Hebrews 4
Questions answered from Hebrews 4
Short answers from Always Ready that cite this chapter
Chuck Smith on Hebrews 4
Verse by verse, the C2000 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
Verses 1-16
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 ( Hebrews 4:1 ).
As you look at your own heart tonight, is it at rest? Have you entered into the rest of God? Do you have that deep peace of Christ tonight filling your mind, your heart, and your life? Or is there anxiety, strife, turmoil, unrest? What is the condition of your heart tonight? Let us beware, let us be careful. God has given us the promise of rest. Let's take heed that we enter into that rest, for it is very possible that even though God has a rest and is desiring you to come into that rest, it is possible that you don't know or experience that rest that God would have you to know and experience in Christ. Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, 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." ( Matthew 11:28-30 ). Have you found that rest for your soul? Are you resting in Jesus tonight? That's the issue, for there are many who are not. There are many Christians who do not know that rest in Christ, but are still laboring under a works ethic in order to be pleasing unto God. Or just who through unbelief have not made that total commitment of their life and the affairs of their life unto Him, knowing that He is faithful and will keep that which I've committed, but they haven't made that commitment. And thus, they do not know the rest
For unto us was the good news preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard it ( Hebrews 4:2 ).
God has promised a rest. I've got to believe that. I enter into it by faith. If I don't by faith enter into it then I will remain in my mental turmoil and strife. Do you believe that God wants you to experience His rest? Do you believe that God is in control of your life? Do you believe that God loves you? If you believe these things then you have entered into that rest, because after all, why should I worry, God is in control. God will take care of it. The way we sometimes act, you would think that God has abdicated the throne, that He wasn't in control any more. But God is in control if you have surrendered and submitted your life to Him. You have to just believe Him and trust Him knowing that He is able to take care of you.
For we which have believed do enter into the rest ( Hebrews 4:3 ),
And that is the key to entering into the rest. It is the rest that can only come through faith. Now, a lot of people say, "But it's so hard to rest in faith. It would be a lot easier to rest if God would just show me what He is doing. If God would just explain to me why He has allowed this to happen to me and what He is going to work out of it, the good that is going to come from it. If I could just see that, then I could probably rest more easily. It's hard to rest in faith." You may find it hard to rest in faith, but the only place you'll ever rest is in faith. You cannot rest in your works, in your skills, in your efforts. Never will you find rest until you come to that rest of faith. "Lord, I've committed it completely unto You. I can't do anything about it, Lord. I have no control over these circumstances, Lord. I turn it over to You and I place it in Your hands, God, and I'm just going to trust You and I'm going to watch and see what You do, knowing that You've promised that You will work. I'm just going to believe You, Lord, to just work out a perfect plan in my life and in the circumstances by which I am surrounded." And so, I rest. And in complete commitment is complete rest, that total commitment and abandonment to God is the place of perfect peace. And God will keep you in perfect peace if your mind is stayed on Him.
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world ( Hebrews 4:3 ).
Now, as far as the works are concerned, they have been wrought by God. All I am to do is to believe the work of God. "What must we do," they said to Jesus, "to do the work of God?" And Jesus said, "This is the work of God: believe on Him who He has sent." ( John 6:28-29 ). It is a finished work that Christ has accomplished for us. You cannot add one thing to your salvation. You cannot add one thing to your acceptance by God. He has accepted you in and through the finished work of Jesus Christ. You cannot add to your righteousness. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, "Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should so soon turn from the truth? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now going to be made perfect in the flesh?" ( Galatians 3:1-3 )
As the children of Israel began a spiritual relationship with God, being brought out of Egypt by the power of God, now they thought that by their own efforts they were going to have to go in and take the land. And thinking that by their own works they had to take the land, they looked at the giants and they looked at the problems and they said, "We can't do it." Thus, they failed to enter into the rest.
There are so many Christians delivered miraculously by the power of God's Spirit from the life of sin. And now God holds before them this full rich life in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, walking after the Spirit, walking in a life of complete obedience unto God, and they say, "Oh, I could never do that. That's beyond my capacity. I can't be that good." Having begun in the Spirit, somehow they think that God has said, "All right, you see what you can do from here on." They even quote you that verse of scripture, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" ( Philippians 2:12 ). And oh how that scripture used to shake me up. I had that preached to me so long. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," but they never completed the scripture, "for it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Don't quote a half a verse. You don't have the whole truth in half a verse. When you finish the verse, it makes all the difference in the world. It takes it off me and puts it on Him. It takes it off of my strength and puts it on His, my abilities and it puts it on His. It is God who is working in me, both to will and to do. I don't have it. I can't do it. But God is able to do for me what I can't do for myself.
So, I am believing and trusting God to do it. I am resting in God, and as I rest in God, I have that glorious peace within. Hey! I'm not perfect, not by a long shot, but I'm on the way. God is working. He is able to do what I can't do for myself. Having begun in the Spirit, I must remain in the Spirit. Walking after the Spirit, yielding to the Spirit that God might work. But in the meantime, I am resting. So I fail, so I rest. God is able to make me to stand. He is able to keep me from falling. I am believing Him and trusting Him. Resting in Him and in His finished work.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all of his works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest ( Hebrews 4:4-5 ).
Now, God rested on the seventh day from all of His works, that is, His creative works, because the creation was finished. Once the creation was finished there was no longer the necessity for creative works, so God rested from His creative works on the seventh day. Now, God established, then, the Sabbath Day. He said, "Six days shalt thou labor and do thy work, and the seventh day is the day of rest" ( Exodus 23:12 ), because the Lord rested on the Sabbath day.
