A Second Warning

Amen. You may be seated. Kids, you can be excused to your King's Kids class.

And if you would open up, I would ask that everybody open up their pew Bible

because there's something I want you to see in an actual Bible this morning to Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

I'm going to be preaching on an extended section, but it's on 1188 and 189 of your Bibles.

But before I get to preaching, I just want to say, Jenny and I had a great time last weekend

at the Weekend to Remember in Madison. And so we are grateful for the time to refresh our marriage.

One of our favorite parts was seeing John and Terry Tipman in their element, serving people.

We got the sense that God was significantly at work in many people's lives.

And if you're wondering what a weekend to remember is, I would just point you to the Tipmans.

Would you guys raise your hands?

It is designed to help husbands and wives who are getting married or are married.

It's an enriching. There's a couple in our area. They're about to happen. It's not too late.

Now to Hebrews chapter 3. I'm going to read this extended section.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

It's one unit. It's one argument. So 3.7 through 4.13.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

Take care, brothers, sisters.

Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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

As it is said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?

Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

And with whom was he provoked for forty years?

Was it not those who had sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

For good news came to us just as to them.

But the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

For we have believed, enter that rest.

As he has said, as I swore my wrath, they will not enter my rest.

Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said, he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way,

and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest.

Since therefore, it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.

Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through David, so long afterward, and the words already quoted,

today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his work as God did from his.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and 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 an account.

May God bless the reading of his word.

Every Saturday in Kenosha at 10.30 a.m. on the nose,

there's the testing of the severe weather warning system.

Sirens blare.

You can't miss it.

In fact, those sirens are tested every Saturday in order to tune your ear,

so that when July rolls around,

and we have some of these big thunderstorms come in,

or tornado watch warning,

when those sirens blare,

not only do you hear them, but you heed them.

You take shelter.

If you don't,

you're in danger.

Now, there's a danger being spoken about in this passage,

this extended passage.

It's the danger of a hardened heart.

A hardened heart is a heart that doesn't care about God.

A hardened heart hears God's word,

and God's word just bounce off.

It's a very dangerous place to be.

And what this passage is,

is its own warning.

The book of Hebrews is one long exhortation to hold fast to Jesus Christ all the way to the end.

In Hebrews, the book contains five warning passages.

And this morning, we're looking at the second warning passage.

The first was in chapter, at the beginning of chapter 2.

It's not a blaring siren.

It's the Holy Spirit speaking.

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

When you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

If you chronically, habitually harden your heart to God speaking,

you're like the wilderness generation of Israel,

who left Egypt but did not enter God's promised rest because of their hardened hearts.

No.

What we're being called to hear is not to harden our hearts,

but to open our hearts.

To let God's word penetrate our hearts

so that we can strive all the way to the end

into God's promised rest.

His full, final, and forever rest.

And so what I want you to help you to see,

I'm going to walk through,

is this one extended passage has four alarms in it.

It's a four-alarm warning.

First alarm is the quote in Psalm 95.

The second alarm is an unbelief alarm.

The third alarm is a no-entry alarm.

And the fourth alarm is a judgment alarm.

So today, if you hear God speaking,

don't harden your hearts.

Open your hearts.

Let God's word do God's work.

So let's look at this first alarm.

The Psalm 95 alarm.

And this is in chapter 3, verse 7 through 11.

And there's a few things I want you to notice.

The first one is this.

If you just look at the layout in your open Bible, Pew Bible,

you're going to notice something.

And so you're going to notice that verses 7 through 11 are indented.

And then you see they're indented quotes.

And then you'll see another series of indented quotes in verse 15,

in verse 4, verse 3, and 4, verse 5, and 4, verse 7.

And they're all references back to this original quote from Psalm 95.

So you have these quotes that are indented,

and then you're followed by blocks of words.

And you know what's going on?

The writer of Hebrews is taking Psalm 95, 7 through 11,

and he is expositing it to the original hearers.

He's explaining and applying it to them.

So what I want you to see is the nature of this is pretty elegant.

This is a written exposition of a section from Psalm 95.

The next thing I want you to notice is the location of this warning,

the context of it.

If you look at 3.6, where Les was preaching last week, we read this,

but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house.

