Make Every Effort
Hebrews 4:1-13
Key Verse 4:11
11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
Today is the day. Today is the most important day of our lives because it is the day that God has given us. Yesterday is gone and cannot be changed, tomorrow is not guaranteed to even happen so what God has given us is Today. Since we have Today, we must put it to use. To maximize Today we must utilize our faith and put it into work in the many opportunities God gives us. Our passage is about making effort to enter God’s rest by using Today.
Last week we learned from Hebrews 3 that we must fix our thoughts on Jesus and finish the pilgrimage God has given us. We saw several verses in chapter 3 that are important to our passage in chapter 4. Let’s look at Hebrews 3:6 and Hebrews 3:13
"And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast." v.6
"We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first." v.13
When we think about these verses they tell us that there are two big “if”s to entering God’s rest. First, “if we hold on to our courage and the hope we boast” and second, “if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” Salvation is not a paper ticket that is given to us when we first believed. Instead, salvation is a relationship with God through his Son who died for our sins. Maintaining this relationship through faith and obedience is how we remain in God’s love and salvation. When we hold onto our faith we hold onto our relationship with Jesus.
Everyone wants to hold on, everyone wants to hold firmly and not drift away. But the passage tells us how we can hold firm, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion…" If we hear God's voice, we will be hearing something important. We must therefore obey. Obedience comes from faith. By listening to God's voice we are putting our faith in him over our sinful nature's voice that is eager to reject. When we then obey we manifest our faith. Such a life of listening and obeying, believing and practicing is "holding firm". Apostle Paul said, "I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith I have finished the race." We can keep the faith by practicing our faith.
Let’s look at verses 1 & 2.
1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
We cannot assume we we’ll automatically go to heaven. Why not? Because these verses tell us it is possible for Christians to fall short of it. Last week, Jonathon said, “Some people make the mistake of thinking that the Christian life is about believing in Jesus one time and then just going to church for the rest of your life.” These verses explain that the Christian life is not a one time transaction where we go to heaven for eternity because of some moment in the past. No, the Christian life is a pilgrimage where we hold firm to the faith we first had until the very end. If anyone loses their faith or abandons their faith or neglects their faith then they should have great reason for concern.
The author here is boldly making the comparison between the Israelites who fell in the desert and did not enter God’s rest with Christians who hear the gospel but do not practice faith. Look at 2 again, “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.” The catalyst for salvation is not just hearing the gospel, or agreeing with the gospel. What is missing in people like the Israelites is an act of faith and obedience. Like them, what many are missing is genuine faith. The passage uses the expression, “combine it with faith” to express the active response on the part of the hearer and recipient. When someone truly believes in the gospel they act on it and begin to respond according to the teachings and commandments found in the gospel. They end up obeying the gospel as they put their faith in the gospel message. What about the Israelites? They heard the message (they had the law, they had the manna from heaven, they had Moses and much more) but how did they respond? They hardened their hearts and turned away from the Living God to pursue idols and carnality. They complained, they grumbled and they acted rash towards Moses. They did not learn God’s ways even though God tried so hard to teach them. The message was of “no value” to them because they didn’t combine it with faith. Likewise, our response makes the difference and reveals our faith. Do we do what the gospel message teaches? Are we good students of God and learn from his teachings in Christ? If so, that is faith proven.
Look at verses 3-5. 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' " And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." 5And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."
When we believe we “enter that rest” as we should and join God in his finished work. The purpose of life then is to make it into this rest. God is in his rest and he is there waiting for us. This goal to enter was what the Israelites failed to meet. The passage says two times that they “shall never enter my rest”. God was in his rest but the Israelites disqualified themselves and thereby lost so bad. They lost the meaning of this life here on earth and they lost God’s rest in the future to come. So, we are either big winners or big losers in terms of this rest. We therefore MUST make EVERY EFFORT to enter it. For all our life both in this world and the world to come is on the line.
