Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #3 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 2:1-3:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we went to Hebrews, chapter 4 and we saw how God speaks of entering into His rest “although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” I thought it would be good for us to take a closer look at some of these statements in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4 to get a firmer picture in our minds of what God means by entering into His rest and what the “rest” means.

Let us start by reading Hebrews 3:7-12:

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Notice in verse 11 that God swore in His wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest.” Historically, He is referring to Israel that had come out of Egypt and tempted Him and murmured against Him while they were in the wilderness. They fainted spiritually and they showed the true nature of their hearts, which was “unbelief.” Therefore, God swore in His wrath that their carcasses would fall in the wilderness and they would not enter into Canaan, the Promised Land.

But, here in Hebrews 3 God says they would not enter into His “rest,” the Sabbath rest. In the historical parable of Israel wandering in the wilderness all that generation perished in the wilderness; the entering into the Promised Land is equivalent to entering into God’s Sabbath rest. They are one and the same. To fail to enter into Canaan means that they failed to enter into “rest.” Therefore, the entering into the land of Canaan is a spiritual figure of entering into “rest.” In what way? The land of Canaan is a reference to the kingdom of God. Insofar as this particular picture is concerned, it must represent that eternal kingdom of God and they failed to enter in because of unbelief. This is what God goes on to say in Hebrews 3:17:

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Here it is again. The reason they could not enter in was due to “unbelief.” The word “unbelief” is Strong’s #570 in the Greek. It literally means “no faith.” It is the word “faith” with a negative prefix attached to it. In the Greek you attach the “alpha” to a word, which negates it, so it means “no faith.” They could not enter in because of “no faith” and that is the condition that all men are born into, according to God in 2Thessalonians 3:2:

And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.

The word “men” was added by the translators, so it really says “for all have not faith.” Here, “not faith” are two words, but “unbelief” is a compound of that. This is God’s declaration, as He is able to look upon the hearts of men. What did God say in the days before the flood in the time of Noah? He saw that men’s hearts were only evil continually. Of course, if your heart is only evil continually, it is not exercising faith. There is no faith. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked and there is no faith in it. It is a dead heart that has no spiritual life – no faith.

This is the problem with the churches and their insistence that people must exercise “belief.” To believe is to exercise faith by taking action to have faith in God. However, according to the Bible all men have not faith and, therefore, the call to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ goes forth to a world that has no ability to believe. They have not faith. Instead, they have spiritual darkness and they are dead in their spiritual state and that is because the Bible defines faith as a Person: the Lord Jesus Christ is Faith. He is everything that the “faith chapter” says of Him in Hebrews, chapter 11. He is saving faith and all men have not Christ. They do not have God within and, therefore, they cannot believe in a way that pleases God or in a way that would satisfy God’s command to believe.

Furthermore, faith is a “work” and the Bible says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.” This is an insurmountable problem for mankind. God says that you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved, but man cannot believe. Therefore, man is under the wrath of God and, of himself, he has no hope. God provided the hope in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” and the word “substance” is even translated as “person” in one case. Faith is the “person” of things hoped for and it is Jesus Himself.

So, they could not enter in because of “no faith.” They had no Saviour to bring them into the land and into God’s rest. In order to enter into the rest God established in the first week of creation on the seventh day (after He finished the work), you must have “faith.” You must have Christ because it is the faith of Christ that justifies the sinner.

Going on into chapter 4 of Hebrews, it says in Hebrews 4:1:

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.

Notice how God keeps using the words “enter” or “entering,” as He did in chapter 3 where He said in Hebrews 3:11:

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.

He also said in Hebrews 3:19:

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

And now in Hebrews 4, verse 1, it says, “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.”

This word “enter” is used several times in these two chapters. If you look up this word, which is Strong’s #1525, you will find it is often used in association with entering into the kingdom of heaven or a failure to enter into the kingdom of heaven. For example, it says in John 3:4-5:

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

This is exactly what God has in view with the references to entering into His rest, as He emphasizes this by tying it into the forty-year wilderness sojourn wherein God did not allow them to cross the river Jordan into that land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a land He intended to give to the seed of the elect. God did not intend to give the land to the physical descendants of Abraham (those that were circumcised in the flesh). In order to enter in, you must be circumcised spiritually, the circumcision of the heart, by the cutting off of sins through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He provides that Sabbath rest, the rest from work. All men must cease from their own works and completely rely on the work of the Lord Jesus that was performed for His chosen people from the foundation of the world. It was the work that was finished when Jesus died and rose again and was declared to be the Son of God. Thereby, the rest was provided and that is the rest that is in view with the seventh day Sabbath. This is the reason God instituted the Sabbath in the first week of this world’s existence. Already God was teaching that we must rest in the finished work. It was not a “future work” when Christ went to the cross in 33AD. It had to do with a finished work, as it says in Genesis 2:1: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” He ended His work as it tells us in Hebrews 4:3: “although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

So, the Sabbath day is a day of entering into a finished work that had provided the rest because the works were already finished. If the work of Christ on behalf of His people had not been finished, then how could anyone enter into that rest? There would have been no rest because God would not yet have finished the work.

