Hebrews 4:1

29 June 2025

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.

So, this is what we're going to be addressing this afternoon, an exhortation, another command in the book of Hebrews, this time to fear. In this verse, we are commanded to fear.

Now as we consider this, we think of the nature of what this entire book has been focused upon, which is the Lord Jesus Christ—His superiority, His supremacy over all. And we think of especially one of the key themes in this chapter, which is that of rest. The promise of rest, which we, the Christian, are blessed to have. And with that in mind, looking to Christ, considering that we have salvation in Christ and have rest in Him, we may then be wondering, well, where does an exhortation, a command to fear come in. Because after all, we can think of many places in Scripture, where it tells us not to fear—not to be afraid.

We are no longer in fear. And yet here in this verse it is saying “Let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” So what is going on here? Well, this is what we're going to seek to address as we think of the nature, practically, spiritually, of what living as a Christian looks like. Because of we’ve already thought about in this series and certainly in other books in the Bible, the Christian life—to be a Christian—is not filled with ‘Do as you please now; act as if you are having a big party because you are saved.’

That is not what Paul, Peter, and the other writers in the New Testament exhort, command, and warn the church Christians to do or to be. Instead, what we have for Christians are warnings of danger. And the reason why is because we know that there is still danger for us as Christians. As we've already spent quite a significant time dealing with in the book of Hebrews, this is not the danger for you as an actual Christian that you may lose your salvation and go to hell. And we need to press this goal week after week. And yet we still know as Christians there is danger.

For the professed church, there is still danger. And the warning that's been given from Hebrews 3:7 is a warning from Israel’s history. A people who was blessed by God, called and set apart, delivered from the bondage of slavery of Egypt and were in the wilderness, and were heading to the promised land. And yet what we find in chapter 3 instead of reaching that promised land, they fell. And it's with that in mind, the fact that by them falling, chapter 3 and 4 deals with they did not enter God's promised rest. That we come to this theme now of rest in chapter 4.

This is one of the key themes that we have throughout this chapter. If we notice in verse 1, there is mention of rest. We also have it in verse 3, mention of rest. In verse 5, there is mention of rest. That is now a key focus in this chapter, a rest which is still available today.

And the reason why this is such an important thing is because the rest which was promised to Israel is a rest that they did not enter. Now as we begin to put these pieces together, which is going to take us many weeks, there are three key words that we're going to be drawing out here this afternoon. We're going to be drawing out the word promise. We're going to be introducing the word rest, and then we're going to get to this warning, this word fear. And think so far what the reader, the people belonging to the Hebrew Christians, have been told to do.

We've had teachings about Jesus, but what so far have we been told to do? If you notice in Hebrews 2:1, we've been told to “pay much closer attention.” That's the first thing. The first thing that the reader is being told to do with Hebrews is pay much closer attention to what we've heard. Chapter 3:1, we are told then to “consider Jesus.” Then in Hebrews 3:12, we are told to “take care.”

And now we come to this next command, which is to fear. So there is to be a great care, a great diligence to these things. And this shouldn't come as a big surprise, because the Christian faith is of great importance. It's not something that we should treat in a flippant, second-rate manner. That’s what the devil would have us do, and get us all maybe hyped up on our emotion, but not fill our minds with truth. But when we are growing in our knowledge of the truth of God’s Word, we are being given such warnings: because you know our hearts. You know the danger that is around. There is an evil one who is seeking to devour, to fill our hearts, our minds, our heads with falsehoods, to seek to devour us. And so when we are being told to fear, this is something that we should be welcoming.

So let's get to the verse now, and it says at the beginning of chapter 4 this word—therefore—“Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands.” Now this therefore is linking directly to what has happened in the old covenant for the time of Israel, because we don't simply have Israel's history stopping with a generation falling in the wilderness. And chapter 4 is going to take us to what happened to the next generation. Israel, under Moses, they fell, but what then happened to the next generation?

