Danger of Unbelief

The speaker discusses the dangers of neglecting and disbelieving in salvation. They mention studying the book of Hebrews and how it relates to Christianity. They emphasize the importance of trusting in Jesus Christ and the consequences of unbelief. The speaker also talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding and comforting believers. They encourage listeners to have faith and not be apathetic towards their salvation. We started last week, Wednesday night, since we're in here, we've started looking at... We'll try mine out tonight, but I'm having issues. Well, maybe there it goes. We started last week, we're looking at the dangers of Hebrews, and it's kind of the dangers of Christianity, and they kind of go along this line. I started beginning of the summer, and it's been kind of neat the way it was working out. I talked to another pastor who called me today, and we got to talking. And, of course, pastors always want to know what are you preaching through or what are you doing right now. And we got to talking, and I said, yeah, it's been kind of neat the way that this all just kind of fell into place because it just started as just a one-sentence talk that I had. And as I began to study and began to look at different things, it started making a bunch of connections that I probably knew, but I just probably haven't made. But here are the last few weeks. I always enjoy studying, but it seems like the last few weeks that I've really, really enjoyed. But we've been talking on Sunday morning. All of it kicked off with Deuteronomy chapter 6 with fear of the Lord and obedience. And then we wound up on Wednesday night looking at the book of Hebrews, which really goes back over a lot of the things of the Old Testament. But even more predominantly, it deals with the Christians today and how we ought to support Jesus Christ and be with Jesus Christ. And we saw in chapter 1 last week the danger of neglecting our salvation. And when we talk about neglecting our salvation, it really falls into two different categories. One, of course, is neglecting your salvation from the very get-go, not having enough faith or trust in Jesus Christ to accept him as our personal Savior. But the second one and the overall theme is starting out with neglecting our salvation, that salvation and the benefits of our salvation, that sanctifying part of the salvation, the part of salvation that, of course, there's the salvation that was happened in the past, but right now we are being sanctified. And we talked about one day we will be glorified in our salvation. We're in that sanctification process that you know Jesus Christ is your personal Savior. And so the sanctified process of salvation is conditional. It's based on whether or not we submit to God or whether or not we don't. And a lot of people look at the sanctification part of salvation, and that's where they come up with a lot of Calvinistic ideas and stuff that we can lose our salvation because there is that condition that is there. But I want to assure you that there is no way possible that we can lose our salvation. Once you are saved, you are always saved. Never to be plucked out of the Father's hand. Your sins are never to be remembered no more. But however, as we live being saved, there is times if we obey God that we will have blessings, and there's also chastisement when we disobey God. And so that's during the sanctification. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to ever go to heaven or be with God, but it does mean that I'm probably going to lose some blessings here on earth. And we've been seeing how the nation of Israel, because of their choice, God got them out of Egypt and said let's go to Canaan, let's go to the promised land. But what did they do? They saw the giants and all of these things, and they didn't trust God and believe God. And so he punished them, and they wandered around in the wilderness. And so if we neglect our salvation, if we don't understand this part of our salvation, and we begin to neglect our salvation, even as a saved person, there comes a point that we can lead to the danger of unbelief, where we just get to the point where we don't trust God. And if you see, even during that wilderness warming, after God had taken care of them and provided for them everything, food, clothing, shelter, they still continued to test God and to try God because of their unbelief. And so tonight I want to start, and you can go and fill in the gaps in Hebrews chapter 2, the verses that we haven't studied. And he of course comes to chapter 3 and he says, And he says, And so Hebrews, we are focusing on Jesus Christ. And so I want to pick up in verse 7 where he says, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work forty years, wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. And you can kind of underline or question mark that. Actually, I will be gone next week, and I'll be getting somebody to fill in for me, but we will deal with this idea of rest in two weeks. And so we're going to come back to that, but I don't want to get that tonight because that's not the whole function of what he is talking about by unbelief. And so he comes there in verse 12. He says, Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some, when they have heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom he was grieved forty years, was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, there's that word again, but to them that believe not. And so we saw the danger of neglecting our salvation. Now we are going to look at the danger of unbelief. And you say, is this really relevant for you and I today? Well, when we look here at the words that the author uses, first thing, they're in the present tense. So from the time that the Hebrew people received this