Please turn to Hebrews 4. I would like to read the first 10 verses so we get the gist of this. Paul is warning these Hebrews that their lackadaisical attitude could easily get them into trouble with God, and this is the tack that he takes:
Now, remember, the works that God did was making the physical creation of the earth. This is a hint that when those who enter the rest of God, they are going to cease with their physical labors and there is something better in the rest of God that they will be doing.
The Israelites' unbelief and rebellion had kept them from the goal. God was leading them to His rest. God was leading them to the Promised Land, which is a clear reference to the Kingdom of God, that is, His nation. He was to rule over them as King. But they did not. They failed to do what God had told them to do. They failed to follow God and they all died in the wilderness.
Back in Hebrews 3, right in the last few verses, it tells us essentially that their corpses were strewn in the wilderness because of their sin. They could not enter His rest. So the rest, he says, remains unfulfilled. If Joshua did not bring them into the rest, then there must be a rest in the future.
In verses 3-4, he refers to creation and to God's rest on the seventh day in creating the Sabbath. Now this is proof, if you will, that the rest that Paul is suggesting is not ‘repose' because God is never weary. He does not need to rest to become reinvigorated and reenergized. So the rest he was referring to in that is something different from repose. It is something different from ‘anapausis.' It is not a physical, reclined rest of that sort. He is talking about a different kind of rest.
We saw that God stopped His creative efforts on the physical earth and then He ceased working, to set us an example of how to keep the Sabbath. That is what we went through when we went through Exodus 20, Genesis 2, and Isaiah 58 - that we stop doing those physical things that we normally do and we do something else. So Paul is implying, by going to these examples, that the future rest (the one we are working toward, the one that we still have before us as a goal) is a lot like God's rest on the seventh day of creation, that our rests (God's rest) is a ceasing. It is a stopping. It is an ending of something.
Now, in verse 9, as I mentioned before, we have the other rest - the sabbatismos. This is actually, as far as we know, a Pauline coined word, that he kind of just made it up. He turned the Hebrew sabbath into a Greek noun. This does a couple of things.
It links the weekly Sabbath with the future rest of God, that in our keeping of the Sabbath every week we are prefiguring the rest of God of the future.
It also characterizes the future rest of God (or we could call it maybe the Millennium or the Kingdom of God) as a time of cessation from certain activities, as on the weekly Sabbath (we cease certain activities). Well, in the Millennium, there is going to be a stoppage, a ceasing of certain activities. And, then, because we have stopped doing these certain activities, we can then do the godly activities in imitation of God. We stop doing those physical things and start doing a lot of spiritual things.
Thus Paul clues us in on the goal of the millennial period. The goal of the millennial period is to change the focus of the entire world from doing its ungodly carnal activities in rebellion against God - that is our works, the works of humanity. We are going to cease doing those things and we are going to turn to doing godly, positive, eternal works out of love for God and out of love for fellow man.
Before Christ comes, the whole world, as we know, is under the sway of Satan the Devil and they are doing the things that he wants us to do. When Christ comes, He puts Satan away; we are going to cease doing all those bad things that Satan wanted us to do; and now we are going to turn our attention fully to God and the world is going to begin … . . .
The original Israelites failed through lack of faith and through disobedience. Then he mentions Joshua and the fact that even this new generation of Israelites that God commended may have entered the land, but they did not enter God's rest because the psalm speaks of another day in which the rest would be entered, the day in the future.
The author here says it is still out there. You can still enter God's rest. You are on the road already, and make sure you enter God's rest, and you can do this by being diligent, by obeying, by being faithful, or as Jesus says, by enduring to the end in your calling.
So speaking of the generation that Joshua led, though their conquest in the end was incomplete, they did far better than their parents. But the author implies that those events that occurred back then are to us only types. We are not to take them in terms of the reality of their incompletion, but we are supposed to think of them as typical, as metaphorical, as symbolic of the journey that we make in order to enter His rest in a spiritual way, in the only way that really matters.
And he then says that the Sabbath is a type of the rest of God, and that in itself is a foreshadowing of the Kingdom. Just so we get all our ducks in a row here. So we can say God's real rest, the one that He has been shooting for all this time, giving us all these examples from the Old Testament and elsewhere, even in the New, that is still future. The rest of God is still future and it is now open to God's elect. And it is still Israel that is journeying to God's rest, but as Galatians 6:16 says, it is the Israel of God.
It is a different group. It is a spiritual group. We call it just generally spiritual Israel. And it is the church, the Body of Christ. Lots of different names, but the same people. God's people whom He has called to take up this journey.
And so we will enter it only if we remain obedient and faithful, unlike ancient Israel.
