Letter to the Hebrews Volume 32

 The Eternal Rest for All of God the Father's Adopted Children Part 5

Hebrews 4:8-9 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. KJV

It was the rejection of God's goodness and power that led to all the Israelites who were 20 years and older perishing in the wilderness march that lasted 30 years. This again was their resistance and ultimately their rejection of God's salvation/redemption, as it is written, "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day." (Hebrews 4:8) (KJV). Likewise, as we declared in the last study/commentary, every sinner who hears the Gospel of Grace and disregards it as false or of no meaning to them and their lives is resisting or finally rejecting God's only way of salvation of the souls of men and women on His earth. The writer of Hebrews in this verse explains to the Hebrews then and to every soul willing to listen today and in any era and generation that back then, as well as today, Jesus Christ offered salvation to the Hebrews enslaved by Egypt/Pharaoh (a type or picture of Satan) for over 400 years which was a life lived in the land of Canaan, yet they did not believe Him despite all of the mighty miracles He executed on their behalf, their minds were blinded by Satan. All of humanity throughout the world are offered this same salvation in our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ alone, yet it is Satan today who is still blinding the minds of every sinner who wants to believe in a god of their on making or who wants to believe their are many roads or ways to get to what is called god or the universe.

You see it is the heart/inner man/ inner woman that is corrupt, as it is written by the Prophet Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." (Jeremiah 17:9-10) (KJV). God/Jesus who is the One True and only God will allow any sinner to have their false, fake, and fruitless god until that sinner's heart is ready for the truth, then the blindness will be taken away (2 Corinthians 3:16). Next the writer of Hebrews goes on to speak of a further or future rest for the people of God, as it is written, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." (Hebrews 4:9) (KJV). The entrance into the land of Canaan was for only those who believed God, this was their entrance into salvation. Likewise, for those today who hear the Gospel of Grace and their inner man/inner woman/hearts are ready to believe then God the Holy Spirit resides with us and in us and salvation by grace through faith equals adoption into the family of God, as it is spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He said, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:16-18) (KJV).

The rest we presently enjoy down here on the earth as pilgrims and sojourners is the confident assurance that all our sins (past, present, and future) have been and are forgiven eternally and that we will never come into condemnation, as it is again spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ with these words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24) (KJV). Despite this wonderful rest in the assurance of our adoption by our Lord Jesus Christ, we still face daily spiritual battles with the enemy of God and of us the devil and his demons. Warfare with him and warfare with our old nature and sin will always be a prevailing, prominant, and prevalent problem as we continue our sojourn here on the earth. However, in the middle of all of this we rest, that is, now and in our future home in heaven because for now we know that none of our many battles we fight down here are fought alone because our Lord Jesus Christ is with us always in every trial, trouble, test, and tribulation, as it is written, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) (KJV).

Here is what Albert Barnes had to say of the remaining rest for the people of God, "That heaven is a place of cessation from wearisome toil. It is to be like the 'rest' which God had after the work of creation (Hebrews 4:4, note), and of which that was the type and emblem. There will be 'employment' there, but it will be without fatigue; there will be the occupation of the mind, and of whatever powers we may possess, but without weariness. Here we are often worn down and exhausted. The body sinks under continued toil, and fails into the grave. There the slave will rest from his toil; the man here oppressed and broken down by anxious care will cease from his labors. We know but little of heaven; but we know that a large part of what now oppresses and crushes the frame will not exist there. Slavery will be unknown; the anxious care for support will be unknown, and all the exhaustion which proceeds from the love of gain, and from ambition, will be unknown. In the wearisome toils of life, then, let us look forward to the 'rest' that remains in heaven, and as the laborer looks to the shades of the evening, or to the Sabbath as a period of rest, so let us look to heaven as the place of eternal repose. Heaven will be like a Sabbath. The best description of it is to say it is 'an eternal Sabbath.' Take the Sabbath on earth when best observed, and extend the idea to eternity, and let there be separated all idea of imperfection from its observance, and that would be heaven. The Sabbath is holy; so is heaven. It is a period of worship; so is heaven. It is for praise and for the contemplation of heavenly truth; so is heaven. The Sabbath is appointed that we may lay aside worldly cares and anxieties for a little season here; heaven that we may lay them aside forever."

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.


Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…