letter all the way to now, it still has remained present. So this is very much good for you and I today. And also that God is speaking today through his Son Jesus Christ. And so what we are trying to do is we have everything that we need in Jesus Christ. Christ is greater than the prophets. Christ is greater than the angels. Christ is greater than Moses himself. And it shows that if he is supreme, then we are to obey him supremely. And we have to obey Christ. We have to believe his promise of salvation, and we have to believe his promise of rest and his promises of blessings, even though we live in a wicked and perverse world and generation. And so as we look at this, he says there in Hebrews verse 19, so we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. And so the danger or the fear that we have is the fear of apathy or unbelief. Apathy is just this kind of sit back, kind of numb, don't care. That's not my problem. That's not something for me to worry about, which is the same exact thing pretty much as unbelief that is there. We talked about, we've got it out there on our sign when we did the 200, talking about awake and redeeming the time. That's that idea of apathy that life is going to go on. And the apathy is the idea that, well, God says there's going to be a falling away and the world's going to get evil and there's just nothing that we can do about it. But as long as God is on His throne and God is alive, and I believe He is alive and He will remain alive, then God can do anything and anything can change. And I don't think we need to get into this habit and this thing of apathy because it leads to unbelief. And that's what He is talking about that He is here. You notice the first thing that He gives us is the instruction. This is the danger. Here's the instruction. Now, notice He says the Holy Spirit. As believers, we are given the Holy Spirit. What is the job of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, first of all, convicts us of sin. The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus Christ. Because He guides us in all truth and all righteousness. The Holy Spirit comforts us when things are not going right, when things are not necessarily what we need. And the Holy Spirit is there to basically come alongside us in life and to disciple us as we live this life. And kind of what the author is telling us here is if you were in a tall, high-rise building, say you were on the 10th floor and a fire broke out. And all of a sudden, you know, as the firemen below are yelling at you, they've got that big trampoline or that airbag down there, 10 floors down, and they are hollering at you to jump. And if you're scared of heights like I am, you're looking down there and you're questioning right, should I jump? And then you have the fire that is coming in behind you, and do I stay with the fire? Do I risk waiting? Do I jump? What? And all of a sudden, you look around and you say, man, I've got some belongings. I'll just grab these and I'll hit the stairwell and I'll make it out. And because of our belongings and everything, and because we don't trust the firefighter, we end up dying in the fire. And that's exactly, if you put this passage in context, that's what the author is telling us. The author is telling us that from the top of his voice, to jump. To harden not your heart. To go in all in with faith in Jesus Christ. You know, it's amazing, most of us, a lot of us, and I'm including myself in this, unfortunately, is sometimes we're a lot like Gideon, right? What did Gideon do when God called him to go and deliver the people? What did Gideon say? Well, God, if you're really going to be with me, then here, let's try this little test, right? Let's put this fleece out on the ground and you cause the dew to happen. And what did God do? Immediately the next morning he woke up and he did exactly as he did. And so what did Gideon say? Let's try this other way. Let's try one more thing. And ended up trying to test him three times and finally God said, Gideon, get out. Are you going to do it or not? Are you going to obey or not obey? And a lot of us are that way. We look at this, you know, I see the firefighters. I know that there's no way that I can survive here doing this. But guess what? I'm afraid to jump. And so I don't know if I can trust them or whatever. And so that's what he says here. He says in chapter 3 and verse 7 there, he says, Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. What does a hardened heart mean? Well, if you look at the life of Israel, and that's what he's referring back to is the provocation that we talked about Sunday morning. If you look back at that after the Jews had been freed, they went and they were wandering around the wilderness of the Sinai. And what happened? They still, God had delivered them out of Egypt. God had provided and taken care of everything that they needed them to do. But we find that there was four sins that they continued to commit that hardened their hearts. And he gives them an illustration of this. And notice the illustration in verse 8. He says, harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. First of all, what did they do? They provoked God. They tried God. They made God. They tested God. God, if you're really God, if you really love us, if you really want us to go to the promised land, that's what he means by the in the day of the provocation. In the day of temptation. God says that he will never tempt us, but he will test us. There's a difference between tempting you, wanting you to mess up, and desiring to mess up, and a test to see where you stand and what you are going to do. And here's the problem with this, is God had already proved his abilities and faithfulness. He had already proved it. And what they are asking them to do, and the reason that