Caanan & Heaven in Prophecy

 A. God’s Sabbath Rest on the seventh day after creation, was a rest of satisfaction with His work.

1. During the six days of creation, God said that every bit of His work was particularly good. It was sinless.

2. Sin had not yet entered the world via Adam.

3. There was no sin in Adam. Eve had none either. They were incredibly good people when God created them.

4. Suppose you and your spouse complete a home improvement project. It comes out beautifully, with no flaws. You finish the work and enjoy viewing it. Satisfaction fills your hearts. Your work is good in nature, and it is beneficial in effect. You are pleased with what you have done.

5. You stop the work. Contentment fills your hearts.

6. Isaiah 40:28 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.”

7. So, God’s rest on the 7th day was not due to fatigue.

8. Merriam-Webster defines complacency as “an often-unjustified feeling of being pleased with oneself or with one's situation or achievements.” Complacency is sometimes unjustified. But if so, it would be prideful. God’s feelings on the seventh day fit into the justified category. Hence there is His pure rest on the seventh day in a job well done.

9. It was a good kind of complacency when God rested on the seventh day. He is righteous. There is no sin in Him or in anything that He does.

10. At every turn God was pleased with Himself and with His work. Now it was complete. And He rested in that goodness. That is the meaning of God resting on the seventh day.

11. On the third day, “God saw that it was good.” On the fourth day “God saw that it was good.” On the fifth day “God saw that it was good.” And after the sixth day, “God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Then He rested, enjoying that goodness.

12. Pleasure in Himself and His achievements was what God enjoyed at the end of the six days of creation.

13. Everything was good. Then sin entered the world and from that day on, everything in the world was horrible. Nothing was good. But prior to sin, God relished what He had done.

14. He did not cease working. He still upheld the world by the word of His power. He still made things grow and governed providentially. If He had not continued the work of Providence, everything would have fallen apart. Finally, He rested in what He had done. And it was all exceptionally good.

15. Dr. John Wilmot,[1] in his book “Inspired Principles of Prophetic Interpretation,” calls this Sabbath Rest the “satisfaction of work well done.”[2]

16. Notice that God did not rest in any achievement of man. He rested in His own work.

17. The primary way we rest in creation is that we believe He did it, and we love and enjoy what He accomplished.

18. The next splendid work that God accomplished was the redemption of sinners. God intended creation rest to point to redemption. He encouraged us to rest in His salvation by believing what our Lord did for us on the cross. He had finished the work of salvation.

19. In the Bible there are other “rests” besides creation rest. All of them point to His ultimate rest of salvation.

B. No one entered God’s rest by entering Canaan. So, His ultimate rest for His people is salvation.

TABULAR VIEW OF SCRIPTURES THAT POINT TO THE MOST IMPORTANT REST OF ALL

Exodus 17:1b-3, 7	Psalm 95:7b-11	Hebrews 3:7-11
Moses says,	David says,	“as the Holy Spirit says:”
“They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2So the people contended with Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “Why do you test the LORD?” 3But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 7He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”	“Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,”	“Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,”
	9where your fathers tested and tried Me, though they had seen My work.”	“9where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.”
	“10For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.”	“10Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’”
	“11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”	“11So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”

1. Psalm 95:7b-11 is a warning against unbelief. It is not a warning against becoming a carnal Christian. And the use of Psalm 95 in Hebrews 3 is also a warning against unbelief. Unbelief leads to eternal damnation. And the ultimate degree of failing to enter Canaan is not a physical death. It is perishing under God’s justice forever.

a. The author of the warning is the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:22).

b. The Scripture is Hebrews 3:7-11, which is a direct quote from Psalm 95:7b-11, which in turn, comments on Exodus 17:1-7.

c. In Psalm 95:1-7a, David summons worshippers to God.

d. In Psalm 95:7b-11 he warns against failure to persevere to the end of life, and he uses the Exodus generation as an example to avoid.

e. He exhorts the Christians in Hebrews 3:12 as follows, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

f. “Today” is the present day of opportunity to turn to God and rest, whether in the Exodus Generation, King David’s Generation, or the era of the early Church. God visited all three. In each case, He calls the Israelites to repent and rest in Him. And He also is visiting His people today in a day called “Today.” He offers the same “rest.”

g. The prized rest is greater than Canaan rest. It is higher than creation rest. It is the mighty rest that resulted from God giving His only begotten Son to save sinners. This rest is the reason for all the others. 

h. The Exodus generation put Yahweh to the test, and He judged them for it. David’s generation and the early church generation must not commit the same sin.

i. He has a message for those who hear God’s voice.

j. His warning to them is, “Do not harden your hearts” against God when you hear His voice of warning. God uses warnings to keep us in the faith or to bring us into the faith initially.

k. The example He warned us not to follow was, “As you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, and for 40 years saw what I did” (Hebrews 3:8-9).

