The Promise of Entering God’s Rest

Transcript

GR 1680
03/03/2013
The Promise of Entering God's Rest
Hebrews 4:1-11
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of Hebrews in your Bibles, Hebrews 4. The book of Hebrews is really built around five exhortations that are sprinkled through the book. And it really provides the motivation for why the letter was written. We said the theme of the book is the supremacy of Christ. He is above all and everything, and particularly He is going to be compared to what was provided in Judaism, the various aspects of the Jews' religion. But he wants to emphasize the importance to believers in light of the fact that Christ is the culminating revelation from God, the focal point of God's revelation to man, you must believe in Him. And if you have truly believed in Him, you will be faithful to Him to the end. Important to understand the balance and the emphasis. He is saying if you have truly believed in Christ, you will be faithful to Christ. Saving faith leads to a life of faithfulness. We have to be clear on this. He is not saying you are saved by faith and then you keep your salvation by being faithful, he is saying if you have truly trusted Christ that will result in a life that is faithful to Him.

These warning passages draw attention to that fact because these Hebrew believers, a congregation, perhaps a small congregation of Jewish believers who have experienced suffering for their faith and are facing perhaps more intense suffering in days ahead. And some of them are contemplating a return to Judaism and the writer to the Hebrews makes clear, if you turn back to Judaism, you turn back to destruction. There is no turning back from Christ. And if you turn back from Christ to return to Judaism, you simply manifest you never had saving faith to begin with.

We are in the second of the warning passages in Hebrews. The first one was in Hebrews 2 and covered the first four verses. It was rather short. This warning passage is rather long. It began in Hebrews 3:7 and it will go through Hebrews 4:13. It's the second of the five warning passages. They vary in length. This one is rather extensive. The lead into it gives you something of the concern. In Hebrews 3:6, “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are if,” note this qualification, “if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” So we belong to Christ if we remain faithful to Him to the end. Down in Hebrews 3:14, “we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” There is sometimes confusion in people's minds. They think, I've placed my faith in Christ, that settles it, it doesn't matter what happens or what I do from this point on. That's not biblical. It does matter. If you have truly placed your faith in Christ, you will live for Christ. Jesus said, “if you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” you will live in obedience to Me. So the evidence of faith is a life of faithfulness.

Now in Hebrews 3 as he began this exhortation he gave an extensive quote from Psalm 95. That was in verses 7-11. Giving the example of Israel in the Old Testament. After they had come out of Egypt, they had been brought to the brink of crossing over into the land of Canaan, the land that God had promised them. But they hardened their hearts, they would not trust God to provide what He had promised. They were disobedient to Him, so they could not go over into the land. Verse 11, “I swore in My wrath they shall not enter My rest, the rest that God had promised with all the blessing and fullness of the land of Canaan.” So they turned back and wandered for forty years. And we noted it was a death march because the purpose of those forty years was to allow every man who was over 20 years of age at the time of that rebellion to die in the wilderness. Perhaps 600,000 men would have had to die before the rest went into the land.

The warning in verse 13, “take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” So he takes them back to the experience of Israel at that period in their history and then he draws a comparison. You could be like them, you have heard the promise of God that is given in His Word. They had the promise of God, they did not believe, they were disobedient. You better be careful that there is not any one of you who have the same kind of evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God. But he is writing to encourage them so in verse 13, “encourage one another day after day,” remind one another. We all can get discouraged. Sometimes the pressures that come are greater, sometimes they come from those close to us. We just get weary and we don't want to go on with conflict. We don't want to face more difficulty, we don't want the pressure that comes. So we begin to look for a way to escape. And sin deceives us sometimes, thinking, here is an out. He reminds them, there is no escape from following Christ if you have truly trusted Him.

He asked three questions at the end of Hebrews 3. Verse 16, “who provoked Him when they had heard,” referring to the experience of Israel back as they confronted the opportunity to go into the Promised Land. Verse 17, “with whom was He angry for forty years” Verse 18, “to whom did He swear they would not enter His rest”? Then he applies it, we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Which ties to the warning in verse 12, “be careful there is not in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.” You can experience all that God has done, you can hear all that God has said, and yet you can fail to enter into the blessings that He has promised. That's the danger here.

