15 Rest in Heaven!

Rest in Heaven!

"These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes!" Revelation 7:14-17 "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." Revelation 14:13 "For you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days." Daniel 12:13 "There remains a rest for the people of God!"Hebrews 4:9

There is a rest beyond the grave, of which the Sabbaths of earth and the peace of the renewed soul, are the emblems — namely, the rest of Heaven, which has nothing to do with death, but that it follows it. Death is the most remote thing from it — for all is life there. No deadly winter gale breathes upon its verdure, or blanches the cheek of the sufferer. No graves are opened there, making still wider chasms in the domestic circle and the widowed heart. No cemetery is there with its gloom — for gardens bright with lilies, and all "the painted populace of flowers" — fill the paradise of God. No mourners go along the streets when the golden bowl is broken, and the silver cord is loosed, and the wheel is broken at the cistern — for troops of young men and maidens, companies of redeemed ones, clad in robes of white, are the only dwellers there. No funeral hymn or elegy is chanted there — only oceans of joy and anthems of praise. The churchyard yews and the sable cypress are there unknown — the foliage of the upper Eden being that of the trees of life planted by the river of the water of life. Life! it is the life of life — life without the seeds of decay — life without stint — life without end. And this is the rest of Heaven; the perpetual Sabbath of the eternal skies. This is a topic, from its loftiness and infinitude, only perfectly comprehended by the infinite mind — and therefore, very disadvantageously discussed by a finite one. Nevertheless it is a topic, the most inadequate discussion of which cannot fail to do us good. By such meditations the heart is made better, and desires after Heaven are enkindled upon its stony altar. With the older saint we cry, " Oh that I had wings like a dove — then would I fly away and be at rest!" With the apostle Paul, we have a "desire to depart to be with Christ, which is far better!"

Accompany me, then, with your prayers while I seek to produce these passionate desires for Heaven in your renewed bosom — by painting its joys and occupations under the figure of a Sabbath. "There remains therefore a rest [or Sabbath rest] to the people of God." To the persecuted and often faint-hearted Hebrew believers, this must have been a delightful revelation — that all which they suffered now, would before long give place to peace and joy, and the very pains they at present endured would only enhance the more the satisfaction to come. And so must it be to us.
The turmoil of the earth harasses us;
the labor of the earth wearies us;
the vanity of the earth disappoints us;
and the sin of the earth haunts us —
and we look forward to release from these afflictions with all the eagerness of the starving for food, or of the prisoner for the light.

Heaven is a PERFECT rest — a rest undisturbed by the opposition of sinful people or principles, the ebullitions of our own corruption or impatience, or those necessities for physical labor which are so fruitful a source of weariness on earth. In the sweat of our brow we now eat our bread — whether it be by manual labor or by the application of the mental powers. But in Heaven all this will cease. Exertion will cease with the cessation of its necessity. The leaven of toil will be swept away from our homes, because the paschal feast of eternity is begun. The occupation implied in the weary working days of earth is over — because the Sabbath that was to follow has dawned. The anxiety about obtaining provision, which wore down our strength and spirits here — the labor to secure it exhausting — the amount, when gained, scanty and insufficient — the labor of toil, which is connected with the original curse — all that is done away, and ample supplies, various provision, inexhaustible abundance is furnished for every soul. In that rest, there is . . .
appetite without hunger,
fullness without satiety,
desire without pain, and
enjoyment without remorse.

Physical inconvenience is unknown there — pain, sickness, death are forever gone. Racking rheumatism and bloated dropsy, consumption that pales the lamp of life by degrees, and cholera that extinguishes it in a moment; the thousand-hazarded life of infancy; the tottering, toothless, decrepitude of old age — all that gnaws, wastes, kills, has no existence in Heaven. "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes!" Revelation 7:16-17. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4 But be it understood, nevertheless, that this is not absolute rest, inactivity, and indolence. It is the cessation of woe — not work; the absence of pain — not the absence of employment. As the quiet of our earthly Sabbath is consistent with the occupations of that hallowed season — as works of charity and duty are still shedding on that day their flowers over the weary life-track of humanity — so is the rest of Heaven consistent with unceasing occupation, study, praise.

Thus God rests in Heaven — but there is no abatement of the energy of Omnipotence. And Jesus has "entered into His rest" — but only the rest of a Priest and of a King. "He ever lives to make intercession for us!" The rest of the angels is constant service, prompt obedience, reverential homage, and unceasing contemplation of the works of God and the wonders of redemption. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation?" And the rest of the saints is worship, learning, and enjoyment. "They rest not day and night, crying — Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!" "

We prize Heaven as a SACRED rest. When speculating about the ingredients of our cup of bliss in the eternal world — we may be right or wrong in any one of ten thousand different suppositions; but there can be no mistake when we assert holiness to be a chief ingredient. This is the passport to admission — this is the condition of existence there: "Follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful — but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life." The only disqualification for Heaven, in fact, is unholiness. The door of Heaven is wide enough to admit poverty with its rags, and disease with its loathsomeness — but no sinner with his sins. The law is positive — the exclusion is certain! No evasion, palliation, or excuse availing to exempt. The law of happiness in Heaven is the same as the law of happiness on earth — to be happy you must be holy. The robes in Heaven are all white; the souls are all regenerate — "the just men perfect."

We rejoice in Heaven as a PERMANENT rest. It "remains" and will always be remaining. In delightful contrast to our earthly Sabbath, which gives place to renewed toil, and to our life, which falls before the sickle of the great harvester, Death — the life and joys of the heavenly Sabbath know no end. Where is the Christian who has not had the fountain of its satisfactions frozen over by the chill intrusion of death? Is there a house that death has not visited? Is there a hearth which displays not its vacant chair? Is there a chamber that echoes not with the voice of bereaved Rachel’s weeping, because their loved ones are not? Well sang the poet,

"Death is here, and death is there,
Death is present everywhere;
All above, around, beneath,
Is death — and we ourselves are death! But all this is over and past in Heaven. There is no death, and no end — no end to anything. This is difficult, indeed, to understand, but easy to believe. Joy has no end, service no end, and rest no end. The Sabbath glory never dims — the Sabbath breeze never hushes its music — the Sabbath convocation never disperses. For the people of God, this rest remains. The people of God — the penitent, contrite, and converted. The people of God — the believing, humble, and holy! The people of God — "the saint’s everlasting rest," as Baxter has called it — not the unrepentant sinner’s everlasting rest. The world to come has no Sabbath rest for the unrepentant sinner. Here on earth, he would have no Sabbath — there in eternity, he shall have no Sabbath, no rest, no light, no happiness — nothing but unrest, disquiet, misery, "the blackness of darkness forever!" "The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest."

Reader, hearken and receive the consolation with which we are comforted of God: "Come unto me," says the compassionate Savior, "all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls." This is the first step — the prelude to all that follows. Rest to the soul — rest in Christ; and then follows — oh, rapture beyond expression! Oh, bliss without alloy! "The rest that remains for the people of God!"

Oh, blessed rest — when we rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!" When we shall rest from sin — but not from worship! When we shall rest from suffering and sorrow — but not from joy! Oh, blessed day! When I shall rest with God — when I shall rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing, and praising Him! When my perfect soul and body shall together perfectly enjoy the most perfect God! When God, who is love itself, shall perfectly love me, and rest in His love to me, and I shall rest in my love to Him! When He shall rejoice over me with joy, and rejoice over me with singing — and I shall rejoice in Him!"