Well they actually entered the promised land. We have Moses, who is the leader who takes them to the wilderness, and that generation falls. But then we have a leader who replaces Moses, and his name, as we're introduced in Hebrews 4, is Joshua. And Deuterononomy 34:9 says,

“And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

So under Joshua's leadership, Israel does enter—they do enter—the promised land. This is a land flowing with milk and honey that God said He would give to Israel. And so we might be thinking, ok, Israel in the wilderness fell. They didn’t enter God’s rest, but under Joshua, later in the Old Testament, they do enter the promised land. So does that mean that they then enter God's rest?

Well, what we're going to consider from 4:2 in the coming weeks is that although they entered the promised land, they did not get this final promised rest. So note this, they enter the promised land, but they did not enter God's final promised rest. So the timeline looks like this: with Moses a generation falls, with Joshua, a generation fights and eventually triumphs. And then after Joshua, we have the time of the judges and a generation entering the promised land disobeys. Wicked and abominable things enter the promised land—of Israel—in the time of the Old Testament. Idolatry rampages again and again and again, and so we're not reaching an enviable climax in the Old Testament. If our Bibles ended in the Old Testament, what would be the climax of that? Man is sinful and must be separated from God, even God's chosen, covenant people, whom God has mercifully brought out of slavery, taking them through even generations to reach the promised land and they have failed. That’s the message of the Old Covenant.

Now it's important to have this in mind as we come now to the time of the New Covenant and this word “therefore”, because verse 1 that we're dealing with is actually a verse of hope, because chapter 3 is a painful and punishing chapter, which draws our attention to the reality that in the Old Covenant. It highlights that man's sin and man's rebellion means that man's failure leads to man's separation from God. And this is why there is such an emphasis on the hardness of heart, the evil unbelieving heart, the wicked rebellious generation where it ends with they were unable to enter this rest because of unbelief. And then chapter 4, hope. The promise of entering this rest still stands.

So, the therefore, is not a therefore you’re doomed. That might be what we might have concluded if we were working chapter 3. Therefore, chapter 4, we’re finished: But, no, the hope of the gospel is what means: but therefore in chapter 4 is a therefore, there is still this rest. And it is not simply a physical land that we will dwell in like Israel did in entering Canaan. No, there is something far more profound. And this is what takes us to our first word “promise”.

Therefore, verse 1, while the promise of entering His rest still stands. That is such a vitally important word because of who is making the promise. Now this is a word that probably many of you, maybe all of you, have heard other people say, maybe you yourself have found yourself saying it, often: I promise I will do this. I promise I will do better next time. I promise. I promise. I promise. But what's the problem? Maybe we’re dealing with well-intentioned promises. Sometimes people really do mean well, but do you believe them? Do you have reason to believe them? Suppose, for example, I were to say to you, I’m going to make you the best Michelin star restaurant standard food you have ever tasted, I promise. Would you believe me? If anyone does, then we really need to have a chat about your sanity. But this is the point. This is the issue, because we know in and of ourselves, even with good intentions, even when we mean to do well, we cannot be trusted on so many occasions. We will let each other down. We will fail to meet the standard that even we've set, let alone what other people expect. And so if this was a promise of any individual, then it is something that we might take with a pinch of salt.

But brothers and sisters, this is the promise of the Living God; that’s what the promise is. The God who gives strength to the weak (Isaiah 40:29), the God who plans to prosper and provide for us (Jeremiah 29:11), the One who will never leave us, or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8), the One who will provide for all that we need (Matthew 6). Our God makes promises and what can we conclude about the Living God—the Creator of heaven and earth? What can we conclude about His promises? Number 1, our God can always be trusted. Every single promise of the Living God, you can take at its Word. You can take God at His Almighty, Sovereign, Perfect, Precious Word—entirely—without any hint or sense of uncertainty about this. We are not looking at the Living God and wondering, will He step up to the plate, can I trust this God. This is Yahweh! This is the One who created you. This is the God for whom all blessings flow. And so when we read in the word of God, God declaring what will come to pass—God declaring this is what He will do—when it says this is a promise of God.

