Well, we want to thank the Lord for gathering us together here.
I feel that it may be of the Lord that, during this time when we are together, we consider two different aspects of our Christian life: rest and fight.
Now, these are two opposites. Yet you find, in the working of God and in the life of a Christian, that these two things work together to accomplish God’s purpose for us.
On the one hand, we as believers must know what rest is. We are as weaned children, resting in the bosom of our God. Yet, on the other hand, we as believers are the army of the Lord, and we need to fight the good fight of faith.
Now, brothers and sisters, without rest, we cannot fight. Rest gives us strength to fight the fight of faith. And it is only through fighting that we enter into rest. So these are the two aspects of our Christian life, and we need to know both.
We know that our Christian life is patterned after the life of Christ. The way that our Lord Jesus lived while He was on earth is the way that we ought to live.
Now, if you look into the life of our Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh, you will find that there was in Him a Sabbath rest, a rest that never left Him.
Even though He was on earth, He was still in the bosom of His Father. You remember, in John 1, it says:
No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son,
who is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him.
So, even when our Lord Jesus was in the flesh, He came from the Father to this earth; and yet, all the while He was on earth, He was still in the bosom of His Father.
Throughout the life of our Lord Jesus, there was a rest in Him. No matter how turbulent His environment was, nothing could disturb His peace. He was always with His Father, in His Father, and His Father was always in Him.
You remember one day when He was on a little boat with His disciples, crossing the sea, and there was a tempest. The waves were raging. His disciples—some of them fishermen—were afraid because the situation was so bad.
All the while, our Lord Jesus was resting; He was sleeping. They woke Him and said, “Lord, we perish.” And the Lord spoke, and He commanded the wind and the sea to return to calmness.
So, you know, through the life of our Lord Jesus there was a peace, a rest in Him, that nothing could disturb. And this is the kind of rest that we as believers should know.
Yet, at the same time, throughout the life of our Lord Jesus, He was always fighting that good fight of faith. It was a battle for life. He fought against sin in this world, to the point of shedding His own blood. He fought against all the temptations in this world and never compromised. He fought against the evil forces in the heavenlies, and He fought until He gained the victory.
The life of our Lord Jesus was a constant fight—fighting against anything that was against the will of God, and fighting all the time for the will of God. This is the life of our Lord Jesus, and this is the kind of life that He expects us, as His disciples, to live.
Now, this morning we would like to concentrate on rest. Will you please turn to Matthew 11? We will read verses 28 through 30.
These are the words of our Lord Jesus:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.—Matthew 11:28-30
Then please turn to Hebrews 4. We will read the first thirteen verses.
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into His rest,
any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they:
but the word of hearing did not profit them,
because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard.For we who have believed do enter into that rest;
even as He hath said,
As I sware in My wrath,
They shall not enter into My rest:
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.For He hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise,
And God rested on the seventh day from all His works;
and in this place again,
They shall not enter into My rest.Seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto,
and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,
He again defineth a certain day, Today, saying in David so long a time afterward
(even as hath been said before),
Today if ye shall hear His voice,
Harden not your hearts.For if Joshua had given them rest,
He would not have spoken afterward of another day.
There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
For he that is entered into His rest
hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest,
that no man fall after the same example of disobedience.For the word of God is living, and active,
and sharper than any two-edged sword,
and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit,
of both joints and marrow,
and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight:
but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.—Hebrews 4:1-13
Let us commit His word to the Lord.
Dear Lord, we have just read Thy word, and now we look to Thy Holy Spirit to bring Thy word to life to us. Lord, Thy words are life and spirit, and may it be done this morning to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In Matthew 11, we find that there is a call to rest. The Lord said, “Come unto Me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Now, this presupposes that there is no rest in this world. This world, and our hearts, are like the raging waves of the sea, “foaming out their own shame,” as Jude 13 says. How true it is that human hearts are like raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. There is no rest.
People everywhere are looking for rest, for peace; but there is no peace.
