Seven Ways to Enter God's Rest
A. Faith in God's Word: Heb.3:19;Ex.12:28 Heb.4:3;Heb.11:28
B. Ceasing From Self Effort: 1 Pet.5:7;Ex 6:6;Heb.4:10;Ex. 14:14
C. Life in the Spirit: Jn.7:38-39;Is.63:13-14;Is.28:11-12;Neh.9:19-20
D. Harmony Through the Body Ministry: Heb.3:13;Ex. 17:12;Gal. 6:2;Phlm.7
E. Submission to Christ's Ministries: 1 Thes.5:12-13;Num.8:5-26;Heb.13:17;Ex.36:1-4
F. Growth: Matt.11:29; Duet.11:11-15;James 1:4;Jer. 6:16
G. Recognizing the Lord's Presence: Deut.12:11-12;Ps.132:13-14;Heb.4:13-16;Jn.6:21
Seven Sources of Unrest
A. Unbelief; Condemnation
B. Self-Effort; Cares
C. Spiritual Frustration
D.Discord in Relationship
E. Pride; Rebellion
F. Immaturity
G. Fears
Rest- what is it? Paul said, "None of these things move me" (Acts 20:24). That is rest. The Shumamite woman (2Kings4:26), with her son lying dead, confessed, "It is well." Her eyes were on the promise, not on circumstances. That is rest. Paul and Silas could sing in the midnight jail. That is rest. Christ never spoke of His own hurts on the cross, but interceded for us. That is rest.
Whenever God's people learn to rest, God works. For as we rest, God works; but as we work-in self-effort, in anxiety, in trying instead of trusting-God is at rest. Daniel rested in the lion's den. The Hebrew children rested in the fire. Even those who died as martyrs did so in rest, and look how God worked to multiply the seed sown.
Rest has three general aspects to the believer:
Rest for the Spirit
1. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We received this rest we came to Christ and our spirits received Him (Matt.11:28).
Rest for the Soul
2. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls." We receive this rest when our soul dies daily submitted to Christ's yoke of love (Matt.11:29).
Rest for the Body
3. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them" (Rev.14:13).
How does one enter this rest?:
There are seven areas where Christians can be out of rest. For each one, however, God has provided the solution. If we are willing to meditate on His Word and discipline our "thought life" to conform to His Word, we will enter into His rest. Let us prayerfully study each of these areas. The following are only an outline. The fullness of God's revelation comes as we turn to Him and allow Him to reveal it to us.
1. Faith in God's Word- Israel did not enter into their Canaan rest because they limited God. "Yea, they turned back....and limited the Holy One of Israel" (Ps.78:14). "Limited" here literally means "horizon." They tried to push God into their little five-sense box. All the time He was wanting to lift them up through faith in His Word into the "large room," that throne room in the heavenlies. So faith in the Word brings rest. Many believers seek the secret of rest. Sadly, however, all their lives, never enter into the fullness God has intended for His people. What stops us from entering into this rest? Hebrews 3:18-19 tells us Israel could not enter into His rest because of unbelief. It is also unbelief that holds many Christians in the grip of fear and anxiety and stops us from receiving victory.
2.Ceasing from Self-Effort- Next we see that clinging to one's problems not ceasing from one's own works of self-effort or worry hinders rest in our lives. In other words, whoever holds on to the pole of self-effort, trying to help God, will never catch hold of the other pole, that of rest, for they are too far apart. As righteous Job was he still was determined to "hold fast" his righteousness -- his good works-- as a basis for God blessing him. And he almost died, but when he let go, which pictures Calvary, and finally realized it was all by grace, his rest came (Job 27:6; 33:24). Others, through worry, hold onto their problems. Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. God doesn't have problems. So when David was loaded down with cares in the wilderness, he learned a secret. If he would begin praising God instead of murmuring, what seemed to have been a problem was just a fiery test. The fire burned only in him which needed to be burned. The gold came through purified.
3. Life in the Spirit- Life in the Spirit is a secret of rest. "For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear' (Is 28:11,12). "Thou, O God, didst sent a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary" (Ps.68:9).
4. Harmony through Body Ministry- Harmony through body ministry brings rest. As long as a square peg is trying to fit into a round hole, it feels uneasy. When one finds his or her place in Christ's body each member has some particular ministry; he then finds rest. A bone out of joint, if it could talk, could say "AMEN" to that.
