Hebrews 3:1-4:1

Money and success won't make you happy or content.

!

I was rich. I had everything.

I guess it's like the old songs about movie and pop stars who want to commit suicide.

They have everything and yet they are so unhappy.

It is true. I had nothing on the inside.

We could quote film star after music icon after business tycoon and they would have a similar tale.

All the money, no peace.

All the success, no contentment, no satisfaction.

Mick Jagger was right all those years ago.

Mick Jagger was also right that we try and we try and we try to find it in all the same places.

We still believe that money and success are the answer.

Because we believe that we are the exception to the rule.

You see, money and success won't make you happy and content.

It's advice that we hear all the time but we think that we would actually be okay with it.

If we were trusted with it, if we had money, if we had success, we wouldn't fall for those old trip wires that everyone else tripped over.

All the testimonies are the same.

They don't work.

You get money, they solve one problem, they create another.

You get success, it solves one problem, it creates many others.

We think though that we're the exception.

If we just had those things, we'd be content.

We'd be happy.

We would have that inner peace that we're all striving for.

And so we just follow the same path.

It is, when you think about it, the definition of madness.

And part of the reason it is just so crazy, so crazy to live that way, so crazy to continue down the same path that everybody says don't make you happy, don't deliver contentment.

And the people that have got the things that we think if we had them, they'd make us content, they say it doesn't make you content.

The reason why it is so crazy to live this way is that actually satisfaction and contentment and peace and joy are actually available.

You see, the longings that we have for these things aren't some cruel trick that our hearts play on us.

Those desires and longings that are there exist because in God's design, there is actually a way that they can be met.

And that is in relationship with Him.

You see, we were made for God.

And it's true.

All of us know this.

The Christian life is beset in the present by frustration and struggle.

Yes.

However, many of us, most of us, if we're absolutely honest with ourselves, we know that those who follow Christ can and do know contentment of some degree and joy of some degree in our lives.

But more than that, we know that those things in their fullness, contentment and joy and peace, those things in their fullest sense are our future.

That's what the writer to the Hebrews is describing when he talks about rest in our passage this evening.

Quoting Psalm 95, talking about God's people in an earlier generation, he says, chapter 3, verse 11,

As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

He talks again in 4, verse 3.

Can you see?

The good news came to, for he who has believed, for we who have believed, enter that rest.

As he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest.

The rest that the they that he's talking about failed to receive was the peace and prosperity of Canaan, the promised land.

But the writer to the Hebrews is applying this to his first century hearers and the future that they look forward to.

He is holding out to them, entering his rest.

His rest is the state that God is in eternally.

You see, before God created the world, he was at rest.

That's how he describes his perfect communion of love and joy as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He entered time to create our world, his work of creation.

And when he had completed that work, he rested.

So one commentator says this, quote,

The goal of human existence, here it is, here's why we all exist.

The goal of human existence is a share in God's own glory.

It is stated explicitly in chapter 2, verse 10, that God is leading, do you remember last week, many sons to glory.

And this must mean a share in God's own way of existing, a participation in God's own presence and power.

This rest is therefore to live as God lives, end quote.

Life in the presence of the supremely wonderful, supremely joyful, supremely content God.

That's actually what we talk about when we talk about eternal life.

You know, when we talk to people about, put your faith in Jesus Christ and you'll receive eternal life.

That can sound a bit like you'll receive existence for a very long time.

Now, eternity is a very long time.

But that is what we're talking about when we talk about the life of eternity.

When we come to Christ, this is what we receive.

This is what we look forward to.

Life in the presence of the supremely wonderful, joyful, content God.

And the perfect fullness of this, and the full experience of this,

is what we look forward to as God's children, as we were described last week as brothers of Jesus.

Now, for most of us, that future day is a long way off.

At least we hope it's a long way off.

And this text reminds us that if we're going to partake of this rest, we need to persevere to the end.

Chapter 3, verse 6.

Can you see?

And we are Christ's house, that is, we belong to Him,

if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Look down 3, verse 14.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

He's saying you've got to keep going.

If you want this rest, you've got to keep going.

But the truth is, like these first hearers, we're beset by temptation.

