Better Things — Doc Greenway

Hebrews 4 and the Call to Obedience

Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 to 9, although we still mentioned some time ago that he was concerned about this rest of God and so on, I found that as I prayed the Spirit of God was speaking to me from this chapter, I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord.

So I just want to look at these 9 verses at least for tonight, because there is so much in this chapter really that it would be wrong I think to brush over the ground unduly. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 to 9, although we still mentioned some time ago that he was concerned about this rest of God and so on, I found that as I prayed the Spirit of God was speaking to me from this chapter, I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,.

I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,.

I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,.

I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,. I felt that I had to give obedience to the Lord and so on,.

As to where they met together, as to the location of the church, this is not known by anyone. Some say that they were at Jerusalem and others that they were at Corinth, still others that they were at Ephesus, some that they were at Alexandria.

The Unknown Authorship and Setting of Hebrews

Well, no one really knows, and no one really knows who actually wrote this letter. Some think it was Paul and others think it was Apollos, others say it was Luke and some say it was Clement of Rome and so on and so on.

But as I think it was Luther once said, Who wrote this epistle, God only knows. We'll have to leave it there, I'm afraid. No one really knows and so we can't say with absolute certainty who wrote this letter.

I know that in the Orthodox version it is the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, but there is no real ground for this, as we have mentioned. If we are looking at the first half of chapter four, and here we learn that salvation in its fullest sense is not simply deliverance from the fear of death as it is expressed in the second chapter and the fifteenth verse, but it is really participation in the rest of God.

Sanctification as Participation in God's Rest

And this rest of God is not the rest of justification, but it is the rest of sanctification. In other words, it is the life of practical holiness. Not imputed holiness, but empowering holiness. This is what the writer is speaking of, particularly in this chapter when he talks about the rest that remain unto the children, or unto the people of God.

The Old Testament equivalent of this rest of God is the entrance into the land of Canaan, as we see. This you see time and time again is repeated in this epistle, especially in the chapters three and four.

But so far as we are concerned, this is not entrance into Canaan to know the rest of God. It is entrance into Christ, in whom we have not only imputed holiness or sanctification, but as I said, imparted holiness or sanctification.

Therefore, to experience and to enjoy the rest of God, in the ideal sense, is to know in practical terms a life of holiness. I am quite concerned to know that it is nothing short of this, nothing less than this.

However, we may interpret what that holiness means in actual Christian life and conduct. So, we are looking first of all at the promise of rest in verses one to three. Here the first point to notice is something about the promised rest that it is really available.

The Promise of Rest Is Available

It is available. This is firmly stated in verse one, that is, therefore, fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it. So, this promised rest is available.

Then the writer says, let us therefore fear. It is the unbelief of the wilderness generation who refuse to obey God and fail because of unbelief to enter into Canaan, that is, underlining this exhortation like a timely warning.

They fail. They were full of unbelief. They disobeyed God. They didn't enter in. Now, let us therefore fear, lest this should be our experience too, in our day and generation. The word fear is phobos.

Phobia comes from this word, of course, phobos. And it first has the meaning of flight, induced by a sense of dread. That's the original thought. But what the writer really means is this. Let us then, instead of reposing on fancied privileges, be filled with dread.

And yet it is a reverential dread. Not a slavish fear. A reverential dread in relation to God. Lest we might fail to possess our possessions, to lay hold of what we have in Christ, and what we have in Christ is not really, or merely salvation from sin as a consummation, but it is also sanctification for a holy life.

So let there be a reverential, godly fear which is wholesome. Lest we fail at this point. A dread of displeasing God, because of our unbelief. Remember how Paul, writing to the Romans in the 8th chapter, in the 15th verse, says,.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, showing us that this reverential fear is in relation to God. The S-Way translates it very beautifully, I think.

No servile spirit, no cringing spirit, is it that you have accepted this time. No, you have accepted the spirit which gives you the status of sons, in the rapture of which we cry, My Father, my own dear Father.

A reverential fear, a dread of failing God. It is healthy, and wholesome, and clean, and pure, and intensely wise, the beginning of wisdom. Fear what? Lest the promise being left us of entering into His rest.

The focus is emphasized here, and the ground on which the argument stands is this, God's original promise of rest remains unchanged. It is still available. And whoever doubts the reality of this promise, well, he is excluded from it, because of his unbelief, as the wilderness wanderers were excluded from Canaan, because of their unbelief.

This is the point which is made. Put it plain, God's offer of a sanctified life, as an experience, is conditional on the faith of the believer. So it's alright for us to say, well, Christ is made unto us sanctification.

We have it all in Him. As many people often say, and use it almost as an excuse, for not pressing in to the land, if you like, pressing in to possess their possessions, because you see what we are positionally in Christ.

We are called to be experientially in time. And this is really where the test comes, as the writer shows us. Lest any of you should seem to come short of it, is of the promise. The meaning here is, lest any one of you thinks he has come too late for it.

For anyone to think he has come too late to inherit the promised rest or the sanctified life, is an expression of unbelief. You know, these gloomy feelings of failure were prevalent among the Hebrews all the way through.

