Entering the Perfect Sabbath Rest (Hebrews Sermon 15)

Hebrews 4:9. “There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Hebrews 4 speaks of a timeless Sabbath rest for the people of God, and it commands us to labor to enter that rest, in verse 11. How then do we do this, how do we enter the rest that Hebrews 4 is talking about? For many of you, when you hear of the Sabbath, or a Sabbath rest, you have images of the Jews, perhaps from Fiddler on the Roof, as the sun would go down on Friday, and how the women would prepare the Passover or the Sabbath meal with the candles and with prayers and Jewish singing.

Or perhaps, some of you think of the Puritan strictness on the Sabbath, how they were strict Sabbatarians, it was said. A strictness that many felt went beyond the delights of corporate worship into sheer legalism, though, I think that could be and should be debated. And the Puritans in the 17th century fought against the Book of Sports, a declaration issued by King James I in 1617 in which he listed out sports that were permissible on Sundays. By the way, football was not mentioned. The Puritans were for the most part strict Sabbatarians so it’s said; restricting all their activities on Sundays to religious observances and to acts of mercy. So maybe that’s what pops in your mind when you think of the Sabbath.

Or again, maybe you remember the struggle of Eric Liddell, the Scottish missionary, who was also an Olympic athlete, whose life is portrayed in the movie Chariots of Fire, and how he upbraided with some little boys that were playing soccer on Sunday and he said, “Sabbath’s not the day for playing football, is it?” And those words came back to challenge him when he realized that he would have to run on Sunday in order to win the Olympic medal that he’d trained for all those years and his commitments on the Sabbath would not permit him to run on the Sunday. And you know the story, if you’ve seen the movie.

But I want to say to you that the Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4 is something infinitely beyond all of these meditations. It soars infinitely beyond all earthly shadows and types and pictures. All human observances of the Sabbath, that’s what we’re discussing in Hebrews 4. No, the Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4 is the perfection, the completion of Christ’s saving work for us. The final perfection of it awaits our resurrection from the dead, into a glorious body free from all death, and mourning, and crying, and pain. Free from temptations. Free from weariness, free from all evil, living in a perfect world, at peace and at rest radiated with the open clear displays of the glory of God.

The new heavens and the new earth, that is the Sabbath rest in view in Hebrews 4. This is the Sabbath rest that Jesus bought for us through His blood shed on the cross. So the author begins, that the concept is something that still remains, if you look in verse 6. It’s something that still stands over us all, it still remains that some will enter that rest, and that those who formally had the Gospel preached to them, did not go in because of their disobedience. So these are the things that still remain in front of us, those that do enter in and those that don’t enter in through unbelief and disobedience, but it still remains.

Now, the unifying kind of cohesive theme of Hebrews 3 and 4 is the author’s extended meditation on David’s exhortation in Psalms Psalm 95. The centerpiece of that exhortation is today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Yes, but what is God saying as He speaks? What message is God speaking that we should not be hardening our hearts from? The topic according to the author, the topic of God’s address is His rest. That God is speaking to us concerning His rest. And so the author in Hebrews 4, 1-5 focuses on God’s rest. Look at verse 1 again, “Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” Or let us fear. A gain, in verse 3, “Now, we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared an oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest.'” And in verses 4-5, “For somewhere, He has spoken about the seventh day in these words, ‘and on the seventh day God rested from all his work.’ And again, in the passage, above, he says, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'” So the unifying theme then is God’s invitation to His people to enter his rest.

This is the topic the author is picking up again here in Hebrews 4:6-11. Main idea then is, that there is a perfect eternal heavenly rest to which God is calling His people to through faith in Christ. Now, there are earthly experiences or foretastes of that final rest. The weekly Sabbath, and the conquest of the promised land are in view in particular here. Foretastes. But they are merely types or shadows of the final reality. They pre-figure that perfect rest. It’s like a woman who is cooking a wonderful meal and the husband comes and sticks his finger in the pot and puts it on his tongue. Ought not to do that, but it’s a foretaste, the meal hasn’t come yet. And so, we have actually through the Holy Spirit, many foretastes, but we’ve not entered the rest yet. And so verse 9 says, there still remains or there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And then with that an imperative or command in verse 11, “Let us therefore make every effort” or let us labor to enter that rest. So it portrays the people of God as still at work, still needing to work.

The author proves that neither the Sabbath rest under Moses nor the promised land rest under Joshua fulfilled the rest that God is inviting us to enter. The focus of our time today then is the Sabbath rest of God, not the imperfect Sabbath rest of the Law of Moses. Nor the imperfect rest of the Jews entering the Promised Land under Joshua, but rather that perfect final rest which is the goal of our faith in Jesus.

I. Imperfect Pictures of God’s Rest: Creation, Sinai, and the Promised Land

So what does it mean then to enter that rest? Now, there are two different ways of understanding this passage. I didn’t realize that until yesterday. So there’s going to be another sermon on this passage next week, because I couldn’t bear to throw out this morning sermon entirely. And there’s good things in it, but I believe I was convicted by the Spirit that I had somewhat missed the point. Somewhat.

What is the point? Well, there are two different ways of looking at entering the rest. First of all, we enter the rest through faith in Jesus. So that it can be said of us in Romans 5:1, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” So that we are already at rest with God, and God at rest with us through Jesus.