This has all been a big, long explanation of why I think the conquest constitutes a second type of our spiritual journey toward God's Kingdom. This time, in the second type, it is concentrating on a faithful, obedient people dealing with and overcoming the obstacles in the way. Just as we endeavor to come into full possession of our inheritance, they were trying to come into the possession of their physical inheritance, the land of Canaan. But we in the antitype are coming into our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. And then having done that, at the return of Jesus Christ, we will enter God's rest.
So what I am going to do as a kind of frame for talking about this group of people and how they apply to us in our walk to God's Kingdom, the sermon will focus on the four astounding miracles found in the book of Joshua. That is my frame; that is my organizational template here for this sermon. And my aim in giving these, talking about these four miracles, is to highlight what God is willing to do to aid us in our journey to His rest.
That is, what He is willing to do to aid us in our Christian fight over sin and Satan and this world. Because He accompanied them on their journey in the conquest, just as He is accompanying us. And so the types pop out when you go through the book of Joshua.
Now who were the first ones that had this said to them? It was the children of Israel in the wilderness. So what was the result? The result was that those who were above the age of twenty when they left Egypt did not enter into the rest. That's what the author is drawing upon. The second time that it was stated, David stated it in Psalm 95, and so the author is reaching a conclusion there.
The answer to that is no. David would not have spoken. Now notice the conclusion that Paul (or whoever the author of Hebrews is) gives in verse 9.
We're going to go to John 5:16-18, and then we're going to come right back to Hebrews 4.
This episode in John 5 took place on the Sabbath and involved the question about what work is considered appropriate on the Sabbath. Jesus' statement containing the word hitherto is important to us. It means that God began His work in the indefinite past. The past is not stated at this point. It is just indefinite, and that the work is continuing right up to this very moment.
In other words, we haven't yet reached the rest that the author of Hebrews is talking about in Hebrews 4. It had not yet been reached in the author's day. It hadn't been reached in David's day. It hadn't been reached in the children of Israel's day.
God began His work in the indefinite past, and that work is continuing right up to this very moment. The Father is continually working is the sense of what Hebrews is saying there. Furthermore, His statement includes a very strong implication that Jesus is involved in the same work and toward the same goal as the Father, and Jesus is thus asserting that His spiritual labors toward the same end as the Father's are therefore permissible on the Sabbath. In fact, He goes so far as to equate Himself with the Father, and this is the way that the Jews understood it. He was saying, I am God without saying it directly.
Let's go back to Hebrews 4. I'm going through this to show that Sabbath and rest as it appears here in Hebrews 4 involves three related issues, and each involves a measure of symbolism.
The first involves a future entering into, or keeping of a Sabbath rest that also pictures the end or fulfillment of God's purpose and plan when He stops His labors.
In Genesis 1 and the beginning of Genesis 2, He stopped his physical exertion, if I can put it that way - His physical labor in re-creating the earth; but it was only then that His spiritual labors actually began.
The second issue here involves the literal keeping of each Sabbath as a type of that culmination of God's labors. Do we not work physically throughout the week? We do customary work. So, when the Sabbath comes, along we stop our customary work, just like God stopped His, and we do it as a type of Him ending His labors there.
The third is that rest implies an entering into God's favor and blessing right here and now as a small fore type of what is coming in the future. This is what is meant in verse 10, where it says For he that is entered into His rest.
As one of my mentors, the late Bob Hoops, declared, the weekly Sabbath is a miniature or foretaste of the annual Sabbath - the Feast of Tabernacles, which is itself a miniature or foretaste to the Kingdom of God in the wonderful world tomorrow, ushering in the New Heavens and New Earth. The Millennium, symbolized by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles depicts a sanctified thousand years when the world will be at peace, resting from the horrible abuse and mis-governance it had endured for 6,000 years on mankind's tyrannical and irresponsible misrule.
Before that Millennium arrives, God's called-out ones, by faithfully honoring God's weekly and annual Sabbaths, are promised much needed tranquil rest and spiritual reinvigoration for our lengthy and arduous spiritual journey.
In this sermon, Richard made two illuminating points (a long-ranged point and a short-ranged point) about our striving to enter God's rest, as referenced in Hebrews 4:1-11, one of our lead-off scriptures.
The long-ranged point is that we need to be diligent to enter the rest that is the Kingdom of God. That is the rest we are looking for. That is when God will cease from His spiritual labors, when we have come into His rest in the Kingdom.
The short-ranged point is in verse 9 of Hebrews 4: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That word rest is sabbatismos - the Sabbath rest. In fact, there is another translation that says: We must therefore keep the Sabbath as the people of God.
