Jesus was the greatest rest

JESUS WAS THE GREATEST REST
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Hebrews 4:9 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-restfor
the people of God;
context
Hebrews 4:9-11 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-restfor the people of God;
10foranyone who enters God's restalso rests from their works, just as God
did from his. 11Letus, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that
no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
RestA Future Portion Of The Christian Believer
Hebrews 4:9
W. Jones
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. We have already
spokenof the restwhich is the present privilege of the Christian: "We which
have believed do enter into that rest." But that does not satisfy all our desire
and aspiration. We crave a deeper, fuller, more perfect rest than we enjoy
here. The higher life at present is one of intense and, at times, almostpainful
longing. Without the prospectof something better than our present best, our

life would not be satisfactory. "There remaineththerefore a rest [a keeping of
sabbath] for the people of God." This rest which is reservedis richer, fuller,
more glorious than that which is at present realized. The words used to
express them suggestthis. The chief meaning of κατάπαυσις (ver. 3) is
cessation, as from work, pain, etc. The restwhich it indicates is mainly
negative. But σαββατισμὸς (ver. 9) indicates a sabbath festalcelebration, a
holy keeping of sabbath; it comprises the rest of ver. 3 and considerably more.
Let us considerwhat this sabbath rest which remains for the people of God
consists in.
I. IN THE ABSENCE OF ALL THOSE DISTURBING INFLUENCES
WHICH CHARACTERIZE OUR PRESENT STATE.This is the negative
aspectof the rest, or what we shall restfrom.
1. Restfrom the struggle againstsin. The people of God in heaven are more
than conquerors over sin and Satan"through him that loved' them. The great
tempter, and solicitationto sin, will be entirely and eternally excluded from
that bright and blessedworld. "There shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth," etc.
2. Restfrom suffering, both physical and mental. "Theyshall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more" (Revelation7:16, 17). "The inhabitant shall not say, I
am sick." "And God shall wipe awayevery tear from their eyes," etc.
(Revelation21:4).
3. Restfrom the mystery and burden of life. In our present state there are
seasonsofdarkness and perplexity when trust and hope in God involve
painful effort to some souls. Such efforts will not be demanded in the blessed
hereafter. Much that to us is now obscure will then be perfectly clear. The
pure light of eternity will chase awaythe grim shadows oftime; and what is to
us unknown in heaven will awakenneither dread nor doubt.
4. Restfrom toilsome, anxious, discouraging labor. No more men and women
and children compelledto labor on long after their physical powers are tired
out. No more forcing of the brain to continued effort when it already aches
wearily by reasonof its toils. No further summons to works ofsocialor moral
amelioration, which must be prosecuteddespite difficulty, discouragement,

opposition, and seeming failure. The sabbath rest which remaineth for the
people of God precludes all these things.
II. IN THE PRESENCEOF ALL THE HARMONIOUS AND BLESSED
CONDITIONSAND CIRCUMSTANCESWHICH OUR NATURE CRAVES.
This is the positive aspectofour rest, or what we shall rest in.
1. In the conformity of our characterto that of God. Purity is peace. Holiness
is rest. The perfectly holy is the infinitely and ever-blessedGod. The saints in
heaven "have washedtheir robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb." Nor is their holiness the mere negationof moral evil, but a positive
and active condition of their being. Their thoughts, sympathies, aspirations,
services, are all true and pure and benevolent. They are spiritually
transformed into the image of the Lord. And in this there is restand
blessedness. "Ishall be satisfiedwhen I awakewith thy likeness."
2. In the progress ofour being towards God. Stagnationis not rest.
Stationariness is not rest;it is stillness, inaction, but not rest. But harmonious
growth is both restful and joyous. One of the constituents of the future rest of
the goodis growth- growth in mind and heart and spirit, in thought, and
affection, and reverence, andholy action. In endless approximation to the
infinitely Holy One will man find the rest and perfectionof his being.
3. In the continuous service of God. As this rest is a "keeping ofsabbath," it
cannot mean a complete cessationof activity. Inactivity is not rest. "Sloth
yieldeth not happiness;the bliss of a spirit is action;'
"An angel's wing would droop if long at rest,
And God himself, inactive, were no longer blest" So we read of the bright
future that "his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face." "They
are before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his
temple." T. Aquinas speaksofthis service as videre, amare, et laudare. But it
must not be limited to these exercises.Enoughfor us to know that there will
be services for us to render - continuous services, blessedservices, andall of
them in the service of our God. The rest and joy of this service will appear if
we consider:

(1) Its inspiration. Love to God is the impulse of every action, and transforms
every duty into a delight.
(2) Its nature. Every service will be sacred. The spirit in which it is done will
make all the work religious, worshipful.
(3) Its conditions. Freedomfrom all obstruction, from all restraint, and from
all fatigue.
4. In conscious andcontinuous communion with God. "He will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their
God, And they shall see his face." "We shallsee him even as he is." All the
redeemedin heavenare through Christ perfectly one with God in sympathies,
purposes, principles, and joys. God alone cansatisfy them. In him they rest
with deepest, holiestblessedness. Theyare "foreverwith the Lord." "In thy
presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore." This rest is "reservedfor the people of God." Only the sincere and
hearty believers in Jesus Christ will ever enter upon it. The characterof the
rest is conclusive as to this question. To experience the perfect rest of the
glorious future we must first experience the spiritual rest which is available
unto us at present. - W.J.
Biblical Illustrator
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Hebrews 4:9
The rest for God's people
T. B. Baker.
I. THE PERSONS FOR WHOM THIS REST IS DESIGNED. "The people of
God."
1. By their eternal electionof the Father (Romans 11:5).
2. By complete and final redemption (John 1:29).

3. By perfect righteousness imputed (Isaiah 45:24, 25).
4. By the renewing of the Holy Ghost(Colossians 3:10).
II. THE MANIFESTED DIFFERENCE IN GOD'S PEOPLE FROM THE
REPROBATE, AFTER THEYARE CONVERTED TO GOD BY THE
HOLY GHOST.
1. in a deep sense ofdivine things (1 Corinthians 2:10).
2. Of their miserable state as sinners (Luke 5:31).
3. Of creature-insufficiency(Isaiah 64:6).
4. Of Christ's fulness (Philippians 3:8).
5. In a change of will and purpose (Song of Solomon1:4).
6. A cordial covenanting with Christ (Jeremiah 50:5).
7. Persevering grace(Micah7:8).
III. THE EXCELLENT NATURE OF THIS REST. ITS excellencyis beyond
the powerof language to describe.
1. Purchasedrest(Ephesians 1:14).
2. Gratuitous rest(Isaiah 55:1).
3. Peculiarrest(John 14:22).
4. Divine rest (Revelation21:23).
5. Seasonable rest(Galatians 6:9).
6. Suitable rest(John 14:2).
7. Perfectrest(Revelation21:4).
8. Eternal rest(1 Peter 5:10).
9. Of body and soul (1 Corinthians 15:57).It is a rest from pain, sorrow,
disappointment, persecution, sin, lust, and infirmity; a rest of peace, joy, love,

knowledge, freedom, and a rest in God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost.
(T. B. Baker.)
Earnests ofultimate rest
N. Armstrong.
The earnests ofthis rest which are given to the saints in the present
dispensation. There is a threefold earnest — an earnestof joy, an earnestof
holiness, and an earnestof power. This threefold earnestcorresponds with the
characterof the inheritance itself — it is an inheritance of joy, an inheritance
of holiness, and an inheritance of power, of dominion. The earnest
corresponds with the blessings to be enjoyed; the earnestcorresponds with the
salvationto be enjoyed. Now, what is the salvationto be enjoyed? Salvation
menus the recoveryof all we lost in Adam in a more glorious way than he had
it. What did we lose in Adam? We lostthe presence ofGod first; we lostthe
image of God secondly;and we lost the power of exercising dominion under
God. These three things we lost in Adam; these three things we gain in Christ.
We shall have the joy of God, going into His presence where there is fulness of
joy. We shall have the likeness of God — we shall awake, andshall be satisfied
when we awake inHis likeness;we shall be conformed to Him who is the
image of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies, and
fashion them after His ownglorious body — we shall see Him as He is. We
shall have dominion; for the saints shall reign with Christ; the bridegroom
and the bride shall reign together.
(N. Armstrong.)
The connectionbetweenthe Sabbath of earth and the engagements ofheaven
R. S. McAll, LL. D.

Heaven may be denominated a Sabbath, if the following reflections be
seriouslyconsidered.
1. It may be so called for its repose. An eternal rest! Oh, happy thought,
amidst the toils of the wilderness, amidst the fears with which we are now
agitated, that we shall soonfind rest; like the coming of eventide to the
labourer, like the appearance ofhome to the traveller as he is advancing to
repose amidst his household, so shall heaven be to the soul!
2. Heaven may well be calledan eternal Sabbath for its sanctity. Holiness is its
character, not holiness which arises merely from the absence ofsin, but
holiness which is inherent; that holiness whereby we are prepared in all we
do, and all we enjoy, to possessmore and more felicity, in proportion as we
accomplishmore and more the will of the greatCreator. so that we are
absolutely a living sacrifice to God throughout ceaseless ages.
3. Heaven may be denominated an eternalSabbath for its services.
4. Heaven may be calledan eternalSabbath for its society. Neverwould the
Church of Christ realise a fulness of fellowship but for the engagements ofthe
Sabbath.
5. Heaven may be calledan eternalSabbath for its delights.
6. Heaven may be calledan eternalSabbath because ofthe termination of all
seculareras and events. Just as the Sabbath crowns and hallows the week, so
heaven comes atthe close oftime to crown and hallow the whole.
7. Heaven may be calledan eternalSabbath for the perpetual commemoration
of the history of all things.
(R. S. McAll, LL. D.)
The rest of God's people
R. D. B. Rawnsley, M. A.

