1. "The writer is like the soldier who grabs the banner, the battle flag, and lifts it high and inspires the troops. He lifts up Christ and presses forward, warning Christians of the danger and pointing out what's at stake, urging them to continue."

2. "You see how our striving doesn't merit the rest, but our striving is the only way to the rest."

3. "While the Christian enjoys great fruits of God's Spirit in this present life, no amount of fruit born can prevent us realizing that there is only so much resting we can be said to do in the world of spiritual strife where we are still being tempted and still need God's help. That's why we're called the church militant."

4. "Friends, if this is the rest held out to us in front of us, why would we not give our all to run to it? To strive for it."

5. "Never be satisfied with a knowledge which leaves you unmoved to action. Remember vast crowds heard Jesus and walked away unmoved."

6. "Friends, you realize that the big deal is not what you think of my sermon. It's not even what I think of my sermon. It's what God thinks of us. As His Word comes to us, it's His Word that's judging us."

7. "Believing sin's lie is why we don't listen to God. And as we live honestly with each other, openly confessing our sins and praying with each other, as we encourage each other and share about what we've learned along the way, we will help to loosen sin's grasp."

8. "This Christian life, it's a race, not a ride. We must put effort into our Christian lives, even to the point of striving."

9. "Our whole church is a word delivery system. From public teaching to personal discipling to privately and publicly praying for each other along the lines laid down in the Bible, we are trying to help get God's Word into our minds and hearts."

10. "The Christian life in this world only makes sense if what we believe about the world to come is true. So we should live like it is, ready to give an accounting to our Creator and Judge."

Observation Questions

1. In Hebrews 3:5-6, how does the writer contrast Moses and Christ in terms of their roles in God's house?

2. According to Hebrews 3:7-11, what specific actions and attitudes characterized the generation that provoked God in the wilderness, and what was the consequence God declared for them?

3. What command does the writer give in Hebrews 3:13, and what reason does he provide for why believers should do this for one another?

4. In Hebrews 4:2, what does the writer say was the difference between those who benefited from the good news and those who did not?

5. According to Hebrews 4:9-11, what remains for the people of God, and what are believers exhorted to do in response?

6. How does Hebrews 4:12-13 describe the Word of God and its effects, and what does it say about our accountability before God?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the writer quote Psalm 95 three times in this passage, and what is the significance of the word "today" being repeated in connection with hearing God's voice?

2. How does the concept of "rest" develop throughout this passage—from the Sabbath rest of creation, to the Promised Land under Joshua, to the rest that still remains for God's people? What does this progression teach us about the nature of God's ultimate rest?

3. The passage warns against "an evil, unbelieving heart" (Hebrews 3:12) and being "hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13). How are unbelief, disobedience, and hardness of heart connected in this text, and why is this connection important for understanding the warning?

4. In what sense can believers be called to "strive to enter that rest" (Hebrews 4:11) when rest is a gift received by faith? How does this apparent tension fit with the overall message of the passage?

5. How does the description of God's Word in Hebrews 4:12-13 serve as a fitting conclusion to this warning passage? What role does Scripture play in helping believers avoid the fate of the wilderness generation?

Application Questions

1. The passage repeatedly emphasizes "today" as the day to respond to God's voice. What specific area of your life have you been delaying obedience or putting off a response to something God has shown you? What would it look like to respond "today"?

2. Hebrews 3:13 instructs believers to "exhort one another every day" to prevent hardening by sin's deceitfulness. Who in your life regularly speaks honest, encouraging truth to you about your walk with Christ? If no one comes to mind, what practical step could you take this week to develop that kind of relationship?

3. The wilderness generation heard the good news but it "did not benefit them" because they lacked faith (Hebrews 4:2). How can you move beyond merely hearing sermons and reading Scripture to actually being transformed by what you learn? What practice might help you respond in faith rather than passive listening?

4. The sermon mentioned that sin is deceitful and that we need others to help unmask it. Is there a pattern of thought or behavior in your life that you have been minimizing, excusing, or hiding from others? What would honest confession and accountability look like for you?

5. Hebrews 4:13 reminds us that we "must give an account" to God. How does keeping this future accountability in mind affect the way you approach decisions about your time, money, relationships, or priorities this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Psalm 95:1-11 — This is the primary Old Testament passage quoted throughout Hebrews 3-4, providing the original context for the warning against hardened hearts and the promise of God's rest.

2. Numbers 14:1-35 — This passage recounts the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea where Israel refused to enter the Promised Land, the historical event behind the warnings in Hebrews.

3. Matthew 11:25-30 — Jesus invites the weary to come to Him for rest, connecting to the theme of God's rest that believers are called to enter through faith in Christ.

4. James 2:14-26 — This passage addresses the relationship between faith and works, illuminating how striving to enter rest and saving faith expressed in obedience fit together.

5. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 — Paul uses the wilderness generation as a warning example for the church, showing how their story applies to believers who must not presume upon God's grace.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Media and War: How Information Shapes Our Understanding of Conflict

II. The Context of Hebrews: A Wartime Communication to Struggling Believers (Hebrews 3:1-4:13)

III. Instruction One: Know What the Finish Line Is—Understand God's Rest (Hebrews 4:9-11)

IV. Instruction Two: Pray for a Continuing Heart Responsiveness to God (Hebrews 3:7-8, 15; 4:7)

V. Instruction Three: Remember That Hearing and Knowing Isn't Enough (Hebrews 3:16; 4:2)

VI. Instruction Four: Keep Believing in Christ (Hebrews 3:3-6, 14, 19; 4:3)

VII. Instruction Five: Fight Sin (Hebrews 3:16-17; 4:6, 11)

VIII. Instruction Six: Have Each Other's Back Spiritually (Hebrews 3:13)

IX. Instruction Seven: Put Effort into Your Christian Life (Hebrews 4:1, 8, 11)

X. Instruction Eight: Read and Believe God's Word, Especially Paying Attention to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1-2; 4:12)

XI. Instruction Nine: Prepare to Meet God (Hebrews 4:13)

XII. Application: How Are You Running This Race?

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Detailed Sermon Outline

How will social media platforms affect Russia's invasion of Ukraine?

We're being inundated with information available on multiple platforms constantly. And at the same time, we're being warned of deep fakes, and we are being provided to question the very media that is compelling our interest in drawing us into a deeper knowledge of the war than previous generations have had of distant conflicts.

Before this, there was television reporting in Vietnam. That war was first brought into our living rooms. Many families had the tradition of watching the news during dinner or part of dinner.

But the reporting became too disturbing. At one point, CBS sent its legendary anchor Walter Cronkite to Vietnam when he finished his final report sounding uncertain of the possibility of an American victory. President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, if we've lost Cronkite, we've lost the country.

During World War II, the media advance was embedded reporters sending back stories of every man's experience of the war. When papers were full of stories of large movements of armies from the previous day, Scripps-Howard reporter Ernie Pyle provided a different, more timeless, and yet even more contemporary view of the war. His daily columns were read by millions, everyone. Pyle would, in plain language, convey the experience that average soldiers would have day after day. It let mothers and fathers back home know a bit more of what life was like for their faraway sons.

Here is yous War was Pyle's first collection of these columns to be published as a book. Published in 1943, it detailed the experience of American GIs in their first campaign of the war, the North African Campaign. In it, Pyle recounts simple moving details, like this one where the context is that the British troops were professionals. They had been fighting the German troops for over a year before the Americans arrived to help. The American troops were famously unprofessional, inexperienced, young, not battle tried and tested.

There were, of course, tensions between the Allied armies. There was skepticism on the part of the Brits toward the Americans. But after one particularly heated battle, Pyle recounted this in his column. I heard of a high British officer who went over the battlefield just after the action was over. American boys were still lying dead in their foxholes.

Their rifles still grasped in firing position in their dead hands. And the veteran English soldier remarked time and again in a sort of humble eulogy spoken only to himself, Brave men, brave men.

Friends, the letter to the Hebrews that we've been studying this spring is a wartime communication. It's been preserved as a letter. Many think it was probably First a sermon preached to a congregation of Jewish believers in Jerusalem. For whatever reason and in whatever ways these believers had come under spiritual fire, they were facing opposition. And the spiritual battle was real, the stakes were high, and the conflict was becoming hot.

This is the context for our understanding this book. The writer is like the soldier who grabs the banner, the battle flag, and lifts it high and inspires the troops. He lifts up Christ and presses forward, warning Christians of the danger and pointing out what's at stake, urging them to continue. That's what our passage this morning, Hebrews 3:1 to 4:13 does. You'll find it on page 1002 in the Bibles provided.

Hebrews chapter 3 beginning at verse 1.

Listen as I read it now.

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. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later.

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. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, '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 forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' As I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' Take care, brothers, 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 is 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 with those who 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 who have believed enter that rest.

As He has said, 'As I swore in 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.' 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, in 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 the one who has entered God's rest has also rested from his own works, 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 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 an account. Friends, it's a long passage, but what we see in this passage is pretty clear. In those first six verses of chapter 3, we see the writer continuing to show the Son's greatness as he's been comparing him, you know, in chapter 1 with angels, but now here with Moses. Moses is great as a servant, but Christ is great as a Son.

