Resting in God
Thus far on Wednesdays nights we have talked and seen from the bible several different aspects concerning God’s will. Tonight we will finish up by thinking about what, I like to call resting in God’s will. The passage before us speaks about two different types of rest for the believer. The writer of Hebrews has in mind the Old Testament account of the children of Israel wandering through the desert and then coming to that point of crossing over into the Promised Land. That account of history is not only true but it serves as a pictorial guide if you will; for us as believers in our walk with God. Just as God had a promised the Israelites a land full of milk and honey, a land where God’s presence dwelt, a land that was theirs for the taking, we have a land of promise too.
There is a place where God wants us to be, it is called the victories Christian life. It’s a place not so much for your feet, but for your heart! That’s the key! That’s why so many Christians live and die without ever fully realizing all what the Lord wanted them to have on this earth. This place with God can not be found with your feet, it can only be found with your heart!
Some of the children of Israel didn’t ever make it into the rest that God wanted them to have. Some never saw the Promised Land. Why? Because there heart was not right with God! In fact a whole generation of people were excluded from their rest in the Promised Land and died in the wilderness! Kept all this in mind, because that’s what is in the mind of the writer here in Hebrews four.
Now, notice like I said, the two different types of rest we see here. The first one is mentioned in vv 9 and 10.
Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4: For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
This is the first type of rest. The rest of salvation. What verse ten is referring to is when God created the world and afterward he rested on the seventh day. God rested not because he was tried but because his works were complete in themselves and he set up a pattern for you and I to rest on the seventh day. Trusting Christ as we did meant that we were ceasing from our works for salvation. We are resting in the finished work of Christ on the cross, just as God rested on the seventh day because the work was done! Trusting Jesus for salvation means a ceasing, a stopping, of trying to earn heaven by whatever means or methods any group spouts off! The religions of the world set forth basically in the message, “do and live” whether that means being a good person, feeding the poor, speaking in tongues, burning a candle, being baptized, whatever! You have to do to live in the book! By the way, according to them you have to keep on doing right up until you die, or you won’t make it in!
Those poor ignorant people work and work and work because they are literally scared that God want let them into heaven! They have to work to make God happy enough to let then into heaven! Oh! If they would just read the bible for themselves, they would come to the real message which is, “Believe and live”!
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
There is a rest in being saved! We entered into that rest once we trust Christ!
But there is another type rest for the people of God! That’s the rest a lot of Israel missed out on and a lot of Christians never really find! This type of rest was the one that the writer was afraid that they had missed out on, it is the rest that we have to enter into ourselves,
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Heb 4:11
Just as all Israel was redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb (Ex 12), yet not all Israel entered into the Promised Land! All those who trust Christ are saved m yet not all the saved come to know the peace there is when you are resting in God’s Will.
There are some incidents of Christians resting in God’s will.
I. Peter in Jail
Acts 12:1-10
Peter was in jail waiting to be killed by Herod just like James was. What do we see Peter doing in jail the supposedly last night of his life? He’s not making out his will. He’s not even praying. Peter is sleeping like a baby!
How could Peter sleep at a time like this; if it was not for the fact that he knows hoe to rest in God’s will! That’s right, so restful was Peter in the Lord’s will that he decided to get some sleep! Vance Havner said once, “Lord, your the one that neither sleeps nor slumbers, so I’m going to bed, you worry with these problems!” Peter was feeling the same way, Lord your really in control, not Herod, I’m going to sleep and let you worry with this!
We say that we believe that God is in control, but we don’t rest in that fact. We stay up with worry and doubt, second guessing everything of the last year or so and then morning comes and we are a nervous wreck! Instead of passing the bacon and eggs, its pass the Provak and Zoloff for breakfast! Because that’s the only way we can face our day! Why don’t you learn how to rest in God’s will and save your money! Don’t ever have again a sleepless night! Never stay up late with worry and confusion, rest in God’s will for your life!
My extended family is having a hard time with the fallout of the hurricane. A lot of damage, a lot of clean up, a lot of waiting it seems but not a lot of money and patience! But yet that hurricane didn’t surprise God in the least! They are having the hardest time just believing that everything is gone and they have to start all over with God! My Mom and Dad however area different story. God came through for them and sent them a blessing concerning all those trees. They were wondering where they were going to come up with all that money for clearing those trees. About a 15,000 job. I preached last Wednesday at their church to them and all those folks and said, don’t let this divide you from God, but let it drive you to God! Let it bring you closer than you were before! Well, this morning my mom and dad were surprised to see fifteen men come down from Canada and Michigan in their yard early this morning! They made real easy work of those huge trees and moved them too. It really made a big impression on my folks and they were thanking God for every one of those men! They had no panic attacks like others I knew of. They didn’t have to rob from ‘Peter to pay Paul’ to remove those tress either. They are happy, because they just waited the best they could until God showed up!
Resting in the will of God presupposes that we first know the will of God for us! The reason why peter can rest is because he knows God’s will for his life. Jesus before he ascended back into heaven told Peter how he was to die. Look at John 21:18-19. Peter was to be girded or tied to a cross and there die for God! The cross was a roman thing not a Jewish thing! So Peter knows that at that moment it looked like his end, but it really wasn’t! So Peter trusts Jesus so much he sleeps, because there isn’t a doubt in his mind!
Peter can rest in God’s will because he knows God’s will!
II. Paul in a Storm
Act 27: 14-20; 21-26
Paul also knew what it was to rest in God’s will. Paul said goodbye to the church at Ephesus acts 21 and he was taken in Acts 22 by the Romans. Having appealed unto Caesar, Paul was transported by ship to Rome. In Acts 27 the ship that Paul is on finds itself in a huge storm and the sailors and soldiers want to abandon ship and take their chances in the open sea. While everyone is wanting to get off Paul, knows he must stay on! Why? Because Paul knows that he must complete God’s will and even while the wind around them rages Paul is resting in the fact that he’s right where God wants him! Paul was resting in God’s will. Storm or not storm it doesn’t matter, you stay put!
Some Christians go through financial storms and the thought crosses their mind, I could just abandon ship (marriage) and have all the money I need! Marriage is God’s will, if you’re in it, stay in it! Sometime churches go though some rough storms, legal storms, financial storms, moral storms and there are always some that decide to jump ship because they can’t make any sense out of it all. They find another ship, then it gets tossed into a storm they jump ship again! Church is God’s will whether there is a storm howling around us or not! It’s God’s will, just learn to rest instead of run!
Paul said later after the storm and everything: But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; Phi 1:12 Because he was resting, he saw God do a work even through the storms he went through! God can get glory through the storms of this life and out from the jail cells that others try to hold you in; God can ‘if’ you can show some faith and rest I his will!
Closing:
When I think of resting in God’s will I can’t help but think of this poem.
I met God in the morning
when the day was at its best,
And His Presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.
All day long the Presence lingered,
All day long He stayed with me,
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O'er a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them,
Brought to me a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind,
When I too had loosed the moorings,
With the presence left behind.
So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way:
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day! [1]
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[1] God’s nearness, Esword