Can you remember a day when you worked so hard you were physically exhausted? I mean one of those good days where you know you worked hard and accomplished so much that you feel good. And when you lie down to sleep you sleep hard? And when you wake in the morning you wake refreshed?
Well the author of Hebrews speaks this morning about an even more refreshing rest for people. In fact, it is an eternally refreshing rest. The key idea of the passage is God has promised a rest to the weary souls of people. It is a rest that can only be found in God. In this passage the author discusses three aspects of this rest that can only be found in God.
I. This Rest Is Available Spiritually
The first aspect of this rest to weary people is that this rest is available spiritually. We see this in verses 8-9. Here the author says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” He describes the nature of this rest. He contrasts it with the rest God had promised to the nation of Israel through Joshua. God had said he would bring the people into the land. God promised to give them rest from their enemies through the conquests of Joshua. But what the author of Hebrews is speaking of is not physical rest. This promised rest is not a physical rest. It is not a rest from political enemies. It is not a rest from national conquest. It is a spiritual rest. The author says, “If Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.” There is a rest of which God was speaking that did not involve physical rest. In fact you can be completely exhausted physically and yet dwell securely in this spiritual rest God gives an individual.
There remains a rest for the people of God. This is a spiritual rest. This gives rest to the weary soul. When people look for rest in the physical realm it is because they recognize they are tired or because they are physically sick. They seek sleep to refresh their weary bodies. But sometimes they find that rest eludes them and they are unable to get the physical rest they need due to a variety of reasons. Do you remember the woman in the gospels who had the hemorrhage of blood for 12 years? She tried everything to get rest (or relief) from her suffering but she was not able. The Scripture says that she spent all she had in seeking a remedy but instead of getting better she got worse. And when she heard about Jesus healing the sick she knew if she only touched Him she would find relief from her condition.
This is what people do when they are physically weary but when people recognize their souls are weary they seek spiritual rest. But often the rest they seek for their souls eludes them. They don’t realize God only provides one means for this spiritual rest. Look at how Jesus pictures it. In Matthew 11 he says, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” In John 6, Jesus speaks of the rest from this weariness as a spiritual hunger and thirst. He says, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” There is a rest only Jesus can give because the real need of our life is not physical. Having a new home will not meet the need of our heart. Having a new car will not meet the need of our heart. Having a new spouse will not meet the need for our heart. Taking a long vacation will not meet the need. The real need of our heart is spiritual rest.
But perhaps the question needed to be asked is, “Why is it we need spiritual rest?” What is it about ourselves that makes us spiritually disquieted? The fact of our need for a spiritual rest is that though we have been made to have a relationship with God and to know Him we are incapable of such a relationship. The reason we are incapable of such a relationship is because we are spiritually separated from God. We were born into this spiritual separation because we were born sinners. This was not a learned behavior. We did not need anyone to teach us to sin. We were born with this capacity to sin. And this spiritual separation, resulting from our being sinners, causes a longing in our hearts that tells us something isn’t right between God and us.
And so we struggle and fight and try to overcome this spiritual vacuum in our hearts. And the amazing thing is we try all different ways to correct the problem. However, all our efforts simply compound the problem. There are those who think that by running away from God they will take care of the problem. Others try to overcome the separation by becoming religious. They try to do more and more and more and more and more until they think their more is enough. But it never is. None of these options provide the needed rest. And because most people don’t bother to stop and find out what God proposes for their rest they wander aimlessly for a long time, perhaps even all their life, seeking this rest.
II. This Rest Is Available to Those Who Believe
The second aspect of this rest to weary people is this rest is available to those who believe. In this passage the author describes the requirement for this rest. In verses 2-3, he says, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest.”
What we need to understand first is faith is not equal to hearing. The author tells us about those of whom we spoke last week who failed to receive the promises of God though they had heard. They received the message but the message did them no good because it was not mixed with faith. It is possible for a person to understand the message of salvation but not receive it because they refuse to put their trust in what they hear. And the author says though we have had the good news of salvation preached to us it could be possible that some have not mixed that hearing with faith. But it is by faith, trust in God’s promises, we receive this rest. This is what the author says in verse 3, “We who have believed enter that rest.”
In this section the author lets us know faith is composed of at least two components.
A. Humility
First we see faith is composed of humility. The author says in verse 7, “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.” Saving faith is not proud. It does not stand before God and demand to be recognized for past accomplishments. The author says faith does not harden its heart against God’s voice. When God speaks the humble heart listens. It does not set its agenda. It claims, along with the song writer, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Your cross I cling.” It agrees with Romans 3 that in God’s sight “there is no one good, no not one.” The apostle Paul had this dose of humility in His faith when he was able to say in Philippians 3, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”
The humility of biblical faith causes us to see everything we have attempted in the past to make ourselves acceptable to God as unacceptable. When I had come to Christ at 19 I had to say every way I had tried to pursue God previously apart from true biblical faith was worthless. I had to say, as a 19 year old, that I was just a baby. I had to humble myself to accept what I knew about the Scripture and biblical faith was just the elementary principles of justification by faith.
This is why biblical faith is impossible to work up on your own. It has to be a work of God. Who, unless they have been awakened to the reality of their need of Christ, will humble themselves and accept God’s Word that they are completely in need of God’s grace without us adding anything to the equation.