I remember many years ago, back in the interior of China, I was crossing the mountains from Yunnan, through Guizhou, to Sichuan. We were riding on a bus, and even riding on a bus was very hard, very tiring, very wearisome.
But when we were climbing these high mountains, we noticed people climbing them with very high baskets on their backs, filled with salt bricks. They were carrying these salt bricks from Yunnan, crossing Guizhou, all the way into the interior.
In the early morning, people had to help them put these baskets upon their shoulders. They could not take them down during the day. When they were really tired, we saw them standing there, putting a rod under the burden, and just standing there to rest. They could not take off their burden until evening.
They did this day after day. When they arrived and sold the salt bricks, they had already eaten up all that they had earned. Then they had to go back and do it again. That is life.
So, when I looked out of the window of the bus and saw these people, it came to my mind: that is life on this earth. How hard it is.
But is this the original idea of God for mankind? Certainly not.
We find that when God created man, He created man on the sixth day. Then, on the seventh day, God looked at all that He had created, and it was very good. How could anything come out from the hand of God and not be good—indeed, not be very good?
So God rested on the seventh day. Now remember, man was created on the sixth day, probably toward the afternoon or evening, because man was the last creation. The next day was Sabbath.
In other words, the first day that man lived on earth was a day of rest. Is not God trying to tell man that His intention for mankind is that they may rest?
Now, brothers and sisters, do not take it wrongly, thinking that rest is doing nothing. No. When God created man, God put man to work. God said, “You till the ground, you guard the garden, and you have dominion over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fishes of the sea.”
God did put man to work. It is good for man to work. But work at that time was not hard labor; it was a pleasure.
You work that you may fulfill the will of God, and that is the highest honor, the greatest pleasure, in this world. So, in the beginning, man did work, but it was not laboring hard and being heavily burdened. It was a delight; it was a pleasure that man could work to fulfill God’s purpose.
It was not until man sinned against God. I believe you all remember the story: Adam and Eve, our forefathers, rebelled against God’s command and took the forbidden fruit. Because of sin, the curse came upon this world.
Women bore children in pain and travail. Man had to work to make a living with the sweat of his brow, because the earth was cursed. So, brothers and sisters, remember: life becomes so hard today because there is sin in this world.
People are laboring under heavy burdens, and they labor for vanity. For the end is death: dust returns to dust. Yet there is lust within man, desiring more and never being satisfied. It is vanity—all is vanity.
The wisest of men, King Solomon, wrote a book called Ecclesiastes. He said he had experienced everything that man was able to experience, because he was king. He was the wisest of men, and he was the richest. He could do anything.
He said, “I want to do everything according to my desire, to satisfy myself.” He built gardens, had many servants, many maids, many concubines, many wives, singing men, singing women, power—everything. Yet he looked at all these things and said, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” What for?
That is life: labor and heavy burdens, with no rest. But worse than that, because of sin, we are under the yoke of sin.
Many things we know we should not do, we do. Many things we know we should do, we cannot do; we do not have the strength to do them. Because of this, our conscience accuses us. We live under a bad conscience, a guilty feeling.
We try to bribe our conscience. We try to do some good things to compensate for the bad things that we have done. Yet there is no rest; there is no peace in our hearts. That is the world.
Who can give us rest? Where is rest?
In this world, there is only one Man—and He is more than man. He is God, who came to be a Man. He is the only One who is able to cry to the multitudes and say, “Come to Me, and I will give you rest.”
Many people may be able to give you some help. Some people may give you wealth or position. But is there anyone who can say to you, “Come to me. I will give you rest”? In this whole world, there is only one Person: our Lord Jesus. He is the One who can give us rest.
Why? Because He came into this evil world. He took upon Himself our sins. He bore our sins in His body on the cross. He paid the penalty of the wages of sin, which is death.
Because of the shedding of His blood, His blood can cleanse our conscience from an evil conscience. When we come to the Lord Jesus, He gives us rest—a rest that no one can take away.