5. Submission- Rest comes through submission, first to Christ's Lordship, and then to an extension of that, His ministries. It is reasonable that when a sheep submits to the good shepherd who knows where the green grass is, that eventually rests awaits him.
6. Growth- Growth brings rest. Here comes a harem skar'em teenager in a rattle-trap car. It almost turns over at the corner as you listen. Suddenly he slams on the brakes, gets out and bangs the car door shut. He nervously approaches the house where you are standing at the door. He stands two seconds on one foot, then swings over to the other. Someone says, "Give him time and he will settle down." Our "time" can be hastened into maturity if we are wholeheartedly following Christ. Some areas in one's personality are like structures built up that need to be torn down. These can only find rest through growth in grace.
7. Presence of the Lord- Rest comes as you recognize the presence of the Lord. "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid," Christ said when, in midst of the stormy night, with the boat almost capsizing, they thought he was phantom. The storm ceased. Rest. "In ALL thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct make straight thy paths" (Proverbs 3:6). "Make straight" sounds like they were crooked before.
God's Rest
Turn the table now. We have been speaking of God's ministering rest to us. He wants us to minister rest to Him. How? He tells us to love Him with all of our "heart, soul, mind, and strength" (Matt.12:30). Since we are made in His image, He has His heart, soul, mind and strength.
In the "rest chapters" of Hebrews 3 and 4 (overlapping into ch.5) we find the four things that give Him rest.
1. His House (His habitation) Heb.3:1-6; Ps.132:12,15; Isa.18:4;66:1; Acts 7:49;2 Cor.12:9
2. His promised land Canaan (His predestined calling) Ps.95:11;Heb.3:7-4
3. The Seventh Day-Sabbath Rest (Rest at Satisfaction) Heb.4:4-13
4. The aroma of the sacrifice. "Sweet savor (aroma) of His rest" Heb.4:14-15,18; Gen.8:21. The Word "sweet" comes from the root word that literally means "to rest."
We also find that they give, respectively in the same order, rest to His heart, soul, mind and strength.
1. God sets His heart upon His House of rest (2 Chron.7:16.), "that My Name may be there for ever".
2. God sets His soul upon the real "promised land," for us to inherit, His Son. "Behold My servant, whom I have chosen My beloved in whom My soul is well pleased." (Matt.12:18). A clean living father enjoys it when he can see his own character and traits in his own son.
3. Since we, as a human being, are "fearfully and wonderfully made" to show that "marvelous are His works" (Ps.139:14), and God only could rest when we, the last of His works, were made. God rested the seventh day. His mind had engineered the crown of His works. Satan, knowing this, to bring unrest to God's mind, he attacked man's mind by "Has God said?" (Paul warns the Corinthians against the same thing in 2 Cor.11:3.
4. God's strength is set in the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made, when His beloved Son, the Lamb of God, cried at the cross "It is finished," then that sweet aroma arose to the very presence of God to give Him rest from all transgressions of the human kind. It took all of His strength to bring Jesus out of the grave after the atonement for sin was totally fulfilled in His three days and three nights in the lowest pit (Ps.18).
Ministering Rest to God
1. Since one's heart is his treasure chest, and God finds rest when His purposes or treasures are fulfilled by His Church, His great treasure chest in Christ. We do not want to do what several of Judah's kings did. Under pressure they took treasure from the temple and gave it to the enemy. May we keep what God gave the early Church and not let any one remove those ancient land marks set in by Christ and the apostles then. "Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Heb.3:6). This rest is maintained by the (1) Headship of Christ including His apostolic oversight and (2)being in right relationship with our High Priest who gives us hope to presevere unto the end in joy. (1) For not only is the corporate house, the Church, His house of rest, but (2) also individually we are the temple of God (1 Cor.6:19).