So Hebrews 4 begins, “therefore let us fear,” similar to Hebrews 3:12, “take care, brethren,” watch out, brethren, “that there not be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.” Hebrews 4:1, “therefore let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to come short of it.” And you can see he is writing to a congregation of believers. And he is convinced most of them are believers but he is also aware there may be one or more in this congregation who have stopped short of saving faith. And the reason they are contemplating a return to Judaism of course is because they have never understood the truth of God's salvation in Christ only.

“Let us fear.” We have a type of Christianity today that wants to be positive. Don't talk about fear, we don't want to think of having to fear God, we don't want to talk about God' anger, God's wrath, even though we saw in Hebrews 3:11 “God said He swore in His wrath.” In Hebrews 3:17, “with whom was He angry for forty years.” These are truth concerning God. He is a God of love, of mercy and kindness, He is a God who can be intensely angry. We do not want to be the objects of His wrath.

“So let us fear lest…” He's writing to these believers in his day. We want to learn from this lesson of Old Testament history. “Let us fear lest while a promise remains of entering His rest any one of you.” Same thing he said in Hebrews 3:12, “if any one of you may seem to have come short of it.” Rest is a key word in this warning passage, talks about God's rest repeatedly. Note this, Hebrews 3:11, “they shall not enter My rest;” Hebrews 3:18, “He swore they would not enter His rest;” Hebrews 4:1, “promise remains of entering His rest;” Hebrews 4:3, “we who have believed enter that rest. They shall not enter My rest,” the end of verse 3, the word used twice in that verse. Hebrews 4:4, “God rested on the seventh day;” Hebrews 4:5, “they shall not enter My rest;” Hebrews 4:8, “if Joshua had given them rest;” Hebrews 4:10, “the one who has entered His rest, has rested from His works;” Hebrews 4:11, “therefore be diligent to enter that rest.” Then Hebrews 4:9 using a different word, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Rest, rest, rest.

That promise of rest is still open, that's the argument of the writer to the Hebrews. It was offered to Israel when they came up to the brink of entering the Promised Land, but they failed. They refused to believe and were disobedient. Hundreds of years later David wrote in Psalm 95, “today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts and thus fail to go into His rest.” And now this writer is writing the letter to the Hebrews 1,000 years after David and says that promise of entering His rest still remains. Note what he says in Hebrews 4:1, “let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest anyone of you may seem to come short of it.” So the opportunity of believing the promise to enter rest still holds.

Now note he doesn't say anyone has yet entered that rest, he doesn't indicate some of us have entered the rest, some of us have not. It is a promise of entering the rest that is given. The rest is yet future that he is talking about. We'll say more about that as we move along. The concern is anyone would come short of believing the promise God has given regarding entering the rest. The children of Israel hadn't entered the land of promise, but God had promised to give it to them. But they refused to believe Him.

So verse 2 applies this, “for indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they had good news preached to them.” Good news is preached. You either believe it or you don't. This is the same word we get the word Gospel from in our translation—yuongalizo, good news, the Gospel. Not talking about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ particularly here, in Israel's situation their promise of good news was the fullness of God's blessing if they would trust Him, believe what He promised they could enter into the blessings that He had promised. They didn't, they chose not to believe it. Now we have a promise, we have the opportunity to believe it or not.

The end of verse 1 said, “if anyone of you seem to come short of it.” I mention that word seem, I think it is used and would be more of a forensic way here. Be found to come short of it, be judged to come short of it. We have a promise there will come a time when we stand to be judged and some will be found to come short of having believed the promise and so they won't go into the rest. We have had the good news preached to us, you can go into God's rest if you will believe and obey Him. Israel had that promise, but “the word they heard,” the end of verse 2, “did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” You'll note, Israel had many blessings, they had seen the power of God in the land of Egypt, the miracles, the plagues that God brought upon Egypt. He had delivered them from bondage in Egypt, they had crossed the Red Sea, they had come to the brink of the land that God had promised them, they had the promise of God that He would lead them into a land filled with mild and honey, a land of blessing if they would believe and obey Him. They chose not to. The word they heard was not profitable to them because they didn't believe it. It's not enough to hear the Word, but that hearing must be joined with believing it. And Israel chose not to believe it. He's warning them of the danger. There are people who come and sit and hear the Word week after week but that doesn't save them, because if they don't believe that Word, they will never enter God's rest.