I can vividly remember when I was fourteen years old. Before that, I always felt, as a student, that I was better than most people.
What can we students do? We are not yet in society. We are studying in a good environment; we are pure. So I always felt that I was better than most people. I was brought up in a Christian family. I heard the gospel when I was a child. I knew the Bible. I even prayed. I went to church.
But I felt, “Well, Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world—the world. But I am too good. I do not need Him.”
Not until I was fourteen years old, because of certain circumstances, for a whole year—even though nobody was speaking to me—a sense of my sinfulness came upon me. Nobody pointed a finger at me, and yet somehow the Holy Spirit convicted me that I was a great sinner.
From the top of my head to the sole of my feet, there was nothing good. Even though, as a student in school, I could not commit the hideous crimes found in society, the Lord convicted me. I was under that guilty conscience for a whole year.
I sensed my sinfulness. When I was alone, I wept. When I saw coffins passing by, I trembled. If I should die, how could I meet my Maker? I had wasted His gifts and His grace. I had sinned against Him.
That burden was so heavy upon me that I could not bear it. But one day, in 1930—I can remember vividly—I went to a conference with a desire to be saved.
And thank God, one afternoon He met me. When I confessed my sin before Him and simply trusted Him as my Savior, suddenly that burden rolled away. I got up—I could fly. There was such peace within my heart, a peace that I had never experienced before. Rest.
Now, I believe, brothers and sisters, that you who have believed in the Lord Jesus have all experienced this. When you come heavy laden, you come to the Lord, and that burden rolls away. There is peace in your spirit.
Even after so many years, that peace is still there. The world simply cannot take that peace away. The Lord said, “I will give you rest.”
Now, if there is anyone here who has not yet experienced that rest, I pray to God that you will come, as He commands you: “Come to Me.” Just come to the Lord—not come to Christianity; come to Christ Jesus—because He is the only One who can give you rest.
Without exception, you will have this rest if you simply come to Him. This is the gospel to the world.
But this morning I am speaking to you believers. Here our Lord Jesus continues by saying:
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.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.—Matthew 11:29-30
Now, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, peace comes into our hearts. We think that, because of this, all our problems are solved. And it is true, especially in the beginning of your Christian life.
When you first believe in the Lord Jesus, when that peace first comes into your heart, during those days nothing can disturb you—not even yourself. You are in that first love with the Lord. Your eyes are upon Him, and you really live by Him.
You are in the third heaven. Everything is underneath you. You may think, “Now everything is solved.”
But strangely, after a while, you make a discovery. Even though that peace, that rest, is still there in you, somehow you find a restlessness beginning to come forth. Why?
Because the Lord said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And He did. He did give you rest. But it is a rest in your spirit.
Deep down in your spirit, there is a rest that nothing can disturb. How can I describe it? It is like the bottom of the sea. There is peace there, a calmness. But perhaps on the surface the waters are raging. No matter how raging the waves may be on the surface, there is calmness below.
That probably describes some of our experiences. Deep down in our spirit, that rest is always there; but somehow we feel that on the surface there is raging again.
Put it this way: the Lord said, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” In other words, in your spirit there is already rest. You know there is peace with God. Yet in your soul, you find that there is not yet rest.
Now, let me explain: what is the soul? The soul is the seat of your personality.
The soul has the faculties of thinking—your mind; of feeling—your emotion; and of willing, determining, and choosing—your will. In other words, our soul is where our personality is. It is our will, our emotion, and our mind. In other words, it is you.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved, salvation comes to our spirit. The Bible says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” That is regeneration.
When you are saved, your dead spirit, which had been out of touch with the living God, is brought back to life and made new. Immediately, your communication with God is resumed, and you can cry out to God as Father. That is regeneration—being born again. It happens in your spirit, and that rest also comes into your spirit.
But we have to remember: it does not mean that because you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are completely changed. No. Your spirit is renewed into new life, but your soul and your body remain the same. You are still what you are.
