| Chapter 4 |
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We may fear, then, lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short, |
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for we also are having good news proclaimed, even as they, but the word heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard, |
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for we do enter into the rest -- we who did believe, as He said, 'So I sware in My anger, If they shall enter into My rest -- ;' and yet the works were done from the foundation of the world, |
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for He spake in a certain place concerning the seventh [day] thus: 'And God did rest in the seventh day from all His works;' |
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and in this [place] again, 'If they shall enter into My rest -- ;' |
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since then, it remaineth for certain to enter into it, and those who did first hear good news entered not in because of unbelief -- |
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again He doth limit a certain day, 'To-day,' (in David saying, after so long a time,) as it hath been said, 'To-day, if His voice ye may hear, ye may not harden your hearts,' |
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for if Joshua had given them rest, He would not concerning another day have spoken after these things; |
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there doth remain, then, a sabbatic rest to the people of God, |
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for he who did enter into his rest, he also rested from his works, as God from His own. |
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May we be diligent, then, to enter into that rest, that no one in the same example of the unbelief may fall, |
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for the reckoning of God is living, and working, and sharp above every two-edged sword, and piercing unto the dividing asunder both of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart; |
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and there is not a created thing not manifest before Him, but all things [are] naked and open to His eyes -- with whom is our reckoning. |
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Having, then, a great chief priest passed through the heavens -- Jesus the Son of God -- may we hold fast the profession, |
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for we have not a chief priest unable to sympathise with our infirmities, but [one] tempted in all things in like manner -- apart from sin; |
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we may come near, then, with freedom, to the throne of the grace, that we may receive kindness, and find grace -- for seasonable help. |