The Congregational Pulpit Hebrews 4:1-2 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.… I. The gospel is not only a revelation, but A PROMISE, and a promise exceeding great and precious. It not only holds forth to our view, but it proposes to our hope eternal life, and whatever is previously necessary to the acquisition of it. The promise was early made, and was often renewed with enlargements. Yes, in this blessed Book we have " a promise left us of entering into His rest." But what is this rest? We may view it as it is begun upon earth, or completed in heaven. Even while the believer is upon earth, this rest is not only ensured, but begun. 1. View him with regard to his understanding, and you will find that he has rest. 2. View him with regard to his conscience, and you will find that he has rest. He is freed from the torment of fear and the horrors of guilt. 3. View him with regard to his passions and appetites, and you find he has rest. While pride, and envy, and malice, and avarice, and sensual affections, reigned within, often striving with each other, and always fighting against the convictions of his judgment, the man's breast was nothing but a scene of tumult; he was "like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest." 4. view him once more with regard to his "condition and circumstances," and you will find that he has rest. He is freed from those anxieties which devour others, who make the world their portion, and have no confidence in God. With all his advantages here, a voice perpetually cries in his ears, "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest." However favourable the voyage, they are now on the treacherous ocean; and by and by they will enter the harbour — "then are they glad because they are quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven." At death we are told the righteous enter into rest. And this rest is pure, undisturbed, and everlasting. They shall rest from " their labours." Though all activity, they shall be incapable of fatigue, for their powers will be fully equal to their work. II. THE STATE OF MIND IN WHICH WE SHOULD REGARD IT — "Let us therefore fear," &c. The fear here enjoined is not that of the sluggard dismayed by difficulties, or of the unbeliever who suspects that the promise shall not be accomplished; but a fear of caution, vigilance; a fear which leads us to examine ourselves, and allows us, in this awful concern, to be satisfied with nothing less than evidence whether we have a title to heaven and are in a fair way to obtain this blessedness. 1. To excite in you this fear, remember the possibility of your coming short. Remember that out of six hundred thousand Israelites who came out of Egypt to possess the land of Canaan, two only entered! 2. Consider the consequence of coming short. Is it not dreadful to be deprived of that "fulness of joy" which God hath promised to them that love Him? What would it be to lose your business, your health, your friends, compared with the loss of the soul? And remember, there is no medium between heaven and hell; if you miss the one, the other is unavoidable. And remember also the aggravations which will attend the misery of those who perish in your circumstances. There is nothing so healing, so soothing, as the expectation of hope; and of course there is nothing so tormenting as the disappointment of it, especially where the object is vastly important. Yea, remember also that you will not only be disappointed in coming short, but you will be punished for it. (1) Let us observe, first, how thankful we should be for such a promise left us of entering into His rest! For surely we could not have reasonably expected it. (2) Let us, secondly, see how necessary it is in religion to avoid passing from one extreme into another. The gospel encourages our hope; but then it enlightens it and guards it. "Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Be not highminded, but fear. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."(3) What are we to say of those of you who know nothing of this salutary concern? (The Congregational Pulpit.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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