The importance of the Gospel is indescribable. Many of you know my favorite verse is one of two I set for a goal in my life. Romans 1:16 NASB1995 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
I pray I will never be ashamed of the gospel.
The gospel is the POWER of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To believe is to have faith in the gospel.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8 NASB1995 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
So it is by God's Grace that we are saved through faith in the Gospel. Which is the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to pay our sin debt. This is the power of God for salvation.
Listen to how our text today describes this.
Hebrews 4:1-3 NASB1995 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Let us fear! Fear what? That while the promise remains that we might enter His rest of heaven, instead we might come short. So it is saying fear that you will not make it to heaven. Then it explains how this might happen. Because they did not unite the gospel with faith. They did not believe the good news of Jesus. Because of this failure to believe in the gospel they have missed out on the power of God for salvation. Then it explains that those who do place faith in the gospel news of Jesus will receive this rest. However, those who don't will find that the scripture that was spoken in Psalms is true.
Psalm 95:11 NASB95 “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
We must realize that this is true and unchangeable. Because this was laid out and finished before God created. It says, "His works were finished from the foundation of the world."
So yes if you haven't placed you faith (believed) in the Gospel of Christ then you should fear!
Then it says even David warned of this. Listen to Hebrews 4:7 NASB1995 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
Today is Today. The gospel is 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NASB1995 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
You have heard it! Have you placed your faith in it. God has given you faith to believe. Romans 12:3 NASB95 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
He did the work of atonement and defeated death.
He did it all. Today you heard.
Don't harden your heart!
Love Bro. Scott