Profitless Hearing
W Jones, D. D. Hebrews 4:1-2 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.… The gospel is a precious pearl, an unspeakable blessing of God, yet all that are partakers of it are not saved. Judas had the gospel, yet it profited him not. Simon Magus, Jerusalem, &e. The sun is not comfortable to all. The most delicate fare doth not make all bodies fat. The rain doth not make all grounds fruitful, neither doth the Word of God, though it be mighty in operation, profit all that partake of it (Luke 13:26; Matthew 8:12); nay, it is the heaping up of a greater men, sure Of condemnation to some through their own default (John 15:22, 9. ult.). Why did the gospel do them no good? Because it was not mixed with faith in themthat heard it. It is a metaphor borrowed from liquid things. A physician prescribes to a man a cup of strong wine, but he wills him to mingle it with sugar, lest it fume into his brain and make him sick; if he mingle it not and temper it well with sugar, he hurts himself. So because they mingled not the wine of the Word with the sweet sugar of faith it was their destruction, it turned them over even into hell. It is faith that makes the Word profitable. For the procuring of an harvest it is not enough to have ground, and seed cast into the ground, but rain must fall from heaven and be mingled with the ground. So it is not sufficient to bring ourselves as the ground to a sermon, to have the immortal seed of the Word sown in our hearts by God's husbandmen, but there must be the drops of faith mingled with this seed to make it fruitful. (W Jones, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. WEB: Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.