Hebrews 4:9-11 (NKJV) 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
This week we are looking at Hebrews 4:11. Hebrews 4 gives us a key to opening the gates of the supernatural in our lives. We see that the first generation of Israelites could not go into the Promised Land because of their unbelief. Verse 2 tells us they did not mix the promise of God with faith. As a result, the promise did not “profit” them.
This is such a descriptive term in my mind. I have been in the ministry for more than 37 years. I have watched far too many people who knew the Word of God and who were good church members fail to receive because of this same tendency. Just because we know the promise, does not mean we believe the promise. We must determine that we are going to do what we must to mix the promise of God with faith so that we do not fall short of our potential the way the Israelites did.
Yesterday we saw something that caused Israel to lack faith in the promise. They were disobedient. Absolute obedience to any human leadership can be a problem. Absolute obedience to God and to his written Word is vital. The way to cultivate disobedience is to disobey in the small areas. The way to cultivate obedience is to obey in small things. Whichever path we follow will determine whether we will obey when it is critical.
In our study of chapter 4, we have seen that the writer of Hebrews equates rest and faith. True faith is a rest. I like to illustrate this by sitting in a chair. If the chair is one I know to be sturdy, I can sit in it and be completely at rest. I know it will hold the whole weight of my body. I have been in places where this was not the case.
One year we were in a town in the former East Germany. I had my youngest son with me. At that time, between us we weighed 180 more than we do now. After service, we had a meal. I had been the preacher that night and I was in my nice suit. They had tables with detached picnic type benches. When I looked at the quality of the benches, I wondered if they would hold both my son and me.
I told him to sit over the leg because I thought he might break the middle of the bench. We sat down gingerly and within seconds, I knew we were in trouble. The leg folded under my son, the bench collapsed and I, in my preaching suit, fell under the table behind me. How dignified!
I was traveling with a dear senior ministry friend of mine and I was hoping for a little sympathy. I got none. He laughed like me under the table was the funniest thing he had ever seen. To this day, all you would have to do is mention the name of the town and he will dissolve into laughter.
Two years later, we were back in that town and they still had those tables and benches. Although we had both lost a great deal of weight, I could not be at “rest” sitting on them. I found a nice stable chair and sat very comfortably in it for my meal. My friend looked over at me periodically and every time he did, he broke out in laughter.
Faith is a little like a stable chair. If I have confidence that the chair will hold me, I am at rest. I do not sit there in fear that it will fall. All of my weight is resting on the chair. In Germany, the seat would not hold that weight. I could not sit there comfortably the next time. Faith in God can hold the weight of your life and circumstances. Real faith is rest.
Hebrews 4:9-10 tells us that there is a rest of faith available to the people of God. It begins when we cease from our own works. We must not think we can take care of things by ourselves. We must do our part but we must come to a place where we let faith do the work.
Hebrews 11 says that if we enter the rest of faith we will not fall into disobedience. The implication is that if we find a way to enter the rest, we will not be disobedient. Verse 11 says that we must be diligent to enter the rest. I believe part of the diligence is obedience. Israel was not obedient so they could not enter the rest. If we are diligent to enter the rest, we will cultivate obedience by default.
What does it take to enter the rest of faith? This verse gives us a large part of the answer. We must make entering the rest of faith a major focus of our life. It cannot be an option.
The King James Version uses the word labor. We must labor to enter the rest. Too many Christians labor in the Kingdom of God without having a point to their labor. Worse still, there are those who are laboring for the wrong goal. They may be laboring for recognition. They may be laboring to have a big ministry. They may be laboring to overcome a sense of unworthiness and failure they developed growing up. Whatever the case may be if we labor for the wrong reason or for an unclear purpose, we will not enter the rest. The point of our Christian labor must be to enter the rest.
Many people go to church, do Christian service, pray and study the word. They do it for the reasons stated above or they do it out of simple obligation. “Somebody said I should read the bible so I guess I better read the bible.” That kind of labor will not get us to the rest. We must understand that our goal is to come to that place where we can rest the weight of our lives on faith in God.
The Greek word used here is defined as “to use speed, i.e. to make effort, be prompt or earnest: – do (give) diligence, be diligent (forward), endeavor, labor, study.” I think the use of the word “speed” in this definition is interesting. It implies that we must give this some urgency. We can also see that entering the rest is going to take some effort on our part. It may seem that rest and effort are opposites. That is not true.
We are going to put an addition on our house. One of goals is to expand our bedroom. There will be much labor involved but the labor will have a point. When we are done, we will be able to rest in our new bedroom. All rest must be preceded by some kind of labor. In the natural, it may be someone else’s labor that produces your rest. In the spirit, you can only find the rest of faith if you do your own labor.
Some will say, “I just can’t do it. I don’t have what pastor has.” One of the beautiful things about labor is that anyone can do it. If you are healthy, you can labor. One of the first jobs most people get in life is the job of laborer. It requires little education. It requires no special gift. All you need is the will to do it. Many people today do not have that will. People who started as laborers built some of the greatest business empires in history. The labor led to learning and the learning led to success.
It is no different here. You can labor. You can be diligent. You can do the work that will result in entering the rest of faith. It is not something you will do once for all time. You will have to continue to labor and as you do, you will strengthen and broaden your faith. The one thing that is not possible is for someone else to do the work for you.
Labor to enter the rest. Once you are at rest in your faith, you will see that the supernatural gates have been open and the power of God will be at work in your life.
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