Those are true biblical themes but that’s not what the author has in mind here. That’s not the rest he’s talking about here. He’s talking about something that, not a single person on the face of the Earth has entered yet. None of us has entered the rest he has in mind here. It still remains for you to enter the rest, you haven’t entered it yet. It’s in the future, and therefore, in verse 11, you need to make every effort to enter that rest. So it really talks about the nature of your life from this point until you finally die and do enter the rest that the author has in mind. And so that clarity actually didn’t come to me until yesterday, and so I’m going to preach more clearly on that next week. But what I want to say is, in the meantime, through our faith in Christ, we can have and ought to have as many foretastes of that rest as we can have in this world, and it’s beneficial. And so that’s the kind of two-part outline of this Sunday’s and next Sunday’s.

So how then can we enter into God’s rest by faith today, in a foretaste sort of sense? Well, coming to realize that we will never enter that rest while we live here on earth. And that therefore much in line of the whole flow of the book of Hebrews, is we are being commanded in Hebrews 4 to run a race with endurance here because we haven’t finished yet. And we’ll get to that later, and that image in Chapter 12. But that’s what the author’s been saying all along. You’re not there yet, dear people, you’ve not finished yet dear friends. You’ve still got some laboring to do.

Now, what I’ve come to understand is that there’s a kind of work and a kind of labor that Jesus frees us from immediately, as soon as you come to faith in Jesus. And we’ll talk about that this week. But then there are some other kinds of laborings that you must bear with until you at last walk through that door in heaven. And you must do it, and that’s the press of the passage okay? So I hope that’s as clear to you now, as it’s I hope been clear to me and we’ll talk more about it next week.

We have first these imperfect pictures of God’s final Sabbath rest, and that is creation, Sinai and the promised land. The original kind of mention of the Sabbath rest, or the resting of God happens as you know, at the beginning of creation, in Genesis 1. God creates the universe, the Heavens and the Earth, He creates the universe, and the world He makes in six days.

In Genesis 2:1-3, it says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array and by the seventh day, God had finished the work that He had been doing, so on the seventh day, He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”

So what is the significance of this statement that God rested on the seventh day? Well, you get the sense of God deeply and richly satisfied by what His hands had made. He’s declared that it’s all very good, and He’s satisfied with the labors of His hands, and He finishes those labors, that category of works that He intended to do. So it’s a cessation from labors. He’s ceasing from His work, the work of creation. Nothing could be added. And so God blessed that seventh day and set it apart as holy. Friends, that seventh day rest is a picture of our future rest in heaven.

It’s a picture of it when all our labors will be finished. Perfect and complete, nothing more to add to them. And so God in His finishing of physical creation at that point, blesses the seventh day and sets it apart as holy. The perfection of God’s rest is that He was satisfied with what he was intending to do at that particular time. But there is also an imperfection of the rest, because God knew perfectly well that all of redemptive history lay in front of Him at that point.

Jesus said, “My Father is always at His work, to this very day and I too am working.” What’s the nature of that work? The nature of the work that God was doing was saving sinners from His wrath and bringing them into His perfect rest. That’s what redemptive history is about. And so when God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, still in front of Him in redemptive history was the fall of Adam into sin and with him the entire human race.

And the wickedness of the human race at the time of Noah, when and when every single thoughts and inclination of the hearts of men was only evil all the time, and Noah alone and his family found grace in the eyes of God, and God wiped out the world with the flood; that was still in the future. And the call of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the Promised Land and to receive it only as a promise, something that was still ahead of him, and he died without receiving that promise, but that was still in the future, when God rested on the seventh day.

And so also, the development of the 12 tribes of Israel, and their bondage in Egypt and all of their labors, still in the future. And then the deliverance under Moses, the passage through the Red Sea was in the future at that point. And the coming to Sinai and the entrance into the promised land, and then the wretched cycle of sin of the Israelites which they had already done before they even entered the Promised Land, and so they have to wait 40 years to enter. And then in the Book of Judges, they just began immediately going after the gods of the peoples and the cycle of wickedness and sin, until, finally, they’re evicted from the Promised Land. Been warned again and again by the prophets, but they still wouldn’t heed God and they were evicted from the Promised Land, all of that was still in the future. And so also the restoration under the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the coming of Jesus, born of a virgin, born in the fullness of time.

And his sinless life, and his rejection by His own people, the Jews, how they rejected Him. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. And His bloody death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into Heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit in the day of Pentecost, and the explosive movement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth going on now for 20 centuries, all of that was in the future when God rested. And He knew that, He knew all of that story.

And so God’s work was imperfect, because there was still more work to be done. And so therefore the seventh day rest was merely a picture of a future rest that was going to come. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, but He knew that the whole story was yet to come. The perfect rest could not come until Christ brought it about both in His death on the cross and through His constant intercessory ministry as our high priest at the right hand of God, and by His sending of His Holy Spirit to convict the elect, and bring them into the kingdom. Through that work alone, the preservation work, redemption accomplished and applied, right to the end; only then would it all be perfect.

We see also the imperfect type or picture of the Sabbath rest, commanded at Sinai. Now, the concept of the Sabbath as a weekly observance precedes the 10 commandments. It existed in the mind of God, but it was not in the habits of the people. They had been slaves in Egypt, seven days a week, they were slaves. They were making bricks, by that time they were making bricks without straw. Laboring, the sweat, blood, and tears, that that life of bondage called from them. And they’re just working seven days a week, day after day, after day, after day, after day, after day until you died in bondage. That’s what their lives were like for four generations, they’d been there. And there was no distinction one day from another.