It is therefore important that we don’t abuse our time and life in this world following worthless idols, hopes in the world, or any other worldly desire. We need to reflect carefully on our heart’s attitude about these things because grave danger can be our situation if we continue in such a way of life. God will find out, God knows what we are living for and how much or how little we are practicing faith in Him. To love the world or anything in the world is to practice hatred towards God. Is this faith that pleases him? Is there hope for carnal Christians to enter his rest? No, for they are practicing unbelief exactly like the Israelites! (Where is the cut-off? No one knows and God doesn’t say for we shouldn’t even be playing around with it.)
Look at verses 6-8. “6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.”
These verses in short are the hardest to understand. Basically, the author of Hebrews is defending his interpretation of Psalm 95. For someone could say, “No, no, no. The issue about entering and not entering rest was finished when Joshua took the second generation into the promise land and gave them rest. This is old news and doesn’t apply to us. Case closed!” The author of Hebrews declares that if this was true then God would not have brought up the issue through the prophet David in the book of Psalms. He would have also not used the word “Today” to describe the issue of entering or not entering. The author here expresses the point that when God used the word “Today” he made the issue of entering or not entering a consideration that must be faced by all generations of believers.
The word “Today” is therefore an important word to consider because it is what God has given us to work with. It is the opportunity and the chance to listen to God and obey his commands. If our hope is in heaven then Today is the day we can live for him and please him. Today is the day we can listen to him and love him. Today is the best day.
9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
Obviously these verses are very comforting and pleasurable to think about. They encourage us that after working hard in this life there will be a Sabbath-rest for us when we finish our pilgrimage. But until then, what do we have to do? What is our life characterized before we enter the rest? The answer is “work”. Until we enter into his rest we must work and work a lot. But the work I am talking about is not work like building a career or digging a hole. It is the work of putting our faith to work and reaping the fruit of it. For, there are so many chances and opportunities to put our faith into action that we must work at it. Once we finish there is no re-dos or chances to improve on our work. We therefore need to be thoughtful about how we view our chances and opportunities now. Let’s appreciate the work we have now, the work that must be done prior to our rest and do it well. Let’s improve the quality and use our precious faith that is so valuable to do it and produce good fruit. This opportunity won’t be around forever so may we seek out the chances to walk on the water, seek out the chances to sleep through the storm and seek out the chances to feed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. Our work will cease eventually so we should do our best Today.
11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
By now the key verse should be self-explanatory. But there is a couple important points here. First, what does “every effort” mean? Every effort means the thousands of chances we are given each day to put our faith into practice. Every effort is using those chances to practice faith and then doing it. Many of us have had years of Bible study and have hundreds and hundreds of hours of Bible reading under our belt. But what is needed then? Simply, the only thing we need is to put it into practice by making the effort to actually do it. “Make every effort” means to practice, practice, practice our faith. How can we learn about God’s ways, his teachings, his views, his attitudes and then just stop there? Each “Today” has many, many chances to make every effort to practice our faith. What else does God want of us? What else can be we do with the faith we have than to put it into practice? Surely, this is the way to have confidence in entering his rest! But for anyone who let’s their faith sit on the shelf and by perseverance does not try hard to practice it, these people are following in the Israelites example of disobedience and their example of hearing the message but not combining it with faith. May we be those who make every effort.
Lastly we have verse 12 and 13.
12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
It may seem that these verses jump out of nowhere. However, they are inline with the theme of chapters 3 and 4. Here we see that the Word of God is able to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. No one can judge another person, especially the thoughts and attitudes of a heart. However, God’s Word is so sharp, it is so precise and perfect that it is actually makes a judgement on our attitudes and thoughts. With this ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Living Word of God no one has an excuse that God isn’t speaking to them. For God is actively speaking to all his people and giving instructions all the time. We may be able to ignore the advice of people but we cannot ignore the Word of God that God speaks to us by. Obedience to God’s word is the ultimate act of faith. With submission to God’s Word in this life we are practicing faith that believes in God’s ways and chooses God over sin. Such faith keeps us moving in this heavenly calling and brings us smoothly into God’s rest.
One Word: Make every effort.
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