If indeed we hold fast, our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

So Jesus Christ, superior to Moses, hold fast to him.

That's 3.6.

And then I'll look at 4.14.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession.

And so this extended kind of exposition of Psalm 95 is a warning

in between a call to hold fast to Jesus in 3.6

and a call to hold fast to Jesus in 4.14.

Do you see it?

Which means that this is a warning passage.

What will keep you from holding fast to Jesus all the way to the end?

Now that sheds light on why the author chose Psalm 95, 7 through 11.

It's a warning.

It's a warning.

It's a warning.

Psalm 95 was originally written by David.

And what David is doing, this is a thousand years before Christ.

And David wrote Psalm 95.

It starts with this call to worship and ends with a warning.

And what he's doing in the warning in verses 7 through 11 is he's taking that warning

and he's writing the warning actually to David's generation.

But he's looking back on the wilderness generation hundreds of years before.

The wilderness generation that came out of Egypt but didn't make it to the promised land.

And David is writing this to warn his generation of the failure of that generation.

You following?

And so what the writer of Hebrews is doing is he's taking David's warning to his people

about that generation and now he's using that same thing to warn his generation.

And here we are in the 21st century taking that same warning and applying it to us.

We've got four generations of God's people here.

What happened in the wilderness in verse 8?

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness.

What was the failure?

What happened?

Well, if you turn back into Psalm 95 in your Old Testament,

you will see that there's actually two places named in Psalm 95 8.

Massa and Meribah.

There's an event that happened, Numbers 20 at Massa.

There's an event that happened in Exodus 17 at Meribah.

In both situations, Israel started to grumble and complain because they were in the wilderness

and they were like, we just want something to drink.

Oh, Moses, you take us off.

We want to be back in Egypt.

Start getting really mad.

They get fighting.

God eventually provides water from them in God's gracious fashion.

But you know what gets revealed about Israel?

They're grumblers.

It's a mark of unbelief, of disobedience.

In Numbers 13 and 14, do you remember this story where the spies are sent out into Canaan

to check out the land?

And so Joshua and Caleb were part of that group, guys.

They go out.

They check it out.

They come back.

They bring back a cluster of grapes.

And Joshua and Caleb are like, let's do it.

Let's trust God.

Let's go in.

But everybody else is like, oh, the people of Canaan, they're just too big.

We can't handle them.

We can't do this.

And they respond in fear, which is another outworking of unbelief.

And God, it provoked God.

And he said, I will swear in my wrath that this people will not enter my promised land,

my promised rest.

For 40 years, they provoked him like this.

And what it is, it's an example of habitual, settled unbelief.

And because of that, God did not allow them into his promised rest of that land.

So David has picked this note.

So the writer of Hebrews has picked Psalm 95 in order to warn his people,

the original audience, of what will happen if there's chronic habitual unbelief among them.

God will not allow them into his rest.

It's an alarm.

It's like a check engine light in your car.

Psalm 95 is blinking, 7 through 11.

And the question is this morning, are you going to pay attention to it?

Are you going to allow Psalm 95 to do its work in your heart?

Are you going to allow it to penetrate you?

Or is it just going to bounce off you?

In fact, Psalm 95, 7 through 11 was not only alarm to David's generation,

and then to the original audience of Hebrews,

but it's meant to be alarm for us.

To say, okay, let's heed these words.

Let's not harden our hearts.

Let's open our hearts.

And did you notice?

That it's the Holy Spirit who's saying this in verse 7?

The second alarm is the unbelief alarm.

And that's in verses 12 through 19 of chapter 3.

And the writer begins explaining and applying Psalm 95, 7 through 11 to his original audience.

And there's a couple things about this that I want you to notice.

There's a warning.

In verse 12, it says,

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart,

leading you to fall away from the living God.

Technically, that take care,

technically, it's watch out.

Now, keep your eyes open.

Watch out, brothers and sisters.

Lest there be in any of you an evil and unbelieving heart.

Now, biblically speaking, the heart was the center,

the controlling center of a person's life.

It was the seat of their thinking, of their feeling, of their will.

And so whatever reigned supreme in one's heart,

that controlled your life.