I. IT IS A FUTURE REST. It is not on this side the grave. This — it is
emphatically said — this is not your rest. Ye have not yet come to the rest and
to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. We must go over
Jordan — we must cross the river of death before we can reachour home. But
till then, while we continue in the world, it is vain and fruitless to expectrest.
There may be seasons ofrefreshment: pauses, like the Sabbath's pause, for
recruiting our tired spirits; but these seasons andpauses are but for an
instant. Work — work of one kind or other presses upon us, and we cannot, if
we would, be long at rest.
II. HEAVEN, whateverother notions we may have about it, WILL BE,
BEFORE ALL THINGS, A PLACE TO REST.
(R. D. B. Rawnsley, M. A.)
The rest of the saints
J. Burns, D. D.
Scripture allows us to know so much of the future state as to satisfy us that it
is a state of continual exaltedemployment.
I. They restFROM THE TOILS AND PURSUITS OF THE PRESENTLIFE.
Toils and pursuits of various kinds, and in different degrees, necessarily
occupy much of our attention. We are animated with a strong desire of
preserving ourselves and those who depend upon us in life and comfort, hence
much labour and exertion fall to the lot of the generality of mankind; it is also
a part of the curse denounced againstour apostate race:"In the sweatofthy
face shalt thou eatbread." Of the small proportion of men who do not
procure their subsistence by bodily labour, exertion of another kind is
required; they have to undergo the labours of the mind, study, and reflection,
and extensive researchin managing the religious and the civil concerns of
their fellow-creatures.To those who exert themselves vigorouslyand
conscientiouslyin the one or the other of these kinds of labour, it is no
unpleasant view of heaven that it yields a relief from such toils and pursuits.

II. In heaven there is rest FROM THE TROUBLES OF LIFE. These are
inseparable from our present condition, being the natural and penal
consequencesofsin. "Although affliction cometh net forth of the dust, neither
doth trouble spring out of the ground, yet man is born unto trouble as the
sparks fly upward." It arises from what we feel in ourselves, from disease, and
pain, and weakness, andfrom "the fear of death"; it arises also from our
connectionwith fellow-creatures:those with whom we are united by the most
tender and endearing ties are subject, like ourselves, to a variety of distresses.
How soothing in such situations the belief, the hope, and the prospectof that "
rest which remaineth for the people of God" — a state where disease andpain
are wholly unknown, or remembered as " former things which have passed
away;" "a land, the inhabitants whereofshall no more say, I am sick";and
where those whom death had separatedshall meet to part no more!
III. "There remaineth a restto the people of God" FROM SIN AND
TEMPTATION.The former views which have been presented of this "rest"
may engage the attention and please the imagination of all men, Whatever be
their slate and character. It is natural to human beings to desire exemption
from toil and from trouble. Too many, it is feared, wish for heavenchiefly or
wholly on these accounts;they have little or no desire of heavenas a
deliverance from sin and from temptations to sin; they are the justified and
sanctifiedalone who delight chiefly in this view of a future state. Besides this
painful contestwith inward corruption, there is also a conflictto be
maintained with Satan, the great spiritual adversary. The world also in which
they live, both the men of the world and "the things that are in the world,"
present many powerful temptations; snares besetthem on every side;
prosperity and adversity have eachtheir severaldangers to Christians. It is,
therefore, to them the most pleasing view of heaven that it is a rest from sin
and from all temptations to sin.
(J. Burns, D. D.)
Rest
DeanVaughan.

Have we not all seena Sunday which was a Sunday indeed — a day of calm
and of cheerfulness, a day of thankful repose, a day of quiet devotion, a day in
which God was present as the Fatherof mercies and the God of all comfort?
Witness, you who have known such a day yourselves or seenit in another,
what a look it wore I how bright it was with a light not of this world I how it
seemedat once to refresh and to invigorate, to soothe without "relaxing" and
to animate without exciting, every part of that complex being which man is!
And then sayto yourselves, Such, even such, only tenfold more perfect and
more glorious, is the restwhich remaineth in heavenfor the people of God! "
No day of wearisome forms, of gloomy bondage and austere observance, of
lifeless monotonous worship, or listless irksome vacancy, but one instinct with
peace, with life, and with happiness. There remaineth a rest — a rest like the
most delightful of Sabbaths, even because it is long waitedfor, and because,
when it comes, it is a day better than a thousand.
I. A restFROM what?
I. From our ownworks. Ye who have known what it was to have reachedthe
end of a six days' or a six months' toil, and to awakenthe next morning to the
rest of an earthly Sabbath, where there was no duty before you for twelve
hours but that of thanking and praising God, and enjoying to the full His gifts
and His revelations — judge ye what that morning will be when you awake in
heaven, never againto toil unto weariness!
2. But who has not felt that there is a weariness fargreaterthan that of simple
work, and, by consequence, a restfar more desirable than that from mere
labour? In heaven there will be rest from all anxiety and care.
3. And shall I mention yet another weariness oflife, one which besets in these
days some of every condition and every rank of men? I speak of doubt — of
religious doubt — doubt as to the reality of truth, or doubt as to its
application to ourselves. Of all the joys of the first morning of heaven, to
many souls in our generation, surely this will be the greatest — that doubt is
no more; that Christ Himself is there, seenface to face, and the truth which
was dim upon earth is there irradiated by His presence.

4. Lastly, the rest which remaineth is a rest from sin. "Grieved and wearied
with the burden of our sins:" that is the accountwhich we all give of ourselves
when we kneelat Christ's holy table. WhereverChrist is soughtin humble
faith, the pilgrim's burden unties itself at the sight of the Cross, and falls off
from him, to his greatcomfort. But old infirmities continue, and leadto new
transgressions. Only in heaven will the powerof sin be ended.
II. RestIN what?
1. In thankfulness. Dangers escaped — infirmities healed — sins forgiven —
sorrows cheeredonearth or explained in heaven — an arresting, controlling,
guiding, and supporting hand, now believed and then seento have been over
us all our life long — the forbearance ofGod — the map of our pilgrimage,
inward and outward, at lastspread out before us, and the light of heaven
thrown upon its windings and its wanderings;in all this there will be matter
for an eternity of thankfulness.
2. In occupation.
3. In contemplation. The contemplation of God Himself. The understanding,
as never before, of His works, ofHis ways, of His perfections.
4. In Christ's presence. This completes, this embraces allheaven.
(DeanVaughan.)
Heavenly rest
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. I shall try to EXHIBIT the rest of heaven; and in doing so I shall exhibit it,
first by way of contrast, and then by way of comparison.
1. The rest of the righteous in glory is now to be contrastedwith certain other
things.(1) We will contrastit with the best estate ofthe worldling and the
sinner. The worldling, when his corn and his wine are increased, has a glad
eve and a joyous heart: but even then he has the direful thought that he may
soonleave his wealth. Not so the righteous man: he has obtained an

inheritance which is " undefiled, and that fadeth not away."(2):Now letme
put it in more pleasing contrast. I shall contrastthe rest of the believer above
with the miserable estate ofthe believer sometimes here below. Christians
have their sorrows. Suns have their spots, skies have their clouds, and
Christians have their sorrows too. But oh! how different will the state of the
righteous be up there, from the state of the believer here! Sheathed is the
sword, the banner is furled, the fight is over, the victory won; and they rest
from their labours. Here, too, the Christian is always sailing onward, he is
always in motion, he feels that he has not yet attained. Like Paul, he can say,
"Forgetting the things that are behind, I press forward to that which is
before." But there his wearyhead shall be crownedwith unfading light. There
the ship that has been speeding onward shall furl its sails in the port of eternal
bliss. Here, too, the believer is often the subject of doubt and fear. Hill
Difficulty often affrights him; going down into the valley of humiliation is
often troublesome work to him; but there, there are no hills to climb, no
dragons to fight, no foes to conquer, no dangers to dread. Ready-to-halt, when
he dies, will bury his crutches, and Feeble-mind will leave his feebleness
behind him: Fearing will never fearagain; poor Doubtingheart will learn
confidently to believe. Oh, joy above all joys! Here, too, on earth, the
Christian has to suffer; here he has the aching head and the pained body. Or
if his body be sound, yet what suffering he has in his mind! Conflicts between
depravity and gross temptations from the evil one, assaults ofhell, perpetual
attacks ofdivers kinds from the world, the flesh, and the devil. But there, no
aching head, no wearyheart; old age shall find itself endowedwith perpetual
youth; there the infirmities of the flesh shall be left behind, given to the worm
and devoured by corruption. There, too, they shall be free from persecution.
Here Sicilian Vespers, and St. Bartholomew, and Smithfield are well-known
words; but there shall be none to taunt them with a cruel word, or touch them
with a cruel hand. There emperors and kings are not known, and those who
had powerto torture them cease to be. They are in the societyof saints; they
shall be free from all the idle converse ofthe wicked, and from their cruel
jeers setfree for ever. Alas! in this mortal state the child of God is also subject
to sin; even he faileth in his duty and wandereth from his God; even he doth
not walk in all the law of his God blameless, though he desireth to do it. And
last of all, here, the child of God has to wet the cold ashes of his relatives with

tears;here he has to bid adieu to all that is lovely and fair of mortal race. But
there never once shall be heard the toll of the funeral bell.
2. And now I shall try very briefly to exhibit this contrastin the way of
comparison. The Christian hath some rest here, but nothing compared with
the restwhich is to come.(1)There is the restof the Church. The Church-
member at the Lord's table has a sweetenjoyment of rest in fellowship with
the saints;but ah! up there the restof Church fellowship far surpasses
anything that is known here; for there are no divisions there, no angry words,
no harsh thoughts of one another, no bickerings about doctrine, no fightings
about practice.(2)There is, again, a rest of faith which a Christian enjoys;a
sweetrest. Many of us have knownit. We have knownwhat it is, when the
billows of trouble have run high, to hide ourselves in the breast of Christ and
feel secure. But the rest up there is better still, more unruffled, more sweet,
more perfectly calm, more enduring, and more lasting than even the rest of
faith.(3) And, again, the Christian sometimes has the blessedrestof
communion. There are happy moments when he puts his head on the
Saviour's breast — when, like John, he feels that he is close to the Saviour's
heart, and there he sleeps.
II. I am to endeavourto EXTOL this rest, as I have tried to EXHIBIT it. Oh!
for the lip of angelto talk now of the bliss of the sanctified and of the rest of
God's people I
1. It is a perfect rest. They are wholly at restin heaven.
2. Again, it is a seasonable rest.
3. This restought to be extolled because it is eternal.
4. And then, lastly, this glorious rest is to be best of all commended for its
certainty.There remaineth a rest to the people of God. Doubting one, thou
hast often said, "I fear I shall never enter heaven." Fearnot; all the people of
God shall enter there; there is no fear about it. I love the quaint saying of a
dying man, who exclaimed, "I have no fear of going home; I have sent all
before me; God's finger is on the latch of my door and I am ready for Him to
enter." "But," said one, "are you not afraid lest you should miss your

