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The sermon interprets Hebrews 4:9 as promising a “Sabbatism,” or rest of God, partially entered through faith and fully enjoyed in heaven. Heavenly rest surpasses worldly prosperity and earthly Christian experience because it ends sin, sorrow, persecution, death, fatigue, and division. It is perfect even though its inhabitants continually serve God, eternal because nothing decays, and certain for all who belong to God. Assurance rests on God’s provision and promise, producing comfort for the weary and eager hope for glory.
Theological center: Through faith in Christ, God’s people receive present spiritual rest and will finally inherit perfect, eternal, sinless rest with God.
Applications: Trust God’s promised rest · Consider heavenly certainty · Receive comfort in weariness · Believe salvation is secure
Primary texts: Hebrews 4:9-10 · Hebrews 11:37
“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Hebrews 4:9 THE apostle proved, in the former part of this and the latter part of the preceding chapter, that there was a rest promised in Scripture called the rest of God. He proved that Israel did not attain that rest, for God swore in His wrath, saying, “They shall not enter into my rest.” He proved that this did not merely refer to the rest of the land of Canaan, for he says that after they were in Canaan, David himself speaks again in after ages concerning the rest of God, as a thing which was yet to come. Again he proves that, “Seeing those to whom it was promised did not enter in, because of unbelief, and it remaineth that some must enter in, therefore,” says he, “there remaineth a rest to the people of God.” “My rest,” says God—the rest of God! Something more wonderful than any other kind of rest. In my text it is (in the original) called the Sabbatism—not the Sabbath, but the rest of the Sabbath—not the outward ritual of the Sabbath, which was binding upon the Jew, but the inward spirit of the Sabbath, which is the joy and delight of the Christian. “There remaineth therefore”—because others have not had it, because some are to have it—“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Now, this rest, I believe, is partly enjoyed on earth. “We who have believed do enter into rest,” for we have ceased from our own works, as God did from His. But the full fruition and rich enjoyment of it remains in the future and eternal state of the beatified on the other side the stream of death. Of that it shall be our delightful work to talk a little this morning. And oh! if God should help me to raise but one of his feeble saints on the wings of love to look within the veil and see the joys of the future, I shall be well-contented to have made the joy-bells ring in one heart at least, to have set one eye flashing with joy, and to have made one spirit light with gladness. The rest of heaven! I shall first try to exhibit it and then to extol it. I. First, 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. To begin, then, I shall try to exhibit heaven by way of contrast. The rest of the righteous in glory is now to be contrasted with certain other things. We will contrast it, first, with the best estate of the worldling and the sinner. The worldling has frequently a good estate. Sometimes his vats overflow, his barns are crammed, his heart is full of joy and gladness. There are periods with him when he flourishes…