But the point I am getting at is that the Sabbath is a type of God's rest. Richard continues, We have a weekly, twenty-four-hour period of time when we can be still. God gives us one day in seven as an opportunity to be still and come to know Him. That is one of the reasons we have the Sabbath day. People of God need this one day - to pull out of the world, to take it easy, to get out of the rat race, and to get into communion with God. We need to use this time, on the Sabbath day: to get into the right attitude, to see godly reasoning, to receive instruction, to see God at work, and to get to know Him.
We have just participated in a week-long annual Sabbath depicting a world at peace which should supercharge us with the will and power to forge ahead on our taxing spiritual journey into our Promised Land - our inheritance - God's Kingdom. Please turn once again to my second favorite scripture in the Bible.
Let us go to Hebrews 4. This section has two points that I want to make here.
Now, what are the two points? The first is a long-ranged point, and the second is a short-ranged point.
1. The long-ranged point is that we need to be diligent to enter the rest that is the Kingdom ofGod. That is the rest we are looking for. That is when God will cease from His spiritual labors, when we have come into His rest in the Kingdom.
2. The short-ranged point is in verse 9: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That word rest is sabbatismos - the Sabbath rest. In fact there is another translation that says: We must therefore keep the Sabbath as the people of God. (I am not saying that is right or wrong; but it seems a good translation to me.) But the point I am getting at is that the Sabbath is a type of GOD's rest.
We have a weekly, twenty-four hour period of time when we can be still. God gives us one day in seven as an opportunity to be still and come to know Him. That is one of the reasons that we have the Sabbath day. People of God need this one day - to pull out of the world, to take it easy, to get out of the rat race, and to get into communion with God. We need to use this time, on the Sabbath day: to get into the right attitude, to see godly reasoning, to receive instruction, to see God at work, and to get to know Him. (Those are the five points that I just mentioned a few minutes ago.)
We have the Sabbath day to be still; but it is not just limited to the Sabbath day. Those of us, who are lucky, find time during the week (and, during the year) when we can be still. This time of the year is one when we need it the most. That is, to be still before the Passover - to get our minds in the right attitude and get the right instruction so that we are in the proper way of thinking (in the proper mode) for the Passover and the holy days.
It is not restricted just to now. Also before Trumpets and Atonement, and the Feast, is another time when it would be good for us to find a time of stillness. Any time, when we are in need of self-evaluation, is a time when it is best to be still.
We have Christ as our example of being faithful; and then we have the man Moses who is also faithful. We can look at both examples. They are wonderful examples. But Moses led the people into the wilderness to bring them into the Promised Land, a type of our journey to the Kingdom of God. And these people heard the gospel, as we see in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2 there. They heard the gospel, but they did not mix it with faith. They did not believe the gospel that was preached to them. They did not believe the truth of what God was doing with them.
And so what did they do? They rebelled, they disobeyed. And God said, Ok, if this is the way you're going to be, you're all going to die in the wilderness. So He destroyed them and they did not enter His rest. Paul tells us, let us take a look at this example and learn something from it. And the thing we need to learn from it is that we have heard the gospel, we have to mix it with faith, that is, we have to take what we have heard, be faithful, and obey God. Do the things that He wants us to do, in fear that we will not make it, so that we will make it. And be diligent about it! Have some zeal!
That is what He wants us to do. Take what we have learned, and what we continue to learn, mix it with faith, that is, trust and confidence in God that He can get you where He needs you to be and where you want to be, which is the Kingdom of God. Trust Him that the instructions that He gives you in the Bible are apt for your situation. What you need to do, how you need to be, what your attitude needs to be, and do it, obey it, follow it.
And you know what that is going to do? That is going to land you in His rest. The Promised Land is yours. God will not destroy you in the wilderness. The Kingdom is open to you. Hear the gospel, add some faith, follow the instructions, enter His rest. Sounds easy, does it not? We know it is not. But that is the formula. Hear, faith, follow, firstfruits. Simple to say; hard to do. But that is the general formula.
There are two thoughts here. The rest remains. To whom does the rest remains apply to? It applies to the people of God. So it remains. That promise remains to be fulfilled to some, and that some is what he designates as the people of God (in verse 9).
Is not this epistle written to members of the Church of God? And the epistle, unlike the Old Testament scriptures, was NOT written to the nation of Israel.
It is right here that we begin to be able to clearly establish one of two possible alternatives. One is that the promise of everlasting inheritance of the land and the rest implies that it has been transferred from the physical nation of Israel to the spiritual children of Abraham - that is, the children of God. The second alternative is that not even from the very beginning did God ever intend the physical nation entering into the land under Joshua as anything more than a type of the spiritual children of Abraham entering the Kingdom of God. And, since God's plans were completed from the very beginning, I believe this second alternative is the one.
Where do I get the idea that God's plan was completed from the very beginning? It comes right out of verse 3.