Temptation from within, temptation from without.

And the thought of struggling on for 2 or 3 or 4 or hopefully 5 or 6 more decades,

well, it feels like an impossible task.

Yes, we want the contentment.

We want the joy.

But how do we get there?

That's the question that we're dealing with this evening.

The contentment, the joy, the rest, sharing in the presence and the power of God.

That is what is held out to us.

That's what we're looking forward to.

How do we get there?

Well, Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us.

The answer runs right through these chapters, and it's this.

We get there by faithfulness.

We get there by choosing faith and choosing obedience to Christ

and by rejecting the alternative, which is unbelief.

To make this point, Hebrews has us learn the lesson of history,

the history of God's people.

And the author says first,

If we're going to get there,

first of all, we must hold fast to the faithful son.

We must hold fast to the faithful son.

That's chapter 3, verses 1 to 6.

3, verse 1.

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,

consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

who was faithful to him, who appointed him,

just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,

as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

As those who are in Christ's family,

we are called to consider or to contemplate Jesus.

And to do so because he is both, do you see,

our apostle and our high priest.

Now, that's an interesting phrase

because it's the only place in the Bible

where Christ is called an apostle.

The word we heard this morning means sent one.

So an apostle is sent,

and he is sent with the authority and the commission of the one who does the sending.

So Christ's apostle, apostles, the 12,

they were sent out by him and they had his authority.

That's what we saw in Acts 9 this morning.

Here, though, Christ is the apostle.

So what's going on there?

Well, it is he has been sent by God the Father

and represents God to us.

At the same time, he's also called our high priest.

That is, as one of us,

he is to represent us to God.

The priests were chosen from among the people

and stood before the people to represent them to God.

So for Christ to be our apostle and high priest

means that he represents God perfectly to us

and us perfectly to God.

So when it comes to thinking about your standing before God,

in Christ you have one who has been faithful to his calling

and he has done all that you need.

Boys and girls, how much is left for you to pay?

Zero.

Zero.

He has done all that you need.

And that, I want to say, just to be clear,

that is where our journey to glory, to rest, must start.

If you want to know God,

if you want to be in relationship to the God of all the earth,

you need to put your faith in Jesus.

One of the most compelling invitations that Jesus makes

during his earthly ministry

is when he calls people who were stubbornly rejecting him

in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

And he says this,

very familiar to many of us.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

That's the offer.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Rest for your soul.

No religious system.

No secular vision of life.

No spiritual practice can give you this deep, enduring soul rest.

But because he is a faithful apostle and high priest,

Jesus restores us to the relationship where this rest is available.

That's why, in the context of chapter 3, he is greater than Moses.

Remember, Moses is the great hero of those who want to go back to the old shadows of old covenant Judaism.

The author uses the image of a house.

3 verse 4,

Remember at the start of this series,

I talked about this lesser to the greater argument,

that you see again and again and again in the book of Hebrews.

Here it is again.

So he's not saying,

Moses was bad,

Jesus is good,

old covenant bad,

new covenant good.

Both are described, you see here, as faithful.

Moses was faithful in all God's house.

Christ is faithful over God's house.

Both are faithful.

But Moses was a servant in God's house.

Therefore, how much more greater,

and worthy of glory is Christ as a son.

Moses was faithful as a servant.

His ministry pointed forward to Christ.

Christ is greater than Moses because he brings a better, fuller salvation.

We see this in that Christ is both the builder of God's house and Lord over the house.

And the house that he's talking about here,

the house that he built,

was composed of people.

Do you remember in 1 Peter chapter 2,

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

as you come to him,

a living stone rejected by men,

but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

you yourselves,

like living stones,

are being built up as a spiritual house

to be a holy priesthood,

to offer spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

He's talking to a congregation of the people of God

and he's saying,

you're a spiritual house.

You're building blocks that have been built together

into God's house.

When it comes to the Christian house,

there are three classes of people.

Some are never in the house.

They have no interest in the house.

They don't go to the house.

They don't knock the door or nothing.

They're never in the house.

Others look like they're in the house for a while.

They behave like they belong for a time,

but then they walk away.

Then there are those who truly belong,

the elect of God.

