God offered His people rest in the land of Canaan.  All they had to do was enter the land by faith and live obediently to Him.  Sadly, they failed.     

Hebrews 3:18–19 (ESV)
¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The point that the Hebrews writer is getting to is that God continues to offer rest to His people.  In Hebrews 4:9, he writes, “There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God.”   Entering this rest, however, is not unconditional.  The same things that prevented God’s people of old from entering His rest will prevent us from entering as well.

While God has blessed us with salvation, this salvation must be maintained by our faith and obedience.  As most of you reading this blog know, there is a false doctrine referred to as “Calvinism” that says a person cannot fall from grace.  Read what the Hebrews writer wrote to see that, regardless of how popular “Calvinism” might be, it is false.

Hebrews 3:12 (ESV)
¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Can we fall away from the living God?  The Bible clearly says we can.  Instead of developing a false sense of security, concluding that once we are saved, we will always be saved no matter how we live our lives, we should be on guard lest we follow in the steps of God’s former people.

Do you want to enter God’s rest?  If you do, you must learn from the Israelites who were led by God out of the land of Egypt.  They disobeyed God and died in the wilderness.  But why did they disobey God?  It was simply because they had a lack of faith.  In the passage quoted above (Hebrews 3:18-19), the terms “disobedient” and “unbelief” are interchangeable.  This is because whenever one disobeys God it is always a demonstration of a lack of faith, and a lack of faith will always lead to disobedience.

To enter God’s rest, we must make sure that our faith is intact and always increasing.  We can do this by making sure that we are constantly studying God’s Word.  Paul tells us why this is true.

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)
¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

There is no source more effective in guarding us against disobedience than God’s Word.  David knew this to be true.

Psalm 119:11 (NKJV)
¹¹ Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

John also emphasized this truth, telling us that if the seed (God’s Word) remains in us, we will not continue in sin (1 John 3:9).   No wonder Paul exhorts us to allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16).

A steady diet of God’s Word will keep us spiritually healthy and on the right track to enter the rest of God.  To the Jews of old, that rest was to be found in the land of Canaan.  Our rest will be realized in heaven, a place of endless joy where pain and sorrow will be things of the past, never to be experienced again (Revelation 21:4).  But we must be faithful!  Our spiritual forefathers failed.  Let’s make sure that we don’t.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.