The Oberlin Evangelist

September 25, 1839

Lecture XVII.

THE REST OF FAITH--No. 2

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.” (Hebrews 3:19, 4:1)

Let me state five points concerning this scripture passage:

1. The rest that they couldn’t enter into had been clearly promised to them.

2. Although no condition was attached to this promise, faith, as a condition, must have been implied; because if they had no confidence in the promise, they would naturally neglect the necessary means to gain possession of the Promised Land.

3. Unbelief made the fulfillment of this promise impossible, because it prevented them from going up and taking possession when they were commanded to do so.

4. In my last message, I showed that the land of Canaan symbolized spiritual rest or the rest of faith.

5. This spiritual rest is clearly promised, and it is said that some must enter into this spiritual rest, yet faith is an indispensable condition to its fulfillment.

These statements prepare the way for discussing the following two propositions:

I. That faith instantly introduces the soul into a state of rest.

II. Unbelief makes the rest of the soul impossible.

I. Faith instantly introduces the soul into a state of rest.

1. We can see this from the nature of faith. Faith is the confidence of our heart in the truth of God. Faith is a peace of mind. It is our mind resting in God. Faith is that state of mind where everything is confidently committed to the wisdom and goodness of God. Faith is either satisfied with what we have right now, and is confident that this is what is best for us and for God’s glory; or it trusts in God to make whatever changes in our circumstances and in what comes our way that will be the best for His glory and our interest.

2. Faith implies such a confidence in God that it eliminates worrying over our own interest for time and eternity. Faith is confident that God knows and is concerned about supplying all our needs. Faith is confident that God is both willing and able to be and do to us, and for us, all that our souls and bodies need. It therefore eliminates worrying about our present or future interests for time and eternity.

3. Faith is that confidence in God’s wisdom and goodness that prefers to have or be denied whatever seems good in His sight. By whatever means, faith desires God to measure out our changes, order our affairs, and arrange everything concerning us. By no means, would faith consent to have any thing that wasn’t according to the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

4. Faith finds all the needs of both our body and soul amply provided for in Christ. It rightly takes a hold of Christ as “our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption”. (1 Cor 1:30) Faith sees the meaning of such expressions as these in the gospel, and quickly grabs a hold of them, and so appropriates them to our own circumstances and needs that we no longer feel troubled about our own destiny. Faith has no more doubt than a person, who stands on solid rock, doubts that it is strong enough to support him. Thus faith, from its own nature, puts anxiety and worry completely out of the question.

II Unbelief renders the rest of our soul impossible.

1. We can see this from the nature of unbelief. Unbelief is not simply the absence of faith. Unbelief is distrust. Our heart refuses to trust in the truth, wisdom, providence, and grace of God. Because of this unbelief, our soul can’t find anything to rest on, not even for a moment. Our soul is never satisfied with its present circumstances because we have no confidence in the wisdom and goodness of Him who appointed those circumstances.

2. Unbelief makes it impossible for us to feel secure against future ills, material or spiritual.

3. Unbelief cannot support our mind in the midst of the necessary unexpected changes of life. God’s government is moving forward on a vast scale. It extends not only throughout the universe, but also throughout eternity as well. Now, it is obvious that in the administration of such a vast system of providences, innumerable things are going to occur, that minds like ours can’t understand right now. We can’t see their purpose. It is not possible for God, because of our present state of mind and with our present knowledge, to explain things so that we can understand all the reasons for His conduct. It would be infinitely easier for a parent, engaged in the most complicated worldly business that anyone was ever engaged, to explain to his two year old infant, the reason for everything he does. The child has such confidence in his parent that he doesn’t need to know the reason why his parent does all those things. But, suppose the child has no confidence in the wisdom and goodness of his parent, and he still has enough knowledge to understand that, in ten thousand ways, his own desires might be thwarted by the administration of his father’s providence. This would naturally and certainly keep his mind constantly irritated. The same is true under the government of God. It is impossible that we won’t pass through a constant series of unexpected changes that would vex and fret the person who is living in unbelief. Suppose the holy angels had no confidence in God. What do you think would be the state of mind they would be thrown into by all the sin and misery they see in this world?