For instance, after you believe in the Lord Jesus, does your body change completely? Well, if it did, nobody would recognize you anymore. You still have the same features, right? There is some change, of course. Before you believed in the Lord Jesus, perhaps you had a long face; after you believe, your face gets rounder because you are joyful. But that is superficial.
We still have this mortal body with us, right? This mortal body is always very cumbersome. Until one day, when your body is transformed into a spiritual body, then it will be completely changed. That will come when the Lord comes back; it is still in the future. So we still groan in this mortal body.
Now, how about our soul when we believe in the Lord Jesus? Yes, the Lord comes into you. There is Someone whom you did not have before.
Before that, you had only yourself: me, I—that was all you had, and that was your life. “It is my will. I want to do it. I like it. I feel it is good. I feel it is bad. That is the way I think and consider.” Me, I—that was all you had.
But now Christ has come into your life. He is there in your spirit. Yet it does not mean that you have been displaced yet. You are still very strong.
In your first love, you are subdued. Self does not come out; it is all Christ. But after a while, that old man begins to raise his head and challenge the spirit, challenge Christ. When that happens, restlessness comes.
Our soul is like the raging waves of the sea. It never stops. Your mind never stops; even when you are sleeping, you dream. Your feelings are always changing. Even your will may will this today and will that tomorrow.
Brothers and sisters, when we begin to lose our first love with the Lord, our self-life begins to raise its head again. You find that you want this and you want that. You think this is best for you. You feel it that way. Because self begins to rise up within you, there is no rest in your soul.
As a Christian, you know you should please God and do God’s will. Yet somehow you find it so difficult to do God’s will. You come to the point of feeling as if God’s will is always opposite to your will. Whatever hurts you must be God’s will.
And you struggle, you struggle. During that period, our life is just like the apostle Paul described it. He said:
For not what I would, that do I practice;
but what I hate, that I do.—Romans 7:15
“I know the will of God. I want to please Him, but I cannot. Why? Because there is someone in me saying, ‘Do the other way.’” So eventually he cried:
O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?—Romans 7:24
Now, is that not true of Christians? Not unbelievers—Christians are going through a period when they find there is no rest to their souls.
The world seems to come to you with power: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These things begin to come upon you with such force that, even though deep down within you know you should resist them, on the other hand you seem to like to go after them. Apparently, there is no rest in your soul.
Our soul needs to be saved, and the salvation of the soul is today. Our soul needs to be saved from self to Christ. Christ must reign not only in our spirit, but even in our soul.
That is the reason why our Lord Jesus said, “Take My yoke.” That is the secret.
Now, what is a yoke? When a farmer is plowing, he puts a yoke—a piece of wood—on the neck or shoulders of an animal to till the ground. The yoke is upon an ox or horse, and it is connected with a plow. The farmer holds the plow and plows the field.
But an ox that is not trained will go its own way. That is why, in the other hand of the farmer, there is a goad, a sharp instrument. He touches the leg of the ox to make it feel a little pain, so that it may learn to obey the farmer and till the ground in a straight way.
If that ox is trained, then you find that it obeys the master, and willingly and joyfully it tills the ground in a straight way. Now, that is a yoke.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were all under a yoke. You may think you are a free person, but you are not free. You are not born free. You are born under a yoke: the yoke of sin.
Sin reigns over you. That is why you cannot do what you want to do, and you must do what you do not want to do—until one day you want to do what sin wants you to do, and you have pleasure in it: the pleasure of sin, but it is unto death.
Now, our Lord Jesus was never under the yoke of sin. A yoke had never come upon Him. In Numbers 19, you find a red heifer upon which a yoke had never come. That red heifer was offered, and its ashes were used for the cleansing of the children of Israel. That red heifer is a type of Christ. He was never under the yoke of sin.
Yet you find that there was a yoke upon our Lord Jesus while He was on earth. So He said, “Take My yoke upon you.” He did have a yoke. What was His yoke? It was not the yoke of sin; it was the yoke of the Father’s will.
