Attaining God's Rest - 13

Well today our text in Hebrews chapter 4 verses 4 through 7 is about God's rest. That actually is a recurring theme in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4.

It's a rather extended section that starts in chapter 3 and continues through chapter 4, about half of each of these chapters devoted to that subject. The first mention of God's rest is in chapter 3 and verse 11 which is the end of the quotation in chapter 3 of Psalm 95 and the concluding text says, So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. That tells us that somebody has forfeited God's rest. The second measure, second mention rather of this word rest is also found in chapter 3 verse 18. And we read, And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey? Coming into chapter 4 we find it mentioned again in verse 1 and verse 3 and verses 4 and 5 getting into our text for this morning and again in verse 4 again and then in verses 9 and 10 and 11 which we'll take up Lord willing next week. So we're right in the middle of that or a little bit past the middle of it in our text for today in verses 4 through 7. A message entitled Attaining God's Rest and here's what we shall see for those serious students who take notes.

What do we have? First of all God's rest, verse 4. Number 2, Denied rest, verse 5. 3, Promised rest, verse 6. Number 4, Attained rest, verse 7. But first of all God's rest, verse 4. For we read, He, that is God, has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. God's rest.

God rested on the seventh day from all his works. We find in verse 4 a creation reference. He has spoken in a certain place that mirrors similar language in chapter 2 when another quotation was introduced with these words if I can find it in verse 6. But one testified in a certain place saying what is man that you are mindful of him and so forth. And so with similar language the writer of Hebrews again introduces an Old Testament text for he has spoken in a certain place. He doesn't say exactly where that place is but in a certain place which probably should be understood as a Hebrew idiom to mean something like he has spoken as we well know.

He has spoken to quote familiar words. He has spoken to say what you already know, namely that God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And so it's focusing upon the seventh day of creation which was a day of rest.

Let's read those words. I'll read them to you in Genesis chapter 2. 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 the work which God had created and made.

God rested on the seventh day. The Bible records for us what God made on each of the six days of creation. He made this on the first day, this on the second day, right on through to the sixth day where he made the crowning achievement of his creation. Man, Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden and then we read after that he rested from his works because his work was finished.

Nothing more to do, nothing more to create. And interestingly it does not say after the seventh day in which he rested then the following day, the eighth day or the first day of the next week God resumed his work again. But we are left with this thought that God rested on the seventh day and continues to rest as he began to rest after six days of creation.

So evidently there is something important for us to learn here. There's some significance, some important significance of this idea of the seventh day and particularly God resting on the seventh day. It is a thought provoking statement and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. That's a fact that's given to us in Genesis.

We wouldn't have known that of course apart from that record that's found in the scriptures but knowing that now we realize this is what happened in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. He made this and this and this and this and this on six days and then on the seventh day he said it is finished. And he began a rest which according to our passage today continues. But it is also obvious from scripture that God has not ceased all activity.

So when it's talking about his rest on the seventh day it's not saying that God doesn't do anything else having completed creation in six days. God certainly hasn't stopped his work of providence by which he directs the affairs of men and everything that takes place in this world. God certainly did not cease his work of redemption. He brought that to we might say culmination when Christ died on the cross. But even after that he continues to apply the work of redemption to the hearts and lives of his chosen people.

He's doing that very actively. God has not ceased all labor in fact Jesus referring to this in John chapter 5 says my father works up until now and I work. He says specifically that God has been working up until the time when Jesus spoke those words in John chapter 5 and Jesus said and I continue to do his work.

Resting on the seventh day is not to be understood as God ceasing from all divine activity but it is ceasing from the work of creation. Of making things out of nothing. Of speaking substance into being. Everything that's in this universe God made in six days and since then he hasn't made another single thing.

It was all made. The whole universe was completed in six days and he is not working at that anymore. Now what he does has to do with attending to the universe which he made. Working out his purposes in the universe which he made. Doing spiritual work in hearts and lives. He's still creating but not physical things. He's creating new creatures in Christ Jesus.

There's a lot going on but as far as the physical universe is concerned that was completed back in Genesis chapter 1 and that was over and done. He rested on the seventh day. And therefore we're not surprised as we continue throughout scripture to find that there is very strong significance placed upon that seventh day. It became an old covenant institution for the people of Israel that they were to acknowledge the seventh day. They were to rest upon the seventh day. They were to think about God's work on the seventh day as they laid their six day work behind them and ceased from that work on the seventh day.

