The Reward of the Righteous.
“For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you.”—Deut. 12:9.
A description of Paradise is always acceptable to the humble believer. He is seeking the rest, the inheritance, which God has so abundantly promised in His word. So our God has not omitted to give us glimpses of this Heavenly rest. We have gathered together our own sweet bundle of sentiments regarding it. They are ever a blooming garden of flowers by our pathway. We are to so live that we may daily prepare for this Home of the Soul. Hezekiah was ordered to set his house in order. He was reminded that he would soon be called to enter into this rest prepared for the people of God. He had something to do first, however—to set his house in order.
We sadly realize that in the study of this deep question our knowledge of that country which is our eternal home, can be but faint. Paul saw something of its glory but would not undertake to describe it. And the glowing descriptions which John gives us in his Revelation, are most difficult to understand. They are figures, they are poorly drawn pictures, outlines, photographs, of that Celestial Clime and its Holy Inhabitants. But it confirms our hopes, invigorates our strength, ennobles our efforts. Then let us study today something and somewhat of this Happy Land.
I. The Character of the Reward, the Inheritance.
The Israelites were worn and weary, with the desert journey. For forty years they had been wanderers, pilgrims, in a land of sand, rocks, barren waste and mountains. God so blessed them that their garments did not wear out, and He gave them water from the rocks and food from Heaven and flesh from the far countries. But this was not enough. They had been promised a land that flowed with milk and honey, a land of rest, an inheritance. God had promised to Abraham that He would give them the land of Canaan for a possession, and that it should be inherited by all his children forever. While this promise had been made centuries before their trials in the Wilderness, yet God had not forgotten His pledge and His people had not forgotten His promises. The great encouragement which Moses always brought forward that their strength might be renewed, was that God had made them a promise of a land of their own. With all their trials and disappointments, their mistakes and their failures, their doubts and perplexities, God was with them and the Land of Canaan was just beyond the Jordan.
It is well for us to keep in mind the journey of the Israelites, between the Red Sea and the Jordan; between the land of slavery and the land of liberty. For indeed we are making just such a journey now. We are on the march to our Heavenly Canaan. It is called a rest. It is called an inheritance. What blessed descriptions these are! We could want no better.
This wilderness of sin is a land of weariness. The way is hard, the mountains to climb are high. The rocks which cut our feet are many. The loads which we carry cause so often fainting, almost death. There is no rest here. We have temporary resting places where we may sleep and refresh ourselves. But the day comes, and its work, its weariness. Even in our religious lives and work, we experience the same fatigue, we are exhorted not to grow weary in well doing, not to faint by the way, why? Because we are in a land of weariness, of toil, of exhaustion!
“To him that overcometh, I will give a crown of life. To him that overcometh, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God and they shall go out no more.” Our abiding place there will be as permanent as the pillars of the temple. We cannot be removed. Surely we will not want to go out any more. We will be satisfied to dwell in the temple of God forever. Then it is called an inheritance. Our children inherit our possessions. There is no law to prevent them from coming into what has belonged to us. It is their own when we leave it by every right of human and Divine law.
II. Our Saviour is the faithful witness of this promised land.
Moses, you remember, sent spies into Canaan that they might bring back a report of the land which God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. These spies returned. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a good report. The majority report was very discouraging indeed, so much so, that the Israelites turned back again.
There are many in this world who have a bad report of the Promised Land which the text tells us, is to be our rest and our inheritance. Will you listen to them? If so, you will also turn back and continue wandering in the wilderness of sin. Do not forget that Satan is one of these spies. He will tell you false things regarding your religion, your brethren, your Saviour, your God and Heaven. This is his business. He is always at it. You find many Christians who do not think much about Heaven, they consider it a dream, they contend that this is their Heaven, hence they place little value on all the reports in the Bible concerning this land. But we have a true witness, our Joshua, our Jesus. He came from that country. He knows its hills and dells, its clime, its fruits, its joys, its eternal delights. He has left us His report. It is absolutely true. He has seen and heard and tasted and He speaks as a true witness. He said to His disciples on the eve of His departure, “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you.” “If ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
God liberated His people from Egypt. He raised the iron heel of oppression from the necks of His people. He led them forth. He brought them into Canaan. His omniscience guided them. His omnipresence was ever with them. He brought them to an end of the toil, labor, dust, pains, weariness of the wilderness journey. The same God is leading us to a much better country. In this country there are no enemies, as there were in Canaan. No battles will be fought, no sickness will be endured, no trials to pass through, no fading sunsets and following dark nights, no losses, no crosses, for “All the former things are passed away, behold, I make all things new.”
