To Encourage You

Hebrews 4:1-2 “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”

It is a sad situation in life to look back over the years with regrets about one decision or another.  To think, “Oh, what could have been, if only I had done (fill in the blank), or if I had not done (fill in the blank, again),” is a reality that so many people live with today.  And so often these thoughts are accompanied by another train of thought, that of “I should have known better. I should have listened to so and so’s advice.”

Sadly, as the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 tells us so well, those are the thoughts that so many people who have been shut out of heaven have been tormented with ever since that door was shut.  In that account from Jesus’ lips, the rich man, who had had it made on earth, finds himself in torment for all eternity because he had never put his faith in the eternal promises of God.  He cries out to Abraham to warn his brothers about the fate that awaited them if they didn’t repent.  The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to go and warn his brothers.  In contrast to the rich man, Lazarus had suffered his entire life while on earth, but was now experiencing the eternal rest of heaven.  To this request, Abraham answered, “‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”  Another thing Abraham said was that there was “a great gulf fixed” on the other side of death.  It is at that point that there is no more opportunity to repent.  There is no such thing as purgatory. All the promises of God that were available before death are null and void after death for those who haven’t believed.  

A similar example is given in the passage above from Hebrews 4.  This passage refers to Israel’s unbelief regarding entering the Promised Land.  Although God had promised them the “rest” of entering this land of “milk and honey,” they failed to enter because of their unbelief. Because of their fear of the future, incredibly, they wanted to turn back to their former slavery in Egypt rather than go ahead to the freedom and peace that God had promised them.  As a result, they all died in the wilderness and never entered.

So, what does that have to do with you and me?  Well, Hebrews tells us that there is a very similar promise of rest that has been given to us today.  It’s a promise of entering the very rest of God. That rest is in the peace that comes to those who have put their trust in Christ, and the ultimate and eternal peace of the “promised land” of heaven for all who believe. If you are reading this, it means that that promise “still stands.” There’s still time to enter. This good news is for each and every person who will receive it by faith.  But if we turn away, if we hear this good news and don’t respond to its message, then that good news will be nothing more than a source of regret for us in the end. Like the Israelites who died in the wilderness because they refused to believe the promises of God, we too can die outside of the rest God has offered us because we, like them,refused to believe. 

The good news of the gospel: it’s the best news the world has ever heard. Yet, sadly, for many it will be of no benefit because they refused to believe what God has said.  Will you respond while there is still time? Will you act on the awesome promise of God’s rest that still stands?  Don’t wait until the door has been closed to you. Don’t miss the greatest opportunity you’ve ever had.