But He took it upon Himself voluntarily. An animal under a yoke is not there voluntarily; the yoke is put upon it. That is how we were born into the yoke of sin. We had no choice. The yoke was upon us.
But thank God, He took our yoke away and set us free. When our Lord Jesus came into this world, He purposely and voluntarily took the yoke of His Father’s will upon Himself. He willingly submitted Himself under that yoke.
You remember Psalm 40. It is prophesied of our Lord Jesus:
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in;
Mine ears hast Thou opened:
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is written of Me:
I delight to do Thy will, O my God;
Yea, Thy law is within My heart.—Psalm 40:6-8
The fulfillment of this is found in the life of our Lord Jesus, as Hebrews 10 shows us. During the days of our Lord on earth, He voluntarily put Himself under the yoke of His Father’s will. He came to do the Father’s will.
Never once did He rebel against His Father. He put Himself under His Father’s yoke willingly, voluntarily, and without murmuring.
The Bible says that even though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience through the things which He suffered, that He might become the Author of eternal salvation. In other words, He opened a way for us to enter into His rest.
The Lord said, “Come and take My yoke upon you.” Now, brothers and sisters, remember: it is a voluntary action. It is an act of our will.
If you want to find rest for your soul, you have to exercise your will. As you are constrained by the love of Christ, you must willingly take that yoke upon yourself.
It is a double yoke. When a farmer plows, he sometimes uses two oxen or two horses—a double yoke, one on one side and one on the other side.
The Lord Jesus says, “Here is this double yoke. I am on one side. Now you, by your own free will, constrained by My love, are to take up My yoke.” In other words, make My yoke your yoke. Make the will of God your will. Choose to live your life for the will of God, and voluntarily put your neck under that yoke.
Why should it be a double yoke? This is the way a farmer works. Suppose you have a tame horse that is already broken in; it will follow your direction. Then you bring in a new horse, one that is not trained or broken in—perhaps a wild ox.
When you yoke them together, the broken one follows the will of the master faithfully, going straight. But the unbroken, wild one has its own will. It may see something good on the other side and want to pull that way, but it cannot because it is under a double yoke.
When it tries to pull to the other side, it finds that the tame one is so strong that it pulls it back. Gradually, the wild one learns from the tame one.
So the Lord says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” You know how I live; now learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.
First, there is the will yielded; then there is the heart—lowly and meek. Brothers and sisters, if we are willing to take the Lord’s yoke upon us, we will begin to learn.
The reason why many believers never learn is because they are not yoked with Christ. If you are yoked with Christ, you will learn, because He is stronger than you are. You may want to go your own way, but you cannot. If you are not yoked with Him, you can go your own way. But if you are yoked with Him, you cannot; you will be pulled back to the will of God.
Gradually, your heart is softened—meek and lowly. Meekness means that your self-life is being dealt with. “I want this. I want that. This is what I desire to do.” Yet you find that you cannot.
Until one day you lay down yourself. That is meekness. Lowliness is humility before God. The pride of life is gone.
Brothers and sisters, it is only when you are broken that you find rest for your soul. Is it not true that when you are fighting against God’s will, there is never rest in your soul?
But when you begin to yield to the will of God, even though it is difficult, you may weep and cry, yet there is rest. In your soul, you find it.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the purpose of life? Why did the Lord save us?
That we may do God’s will—not my will, but Thy will be done. That is the purpose of life.
Why is it that you have no rest in your soul? Because you want your own will. When you begin to want God’s will, and nothing but God’s will, there is rest in your soul. You will find it.
The rest in your soul is something you have to find. It is not simply given; it is not automatic. You have to go and find it. And where can you find it? You find it in Christ.
Then you discover that, really, the yoke is easy and the burden is light. When you fight against it, it becomes very heavy. When you yield to it, it is very easy.
