Hebrews 4:9,10 - A Perfect Rest
Hebrews 4:9,10
[ 9] There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
[10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Change and decay in all around I see, O Help of the helpless, abide with me! How eloquently the hymn-writer describes the change and decay of life. This is certainly true about the world in which we live. The writer to the Hebrews compares the constancy of God with the instability of human life when he writes: And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. Our world is coming apart like a frayed garment and winding down like a huge clock. Even our bodies come apart! As time goes on, we find that we aren’t as strong as we once were; we can’t see as well; we can’t hear as well, and disease and decay begin to take their toll. And then there is the tedium of life. We face the end of the day exhausted, with tired and aching muscles, and look forward to the night’s rest, only to find that when we wake up in the morning we have to face the same thing over again. When it comes to a perfect physical rest, there is no such thing in this life. What an inspiration, then, are the words of our text which point us to another rest: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”
As God’s chosen people we know precisely what the apostle is talking about. He’s talking about life in heaven, a place of perfect rest, a place, as the text says, where we cease from work; a place, if you will, where we can say, “I don’t have to get up this morning.” Actually all earthly illustrations fall short simply because our natural minds can’t begin to comprehend the glories of eternal rest. To give us some idea of what he is talking about, the apostle takes us back to the beginning of the world, to that time, when after six perfect days of creation, God rested from His work. The 7th day was the beginning of a rest that God intended to last forever. This does not mean that God was tired and needed rest, as if he were a human being. Only the heathen humanize their gods that way. It means, rather, that God enjoyed what he had made. He looked with pleasure on a perfect man and a perfect woman whose hearts were filled with happiness as they lived in and took care of a perfect creation. And isn’t that how Scripture speaks of eternal rest in heaven, the rest that remains to the people of God? Listen to the Bible: In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. And again: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
In the beginning, life was kind of like heaven on earth, no pain, no sorrow, nothing to spoil perfect enjoyment and rest. That doesn’t mean that man didn’t work. He was busy taking care of God’s creation, but the point is that he liked to work. There were no tensions on the job, no frustrations with workers or employers, but pure joy. What else is that but rest? However, the treachery and deceit of the devil changed all this. Man’s disobedience placed him squarely under the judgment of death in this world and in the world hereafter. Immortality was changed into mortality, and a life of rest was changed into a life of anxiety and bickering and tension and sorrow.
You and I, with our limited human reason, will never understand the love of God who brought rest to a people who didn’t deserve it, a love so great that He sacrificed His own holy Son to bear the sentence of death so that we might have the promise of eternal rest in heaven. This is the promise made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; this is the promise renewed to Noah and his sons; this is the promise given to Abraham and his descendents. Those who believed this promise found rest for their souls already in this life. They found a forgiveness they didn’t deserve; they found a spiritual rest that enabled them to face the problems of their lives. Abraham and Moses and David and the prophets had problems just like we do, but their faith in the rest to come gave them the inner peace and strength to face anything that life might proffer.
One of the Commandments that God gave to His chosen people on Mount Sinai was Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. This commandment was given to the Children of Israel and to no one else on earth either before or after. Sin had so darkened the spiritual rest that God had promised through His Son, that He made “rest” a law. The word, “Sabbath” means rest. God commanded them to rest their bodies one day a week. This physical rest symbolized the rest they had lost, and gave them an opportunity to contemplate the rest that remains to the people of God through the promise of a Savior. Most of the Children of Israel, however, didn’t see it that way. They ignored God’s gracious purpose altogether, and instead looked to the Sabbath law as just one more way to earn salvation.
The promised Messiah that came to earth in the person of Jesus was the incarnation of perfect rest. By His flawless life and death He removed the burden of the Old Testament Sabbath law from the hearts of His people. They no longer needed the outward ritual of the Sabbath to remind them that He was coming because here He was. His whole life was devoted to bringing people inner rest, rest from the burden of sin, rest for aching hearts and guilty consciences. Listen to Him speak: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Isn’t that true about you and me? Faith in the promises of our Savior gives us an inner peace and rest that the unbelieving world will never know, a rest from the pain and sorrows and tedium of life on this earth. Although we live in an imperfect world, although sin still tempts us, although we shed tears of repentance day after day, although our lives are a constant battle against our inner selves in an effort to serve our Lord, yet we possess an unbelievable peace and rest through faith in a Savior, who not only promises, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, but holds out the blessed fulfillment of that promise, a perfect rest in heaven.
Even the richest worldling doesn’t have a rest like that. He may be blessed with material things, and yet without Christ this is not a blessing but a curse. It is a lot harder to retain wealth than to get it, and in the long term it all disappears through death. While we look forward to a rest in heaven, people of this world don’t have that vision. What a horror to trade eternal rest for what this world has to offer, at best temporal pleasures and at worst an adulterous affair or a drunken song! The highest and noblest condition of man isn’t worthy to compare with eternal rest in the presence of God.
No more toiling week after week. No more Monday mornings. No more having to go to work. No more tedium of daily living. No more hills to climb. No more fighting against the assaults of the devil and the world and our flesh. No more possibility of corruption. Happy day when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. How marvellous that at this very moment we with an undimmed eye and an unwavering heart and an unfaltering voice can say: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” This is as certain as God Himself. All people of God have it; It is as secure as if we were there right now. Come, eternal ages come, come with joys that eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, which God has in store alone for His children. This is the rest that remains to you and to me.
This sermon was preached on September 23, 2007.