Let us turn again to God's Word
in that portion of Scripture that we read, Hebrews. Turning
then to chapter 4, and I'll read again in the opening verses.
Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into
His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 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. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. I want to take up this theme
then of entering into gospel rest and take for our text really
the words that we have here in the first verse of this chapter
Hebrews 4.1. Let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should
seem to come short of it. In the context we see how the
Apostle is referring to those who came out of Egypt, as we
see there in the second verse, that great deliverance that God
gave to the Hebrews. When under Moses he brought them
out from that place of cruel bondage, that fiery furnace that
they were suffering in as slaves under Pharaoh. But then when
they came out, we read in Numbers 13 and 14 of how the spies are
sent in to search out the land of promise, but they come back
with an evil report. The 12 spies go, it's just two
of them, Joshua and Caleb, who come back with words of faith
and say that they should go in to possess what God had promised.
but the other ten speak of the walled cities and the giants
and say that they will be overwhelmed by those who are inhabiting the
land. And this is what the apostle
is referring to in the context of our text here this morning. We see it there of course at
the end of the previous chapter. 15 Following it is said, Today,
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard,
did provoke. be it not all that came out of
Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved forty years? Was
it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness,
and to whom he sware that they should not enter into his rest? But to them that believed not."
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. And then we come to the words
of our text. He draws his conclusion. Let
us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into
his rest. Any of you should seem to come
short of it. Now, he's dealing of course with
Israel in the Old Testament. He's dealing with historic facts.
but we know from what he says to the Corinthians that all these
things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written
for our admonition upon whom the end of the world is come.
And there in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 where we have that statement
at verse 11 you will see in the context again he is speaking
of the days of Moses and events associated with the children
of Israel and their deliverance out of Egypt and their wandering
through the wilderness. All these things are in samples,
and they're written for us who live in this day, the last days,
this day of grace. And so as we come to consider
this rest, this gospel rest, and what it is to be entering
into this rest, As we see here at the beginning of verse 3,
we which have believed, it seems, do enter into this rest. I want, this morning then, to
divide the subject matter into some three parts. First of all,
to consider what this present rest in the gospel is, And then
in the second place, to look at the various parts of that
rest, what is involved, and then finally to say something with
regards to the paradox of rest, of the life of faith, of that
life in which we're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. First
of all then, this present rest, Here in the words of our text,
let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into
his rest. Any of you should seem to come
short of it. And then he says, as we see at
the beginning of verse 3, we which have believed do enter
And there the verb to believe is in the present tense. He is speaking of something that
is their real experience, their current experience. these to
whom he is addressing his epistle, these Hebrew believers, they
have entered into the true significance of that rest. It is, in fact,
the fulfillment of all the other rests that he is speaking of
in this portion of scripture. Now, we see how he speaks of
that rest that God entered into after the completion of the works
of creation. Verse 4, He spoke in a certain
place of the seventh day on this wise and God did rest the seventh
day from all His work. In His wisdom God was pleased
to make all things in a period of six days and we believe they
were literal days, 24-hour days The evening and the morning were
the first day, we're told there in Genesis 1. The evening and
the morning were the second day, and so on. God could have acted
in one moment of time and created everything instantaneously. But
God was pleased to act differently and to work over a period of
six days. And then on the seventh day,
God rested from all that great work of creation as we see there
in the opening verses of Genesis chapter 2 and God sanctifies
that seventh day as a day of rest when we think of God's rest
of course it doesn't mean that God is altogether inactive But
there is no more work of creation now. The work of creation is
completed. God is ever active in the realm
of providence. But that day was clearly set
apart from creation, and so when we come to the commandments,
remember how the children of Israel are commanded to remember
the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy. It is evident that there
was an observance of the day previous to what we read there
in Exodus chapter 20. And so, God's rest at creation
is clearly there in the commandment associated with the observance
of that seventh day, the Jewish Sabbath day. but also here we
read of another rest, that rest that the children of Israel would
enter into when they came into the land of promise, when they
entered into the land of Canaan. Those words at the end of chapter
3 we've already referred to them. Their carcasses were told fell
in the wilderness and he swore that they should not enter into
his rest And they could not enter in, because of their unbelief. That whole generation who believed
that evil report that was brought by the spies, who were not such
as would trust in the Lord God to give them what He had promised
them. they died during those 40 years of wilderness wanderings. They never entered into that
blessed rest. But look at what it says here
in verse 8 of chapter 4. If Jesus, this is really Joshua
as we see from the margin, if Joshua had given them rest, then
would he not afterward have spoken of another rest? that land of
Canaan, that land of rest, directs us to something far greater.