2. Our giving God rest in His soul, is to let Him still see in us His anointed Son in whom His soul is still well pleased. The same Father Who was pleased with His Servant, is still pleased with Him in us, when we walk in God's predestined "good works, before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph.2:10).In other words our sacrificial walk of obedience before Him, claiming His promises against spiritual enemy opposition, gives rest to the Father's soul. We see what happened to the Israelites who, through unbelief, were disobedient to those promises, they did not enter in. In the early church notice how that throughout Acts, immediately after salvation, they obeyed "the promise of the Father" in Acts 1:4-5, which was to receive the Holy Spirit in a supernatural way. It is possible to cross from wilderness living to the beginning of Canaan-living by obeying in this, but be like the two and one half tribes who still settled east, instead of the promised land west of the Jordon. May we possess all the promises, which "in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us" (2 Cor.1:20). Another of those promises is Phil. 4:19, "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus". We see the double portion application of His Rest here is (1) our soul being right with Him, and (2) walking in predestined works.
3. The third "My rest" is the rest of cessation from our own works. Many Christians have begun in Canaan. But instead of letting God finish. His work of maturing them, either legalism, on the side, or becoming at ease through spiritual laziness, on the other side, they have never allowed the "Alpha" to be their "Omega". But like the Corinthians and the Galatians, they are content to be like the Hebrew believers to whom Paul was writing. "For when....you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles.." again. "First" denotes that there are other truths that God meant to follow such as those seven key truths that Paul was teaching them.
This third "My rest", on our part, means that we are to let the sword of the Word do a deep work of cutting out wrong desires from us. This is what Israel failed to do by not ridding themselves of all the Canaanites who became like thorns in their sides afterwards. What rest the Father enjoys, however, when we let patience do its perfect work that we may be lacking nothing (James 1:4).
This third rest, (1) Ceasing on the seventh day from our efforts, is also a double portion rest. For the "seventh day" also has a double significance. We know that Peter says "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). So the prophetical application of this "My rest" is that, for those who do allow a deep work of sanctification to be finished within them, they will rule and reign one thousand years with the Lord when He returns later with all His saints to possess the kingdoms of the world. We are already heirs of God, His eternal life and heaven, as believers, but we are also "joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him" (Romans 8:17)
4. The fourth rest is the "sweet aroma" or literally the "aroma of rest." The first use of this is when Noah and family built an altar, after the flood, from which ascended this aroma of God's rest. (Gen.8:21). We see in Hebrews our High Priest, whose ministry is to offer up the sacrifice with its aroma sending rest up to God, officiating in His office. This Sacrifice, Jesus Christ's earthly life, speaks of "the weakness of God" that "is stronger than men." (1 Cor.1:25).
Again, as each previous one, this has a double portion application. (1.) First, Christ, in Heb.5:8, "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears", learning obedience through the things which he suffered, Gethsemane could be called the match that set off the fire at Calvary. We come to God not in our merit, but through the sacrifice of Christ which makes us acceptable. (2.) But the other side of this is that this same love of Christ that was in Him is, in measure, within us. When we let our selfishness be burnt up on the cross, in daily living, our suffering from him, also our worshipping Him, is a sweet aroma to Him (Heb.13:15,16). "Let my prayer be directed before you as incense" (Ps.144:2).Paul shows the contrast between these two double portion applications in Eph.5:2-7. For after showing Christ as our sacrifice with His sweet aroma, he warns us of the stenches of an unsanctified life that could counter attack this aroma from ascending heavenward from us. These mentioned are fornication, all uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, too much jestering, but instead we should have the sweet aroma of thanksgiving.
Full of Rest
Paul defines "Fullness," in terms of perspective, as "Breadth, Length, Depth and Height, in Ephesians 3:18-19. Even that would be incomplete except, since "God is love," His Love fills these dimensions.
"Breadth" speaks of it, in this case Rest, the outreach that it has reaching many people. Length speaks of the abilitiy it has following the path of righteousness, to endure through a long span of time. Depth speaks of the inner penetration that is made into our personal lives. Height speaks of the extent of his heavenly Presence that this Rest brings us up into, even through spiritual warfare if necessary. A review of our Hebrew passage shows these dimensions.
1. After mentioning about glorification God's Name in the Church among the many children given to Him, the Son, He speaks of this Church as Comparable to a building. When you face a building your automatically view it's breadth. Solomon's temple, on of the seven wonders of the world was very wide. Later Ezekiel's temple will even be much broader. Yes, like the universal Church, the more it is around, the greater scope it has in reaching greater numbers for Christ. For new individual stones, or believers, are being multiplied and added to it.
