Hebrews 4:2

"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 …

And we have received the good news concerning future blessings, just as they did prefiguratively about the promised land. But it will be completely useless to us if we likewise do not believe and do not lay aside all faintheartedness, just as hearing did not …

He says, "Not having joined themselves to the things they heard," that is, the things they believed. How was it possible for them to be joined to those things? "By faith," he says, that is, through faith. For if the latter had believed as the …

Then he shows what anxiety should press us. In regard to this he does two things: first, he states his intention; secondly, he proves it (v. 3). In regard to the first he does two things: first, he shows that this promise has been made …

It is such that faith is not to be separated from the word, and that the word separated from faith can confer no good; not indeed that the efficacy or power of the word depends on us; for were the whole world false, he who cannot lie would still never cease to be true, but the word never puts forth its power in us except when faith gives it an entrance.

For unto us was the Gospel preached,....

We do not mix faith with what we hear; it is faith in the hearer that is the life of the word. Though the preacher believes the gospel, and endeavours to mix faith with his preaching, and to speak as one who has believed and so spoken, yet, if the hearers have not faith in their souls to mix with the word, they will be never the better for it.

The best privileges the ancient Jews had were their gospel privileges; the sacrifices and ceremonies of the Old Testament were the gospel of that dispensation; and, whatever was excellent in it, was the respect it had to Christ.

Hearing alone is of as little value as undigested food in a bad stomach [THOLUCK]. The whole of oldest extant manuscript authority supports a different reading, "unmingled as they were (Greek accusative case agreeing with 'them') in faith with its hearers," that is, with its believing, obedient hearers, as Caleb and Joshua.

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."

THE people that came out of Egypt were an interesting company, if we think of what God had done on their behalf and of what he proposed to do for them. They had been lifted up from a state of slavery into one of freedom and they were on their way to a country where they were to be settled, each one upon his own portion of land, therein to become priests and kings unto Jehovah. What an unhappy circumstance that the high ideal set before them was never realized by any of them save two lone men—Joshua and Caleb!

THE people that came out of Egypt were an interesting company, if we think of what God had done on their behalf and of what he proposed to do for them. They had been lifted up from a state of slavery into one of freedom and they were on their way to a country where they were to be settled, each one upon his own portion of land, therein to become priests and kings unto Jehovah. What an unhappy circumstance that the high ideal set before them was never realized by any of them save two lone men—Joshua and Caleb! You hear them singing at the Red Sea, in exultant joy, and they are on their way to Canaan, the land that flows with milk and honey—loud are their songs and high are their hopes. But mark those lines of graves—those innumerable hillocks which were formed wherever the camp was pitched in the desert! That is the end of the generation which came out of Egypt—"Their carcasses fell in the wilderness." Instead of reaching Canaan and settling, every man under his own vine and fig tree, they lie in dishonored graves outside of the land of promise. Ah me, so lofty a destiny before them and so sad a missing of it. Let us not follow in their tracks. We are far too much inclined to do so. They were men and we are no better than they by nature. Oh, for Divine Grace to walk after a higher rule! Let a holy dread seize upon us at this time, such as that which Paul expresses in the following words—"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 not find a tomb when we might gain a throne. Let us not go down into the pit when before us lies the way to Heaven and multitudes are beckoning us there. May great Grace be given that we may win where a whole nation failed! It will be Divine Grace, indeed, if Gentiles shall excel the seed of Abraham.

For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them - This translation by no means conveys the sense of the original. According to this it would seem that the “gospel,” as we understand it, or the whole plan of salvation, was communicated to “them,” as well as to “us.” But this is by no means the idea. The discussion has reference only to “the promise of rest,” and the assertion of the apostle is that this “good news” of a promise of rest is made to us as really as it was made to “them.” “Rest” was promised to them in the land of Canaan - an emblem of the eternal rest of the people of God. That was unquestioned, and Paul took it for granted. His object now is, to show that a promise of “rest” is as really made to us as it was to them, and that there is the same danger of failing to secure it as there was then. It was important for him to show that there was such a promise made to the people of God in his time, and as he was discoursing of those who were Hebrews, he of course made his appeal to the Old Testament. The literal translation would be, “For we are evangelized - ἐσμεν εὐηγγελισμένοι esmen euēngelismenoi - as well as they.” The word “evangelize” means to communicate good news, or glad tidings; and the idea here is, that the good news, or glad tidings of “rest” is announced to us as really as it was to them. This the apostle proves in the following verses. But the word preached - Margin, “Of hearing.” The word “preach” we also use now in a technical sense as denoting a formal proclamation of the gospel by the ministers of religion. But this is not the idea here. It means, simply, the word which “they heard;” and refers particularly to the promise of “rest” which was made to them. That message was communicated to them by Moses. Did not profit them - They derived no advantage from it. […]