it makes it a temptation, is they are basically asking God to prove himself. And God does not have to prove himself to us. What God wants is for us to prove ourselves to him. And so the first thing is here they provoke God. And what do they do? They just basically lost their trust in God. And so they begin to criticize. They begin to murmur. They begin to grumble against God. They begin to do all of this for Moses, who was God's appointed leader. The next thing that we find that they did, was they tried God for 40 years. After he sent them to the land and he said, go look at it and see if it's not everything I promised you. They come back and what do they do? They said, no, we can't do that. And so what did God do? He sent them out in the wilderness to wander for 40 years, and then die. Look at what he says there in verse 9. When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years. Saw my works 40 years. What works do you think they saw? God took care of them. Not one single person do I believe died without natural causes. God provided all of their food. God provided all of their water. God provided them with shelter. Everything that they needed while they were still wandering in the desert until everyone had died that refused to go in. And so man, they have seen all of this. They have seen the rock give forth water. They've seen all of these different miracles, and yet here we find them tempting God. They are testing God to see how great and how wonderful God is. God wants us, as I mentioned a while ago, to prove ourselves, not Him to prove us. The third thing, it says they went astray. Look at verse 10. It says, Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said they do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. God promised to meet Israel's every single need as He always has. They didn't have the luxuries of life, but they did have God's care and provision. And I think I would rather have God's care and provision over the luxuries of life any day. And they had everything that He needed, but all they had was the glorious promise of God and a land and a final rest, a chance to no longer be wandering, a chance to no longer be heading into the promise of a future, but to be a reality and to rest. But what did they always do? They went astray. How did they go astray? They always chose not to believe God. They disobeyed God. They distrusted God. And so the fourth sin that they committed is they did not know God's way. They didn't know God's way. What is God's way? God's way is a way of faith and trust. You have to believe God. He said you don't walk by sight. We walk by faith. God only shows us what we need to know at that particular time and place in our life. He doesn't show us the future. When you study the names of God, how did we get all these different names of God? Lisa, I know that the women have gone through the study a couple of different times. How did we get all of these names? Every one of them came starting with Abraham as he went through life and he had a problem. And what did God do? He stepped in and provided. And so he said here's a new name. Here's a new character of God. And he would make an altar and he would call his name that. And then what happened? He would start going through life and he would have another problem. And what did he do? God would provide and he would give them a different name. And he wasn't giving them different names because there was only one God and one Lord. But what he was doing was recognizing the characters of God. We can't know everything about God right up front. We only learn, know more and more about God as we continue to follow Him and as we continue to obey Him. The more we lean on God, the more we trust God, the more we draw near to God and fellowship with God and learn to trust God, learn to walk with God, only then do we begin to experience and know everything that there is to know about God. The way of God and what God desires us to do and what He desires for us to have. And the only way that we can get to know God is we have to be tried and tested. Remember, trials and tribulations work with what? Patience. And patience worketh faith. You cannot get to faith in trusting God. You can't trust something you don't know. And you can't know God if you don't go through trials and tribulations. That's why you look at people that have been saved and following God and serving God for an entire lifetime, their faith is so strong that even in death they can say, I'm ready to die. Why? Because they've tried God over and over. They know that when they open up their eyes, they breathe that next breath, they're going to be in the presence of God. And this is what Israel failed to learn. This is what Israel did not understand. This was their great failure as a nation is unbelief and disobedience. What is the major failure of the church today? Unbelief and disobedience. I have heard more in the last ten years about things that we shouldn't believe or can't believe about the Word of God than what I have heard to be affirmed that is true. In other words, we have a whole generation today that's wanting to do everything and say, this is not really all of the Word of God. Or this is not really true. This was not really a person. This is not really a city. This was a parable or a story. Or this event didn't really happen. Or this event, God didn't really do this, but this is what really happened. And it's just filling our generation and filling our world today. But notice here what happens when we allow these four sins to come about in our life. We find the issue of what we are actually confronting tonight. It says in verse 11, So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. They just never learned that God's way was belief and trust. We have so many people today that think