1. Hebrews Lesson 5 PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION:  “Rest” is first glorified when the Creator “rested” following the original creation.  God planned and “preached the gospel” of rest for man on THREE LEVELS: [1] Individual; [2] National; [3] Eternal.  He provided a physical “rest” for the benefit of all His O.T. people:

2. Hebrews Lesson 5 PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION:  He offered a national “rest” for the benefit of His chosen people.  He promises eternal rest to the world through His Son Jesus (See Matthew 11:28-30).

3. Hebrews 4:1-10 1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4. Hebrews 4:1-10 4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

5. Hebrews 4:1-10 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

6. Hebrews Lesson 5 “The Gospel of Rest” - Preached to Many, Believed by Few...  The various “rests” in the O.T. point to our promise of a heavenly rest.  Our greatest fear in this life should be that we might not enjoy that promise of heaven in the life to come.  God’s rest is now and has always been available to all believers.

7. Hebrews Lesson 5 “The Gospel of Rest” - Preached to Many, Believed by Few...  God did not connect the seventh day sabbath to man’s receiving “His rest.”  God’s purpose “remains” that faithful people will be given real rest and “some must enter it.”  A “certain day” is the time for “hearing His voice” and “not hardening the heart” in order to entertain the prospect of receiving rest from God.

8. Hebrews Lesson 5 “The Gospel of Rest” - Preached to Many, Believed by Few...  Not only had Moses failed to be a rest-giver to his people, but his successor, Joshua, did not deliver the perfect rest for which the Hebrews longed.  Saints who have received God’s rest have rest from every earthly care.

9. Hebrews 4:11-13 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

10. Hebrews Lesson 5 “Keep your heart with all diligence...”  Life’s most valuable lessons for the future can be those learned from the mistakes made in the past.  If Paul wrote Hebrews, he sends the same warning to these vacillating Jews as he had sent to equally unstable members in Galatia.  “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23) and, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

11. Hebrews Lesson 5 “Keep your heart with all diligence...”  It is the word spoken through the “Better Angel” [messenger] by which we will finally be judged  Two instruments of judgment will determine our eternal destiny...  Certainly, even those Jews whose disloyalty to Jesus and to the gospel was still only mental and who had not yet openly made a move away from the truth were put on notice.