4. In unbelief, the person finds nothing to satisfy his or her desires. Having no communion with God, and no rest in God, his very nature is such that nothing in the universe can satisfy him. He doesn’t feel like he needs any friends. A person naturally feels that he needs a friend with the attributes of a God. He fully knows, that all earthly friends, no matter how faithful they are, are frail, and are totally unable to be, to him, all they need to be. Only God can satisfy the soul. Our everyday experience and observation teaches us that if you multiply earthly goods without end, a person will still be as far, and perhaps even farther, from being satisfied than he was at the beginning. The more finite goods a person obtains, the more he realizes that that is not enough to satisfy him, and he either grasps and moves with convulsive longings after more things, or, feeling the total insufficiency of any finite good, he hates all of those worldly things. God is the only possible satisfying portion of your soul, and it is just as impossible that our soul will find a resting place outside of God, as a dove should find a place to rest in the middle of the ocean, with tired wings, and no place to rest the sole of her foot. Therefore, unbelief then is refusing to settle down and rest on the infinite wisdom, goodness, truth, and grace of God. It is refusing to bathe in the ocean of His love, to bask in the sunlight of His countenance, to rest sweetly and composedly in His hand, and hide under the cover of His wing.

5. As a result, the person, who is living in unbelief, has no sufficient barrier against the power of temptation. Lust rages, and of course reigns as long unbelief is in his heart. The person who has no faith has no perception of those higher motives that will lift his or her desires and affections above visible objects. And in this state, that person’s mind is given over to the reigning power of his flesh, and the gratification of sense becomes his supreme goal in life. Thus, that person becomes the slave of his own body. Because his spiritual eye is closed, and his physical eye is wide open, his whole being grovels in the dust like an animal. As long as his soul is chained down to this miserable earth, he languishes, groans, and always hopes in vain for future or present good to satisfy his immortal cravings. Thus, being delivered up to the power of temptation, he wallows in his own filth, and he is even ashamed of his own deformity. He loathes himself, and hates everything else. A universal feeling of distrust, enmity, and hell, continually keeps him in intense anguish.

6. In unbelief, the person is delivered over to the reigning power of lust. Therefore, his mind must be under the influence of similar motives. If unbelief prevails, no motive from eternity or from heaven, no voice or truth of God, no spiritual or elevating considerations will grab a hold of his attention, and elevate his aims, hopes, and efforts. The whole spiritual world doesn’t even exist in the estimation of such a person, and the world of sense is the only place from which such a mind receives impressions. Because all the motives under which he acts or can act come from objects that he senses, he will be influenced by the same considerations that often influences animals.

7. Another reason why unbelief renders the rest of the soul impossible is because whenever there is any degree of spiritual light, that person’s conscience is quickened to keep his distrustful mind in a state of perpetual anxiety.

8. Unbelief delivers one’s soul over to a train of emotions, exercises, and affections, which makes him miserable. The person who does not trust in the wisdom, goodness, and providence of God, will automatically be soured by God’s providence, and lose faith in the conduct of other people. Everything goes wrong for such a person. Understanding and believing nothing about God’s great plan of government, the universe seems, to such a person, as nothing more than a general chaos or an ocean of confusion and misery. Being supremely selfish, such a mind is continually rasped and outraged by the selfish collisions of clashing interests that surrounds him. He can’t trust in others, and he feels that he has no reason to trust others. He will not trust in God, and, as a result, he has no place to rest in this world.

9. Unbelief therefore plunges the unbeliever into an ocean of storms, and it keeps him there. Ignorant of the past, uncertain of the future, a prey to lust and passion, without hope and without God, to rest is impossible.

REMARKS.

1. Both faith and unbelief are conscious decisions, and are therefore easily within our reach. In other words, our will is voluntary in the highest and most absolute sense. It is completely absurd to say that we are unable to exercise either faith or unbelief. Faith is our mind’s acceptance of the truth of God. Unbelief is our mind’s rejection of the truth of God.