that obedience or reading their Bible or church attendance or giving is going to be the key that is going to unlock them to a relationship with God. It's not in and of itself. These things are supposed to happen because of our relationship with God. Jesus Christ said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. The people chose not to follow God. Therefore, they were never able to enter into the promised land. They were never able to enter in to their rest, to God's rest, to the full fulfillment and promises that God had given them in the land of Canaan. They missed that permanent peace. They missed the provisions of God Himself. And what did they do? They died in the wilderness. The very ones that had been set free from the world in bondage died, never experiencing what God had promised them and their generation. So what do we do? First of all, focus on yourself. In order to get around the danger of unbelief, we have to focus on ourselves. Look at what he says in verse 12. Take heed. That's not looking at someone else. Let's take heed. What brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. Notice he says, take heed. That means take care. Watch out. Beware. We saw on Sunday with Moses. What happened to Moses? Did unbelief jump up and grab him? Disobedience sure did. And if it can happen to Moses, don't you think it can happen to us? I see it all the time. There's a great danger that we have that we might depart from the living God. That we might do just exactly what Israel did. That's why the author said, take heed. Be alert. Stay alert. Be on the lookout. Do it constantly. Watch and keep on watching. Trust and obey God. Watch for an evil heart of unbelief. What is an evil heart of unbelief? It's a heart that stands off from God. It's a heart that is unresponsive to the movement of God through the Holy Spirit. An evil heart of unbelief is it renounces God. It rebels against God. It does not believe God or trust God in His promises. And so the last thing that we notice is not only do we focus on ourselves, but notice he says to fortify each other. Look at what he says in verse 13. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Encourage and exhort one another daily. In other words, once we look after ourselves, we can only do so much as individuals. You know, I wonder sometimes if maybe if some of them elders was right there with Moses when he went out to the rock. When Aaron left out of the tabernacle listening to God, if maybe if Aaron would have encouraged Moses to speak to the rock. You know, just somebody to say, hey, hey Moses, stop and take a breath right quick. Because you can see him when he comes out of the tabernacle, it says he took his rod, he snatched it. He heads out toward that rock. They can see that. And man, after reading this, I think man, what if Moses would have had just a little bit of encouragement. Notice the word exhort that he uses there. Exhort one another means to beg, to betreat, to entreat, to beseech. It's from the same word that we get the word comforter or paraclete. Do those two words mean anything to you? It's the same exact word translated as Holy Spirit. Exhort us. Comfort us. It includes this idea of comfort that will strengthen and encourage us every single day so that when a crisis arises, we may be able to stand fast. We are constantly to exhort one another to guard ourselves against unbelief and sin. And real quickly, I want us to look. There's eight reasons why that he gives just right here. Bam, bam, bam. Number one is because your time is short. Today is the day for believing and walking in Jesus Christ. Look at what he says there. He says, but exhort one another while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through deceitfulness. None of us knows about tomorrow. None of us know what's going to happen tomorrow. And we're talking again about this salvation, this sanctification of salvation, this staying in the will of God. Tomorrow we could be immediately snatched out of this world or we could be immediately put into a crisis situation that causes us to be disobedient or hopeless or broken, some bad news, some unexpected event. And I promise you, none of us, including myself, knows how we will react until we're in that situation. The best made plans. I don't know how many times I have prayed going into a meeting or going into something and I think, man, I know exactly how this is going to go and how I'm going to do it and what I'm going to say and what happens. All of a sudden, everything just real quick gets all out of whack and all out of control. Life is only a vapor. It's only a flower. It blooms and then it disappears tomorrow. And so we have to exhort each other. As a matter of fact, later on, and we'll get there, He comes to it in Hebrews 10 in verse 24 and He tells us the same exact thing again in the later part of this. He says, Let us hold fast to profession our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now, I believe that God is going to take us out before the tribulation period. There's some that believe that He's going to come in the middle of the tribulation period. Either one of them, guess what? If it is in the middle of the week, in the middle of the tribulation, then guess what? Do you realize there's three and a half years of deception that's taken place? And if He wakes and He comes in the middle of the week, do you realize that means that Christians, those that were following Jesus Christ, are going to lack trust and be disheartened? And so, man, and even leading up to the start of it, when we read the end time, it's fixing to get worse. It's fixing to get bad. It's not going to get better unless God steps in and intervenes. And so, life is just passing through, so our time is short. Number two, you can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is deceitful. Isn't that what Adam and Eve found out in Genesis 3? They were deceived. Adam did it willfully, but Eve was tricked. She thought by eating the fruits that she would become a god and that she would be there. But, you know, just because it looks good, just because it tastes good, and just because it may feel good, doesn't make it good. What happens is sin enslaves us and it leaves us heart empty, lonely, insecure, hurting. How many families have I counseled with that are disheartened and broken because of sin? Because of sin. Not only is sin deceitful, but sin hardens a person. Do you realize the more your person sins, the harder and more sinful they become? The Bible tells us in Galatians that sin begets sin. