WWUTT 1821 We Who Believe Will Enter His Rest (Hebrews 4:1-3)

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Back to our study of the book of Hebrews. This week we're in chapter 4.

If you want to open up a Bible and join with me there, I'm going to start off by reading the whole thing. This is all 16 verses out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord. Therefore let us fear, lest, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have fallen short of it.

For indeed we have had good news proclaimed to us, just as they also.

But the word that was heard did not profit those who were not united with faith among 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. For he has spoken somewhere in this way concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again in this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news proclaimed to them failed to enter because of disobedience, he again determines 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. For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that.

So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience.

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two -edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we have an account to give.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We continue an exposition of Psalm 95 here, if you'll remember back to last week, in chapter 3, the preacher references a good portion of Psalm 95, and then explains it, warning his readers, warning his hearers, that they would not fall away from this faith that has been proclaimed to them in the gospel that they have heard.

As we read about earlier, chapters 1 and 2, the gospel had been clearly proclaimed,

Christ Jesus is God incarnate, who put on flesh and dwelt among us, who was obedient to the will of the

Father, who died, and by his death our sins have been paid for. He rose again from the dead, so that all who believe in him will not perish under the judgment of God that is coming against unrighteousness and those who do unrighteousness.

But we are saved, and we have everlasting life and admission into God's glorious kingdom, the very place where God dwells in heaven.

And that is the place of rest that is being talked about here at the start of chapter 4, verse 1 again, therefore let us fear, lest, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have fallen short of it.

Now, when we come to faith in Christ, there is a rest that we enter into. We have peace with God, so we can rest in that.

We are not on the side of receiving God's wrath, but rather we are in his love and his mercy.

And so we rest. We rest in the sense that we cannot attain righteousness by our works.

We could not have attained righteousness that way anyway. Even our best works were as filthy rags before a holy

God, as it says in Isaiah 64, 6. So we rest from our works. We rest in his righteousness.

But the kind of rest being talked about here is the final rest. We enter into heaven and we no longer have to worry about evil or sin or temptation or death or suffering.

Christ will wipe away every tear from our eyes and those things will be no more, as promised in the book of Revelation.

Now, there are various ways over the course of Hebrews that this rest is talked about.

There are constant references to our final reward, the ultimate reward being heaven, that we would dwell with God forever.

I think of Hebrews 11, verses 15 and 16, where in Hebrews 11, the preacher's been talking about the

Old Testament faithful and how we need to be faithful just as they were faithful. And in their faith, they were not expecting an earthly reward, so we shouldn't be expecting that either, but rather they were desiring something different, something better, and that is a heavenly kingdom.

This is verses 15 and 16. If indeed they had been remembering that country from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they aspire to a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their

God, for he has prepared a city for them. And just as those

Old Testament faithful desired heavenly rewards, so we should desire the same. Jesus said in Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things that you need on earth will be added to you as well.

The blessing that we have from God, the greatest blessing that we have, is knowing that by faith in Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life.

It's the greatest blessing of God that we could ever get. So any kind of earthly reward or earthly blessing is always going to fall far short of that heavenly blessing that we have been guaranteed.

But the preacher here is giving a warning. Don't just automatically assume that because at some point in your life you claim to have faith in Jesus, that you're always going to enter into heaven no matter what happens from this point forth.

As we were getting this warning at the end of chapter 3, if you are tempted by sin and you go into sin, it will lead to unbelief.

If you desire the things of this world and the things of this flesh more than you desire spiritual things and heavenly things, then you will fall into unbelief and it will be revealed that you were never really saved in the first place.

If you're saved, it's eternal. If you have eternal life, you always have it.

You won't ever fall away from it or you were never really saved and you never really had eternal life.

Ultimately, in the ultimate scheme of things, we understand that. But the preacher is speaking into our human experience here.

So you have faith in Jesus, turn away from sin and turn to Jesus. If you keep turning back to the sin, well then as was said in chapter 3, verse 19, you won't be able to enter into his rest because of your unbelief.

So the statement is said here at the start of chapter 4, let us fear because this promise remains of entering his rest, but don't let any one of you fall short of it.

Now when we talk about fear here, there's a reverent fear. It's a cautious fear.

Like a child will be careful to want to do the right thing because he doesn't want to upset his father.

He knows the punishment or the ramifications that he would have to face if he were to do the wrong thing.

So out of a cautious or even a reverent fear, a child will want to do the right thing to avoid punishment, to avoid the consequences of doing those things that are wrong.

Also think of something that happened to me recently. I got something in the wall of the tire in one of the wheels on my truck and I had to get the tire replaced.

