Introduction
Please open with me to the book of Hebrews. We have made it to chapter 4 this morning, covering verses 1-5. This passage in Hebrews comes at an appropriate time as we are just wrapping up a season in which it is very likely that you got a little more time of from work than usual. Maybe not a lot of extra time but I do hope that, at the very least, the notion of rest is perhaps a little more real then usual.
If not, and this season has turned the dial up in your life past the 10 it was already on then I hope today serves as a cool drink of water on a parched throat. If you haven’t guessed it we are talking about rest this morning. More specifically resting in the promise of the gospel by faith and what that means for us spiritually and in our lives. The beginning of the year, especially in light of all the things you inevitably know need to get done, is a great time to be reminded of the eternal rest our gracious God has secured for us. I pray we all leave today, resting in the promise of the gospel. Please stand with me as we read
Hebrews 4:1–5ESV
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, 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 somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”
A Priority on Faith
As we being this morning in the text let us first establish a priority on Faith. It might be better to say that we need to establish the necessity of faith. To do that, let’s zoom in on the first two verses.
“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”
The benefits of the hearing of the good news come to us only by and through faith. Faith then is the necessary condition to receive benefit of the gospel. The writer of Hebrews again uses the Israelites wilderness wandering as the basis to prove his proposed priority of faith.
Consider those Israelites who heard the good news given but failed to benefit from it. Surely we can not say that it was the fault of gospel that hindered them. You may say, “Wait, did Israel even hear the gospel?” The answer is of course they heard it. They were given a promise of peace and rest from their exile and slavery. A promise to enter into a land flowing with riches and blessing where they would live with God and he with them. A promise of freedom, and a promise of inheritance. Those are all gospel promises that they would have received if they had only trusted in the God who issued said promises. So the gospel message was certainly not at fault for them having not benefitted from it.
We also can not say that it was the fault of the one who delivered the message. Surely there is no fault in God as the deliver of the message as though if he would have delivered it more winsomely perhaps they would have believed. Nor can we say that somehow Moses could be to blame. Further God confirmed his promise through many a varied signs as an assurance that he could do what he promised. He literally parted a sea for them, guided them by pillars of fire and smoke, gave them food from heaven, and water for a rock. No, the good news was clearly give and adequately confirmed for them.
Even more we can not blame the spirit as though the spirit of God was some how lacking or silent to them. Quite the opposite the text says that they rebelled against the spirit who spoke to them.
Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.
“But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.”
Further God continues to speak through his spirit even now saying, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion.” So the fault was not the message, nor the messenger, nor the spirit of God but rather lands squarely on their unbelief. What then were they not believing? They were not believing in a promise that extends beyond what was right in front of them. They were not looking to and trusting in the rest and the blessed freedom that is offer to us by faith. They were not trusting beyond their present circumstances to the promised end. Hear the word of Charles Spurgeon on this subject:
Where there is no faith, men remain slaves to the present. If they did not believe in the milk and honey of Canaan, you see why they hankered for the cucumbers of Egypt. An onion is nothing comparable to an estate beyond Jordan; yet as they think they cannot get the estate, they pine for the onions. When men do not believe in eternal life, they naturally enough cry, “Give me bread and cheese. Let me have a fortune here.” They keep their nose to the grindstone, always thinking about this passing life, because they do not heartily believe in heaven and its glories. They are as “dumb driven cattle,” that do not see into another state: this life seems real to them, but the next life they suspect to be a dream. As long as there is no faith, this world is all, and the world to come is nothing at all.
Hear me, church, when I say that faith in Christ is not some abstract concept or something we just pretend to possess because it’s a churchy word we can throw around. Faith is real, it’s alive because it is grounded not only in a real person but in a real future place and promise. When it sets in it causes us to look to and trust in that promise of freedom, inheritance, and blessing both now and in the ages to come. It causes us to cast aside our sins, worldly desires, and selfish ambitions so that by all means we may enter into this rest that is so graciously promised to us.