So there is a gospel to believers. Are you restless? Take the yoke of our Lord Jesus upon you. Be double-yoked with Him, and you will learn of Him, and you will find rest.
Now we come to Hebrews. In Hebrews 4, we find that there is a promise left of entering into His rest. God has promised us a rest.
It is called His rest. In other words, God’s rest is to be our rest. Hebrews uses Old Testament examples.
In Genesis 1, we find that God used six days to create this universe and make it habitable. Then, on the sixth day, He created man. We have already mentioned this.
In Genesis 2:1-2, you find that God looked at all that He had created, and it was very good. God rested on the seventh day. It was called Sabbath rest. God rested.
God rested because His work was done. You cannot rest if the work is unfinished, but when the work is done, then you rest. So, when God’s work of creation was done, He rested. He blessed that day and blessed it to mankind, that we might enter into His rest and rest with Him.
But unfortunately, as we have already mentioned, man sinned. The rest was gone.
Then the Lord began to work to redeem a people out of Egypt: the children of Israel. He redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them to Himself.
Then, in Exodus 20, He gave them the Ten Commandments. One of them, the fourth commandment, was: “Keep the Sabbath.”
God gave His rest to His redeemed people. He said, “Keep the Sabbath. Do not do any work on the Sabbath. You rest. You rest in My rest.” This became a sign of God’s covenant with the children of Israel.
Symbolically, God gave the Sabbath to the children of Israel as a sign of His covenant with them, that on that day they might rest from all works.
But unfortunately, they broke the Sabbath. They did not keep the Sabbath. If you read the Old Testament, you find that one of the controversies between God and His chosen people was over this matter of the Sabbath: “Why do you not keep My Sabbath?”
We might say, “Why does God make it such a big thing? If I make a fire or do something, what is the big thing to God?” But it was a big thing with the children of Israel, because anyone who did not keep the Sabbath was cut off from the commonwealth of Israel.
They broke the Sabbath because they did not enter into God’s rest. God gave them rest, but they still wanted to work. They did not want to rest.
Now, that is symbolic. Typically, when the children of Israel entered into Canaan, Canaan was their rest. They were in Egypt as slaves, and there was no rest. God delivered them, but they went through the wilderness. In the wilderness, for forty years, there was no rest.
When Joshua led them into Canaan, that was supposed to be their entering into rest. But the Bible says they did not rest. Why? Because they could not overcome their enemies.
It was not because God did not give the enemies into their hands, but because they did not obey God. They began to worship idols. Therefore, they never really entered into rest.
After hundreds of years, God, through David in Psalm 95, mentioned another day:
Today, if ye shall hear His voice,
Harden not your hearts.—Psalm 95:7-8
They did not enter in. But thank God, we are God’s spiritual people. The children of Israel are God’s physical, earthly people; therefore, God’s promises to them were earthly and physical. But to us, they are spiritual.
As the spiritual children of God through Christ Jesus, we are promised a Sabbath rest—a rest.
Today, we find our rest in Christ. Some people say, “Why do you not keep the Sabbath?” We say, “Every day to us is a Sabbath.” Why? Because Christ is our Sabbath. In Him we have found our rest. It is every day and every hour.
The Bible says that the children of Israel had the good tidings. God gave them the good news that they could enter into His rest, but they did not enter in. Why? Because they did not believe the word of God. They did not mix faith with God’s word.
Today it is the same thing. Christ is our Sabbath rest. In Christ, we shall find our rest. But why is it that we do not find rest for our souls? It is because we do not believe.
We still want to work out our own salvation by ourselves. So Hebrews 4:10 says:
For he that is entered into His rest
hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.—Hebrews 4:10
As long as we are struggling and striving, we are working; we do not have rest. When we enter into this rest, we rest from our works. How can we rest from our works? It is because we believe in the finished work of Christ. In other words, the work is already done.
Whether you believe in your own working or whether you believe in the finished work of Christ makes all the difference. If you can believe in the finished work of Christ and mix your faith with the word of God, you find rest.