As I said, what we have in gospel rest is the fulfillment of all
these previous rests, be it God's rest after his works of creation,
or be it that rest that they would enjoy when they entered
into the possession of the promised land. And it's interesting that
every time they kept the Sabbath day they not only were to remember
how God rested on the seventh day from his work but there was
a connection, an association with the land of Canaan into
which they were to be brought into possession. When the commandments
are recounted in Deuteronomy chapter 5, when he comes to that fourth
commandment concerning the Sabbath day, keep the Sabbath day, to
sanctify it, there in In Deuteronomy 5.15 it says, Remember that thou
wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy
God brought thee out then through a mighty hand and by a stretched
out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded
thee to keep the Sabbath day. There's a connection then in
their keeping of the Sabbath, not only with creation rest,
but what God had done in delivering them and bringing them into that
rest that they enjoyed when they came into the possession of the
land of promise. Now, as I say, what we have with
the Gospel is the fulfillment of all these rests that we read
of there in the Old Testament. But our gospel rest is very different. There is no legal observance
here. There's no works at all. Our believers are constantly
told that they're not to be those who would be observing times
and days and months and years. When Paul writes in Galatians
chapter 4 look at what he says at verse 9 following, after that
ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggary elements? Whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage? Ye observe days and months and
times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain. And he says much the same when
he writes to the church Colossae in Colossians chapter 2 and verse
16. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new
moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come
but the body is of Christ. There's not to be that legal
observance that we have under the Old Testament with regards
to the keeping of these specific times, these specific days. Now,
I'm not saying, and I want to make this clear, I'm not for
a moment saying that we're not to observe the Lord's Day. In
no way am I suggesting that at all. We know from the New Testament
that there was a day that they kept. Clearly they observed the
first day of the week. We see it in incidents that we
read of. We see, for example, in Acts
chapter 20 and verse 7, upon the first day of the week it
says, When the disciples came together to break bread, Paul
preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued
his speech until midnight. They were meeting together there
on the first day of the week. And then again also in 1 Corinthians
chapter 16 as Paul gives them very practical instruction with
regards to their givings. He speaks of it in terms of the
first day of the week, upon the first day of the week. Let every
one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him that
there be no gatherings when I come. 1 Corinthians 16.2. And then we know when we come
to the end of the Old Testament, sorry, the end of the New Testament,
there in the opening chapter of the Revelation we find John,
the aged apostle, on the Isle of Patmos, in the Spirit it says,
on the Lord's Day. That is that first day of the
week. That was the day upon which the Lord Jesus Christ rose again
from the dead, and remember how he showed himself on that day
to his disciples? And we're told how Thomas was
not with them, but then eight days later, the following first
day of the week, he shows himself again. It becomes the first day
to these believers, it becomes the Lord's Day, it becomes in
that sense their Sabbath day. And even here, in verse 9 of this fourth chapter
Paul says, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God and
you will observe what the marginal reading is there, remaineth there
for a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God. There is a
day to be kept, there is a day to be observed, but it is so
different to the things that we're reading concerning the
observance of days as they were practiced under the Old Testament,
under that Old Testament Lord of God. We
observe it now simply as an ordinance of the Gospel. And what is that
true Sabbath rest in the Gospel? It is that that involves ultimately
us coming to rest by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We sang
it just now in the hymn, all keepers that come short of this.