Even in Isaiah's day, in Isaiah 28, 12 you read, to whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing, yet they would not heal. They would have nothing to do with it.

And so their unbelief cut them off from it. This promise, then, is available. That brings us to the second point about the promise of rest. Not only is it available, because God has not withdrawn it, but it is attainable.

The Promise of Rest Is Attainable Through Faith

Verses 2 and 3 teach us this. Verse 2,. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Literally, the gospel preached is, we have good tidings proclaimed to us.

The Authorized Version will give you the impression that it is the preaching of the gospel in the technical sense. But it isn't so. It's a special application here. It is the good news, the glad tidings, that God has provided the rest of holiness, of sanctification for his people.

It is not only available, but it is attainable. To the Old Testament believers, this proclamation signified the promise of rest in Canaan, the Promised Land. But to New Testament believers and to us, it signifies the promise of rest in Christ, the holiness of life, not only positionally, but practically.

To them and to us was the word preached. Literally, again, the word of the message, how gracious God is in his offer of a holy life, a sanctified life, a pure life. He prophesied as good tidings, as a very gospel, we are to believe and to observe.

But it did not profit them, that is, it was of no effect or benefit to them, that is, to the ones in the wilderness. What reason? Well, we are told, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Literally, because it was not by faith made part of the inward life of those who heard it.

This is where they failed. Oh, they received the rich promise of the land of Kin. They got that all right, but the word was of no value to them, because they did not take advantage of it. They did not mix it with faith when they heard it.

And the writer sums up the cause for this at the end of chapter three, when he says,. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Belief, then, is everything. Believing is everything. The function of faith is the one thing that makes the promise attainable.

It's available, all right, but it is only attainable when we exercise the necessary faith toward God in the promise which He made. Verse three,. For we which have believed do enter into rest. As He said, As I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest, although the works are finished from the foundation of the world.

We believers, He says, who embrace the Christian faith when it was offered to us, we are the ones whose right it is to enter, by faith, into the rest which was promised. We have this right. We have this privilege.

As for those who disbelieve the promise, this is what He says, As I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest, because, as we have seen, unbelief debarred them from doing so. He goes on to say, Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, this may be a bit obscure, but what He means is this, the providing of the rest is implying in the completion of God's work in creation, because when that work was finished, when He ceased from His work in creation, then after this, He rested from His rest.

Sanctification Requires Rest From Self-Effort

So this is sort of implied in verse 3, but it is going to be plainly stated in verse 4. As God rested from His work, so in like manner the believer who experiences the rest of sanctification must cease and rest from His work, for there is no sense in which sanctification is the result of self-effort.

This is what is plainly taught here. Verse 10 confirms this in this chapter. For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did, from His. So there is no self-effort here.

He is not a self-made man. All these self-made people. I remember visiting one in Auckland years ago, and he had tons of money, any amount of possession, and he was so boastful about it all and so arrogant and so proud.

I put four cars, you know, he said. Four cars, after he described all the other possessions which he had. I don't need to tell you he wasn't a Christian although his wife was. As I heard him say this, I have four cars, and at that time as a servant of God I didn't have even one.

But as I heard him say it, I looked at him, poor man, because he sat there, he was suffering from a terrible stroke. He had four cars and he couldn't drive one of them. I'm a self-made man, you know, he said.

Oh, poor fellow, you certainly look like it. But the thought here is this, that sanctification of a holy life in a practical sense is never the result of self-effort. He ceases from his own works as God did from His.

And he rests upon a work which has been accomplished on his own. But thank God, the glorious, wonderful, finished work of Jesus Christ. This is where he stands. The promise of rest which is experiential sanctification, practical holiness, is therefore both available to us and, thank God, attainable by us if we dare to believe.

Active Faith and the Certainty of God's Rest

That brings us to the principle of rest. Verses four to nine. The principle of rest finds expression in active belief. And it is this point that the writer emphasizes over and over again. You find it, for instance, in the condition for rest.

Verses four to seven. The condition for rest. It comes to light at the end of verse six in particular, where you read,. And they entered not in because of unbelief, which is the opposite of faith, or of belief.

Verse four. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day in this one. And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. That's Genesis 2 .2, as you know. So what is implied in verse three is now stated in verse four.

God finished his work. He rested. Right? Verse five. And in this place again. They shall not enter into my rest. The emphasis here is on the word my. Psalm 95, 11. This affirms the fact that God has a rest for his people, which is peculiarly and uniquely his own rest, which only he can give.

And because of the unbelief of those in the wilderness, he made the solemn oath, They shall not enter into my rest. Oh, they'll find the measure of rest, but it will not be my rest. Verse six. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein into the rest of God.

And they to whom it was first proclaimed entered not in because of unbelief, which is in private disobedience. Seeing that therefore it remaineth that some must enter in. What is he saying? The promise of the rest which has been given by God has not been entered upon.

It remains then that some must enter in because otherwise the promise that God made is valueless, groundless, meaningless. It has no point at all. It has no foundation. It is not a promise. If some do not take advantage of it.