inheritance?" "Nay," saidhe, "nay; there is one crownin heaventhat the
angelGabriel could not wear;it will fit no head but mine. There is one throne
in heaven that Paul the apostle could not fill; it was made for me, and I shall
have it. There is one dish at the banquet that I must eat, or else it will be
untasted, for God has setit apart for me."
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Divine rest
Jr. Baldwin Brown, B. A.
I. WHAT MAN SUPREMELYNEEDS IS NOT REST FROM WORKBUT
REST FROM CARE.
1. What is care? It is the experience of the man who is bent on being his own
providence; who takes on himself the whole responsibility, not of the conduct
of life only, but of the conditions and results which are absolutelybeyond his
powerof regulation, and which God keeps calmly under His own hand.
2. This rest from care has been the greataim and desire of man through all his
generations. The problem of man's higher life has always been how to secure
emancipation.
3. But the sad part of the matter is, that man does not and cannotrest in mere
renunciations and denials. There is a question in the backgroundwhich has its
origin in every conscience. How, onthis principle, can the world's business be
carried on? No! there is no rest for the human spirit in this burying the head
in the sand when troubles throng around.
II. THE ONLY POSSIBLE RESTFOR MAN IS THE REST THAT HE
FINDS IN GOD.
1. The lowest, but by no means the leastburdensome and distracting class of
our cares concerns "the greatbread-and-cheese question" and its
surroundings.

2. A nobler form of care is that which has to do with persons, that which
springs out of our affections, sympathies and loves.
3. The same faith lifts the burden from the heart of the Christian lover of
mankind. In truth we are always calling for the twelve legions of angels to
finish the work swiftly and usher in Messiah's reign. And God answers,
"Patience," andpoints us to the redemptive purpose which stamped its
impress on the first page of revelation and sets its sealon the last; and bids us
wait His time. The man who trusts most perfectly, works mostheartily.
Christ, while He lifts the burdens, braces the energies, inspires the will, and
parades all the faculties of man in their noblest form for service. The man who
believes, understands perfectly that the most strenuous use of all the powers of
his being is one of the high conditions by which God is seeking to work out
blessing for him self, for his dear ones, and for the greatworld.
(Jr. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
The true restof heaven
J. S. Knox, M. A.
Our notions of bodily rest rarely extend beyond mere cessationfrom muscular
exertion. Our ideas also of mental rest are commonly limited to a similar
period put to the labours of the mind. It is easy, and perhaps not always
displeasing, to apply similar expectations to spiritual as wellas bodily and
mental relaxation, and to regard the promised Sabbath in heavenas a
complete termination of every spiritual effort. Hope is a work;faith is a work;
love we look upon as an emotion. The two former will not be calledinto action
in the mansions of eternity. The latter, we are apt to conceive, willfill our
breastwith infused delight. There are indeed agreeable views ofthe saints'
everlasting rest; but are they also in accordancewith the revelations of
Scripture? You will find not: you will see that the people of God in an after-
state will truly rest from their pilgrimage through this weary world; but from
the worship of God His saints will rest no more; with kindred spirits they will
day and night for ever cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, who wert,

and art, and art to come." Now, while heavenis the abode of love, that love
will have utterance;while the object of our love and gratitude and joy is
before the glorified, the tongue of love and gratitude and joy will never fail.
No rest for happiness; no rest for worship, no more than we should desire new
a rest from breathing. And we have glimpses here of the true characterof
happy rest. Were the father of a family to return to his home after a tedious
and toilsome journey and long absence, and instantly, without saluting wife or
children, to casthimself upon his bed and fall asleep, this would be rest
certainly, but of what a low, animal characterI And were another father
under like Circumstances to embrace wife and children with fondest
affections, and to assemble them around him to narrate the adventures he had
met with, and ask of them a similar return, whether, think you, would be the
preferable rest? I anticipate but one answer. But it may be said that extreme
fatigue might overcome eventhe strongestregard, and that the most loving
parent might be unable to enjoy the societyof his household. Do you suppose
that this, which is quite in accordancewith earthly experience, couldbe so in
heaven? Would God receive us into those blessedabodes, andleave us
destitute of the faculty of enjoying them? You well know that that would be
far from Him. No; they who are brought into that future world will be gifted
with every capacitysuitable to the most perfect use of it. And as this life is a
training for the next — a probation wherein is practisedthe conduct and
temper which shall endure for ever — does it not follow that you should now
cultivate those habits and feelings which alone will find admittance there?
(J. S. Knox, M. A.)
The rest of God's people in heaven
W. Jones, D.D.
1. We shall rest from the labours of our calling, wherewithwe arc turmoiled.
The husbandman shall follow the plough no longer, the weavershall sit no
longerin the cold in his loom, the clothier not ride up and down in the ram,
frost and snow, about his wooland cloth; the preachershall no longerbe
turning over books and taking pains in his study and pulpit; we shall ride no

more to market to buy corn, to make provision for our houses;we shall no
longertake thought for ourselves, our wives and children; we shall have all
things provided to our hands, and eatof the hidden manna and of the tree of
life in the paradise of God for ever.
2. We shall rest even from the works ofreligion, which are now chariots to
carry us to heaven. We shall no longer be turning over the Bible in our houses,
catechising and instructing of our families; no more go many a mile in the dirt
and wind to the church, shall no more be praying with cries, sighs, and tears;
thanksgiving shall remain in heaven. It shall be all our work to be praising of
God, but petitions shall then cease;no need of the ship when we be in heaven.
3. We shall rest from the works ofsin; here in many things we sin all. Noahis
sometimes overtakenwith wine, David falls into adultery and murder, Peter
into the denial of Christ, Paul and Barnabas are at jars betweenthemselves.
"The goodthat we would do, that do we not, and the evil we would not, that
do we." Sin makes us to cry out like tired porters, "O miserable men that we
are," &e. Then we shall rest from all sin, and be like the angels in heaven for
ever.
4. We shall rest from all the crossesand calamities ofthis life.
5. We shall rest from death. It is a work to die; it is a main enemy with whom
we struggle. But then this lastenemy shall be put under our feet, death shall
be swallowedup into victory. O what an excellentrest is this I
(W. Jones, D.D.)
The world not a fit place for rest
W. Gouge.
1. This world is not a fit place, nor this life a fit time to enjoy such a restas is
reservedin heaven.

2. Resthere would glue our hearts too much to this world, and make us say,
"It is goodto be here" (Matt,. 17:4). It would slack our longing desire after
Christ in heaven. Death would be more irksome, and heaven the less welcome.
3. There would be no proof or trial of our spiritual armour, and of the several
graces ofGod bestowedonus.
4. God's providence, prudence, power, mercy and other like properties could
not be so well discernedif here we enjoyed that rest.
(W. Gouge.)
Restelsewhere
"Restelsewhere,"was the motto of Philip de Marnix, Lord Sainte-Aldegonde,
one of the most efficientleaders in that greatNetherlands revolt against
despotism in the sixteenth century which supplied material for perhaps the
most momentous chapter in the civil and religious history of the world. For a
man such as he, living in such a time, no motto could well mean more. A
friend of freedom and of truth, in that age, couldnever hope to find restin
this world. A goodmotto, also, is it for the Christian worker. When there is so
much to be done, who would be inactive here? "Wearynot in well doing."
There is restelsewhere. Retire notfrom your labour. Work on! There will be
rest hereafter.
Restin eternity
Arnauld's (of the Port RoyalSociety), remarkable reply to Nicolle, whenthey
were hunted from place to place, can never be forgotten. Arnauld wished
Nicolle to assisthim in a new work, when the latter observed, "We are now
old, is it not time to rest?" "Rest!"returned Arnauld; "have we not all
eternity to rest in?"
The weariness oflife

C. Stanford, D. D.
For the young, this is fresh, beautiful, sunlit life; to the old, it is often what
Talleyrand found it, who in the journal of his eighty-third birthday wrote,
"Life is a long fatigue." Weary eyes droop, weary shoulders bend, weary
hands tremble, wearyfeet drag heavily along, wearybrows burn, weary
hearts faint everywhere. The primary cause ofthe universal weariness is
universal sin. The needle forced from its centre is in a state of tremulous
motion; man wanderedfrom his God is in a state of weariness. Thoughnow
on the way back, he will never be perfectly at restuntil finally at home.
(C. Stanford, D. D.)
The .final Sabbath
F. Delitzsch.
The final Sabbath will not, therefore, be realisedtill time is swallowedup of
eternity, and mortality of life. It will be the eternal conclusionof the week of
time, as sevenis the numeric symbol of perfectionand rest.
(F. Delitzsch.)
Restin heaven
E. Payson, D. D.
Once I dreamed of being transported to heaven; and being surprised to find
myself so calm and tranquil in the midst of my happiness, I inquired the
cause. The reply was, "Whenyou were on earth, you resembleda bottle but
partly filled with water, which was agitatedby the leastmotion, — now you
are like the same bottle filled to the brim, which cannot be disturbed.
(E. Payson, D. D.)

