Hebrews 4:4-5
"For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest (and that’s the word we’re really looking at. God rested) the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest."
Now this whole idea of rest then is laying on us the simple fact that if something is complete and there is nothing more that man can do, God himself has said "It’s very good," then what are we to do? Rest. Now if we’re resting, and we’ll just use a simple childlike illustration. If we buy a ticket from Chattanooga to New York and we take our seat and the plane no more than takes off and makes its curve and probably heading back toward the east, immediately, as soon as we’re able, we jump up out of our seat, and run forward and we may even be able to get as far as the pilot’s cabin, and say "Are you really going the right direction?"
Now we’d say that’s ridiculous. That pilot knows where he’s going. But listen, not half as ridiculous as when we doubt God. But you see this is exactly what people do. They make a profession of redemption, they may go through a prescribed ritual, and there’s no peace, there’s no assurance of redemption. So what do they do? They’re constantly running here, running there, trying to find the answers to their dilemma. We mean, we have it happen all the time. And then all of a sudden, they enter into this saving Grace of God where they suddenly realize they can do nothing but believe it and then what can they do? Rest. Just like the airline passenger that can sit back in his seat, relax, start reading something and forget all about the responsibilities of where that pilot is going. Because they have total faith in the plane and the system.
Well, that’s what we have to do with our redemption which is to bring us to salvation. God has said it’s finished and we don’t have to sweat and work and try to do this and do that. We just rest in it. Now that doesn’t mean we don’t work. We're talking about the salvation experience. And see that’s why Canaan became such a beautiful picture of the whole scenario. Rest was rejected because of unbelief but on the other hand a picture of what rest really can be for the believer. Oh, we can just revel in the fact that we don’t have to work for redemption, or work for righteousness, or work for justification, or work for godliness or work for salvation, as that’s all been done. It’s finished. Once we've come to that place all that we then do is to study His revealed revelation that He has given to us. He expects us to know or to gain total knowledge of what our salvation is, to become perfect (mature) as His is perfect. In doing this we grow more in love with Him because He, in the process, reveals Himself in us. As Paul said that, “it pleased God to reveal Christ in me.”
But just stop and think a minute of all the things that even Christendom lays upon their adherence. Oh, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that. You’ve got to fulfill this obligation; you’ve got to fulfill that obligation. And listen, God will have nothing of it because He finished it, and He cannot let man put his filthy fingers on it. It’s a done deal. That is what Grace is a done deal! And so, come back to the text again, and read verse 5 again.
Hebrews 4:5b
"…If they shall enter into my rest."
And how is it to be entered? By trusting and faith alone, plus nothing, because it’s finished. We don’t know how else to put it, we guess we could just go through various other places. Come back to Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3. This again is just more ammunition to show that when Jesus said “it’s finished”, He meant what He said. Alright, we were speaking of the Son back in verse 2. Now verse 3.
Hebrews 1:3
"Who being the brightness of his glory, (He was God from the beginning, from eternity past. He was God in the flesh. He, as God took the sins of the world upon Himself. So being the brightness of His glory) and the express image of his person, and upholding all things (that is everything in this universe is held together) by the word of his power, when he had by himself (alone, without any help from anyone. When He had by Himself) purged (or taken away) our sins, (what did He do? What does it say?) sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" One other note here on “the word of His power” what does power here mean? Strength, ability, abundance, to be able or be possible. There is another word that also means power and it is authority and at times these two go hand in hand but there is still another meaning and that is commandment.
What does that imply? It’s finished. He rested, and there was nothing more to do. He had done everything that God demanded. Now listen, we tell people, without compunction, we don’t care how great our trust, we don’t care how great an understanding a person can have of this Book, there is no way that we as mortals will ever comprehend more than just an infinitesimal amount of what was accomplished on that cross. We’ll never comprehend it, all. When Paul in Ephesians speaks on the unsearchable riches of Christ, was he playing with words? No way. It is unsearchable. There is no way that we can understand (with mans intellect) all that God poured out first from the wrath side on God the Son who became the epitome of sin itself. We cannot begin to comprehend that. And on the other hand, He poured out what? Mercy. It was a two-barreled attack. He poured out His wrath because of the sin aspect. He poured out His mercy because of the Love aspect. How can mortal man comprehend that? We can’t. We're going to keep trying to get more and more and more. That’s the whole idea. But we could live to be a thousand years and we would never comprehend it all. And so what do we do? Take it by trusting in His faith. God, You did it, You said it, it’s complete, it’s finished. We're resting. We're not going to come running up there to the pilots cabin and ask are you going in the right direction. We're not going to come running in every time and say, "God, but are you sure?"
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