FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 4:1-13

The Time for Response Is Today (verses 3–7). In verses 3–10, we learn the full meaning of the word rest. First, it is a rest which believers of the first century (and today) can actually experience. The writer uses the present, rather than, the future, tense, “we . . . do enter that rest.” Jesus had declared, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Again, Jesus used the present tense. That is the same promise of rest which the writer, in verse 1, has declared still “remains.” If believed however, it requires a response, for though the promise is still valid, so is the threat that follows: As He [God] has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” Now is the time to enter it (“today,”), and now is the time to lose it, if one tests God’s patience too long.

Consider this: Did all those who died in the wilderness also perish eternally? Clearly not, since Moses, Aaron and Miriam are included in their number. Some, then, died before reaching Canaan because they were unbelieving in relation to the picture of rest (Canaan) and yet did not perish eternally. However, the majority were not only unbelieving about Canaan but also unbelieving about the redemptive provisions that surely pointed to Christ, and these we must presume have been lost eternally due to their lack of faith in God’s promise.

Second, this true rest has been available since creation, and some who may not have entered Canaan still could have entered God’s rest. Notice that God calls this rest “My rest.” This means not only does He give it, but He Himself also enjoys it! He experienced rest when He ceased the work of creation, as recounted in Genesis 2:2-3. As we have seen, this does not imply subsequent idleness, for God continues to maintain His creation, as the Word attests. He is endlessly active in the work of redemption too, as Jesus declared in John 5:17. It does mean He ceased creating; He has rested from that work since time (which He also created) began. What that means for God’s people is made clear in later verses. The third factor the writer stresses is that entering this rest must not be delayed or put off. Again, he quotes Psalm 95:7-8, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Delay hardens the heart, especially when we are fully aware that we have heard the voice of God in the inner soul. Every shrug of the shoulder that puts off acting on God’s urging for change, every toss of the head that says, “I know I should, but I don’t care, or not right now” every attempt at outward conformity without inner commitment produces a hardening of the heart that makes repentance harder and harder to eventually obey. The witness of the Spirit must not be ignored, for the opportunity to believe does not last forever. Playing games with the living God is not only impertinent, but also dangerous. You may ignore and harden your conscience, but ignoring and rejecting the promptings of the Holy Spirit is on par with the blasphemous sin.

There is a line, by us unseen,
That crosses every path.
The hidden boundary between
God’s patience and His wrath.

“Today” is a word of hope. All is not lost while today lasts. Though there may have been some hardening, it can yet be reversed if prompt repentance is made. The situation is serious, though, for “Today” is never more than twenty-four hours long and that’s all anyone is given at a time!

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 4:1-13

Dreams of Utopia have haunted human minds for millennia. When Sir Thomas More, in 1516, wrote the book Utopia, he chose the name because in Greek it means “no place.” Many attempts have been made in history to find or create such a place where life approaches perfection, but none have succeeded. Yet the dream has not faded, probably because it represents a vestigial human memory of something we once had and still yearn for, a greater Sabbath, as it were. On the seventh day of creation (Sabbath means “seven”) God was said to have “rested from all his work” (Genesis 2:2). However, this was not total inactivity, for God has been active throughout all history. It is probably best described as a rest of a perfectly functioning creation, as a mechanic rests from his work when his machine runs perfectly. That is what men have dreamed Utopia would be: a perfectly proper functioning society.

A Promise Requires a Response (verses 1–2). In Hebrews 4:1 we are given the first hint that the promise of rest given to Israel envisioned more than entering the Promised Land. It is, the writer says, a promise which still “remains,” that is, it was not fully satisfied by entering Canaan, but still exists at the time of the author’s writing. Furthermore, his readers stand in danger of missing it unless they are careful. The Greek construction of the phrase “lest any of you seem to have come short of it” indicates that wrong behavior, such as disobedience or long-continued grumbling, suggests the heart is unchanged and unbelieving. Being fearful of coming short refers to God’s knowledge of the heart and His actions based on that knowledge.

Many find it difficult to believe that the same gospel which is preached today (that is, the gospel of Christ) was also proclaimed to Israel in the wilderness. But note the two phrases the gospel was preached to us (verse 2) and those to whom it was first preached (verse 6). No distinction is made in these uses of the word gospel. Also Paul states in 1 Corinthians 10:3-4, “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” This implies an understanding on the part of at least some of them that the events they experienced, the sacrifices they offered, the ritual they fulfilled, were all designed to teach them truth about a Redeemer who was, to the eyes of faith, their ground of atonement with God, though He had not yet appeared in history. Of course these same elements could be experienced mechanically, without faith, and were thus meaningless as far as personal salvation was concerned.