Image of heaven
Baxendale's Anecdotes.
A sorrowing mother, bending over her dying child, was trying to soothe it by
talking about heaven. She spoke of the glory there, of the brightness, of the
shining countenances ofthe angels;but a little voice stopped her, saying, "I
should not like to be there, mother, for the light hurts my eyes." Thenshe
changedher word-picture, and spoke ofthe songs above, ofthe harpers, of the
voice of many waters, ofthe new song which they sang before the throne; but
the child said, "Mother, I cannot bear any noise." Grievedand disappointed
at her failure, she took the little one in her arms with all the tenderness of a
mother's love. Then, as the little sufferer lay there, near to all it loved best in
the world, consciousonly of the nearness oflove and care, the whisper came,
"Mother, if heaven is like this, may Jesus take me there!"
(Baxendale's Anecdotes.)
Heaven the place to rest in
T. Secker.
The earth is our workhouse, but heaven is our storehouse. This is a place to
run in, and that is a place to rest in.
(T. Secker.)
The work over
Mr. Mead, an agedChristian, when askedhow he did, answered, "Iam going
home as fastas I can, as every honest man ought to do when his day's work is
over; and I bless God I have a goodhome to go to."
The people of God.

The people of God
D. Ruell, M. A.
I. THE GREAT FACT WHICH IS HERE IMPLIED. That God has a people
— a people who are peculiarly His ownand devoted to His service.
1. Let us look into the past history of the Church. What illustrious examples of
faith, and piety, and real devotedness to God do we discover!
2. In the present day there ate many such.
3. If we look at prophecy, we shall find that the number of God's people are
numerous indeed.
II. SOME TRIALS IN" THEIR CHARACTER.
1. The real servant of God, to whatevercommunity or church he may belong,
is deeply convincedof the value and importance of personalreligion.
2. The true servant of God renounces selfand all else as a ground of
dependence in the sight of God, and depends entirely on the atonement,
sacrifice, blood, and righteousness ofthe Lord Jesus Christ.
3. He cultivates universal holiness of heart and life.
III. THE FUTURE DELIGHTFUL AND GLORIOUS PROSPECTSOF THE
TRUE CHRISTIAN. Lessons:
1. The awful state of those who do not come up to this character.
2. How greatare the obligations of real Christians to serve God.
3. How amiable is the characterof the realChristian!
(D. Ruell, M. A.)
The people of God
W. Jones, D. D.

All nations in the world are His people by creation, but these are His people
by adoption.
1. Every people is gatheredtogetherby some means or other; a people is a
collectionof many men. So we that are the people of God, are gathered
togetherwith the trumpet of the Word.
2. A people gathered togethermust have laws to rule them by, otherwise they
will soonbe out of order, otherwise they will range beyond limits, even so
God's people have God's laws set down in His Word.
3. Every people must have a king or ruler. Even so the ruler of God's people is
Jesus Christ.
4. A people must have some country to dwell in. So the country where this
people dwell is the Church militant in this life, and triumphant in the life to
come.
5. All people are distinguished by some outward habit and attire. So God's
people have the sacraments to distinguish them. Baptism is Christ's mark, and
the Holy Supper His seal.
6. People must live in obedience to the laws of their king.
(W. Jones, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
ENTRANCE INTO GOD’S REST

Hebrews 4:9-10WE lose much of the meaning of this passageby our
superficial habit of transferring it to a future state. The ground of the mistake
is in the misinterpretation of that word ‘remaineth’; which is takento point to
the ‘rest,’after the sorrows ofthis life are all done with. Of course there is
such a rest; but if we take the contextof the passage, we cannotbut recognise
this as the truth that is taught here, that faith, and not death, is the gate to
participation in Christ’s rest - that the restremained over after Moses and
Judaism, but came into possessionunder and by Christ.
For the main scope of the whole passageis the elucidation of one of the points
in which the writer asserts the superiority of Christ to Moses, ofChristianity
to Judaism. That old system, says he, had in it for its very heart a promise of
rest; but it had only a promise.
It could not give the thing that it held forth. It could not, by the nature of the
system. It could not, as is manifest from this fact - that years after they had
entered into possessionof the land, years after the promise had been first
given, the Psalmist represents the entrance into that restas a privilege not yet
realised, but waiting to be graspedby the men of day whose hearts were
softenedto hear God’s voice. David’s words clearly, to the mind of the writer
of the epistle, show that Canaanwas not the promised ‘rest.’ David treats it as
being obtained by obedience to God’s Word; and as not yet possessedby the
people, though they had the promised land. He treats it as then, in his own
‘day,’ still but a promise, and a promise which would not be fulfilled to his
people if they hardened their hearts. All this carries the inference that the
Mosaic systemdid not give the ‘rest’ which it promised. Hence, says the
author of the Hebrews, that ‘rest’ held forth from the beginning, gleaming
before all generations ofthe Jewishpeople, but to them only a fair vision,
remains unpossessedas yet, but to be possessed. God’s word has been pledged.
He has said that there shall be a share in His rest for His people. The ancient
people did not get it. What then? Is God’s promise thereby cancelled? ‘They
could not enter in because ofunbelief,’ but the unbelief of man shall not make

the faith of God without effect. Therefore, as the eternalpromise has been
given, and they counted themselves unworthy, the divine mercy which will
find some to enter therein, and will not be balked of its purposes, turns to the
Gentiles;and the ‘rest’ provided for the Jews first, but unacceptedby them,
remains for all who believe to partake.
And, still further, the writer establishes the principle that the restpromised to
the Jew remains yet to be inherited by the Christian, on a secondground:
‘For,’ says he, in the tenth verse of the chapter, ‘for He that is entered into His
rest, He also has ceasedfrom His ownworks, as God did from His.’ How is
that a proof? It is not a proof that there is a restfor us, if you interpret it as
people generallydo. But it is so if you give to it what seems to be the correct
interpretation - by referring it to Christ and Christ’s heavenly condition. ‘He
that has entered into His rest - that is Jesus Christ, ‘He has ceasedfrom His
own works’ - His finished work of redemption - ‘as God did from His’ His
finished work of creation. And there is the greatproof that there is a rest for
us: not only because Judaismdid not bring it, but because Christhath gone
up on high. We have a greatHigh Priest that is passedinto the heavens. Christ
our Lord has entered into His rest - parallel with the divine tranquillity after
Creation. And seeing that He possessesit, certainly we shall possessit if only
we hold fast by Him. ‘There remains a rest’ - proved by the fact that Christ
hath gone into it, and carrying the inference, ‘Let us labour, therefore, to
enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.’
We find here, then, three main points. First, the divine rest, God’s and
Christ’s. Secondly, this divine rest, the pattern of what our life on earth may
become. And lastly, this divine rest, the prophecy of what our life in heaven
shall assuredlybe.
I. In the first place, then, we have here the divine rest.

‘He hath ceasedfrom His own works, as Goddid from His.’ The writer is
drawing a parallel betweenGod’s ceasing from His creative work and
entering into that Sabbath rest when He saw everything that He had made,
and behold it was very good;and Christ’s ceasing from the work of
redemption, and passing into the heavens to the Sabbath of His everlasting
repose.
I need not dwell at any length upon a matter which, after all speech, remains
for us but very dimly intelligible - the rest of God. ‘My rest’ - that rest belongs
necessarilyto the Divine Nature. It is the deep tranquillity of a nature self-
sufficing in its infinite beauty, calm in its everlasting strength, placid in its
deepestjoy, still in its mightiest energy;loving without passion, willing
without decisionor change, acting without effort; quiet, and moving
everything; making all things new, and itself everlasting;creating, and
knowing no diminution by the act; annihilating, and knowing no loss though
the universe were barren and unpeopled. God is, God is everywhere, God is
everywhere the same, Godis everywhere the same infinite, God is everywhere
the same infinite love and the same infinite self- sufficiency; therefore His very
Being is rest. And yet that image that rises before us, statuesque, still in its
placid tranquillity, is not repellent nor cold, is no dead marble likeness oflife.
That greatoceanof the Divine Nature which knows no storm nor billow, is yet
not a tideless and stagnantsea. Godis changeless andever tranquil, and yet
He loves. God is changelessand ever tranquil, and yet He wills. God is
changelessandever tranquil, and yet He acts. Mysteryof mysteries, passing
all understanding I And yet He says, ‘They shall enter into My rest!’ Now I
believe, and I hope you believe, that the restof Christ is like the rest of God,
even in respectof this Divine and Infinite Nature. ‘He hath ceasedfrom His
works, as Goddid from His.’ Jesus Christis ‘the same yesterday, and to-day,
and for ever.’ Whatsoeveryou can predicate of the settledtranquillity, and
stable, necessary, essentialrepose ofa divine nature, that you can predicate of
Christ our Redeemer, of Christ the Sonof God.

But still further. Besides that deep and changelessrepose whichthus belongs
to the Divine Nature, there is the other thought which perhaps comes more
markedly out in the passagebefore us - that of a restwhich is God’s tranquil
ceasing from His work, because Godhas perfectedHis work. When we read in
the Old Testament, that at the end of the creative act, God restedupon the
Sabbath day, and blessedthe seventhday and hallowedit, of course the
thought that comes into view is not that of a divine nature weariedwith toil
and needing repose, but that of a divine nature which has fully accomplished
its intent, expressedits purpose, done what it meant to do, and rests from its
working Becauseit has embodied its ideal in its work. It is the proclamation,
‘This creationof Mine is all that I meant it to be - finished and perfect’; not
the acknowledgmentofan exhaustion of the creative energy which needs to
reinvigorate its strength by repose after its mighty ,effort. The rest of God is
the expressionofthe perfect divine complacencyin the perfect divine work.
And, in like manner, as after that creative act there came the Sabbath, when
He saw that it was all very good, and the morning stars sang togetherfor joy;-
so after the mightier new-creative actof redemption, the Christ, who is divine,
ceasedand held His hand, not because Bethlehemand Calvary had wearied
Him, not because afterpain He neededrest, not because the Cross had tasked
His powers, and His suffering had strained His nature; but because allthat
had to be done was done, and He knew it-because redemption was completed.
The Sabbath on which God restedfrom His work, and the new Sabbath on
which Christ rose from the dead, the conquerorof death, the destruction of
sin, are parallel in this, that in either case the work was done, that in either
case the Doerneeded no repose afterHis finished task. And just as God, full of
all the energy of being, operatedunspent after creation, needednot that rest
for His refreshment, but took it as the pledge and proclamationto the
universe that all was done; so Christ, unwearied and unwounded from His
dreadful close and sore wrestle with sin and death, sprung from the grave to
the skies, andrests - proclamationand token to the world that His work is
finished, that the Cross is enough for the race for ever more, that all is
complete, and man’s salvationsecured. As God hath ceasedfrom His works,
Christ hath ceasedfrom His.

