S9 || Jesus Offers Rest While Works Keep Us Weary || Hebrews 3:15 - 4:2 || Session 9

What if the peace you keep chasing is already offered to you—today? We complete Hebrews chapter 3 and discover why the promise of rest is not a distant dream but a present invitation. By lifting up Jesus as fully God and fully human, we anchor rest where it belongs: in a Savior who finished the work and frees us from living like it’s all on our shoulders.

We revisit Israel’s wilderness story—spies, fear, and forty years of wandering—to show how unbelief looks reasonable while quietly draining our joy. The issue wasn’t a lack of evidence; it was a heart that made the giants bigger than God’s word. Hebrews names this honestly: unbelief is disobedience. Not to condemn, but to explain why many churchgoers still feel tired, anxious, and stuck in works. When we treat outcomes, reputation, and self-justification as our job, rest evaporates. When we trust Christ’s finished work, assurance returns and obedience becomes light.

Scripture offers concrete wisdom for finances, marriage, parenting, work, and church life. Uniting that word with faith changes rhythms: generosity over grasping, reconciliation over resentment, limits over hustle, worship over worry. We share personal moments of wandering and renewal, highlighting how community, Scripture, and small groups helped us move from striving to steady. The simple prayer—“I believe; help my unbelief”—becomes a daily posture that opens the door to peace.

The promise remains open. Will you enter it? If this conversation helps you breathe a little easier, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs rest, and leave a review so others can find it too. Your story might be the spark that helps someone else step into God’s rest today.

Chapters

• 0:00 Jesus Exalted Above All
• 0:46 The Question Of Rest
• 1:15 Reading Hebrews 3:15–19
• 2:03 Unbelief Equals Disobedience
• 4:59 Israel’s Evidence And Hardened Hearts
• 8:23 Rest Lost Through Distrust
• 10:55 Can Christians Lack Peace Today
• 13:44 Therefore: Enter His Rest
• 16:04 Stand Firm Under Pressure
• 19:09 Don’t Miss The Window Of Rest
• 22:26 What Falling Short Looks Like
• 25:10 Unite The Word With Faith
• 28:12 Practical Faith For Daily Life

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

The book of Hebrews lifts up Jesus to his rightful place. He is higher than all people. He is higher than the heavens. And it spends quite a bit of time in chapter one telling us that Jesus is God Almighty. Says it 13 or 14 times in as many verses that Jesus is God. It also talks about how Jesus is fully human. And we're going to see some of that today on Reasoning Through the Bible. We're also going to see where the book of Hebrews talks about rest. And the question we have today for all of our listeners are do you need rest? Do you feel rested? Because in Christ we can rest. And that's what he's going to talk about because the ancient Israelites, they had an opportunity to rest, but they did not take advantage of that opportunity because of unbelief. And it made them hard. They did not get God's rest. So we're going to read in Hebrews chapter 3, if you have your Bible open to Hebrews 3.15. And Steve, can you start there and read to verse 19 at the end of the chapter?

SPEAKER_00: 1:28

While it is said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. For who provoked him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

SPEAKER_01: 2:03

This is another one of the steel cables that anchors our church to the ground with a stern warning. He says, if you're hearing God's voice, then don't harden your hearts as when they provoked me. Now the they there, the audience of the book of Hebrews would know exactly what he's talking about. The ancient Israelites disbelieved. They hardened their hearts and they were not able to go into the promised land. So the warning for the church, and through this, really this whole section and into the next chapter, the warning for the people inside the church is to be careful that you're actually believing God and that you can rest. You can have rest today in Jesus Christ. And don't be like the ancient Israelites who heard the message, had the opportunity to enter God's rest, but did not. So in these verses, the author explains the blame that was put on the ancient Israelites four times. He's asking a question, and then he's answering it. Who, having heard God, provoked him with a hard heart? The answer is it was all those who came out of Egypt. Now in verse 17, he says God was angry with those who died in the wilderness for 40 years. In verse 18, God swore to the disobedient that they would not enter his rest. So these verses equate unbelief with disobedience. So Steve, is it true that unbelief is disobedience? And how serious of a sin is this? The reason I ask is because I'm thinking of people today that say, Well, I'm not antagonistic towards Christianity, I just don't believe. Well, does the scriptures equate that with disobeying God?