the substance of the Sabbath miss and grasp an empty shank
or we can only properly keep the day when with those who are
looking and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and this is the
great blessing is it not of the day of grace that Christ is set
before us as that one who is altogether the end of the law
for righteousness To everyone that believes there are no legal
duties that we have to perform. All that fullness of salvation
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And see how Paul speaks here
at verse 7. Again he limiteth a certain day,
saying in David, Today, after so long a time as it is said,
Today, If ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart. All behold, now is the accepted
time, and now is the day of salvation." How vitally important this is,
and we're not to come short. Well, this is a great theme,
we're not to come short of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
words of our text. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. It's not enough to be aware of
our sinnership. It's not enough to know that
we're sinners. And God sees us as we are, and
God is altogether aware of our wretched state and our condition. And it is a wonderful thing if
we're convinced of what we are by nature. But it's not enough. One of the things that I most
particularly like when one reads those letters of James Bourne
is his emphasis that he's constantly making how those to whom he would
minister must know something of clear work. He won't have
them coming short. The vital thing is to come to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to the Jews, you will
not come unto me that she might have life. How important it is
that we're those who know what it is to enter into this blessed
rest, the rest of the Gospel. Shortly we'll sing that hymn
of heart, number 234, and there he speaks of the need to be those
who are truly entering into the Lord Jesus Christ. But he that
into Christ believes, what a rich faith has he in Christ, he moves
and acts and lives from self and bondage free. He has the
Father and the Son, for Christ and he are no but one. Oh, that is the great thing,
to be those who know what it is to enter into that rest, to
be in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul's concern here, you
see, is great fear lest any of these should seem to come short. Let us not come short of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we have the fulfillment
of all the rests that we read of in Holy Scripture. The fulfillment
of that rest that God consecrates and sanctifies after the work
of creation, working six days, resting the seventh day, is the
fulfillment of that rest that the children of Israel were favored
to enter into by faith when those who believed entered into the
possession of the promised land. All Christ is the fulfillment
of every rest. And here also, of course, in
the Lord Jesus Christ, we not only have the fulfillment of
rest, but we also have the fullness, the fullness of Gospel rest.
In creation, what do we see? We see how God ultimately rests
in that man and that woman, those whom He had created, That was
the very pinnacle of all the work of creation. It was on the
sixth day that God held that consultation with Himself and
said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. And
God creates them, male and female. They are the image bearers of
God. And then God rests. on the seventh
day and pronounces all that work to be very good. How God in that
sense rests in the man who stands at the very pinnacle of his great
work of creation. But in the Gospel, what do we
see when we come to the New Testament? We see here how God rests in
another man. or the first man is of the earth,
earthly. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. And now God rests in His well-beloved
Son. Why, He declares on two occasions
in the Gospel, both at the baptizing of the Lord Jesus and then again
at the Mount of Transfiguration, this is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. The Prophet, the
language of Zephaniah 3.17, the Lord thy God in the midst of
thee will rest in his love. How does God rest in his love?
Why he rests in that one who is ever always the object of
his love. Then I was by him as one brought
up with him and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before
Him." Here is the fullness of the rest of God. He delights
in His Only Begotten and His well-beloved Son and how He delights
in Him as He comes to execute that great work of redemption.
All that work that all the persons in the Godhead had covenanted
to accomplish in the great covenant of redemption from all eternity. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that One who executes all that work that the Father had committed
to Him. The Father rests then, rests
in His love, rests in His Son. And it is here that believers
are also to find their rest. We're familiar with the language
of the Gospel and the gracious words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That invitation that He gives at the end of Matthew chapter
11, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden. And what does he invite them
to? He invites them to come into all that fullness of rest that
he's found only in himself. All that fullness of the salvation
that he has come to accomplish. Come unto me all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, he says, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest
unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Oh, nothing here of the yoke and the bondage of the Lord of
God. It is the Gospel. It's where God himself rests. And it is really that rest that
is the commencement of heavenly rest. Or there is a rest that
remaineth. There is a rest that remaineth.
There at verse 9. The rest that remaineth to the
people of God. Can we not think of that in terms
of heaven itself? There believers enter into all
the fullness of rest. But what is that fullness? It
is really all the fullness of the gospel that they enjoy there.