Back up to Romans 10. There are three things that take place—God's Word is preached, God's Word is heard, God's Word is believed. Those three things are unfolded in the good news that is preached to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The end of verse 8 talks about the Word of faith, Romans 10:8, “the Word of faith which we are preaching.” The Word which must be believed is what we are preaching. That “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” In other words when you believe in your heart and you are credited with God's righteousness, you testify to that with your mouth. Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.

Come down to verse 14, “how then will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?” Verse 17, “so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” It is God's intention that His Word be given out, that people hear that Word and that people respond in faith to that Word. And that brings them God's salvation.

The problem that Israel had was they heard the Word of God, it was proclaimed to them, they heard it, but they didn't believe it. So there was no rest for them. Now the danger these Hebrew readers in the letter we are studying faced is some of them would hear the Word of God and assume because they have heard it, they know what it says; therefore, they are saved. People can come to this church, hear the Word of God Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, attend Sunday School classes and hear the Word of God. That doesn't save them. You can hear it a thousand times and not be saved. How many times did Israel in that Old Testament experience, hear the Word of God? How clearly was it presented? They knew exactly what it said. It didn't profit them, it wasn't mixed with faith, they didn't believe it.

Come back to Hebrews 4, you ought to have that marked in your Bible whether you highlight or underline, “the Word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” Verse 3, “we who have believed enter that rest”. Now it doesn't mean we have entered it already. We enter it in the sense that we are those who will someday enjoy it. It is similar to Colossians 1 where Paul writes, “we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” We're not in the kingdom yet, the kingdom hasn't begun. But we are those who belong to the kingdom. We will be part of the kingdom. So here we who have believed enter that rest. Not a past tense here, have entered it, but enter it, present, because that's our condition. I am going to the rest that God has promised. It is a future rest here.

One of the challenges comes is to determine what is the rest being talked about in this section of Hebrews. I believe it is the rest that true believers enter into at the end of their earthly pilgrimage, either when they are called by death into the presence of the Lord or when Christ comes. Look at the future emphasis on this and then we'll come down to it. Down in verse 9, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” It doesn't say the people of God are in the Sabbath rest, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Down in verse 11, “let us be diligent to enter that rest.” So we have entered it in the sense of true faith but we won't enter it until our life's pilgrimage is over.

Come over later in Hebrews to Hebrews 10. This is in another warning passage of Hebrews. We'll just pick up a portion of it here. This tells you something about the suffering and difficulty these believing Jews have faced and may have yet to face more of. But pick up with verse 34, “you showed sympathy to the prisoners, accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.” He is looking forward and telling them about what is in their future. “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has great reward, for you have need of endurance.” Now note this, “so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised.” The rest promised to us will be received when we have continued through a life of endurance and faithfulness to Christ. Yet a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. So looking forward to the return of Christ. Then we receive what was promised and enter into all the blessings that will be ours.

Over in Hebrews 11, when we get to Hebrews 11, here you have a whole chapter devoted to examples from Israel's history of those who were faithful to God because they had faith in God. And their life of faithfulness. Abraham, verse 10,”he was looking for a city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.” Something future and a rest that he anticipated. Down in verse 16, “these ones who died in faith without,” verse 13, “receiving the promises.” Verse 16, “as it is they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them.” See this is part of our future rest when we enter into that time of glory in God's presence and the ultimate kingdom and the city that will be our residence.

Come over to Hebrews 12:22,” but you have come to Mt. Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to myriads of angels.” Reminds you of the book of Revelation in Revelation 22 where he unfolded the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. And the assembly of God's people here that he talks about in this section in Hebrews 12.

One more passage, come over to Revelation 14. You see the rest here. Look at verse 13, Revelation 14:13. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit,” now note this, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” You see it's when we are called into the presence of the Lord, either through death or through His coming that we rest from our labors and enter into the fullness of the blessing of the rest that God is unfolding in Hebrews. Now while you are in this context note the contrast with those that don't enter His rest. Pick up Revelation 14:10, “he will drink,” this is the unbeliever, “of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger. He will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, in the presence of the Lamb. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever,” now note this, “they have no rest day and night.” A contrast. Those who do not believe in the promises of God, their future destiny is torment day and night into the ages of the ages. No rest. What a contrast with the believers in verse 13 who will “enter their rest from their labor.” We think life for a believer can be difficult, can be hard, can be costly, can bring persecution and suffering. That's all right, this life is not my time of rest; this life is my time of service. I'm going to my time of rest. The unbeliever has the best he'll ever have it because he is going to a time of no rest. And that's the contrast we have in Hebrews. We're looking forward to the future. It's become popular in churches today not to talk about the future, not to get involved in eschatology and the details of that. Let me tell you, that is a motivation for living. The world is living, trying to get to retirement, trying to have the good life, trying to get some ease. They should, this is the best they'll ever have it. But this is the worst we'll ever have it, we're on our way to glory, we're on our way to the blessings God has provided to rest from labors. So endure, persevere, keep on. That's the challenge of Hebrews.