But when God called them out and by the power of His miracles, and through the Red Sea crossing, and they come into the desert, God provided manna for them, the bread from heaven to eat. And He began teaching them about the Sabbath. The cyclical observance, a once a week observance through the patterns of the giving of the manna. And so the manna was coming down like rain like bread from heaven, and they were to collect it in baskets off the ground. And they were told very clearly to only collect enough for one day. Don’t take any more for tomorrow, I will provide for you tomorrow.

So that’s somewhat in Jesus’ mind, when He says, “Give us this day, our daily bread.” But some Israelites really just didn’t listen to instructions. Perhaps you teachers have had pupils like that, they just didn’t listen. Some parents, perhaps from time to time your children have not listened to instructions. Perhaps that’s even characterized you from time to time. But some of these Jews went out and they took some extra amount. Not merely for a midnight snack, mind you, but this was for tomorrow so they’d have enough for tomorrow. But what did they find? The stuff that they left over was wriggling with maggots the next day, it was foul and unusable.

God rebuked them for their disobedience. But he made an exception in preparation for the Sabbath. And He said in preparation for the Sabbath you are to collect twice as much manna, collect two days’ worth. And the people found the next day that it wasn’t covered with maggots, God did a once-a-week miracle for them to preserve that extra manna and they would eat enough, and they would not go out and collect. Although some of them didn’t, wouldn’t you know, they would go out on the seventh day, and they did try to look, and there was none on the ground. But God was already teaching them a certain rhythm, a seven-day cycle in which there would be six days of laboring and serving, and then on the seventh day they would rest, they would cease.

And this was in preparation for this to be codified, to be established in the law of Moses, in the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day,” At Sinai, God commanded them, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your man-servant or maid-servant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day.” And therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. And so in this commandment, God was being gracious to the Israelites and setting up a weekly reminder, I believe, of that future final, eternal rest that we will enjoy with Christ in Heaven. He was teaching them about that.

Now, in one sense, the Sabbath regulation was backward-looking, for in six days, the Lord your God made the heavens and the earth. But in a very mysterious, and at that point, very shadowy way, it was forward-looking too, to a time when all of their labors would be done, finished. And God really intended that they keep this because the Sabbath law came with a penalty, and if you did not obey it, you would be put to death. He very much meant, He intended that this be a part of their lives. And so when a Sabbath breaker was found who was out collecting firewood, the word came for this Sabbath breaker to be put to death, and so he was.

Now, the Sabbath regulation was seen to be a time of self-denial, interestingly. Leviticus 16:29. “You must deny ourselves and not do any work.” Interesting. Deny yourselves and not do any work. Well the self-denial means from just give up your earthly ambitions for a day, don’t try to achieve more in this world than in this life, in this day. Deny yourself, focus on God. That’s really what it’s about. Again, in Leviticus 16:31, It is a sabbath of rest. You must deny yourselves. It was also called sacred to the Lord, and a day of holy assembly. Leviticus 23:3, “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly.” You are not to do any work, wherever you live. It is a sabbath to the Lord.” And so, a time for the people of God to gather and to meet together and to focus on God and to worship Him.

Sadly, the Jews regularly disobeyed the Sabbath regulations, they sinned, as we already mentioned the man gathering the firewood. Or in Jeremiah’s day, they’re carrying loads through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath. The time of Nehemiah doing the same thing. And He went out as the governor and said, “If you continue to camp outside the gates, I’m going to lay hands on you.” And that’s not for ordination. He was going to arrest them if they continue to do this, but they just were constantly wandering into worldly business and ambitions and materialism, and prosperity rather than taking that day to rest and focus on God. Now, all of this Sinai regulation, the fourth commandment, was man-centered in it’s purpose. Jesus came to instruct us about the Sabbath and teach us. He designated first and foremost, Himself to be king over the sabbath. Which would be sheer arrogance, if you weren’t God. But he said “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” In other words, the way I define the sabbath is the true and right definition, of it. And he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

It’s for your benefit for our benefit. It was not made to be a burden, a crushing burden, but rather a delight. And so it says in Isaiah 58: 13-14, “If you call the Sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please, or speaking idle words then you will find your joy in the Lord.” It’s to wean us from earthly things and to have us focus on God. And nothing but God, that day. Now the Sabbath regulation was right for legalism. Legalism with the Sabbath tends to focus on you what you must not do. What you are forbidden from doing. But they call the Sabbath. A delight approach, focuses and what you may do, you may focus on God, you may release the world for a day, and you may meet with the brothers and sisters and pray together, and worship, and have a foretaste of God that day. That’s what you may do.

Well the legalistic Sabbath was a crushing burden by the time Jesus came to free us from it, His poor disciples and I mean that literally, they were poor, going through the grain fields on a Sabbath they hadn’t had anything to eat, in the Law of Moses provided for poor people to just pick heads of grain that were standing and eat them immediately. They couldn’t bring baskets in the field, but they could eat their fill, Just in the fields. It was their form of welfare, really. And so His disciples are standing there doing it and the Sabbath police, the Pharisees said,” Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” Wasn’t that they were stealing they knew that, that was fine, but it was they were harvesting. They were harvesting on the Sabbath. Jesus had to deal with this all the time. I actually think… If you read through it, do some statistical analyses, you’ll find that you did an overwhelming number of His healing on the Sabbath. He did it on purpose. Is there someone I can heal today on the Sabbath? So He finds a man paralyzed by that that pool in John 5, and He heals Him on the Sabbath, and the Sabbath police find him and he’s carrying his mat.