It has been well observed that grace is now glory in the butt. And glory is going to be grace
in the full flower. It's the same rest really. We
have it now, if we're in a state of grace, if we're those who
have been granted that precious gift of faith, to be trusting
and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have all the fullness
of glory, but it's in the bark, but there, in heaven, it will
be the full flower. And it all centers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The life of faith centers in
Him. and that life that the redeemed have entered into in heaven all
centers in Him. The Lamb is all the glory in
Immanuel's land. Here is Gospel Resi. It's a fulfillment
of every rest that ever we read of in the Old Testament and it
is all that fullness of the rest of God. But turning in the second
place, to say something with the parts, the principal parts
of this rest, what it involves, what it entails. And we see it
of course in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, when he begins
his ministry. There in Mark 1, 14, after that
John was put into prison, Jesus comes in the power of the Spirit
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And what
does he say? Repentance and believe the Gospel. There are the parts. There is
that that is involved if we're going to be those who are not
coming short. We must know what repentance
and what faith is. Again, when Paul speaks to the
Ephesian elders in Ephesians chapter 20 and reminds them of
his own ministry, it was the same as that of the Lord Jesus
testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks repentance toward
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the principal
parts and if we know not that real repentance and that true
faith with those who are in this sad condition let us therefore
fear lest the promise being left asked of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. But what of repentance? What is repentance? Well, the word that we have in
the New Testament, the word that's rendered in our Bibles as repent,
is one of those compound words, we said it before. There are
two parts to the words. and it basically has to do with
the mind, and it has to do with the idea of a change of mind. That's what repentance is, it's
a fundamental change of mind. But it is so great a change that
the person who knows anything of that grace of repentance,
his life in a sense is turned around. There's a cessation from sin,
there's a turning from sin. There's a turning to God. We
might rather say there's a turning to God that involves a turning
away from sin. The life is turned around, the
life is turned upside down, the life is turned inside out. where there is that repentance,
what is the evidence here? It's a new creation. All things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. It's a cessation from sinful
works. And I want us to think of that
idea principally with regards to what repentance is. It's turning
away from our sins. But what of faith? Well, we can
think of faith in terms of a cessation from any good works. We sometimes sing the hymn, which
has those lines, cease from your own works, bad and good, and
wash your garments in my blood. There's not only repentance turning
from our sinful ways, but there's also that faith where we turn
from any idea of any good works. Look at what it says here at
verse 10e that he's entered into his rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works as God did from his. Or to turn you see, to turn from
all idea of works, all idea of any merit, all idea of us having
to do anything. There's nothing to be done. The
Lord Jesus Christ himself is that one who has the surety and
substitute of his people has done it all. He has died in their
place, but he has not only died as their substitute, he has also
lived, And in that life, he has acted again as their surety,
and he has honored and magnified God's law in respect to every
one of its precincts, as well as answering all its penalties. Or there is to be that cessation
from work. Remember, again, with regards
to the way in which the Sabbath
was to be kept in the Old Testament. There were various laws. They were not allowed to kindle
a fire. Exodus 35,3 Ye shall kindle no
fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day. Some of
us would remember Bernard Falliman, Christine's late husband, of
course he was a Jew by birth and I think he was a young teenager
and one day a rabbi asked him to switch on the electric light
and he did so but then he turned to the rabbi and said how hypocritical
he was because he was, by turning on the light, lighting a fire.
The rabbi wouldn't do it himself but he was quite happy for a
young Jew to do it. And he said after that he never
went to go to synagogue. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout
your habitations upon the Sabbath day. But you know there is a A Gospel
interpretation that we might put upon that, when we think
of the language of the Prophet at the end of Isaiah chapter
50. It says here, Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass
yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire,
and the sparks which ye have kindled, these shalt ye have
at my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. Who are we those,
friends, who think that we can kindle a fire, encompass ourselves,
as it were, with our own works that we have done. No, there's
to be none of that. There's to be a ceasing from
every work. No trust at all in self. And
it's no easy thing, really. Because by nature, we're those
who are wedded to the old covenant. We're wedded to the idea of something
to be done. Even in the New Testament when
men are first awakened, so often they come and they say, what
must I do to be saved? As if there is something to be
done. Or we like the idea of us doing some meritorious thing,
whereby in a sense we think we are putting God into our debts. Not easy to deny. our own righteousness. Remember that story that's told
concerning James Harvey in the 18th century, one of those ministers
in the Church of England raised up at that time when there was
a great awakening through the preaching of so many of those
men. I suppose principal amongst them
would have been George Whitfield, but there were others, and amongst
them, James Hervey. And he didn't enjoy the best
of health. He was ministering there in Northamptonshire,
and he sees his physician concerning the state of his health, and
the physician tells him that he needs to be out in the fresh
air, and he suggests that what he should do is to go out into
the field and follow the ploughman. and breathing the fresh ploughed
earth, as it were. And so he does this. And the
ploughman that he followed was one who attended the ministry
of Philip Doddridge, there in Northampton. And Hervey would
engage with the ploughman in conversation as he walked after
him, following the plough. and tried to engage in spiritual
conversation, profitable conversation. And amongst other things he on
one occasion asked the ploughman, what is the most difficult thing
to do in the life of one who professes to be a Christian?