And so if you can imagine evil or unbelief kind of reigning in your heart,

it's controlling your life.

And so the writer of Hebrews is saying,

Hey, remember that Psalm of David and the warning that he gave

because of the wilderness generation?

Take it to heart.

Let there not be evil, habitual evil.

It's chronically setting your heart on the very things that grieves God

and provokes him to wrath.

Watch out for an unbelieving heart.

The Greek word for that literally translates into apostasy.

Unbelief.

It's not a season of doubt or questioning.

It's a settled posture of heart.

It's a state of being.

It's habitual.

And so what he's doing here is he's warning.

Watch out that there's not this kind of heart,

these things controlling your hearts among you

that would cause you to fall away from the living God.

Remember, this is in between two calls to hold fast to Jesus

all the way to the end.

Now you might be wondering,

Hey, what would I be looking for in myself or in others

that would be kind of manifestations of evil in unbelief?

Well, you can just point back to the wilderness generation.

Grumbling, infighting.

Complaining.

Fear.

Being ruled by fear that God can't act for his people,

for the glory of his name and the good of his people.

Chronic postures of heart like that.

One of the things that Hebrews is going to raise

is when God's people don't gather together,

we neglect the coming together,

that can become a sign of a settled unbelief.

The book of Proverbs talks about that this way, 18.1.

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire.

He breaks out against all sound judgment.

These are just some things that evidence a settled posture of heart

that is grievous in God's sight.

You could call it like a virus.

Unbelief, unchecked evil is a virus in a body of Christ,

in a church.

And the way that you kind of like address it,

the antidote for that virus is in verse 13.

But exhort one another every day,

as long as it's called today,

that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

So we are being exhorted to exhort one another.

And if you're wondering what an exhortation is,

it's like you're using your words to urge people on.

Maybe you've been to a cross-country meet or a marathon.

You know someone who's running in them.

And what you do is like the person is running,

and you go up to a place where they're going to pass.

And you're like, you keep on going.

You run, run, run, run, run.

Give me more cowbell.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

And then they pass you,

and then you run to the next place where they will be,

and you're like, go, go, go, go, go.

Don't give up.

You're urging them on.

You're exhorting them.

You're not going to say, listen to your body.

Don't stop running.

Don't do it.

You're going to tell them, press on.

Go to the end.

What we're being told to do here is we're to exhort one another.

A Christian church spurs one another on.

We encourage one another.

We exhort one another to not give up, to hold fast to Jesus,

to watch out for the deceitfulness of sin.

Don't let that rule your heart, but press on to Jesus.

It's the priesthood of all believers, brothers and sisters.

It's the household of God.

It's not just the pastor's job.

We're all to be doing it together,

to be encouraging one another, exhorting one another.

And do you notice we're to be doing this daily,

but exhort one another every day,

as long as it's called today?

That's impressive.

It also gets to the sneakiness of sin.

Daily, needing to be exhorted.

I mean, we gather on a Sunday morning every week

to be exhorted by God's word,

to press on, to not give up.

We send out the word of encouragement

to our people in our church every Thursday,

to press them on, to encourage them,

to not give up.

Do you know what?

I don't know if you know what this is.

This is called a cellular phone.

It is a computer.

I can send messages to people with it,

and I can exhort people with it.

I can send, today, fix your eyes on Jesus, dear brother.

Today, don't give up.

He is worthy.

Today, remember Jesus is the treasure hidden in the field.

Today, today, run for him.

Look for him.

Don't give up on him.

See?

See?

We can exhort one another.

Daily.

It's to keep us from being hardened.

The Old Testament talks about it

as becoming stiff-necked.

I hope you're seeing what's going on.

The preventative from hardening your heart

to God's word

is by being exhorted by God's word.

That's the content.

We exhort one another with God speaking.

We send texts to one another

of God's word addressing them.

Don't give up.

Now, I want you to see something.

Do you remember?

It's the Spirit speaking in verse 7.

And in chapter 1-1,

we read,

Long ago at many times and in many ways,

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

but in these last days,

he's spoken to us by his Son.

Today, if you hear his voice,

Jesus is the incarnate voice of God.

