Hebrews 4:1

"Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it; for to us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice" (for "To-day" is "at every time"). Then he adds "but the word of hearing did not profit them, as they were not mixed by faith with them that heard." How did it not profit? Then wishing to alarm them, he shows the same thing by what he says.

Then, again, from gloomy ones, "Let us fear, lest at any time a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." For that is manifest and confessed.

We ought to be afraid … lest we, too, who have received the promise of the entrance into the rest, may be found lacking through a wickedness of purpose. For let no one think that the promise of things to come suffices him any more …

Here is a return to the passage where it says: "today, if you hear His voice" (Heb. 3:7), and then in order: "let us fear," lest the same thing happen to us as well. The word "therefore" is placed to resume the discourse that was …

Having cited the authority and explained it, the Apostle now argues from it. In regard to this he does two things: first, he urges them to be anxious to enter; secondly, he advises them to hasten to enter (v. 11). In regard to the first …

By saying Lest we be disappointed of the promise left us, he intimates that no one comes short of it except he who by rejecting grace has first renounced the promise; for God is so far from repenting to do us good that he ceases not to bestow his gifts except when we despise his calling.

Let us therefore fear,....

Grace and glory are attainable by all under the gospel: there is an offer, and a promise to those who shall accept the offer. Those who may attain them may also fall short.

"To-day," rightly used, terminates in the rest which, when once obtained, is never lost (Re 3:12). A foretaste of the rest Is given in the inward rest which the believer's soul has in Christ. should seem to come short of it--Greek, "to have come short of it"; should be found, when the great trial of all shall take place [ALFORD], to have fallen short of attaining the promise.

THE general strain of the Apostle Paul is confident and even jubilant. Where in the whole compass of Revelation do you meet with bolder writing than that which comes from his pen? "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him." Paul is the great doctor of faith and teacher of full assurance. You meet with nothing in his writings which would encourage doubts and fears, or lead the saints into bondage to anxiety and suspicion. Yet, in the text before us, Paul does not speak of faith so much as offear, and does not so much exhort us to boldness as to a reverent trembling, lest by any means we should come short of the rest which God has promised. Before we have concluded this morning's discourse, we shall be able to show that such caution is quite consistent with the Apostle's usual teaching and is, indeed, an essential part of it. He would have us cautious, that we may thereby lay a solid foundation for confidence. He who has been careful to build his house well and to found it upon a rock, is the man who can fitly be at peace in the day of storm. The holy fear of today brings forth the full assurance of days to come. It was important that the Apostle's teaching should be of a complete and balanced nature. Only unwise persons allow any one quality of their character to destroy another—a moral balance must be aimed at and maintained.

THE general strain of the Apostle Paul is confident and even jubilant. Where in the whole compass of Revelation do you meet with bolder writing than that which comes from his pen? "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Let us therefore fear - Seeing the Israelites lost the rest of Canaan, through obstinacy and unbelief, let us be afraid lest we come short of the heavenly rest, through the same cause. Should seem to come short of it - Lest any of us should actually come short of it; i.e. miss it. See the note on the verb δοκειν, to seem, Luk 8:18 (note). What the apostle had said before, relative to the rest, might be considered as an allegory; here he explains and applies that allegory, showing that Canaan was a type of the grand privileges of the Gospel of Christ, and of the glorious eternity to which they lead. Come short - The verb ὑστερειν is applied here metaphorically; it is an allusion, of which there are many in this epistle, to the races in the Grecian games: he that came short was he who was any distance, no matter how small, behind the winner. Will it avail any of us how near we get to heaven, if the door be shut before we arrive? How dreadful the thought, to have only missed being eternally saved! To run well, and yet to permit the devil, the world, or the flesh, to hinder in the few last steps! Reader, watch and be sober.