A REST FOR GOD’S PEOPLE

                A REST FOR GOD’S PEOPLE

^28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep Company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”{Matthew 11:28-30 MSG}

What can you and I do today to receive this rest from all our labour? It is very simple, just faith in Christ Jesus. Until we believe in Christ as our righteousness, we can never enter God’s rest. We will keep labouring to be righteous like the children of Israel did. The majority of them died in the wilderness and never entered their promised land because of unbelief. The same unbelief is what I see in most Christians today. They don’t believe that Christ is their righteousness. They think that it’s too good to be true that they can be righteous without labouring to keep the commandments. They want to labour and sweat it out first before they can see themselves as righteous. They are rejecting the righteousness gift of God and hoping to get it as a reward for their rule keeping. They have refused to enter their promised land of rest because of unbelief. They feel they are not good enough. They see themselves as grasshoppers and even think that God sees them that way. They have simply failed to enter God’s rest. That promised land of rest; Canaan land, was a shadow of Jesus Christ who was to come and give us rest if only we could believe. If anyone will believe like Joshua and Caleb, then the land is theirs. They will definitely enter into their rest. If we can be courageous and have confidence in Christ then that rest is ours. We are well able to possess the land because God has qualified us. We refuse to die in unbelief. For whoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. I believe He is my righteousness therefore I receive rest from all my labour. I am God’s righteousness. I will not labour to become what I already am. I accept His grace and reject the laws with its religious rituals. I believe in Christ. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I enter my rest.

⁶ But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for.

A Rest for God's People

⁷ So then, as the Holy Spirit says,

“If you hear God's voice today,
⁸     do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God,
    as they were that day in the desert when they put him to the test.
⁹ There they put me to the test and tried me, says God,
    although they had seen what I did for forty years.
¹⁰ And so I was angry with those people and said,
    ‘They are always disloyal
    and refuse to obey my commands.’
¹¹ I was angry and made a solemn promise:
    ‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!’”

¹² My friends, be careful that none of you have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from the living God. ¹³ Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the word “Today” in the scripture applies to us. ¹⁴ For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

¹⁵ This is what the scripture says:

“If you hear God's voice today,
    do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were
    when they rebelled against God.”

¹⁶ Who were the people who heard God's voice and rebelled against him? All those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. ¹⁷ With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert.¹⁸ When God made his solemn promise, “They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest”—of whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. ¹⁹ We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe. {Hebrews 3:6-19 GNT}

Be careful my friends, do not have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from God. To doubt God is to rebel against Him. Unbelief is what God described as sin in this passage. God swore that they will never enter their land of rest because He was angry at their unbelief and stubbornness of heart. They didn’t enter their rest because of unbelief. Do you want to be like them? Do you want to enter your rest or you want to keep doubting God? Will you receive rest or you prefer to keep labouring by yourself? There is a promise of rest. Will you accept it?

Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest. ² For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith. ³ We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised. It is just as he said,

“I was angry and made a solemn promise:
    ‘They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest!’”
He said this even though his work had been finished from the time he created the world.

⁴ For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: “God rested on the seventh day from all his work.” ⁵ This same matter is spoken of again: “They will never enter that land where I would have given them rest.”⁶ Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are, then, others who are allowed to receive it. ⁷ This is shown by the fact that God sets another day, which is called “Today.” Many years later he spoke of it through David in the scripture already quoted:

“If you hear God's voice today,
    do not be stubborn.”

⁸ If Joshua had given the people the rest that God had promised, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day. ¹⁰ For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. ¹¹ Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith.{ Hebrews 4:1-11 GNT}

The rest promised by God was not just the promised land of Canaan. That was only a shadow of Christ who will give us that rest today. The rest will be the kind of rest God had on the seventh day. To cease from, to stop, to finish the works of righteousness. To end the labour with the law not just to take a break and resume again but to bring to an end that struggle. To take away the yoke for good. If Joshua and the Children of Israel had that promised rest, David would not have spoken of it again. It was futuristic as David described it and it pointed towards the coming of Christ. Now Christ has come and all that is needed to enter that rest is FAITH in Him. Yes! Faith in Christ will end all the labour for righteousness. The yoke of the law will be broken by faith and we will enter our rest to enjoy our righteousness Gift. Mix the gospel with faith and it will profit you righteousness. The only thing we should labour for is to enter that rest which God has promised and by faith you will enter into it. Once you enter that rest, you cease from all your works.

Someone may want to ask; what if I have faith and receive this rest but still fall into sin. Will I still be righteous? Well the answer is this: You must keep confessing your faith and keep believing that you are God’s righteousness because you got it by grace not by works of the law. You must not return to labour because you will still fail because of unbelief. Enjoy your rest by faith. You can enter God’s throne of grace with boldness and you will find help whenever you need it.

¹⁴ Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God—Jesus, the Son of God.¹⁵ Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us have confidence, then, and approach God's throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it. {Hebrews 4:14-16 GNT}

My heart cry is for the church to receive her rest. Many claim to be born again but they have not received rest. They are still labouring and trying so hard to be righteous. They still do not believe that Christ is their righteousness. They are celebrating religion and bearing the burden of its yoke alone. They are unbelieving believers, I call them. They have a form of Godliness but deny the power of Godliness-the gospel of Christ. They have not mixed the gospel with faith. They have heard the good news of rest but they prefer to labour due to their unbelief. My heart bleeds for them. I wish I could repeat Paul’s prayer for them “that the eyes of their understanding be enlightened” and that they know and understand the things that have been freely given them-righteousness.

God is still warning and speaking from heaven to His church {the spiritual Jews} today. Many have stumbled already and many more are yet to stumble over the rock of our salvation, Christ the rest giver. Faith is all we need to enter our rest. Stop labouring by yourself. Receive Rest!

³⁰ Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this, that God has given the Gentiles the opportunity to be acquitted by faith, even though they had not been really seeking God. ³¹ But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping his laws, never succeeded. ³² Why not? Because they were trying to be saved by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They have stumbled over the great stumbling stone. ³³ God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I have put a Rock in the path of the Jews, and many will stumble over him (Jesus). Those who believe in him will never be disappointed.” {Romans 9:30-33 TLB}