Come back to Hebrews 4:3, “we who have believed enter that rest. Just as He said, I swore in My wrath they shall not enter My rest.” Now the contrast with that generation, these truths hold. Those who believe will enter His rest just as those who believed then had the promise but they wouldn't believe. So the promise holds.

Although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. Now we bring something new into the picture. We've been talking about rest, referring to Israel going into the land of Canaan to realize what God had promised. But now he says the rest of God existed before that situation in Numbers 14 as Israel contemplated going into the land. “He swore they will not enter My rest,” quoting from Psalm 95, “although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.” So he is taking us back way before Israel's situation. That tells what? God's rest and His provision of His rest has been His plan for those who believe in Him before that promise to Israel.

What are we talking about? Verse 4, “for He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all His works.” And again in this passage, verse 6, “they shall not enter My rest.” He puts the two together. Where are we in verse 4? God rested on the seventh day, we're familiar—Genesis 1 and the opening verses of Genesis 2. Through Genesis 1 the six days of God's work of creation and what He created on each day. You come into Genesis 2 and in verse 2 God rested on the seventh day. His work of creating was done. That does not mean God's work was done, period. Jesus said in John 5:17, My Father works until now and I also work. But His work of creation was done, He rested. And now he is saying that rest is to be provided and shared with all “those who believe in Me,” all the blessing, all the joy, all the peace, all the freedom from labor and toil, all that blessing that is mine I will share with you. So He is saying that rest I promised, they rejected. Now this rest, the rest that I had provided was available before that time, but here is an example of those who rejected it. The warning to these readers that he is writing to, don't you reject it. This rest is God's provision for those who love Him.

1 Corinthians 5 talks about “eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” All that God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, so He has told us about these things. We have the promises of them. But I've entered into them. I've never visited heaven. Some people buy a retirement place, they go and visit that place where they anticipate retiring. Well I have a retirement place I've never visited, I have stored up for me everything that God in His grace could provide for one that He loves. It's my inheritance, I enter into the rest but I've never been there. I have the promises of it. I can either believe the promise or not believe the promise. If I believe the promise of God, I enter into His salvation, I live in light now of my destiny. Jesus talked about two gates, a broad one and a narrow one; two roads, a broad one and a narrow one; two destinies, life and destruction. Same point, same principles.

So he said, “God rested,” verse 4, “on the seventh day from all His works” and again in this passage He said, “they shall not enter My rest.” That's the rest ultimately that He is talking about. Israel did not realize the greatness of the disaster of their refusing to believe God and obey Him. He's talking about entering into the rest that He established back at the creation in Genesis 2:2. But that generation had, as Hebrews 3:12 says, an evil, unbelieving heart. They could not enter the rest.

Therefore, verse 6, “since it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience.” And remind you again, disobedience, unbelief; disobedience, unbelief. Same thing because disobedience is a manifestation of an evil, unbelieving heart. When God truly saves us, He changes our heart. As a result of that changed heart our life is changed, we live differently. That's the point. They couldn't enter because of disobedience, which is a manifestation of unbelief because those who believe do enter that rest. But they couldn't enter because they didn't believe.

So it remains for some to enter it. There we have an example of those who chose not to enter it. Now these Hebrew readers, same kind of decision point. Will you enter or will you not enter? Will you believe or will you not believe? Well, I think I'm going back to Judaism. We had a good religious system there, it seemed to be working and it didn't have the same kind of difficulties and obstacles that following Christ has. That's disobedience, that's unbelief. You don't tell God where you'll go, what you'll do. That's unbelief, that's disobedience.