So I ordered the tire and I had to wait for it to come in. In the meantime, I've still got to be airing up my tire every day because it's leaking air.

It's not really fast, but it's still leaking air and I got to get the tire fixed. I got to wait for the tires to come in before I take it in.

But when I take the truck down to the tire place, I drove roads where I knew the speed limit was lower.

I didn't hop on the interstate and head down there. I wanted to be on roads where, you know, if my tire were to blow, if something were to happen,

I would not be going at high speed when it goes out. So there's a cautious fear there. I'm playing it safe because I understand if I blow a tire going 75 on the interstate, and that's what the speed limit of the interstate is in my area.

I don't know about you, but anyway, if I'm going 75 on the interstate and my tire blows, it could kill me.

So I want to be cautious and this is the kind of fear that we have as we go through our

Christian walk. It's not a fear of like wondering if God really loves me. And so we're constantly in this apprehensive state of thinking that, oh, wow,

I don't know if God loves me. Maybe I'm saved. Maybe I'm going to go to heaven. No, it's a cautious fear in knowing that we still don't know the end from the beginning.

God does and we do not. So we have to enter every single day, submitting ourselves unto the

Lord, praying and asking for His power to guide us through this day, to ask for His wisdom.

And His wisdom is something we constantly have to seek. You don't know everything now. You don't know all of God's ways right now.

So you need to seek His wisdom every day. James 1 .5 tells us, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him.

And really, when it comes to applying that verse, that's every day. If you lack wisdom, yeah, we all lack wisdom.

We lack wisdom all the time. We're going to lack wisdom until we enter into His glory.

Every day we need the wisdom of God. Now, some have more wisdom than others, but we come into that wisdom by seeking

His word. And we ask that God would give us the understanding of that word so that we not just read it, but we know how to live it as well.

So we need to have, we need to have that cautious fear. We can't go around arrogant or with our chest puffed up or nose in the air thinking we finally got it figured out.

We finally know it all. I've got a handle on this life thing and I know I can do it just fine without anybody's help.

We need God's help every day. So therefore, let us fear while a promise remains of entering into His rest, lest any one of you may seem to have fallen short of it.

Don't get to the end of this race of the Christian life and fall short of the finish line.

That's a reference that comes up regularly in Hebrews, as we see later on in chapter 12, put off every sin and weight that entangles and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Christ is the one who gives us this faith. He perfects us in this faith. He will deliver us in the end if we're focused on Him.

And we ask Him for the power and the strength to be able to run the race.

Don't fall short of it. Keep your eyes on the prize, as it is said. And the goal is

Christ. Verse 2, this is Hebrews 4, verse 2. For indeed, we have had good news proclaimed to us, just as they also.

Now the they are the Hebrews, the Israelites that fell in the wilderness. Those who had the promised land in front of them, but they sinned against God.

They grumbled against Him. And so God cursed them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And they did not get the opportunity to enter into the promised land.

It was the younger generation that got to receive it. But those who were delivered out of slavery in Egypt that grumbled against God in the wilderness, they were not allowed to see the promised land.

So we've had the good news proclaimed to us. We have been brought out of slavery as well.

If we have put faith in Jesus, if we believe the gospel, we have been set free from the bondage of sin and death.

That's been our exodus. That's been our deliverance from slavery. And the promised land that is in front of us is heaven, the heavenly kingdom.

So we have had the good news proclaimed to us that in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and we have the promise of everlasting life.

They had good news proclaimed to them also. Now it was types and shadows. And again, this goes back to the argument that was made at the start of chapter 3 that Christ is the greater

Moses. Moses was a type and a shadow of the one who is to come, but Christ is even greater.

So we've had the good news proclaimed to us and even better news than the Israelites received. They had good news proclaimed to them, but the word that was heard did not profit those who were not united with faith among those who heard.

So there were many that heard the good news of the promised land, but the word was of no benefit to them because they did not believe it.

And so as it is said, they were not united with faith among those who heard.

And talking about those who heard, that's those who heard the message of the promised land and they believed it.

They believed it by faith. The two of that older generation that got to receive the promised land were

Joshua and Caleb. But the rest of that older generation did not get to receive the promised land because they had grumbled against God.

Now Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land for a different reason. It wasn't because he did not believe

God's promise. He disobeyed God and so therefore was not allowed to receive the land of promise.

He disobeyed God at the rock at Meribah because God told him to speak to the rock and water would flow from it.

And Moses in his anger against the people struck the rock twice with his staff instead.

And so in doing that, God prohibited him from entering into the promised land.

