened by sin’s deception.
Second we see the way. The way of rest in these verses is daily encouragement. How often? Daily. Is that Sunday’s and Wednesdays only? No, it is daily! Every day. How often do you eat and drink? Why? What would happen to you if you only ate and drank as often as you receive and give spiritual encouragement? Would anyone be starving or dying of thirst? Encouragement in Christ is more important that physical food. The way to rest includes daily encouragement in Christ. Listen to the next verses…
14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;
15 while it is said, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME."
16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
To avoid hard hearts, hear God speak through Jesus, heed what he says, hold on to it and help others in it by daily encouragement. Hear, heed, hold and help! These make up obedient faith. Obedient faith leads to the joy of divine rest. We are on the path to rest in Christ. But we are not there yet! Read on…
4:1 Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
There is a real danger that a Christian might come short of entering the divine rest. Notice his comparison. The good news of God’s rest was preached to them and to us, but they didn’t believe what they heard. Israel that failed to enter God’s rest, failed because of unbelief. It wasn’t that they quit sacrificing or quit going to worship. It wasn’t because they stopped hearing the gospel preached or stopped practicing their religious practices. It was because they stopped believing. Unbelief leads to disobedience. Do you know how important it is that we keep on believing God? Faith is the foundation of the obedience that brings divine rest. Faith is the foundation by which we receive all the blessings of God. Obedience that comes from faith reveals faith. God continues to invite believers to enter his rest. Let’s read on…
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just 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.
4 For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, "AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS";
5 and again in this passage, "THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST."
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,
7 He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.
9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
When are you invited to enter God’s rest? Today! How do you enter? Hear his voice and in faith, heed his words, lay hold of Christ, and help others remain faithful and remain faithful yourself by daily encouragement. Is this rest a reality? Just look at Jesus! He is the one we read about in verse 10.
10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.