This is why Jesus’ words “Unless you are converted and become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Unless you have the humility and trust of a child you cannot have biblical faith. This is really the most liberating aspect to faith. For if I am simply as a little child, if all my trust and hope is in God concerning my salvation then I have nothing to prove to you. If I am on the same level as you, completely in need of a Savior with no ability to save myself then why would I try to prove I am in any way better than you. I am not any better. I am not any better than the murderer. I am not any better than the prostitute. I am not any better than a suicide bomber. I am not any better than the lowest scum of humanity you might imagine. All my righteousness comes from Christ. And if all my position comes from Christ what more can I have than you? What better can I be than you? In some religions there is a distinction between clergy and laity. The Bible makes no distinctions except by way of function. In Christ there is no closer or further from God. If you are in Christ and I am in Christ where are we? We are at the right hand of the Father. If that is the case what cause for boasting against another Christian do I have? And if I am only at the right hand of the Father because of Christ and not because of my own righteousness what cause for boasting do I have against an unbeliever. It is CHRIST not me. This is the humility of faith! So when you hear God’s Word, do not harden your hearts. Receive it in humility. You are not here because you are better than anyone else. You are here because of Christ.
B. Ceasing from all your works
Secondly, we see faith is composed of ceasing from all your works. In verse 10 we see this principle of saving faith portrayed. “For the one who has entered His rest has Himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” The author of Hebrews connects God’s rest from the works of creation with the works a person might try to accomplish to earn his or her salvation. In verse 3 the author lets us know God’s “works were finished from the foundation of the world.” There are no works a person can do to inherit salvation. God had already provided everything necessary for salvation before the foundation of the world. Matthew 25 says the kingdom of heaven had been prepared for us before the foundation of the world. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world according to Ephesians 1:4. Revelation 13 says the names of people were written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. God has completed the necessary works for salvation to make it available for us.
Therefore those who work and strive to please God and seek to make Him accept them because of their works have no standing before God. Ephesians 2:8-9 gives the reason for this. The Apostle Paul says in this passage, “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” God will not tolerate self-boasting. Because He has offered salvation as a gift no one can boast they earned salvation. It is not by works. And if anyone is to have saving faith it has to include the factor of ceasing from all your works.
Romans 4 is really a passage that captures the heart of what the author of Hebrews is saying. Though Ron read it this morning it will be helpful to look at it again. The Apostle Paul lays out the biblical groundwork for justification through faith by using two Old Testament examples. “What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
Now Paul uses both Abraham and King David as an example of faith that saves. Paul places the key verse between the two examples. It’s verse 5. “Now to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” Who is it that is made righteous in the sight of God? It is the person who refuses to work for his righteousness but simply places his trust in the only one that can make him righteous. A faith that ceases to attempt to be made right with God by works is the only kind of faith that saves. Any other kind of faith is not true biblical faith. Unless you have ceased trying to please God by your own effort you cannot be righteous in God’s sight.
Invariably, the question comes up, “If all I must do to receive salvation is believe in Christ without any works then doesn’t that mean I can go and murder and live any way I want?” That question was so prevalent even in Paul’s day among those who misunderstood God’s grace in saving sinners Paul addressed it very soon after in chapter 6. In verse 1 of chapter 6 he counters this false argument in the mind of his detractors. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” When a person has true saving faith their entire nature is changed. When a person believes in Christ, truly puts their trust in Him as Savior, there is a change in their desires. They want to please Him because they now have inherited His nature. Not only did our identification with Christ’s death remove our sin and give us Christ’s righteousness but our identification with His resurrection imparted to us new life. And when we have God’s Holy Spirit living in us we want to please Him. This is why saving faith in Christ is so much more than an intellectual acknowledgment of Christ’s work for us on the cross but it results in us actually entering into this relationship with Christ by partaking of His nature.
Now this aspect of faith, whereby we cease working for our salvation, is truly liberating. If God has provided everything needed for our salvation through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross then our struggle is over. There are no more attempts to work harder to seek acceptance from God. He has given us full and free acceptance through Christ. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! We don’t come to the Father expecting His angry frown but His complete acceptance of us. It is not because we are perfect in our own merit but in the perfect merit of Christ. We need to get a hold of this truth of Scripture. We need to simply trust in that provision for salvation. This is what biblical saving faith is all about. There is a softening of the heart, a real humility that allows a person to see who they really are before Christ and who they are in Christ. And there is a ceasing from our works to please God. Faith is trust in the Father’s provision of being made right through Christ’s death and resurrection and His living in us to transform us into a new person. This rest is that for which every soul longs.
III. This Rest Is Available Today
Now we see the last aspect of this rest to weary people. This rest is available today. The author describes this in verse 7 where he says, “He again fixes a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.” This describes the time constraints for this rest. There is a limitation to finding this rest. The drawing effect of the Spirit of God does not continue indefinitely. The Scripture says, “Behold now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation.’”
Throughout the years in my life as a Christian I have seen times when I have shared the Gospel with people and they show interest in the Lord but soon they begin to draw away. They start to be drawn to God but then lose interest. And when they lose interest it seems as if there is no way you can persuade them to seek the Lord again. This is what the author describes. Today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart. He calls his readers to not miss the opportunity God is giving them to enter in the rest of faith. So you too do not miss the window of time He has given you. And this brings us back to his opening introduction, “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest any of you would seem to have come short of it.
There remains now for you who are listening a promise of entering God’s rest through faith. So the author says do not harden your hearts in listening to the invitation to receive Christ as your Savior. If you have never put your trust in Christ to save you from the eternal punishment of hell and give you eternal life would you trust Him today? Would you believe God’s promise of rest?
And for you who have trusted in God’s rest. Are you secure in your rest? Do you still think that somehow God is not pleased with you even though you are in Christ? Don’t doubt His promises if you have placed your trust in Him. Rejoice in His promises to you in Christ. This is part of the rest God gives us. There is security in the rest of faith because we have ceased from our work to please God ourselves. We have found the work of Christ to be sufficient on our behalf. Let us be diligent then to enter this rest in complete faith. Do not miss this rest if you need it; for today is the day of salvation.