Entering God’s Rest
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 11 August 2024
So now we get to the subject of entering God’s rest. Because this is so important to your understanding of the Word of God. Now, as we approach Hebrews 4, we are right in the middle of a warning that began in Hebrews 3:7. They’re in great danger of going back to Judaism. Now, this is important because there are many people who have begun to turn from their former way of life.
And so in Hebrews 3:7, we saw the tragedy of not making that decision for Jesus Christ. Now, this warning runs from 3:7 through 4:13. Hebrews 3:7 says, “Today, do not harden your hearts.” And in Hebrews 4:7 again, “Today, don’t harden your hearts.” And the illustration is ‘don’t harden your hearts like Israel did’. They began to go toward the Promised Land, but they did not believe God.
Therefore, they never did enter in to the full rest of Canaan. Do not be taken away from the old life but never commit yourself to that new relationship with Jesus Christ. And the longer you hang around, the more you hear the Gospel, the easier it is to reject it. And pretty soon you find one day you wake up to realize that your heart is hardened. You have an evil heart of unbelief.
And the word rest used back there in Psalm 95, which is being quoted here, means to enter the land of Canaan. It’s the rest of finally getting into your own land, not being persecuted, not being killed, and not being made slaves. And they never entered into that promised rest because of unbelief. That’s the principle of this passage. Nobody experiences God’s rest apart from faith.
Now, in Numbers 14:22 - 23 God says, “None of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested Me these ten times and did not obey Me, 23 will ever see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have despised Me will see it.” And the Bible says that their carcasses would die in the wilderness.
Even under Joshua when the younger generation went in, they did not enjoy the full rest that God had planned for them. Because when they got into the land, instead of doing what God told them to do and believing God in obedient faith, they rejected God’s orders. So God said, “Because of that, I’m going to drive you back out of the land.” And that’s exactly what He did at a later time.
So, there was no rest in either Moses’ case or Joshua’s case. But there is still a rest available. The rest of Canaan pictures a divine spiritual rest that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. It’s a picture of salvation rest that is still available. God has an eternal rest. And it takes a greater than Moses and a greater than Joshua to make it a reality. And that greater than both is Jesus Himself.
First of all, the dictionary defines rest as “ceasing from action or motion.” You stop doing what you’re doing. It means to stop from labor or exertion. Now, applying that to God’s rest, it means no more self-effort. No more trying to please God by your feeble, fleshly works. And the moment you enter into God’s rest, works cease as a way to please God. It is a rest in free grace.
Secondly, to rest means to be free from whatever hassles you, from whatever disturbs you, from whatever creates worries in your mind. It means, in this sense, to be quiet, to be still, to be peaceful, to be free from guilt and the things which drive us to neurosis or psychosis. And so we would say that to enter God’s rest simply means to be at peace with God. It means to be free from guilt.
It means no need to worry about sin, because sin is forgiven by what Christ did for all that believe and we’re at rest all of a sudden. No more anxiety. No more pressure. No more guilt. Peace. So, God’s rest involves a rest in the total forgiveness of God. Thirdly, the dictionary defined rest as “to lie down, to be settled, or to be fixed.” No more flow. No more shifting around.
God’s rest is the kind of rest where a man is positionally established in Christ. No more being blown about by every wind of doctrine. No more floating over to this and floating over to that. He is established. He is grounded, unmovable. That’s rest. Fourthly, rest in the dictionary is to remain confident, to put your trust in something. In other words, you rest in something, in the sense of confidence.
And to enter God’s rest theologically means to enjoy security. No more fear, you have absolute trust and absolute confidence in God’s care and charge of your life. Fifthly and lastly, the dictionary says that rest means to lean on. And to enter into God’s rest means that for the rest of your life in eternity, you can lean on God. And you can lean on Him and be sure that He’ll never topple over.
So, when it talks about rest in the Bible, it is talking about a new relationship to God that is available to a man whereby that man can lean on God. That means totally depend on God for support, for help, for power, for everything he needs. It is a new relationship in which a man is confidently secure that he’s committed his life to God, and God holds his life in an eternal trust.
And just as Israel never entered Canaan rest because of unbelief, so soul after soul, since the time of Israel and even before, has also missed God’s rest spiritually because of unbelief. Now, there are also two other dimensions that the dictionary doesn’t handle in defining rest. One of them is kingdom rest, which is the millennium, and the other is eternal rest, which is Heaven.
The fullest kind of relationship is with God that takes care of you in this life, in the kingdom and in Heaven forever. That’s what God is promising, and that’s what He calls rest. But some people don’t enter into that rest because of unbelief. It’s unbelievable that when God offers a person all of this, they won’t believe it. And so the warning of the Spirit of God is “Do not harden your hearts.”
