Faith is not our Saviour.

It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us.

It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins.

Faith is one thing — the Saviour is another.

Faith is one thing — and the cross is another.

Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man — that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

Horatius Bonar

“Enter Into Rest”          

Hebrews 4:3

     The inspired writer declares that “we which have believed do enter into rest.” Believers enter into a blessed fourfold rest by faith in Christ.

     WE REST OUR SOULS UPON THE EFFICACY OF CHRIST’S BLOOD ATONEMENT (Rom. 8:1, 34; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7). The shed blood of Christ, the sinner’s Substitute, gives us rest from the guilt of sin and the fear of God’s wrath. Nothing can be in two places at one time. If God has laid my sin upon Christ, it can never be laid upon me.Justice will not allow the same crime to be twice punished. If the Lord God punished my sins to the full satisfaction of his justice in Christ, my Substitute, he cannot impute sin to me and punish me for it.

     WE REST ALSO UPON THE INFINITE, UNFAILING SUFFICIENCY OF GOD’S SAVING GRACE (II Cor.12:9; John 10:27-23; Phil. 1:6). The grace of God by which we have been saved is sufficient to overcome our inbred sins and corruptions, sufficient to preserve us in the midst of many and great temptations, sufficient to sustain us in trials, sufficient to restore us though we fall seven times a day, and sufficient to keep us unto the end.

     WE REST OUR LIVES UPON THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE (Isa. 45:7; Rom. 8:28; II Cor. 5:18). We find rest, not by arranging the affairs of our lives, but by leaving the arrangement of our affairs to our heavenly Father who is too wise to err, too strong to fail, too good to do wrong, and too gracious to hurt his children.

     WE REST UPON THE INFALLIBILITY OF GOD’S WORD AND THE PROMISES OF IT (Isa. 40:8). Because the Bible is the Word of God, it is infallible. Because it is infallible, its promises are all sure. Three things are promised in the Book of God to every believer which give us rest as we apprehend them by faith: (1) The Non-Imputation of Sin (Rom. 4:8), (2) The Resurrection of the Body (I Thess. 4:13-18), and (3) The Glory of Eternal Bliss in Heaven (John 14:1-3).

     THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO MUST ENTER INTO THE REST OF GOD’S EVERLASTING SALVATION IN CHRIST (Heb. 4:6). All who were chosen to it must possess it. All for whom it was purchased must enter into it. All who have been called to it by God must obtain it. That means that all who trust Christ must enter into his rest. You cannot trust him and perish!

Don Fortner

LABOR TO REST

Hebrews 4:11

Self-righteousness is the horrid inclination of our proud flesh. We all want to be saved by something we do. Most all religious people talk about grace, and love to sing, “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” But no sinner will naturally give up his own righteousness and trust Christ alone for salvation.

STRIVE TO ENTER

If we would rest in Christ alone and be saved by the grace of God that is in him, “we must lay aside the sin (self-righteousness) which doth so easily beset us.” We must strive to enter in at the strait gate, because we all want to walk in the broad way.

If we would be saved, we must labor to quit working. We must labor to enter into that great, eternal rest of glory with Christ in heaven. “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.”

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” There is a great, eternal sabbath to be obtained. In heaven’s glory we will enjoy an eternal remembrance of redemption, an endless, perfect consecration to Christ, and everlasting rest. This is the hope set before us.

SOME MUST ENTER

Some have already entered into that rest. “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” I have already shown you how this applies to Christ. But the text applies to Christ’s people, too. It speaks of the rest into which God’s elect enter by faith here, and in heavenly glory hereafter.

Many could not enter in because of unbelief. Those who have entered in have ceased from their own works. They have quit trusting in themselves. They have quit trying to do something to win God’s favour. There are some who “must enter therein.” There is a great multitude, chosen in eternity and redeemed at Calvary, who must and shall enter into this rest.

REST OR DEATH

“Let us therefore labor (strive) to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief!” This is what Paul speaks of in Philippians 3:7-14. The penalty for not keeping the sabbath is still death. We will either rest in Christ or die under the wrath of God (John 3:36).

Don Fortner

Our Everlasting Song!
The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
“CHRIST—PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS”

In Christ’s Soul there was an exceeding heaviness even unto
death, and an agony which no tongue can tell, for we have
found no words in which to speak of it.
We believe that this agony was commensurate with the agonies
of the lost in hell- not the same agony, but an equivalent for
it; and remember, not the equivalent for the agony of one,
but an Equivalent for the Hells of All That Innumerable Host
Whose Sins He Bore, Condensed into One Black Draught to Be
Drained in A Few Hours.
The miseries of an eternity without an end, miseries caused by
a God infinitely angry because of an awful rebellion, and these
miseries multiplied by the millions for whom the man Christ Jesus
stood as covenant head.
What a draught was that, men and brethren!
Well might it stagger even him!