It’s un-lawful for you to carry your mat. Not asking how were you healed and what does it signify? But it’s unlawful for you to be carrying your mat. But Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath, and more than that, He’s more than just Lord of the Sabbath, friends, He is the Sabbath rest. He is our Sabbath rest, both now and forever, He is the Sabbath rest.

And the third shadowy picture is the rest under Joshua. The coming into the promised land. It was spoken of as a kind of rest before they even enter the Promised Land, under Joshua, it says in Deuteronomy 12:10, “But you’ll across the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you, as an inheritance and He will give you rest, from all your enemies around you. So that you will live in safety.” So there’s that word rest. And after they entered the Promised Land and had begun in a large part, had conquered it and settled it in Joshua 21:44, it says “The Lord gave them rest on every side as he had sworn to their fore fathers.”

He mentions in Deuteronomy 8 the rich blessings of that land of rest. “The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. A land with streams and pools of water. With springs flowing in the valleys and hills, a land with wheat and barley. Vines, and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing, a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills and when you have eaten, and are satisfied then praise the Lord your God for the good land, He has given you.” He especially focuses on when you eat from vineyards you didn’t plant. And when you gather in harvest that you did not labor for. When you sit at tables you didn’t build, and when you eat meals that were laid out by somebody else, but now you get to sit there and eat them, then praise the Lord for the good land He’s giving you.

That is such a picture of our heavenly enjoyments, we’re going to get out there and we’re going to sit at banquet table with Jesus. And He paid at all, what did we do? And we’re going to sit and eat His food and we’re going to celebrate. And so the conquest of the promised land is a mere shadowy foretaste of our crossing the river of death, and entering into our final resting place with God. But it was merely temporary friends. The author says, Joshua did not give them the rest that David wrote about, because David wrote about this rest long after they had entered the Promised Land, and if Joshua had given them rest then David wouldn’t have spoken later about another day, another time. Joshua’s rest was not permanent. For the possession of the promised land was conditional, it was a conditional covenant, they had to obey the laws of Moses, to hold on to the Promised Land, and they could not do it. The Old Covenant did not transform their hearts, the Old Covenant did not take out the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. The Old Covenant merely said, “Do this and you will live.” And so it was not the final rest but merely a picture.

II. There Remains a Perfect Sabbath-Rest

And so, dear friends, there remains still a Sabbath rest for the people of God. It remained in David’s day. It remained in Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s day, it remained in Jesus’ day, it remained in the days of the apostles, it remained in the days of the reformers, and it remains still today, and it will remain as long as Jesus tarries, there still remains for us a Sabbath rest. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” And along with that comes the warning. “I swore on oath in my anger. They shall never enter my rest.” And so the implied command or invitation however you like to understand it, please all my people enter my rest. God is still inviting you through the Gospel now, to enter His rest, again verse one, “Therefore since the promise of entering is rest still stands. Let us be careful that His fear that none of you be found to a fallen short of it.”

And so in every generation, God stands with His arms extended and He invites His people. He invites them and says, “There remains for you today a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There remains the Sabbath rest.” And this Sabbath rest, is heaven. He is not talking about a meticulous careful Sabbath regulation. He’s not talking about that. And so if you are hoping that I would answer the age-old Christian question, “Are we still to keep the Sabbath?” I will not. I have preached about that in Colossians. Get it up on the website and listen to it. I’ve been through all that, but that’s not what this text is about anyway. That’s just a shadow in a type. The Sabbath rest that He’s talking about here is heaven through Jesus Christ.

And so when Jesus stands there in Matthew 11, and says, “Come unto Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy. And my burden is light.” He is talking about the Sabbath rest of Hebrews four. And Jesus is the door way for the sheep, He is the way to enter. And it is through Jesus that we come into our Sabbath rest, as though we’re in this long corridor. And there’s that door, and we have to finish walking through this corridor and we will step through the door. But Jesus is the corner, He’s the door and he’s the rest. And He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one…” What? “Comes to the father, except through me, you know the way to the place where I’m going.” That sounds like a journey to me friends. It sounds like there’s a race to be run dear friends, and Jesus is the race and He is the finish line and He’s the reward on the other side.

So I want to plead with you. It says in verse six that some are going in and some aren’t. Some are going in and some through unbelief and disobedience are not going to enter that rest. And I pray this morning that there would be someone here who has not yet come to faith in Christ, so I could plead with you to do so. That you could know justifying faith right now that you can know that God is at peace with you through the blood of Jesus right now. You can know that, that all your sins will be forgiven it could be that soon you might die you don’t know how much longer you’re going to live. What are you waiting for? Jesus shed His blood for you. He is pleading with you to come to enter through Him, to find rest for your souls. Complete forgiveness for all of your sins and I’m pleading with you, and His place through the spirit that you would do so. I’m begging with you, don’t put it off.

Jesus finished His works, Amen. Jesus works are finished. He said in John 17:4, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do.” And the ultimate perfection of that work was on the cross when He shed His blood for sinners like you and me, and when he finished, he said. “It is finished.” It is finished. Or you could translate it, “It is perfect.” You can’t add anything to it, it’s perfect, it’s done, it’s finished. And He completed His work. And so therefore in verse 10 of our chapter here, anyone who enters God’s rest, also rests from His own work, just as God did from His. And so we’re going to step into Jesus’ finished work. And I tell you there’s a category of works that Jesus frees you from for the rest of your life, you’re done with it for the rest of your life and you can enter that immediately if you’re Christian, you’ve already entered that rest.

