Be Obedient - Hebrews 3 and 4

God finished his work of creation in six days; he then declared the seventh day as a day of rest. God promised his people that they would be able to settle and live in the Land of Milk and Honey which indicated a place of rest [Psalm 95:11]. Jesus has assured believers will go to live in Heaven which will be our place of rest. Moses and the first generation were able to reach the land of rest but were not able to enter; however after forty years of fruitless wandering in the wilderness, a new generation under a new leader, Joshua, was ready to enter the land. They went forth and were successful in conquering that land but for some reason they never did experience the rest that God had promised. Why did Moses fail to enter and why did Joshua fail to acquire the reset he had been promised? It was because both had followers that would not OBEY GOD.

The Israelites failed to get to their new and restful land because of disobedience, and their disobedience was caused by their unbelief. They did not believe that God would protect them against the new country’s giants reported to be already established in the land—neither did they believe that God would help them conquer the giants [Numbers 14-15]. The result of [unbelief-disobedience] was 40 years of wandering in the desert place—which was a terrible alternative to the gift that God had already planned for them. Today is no different; when we do not believe and trust God it [not sometimes but] always prevents us from receiving his best which has already been planned for us.

No sinner, born of flesh only, will ever enter the ultimate rest in Heaven—not because of their disobedience but simply and only because they never repent of their sins and seek Christ as their Savior; which is always the result of unbelief. You must be born again! There seems to be two kinds of rest implied in these scriptures. Back in 3: 16-19 the term ‘rest’ refers to the Promised Land; but in 4: 1-13 it seems to refer to another ‘rest’ which God was offering to the first century readers—and He also offers this same ‘rest’ to us at First Baptist. This peace and [rest] is found in the life that Christians enjoy, including the inner peace that accompanies our forgiveness of sin. Class members will note immediately that your teacher often refers to the consequence of disobedience in a Christian’s life. It always destroys the ‘joy of our salvation’ and it demands that one repent in order to have that joy restored.

The simple practice of obedience always draws saved people closer to God—while disobedience always introduces a chasm or gorge between God and a Christian. The act of obedience is just as important to the Christian as grace, faith and repentance is to a lost person. Without the latter you can not know God; but without obedience you can not please God. By faith, lost people accept God; and then as Christians, we show our faith by obeying God. This scripture today does not mention how love fits into this picture, but we should be reminded and always remember that Christ said that; “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” and that simply means that if we love Him we will obey him. The deduction here can be made to say that the more often we are disobedient, the less is our love for Jesus and since love is the most important ‘fruit of the spirit’ our fruit basket may sometimes be about empty. There are two kinds of love and the one used here is not a sensual love but it is a spirit driven love; one such as we would have toward a fireman that has just pulled us from a burning building—or toward a young life-guard that has just rescued an only child from an undercurrent in deep water.

I believe that Paul wrote this letter to the Hebrews because some [maybe many] of them who received this letter were on the verge of turning back from their promised rest in Christ—in the same way that the Israelites under Moses leadership had turned back from their promised land. Any time we doubt God and trust our own efforts instead of the power of Christ we are in danger of regressing rather than moving forward in his power. It is always difficult for the rich and powerful to completely surrender their lives and future to Christ who can only be known through faith. This is why we are warned about the inadequacies of our own efforts. Security and progress always comes through our faith and not by works; and not our position or wealth.

The members of the churches in this nation have the same problem that faced the people in Moses day. They have a head-knowledge about Christ but they do not have a personal relationship with him. Knowledge about the God-head is important but in order for it to produce life saving results it must be energized by faith. We must believe in Christ and then act on what we know. We must both love and trust Christ and then do what he says; ‘remember that ‘if we love Him we will keep his commandments.’

