Plain Words For The Young Who Belong To Christ

by N.D.W. MILLER | Category: Pages For Young Believers | Sept 1932

Concerning things that differ-

VII.-THE BELIEVER'S REST, AND GOD'S REST.

"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matthew 11. 28-30).

No passage, perhaps, could set forth more aptly than this the thought of a two-fold rest. Verse 28, speaks of rest for the burdened sinner; verse 29, of rest for the saint.

The Hymn says-

I have seen the cross of Jesus,

Gazed upon the Crucified:

And my heart is won for ever,

I am saved and satisfied.

God intends that this tranquil rest of satisfaction, should be followed by the rest of obedience.

The rest of God, as well as the rest and blessing of the creature, are both found in Christ. The centre of all true rest is in an enthroned Christ. Hence, with joy we can sing-

O God, what perfect rest is Thine,

Thy rest is in Thy Son,

'Tis all unspeakable, divine,

Thy rest and ours are one.

This is truly blessed. We read that "in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day "(Exodus 20. 11). And again, "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good and on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made" (see Genesis chapters 1. 31, and 2. 2). God rested. Not because He was weary- oh, no! But because He was satisfied. All was very good. Alas ! this rest in His creation, and in His creature man was soon disturbed, for sin entered, and death through sin. All "through the one man's disobedience."

So it was, too, with redeemed Israel long centuries afterwards. God redeemed them, and placed His Tabernacle among them; but "they soon forgat"(see Psalm 106.). In redeeming them, God had an objective before Him; He required their loyal and whole-hearted service; thus they might shout aloud for very joy around the Mount Zion which He loved, in the good land which He had provided for them (see, for instance, Psalm 132.).

At the first when God redeemed them, Israel rested in their Deliverer, satisfied with what He had done for them; and they might well have continued to find their rest and joy in God. But alas, instead of that, how many failed to enter into the rest that God had provided! Out of some 600,000 who left Egypt (and never returned-never made another brick) only two entered the good land. Wherein did so many fail and fall? Through disobedience. On this account they wandered 40 long years and died in the wilderness; and eventually, when others did enter, their subsequent history records sad failure to walk in God's ways, and to enjoy His rest (see Psalm 95. and in particular, Jeremiah 6. 16). Like God's creation rest, the Caanan rest was soon disturbed, for both depended on the goodness of the creature.

But now God's rest depends wholly upon Christ, who did I-his Will perfectly and completely. It is undisturbed-positive and abiding.

God rests in Christ, whom He hath enthroned in Zion at His own right hand. Israel failed to enter the rest provided for them. It should be ours to appropriate what God presents to us.

It is in the Epistle to the Hebrews that we have direct reference to GOD's REST. The Epistle opens gloriously. Chapters 1. and 2. are highly doctrinal. In chapter 1. the enthroned Sin-Purger is seen seated and at rest--and His seat and His rest in yon bright glory, are eternal. In chapter 2. His redeemed are seen in association with Him for ever there. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are "all of one," set apart with Christ; and the set apart ones are on an equal footing, neither age, nor experience, nor knowledge, being taken into account here: we are sharers together. Hence, chapter 3. begins, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling." This shews where the call comes from, and where we are going. Our calling and our citizenship arc heavenly. "Come unto Me," calls us with a heavenly calling. We are sharers in that, and His acceptance there, and our acceptance there, are identical and complete. The effects of this call continue; like "Let there be light, and there was light "-and so it continues to this very day. So we, in order to please God, must take Christ's yoke, and learn of Him, that we may thus go on, and, by doing His will, find rest.

We have to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus." Not "profession." Profession is on the surface, and there may be nothing inward to correspond. Many profess who do not possess.

The One we are exhorted to consider was faithful. Moses, in the days of old, was faithful in all God's material house as a servant. "But Christ as a Son" is now over God's spiritual house. Over the house, in the sense of having all authority - of having full control, "Whose house are we, IF we hold fast," and so forth. "Wherefore even as the Holy Spirit saith,

To-day if ye shall hear His voice,

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

But they did not know Mv ways:

As I sware in My wrath,

They shall not enter into My rest" (Hebrews 3. 7-11).