But then next week I’ll tell you there’s a category of labors you are not free from yet. And you need to still work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That’s next week. But now, you can be freed from a variety of works, you can be freed from wicked and sinful works that lead to death. Hebrews 9:14 speaks of works that lead to death. You can be freed from those works immediately, from idolatry, freed from the works of your hands, worshipping the works of your hands. The thing about the Sabbath regulation is it enabled you to look at your idols. And say, “I can’t live for the things I make, for the money I make, or the stuff that I can experience here on earth, I’m living for heaven.” It’s a benefit. You’re freed from wicked labors, you’re freed from the labor of slander, you’re free from the labor and the work of gossip, you’re free from the work of lust and covetousness and greed, you’re free from all of those works, the works of idolatry. And you’re free from empty religious works that don’t get you any closer to God at all, but the God repudiate because they’re not done by faith in Christ. You’re free from religiosity, you’re free from justification by works, isn’t that beautiful? By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. You’re free from that now. Your standing doesn’t depend on the works of your hands.

You are accepted in Jesus by faith. As it says in Romans 4, “To the one who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited in his righteousness.” You’re free then from religious works that you’re trying to use to pay for your disobedience, you’re free, from that friends. And you’re free from frustration in the labor of your hands. As the book of Ecclesiastes says “Vanity of vanities,” or, “meaningless, meaningless… everything is meaningless.“ “What does man gain from all of his labors and toils under the sun?” If you’re a Christian, you’re free from that mindset, forever, Amen. You can wash the dishes to the glory of God. You can make beds of the glory of God, you can train children in the glory of God, you can go to that job tomorrow to the glory of God, you can type a memo to the glory of God, you can answer a phone call to the glory of God. And everything you do by faith for the glory of God will be waiting for you on Judgment Day, reward able by grace. You are freed from wrestling with the ground and it producing only thorns and thistles for you in that sense.

There is a sense you’re not free from that curse. We’ll talk about that next week. But you are freed from the ultimate meaningless-ness of life. Your work then has always been the same. What must we do to work the works of God, it’s always the same. This is the work of God, that you believe in the one He Has sent. So labor to enter God’s rest by faith, even today, have done with these works that you’re freed from forever. Have done with wicked works, and religious works and meaningless works and justifying works, have done with all that, and stand in the peace that is yours and God.

Now next we’re going to talk about meditation on the heavenly life. And I’m going to share with you some insights from a Puritan pastor who wrote a 677 page treatise on Hebrews 4:9. And you’re going to get all of it next week, no you’re not, I’m sorry.

Hebrews 4:9. “There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Richard Baxter, thought that was worth almost 700 pages. I was interested in that. I knew of the Saints Everlasting Rest. I’ve heard of it but I never read it. I looked at it I said, “Oh, that’s the text I’m working on this week. What a surprise? What a surprise how long it is?” And as I read it I said, “What a surprise, I’ve missed the point.” The point is run your race with endurance, and we’ll talk about that next week, close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the insights that come from the Word of God, and Lord we look forward to the saints everlasting rest not pulses of rest coming in and out of rest coming in and out of a sense of peace, and then back at it again. Oh God, we yearn for the day when we’re free at last from the battle itself. And Lord I pray that as we meditate on that this week, and as we prepare to hear more from Hebrews 4 next week, Oh Lord enable us I pray, to be ready to answer that final rest through faith in Christ. I pray that we wouldn’t Imitate those who through disobedience and unbelief refuse the gospel. And Father, I pray again for any lost person here. Oh, God, I pray that now in the hearing of the gospel they will have been saved, that they will be ready to die even now, so that they can have eternal life, in Jesus name, Amen.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Hebrews 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God

Hebrews 4 speaks of a timeless Sabbath rest for the people of God; and it commands us to labor to enter that rest.

How then do we enter the Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4?

For many of us, when you hear of the Sabbath, you have images of the Jews, perhaps in “Fiddler on the Roof”, at sundown on Friday having their Sabbath rituals, with candles and prayers and Jewish singing

Or perhaps you think of the Puritan strictness on the Sabbath… a strictness that many felt went beyond the delights of corporate worship into sheer legalism; The Puritans in 17th century England fought against the “Book of Sports,” a declaration issued by King James I in 1617; it listed sports that were permissible on Sundays; the Puritans were, for the most part, strict sabbatarians, restricting all their activities on Sundays to religious observances and acts of mercy

Or again, maybe you remember the struggle of Eric Liddell, the Scottish missionary and sprinter whose life was memorialized in the movie “Chariots of Fire”… he refused to run a 100 meter heat on Sunday because of his Sabbatarian commitment.

But the Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4 is something that soars infinitely above all earthly shadows, all human observances of the Sabbath.

No, the Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4 is the perfection of Christ’s saving work for us… the final perfection of it awaits our resurrection from the dead into a glorious body free from death, mourning, crying, pain… free from temptation, free from weariness, free from all evil… living in a perfect world at peace and at rest in the glory of God… the New Heavens and the New Earth

That is the Sabbath rest that Jesus bought for us with His blood on the cross

Context: The author begins with the concept of what “still remains”… something still stands over us all;

Hebrews 4:6 It still remains that some will enter that rest

the unifying topic in Hebrews 3-4 is David’s timeless exhortation in Psalm 95. The centerpiece of that exhortation is “If today you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Yes, but what is God saying? What message is God speaking that we have to heed?

