“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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; 5 and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 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.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.” NASB
In our last installment we talked about what makes God angry. We read about the behavior of the children of Israel in the wilderness, and their disobedience of unbelief. They tested God by murmuring against Him there, distrusting His provision for them and yearning for their former life as slaves in Egypt.
In the first eleven verses of chapter 4 the author is continuing to talk about them and the negative example they are for us. However rather than focusing on the people themselves, although it will be necessary for us to talk more about them, I’d like for our primary focus today to be centered on this ‘rest’ that is talked much of here.
It seems to me that is what the writer himself has done. He is concerned to give us warning and also encouragement, and as we go we will perceive a certain urgency in his words, expressing his deep concern that we do not spiritually follow the wasteful and pointless path they took through unbelief.
THE GOOD NEWS PREACHED
There is a very important point of clarification to make in verse 2, about the usage of the term ‘good news’.
In the English text we have the phrase, ‘good news preached’. In the Greek text, there is only one word there, and it is the word from which we get the word ‘evangelize’. The word means to proclaim good news or good tidings, with the emphasis on proclamation.
Now if you think about it you will realize that this is not a reference to what we call the Gospel, with the New Testament application concerning Christ’s death to pay for our sin and His resurrection to give us life, and His ascension back to the glory He had with the Father before the world was, following His promise to return and take us to the place He has prepared for us.
When we evangelize today, when we proclaim the good news, that is what we tell.
The good news they had proclaimed to them pertained to the report of the spies who came back from spying out the promised land in Numbers 13. The 10 gave a bad report, but Caleb and Joshua faithfully gave a good report, saying (Num 13:30), “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it”, their confidence being based on the fact that God Himself had told them to go in and possess the land.
We cannot take the time now, but later if you go and read Numbers 14 you will see all the arguments that Caleb and Joshua gave for going into the land in obedience and trust in God, and the repeated refusal of the people out of fear and mistrust. Finally, in verses 22-23 of that chapter, God declares,
“Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.”
And again in verse 29,
“…your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.”
A REST PROVIDED
Therefore the commonality the writer to the HEBREWS is pointing out, between the people in the wilderness and we in the church, is of a promised rest.
They had the good news of a rest in Canaan, we have good news preached of a rest in the finished work of Christ.
They were to rest from their wilderness journey in a land described as flowing with milk and honey (Num 13:27).
We are called to rest from our works of religious piety and rest in God’s provision for us by grace.
See verses 9 and 10.
“So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”
Now there is a point to make clear before we pass over it, in regards to this term, ‘Sabbath rest’, as it has caused much confusion with some and the misunderstanding of it has bound thousands to legalism, which is precisely what this passage is warning against.
It is not my habit in my sermons to address the non-essential doctrines of other Christian denominations that differ from those we hold to and practice.
However this text that we are in today almost demands that we discuss the belief that Saturday is the only acceptable day in which to worship, as the Old Testament sets it aside as the Sabbath day.
I do not say this with a mind to refute or to argue with our Seventh Day Adventist brothers and sisters, but only so that if they desire an accounting for why we practice the observance of Sunday as our traditional worship day they may find it here.
The commandment is set forth in Exodus 20:8ff to, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work…”
This is one of the commandments given to the Children of Israel through Moses, hence we derive the term, the Mosaic Law.
Now this is very fundamentally the reason Adventists worship on Saturday. They would have a great deal more to say about it and I could go into much greater detail than I will today that would contradict some of their reasoning. But as I said, that is not my goal here. What I want to do is simply explain why we do not adhere to a certain day as the required day of worship.
No doubt here is where someone would ask, ‘Don’t you adhere to Sunday as the required day of worship and of rest?’ and I would answer, ‘no’.
The New Testament teaches that the Mosaic Law, as to the question of it being binding on a believer, is done away in Christ.
John 1:17 says, “The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”.
And listen to Galatians 3:10-13
“For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—
and in verses 24 and 25 of that chapter:
“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Jesus, in His discourse with the woman at Jacob’s well, told her the time was coming when true believers would worship neither on the mountain of the Samaritans nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth.
He was referencing the time when the Holy Spirit would come to dwell in the hearts of believers and be not only with them, but in them.
We know from Acts chapter 2 that after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, He sent the Holy Spirit into believers as promised, and the indwelling Spirit has been the evidence of the born again experience ever since.
