Reading the Bible – Heb. 4:2
Servant
School
October
21, 2021
Introduction
Welcome to our “Reading the Bible” class
We are on a journey that I hope will lead you into a lifelong habit of
reading your Bible every day.
Today I’d like to share a short study from Hebrews 4:2 and talk about the role
of faith in our Bible Reading
The verse reads like this:
(Hebrews 4:2 NKJV)
—2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but
the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
those who heard it.
gospel was preached – euaggelizo – to
bring good news, to announce glad tidings
word – logos – word
they heard – akoe – the sense of hearing; the thing
heard; of preaching the gospel
:2 the gospel was preached to us as well as to them
The word “gospel” means “good news”.
The Israelites had one kind of “good news” preached to them.
They were on the border of the Promised Land and had sent in 12 spies to
check out the land.
When the spies returned, 10 of them emphasized that there were giants in
the land.
But Joshua and Caleb told them that God could help them despite there being
giants in the land.
(Numbers 14:7b–8
NKJV) —7 …“The land we passed through to spy
out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights
in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which
flows with milk and honey.’
They were saying that God would make sure they would be able to conquer it
if they would trust Him and move forward.
The gospel we preach is the good news that:
God has taken care of your sins through the work of Jesus Christ in His
death and resurrection, and if you will believe it, it has the power to change
your life.
(John 3:16 NKJV) For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
It is our “faith” that gives us the “profit” of eternal
life.
When we “believe”, God responds by giving us eternal life.
There is a sense in which the Bible you read every day is going to give you
some “good news”.
It might be a promise about the future to give you hope.
It might be a warning to stay away from something that will lead you to
disaster.
It might be a truth that should be giving you comfort.
It might be an answer to a question you’ve been asking God.
The question is, will you believe?
:2 the word … did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
did not profit – opheleo – to
assist, to be useful or advantageous, to profit
being mixed with – sugkerannumi – to mix together, commingle; to unite; caused the several parts
to combine into an organic structure; to unite one thing to another
It kind of sounds like mixing ingredients in a recipe.
Let’s pretend it’s your birthday, and I’ve invited you over to our house to
celebrate. I’ve even promised you a
special birthday cake.
So I sit
you down at our table, and I bring out a bowl full of
flour. Then I put a couple of sticks of
butter on the table. Then maybe some
sugar and some dark chocolate. I might
hand you a couple of raw uncooked eggs.
Perhaps I stick a few candles in the bowl of flour. “Happy birthday” I say to you and then begin
to sing the Birthday song.
You probably wouldn’t be too impressed with my cake, would
you?
It wasn’t “mixed” properly. It wasn’t even baked.
But take those same ingredients, mix them just right, bake
it in the oven, let it cool, slap some frosting on it, and well … it’s a bit
better, huh?
You see the “profit” from me came from “mixing” the
ingredients together.
God’s Word needs something in the mix to “profit” you.
Just reading every day is a good thing, but if you want the full “profit”,
you need to ask yourself, do I have “faith”?
Or another way of putting it is, “Do I trust God?”
The benefit of hearing good news doesn’t come by just
hearing it, it comes when you believe it.
Video: Trust Fall
The writer of Hebrews has already told his readers that the Israelite’s
problem was their lack of faith.
(Hebrews 3:19 NKJV)
So
we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
could – dunamai – to be able, have power; to be capable
They didn’t have the power to enter because of their
unbelief.
Lesson
The Power of Trust
If they had just trusted God, they would have had the power to enter the
Promised Land.
They struggled to trust God because they had been told that there were
“giants” in the land. When the
opportunity came to take the steps necessary to cross the border into the
Promised Land, they couldn’t follow through because all they could think about
were those giants.
An entire generation didn’t attempt to enter the Promised
Land because they didn’t believe God was bigger than their giants.
What kinds of things does God say to you in His word?
Is it possible that some of it seems impossible because all you can think
about are the “problems” you have, the “giants” in front of you?
Illustration
Available Power
Herbert Jackson told how,
as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push.
After pondering his problem, he devised a plan.
He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some
children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park
on a hill or leave the engine running.
He used this ingenious procedure for two years. Ill health forced the
Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his
arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the
hood. Before the explanation was
complete, the new missionary interrupted, “Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only
trouble is this loose cable.” He gave
the cable a twist, stepped into the car, turned the key, and to Jackson’s
astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had
become routine. The power was there all
the time. Only a loose connection kept
Jackson from putting the power to work.
What if the “loose
connection” that’s keeping you from getting your life started is the simple
fact that you don’t trust God?
J.B.Phillips paraphrases Ephesians 1:19-20,
“How
tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.”
I want to end with a video clip from the 2006 movie “Facing the Giants” – a
football movie about a small town high school football
team facing a rival much better than they are…
Video: Facing the Giants – Death
Crawl.
Now this is a great illustration about how we might tend
to quit at things before we need to.
In the movie, the scene is all about believing in
yourself, as Brock the football player needed to learn to do.
But my point not just about believing in yourself that you
can serve God, but whether or not you can TRUST GOD
and follow what He says.
When we learn to trust God, we move ourselves out of the
way and allow Him to do a little more of what He wants to do in our lives.
I hope that whets your appetite to be reading God’s Word every day.