Still further: this divine tranquility - inseparable from the Divine Nature, the
tokenof the sufficiency and completenessofthe divine work - is also a rest
that is full of work. When Christ was telling the Jews the principles of the
Sabbath day, He said to them: ‘My Father workethhitherto, and I work.’The
creative actis finished and God rests;but God, in resting, works;even as God,
in working, rests. Preservationis a continued creation. The energy of the
divine power is as mightily at work here now sustaining us in life, as it was
when He flung forth stars and systems like sparks from a forge, and willed the
universe into being. God rests, and in His rest, up to the present hour and for
ever, Godworks. And, in like manner, Christ’s work of redemption, finished
upon the Cross, is perpetually going on. Christ’s glorious repose is full of
energy for His people. He intercedes above. He works onthem, He works
through them, He works for them. The rest of God, the divine tranquillity, is
full of work. There, then, is a parallel: the rest of the Father, who ceasedfrom
His work of creation, and continueth His work of preservation, is parallel with
that of the Son, who ceasedfrom His work of sacrifice, andcontinueth His
work of intercessionand of sanctifying. These two are one. ‘My rest’ is the
rest of the Fatherin the Son, and of the Son in the Father. That still
communion and that everlasting repose are a prophecy for our lives, brethren.
The ancient promise, long repeated, has come sounding down through the
echoing halls of the centuries, and rings in our ears as fresh as when first it
was spoken, ‘There remaineth a rest for the people of God,’ they shall enter
into the stillness and the secretofHis tranquillity!
II. Then, in the secondplace, the text gives us, The rest of God and of Christ
as the pattern of what our earthly life may become.
Like Christ, like God - canit be? It can be, with certain differences;but oh!
the differences drop into insignificance when we think of the resemblances.
Whether a man is capable of knowing absolute truth or not, he is capable of
coming into direct and personalcontactwith the absolute Reality, the Truth

of Truth. And whether here below we can know anything about Godas He is
or not, this at all events the New Testamentteaches us, that we cancome to be
like Him - like Him in the substance of our souls; like Him - copy of His
perfections;like Him - shadow and resemblance of some of His attributes.
And here lies the foundation for the belief that we can ‘ enter into His rest.’
We cannotpossessthat changelesstranquillity which knows no variations of
purpose or of desire, but we canpossessthe stable repose of that fixed nature
which knows one object, and one alone. We cannotpossessthat energywhich,
after all work, is fresh and unbroken; but we can possessthattranquillity
which in all toil is not troubled, and after all work is ready for yet greater
service. We cannot possess thatunwavering fire of a divine nature which
burns in love without flickering, which knows without learning, which wills
without irresolution and without the act of decision;but we can come to love
deeply, tranquilly, perpetually, we cancome to know without questioning,
without doubts, without darkness, in firm confidence of stable assurance, and
so know with something like the knowledge ofHim who knows things as they
are; and we can come to will and resolve so strongly, so fixedly, so wisely, that
there shall he no change of purpose, nor any vacillation of desire. In these
ways, in shadow and copy, we canresemble even the apparently
incommunicable tranquillity which, like an atmosphere that knows no
tempests, belongs to and encircles the throne of God.
But, still further: faith, which is the means of entering into rest, will - if only
you cherishit - make your life no unworthy resemblance of His who,
triumphant above, works for us, and, working for us, rests from all His toil.
Trust Christ! is the teaching here. Trust Christ! and a greatbenediction of
tranquil repose comes downupon thy calm mind and upon thy settledheart.
Trust Christ! and so thy soul will no longerbe like ‘the sea that cannot rest,’
full of turbulent wishes, full of passionate desires that come to nothing, full of
endless meanings, like the homeless oceanthat is ever working and never
flings up any product of its work but yeastyfoam and broken weeds;- but
thine heart shall become translucent and still, like some land-lockedlake,
where no winds rave nor tempests ruffle; and on its calm surface there shall
be mirrored the clearshining of the unclouded blue, and the perpetual light of

the sun that never goes down. Trust Christ! and rest is thine - rest from fear,
rest from toil and trouble, restfrom sorrow, rest from the tossings ofthine
own soul, rest from the tumults of thine own desires, restfrom the stings of
thine own conscience, rest from seeking to work out a righteousness ofthine
own. Trust Christ, ceasefrom ‘thine ownworks,’forsake thine own doings,
and abjure and abandon thine ownrighteousness;and though God’s throne
be far above thee, and the depth of that Being be incommunicable to and
uncopyable by thee, yet a divine likeness ofHis still, and blessed, and
unbroken repose shallcome down and lie - a solid and substantial thing - on
thy pure and calmed spirit. ‘There remaineth a rest for the people of God.’
Say then, my Lord rests and my Father: I Will trust Him; I will rest in the
Lord, and He shall keepme in perfect peace, because my mind is stayed on
Him.
III. Finally: This divine rest is not only a pattern of what our earthly life may
become, but it is a prophecy of what our heavenly life shall surely be.
I have said that the immediate reference ofthe passageis not to a future state.
But that does not exclude the reference, unless, indeed, we suppose that the
Christian’s life on earth and his condition in heaven are two utterly different
things, possessing no feature in common. The Bible presents a directly reverse
notion to that. Though it gives full weight to all the differences which
characterisethe two conditions, yet it says, There is a basis of likeness between
the Christian life on earth and the Christian life in heaven, so greatas that the
blessings which are predicated of the one belong to the other. Only here they
are in blossom, sicklyoften, putting out very feeble shoots and tendrils; and
yonder transplanted into their right soil, and in their native air with heaven’s
sun upon them, they burst into richer beauty, and bring forth fruits of
immortal life. Heavenis the earthly life of a believer glorified and perfected. If
here we by faith enter into the beginning of rest, yonder through death with
faith, we shall enter into the perfectionof it.

We cannotspeak wiselyof that future when we speak definitely of it. All that I
suggestnow as taught us by this passageis, that heaven will be for us, restin
work and work that is full of rest. Our Lord’s heaven is not an idle heaven.
Christ is gone up on high, having completedHis work on earth, that He may
carry on His work in heaven; and after the pattern and likeness ofHis glory
and of His repose, shallbe the repose and glory of the children that are with
Him. He rests from His labours, and His works do follow Him. He sitteth at
the right hand of God ‘expecting’ - waiting patiently and in the confidence of
assuredtriumph, ‘till His enemies become His footstool.’But yet the dying
martyr saw his Lord standing, not sitting, ready to help, and bending over
him to welcome;and though He has ascended, and left the work of spreading
the gospelto be done on earth, ‘the Lord works with us’ from His throne, nor
is untouched by our troubles, nor idle in our toils. All the restof that divine
tranquillity, is rest in rapid, vigorous, perpetual motion. Ay, it is just as it is
with physical things: the looker-onsees the swiftestmotion as the most perfect
rest. The wheel revolves so fast that the eye cannot discern its movements. The
cataractfoaming down from the hillside, when seenfrom half-way across the
lake, seems to stand a silent, still, icy pillar. The divine work, because it is such
work, is rest - tranquil in its energy, quiet in its intensity; because so mighty,
therefore so still! That is God’s heaven, Christ’s heaven.
The heavenof all spiritual natures is not idleness. Man’s delight is activity.
The loving heart’s delight is obedience. The savedheart’s delight is grateful
service. The joys of heaven are not the joys of passive contemplation, of
dreamy remembrance, of perfect repose;but they are describedthus, ‘They
rest not day nor night.’ ‘His servants serve Him, and see His face.’
Yes, my brother, heaven is perfect ‘rest.’ God be thanked for all the depth of
unspeakable sweetnesswhichlies in that one little word, to the ears of all the
wearyand the heavy laden. God be thanked, that the calm clouds which
gather round the westernsetting sun, and stretch their unmoving loveliness in
perfect repose, and are bathed through and through with unflashing and

tranquil light, seemto us in our busy lives and in our hot strife like blessed
prophets of our state when we, too, shall lie cradled near the everlasting,
unsetting Sun, and drink in, in still beauty of perpetual contemplation, all the
glory of His face, nor know any more wind and tempest, rain and change. Rest
in heaven - rest in God! Yes, but work in rest! Ah, that our hearts should
grow up into an energyof love of which we know nothing here, and that our
hands should be swift to do service, beyond all that could be rendered on
earth, - that, never wearying, we should for ever be honoured by having work
that never becomes toil nor needs repose;that, ever resting, we should ever be
blessedby doing service which is the expressionof our loving hearts, and the
offering of our grateful and greatenedspirits, joyful to us and acceptable to
God, - that is the true conceptionof ‘the restthat remaineth for the people of
God.’ Heaven is waiting for us - like God’s, like Christ’s - still in all its work,
active in all its repose. See to it, my friend, that your life be calm because your
soul is fixed, trusting in Jesus, who alone gives rest here to the heavy laden.
Then your death will be but the passing from one degree of tranquillity to
another, and the calm face of the corpse, whence allthe lines of sorrow and
care have faded utterly away, will be but a poor emblem of the perfect
stillness into which the spirit has gone. Faithis the gate to partaking in the
rest of God on earth. Death with faith is the gate of entrance into the rest of
God in heaven.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
THE SAINTS' EVERLASTING REST
by Richard Baxter, 1652
(A paraphrase and abridgment by Robert E. Baxter)
"There remains therefore a rest to the people of God."

