Hebrews 4:3

THE PROMISED REST

‘We which have believed do enter into rest.’

Hebrews 4:3

How shall we describe the manifold features that characterise this union with the God of rest?

I. The rest of the yielded will.—It is almost a commonplace to say it. But it needs constant saying, for in the neglect of this submission of the will lies the true reason of all the world’s unrest. To say from the heart ‘Not my will but thine be done’ is to cover all our case.

II. The rest of a satisfied affection.—It is one of the saddest features of the day that even men who come to God for salvation will go somewhere else for pleasure. This love of pleasure is the curse of the hour. It infects the Church and dominates the world. The only way to remedy it is to show men that true satisfaction is in Christ.

III. The rest of harmonious action.—The rest of union with Him is the secret of the believer’s usefulness and power. When the Great Worker takes up His abode within, then heart friction ceases, worry is soothed away, labour itself is restful, and we can work and rest and rest and work, perhaps even to the end.

IV. The rest of an eternal Sabbath in heaven.—‘What,’ asked a friend of William Wilberforce, ‘is your idea of heaven?’ He answered, ‘Love.’ ‘And what,’ said the questioner, turning to Robert Hall, always a sufferer, ‘is yours?’ ‘Mine,’ he answered, ‘is rest.’ Both were right, for ‘There,’ as Augustine says, ‘we shall rest and gaze, we shall gaze and love, we shall love and praise.’

—Rev. E. W. Moore.