There still exists, therefore, a full and complete rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9 Phillips)
I am sure it will
sound to many of you like going a long way back and going out into a very
broad realm when I say that we Christians are being constantly confronted with
and challenged by our Christianity. Many of us have not really entered into
Christianity yet. What do I mean? Well, for one thing, the very door into true
Christianity is the door of rest, the rest of faith. The very simple way in
which the Lord put it in His appeal was - "Come unto Me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). That was to a
multitude, and those words are usually employed in Gospel messages to the
unsaved. The meaning of the Lord in using those words is given to us here in
the letter to the Hebrews, a very much deeper and fuller meaning than is
generally recognized in the usage of the simple invitation "Come unto Me...
and I will give you rest". There is something that we have to hear, to detect,
in the statement - "There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of
God" (Heb. 4:9; A.S.V.).
You will not think me
too elementary, for you know in your heart, as well as I
do in mine, that this matter of heart rest, the rest of
faith, is a live question continually, it is coming up
all the time. One of the things which is lacking in so
many of us is this rest, or, to put it the other way, the
things which characterize us so much are fret, anxiety,
uncertainty, and all those things which are just the
opposite of calm assurance, quiet confidence, the spirit
and attitude and atmosphere which says all the time,
"Don't worry, don't fret, it is all right." One thing our
great enemy is always trying to do is to disturb that,
destroy that, rob us of that, churn us up, fret us, drive
us, harass us, anything to rob us of our rest or to
prevent us from entering into rest. It is the rest of
faith, not just the rest of passivity, indifference, and
carelessness. There is all the difference between
carelessness and carefreeness. There remaineth, there is
still to be had, there still obtains, there still exists,
there is still preserved a rest for the people of God -
for the people of God.