The Rest And The Courage Of Faith
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Rest And The Courage Of Faith, The
"There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb
4:9).
"So we see that
they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Heb.
3:19).
"Then the
children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb
the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou
knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man
of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Forty
years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent
me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought
him word again as it was in my heart.
Nevertheless my
brethren that went up with me made the heart of the
people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And
Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the Land whereon
thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy
children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed
the Lord my God.
And now, behold, the
Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty and five
years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses,
while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness:
and now, lo, l am this day fourscore and five years old.
As yet I am as strong
this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my
strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war,
both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me
this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for
thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and
that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord
will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out,
as the Lord said."
And Joshua blessed
him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for
an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance
of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day,
because that he wholly followed the Lord God of
lsrael" (Joshua 14:6-14).
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 labour 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.).
A
Present Entering Into Rest
If you look at the
context, the meaning is something into which the people
of God had not entered. "They were not able to enter
in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19; A.S.V.). They
could not enter in. Who were they? - the people of God.
It is still the people of God for whom the rest
remaineth. Do not let us put that into the future, that
is not the meaning at all; that afterward, when we get
Home to glory, then we will arrive at the Sabbath day
rest, we will enter into rest. It is not something for
the tombstone -he or she entered into rest. It is
something which remains now as a present thing for the
people of God, not in death, but in life. The rest
remaineth.
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,
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. We have no right to go to
the unsaved and bid them come to Christ and find rest
until and unless we ourselves know that rest. Our
testimony and our ministry is jeopardized; weakened,
limited and discredited if we are not ourselves in rest;
and this is the object of the enemy's activity in this
matter - to discredit us by taking from us that very
birthright of our union with Him Who is never perturbed,
never anxious, never in doubt as to the issue, the One
Who reigns. You see, rest is the practical outworking of
our belief that He is Lord, and the very Lordship of
Christ is struck at by the unrest of the people of God.
The rest of faith must
be our position; not only in the great matter of
justification, though if it is not settled here, it will
not be settled anywhere. Oh, the enemy is striking at
that, even with the people of God; he is ever seeking to
undercut that; in some way to raise again the question of
justification, of being just with God in our standing, in
our acceptance - not yet fully and finally in our state,
only in Christ; that is, not as finally perfect in
ourselves, but in that union on the ground of what He is.
The enemy never ceases to try to undercut that, and his
methods are countless and very persistent and very
forceful. The rest of faith in that, but also in a
hundred and one other ways in the practical things of
everyday life; things which are not in our power to
arrange, secure, settle and bring to pass. Every day
brings hundreds of ways in which there is the opportunity
to stand into the rest of faith, into that faith in the
Lord which brings rest. So subtle are the ways of the
enemy that he will even tell us that that is too small a
thing with which to trouble the Lord; that is a mere
incident, why take that to the Lord? He has bigger and
more important things than that on hand! Why try to make
the Lord your errand-boy (I say that reverently) just to
do all the little things you want done? If in this the
testimony is preserved in rest, then it is a big thing to
the Lord, not a little thing. If in this matter the
Lord's glory stands to suffer, then it is a very big
thing. It may be an incident in daily life, yes, in many,
many ways every day, you and I can so lose our poise and
our rest and our quiet confidence as to lose out
spiritually, and the Lord lose much, so that it is proved
that somewhere faith has been lacking, and with it the
rest has gone. That is one side. It is a challenge to us,
a real challenge.
The
Necessity For Faith
"We see that they
were not able to enter in because of unbelief". Not
able - paralyzing, disqualifying,
incapacitating unbelief. That means that the sooner we
face this whole question and, as far as possible, get it
settled, the better. For thirty-eight years Israel was
simply locked up, held up, and went round and round, so
to speak, on this one question as to whether they were
going to believe God. It arose, let me say again, on all
kinds of matters. It arose on physical matters, for a
life in that wilderness was a great proposition
physically. The Lord did not change the physical
conditions. He called for a change in the people
themselves first; the physical conditions were settled
when He had got the change inside them. When the matter
of faith in Him was settled, then the Lord dealt with the
physical. The question arose in the circumstantial, the
emotional, the intellectual, the volitional realms; the
challenge was made along all those lines in numerous
ways. You can take all their experiences and see how each
one was a peculiar form of the challenge to faith, and
the challenge was changing almost daily in its aspect,
its form, but it was the same challenge. It came along
every kind of line and the Lord never changed it, never
prevented it, never allowed the whole set of conditions
to be altered, but always focused on one point. The thing
that matters is the inner man, and not until the issue
was settled there, did the Lord deal with all the other
things.
Well, that is very
comprehensive. Do not think that it is necessarily
such-and-such things that account for our condition.
These may be contributing factors, they may be very
testing, may bear upon us very heavily. Physical matters
- yes, they do press, they do make the situation
exceedingly difficult, they do make a difference.
