Let us turn again to God's Word
and we turn once more to that text we were considering this
morning in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9. Earlier we were considering the
verse more particularly as it is rendered in the margin, there
remaineth therefore a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of
God, and we sought then to address the whole matter of the Christian
Sabbath, and amongst other things we remarked that under the Gospel
the Lord Jesus Christ has changed the day. He has authority. The Son of Man is Lord, He says,
even of the Sabbath day. And as we acknowledge His Lordship
in every part of our lives, in every part of creation, remember
how He is that One who is the Head over all things to the Church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him, that fill us all in all. It shouldn't surprise us then
that he exercises that authority in the changing of the day, whereas
under the Old Testament dispensation it was the seventh day that was
to be observed, that was the day that God sanctified after
his great work of creation. and we made all things out of
nothing in six days and then we read at the beginning of Genesis
2 of God resting from all the work that he had made and sanctifying
the seventh day, he set it apart and it was to be observed and
so when God enters into covenant with the children of Israel and
gives them the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the fourth commandment,
they are told how they are to remember They are to remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It is to be to them the day of
rest. That's the basic meaning of the
words. The Hebrew words of Ark is to rest and they were to rest
on the seventh day and they were to observe it. There were all
sorts of restrictions that were placed on the day under the Old
Testament dispensation. But then, when we come to the
New Testament, we witness God's greatest of all His works, that
great work of redemption, and how that work was accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He must do the will of Him who
had sent Him, He said. He must finish His work. And so Christ, when he comes
to the end of his ministry, can utter those words in the 17th
chapter of John, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work that thou gavest me to do. And then again upon the
cross, at the end of all his sufferings, he cries in triumph,
it is finished, and he heals up the ghost. commits his soul
into the hands of his Heavenly Father. No man was able to take
his life from him. He had power or authority to
lay it down and he had power or authority to take it again. This was the commandment that
he had received of the Father. The work was finished, that work
of redemption and then on the first day of the week the Lord
Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. And that was the day
that was observed by those early Christians. They would come together
on the first day of the week, we're told, to break bread. That was the day that they began
to observe the Lord's Day. John, in the very last book of
Scripture, there in the opening chapter of the Revelation, is
in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And he beholds the glorified
Christ. So this morning we were thinking
particularly of the Christian Sabbath. Well, as we turn to
the same text tonight, I want now to follow the reading as
we actually have it in the text. We looked at the marginal alternative
reading that we're given in the authorised version, but now to
look at the text as the translators actually give it to us. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. And the subject I want to deal
with really is the subject of heavenly rest. I want us to consider
that rest that in a certain sense reminds to God's people that
rest that they look forward to and anticipate, the blessed rest
of heaven. And how Even on the Lord's Day
there is a sense in which we should be anticipating heaven
itself. Heaven is that place where congregations
ne'er break up and Sabbaths have no end. We should desire then
as we come together that we might even on the Lord's Day have some
foretaste of heaven. The first thing I want to deal
with. The first point I want to deal
with tonight is this, that heavenly rest in a sense commences under
the gospel. It commences under the gospel
does heavenly rest. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. And the verb here, to remain,
is in the present tense. It is something that is here
and now, not really in the future, but something to be enjoyed in
this day, in the day of grace. Heavenly rest, I say, commences
under the Gospel. When the sinner is born again
by the Spirit of God, that life that is communicated to his soul
can never be destroyed. That light, that new light never
dies. This is what God has done under
the Gospel. The believer now enjoys a life that is everlasting. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. The believer has everlasting
life. And so when he comes to experience
the physical death, what is it? It's absent from the body, present
with the Lord. Christ to that penitent thief
upon the cross says today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. John when he writes in his first
epistle can say we know that we have passed from death unto
life. Though we are born spiritually
dead in trespasses and in sins, that's our condition as we come
into this world, doesn't matter what our parentage is, we're
all in that same condition, we're all dead spiritually, dead in
trespasses and in sins. But when We're born again, that
great work of regeneration when the sinner is born from above.