The good news is that this promise of rest still stands. The promise of the forgiveness of sins, the promise of justification before God, the promise of being transformed into his image, the promise of joy and peace in this life and the eternity to come still stands. Do you want this peace that transcends all understanding? Then surrender you life and your future to him today. Stop all the, “but what about this, or the if only that.” Stop the grumbling and complaining and the hardening. Stop chasing a passing life you will never catch and start living in the freedom and joy of a promised eternity that has already begun. If you believe that God has promised that you will never be in lack, that you will always be provided for, and that he will always protect you. If you believe that he has a place prepared for you in glory that is so grand your mind can’t even comprehend it, then won’t you live by that faith. Please Lord help us to live by that faith.
A Promise of Peace
As we consider the priority of faith, we also need to consider the promise of peace contrasted again the command to fear. I need to be clear here that this fear mentioned in the text is not a command to fear lest we fail to enter into rest on account of our disobedience or lack or merit. We have already said now that disobedience is not the instrumental cause but only a symptom of unbelief. To fear on account of disobedience or lack of merit is to fear the symptom and not the disease.
Further we have to understand that this command to fear can not conflict with our promise of peace. Why would God offer to us rest and peace in the gospel only to put us back under the bondage of fear. We may do that to ourselves through our misunderstanding of the word but God certainly doesn’t do that to us. So how do we reconcile fear and peace? Thomas Schreiner says this command to fear can be considered in a similar way to a mountain climber who through the fear or awe of the height of the mountain and perhaps his trust in the law of gravity will take extra care to ensure that his equipment is functioning properly.
It is not a paralyzing fear but a stimulating fear. A fear that causes us to act. One that provokes us into rest by pushing us to trust and obey. How much more peace and how much more joy will the climber experience if he can have confidence, in the middle of his climb, knowing that his equipment will hold. In much the same way, this fear of God, which drives us towards deeper trust and obedience is at least one of the contributing factors to our peace. This is why the author implies that a lack of fear will lead to us seeming to have failed to enter into his rest or reach his promise.
Unbelief, which leads to disobedience causes us unrest. Again, not that somehow our disobedience disqualifies us but nevertheless, it causes unrest. In Christ though we have been given a promise of peace and this peace comes when we are driven by our awe of him through trusting in him alone by faith.
Let me give you some examples how unbelief leads to unrest. Perhaps you have gone through or are going through a season of financial difficulty and you have failed to trust that he is going to provide for your needs. This unbelief in the promise that the Lord is your shepherd and you shall lack nothing causes you to make disobedient decisions with money that ultimately lead to unrest. I can confess to you church that this is a pattern I have often fallen into.
Maybe you have failed to trust that his word is sufficient or authoritative to guide your life so you make disobedient life choices which lead to unrest. This is the “it’s my life, I’ll do what I want or how I feel” attitude. At the root this is unbelief, a failure to fear leading to unrest.
Maybe you have failed to trust in his timing so in your unbelief you become impatient and make regrettable decisions that cause unrest. Again, these are issues of the heart. They are issues of unbelief or a failure to see beyond the present. How often in our lives are we not at peace as though we could better arrange our peace if only God would let us. So often we live as though we have a better handle on our peace and if we could just do this more or do that less then we will be at peace. Does it ever work like that though? When you finally do the thing you thought was the thing you must do for peace and it doesn’t produce what you expect the assumption is that you must have done something wrong or need to do something else. So the cycle of perpetual striving continues in an effort to grab the thing that has already been promised and given.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Faith, Prince of Peace. He is the Prince of Peace. By believing and trusting in him, and in his work and in his promises we find ourselves recipients of everlasting peace for all eternity. Why then do we not live as though by that same belief and trust in him alone he will not also give us peace now. It is only by and through the comfort that comes to us from trusting in Christ that we can received this promise of peace. The authors of the Heidelberg Catechism knew this and expressed it best more than 500 years ago.
Question 1: What is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto Him.
There is for us a promise of peace, we must cling to the blessed realty that we are not our own but by his loving grace he has purchased us and will surely bring us through this life and into his eternal rest.
