From our Sunday service on February 15, 2026, Hebrews 3 and 4. This is part 3 of our Hebrews series. Watch the full message: The Believer’s Rest – Hebrews Series #3 on YouTube.
Last time we saw how Jesus humbled Himself by becoming human, set an example for us as both our Savior and Brother, and then died for our sins. Today we come to one of the benefits of that salvation: the divine rest Christ offers us. God wants you to know that you deny yourself of God’s rest through unbelief.
The writer begins by setting Jesus beside Moses, because the first readers were being drawn back to the law as if it were a safer place to rest.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
Hebrews 3:1–3
He wants them to know that the law of Moses is not better than Jesus. Moses, his law, and the Scriptures of the Old Testament were all pointing toward Christ. The place they wanted to go to find rest from persecution had no rest for them. Outside of Jesus, you will not find rest.
Better Than Moses
Moses was a prophet and the giver of the law. The angels gave it to him, and he gave it to the people. But Jesus is a prophet, a priest, and a king. He was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as Moses was faithful in all his house. Deuteronomy promised that God would raise up a prophet like unto Moses, and that prophecy is talking about Jesus Christ. If you go back to the old Moses, you miss the fulfillment, the new Moses. Jesus is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as the one who built the house has more honor than the house.
If you visit a beautiful home, you do not praise the walls. You ask who designed it and who did the work. The Jews loved the beauty of the law, but to deny Christ is to deny the One who gave the law. Every house is built by some man, but this house was built by God. Christ, the Word of God, spoke everything into existence. Moses was faithful as a servant, for a testimony of things that would be spoken after. He had only a portion of the truth, and even when he wrote of a prophet like himself, he was pointing ahead to something greater. Jesus is the Son over His own house, and we are that house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Even Joshua’s name is part of that picture. Joshua was Jesus’s Hebrew name, and the angel said, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus,” to draw out what the Old Testament had already been showing.
They Could Not Enter In Because of Unbelief
The writer then turns to the wilderness, quoting the Holy Ghost in Psalm 95: today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. That day was the day the spies came back from the land. Ten said the people were too tall and too strong. Only Joshua and Caleb said God was bigger, and that He would give the victory. Israel sided with the bad report. Rest from Egypt was right in front of them, and because they did not believe God was able to save them, they wandered forty years until that generation died, except for those two men.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:12–13
We can make the same kind of excuses. Some believe sin is more pleasurable than salvation. Some believe they are good enough to make it to heaven, as if their good will outweigh their bad. Some refuse a God who imposes rules, and fall into the claim that no line can be drawn. Some believe they are too far gone for God to save. Some say faith is foolish unless they can see more tangible proof. All of these harden the heart. In the first readers’ day the excuses sounded more like family shunning, a failing business, or the fear that Rome would one day outlaw the faith. Different words, same unbelief: trading divine rest for a temporary rest in the world.
We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. They could not enter in because of unbelief. If Israel’s crossing into the land foreshadowed salvation, then the Old Testament is already teaching that unbelief keeps a person from rest in Christ. Everyone who left Egypt liked the idea of rest, but only Joshua and Caleb believed God enough for it to change how they acted. The others followed Moses. They believed the man, but not the God behind the man. When the enemies looked too big, they backed up and walked away. Salvation is lost only because of unbelief in God’s Word.
The Offer of Rest Still Stands
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. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Hebrews 4:1–2
The promise is still left to us. The gospel was preached to them as well as to us, but the word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. Christ has died. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Christ was lifted up on the cross, and the opportunity stands. Do not come short of it.
The writer then ties the offer to David and to Genesis. Psalm 95 was written long after the wilderness, when the people were already in the land, and it still said, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” If David could still speak of entering God’s rest, then the rest Moses pointed to was not merely a plot of ground. It remains that some must enter in. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. He that is entered into His rest has ceased from his own works, as God did from His on the seventh day. The Sabbath rest was foreshadowed in creation. We are not invited to work our way to heaven. We are invited to stop that work and rest in what Jesus has already done.
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews 4:11–13
Do not work for salvation. Labor to enter into that rest. The natural instinct is to say, “I can do it myself.” The work we need is the work of humbling ourselves enough to surrender in faith to the Word of God. And notice what that phrase means here. The word of God in this passage is not first of all a book. It is a Person. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.” That is the language of someone who sees, not of paper and ink.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:1–3
Jesus is the Word of God, quick and powerful, sharper than any twoedged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. He is bigger than Rome and bigger than the neighbors you fear. Man can kill the body, but God is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Why fear man over God? And there is a warning in that same truth. All things are naked and opened unto His eyes. You cannot fool Him with church words, or with a profession meant to please the people around you, or with a kind of hell insurance that never convinces the heart. He knows whether you believe.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14–16
So hold fast your profession. We have a great High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He lived on this earth, knew hardship, and overcame. Come boldly to the throne of grace. He was shunned. He suffered for telling the truth. He can help you when the road is hard.
God’s rest is not something we earn. Israel stood on the edge of the land and missed it through unbelief, and a person can hear the gospel, know the language of faith, and even want rest, and still miss it if the heart remains hard. Jesus has accomplished the work. The invitation still stands. Stop trying to carry what Christ has already offered to carry. Stop wandering in a wilderness of self-reliance when the promised rest is next to you. God wants you to know that you deny yourself of God’s rest through unbelief. Will you believe and embrace that rest today?
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