Hebrews 4

The point here is not rest merely, but "His rest," that is, God's rest. The prominent thought of God from the beginning was to have rest. As soon as everything was made, and he saw that it was very good He rested. The Sabbath was the sign of it; and in the time that is coming, it is said " He will rest in his love." The great desire of man, too, is rest; it is man's ideal; it is God's reality. The question for each of us is, are we looking for a rest before God's rest? There is rest of conscience for us: " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; " but it is not that. Neither is it rest of soul: " 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." It is the day when everything will be according to the mind of God when everything will be in unbroken rest gathered round Himself; his rest. Is that the rest we are looking for?
Israel got discouraged; they would not go on; they saw the cities walled up to heaven. And people now will not go on; they say the thing is impracticable. But as Israel turned back in heart first-" they fell a lusting "-so it is always. You first begin to think of the things that suit yourself, and then you refuse the things that suit God. Therefore it becomes a testing question to everyone whether it be God's rest he is looking for, or whether it be any rest in time. What is the desire of every man, from the politician in parliament down to the lowest and the poorest? He is looking for the day when he can lay down his cares and cease from toil, rest on his laurels, spend a happy old age in the bosom of his family, have a bright sunset in some little spot he has retired to. People look to connect themselves with earth in some way or other. Is that your thought? No! I expect no rest on earth. I have rest for my conscience and rest for my soul, but, as for my body, it is only " Come ye apart and rest awhile;" which is as much as to say, you must be working again presently. I am just going through the six week-days now; and I am going on to God's Sunday. Are you waiting for God's Sunday? Are you looking for no rest till it come? Do you expect nothing but toil on, toil on, now? If I engage a man to work for me six days, and I see him loitering on a Thursday, I say he is not an honest man. There is " time for meals " as it were; time to rest and work again; but you must not " seem to come short " of God's rest. Work, work, work, is the whole character of the thing. What is before my mind is God's rest; that is the only Sunday for me. It is not works for salvation; it is just anything that I may have to do. A man that is working for salvation is still in Egypt. It is thus I would meet a Wesleyan with his thoughts as to work.
God's thought, as I have said, always was to have a rest: first there was the Sabbath, which was broken; then there was the rest offered by Joshua, but which he could not give them; and then David spoke of a rest. But we shall never find our resting place until we get into God's rest; and that rest is not on earth; it is in heaven. If you had asked the apostle Paul how he expected to spend the evening of his days, he would have answered, I expect to be martyred. That is how he speaks in Philippians.
I leave it to every man's conscience what his work is; it is whatever the Lord would have you do; all I say is, it is work now and not rest. There must be duty. If it be your duty to go to the stake, go. I dare not dictate to anyone what he ought to do. I am dependent; I am longing for the word to show me what I am to do; and the moment I obey it I am all right. Saul of Tarsus says, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The greatest thing I deplore in the present day is the aimlessness, uselessness, want of any definite occupation of nearly everyone I meet. I believe everyone has a mission; I cannot tell others what theirs is; I might make a great mistake if I tried to. Still I can say to a woman with a family, there is no doubt about yours; but I add that the banks are not the river, though they determine the river. And just as the banks of the river are the greenest, sweetest spots, so it is at home, with those who are nearest to you, that you are to show forth most practically and perfectly your mission. Moses set to work forty years too soon with his mission. His was muscular Christianity. Afterward He was sent by God to do the work; but he had to beware of his muscularity to the end: it was that which prevented his going into the land.
At the end of the chapter, I get two helps for the way: one the word of God, the other the intercession of Christ.
Suppose you were in a large forest, in the midst of which you saw a hundred roads, one of which only led to heaven; all the others leading off different ways; a road of pleasure, a road of eminence, and so on. You say, I thought I might go up this road of pleasure a little bit. No, you must take only the one road. I am not only protected by the word, but I am also directed by it. This is its double action. It protects me from going in a way in which I might be drawn aside from its direction; and then, being in the road, it directs me. And in the road I got the company of Christ; He says to me: I have been all along it, and I can give you my sympathy in it. The One who is passed through the heavens, is the One who is sympathizing with me all along the way-I, a poor weak thing, always wanting to turn up one or another of those ninety-nine roads. And the more alive I am to the enjoyment of things here as a natural man, the more temptation and attraction there is to me. Well then, as I refuse to go up any of these other roads, the more I have Christ's sympathy with me as I tread His path. Christ does not sympathize with a person who is in a wrong path. There are two actions in the word of God: it corrects, and it directs. The Lord corrects Martha and directs Mary. A father would say to his child, If you walk in the mud I cannot walk with you; you must come out of it if you wish to be with me. You may feel your feebleness, your inability to stand all the difficulties of the way; but the Lord says, I will keep you company; I have been through it all before you, and I have never touched sin. If He had ever touched it He could not have lifted me out of it.
If you do not get heaven you lose all the blessings of Christianity; for if you want a priest, where is He? "Passed into the heavens; " through the heavens it really is. The " profession " we are to " hold fast " is this actually going on to heaven. It is that you are a heavenly man. It is a positive declaration; and it has become applicable to us because we have got involved in Judaism. It was creditable to them to be Jewish converts; it has never been a bit creditable to us; but we, having been brought up in it, the thing is for us to get clear of it. If you have not got hold of the heavenly profession, you have not got hold of Christianity at all. Christendom generally is looking for something to meet its condition on earth.
Then he says: " Let us come boldly to the throne of grace." People sometimes say when wishing to pray, " Let us come to the throne of grace." In answer to such an invitation I can only say, I hope we have not left it. I could say, " Let us come and use the throne of grace." We can come as poor feeble creatures and use it. The same in chapter 10: " Let us draw near; " we have no right to be out of the position of nearness. And to those who talk of fears of losing it, I answer, first get there before you talk of losing it. Most of those who talk of fearing to lose the holiest have never been there yet.
However, Hebrews does not put us within; it only gives us the right to go in; it is that I have got a title to be there. Just as Jonathan: he was not at the king's table; his place was empty; but it was his place as much as if he had been in it. We have a footing in heaven, and we have not to get it a second time. Have you ever known it?-ever felt what it was to be in the presence of God without a spot? He says to the Jewish converts, you have lost the old footing, and now you are on a new one, and if you have not got it, you have got nothing at all of Christianity.