It is obviously a very significant event that we should take note of. And it's also obvious from the text before us that that rest on the seventh day back at the time of creation is a symbol of a greater rest. The rest that God did on the seventh day of creation stopping his work of making things is obviously in our text a symbol of a greater rest. A rest that we can enter into with him even though we haven't made a thing.

None of us have created anything ex nihilo out of nothing and cannot. But God is resting. And he's inviting us to enter into his eternal rest. And so the seventh day rest of God and the seventh day rest of the Israelites as the commandment was given to them.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That's all symbolic. It is a reminder, it points to something that is far greater, a greater rest to come. And I must say at this point, and I'll just touch upon it, that the text really has very little if anything to say about the observance of a seventh day, the Sabbath day. Though the seventh day is mentioned frequently here, but it's always pointing to another event. It's pointing to that eternal rest.

It's only pointed to as to its symbolic significance. And so it doesn't become a very good text for us to try to decide whether the seventh day, the Sabbath, continues on today and if so in what form it continues on today. That really is not spelled out in this text. There's something else that the writer of Hebrews has in mind. But God's rest, verse four. Denied rest, verse five. He goes on, and I think I have to read verse four to get into verse five properly. For he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from his works, and again in this place they shall not enter my rest. Now he introduces a second quotation, a quotation in verse four from Genesis chapter two about God completing his work of creation and resting on the seventh day. But now again in this place, that is in the text that the writer of Hebrews has been dealing with in chapter three and chapter four, he keeps going back to it.

He keeps reaching into Psalm 95 and pulling out this quote and that quote and some quotes again and again that he's already given from that particular text. And so he tells us that's what he's doing, and again in this place, that is in Psalm 95, this statement, they shall not enter my rest. Well that has been given to us before, in fact just a couple of verses before, verse three. For we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said, quotation coming, so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest, verse five. And again in this place, Psalm 95, another quotation, a repeated quotation coming, they shall not enter my rest.

A repeated warning, and by the way this ties together I think, Genesis 2, 2, Psalm 95, 11, and Hebrews 4, 3. They're all tied together by this statement, they shall not enter my rest. We're to think about all of these things, the rest of God on the seventh day, the rest of the Israelites in the land of Canaan that they did not attain to. The rest which still is before the people of God and the promise of that rest is laid before all people.

It's a repeated warning, they shall not enter my rest. Psalm 95 reminds us that the Old Testament Israelites were denied entrance into God's rest. And that of course takes us back into the book of Exodus and back into the book of Numbers.

Text we have looked at previously as we've been making our way through this epistle to the Hebrews. But the Old Testament Israelites, the majority of them that came out of Egyptian bondage who were in a sense redeemed out of slavery, nevertheless did not attain unto eternal redemption because they did not believe. They were denied entrance into Canaan, another symbol of God's eternal rest, like the seventh day is a symbol of God's eternal rest. They were denied entrance into the rest of Canaan and into God's eternal rest because they did not believe. That is also an historical fact. The fact that God rested after six days of creation is reported to us as a fact of history.

And a rest which in a certain sense is still going on today. The fact that the Old Testament Israelites that did not believe in the wilderness were denied entrance into Canaan and thus entrance into God's eternal rest is also a fact that we can read about in the books of Moses. And this is an alarming declaration in verse five. They shall not enter my rest. It's an emphatic declaration.

It is a determining declaration. What is denied in this statement? They shall not enter my rest. What is denied is an entrance into God's rest. The rest of which Genesis 2 speaks of symbolically.

The seventh day rest. The rest that the promise of Canaan speaks of symbolically. The rest of Canaan, it all speaks ultimately of God's eternal rest. In other words, eternal life. In other words, heaven.

All of that is spoken of in this way. But some are denied that rest. God's rest. When it talks about my rest, God's rest, is that talking about the rest which God bestows or the rest which God enjoys? The rest which God is currently exercising, if you can talk about exercising rest.

And the answer is it is both. God bestows rest upon those who believe the promise. But God invites into his own eternal rest those who believe the promise. He is resting and he says, I'm offering you the promise of that eternal rest. Believe my word and join me in this eternal rest. But some are denied entrance into that rest.

And who are they? Verse 5, they, and again in this place it is said, they shall not enter my rest. And from the context we know that he's talking about Old Testament Israel in the wilderness. They shall not enter my rest and why are they denied his rest? And again that has been told us in the context.

It is because of their lack of faith. Back to chapter 3, verse 18. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? But those who did not obey.

Verse 19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Who didn't enter in? Those who didn't obey.

Who didn't enter in? Those who didn't believe. We'll explain that connection once again a little bit later.