While it is the long-held and long-practiced tradition to worship on Sunday, because it is the day of the week our Savior rose from the dead as Head of the church, we believe that to those who have been delivered from the curse of the law and been newly created in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, every day is holy and therefore every day a day of worship. We believe that no matter what day is set aside to assemble and carry out the mechanics of religion, true worship happens in the heart and between the spirit of man and the Spirit of God.
Therefore if a Seventh Day Adventist were to tell me that he believes God commanded him to worship on Saturday and to fail to do that or to worship on another day would be sin to him, then my response would be that I would hope he would always do what he felt in his heart was the proper and obedient thing to do with a clear conscience before God.
Then I would ask him to extend me the same grace so that we might have good Christian fellowship.
“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” Col 2:16-17
So if we want to understand what this rest is that we are offered, indeed that we are brought to and called to enter in, we need only look at verse 10 of our text for the explanation.
The one who has entered God’s rest, has rested from his works as God did from His.
When God had finished with creation, He rejoiced in it and called it ‘good’. That did not mean that God then ceased doing anything. It doesn’t mean He went into some sort of dormant state, as some would teach; that He just wound up the universe like a clock and now He watches over it while it goes on ticking.
By the same token, this call to be careful to enter into His rest does not imply that we are to come into the Christian life and then go dormant, or play and enjoy ourselves like school-age children on Summer vacation.
It is not a rest from working that we are called to – it is a rest from our works that are meant to garnish favor with God or win His divine approval, or preserve the promise of Heaven.
A REST REJECTED
The people in the wilderness rejected God’s promised rest through unbelief. They refused to trust that He would go before them and champion them and take the land for them, so they disobeyed His call to rest. In the words of Numbers 14:23, they ‘spurned’ Him.
Out of curiosity I checked out that word, ‘spurned’, and it means ‘despised’. They despised God. That is a very deliberate attitude to have toward any person; it requires action to be conveyed. I can secretly despise someone in my heart, but eventually it is going to manifest in my behavior toward them. These people despised God and it manifested in grumbling against Him and refusing to trust His provision.
The writer to the HEBREWS had been telling us about Christ, faithful Son of the Father, preeminent over the angels, over the prophets, over Moses, faithful over all God’s house whose house we are.
He has told us that this Jesus, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, is now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death by which He brings many sons to glory.
He says this One has called us His brethren and His children; that He has delivered us from the fear of death through His own death by which he rendered powerless the devil, who had wielded the power of death through fear, and that He has become our faithful and merciful high priest in things pertaining to God.
And he has said, ‘consider Jesus’. Study Him. Contemplate Him. Keep your eyes focused on Him.
So we must not now lose the connection to all that the writer has said with,
”…the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works”
God performed miracles. He delivered His people by a mighty hand. He provided the ordinance of Passover with the instructions for the sacrifice of the lamb and the application of the blood and the safety of His outstretched wing. He drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea, He had provided food and water, even though tested all the way, and when He brought them to the place He had provided for their rest and their peace, they spurned Him; they despised Him; they rejected His rest.
God has performed the miracle of creating you anew, believer. He delivered you from the fear of death and removed the decree of debt against you by nailing it to His cross. He provided for your eternal safety through the shed blood of Christ, our Passover Lamb and has gathered you under His wing of protection. He has provided the Bread of Life and the Water of Life without cost. And even though, yes we test Him and try His goodness with our selfish and childish ways, there remains a rest for the believer right now, as we by faith trust that His provision is a finished work and it is good and it is complete.
Believer, when we adopt and accept any teaching that requires our acts of righteousness to be right with God, we spurn His Son; we despise His cross; we declare Him insufficient and through unbelief we fail to enter His rest.
It is belief plus nothing that saves. Unbelief plus everything cannot.
A REST RECIPE
Now I see a recipe of sorts in this section we’re studying. I might even have used it as a theme for my entire sermon and named my outline points according to the ingredients I see in it. But it might have seemed contrived, so I will only go through it briefly here.
The first ingredient is fear. Yes, verse one tells us to fear.
Before we go farther with that, let me remind you that in chapter 2 – and I made a quick reference to this earlier – the writer tells us that through death Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and …delivered those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
And we know that the thing we were held captive to was the fear of death.
So we are not to be afraid in that sense any longer. If you are not a born again believer in Christ then you should be very, very afraid of death. But coming to Christ means to die to sin and to death and the devil and be made alive to God. So if you’re a believer, do not fear death.