And then really in the rest of chapter 3, the writer quotes Psalm 95 verses 7 to 10. That's the passage that he quotes three times in these two chapters. It's the passage in Psalm 95 warning about the Israelites who were brought out of Egypt by Moses but who failed to enter the Promised Land. And he addressed the people in his own time, David did. Centuries after the Israelites had entered the Promised Land under Joshua, and David exhorted them with these words, Today, do not harden your hearts.

So in chapter 4, the writer to the Hebrews continues this example of the sinful failing of the Exodus generation to enter the Promised Land, and he continues warning those in the church he's writing to. He says, Look, this is not just about that generation in the Exodus.

It's also applying to the people David was writing to centuries later, and therefore it still applies to us today. He's saying this isn't just about history, but it's a continuing command through the Psalms to everyone to trust in the Lord and so to enter His rest. And he warns them that they're still in the process of reaching the promised rest of God. That's why he exhorts them down in chapter 4 verse 11, Let us strive to enter that rest. That may sound paradoxical.

Striving to enter rest, but it's no stranger than saving faith expressing itself in works. That's the basic argument he's making. For our purposes this morning, I simply want to walk through this long text and pull together the instructions that were given here about persevering in the faith. So let me share with you nine simple instructions on how to finish the race. Now these instructions are overlapping and they are numerous.

And because there are so many, I won't list them out ahead of time now. I will simply try to draw your attention to them clearly as we walk through the text and pointing out each one as we go. So see if you can listen carefully and collect all nine. I pray that as we share this time around God's Word, you may be helped to consider Jesus more and to prepare to give an account of yourself to Him when you meet Him.

And the first instruction for this race is this: number one, know what the finish line is. Know what the finish line is. Understand God's rest. That we are invited into. Look there in chapter 4, verse 9.

So then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever, or better, He who has entered God's rest has also rested from His own works, 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.

You know, if you're running a race, it's always good to keep the goal in mind. You want to know where the finish line is. You want to know you're going the right way. In our passage, the writer's summing up is right there in chapter 4, verse 9. He marks out that summarizing so then there, the beginning of verse 9.

And his conclusion is that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That's his conclusion from reading Psalm 95. There remains, that is, there is still today a Sabbath rest for the people of God to enter into. The Lord had said to Israel back in the Exodus, in Exodus 3314, My presence will go with you. And then He says, and I will give you rest.

Throughout the Old Testament, God makes this promise repeatedly to the Israelites. The root of this idea of rest seems to be their being finally settled in the presence of God. The moving is done. Safety and security have come. Victory and salvation are here.

Noah's name is from that root word meaning rest. The literal seventh day, Saturday Sabbath, was a picture and a regular reminder of this rest that's held out in God for those who would believe in Him and be His people. Perhaps you've heard Psalm 62. My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from Him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never be shaken. Find rest, O my soul, in God alone. My hope comes from Him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, O people, pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.

This theme is again and again in the Psalms. In Psalm 91, another beautiful Psalm about the rest God provides, Psalm 91 begins, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. So the writer of the Hebrews here goes to Psalm 95, a psalm about how God is a great King above all gods, called to worship Him alone and not to follow the example of those who disobeyed God. And as a result, were told by God that they would never enter His rest.

And the very fact that centuries after the Israelites entered the Promised Land under Joshua that we have Psalm 95 written with an exhortation to people today, that's decisive for this writer to the Hebrews in showing that, as he concludes here in chapter 4 verse 9, God would not have spoken of another day later on if this rest wasn't still there to be had. But He did. And so there is a rest that remains. Do you remember what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11:28? The Lord Jesus called out, Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you...

what?... rest. That's the call He makes. So there is a rest that remains, and that remains our goal, brothers and sisters.

One note which may clarify this passage in chapter 4 verse 10 which reads in the ESV, Whoever, really, or anyone who in the NIV, might help you to realize that that could be translated perhaps more simply just he who, which is how older translations Tyndale, Geneva, King James, how they rendered it. How the New American Standard still does. And that makes it not seem so much a description of each and every Christian as it is a description of Christ Himself, who we know on the cross shouted out, It is finished. And Hebrews itself has already described the Son up in chapter 1 as having sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. So it is of Christ's completed work.

His rest that we read is here in chapter 4 verse 11. It's His rest that we should strive to enter. Very much like in James chapter 2 which teaches us that active work should accompany the faith which alone saves. So here we see that this rest which we could never earn by any of our actions, will only be entered into by our being born again into being people who love God and give our lives and our all for Him to follow Him and strive in that. So you see how our striving doesn't merit the rest, but our striving is the only way to the rest.

While Paul's letters have a rich idea of a Christian's presently being in Christ and united to Him, the idea of God's rest, which we see here in Hebrews, is largely an idea of what lies ahead. While Christ has already paid in full for each of His own, we possess this rest no more fully than an heir possesses a promised inheritance. While the Christian enjoys great fruits of God's Spirit in this present life, No amount of fruit born can prevent us realizing that there is only so much resting we can be said to do in the world of spiritual strife where we are still being tempted and still need God's help. That's why we're called the church militant. Yes, we rest in Christ now from any idea of saving ourselves by our works, but we have a much fuller rest.

