Hearing Could be Dangerous

Hebrews 4:10 For whoever has entered into Gods rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (ESV)

    Maybe you're like me and have found yourself wandering in the wilderness. Wandering in the wilderness you ask? This address is for the believer who is hearing the gospel but is not heeding the gospel. The Israelites were wandering through the wilderness in rebellion to the good news because they had hardened their hearts to the message. Awaiting them was the promised land and the sure fulfillment of rest. Don’t forget the wilderness was no friend to its inhabitants, days of rest were few and far between and surely they were longing for it.

    From our far removed view we have all thought how stupid this sounds, why wouldn’t they just listen and receive the blessing? Why didn’t they heed the gospel and take the sure way out? Now lets zoom into a present day scale and ask the same question. Why is it that we are still wandering, only now in our own type of wilderness? You probably don’t live in the desert, but outside your door is a land full of imagination and void of promise. Although it may hold the appearance of a land flowing with milk and honey it is nothing more then a barren wasteland that is never satisfied until it possesses your soul.

    Lets go one step further and say that even in our Christian walk we can wander. Remember the Israelites had been freed from Egypt (the world) and at one time accepted the good news of this deliverance. It was only that this message “did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (Hebrews 4:2). They heard but did not believe, and today I am asking Christian have you heard the gospel and stopped believing it?

    To the one who believes, hold fast while the promise remains (4:1). You have been set free from your works, and given the hope of eternal life to rest in. No longer do you need to busy yourself with a righteousness of your own. Rather you are to respond to the gospel by striving to enter the rest that is yours in Christ Jesus (4:9-11). For the one who rejects the gospel they will toil in their self righteous works and find no relief from their anxieties.

    What can you do to compensate the Lord for His blessings? “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people” (Psalm 116:12-14). When we accept the atoning work of Christ on the cross, we make a conscious choice to die to self. In that death we agree that forgiveness is not based on our own merit but on His. For it is for freedom that we have been set free, that we might make Christ know in the midst of the masses, to the glory and honor of His name.