September 21, 2008

# 15 Hebrews 4:1-3
“Enter God’s Rest”

You have realized by now that this book of Hebrews is not all fun and fluffy messages to tickle your fancy. This is a book of meat. Those of you who make it your business to be here week after week to labor through this book with it’s tough teachings will benefit. I appreciate your faithfulness . As in feeding our families, we don’t just give the kids what they like, but what they need as well. So it is in teaching the Bible; I need to make sure you and I get our vitamins so we can grow.

We are on the subject of entering God’s rest and are in the middle of a warning that began in 3:7. Whereas this book is primarily to Hebrew believers, there are warnings scattered through it to those who are unsaved, to those who KNOW the truth and have been looking toward Christ but had not received him. They had stepped out of Judaism but hadn’t stepped into Jesus. They are in danger because of fear of persecution or family pressure or love of their own sin of going back to Judaism. The writer warns this group not to go back and in spite of any pressure to head forward, take the next step and receive Christ.

This is a very important warning because there are many who are in tis situation. People who have begun to come toward Christ but haven’t surrendered to him, accepted him. People who are (as John DeBrine says) Mothered by the Church but not Fathered by God. and they are in danger of going back to their old lifestyle, their former life and hardening their hearts.

In chapter 3 we saw Jesus is greater than Moses and on that basis he warns these Jews that if those who rejected Moses had severe punishment then those who reject Christ have a more severe punishment.

And this warning runs from 3:7 to 4:13 and we are right in the middle of it. And the warning is this: “Today, do not harden your hearts like Israel did. Israel turned away from Egypt, began to go toward Canaan but on the way they stopped and did not believe God, didn’t place their full confidence in God and as a result didn’t enter God’s rest. They halted at the crucial place of decision.

The warning here is “do not do what Israel did, do not be taken out of your old life but fail to enter the new, don’t let your heart be hardened.”

don’t wake up one day and find that you have an evil heart of unbelief and have left God’s way.

And believers be warned here as well, you need to be urgent (Eric Brown said deliberate but delicate) in presenting the gospel of Christ and showing people to a commitment of faith NOW , before it is too late.

So in 3:7-19 those Jews didn’t enter because of unbelief, unbelief forfeits rest, for them the rest of Canaan land. And no one can have God’s rest without faith, that is the key.

Now in Moses case Numbers 14: 22-23 God said “because they saw my glory and didn’t believe they never will enter my rest. to this generation he says there is still a rest available but only to those who come in faith to Jesus Christ.

Here in verses 1-2 the warning continues to anyone who doubts, who walks on the edge of commitment to Christ. The warning is : “do not fall short of God’s glory.”

In verse 1 we see THE AVAILABILITY OF REST

in verses 1b-3 we see THE ADVISABILITY OF RESPONSE

1. THE AVAILABILITY OF REST

Therefore: a stronger conclusion here than verse 19s “SO” because here he correlates what he has been saying about Israel not entering the rest to the current group of wandering Jews and warns them to enter the rest that is still available to them. He says “fear” not godly reverence here but “obos” plain old knee knocking teeth chattering terror. He uses this term to show them just how serious it is to reject Christ, especially after having been enlightened to reject based on full knowledge. That is apostasy and it is final, no hope of repentance.

But what verse 1 is telling them is this: “just as the wilderness generation had the possibility of rest, so a rest is available today so be terrified for your soul lest you miss this rest. For a promise is left of entering God’s rest.

A promise being left, he says. It is a present participle probably used in a sense of time so “today a promise is still remaining or being left. In fact this is clarified later on in verse nine that a rest does remain for the children of God. At least for now a rest is available so respond now before it is too late.

What is rest anyway? Webster says : “1. to cease from action or motion. In God’s rest it is the same. There is no works system good enough to earn God’s rest FAITH ALONE is the key.. Without faith, a trusting commitment to Christ, you can’t enter into God’s rest. NO amount of self effort can save you. No amount of wonderful deeds can save you. No amount of ritual can save you. It is a ceasing from action.

2. Webster also says: to cease from worry or whatever disturbs you.

Some people cannot rest because they are hassled. But Matthew 11 says,

“come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and will give you rest.”

Jeremiah said “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.”

3rdly Webster says rest is to cause to be firmly fixed or based or founded. No shifting around.. Like a boulder resting on solid ground, immovable. And in God’s rest it is so. Your position is secure, steadfast, unmovable, rooted, grounded. resting in God.

4thly Webster says of rest: To remain confident , to rest secure in knowledge. and with God it is also true. To be confident in God equals faith. So in God’s rest you have absolute confidence in his care and charge of your life.

5thly to rest is to lean on and you can lean on Him, secure in the knowledge that he will not fall.

So the rest here in Hebrews means that because of faith in Christ a man can lean on God and be totally confident in God for not only the future but for the strength for today and for all we need. Rest equals total reliance on God. Confident security in God to hold our lives eternally in trust. A relationship in which you know what you believe and why and are depending on God. Sin is gone so guilt is gone, the reasons to worry are gone, legalism is gone REST IS HERE.

Now, the stress on rest here is not STAYING in rest, but on entering rest. So in 1bp3 after showing the Availability of rest, the Holy Spirit exhorts them to the Advisability of response.

So, the stress is to enter God’s rest verse 2 because what happened to Israel could happen to you, you could miss God’s rest.

The desert Israelis were preached to by Moses, we are in the same boat today. “The gospel was preached” here is intensive in the original, literally “we stand evangelized,” because the gospel was preached to us as well as to them.

Gospel equals good news. to them it was good news of a homeland and that JHVH was their God and willing to help them. To us the good news is far greater. Jesus Christ paid every man’s penalty for sin, and this was preached to them. But to no avail. Moses preaching did no good, they saw God act, they heard Moses preach but did not trust or have confidence in God. The preaching did them no good because they didn’t obey it in faith.

In Deut. 32:20 God said of them, “I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be for they are a froward generation. Children in whom is no faith.”

And later on in Hebrews 11 he says “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Now in verse 3 he explains that faith is necessary.

The ones who believe enter rest. The construction of this “believing” shows that it is a one time act, saying “we believed so we will enter God’s rest. God’s present tense rest, NOW, not just future. And we enter how ?? By faith.

god use a Hebrew idiom here “if they shall enter my rest.” and it is saying NO WAY that you can enter without faith. You can’t get in, can’t enter my rest.

This rest was established before the foundation of the earth. In Genesis 2 God rested. In Genesis 6, Noah rested safe in the ark.

But the wilderness wanderers did not believe or have complete confidence in God and they didn’t enter the rest God had for them. And the Holy Spirit says “you won’t enter either if you don’t trust in Christ alone for salvation. Not Christ plus ritual. Not Christ plus circumcision, not Christ plus baptism, not Christ plus communion. not Christ plus anything. Your salvation is by faith alone. Only by faith can you enter God’s rest.

What about you? Are you in God’s rest? Have you come to Christ by faith, not counting on good deeds or Sunday school pins but having only confidence in Jesus to take you to heaven.

He wants to give you rest and if the Spirit is tugging at your heart ,drawing you now, then come now.

Pray something like this: Dear God, I’ve made a mess of my life and sinned. I know you died on the cross to pay my penalty. I believe you rose again from the dead. I don’t want to serve sin anymore but I want to serve you. Please forgive my sin because I now believe in you and trust you only for my salvation. Then thank him.

But Christians? Do you have rest? Is your life a confident God life?