There is that communication of spiritual life. We know that
we have passed from death onto life. And what is the evidence
of that spiritual life? Well, the person believes. And what is faith? Well, in a
sense faith is a resting in Christ, you see. It's a resting in Christ. He says, come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Oh, to rest in Him, to trust
in Him. To cease from all works, cease
from your own works, bad and good, and wash your garments
in my blood. The words of Joseph Hart, as
it were, putting that into the very mouth of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that gracious invitation of the Gospel, the cessation
from works, the resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly rest,
I say, in that sense, commences in the day of Christ, begins
under the Gospel. The rest that the children of
Israel came into when they entered into Canaan, when they came into
the promised land, is a type of gospel rest. It's typical
of gospel rest. And as I said this morning, in
this passage, it's not an easy passage, the end of chapter 3
through to chapter 4 where Paul says so much about rest, among
other things he speaks of the rest that they knew when they
entered into the promised land. Look at verses 8 and 9 together. Verse 8 he says, for if Jesus,
the reference here isn't to the Lord Jesus Christ, It's to Joshua. The margin gives that alternative
reading. Jesus is of course the Greek
form of the Hebrew name Joshua. The names are one and the same. The person being spoken of here
in verse 8 is Joshua who followed Moses and led the children of
Israel into the promised land. If Jesus, Joshua had given them
rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There
he may not therefore rest to the people of God. Now, Joshua
did give them rest. They rested from all their wanderings
through the wilderness. There were those who didn't enter
into that rest of Canaan because of unbelief. embraced what the spies said
when they went out to spy out the land you remember how ten
came back with an evil report they spoke of the giants and
the and the walled cities and the warlike people there and
it was only Joshua and Caleb who came and gave a good report
that they could go in and possess the land but the ten other spies
they gave such an evil report and the people were full of unbelief
And so what do we read here at the end of chapter 3? Verse 17,
With whom was he grieved forty years? Was he not with them that
had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believe not? So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. They couldn't enter into the
rest which was going to be enjoyed when they came into the land
of Canaan and the reason why they couldn't enter in was because
of unbelief. And so those who do believe enter
into rest. And that rest you see that the
children of Israel came into when they entered the promised
land is typical I say of the rest that the Christian enjoys
under the gospel. They are a typical people, their
experiences are typical experiences. These things happened unto them
for examples or types, they are written for our admonition. Upon whom the ends of the world,
the ends of the world is his gospel done. Upon whom the ends
of the world are come. All that happens to them is to
be understood then in that typical sense. Now, I want for a while
to observe certain parallels between Canaan and the experience
of the children of Israel as they come into the land of Canaan,
the promised land, and the experience of the child of God as he believes
the gospel. As the Christian enters into
gospel rest, we can see certain parallels with the experience
of the Israelites as they go into Canaan. First of all, although
it's spoken of here as rest, when they enter into Canaan,
yet there is conflict. Although now they cease their
wilderness wanderings, they enter into the land that God had promised
them, but there's going to be conflict in the land. In Joshua, we read, the Canaanite
would dwell in that land. Canaanite was there in the land.
And though they were to rid the land of the Canaanites, they
failed. And all their days they had to
deal with the matter of the Canaanites in the 7th chapter of Deuteronomy. And verse 22, the Lord thy God
will put out those nations before thee by little and little, that
they may as not consume them at once, lest the beast of the
field increase upon them. Oh, it was little by little,
it was conflict. All the time with the inhabitants
of the land, principally the Canaanites, but others, Perishites,
Hivites and so on, a multitude of on believing people that they
had to constantly contend with. And so the rest of Canaan was
a rest that involved conflict with their enemies. And isn't
that the case also with regards to the believer's experience
when he comes to rest in the gospel? We must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom Oh, there's much tribulation, there's troubles,
there's trials. Of the Christian, Hart says,
when his pardon is signed and his peace is procured, from that
moment his conflict begins. There's a conflict. There's a
good fight of faith that the Christian is engaged in. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood but against principalities and powers against the rulers
of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness
in high places says the apostle in Ephesians chapter 6 and so
he goes on to speak of that spiritual armour that God provides for
his children that engages them in a terrible conflict that involved
in a war and who is this war with? Principalities, powers
the rulers of the darkness of this world, it's satanic forces,
it's the devil himself who will come and assault the Christian.
And then there's not only Satan that the Christian has to contend
with, does he not have to contend with himself? It was Ralph Erskine, I believe,
who said, all that I have not of myself. All myself. that that is born of the flesh
is flesh, that that is born of the spirit is spirit. This is
the conflict and Paul speaks of it of course so fully in Romans
chapter 7. You see there now we can draw
a parallel between the experience of the children of Israel there
as they go into the promised land, as they enter that canon
of rest as it is. And yet there is conflict for
them and so too for the Christian believer as he enters into gospel
rest is involved in constant warfare with sin and with Satan. And then again we see another
parallel in this. The provision that God makes,
oh what a provision God makes for the children of Israel. What sort of a land was Canaan?