Now this Sabbath day rest that was established in the law by Moses was a type of the rest that the believer is to experience in Jesus Christ. The problem is they made a work out of the Sabbath day rest, and you ought to see how they work at it today. It's a real task to keep that Sabbath day rest. And it really takes working at it. They've made all kinds of rules and regulations concerning the Sabbath day rest. "Thou shalt not bear any burden on the Sabbath day." What constitutes bearing a burden? Well, false teeth are something that you carry, so you can't wear your false teeth on the Sabbath day. I suppose false eyelashes would fall into the same category, but the rabbis really didn't have to deal with them. You're not to use money on the Sabbath day to buy or sell, but a nice little convenience--you can use a credit card. You're not paying for it today. There is some kind of mental imbalance with credit cards where you think you are not paying. It sure is a lot easier to shove the card across the counter than it is the bucks, isn't it? Somehow you got the feeling that you're not paying for it. It's just a card.
But that Sabbath day was only a shadow of the rest that the people of God should experience in Jesus Christ. The substance is of Christ. "Therefore let no man judge you in respect to new moon, Sabbath days and so forth, which all were a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Jesus" ( Colossians 2:16-17 ).
There are those today who would judge us because of the Sabbath day. There are those that would even introduce the Sabbath day worship to the church, and introduce the laws of the worship on the Sabbath day to the church. But if you are going to seek to be justified by the law, you better also realize the curse that is involved with it, because it says, "Cursed is every man who continues not in the whole law to do all of the things that are written therein" ( Galatians 3:10 ).
Now one of the things on the Sabbath that you could not do was kindle a fire. The minute you turned the ignition switch on in your car you are kindling a fire. That little spark that ignites the fuel in the cylinder, you're kindling a fire. You can't turn on a light switch. It's kindling a fire within the bulb.
Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached did not enter in because of unbelief: again, he limited a certain day, saying to David, Today ( Hebrews 4:6-7 ),
Notice through the text there has been today, today, today, today, today, some five times or so. The emphasis is upon today. So he limited it to a certain day. Through David in Psalm 95 , he said, "Today." And this was a long time after their failure in the wilderness. They had still not entered into the rest. God was still speaking of the day that they could, long after their failures.
after so long a time; it says, Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts ( Hebrews 4:7 ).
So David was pleading with the people of his day. Today, hear God's voice. Don't harden your hearts. Don't follow the example of those in the wilderness.
Now this is Joshua. It is the Greek translation of Joshua and it is a reference to Joshua who took over after Moses' death. Again, one of their great leaders.
If [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not have afterward have spoken of another day [in which they could enter into that rest] ( Hebrews 4:8 ).
Joshua, who brought them into the land, did not bring them into the rest. And that is an interesting thing. There are even those that have come into the Land of Promise who still haven't entered into the rest, the rest that God wants you to experience as His child. The rest in the completed finished work of Jesus Christ for our righteous standing before God. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." I am resting in Him. He has done the work of salvation for me. He paid the price for my sins. He is the one who has made me righteous by my faith and trust in Him. It is a completed, finished work. There is nothing that I can add to it to compliment it. It is once and for all accomplished for me by Him. Now, I have to by faith believe that, and enter into the rest. If I don't believe it, I can go on in my efforts, in my struggles, in my strivings, in my endeavors, and in all of these works that I seek to do in my fervid desire and activity to try to be better or to improve my relationship with God by my efforts. Or I can just simply believe that Jesus did it all and enter into the rest of faith. "For if Joshua had given them rest then he wouldn't have spoken of another day."
There remains therefore a rest to the people of God ( Hebrews 4:9 ).
For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his ( Hebrews 4:10 ).
Once the work was finished, God ceased. He rested the seventh day. Once the work of redemption was finished by Jesus Christ, God rested as far as man's redemption is concerned. Jesus said, "I came to do the will of Father, and to finish His work," ( John 4:34 ) the work of redemption for man. And on the cross, it was finished. He cried, "It is finished." Man's redemption is complete.
Now, if we have entered into His rest and we have ceased from our own works, even as God did from His, there is nothing that God will do now to save you more than what He has already done in providing the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. And now it is up to you to believe and to accept that which God has provided, the perfect and complete work of salvation and acceptance before God, and our endeavor and labor to be accepted by God. We are accepted in Christ. As Paul said, one of the blessings is we are accepted in the beloved.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest ( Hebrews 4:11 ),
Hey, there is a rest. Let us labor to enter into it. Let's work at it entering into it, because Satan is going to challenge you at every step. "You can't do it. You can't live that kind of a life. You can't live a life of purity and righteousness and holiness." That's His work in me as I believe and trust in Him. He is able to do for me what I can't do for myself. I must believe and trust in Him to do it. No, I can't myself, but through Him I can. I can be all that God would have me to be through the work of Jesus Christ within my heart and life. "Therefore let us labor." I have to really work at it because Satan is constantly challenging my position of faith and trust in Jesus. Satan would come along and bring turmoil again into my heart. He would keep me in a state of restlessness, as he would encourage me in my endeavors and works, because he knows that I will fail. Anything I try in my flesh is going to fail. I think that Satan is behind the incentives for every fleshly endeavor, because he knows that all you can do in your flesh is fail, and then you get discouraged and upset and you lose your rest and peace in Christ. Oh, how important that we labor to enter into that rest.
lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief ( Hebrews 4:11 ).