But there remains for some to enter it, the opportunity is still there. That's why in our previous study we talked about today, today, “today if you hear His voice don't harden your heart.” It's a time of opportunity. The rest that God talked about that was in existence back, all the way back to Genesis 2:2, is still offered and will be entered into in the fullest sense at a future time.

So verse 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. The point is God's rest remains, the promise to enter His rest.” Will you believe the promise? All I have is the promise of God. The people of Israel had the promise of God but it didn't seem realistic so they chose not to believe it, they chose to be disobedient. We have the promise of God, the writer to the Hebrews says. That's why David said, hundreds of years after Israel's experience in Numbers 14, “today if you hear His voice don't harden your hearts.” That's why we take this Word today, the rest is still open. Today if you hear His voice don't harden your hearts. You harden your heart, we talked about it already in our studies in Hebrews; you don't know what tomorrow brings. Israel the next day decided, yes, I'll do it. God says, no, you won't. It's no longer today for you. But today is here for these Hebrew readers, today is here for us.

“Don't harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest he would not have spoken of another day after that.” So he continues going back to the Old Testament. Do you know what happened? After forty years all the men twenty years old and older had died off. Joshua came on the scene and led them into the land. And the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua 21:44, Joshua 22:4, Joshua 23:1 tells us Israel was in the land and had rest from their enemies. But that wasn't the rest that God initially promised. They did not have that fulfillment. So he is saying here if Joshua had given them rest, David wouldn't have written hundreds of years later, today. So the opportunity is there.

“There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Here he uses a different word. All the other words for rest that we've referred to in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4 use the same basic word. Here he uses a totally different word that is only used here. And Sabbath is the basic translation, transliteration basically, of the word. The Sabbath, the seventh. We put the word rest with it here because of the context, but there remains a Sabbath for the people of God. One writer put it, a festive celebration that often was. Sabbath days could be a time of celebration, of worship, of praise, of resting. “There remains a Sabbath.” He calls it a Sabbath here to connect it back to God's rest that he talked about in verse 4, which is the seventh day. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

“For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from His.” We'll enter our rest when our earthly labors are over. These are days of labor, of trial, of toil. We get influenced by the world as believers and we think, what's the world living for? Well, retirement, make enough money to enjoy life, retire as early as you can with as much as you can to enjoy it as long as you can. And I'm not against retirement, these things in and of themselves are not bad but they are not God's plan for us. We talked about the unbeliever has to get everything he can now and enjoy it as much as he can now because he has no rest in his future. For us as believers, I have 100 billion trillion—how do you talk about endlessly? God's rest. We think, it's too bad, they died and they didn't get to enjoy their retirement. If I die, drop dead after this sermon or before it's over, don't feel bad. I will have entered my rest. I have entered my retirement, so to speak, in that no more labor, no more toil, no more difficulty. But I am enjoying the fullness of all the blessings that God has chosen to pour out upon me as one who belongs to Him. His rest is not just sleepy time, His rest is a Sabbath rest of enjoying Him and all that I have is an inheritance in Him. That's what we have, that's what motivates us to keep going. That's why we are to encourage one another as he said in Hebrews 3:13, “as long as it is still today, and don't be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” There is no easy way to find, there is no easy way to follow the Lord. He said, “take up your cross and follow Me.” Some suffer more than others, some are being martyred for their faith even in these days in parts of the world. We don't face that. We have different difficulties to face, but what must be driving us is I want to be faithful to Him. Lord, you have bestowed on me the wonder of your salvation, I belong to you and I cannot but live for you.

Looking at the song in the hymn book, “though none come with me, still I will follow. I will follow Jesus. Though none come with me, I will follow.” Does it matter that I am committed to follow Christ? What if this happens? What if that happens? It is in His hands. That's why it is good for us to read some of the stories of the martyrs, it's a reminder that I am going to glory. If you burn this body, what a terrible way to die, but it was short. They have been enjoying God's presence for hundreds of years and it has not even begun. That's what he is talking about here, and the motivation. We get short-sighted by the deceitfulness of sin. And why are they talking about going back to Judaism? Well, it's so difficult to follow Christ, it's so unpleasant, there is so much conflict, there is so much . . . You can't go back, you can't go back.