Ahead of us in eternity. This is how the 17th century pastor, Richard Baxter, thought about it in his classic volume, the Saint's Knowledge of Christ's Everlasting Love. Oh, sorry, I'm mixing up a Bunyan title. The Saint's Everlasting Rest. The Saint's Everlasting Rest.

I'm confusing it with John Bunyan's the Saint's Knowledge of Christ's Everlasting Love.

Yes, anyway, not to confuse you, the Saints Everlasting Rest, very simple title, the Saints Everlasting Rest.

Baxter presents in hundreds of pages of printed meditation the sweetness of this rest, the completeness of this rest. He says, We shall then have joy without sorrow and rest without weariness. There is no mixture of corruption with our graces. Nor of suffering with our comfort. There are none of those waves in that harbor which now so toss us up and down.

Today we are well tomorrow sick. Today in esteem, tomorrow in disgrace. Today we have friends, tomorrow none. Nay, we have wine and vinegar in the same cup. If revelations raise us to the third heaven, the messenger of Satan must presently buffet us, and the thorn in the flesh fetch us down.

But there is none of this inconstancy in heaven. If perfect love casteth out fear, then perfect joy must cast out sorrow, and perfect happiness exclude all the relics of misery. We shall there rest from all the evils of sin and of suffering. Friends, if this is the rest held out to us in front of us, why would we not give our all to run to it? To strive for it.

Baxter asks the same thing, if there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no more earnest seeking after it? One would think if a man did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained and believed what he heard, he would be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and would almost forget to eat and drink, and would care for nothing else, and speak of and inquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure.

And yet people who hear of it daily and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith as little minded or labor for it as if they had never heard of any such thing or did not believe one word they hear.

Brothers and sisters, this is what we are aiming at in this life as we look to the next. We have embarked on a journey from here to there, from storm to peace. And while we are given sweet foretastes of that coming rest in this life, even in our life together as a local church, they bear the same relation as our Lord's Supper does that we'll celebrate on Friday night, Lord willing, to the wedding supper of the Lamb which we will one day share. With Him forever. A little more than a week ago, I had the privilege of praying at the memorial service for Jan Adams, the late mother of our recent pastor, Isaac Adams.

Some of us knew Jan. I knew Jan before I knew Isaac, and she was a very clear follower of Christ. Her death came suddenly about a month ago now. I concluded my prayer with these words: In our love and selfishness, we would rather have Jan with us today. But you are the one who says when our natural weariness is enough.

You are the one who says in your love when body and brain have been exhausted in your purposes. You are the one who says when our beloved labor is over. We know this because each of your children is precious to you. We can perceive something of your kindness to Jan in all this. How quickly was she taken from earthly trials to your glorious presence.

The blood she so often sang of has now been proved sufficient. As this dear sheep has reached the fold of her true Shepherd, this sheaf has been harvested. This ship has safely reached the harbor. This precious child that had so long been at the school of God's grace has now finished her training and has been brought home to dwell in her Father's house forever, just like a child at home. The fruit of the Father's eternal love has been gathered.

The purchase of Jesus' passion has been secured. The object of the Holy Spirit's work has been completed. We rejoice to think of Jan now free from indwelling sin and from external temptations. The battle is fought, the victory is won forever. Our gracious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you entirely for the gift of our sister, and we trust you for your work completed in her.

Friends, it is this completion, this completion of this work, assured in Christ, fulfilled in glory, that we must keep clearly in mind as we run this race. This is our goal, our finish line, our destination.

Having got this clearly in mind, And so, I hope, helped our understanding of this portion of Hebrews. I want us to look at eight more instructions, more briefly, to help us stay the course in our hopeful journey home. Number two, pray for a continuing heart responsiveness to God. Pray for a continuing heart responsiveness to God. We see this throughout the passage.

Look there in chapter 3, verse 7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says 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 forty years. Again, the writer to the Hebrews picks up Psalm 95:7 to 11. The original account of the rebellion at Massah in Meribah is in Exodus 17. If you want to mark that down, you could read it later.

That rebellion is just a foreshadowing of their big big rebellion in Numbers 14 where they refused to go into the Promised Land. And then that typifies them in their whole 40 years in the wilderness. That's really what Alex earlier read for us, that summary that Moses gives in Deuteronomy chapter 1. But that's our writers basically here. Do not harden your hearts.