What is the most difficult thing? And the ploughman was a wise
old man and he says, well you're the clergyman. what would you
say the answer to that question is and Harvey said well I think
the most difficult thing of all is to deny sinful self always difficult to deny sinful
self you see the old nature it's so ready to sin Paul says the
good that I would I do not the evil that I would not that I
do all wretched man that I am how hard it is to deny our sins
to turn from our sin But the wise ploughman turns and says,
I don't agree. He says, there's something even
more difficult. Not the denial of sinful self, but the denial
of righteous self. To be so humbled as to see that
we have nothing, and we can do nothing. How we need, friends,
to deny not only our sinful works, but deny our good works, to deny
ourselves all together if we're those who are resting in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Other than that, you see, we
only come short. Christ must be all. And Christ
must be in all. Now, again, this is not to deny
that there is a place for good works. The Lord Jesus says, by their
fruit ye shall know them. And the Apostle speaks of faith,
which worketh by love. By grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, he says. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. There is a place for
obedience, obedience to the precepts of the gospel, that desire to
conform more and more to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to walk in the path of obedience. But when we think of the the
rest of the gospel. These are the parts that we must
know. We must know what that real evangelical repentance is. We must know what that real living
faith is. These are the parts, faith and
repentance. And then finally to say something
with regards to what I can only term the paradox of gospel rest
and we see it here in particular at verse 11 let us labour therefore
to enter into that rest lest any man fall out of the same
example of unbelief or we are to labour to enter into that
rest and we're not to come short strive to enter in at the straight
gate. For straight is the gate and
narrow is the way that leadeth unto light." We have these various statements
made in the Gospel time and again. The Kingdom of Heaven. Suffereth
violence, says the Lord Jesus, and the violent take it by force.
You see, here we see that entering into rest involves labour and
travail and toiling. And yet time and time again,
when we come to the book of Psalms, we see the godly man there waiting
upon the Lord. David says, wait on the Lord,
be of good courage. and He shall strengthen thy heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord." Well, what is this waiting? We see
quite clearly then that resting and waiting is not slothfulness. It's not being passive. It's not a matter of doing nothing
at all. know where there is this waiting
upon the Lord there is much activity there's a great deal going on
in the heart in the soul of those who are truly waiting upon the
Lord why Paul says be ye steadfast unmovable always abounding in
the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord activity, spiritual activity
It's not works of righteousness. It's those wrestlings with God
in the depths of the sinner's soul. Again, look at what he
says here in the previous chapter of verse 14. We are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. It's not just the beginning,
it's the end. It's he that shall endure to the end, the same shall
be saved. Or we're not to be of those that
draw back onto perdition, rather are we to be those who would
believe to the saving of the soul. It's entering in. Let us therefore fear, lest the
promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. for the life of those who are
true believers what a strange life it is what a life of contradictions
there is a paradox as the hymn writer says of the believer when
his pardon is signed and his peace is procured from that moment
his conflict begins. Why? He has entered into rest.
Was it not like that with the children of Israel when they
did enter into the land of promise? It was the land of rest and yet
what conflicts? The Canaanite in the land, the
warfare that they must engage in, so it is with the believer.
Or the Lord says he has chosen his people. and He has chosen
them in a furnace of affliction. There's conflict. In the world
you shall have tribulation. Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus Himself. In this world's way, the world
lies in wickedness. In the world you shall have tribulation.
God says Christ be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And it's as we're resting in
Him and only as we're trusting in Him that we'll overcome the
world again Paul says you must through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of God or God grant that we might be those
who do truly then enter into the Lord Jesus Christ let us
therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into
His rest, any of you do seem to come short of it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest." The Lord bless to us His Word. Amen.