One of the greatest ways

we can exhort one another

is by aiming one another at Jesus,

the one we are to hold fast to

all the way to the end.

He is our great high priest.

He's seated on his throne.

He has grace to give in time of need.

We exhort to him.

So there's a warning.

There's an exhortation.

Unbelief should be alarming.

We've got to take these kind of measures

in order to kind of prevent it

from taking place.

There's an assurance in verse 14.

It's conditional.

For we have come to share in Christ

if indeed we hold our original confidence

firm to the end.

It echoes what we read in chapter 3, verse 6.

Notice the writer of Hebrews includes himself.

For we have come to share in Christ

if indeed we hold our original confidence firm

to the end.

He's not being presumptuous.

He's saying,

I'm going to press on and hold fast to Jesus too.

One of the things I want to keep on reminding you

through this series

is that a genuine saving faith

is a persevering faith.

The way that genuine faith

will be ultimately demonstrated

is if you follow Jesus

all the way through the end.

Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 24.

That those who will be saved

will persevere to the end.

And so what's being told to us here

is yes, there's no denial

that Jesus is the anchor of our souls.

The focus here

is on our responsibility

to remain faithful to him.

We're to persevere all the way to the end.

And when you are holding fast to Jesus,

not perfectly but faithfully,

it should be a confidence.

So how do you know

if you are someone holding fast to Jesus

or if someone is holding fast

or Jesus or not?

It's when you exhort them,

how do they respond to God's word?

Are they hardened in heart?

Does it bounce just off?

Or does it penetrate their heart?

Causing them to strive

strive to hold fast to Jesus

all the way to the end?

What happens in the rest of chapter 3

in verses 15 through 18,

we have a series of rhetorical questions

that's an example

of people who claim to be

part of God's people

who started but didn't finish.

that unbelief kept them

from entering God's rest.

It's a stark warning.

What I want you to notice

is in verse 12,

take care, brothers,

lest there be in any of you

an evil, unbelieving heart.

See the word unbelieving?

And then look at verse 19.

So we see that you were unable,

that they were unable to enter

because of unbelief.

It's that word unbelief.

It bookends this little passage.

It's what's being emphasized here.

It's an unbelief warning.

An alarm.

And the way that we address the alarm

is by asking the question,

oh God, is there unbelief in me?

Is there something in my heart

that I'm not trusting your word?

Either I'm grumbling or complaining

or I'm living in fear.

I'm overly anxious.

I'm withholding myself

from fellowshipping

with brothers and sisters.

Is some kind of unbelief virus in me?

And this week,

as I've been asking myself the question,

God in his grace and mercy

showed me some things.

Showed me some things.

I needed to confess.

And so we respond

by allowing God's word

to do its work,

but then we exhort one another

with God's word.

So we gather on a Sunday morning.

We are exhorted by God's word.

We listen and read

and watch faithful preaching

and healthy teaching.

Text one another with his voice

to spur each other on.

Anybody been through

an airport security?

You know,

you walk into the tube thing

and this thing goes around you.

And then you get flagged

and you walk out

and then you get wanded.

That's how this is functioning.

So this passage,

this unbelief alarm

is like God's word

passing over your heart.

Beep, beep, beep.

Got some unbelief in there?

Beep, beep.

The way you do it

is you confess it.

Don't let it bounce off.

Let it penetrate.

Let God's word do its work.

The next alarm

is the no entry alarm.

And that's in chapter 4,

1 through 11.

And what you'll notice is this.

Just as unbelief bookended

that last passage

in verse 12 and 19,

we have a phrase

bookending this passage.

Therefore,

while the promise

of entering his rest

still stands,

of entering his rest.

See that in 4, 1?

Now look at 4, 11.

Let us therefore strive

to enter that rest

so that no one may fall

by the same sort of disobedience.

So this idea

of entering God's rest,

it frames this next section

so it's a no entry alarm.

What will keep you

from entering God's rest?

Remember,

what we're talking about here

is not an unbelief

that you see

and confess to the Lord.

we're talking about

an unbelief in someone

that they will ignore

and disregard

because they have

a hardened heart.

They don't care.

The question is,

what is this rest?

What is this rest

that it just permeates

this passage

from verses 4, 1 through 11?