And yet he drained that cup, drained it to
its utmost dregs not a drop was left.
For you, my soul, no flames of hell; for Christ
the Paschal-lamb has been roasted in that fire!
For you, my soul, no torments of the damned,
for Christ has been condemned in your stead!
For you, my spirit, no desertion of your God,
for He was forsaken of God for you!
It is done, it is finished, and by your sufferings, Jesus,
you have become perfect as the expiation of your people’s sins.

Do, my brethren, remember that your sins are perfectly expiated.
Do not let them trouble you as to punishment; the punishment is gone.
Sins cannot lie in two places at one time- they were put on Christ,
and they cannot be on you. In fact, your sins are not to be found-
the scapegoat has gone, and your sins will never be found again.
Your sins, if they were searched for, could not be discovered. Not
even by the piercing eye of God can a single blemish be found in you!

Oh! how we will sing, how we will chant his praise when we get
to heaven! This shall be the highest note- that we owe ALL to
that bright one, that Lamb in the midst of the throne.
We will tell it over, and over, and over again, and find it an
inexhaustible theme for melodious joy and song that He became man,
that He sweat great drops of blood, that He died, that He rose again.

While the angels are singing “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!” we will bid them stop the song a moment, while we say,
“He whom you thus adore was once covered with bloody sweat.”
As we cast our crowns at his feet, we will say, “And He was once
despised and rejected of men.” Lifting up our eyes and saluting Him
as God over all, blessed for ever, we will remember the reed, the
sponge, the vinegar, and the nails; and as we come to Him and have
fellowship with him, and He shall lead us beside the living fountains
of water, we will remember the black brook of Kedron of which he drank,
and the awful depths of the grave into which He descended.

Amid all the splendours of heaven, we shall never forget His agony,
and misery. And  when we sing the loudest sonnets of God’s love,
and power, and grace, we will sing this after all, and before all,
and above all- that Jesus the Son of God died for US, and this
shall be Our Everlasting Song —
“He loved us and gave himself for us, and we have washed
our robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!”

You will find no bottom!

(“Every Day!” Author unknown, 1872)

“He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities.
 The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Dwell, my soul, with wonder and adoration on the glorious grace of your great Substitute. Perfectly pure and innocent-He took the place of the guilty, and paid the penalty of the broken law! To redeem us from its curse-He was made a curse for us! In the foresight of all He would have to endure as the Substitute of transgressors-He came willingly from the throne of His glory, and “took upon Him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!”

With what clearness is the great truth of the substitution of Christ stated in the Word of God:
“Christ died for the ungodly!”
“He was delivered for our offences.”
“He gave Himself for our sins.”
“He has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.”
“Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree.”

The guilt of all who believe in Christ was imputed to Him-and His perfect obedience is imputed to them. God “made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Dwell, my soul, upon the grace of the precious Saviour. Drop your sounding line into this depth of redeeming love-but you will find no bottom! No! not while you live here, or dwell in the realms of glory-for the love of Christ surpasses knowledge!

“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length and depth and heigh; to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:18-19

The wrath of God due to them fell upon Him!

(J.C.Philpot “Jesus, the Great High Priest”)

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;” 2 Cor. 5:21 

“Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
 unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18

If we would we see, feel, and realise the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, it is not by viewing the lightnings
and hearing the thunders of Sinai’s fiery top—but in
seeing the agony and bloody sweat, and hearing the
groans and cries of the suffering Son of God, as made
sin for us—in the garden and upon the cross.

To look upon Him whom we have pierced will fill heart
and eyes with godly sorrow for sin, and a holy mourning
for and over a martyred, injured Lord. (Zech. 13:10.)

To see, by the eye of faith, as revealed to the soul by the
power of God—the darling Son of God bound, scourged,
buffeted, spit upon, mocked—and then, as the climax of
cruel scorn and infernal cruelty, crucified between two
thieves—this believing sight of the sufferings of Christ,
will melt the hardest heart into contrition and repentance.

But when we see, by the eye of faith, that this was the
smallest part of His sufferings—that there were depths of
soul trouble and of intolerable distress and agony from the
hand of God as a consuming fire, as the inflexible justice
and righteous indignation against sin, and that our blessed
Lord had to endure the wrath of God until He was poured
out like water, and His soft, tender heart in the flames of
indignation became like wax, and melted within Him—then
we can in some measure conceive what He undertook in
becoming a sin offering. For as all the sins of His people
were put upon Him—the wrath of God due to them fell
upon Him!

No less real, and far more severe, were the agonies of His
soul—for the wrath of God in the Redeemer’s heart was
as real as the nails that pierced His hands and feet!

When the sins of the elect were found on Christ, justice
viewed Him and treated Him as the guilty criminal. Separation
from God, under a sense of His terrible displeasure on account
of sin—that abominable thing which His holy soul hates—is not
this hell? This, then, was the hell experienced by the suffering
Redeemer when the Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all.

What heart can conceive or tongue express what must have
been the feelings of the Redeemer’s soul when He, the beloved
Son of God, who who had lain in the bosom of the Father from
all eternity, was by imputation, made a sinner—the deep wounds
of suffering love felt by the Son of God when His Father, His own
Father, hid His face from Him?

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