And they are those,

verse 6 of chapter 3,

who remain holding fast their confidence to the end.

See what he's saying?

Jesus is greater than Moses,

so hold fast to the faithful son.

So you go from here.

I say to you,

hold fast to the faithful son.

You say,

great,

I'm going to hold fast to the faithful son.

What does that look like?

Thanks for asking.

Point number two,

here's what we do.

Cultivate a faithful heart.

If the first point is,

he says,

hold fast to the faithful son.

The second point,

how do we do that?

We cultivate a faithful heart.

And there are two key aspects

of what this means.

The first is this.

Heed God's word today.

Heed God's word today.

You can't miss the refrain from Psalm 95

running all the way through.

Chapter 3, verse 7.

Chapter 3, verse 15.

Chapter 4, verse 6.

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts,

as in the rebellion.

The word today, here,

is used most often

in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy,

where the people are told

of the demands of the covenant

on them today.

Deuteronomy 4,

particularly,

repeated there.

Here,

the book of Hebrews,

God is speaking by his son.

Remember,

chapter 1, verse 1.

And again,

chapter 3, verse 7,

by his spirit,

through the scriptures.

And because God is outside of time,

his word is always today.

And the emphasis here

on listening,

hearing,

and responding in faith

is to us in the moment.

You see,

this is not what the people

in the wilderness did.

Look at verse 8.

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts,

as in the rebellion

on the day of testing

in the wilderness,

where your fathers put me

to the test

and saw my works

for 40 years.

Therefore,

I was provoked

with that generation

and said,

they always go astray

in their heart.

They have not known my ways.

I said at the beginning,

the author here

is taking us

on a history lesson,

as it were,

from the people of God

under the old covenant.

And he's saying,

when the people of old

rebelled against God,

they were faithless

in three ways.

He outlines it there.

Verse 8,

they hardened their hearts.

In the Bible,

the heart is the seat

of both knowledge

and choice.

And to speak of it

being hardened in this way

is to describe

a conscious choice

to refuse to hear

and to refuse

to obey God's word.

That's what it means.

A hard heart,

that's how a hard heart

is expressed,

to refuse to hear

and obey God.

Secondly,

their hearts

went astray.

Verse 10,

this has the sense

of allowing their hearts

to wander morally,

to be led off

after sin and foolishness.

Their decision was,

actually over here

looks better,

I'm going to go

in this direction.

I'm going to believe

the promises

of the culture over here

and I'm going to go

in that direction.

Their hearts went astray

and then thirdly,

they saw,

verse 10,

three verse 10,

and they saw God's ways

and ignored them.

See,

he says there,

they have not known

my ways.

Their not knowing there

isn't about ignorance,

isn't about knowledge.

They saw what God did

among his people.

They knew that he had

given them his law

for how they should

live to please him.

It's about rebellious

disobedience.

It's about saying,

I know what God says

and I'm going to do

something else.

And that's what

the people did.

God was speaking today,

in the moment,

in the present,

and that was how

the people responded.

They were faithless

rather than faithful.

And that is why

he was angry

with that generation.

That is why

he refused

to bring them

into his rest.

That is why

they did not get

to the rest

that lay ahead of them.

And our author

applies the same

warning to the Hebrews

as he does to us

today.

3 verse 12.

Take care,

brothers,

lest there be

in any of you

an evil,

unbelieving,

that is,

faithless heart,

leading you to fall

away from the living

God.

But exhort one another

every day,

as long as it is

called today,

that none of you

may be hardened

by the deceitfulness

of sin.

He's saying,

watch out.

If you refuse

the word of God,

if you don't receive

it with faith,

if you consistently

choose folly,

making bad choices

that lead you

away from God,

and if knowing

how God's word

calls you to live,

you choose another

route,

you're in danger

of falling away

from Christ.

Watch out.

So,

we need to take

an honest heart check,

don't we?

If you play around

with sin,

you cannot expect

to persevere

to glory.

You will fall

away.

You will forfeit

your rest,

just like

3, 16 to 18,

those in the Old Testament.

Their example is

very sobering.

Look at verse 16.

For those,

for who were those

who heard

and yet rebelled?