Hebrews 4:9
The Nature of the Saints' Rest
The Hallway to the Saints' Rest
The Splendor of the Saints' Rest
The People Who Receive the Saints' Rest
The Misery of Those Who Lose the Saints' Rest
The Necessity of Seeking the Saints' Rest
The Title to the Saints' Rest
The Duty of Helping Others to Seek the Saints' Rest
The Possession of the Saints' Rest is Not on Earth
The Suburbs of Heaven
Hindrances to a Heavenly Life on Earth
How to Seek the Saints' Rest While on Earth
Directions for Heavenly Contemplation
Four Aids to Heavenly Contemplation
How to Persevere in Heavenly Contemplation
Heavenly Meditation
Concluding Encouragements
The Nature of the Saints' Rest

From heaven's height the soul surveys the Promised Land. Looking
back on earth, the soul views the dreary wilderness through which it
passed. To stand on Mount Memory, comparing heaven with earth,
fills the soul with unimaginable gratitude, and makes it exclaim:
"Is this the inheritance that cost so much as the blood of Christ? No
wonder! O blessed price! Is this the result of believing? Have the
gales of grace blown me into such a harbor? Is this where Christ
was so eager to bring me? O praise the Lord! Is this the glory of
which the Scriptures spoke, and of which ministers preached so
much? I see the Gospel is indeed good news!
"Are all my troubles, Satan's temptations, the world's scorns and
jeers, come to this? O vile nature, that resisted so much, and so long,
such a blessing! Unworthy soul, is this the place you came to so
unwillingly? Was duty tiresome? Was the world too good to lose?
Could you not leave all, deny all, and suffer anything for this? Were
you loathe to die to come to this? O false heart, you had almost
betrayed me to eternal flames and lost me this glory! Are you not
ashamed now, my soul, that you ever questioned that Love which
brought you here? Are you not sorry that you ever quenched His
Spirit's prompting or misinterpreted His providence, or complained
about the narrow road that brought you to such a destination?
"Now you are sufficiently convinced that your blessed Redeemer
was saving you, as well when he crossed your desires, as when he
granted them; when he broke your heart, as when he bound it up.
No thanks to you, unworthy self, for this crown; but to God be the
glory forever!"
Here on earth our condition is quite different. We have lost interest
in God. We have lost all true knowledge of Him. When the Son of

God comes to rescue us and bring us back to God, He does not find
in us the ability to believe. He offers us eternal happiness, but we
blink blindly and stare at Him with disbelief. As the poor man who
refused to believe that anyone could have a million dollars because
that was so far above what he himself possessed, so when Christ
comes offering us heavenly treasures, it seems beyond belief.
When God wanted to give the Israelites their rest in the Promised
Land, it was harder to make them believe it than to overcome their
enemies and give it to them. When, at last, the Israelites possessed
the land, they had only a "cash
advance" on a much greater inheritance to come. Yet they could not
believe God for more than they already possessed. If they expected
more from the Messiah at some future time, they envisioned only an
increase of their earthly prosperity. The writer of the book of
Hebrews aims most of his letter against such unbelief. The rest
provided in the Promised Land of Canaan and in the sacred
Sabbaths was intended to teach God's people to look for a further
rest in Christ.
"There remains therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. 4:9).
This text is the writer's conclusion after various arguments. This
conclusion contains the basis of all the believer's comfort, the
purpose of all his service and suffering, the sum of all the Gospel
promises.
And now, dear reader, whoever you are, young or old, rich or poor,
I appeal to you in the name of your Lord, who will soon call you to a
reckoning and judge you to your everlasting, unchangeable state. I
charge you to do more than merely read these words. Do more than
read and dismiss these things with a nodding of approval; but

enthusiastically commit yourself to this work. Fix your heart upon
God in Christ. Find in Him your only rest.
May the living God, who is the goal and rest of all His saints, make
our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly,
that loving Him, and delighting in Him, may be the main activity of
our lives. God grant that neither I that write, nor you that read this
book, may ever be turned from this path of life; "lest, a promise
being left us of entering into His rest," we should "come short of it,"
(Heb. 4:1) through our own unbelief or negligence.
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. Those who never knew they were without God
and on the way to hell, never knew the way to heaven. Whoever
sought for what he didn't know he had lost? "Those who are healthy
need not a physician, but those who are sick" (Matt. 9:12).
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

Here, reader, do not be surprised if I be at a loss to explain. 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 a worldling 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.
How wonderful is the MIND also. It can measure the sun, moon,
stars, and predict each eclipse to the minute, many years in advance.
But the peak of its accomplishments is that it can know God, who
made all these. Christian, when, after long gazing heavenward, you
have caught a glimpse of Christ, are you not ready to say, with
Peter, "Master, it is good for us to be here"? (Mark 9:5). "O that I
might dwell on this mountain top! O that I might always see what I
now see!"
Consider the enjoyment of God's LOVE. Did He love you, an
enemy—a sinner? Will He not now immeasurably love you, a son—
a perfect saint? He that in love wept over the old Jerusalem when
near its ruin (Matt. 23:37), with what love will He rejoice over the
New Jerusalem in her glory! (Rev. 21:2).
Christian, believe this, and think on it—you shall be embraced in
the arms of that love which brought the Son of God from heaven to
earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the
grave to glory. Know this, believer, to your everlasting comfort; if
those arms have once embraced you, neither sin, nor hell can get
you again forever. The saints' everlasting rest consists in the
enjoyment of God by love.
Consider also the part of JOY. You, poor soul, who may now pray
for joy and wait for joy, and complain for lack of joy. It may be God

keeps your joy until you have more need. Better that you lose your
comfort than your safety. If you should die full of fear and sorrow, it
would be but a moment and they would all be gone and replaced
with joy unimaginable. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy
comes in the morning" (Ps. 30:5). O blessed morning! Poor, humble,
drooping soul, how would it fill you with joy now, if a voice from
heaven should tell you of the love of God, the pardon of your sins,
and assure you of your part in these joys! Think what your joy will
be, when your actual possession of it all shall convince you of its
truth!
It will be not only your joy, but a mutual joy. Is there joy in heaven
at your conversion? (Luke 15:7). Will there be none at your
glorification? Will not the angels welcome you there and
congratulate your safe arrival?
But wait! Dare we proceed further into these marvelous mysteries of
God? I think I hear the Almighty's voice saying to me, "Who is this
that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (Job 38:2). O
forgive your servant, Lord. I have not pried into unrevealed things.
I regret that my understanding is so dull, and my expression so
inadequate for such a glory. I have only heard of these wonders. O
let your servant see you and possess these joys, and then I shall give
more accurate descriptions and give you fuller glory. Then would I
confess, "I have uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful
for me, which I knew not" (Job 42:3). Yet "I believed, therefore
have I spoken" (Ps. 116:10). Though the weakness be the result of
my own dullness, yet the fire is from your altar. Forgive the sins that
stain this effort. Wash them away in the blood of the Lamb.
Imperfect, or none, must be your service here. O take your Son's

excuse for His disciples, which excuse we also plead, "The spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41).
The Hallway to the Saints' Rest
The hallway to heaven is not barricaded anymore. The flaming
sword no longer bars the passage to Paradise, for Christ has
provided the way in. The porch of this temple is magnificent, and
the gate of it is called "Beautiful." Here are the four corners of this
porch of Paradise.
1. The Second Coming of Christ
For our sake Christ came into the world, suffered, died, rose,
ascended; and for our sake He will return. He will come again to
receive us unto Himself, that where He is, there we may be also. We
have His word, His many promises, His ordinances, which show
forth His death until He come. We have His Spirit, to direct,
sanctify, and comfort until He returns. He that would come to
suffer, will surely come to triumph. He that would come to
purchase, will surely come to possess.
O fellow-Christians, what a day that will be, when we, who have
been kept prisoners by sin, shall be brought out by the Lord
himself! He will not come, O careless world, to be slighted and
neglected by you any more. Yet even His first coming, had its
magnificence. If, when He was in the form of a servant, they cried
out, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea

obey him?" (Matt. 8:27), what will they say when they shall see Him
coming in His glory, and the heavens and the earth obey Him?
The Resurrection of the Body
The second event that leads to Paradise is Christ's great work of
raising the body from the dust and uniting it again with the soul.
Unbelief may ask, "Shall all these scattered bones and dust become
a man?" Let me with reverence answer for God. Is it not as easy to
raise the dead as to make heaven and earth out of nothing? Look
not on the dead bones and dust and difficulty, but at the promise.
Contentedly commit these bodies to a prison that shall not long
contain them. Let us lie down in peace and take our rest; it will not
be an everlasting night, nor endless sleep. Lay down cheerfully this
clod of mortality; you shall undoubtedly receive it again as
immortal. Lay down freely this earthly body; you shall receive it
again, a heavenly body. Though you be separated from it in
weakness, it shall be raised again in mighty power; "in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet—for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed" (1 Cor. 15:52). "The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
Triumph now, O Christian, in these promises; you shall surely
triumph in their performance. The grave that could not keep our
Lord, cannot keep us. He arose for us, and by the same power will
cause us to arise.
The Judgment
The third corner of this porch at the entrance to Paradise is the
judgment, where the saints shall first be acquitted, and then with

Christ judge the world. Then shall the world behold the goodness
and severity of God—on those who perish, severity; but to His
chosen ones, goodness.
The sinners shall see the Lord Jesus, whom they neglected, whose
Word they disobeyed, whose ministers they abused, whose servants
they hated, now sitting to judge them. Their own consciences shall
cry out against them, and call to their remembrance all their
misdoings. Which way will the wretched sinner look? Who can
imagine the terrible thoughts of his heart? Now the world cannot
help him; his old companions cannot; the saints neither can nor will.
Only the Lord Jesus can; but there is the misery—He will not.
Time was, sinner, when Christ would have saved you, and you
would not have Him; now you want Christ's help when it is too late.
It is useless to cry "to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide
us from the face of him that sits on the throne" (Rev. 6:16); for you
have the 'Lord of the mountains and rocks' for your enemy, and the
mountains and rocks obey His voice, not yours. I charge you,
therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge
the living and the dead at His appearing, that you seriously ponder
these things now.
But why are you trembling, O humble recipient of grace? He that
would not lose one Noah in the flood, nor overlook one Lot in
Sodom; will He forget you at that day? "The Lord knows how to
deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto
the day of judgment to be punished" (2 Pet. 2:9). He knows how to
make the same day to be the greatest terror to His enemies—and yet
the greatest joy to His friends. "There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1).