Circumstances in which we have to live our lives, they do
make a lot of difference, they make the situation
exceedingly difficult. We say, If only the Lord would
deal with this physical matter or these circumstances or
this something else! It is all due to that, that is the
cause of it, the reason for it. That is our way of
reasoning, but it is not the Lord's thought at all. The
thing is deeper down than that, and it is simply a matter
of believing God; resolute faith, confidence in God. The
Lord is trying to get us out of our variable and varying
soul life where we are at the mercy of all our feelings,
thoughts and reasonings and all that kind of thing, into
a realm where, in spirit, we are steadfast. That is the
point upon which it is all fixed in the Psalm.
"Their heart was not stedfast with Him"
(Psa. 78:37), and around that the whole of
their forty years is gathered. The key to this is
spiritual; tested by every other line, every other means,
it is a spiritual matter ultimately. To be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inward man (Eph. 3:16) is
the answer to it all. The other may then give way; at
least, we shall gain ascendancy over the other if it is
not removed.
Faith
In God The Secret Of Courage
Come back to the word in
Joshua. Of that first generation, only two men got out of
that soul realm - Joshua and Caleb. They triumphed in and
over that realm. They triumphed in that realm first, and
then the Lord brought them out, but the fact that it was
the rest of faith which was the secret of their triumph
while they were in it is brought so beautifully,
magnificently, to light in this fourteenth chapter of
Joshua. I think this is fine. Caleb, one of the two,
comes to Joshua. He is an old man now, but still living
by faith in the position which he took up with the Lord
years before. He took up that position when he went as
one of the spies and when the great majority, the
overwhelming majority, brought their evil report. They
looked at God through their circumstances; these two men
looked at their circumstances through God; it made all
the difference. Caleb took up that position of looking at
everything through God, and he is still living in that
position; and now, as an old man, he comes to Joshua,
and, while all the other people are being given their
inheritance in nice, easy, prosperous positions
"where every prospect pleases", Caleb says,
Give me this mountain where the giants are, and cities
great and walled up; this hilly country; give me this
mountain!
Oh, dear friends, there
is a lot to be said about that, but I am going to be
content with this now as following up this challenge to
my heart and to yours. What are you looking for? - an
easy inheritance, a nice, workable cabbage-patch,
something that is going to respond to your touch
immediately and give you satisfaction? Are you looking
for the flourishing land? The faith which brought Joshua
and Caleb into rest of heart before they came into the
rest of the land was this kind of faith - Give me a tough
proposition! Here is a situation full of difficulties,
full of threatenings, full of adversities; why, it is
almost an appalling prospect, yet nevertheless give me a
chance there! You see the challenge. Do difficulties
appall you or do they at once present a great opportunity
for the Lord? "It may be that the Lord... as the
Lord spake." How are we facing the big difficulties?
- and there are difficulties! there are problems! and
these mountains seem to pile up upon one another as we go
on. Sometimes it seems an impossible outlook and
prospect, a hopeless situation. Perhaps for our own lives
individually for some reason within ourselves or outside
of ourselves, or for the work to which we are called, the
ministry, the testimony that is laid upon us, it seems so
utterly hopeless, the mountain is impossible. Well, what
about it? Is it - Give me this mountain! Nothing but a
real faith in God can take things on like that, and say -
All right, it is difficult, there is no doubt about it,
it is an appalling prospect naturally, a hopeless
outlook, nevertheless let us take it on in the Name of
the Lord; it may be that the Lord... The Lord -
looking at the mountain through the Lord, and not at the
Lord through the mountain.
I think that is the kind
of faith that we need, that brings into rest. A mountain
- yes, it is a mountain right enough, a physical
mountain, a circumstantial mountain, a mountain of
outlook in the work. Naturally we would do the right
thing, the wise, common sense thing if we said, No, we
are not going to touch that! But faith says, I am not
going to try and skirt that mountain, I am not going to
turn my back on it and run away; give me this mountain! I
want that faith, you want it. It is not just our natural
courage, our bulldog nature, our pugnacity that will do
it. We know quite well that we have nothing; if left to
ourselves, we had better quit. But the Lord is
challenging us, and Caleb does come up as a rebuke to us.
At the end of a long life when we might think that now is
the time for him to be given a very nice little garden
and a lodge somewhere where the work was easy and he
could take his rest - no, he says, Give me this mount
wherein are the giants, the walled cities; give me this
mountain! His choice was a difficulty, because it was an
opportunity for the Lord.
Probably we shall very
soon be brought up against what we have been saying in
very practical ways, but let us have dealings with the
Lord on this. We are going to have to face what will be
naturally appalling difficulties, within and without,
taking the very heart out of us, but oh, for this quiet,
restful assurance and confidence in our God which says,
Give me this mountain as an opportunity for proving the
Lord!
And Caleb got it - and
it was Hebron, and that is another story; a very long
story is Hebron. I leave you to look that up, for Hebron
has a wonderful place in the purposes of God. David was
first crowned king in Hebron before he was crowned in
Jerusalem. Hebron means 'fellowship'. There is a great
inheritance bound up with Hebron. Hebron is secured to
men and to women of this kind of faith which says, I am
not wanting to escape from my difficulty and get out of
my hard way; let me take it in the Lord's strength and
give the Lord an opportunity to show that He can do what
is naturally impossible. The Lord give us that faith!
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec, 1946
|