Was it not all

those who left

Egypt,

led by Moses?

Who was it

that rebelled?

Some who'd

experienced

the glories

of the Exodus.

They'd seen

firsthand

the miraculous

rescue through

the Red Sea.

God had done

great things

in their time.

But they hardened

their hearts

and wandered away

and so fell

in the desert.

You hear people

say from time

to time,

if God just

turned up

and showed

himself in a

miraculous way

in my life,

well then,

I would absolutely

follow him

no matter what.

That's what I want.

If he did that,

then I'd be able

to believe

and I wouldn't

be so faithless

or I wouldn't

struggle in the

way that I do.

Well,

that's not true.

That's not true

because those

who left

Egypt,

led by

Moses,

did the same.

Imagine talking

to one of them.

Say to them,

were you actually

there?

Did you see

the sea part?

Oh yeah,

I walked

through the Red Sea.

Dry land.

We got to the

other side,

we all sang hymns.

Thinking back

actually,

it was quite a

thing now that

you mention it.

Well,

that's quite a

story to tell.

Do they get you

up at church

to share that

and talk about

what it was like?

Well,

I don't really

go to church

anymore,

to be honest.

It was a bit

tough in those

early days in the

wilderness.

We had some

struggles as a

family and to be

honest,

I found the

preaching after a

while didn't

really connect

with me.

Plus,

we were trying

to make things

work and I

needed to provide

and I was

working very hard.

I needed to be

on the road a

fair bit.

looking back

now,

it was quite

impressive,

but I'm in a

different place

now.

Is that even

possible?

It sounds

absurd,

doesn't it?

That's what

Hebrews tells us

happens.

That's how

deceitful our

hearts can be.

None of us

can presume

on past

experience

or the

soundness

of our

church.

These guys

heard Moses

preach to them.

or the

ministers

we've heard.

These guys

heard Moses

preach to them.

Whatever it

might be that

we think,

well,

because I

grew up in

that family

or I went

to that

church or

was part

of that

group or

I read

that translation

of the

Bible or

whatever it

might be,

we cannot

presume on

the basis

of those

things that

we are in

the right

with God.

How do

you know

that you're

in the right

with God?

You hear

his voice

and today

you heed

what it

says

and you

follow it

wherever it

leads

no matter

what.

That's

actually the

basis of

what it

means to

believe.

Chapter 4

verse 3,

have a look.

4 verse 3,

for good news

came to us

just as them,

them being a

wilderness

generation,

but the

message they

heard did

not benefit

them because

they were not

united by faith

to those who

listen.

For we who

have believed

enter that

rest.

the root

of all

of our

problems

is that

we believe

other things

over God's

word.

He speaks

to us in

scripture.

Today we

open it up

and we

read it

and then we

do what our

first parents

did in the

garden.

We say,

did God

really say

that thing?

Does what

appears to be

absolutely

crystal clear

and obvious

here really

mean what it

says?

because you

know,

I really

like living

this way

and what I

read here

seems to

rule that

out,

so it

can't mean

that.

There are

scandalous

and really

obvious ways

that people

do that,

but all of

us,

if we're

honest with

ourselves,

are tempted

in that

direction.

We battle

hard,

wandering,

faithless

hearts,

and so we

need to

watch out.

God's voice

has never been

more accessible

to us

than it is

now.

You can

listen to

it,

you can

read it,

you can

access it

in all

kinds of

different

formats,

listen to

it today

and heed

what it

says.

Now the

author knows

heed God's

word today,

that's how

you cultivate

a faithful

heart,

that's the

first step,

but the

author knows

that we

can't do

this on

our own,

and he

doesn't

expect us

to either.

The second

aspect of

cultivating a

faithful heart,

313,

exhort one

another every

day as long

as it is

called today,

that none

of you may

be hardened

by the

deceitfulness

of sin.

The first

aspect of

cultivating a

faithful heart

is heed

God's word

today,

the second

is heed

God's word

together.

You were

never meant

to make

the pilgrimage

to glory,

to your rest

on your own,

because you

wouldn't be

able to do

it on your

own.

Some of you

think you

will,

but you're

wrong,

sin is really

deceitful,

and we are

all really

prone to

being self

deceived.

