Hebrews 4:1-13 Let Us Enter God's Rest!

Where Moses gave Israel the Law and inaugurated the Old Covenant, Jesus came, as God-incarnate, to fulfill all the obligations of the Law on behalf of his people and inaugurate the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant basically said keep the Law and you will live, disobey and you will die.

This posed a huge problem for us because God’s Law is a reflection of his perfect holiness, and because of our sin, none of us could obey God’s law perfectly like his holiness demands.

In this New Covenant between God and his people, God promises to forgive all of our sins through Christ’s life, death and resurrection and save us from God’s judgment.

As a result, all of us deserved to die under God’s wrath for our sin.

But enter Jesus. He came and perfectly obeyed the law of God on our behalf and paid for our sins in his death on the cross, and thus inaugurated a New Covenant between God and his people.

And in this Covenant, God promised to forgive all of our sins through Christ and save us from his wrath.

And the Author of Hebrews says that we receive the blessings of this New Covenant through faith in Jesus.

This then led the Author in to make an important distinction between a true faith that saves and a false faith that deceives.

The Hebrews were being persecuted for their faith in Christ, and because of this persecution, they were beginning to wonder if it would be better to give up on following Jesus and go back to Judaism.

So the Author quotes to encourage the Hebrews that true faith, the kind of faith that saves us from the wrath of God, doesn’t turn back and give up on following Christ. Instead it perseveres.

And he does this by reminding the Hebrews about a crucial point in Israel’s history where they gave up on their faith, and suffered God’s judgement for it.

Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.” 11 As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest."

Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for forty years.

10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

Now if you’ll remember from last week, the force of this passage, when he says They always go astray in their heart and They shall not enter my rest is a reference to and 14 when Israel rebelled against God and refused to trust his promise to give them the Promised Land.

and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.’

11 As I swore in my wrath,

Basically what happened is after God delivered Israel from Egypt by parting the Red Sea, he gave them the Law and confirmed his promise to bring them into the Promised Land where he would bless them and give them rest from all their enemies if they kept his covenant.

‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

So when the Israelites came to the border of the Promised Land, they sent spies into the land for 40 days.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

The spies came back and told the people of Israel that the Land was more incredible than they ever imagined. It was a land of blessing flowing with milk and honey.

There was only one problem. The people who lived there were strong. And the spies said they were too strong for Israel to fight, and if they went to war with the people in the Land, then they would surely die.

And all but two of the spies confirmed this report, and this led Israel into a panic. They lost faith. They believed God had lied to them. That He wasn’t with them. He wasn’t able to give them the Promised Land like he had said. So they decided to pack up and go back to Egypt.

And this led God to swear another promise to his people. And that promise was that the Israelites who saw God’s faithfulness time and again when he delivered them out of Egypt would never enter the rest of his Promised Land because they had hardened their hearts and gave into unbelief.

So God sent Israel into the wilderness for 40 years where instead of getting to enjoy the blessing of all God’s promises in a land flowing with milk and honey, the Exodus generation died off in a barren wasteland, under God’s judgement.

And the Author of Hebrews used this Psalm to make a very clear point to the church he was writing to. Don’t be like the Exodus generation.

Don’t lose faith when you are so close to receiving the promise of God’s heavenly rest, but keep going, keep trusting, persevere in Christ to the end and you will be saved!

And now, in , the Author continues to encourage the Hebrews to persevere by showing them that God is still inviting people to enter the rest of his salvation, and this rest is theirs if they have faith in Christ and persevere.

What I want you to see in this passage, what I want you to take away from this sermon is this. We enter God’s rest of salvation through faith in Christ, and him alone.

And we will begin to study this passage with point number 1 of this sermon...

I. We Enter God’s Rest by Faith in Christ

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. 2 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.

That Therefore is there to remind the Hebrews of Israel’s failure to enter God’s rest from which says So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

The Author’s main concern is that the Hebrews would not give up and turn back to Judaism like the Exodus generation gave up and turned back to Egypt, but that the they would continue to hold on to their faith in Christ so that they wouldn’t find themselves outside of God’s rest.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

And it might be helpful here to explicitly define what that rest is.

For the Exodus generation, God’s rest meant entering the land of Canaan where Israel would be a nation that was free from the oppression of their enemies, under God’s blessing, where they would live in perfect peace as his holy people.

However, this rest was just a type, just a picture of the true rest that God ultimately had in store for his people. So the Author of Hebrews gives God’s rest a bigger meaning.

