Hebrews 3:7-15

Hebrews 3:7-15 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

Luke 11:9-13 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The children of Israel failed to enter the Promised Land because their hearts were hardened by unbelief. They did not believe the God who delivered them from Egypt could now give them a new land of freedom. Because of their unbelief, God disciplined them, making them wander the wilderness for forty years until the faithless generation died off, except for Joshua and Caleb. Then God called them once again to his land of milk and honey, and with faith in God, this new generation took the land and entered into God's rest. In today's passage, the author of Hebrews encourages people not to fail to enter into God's rest because of unbelief. Christians must believe God has a new life planned for us, a reality we should enter by faith. By faith we know God delivers us from the land of sin and death as He brings us into a new life, a Promised Land, where we rest from our works, knowing we please him. We no longer evaluate our acceptance in this place of rest, for we know IN JESUS, WE ARE PLEASING TO GOD. As we look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation, He changes us from glory to glory. As we take on his attributes, we become more tolerate, kind, gentle, and loving as we receive the spiritual strength to love even our enemies. These attributes come by faith as we yield to Jesus, for God's kingdom and his likeness come to us not by our works but by faith in Christ's finished work at the cross.

At the time of their rebellion, the children of Israel did not fully understand God had prepared the way for them to possess the Promised Land. They thought it would be too hard to enter into the rest God had promised for them. Since they thought the price would be too high, God was angry with them, for they failed to appreciate fully that they were HIS CHILDREN, THE APPLE OF HIS EYE. As his children, He would not give them a snake for a fish because He was not an evil father but a good father. Today we must also believe He is a good father. We please God not because of our works but just because WE ARE the redeemed, his chosen people of faith. As Abraham was chosen so are we chosen in his loins of faith. God gives his gift of new life to "whosoever will." We must really believe we can emphatically and permanently rest in the complete price Jesus paid for our salvation. The Promised Land is ours, and just as God rested from his work on the seventh day, we too now rest from our labors as we rest in him. We believe in the perfect life in Christ God has planned for us.

The Bible tells us to encourage each other with the hope we have in Christ. As we share our faith, the deceitfulness of sin will not harden our hearts. If sin deceives us, we will fail to accept his sufficiency by entering into his rest: either we will go out and try to live our lives as our flesh desires, not believing in Christ's redeeming work, or we will try to win our salvation through our efforts, our works. Either way we lose the Promised Land and forsake God's rest. We continue to function in the wilderness; therefore, we remain under the discipline and anger of God. But we who gather around the breakfast table this morning are not unbelievers, for we have been born again into the body of Christ. As members of God's family, we partake of his Spirit, for He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. We are the people of peace, the people of rest. We are his faith children, beloved of God.