The topic, according to the author of Hebrews is God’s rest… or specifically, entering that rest

In Hebrews 4:1-5, the author focused on God’s rest:

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Hebrews 4:3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'”

Hebrews 4:4-5 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

The unifying theme, then, is God’s invitation to His people to enter His rest. This is the topic the author again picks up in verses 6-11.

Main idea: there is a perfect, eternal, heavenly rest to which God calls people through faith in Christ. There are present experiences of that perfect rest—the weekly Sabbath, and the conquest of the Promised Land by the Jews—which merely prefigure that perfect rest. The fact that David wrote (in Psalm 95) after both had been established of a rest to which we are all called to enter means that neither the Sabbath nor the Promised Land is the final rest to which God has called us.

Fact: vs. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God

Imperative: vs. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest

The author proves that neither the Sabbath rest under Moses, nor the Promised Land rest under Joshua fulfilled that rest that God is inviting us to enter.

The focus of our time today is the Sabbath rest of God… not the imperfect Sabbath rest of the Law of Moses, nor the imperfect rest of the Jews in entering the Promised Land under Joshua

Rather, a perfect final rest with God in heaven through faith in Christ.

What, then, does it mean to enter God’s rest? How do we enter God’s rest TODAY? And how can we experience that rest now daily by faith in Christ? What will that final, perfect rest be like? AND what are the dire consequences of failing to enter God’s rest now?

I.   Imperfect Pictures of God’s Rest: Creation, Sinai, and the Promised Land

A.  God’s Sabbath Rest at Creation

1.  Genesis 1-2

Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

2.  The Significance of God’s Rest

a.  God deeply, richly satisfied with what He’d made

b.  God taking His position sitting on a throne over all the universe

c.  God’s rest = cessation from creation… nothing could be added

d.  God blessed the seventh day and made it holy… the “Seventh Day” was the Day of Cessation

3.  The Perfection of God’s Rest

a.  God had completed all of physical creation

b.  Everything was perfect in every way… nothing could be added at that time

c.  God completely pleased with His work

4.  The Imperfection of God’s Rest

a.  God knew that the Universe depended on His constant work in order to keep it in existence… His labors would NEVER END

b.  More importantly, God knew that the whole of Redemptive History lay ahead… Adam’s Fall, Noah’s Flood, the Call of Abraham, the Rise of the Jewish Nation, the Exodus under Moses, the Old Covenant, the Conquest of the Promised Land, the cycle of rebellion and idolatry by the Jews, the exile to Babylon, the Restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah, the coming of Jesus Christ—His birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection, and the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth

c.  ALL THESE WORKS were still ahead at that point

d.  Perfection had not yet come

e.  God could not be finally at rest until all of His chosen people had entered His perfect rest

5.  Merely a Picture

a.  God’s rest on the Seventh Day was merely a picture of a future, perfect rest for both God and His people

b.  God blessed the “Seventh Day” and made it holy… as a symbol and a picture… not as the perfection of rest

c.  The Perfect Rest could not come until Christ brought it about

B.  The Sabbath Rest Commanded at Sinai

1.  The concept of the Sabbath preceded the Ten Commandments… it existed in the mind of God, but not in the habits of His people

a.  God provided them manna, bread from heaven

b.  On each day He provided just enough for that one day

c.  But on the sixth day, God had a special instruction for the people… one they were not expecting…

Exodus 16:4-5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

When the sixth day came, the people obeyed this special instruction, though they didn’t understand its significance:

Exodus 16:22-26 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much– two omers for each person– and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.'” 24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

2.  The Fourth Commandment

a.  This experience with the manna was preparation for the Fourth Commandment of the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

b.  In this commandment, God set up a constant reminder of His past accomplishment in Creation: a perfectly good world in which nothing could be added which would have improved it

c.  The Sabbath regulation was BACKWARD looking… looking back to God the Creator, His works from creation

d.  It was also mysteriously a forward-looking ordinance, looking ahead to the day when our works would be perfect and we would finally rest from all our labors

e.  The Sabbath law came with the death penalty

Exodus 31:14-17 “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. 15 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.'”

f.  The Sabbath regulation was seen to be a time of self-denial Leviticus 16:29 you must deny yourselves and not do any work Leviticus 16:31 It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves

g.  It was also called “Sacred to the Lord” and a day of holy assembly

Leviticus 23:3 “‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.

h.  Sadly, the Jews regularly disobeyed the Sabbath regulations

i)  While the Jews were still in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath

ii)  He was caught and brought to Moses; Moses enquired of the Lord as to what was to be done with him

iii)  God commanded that the whole assembly stone him to death… and so he was

iv)  So also centuries later the Prophet Jeremiah accused the Jews of failure to keep the Sabbath

Jeremiah 17:21-23 This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.