2. In moral beings, faith is indispensable to all virtue and all holiness in all worlds. If it weren’t for their confidence in God, how soon would the angels stumble at God’s providence and fall into rebellion? How many myriads of things does God find it necessary to do, the reasons and wisdom of which they can’t understand right now. Therefore, faith is just as indispensable to their virtue and happiness as it is to ours.

3. We can see why God has made such tremendous efforts to inspire faith. The great goal of all His dispensations, and all His works and ways is to make Himself known, and thereby secure the confidence of intelligent creatures. Knowing that their virtue and eternal happiness depends on this, He spares no pains. In fact, He did not hesitate to give His only begotten and well beloved Son, to secure the confidence of His creatures in His love.

4. We see that unbelief is the most shocking and abhorrent wickedness. Suppose that children should refuse to trust their parents, and they rejected all confidence in their goodness and providence. Suppose they decide to refuse to obey except when the reasons for obeying are satisfactorily explained. They refuse to accept neither the wisdom nor justice of any requirement or restriction unless they can clearly understand everything about them. These children can’t trust their parent in anything. Instead, everything the parent does is met with distrust, murmuring, uncertainty, and discontent. Who doesn’t see that any family, living under the influence of unbelief, would be completely dysfunctional? Their lives would be a living hell. What parent wouldn’t consider himself severely insulted, and feel that his family is ruined, once unbelief becomes the prevailing principle of action? We naturally feel insulted and outraged whenever someone calls our honesty into question. You probably couldn’t anger someone quicker then to allow even one incredulous look that advertises to him that you doubt his word. What is there more shocking and offensive among our dearest friends than to discover among those we love, a lack of confidence in us?

Let every husband and wife, let every parent and child, every friend that is susceptible to the feelings of humanity, rise up, and bear witness! Is there anything within the whole circle of disgusting and agonizing considerations that is capable of inflicting a deeper wound on your peace, than the discovery of a lack of confidence in those you love? It is an arrow dipped in deadly poison. It is unmingled gall. Unbelief must be infinitely abominable in the sight of God. What! God’s own offspring abandoning all confidence in their heavenly Father! Virtually accusing Him of lying and hypocrisy, they impiously and ridiculously insist on everything being made clear to their understanding so that they can see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and thrust their hand into the wound in their Savior's side, or they will not believe. How it must grieve the heart of God to see such a state of things as this existing in His family! Distrust and consequent confusion are raining all around, and nothing that God does on His part, prevails to secure confidence and hush the tumultuous elements of conflicting minds to rest.

5. You can see why unbelief is so cursed in the Bible, as that awful sin against which God has unmasked all the batteries of heaven. The reason is, it not only lies at the foundation of all abominations, it also implies the sum of all abominations. Unbelief breaks the power of moral government, shuts out the peace of God, and lets into the soul, the infernal brood of all the abominable passions of earth and hell.

6. You who do not enter into the rest of faith can now understand your present character and your prospects. Remember that you are exercising the greatest of all infernal sins. Unbelief is the sin and the misery of hell. It is the sin and misery of earth. Why do you harbor such an infernal monster in your heart? It is as hideous and frightful as the Apocalyptic beast with seven heads and ten horns, and it is as full of curses as the seven last plagues.

7. How strange that unbelief is so seldom reckoned as sin. When professing Christians and impenitent people are mentioning their sins, they almost never consider unbelief as the foundation and cause of all their other sins. In confessing their sins to God, if they sense unbelief at all, they seem to whine over it as a calamity, rather than confess and mourn over it as a crime. As long as this is true, and unbelief is neither understood nor repented of as a sin, there is no prospect of reconciliation between God and those people.