That is literally as good as it is factual. It is truth. It will 100% happen. And the second thing to mention about this is that when we deal with the promises of God in relation to you and to me, it is by the grace of God that there are such blessings that come to us. Who are you, who am I, to deserve a promise from God? We know we are deserving of—in our sinfulness, in our wretched, fallen condition—we are deserving of eternal hell fire. And we thought about that last week at the end of Hebrews 3—that is the just consequence that separates us from God, and yet this covenant-keeping God who makes these promises to Israel, but they fall in their rebellion, has made promises to now a new covenant people. That's us, the Church, and it is all by His grace. The only reason that God makes promises to you is because He is gracious to you.

And therefore when we think of the life of the Christian, we are infinitely better off. Now note this, as we come to the second word, which is the word “rest”, you as a Christian are infinitely better off. One thing we’re often very quick to talk about…is that the life of Christianity is hard. It can often mean suffering, and that's true. But have you stopped to consider the infinitely profound foundation of your life, that you are infinitely better off?

Because you are saved; you are born-again, adopted as sons to glory; you belong to the kingdom of the beloved Son, Jesus Christ. So, no matter what you face, no matter what trial you endure, no matter how bad your suffering gets, and even if you look at people in the world, and it doesn’t look like they are suffering anywhere near as much as you are, you are still infinitely better off. And it’s entirely because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's as simple and it is as emphatic as that.

That's what the book of Hebrews is driving home to a group of professing Christians who are dabbling with going back to their Jewish rituals, going back to the old covenant ways of doing things, and the writer to the Hebrews is reminding them, this was your old covenant. Israel, in their unbelieving hardness of heart, they didn’t enter God’s rest. But for you, the promise still stands. That's the blessing of the Christian life, because you know whatever storms and trials you may endure, you have Christ.

And this takes us to this second word, the “promise” of entering His rest still stands. So this word rest, now we're going to be unpacking this in a few layers in the weeks that follow. So what we're going to be doing just in these minutes is sort of dealing with some key introductory points about what rest means here. I stumbled across some quite helpful summary bullet points by the reformer John Owen, five bullet points which I'm going to read, which help to give quite a good summary. So you can note these down because we're going to go through them, and they'll give us quite a thrust for what we'll unpack in the weeks to come. So five bullet points summarising what rest means:

peace with God
freedom from a servile, bondage-like spirit in the worship and service of God
deliverance from the burden of Mosaic observance
the freedom of worship according to the gospel
the rest that God Himself enjoys

Now even just with these five bullet points, this can give you an idea that if you think just a few minutes just now is covering rest, well, we've actually got much more to deal with. But let's just unpack these a little bit for the coming minutes.

First of all, rest meaning peace with God. What was Israel's contention in the time of the old covenant? Did they have peace with God? And the answer is no, and the reason why is because of sin. Sin disturbs our peace. Things that take us captive, they dishearten us, and they destroy us. That is the impact of sin. It's why people are ravaged by guilt and shame. They're driven by their lustful, fleshly, idolatrous intent. That is man in the folly of sin, and they are not at peace, because we were made for this God. We were made to worship him and enjoy him forever, and we're separated from him. Israel was in a state of angst and panic and tension because of sin. There was no peace with God, because they didn't have this rest. But here in Hebrews 4:1, the promise of rest means an end to the disturbing of this peace, because we would be right with God. We are right with God, the author and perfecter of our faith. This is why the Lord Jesus says in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” There is peace with our God. How staggering this is to reflect that tonight with all of the turmoil, with all of the issues, the tensions you have even with other people, maybe here in this room, you have peace with God because of the gospel. That's the sort of issue that sends you to hell. But because of Christ, you're at rest, which means peace with your God. Be comforted Christian by this reality.