He got to see it but he couldn't enter it. Caleb and Joshua were the only two of that older generation who believed the promise and they got to receive it.

And then the younger generation believed the promise and God delivered them into the land of rest.

So they profited from the message because they believed it. But those who heard the message and didn't believe it, it was of no benefit to them because they were not united with faith among those who heard.

Applying that to the gospel now, those who have heard the gospel and did not believe, it will not be good news to them, of course, but actually becomes to their condemnation because you heard the way of salvation and yet you did not believe it.

You have no excuse. Now scripture tells us that no one will have any excuse on the day of judgment.

It's not that everyone had heard the gospel and rejected it and so then that will be why they are judged.

But rather in Romans 1 .20 it says since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes, both his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so they are without excuse.

Every person is without excuse. No one will be able to say well we didn't even know you existed.

Oh they know. The evidence was there. They won't be able to say that they didn't know the truth.

The truth was evident in all that has been made but they loved their sin and so they suppress the truth with their unbelief.

That was what was stated earlier in verse 18. For those who have heard the gospel it's an even greater condemnation because you heard the way of salvation.

You heard that you could be saved from your unrighteous works against God. Your rebellion against God.

But you rejected that message and so now instead of it being good news it becomes to their condemnation.

But those of us who have heard when we see this statement here at the end of verse 2 they were not united with faith among those who heard.

Hearing here means that we heard it and we believed it. So there were those even among the

Israelites that heard the good news and they believed it and they trusted in it and they were able to enter into the land of rest that God had promised.

And so when we hear the news of the gospel and we believe it we hear it not with our physical ears but our spiritual hearts that have been transformed to believe in God and trust in Him.

Verse 3 Hebrews 4, 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.

That was at the conclusion of Psalm 95. So this was Hebrews 3, 11

As I swore in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. So we understand entering into rest by that particular statement those who believe

God who trust in Him will enter His rest but those who doubt Him and don't have faith in God and in His promise will not enter into His rest.

They will perish under His wrath. So once again Hebrews 4, 3 We who have believed enter that rest but those who do not believe as it is said in Psalm 95 so it will be applied even at the final judgment.

As I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Now that last part that's a difficult expression and one that I didn't fully understand either had to read several commentaries on this to get what that meant.

But consider that at the end of creation after God created all things the entire universe in six days

He rested from His work, right? At the foundation of the world He rested from His work on the seventh day.

It didn't mean that God was tired although I can imagine creating the entire universe in six days would be quite exhausting.

But that's not what that means when it says that God rested it simply means He finished.

He was done with His work. He rested on the seventh day. And then that day becomes a day of rest even for His people.

They are to keep the Sabbath holy because God rested from His work. After six days He rested on the seventh.

Therefore the people of God were to keep that day as a rest. So even though God rested on that day that wasn't the day of rest it didn't just settle there but then there was the promise of rest that continued after that.

There was a keeping of the Sabbath even after the creation account even after it is said there in chapter 2 in Genesis 2 that God rested from His work.

There was a Sabbath even before the giving of the law there was a Sabbath. So even to this day there is a day of rest that we take.

We call it the Lord's day on Sunday when we gather together as the saints and we do it on Sunday instead of Saturday because that was the day that Christ raised from the dead.

He fulfilled all the law and the prophets in seven days and so it's the eighth technically first day of the week

Sunday that we commit unto the Lord instead of the seventh. So there remains this promise of Sabbath and we remember that as a type in a shadow that is pointing toward a greater rest that is to come and that is the rest of heaven.

So God had rested from His works from the foundation of the world but there is still a promise of rest for us and that is the promise of rest into eternity that ultimately that we are looking to when we will dwell with God forever in His kingdom.

But do not get lazy. Do not get complacent in this faith that you have. Continue to work and strive in this faith that you may grow in godliness and Christ -likeness for if you continue in these things you will not fall as Peter says in 2

Peter chapter 1 and the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2 verses 13 and 14 that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is

God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Let us be careful that we do not fall short of the prize but we continue to run the race with endurance that is set before us looking to Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith.

We are going to stop there and pick up in chapter 4 tomorrow. Heavenly Father we thank you for the good news that has been given to us that we may have rest.

We rest in the righteousness of Christ and we have the promise of rest of your eternal kingdom.

Let us continue to strive for that kingdom lest we fall short of it and we look to Jesus who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

Give us the ability the power the strength that we need today to live for you and tomorrow when we wake up a brand new day we start that day with prayer asking that God would forgive us our sin and that you would give us the power to live for you today.

It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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