God's Logos at Work, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Bible is God's self-disclosure to us. It's through His Word that we see God and see ourselves as we really are. In today's passage, Hebrews 4, 11-13, we see that God's Word is alive and powerful. It exposes our hearts.

None of His creatures are hidden from His sight. Listen as Rich brings us today's message, titled, God's Logos at Work. Hebrews chapter 4, in verse 11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. It's important for us to learn from history.

George Santanaya, a Spanish-American novelist of the early mid-20th century, said this progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. If we paraphrase that, the statement says this, if we do not learn from the mistakes of history, we are doomed to repeat them. How true that is.

Now, in the 19th century, Georg Hegel, a German philosopher, said the corollary. He said, what experience in history teach us is this, that people in governments never have learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it. Let me paraphrase that for you. What we have learned from history is that we do not learn from history.

How true that is. This is the conclusion of the warning, the second warning of the book of Hebrews. Verse 11, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. In other words, we look at the history and the disobedience of the children of Israel. Let us learn from their disobedience.

We need to call it what it is. It was disobedience. It wasn't a personality disorder.

It wasn't a bad day. It was disobedience. They did not trust God and therefore they thought they knew better. And here is the lesson of this warning then, and that is that nominal faith or casual commitment will not carry you into God's rest, nor carry the day when you stand before your maker. So this warning can be very much for us today as God is speaking to us through his spirit and his inspired word. There may be some in our number this morning that might say, you know, my verbal and public commitment are to the Christian faith, but what I really want at the core of my being is something else entirely. As we learn from the word of God this morning, we will discover that the word of God gets down to that level.

And God's word is at work. Because God's word is at work, we are called to rest. Now let's understand this rest.

Very interesting. Look what he says here in verse 11. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest. Isn't that an interesting juxtaposition there of those two concepts, to be diligent to enter that rest? To be diligent means to work for. To be diligent to that rest. You know, if we were not theologically careful here, if we were not biblically careful in our interpretation of the scriptures, we could take that verse and say, see, the Bible says we need to earn our salvation. I need to work towards the salvation that God has for me.

It's not what it's teaching. It says be diligent to enter that rest. What he is doing here, he is following up the first two warnings that he's already given in the book of Hebrews. Be diligent The idea of diligence is intensity of purpose.

Prompt earnest effort. And he says this in follow up to the first two warnings. The first one is the warning of focus. Devote your mind to God's truth. That's the first warning.

It is the opposite of drift. The warning against drift. Devote your mind to God's truth. Focus your mind upon God's truth. And the next one is the warning of focus. Devote your mind upon God's truth. And then the second warning is the warning of regress.

The opposite of regress. The warning of trust. Don't be distracted because the people of Israel in the 15th century thought following God was a hard thing. So did the Jews in the first century. They thought following Christ was a hard thing.

They were distracted by the hard and therefore thought something else was better for them. And that's the warning here. So the first warning is to focus your mind on God's truth. The second warning is to trust the truth. And trust yourself.

Rest. Bank on the truth of God, not the feelings. Like the people of Israel going into the promised land. They were called in. Did God say I will take you into the promised land? Yes or no? Did he do that?

Yes, he did. And so they get there. They send in spies and 12 spies come back. Two said let's go.

Go for it. God said he will do it. And 10 said what?

We can't do it. You see, what did they trust? Were they trusting God's promise at that point?

They weren't. They were trusting what? Their feelings. Feelings are an awful, awful compass. Don't ever trust your feelings. Okay.

They are a good thermometer, but they're a lousy compass. So if we follow our feelings, then we'll do exactly what the children of Israel did. They did not trust God because sometimes we don't feel like trusting God. Sometimes trusting God feels like a hard thing. But the point is who has spoken? It is God who has spoken. And who is God after all?

Is he not trustworthy? And this is the point that the writer of Hebrews is saying. Be diligent to enter that rest as he follows up on the first two warnings.