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

I think that it is, Glenn, because what is disobedience? Disobedience leads to sin. Sin is missing the mark. Who sets the mark? God sets that mark. So whenever we don't believe in God and Jesus Christ, then we have sinned. We have disobeyed him in that regard. You know, there's this idea that God doesn't want the best for us, and that whenever you become a believer in him, that he's going to limit you as to what you can't do, and he's going to put a blanket over the many things that you want to do. And that's really not the case. Whenever you actually come to a belief and trust in Jesus Christ, it opens up so much more for your life. And as we get into these verses here, he's going to talk about rest. And we'll talk about that in a little bit as well. To be able to enter into the rest of belief of a Christian life. So, yes, I think that disobeying does lead to sin. And it is a sinful thing of disobeying God by not believing him, not believing and trusting in what he has set aside for our lives.

SPEAKER_01: 5:07

And of course, the story that's being alluded here was the story of when God brought Israel out of Egypt and was leading them in the wilderness and was ready to take them into the promised land. But because of unbelief, they said, Oh, there's giants in the land. It's too strong for us. And because of that unbelief, they had to wander the wilderness for 40 years until that generation that disbelieved died out, and a new generation was able to go into the promised land. That's the story that he's alluding to here and applying it to the modern day church. Now, the people of ancient Israel, they saw evidence, did they not? Did the ancient Israelites have plenty of evidence that God was faithful?

SPEAKER_00: 5:56

They had a couple of years' worth of evidence. The backdrop to this story here of Kadesh Barnia is in Numbers chapter 13 and 14. So the people had come out of Egypt. They had gotten up to this area just south of where the promised land was. Moses sent out spies. When they came back, 10 spies said, No, we can't take the land. Two spies said we could, Joshua and Caleb. And this set the stage for this story where God was angry with them. And in that story, he talks to Moses and says, This is the tenth time that these people have provoked me. They have doubted me. What were some of those times? Well, one of them was the golden calf right at Mount Sinai a couple of months after they had come out. Other times when they grumbled about water, they grumbled about food, those type of things. And every time God gave them provision. So, yes, they have been given plenty of display of God's power. There was a fire, a pillar at night that gave them like a night light whenever they camped, or if they were on the move, it was a light that went before them. And then that was a pillar of smoke during the day that gave them shade from the desert sun as they were making their way to the promised land. So there most definitely was lots of display of his power as to what God had done. They had all the opportunity to believe that God was going to protect them going into the land, and they just didn't believe he was going to do that and carry that forth.

SPEAKER_01: 7:38

Oh, they had plenty of evidence. They saw manna in the wilderness every day. They saw water from a rock. They saw, as you said, Steve, the pillar of fire and the cloud. They saw all these miracles. They had plenty of evidence. So their unbelief, disbelief in God's ability to take them into the promised land was not because of lack of evidence. It was because they thought the circumstances were greater than what God can handle. And that was unbelief. God had promised back in Genesis to make a great nation from Abraham and to give his descendants the land. So here, though, they disbelieved, and the generation that disbelieved could not go in. So the message that Hebrews is drawing here is that there is a price for disobedience. We can't just disbelieve and then expect God to bless us. Going into the promised land is a figure of entering into God's rest. That's the theme of where we are now in at the end of chapter three and end of chapter four, entering into God's rest or not entering into God's rest because of unbelief. So, Steve, is it possible for there to be a Christian today? And I mean that in the full sense of the word, a true Christian, and not be at peace because of disobedience.

SPEAKER_00: 9:03

I absolutely know that that's a fact. As I've alluded to before, that's part of my testimony as a period of time whenever I wasn't walking as close to God as I should have been, and I wasn't at peace. And I believe that there are so many Christians out there today, Glenn, that are not walking in peace. They are not in this rest that is talked about here. They have salvation, yet they still think that there's something that they have to do. There's still something that they have to earn. There's still something out there that's hanging over them. And so when they have that, then they think that I can't have rest or they don't have rest. The Holy Spirit is not giving them rest. Definitely so. I think that there is that case where people who are disobeying and not following God in their Christian life, that they're not living a peaceful and restful life. They're missing out on this restful life of faith that is available to them.