It was a land flowing with milk and with honey. It was a land, you see, so rich,
so fertile. It's part of what's called the
Fertile Crescent there in the Middle East. All around, desert lands, and
yet so fertile. and this is to be seen you see
in the book of numbers where those spies come back and they
come back initially with the fruit of the land although there
is that evil report that is given by the spies yet we see quite
clearly that the land was such a good land In chapter 13, verse 23 of Numbers,
they came unto the brook of Eshcol and cut down from thence a branch
with one cluster of grapes, and they bared it between two upon
a star, and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. Here is a cluster of grapes so
large that it takes two men to bare it. It is such a rich land. There is such abundant provision
there in the midst of that land. And so in chapter 14, we have the reports of those
two faithful men, Joshua and Caleb. In verse 6 of Numbers 14, Joshua
the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were
of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. This is them
reacting, you see, to the evil report that's been given by the
other spies. They rent their clothes and they
spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying,
the land which we passed through to search it is an exceeding
good land. If the Lord delights in us, then
he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which
floweth with milk and honey. Oh, what a provision God made
for his people in the promised land, a lush land, a rich land. And so too for the Christian
in the Gospel, what does God give to them? He gives such a
gracious provision. He gives them a feast, and it's
a feast of factings. Isn't that how we find it being
described in the book of Isaiah? Isaiah 25.6 In this mountain
shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast, a feast
of wines on the leaves, a feast full of marrow, of wines on the
leaves. we find, or the provision that
we have in the gospel, when we contemplate what is said before
us here, those riches of the grace of God, those exceeding
rights and precious promises, is there not that that is marrow
to the soul of the believer when he comes to consider these great
verities of the faith, these great doctrinal truths that we
have in the gospel of free grass and how all of these things are
confirmed by the very oath of God and sealed in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a rich provision then
for the believer as he comes into gospel rest. There is that
that he can feed his soul upon in the word of God. Yes, there's
conflict, there's warfare, the fight of faith, But there's also
a wondrous provision and then above all there is God's presence. There is the presence of God,
the nearness of God. Wasn't this the glory of the
promised land? It was God's presence there in
the midst of the nation. They were first to erect the
tabernacle at Shiloh. And it was to the tabernacle
that all the males were to go three times every year for the
great festivals that were to be observed, the Feast of Passover,
the Feast of Weeks, and then the Feast of Tabernacles. And
then in the days of David, of course, the tabernacle was removed
and set up in Zion. And so there they would go for
all those great feasts of the Lord. And then in the days of
David's son Solomon there was the building of the Temple of
the Lord. This was the glory of Israel. And all of this spoke
to them of course of that special presence of God. All that gracious
presence of God who was there in the midst of Israel. Who dwelt
in the midst of his people. The psalmist speaks of it. In
the 132nd Psalm, arise O Lord unto thy rest thou and the ark
of thy strength. The Lord hath chosen Zion, he
hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, here
will I dwell for I have desired it. This was the glory you see
that Israel enjoyed. It was when God was amongst them.
It was God there in the midst of the land. And it is a type, I say, of what
the believer has under the Gospel. Under the Gospel, of course,
the anti-type is much greater than what we have in type there
in the Old Testament. Under the Gospel, what does God
do? He dwells in the hearts of his people. Oh, that is the glory of the
child of God. that he is pleased to come and to make his dwelling
in their hearts. When the Lord, in that 17th chapter
of John, prays for his people, what does he say? I in them. I in them, he says to his father,
and thou in me, that they may be one in us. For they are the
very temple of God. God was there, you see, in the
Old Testament. God was there in the tabernacle
then, in the temple, but where is God now? Why he dwells, as
you know, in the very hearts of his children. The believer
then is God's temple. As Paul says, writing to the
Corinthians, ye are the temple of the living God as God has
said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their
God and they shall be my people. Oh these are those promises that
he goes on to speak of in the 7th chapter there in 2nd Corinthians,
having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, he says, let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God. God gives promises, you
see, and now the promises should move his children to a life of
separation, wherefore come out from amongst Be ye separate,
saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye
shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. God's
presence in the hearts of His children, this is one of those
great promises of the Gospel. Oh, what The blessing it is that
the Christian enjoys then in this present life. He is a partaker
of eternal life. When he is born again by the
Spirit of God, he has something of heaven in his soul. It was said of one of the great
Puritans, Richard Sibbes, that heaven was in him before he was
in heaven. Or friends, we might be those
who know something of what it is to have heaven in our souls
under the gospel, to enjoy that rest, to be resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I say that heavenly resting commences
under the gospel, and then in the second place we see this,
our gospel rest is completed in heaven. as God rests in the midst of
his people so that rest for them is consummated in the glory of
heaven. I have not seen nor heard neither
have entered into the hearts of man the things that God has
prepared for them that love him. But this is what the believer
is anticipating and longing for and looking for. When he will be with Christ. He shall see Him as He is. He shall be like Him. What do we read concerning Heaven?