Let us look at four things here; the availability of rest, the basis of rest, the nature of rest, and the urgency of rest. Hebrews 4:1 says, “Therefore, since the promise to enter his rest remains, let us beware that none of you be found to have fallen short.” Therefore means go back. “Because we saw Israel forfeited rest, because did not believe God. Therefore the availability of rest is still here.
When Israel fell because of unbelief, that didn’t mean the rest was done. Here God says, “Therefore, since the promise to enter his rest remains, let us beware that none of you be found to have fallen short.” Peter says in Acts 3:25, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.”
Peter says right there that “Even though you killed the Prince of Life, you’re still the sons of the covenant. Even though you killed the Holy One, even though you desired a murderer to be released to you, you’re still the sons of the convenient which God made with Abraham and that was an unconditional covenant in which God said through you I’ll bless the world, no conditions.”
There remains a rest. It’s still available. Salvation is extended. This is the day of grace, right now, God’s grace is offered to you tonight. He’ll forgive your sin, and you can enter into his rest. You’re never too far gone for God to deal with you. While you can still feel his call, now’s the time to move. God’s rest is available, and don’t you think you’ve come short of it. God still calls.
Secondly, the basis of rest. Verses 2-7. Well, if it’s available, how do I get it?” Three principles are involved: personal faith, sovereign decree, and immediate action. Verse 2, “For we also have received the good news just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith.” It just means they got the good news about rest.
The good news of the rest of God does not mean anything unless it is mixed with faith. Now, this is an important message for the Jew because the Jew prided himself on the fact that he had the information. He figured all I got to do is have the law, and I’m in. Romans 2:25 says, “Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.”
Verse 3 says, “For we who have believed enter the rest, in keeping with what He has said, So God swore in His anger, “They will not enter my rest,” even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world.” We Christians all live in God’s rest. That’s just another word for total salvation. He quotes Psalm 95 because David was describing Israel in the wilderness.
God had to do one other thing to make rest available to man, and what was that? He had to accomplish the taking care of sin. And so the coming of Jesus Christ took care of the sin issue, and through that death of Christ, men may enter back into God’s rest. And even the people who lived before Jesus were saved on the basis of what God was going to do in Christ, right?
Verse 4, “For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.” And so God finished His perfect work, and man blew it. And man became restless because of unbelief. Verse 5 says, “Again, in that passage He says, they will never enter my rest.” God provided a rest on the seventh day, and the only people who enter into it are those who believe.
The next basis of rest is sovereign decree in verse 6. And this is the balance of salvation. You’re saved because of two things. Your personal faith and because of the total and absolute sovereignty of God who chose you in Him before the foundation of the world. You’re saved because He designed to redeem you before the world was ever created. That’s called predestination election.
Jesus said in John 6:65, “No can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” Romans 11:5 says, “In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.” The basis of rest. Verse 7, “he again specifies a certain day—today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Thirdly, the nature of rest. Now, the rest that the Spirit is speaking of is not the physical rest of Canaan. That’s only a picture. Verse 8, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.” God is talking about a spiritual rest. The true rest comes through Jesus Christ. Verse 9, “Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.”
There’s one thing that all the cults always promised everybody, and that’s happiness and health and wealth in this life. That’s never the promise of God. God promises that His rest is spiritual, not physical. Oh, there’s a certain sense in which we enjoy it physically as we live in heaven. But God’s rest is future in its fullness, present in its manifestation. And yet it’s spiritual, not physical.
Verse 10 says, “For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.” Revelation 14:13 says, “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they will rest from their labors, since their works follow them.” This is a reference to that final day when we cease from everything.
Lastly, the urgency of rest. Verse 11, “Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.” It’s not the idea that you work your way to salvation, it’s the idea that you diligently seek to enter God’s rest by faith. This isn’t something you put off. This is something you move into rapidly, urgently, with great diligence.
Verse 12 says, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” He’s saying be diligent to enter into God’s rest because the Word of God is living and powerful. And it’ll pierce right down to the inner part of your heart.
The Word will diagnose the condition of your heart. It will show you whether your profession is real or a sham. It’ll show it to God, and on that basis God will judge. That is a sharp two-edged sword, and He will fight with it against those who do not obey. And some day in great judgement, the Word of God is going to dive into your heart and lay it bare and the sword will not make a mistake.
Verse 13 says, “No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” Don’t think that by your religious activity, by your profession of faith in Christ, by having turned from the old life and facing toward Jesus Christ fool God into believing you’re for real if you’re not. God can see you just like you are.
We can’t run from God. And when the Bible says that all things in your life are open to Him, it means the very sword of God will lift your chin to a face to face confrontation with God. You will face a living God whose Word will penetrate and lay bare your life. And therefore we conclude, today while you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Repent and believe Christ. Let us pray.