This is what the writer is saying. Therefore, over and above and long after the original proclamation, God is still offering this rest to his people. Still offering. Verse seven. This is what he means here.

Again, he limiteth, no, he defineth. This is the word. He defineth a certain day, saying in David, or through David, today, after so long a time, as it is said, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

That's Psalm 95, 7. Today. Which implies that the promise holds good in David's time, in David's day. It shows a merciful God extending this offer of rest far beyond the bounds of what human patience could accomplish.

He is a patient God. He has to be to put up with people like us. And here he is, longing, pleading, urging, yearning over his people. They might banish their unbelief and venture by naked faith to believe for a sanctified, holy life, which is part of their heritage in Christ.

For it is active faith in the promise of God. It is the condition for spiritual rest. Notice the contrast in this rest in verse eight. For if Jesus, as I said, but if Joshua had given them rest, then would he, that is God, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day, as he did in David's rest.

It might be affirmed that under Joshua, some of the people at least did enter into the promised rest. He entered into Canaan. So the writer shows here that Israel's rest in Canaan, even those that did manage to get in, did not fulfill the divine ideal which God intended.

Otherwise he would not have said through David so long after the event that there is a rest into which people can enter. Then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day, as you find in Psalm 95.

So there it is. It's the entering in of the people, some at least did to Canaan, was the fulfillment of the promise offered, ideally fulfilling. Then God would not have spoken in David years and years afterwards, saying today, if you will hear his voice, don't harden your heart, as they did in the day of provocation, because today the promise, hallelujah, is still in you.

You know the writer of Hebrews evidently believed that the day of the psalm extends right into Christian times. Why? Because this 95th psalm is a Messianic psalm, a psalm of the Messiah. And so in point of fact, a day extends right through this age, right up to the time when Christ would come again.

That's a wonderful thing to realize, isn't it? In this day, this year of grace, as we say, in these present times, in this age in which we live, this promise is as real as when it first left the lips of God.

It still holds good, because he said it, and hallelujah, he will fulfill it. So we've got in verse 9 the certainty of rest, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Do you believe? There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, and rather a wonderful thing here, a different word for rest, this is not, is the word sabbatismos, and it means a Sabbath rest, making it a sort of cessation of work, as in the case of God.

This rest is the rest of perfect adjustment of all things to the purpose of God. Such is the result which comes from the completion not simply of God's creative work in the first instance, but of Christ's creative work.

For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, and the consummation of that creation, the aspect that we must see is that to reach the apex, the climax, is nothing short of a holy life. Live here and now.

A holy life, yes, if you like, in the relative sense, but in any case, this practical holiness is intended here. What is it for? Well, we are told it is for the people of God, the true Israel, the true spiritual Israel, who inherit the promise by faith in Christ.

There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. There still abides, there still remains this practical holiness upon which we can, by the grace of God, lay hold if we are prepared to exercise the faith that is necessary.

The Means of Practical Sanctification

What is involved in practical sanctification? Two things. One, separation from the world, from sin, from self, from these things, separation, so that they do not dominate the life. Romans 6 .11, if you like, they do not dominate the life.

That's the first thing. And the second thing, dedication to God in an unconditional surrender of ourselves to Himself. Dedication to God in an unconditional surrender of ourselves to Himself. That's Romans 12.

One and two. Then what are the agencies which God employs in order to bring about this practical sanctification in your life and mine? What are these agencies? First, the word of truth. John 17 and verse 17.

Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. The word of truth. You can call this, if you like, the informing agent. Because through that word of truth we are instructed. I know I've mentioned these before, but it will do to mention them again.

Second, the blood of Christ. That's Hebrews 13 .12. It means that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. This is the cleansing agent, the blood of Christ. The first is John 17 .17. The second is Hebrews 13 .12.

Third, the Spirit of God. Romans 15 .16. It means being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Call this the applying agent. The applying agent. Fourth, the faith of the Christian. The faith of the Christian. Acts 26 .18.

Among them which are sanctified by faith. This is the appropriating agent. Acts 26 .18. The appropriating agent. And now for all practical purposes we can say that the experience of the rest of God, the experience in fact of the life of a holy way of living is to truly live the spiritual life.

It truly cannot be less than this. To truly live the spiritual life. Well, I'm sure of your concern, as my concern is that we should not fail to enter in because of unbelief on our part. And thus repeats the experience of the wilderness wanderers who could not enter in because of unbelief.

But rather we will press on and press in to possess our possessions. Surely one of those possessions. May God bless His Word. I felt it was as foul as we should be. I was deemed by the grace of God a means of opening our understanding and opening our hearts.

Persevering in the Spirit's Conviction

I don't mind confessing that it was a very searching time for me when I came to deal with these questions. In a sense I wish that it had never been brought to my attention. It was too late then. There was no dodging the issue.

I'm so glad that God gave me the necessary grace to continue and to persevere until I was sure in my heart that this was what the Spirit of God was saying. And therefore I can speak without measure of prayer.

He said it. And I've only been seeking to speak in living echo.