SPEAKER_01: 10:08

And that's really the message here in Hebrews. He talks to brethren. He is speaking to people in the church that profess Christ. And he's saying to my fellow brothers and sisters, he's saying, Trust God. Don't be like your ancestors that saw all these miracles and yet they did not believe and they did not get rest. And so that's the point he's trying to make is that we too could fall into the same trap of, yes, we believe in Christ, but we don't believe enough to have confidence that he will settle our issues today, where we can rest. And instead, we look for ways to where we have to still earn our righteousness, which is always unrest. And he carries this into the next chapter. At the beginning of chapter four, the first word is therefore. So it connects the previous statements he made with this following one. So whenever you see the word therefore, you always look what it is therefore. It's drawing a conclusion based off of what we just said. So because of the wandering in the wilderness story, Hebrews 4:1 says this 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. 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. So the warning in chapter four is to be careful that we don't fall into the same trap as the Israelites. So, Steve, if we look at verses one and two, what's the basic message there in those two verses? What's his basic argument that he's giving us?

SPEAKER_00: 11:52

Let's do a little bit of a recap as to what these believers were facing. These are Hebrew believers who have decided to follow Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah, and they have placed their trust and belief in him. They're under persecution from the other believers in Judaism who are out trying to pull them back and saying that what you have done is wrong, what you have gone off and believed this person that is not right. He's claimed himself to be God, and you're off in a wrong direction. So they're persecuting them. We know this from the story of Saul. Saul was one of those who were getting information from the Sanhedrin and permission to go out and arrest some of the Hebrew believers and bring them back into Jerusalem. So we know that this persecution was there. So here the writer is of Hebrews is imploring to them you have this belief, don't fall to the pressure to go back to Judaism because you're on the right path. You're on the right track. And he's going to expand on this on these other verses that we'll go through here in chapter four. And a parallel, I think, before us in our time, Glenn, is for us the pull of the world that we've made this decision to follow Jesus Christ, and yet we have this pull of the world that wants to keep taking us back, get immersed into the worldly ways. And we've been told over in 1 John 2, 16, that the way of the world is completely contrary and opposed to the way of God. So, yes, I think that this is a warning to them of not getting pulled back into Judaism. And we can take that same warning, live the restful life of our faith life, and don't get pulled back into the worldly life.

SPEAKER_01: 13:52

That's exactly what I think he's saying is don't get pulled back into, in their specific cases, Judaism. It's real easy to fall into a works-based life. If you're concerned about being right with God, then it's easy to fall into Judaism where you can do things. That's what he's saying is a trap here. You should believe God, just like your ancestors had the opportunity to trust God, but they didn't. The ancient Israelites had the opportunity to go into the promised land, but because of unbelief, the opportunity was taken away. They lost the window of opportunity. And the writer here of Hebrews is saying the opportunity is still in front of you, and it's still in front of me. Let's not be self-deceived and think we're okay when we're not and think we believe when we don't. What he's saying here is that we should have faith, we should trust God. Let us fear, and verse one is telling Christians that they need to examine themselves. There's a question here of what this rest really means. And the main thrust of this chapter is that the Christians, brethren, he calls them, are having the opportunity to rest today, that you can rest in Christ today, in the sense of we don't have to work for our righteousness. We can rest in our salvation. Now, there's some discussion on some Bible teachers of whether it also is talking about whether we can question whether or not we're saved. We know for a fact, though, that other places in the New Testament, such as Matthew 7, verses 21 to 23, people went up to Jesus and he said specifically that there will be people who have done good deeds in Jesus' name, but are not truly Christian. We know that. We also know from many of the other epistles that there were false Christs, there were false believers in the church, wolves in sheep's clothing. Now that's true, all that's there, but that's not really the main thrust of what he's talking about here in Hebrews. What he's saying is this window of opportunity for rest. That's really what he's talking about. When he says here, Steve, while a promise remains of entering his rest, what is that opportunity for people that are listening? I mean, most of our audience has already had some degree of faith in Christ or they wouldn't be listening. What does that mean to the person inside the church today that there's uh still a window of opportunity for rest?