In verse 2, we are given the reason for the Israelites’ unbelief in the wilderness. Even though the gospel of God’s deliverance from an evil heart was proclaimed clearly through the sacrifices, the tabernacle ritual and the preaching of Moses, it met with a lack of faith among those who perished. The writer will declare later in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him [God].” Without a personal response to the promise of salvation, no one can be saved. Declared many times in Scripture, this fact invalidates completely the teaching of universalism that everyone is already saved by virtue of Christ’s death and that God will reveal that to them at the end, no matter how they lived. This teaching ignores the need for repentance: turning from ungrateful rebellion to a thankful acceptance of God’s provision. Romans 10:17 indicates that the gospel (“the word of Christ”) has power to awaken belief in its hearers; if that belief is acted upon by a willing response (faith), it results in salvation (divine, eternal life imparted).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

III. God’s Love Defined – Continued

4. A Permanent Love

The force of the Hebrew construction in the words, “I have loved you,” are “I have loved you and I still love you.” These people Malachi was addressing dishonored God, cheated Him out of His tithe, disobeyed Him by marrying foreign women and hurled angry words His way. But one thing they never did was stop Him from loving them. When God came to earth we drove nails through His hands and feet, but we could not drive love from His heart.

5. A Punishing Love

If we reject God’s love we are promised to experience His wrath. Malachi began his book emphasizing the love of God and certainly his main motive was to woo the children of Israel back to God, but in his strong words about Edom’s fall, there could be a warning. God’s people have the strange habit of developing a “sense of complacency from their misinformed theology of love.” When anyone feels comfortable in sin because God is love, he is in grave danger. He is blind to what Godly love truly is. God’s love will never let us go; and it will never let us off the “hook.” Jesus said, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). God said to Israel through Amos, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Malachi could essentially be saying, “What happened to Edom can happen to you.”

6. A Purifying Love

We close where we started, looking at the love of God and hopefully responding with love and service. All that was said of Israel can be said of us. They met God at their bloody altars which foreshadowed the great sacrifice of God that was coming. We meet God at the altar of the cross on Calvary and from this point of reference Jesus asks us to accept Him and to live for Him.

Brothers and sisters, just like the Israelites, there have been times when I have become bewildered by the will of God and wanted to go back to Egypt (Numbers 11:5). Like Jeremiah there was a time when I questioned God about leaving the gospel ministry and spending my full-time pursuing my secular career (Jeremiah 9:2). Someone said Jeremiah wrote his resignation hundreds of times; he just never turned it in. Why? Why haven’t so many of us who have dedicated our lives in service to the Lord? Why haven’t you? I imagine and surmise it is the same reason Simon Peter didn’t. Jesus stood before him with the marks of Calvary on His head, His hands, His feet and His side. He said, “ ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He [Simon Peter] said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’ “ (John 21:15-17). Service was the fruit and proof of love. To leave our Lord or His service we would have to walk by the cross and say, “You died for me, but it’s too hard, I don’t care enough. I am going to live for myself.” That is the one thing we cannot, we must not, do. This love compels us to faith. We will say with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). It strongly moves and compels us to faithfulness. It causes all of us who has undertaken to serve to say, “I’ll live for Him who died for me.” Does God care for me? Yes. Most assuredly, and that is why we can’t help but love Him.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Malachi 1:2-5

III. God’s Love Defined – Continued

2. A Predestinating Love

“Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (Romans 9:18-21).

To be true to this text we must include Paul’s appeal to it in Romans as evidence that God can choose who He desires even before they are born, as He did with Jacob and Esau. Now I know this introduces the deep truth of election and predestination. However that is not why I mention it and I am not going to go much into it at this time because of its depth; suffice it to say I want to cover some truths involved in these verses.

1) The first involves our humanity. You have to remember and realize that God does see and know the end from the beginning. With His omniscience He can foresee all our actions and with His omnipotence He can still leave us free. That may make no sense to us without in-depth study because we are human, carnal, and finite and we just cannot see from God’s infinite viewpoint.

2) The second involves our choice. You can quote dozens of verses to prove we are saved by God’s choice of us (Romans 8:29–30, etc.). But you can also quote hundreds that prove we are saved by our choice (Matthew 7:7-8; 11:28, etc.). Though I have done a lot of my own study, I take the diplomatic approach by saying I have to agree with the simplicity that D. L. Moody stated when he said, “The elect are those whosoever will and the non-elect are those whosoever won’t.”

3) The third truth involves our duty. Someone once asked Jesus a deep theological question, “Lord, are there few who are [going to be] saved?” And He [Jesus] said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Luke 13:23). In other words, “You take care of you.” Our business is not to unravel mysteries but to work out our own salvation, to make sure we are saved, (Philippians 2:12; 2 Peter 1:10) and to share the gospel (plant the seed) with the whole world (Matthew 28:18–20). We, like Israel, are saved to serve and be a blessing to others (Genesis 12:2), it is the Lord’s will to give the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).

3. A Painful Love

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).

To fulfill God’s purpose and be God’s kind of people we must oftentimes pass through the valley of pain. C. S. Lewis says God whispers to us in our blessings but shouts to us in our pain. This was what Malachi’s hearers had all wrong. Someone once stated that the blessing of the Old Testament was prosperity and that of the New Testament was adversity. These poor people were in the middle making the difficult transition to a new view of pain. Paul said, “We . . . glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4). The Bible says that Jesus learned obedience from that which He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).

Like Malachi’s hearers we have a tendency to interpret pain as evidence that God does not care. However, it’s the opposite that is true. God is more interested in our holiness than our happiness and in our character more than in our comforts. He wants to make us like Jesus and the only way to do that is to walk the path of trial and trouble, the very same thing Jesus stated that the student who follows the teacher will have to do (Luke 6:40).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.