1) The sin of the fathers is the sin of the nation of Israel in the wilderness.

2) The rebellion is their provocation against God.

3) The Israelites were striving against God. They were thirsty, lost their tempers, and argued with Him. They provoked Him and demanded that He give account to them as to why He brought them out of Egypt only to kill them in the desert.

4) It was their day to turn to Yahweh with all their hearts, but they responded in the worst possible manner.

5) As a memorial of this rebellion, God named the location of the sin “Massah,” which means “contention.” He also named it “Meribah,” which means “chiding.” They treated God as if they were His god and he, their servant. They demanded an accounting from Him. God’s purpose in evaluating them with temporary lack of water, was to bring them to repentance and faith. But they required Him to justify His presence among them by providing water for them.

6) According to Numbers 14:22-24, they also had responded like this to God’s previous tests.

l. Israel provoked God to anger. Here is a word to the wise: There is a thin line between filing a righteous, humble, and submissive complaint with God, which is a perfectly righteous thing to do, and angrily treating God like He is your servant, which is a sinful thing to do.

m. Hebrews 12:15-17 says, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many. 16See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright. 17For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.”

n. So, God made two charges against the wilderness generation of Jews.

1) His first charge was that their hearts were always going astray. The people of Israel were always going astray. Perspective from the New Testament revealed that only a very few of them were born again people.

2) His second charge was that “They have not known my ways.” His ways were like those of an examining physician who must, at times, touch a patient and say, “Tell me when you feel pain.” So, to help them, God let them run out of food and water at times.

3) But in every case, they resorted to anger or idolatry instead of resting in Him by faith and telling Him when they feel pain.

4) All they had to do was to ask Him for what they needed, and He would provide it. But they became angry and treated Him like He was their devious servant. By that, they failed every test God gave to them.

o. And God gave a verdict in Hebrews 3:11 as follows, “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”

p. The Hebrews sinned away their day of grace.

q. Things about the undiscovered rest:

1) Many believe falsely that the rest and the inheritance that God is giving to them is the land of Canaan. But Canaan was only a token of a vastly greater land.

2) They believe this because they misinterpret Deuteronomy 12:8-10, which says, “You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes. 9For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

10When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you, and you dwell securely …”

3) Canaan rest was rest from enemies around them. But it was not the ultimate rest that God promised.

4) Canaan rest was only a picture of ultimate rest. A “rest” in Scripture is any God-given and God-wrought victory, blessing, or reward.

5) The real rest was rest in Christ, not Canaan. Canaan rest only illustrated our Lord’s rest, which was His finished work of redemption on the cross. When we believe God’s promises to save our souls, we rest in Him and His promises.

6) The Exodus generation failed to enter God’s rest every time God gave them a test. And they failed the final exam at Kadesh Barnea 

7) Numbers 14:22-24 says, “not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times— 23not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.”

8) They failed every test God gave them. They panicked at the Red Sea, at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim, and at Kadesh Barnea. They made a calf to worship at Sinai. They griped at Yahweh about the food. They demanded fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. They did not like the manna that He kindly gave them.

9) They could trust the One who was leading them and ask Him for what they wanted. But they had to learn to be willing to live by what He thought best for them. However, they refused to do it. They did not enter His rest by resting in His promises.

10) If they were to trust God for natural rest, they would know that He was good. Then they might trust Him for eternal rest in Christ, which was the great rest to which it all pointed.