We've already explained it before. And so we've got God's rest, verse 4. Denied rest, verse 5. But now promised rest, verse 6. Since therefore it remains that some must enter it. And to those to whom it was first preached, and those to whom it was first preached, did not enter in because of disobedience. The promise of this rest spoken of in Psalm 95 is extended.

Since therefore it remains. The promise of rest has not been withdrawn. In fact, this promise must produce attainers.

If the Old Testament Israelites didn't attain it, that doesn't mean that nobody shall attain it. Yes, some shall. Many shall. It is determined that they shall. It remains that some must enter in. They didn't, but some will.

The promise has been extended to others. Clearly, therefore, the rest of the seventh day in Genesis 2 is not the rest spoken of in Psalm 95. Clearly, therefore, the rest of Canaan is not the rest spoken of in Psalm 95, because here in the first century, to Hebrews, Jewish people who had professed faith in Christ, who many of whom no doubt had lived in the land of Canaan, now called the land of Israel for many centuries, and some no doubt who were scattered in other parts of the world, but the land of Canaan has been occupied, that rest in a sense has been attained, but it still remains for people to enter into that rest.

And so obviously you can't think in terms of a day of rest, the Sabbath day. You cannot think in terms of a land of rest, the land of Canaan. You must think in terms of a heavenly rest, a heavenly Canaan, a heavenly Sabbath, which goes on forever and forever and forever, amen. Both of the rests pictured previously, the seventh day of Genesis 2, and the land of Canaan promise of Exodus and repeated in Psalm 95, both of these picture a greater rest, an ultimate rest, a spiritual rest, a heavenly rest. And so we are told here about this promised rest, that God's rest continues to be shared with him by those who trust him, and that God's rest remains open to his people and has remained open to his people since the work of creation was finished. That rest, we are told back in verse 3, was established from the creation of the world.

And God has been declaring the promise of this rest ever since. And the rest which God promised to the people of Israel, though it spoke of Canaan, even that was speaking of a greater rest. Their belief in the promises of God in regard to Canaan also would have been faith in the promises of God regarding salvation, eternal salvation. And their unbelief in the promises of God in regard to entering Canaan were an indication of their unbelief in the promises of God concerning eternal salvation.

But the promise remains. It's still extended since verse 6, it therefore remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. And so in verse 6 we have the promise extended, but we also have another declaration of the promise forfeited, which has been mentioned several times. To those to whom it was first preached did not enter in because of disobedience. The Old Testament Israelites in the wilderness failed to obey, and they failed to obey because they failed to believe. That's the connection between those who did not obey not earning his rest, chapter 3 verse 18, and those who did not believe not entering his rest, chapter 3 verse 19. They failed to obey because they failed to believe. Faith is at the root. Obedience is the fruit. But they go together. Even though they're not the same thing, they go together. Unbelief is manifested in disobedience.

We can look at it this way. The Israelites had, those who did not believe, had an unfinished work. They were rescued out of Egypt and started the journey in the promised land for the purpose of arriving in Canaan, their promised rest, earthly rest, but they did not complete the journey. Their rest was never realized. Their work was never completed. They didn't get there because they didn't believe.

And what the writer of Hebrews is saying to the people he's writing to, who you remember were Jewish professing Christians, some of whom were being tempted to turn back from Christ back to the old covenant, and the writer of Hebrews is saying, don't let your Christian profession, your Christian journey, be unfinished like their journey was unfinished. They got out of Egypt successfully. They got into the promised land or into the wilderness successfully, but they did not arrive successfully. Their work was not completed. It was cut short because of unbelief. Now, in God's work of creation, his work was finished. It was completed.

He entered into his rest. And your work of Christian profession can be completed by faith all the way to the end, but make sure that it is. Don't let something that has started be cut short, be aborted, be unfinished. Don't fail to arrive at your heavenly rest because of your unbelief. But some must enter it. The promise is guaranteed that some must enter in.

And there are similar passages in God's word along these very lines. You remember, no doubt, the parable that Jesus told about the wedding feast that the king gave and sent out invitations and people started making excuses. Well, I'm sorry, I've bought a yoke of oxen and I haven't tested them out. I bought a car and I didn't test drive it.

Now I've got to go test drive it now that I've already bought it, you idiot. I can't come because I married a wife. Oh boy, I won't describe that particular one. But all these people who began to make excuses after excuses after excuses why they could not accept the invitation that was extended to them. So what did the king say? He said, These shall not taste of my feast.

Go out on the highways and hedges. Gather up everybody you can find for my house must be full. My banquet house must be full.

