Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1177
“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 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 teacher of full assurance must also inculcate watchfulness or he will be a one-sided instructor. Boldness and confidence are all the more likely to be preserved in their integrity if seasoned with the salt of holy fear, without which faith may become carelessness and full assurance degenerate into presumption. The Apostle, here, exhorts us to fear upon a subject of the utmost importance. He had such a value for the rest which God has laid up for His people, that he trembled lest any one of His brethren should miss it, or seem to miss it.
I do not marvel that a man so strong in faith as he was, and so full of holy expectancy of the promised rest, should feel a jealous alarm lest any of those committed to him should fail to reach the desired end. Is not every loving father fearful that his child may not succeed in life? Love never thinks of a beloved one tossed upon the sea without a measure of anxiety, nor can we see our friends crossing the ocean of life without a tender fear for them. That fear makes us beg them to be cautious and watchful. My earnest love to your souls compels me to dwell upon such sacred warnings as that of my text. Heedless and Too-Bold are never wise—in watchfulness is our safety. To this subject I shall address myself with all my heart, trusting that the Spirit of God may also arouse your hearts to give it the consideration which it deserves.
I. We shall first answer the inquiry, WITH WHAT DOES THE FEAR ENJOINED IN THE TEXT MAINLY CONCERN ITSELF? “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.” Now, the Apostle cannot mean that we are to fear lest we should come short of Heaven for lack of merit! Why, my Brothers and Sisters, there is not a man living, nor has one ever lived, nor shall one ever live, who will not come short of Heaven if he tries that road! Human merit is not the way to Heaven! Since the hour in which our first parent broke the Law for us, the perfect keeping of the Law has been impossible!
Neither is the keeping of the Law set before us in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as the way of acceptance with God. “By the works of the Law there shall no flesh living be justified; for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.” The just shall live by faith and it is in the matter of faith that we are cautioned against coming short. The Apostle would, with indignation, have spurned the idea that the Gospel race is to be run at the foot of Sinai—and that its prize would be a reward for good works! Over and over again he has plainly declared, “it is not of works, lest any man should boast,” but by Divine Grace, as the pure gift of the good pleasure and mercy of God. We must not, therefore, twist his words into a legal injunction, for they were never intended to bear such a meaning.