C. The Application of the foregoing teaching to the Christian Jews of the early Church (Hebrews 3:12):

1. The Hebrew Christians must not commit the same sin as the Exodus generation. Hebrews 3:12 says, “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.” The people of the Exodus turned away from the living God. The Hebrew Christians must not duplicate that. For these Jewish Christians to leave Christ and return to Judaism is to rebel against God.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE GENERATIONS OF THE WILDERNESS AND OF THE EARLY CHURCH JEWS

Wilderness Generation	Early Church Generation
They were professing believers in Yahweh	They were professing believers in our Lord Jesus
God tested them by shortage of water.	God tested them by allowing persecution.
God was evangelizing them.	God was evangelizing them.
Issue: Would they believe Him or become angry, gripe, and put God to the test?	Issue: Would they believe Him or become angry, gripe, and put God to the test?
If they believe, they treat Him as their God.	If they believe, they treat Him as their God.
Though God saved Israel out of Egypt, He still tested them He was proving the kind of faith they had.	Though God saved us, He still tests us. He is proving whether our faith has life in it or not.

2. The Hebrew Christians must encourage one another daily while God calls the time “Today.” “Today” is the day of opportunity to do something about the guilt of one’s sin and rest in God’s rest of salvation.

3. The Hebrew Christians must persevere unto the end of their lives or until our Lord returns. Hebrews 3:14 says, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.” They must not apostatize. They must enter God’s rest and stay there. The right response to His testing is of signal importance.

4. Our beginning confidence in Christ must be our ending confidence in Him as well. Proof that God united us to Christ is that we persevere to the end. Saving faith has legs.

5. The example of the need to persevere to the end is in Hebrews 3:14-17 as follows: Hebrews 3:14-17 says, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first. 15As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion. 16For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?” (Hebrews 3:14-17)

a. Hebrews 3:15 says, “As it has been said: ‘“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.” The Holy Spirit reminds these Christian Hebrews that another Israelite generation started well but did not finish well.

1) Though they possessed the land under Joshua, Joshua did not give them God’s ultimate rest.

2) Hebrews 4:8 says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.”

3) The pattern is in Jude 1:5 as follows: “I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.” Those who did not believe were not regenerate because a born-again person overcomes the world, the flesh, and the devil.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE SALVATION OF THE WILDERNESS GENERATION

Hebrews 3:16	Who heard and rebelled?	Answer: All those Moses led out of Egypt
Hebrews 3:17	With whom was God angry for 40 years?	Answer: Those who sinned & whose bodies fell in the wilderness
Hebrews 3:18	To whom did God say that they would never enter His rest?	Answer: Those who disobeyed

4) Hebrews 3:16-19 says, “For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed? 19So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.”

b. Conclusion: About 95% of the people of the Exodus Generation were not people of faith. They were unbelievers. God, by testing them in the wilderness was evangelizing them. His main goal was their salvation according to Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4. The land of Canaan was never His final goal. When God promised it, He was using it to evangelize the descendants of Jacob. It was like the Ark of the Covenant or the entire Tabernacle. The land was a training aid. God used the land to point to the greater land, which was Heaven. 

c. You may ask, “How do you know this about the wilderness generation?” Answer: This knowledge comes from the New Testament. It is in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4. The Old Testament is God’s word, but it is vague. The New Testament is our Lord Jesus’ interpretation of the Old Testament.

d. When Jesus Christ the Messiah came, he unveiled the Old Testament so we could understand it. That unveiling is what we have here.

e. Abraham knew that the land of Canaan was not God’s ultimate end for Israel.

f. Hebrews 11:9-10 says, “By faith he [Abraham] dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

g. Abraham knew that Canaan was but a token of a greater land, which was Heaven.

D. The Context of Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4

1. For the sake of clarity, I am including a verse-by-verse contextual analysis of the 3rd and 4th chapters of Hebrews. This is for the benefit of readers who wonder if I am taking verses in these chapters out of context. I want to be clear. There may be some redundancies. But please be patient. I want to lay it all out for you so that you can see the force of what Hebrews is saying.

2. Here is my thesis: Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4 warns Hebrew Christians to persevere in a Heavenly rest rather than earthly rests. This rest is salvation in Christ Jesus, and in Heaven, which is a place that our Lord went to prepare for us. Here are the main points of Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 in their context.

3. Hebrews 3:2 says, “He [Jesus Christ] was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.” One is not faithful unless he continues in his faithfulness during the entire time of his stewardship. Our Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to God until the end, like Moses was faithful to God until the end.