3.  The Man-Centered Purpose of the Sabbath

a.  When Jesus came, He sought to instruct the Jews about the Sabbath… he designated Himself as King over the Sabbath

Matthew 12:8 the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath

b.  Jesus’ central lesson… Jewish legalism on the Sabbath missed the whole point

Mark 2:27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

c.  In other words, the whole Old Covenant regulation was made to benefit man, not to burden him

4.  The God-Ordained Sabbath a Delight

Isaiah 58:13-14 if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD

a.  A time of refreshment, of renewal, of worship

b.  A time to reflect back on what God has done in creation

c.  A time to focus life back on the true center… Almighty God

5.  The Legalistic Sabbath a Burden

a.  The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the Sabbath police… going around to make sure no one violated the Sabbath regulations

Matthew 12:1-2 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

John 5:9-10 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

b.  Because Jesus did so many healings on the Sabbath, they were convinced that He could not be the Messiah

c.  They had clearly turned a day of delight into a day of wretched legalism leading them to the soul-killing conclusion that Jesus was NOT the Messiah

John 9:16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

d.  Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath

Matthew 12:8 the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

e.  More than that…

6.  Jesus IS the Sabbath rest… that is the whole point of Hebrews 4!!!

C.  The Rest Under Joshua

1.  Called a “Rest”

a.  Before they entered the Promised Land under Joshua

Deuteronomy 12:10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.

b.  After they entered the Promised Land and had conquered it and began to settle it

Joshua 21:44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them.

2.  The Rich Blessings of the Promised Land

Deuteronomy 8:7-10 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land– a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

3.  The Land itself was to have a Sabbath rest

Leviticus 25:2-5 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.

4.  The Sad End of the Rest

Ezekiel 23:37-38 they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them. 38 They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my Sabbaths.

As a result, the Lord allowed the Jews to be destroyed by the Babylonians and allowed the Promised Land to get the Sabbath rests the Jews refused to give it:

2 Chronicles 36:21 The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.

5.  Merely a Picture

a.  The Sabbath rest in the Promised Land under the Law of Moses was merely a picture, a type, and a shadow…

b.  The reality is found in Christ

II.   There Remains a Perfect Sabbath-Rest

A.  Author’s Main Point: Psalm 95 Stands Over All Time

1.  Long After Genesis 1-2, David Wrote These Words Speaking of God’s Rest

2.  Long After Sinai, David Wrote These Words Speaking of God’s Rest

3.  Long After Joshua, David Wrote These Words Speaking of God’s Rest

4.  God’s Invitation in Psalm 95 is Timeless

Psalm 95:7-8 Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts

And the implied invitation:

Enter into my rest!!!

B.  God Is Still Inviting Us to Enter His Rest

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

1.  Psalm 95, written so long after the time of Joshua, shows that there is a timeless rest in every generation

2.  In every generation, God stands with His arms extended and invites sinners to turn aside from empty works to enter His rest

Hebrews 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God

C.  The Perfect Rest: Heaven Through Faith in Christ

1.  It is clear that the author is NOT speaking of a meticulous Sabbath legalism that binds burdens on men’s shoulders that no one can bear

2.  Rather, he is talking about the rest that comes from the gospel

Hebrews 4:1-2 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did

3.  The rest is that which comes from believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

4.  This is the rest God stands over all time and offers

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

D.  Christ’s Perfect Work at the Cross

1.  Christ’s life was perfect in every way; He labored perfectly under the Law of Moses for us

2.  At the end of His life, He declared that His works were perfect and complete in God’s sight

John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

3.  The consummation of these perfect works was His death on the cross

4.  Our Sabbath rest is found is trusting in Christ, and by His perfect work entering heaven when we die

E.  The Nature of Our Present Rest in Christ

Hebrews 4:10 anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

1.  Rest from sinful works

Acts 7:41 they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

Isaiah 59:5-6 They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web…. 6 Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands.

2.  Rest from empty religious works

Isaiah 1:11-13 “The multitude of your sacrifices– what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations– I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

3.  Rest from seeking justification by works

Romans 3:20 by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight

Romans 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 4:2-5 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about– but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

4.  Rest from frustration in God-ordained works

Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” 3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

5.  ONLY BELIEVE… trust in Christ

John 6:28-29 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John 19:30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Hebrews 10:14 by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

All the work for our eternal rest has been accomplished by Jesus!!!

III.   Let Us Make Every Effort to Enter God Rest

Hebrews 4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

KJV Hebrews 4:11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

A.  The Example of Faithless Disobedience

1.  Already discussed in detail… the Jews of the Exodus

2.  They have given us a terrible example of unbelief… and it was punished with terrible severity as a warning to us

3.  They refused to trust God, despite all the awesome power He displayed in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt

4.  “Fall” = reminder that their bodies FELL in the desert

B.  Make Every Effort to Enter TODAY

1.  There IS an effort made to ENTER Christ’s finished work

2.  This is the WORK of our lives… to overcome our unbelief and continue walking with Jesus

3.  The salvation journey is a difficult one… one of laboring to rest in Jesus, laboring to trust in Jesus

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed– not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence– continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

1 Peter 4:18 If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

C.  Living Now in Your Future Rest

1.  Defeat WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS: Learning to defeat the constant tend to feel that your standing with God is dependent on your performance; rest in Christ’s righteousness now like you will for all eternity

2.  Rest in your secure position while you labor to serve Christ… none of your labors in service to Christ improve your standing with Him one bit

3.  Live in your Sabbath rest when Satan accuses you of sin:

Romans 8:33-34 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns?

4.  Rest in the peace of knowing that your future inheritance is secure in Christ… nothing can steal it from you as you continue to trust in Christ

5.  LABOR, therefore to stay in Christ’s Sabbath rest by faith

6.  Learn to live in your heavenly rest while you are busy serving Christ now

Colossians 3:1-4 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

7.  Brother Lawrence: the first spiritual book I read as a teenager… I was raised Roman Catholic, and someone got me a copy of a book written by Brother Lawrence, a monk from the 17th century; the book was called “The Practice of the Presence of God”

8.  Though I have since come onto a better doctrinal and biblical foundation for the concept, the basic idea has never left me:

Brother Lawrence felt that he cooked meals, ran errands, scrubbed pots, and endured the scorn of the world alongside God. One of his most famous sayings refers to his kitchen:

“The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees…”

He spent years disciplining his heart and mind to yield to God’s presence.