We read it just now in that portion, Revelation chapter 21. And there
in the opening verses of the chapter we have such a wonderful
description of what Heaven is. One of the glories of heaven
there surely is this that God's tabernacle is there in the midst. Behold the tabernacle of God
is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his
people and God himself shall be with them and shall be their
God. This is how the glory of heaven
is set before John in that vision that he is granted in that chapter.
There is God's tabernacle. Now, as we said, the glory of
Canaan, part of the glory of the promised land, that land
of Canaan, that land of rest, was that the tabernacle was there. God's presence in the midst of
his people. And so we see that in a sense
Canaan can be described as a type of heaven. And often in our hymns
that we sing that's how it's suggested to us, is it not? Presently
we're going to sing that lovely hymn of Isaac Watts we don't often sing it, 1022.
It's an interesting hymn, I find it fascinating because he reckoned
that he he penned this, of course he was a native of Southampton
and he reckoned that he wrote this when he was looking over
Southampton water towards the New Forest and he writes about
that better country, he's writing of heaven there is a land of
pure delight where saints immortal reign infinite day excludes the
night and pleasures banish pain there everlasting spring abides
and never withering flowers death like a narrow sea divides this
heavenly land from ours you're thinking of that strip of water
southampton water you look over that towards the new forest Or
could we make our doubts remove, These gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love, With unbeclouded eyes? Could
we but climb where Moses stood, And view the landscape o'er,
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, Should fright us
from the shore? He takes up that imagery, you
see, of Canaan, as a type of heaven, a place
where the believer enters into all the fullness of that rest
that begins for him under the gospel, the land of pure delight. In the Old Testament, as we said,
God dwelt with his people, but he dwelt only with his people,
he dwelt only with Israel. You only have I known of all
the families of the earth, he says. Oh, they were that favoured
people who enjoyed all the privileges of having the only true God as
their God. He showeth his word unto Jacob,
his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any nation. And as for his judgments, they
have not known them. and there was a certain sense
in which we have to recognize that the tabernacle which was
so much associated with that special presence of God the tabernacle
only belonged to the Levites it was the Levites who were constantly
there about the the tabernacle. It wasn't the privilege of all
the children of Israel to be always there at the tabernacle.
Oh yes, those men were to go for those great feasts as we've
said. But what do we read concerning
the Levites? At the end of Numbers chapter
1 verse 50, thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle
of testimony. and over all the vessels thereof,
and over all things that belong to it. They shall bear the tabernacle,
and all the vessels thereof, and they shall minister unto
it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. It's their peculiar,
their special privilege, but the Lemites are just one of the
twelve tribes who enjoy that great favour, that great blessing, But you see the difference when
it comes to heaven. In heaven God is there in the
midst of all his people, all his believing people are there
with him forever. As we read it there in that third
verse of Revelation 21, Behold the tabernacle of God is with
man. The tabernacle of God is with
men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. Oh how much richer, how much
fuller is the fulfilment there then in the New Testament. Now
again when we think of the Gospel, under the Gospel there is just
a remnant. Do we not feel it in this day,
a very little remnant? This city, I suppose, probably
250,000, 300,000 people living here in Portsmouth, and yes,
how few, I know there are other places of worship besides Salem,
but there's no thriving community anywhere really. God's people
are but a remnant. The Lord Jesus says to his disciples
in his own day, fear not little flock. They are a little flock. Fear not little flock. It is
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. All God's
gracious purpose centers upon that little flock, that remnant.
