MOSES MY SERVANT IS DEAD - PART 4

This fourth message in the series looks at God's rest as described in Hebrews 3 and 4 and how the Promised Land is a type and shadow of that rest.  We will also explore the contrast between faith and works in the light of God's sabbath.

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.  For we which have believed do enter into rest."  (Hebrews 4:1-3).

There is a place of rest and peace that God has promised to His people today.  It is a glorious place where we can cease from our own works, and enter into the promises of God.  The Promised Land in the Old Testament was just a shadow of what God truly intended for His loved ones.  Just as Canaan flowed with all good things, so today does this place that God would have His people dwell in.  It is an invisible place to be sure, but a kingdom none the less, greater than all the kingdoms of this world rolled into one.  It is the hiding place of Psalm 32, the secret place of the Most High in Psalm 91, the shelter and the strong tower of Psalm 61, and the sabbath of God in Genesis.  It is that place where the handwriting of ordinances that was against us has been blotted out, and we discover that we can now do all things through Christ Who strengthens us.  Outside this place we are doomed to wander aimlessly through life, either trying desperately to keep the law through our own feeble efforts, and failing miserably, or abandoning ourselves to sin altogether because of the hypocrisy that we see in the lives of the "godly."  As we enter into God's rest, though, we find that God is able to do just what He has promised to do: purify a people for Himself.

In previous messages in this series we have established the fact that it was unbelief that blocked the Israelites out of the land that God had promised to them.  Their fatal error was not mixing faith with the word that God spoke to them through Moses and Aaron.  It was the faith of Joshua and Caleb, however, that qualified them to enter in.  It was the children of those who had refused to believe who finally followed Joshua into the land of Canaan.  It was like a new beginning for Israel; and, just as their fathers had been baptized in the Red Sea, they were now baptized in the river Jordan.  In the same way, we must mix faith with the word that we hear.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  It is faith in God's Word that enables us to enter into this blessed, joyful place that God calls His rest. 

In Hebrews chapter 4, Paul compares the rest of God to God's sabbath.  In the work of creation, God labored for six days and rested the seventh day.  Once God finished His work on the sixth day, everything was completed; and there was nothing lacking in all that He made.  There was no need to get back up at a later time to put the finishing touch on something.  When He sat down to rest, everything was set in motion that He had planned.  He was able to sit down and rest knowing that all things would now play out according to His perfect will.  Please do not confuse this rest with inactivity, however.  When we enter this rest we cease from our works and allow God to work through us.  Once, the people asked Jesus what they needed to do to work the works of God.  He told them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent."  (John 6:29).  This is true for us today.  In order to do God's work, we just need to believe in the finished work of Christ and allow Him to work in us.  At one point, Jesus invited the disciples to go into a desolate spot to rest awhile.  When they went there, though, the crowds followed them and it soon became evident that they were going to need to be fed.  The disciples suggested going into the nearest town to buy provisions for everyone, but Jesus had another plan.  He multiplied a few loaves and fishes and asked the disciples to pass the food out to the people.  The miracle took place in their very hands as they distributed to the crowd.  The rest that they found was not what they expected it to be.  It wasn't kicking back and not doing anything for a time, it was trusting their Lord to meet every need, and then entering into His work rather than pursuing their own.

Let us rise up in faith, and lay hold on the promises that God has given to us.  Outside of Christ they are all out of reach for us.  Our own labor, reform, resolution, and determination to be different is all vain and doomed to fail.  Like herding cats, we may get a couple things going in the right direction, but then many more will run wildly out of our control.  We must believe in the finished work of the Son of God.  When He cried out on the cross, "It is finished," He truly meant it is finished!  There is nothing we need to "do" to help it along or complete it.  When God gave the promised land to His people, it was theirs immediately.  Even though they had not seen it or taken possession physically, it was all theirs.  Like buying a house that you haven't moved into yet, it is still all yours even though you aren't living there physically.  We sometimes act as though Satan controls areas of our life that we feel we have no power over.  The truth is, he is a squatter who has moved into our house and is acting as if he owns it.  He doesn't!  It is all ours because the Son of God has paid the ultimate price to secure it for us - His own life!  We must simply take possession, and throw the squatter out!  As God reveals strongholds in our lives that need thrown down, we need to remember that Jesus has already secured the victory for us in that area and claim it in Jesus' name.  Let us, therefore, enter into His rest, His power, and His victory.  Let us quit wandering uselessly through life, going around in circles, and never really getting anywhere.  If our own works (which are by the law) could save us, then we wouldn't need a Savior.  You can't rescue a drowning man who won't quit thrashing about.  Until he gives up and trusts you to pull him to safety, he will continue to fight against you until he wears himself out.  Jesus is truly all we need!

I think Romans 8, verses three and four, sum up nicely all that we have been saying.  "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."  (Romans 8:3,4).  The failure of the law was not that it was an unreasonable standard that God set for man, but that man's flesh is not able to meet the righteous demands of the law.  Like trying to drive to Cleveland in a car that has four flat tires, a hole in the radiator, a burned out transmission, and no spark plugs.  It's the vehicle that is deficient, not the road.  The remedy was that God sent His own Son Who lived out the holy demands of the law, not only in the letter, but more importantly, according to the true spirit of it.  Now, because of Jesus' life and death, the righteousness of the law can be fulfilled in you and I.  How can this be?  By walking in the Spirit and trusting in the finished work of our Lord and Savior.  I no longer have to be a slave to sin, to my past, to the flesh, or to anything that would make me less than what my Father has called me to be.  I am free!  And if the Son of God has made me free, I am free indeed! 

"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.  For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."  (Hebrews 4:9-11).