It's here in chapter 3 verse 8. If you look down in chapter 3 verse 15, he repeats it. And again down there in chapter 4 verse 7, it was that earlier generations unresponsive hearts to God that had brought on them all their problems. You look again at our passage in chapter 3 verse 11 as he quotes the Psalm, he says, As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And then our author preaches from this to the church of the day, verse 12-3:12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an unbelieving, an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

An evil, unbelieving heart is a description of a hard heart. He's referring to the hardened hearts of chapter 3 verse 8, or the heart's gone astray as he puts it in chapter 3 verse 10, and he repeats the warning then in chapter 3 verse 15, As it is said today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. And then again down in chapter 4 verse 7, Again He appoints a certain day today, saying through David, so long afterward So David, writing the psalm so long after the time of Moses and Joshua, again he appoints a certain day today saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Friends, this is the basic plea of the author. I set out number one as understanding God's rest because that's the image that's used, that we may not immediately know what he means by that.

But the basic imperative verb, once you have that goal in mind of the rest of God, the basic imperative verb is do not harden your heart. That is what He's saying in both of these chapters: Do not harden your heart. Now, what does it mean to say to a bunch of born-again people in a Christian church, Do not harden your heart? What does it mean to say that to a collection of people who all claim to be born again, who all call themselves born again? Well, it's worth considering how our hearts can be hard to God.

John Gill, a well-known Baptist pastor in London in the 1700s, he reflected on this as follows. He said, There is one, a natural hardness of heart. The heart of men is like a stone, destitute of spiritual life, motion, and activity. It is senseless, stupid, impenitent, stubborn, and inflexible on which no impressions can be made but by powerful grace. That's the natural hardness of heart.

And there is too an acquired, habitual and voluntary hardness of heart to which men arrive by various steps as entertaining pleasing thoughts of sin, an actual commission of sin with frequency 'til it becomes customary and so habitual, an extenuation or justification of sin. And so they become hardened against all reproofs and sermons and to all afflictions and judgments are insensible and past feeling and openly declare for sin and even glory in it. That's a voluntary hardness of heart. If it can come alongside the natural hardness of heart. And there is three, he said, a hardness which God's people are liable to and should guard against, and which is brought on by neglect of private and public worship, and by keeping bad company, and through the ill examples of others.

And by giving way to lesser sins, for all sin is of a hardening nature.

Friends, the writer to the Hebrews emphasizes today because it matters for us too. We today should not harden our hearts toward God.

Pray and reason with friends to educate your conscience according to God's Word. Be careful with your conscience. It stands as God's lieutenant in your soul. Bobby's been reading his Pilgrim's Progress on Wednesday nights before Bible study, so if you get here a few minutes early, you can hear Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan wrote another well-known allegory called the Holy War, in which he has the town of Mansoul, and it's taken over by the usurper Diabolus.

Diabolus takes it and he has complete control of Mansoul except for the town crier, old man Conscience, who every once in a while will just like come out of a stupor and grab his bell and go running around throughout the town of Mansoul clanging his bell saying, Diabolus is a liar and a thief. Immanuel is the true Prince of Mansoul.

Conscience functions like that. Even if you're here today and you're not a Christian, we understand that you as part of the image of God have been given a conscience. And that conscience tells you the truth sometimes that you don't even want to hear. As Christians, we value our consciences. We know that our consciences aren't perfect, but we can't ignore them without peril.

We work to educate them by sitting through long sermons at church, reading books carefully in the Bible and outside the Bible, trying to conform our understanding to what God has revealed in His Word. So friends, bow your heart before the Lord when you prepare to come and gather with His people around the Word. That's why we give you the passage to be preached on ahead of time. Pray before you read the Bible privately. Pray that God give you a heart tender to His Word.

To accept what you read. Realize that as you resist sin, you will understand more. There is what we might call a hermeneutical advantage of the humble and of the holy when it comes to understanding God's Word. Pray for a continuing heart responsiveness to God. Let me point out a third help we find in our passage.

Number three, remember that hearing and knowing isn't enough. Remember that hearing and knowing isn't enough. Look at chapter 3 verse 16, For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? Friends, if there was ever going to be a people who should obey, it's this people.

They had seen God's powerful deliverance of them from Egypt. They saw the wonderful works of God in their deliverance. They saw a kingdom overturned, armies drowned, the Son and death itself becoming a servant for God in their liberation for their Creator's purposes. Friends, Moses was faithful, but even his words, his sermons, his leadership were not able to prevent this people from rebelling. They are the ones who rebelled.

Look down again at chapter 4, verse 2. 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. That is, they themselves didn't believe. Our position is similar to theirs.

Except for those who fell, they were not united by faith with those who listened. Friends, those of us who are members of this church, We claim to be Christians. We claim to believe the truth of all this. We join a church exactly in order to help assure us of this that we're not fooling ourselves. Friends, never be satisfied with a knowledge which leaves you unmoved to action.