“For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works,” verse 10, “as God did from His.” That is a comparison that boggles my mind; that He should compare what He has prepared for me as rest with what He enjoys as the God who created everything. For the one who has entered his rest has himself rested from his works as God did from His. We don't know how wonderful heaven will be, if I can use heaven in the sense of our eternal destiny. I mean, how do I conceive of that? We think, the pressures, the things that we have a concern about. None of that. We ought to have that as a focus and so excited about anticipating it that it keeps life in perspective. It's not what I am enduring today, it's what I am looking forward to enjoying in the future.

“Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.” What a tragedy that some would stop short, fail to take hold of the promise and believe it. So let us be diligent to enter that rest. It's not that you have truly been saved you will lose your salvation, but it's an encouragement to those who have believed because we do get discouraged, we do get weary. I've shared with you, I had someone come see me a number of years ago, good family, they attended here. They said, we're leaving, we're going to find another church. Why? We're just tired of the conflicts, just want to go someplace where there is no conflict. I can understand that. I've shared with you, do you know what I used to tell Marilyn? Do you know what my ideal is, Marilyn? That we find a small church someplace with a little group of people that don't want to do anything but study the Bible together. We won't deal with conflict, we don't deal with disagreements, we don't have to fight theology. We just have that nice, comfortable place. Well, I'm still here. You know sometimes we do think about those things but we have to be careful that they don't begin to shape us. We are looking for an easy place. And I have to say this has been an easy place for ministry because God has blessed us, blessed us to have a group of people committed to the Word. I am encouraged by you in the preaching of the Word. That is a blessing I don't take for granted. Sometimes there are times when we look and say, I would like it to be easier, I would like it to not be like this. Then I have to remind myself, be diligent to enter that rest. This is what God has brought into my life now, this is the situation where I have opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness to Him now. This is my opportunity to be faithful to Him. You know being faithful is not hard when it is easy, it's when difficulty comes, when unpleasantness comes. The devil knows what hurts, he knows how to get to us. And then we begin to think, I don't know if I can keep doing this.

Be diligent to enter that rest. That's where we're going. This is not the end, this is just the road and be diligent to enter that rest so no one will fall through following the example of Israel. What did they do? We look back and say, how could they do that? What a terrible, terrible mistake. How could you have such an evil, unbelieving heart to disobey God? You had His promise. But so do we. Why do people not believe in Christ? Why do they hear the Word? Remember he is writing to people who are in a church, he's writing to people who have professed to believe, he's writing to people who have heard the Word of God. He's not writing to people who are pagan Romans, who have been idol worshipers and don't know anything about God. He is talking here about people who hear the Word of God but don't believe it. It's a serious, serious situation. We think, I hear it, I go to that church, I hear it. I know it, I can tell you what was said, I listen, I take notes, I talk about it. But the bottom line, do you believe it? Do you think that generation in Israel did not know what God had said? Did not know what the promises of God were? Had not heard it repeatedly? One thing missing, they didn't believe it. If we have believed it, we ought to encourage one another. Encourage one another, different ones, different times we'll be going through harder times. That's when we can be used in someone else's life to encourage. I appreciate the encouragement I get from you. You encourage me. You may not know if I am discouraged. That's the way we minister with one another, we encourage one another, Hebrews 3:13. Day by day I keep going. Why? Because I might take my eyes off the ultimate goal, the rest that God has provided. Then I begin to get discouraged, then you come along and say, you know where we're going. God is working, He's using our testimony, He's using your testimony, He's using their testimony and we're proceeding on. We have to keep going, I'll help you along over this spot and you help someone else. And we go on. That's where we are.

But take care that the real problem you're facing is that you have an evil, unbelieving heart and have you really trusted Christ. Have the truths of His promises gripped your heart. We have His promise, we have the good news, we have a Savior who loved us and died for us. You know about it, do you know Him? Have you come to trust Him? Has He changed your heart and given you the desire to be faithful to Him? Is your life a life of faithfulness?

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. How blessed we are to have this Word, Your Word, to hear it, to read it, to share it. Lord, there is a great danger that comes with that. I pray for any who are here, Lord perhaps they attend regularly, they have heard it many times but they have never believed it. Lord, I pray that they might examine themselves, may each of us do that to see if we are in the faith. Lord, I pray for those who are discouraged even as Your children, certain difficulties, trials and pressures that seem to weigh us down and make it hard to keep going. Lord, may we be strengthened and encouraged and blessed to know You have promised Your rest for us at the end of the road and it will all be worth it. We praise You in Christ's name, amen.