What wonderful joy, that our dear Lord, who loves us, and whom
we love, shall be our Judge! Will a man fear to be judged by his
dearest friend, or a wife by her own husband? Christian, did Christ
come down and suffer, and weep, and bleed, and die for you, and
will He now condemn you? Was He judged, condemned, and
executed in your place, and now will He himself condemn you? Well,
then, let the terror of Judgment Day be ever so great, surely our
Lord can mean no harm to us at all. Let it make the devil and the
wicked tremble—but it shall make us leap for joy.
Christ will take His people into commission with himself, and they
shall sit and approve His righteous judgment. "Do you not know
that the saints shall judge the world? Know you not that we shall
judge angels?" (1 Cor. 6:2, 3). Were it not for the Word of Christ
that speaks it, this announcement would seem unbelievable. But
thus shall the saints be honored according to Scripture.
The Coronation
The last preparation for the saints' everlasting rest is their royal
coronation and receiving of the kingdom. Our Lord's own proper
title is "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (1 Tim. 6:15). Our
position is to be kings and to reign with Him (Rev. 1:6). We will not
be flattered with empty titles, but dignified with real authority. The
Lord himself will give us possession with this word of
congratulation—"Well done, good and faithful servant—you have
been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many
things—enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:23). With this
solemn and blessed proclamation our King of Kings shall enthrone
us—"Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Thus we have seen the Christian safely entered into Paradise and
received to his rest.
The Splendor of the Saints' Rest
Let us draw a little nearer and see the splendor of this heavenly rest.
The Lord cover us with His gentle grace while we approach to take
this view.
What an honor is this rest. It is called the purchased possession
because Christ bought it for us with His sacrifice. As we write down
the price our purchases cost us, so let us write down the price of
heaven as—THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST.
It was costly for Christ, but FREE for us. If both the Father and the
Son freely offer us the purchased life on our willing acceptance; and
if they freely send the Holy Spirit to enable us to accept; what do we
have in heaven that is not free? O the everlasting admiration that
must surprise the saints to think of this freeness! What an
astonishing thought it will be, to think of the immeasurable
difference between our deservings and receivings—between the state
we should have been in, and the state we are in. What depths of
gratitude will we feel to look down upon hell and think, "Yonder is
the place that sin would have brought me; but this is where Christ
has brought me! Yonder lies the wages of my sin, but this eternal life
is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Who made the
difference? Would I not now have been in hell if I had had my own
way, and been allowed my own will? Would I not have lingered in
Sodom until the flames had ignited me, if God had not in mercy

brought me out?" We know to whom the praise is due and shall be
given forever.
Let "DESERVED" be written on the door of hell; but on the door of
heaven, "THE FREE GIFT."
Special mercy arouses more gratitude than universal mercy. If
Pharaoh had passed as safely as Israel through the Red Sea, the
miracle would have been less memorable. If the rest of the world
had not been drowned, the saving of Noah had not been so
noteworthy. If Sodom and Gomorrah had not burned, the
deliverance of Lot would not have been talked of so much. That will
surely be a day to remember, when there shall be two in one bed,
and two in the field, the one taken and the other left (Luke 17:34,
36).
We will enjoy the communion of saints. As we have been together in
duty, danger, and distress, so shall we be together in the great
deliverance. If the forethought of sitting down with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven may be our proper joy,
how much more the real sight and actual experience? It is surely
comforting to think of that day when we shall join with Moses in his
song, with David in his psalms of praise, and with all the redeemed
in the song of the Lamb forever.
Not only our old acquaintances, but all the saints of all ages, whose
faces in the flesh we never saw, we shall there both know and enjoy.
Yes, even angels, as well as saints, will be our acquaintances. Those
angels who now are willingly helping us, as God's invisible agents,
will then be our companions in joy. It is a beautiful characteristic of
the heavenly rest, that we are "fellow citizens with the saints, and of
the household of God" (Eph. 2:19).

On earth we receive God's blessings through secondary causes. They
come second hand, or even third hand, or who knows how
indirectly? To have needs but no satisfaction of them, is the
condition of hell. To have needs met by other creatures, is our
condition on earth. To have needs met immediately and directly by
God, is the condition of the saints in heaven. To have no needs at all,
is the condition of God alone.
He who makes His people "like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
who brings forth his fruit in his season" (Ps. 1:3), will also give them
the reward in His season. Do we complain because we do not find a
Canaan in the wilderness? Do we lament because we cannot sing the
Lord's song in a strange land? (Ps. 137:4). Do we groan because we
find no harbor in the middle of the ocean? Do we object because we
cannot sleep during working-hours? Wouldn't all of these things be
very unseasonable? Shall we then wonder why we cannot have
heaven on earth? Wouldn't that be just as unseasonable?
The new nature which God gives the redeemed, matches the reward
that awaits them. Indeed, their holiness is provided by the Spirit of
Christ, to fit them for heaven. God provides a spiritual rest suitable
to their spiritual nature.
We are now as the fish in an aquarium. There is enough water in the
aquarium to keep the fish alive, but what is that compared with the
ocean? In heaven we shall live in a compatible environment.
Christian, this is a rest after your own heart; it contains all that
your heart could desire. That which you long for, pray for, work
for; there you shall find it all.
Heaven excludes sin. What was the use of Christ's dying on the
Cross, if heaven could have contained imperfect souls? "For this

purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the
works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Christian, if you once reach
heaven, you shall sin no more. Isn't this good news? That hard
heart, those evil thoughts, which tagged along, nagging you, shall be
left behind forever. All baffling Scriptures shall be made plain; all
seeming contradictions shall be reconciled.
We shall rest from the temptations of Satan. What a grief it is to a
Christian, though he resist the temptation, yet to be solicited to deny
his Lord. What a torment to have such obscene suggestions made to
his soul, such horrible ideas presented to his imagination, rebellious
thoughts of God, unbelieving thoughts of Scripture. Especially when
we know the treachery of our own hearts, ready as fuel to ignite the
instant one of those sparks should fall upon them. Satan has power
here on earth to tempt us, but he cannot enter there.
All our temptations from the world and the flesh shall also cease.
Here we are in continual danger. We can hardly open our eyes
without danger of envying people above us, or despising those below
us. If we see beauty, it is a bait to lust. If we see deformity, we are
liable to feel repulsion. If we are beautiful, it is fuel for pride. If we
are ugly, we are likely to complain. If we have a high intelligence
and gifts of learning, how prone we are to be puffed up, to seek
applause, and to look down on ordinary folks. On the other hand, if
we are not well educated, how easy it is to ridicule what we don't
have and despise the scholarly. Are we in a position of power? How
strong is the temptation to abuse our authority and mold others to
our benefit. Are we subordinates? Then we are prone to envy others,
to be critical and rebellious. It is our own corruption that thus traps
us. We are our own worst enemies. But our heavenly rest will free us
from all this. As Satan has no entrance there, so he has nothing to

aid his subversion; but all things there shall help us praise our great
Deliverer.
We shall also rest there from our divisions and unchristian quarrels
with each other. How lovingly do thousands live together in heaven,
who lived in discord upon earth. There is no conflict there, because
there is none of this pride, ignorance, or sin.
Is it not enough that all the world is against us, but we must also be
against one another? O happy days of persecution, which drove us
together in love. O happy day of the saints' rest in glory, when we
shall have perfect unity. Now, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12); then, those who suffered
with Him, shall be glorified with Him, and be at peace together.
Best of all, it will be an everlasting rest. The very thought of leaving
it would embitter all our joys. It would be a hell in heaven, to think
of once losing heaven. Study frequently, study thoroughly this one
word—eternity. O that the sinner would study this word. I think it
would startle him out of his dead sleep. O that the saved soul would
study it. I think it would revive him in his devotion. "Unto the King
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever" (1 Tim. 1:17).
Reader, if you are a humble, sincere believer, and are waiting and
longing for this rest, you will soon see and experience the truth of all
this. You will then have such an understanding of this blessed state
as to know that all I have written falls short of the whole truth a
thousand-fold. In the meantime, let this much kindle your desires
and revive your service.
What difference would it make in our daily lives, do you think, if we
would keep this glory fresh in our thoughts? Would we be so

inclined toward depression and discouragement? Would we be so
unwilling to suffer or so afraid to die? May the Lord heal our carnal
hearts, lest we enter not into this rest because of unbelief (Heb. 4:6).
The People Who Receive the Saints' Rest
The heavenly rest is designed for "the people of God," as the text
identifies them (Heb. 4:9). They are chosen by God "before the
foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). They are but a part of
humanity. They are fewer than the world imagines, yet not as few as
some narrow-minded people think.
These people are born again. It is as impossible to be the people of
God without being "born again" spiritually, as it is to be children of
humans without first being born. The greatest reformation of life
that can be attained without this new life from God may provide us
with further delusion, but it will never gain us salvation.
The people of God experience conviction. They are convinced of the
evil of SIN. The sinner comes to realize that the sin which was
formerly his delight, is loathsome to him and God. Before he saw
nothing so bad about sin that Christ should have to die for it. Now
when God opens his eyes, he sees the inexpressible vileness of sin,
and he becomes willing to admit the worst about himself.
Before they read the threats of God's law as men read about foreign
wars. Now they realize it is their own story. They suddenly see they
are reading about their own doom! As the prophet Nathan accused
King David with the words, "You are the man" (2 Sam. 12:7), so the
sinner finds his own name written in the curse of the law. Before the

