"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XXIX

THE REST OF FAITH.
Hebrews 4: 1-3 Let us fear therefore, lest haply (still stands ) a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached to us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because they were (more correctly, It was) not united by faith with them that heard. For we which have believed do enter into that rest; even as He has said, "As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest:" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.


THE SECOND WARNING. Hebrews 3:7- 4:13
Not to come short of the promised Rest.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We have seen that with Israel, after its deliverance from Egypt, there were two stages. The one, the life in the wilderness, with its wanderings and its wants, its unbelief and its murmurings, its provocation of God and its exclusion from the promised rest. The other, the land of promise, with rest instead of the desert wanderings, with abundance instead of want, and the victory over every enemy instead of defeat: symbols of the two stages in the Christian life. The one in which we only know the Lord as the Savior from Egypt, in His work on the cross for atonement and pardon.

The other, where He is Known and Welcomed as the glorified Priest-King in Heaven, who, in the power an authority of the Endless Life, Sanctifies and Saves completely, writes God's laws in the heart, and Leads us to find our home in the Holiest of God's presence. The aim of the writer in this whole section is to warn us not to rest content with the former, the preparatory stage, but to show all diligence to reach the second, and enter the promised rest of complete deliverance. Let us fear therefore, lest haply, (still stands) a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should come short of it.

Some think that the rest of Canaan is the type of heaven. This cannot be, because the great mark of the Canaan life was that the land had to be conquered and that God gave such glorious victory over enemies. The rest of Canaan was for victory and through victory. And so it is in the Life of Faith, when a soul learns to Trust God for victory over sin, and yields himself entirely, as to its circumstances and duties, to live just where and how He Wills, that it enters the rest. It lives in the promise, in the Will, in the power of God. This is the rest into which it enters, not through death, but through faith, or rather, not through the death of the body, but the death to self (self sufficiency) in the death of Christ through Faith. For indeed we have had good tidings preached to us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with (in) those that heard. The one reason why they did not enter Canaan was their unbelief. The land was waiting: the rest was provided; God Himself would bring them in and give them rest. One thing was lacking; they did not believe, and so did not yield themselves to God to do it for them what He had promised. Unbelief closes the heart against God, withdraws the life from God's power; in the very nature of things unbelief renders the word of promise of none effect. A Gospel of rest is preached to us as it was to them. We have in Scripture the most precious assurances of a rest for the soul to be found under the Yoke of Jesus, of a Peace of God which passes all understanding, of a Peace and a Joy in the soul which nothing can take away. But when they are not believed they cannot be enjoyed: Faith is in its very nature a resting in the promise and the promiser until He fulfill it in us. Only Faith can enter into rest. The fulness of Faith enters into the full rest.

For we which have believed do enter into rest. It is not, shall enter. No. To-day, even as the Holy Ghost said, "To-day," now and here, we which have believed do enter into rest. It is with the rest of Faith here as with what we heard of being partakers of Christ--- the blessing is enjoyed, "If" we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end. The initial faith, that passes out of Egypt through the Red Sea, must be held fast firm, then it comes to the fulness of Faith that passes through Jordan into the land.

Let every student of this Epistle realize how intensely personal its tone is, and with what urgency it appeals to us for faith, as the one thing needful in our dealings with the Word of God. Without this the Word cannot profit us. We may seek by thought and study to enter into the meaning of the promise--- God has sworn that we never shall enter into its possession, or into His rest, but by Faith. The one thing God asks in our intercourse with Him and His Word is the habit of Faith, that ever keeps the heart open towards (receptive of ) God, and longs to enter in and abide in His rest. It is the soul that thirsts for God, for the Living God, that will have the spiritual capacity for receiving the revelation of how Jesus, the High Priest, brings us into God's presence. What is to be taught us later on of our entering into the Holiest of All is nothing but the clearer unfolding of what is here called entering into rest. Let us in studying the Epistle above everything have faith.

Would you enter into the rest ? Remember what has been taught us of the two stages. They are represented by Moses and Joshua. Moses the leader, Joshua the perfecter or finisher of the faith of Israel. Moses brought the people out:  Joshua brought them in. Accept Jesus as your Joshua. Let past failure and wandering and sin not cause either despair or contentment with what you are. Trust Jesus who, through the sprinkling of the Blood, brought you out of Egypt, to bring you as definitely into the rest. Faith is always repose in what another will do for me. Faith ceases to seek help in itself or its efforts, to be troubled with its need or its weakness; it rests in the sufficiency of the all-sufficient One who has undertaken all. Trust Jesus. Give up and forsake the wilderness. Follow (cleave unto) Him fully: He is the rest.

1. Let no one imagine that this life in the rest of Faith is something that is meant only for a favored few. I cannot too earnestly press it upon every reader: God calls you "yes you", to enter the rest. He calls you to a Life of entire consecration. If you rest content with the thought of having been converted, it may be at the peril of your soul: with Israel you may perish in the wilderness. "I have sworn in My wrath: they shall not enter into My rest."
2. If God be indeed the fountain of all goodness and blessedness, it follows that the nearer we are to Him, and the more we have of Him, the deeper and the fuller our joy will be. Has not the soul, who is not willing at all costs to yield to Christ when He offers to bring us into the rest of God, reason to fear that all its religion is simply the selfishness that seeks escape from punishment, and is content with as little of God here as may suffice to secure heaven hereafter.