Then in 2 Timothy 1:7 Paul teaches Timothy,
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.” Now that word rendered fear, in newer translations is rendered ‘timidity’, and a word study shows that it means cowardice.
So we are not to be cowards. In fact, the person who has the kind of fear we are exhorted to in Hebrews 4:1, will not be timid, and will never fear death, because this proper kind of fear will make the believer full of power and love and sound thinking.
Because you see, what we are exhorted to fear in Hebrews 4:1, is unbelief.
He wants us to be so careful not to live in or demonstrate unbelief in our life that we actually fear it. When you truly fear something, that is when you are most careful and diligent to avoid it; isn’t that true?
The front of our house is very high. Not long ago Lynn and I had to go up on a high scaffolding to put a new coat of stain on the front of the house all the way to the peaked roof.
Anyone who has known me all my life will know that in my younger, stupider days I had no fear of heights. I was forever up high on something; exploring the belfry of my dad’s new church or actually running the length of the rooftop. I could tell you more stories but I’ll spare you.
The point is, now I am older, I am less flexible, I am less balanced physically, and I am more acutely aware of the frailty of the human condition, and I fear heights. When we were finished staining I climbed in my daughter’s second story bedroom window just to avoid the ladder, and vowed that next time the house needs staining I’ll scrape together the cash and pay some other braver soul to do it while I watch from the driveway with a cup of coffee.
We are to fear unbelief that way, because unbelief is deceptive and deadly and manifests in disobedience, which is a manifestation of despising God; distrusting God.
The next ingredient is the good news. Now again, I am not talking here about what we call the Gospel, except that it does apply for the person who has not yet believed for salvation. That is all that will help him or her.
But since this letter is written to believers, the good news proclaimed, as we noted earlier, is that there is a Divine rest for the people of God that is entered into through faith in His finished work by grace.
It is a rest that ceases from works, which allows the believer then to joyfully engage in the good works God has prepared for us to do which are the outward fruit of resting in His provision.
The third ingredient – there is proper fear of unbelief, then the proclamation of the good news of His rest made available by grace – then the third is faith.
Where the children of Israel failed was that when they heard the good proclamation it was not mixed with faith. Rather, it met with unbelief which resulted in disobedience, which resulted in their death in the wilderness and failure to enter the rest offered them.
So here’s the recipe. Fear of unbelief, mixed with the exercise of faith in the promise of Divine rest through the finished work of Christ, ceasing from works and entering into the rest provided by grace.
Oh, yeah… there is one more ingredient. It’s called ‘diligence’. We are to be diligent to enter the rest provided. Doesn’t that sound funny? It is a rest, but we are to be diligent to enter.
Diligence usually speaks of hard work, doesn’t it? It brings to mind the idea of concentration and alertness – attention to detail – acute awareness and wakefulness. By the time we end a day filled with all that, we need a rest.
But what the writer wants from us is that we avoid missing out on something that can be and should be enjoyed this side of Heaven. He doesn’t want us to fall in the wilderness of the world and worldly religion. He wants us to avoid falling, because of disobedience, from enjoying a faithful and joyful relationship with God.
Fear unbelief, hear the good proclamation, mix with faith, add diligence and enter in.
A REST TODAY
Let’s finish with a word or two about verse 7.
“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS”
Let’s reword that in the positive; not because the Scriptures need to be reworded by us, but to help make a point about hearing and heeding God’s Word.
“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, LISTEN WITH A SUPPLE AND CONTRITE HEART”
Christians, this whole passage has been about listening to God and obeying His call. It is about being diligent to exercise faith in the proclamation of God and thereby entering into the rest which leaves all our work and all our striving behind.
When we neglect His Word, when we fail to unite faith with what He says, the next step is rejection through unbelief. That’s why it says, ‘Do not harden your hearts’.
“Neglecters easily become rejecters” says W.R. Newell
When is this TODAY? It is today, Christ-follower. It is now.
As long as you can still call it today, it is today.
This is a grave warning in this portion of this letter, and the writer has used language to impress upon the believer that there is much to be missed because there is so very much to be gained.
For he who has entered God’s Divine rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. And when God rested from His works He joyfully declared it all ‘good’.
If your religion has been marked by legalism and outward performance, if you have labored to gain or retain good standing with God through religious piety and adherence to rules and traditions, redirect your diligence TODAY, while it is called TODAY.
Ask Him to break up the fallow ground of your heart so you might understand the good proclamation of the Divine rest He has provided, mix what you have heard with faith, and enter in. Enter in
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