wrath of God seemed to him to be like a storm outside his own
warm home, or like the pain of a sick person to the one who is only
visiting him. Now, however, he finds the disease is his own, and
discovers he is himself a condemned man. This conviction is the
work of the Spirit. Why would a person come to Christ for pardon if
he did not first find himself guilty? "Those who are whole have no
need of the physician, but those who are sick" (Mark 2:17).
The people of God are convinced of THEIR OWN
INSUFFICIENCY. Our natural inclination is to be our own god.
When God should guide us, we guide ourselves. When God should
be our King, we rule ourselves. We find fault with the laws God
gives. If we had made them, we would have made them differently.
When we should depend upon God, we prefer to have our own
security without having to depend on Him. When we should submit
to His providence, we usually quarrel with it and think we could
devise a better plan for our lives. We want popularity with other
people more than we desire to please God. We want human
appreciation and admiration. Thus we are by nature our own idols.
But once God renews the soul, this idol falls down like the old
Philistine idol Dagon which fell down broken before the Ark of God
(1 Sam. 5:3).
Sometimes trouble helps a person turn to God. Sickness says, "See if
your wealth or pleasures can help you! Can they keep your
departing soul in your body? Cry aloud to them, and see if they can
substitute for God!" O how this gets through to the sinner. Common
sense admits the truth, and even the flesh is convinced of its own
insufficiency.
On the other hand, the people of God are convinced of the full
SUFFICIENCY OF JESUS CHRIST. As a hungry man is convinced

of the necessity of food, so the sinner sees that none but Christ can
satisfy him. Not gold, but food, will satisfy the starving person; and
only pardon can comfort the condemned. As the sinner sees his
misery, and the inability of himself or others to relieve him; he turns
to the only One who can help him—the Lord Jesus Christ.
The WILL is also changed by the Christian's conviction. While sin
may still appeal to the flesh, the will hates it. God causes this to
happen. Convinced that Christ alone is able and willing to save him
and that nothing else can be his happiness, the sinner affectionately
accepts Christ as his Savior and Lord. To accept Christ without
love, is not justifying faith; for faith is the receiving of Christ with
the whole soul. Faith either accepts Christ as Savior and Lord, or
not at all. Faith not only acknowledges Christ's sufferings, and
accepts His salvation; but it acknowledges His sovereignty, and
submits to His rule.
I urge you, reader, to consider whether you have these
characteristics of God's people. I am not asking whether you
remember the time when you became a Christian. It is not so
important to know when or how you came to have these
characteristics, but carefully examine yourself and see if you have
been thoroughly convinced of how vile sin is and of the wickedness
that saturated your life. Do you consent to the law of God, that it is
true and righteous, and that you are justly condemned to death by
it? Have you renounced all your own righteousness? Have you cast
the idols out of your heart? Does Christ now have the highest room
in your life and love, so that, though you cannot love Him as much
as you wish, yet nothing else is loved as much? Have you made a
sincere covenant with Him, and committed yourself to Him? Is it
your endeavor to be found faithful to this covenant and to belong

entirely to the Lord? If this is truly your condition, then you are one
of "the people of God" in the text (Heb. 4:9); and as sure as the
promise of God is true, this blessed rest remains for you! Just be
certain that you "abide in Christ" (John 15:4), and "endure to the
end" (Matt. 10:22).
The Scripture promises this rest to God's people. The sacred pages
are bespangled with these divine promises, as the sky is with stars.
Christ says, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Therefore the
saints in heaven sing a new song unto him who has redeemed them
"to God by his blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation" (Rev. 5:9).
Scripture assures us that the people of God have the beginnings,
foretastes, guarantees, and seals of this promised rest now in this
life—1 Peter 2:3; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30.
"The kingdom of God is within" them (Luke 17:21). They "rejoice
in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5:2). The Scripture also
mentions, by name, those who have entered into this rest; for
instance, Enoch, Abraham, Lazarus, and the thief who was crucified
with Christ.
Scripture not only proves that this rest is for the people of God, but
also that it is for none but them; so that the remainder of the world
shall have no part in it. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget
God" (Ps. 9:17). "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven…in
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God, and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ—who shall be

punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power" (2 Thess. 1:7-9).
In hell, sinners shall forever lay all the blame on their own wills.
Hell is a rational torment by conscience. If sinners could then say,
"It was God's fault, and not ours," that would quiet their
consciences and ease their torments. But to remember their
stubbornness will feed the fire, and cause the worm of conscience
"never to die" (Mark 9:44). God offered the ungodly the gift of life,
but they would not accept it. The pleasures of sin seemed more
desirable to them than the glory of the saints. Satan offered them the
one, and God offered them the other; and they had freedom to
choose which they wanted; but they chose "the pleasures of sin for a
season" (Heb. 11:25), instead of the everlasting rest with Christ.
It is the will of God that this rest should remain for His people, and
not be possessed until they come to heaven. All things must come to
their perfection by degrees. The strongest man must first be a child.
The greatest scholar must first begin with the alphabet. The tallest
oak was once an acorn. This life is our infancy; do we want to be
born 'full grown'? If our rest were here, most of God's providences
would be useless. Should God lose the glory of His church's
miraculous deliverances so that men might have their happiness
here? If we were all happy, innocent, and perfect, what use would
there be for sanctification, justification, and future glorification? If
we lacked nothing, we would not depend on God so much, nor call
upon Him as earnestly. How little would He hear from us, if we had
whatever we wanted!
God would never have had such songs of praise from Moses at the
Red Sea, nor from David after deliverance from enemies, nor from
Hezekiah after healing from sickness, if they had been the choosers

of their own condition. Reader, haven't your own highest praises to
God been the result of your dangers and troubles? The greatest
glory and praise God receives is for salvation through Christ, and
was not man's misery the occasion of that? And where God loses the
opportunity of exercising His mercies, man must lose the happiness
of enjoying them. O the sweet comforts the saints have had in return
for their prayers. We would never have felt Christ's compassion, if
we had not felt ourselves "weary and heavy laden," hungry and
thirsty, poor and repentant. It is a delight for a soldier to look back
on his escapes when they are over; and for a saint in heaven to look
back on his sins and sorrows upon earth; his fears and tears, his
enemies and dangers, his needs and tragedies, must make his joy
more joyful. Therefore the blessed, in praising the Lamb of God in
heaven, mention His having redeemed them out of every nation and
kindred and tongue, and so out of their misery and need and sin,
and having made them "kings and priests" to God (Rev. 5:9-10).
But if they had experienced nothing but contentment and rest on
earth, what place would there have been for these rejoicings
hereafter?
Besides, we are not capable of rest upon this earth. Can a soul that is
so weak in grace, so prone to sin, have full contentment and rest in
such a condition? What is soul rest but our freedom from sin and
imperfections and enemies? He that observes the works of the Lord,
may easily see that the purpose of these things is to break down our
idols, to make us weary of the world so that we will seek our rest in
Him. God will not change the course of justice, to give you rest
before you have worked, nor the crown of glory until you have
overcome. There is reason enough why our rest should remain until
the life to come. Take heed, then, Christian reader, how you dare to

desire a rest on earth, or to murmur at God for your troubles and
toil in the flesh.
Do the wrongs of the wicked weary you? Do the evils of the times
provoke you? It must be so while you are absent from your rest. Do
your own sins and bad tempered emotions weary you? May this
make you more willing to go to God for your rest. And if not, then
may you become even more weary until God's rest seems more
desirable.
I have just one more thing to add before I close this chapter—that
the souls of believers in heaven do enjoy unimaginable blessedness
and glory, even while they remain separated from their bodies until
the resurrection. What can be more plain than these words of
Paul—"I am in a straight between two, having a desire to depart,
and to be with Christ; which is far better—nevertheless to abide in
the flesh is more needful for you" (Phil. 1:23-24). If Paul had not
expected to enjoy Christ until the resurrection, why should he desire
to depart? Faithful souls will no sooner leave their prisons of flesh
than angels shall be their convoy. Heaven will be their residence,
and God their happiness. When such die, they may boldly and
believingly say, as Stephen did, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"
(Acts 7:59), and commend it, as Christ did, into the Father's hands
(Luke 23:46).
The Misery of Those Who Lose the Saints' Rest
If you, reader, are a stranger to Christ and to the holy nature and
life of His people, and if you live and die in this condition, let me tell

you that you will never partake of the joys of heaven or have the
least taste of the saints' everlasting rest.
I must repeat the sinister words of Judges 8:20, "I have a message to
you from God." Do you recall the spine-tingling episode, how the
left-handed Ehud brought a present to the enemy king Eglon? Ehud
hid a double-edged dagger under his coat. It was not on the usual
thigh because Ehud was left-handed. Consequently it was not
detected by the guards. The king was sitting in splendor in his
summer parlor. "And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto
you. And he arose out of his seat. And Ehud put forth his left hand,
and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his
belly" (Judg. 3:20-21). Like Ehud to Eglon, I must say to you, "I
have a message to you from God."
As the Scriptures describe the Word of God as a double-edged
sword, so I must draw that sword on you, and say that, as the Word
of God is true, you will never see the face of God in peace. You will
see Him as judge but not as justifier. This sentence I am commanded
to pass upon you; take it as you will, and escape it if you can! I know
that your humble and sincere acceptance of Christ would provide
your escape. He would then acknowledge you to be one of His people
and give you a part of the inheritance. If this could be the happy
success of my message, I would bless the day that God made me so
privileged a messenger. But if you end your days in your unsaved
state, as sure as the heavens are over your head and the earth
beneath your feet, you shall be shut out of the heavenly rest.
You may object, and say, "When did God show you the book of life,
or tell you who shall be saved, and who shut out?" I answer, I do not
name you, nor any other. I only conclude that this is the case of the
unsaved in general, and of you, if you are one. I do not attempt to

Jesus was the greatest rest

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Jesus was the greatest rest