It shows up

in so many different ways.

As I swore my wrath,

they shall not enter my rest,

verse 3.

They shall not enter my rest,

verse 5.

Verse 8,

if Joshua is able

to give them rest.

9,

there remains a Sabbath rest.

What is this rest?

Let us strive

to enter this rest.

What rest

are we talking about?

It's God's rest.

And the writer of Hebrews

says something

very interesting.

He connects it

to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Look at verse 3 and 4

of chapter 4.

For we who have believed

enter that rest.

So,

belief in Jesus

gets us into God's rest

where unbelief

keeps us out of his rest.

And then he says,

as he said,

as I swore my wrath,

they shall not enter my rest,

although his works

were finished

from the foundation

of the world.

For he has somewhere

spoken of the seventh day

in this way,

and God rested

on the seventh day

from all his works.

So what the Hebrews writer

is doing

is he's connecting

Genesis 2 rest

with Psalm 95 rest.

What is his rest?

What he's saying is

God's rest

actually began

in Genesis 2

when he was finished

from his work

of creating the world.

Just think about Eden.

God dwelling

with his people,

Adam and Eve,

in his place.

Eden experiencing

his peace

in his rest.

You know,

one of my favorite

verses is Genesis 3, 8

where God comes

a-walking

in the cool

of the day,

calling out

for Adam and Eve.

It was before their sin.

It was a place

of perfect peace

and rest.

Them with God

in his finished

work of creation.

but because of their unbelief

and disobedience

God removed

from his rest

and then they had

to toil.

And we were

born into

sinful toil.

And so that's the,

that's where rest

began in Eden,

right?

But then there was

another kind of rest

promised.

rest.

In 4, 2,

for good news

came to us

just as to them,

the wilderness

generation.

But the message

they heard

did not benefit

them because

they were not

united by faith

with those

who listened.

Verse 6,

since therefore

it remains for

some to enter

it, rest,

those who formerly

received the good

news,

the wilderness

generation,

failed to enter

because of

disobedience.

So there was

a promise,

good news,

proclaimed to

that wilderness

generation.

Do you know

what it was?

I'm going to

bring you out

of Egypt

and I'm going

to bring you

into Canaan,

my promised

rest,

my promised

land,

flowing with

milk and

honey.

It is my

place.

You will

dwell with

me and

we will

dwell together

and it

will be

good.

We'll be

together.

You just

need to

trust and

obey me.

And they

didn't trust

and obey

him.

For 40

years they

provoked

him.

So he

swore in

his rest

or his

wrath,

you will

not enter

my rest.

No

admittance,

no thank

you,

you can't

come in

here because

of your

unbelief.

And then

in Psalm

95,

David is

talking about

a different

rest.

Because

Joshua had

brought

Israel into

the promised

land and

David wrote

Psalm 95

after Joshua.

So this is a

different kind

of rest.

The rest

of Psalm 95

is addressing

a full,

final,

and forever

rest

of God.

Not in

Canaan.

The rest

that's being

talked about

here,

this God's

rest,

well it's a

rest that

still stands.

Look at

4.1.

While the

promise of

entering his

rest still

stands,

we can still

enter the

rest.

Look at

4.6.

Since

therefore it,

God's rest,

remains for

some to

enter it.

Look at

4.9.

So then

there remains

a Sabbath

rest for the

people of

God, the

new covenant

people of

God.

There remains

a rest,

brothers and

sisters,

that we can

enter.

what is

this rest?

Well, let's

think about

this rest

in two

ways, as

a person

and as a

place.

God's

rest as

a person,

Jesus.

Here,

Matthew 11.

Come to

me,

all you

who labor

and are

heavy laden,

and I

will give

you rest.

Take my

yoke upon

you and

learn from

me, for

I am

gentle and

lowly and

hard, and

you will

find rest

for your

souls, for

my yoke is

easy and

my burden

is light.

Jesus is

rest incarnate.

And so our

rest as

Christians begins

with a

relationship with

Jesus who is

alive.

we don't

have to work

anymore for

salvation.

He's

accomplished it

for us.

He is our

peace.

But this

rest is not

just a person,

it's a place.