A Pattern of Rest
The final piece of this puzzle that we need to put into place this morning is the establishment of the pattern or rest. Our text notes that the works of God were finished from the foundation of the world and he supports that by quoting
“And God rested on the seventh day from all his works”. This brings to mind an interesting question for us. How much is enough? Further, why did God stop creating? Could an infinite God just never stop creating? Why did he stop at the number of trees he finished creation with? There are, as far as we know, a set number of stars the sum of which God knows. Why that many?
Couldn’t he have continued creating? In fact, doesn’t it seem that his infinite and eternal glory demands an infinite creation? So why did he stop? Many contend, myself included, that he stopped (this is finished his work) to establish not a pattern of perpetual busyness, but rather one of perpetual rest. A pattern that reflects the eternal salvation that has been promised and secured for us. Imagine someone working in a garden and they work so hard in it and never stop working in it that they don’t ever enjoy the actual thing they are working on. So much so they they convince themselves and others that they “just love working in the Garden.” Sure that’s fine to love working in the garden but do you stop long enough to love the Garden.
Joy and peace come when we admire not just the work but the thing, or perhaps the one, we are working for. This is true for our lives certainly and I wish I had more time to work out how we establish patterns of rest in our lives, God willing we will do that throughout the year, but this is especially true when it comes to faith. I do think that is the aim of the text, addressing peace and rest as it relates to faith. Certainly, apply these principals to life, as I have done, but applying them to our faith is non-negotiable.
We have firmly established the priority of faith, that is salvation comes only by and through faith. Hearing the gospel, even liking its message of freedom from sin is insufficient to receive its benefits. We must be united to the giver of this gospel by faith in him who delivers the message and in him who made and secured these promises. The promise is a promise of peace both in this life and in the life to come. Not that everything is always going to be peaceful but that in this life there is always an undercurrent of peace the flows in and through everything knowing that because we are united to Christ by faith, everything really is going to be ok.
The pattern of rest then is a pattern of opening the window to let the cool fresh air in to an otherwise stale and stuffy spiritual life. It is a glimpse into the eternal rest that has been prepared for us. This idea of rest necessarily includes our fellowship with him. I wonder how often we go to his word out of obligation or to attempt to solve some problem we are having. I wonder how many times we search the scriptures to work at an answer to some question. I wonder how much our prayers are filled with petitions or questions or pleadings about things in which we have no control over. I am not saying any of those things are necessarily wrong but I am saying that at some point you have to put down the shovel and enjoy the garden. You have to stop, open the window, and breath the fresh air of his promises.
Church, Christ has saved you and called you by faith into a salvation that he has secured for you. He has offered to you forgiveness from all your sins, adoption into his family, and an eternal inheritance. He has offered to you the paradise that was lost in Adam. A place where all sorrow will cease, where joy and peace will never end. Don’t you want that? Then by his spirit may he give to you, or renew in you, the faith to cling to those promises and experience his peace. That really is good news isn’t it?
Conclusion
Providentially, as we close this morning, I have been reading an excellent work on Psalm 23 by David Gibson that brother Stephen recommended to me. Having that Psalm opened to me has been one of the highlights of this past year and when we are talking about our faith in Christ, our trust in his promises, and our resting in him, I can’t think or say anything better to you than what God has already said. May Psalm 23 be the theme of our year and of our spiritual walk with our God.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
We have spoken this morning about our present peace and the eternal rest of God. This is a matter of infinite significance. If unbelief shuts some out, or hinders some from entering into this spiritual rest, then it is faith alone that opens the door to our rest. Simply hearing the gospel is not sufficient. Simply living a good life, or going through the motions is not sufficient. The rest comes to us through a promise that all who believe in Christ, all who call on his name, all who trust in him alone will find rest both now and for all eternity. Where do you find rest and peace? Do you have any rest or peace at all? The promise of rest still stands for us when we rest in his promises. Amen.
Sources:
Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Jessi Strong, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 87–88.
Schreiner, Thomas R. Hebrews. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger. Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021.
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