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

I think one way to put it, Glenn, is how I term it as living the Christian life. There are many people who are missing out on just being able to live free in Christ. And I know that that might be a little offensive to some people when we use that terminology. But I mean by that is we have security in our salvation. And where's nothing else that we need to do in order to secure that salvation? We now are in that period of time where we should be spiritually growing in Christ and becoming more Christ-like. And if we're not doing that, what does it look like? It looks like not taking the opportunity to share our faith with other people around maybe our work environment or around our community or around our neighborhood. It means going and not showing who we are and how happy we are in Christ. It means that we're not really letting other people know that we are Christians and we're kind of on the edge of worldly things with these other people because we're a little bit of ashamed of letting them know that we are a Christian. Well, all of these things really work on us and the happiness that we might have of what's put here as far as living in the rest of God. And I think that that's what he's talking about to the Hebrews of his time, which resonates with us in our time. He says, while a promise remains of entering his rest, we have that promise that once we're saved, we have another part of living in rest, becoming more spiritually mature in Jesus Christ, studying his word, going to a local church that preaches his word on a weekly basis, getting involved in a small group, getting together with fellow Christians and having fellowship with them. That's the promise of the rest that he's talking about there with them, for staying strong with the group of brethren that they're with that have chosen Jesus Christ. And in our day, it's the same promise to us in a different way in our world of staying together and learning more about Jesus Christ, getting together in fellowship, I think, with fellow Christians in order to get us through that period of living daily in a restful way, a peaceful way in our Christianity.

SPEAKER_01: 18:56

It's telling us here in Hebrews 4:1, let us fear while this promise remains, that any one of you may seem to have come short of it. So he's giving this warning to people inside the church to watch out, be careful, be afraid that you may have come short of this rest in God. Now, I want to say, first of all, and be quite clear about this, that yes, it's telling us to have some fear and examine ourselves, but we should not remain in doubt about our salvation. The New Testament makes it quite clear that we can be sure about our salvation. We can have confidence that we're saved. John 10, 28 says, quote, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, unquote. That is Christ speaking. And when he says never perish, he means never perish. We can have complete, total confidence that he gives us eternal life and that we will never perish. Also, 1 John 5, 13, quote, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, unquote. So he's telling us there that all those who believe can know and have confidence that we have present tense eternal life. And if I can lose it tomorrow, then it wasn't eternal. So we can have confidence that if we have faith in Christ, that we have eternal life. How much faith? Is faith as a mustard seed. As long as you're going back to him, then you have the saving faith. With that, though, I think we need to take this question in Hebrews 4:1 seriously. Let us fear that we may have come short of this rest. So, Steve, is it wise for a Christian, true Christian, to examine themselves periodically to ensure that they're putting their faith in Christ so that we can have this rest today?

SPEAKER_00: 21:02

I absolutely think that is true. And what would be coming short look like? I think it's the opposite of what I just mentioned before. It would mean not studying God's word. It would mean not getting involved with a local Bible-believing church and not getting involved with a small group of other Christians, fellowshipping with them and getting to know God's word a little bit better, taking other activities during the week that surround Jesus Christ and knowing him better versus surrounding ourselves with just worldly activities during the week. I think that's is a description of what falling short would look like. So we have this juxtaposed position of a promise that remains for us by following through with getting to know Jesus Christ better through his word, or falling short by not following through and getting to know Jesus Christ better through his word. I think that's one of the things that the author is talking about to those Hebrews of their day. And I think again, resonates with us in our day.

SPEAKER_01: 22:10

I think what's clearer through this whole passage is that what he's saying is don't miss this promise of rest. Don't go through life in a state of unrest and unbelief, not having confidence that God can help you today, that he has a purpose for what he's taking you through today. Now, if we look at verse two, two questions. Did the ancient Israelites hear the good news? That's the first question. And then the last half of the verse of verse two, why did the word of God not profit them?