And so it was with them in the first century, the Jews in the first century, many of them have had believed in Christ, had trusted Christ, and many of them were teetering on the fence and saying, you know, this trusting Christ thing is kind of hard. I'm not sure I signed up for this. I think I might want to go back to Judaism, where things are a little more predictable and I'm a little more in control of how things go. It's easier to just follow a list of rules.

Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. That's easier than this trusting God thing. Now that's strictly in the flesh, but this is what some of them were doing. And so we are called to rest. He says, be diligent to enter the rest. What is this rest?

As we've defined it, this rest, if we could put it into two words, it means what Paul says to the churches as he writes to them, it is being in Christ, where Christ is my element. He is my definition. He is my life.

He's my source. What I live is the outflow of being in Christ. And that is the rest. We'll unpack that a little more as we go along. But if I am in Christ, then my life is an outflow of my connection with God because I am reconciled to him.

I have his righteousness. For example, we use the illustration of a tree branch, a tree and a tree branch. We were born with a problem of being disconnected from God. We are a tree branch that looks alive, but we are alienated from the source of life. God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ brings us back to the tree so that the branch is grafted back into the tree, reconciled to the tree, and therefore the branch draws life from the tree and therefore it produces fruit.

That's the rest that God has ordained for the believer. You see, that branch that's grafted into the tree, does it have to strive to produce fruit? No, it doesn't.

All it does is draw life from the tree. Think about that. Think about that. This next statement, I really want you to get it, okay? I want you to get it. The Christian is to be most labor intensive in his walk with God. Now stop right there a minute.

Look up here. For those who have come from rigid backgrounds, when I say the phrase, walk with God, what comes to mind? All these things that a Christian is supposed to do, right? All the witnessing and tithing and going to church. That's not what the writer of Hebrews is talking about.

That's not what this phrase is talking about. It's not all the things that you can do for God. Colossians 1 says it very clearly. You were created by God and for God.

What does that say? God wants you. He doesn't need all the things you can do for Him. God wants you. And you were designed for fellowship and communion with Him. The Christian is to be most labor intensive in his walk with God. Not action for God, but communion with God.

It is your growing intimate relationship with God that transforms you. The outflow of this is a fruitful life. Just like that tree branch. Does the tree branch have to strive to produce fruit?

No. And see, what religious systems do is they take that fruit and they say, okay, I'm supposed to have this fruit in my life. So they attach that fruit to the tree and call themselves a fruit tree.

How does that work? That's not real fruit, is it? How does real fruit grow on a tree?

It is the outflow of the tree, of that branch that is drawing its life from the tree. That's the Christian walk. The Christian is to be most labor intensive in his walk with God. Not action for God, but your communion with God. It is your growing intimate relationship with God that transforms you and the outflow of this is a fruitful life. Folks, anything other than this is a frustrating faith. This is the Christianity of grace and this is what the writer of Hebrews, this is why he says be diligent to enter that rest. Instead of being that branch that's trying to make its own fruit, rest in the tree and let your fruit be the outflow, the product of being resting in the tree, reconciled to the tree.

How do we do that? Well, he says this is how God has revealed himself. God has spoken. This is the word of God to us. God has revealed himself to this end and that's why he begins verse 12, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We know that verse really well, don't we? And I'm afraid that there are some elements of this verse that some have taken too far and created some doctrines and truths out of it that weren't really intended in this verse.

It's very simple what this verse is teaching us. But you say, wait a minute, what does the word of God have to do with this? Well, the whole first four chapters of Hebrews have been about the word of God.

Let's review here for a minute. What has God said? Where is the word of God in this? First of all, in chapter one, verse two, God has spoken to us by his son. Chapter two, verse one, the things we have heard.

Chapter three, verse seven, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear his voice, and then all the way through the end of verse 11 in there of chapter three, he's quoting Psalm 95 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Old Testament. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word, the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.