4. Hebrews 3:6 says, “But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.” Our Lord Messiah is faithful to the end over God’s house. And we are God’s house if we persevere to the end of our lives, but not if we do not persevere.

5. Hebrews 3:6 also says, “…And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.” So, we cannot stop living as Christians. To do so is to quit being faithful to God. Failure to believe all the way to the end means that we are not God’s house (Temple). We are only God’s temple if we persevere in the faith to the end.

6. Faithfulness to the end is necessary to prove that the salvation that we have in Christ is real for us (Hebrews 3:5).[3] The big necessity is that we must continue throughout our lives in the same faith in which God birthed us again. But we become God’s Temple at the beginning of our Christian life, not at the end. Perseverance only proves salvation. It does not initiate it.

7. Hebrews 3:8 says, “Do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion in the day of testing in the wilderness.” Remember, he speaks to Christian Jews in the Book of Hebrews. They must not harden their hearts when they hear the truth. Hardening one’s heart is the opposite of believing the truth. An entire generation of Israelites did not remain faithful, and they died in the wilderness. That pictures a professing Christian who does not have salvation in Christ. He does not respond to God’s tests properly and does not enter God’s rest in Christ.

8. Hebrews 3:11 says, “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” In the context, not remaining faithful on the part of the Exodus Israelites prefigures not remaining faithful to Christ to the end of our lives.

9. Hebrews 3:12 says, “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.” So, we must avoid the sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. To that end we must do the following: 

a. Encourage one another daily, while it is still “Today.” By this, the deceitfulness of sin will not harden us.

b. Holy firmly to the end the confidence we had when we first believed.” Hebrews 3:13 says, “We share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had when we first believed.” Note: The Holy Spirit is not denying justification by faith, or “once saved is always saved.” God keeps His people all the way through the Christian life. But, just as faith without works is dead, so, faith without perseverance to the end is dead faith. Proof of living faith is faithfulness to the end of our earthly life. We absolutely must continue to believe.

1) Hebrews 3:14 says, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.” The basis for the teaching of necessary perseverance to the end is the warning, namely, “Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the rebellion of Exodus 17:1-7.

2) Hebrews 3:16 asks, “Who were they who heard and rebelled?” (Hebrews 3:16)

3) Answer: They were the Exodus people who heard, believed, and who anticipated that the promised rest was the land of Canaan (Exodus 3:16). The ultimate promise of rest was always our Lord Jesus Christ and Heaven. He is our rest. So, they were wrong to think that Canaan was their ultimate rest.

4) Hebrews 3:17 says, “And with whom was God angry for 40 years?”

5) Answer: He was angry with those who sinned, with those whose bodies fell in the wilderness” Hebrews 3:17).

6) Hebrews 3:18 says, “And to whom did God swear that they will never enter His rest?

7) Answer: Those who disobeyed. They were those who disobeyed God’s ultimate call to come to Him by faith (Hebrews 3:18).

8) Conclusion: They did not enter God’s ultimate rest due to their spiritual sin of unbelief (Hebrews 3:18). In common between Psalm 95, Exodus 17, and Hebrews 3-4 is that all three Scriptures point to a spiritual sin of failure to enter God’s rest due to unbelief. Unbelief is why we do not go to Heaven. And it is why those who disobeyed did not go to Heaven. 

9) At Rephidim the sin was arguing with God and putting God to the test. But the ultimate sin was unbelief (Hebrews 3:1). In David’s generation the Israelites were always going astray. But the root of that was unbelief (Hebrews 3:12). And, in Hebrews 3 their hearts were always straying from God, and they did not know His ways. But the root of those sins is unbelief also. Faith in God acknowledges Him as our absolute Lord.

10. Hebrews 4:1 says, “There is still a promise of entering His rest, so be careful not to fall short of it.”

a. Though the nation of Israel rested from her enemies, they did not enter the ultimate form of rest. 

b. God did, however, fulfill the literal aspect of rest for Israel under Solomon (1 Kings 4:20-28). 1 Kings 4:20-28 is the fulfillment of everything God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

c. Falling short of God’s rest is failing to persevere in the faith to the end of our lives.

d. The promise of entering God’s rest is as valid today as it was during the time of the Exodus. He is not offering us the opportunity to enter Canaan. The rest He offers us is Heaven. So, if the promise is the same for both generations, God must have offered salvation to the Exodus generation as well.

e. All warnings of the Book of Hebrews pertain to failure to persevere to the end of our lives.