Now this is a very theologically rich passage, but the essential truth, here, is that God's rest - the Kingdom of God - is still before us. We have not entered it yet. The only One who has entered God's rest is Jesus Christ. And it is kind of interesting that He has not stopped working because we have not entered that rest yet.
However, Paul gives a very stern warning here. He says that what befell the Israelites in the wilderness (and they fell by the tens of thousands, through sins of various sorts through their wilderness trek) that same fate could befall us also. The lesson here is that if we want to enter God's rest, of which the Sabbath is a type, of which the Promised Land was a type, we have to continue walking, and we have to continue working to overcome sin. We have not yet entered God's rest. Have you noticed?
So our work, as verse 10 says, has not yet ceased. The work is not over until we enter the rest. God worked six days, and He rested on the seventh, and hallowed it for us, to give us right there in the second chapter of the Bible what He wants us to do.
So Paul's advice, keep up the good work all the way into the Kingdom of God.
One of the critical elements for us here is to understand the way the Bible approaches belief and obedience and unbelief and disobedience. Simply put, it is this: If your Bible has a marginal reference, and you look at those words belief and unbelief, you will find that the translators have interchanged the words. In other words, what they picked up from the intent of Paul's writing here is that, as far as God is concerned, there is no difference between unbelief and disobedience, believing and obedience. How can that be? If a person really believes, he is convicted, and he will obey. That is, works will be produced in those that believe.
On the contrary, a person may say he believes, but does not obey, and a work that is in agreement with God's Spirit is not produced. That kind of person merely has a preference, and is in reality disobedient regardless of saying what he believes.
We are told that we are to be partakers of Christ, and that entails if we hold to the beginning of our confidence with the foundation, as I mentioned. We are told not to neglect our salvation or let this world take your crown. We must not allow our hearts to become hardened. He tells us that we should not be like those that came out of Egypt. They saw the miracles of God and the awesome power of God, and then rebelled against Him and troubled Him forty years and died short of the rest that was set aside for them.
Our journey, brethren, is to the Kingdom of God and our rest is the Kingdom of God. Who is it that could not enter that rest? Those who hardened their hearts.
The apostle Paul knew that he was on a journey, and that he had two hearts, or two ways of living, in him. One of these hearts was to fight against and the other was to fight for.
We are tying together several ideas here. We are tying together the Garden of Eden with the Kingdom of God, and with the rest of God. These three concepts all go together, and fit very neatly together. The peace, the tranquility, the bounty, and the security of a beautiful garden, and to be sure we should also add into that the work and the stimulation that can be found in a beautiful garden, are all elements we are to consider when we are imagining the ancient Garden of Eden, and as well, the coming Kingdom of God. They cannot be separated. The Garden of Eden is a clear type of the paradise of God we are in preparation for.
And add to your meditation, that the common source of these coveted amenities - peace, tranquility, bounty, security, beauty, etc. - is the presence of God. And that is what we had in the Garden of Eden.
You might wonder why this happened on the Sabbath. What is the significance of this being done on the Sabbath? It is the Sabbath that commemorates God, our Creator. This is the same God who rested on the seventh day of creation. This is Jesus Christ - the Word of God!
The word sabbath, in Hebrew, even means rest. That is the basic idea of the Sabbath - it is a rest. It looks back on creation. Now to what does this rest, the Sabbath, look forward to?
Now what happened when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead? He entered His rest! And guess when Christ was resurrected? On the Sabbath, when the wavesheaf was cut!
They all tie together. So by a resurrection from the dead, we inherit and fully enter the Kingdom of God. We could call it the World Tomorrow, or maybe a few other terms may come to mind.
What he's doing is showing that the Sabbath day, the time of creation, the wilderness wanderings of Israel, and this future time of rest are all linked together. He is giving proofs here. And, the most important fact, let us say, is You are in the thick of it.
How many times does he have to tell us that?! I should have counted it up, but it is at lease four times that it says, they shall not enter my rest, or do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, or he uses the word, Today. He is really giving us a pep talk here, not to let this slip.
Now who were the first ones that had this said to them? It was the children of Israel in the wilderness. So what was the result? The result was that those who were above the age of twenty when they left Egypt did not enter into the rest. That's what the author is drawing upon. The second time that it was stated, David stated it in Psalm 95, and so the author is reaching a conclusion there.
The answer to that is no. David would not have spoken. Now notice the conclusion that Paul (or whoever the author of Hebrews is) gives in verse 9.
He keeps pounding away at this warning. Even though we have been given all of these wonderful gifts and all of these helps, we could still fall away. We can still fail to enter His rest.
This is very current, very present - today, today - understand what God is saying here: Do not let it go to tomorrow. Today!