2. The Canaan rest was a goal-orientated one. It was a goal for forty year's as they journeyed in the path of righteousness (right relationships) in the wilderness towards it. Those who fell victims of their own belief to God's Word. They never finished the divine length of right living. Joshua and Caleb and the new generation believed God and showed God's length in their lives. They heeded the "Today...harden not your hearts" warning.
3.This third ""My rest" speaks of depth in the Christ-life. When we work (in self-effort) God rests. But when we rest (in His life) God works. But not until we cease from our anxious self-effort. This rest penetrates the depth of our being. So that the most skillful exercise of the high priest ministry, as far as use of the sharp knife was concerned, is mentioned to describe it. "Let us exert ourselves to enter into that rest, so that none may fall on account of such disobedience as they exemplified; for the word of God is living, effective and sharper than any two-edged sword. it penetrates even to the dividing line of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow", referring to the skillful cutting of the knife into the bone joints to get the fat-God's portion, "and is skilled in judging the heart's ponderings and meditations," (Heb.4:11,12, Berkeley version). So depth of His life penetrating by the Word, ours is the dimension here.
4. Height comes last. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. let us hold fast our confession" (v14). He is as Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God. Those sweet aromas from Christ's sacrifice for us, as well as those from our sacrifices for Him, ascended heavenward to bless the courts of heaven and lift us up into His Presence.
Love is the bond of perfection. (It certainly will bind us to His rest.)
1. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart" - Love in adoration. From ten days of that kind of love, at Pentecost God began sending them abroad to evangelize many souls-such breadth!
2. You shall love Him "with all your soul"-Love in Affection, needed if we are to remain loyal and stay on the Way (Acts 11:23.)-such length!
3. You shall love Him "with all your mind"- Love in Attitude, otherwise there are too many stones in our minds that hinders God from digging deep within us. So this is needed for Depth!
4. We are to love Him "with all our strength" - Love in Action, needed to pour out sacrificial acts before God so that, as those O.T. feasts where many sacrifices were given, God's Presence lifted them up into sweet communion with Him-such Height!
I am the Door
Jesus shows the way to fully enter into this rest. How? The Door-legal entrance (to be technical the doors were 4 silver sockets of the veil, Ex.26:32) into the REST-pictured by the Holy of Holies. The veil-His slain body-was result of an experience- His Calvary experience. But below the veil were those 4 hidden silver sockets, picturing His redemptive work for us that is the legal basis of entering His rest.
1. The Rest of Habitation-(The Church is His Habitation) Acts 7:49. On what legal grounds are win Christ's Body the Church before the Father? According to Psalms 138:14-16 (KJV) when God saw His seed, Jesus, in hell, He saw His Body, the Church, as a baby forming in its mothers womb. There in hell- in Christ. In Isa.53:10 we see "When thou shalt make His soul (lit) sin, He shall see His seed," even in hell. "He shall prolong His days." - Resurrection. This opens up His Church Rest for us. God's Creative Will fulfilled.
2. The Rest of Canaan-Heb.4:3. The rest of the heavenlies, His "orbit" or righteous will for us. Rest is the product of submission and entering into His Righteous Will. For us to legally (righteously) be able to enter His rest in the heavenlies, His soul had to be like the scapegoat wandering in the wilderness, dying its slow, tortuous death-"die" in the sense of being "cut off" for us, as seen in Is.53:8a. Deaths is plural in verse 9. His soul went to hell so ours could go into the heavenlies. God's foreordained works for us are mentioned in Eph.2:10, the book which speaks repeatedly of our being "in the heavenlies" even now. Rest of Justification and its realities we're to walk in before the world.
3. The Rest of the Finished Work- or the Rest of Satisfaction. Before we can confirm His Specfic Will for each of our lives, which by nature of being poured out in the sacrifice of the many details of God's Specific Will, Isa.53:11 shows that He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Without His finished work all our specific works would be useless.
4. The Rest of the Millennium and Our Portion in It. The Rest of Completion and Joy. In Isa.52:12 the "spoil" that Christ receives as First Born, He passes on the "the strong" the ones who'll reign with Him during the Millennium. Why? "Because He hath poured out His soul unto death."
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