11. Hebrews 4:2 says, “For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who comprehended it.” We also had repentance preached to us like the wilderness generation did. It was of no value to them because they did not believe. Falling short means not continuing to believe until the end of our lives. 

a. Note: In the context of the Book of Hebrews, the persecuted Jewish Christians are in danger of abandoning Christ and reverting to Judaism. If they do this, they have dead faith. Living faith always perseveres to the end. 1 John 5:4 says, “because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.”

b. Proof that the promise of entering God’s rest is in Hebrews 4:2 is as follows, “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”

1) Those who entered the land, like Joshua and Caleb were genuine believers. They were different from those Israelites who did not enter the land by faith because they entered God’s ultimate rest before entering Canaan Rest.

2) There were two kinds of Hebrews in the Old Testament times. There were those who had genuine faith and those who had temporary faith. Those with temporary faith were those who constantly accosted God about His ways in the wilderness.

3) It is today as it was then. Only those with genuine faith enter God’s rest. The primary proof of living faith is perseverance to the end.

4) God had the same Gospel preached to both groups. But that same Gospel is clearer to us than it was to those who died in the wilderness.

5) But the rest is the same. It is not Canaan Rest. It is God’s rest, which is salvation.

c. Philippians 1:6 says, “being persuaded of this very thing, that the One having begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” If God has saved us, He will keep us in the faith regardless of how much pain the world inflicts upon us. He began an excellent work in us, and He pledges to continue that work.

d. But one way He keeps us in the faith is to make and use warnings. He warns us not to apostatize. If we are truly born-again, we will heed the warning.

e. Compare this with Matthew 24:13 which says, “But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”

12. Hebrews 4:3 says, “Now we who have believed enter that rest,” Believing on Christ is the issue. He discusses salvation, whether in the New Testament or in the Old Testament.

a. Psalm 95:11 says, “So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest’” NLT (Hebrews 4:3).

b. This rest cannot be creation rest, because He says, “Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said … And yet His work has been finished since the creation of the world” (Hebrews 4:3). God rested on the 7th day, and we did not rest with Him.

c. This rest is the rest that believers enjoy in Christ today. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

1) This rest is for believers during the New Testament dispensation and throughout all of time.

2) So, it is not the rest that God will give when He creates new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17). However, by faith we do inherit spiritual land in the heavenlies. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.”

3) This returns to the time in which God said on several occasions, “And God saw that it was good.” God was pleased with His work and rested in it.

4) There is every reason to enter God’s true rest by faith since He finished His work of creation long ago. Creation merely points to God’s ultimate rest, which is salvation in Christ with Heaven as the result of that salvation.

5) It is God’s rest of complacency in His works. It is His satisfaction and acquiescence in His accomplishment. It is His satisfaction in His own work, and in the work of His only Begotten Son.

6) Romans 3:25 says, ‘whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” ESV The atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied God for sinners. And God rested in that, just as He rested in His original creation, calling it good.

7) Jesus said, “It is finished.” The work of salvation is what He finished.

8) There is every reason to enter God’s rest by faith since the Lord Jesus Christ finished the work of salvation at the cross. Our faith in Him connects us to Him. Thus, we rest in Him by faith.

9) We rest in Christ today, but God has not yet taken away all the sources of suffering from us.

10) This rest is already ours in Christ. We have peace with God, and we have the Holy Spirit to comfort us in our tribulations. But we will have ultimate rest with Christ when He comes again (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).

11) 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 says, “And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. 6In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you. 7And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, 8in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. 10When he comes on that day, he will receive glory from his holy people—praise from all who believe. And this includes you, for you believed what we told you about him.” NLT

12) So, the timeline is:

a) You Jewish Christians are suffering now.

b) When our Lord comes again, He will give you rest from your enemies and punish your persecutors with eternal destruction.

 c) We will praise the Lord for all of this.