In Zephaniah chapter 3 he says, I will also live in the midst
of the unafflicted and poor people. and they shall trust in the name
of the Lord. That's the people of God, a poor
people, an afflicted people. But how different it is when
we come to the fullness of heaven. And again in that chapter that
we read, Revelation 21 and verse 24 in heaven, it is the nations
of them that are saved. Oh, there's no unbelief there,
you see. They're all believers in heaven. They all glory in
God, they all glory in Christ. The Lamb is all the glory in
Emmanuel's land. And then again, when we think
of our situation today, though there are many blessings, great
blessings under the Gospel, There are times, are there not, in
the believer's experience when sometimes he feels himself to
be in darkness. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord, that heareth the voice of his servant that walketh in
darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the name of
the Lord? Now I know that's in the Old
Testament, Isaiah, but let us not think that the believer in
the New Testament never knows what it's like to be in the dark. Our sins come and they separate
between us and our God, do they not? And often times, alas, we feel
that we are in darkness, but how different in heaven. They
had no need of the sun. No need of the sun to shine by
day, no need of the moon to shine by night. Why? The Lamb. The
Lamb is the light thereof. There's no darkness there. This
is the heaven then that God has prepared for his children. And
besides being a place of light, heaven is also that place of
perfect rest. Under the gospel, as with the
children of Israel in the land of Canaan, there might be conflict,
there is the good fight of faith, there is that warfare against
all the powers of darkness, There is that resting with ourselves,
there is that need to be mortifying the deeds of the body, but no
different in heaven. It is that place of perfect rest.
I love those words again of Isaac Watts, sin my worst enemy before,
shall vex mine eyes and ears no more, my inward foes shall
all be slain, nor Satan break my peace again. Isn't that what makes it heaven?
No more are we troubled or tormented by Satan. No more do we feel
that sin that attaches to our fallen nature. We're delivered
forever. All these enemies are destroyed.
And that's heaven. And that's what makes it such
a glorious abode. The fearful, and unbelieving,
and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire, and brimstone which is the second
death. They don't enter there. There
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. It's that place of perfect
rest. And it's sad that it's being
spoken of, you see. There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people
of God. And that's gospel rest. That
that begins in the day of Christ, that we enjoy as we come to trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. it's completed, it's consummated
in heaven itself. Canaan then can be said to be
a type of both gospel rest and heavenly rest. As these two are
connected you see, grace is glory in the bud and glory is grace
in the fourth flower. We're in the day of grace and
we should know something of the glories of heaven in the bar
but there in heaven why we have grace in all its fullness the
fullness of the blue what a blessed thing and we as we rightly observe
the Lord's day should be those who are anticipating that blessed
place that our keeping of the day might be in this world, for
us, a little taste of what heaven will be like. Now, we're not
to think that the rest of heaven is idleness. It's not a place of idleness. As I said this morning, when
God had finished His works, it was all the works that He had
made, He had finished His work of creation. But God is revealed
to us, first of all, as a God who works. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. That is the opening words
of the Bible. The first thing we are told about God in Scripture
is that He is a working God. God created. And although His
work of creation was completed in six days, yet He works in
providence, the heavens rule, He doesn't just, as it were,
wind up creation and let it run its course. He is that God who
governs individuals, governs nations. He does according to
his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of
the earth. None can stay his hand or say to him, what do I
say? He does his great work, the greatest of all his works
in redemption when we see Christ coming into this world and fulfilling
all righteousness, and accomplishing a great salvation. And of course,
as we said this morning, it's that finished work that we want
to remember as we come together on the Lord's Day, but God works
yet. There's the outworking of what Christ has done, there's
that blessed work of the Holy Spirit as He takes of Christ
and makes that salvation known to sinners. Our God is not an
idle God. His people are not an idle people.
There is no idleness, certainly, and to be no sloth unto the gospel. World to them that are at ease
in Zion. Are we not to be at ease? What
do we read here? We're to labour, verse 11, let
us labour therefore to enter into that rest. Lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief, or the unbelief, you
see, of those who didn't enter in. How solemn is that word in the
previous chapter, verse 12 of chapter 3. Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. We know that God was grieved
with that generation. in the wilderness, when they
wouldn't believe the reports that came from Joshua and Caleb,
but believe that evil report of the other ten spies. God was
grieved with them. Verse 18 there in chapter 3,
to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believe not. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. All friends, God grant that we
might be those who know something of true faith, and the blessed
activity of faith, that crying, that calling, that seeking onto
God. That's the labour that we are
to engage in. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest. And
as we come under the word of God every Sabbath day, or that
we might be those who would labour that we might receive this food,
that we might feed upon this world, and that this gospel might
be truly meat and drink to our souls, that we might know some
foretaste, even in the day of grace, some blessed anticipation
of that rest that remaineth to the people of God, that heavenly
rest. May the Lord be pleased to grant
his blessings. He sings out, including hymn
number 1022, the tune is Fiaticudo 97. There is a land of pure delight,
where saints' immortal reign, infinite day excludes the night,
and pleasures banish pain. Hymn number 1022. you