DILIGENT TO ENTER GOD’S REST – Hebrews 4:1-11

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 28, 2015 under PM Bible Study |

PM Home Bible Study Group; January 28, 2015

Hebrews 4:1-11

Theme: A rest that is from God remains to be enjoyed; and we must be diligent to appropriate it through a persistent faith in Christ.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

In the passage from Hebrews that is before us, the great subject is “rest”. This speaks not only of God’s rest from His own works on the seventh day of Creation; but also of our entering into the fullness of that rest by faith.

What exactly is that “rest”? We’re told that His works “were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:3). And this, of course, is a reference to Genesis 2:1-3; where we read,

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made (Genesis 2:1-3).

The “rest” being spoken of in Hebrews 4 has to do with the completion of God’s work for our ultimate salvation in Christ—and of our entering, by faith, into a full satisfaction in and appropriation of that complete work on our behalf. If God has done all that is needed, and there is nothing more for us to do but to trust in it and believe on it, then the greatest act of faith in the sufficiency of that work that we can display would be to “rest” in His rest.

It may seem like a long quote; but please consider this observation from one of our church adult classes a few years ago on the subject of developing a Christian worldview from the Book of Genesis. This was written with reference to Hebrews 4:3—and the affirmation that God’s works “were finished from the foundation of the world”. It reads:

How much of God’s work, then, should we consider to have been “completed” by that sixth day? We’re also told in Scripture that some things that Jesus uttered had been “kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35); that the Lord will invite people to enter the “kingdom prepared” for them “from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34); that the Father chose the redeemed in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4); that the work of Christ was “foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20); that Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8); and that unbelieving people of this world are said to be “not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 17:8). The Bible tells us that, for God’s elect, the hope of eternal life is based on that which “God, who cannot lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1:1-2); and it displays a “hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). It can truly be said then that, from the standpoint of the sovereign purposes of God, absolutely all of His works were finished by the sixth day—only to be brought to full realization in time afterward. Truly we can say, in praise to God, that “in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:16); and rejoice in the knowledge that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Taken in this context, we could go even further to say that when God declared His finished work “very good”, He was not looking only at the state of creation on the sixth day, but was looking far ahead to the full completion of His decree throughout eternity future. He looked ahead—through the temptation of the enemy, through the tragic fall of man, and through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross (who victoriously cried, “It is finished” [John 19:30]); and on to the redemption of the elect in Christ, and to the full glorification of sons and daughters in Christ; and declared “very good” the certainty of their dwelling forever before Him in love in a new heaven and a new earth—all to the everlasting praise of His glory! What a staggeringly “complete” work of creation it was that was completed on that sixth day! And what a difference this should make to our worldview! (Genesis & A Biblical Worldview; Bethany Bible Church, Adult Sunday School Class, June 17, 2012).

God’s works were truly finished on the sixth day—including the work of our salvation. And now, if we fail to rest in that finished work in Christ, turn from faith in Him, and seek instead to earn a righteous standing before God on the basis of our own religious works, it would be as much as saying to God, “I don’t believe you finished the job. You left it all undone, and there’s more that I need to do to complete it.” The writer of Hebrews is seeking to persuade his Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ to resist the temptation to go back to the old religious patterns of their former Judaism, cease from their works in the flesh and their efforts to earn God’s favor through rituals and ceremonies, and to go forward confidently in their faith in Jesus Christ—being diligent to enter into the rest that God has provided them.

I. DON’T FALL SHORT (vv. 1-2).

A. Key to our understanding of this passage has been the writer’s reference to Psalm 95. He quoted this psalm in 3:7-11;

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness,

Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,

And saw My works forty years.

Therefore I was angry with that generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

And they have not known My ways.’

So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest’” (Hebrews 3:7-11).