Remember vast crowds heard Jesus and walked away unmoved. In fact, Jesus even told a parable about it, a parable of the sower and the four soils. You remember that? In that case, there were four categories of people that he describes. All four of them heard God's Word.

And of the four, three even responded positively. But only one lasted. Only one was the real thing. The problem with too many people's evangelism these days is they don't discern the difference between the second and the third hearers and the fourth type. They think any positive response immediately should be taken as evidence of conversion, and it creates havoc in their lives as they get confused about their spiritual state and in the churches that they then inhabit.

Friends, you see what this means for us. We don't want to be mere sermon tasters. You know, you think the most important thing that's happening here in one sense is how you feel about my sermon. You think the big deal is it was a good sermon, it was a bad sermon. What do you think about it?

I'll tell you what I think, you know. Friends, you realize that big deal is not what you think of my sermon. It's not even what I think of my sermon. It's what God thinks of us. As His Word comes to us, it's His Word that's judging us.

Yes, I'm active here in a visible sense, but you better be active. This is for your benefit. You use this time for your own soul. Even the greatest of spiritual privileges, like being born in a Christian family or being in a good church, even those blessings don't assure us of great conclusions.

Merely hearing and knowing is not enough. It reminds me of the saying about the two thieves crucified on either side of Christ. One was saved, that none may despair, but only one that none may presume.

Remember that hearing and knowing isn't enough. We should continue. Another exhortation we find explicitly in our passage, number four, keep believing in Christ. Keep believing in Christ. The writer exalts Christ as a Son compared to Moses as a faithful but less glorious servant.

You see here in chapter 3, verse 3, 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, for every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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 and our hope. Jesus is more glorious than Moses because He's most fundamentally the author of our faith. We are the house, the household, the family that Christ has built.

So Moses was faithful as a servant, but Christ was faithful as a Son. And since we are the very house that He has built, we should hold fast our confidence in Him, our faith in Jesus Christ. We should keep believing in Jesus Christ. What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? It means to believe what He's taught us.

Friend, if you are not a believer, the way you become a Christian is by believing the truth that there is a God, that He's made you in His image, that you have sinned against Him, and that in God's justice and righteousness, He could forever put you under His judgment with no end. He could judge you in this life and finally in hell forever. And he would be doing nothing wrong. But in God's amazing love, he sent his only son to become a man. The Son of God, the eternal Son of God, became a mortal man.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God was incarnate. And he lived a fully, truly human life. And he lived a life in perfect trust of his heavenly Father, never disobeying, always loving and fearing God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength. He lived the life that you and I should have lived, but none of us have. And then He died on the cross.

He died as a sacrifice in the place of all of us who would turn and trust in Him. He bore God's wrath for all of us who would believe and repent. And so God raised Him from the dead. He ascended to heaven, as we were thinking about from chapter 1. He seated and beginning His reign as the Messiah, King, the Promised One.

And into that rest, into his rest, he now invites all who will merely believe in him, trust in him. Friend, that could be you. You could be forgiven of your sins. You could have this new life with God. You could join this happy company here.

Talk to us. People are seated around you. Talk to any of us pastors at the door on the way out if you want to know more about what this means for your own life. This is why he can be called our hope. Look down in chapter 3, verse 14, For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

That sounds like what Jesus taught in Matthew 24, that those who endure to the end will be saved. It's like our own church's statement of faith expresses it. We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end. That their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors. Don't be like those we read where the Lord says in chapter 3 verse 19, Therefore I was provoked...

310, Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, They always go astray in their heart; they have not known My ways. He summarizes that going astray is a sign of unbelief. Look down in chapter 3, verse 19, so we see they were unable to enter because of unbelief. So it's with this mind that the author turns in chapter 4 and immediately addresses those he's preaching to. Look at there in chapter 4, verse 3, For we who have believed enter that rest.

As He said, As I swore in 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. And again in this passage He said, They shall not enter My rest. So the class of people who enter God's rest are those who believe perseveringly in Christ. The author is pointing out this future tense of God's promises. And He says there will be no rest.

And the fact that He says there's no rest means there must still be a rest out there that can be given because of the contemporary nature of the today in Psalm 95 that He's quoting and the promises and warnings in it. This wasn't just something about the Promised Land of Canaan because it was still being held out by David to those who inhabited it in his day. Our author is saying it's still being held out even to us today. We are called to enter His rest and in order to do that we must Continue believing in Christ. Keep believing in Christ.

Another instruction we find here, number five, fight sin. Fight sin. That's being taught in chapter 3, verse 16, and with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who 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?