8. Faith is the simplest and easiest exercise of the mind that is conceivable. It is one of the earliest and most frequent exercises of the human mind. It is one of the first exercises that we witness in little children. Confidence in those around them seems to be as natural to them as their breath. The admirable simplicity, sincerity, and confidence of infants in their parents and those around them, are truly touching, and provide a beautiful illustration of the wisdom and goodness of God. This confidence that is so natural to them is indispensable to their well-being in almost every respect. Now our confidence in God is no different from a baby’s confidence in its parents. Now, as long as the little child knows nothing of its needs, present, or future, and nothing about its dangers, and as long as it has no idea of any other needs than what its parents can supply, it rests in peace, confiding in its earthly friends for all its needs. But as soon as he learns how little confidence can be placed in people, and that its needs reach far beyond the power of any human arm, its confidence in its parents can no longer keep it’s soul at rest. As a result:

9. For those who will not believe there can be no remedy. Salvation to them is naturally impossible. Under the wings of unbelief are congregated and sheltered the whole brood and catalogue of the miseries of earth and hell. Nothing but faith can be a remedy for their accumulated evils. At the bidding of faith, the whole congregation of abominations breaks up and are scattered to the winds of heaven. But, there is no other influence that a person can yield himself up to, that will relieve his anxieties, dissipate his forebodings, and lull him into sweet rest in the bosom of the blessed God.

10. Few have enough faith to enter into rest. In my last message, I gave several reasons why the Church does not enter into the rest of faith. It is perfectly obvious just by looking at nominal Christian behavior, that very few Church members have entered into rest. They are filled with the same cares and anxieties as other people. This is a great obstacle to the world, and they often ask, “What is religion good for”? They see their professing Christian friends, just as restless, fretful, and uneasy as they are. “What good”, they ask, “is religion”?

11. Most of the Church today has just enough conviction to make them even more miserable than worldly people. They have so much conviction of sin, and of the reality of eternal things, that it makes it impossible for them to enjoy the world, but having no faith, they don’t enjoy God. As a result, they really lack all enjoyment, and are the most miserable of all the inhabitants of earth. In other words, their inward unhappiness is great, often beyond expression or endurance. They are so miserable that they make everyone around them unhappy. I know a woman who is nothing more than a bundle of worry. I rarely saw her go more than five minutes without complaining about herself or somebody else. Everything and everybody was wrong. And, whenever anyone thinks she’s wrong, it is because they don’t understand her. I have several times thought, it might well be said about her, that she is the most miserable woman on earth. It would seem that it is impossible to make her see that her problem lies in her unbelief. She is so full of uneasiness about the present, and premonitions about the future, blaming everybody and blamed by everybody, that she seems to be afloat on an ocean of darkness and storms.

12. It seems almost impossible to make those who are filled with unbelief understand what is the nature of their problem. They often have so much conviction that they actually think that they believe. You tell them to believe; they tell you they do believe. They can’t tell the difference between an intellectual conviction, and the heart resting in the truth.

13. You can see the desperate folly, wickedness, and madness of those who reject all religious beliefs. These people seem to imagine that if they can get rid of the impression of the truths of Christianity, they can persuade themselves that the Bible is not true. Thus, if they can shake off their fears and their sense of responsibility, they will be happy. Oh, blind fools. Your conclusions are total folly! For your desperate and incurable misery is proportional to your unbelief! You are an immortal mind, with all its immortal needs and desires, launched on the ocean of life and set adrift without the possibility of annihilation. You are a mind covered with complete ignorance and darkness concerning the past and a veil of impenetrable midnight stretched over all the future. You are a mind surrounded by roaring winds and mighty waves, rocks and breakers just before you. But you have no helm, no compass, no star of hope, no voice of mercy, nowhere to rest, no prospect of safety; not one place in the whole universe where your mind can rest for even a moment. Considered from every point of view, infidelity is the culmination of madness, folly, and desperate wickedness.

14. If you, to whom this rest is preached, fail to enter in because of unbelief, a future generation will enter in. The Apostle says, “It remains that some must enter in”. The promise to the Church that some generation will enter in is absolute. Concerning individuals, whether you or your children, or some future generation shall enter in, must depend on your or their exercise of faith. The contemporaries of Moses did not enter into the land of Canaan because of their unbelief but the next generation took possession of it through faith.