Jesus,

starting a

relationship with

him is the

beginning of

our entrance

into God's

rest, but

the full,

final, and

forever rest,

that's a

place.

and the

writer of

Hebrews talks

about it.

Would you

open up to

Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

11?

Let me just

show you a

couple spots.

Hebrews

Hebrews 11:10

chapter 11

verse 10.

Speaking of

Jacob, for

he, Jacob,

was looking

forward to

the city

that has

foundations

whose designer

and builder

is God.

Our full,

final, and

forever place

is a city

not built

by human

hands,

built by

God.

In verses

13 through

16, we

see this,

these all

died in the

faith, not

having received

the things

promised, but

having seen

them, this is

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11,

but having

seen them and

greeted them

from afar, and

having acknowledged

that they were

strangers and

exiles on the

earth, for

people who

speak thus,

make it clear

that they are

seeking a

homeland.

If they had

been thinking

of their land

from which they

had gone out,

they would

have had

opportunity to

return, but

as it is, they

desire a better

country that is

a heavenly one.

Therefore, God

is not ashamed

that he called

their God, for

he has prepared

for them a

city.

The place of

full, final,

and forever

rest.

Chapter 12,

verse 22,

but you have

come to

Mount Zion

and the city

of the living

God, the

heavenly Jerusalem

and to

innumerable

angels and

festal

gathering, and

to the

assembly of

the firstborn

who are

enrolled in

heaven and

to God, the

judge of

all, and

the spirit

of the

righteous

made perfect

and to

Jesus, the

mediator of

a new

covenant.

It's a

city.

Revelation

21, 22,

talk about

this heavenly

Jerusalem as

when after

Jesus returns,

it descends

upon the

new earth,

and God

dwells with

his people

forever in

his place in

perfect peace.

Peace.

Peace.

that's God's

rest.

Starts in a

relationship with

Jesus, and

it comes to

fruition in

the heavenly

Jerusalem.

Full, final,

and forever

peace.

Do you

remember?

Before you

became a

Christian, God

was a threat

to you, you

were a threat

to yourself,

relationships were

threatening, this

creation was

threatening with

claws and teeth

at you, but

now what we're

looking at is in

the new

Jerusalem, there

is no more

threat.

Nothing but

peace, nothing

but rest.

With God, with

yourself, others,

in the seven

Siberian tigers

I'll have as

pets.

No threat.

Do you know

what will keep

you out of

that?

No.

Chronic

unbelief.

Unrepentant,

unchecked,

unbelief.

That's a

rejecting of

Christ.

Jenny, Mary,

and me were in

New York City

this past summer

and we were

riding the

subway and you

have this key

card and in

order to get on

the subway you

have to go

and you'll

either get up

and you're

locked or

you'll get a

green light

and a

and so if

you have the

right key

card, you

can enter.

The right key

card is

Jesus, the

one who died

for our sins,

the one who's

been raised from

the dead, the

one who sits

on his throne,

the one who's

coming back and

we're one day

closer.

This is a

no entry

alarm.

Do you have

Jesus?

Are you holding

fast to him?

Now,

today,

are you trusting

him?

There's two

responses from

this passage

itself of how

to respond.

God's

love.

We see the

one in

chapter 4,

verse 1.

Therefore,

while the

promise of

entering his

rest still

stands, let

us fear,

lest any

of you should

seem to have

failed to

reach it.

The fear is

that someone

in this room

fails to

enter God's

rest.

That's the

fear.

Because of

unbelief.

Because sin

had hardened

their hearts.

Because

the other

way to

respond is

in verse

11.

Let us

therefore strive

to enter

that rest

so that no

one may fall

by the same

sort of

disobedience

of the

wilderness

generation

type of

unbelief.

That

strive to

enter his

rest might

sound like

an oxymoron

in your

ears, like

a contradiction

in terms.

But it's

what the

writer of

Hebrews has

been saying

all along.

It's just

another way of

talking about

holding fast

to Jesus

all the

way to

the end.

Strive

to enter

that full

final

and forever

rest.

The strive

means to

do your

best.

What's being

talked about

here is not

minimal what

you can do,

it's maximal

what you do.

