W. Robert Godfrey

We want something we can hold onto on earth.

And so there is danger that some of these Jewish Christians are gonna slip back into Judaism.

And so this is a very solemn warning.

that they mustn't drift from the truth, they mustn't slip back, they have to listen, they have to believe, they have to obey.

That's what's being laid out here.

Then if we go down to chapter four, verse seven, we read again, he appoints a certain day, today, that's a quotation from Psalm 95, saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, you see this is coming back to rest as land, entering the land of promise.

Joshua led them into the land of promise.

But if Joshua had given them the fullness of rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

So then, verse 9 is the crucial verse.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

That sounds pretty clear, doesn't it?

There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Now, some of you will know the work of John Owen.

John Owen, great Puritan theologian and exegete of the 17th century, wrote a huge commentary on Hebrews.

It's a big, big commentary on Hebrews.

And he spends a lot of time on this verse,

laboring to show that this implies we are obligated to a weekly Sabbath in the new covenant.

I really wanted to believe that when I read John Owen, but I was not persuaded.