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The more we sin, the easier it becomes to sin. You say, no, that's not... Well, go back and watch TV sometimes from your mind or ears from 20 years ago. We've become relaxed to things that we see and things that we hear. Why? Because we hear so much of it and we see so much of it that what happens? It begins to harden us. Sin nourishes us more and more. It becomes easier and easier for us to sin. One sin prepares the heart for the next sin. You know, well, I didn't die that time. God didn't judge me this time. And so what happens? It gets easier and easier and easier. Our heart just gets hardened to where when the Holy Spirit convicts us, the writer of Hebrews later on talks about our heart being seared like you would take a piece of meat and throw it on the grill, on a really hot grill. What are you trying to do? You're trying to sear that because it will lock the juices in. My dad, one thing about grilling that dad always said is you don't flip the meat but one time. One time. You don't flip it over and over and squeeze it and all that. No, you sear it on one side and the juice has nowhere to go but to the top. And when it starts to get to the top and it starts to get a little bit clear to the top, you flip it and sear it right quick and it is done. And you get the juices still inside that is there. The only problem is, is guess what? A lot of us have done that to our hearts. We've seared our heart because of the repetition of sin over and over and over that guess what? The Holy Spirit can't penetrate when He's convicting us. It doesn't bother us anymore. And we think about all of the things as we become more and more enslaved to sin. What effects does that take on our body? You know, does the fruit of sin not necessarily the sin, but the permanent stuff. When you think about the permanent damage of drugs, of drinking, of smoking, of sex, of all of these things. You look at people before pictures and then they enter into sin and you look at them later. You know, you look at some individuals and my wife says, man, they have really had a hard life. Right? You can just see it in their face. You can see it. And a lot of times, it's because of the sin that's in their life. Number three, sanctified salvation is conditional. What do I mean by conditional? Look at verse 14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if... Now, how are we made partakers of Christ? By believing in Him. That's salvation, right? But you know, you can also be saved and a partaker of Christ and still not be a partaker of Christ. Me and my wife can get married and we can still not be married. Right? We can live in separate households. We can be separated. We can be divorced. And so, he says, we are made partakers of Christ and here's the condition. We know there is no condition for free salvation, so we're talking about sanctified salvation here. In other words, they have already been saved. We established that at the first part of chapter 3. So what is he saying? He said, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until the end. God is going to do His part in getting us saved. The question is, is are we going to do our part to be glorified, to be worthy of that salvation? It's not enough to say that we're saved or that we are partakers of Jesus Christ. We have to hold steadfast to the confidence or the hope of Christ that God is going to make me what I ought to be. He is going to transform me. He is going to create in me what He needs to. As long as I believe Him and trust Him today. Today I should be better than I was yesterday. Tomorrow I should be better than today. I don't know how I'm going to get there, but God knows. And so, all I have to do is trust Him and continue to believe. The same thing when I was nine years old and I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ, I have to continue to do that every single day. We cannot have the danger of unbelief. No matter what we claim, if we're not holding fast to Christ, then we are not partaking of Him. Sanctified salvation is conditional. As a matter of fact, John says in 1 John that for the believer, the person that is saved, there is a physical sin unto death. That God will eventually say, guess what? He talks about it in Hebrews 13. He will only chase you for so long. And then guess what? If you're not going to submit to Him and you're not going to believe in Him, then guess what? You might as well be dead and in heaven. Jude puts it this way, that you will be saved such as by fire. You're going to heaven, but you've lost all of the blessings, all of the rewards of this life and the next life to come. How do we get rewards in the next life? You get them now. Lay up treasures in heaven. How do we lay them up now in our physical body? Through obedience, through trust, through belief. Look at number four. Each day is important. Each day is important. Look at what he says in verse 15. While it is said, today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. We must not let sin deceive us and allow our