Here are things, not only of great interest, but of great importance. We see that in the past God's ways, and God's rest, were inseparably linked together. Because Israel knew not God's ways they could not enter into God's rest.

"Whose House are we, if we hold fast."

Like ourselves, the Hebrew Christians were one with Christ, as we have shew-God's eternal rest in Christ, and theirs and ours, being one. Therefore we can settle it deep down in our hearts, that, come what may, we shall dwell for ever in our heavenly home. But on the other hand, based upon that quotation from Psalm 95., we have the solemn exhortation, "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God." Now, there need be no dread on the part of the renever in Christ, lest his eternal security is here assailed, for it is not so. This "falling away" has nothing whatever to do with the sinner's Salvation from wrath and hell; but it concerns those who, in God's wondrous mercy, have been brought into a divine position-" Whose House are we "-and, who, like Israel of old, through disobedience, may forfeit the place which grace makes possible to occupy. This possibility of falling away from the living God should be indeed to be feared, and guarded against; we can only please God by walking in His ways. We may harden our hearts, as Israel did, and either never get to know God's ways, or we may refuse to walk in them.

This is not a vain hinting at any good in the creature, for, as we have already shewn, good in the creature there is none; but the grace of God which brought us salvation to begin with, provides the means of pleasing Him-it instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world (see Titus 2.). Grace is provided for all the way, but there is ever the danger of falling short of the grace of God (see Hebrews 12. 15). Chapter 12. teaches that grace leads on to God, provided we are willing to have grace, and to hear His voice, and to walk in His ways. "Whose house are we if we hold fast," etc., refers undoubtedly to God's house on earth, which is composed of " living stones" (see 1 Peter 2.), disciples of Christ who, individually seek to own His authority as Lord, and who collectively, are under His rule and government.

God cannot rest where the will of the creature is opposed to His will; but God found perfect rest in Christ. When that Blessed One came into this world, He said, "I come to do Thy will, 0 My God," and later, "I came down from heaven, not to do Mine Own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." Even in dark Gethsemane, His word of perfect resignation was- "Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done." God's rest, and self-will, are entirely opposed-hence, the beauty of Matthew 11. 29- "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." ONLY THUS can we get rid of self-will.

Reverting to Israel, "we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief" : and the exhortation continues, "Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it... we which have believed do enter into that rest

seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter because of disobedience, He again defineth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time, To-day; as it hath been before said,

To-day if ye shall hear His voice,

Harden not your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. For He that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience" (see Hebrews 4.). Most people take the words-"There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God"-to mean heaven, and, that we enter the rest when we each get there. But the very fact that in Hebrews 3. 13, we are told to "exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called TO-DAY," brings it, we judge, very definitely into the living present, hence the further exhortation, to labour, or to give diligence to enter into that rest.

This sabbath rest, or sabbath keeping that remains for the people of God, is not the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath, or the observance of the seventh day (in this dispensation Christians are taught by the Holy Spirit to recognise the distinctive character of the first day of the week). But as CHRIST fills the heart and presence of God, and affords Him perfect rest, so now, by implicit obedience-wearing the yoke of Christ and learning of Him-may we enter into God's rest.

Though Isaiah 56. deals with the sabbath day, the spirit of this sabbath-keeping--this rest-is very beautifully set forth in that chapter.

Having known by blessed experience then, the rest the Saviour gives; and having, it may be, acknowledged His claims as Lord, and taken His yoke, in order to go on-disciple-like, learning of Him; may it be ours to so labour, to so give diligence, that we may enter the more into that rest of which Hebrews 3. and 4. speak.

Number VIII, on Baptism, to follow, if the Lord will.

N.D.W. MILLER | Sept 1932
Pages For Young Believers