Now you know, we can almost stop with every word in Hebrews, can’t we? And we have been lately. What’s a promise? Well a promise is something that God has backed with His Omnipotence, with His Sovereignty and yes, with His Grace. And when God makes a promise, we can trust it. Because God will not lie. God will not play games. And so here again we have the evidence that God has given promises, promises, promises, not only to Israel but to the whole human race. So he says, let us wake up and be serious and take note:
Hebrews 4:1
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise (one of the promises of God) being left of us of entering into His rest that any of you should seem to come short of it."
What do you suppose he’s driving at? You know, so many of us had a criteria that we thought people had to go through to be genuinely saved. And unless they went through our circumscribed criteria, we had doubts. And we're sure that almost every group looks at some of these things this way. They’ve got their own idea of what God expects a person to do before God can save him.
And listen, God isn’t going to set up a whole bunch of restrictive rules and regulations for a sinner to go through before He’ll save him. God will save a person with, I suppose, so little going to him that most of us would say, hey, he could never be saved, and that’s exactly what Paul is saying. Now look at it again.
Hebrews 4:1b
"…lest, a promise being left us…"
Now if something has been left to you, what does that mean? It’s still yours. It hasn’t yet slipped away from you, it’s still there for you to cash in on. And so this is what he’s appealing. Lest some of these people have been wavering and yes they’re considering what Paul has got to offer, but they’re still being drawn by all the ramifications of legalism and Judaism. Paul says, God hasn’t given up on you. God hasn’t yet crossed you off. So why do you want to cross yourself off?
We know, many of us have heard sermons, I know we have, more than once, where a preacher will get up and he will just make a horrible example of someone who just stood out on a public square and shook his fist in God’s face and cursed God, and then they like to make a great big sensational event of it. And how that thirty minutes later, he was violently killed. Well, that may make good preaching, but it’s not Scripture. God never gives up on even a man who will shake his fist and curse God. You know why? Because even where sin abounds and that would be sinful, no doubt about it, but where that sin abounds, what’s even greater? God’s Grace! And so don’t you ever believe that kind of stuff that God gives up on a sinner. No, God never gives up until this soul departs. And so, this is again what Paul is saying, don’t you forget that God has not given up on you. There is still a part and parcel of His promises that are enough for you to latch on to and still escape that wrath to come. Alright, now let’s move on.
Hebrews 4:1b
"…let us fear, lest a promise being left (that’s still there to take a hold of) that of you (even the worst) should come (what?) short of it."
Now what’s the danger when someone tarries and lingers and fails to latch on to the promise of Salvation or the New Covenant? Well let us give you a good example. Come back with us to Acts 24, and we’ll just start with verse 24. Here, Paul, of course, is dealing with Felix.
Acts 24:24-25a
"After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ." (now verse 25.) And as he reasoned (Felix did. Just a rank unbeliever and as he reasoned) of righteousness, (in other words, God’s saving grace) temperance, and judgment to come,…"
What does that tell us? Paul laid out the whole picture. Paul didn’t refrain from telling him what his doom was going to be if he did not come into salvation. And so he reasoned of all these things that Paul had covered. The judgment to come.
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