Two Words: Faithful and Rest

Paul Buford

Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

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Two Words: Faithful and Rest

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. 4 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 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.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

As we dive back into the Book of Hebrews, let's refresh ourselves about this unusual letter. If you will remember, we are not definitive in knowing the authorship of this letter. Many believe Paul wrote it while many others think it was someone else, perhaps a protégé or companion of Paul, such as Barnabas or Apollos. Whoever it was, this letter was accepted from a very early time in the first century and was passed from church to church and eventually included in the canonization of the Scriptures. While Hebrews doesn't start out as the other letters in the NT, it does conclude with a letter-like ending.

In the first two chapters, we have looked at the superiority of Jesus over the angels and the great salvation that is available to each of us that chooses to believe and be faithful in that belief. Faith in and of itself is an interesting thing. The definition brings up words like trust, convinced, and certain. With those words, it begs a question of, can faith end or can it stop or if our faith stops, was it ever actually faith to begin with?

In this passage we read of Chapter 3 and part of 4, we run across two words at play; faithful and rest. As we study, we will find that these are important words in the grand scheme of God and His salvation for mankind. In 3:2, we read that Jesus was faithful and we will be encouraged to remain faithful ourselves until the end. It seems unusual that there should be a question of whether Jesus was faithful or not. But always remember, that when we speak of the incarnate Jesus and what He did, we must always, always look at it from the point of view that He was doing it as a man and not as God. While He was still God, He was fully man in every sense of what we experience also. This is crucial for us as we will see in the weeks to come that Jesus is and can be our example. He was tempted as we are, He suffered as we do and He felt and had the emotions and cares that each of us face.

The writer starts out with "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling." You blameless companions of this invitation to heaven, consider Christ who is our confession, our profession of faith. Christ was faithful to what God the Father called Him to do here on earth, as a man. Just as Moses was faithful in what God called him to do. Moses was faithful "in all his house" which means over all of the Jewish nation he was placed over.

Now, this comparison of Jesus being greater than Moses would be a big deal to the Jewish, Hebrew people because there was no other prophet more honored than Moses by the Jews. Look at , Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. 8 I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the Lord. NKJV Moses was unlike anyone else and was faithful in setting up the Tabernacle and instituting the sacrifices for the people. Jesus was faithful in His call to be the ultimate sacrifice and the declaration here is that Jesus was to be counted worthy of more glory than Moses because He was in fact, the author and creator of Moses. This would mean to them that it establishes the superiority of the Gospel of Christ to the Law of Moses.

An interesting thing happens in verse 7. The writer goes to with the purpose of warning the readers that if the punishment for disobedience of the Law of Moses was severe, then punishment for those who do not remain faithful to the Gospel would fare far worse. This is where we start in with the second word today, "rest."

In , we see that God did not allow the disobedient Israelites into the Promised Land, into His rest, because they rebelled against Him and hardened themselves. After seeing all that God did for them, their faith in Him to deliver on His promise of the Promised Land was not believed by them. The faith that they had was really no faith at all. With the exception of Caleb and Joshua, none of that generation saw the rest that was to be theirs in entering the Promised Land.

The writer is warning the readers of Hebrews for them and us not to be slack in our faithfulness but to verse 3:6, "...hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." To hold to the end, is to have faith to begin with. Jesus explains the parable of the seeds and the sower in , Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. NKJV

Many hear the words and promises of God, many even see the truths of God displayed in miracles and wonders in their own lives and believe for a time but do not remain in their faith, their belief, until the end.

The warning is stern in verse 12, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” And he explains that the hardness of our hearts come through the deceitfulness of sin. We are admonished to exhort, pray for, implore, lift up and encourage one another so that we will NOT fall into unbelief.

Look at verse 14, “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” We are companions, we are participants, we are associates with Christ only if we hold to the end, the confidence that we have in the beginning. Many of you have heard the saying, “Once saved, always saved.” That saying is true I believe but the problem lies in whether one was ever saved. If truly we are and truly we believe and truly we remain, then nothing could ever separate us from God and His eternal life. But if we are as the parable of sower tells us, one in which the seed never takes root and produces fruit, then we may need to worry about our salvation.

In God's anger, His wrath, His punishment, He swore that those who were disobedient would not enter into His rest. This word rest here is an interesting word. It is only found here in Hebrews except for one place in Acts and the meaning of it is as "abode," a place of dwelling with. Much different than the usual translation of the Sabbath meaning rest. The picture of the Israelites entering into the Promised Land is a picture of the saved entering into the Promised Land of eternity. The Promised Land was to be a place where God was to dwell with His people, He was to "abode" with them. The Promised Land of eternity is where we are to abode with Him. The warning here is to not lose our faith and therefore lose our rest, our abode with Him.

Many times in Scripture, we are warned about missing out on heaven, missing out on eternity with God. Jesus warns in , Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. NKJV Also in , And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” NKJV

Perhaps Jesus' most stern and scary warning comes in , “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” NKJV

This is those who profess and yet live in disobedience, just as those in the desert who followed and yet didn't believe.

The conclusion of all this comes in chapter 4:8-10. If the Promised Land that Joshua led the people into was the final rest, then God would have never spoken of another rest, but He did. Look at verse 9, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” The author changes here from the Greek word meaning to abode to the Greek word sabbatismos which is used nowhere else in the NT. The switch here goes back to Genesis where God worked for six days and on the seventh day, He rested, He sabbathed, He ceased from working.

The beauty of this entire passage that we have been studying is wrapped up here in 4:10, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”

Those of us who have entered His rest, His abode have ceased with trying to work our way to heaven just as God ceased to work when He finished creation. Man has always tried to work his way to heaven. All other religions point to what we do in an attempt to gain position with God. He desires for us to enter an abode with Him, to dwell with Him as the only one that can save us and in so doing cause us to cease from striving to work our way to heaven.

Those who continue to try to do it themselves will not enter the rest that God has for us.

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