SPEAKER_00: 22:45

So, what was the good news that was preached to the Hebrews there of their time? That was that Jesus Christ had come, he was the Messiah, that his death, burial, and resurrection was one where they paid his sin debt, and that they could have salvation and eternal life in belief in Jesus Christ. Well, what was the good news that was preached to the people at Kadesh Barnia? Same thing is that after hundreds of years of slavery, God shows up with the prophet of Moses to take them out of that land and take them into the promised land. Where did they fall short? It didn't profit them because they didn't believe fully that God was going to finish the task and take them into the promised land and drive out the unbelieving people before them. Therefore, they were not united with the faith of those who had heard and believed. Caleb and Joshua believed that God was going to be able to take them and drive out the people. The others didn't, and they sided with the 10 spies who didn't believe that. So the warning for us in our day, I think, Glenn, is let's not fall short of what God has promised for us in our life today, is what we've just been talking about. And let's follow through and believe that God is going to take us through any type of circumstances that we might have in our life. And through that, we will be able to seal the promise that He has made to us and be able to live a restful life in Christ.

SPEAKER_01: 24:20

These ancient Israelites heard the word of God, the good word of God. It was a promise of good things, but it did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. So the word of God was good. The promise of God was good. The people didn't believe it. They didn't have enough trust in it to act on it. They didn't have enough trust in God to actually go into the promised land. So the idea here in Hebrews 4, 2, is that people can hear the good word of God with great promises that he gives, but we must unite it with trust, trust in that word, so that we would then get benefit from it. Without faith and trust, the word of God does not benefit the person. So let's get to some practical examples. The word of God tells us things about how to handle our finances. It tells us things about how to handle our marriages, our children, how to deal with our employers and our employees. It tells us how to deal with our relationships with those around us and how to run our churches. He's saying you've heard the word of God. You've still got this opportunity, this promise in front of you that if you just trust him and trust his word and handle your daily life the way that he says to do it, it will turn out well. You will get the promise. If you have unbelief in how to handle all those things I just listed, then you will not have rest. My friend, do you need rest? If you do, then listen to the word of God. Because what did Jesus say? He said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Steve, do you have rest in Christ?

SPEAKER_00: 26:10

I absolutely, Glenn, can say that I have rest in Christ at this time of my life. And part of that has come from studying God's word deeper. When we went through Galatians and we've gone through Colossians, it has become very clear to me that we have salvation by faith. And then Colossians is very clear that we have all these attributes and characteristics of once being saved, and that now I can go off and live the Christian life as what we've been talking about. So, yes, I have that assurance and rest and peace in my life at this time that God is going to carry me through any situation that I might find myself in. I don't have to doubt my salvation and that becoming more Christ-like is better for me. I don't have that fear nagging me of the Holy Spirit saying, Steve, what you're doing isn't right. Because what have I done? I've done just what I've talked about. I'm in a Bible-believing church. I'm in a small group that is very active in fellowshipping with each other, and we love on each other through the hard times and the good times that we have. So, yes, my life of rest in Christ is much better at this time of my life than it has been at certain times of my life in the past. But for now, yes, that life of rest is very pleasing to me.

SPEAKER_01: 27:34

Oftentimes I find myself to be like the man in the gospels that came up to Christ and Christ asks him, Do you believe? And he says, Yes, I believe. Help my unbelief. So that's where I think many of us are is that yes, I believe, but there's times where I find myself, why didn't I follow God's word a little closer? Why didn't I believe him even more in handling all of my daily activities? That's the great message for us today. And the great message of Hebrews 4 is that we still have this promise before us. The opportunity is still there. My friend, will you not trust him today with all of your life and all of your daily activities? And we should indeed examine ourselves periodically to see am I trusting God fully or am I holding on to my own unbelief? We're gonna find out more about that as we go through Hebrews chapter four next time. Oh, this is such a wonderful, wonderful book that tells us some great things about how to live in Christ.

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.