he emergence of
the crucified ones is, at the same time, the abolition of dead works. All that is
accomplished through them will be accomplished in rest.
"There remains therefore a rest to the people of God"
(Heb. 4:9).
The writer of Hebrews was concerned that his readers might follow in
the way of their fathers (Israel) who died in the wilderness and did not enter into their
promised rest because of their unbelief (Heb. 3:16-19).
But God had promised a rest for His people. God cannot go back on His
word. So, if they failed to enter in, He has reserved a people who will enter into His
rest, who will fulfill His promise. "There remains therefore a rest to the people
of God."
What is this rest and how do we come into it? No doubt we all feel the
wearisomeness of our works. More often than not we feel like our works are dead. The only
way we can keep them going is to keep them going. That which is of God does not have to be
kept going by our strength. We have no ability whatsoever to produce anything worthy for
God by our own power. "Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the
Lord of hosts" (Zech. 4:6).
Faith and Rest
The possibility existed that these believers in Christ Jesus might also
depart from the living God through unbelief which the writer says reflects an evil heart
(Heb. 3:12).
"For we," he says, "are made partakers of Christ if
we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end"
(Heb. 3:14).
This threat is so real in the opinion of the writer of Hebrews that he
charges them to fear lest any of them seem to come short of entering this rest (Heb. 4:1).
We see here the relationship between rest and faith. The fact is that
the "rest" of God is the direct result of having faith in God. For one who is
out of rest is out of faith. When one is in faith--that is, resting in the finished work
of God--he is in his best position to please God. For without faith it is impossible to
please God (Heb. 11:6).
The good news of God was preached to us, the writer of Hebrews
explains, as well as to them, referring back to their Israelite fathers in the wilderness.
They had the witness of God given to them through Moses. But the word they heard didn't
profit them, didn't bring them into their promised rest, because they did not mix what
they heard with faith (Heb. 4:2). For we who believe enter that rest.
A lot of people say they believe, but they are not in rest. They say
they believe that God is on the throne, but they do not live their lives accordingly. They
live in fear, worry, anxiety, discouragement, and the like. They struggle to make a way
for themselves as though they can order their own steps. They pull, tug, agonize to
manipulate their circumstances until those circumstances agree with their plan. They lie,
cheat, steal--do whatever--to try to get ahead. But all of those things are the deeds of
unbelief. As though God is not able!
Faith and God's Finished Work
The writer of Hebrews wanted his audience and us today to have faith in
the work of God which was finished from the foundation of the world (Heb. 4:3b). If God
has rested from His works, what are we in such a stew about?
Once in the past, I was trying desperately in my own strength to do
something for God. We all want to. And the Spirit of the Lord witnessed to me, "When
you work, I rest. When you rest, I work."
When we enter into faith, knowing that God knows the end from the
beginning, that "we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works
which God has ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10) and that "all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28), then we obey the Master's voice, "Take no
thought (do not be anxious) for your life..." (Matt. 6:25-34).
Mark 11:22 says, "Have faith in God." Many people
have taken that to mean that we are to have faith in God for things--for whatever we want.
This stress on faith for things has been so overworked that some are trying to have faith
in faith.
There is a receiving from God that results from our participation in
God. For as we come more and more to know Him, we will know His heart, His will, His ways,
and will ask for that.
But the emphasis, I believe, in Mark 11:22-24 is "in God."
Have faith in God. Period. Have faith in His finished works. Believe the word of
God, for the word of God is the will of God. The word of God is the expression of His
heart. The word of God is God expressed in words. His word must be fulfilled. It will be
the completing, summing up of all things into Him (Eph. 1:10).
Faith and Dead Works
The faith we are to have that brings us into that promised rest is not
easily attained. "Let us labor therefore to enter that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief" (Heb. 4:11).
The fact is, our flesh-man nature is fallen and still under the curse
of works. We cannot imagine a gospel that does not require some works on our part. We have
to labor to stay in faith and rest.
Most of the thrust of institutional Christianity is based on works.
Believers are made to feel guilty if they do not perform according to the rules,
regulations, doctrines, traditions, and many unwritten expectations put upon them by those
who want to control and own them. They are under the letter of the law in their own
churches and have had the Spirit of life suppressed in them.
Jesus, Our Sabbath Rest
But there is coming forth a people who are looking toward Tabernacles,
who are entering the Holy of Holies--entering that place of absolute faith in
God--entering that promised rest.
They are no longer interested in works for works' sake. They have no
agenda of their own that they want to promote. They have nothing of self to gain. Their
whole preoccupation is to seek the will of God and do it.