hearts to be hardened. We need to take heed and watch so we don't depart from God, even as Israel did. If all that many people forsook God, then how in the world do we think that we are above failing God? So many stories in the Bible, very few stories and people in the Bible do we find that started victoriously, lived victoriously, and finished victoriously. In fact, Sunday we're going to look at one of them, but there's very few. As a matter of fact, as I was studying and looking at that today and finishing up my sermon today, I've come to find out Caleb is not even as great as he was and had victory his entire life, received everything that God wanted him to have and the blessings that He wanted him to have, but yet he's not even in the chapter 11, the Hall of Fame of Hebrews. I thought that's kind of ironic there that Moses, who's ended up failing and having unbelief, was listed multiple verses and multiple events that was there. Number five, provoking God is possible. Look at verse 16. For some, not all, but for some, when they had heard, did provoke, how be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. Some do provoke God. Some people do try God. Some in Israel heard the Holy Spirit of God, yet they did not heed His exhortation. And because of that, they sinned, they rebelled against God, and they did their own thing. They lived as they wished. And so some may. But here's the thing. Sixth judgment is sure. Look at verse 17. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that sin, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? God had pronounced the fact those who sinned and did not believe and trust Him would be condemned and judged. It says their carcasses fell in the wilderness. Now think about that for just a minute, that word carcass. Because everywhere in the Bible He talks about man being fashioned by his own hands. Paul talks about us being a tabernacle, us being a temple, us being a vessel of honor. But here are these Israelites that had been saved. They've left Egypt. But what does He refer to them? Because of their sin, He said their carcasses fell in the wilderness. And the same thing's true today. God doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Everyone who sins and disobeys God shall be condemned and judged. We're going to be judged according to not our sins, but according to our works. Whether we obey God or not obey God. There's no escape for any of us who do not believe and follow God. He says there in verse 18, To whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believe not. Number eight. Unbelief shuts a person out. Nothing will close the door of blessings of God. Nothing will keep a person out of God's rest except unbelief. That's the only thing that can keep you. God said those that obey Me, I will bless. Those that disobey Me, I will curse. You know, it keeps us in and out. And you say, well, look at my life, and how can you tell me these are blessings? Paul thought prison and being beaten, he said it's an honor. I am joyful that I've been beaten. He said I am joyful that I've been shipwrecked. I'm joyful that I am here in prison right now. He said I am joyful because I was counted worthy. So it's not about the situations and circumstances that determines blessings or curses. It's the reality of what we are living in. And so unbelief shuts a person out of all of the blessings of God. And so in two weeks we will come back and we will look at exactly what is this rest. What is the rest that he's talking about? And it falls under this same category. So it's kind of the same danger of unbelief, but I believe it tells us what we should be having today. And it also answers the question, why don't we celebrate the Sabbath today? Why don't we celebrate Jubilee today? All of these days and weeks and months and years of rest. Why don't we do that? Because we are supposed to be in rest right now. So in two weeks we will look at the danger of not finding rest as we go through this Christian life. Any questions or comments? I think my throat is just about done. If not, then let's have a word of prayer and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for all that You have done for us. We've come to You tonight, and Father, we just want to take from the Word tonight that we don't want to run the danger of unbelief, of apathy. Lord, help us to always be looking at You as the author of Hebrews is later going to tell us to run that race looking to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. And even though we may not understand everything, and we may not think that it's a blessing, and we may look at it as being a curse, Father, we know that You are testing us because You are unchangeable. You are true and holy and will always be true and holy. The question is that sometimes You have to test us. Sometimes You have to try us. And the way that we get tried and tested is as we walk through life, as we go through life, help us to be patient when we need to be patient. Help us to be calm when we need to be calm. Help us to walk by the just sheer faith in You and that feeling and that conviction of the Holy Spirit to know that we are doing what You would have us to do. Father, help us not to go into unbelief. We want Your blessings. We want Your rest. And I believe that we can experience that even here and today. And we thank You for this. We thank You. And we just ask You to help us to be an encouragement to each other because, Lord, we know that Satan is strong. We know this world is strong. We know our flesh is weak. And it's so easy to be distracted. It's so easy to focus on the physical things of this life. But, Father, help us tonight to keep our eyes upon You and to look to You that You might be glorified in everything that we do. In Your most precious and holy name we pray, Amen.