The Promised Land was just a picture of what God’s rest would ultimately look like in Christ. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the people of God don’t experience God’s rest as a piece of real estate. Now, we experience God’s rest as the fullness of salvation in Christ.

That was just a picture, just a foreshadowing of what God would ultimately accomplish for his people.

In light of Christ, and his life, death, and resurrection, we must now see God’s rest not just as the Promised Land, but as the fullness of salvation.

That Because of Christ, God’s heavenly rest is the New Jerusalem. It is heaven. The place of God’s blessing and redemption where all things that are broken now in this world because of our sin will be made new.

And we, as the New Covenant people of God, will live with God and worship him forever, free from every speck of sin. This is the rest we are hoping for.

And something that most Christians don’t understand about this rest, about salvation, is that the greatest blessing of this salvation is not just forgiveness. Its not just justification where we are declared righteous. Its not our adoption or union with Christ or even heaven itself.

Instead, all of those blessings of salvation just make greatest blessing of salvation, of God’s rest, possible, which is knowing God and enjoying him forever.

That through Christ, we are forgiven of our sin and declared holy all so we can be freed from exchanging the truth about God for a lie, to worship and serve the Creator. To find all our life. All our satisfaction, all of our delight in God and in him alone.

So every time we read about God’s rest in this passage today, that is the hope that you need to be picturing. It is everything God has promised us in Christ. It is that we are freed from sin, to worship God and enjoy Him forever in perfect peace.

And the Author of Hebrews says this promise of entering his rest still stands.

To understand the impact of this statement you need to think like a 1st century Jew.

The Promised Land to them was everything. It was the place where God’s people would live under God’s perfect rule and enjoy peace and security in every area of life.

This is why the Jewish hope for the Messiah was so wrapped up in a King coming to throw out Gentile unbelievers and restore the nation of Israel to the glory of what the Promised Land was supposed to be.

But even after the Exodus generation died, and Joshua led the next generation of Israelites, to conquer the land, they failed to conquer every people in the land like God told them to.

And so even when Israel physically moved in the Promised Land, they never got to enjoy the fullness of God’s rest because of their sin and failure to obey God.

And so every 1st century Jew was waiting on the Messiah to come and make God’s rest a reality.

And the Author writes to these 1st Century Jewish believers and says, the promise to enter God’s rest still stands. The Messiah has come and we can enter God’s rest through faith in Christ.

That’s why he says let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

Because the people of God can still enter his rest through Christ, we must fear. In other words we must be careful. That we must make every effort to hold on to our faith.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

So that none of u

Why? So that none of us will fail to reach God’s rest. That we won’t fall short of the salvation God has promised us in Jesus’ life death and resurrection.

This doesn’t mean you should live your life as a nervous wreck wondering whether or not God actually loves you? All this means is that you must pay careful attention to your faith knowing God’s judgment and wrath await those those who walk away from Christ.

And the reason why the Hebrews are called to fear is because the Exodus generation gave them an example of people who actually did fall short of God’s promised rest.

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.

This is another warning. The Author says the Hebrews are like the Exodus generation because they have heard the good news of salvation.

For the Exodus generation, the good news was that God would be with his people and conquer the Canaanites to give Israel the Promised Land.

And this message was even confirmed to them at the border of the promised land by two of the spies named Joshua and Caleb.

When all the other spies were saying that the Canaanites were too strong and that God would not be able to give them the Land, Joshua and Caleb reminded Israel that God would do as he promised.

That he would destroy the Canaanites, just like he destroyed the Egyptians and would give them the Promised Land.

But Israel refused to listen to the good news. They hardened their hearts and rebelled against God saying, “We are done following the Lord. We want to go back to Egypt.”

The good news that Israel heard did not benefit them. They fell short of God’s promised rest. Why? Because they were not united by faith with those who listened. In other words, the people did not have the faith that Moses, Joshua, and Caleb had to believe that God would give them the Promised Land.

And what’s interesting about the Author’s word choice that we don’t really see in English is the word he used for the message they heard, is the Greek word logos.

Its literally the word. This is a play on words the author is using to set up verse 12 where he will say the word of God is living and active.

In other words, the Author is saying, the good news of God’s promise that the Israelites heard did not benefit them because they did not receive it with faith.

And the good news that the Hebrews have heard is obviously the gospel. Literally gospel in Greek means good news.

