Obedient Faith Brings Divine Rest Hebrews 3:7-4:11 Adapted from a Greg Nance sermon http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=53265

1. Obedient Faith
Brings Divine Rest
Adapted from a
Greg Nance sermon
http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly
.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=53265

2. A preacher assured his congregation he
was their servant and that they should feel
free to call him anytime they had a problem.
The preacher’s phone rang at 3 a.m., and
an elderly Church member said, “preacher,
I can’t sleep.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he comforted her.
“But what can I do about it?”
“Preach to me awhile,” she replied.

3. 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,
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.

4. 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?

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Listen to Jesus words in Matthew 11:28
NET Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29
Take my yoke on you and learn from
me, because I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and my
load is not hard to carry."

8. Even in the Old Testament this was
understood. Listen to Jeremiah’s testimony
in Jeremiah 6:16 NIV This is what the
LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and
look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where
the good way is, and walk in it, and you will
find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We
will not walk in it.’
Listen to David’s testimony in Psalm 62:1
NIV My soul finds rest in God alone, my
salvation comes from him.

9. The Hebrew writer bears witness to a
blessing from God 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!

10. Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit
says, "Oh, that today you would listen as
he speaks! 8 “Do not harden your hearts
as in the rebellion, in the day of testing
in the wilderness.

11. 9 “There your fathers tested me and tried
me, and they saw my works for forty
years. 10 "Therefore, I became provoked
at that generation and said, 'Their hearts
are always wandering and they have not
known my ways.' 11 “As I swore in my
anger, 'They will never enter my rest!' "
Ps 95:7b-11

12. 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, Oh, that today you would
listen as he speaks! Then it says what not
to do. And we see three things God says of
the people of Israel that angered him:

13. They hardened their hearts, they tested
me, they saw my works for 40 years! God
then becomes angry and says: 'Their
hearts are always wandering and they
have not known my ways.'

14. Finally, what consequence did Israel suffer
for hardening their hearts and testing God
and rejecting his ways? God swore,
“'They will never 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…

15. Hebrews 3:12 See to it, brothers and
sisters, that none of you has an evil,
unbelieving heart that forsakes the living
God. 13 But exhort one another each day,
as long as it is called "Today," that none of
you may become hardened by sin's
deception.

16. Did you hear those words? Look at them
again. Here is a warning and a way. First
the warning: Notice the 2 elements that are
dangerous here. evil, unbelieving heart that
forsakes the living 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.

17. 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! "Today,"
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?

18. 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.
Verse 14 lays out the main point the writer
wants us to learn from this section. We all
need to take it to heart! It is obvious he’s
writing to Christians. 3:14 For we have
become partners with Christ, if in fact we
hold our initial confidence firm until the end.

19. partners with Christ, seems to be pointing
back to, Hebrews 3:1 NET Therefore, holy
brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly
calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and
high priest whom we confess,
Jesus is my Lord, Savior, King…but how
are we partners? I think Paul clears this up
for us in his letter to the Saints in Rome.

20. Romans 8:16 NET The Spirit himself bears
witness to our spirit that we are God's
children. 17 And if children, then heirs
(namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs
with Christ) — if indeed we suffer with him
so we may also be glorified with him.
The last part of verse 14 indicates we’ll be
partners… if in fact we hold our initial
confidence firm until the end.

21. This same thought is stressed again in,
Hebrews 6:11 NET But we passionately
want each of you to demonstrate the same
eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope
until the end, 12 so that you may not be
sluggish, but imitators of those who through
faith and perseverance inherit the promises.

22. Now he gives us an example of what will
happen if we do not hold our initial
confidence firm until the end.
15 As it says, "Oh, that today you would
listen as he speaks! Do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion." (Ps 95:7b-8) 16
For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it
not all who came out of Egypt under Moses'
leadership?

23. 17 And against whom was God provoked
for forty years? Was it not those who
sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the
wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear
they would never enter into his rest, except
those who were disobedient? 19 So we see
that they could not enter because of
unbelief.

24. 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…

25. Hebrews 4:1 NET Therefore we must be
wary that, while the promise of entering his
rest remains open, none of you may seem
to have come short of it. 2 For we had good
news proclaimed to us just as they did. But
the message they heard did them no
good, since they did not join in with those
who heard it in faith.
Just as in 3:14 again the main point of this
section is stressed.

26. 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.

27. It wasn’t because they stopped hearing the
God’s Word 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.

28. 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, as he has
said, "As I swore in my anger, 'They will
never enter my rest!' " (Ps 95:11) And yet
God's works were accomplished from the
foundation of the world. 4 For he has
spoken somewhere about the seventh day
in this way:

29. "And God rested on the seventh day
from all his works," (Gen 2:2) 5 but to repeat
the text cited earlier: "They will never enter
my rest!" 6 Therefore it remains for some
to enter it, yet those to whom it was
previously proclaimed did not enter
because of disobedience.

30. 7 So God again ordains a certain day,
"Today," speaking through David after so
long a time, as in the words quoted before,
"O, that today you would listen as he
speaks! Do not harden your hearts." 8
For if Joshua had given them rest, God
would not have spoken afterward about
another day. 9 Consequently a Sabbath
rest remains for the people of God.

31. 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? Of course it is! Jesus
promised it in the verses we read earlier
from Matthew 11 just as The Spirit inspired
the writer of Hebrews encouraging us to
make every effort to enter God’s rest.

32. Hebrews 4:10 For the one who enters
God's rest has also rested from his works,
just as God did from his own works. 11
Thus we must make every effort to enter
that rest, so that no one may fall by
following the same pattern of disobedience.
God has shown us we must be diligent in
our faith & obedience to him.

33. The Israelites saw firsthand the miracles of
God. They walked across the Red Sea &
the Jordan River on dry ground and heard
the voice of God, & feared the glow on
Moses’ face. They ate manna from heaven
& drank water flowing out of a rock. They
failed to make every effort to enter that rest.
Disobedience & unbelief kept them from the
promise of God rest.
We must not let that happen to us!