Then we have this rest means freedom from a servile bondage like spirit in the worship and service of God. Do you feel enslaved in your Christian life? Does it feel like a chore, like this is something that you need to do to come to a church service. Well, if in any way that's the feeling, the sense of weight that you have, why? Why might you feel like that when the truth of biblical Christianity is that you are no longer enslaved? You are set free from the bondage of sin, sin which the law condemns you for and cuts you off. You have been set free by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the very gospel we proclaim and adorn. The very gospel that Christ came to this earth, and He laid down His perfect sinless life for an imperfect sin-stained people like us. That what condemns us, Christ bore on Calvary. Christ fulfilled the law. Christ satisfies the wrath of the living God. And so therefore, we stand in the presence of God justified in His sight. Jesus Christ's perfect sinless life means that His righteousness is credited to our account. And by repentance and faith in His blood, you are forgiven, and you are no no longer enslaved in a bondage like spirit in worship and service of God.

And this ties into this third point, it means a deliverance from the burden of Mosaic observance. You no longer need to perfect, fulfil the law of the Old Testament. Just to be very clear about what time in which we live. This is the time of the new covenant, and Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law. And if the requirement was the fulfilment of the law in you, just one single little thing that violates the law of God is enough to send you to hell for eternity. And every one of us have violated the law again and again and again. We are in a state of lawlessness in our sin. We cannot observe this law, but Christ has. He's fulfilled it, and the hope of our salvation rests not in our law keeping, but in the faith we have in Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That's your hope. That is your only hope, and that is where your rest comes from. It's where you stand. And this is why in Matthew 11:28, our Lord says, “Come to Me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” And we'll be coming back to this passage later on in Hebrews 4.

Next, rest means the freedom of worship according to the gospel. Now think about this. What were you made for? You were made for God. You were made to worship God. Now in the eyes of the fleshly, of the worldly, We don't desire to do this. We are worshiping something, some things. We're worshiping ourselves. We're worshiping the folly of the flesh. Yes, absolutely. Because we were made to worship. We were made as worshiping beings. Only the problem is that so many millions of people in our land are worshiping idols driven by their sin and their wickedness. But because of the gospel, you are set free to worship the one you were created for. Jesus Christ's saving blood sets you free to do what you were made to do, and you are free to do it. So it is such a liberating reality to know that as we enter into this building, this is the very expression of freedom this side of eternity. We are free to worship our God in and because of the gospel. And that is a precious and a sacred thing to sing hymns and psalms corporately, to bow our heads and worship our God in prayer, to hear the proclamation of the word of God. We come to worship our God. And it is a joyous thing because this right now is your rest.

And finally, rest means that this is the rest that God Himself enjoys. Now we'll think more about this when we get to verses 3 to 4. But one thing to note, 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” There is also a dwelling, one that is to come, that which is eternal, and that is the promise of heaven. And we know that this is the destination of the Christian. This is the final and complete rest, because Jesus Christ Himself not only died, He rose. And He not only rose, He ascended to be seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. We know that Jesus Christ will return, and He will call His people home. And where your home is is heaven with your God. What a sacred blessing that is, to know that as we live this life in the perfect rest of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal application of this is eternity with our God.

And so with that, with the comfort, the blessing, the joy of knowing there is rest in the Lord, we come to this third word, and it might still seem maybe to some of you even a bit more strange to think, well why then is the third word “fear”? Surely then the third word should be something like, well, enjoy. Well, let's just read the verse again. “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.” So we need to be very clear what this word fear means.

Now let me help you to try to make sense of this by explaining that as Christians, we need to cultivate one kind of fear, but we need to shrink back from another. Now what is the fear that you as a Christian must shrink back from? The fear of death which enslaves (Hebrews 2:15). 2 Timothy 1:7, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” Brothers and sisters, we are not living in the fear of the things that otherwise would destroy us.

So we are not to be living in perpetual fear. Christ has overcome the world. He is the Lord and Saviour of sinners, and in Jesus Christ, we have been set free from that fear. But at the same time, we know, for example, we are to live in the fear of the living God. That fear is a reverent awe and a wonder before the One who has power over life and death, over all things.

Matthew 10:28 says, “and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Luke 12:5, “but I will warn you whom to fear. Fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes. I tell you, fear Him.” It's why Philippians 2:12 ends that with, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” So what is this type of fear? Well, it's an objective apprehension, a realisation of the things that would otherwise destroy us were it not for the gospel. Think for example, if you were walking along the edge of a cliff, and you were to look down at the many 100 feet drop down below, you would feel a sense of fear, a sense of trepidation at the reality of what is before you, and you would likely be all the more thankful for the steady ground on which you stand. That is the life of the Christian.

We look around us, and we see the danger. We look around us and see even people who profess to be Christian making shipwreck of their faith. We look around and see people laughing and ridiculing biblical Christianity, seeking to make a mockery of the things of God, and we're not laughing that off as though that's not a big deal. No. We see the severity of this. Because this is God, His word, His promises, His power, His majesty, His might, which is at play here. And we see how mighty He is, and how great and significant is the danger. Because again, we need to remember that this verse is a verse of hope, because it's saying, “…lest let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” So there's a there's a fear specifically of knowing what the danger would look like if we weren't saved, and that we are to have a due diligence to the seriousness of the Christian life that we live. Now again, as we need to repeat, verses like this are not telling you, oh well, this is even more reason to doubt your salvation. Because the true born-again Christian reads verses like this, and who do you turn to? Well you're not going to turn to yourself and say, well I'd better work hard. No. You know the gospel. You know who you need today.

It's Christ. It's the very gospel which saves you. And every time you have a warning and exhortation in the Word of God, where it's exhorting you to do something like fear, we know it brings us to the One to whom we fear, which is God. For man in his unbelief with the wicked unbelieving heart, as we see in Hebrews 3:12, well, they are the ones who will fail to reach it because they have not been saved and born again by this glorious gospel. And this is why for us as Christians, we don't simply rest on, well, I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into my heart once upon a time.

That isn't what makes you a Christian. The Spirit's regenerating work in the heart of a wretched sinner, convicting you to repent and believe in Christ. That's what changes you and makes you a born-again believer. That's your salvation, and your salvation means that you now live a life in Christ. And that life is knowing and seeing the seriousness of these dangers that are around, seeking to proclaim such warnings. Such warnings which may even be applicable to one, two, some in this room.

Because there may be people listening to this, reading a verse like that, and thinking, well, yeah, that verse is about me. I have failed to enter God's rest. This promise is not for me. Is anyone one of you sitting here today, listening to this and thinking, I'm not one of the ones for whom this promise is for? Well, brothers and sisters, friends, this is an encouragement to us because the verse is saying the promise still stands. If you're sitting here thinking, well, I've just sinned too much, my life as a supposed Christian is an outright embarrassment. In fact, I'm not a Christian after all. Well, what is the promise? The promise is that there is a rest, and it is found in Jesus Christ.

And we know from Scripture that the people for whom Christ died for are the elect, the elect of God. But Scripture doesn't say who the elect are, and it includes my name, your name, and so on. We do not sit this side of eternity knowing these are the groups of people to evangelise to because they're the ones that Jesus died for. No. We are called to proclaim this glorious gospel and to declare verses like this, that the promise of entering God's rest still stands. And may it be that through the proclamation of God's Word, even this very afternoon, that He would use such truth to convict and save sinners even here in this room. This is the promise of God's rest, which means peace with God. It means no longer being enslaved by a law keeping, rule keeping, which will ultimately condemn you understanding of religion. It means a freedom that you can worship God according to this gospel, that you will have a permanent eternal rest with this God in heaven. That is the promise of God's rest, and it still stands today.

That is the overarching point of the first passage in Hebrews 4, and this is what the opening verse is introducing us to. It still stands. So therefore, as we sit here this afternoon, let us fear lest any of us fail to reach it, and let us turn to the One in whom we do reach it, in whom we do have such rest, And that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the One in whom there is eternal rest, the One in whom there is eternal hope. He is the word from God. He is the way to God. The One who has come to represent God to His people. The One who has come to represent His people to God. The author and perfecter of our faith, our great and glorious high priest in whom we have a heavenly calling, in whom there is a perfect spiritual eternal rest.