This spoke of the Old Testament story of how the people of Israel, back in the days of Moses, refused to enter into the promised land with confident trust in God’s promise. They did not enter into the “rest” that was brought about for the generation after them through Joshua. The Psalm—written centuries later, after the people were already in the land—makes it clear that the full meaning of “rest” wasn’t exhausted in the story of Joshua. A promise of rest—a rest of a higher and more eternal nature—remains for God’s people! And so, the writer of Hebrews writes, “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (v. 1).

B. How might the people to whom the writer of Hebrews speaks fall short of this rest? He goes on to remind them of the failure of that first generation in the wilderness: “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” (v. 2). They heard the word of God through Moses—and that word, through the laws, and rituals, and sacrifices, and promises, all pointed to Christ. And in terms of their immediate situation, they heard the promises being given by God regarding the land He was giving them and their future in it. But hearing alone didn’t help them—any more than hearing alone would help us. They failed to mix their hearing with a genuine faith—a faith that was to show itself in the action of rising up and entering the land God was giving them. We too can fall short in the same way—hearing the promises of God’s full grace through Jesus Christ, but falling short by not placing our faith in Him alone. As James warns us, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). That first generation under Moses was afraid to rise up and take the land that God was giving them. We, as the writer says, should “fear” least any of us fall short of this rest!

II. THE WORK IS DONE (vv. 3-5).

A. Fundamental to entering that rest is that we believe God’s promises about it. The writer says, “For we who have believed do enter that rest . . .” (v. 3a). It is not entered into by marching and conquering—as it was in the days of Joshua; but rather by believing and trusting in the message of the gospel. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”, it tells us in Acts 16:31, “and you will be saved . . .”

B. This of course means that all the work that is necessary for our salvation has been done for us by God in Christ. The “rest” does not need to be brought into existence. It already exists and has been provided! But there’s a difference between the “rest” itself, and actually “entering” into it. The writer goes on to quote God’s words from Psalm 95;

as He has said:

“So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest,’”

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest” (vv. 3b-5).

So; in order to enter into God’s rest, it is necessary to believe that when Jesus declared from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He spoke the truth! He completed all that is necessary! There truly is now “no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . .” (Romans 8:1).

III. AN ENTRY REMAINS (vv. 6-10).

A. This means that, though the rest was provided, a designated day of entry—future from the perspective of the people of the Old Testament era—still remained. The Jewish people to whom the writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote must not harden their hearts to this designated day of entry—as their forefathers had done with the word that was given them through Moses. As the writer says,

Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts.” (vv. 6-7).

B. The people to whom the writer spoke these words couldn’t have helped noticing that the name of the Old Testament leader “Joshua”—the one who eventually lead the people into their temporal rest in the promised land—is the same name in Hebrew as “Jesus”. That Old Testament leader “Joshua” is a picture to us of our New Testament leader “Jesus”. We’re told in Joshua 22:4—after the promised land had been conquered—that Joshua told the people on the eastern side of the Jordan; “And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren, as He promised them; now therefore, return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.” But clearly this couldn’t be the ultimate rest that God promised in Psalm 95. The writer says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (vv. 8-9). And this “rest” is only entered into by faith—a faith that trusts fully in the work of Jesus, and that ceases from trying to earn God’s favor by the old religious rituals and patterns of the law. “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (v. 10).

IV. BE DILIGENT TO ENTER (v. 11).

A. The response to this is two-fold. First, there is to be a “diligence” in entering the rest provided by God. “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest . . .” Just as the entry into the promised land in the Old Testament under Joshua required diligence—even though the land was promised to the people—we also need to apply diligence. But it’s not a diligence of warfare and conquest. Rather, it’s a diligence of faith and persistence. It’s a diligence exhibited in Paul’s words:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:7-14).

B. Second, there must be an alertness to the danger of unbelief—the kind of unbelief that, in the Old Testament example, led to the people failing to obey God, and thus failing to enter into His rest. As the writer puts it, we must be diligent “lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Praise God that our rest in Christ is a free gift of God’s grace. But it, nevertheless, requires a diligence of persistent faith in Christ. As the apostle Peter put it;

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11).

The “rest” is free. But diligence is required! May we be diligent to enter His rest!