So Hebrews says that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating and dividing soul and spirit.
The reason why you have no rest is because your soul and your spirit are not divided. Or, put another way, your soul is challenging your spirit. You need to have your spirit and soul divided, and put your soul under your spirit. Then you will find rest for your soul.
The picture is that of a sacrifice. In Old Testament times, you took a lamb or a bullock and sacrificed it to the Lord.
In a burnt offering, when you sacrificed to the Lord, that sacrifice had to be cut into pieces. In other words, every part of the sacrifice had to be exposed.
But after you cut it into pieces, you had to put the pieces back together before you burned them upon the altar. That was the way the sacrifice was offered.
The priests were so trained, and they used such sharp knives, that they could cut the sacrifice into pieces so neatly that the pieces could be put back together. Now, if you asked me to cut a chicken, you would never be able to put it back together. It would be a mess.
What is the Lord trying to tell us? You are a sacrifice. All you need to do is to lie on the altar. That is all you need to do.
Do not try to cut yourself. You will make a mess of yourself. The two-edged sword is the word of God.
Now, brothers and sisters, sometimes we use the word of God to cut our brothers and sisters. Oftentimes we make a mess of their lives. Do not do that.
Sometimes we try to use the word of God to cut ourselves. It is the same problem. Do not do it. The sword—the word of God—is the sword of the Spirit. It is not your sword; it is not my sword.
Christians today misunderstand this so much. We think the word of God is our sword: “I will cut you down,” and you cut me down, and we call it all biblical. Then we make a mess of everybody.
The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit is qualified to use the word of God. Never use the word of God by yourself.
You are a sacrifice. Voluntarily come and lie on the altar. Say, “Lord, I am here. Do whatever You see to be necessary.”
The Holy Spirit, as the Priest, will take the living word of God, and He will begin to cut. He will divide your soul and spirit.
You do not know what comes from your soul and what comes from the spirit. Sometimes we think that we are speaking out of our spirit, but actually it is out of our soul. We do not know; we never know.
If you try to figure it out, you will be paralyzed. Many Christians are paralyzed—good Christians, nervous Christians.
I can use the example of a centipede. A centipede has a hundred feet, and it crawls very fast. One day the centipede said, “I do not know which of my feet moves first.” So it tried to figure it out, and in figuring it out, it could not move anymore, because it did not know which foot moved first.
After it stayed still for a while, it said, “Oh, I give up,” and off it went. Many Christians are like that—good Christians. We begin to think, “Well, what is of the spirit, and what is of the soul? Is it of the Spirit, or is it of my own faculties?” We try to figure it out, and we are paralyzed.
Now, do not do that. It is the word of God, by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit begins to use the word of God to touch you, it penetrates; it divides. You begin to see what is of the soul.
Then you are willing to yield yourself to the Lord, to His word. This word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. In other words, what your soul really is becomes exposed before you.
When it is exposed, you are willing to let it go—to go to the death of the cross. By doing so, you enter into rest.
So, brothers and sisters, there is a rest promised to you. All you need to do is to lie on the altar. That is just like taking the yoke upon you.
Then learn of Him. The Holy Spirit, in your daily life, will use His word to apply it to your soul and divide your soul from your spirit. In that way, you will find rest for your soul.
This is the gospel to believers. Brothers and sisters, thank God: what He offers to the world—that rest—is real; and what He promises to us, that rest for the soul, is also real. You may have it.
But remember: you need to yield your will to His will. The cross will work in your life and bring you into His rest. You cease from your own works because you accept the finished work of Christ.
Dear Lord, we do trust Thy Holy Spirit to quicken Thy word to each of our hearts. We do acknowledge that it is not by might, nor by power, but by Thy Spirit, that anything is done.
So we just again bring Thy word back to Thyself, and bring ourselves to Thee, and ask that Thy Holy Spirit will make all that we have heard this morning Thy word, living and active. And to Thee be the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus.