Our Creator's Rest

Heb 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.


Let us therefore fear…let us be AFRAID…lest a promise being left us of entering into HIS REST- ANY of you should seem to come short of it.


You know what a promise is and so do I. You know what it means to keep a promise and what it means to not keep a promise. You know what a conditional promise is- a promise given based on certain conditions being met. When we don't meet the conditions we fall short of receiving the promise. The promise could be something simple as keeping your room clean and receiving a treat. Don't keep your room clean- don't receive a treat. That isn't life altering, but losing out on God's promises are life eternal- threatening. We need to be AFRAID of not being able to receive God's promise. Fear isn't always such a horrible thing- fear teaches us to be cautious in a lot of potentially harmful situations. Constant fear, irrational fear can be very harmful, but not all fear is harmful. We should be alarmed not terrorized.


The fear here in Hebrews 4:1 is the Greek word that can mean being 'alarmed'.


1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.


The word fear in 1 Jn 4:18 means exceeding fear-terror.


These two verses aren't contradicting one another- one saying to fear the other not to fear. One verse is telling us we should be alarmed, we should be concerned that we don't enter into the promised rest. The other verse is telling us that God's perfect love has no room for terror, but His love cast out terror, that to live in terror is not living in His perfect love.


Fear-- be afraid of losing out on God's rest.


Heb 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.


Heb 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.


The word of God is preached- and it is ONLY profitable when it is believed, when there is faith to believe in that word of God, in the plan of salvation through our Savior. The plan of salvation means nothing to the person who hears it and chooses not to have faith in it.


Heb 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.


Faith brings the promise of rest, God's rest. God rested on the seventh day after creation- He blessed that day of rest. God emphasized the importance of that seventh day of resting by giving us every seventh day to enter into the rest He created for us. When He led His captive people out of Israel He pointedly had them entering into that rest every seventh day. TODAY God's people enter in His Sabbath rest every seven days.


Heb 4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief
Heb 4:7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.


David said that, in worshipping the LORD! Read it for yourself--


Psa 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Psa 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psa 95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Psa 95:4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
Psa 95:5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Psa 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
Psa 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Psa 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Psa 95:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
Psa 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
Psa 95:11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.


Time set aside to worship our Lord, to worship our God, to give thanksgiving and honor, all praise to our Creator-- one day we will enter in God's rest perfectly. Some might wonder why God would give a Sabbath rest to people newly created. Did they work? Isn't that something that should be done away with in the perfect world, no work, absolutely NOT! Adam was to tend the garden, to tend the animals, but one day out of seven there was a rest. Just as GOD Himself would not NEED to rest, yet He created a day of rest after creation why? For mankind the Sabbath was created. A day for us to ever remember our Creator, a day to worship our Creator for the gift of life. A day that would bring us into closer communion with our God, rather than day after ceaseless day of living just for the sake of living for self. We are created beings, blessed in our creation and we can never forget this, never.


Heb 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.


Jesus observed the Sabbath day like all Jews did. The only out of the ordinary thing He did was remind God's people that the Sabbath was made for them and not them for the Sabbath, that the severe strictures and rules the priesthood had placed upon the Sabbath were manmade rules not God's. Jesus NEVER stopped observing the Sabbath. Even after He was dead His followers asked that His body be taken down off the cross before the Sabbath.


Mar 15:42 And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
Mar 15:43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
Mar 15:44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
Mar 15:45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.


Surely if Jesus had instituted a NEW rest this wouldn't have happened.


Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.


There REMAINS a rest to the people of God. Praise God!


A Sabbath rest- ceasing from our OWN works! Could we, should we do any less?! God ceased from His!!!


Labour to enter into that rest! Unbelief will keep us from that rest. Unbelief will take God from us.


Right now as we have worldly men of prominence claiming that God had nothing to do with creation, we need to fall on our knees before our Creator and beg for His mercy, for His forgiveness, and for the blind to see. We know especially in the last days more and more will turn from God - even those caught up in false gods, false worship believing they are worshipping the true. We know that there will be all sorts of evil on levels we can scarcely imagine. We have to pray always! We have to enter into God's weekly Sabbath, His seventh-day Sabbath with hearts ready to be created new in Him, with our filthy rags ready to be replaced by the robes of HIS righteousness! We have to cease from worshipping self and worship- really worship our CREATOR, our GOD!


May God bless us on this Sabbath evening and into the Sabbath day, bless us with His amazing love, washed in the HOLY SPIRIT so we may see, rich in his faith, gold tried in fire, clothed with His white raiment- His righteousness!


Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.


By His grace!!!!



Amen.