The house

that God

built is

the church.

If you

belong to

that house,

you should

belong in a

meaningful way

to a local

church.

We all

need to

belong to

a group of

people who

will exhort

us every

day that

God gives

us breath.

As long

as there

are days

called

today,

we need

one another

to exhort

us towards

a deeper

and a more

faithful

devotion to

him.

alongside

that,

the clearest

foretaste

of that

future

rest is

experienced

now when

we gather

each

Lord's

Day.

4 verse

9,

there remains

a Sabbath

rest for

those who

have entered

the rest

of belonging

to Christ.

You enter

your rest

when you

put your

faith in

Jesus,

but there

remains a

Sabbath

rest that

future

day,

and it

is on

the Lord's

Day when

we come

together

under the

preaching of

God's

Word.

Look at

chapter 4

verse 12.

For the

Word of

God is

living and

active,

sharper than

any two-edged

sword,

piercing to

the division

of soul

and of

spirit,

of joints

and of

marrow,

and discerning

the thoughts

and intentions

of the

heart.

And no

creature is

hidden from

his sight,

but all

are naked

and exposed

to the

eyes of

him to

whom we

must give

account.

Where is

the two-edged

sword of

God's Word

unleashed in

the context

where God

has promised

that he

will visit

that by

his Spirit?

It is when

the church

gathers.

And it is

here where

that work

is going

on,

where the

Spirit of

God

recalibrates

our hearts

to keep

us going

so that we

make it

to glory.

I want to

suggest that

the main

today of

Hebrews 4

is the

today of

the Lord's

Day.

There is

nowhere more

important than

you can be

on a Sunday.

Look at the

work that is

happening,

verse 12,

when God's

Word is

opened and

proclaimed,

piercing to

the division

of soul

and spirit,

joints and

marrow,

discerning the

thoughts and

intentions of

the heart.

It is there

that we

bring our

hearts,

we lay our

hearts bare

before God's

Word.

He searches

us,

He recalibrates

us and

changes us

and urges

us on to

glory.

If you're

holding fast

to the

faithful Son,

you have

entered your

rest.

You know a

measure of

contentment and

satisfaction and

joy, but there

remains a

rest that you

don't want to

miss.

You don't want

to miss.

So we must

strive on.

Allow God's

living and

active Word to

search us, to

search us together

each Lord's Day

and to cultivate

a heart of

faith that

listens and

obeys Him all

the way to

glory, all the

way to

contentment in

its fullest

sense, to

joy in its

fullest sense, to

the rest of

the power and

presence of

God.

Let me say

in closing a

word to

those among

us who are a

bit more

sensitive.

Now these

warnings exist

here because

our hearts are

prone to

wander, but I

know that some

of you are

prone to

doubt.

And you

worry, chapter

3, verse

12, that you

have an evil,

unbelieving heart

that's going to

lead you to

fall away from

the living God.

You worry that

you're not really

a Christian.

You stumble, you

get up again, you

think, right, I'm

going to keep

going towards

glory and

towards this

rest, and you

stumble again and

you think, maybe

I'm not a

Christian.

Saving faith, faith

that will get you

to glory, looks to

Christ and His

promises.

It looks to

Christ and His

promises.

It doesn't focus on

the presence or the

absence of faith

itself.

So the idea, me

believing is not the

object of faith, Christ

is.

So yes, if you

think about it like

this, out of your

peripheral vision, by

all means ask the

question, do I trust

Christ?

Am I aware of my

sin in the way I

should be?

Do I believe that

Christ died for my

sins and rose again

for my justification?

Do I repent of sin

when I know that I'm

aware of it?

Look at those

questions out of your

peripheral vision.

But as you look

straight on and look,

you must look to

Christ and trust Him.

He is the object of

your faith.

Remember what the

children were told a

few minutes ago.

What has He done

that is left for you

to do?

Zero.

He took it all.

Look to Christ and

keep trusting Him and

don't overthink it.

Martin Luther, the

great reformer,

said this, do you

doubt whether you're

elected to salvation?

Then say your prayers,

man, and you may

conclude that you are.

It is as easy as that.

Let's pray together.