When we diligently obey the word of the Lord, we will find that He, the
Spirit of truth, the Comforter, will always bring us into rest. He will bring us into
Jesus who has become for us our Sabbath rest.
More than anything else, Jesus wanted to make the point that He was the
fulfillment of God's Sabbath. He was the fulfillment of all the Law and the prophets.
Everything the prophets said about God was completed in Jesus who was God.
The classic example of this statement is found in Matthew 12:1-8. Jesus
and His disciples went through a grain field and, being hungry, ate of it. The Pharisees
saw them and asked Jesus why they were doing what was unlawful to do on the Sabbath. He
answered by declaring that He, the Son of Man, is Lord even of the Sabbath day.
Jesus is the Sabbath rest for all who believe in Him, for all who put
their trust in Him, who put their trust in the fact that on the cross He finished the work
of God.
There remain those in Christendom who still debate whether we should go
to church and worship God on Saturday, being the Sabbath, or on Sunday, the day of His
resurrection.
They fail to recognize, first of all, that the church is the people of
God and not a place to go and, secondly, that God is not seeking Saturday or Sunday
worshipers only. "The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God
is a Spirit [not law]: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and
in truth [not in legalism]" (John 4:23-24).
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are living and moving shrines
in which God Almighty has taken up residence that we might be a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own peculiar people--that we might show forth His praises
who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
When God gave Moses instruction for the observance of the Sabbath day
and of the annual feasts, he repeatedly called them into rest. He commanded them six
separate times throughout Leviticus 23, "You shall do no servile work..."
Servile suggests the submissive behavior characteristic of a slave. The term had a
religious usage. It spoke of the service or worship of God.
The Old Testament is the type in the natural realm of that which became
spiritual reality in the New Testament. Jesus has become for us our Sabbath rest, and we
enter into that rest by being in Him every day of every week.
Faith and Obedience
Now as never before, if we ever hope to be in the company of the
crucified ones, we will have to enter into that Sabbath rest.
We enter that rest by radical obedience to the Spirit of God. To
radically obey is to radically believe and trust in God to the point of appearing foolish
to the world.
Joshua was given the tremendous task of taking the stronghold of
Jericho. There was no way in human strength or ingenuity that he could have done this. But
God made a ridiculous demand upon him.
God told him before he went up against Jericho that He had given
Jericho into his hands (Josh. 6:2). Joshua had the word of God before he had the reality
of it in the natural realm. But that's all he needed. He knew God. He had relationship
with this God. He knew that God's word was His promise, that it was a sure thing.
For six days he was to march around the city one time. The priests were
to bear the seven trumpets of rams' horns and go out in front of the ark of the covenant.
The ark of the covenant was the presence of God. Where God is, there is the power of God.
Then on the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times
and the priests were to blow the trumpets. When the people heard the long blast of the
trumpet, the walls would come tumbling down.
Now they definitely had something to do, and some may have grown weary
walking and waiting seven days; but, compared to the task at hand, they took the city in
rest. God did all the work. They were to simply obey.
Throughout the scriptures, time after time, we see the power of God
released through obedience. Obedience, faith, and rest are merely synonyms--different ways
of saying the same thing.
There will always be directives for us to obey, but they will always be
given in grace and with the anointing of the Spirit. What God appoints, He anoints.
If we find ourselves "slaving," doing servile work in
spiritual matters, we are going to meet the displeasure of our God. At one point, God
warned that any person caught doing work on the Day of Atonement would be destroyed (Lev.
23:30). Why? Because Jesus atoned for the sins of the world. We can't work to earn our
atonement (or salvation).
"For by grace are you saved through faith..."
(Eph.
2:8). We can never get away from this passage. I call it the plumb line of the gospel. If
any man adds anything to it or tries to take anything away from it, He is of the
circumcision party--a modern day Judaizer.
In Leviticus 23, The New King James Version of the Bible translates
"servile" as "customary." "You shall do no customary
work..." I favor the way the New American Standard has rendered it: "You
shall do no laborious work..."
If any person in Christ has more to do than he has time to do, some of
those things are not of the Lord. He is in unrest and out of faith. He is into dead
works--wood, hay, and stubble to be cast into the fire and burned.
The only enduring works of gold and silver are brought forth through
the refiner's fire of obedience. God is at work, bringing to reality that which has
already been finished.
"Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest..."
(Heb. 4:11).
Obey Him explicitly in every way.
Live the crucified life that the glory of the Lord might be revealed in
and through you in this final hour before He comes.