It will be full. I've prepared it for a great host and a great host will come. So those to whom the invitation was first extended were denied because they didn't accept it. Others who initially had no thought that they would even hear such a gracious invitation had that invitation extended to them and they accepted it and they benefited from it. They came into the banquet hall.

They entered the feast. They received this wonderful promise that was denied to those to whom it was first proclaimed. We have something similar in the book of Acts chapter 13 as Paul and his team have come to Antioch-Pasidia on the first missionary journey. And they were preaching in the synagogue and they were getting a rough reception and then Paul and Barnabas drew bold in verse 46 and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you Jews in the synagogue first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

That's a recurring theme, isn't it? Those we might say for whom the promise was prepared and to whom the invitation was first proclaimed did not believe and were denied entrance. Others that at first seemed to have no hope of such a promise being extended to them. Nevertheless, when the gospel came in Christ Jesus, it went out to the ends of the earth and many who had never thought of any relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob heard this wonderful message of salvation for those who will believe it and they entered in. And so Jews for whom it was prepared were denied entrance and Gentiles who seemed like it had not been prepared for them, though in fact it had, but only the secret counsels of God made that clear. But now it was clear for everyone and Gentiles were invited in and they came. They were brought in and now the banquet hall is filled with a handful of Jews who believe and a multitude of Gentiles who believe because there will be people there. Since therefore it remains that some must enter it.

Some must and therefore some will. Old Testament Israel in the wilderness did not enter it, but others have. Some will not enter it in our day. Some of the Hebrews that started down that path have turned back.

They turn out to be thorny ground hearers and stony ground hearers. They will not enter it, but others will hear and will enter in because God will have a people. God will have a host. Christ will have a bride, a large bride, a bride made up of a multitude of people from every tongue and tribe and nation. And that will happen.

It's guaranteed it must take place. Those who do not believe will be shut out. Those who do believe will enter in.

Which category are you in? Those who are shut out because of unbelief. Those who have been received in because of faith. And it brings us finally to attained rest in verse 7. 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. He's quoting again from Psalm 95.

That's why he says again. Again back to our big text quoted in chapter 3, that extended text from Psalm 95, the whole second half of that Psalm, again I return to it, and again in that Psalm 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. There is a day of promised attainment. A day fixed by God, unknown to man. A day of opportunity to obtain this promised rest. Which turns out as we understand more of what this today means, a day which is different for each individual.

Your today may be different from my today and my today may be different from somebody else's today, but there is a today. There is a day of promised attainment, for God has designated a certain day, which allows entrance into this promised rest for those who hear his voice on that day. It is a day of promised attainment.

It is a season of promised attainment. Today saying through David after so long a time, just as it has been said. There was the original promise of attainment said to Old Testament Israel in Exodus, today is your day, enter in.

And they came right up to the border and they said no we will not enter in, and there today came to an end. It was promised to Old Testament Israel, it was promised again to the people of David's day. David by the Spirit of God is writing in Psalm 95 and he says you have it today too.

If you will believe you can enter in to God's eternal rest. Even after this long time from the promise to the children of Israel in the wilderness, to the proclamation of David to the people of his day was somewhere between 450 and 500 years. Yes indeed, today after so long a time this promise is still open. A season of promised attainment, the repeated promise of attainment, is yet another day of opportunity to the Hebrews. Now hundreds of years after David spoke to the Hebrews, God through his designated prophet is saying today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, you too shall obtain this rest if you will respond on your today. And yes there is yet another day of opportunity to us 2,000 years after the writer of Hebrews spoke, the Holy Spirit of God put this in the scriptures so that we could hear it, we could read it, we could have it today. Israel had it today in the wilderness. The people of David's day had it today as they were hearing these promises.

The people in the first century, the Hebrews had it today, in which they could believe the word of God and enter into his rest. And you and I by God's gracious extension have a today even now in the 21st century. This is not only a day of promised attainment, today if you will hear his voice, but it's a season of promised attainment that has extended for centuries, yes for millennium by the grace of God, but there's an urgency to it.

Even though it is extended and even though it is expanded, it is not indefinite. Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Again quoting from Psalm 95 verses 7 and 8. Yes, a gracious invitation has been extended, but a limited invitation has been indicated. It's possible to close the door on this today if you will hear his voice, if you harden your heart, if you will not believe. An extended invitation becomes a lost invitation, and the reason for failure to attain it is clearly stated. It is because of a hardened heart of unbelief.

That's more common I think than most people realize. Today is the only opportunity you can be certain of. You are hearing the gracious invitation today.