13. Hebrews 4:6 says, “Since, then, it remains for some to enter His rest, and since those who formerly heard the good news did not enter because of their disobedience,”

a. God took an oath that some would not enter His rest. So, it follows that some will enter His rest.

b. He preached to those in the wilderness who were guilty of deliberate sin. Hebrews 10:26 says, “If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,”

c. We enter His rest by faith.

d. We fail to enter it by unbelief and disobedience (Hebrews 4:6).

e. God set a certain day (of opportunity,) which He called “Today.” He called it “today” because we only have the present time in which to go to Him for ultimate rest in Christ. Do not miss it.

f. Those who formerly heard the good news were the Exodus generation people who died in the wilderness.

g. They did not enter His Canaan rest. But the reason that they did not enter God’s Canaan Rest was because they never entered His ultimate rest. Joshua and Caleb, however, did enter God’s heavenly rest by faith.

14. Hebrews 4:8 says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.” Joshua led the Israelites into the land, and they conquered it. But in Psalm 95, God spoke of another day, which is “Today.” So, God fulfills the land promise by giving the ultimate land, which is Heaven (Hebrews 4:8) to the one who turns from sin to Jesus the Messiah 

a. Though Joshua led them into the land that is God’s rest, he did not give them rest.

b. The land that God called “rest” is not the ultimate rest. God called it “rest” because it pictures the ultimate rest.

c. Joshua gave them rest when he gave the land to the Israelites, and they conquered it by faith.

d. But Joshua did not give them ultimate rest. The real rest was always Heaven.

e. Joshua 21:45 says, “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel had failed; everything was fulfilled.”

15. Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” 

a. The remaining Sabbath Rest is not the Sabbath Day.

b. The remaining Sabbath Rest is faith-rest in Christ.

c. The first magnificent work of God is Creation, which God’s eternal Son did.

d. The next splendid work of God is Redemption, which our Lord also completed at the cross.

e. The third magnificent work of God is creation of the new Heaven and New earth. This is the ultimate rest that proceeds from God’s work of salvation, and it will occur as God continues to fulfill His promises to His people.

f. That rest is salvation in Christ, since when entering, we cease from our own work. When we rest in Christ we no longer try to work for our salvation.

16. Hebrews 4:10 says, “For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.”

a. In salvation we cease from our own work just as God ceased from His work on the 7th day. And we rest in God’s accomplishment of salvation on the cross, with which God is pleased.

b. Hebrews 4:10 is yet another verse on the fact that God’s rest is salvation rest. 

17.  Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. This does not mean that we work for our salvation.

a. The effort of which he speaks is the struggle for single hearted faith in Christ.

b. The pattern of disobedience is a trap into which many fall. The pattern not to follow is:

1) Accept deliverance from God without true faith.

2) Become disillusioned and abandon the faith.

c. This pattern is quite common in Scripture. John 6:64-66 says, “However, there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him.) 65Then Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.” 66From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.”

d. So, you must make every effort to ask God the Father to grant it to you to come to our Lord Jesus with single-hearted faith. If you already have that single-hearted faith, then praise the Lord for that.

E. The Blessings of the New Birth and their Effect on the Interpretation of Prophecy:

1. To avoid confusion, I am calling on the Apostle John and his writings to explain the sure fruits of the New Birth. This should shed some light on the question as to whether the Old Testament Jews were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

2. My thesis is that believers, during Old Testament times were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Here are the effects of being born again, whether in the New Testament times or in the Old Testament times:

a. 1 John 3:9 says, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” This does not mean that God’s child is sinless. It does mean that the lifestyle of a true Christian will be holy and unblameable. It is difficult to believe that a person in the Old Testament times who was saved by grace through faith was not born-again of the Spirit. By nature man is depraved.

b. 1 John 3:12-14 says, “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous. 13So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. 15Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.”

1) To walk in the light is the same as having passed from death to life.

2) The reason Cain murdered his brother is because he walked in darkness. 

3) The reason Abel practiced righteousness is because he had passed from death to life in the new birth. So, this solves the mystery of how persons could behave as born-again people, while not being born-again. The fact is that Abel and all those in the Old Testament who had the fruits of born-again people were born again. It was a reality even though God, in His infinite wisdom, awaited New testament times to explain regeneration.