And so the author does this to press the Hebrews to ask themselves, am I receiving the Word of God’s promise, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation, with faith or am I hardening my heart to God’s salvation like the Exodus generation?

And this brings up a very important truth for how we are saved.

Because simply hearing the gospel is not enough to save sinners. It is only when we receive the good news of the gospel with faith that we are forgiven of our sins and adopted as God’s sons and daughters.

Because the good news that came to us as the Author of Hebrews says is this.

There is one God, and he created all things in heaven and on earth for one purpose. To glorify his name.

And this God is a holy God.

The OT word used for holy carries the idea that God is separate. That he is wholly different from everything that he has made. That there is nothing like him, but that He is in a class all by himself.

And because there is nothing like him, the glory he has is completely unique with nothing that is able to compare to who he is. He is infinitely valuable in every way and worthy of all glory from all things.

This includes mankind, but instead of giving God the glory due to his name, we rebelled against him and chose to give our love to our sins, effectively saying that God is not holy and is not worthy of our worship.

And because of our sin, God in his holiness had wrath against us.

We deserved to die for rejecting the Living God, the fountain of living waters, the God of all life.

And because God is holy and just, he could not just ignore our sin. His holiness demands payment for our sin and disobedience.

And left to ourselves, we would die as enemies of God only to suffer under his wrath in eternal, conscious torment in Hell.

But the good news of the gospel is that God made a way.

He did not leave us to die in our sins, but out of his love for us, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin and live a sinless life for us.

Where we disobeyed God, Christ perfectly obeyed God on our behalf thus fulfilled all of God’s righteous demands of the Law giving God the glory that is due to his Name.

What that means is that when you put your faith in Jesus, God no longer see you as a sinner. He sees you as someone who has perfectly obeyed him like his Son, Jesus Christ, perfectly obeyed him.

But that’s not all Jesus did. He was betrayed and crucified on a Roman cross. He was flogged, beaten, torn to shreds and bloodied so much so that even his closest friends could no longer recognize him, and God the Father poured out the wrath he had against us and our sin onto his Son.

Paul even says that Jesus bore our curse of death and he became sin on our behalf so that we might be forgiven.

In Jesus’ death, he paid the penalty for our sin under God’s wrath. Jesus died in our place as our substitute so that our debt of sin could be paid and all who trust in him would be saved.

Then, three days later Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven where he is exalted at the right hand of the Father.

And he sent the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin and gives us the faith to believe in this gospel so that we can be born again to follow Christ by walking in the newness of life.

And today Jesus is preparing a place for us. He is preparing heaven so that when we die or Christ returns, we will enjoy God’s rest for all eternity living in his his kingdom where he will make all things new. Jesus will remove every stain and impurity of sin, and bring his people into God’s heavenly Promised Land.

This is the good news of salvation that came to the Hebrews and has come to us.

But if this message is going to benefit us, then we must receive it with faith.

Faith is something more than just intellectually understanding the gospel or even agreeing that it is true.

The Israelites of the Exodus generation surely understood the promises and warnings God gave them about the Promised Land, they likely even agreed that they were true. But they were still shut out, because they did not receive those promises with believing faith.

They did not rest on those promises and believe the Word of God was true.

To receive the gospel with faith means that you stake your life on it. That you believe it in such a way that it actually changes your life. Having faith in Christ means that he is your Lord and Savior and you are his because he died for you.

The scariest part about being a pastor. The reason why the Author of Hebrews was writing this to this church is that people can know the gospel. They can hear it time and again. They can tell you its finer points and implications, and they can even say they believe it

But the fact is, if they do not receive Christ with faith, and then persevere in that faith with him all their life by God’s grace, then they are still dead in their sins and will be shut out of God’s saving rest.

Are you united by faith with those who have listened? Then let us take care, let us fear, lest any one of us should fail to reach God’s salvation in Christ.

Do not be like ancient Israel who received God’s promise of salvation in vain. But take hold of Christ through faith and enter God’s rest while the promise still stands.

Because point number 2...

II. God’s Rest Is Available “Today”

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. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”

“They shall not enter my rest.”

Now this section can get a little confusing with all the quotes from the Old Testament so let me zoom out for you so you can understand what the author is saying.

Basically the key to understanding the link between the three quotations is the word rest.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

The first and the third quote come from which has been the basis for the Author’s argument in chapters 3 and 4.

The middle quote comes from where God rested on the 7th day of creation after creating all things out of nothing.