By God's appointment today is a day, a today for you if you will hear it, if you will believe it, but it's the only opportunity that you can be certain of. In the wilderness those who presume themselves to be safe, after all they're the seed of Abraham, after all they had been miraculously rescued with great power and wonders out of the land of Egypt. Surely they could not fail to attain the promise.

Yes, they did. They hardened their hearts in unbelief. They died in the wilderness. They didn't enter Canaan. They didn't enter God's eternal rest. Their today was cut off by the hardness of an unbelieving heart.

Those who presumed themselves safe were excluded by their unbelief. Could that happen to us? Could that happen to you as you hear God's promise of eternal rest extended to those who trust in Jesus Christ?

Have you? Are you hardening your heart? Are you presuming upon God's grace? There will always be another opportunity. There will always be another time. There will always be another today.

I'm not ready yet, but I'll do it later. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your heart. You have no promise of tomorrow. Do not ignore these warnings. Humble yourself now, today, in believing obedient faith. That, I suppose, is one of the pluses out of many minuses for an altar call.

At least it puts that pressure on you. You've got to respond now. Do it now. Come now. Walk the aisle now.

Well, it's not a matter of walking an aisle. It's a matter of believing in your heart. Believe now. Don't harden your heart now. Don't shut out the Word of God now, because your today may not be tomorrow. There's no promise that it shall be. It's possible that God will give you another today, tomorrow, but you don't know that. You've got a today, today, and no promise of any time beyond today.

Today, if you will hear his voice. And so, once again, this brings us to important lessons regarding faith and works and how this is related one to the other. And if it sounds like I'm repeating, it's because the Scripture is repeating, the passage is repeating the same lessons over and over. Faith and works are not to be confused.

You need to understand them separately. Faith and works are not to be conflated. Faith is not works and works is not faith. But faith and works are also not to be separated. And this passage makes that very clear.

There is a necessary, there is an inevitable relationship between faith and works. Who didn't enter into the promised land? Those who did not obey. Who did not enter into the promised land? Those who did not believe. Their disobedience was the outward manifestation of the inward unbelief of their hearts.

So faith and works cannot be biblically separated, though they often are so separated in our minds that we think that if I said I believe, I can live any way I want to and I'm still going to heaven. You have no biblical promise of that. You have no biblical warrant for that. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Your life must be different than it was before. Your attitude toward God and his commands on your life must be different than they were before. If they are not, whatever you may say, you have not truly believed. Because true faith ushers forth in the fruit of obedience.

And so this must not be ignored. Don't presume that you have believed. If your life does not manifest, and listen to me carefully now, here's the key. If your life does not manifest an obedient spirit, an obedient attitude, an attitude that is different from unconverted people, a different attitude than what you had before you were saved. If you were saved late enough in life to remember what your attitude was like before you were saved. A desire to please the Lord. That's the attitude we're talking about. That's the spirit. A desire to obey all his commands.

Do you obey them all perfectly? No, you do not. Don't lie. Don't deceive yourself.

No, you do not. But you want to. If you have truly believed, you have a changed heart, you're wrestling with that old Adamic nature, and it's going to hang on to you until the day of your death when you're going to be fully sanctified. But you still have that overwhelming desire given to you by Christ and by his indwelling spirit. I want to obey. I want to please the Lord. I don't want to sin.

A desire to obey what God commands. Not pick and choose what you like and what you agree with. That's the old attitude.

That's the old Adamic attitude. I decide what I will and won't do. I decide what to believe and not to believe. I decide what I'm going to obey and not obey.

But when you have been born again by the Spirit of God, when you have true saving faith, your attitude is, oh Lord, help me to obey everything that you have told me to do. And yes, when I stumble and fall and fail, I acknowledge it as failure. I confess it. I don't justify it. I don't excuse it.

I don't ignore it. I come to you for help, for cleansing and for help that I might obey in the days to come. That's the attitude of a believing heart. And finally, a few words about this promise, eternal rest. Prepared, we are told in this passage, by God from the beginning, at the beginning of creation, but denied to some to whom the promise was first proclaimed. It was forfeited by some who presumed they had attained it. But that promise was extended by God over many centuries and still is extending it today.

And that's why we believe in worldwide missions and we help people go to the ends of the earth, proclaiming the gospel, extending this promise to the ends of the world, because God has extended it and therefore we must enter into this work. But, and here's the bottom line, anything short of immediate and joyful acceptance is dangerous. It's dangerous to your soul.

You may not have another today. And it's an insult to God Almighty who has so graciously and at such great expense extended this offer of eternal rest to you. Let's pray. Father, seal the message of this portion of your word to every heart in life, according to the need that you know to be there. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.