Now I know some people desperately want to hold on to Christ making payment for sin in 33AD, but if they do so they are going against many Scriptures that do not permit that possibility. It is not Biblically possible for Jesus to have completed the work in 33AD when God says that the works were finished from the foundation of the world. In the creation week, God finished His work and instituted His seventh day Sabbath as a means of teaching that the work is finished and there is “rest.” And that rest indicates that the entering into the kingdom of God through the atoning work of Christ is done and finished. There was nothing left to do insofar as payment (for sin) was concerned and, therefore, that rest was available for Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and all the Old Testament saints. They could enter into that rest.

Many did not enter in, like the Israelites that perished in the wilderness, but that was due to unbelief and not because there was no rest available. The rest was available, but they could not enter in because they did not have Christ.

Let us go to another verse where the term “enter in” is used in a different way. It says in Luke 13:24:

Strive to enter in at the strait gate…

God does not say it, but it is obvious. It is implied that He speaks of entering into the kingdom of heaven because it goes on to say in Luke 13:24-25:

… for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

Here, God speaks of entering in through the strait gate, which would be through the Lord Jesus and the salvation He wrought for His people. Many would seek to enter into heaven. All kinds of people seek heaven and they want to live forever in their idea of heaven and, yet, they cannot enter in through the strait gate because once the Master has shut the door there is no more entrance possible. There is no more salvation.

Let us go back to Hebrews 4:2:

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them…

Again, this is a reference to Old Testament Israel. Some theologians and some churches like to say that Israel was under a different dispensation and that God dealt with Israel differently than He did with the churches. They think that Israel could have been saved through trusting in their sacrificial system and they make all kinds of statements as they try to justify their theology. They believe God had different programs for different times and that is not true.

It is not taught anywhere in the Bible that God had different programs of salvation. God has one salvation program: Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth, and the life.” There are not many ways or many truths or many ways of entering into heaven. There is but one. You have to enter in at the strait gate and it does not matter if it was Abel or if it was Zacharias who was slain between the temple and the altar. All of God’s people enter into God’s kingdom the same way and that is through the work and faith of Jesus Christ performed on their behalf. If that work was not performed, then you cannot enter into God’s rest because you did not have the work of Christ done on your behalf. That is the point of the Epistle of James: “Faith without works is dead.” Again, people misread this and they think, “I have to have faith, but it must be accompanied by my works.” No, that is not true. It is not your work or my work, but it is the “work of faith” performed by Jesus Christ. If a man says he has faith but he has no works it means that Christ did not pay for His sins and his faith is dead.

This is why a profession of faith, in and of itself, is meaningless. Making a profession of faith and saying you are a Christian or putting trust in your works are meaningless. It must be the finished work of Christ from the foundation of the world and not just a profession of faith. For example, there could be a baby in the womb like David’s son (who died just a few days old) and there could be no works or profession of faith, but if the work of Christ had been done on that child’s behalf that is what God looks for in order for a sinner to “enter in” to His rest.

This was the Gospel that was preached unto them and which was preached from the very beginning in the Book of Genesis. God worked six days and finished His work and then established the seventh day Sabbath. This is the day of rest and God is already teaching the Gospel of grace. What is the Gospel of grace? The Gospel of grace is that we are saved because of God’s unmerited favor toward those He had predestinated to salvation. It was not based on anything in them. God chose to love Jacob and to hate Esau before either had done good or evil or any work at all. The Gospel of grace means that God chose no one on the basis of work, but only according to His good pleasure. He made sovereign decree as He chose His elect. That was the Gospel that was also preached to Israel and we can be sure we will see this throughout the Book of Genesis, but it is found throughout the entire Old Testament in historical parables, as well as direct statements to the people of Israel. Noah was saved by grace. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It was the same grace as a New Testament believer would experience. Noah would experience that grace over 7,000 years ago and long before Jesus would go to the cross. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.