4) Cain belonged to the evil one because he was born as a child of the devil. The spiritual death that Adam and Eve died, passed to him. It passed to all of Adam’s descendants (Romans 5:12). So, it is not difficult to understand why Cain was so evil. But did Abel pull himself up by his own bootstraps and become a good descendant of Adam? No, he did not. Only the grace of God could have benefitted Abel. This is why I believe that Abel was indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

5) Cain’s deeds were evil because he inherited spiritual death from Adam. 

6) Whether a person lives in the New Testament times or in the Old Testament times, he cannot please God without being born-again.

7) With what the New Testament says about the effects of the New Birth, try reading the Old Testament with this truth in mind. By that, you will be able to know who is born-again and who is not in the Old Testament.

8) The effects of the new birth are like the wind. You cannot see the Spirit, but you can see the effects. John 3:8 says, “The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

c. 1 John 4:6 says, “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

1) Those who have the ear of the Church are John and the other Apostles. Hence John’s writings are in the Bible.

2) Reborn people recognize the voice of God and live by it. The Church consists of those whom God has birthed the second time.

3) God’s people love the word of God. That is how we can tell if those in the Old Testament are regenerate or not.

d. 1 John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

1) You can tell if any person is born again or not.

2) True proof is that he loves God’s people.

e. 1 John 4:15 says, “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

1) Born-again people recognize the Lord Jesus Christ and confess Him as the Son of God.

2) This is because God builds into us a knowledge of our Savior when we are born-again.

3) Our recognition of Jesus as the Son of God is supernatural.

4) He said, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.”

f. 1 John 5:1 says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him.”

1) By extension, it is true that all the writers of the Old Testament, who tell us about the Messiah, are born-again.

2) And no one on earth would absolutely love God the Father if it were not for being born-again of the Spirit.

3) In the Old Testament there are many like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who can see the Lord Jesus by faith. That could not occur were it not for the existence of the new birth in the Old Testament, according to 1 John 5:1.

g. 1 John 5:4 says, “because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.”

1) Did people in the Old Testament overcome the world?

2) Yes, they did. Look at the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11.  

3) No one can overcome the world like they did other than by being born-again.

4) It was there; God kept it secret. But it was a reality. If 1 John 5:4 is correct, it could be no other way. How can there be a Moses, an Abraham, an Isaac, a Jacob, a Joseph, a Daniel without the new birth? Can Adam reform himself that way?

h. 1 John 5:18 says, “We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.”

1) The new birth is so powerful that it keeps us from sinning as much as we would sin if it were absent from us.

2) The Lord Jesus protects all those who are regenerate. The evil one cannot stop us.

3) The great dilemma of the Old Testament is, How could those godly people of the Old Testament live such holy lives if they were not born again of the Spirit?

3. Conclusion: The person who is born again has God’s nature in him. He cannot persevere in sin, the world, or the devil. God, by the new birth, presupposes him to holiness. There are many sins that he can commit. But God, through the new birth keeps him from becoming an apostate. Someone said however, that God left enough fleas on us all, to remind us that we still have a dog nature.

4. The normal life for human beings is to sin against God. Given that Adam’s death passed on to Abel, we cannot account for his righteous life apart from the fact that he was born-again. We expect Abel to be a gross sinner like his father Adam. But he is a righteous guy. He obeys God. That could only occur if he were secretly born again.

5. The question of whether being born again is the same as being indwelt by the Holy Spirit will have to wait for another post. May the lord help us all to come to the same conclusion on these matters or at least help us to love one another despite minor differences.

F. So, is the land of Canaan prophetic in nature?

Answer: There is no doubt that it is a type. And our Lord and the product of His work on the cross is the antitype.

But in later posts I hope to address this in more detail. The real question is, How shall we deal with the many land promises to Israel that are in the Old Testament? That is, if the Lord is willing!!!

NOTES

[1] Dr. Wilmot was a Baptist Pastor of three Churches in the United Kingdom. The forward to his book is by D. M. Lloyd-Jones.

[2] Wilmot, John “Inspired Principles of Prophetic Interpretation” Swengel, Pa: Reiner Publications, 1965

[3] Hebrews 3:5 says, “Now Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be spoken later.” Moses’ faithfulness testifies that we must imitate his persevering faithfulness.