Hebrews 4:2
Why Not Rest?
Last week, I hurried through the last part of our most recent
"preaching sermon" section which runs from \\#Heb 3:7-4:13\\. I did
so to cover the last three of the five commands given in this
section.
The last three commands were:
1. \\#Heb 3:13\\ Exhort one another.
2. \\#Heb 4:1\\ Let us fear.
3. \\#Heb 4:11\\ Let us labor.
These last three commands were directed to those who at least claim
to be believers. To complete the writer’s train of thought, I rushed
through the last two commands, but I would like to revisit them for a
few moments.
I. \\#Heb 4:1\\ Related to his command "let us fear," note that God’s
rest is a picture of salvation.
A. Throughout this section, the writer spoke of and offered to all
the rest of God.
1. The rest offered to the Egyptian Jews was physical, the
Promised Land.
2. The rest offered to us is salvation, eternity with God.
B. What happened to Israel was a literal, physical, historical
event.
1. The Jews were oppressed in Egypt.
2. They prayed to God and asked for deliverance.
3. God used Moses to deliver them with miracles and a
glorious deliverance.
4. Afterward, the entire nation traveled to the Promised
Land, where they rebelled against God and refused to enter
the land.
5. So God judged them by making them wander in the wilderness
for 40 years.
6. Everything in this chapter is based on a real, literal,
historical, event.
C. But what happened in history to that generation has become an
allegory, or a picture, or a lesson from which every other
generation can learn.
1. The writer of this book saw that and penned it here in
this chapter.
2. Notice how God’s rest is a picture of salvation.
a. Both the rest of God and salvation were settled before
the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:3 For we which have believed do enter
into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my
wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although
the works were finished from the foundation of
the world.
(1) I am not at all ashamed to tell you that there
are things that God says which confuse me.
(a) For example, here God said He rested from
His works which were finished from the time
the foundation of the world was laid; yet,
we know that one of His works was to lay
the foundation of the world; and that after
laying the foundation of the world, God did
other works, such as to create mankind.
(b) And in Revelation 13:8, God spoke of Jesus
being slain in the same manner, "from the
foundation of the world;" yet, it was not
until after the world was laid that Jesus
put on flesh and died and the cross.
(2) How could God have finished His works before they
were done?
(a) The answer lies in the fact that God is not
bound by time and has no whims.
(b) When God decides to do something, it is as
good as done.
(c) He never changes His mind and nothing can
deter Him, so He speaks of He had decided
to do as if it were done even if it has not
happened in our reality yet.
b. Both God’s rest and salvation are entered into by
faith and obedience.
(1) The Jews that came out of Egypt would not enter
into the Promised Land because they did not
believe God.
Heb 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in
because of unbelief.
(2) And neither will enter sinner be forgiven of sin
unless he believes on the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not
condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God.
c. Both God’s rest and salvation are available for a
limited time only.
Heb 4:7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying
in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is
said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts.
(1) The Jews time to enter the Promised Land was a
one day offer only.
(a) In fact, the same Jews who refused to enter
the Promised Land one day, changed their
minds, and lined up to go in the next
morning; but God was now against them.
Numbers 14:40 And they rose up early in the
morning, and gat them up into the top of the
mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up
unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for
we have sinned.
41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye
transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it
shall not prosper.
42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you;
that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are
there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword:
because ye are turned away from the LORD,
therefore the LORD will not be with you.
44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top:
nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD,
and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the
Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote
them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
(b) Like those of Noah’s day, they waited too
late to obey God.
(2) And salvation has a limited time offer too.
(a) The absolutely last opportunity is death:
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment:
(b) But it is possible that the Holy Spirit
might leave you long before that.
d. Both God’s rest and salvation offer the people a rest
for their souls.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest,
he also hath ceased from his own works, as God
did from his.
Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
D. As the writer of this book pleaded with his readers to enter
God’s rest, he was pleading with them to be saved!
1. Friend, his pleadings is just as important for us!
2. His command was to fear least we delay and be forever
lost!
a. That is a wise command!
b. Why would you not enter into God’s rest today?
(1) Your efforts to please God or find happiness by
any other means are futile.
(2) The only way to find the rest you seek is through
Jesus Christ!
II. \\#Heb 4:11\\ Related to his command "let us labor," working in
the Word is the only work that will help you.
A. Notice again the command:
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into
that rest, lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief.
B. Then notice what the writer began to talk about in the very
next verse:
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not
manifest in his sight: but all things are naked
and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have
to do.
C. Why did the writer say one thing and then begin to talk about
the other?
1. Because the only place to dig for the truth is in God’s
Word.
a. I like education, but you will not find the eternal
truths in education.
b. I like good politics, but you will not find the
eternal truths in politics.
c. I like good works, but you will not find eternal
truths in good works.
d. If you want to know how to live forever, go to the
Book that the forever-living God wrote.
e. If you want to know how to be forgiven, go to the Book
the forgiving-God wrote.
f. If you want to know how to have joy and peace, go to
the Book the joy-and-peace-giving God wrote.
2. Because the only place to have the blinders removed from
your eyes is in the Bible. (But even having the blinders
removed does not mean you will be able to comprehend what
you are seeing.)
James 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word,
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding
his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he
was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a
forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be blessed in his deed.
a. This book can separate the spiritual from the fleshly,
the thoughts from the intents, the good from the
evil.
b. And the people this writer wrote to needed to see just
that.
(1) Some of them were about to walk away from eternal
life and leap into eternal damnation.
(2) They needed to spend more time and give more
effort to the matter—and the only place that
could help them was the Word of God.
3. Because the only place to have the hardness of the hard
broken through is in the Bible.
Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith
the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces?
4. And because, as this writer states, the only place to get
the bad removed is in the Word of God.
a. This verse is not just talking about exposing one’s
true condition.
b. It is also talking about fixing it!
(1) With the precision of a robotic arm and the
keenness of a laser, the Word of God and only
the Word of God, cuts between the bad and the
good, the carnal and the spiritual, the intent
of the heart and the action.
(2) God, the Surgeon, use the scalpel of the Word of
God to fix what ails us!
Where else could you find the help offered by the Bible? Nowhere!
Strange how much has changed in the last 2,000 years but how little
has changed. So many make their eternal decisions with their earthly
mind. They have no notion what is on the other side of death. How
horrible their eternity will be. Friend, why not rest today?
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