You see again down in chapter 4 verse 6, he says, Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Or again down in chapter 4 verse 11, Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. So friends, we are not to be like these negative examples here. Like the wilderness generation who sinned, who disobeyed, who provoked the Lord, as he'd already said up in chapter 3, verse 10, really summarizing what David was saying in his psalm. Sin is disobedience to God, and disobedience to God is sin.

These descriptions of the generation that fell in the wilderness don't teach us that they merely sinned, for then that message would be that there's no salvation for sinners. So please don't hear that. Rather, this is teaching us that sin typified those whose bodies fell in the wilderness. Their rejection of entering the Promised Land is the clearest picture of it. But Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy present many other confirming sad examples of their commitment to disobedience.

This is opposed to those of us who are truly believing in Christ which also means truly repenting of our sins. Brothers and sisters, beware of your besetting sins, whether they are obvious to others or known only to you. Beware, beware of your love, even for those good things, that you are tempted to love more than Jesus. Entering this rest is still a possibility, even though some obviously missed it in the past. And the preacher here warns us about pursuing a path of disobedience to God.

So he's preaching to a church full of people all of whom probably think that they will have that rest, that they have secured that rest in Christ. And what he's saying is some of your lives are telling a story that you're actually on a different journey than the one you're professing to be on. Friends, that's why in this church we're both careful about church membership. We encourage you to join a church. And we also practice church discipline.

That is, when I join this church, I'm saying, Hey, if you really love me, you'll let me in and you'll help me follow Jesus. And part of that means if you expose me as finally being a liar, as really loving my sin more than the Lord, as being unrepentant in my sin, then if you really love me, you will excommunicate me. Not to say you hate me, but to say you love me and you want me to know the truth about myself, so that then maybe I could repent and trust in Christ. That's what we understand as a local church. That's how we help each other fight sin.

That's why we're not complacent about it. Another instruction to help you finish the race, number six: have each other's back spiritually. Have each other's back spiritually. Did you notice this in chapter 3, verse 13?

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. This is similar to what he's going to say in chapter 10, verses 24 and 25, when he calls them to stir one another up, exhorts them to meet together regularly and encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching. It seems like this mutual exhortation is intended in part to unmask sin, to prevent its successfully deceiving us. You realize that sin, by its nature, is deceiving. He talks here about being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Well, friends, believing sins lie is why we don't listen to God. And as we live honestly with each other, openly confessing our sins and praying with each other, as we encourage each other and share about what we've learned along the way, we will help to loosen sin's grasp. On our brother or sister's heart and on our own. So we remind each other of what God has done. We testify of His grace in our lives.

Some of you come regularly on Sunday nights and you hear testimonies of God's work in this person, in that person. Friends, that's the way we intend to exhort one another, and that's what he calls us to do here. Let's have each other's backs spiritually. To help us continue on the race. Number seven, put effort into your Christian life.

Put effort into your Christian life. This is 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. As we saw earlier, the assumption here in chapter 1, that the promise of entering his rest still stands. He's writing to the Christians and exhorting them to have a good, godly concern.

He says a fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. He's simply saying, let's be careful.

Be careful, let's be careful that none of you fail to enter God's rest. This is still a live concern. Look at chapter 4 verse 8. For if Joshua had given them rest, meaning this rest and all of this rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. This is His logic.

The fact that the Lord through David still speaks of this shows that the rest being offered in Joshua's day did not exhaust the offered rest. And that's still true for the people in the first century when the Hebrews was written and it's still true for us today. The promise of entering God's rest is still standing and still beckoning us. And it shows that it's still worth it to, as he says in verse 11, strive.

Now again it may seem that it's strange to run a race to a rest. But that's what we're being called to do. Brothers and sisters, it's simply a reminder that the journey that we who are Christians here have really begun is not over yet. This world is not our home. Whatever blessings and benefits we've known here are merely foretastes.

Whatever trials and temptations we know in this life are just aftertastes of a former way of life and a former master whose power has been broken, whose very presence We will soon escape forever. The elect of God are secure. The members of this church help each other to know that we are truly trusting in Jesus, that we are truly repenting of our sins, and the days go on, each one a specific gift from God given to us to follow Him and to trust Him through until our journey is complete. But this journey, this Christian life, it's a race, not a ride. We must put effect and effort into our Christian lives, even to the point of striving, we're called to here in 4:11.

Instruction number eight, read and believe God's Word, especially paying attention to Jesus Christ. We do want to give special attention to Jesus Christ. Look again at the first couple of verses in chapter 3. 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. He says, therefore, because he's calling on that last paragraph we looked at the last time we were in Hebrews.

If you look above in chapter 2 verses 14 to 18. Just remind yourself, the writer was writing to those who were in need of help, in need of a merciful and faithful High Priest. The previous passage ended with chapter 2 verse 18, For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. Friends, this sermon is given to a congregation with people in it who were in need of help. Who were being tempted to quit running the race of faith in Christ.