And the point is to show that the rest God invites his people into today is the same rest that he himself enjoys.

What does that mean?

God rested on the 7th day, not because he was tired and needed a break, but because he had completed his work of Creation.

There was nothing left to be done. God could simply rest in his glory as everything he made praised and glorified him.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

So the big idea of these verses is that God today invites us into his rest, and that rest is the same rest that God himself enjoys.

Namely where like God, we can rest from our works.

We can rest from our works that we use to try to prove our own righteousness and to make up for our sins, and instead rest in Christ’s completed work on our behalf and in that rest we are free to delight in, enjoy, and worship God forever.

And who is it that is invited into that rest? We who have believed. This is the great theme, the big idea of this passage.

It is only those who believe in Christ, who put their faith in him as their substitutionary sacrifice, that have their sins forgiven are are invited into God’s rest.

If we reject the promises of the gospel like the Israelites rejected the promises of God, we will die in the wilderness outside of God’s blessing and rest.

But if we trust in Christ, believing the promise that God will save us from our sins if we only put our faith in Jesus, then we will be saved by God’s grace.

And look how the author of Hebrews says it. For we who have believed enter that rest.

There is a mystery to this. The fullness of God’s rest, the fullness of salvation, is something we are still waiting on heaven for and will not receive until Christ returns.

But in another sense, we get to enjoy this rest here and now. We already have entered his rest because we have been freed from our sin to worship God and can rest in Christ’s finished work for us.

There is nothing left to prove. God has adopted us and set his love on us in Christ because of what Jesus did for us. Not because what you or I do.

When Christ died, he paid the penalty of our sin by suffering God’s wrath in our place.

But more than that, Christ obeyed on our behalf to fulfill all the requirements of God’s holy Law for us as well.

And when we put our faith in Him, the Bible says we get to enjoy the benefits of Christ’s life and death as our own because we are placed in Christ and that he lives in us.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Our being in Christ and Christ living in us are the two primary ways that the New Testament teaches us about the doctrine of our union with Christ.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .This is the doctrine of our union with Christ.

We are made one with him so that his death becomes our death and his life becomes our life. A believer’s union with Christ is the most general way to talk about what Christ accomplished for us in his work.

We are given rest because in Christ he fulfills the work of our obedience that we failed to do, and he also accomplishes the work of our redemption by dying for our sins, paying for our debt and rising again three days later.

And God gives this salvation by his unmerited, amazing, unbelievable grace. There is no work that can earn you forgiveness. The only thing that saves you is faith in Christ.

Salvation is not an issue of working enough to get God to love you. It is entering God’s rest because Christ completed your work on your behalf.

As Jesus said, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Jesus promises to give us rest from the impossible work of trying to earn God’s forgiveness, by saying that he would obey for us and die for us so that his yoke could become our yoke and we could be saved.

Continuing in the book of Hebrews the author says...

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

Verse 6 is a summary of what the author has been saying this whole time. That God is still inviting his people to enter into his rest through faith in Jesus Christ and those that reject the gospel will fail to enter it because of their disobedience.

When he says those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience he is not saying that someone can lose their salvation.

Formerly received does not mean someone who put their faith in Christ. It means someone who simply heard the gospel.

He is not saying that someone can lose their salvation.

So what he is saying is that the only proper response to the hearing the gospel is not hard hearted rebellion, but faith and repentance.

The disobedience he has in mind is not sin in general, but the specific sin of failing to respond to the gospel with faith and repentance.

So what he is saying is that the only proper response to the hearing the gospel is not hard hearted rebellion, but faith and repentance.

And then the author quotes David’s words from again to urge the Hebrews to respond to God’s promise of salvation today.

To take hold of Christ by faith right here, right now, at this moment and never let go.

Because remember, the author of Hebrews clearly believes that true faith, a faith that is effective for salvation, is a faith the perseveres in following Christ.

To take hold of Christ by faith right now, at this moment and never let go.

Because remember, the author of Hebrews clearly believes that true faith, a faith that is effective for salvation, is a faith the perseveres in following Christ.

Perseverance is not a work that earns your salvation, it is a work that gives evidence for your salvation.

Perseverance is not a work that earns salvation, it is a work that gives evidence for true salvation.

God has appointed today for us to enter his rest and respond to the gospel in faith. We cannot allow our hearts to be hardened thinking to ourselves, Tomorrow I can follow Jesus. Tomorrow I can get serious about my faith.

