God is capable of making decisions. God can be provoked. If God deals with your heart to be saved, or to be baptized in water by immersion, or to speak in tongues, or to prophesy, or to do something or say something, and you keep delaying to do it because of unbelief or disobedience, God will become angry. He will not help you enter your inheritance as He would have if you had been willing and obedient. You will dwell in spiritual dryness. God's first and best plan for your life may never be realized.

Israel was turned back into the wilderness. Esau changed his mind about his birthright, but it was too late! Too late! How terrible are the words too late!

Will it be true of you or me that one day the gates of glory will close in our face and we will understand that we decided to serve God too late?

It is good to fear God and to fear the consequences of disobeying His love.

Let us reason: if God has given us His only Son, if God has allowed His Son to be spit on and murdered by men for our salvation, should we not run to that salvation?

Should we not give our life in attendance on that salvation?

Should we not believe that God will help us in all matters of our life since He has given His Son for us?

Will not God be angry if we play lightly with the things of Christ and not seek the will of God diligently?

To reason in this way is sound, it is wise, it is pleasing to God.

What is the "rest" of God?

The land of promise, the inheritance of the Christian.

In verse eleven the expression is employed, "They shall not enter my rest." What is the rest of God?

The Book of Hebrews is an exhortation to Christian disciples to enter the rest of God. What is the goal of the Christian discipline?

What is the "mark" toward which Paul was pressing?

The rest of God is not rest as in sleep. The rest of God concerns our grasp on our inheritance in Christ. It is the place where we have arrived at all that God has spoken concerning us.

We have not entered fully into the rest as yet but we are laboring to enter that rest, if we are a Christian saint who is being led by the Spirit of God.

Of what condition must we as Christians beware?

Of having an evil heart of unbelief that causes us to turn away from the Lord.

When we are not pressing into the rest of God we are falling away from God. The pressures of today from our flesh, from the world, and from Satan are so great we cannot remain stationary in the dock. Either we will turn and sail out on the ocean of God's will and power or we will become covered with rust and barnacles and finally be a worthless hulk.

The requirement for success in Christian discipleship is faith in God; not personal ability but faith in God. A heart that does not have faith in God is an evil heart. Faith, as defined in the Book of Hebrews, is a living, strong grasp on the Word and Life of Christ so we are able to perform God's will, entering our inheritance.

Two important parts of true faith are obedience and courage. God will give us a spirit of obedience and courage if we ask Him. (from A Study Guide for the Book of Hebrews)