They were being tempted like the Israelites in the wilderness were being tempted to become hard-hearted toward God. They were becoming tempted to be satisfied with merely having heard and known the truth. Some of them seemed about to stop believing in Christ, perhaps giving in to their sin. They were probably isolating themselves, forsaking the assembly. Giving up spiritually, neglecting the Bible, and becoming generally careless in their spiritual lives.

And that's why this preacher preached this sermon. That's why this writer wrote this letter. So he exhorts them here to consider Jesus. That's his basic instruction. Consider in the sense of regard, pay attention to, focus on, follow the pattern of trust and emulate Jesus.

And we can't know the real Jesus apart from His Word. Look down to 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. You see the great tool that the Lord has given us in His Word, the piercing and discerning They're parts of the striving that we're called to do in chapter 4 verse 11. You cannot keep following Jesus as you should without discerning what's going on in your own heart.

And you can't do that accurately without the aid of God's Word.

We sang earlier, 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His Word? Friend, how are you doing in using your Bible to help you in your Christian life? That's why we have our life together structured as it is. Our main meal here on Sunday morning is almost always an exposition of a passage of Scripture. You find our responding to the Word by listening to it both read and taught in what we sing and how we sing, in the prayers that are offered.

And what we share with each other when the service is done, our whole church is a word delivery system. From public teaching to personal discipling to privately and publicly praying for each other along the lines laid down in the Bible, we are trying to help get God's Word into our minds and hearts. So read and believe God's Word.

The final instruction I want us to note from our passage to help us run this race is number nine, prepare to meet God. Look at the last verse in our passage, chapter 4, verse 13, 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.

Friends, we should remember that we are all to give an account to God. And we should live accordingly. The truth is all our ways are known to Him. As Christians, we believe that. And we want to live in the light of that.

We want to live our lives so that they'll make sense ultimately not to those around us, but to the Lord. The Lord who knows all the factors. The Lord who knows all the truth. The Lord who is confused and mystified by no excuses. We want to follow Peter's instructions in 1 Peter 4:19.

Let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. We prepare by living lives that are faithful, not necessarily popular. John Stott put it well, I very much doubt if it is possible to be faithful and popular at the same time. I fear we have to choose.

We live lives leveraged on the reality of God in Christ and the life to come, the rest after which we strive. It's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Do you know where you'll find churches much, much larger than this one? Very often, sadly, where a false message is preached, where they say the Christian life is about making this life your best life now, where everything makes sense on this side of death. Those churches are spiritual crematoriums.

Run from them. They are telling your flesh what it wants to hear, and they are denying precisely what Jesus and the Bible teach. Jesus and the Bible are so clear that this world is not our home. The Christian life in this world only makes sense if what we believe about the world to come is true. So we should live like it is, ready to give an accounting to our Creator and Judge in view to him to whom we must give an account.

We should prepare to meet God. So there are nine instructions from our passage to help you continue to run the race. If you missed any of them, just check with your neighbor after the service and fill out your list. Maybe meet somebody new. In conclusion, how are you doing running this race?

Are you feeling tempted to give up before you reach the finish line? I wonder what tempts you to give up.

Hardships?

Maybe having to give up the lifestyle you deserve or that you want?

After Dr. John Gill of London had written against someone whose writings he considered in dangerous error, very frankly. He was visited by some of his friends who came to help him and they tried to convince him not to continue criticizing this other person's teachings. And among other things, they intimated to him that if he kept on with these criticisms, he might lose the financial support of some wealthy people.

Don't tell me of losing, said Gil. I value nothing in comparison with the gospel. I am not afraid to be poor.

What is it looking like for you these days to follow Christ? To give your all for Him? Does it include financial sacrifice?

Has it meant a rearranging of your priorities with your job or relationships in your family, your time, your life?

When Gary and Evelyn, Southern Baptist missionaries, were interviewed some years ago about their work among Buddhist monks in Asia, the reporter asked them about retiring. After all, they were 78 and 79 years old. They had been at it a long time.

And their answer was short and simple and sincere. They referred to the devil and they said, He's still doing his dirty work. When the devil retires, we'll retire.

How are you doing continuing on in the fight for faith? There are times and seasons in which it is so easy it doesn't seem like a fight at all.

And then there are other days, sometimes long periods, in which the conflict seems fierce and every bit of bravery we can collect is needed.

And we need to remember that this day of battle won't last forever. And that the promise of our glorious King coming is before us. And at that time, He will lose none of His own. All His ransomed home to bring, as the hymn says. Then anew this song will sing, Hallelujah, what a Savior.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we would live in faith to that day, till youl call us home or till youo come to get us. Pray youy help us to do that by youy Holy Spirit's power. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.