Today is the time of God’s salvation. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Today is the time to enter God’s rest because when Christ returns or you die the invitation to enter his rest will be long gone.

And if true faith is one that perseveres in following Christ day by day, then we cannot risk resting on our laurels but we must make following Christ our first priority every day of our life.

And by the grace of God, the invitation to enter God’s rest is still open. That’s why he says For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

Joshua’s name coming up might seem a little surprising until you remember that the author is trying to show the Hebrews that God has invited them into a greater rest through Christ than he ever gave the people of Israel through Joshua.

After Moses died, Joshua is the one who God chose to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land after the Exodus generation died during the 40 years in the wilderness.

And even though Joshua led the people of Israel into the land of Canaan, he wasn’t able to lead them into God’s promised rest because the people still rebelled against God.

The did not destroy all the pagan nations that lived in the land and instead chose to live alongside them, even worshiping some of their gods.

Because of this, the book of Judges tells us that the people of Israel were constantly harassed by their enemies, and they did not find the “rest” they had hoped for.

But Jesus is the greater Joshua. He is the one who leads God’s people into true spiritual rest through his life, death, and resurrection.

In this way, Joshua was just a type who pointed to Christ. Even Joshua’s name in Greek is the same as Jesus’ name: Iesous. So the author is almost begging the Hebrews to see Jesus as the true Joshua who brings God’s people into their promised rest by saving them from their sins.

Then the Author says...

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

We’ve already discussed how God’s rest is the fullness of his salvation. It is being free from having to work to try to make up for our sins or prove our own righteousness through faith in Christ’s own righteousness and substitutionary death and resurrection.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

What I want to draw your attention to in this verse is what the author means by saying Sabbath rest.

Like circumcision was the sign for the Abrahamic Covenant, and the rainbow was the sign for the Noahic covenant, the Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant.

says that God gave Israel the Sabbath to be a reminder to them that just like God rested on the 7th day and declared it holy, he called Israel to rest from their work knowing that God had declared them to be his holy people by his grace.

In fact he says in that the Sabbath was a sign for Israel to quote know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. That you do not make yourselves holy.

; 12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you...16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

God

So when the Author of Hebrews says that it remains for us to enter God’s Sabbath rest, one of the things he is communicating is that we are able to enter God’s holy rest as his holy people who are fully forgiven of all their sins.

The other interesting thing the author does is he does not use the normal Greek word for Sabbath, which is sabbaton. Instead, he uses the word sabbatismos which stresses the act of joyfully celebrating God with praise and adoration.

By doing this, the author is reminding us that when we enter God’s rest, it is with joyful celebration where we will get to enjoy God forever. Where we will find all our desires, all our life, all of our delight in worshiping God as he created us to.

And because the author says whoever has entered God’s rest in verse 10, this isn’t just something we are waiting for heaven to enjoy, but again, in a very real sense we get to enjoy part of this Sabbath rest here and now because we have been given eternal life in Christ.

And since the author says that God’s rest is still open today for all who would believe, he closes this section by encouraging us to...

III. Let Us Strive to Enter His Rest

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Its interesting that the Author calls the Hebrews to strive to enter that rest because his whole point in this passage is that we can’t enter God’s rest by our works. There is no amount of striving that can forgive our sins. The only thing that can wash us clean is faith in Jesus and his sacrificial blood.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

So what does the author mean? Is he contradicting what he just said a few verses earlier? No. The exhortation is to strive, to make every effort to enter God’s rest by resting in Christ and his gospel.

The call to strive presupposes that we can only enter through faith.

Instead, he is encouraging the Hebrews to make sure that what happened to the Exodus generation doesn’t happen to them. He wants them to make every effort to keep trusting in Christ so that they do not harden their hearts in unbelief and fall short of God’s rest.

This is because the faith that saves is the faith that perseveres in following Christ to the end.

By striving to enter God’s rest, all the author of Hebrews means is to live with an active faith where we are making every effort to live for Christ and glorify him.

In doing so, our perseverance doesn’t earn our salvation but it is proof that we truly have salvation to begin with.

So there is a mystery. Yes, we enter God’s rest by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, but we also are called make every effort to enter that rest because striving to follow Christ faithfully is how we know we’ve been truly saved in the first place.

The big idea here is are you striving to enter God’s rest? Are you making every effort to follow Christ faithfully in every area of your life?

If so, keep going. Keep persevering and you will enter God’s rest.

If not, you need to look at your life and ask yourself are you really a follower of Christ?