“As often as I could, I placed myself as a worshiper before him, fixing my mind upon his holy presence, recalling it when I found it wandering from him. This proved to be an exercise frequently painful, yet I persisted through all difficulties.”

He found a peace in reconciling himself to the thought that this struggle and longing was his destiny. He said his soul “had come to its own home and place of rest.

9.  This is how we can train our hearts now, in the busyness of life, to experience our perfect rest in Christ

10.  The Puritan pastor Richard Baxter wrote a massive treatise of almost 700 pages on this one verse in Hebrews 4:9 There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God.” The name of the book was The Saints’ Everlasting Rest

What is the saints’ everlasting rest? It is the perfect, endless enjoyment of God by the perfected believers, to which their souls arrive at death. Further, it is that eternal enjoyment of God to which both soul and body arrive most fully after the resurrection and final judgment.

Though angels and risen spirits enjoy this rest already, mortals are far away from it, and by nature, are going in the opposite direction. All are making haste towards hell, until by conviction, Christ brings them to a halt, and then, by conversion, turns their hearts and lives sincerely to himself.

There are Five Conditions represented in the heavenly rest.

1.  Ceasing From the Means of Grace

When we have reached the port, we have finished sailing. When the workman receives his wages, it is implied he has done his work. There shall be no more prayer, because no more necessity, but the full enjoyment of what we prayed for. Neither shall we need to fast, and weep, and watch any more, being out of the reach of sin and temptations. Preaching is finished. The laborers are called in, because the harvest is gathered, the weeds burned, and the work completed. The unregenerate are past hope, and the saints are past fear forever.

2.  Perfect Freedom From All Evils

In heaven there is nothing that spoils. All that remains outside. There is not such a thing as grief or regret. No sorrow or sickness, no weak body, aching joints, helpless infancy, decrepit age, bad temperament, tormenting fears, alarming anxieties, stabbing pain, nor anything that deserves the name of evil. We wept when the world rejoiced, but our sorrow is turned to joy, and no one can ever take that joy away.

3.  Personal Perfection Both of Body and Soul

If God did not perfect us to make us capable of appreciating heaven, it would little matter to us how wonderful heaven might be. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). The physical eye is not capable of seeing them, nor this ear of hearing them, nor this heart of understanding them. In heaven the eye, ear, and heart are made capable. The more perfect the sight is, the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical the ear, the more pleasant the melody. The more perfect the soul, the more glorious to us is God’s glory.

4.  Nearness to God

This is very difficult to explain perfectly. If it did not appear to the beloved disciple what we shall be, but only in general that when Christ “shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2), no wonder if I know little. When I know so little of God, I cannot very well know what it is to enjoy Him.

I stand and look upon a hill of ants. They don’t know me, my nature, or my thoughts, though I am their fellow creature. How little, then, must we know of the great Creator, though He, with one view, clearly beholds us all.

If I should tell an unbeliever what the holiness and spiritual joys of the saints on earth are, he cannot understand; for grace cannot be clearly known without grace. How much less could he conceive it, should I tell him of the heavenly glory. But to the saints I may be somewhat more encouraged to speak, for grace gives them a slight foretaste of glory.

If men and angels should try to express the blessedness of that state, what could they say beyond this, that it is the nearest enjoyment of God? O the full joys offered to a believer in that one sentence of Christ, “Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be WITH ME where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me” (John 17:24).

5.  New Powers of Body and Soul In the Enjoyment of God
This eternal rest is not the rest of a stone which ceases from all motion. O Christian, this is a rest, as it were, without rest; for “they rest not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8). This BODY shall be so changed, that it shall no more be flesh and blood, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God; but a spiritual body. If grace makes a Christian differ so much from what he was, as to say, “I am not the man I was,” how much more will the resurrection make us different. Our senses shall exceed what we now experience. God will fill up, with Himself, the expanded capacity of our glorified senses. Certainly the body would not be raised up and continued if it were not to share in the glory.

D.  What About the Sabbath

1.  Many Christians have struggled over this issue of the Christian observance of the Sabbath

a.  Sabbatarians tend to argue that Sabbath observance originated at creation with God’s resting on the seventh day, and was a lasting ordinance for the human race

b.  They also point to the lasting nature of the Ten Commandments, nine of which are indisputably still binding on Christians in the New Covenant

2.  Is the Fourth Commandment still binding on Christians today?

3.  First and foremost… that issue is not really addressed in Hebrews 4… Hebrews 4 says the true Sabbath rest is faith in Christ; if Moses had given us rest, David would not have spoken later about another rest in Psalm 95

4.  Therefore, we must avoid all judgmentalism on this issue

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

5.  Ultimately this is a matter of personal conviction

Romans 14:5-6 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.

6.  It is very significant that the Sabbath regulation is in the Ten Commandments; all the other nine have a lasting claim on Christians

7.  Therefore, at least we can say that Christians ought not to forsake the assembling of themselves together… and that happens now for us on the Lord’s Day

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

8.  BUT the bottom line is: the true Sabbath rest is faith in Christ resulting in eternity in heaven