In 4:4 the “somewhere” is found in the book of Genesis where we find that the creation took six days and the seventh day was a day of rest. God is a ball of energy and requires no rest; therefore he rested on the seventh day not because he needed physical rest, but to indicate that creation was completed. The world was perfect and God expressed his pleasure in it…He saw that it was good. This rest that he took on the seventh day is a picture of our eternal joy that will come when God’s perfect creation that was and is contaminated by sin is restored back to perfection. As born-again Christians, our Sabbath-rest in Christ begins the moment we trust him as Lord and Savior. God set a certain day when this should happen and named it “Today”—and Paul says “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” My ‘today’ may be Monday…your ‘today’ may be Friday…the day of the week has no bearing…our ‘today’ is the day that we surrender to that small voice of the Holy Spirit calling us to salvation in and through Christ.

God gave the Israelites the opportunity to enter Canaan... [A picture of heaven] but they were disobedient and failed to enter [Numbers 13-14]. Now God is inviting us to enter that place he is preparing for us… [A home in heaven] our ultimate place of rest and in order to enter in we must believe that Christ died and that his blood has already paid all the building cost for the home and has paid for our transportation first class. Today is the day of salvation…tomorrow may be too late!

Read verses 8 to 11 and you will find that God wants us to enter his rest. It is not for a few days here but is peace with God now and eternal life on a new earth later. We do not have to wait until later to enjoy God’s rest and peace; It starts on our ‘today’ and it will not end at death but will at death turn into that eternal heavenly life in the new house Christ [he was a carpenter you know] is building [John 14:1]. [He is a gold-smith too.] Therefore we sincerely expect the streets in our new city to be gold.

There is an important instruction given in verse 11 that must not be misunderstood. The word ‘effort’ used here does not mean ‘works’ or ‘doing good’ to obtain salvation. It means that we must study the Word, follow the plan, obey the commands and appreciate and partake in what God has already provided. This word ‘effort’ has a two part meaning—decision and commitment. Decide what God would have you do and commit your life to doing what you have decided God wants of you.

The Word of God is not a book. It is the living, life changing dynamics of Christ living in us. You want to see God? Then you must look at Christ. You can see him in the Word through the total life he lived here on earth. Put all the Word pictures together and you will have a beautiful oil painting of him in your mind and soul. They are: Loving, sinless, worthy, Son of God, peaceful, harmless, forgiving, healing, lover of children, old people and the poor, down and out…and on to everything good and nothing bad. His Word is incisive and sharp dividing truth from error and it reveals all needful things to us. This is only one reason why we must be readers of the Word. To read the Word and listen to what it says is not enough…we must do what it says do and we must refrain from doing the things it condemns.

Every young person who is dating should be required to read 4:13 before embarking on a date. God sees and knows what you are doing all the time. Every bench warmer in the mall, old and young, should read this verse before they leave home to go sit and look while the spouse is shopping. Why? Because the word everything also includes our thoughts. Forgive me Lord! We are to shun the very appearance of evil; and this evil can be shunned by proper preparation such as having today’s paper or a good book to read or wearing a head-set that renders some good music that induces eye closing concentration. We must know and obey the scriptures which tell us that “To look with lust is also adultery.

I want to use an idea presented in the Life Way commentary and ask you to do some serious thinking about the word obedient and other words related and they are Obedience. Compliance. Submission. Duty. Read the following statements and rate them from 1 to 5. 1 represents strong disagreement and 5 represents strong agreement.

_____Obedience requires self discipline.
_____Duty often demands self sacrifice.
_____Strong self discipline interferes with my freedom.
_____It is important for me to be free to do what ever I want to do.
_____Submission is a sign of weakness.
_____The unsaved should obey God.
_____Good men can obey God without salvation.
_____Obeying God restricts my freedom.
_____Obeying God gives more freedom.
_____Obeying God brings blessings that otherwise will not be.
_____The most important act of obedience is to love God.
_____The second most important act of obedience is to respect human life.
_____Strict compliance with your church’s statement of faith and doctrine interferes with your freedom to worship.