Maybe you have been deceived about your salvation and realize that you are still trying to earn God’s forgiveness instead of resting in the gospel for salvation. If that is you, then today, place your faith in Jesus and enter God’s rest.

The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.

Or maybe you are a Christian. And you realize that your life doesn’t reflect a life of faith in the gospel. Then your call today is to repent and come to Christ knowing that he will always forgive and begin striving after Christ today as Hebrews says.

Because there is great danger in ignoring God’s promise of salvation in Christ.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

This is one of the most famous verses in all of Scripture and yet many Christians don’t exactly know what it means.

When the Author says For, that means this is the reason why we are commanded to strive to enter God’s rest, and that is that the word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword.

For the Author the Word of God refers immediately to that he has been explaining the last two chapters, but given his understanding that all Scripture is the literal Word of God, this also includes all the Bible as well.

But in 2:3, he also talked about the message, which in Greek literally means the Word, that was declared by the Lord so the Word of God must also include the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Basically, the Word of God points to the entirety of God’s revelation: all the Scriptures, Christ’s Incarnation, and the gospel that was preached by Christ is now preached in his church.

And this Word is living and active. Another word for active is effective or powerful. Meaning it is wholly and surely true and accomplishes everything God intends.

In other words, the promises of God’s Word are absolutely sure, whether they are promises of judgement or promises of salvation.

And because God’s word is surely true, we can be assured that we will not enter God’s rest without faith in his Word, Jesus Christ, but that through faith, we can trust that we will be saved.

This is why the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Literally it is sharper than the sharpest sword that brings blessing to those who receive it with faith and pronounces judgment on those who ignore it. That’s the double edged idea.

Because those who ignore God’s Word, God’s promise of salvation in Christ and in him alone, will discover that God’s Word is not only the message of Salvation, but it is also a lethal weapon that will bring their judgment and condemnation for sin.

And the author gets this idea of God’s Word as a sword from . After God swore that the Exodus generation would not enter his rest, the people ignored God and rallied for war.

In , after God swore that the Exodus generation would not enter his rest, the people ignored God and rallied for war.

They went into the Land and fought the Amalekites and the Canaanites and were defeated and cut down by the sword just like God had promised.

In the same way, those who ignore God’s Word, and try to enter God’s rest on the basis of their good works or some righteousness other than the righteousness that only comes through faith in Christ, they will be shut out of heaven and cut down in God’s wrath.

God’s Word, the gospel of Jesus Christ, surely has the power to save for those who listen and receive it with faith. But those that don’t remain dead in their sins, under God’s wrath.

The Word of God is a lethal weapon that cuts through the sin and darkness of our hearts to show us us who we really are. We are rebellious sinners who deserve God’s holy judgment and wrath and are in desperate need of a Savior. This is why the Word pierces the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

But if we receive the Word with faith, then the same Word that exposes all of our sin and guilt and shame, also covers us with the blood of Christ that cleanses us and atones for our sins.

But if someone ignores God’s Word, ignores God’s promise of salvation in Christ, they will be exposed to God’s wrath when they stand before the Lord at the end of this life and face his judgement.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

God knows everything about everyone he has ever made. There is no sin that is hidden from his sight and every person is naked and exposed before him.

The word translated as exposed is a wrestling term used to describe taking your opponent by the throat so they are completely helpless and are at your mercy.

And that is all of us before God, naked and helpless at his mercy.

Make no mistake. Every single person that has ever lived will stand before God and give an account for their life.

And those who do not have faith in Christ will be cast out naked and exposed to suffer God’s wrath in hell where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But the good news of the gospel is that that in Christ, we will not stand before God naked and exposed. Instead we will stand before him clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Like the prodigal son who is covered in his Father’s best robe, we will be dressed in Christ’s perfect holiness and perfect righteousness as the sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

That word put on literally means to dress or clothe oneself.

And someone who has been baptized is someone who has made a public commitment to follow Christ as Lord and Savior, and through that faith they have been clothed in Christ.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Through faith, we do not have to fear God’s holy judgment. Instead we can have confidence that God loves us and has forgiven us of all our sins and that we will enter God’s rest because God’s Word is surely true.

Application:

1. Believe the Gospel

2. Persevere in Faith

3. Share the Good News of Salvation

Conclusion

Through his sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection, Jesus is the greater Joshua who leads his people into God’s heavenly Promised Land to worship him and enjoy his rest.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

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