Jesus says, “I am the living bread of which if any man eat, he shall nevermore hunger.” He has broken down the middle wall or partition, so that we can enter into the very presence of God. Paul speaks of His work when he says, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Yes, the glory of God, that glory which shall be reflected from our hearts and faces when we stand complete before God. John says, “It doth not appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every one that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as He is pure.” We shall be like Him! These are not misty descriptions of our rest and inheritance! They are real photographs. We need not doubt, we need not fear. It doth not appear what we shall be, but in that beautiful habitation of the soul, we will be more beautiful than the beautiful home which God has prepared.
III. But this rest and inheritance will be the reward of the faithful.
We should not deceive ourselves for not every one will enter. There are many in this world who confidently expect to enter this Heavenly Canaan, but they have no passport. If you were to take a trip through Europe and Asia, it would be necessary for you to procure from the proper officials of this country a passport, for without this you would not be permitted to go through these countries. You would be looked upon as some kind of an enemy. The passports to Heaven are goodness and faithfulness. Not the goodness, however, which this world creates and loves and prizes. Christ said to the young nobleman who came to Him and wanted to know what good thing he could do to enter the kingdom of Heaven, “Why callest thou me good, there is none good but God.” This young man said that he had kept all the commandments from his youth up, now if he had done that and we have no reason to doubt it, for Christ looked on him and loved him, then this young man was really good as this world calls goodness; but mark you he did not enter the “Kingdom of God,” for he went away very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Oh! he was very rich!
He had his own little heaven, he had his own little bundle of goodness, he had his own passport, but these did not suffice, for the Kingdom of God. These were of no value in this Kingdom.
I was born in a slave state. When I was a little boy, my mother being very poor, sent me out on a very cold day to the river bank to gather up a bundle of wood. I gathered up the wood and tied it into a bundle and placed it on my head. I started home. It was a large bundle and grew very heavy as I walked along. It was painful to my head and I became tired. I staggered under the burden, I thought that I could not reach the house, but I kept on. At last I got home and almost fainted. But what a relief it was to me and what a comfort it became to my mother. As we sat that night by the crackling fire, I thought, well it was worth all it cost me. The pleasure it gave my mother, the family, and satisfaction it gave me to know that I had done this and all were now enjoying it, was my reward, my rest. But mark you, it was the reward of goodness and faithfulness. If I had been a disobedient boy, would I have had that reward? Would I have had that enjoyment? Would I have had the approval and the love of my mother? Never, never! So it is with us today. We must carry our burdens, and the burdens of others. We have always a double load on our shoulders, this makes it doubly heavy. Sometimes we nearly faint under it, the road seems to have no end, we are almost tempted to throw down the load, but can we? If we really desire to enter that beautiful city beyond the river of death, the load which God has given us, must be carried to the very end. We can drop that load when we come to the river, when the death angel tells us that it is enough and that our Father wants us to come home.
You are to serve your brother-man, you are to love him, to pray for him, and to love and pray for your enemies. This is the load, this is the work that is to be done! Without the cross there is no crown, without the weights there are no wings, without the prayers there will be no praises! “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” This is the welcome plaudit. Do you long to hear that plaudit? Then be faithful today and tomorrow and throughout life.
IV. This place is called rest.
After the victory there is peace. After the labor there is rest. After the pain there is pleasure. This world is not our abiding place, our peace-place. As long as man lives on the earth he has various inducements to sin. Enemies within and without are continually organizing against him. Satan is seeking to devour him with lust and sin. He too often, alas! renounces his allegiance to his God, he forgets his Saviour, he turns away from the practice of his religion. Worldly pleasures allure him, they deceive him, they intoxicate. Ten thousand are the ways of this world to lead the humble pilgrim astray. The Israelites wandered in the Wilderness forty days, but it was only a seven days march from Egypt to Canaan; Why did they wander? Because they sinned. The flesh is lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. When we would do good evil is present with us. What a mighty conflict this life of wandering is!
But blessed be God there are no haunts of innocent (?) amusement to entice you from pure holiness, in Heaven! No dens to rob men and women of their virtue, no pit-falls of saloons and gambling hells to lead astray the holy inhabitants of that land of rest, none of these things are to be found there! The ungodly rich man, the oppressor of the poor, the robber, the thief, these are all cast into the lake where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. There is the place of our Eternal Rest. It is a mountain where heavenly pastures grow and the rivers of life gently flow. It is here that we shall know as we are known. Here ignorance is forever banished and we see face to face. God help as to enter this rest and to obtain this inheritance.