It's not

casually

drifting into

the new

Jerusalem,

it's

purposefully

striding

into the

new

Jerusalem.

It's

finishing

strong,

it's doing

your best,

not because

your salvation

depends on

it,

because you

have been

saved,

genuinely,

and you're

just working

it out.

This is

the no

entry alarm.

alarm.

The last

alarm is

in chapter

three,

chapter four,

excuse me,

verses 12

and 13.

And for the

sake of time,

I just want

to point you

to two

things,

that the

word of

God is

living and

active.

It

penetrates.

It's

sharper than

a two-edged

sword.

The two-edged

sword is a

sword that was

designed for

not slicing

and cutting,

but for

piercing.

For

penetrating,

for dividing,

for doing

deep damage.

In this

case,

deep good.

This

word of

God that

pierces

dividing soul

and spirit,

joints and

marrow,

discerning the

thoughts and

intentions of

the heart.

Do you know

what's being

described here?

It's the

opposite of

a hard

heart.

It's not

a hard

heart that

God's word

just bounces

off because

of the

hardness and

unbelief of

the person.

No,

this is a

heart that

is open

to God's

word and

says things

like,

oh God,

have your

work in

me.

Show me

any

unbelief in

my heart.

Help me put

to death

what grieves

you and would

you bring to

life faith and

obedience.

Use your

word to

deeply

address my

innermost

being so

that I

can wholeheartedly

live for

you.

This word

of God is

literally

logos of

God.

And this

section begins

with 412,

for the

logos of

God and

it ends

with a

logos to

whom we

must give

a logos

account.

It's framed

with word,

framed with

giving account.

And so

that last

verse,

verse 13,

is this

judgment

alarm.

All of us

in the room

will stand

before the

living God

to have to

give an

account,

a word,

for every

single day

of our

lives.

Every day.

For those

who strive

to enter

the new

Jerusalem,

God's rest,

who have

opened their

hearts for

God to do

the piercing

work of

his word

that judges

our hearts

to kill

sin and

bring to

life what

pleases the

God,

that day

is not

something you

fear.

That's a

day you

look forward

to,

where you

hear your

Savior say,

well done,

good and

faithful servant.

Come,

enter the

joy,

the rest

of your

master.

But for

those who

have hardened

hearts,

God is

sworn in

his wrath,

you will

not enter

his rest.

You can't

hide from

him.

You can't

pretend you're

something you're

not.

He sees

all,

everything is

revealed before

nothing is

hidden from

his sight.

So if you

are aware

of unbelief

in your heart,

and God's

word is

getting through

enough where

it is

registering,

what you

do is you

confess it

to him.

That's

normal Christian

course.

When God

pierces your

heart,

you confess

it to him

and that's

why 416

is in your

Bible.

Then we

draw near

with confidence

to the throne

of grace

that we may

receive mercy

and grace

in time of

need.

It turns out

we're in need

a lot of the

time.

Do I have an

amen?

Every Saturday

is in

Kenosha,

1030 a.m.

It's a

testing of

the weather

warning system.

Sirens

blare.

It's a

four alarm

warning.

And today,

this day,

March 23rd,

2025,

are you

hearing

the warning

of God?

Are you

hearing the

Holy Spirit

speaking?

Are you

allowing

his words

of Psalm

95 to

penetrate

into the

recesses of

your heart

or are you

just going

to let him

bounce off?

If God's

word is

piercing your

heart,

exposing your

sin of

unbelief,

ingratitude,

neglect of

getting together,

you know what

you do?

You thank

him for it.

It's his

kindness to

you.

it's

normal for

those striving

to enter

God's

full and

final rest.

That's

normal.

So we

draw near

to him

and find

grace in

that time

of need.

It keeps

our hearts

tender.

Be warned,

!

hold fast

to Christ

all the way

to the end.

Let's pray.

God in

heaven,

Lord,

would you

address

things in

us and

purify us,

your people,

so that we

would live

wholeheartedly

holding fast

to you all

the way to

the end and

we're doing

that together.

God,

thank you so

much for

Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

3,

7 through

4,

13.

Would you

make much

of your

word in our

lives?

In Jesus'

name we

pray.

Amen.

Amen.