By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, on which we fully depend as I share, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This morning, I am continuing the thought of entering God’s rest that we see in Hebrews 4. Let me read that verse.
Therefore, let us fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard.
For we who have believed do enter into that rest; even as He hath said,
As I sware in My wrath,
They shall not enter into My rest.
— Hebrews 4:1-3
For he that hath entered into His rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest.
— Hebrews 4:10-11
Last time I shared on entering God’s rest and on what God’s rest is. This morning, I want to talk about some practical applications of entering God’s rest. Frankly, I think I need to do a brief review, because if you were not here, the practical application will not really be understood without the foundation of what I shared last time.
The writer of Hebrews was very concerned about something Jake talked about a few minutes ago. These Christians were Jews, and Judaizers were speaking to them. They were saying, “Look, you have accepted Christ. He is your Saviour, but you need to continue in the Old Testament ways. You need to honour the temple and the Jewish feasts. You are Jews.”
Ed Miller, at the retreat we recently attended, said that the problem with the Jews in those early days was that they considered themselves Jewish believers. They did not really see themselves as Christians who were Jewish. There is a world of difference.
In other words, they considered themselves Jewish first, and then they also believed in the Lord. That allowed the Judaizers to come in easily and say, “Yes, you need Christ, but you need something else.” What they were offering was good, because it had come from God to begin with.
Our young brother said that he saw something better—something that was best. The good things were not good enough. The writer of Hebrews was saying that there is something better. In fact, if you have the best, you no longer need the good.
If you are not careful, the things that are good can keep you from what is best—from God’s best. If you cling to merely good things, you will miss what God is after. The issue was, “Yes, you need Christ, but you need something else.” But those other things were only good things.
Their problem was that they had not really seen Who Christ was and all that He had accomplished on Calvary’s cross. They did not see the fullness of what He had done as meeting all their needs. The writer of Hebrews was saying, “No, Christ is all you need.”
The writer immediately begins his epistle by sharing Who Christ is. In fact, all of Hebrews reveals Who Christ is. Out of the great turmoil of that hour, today we have this letter to the Hebrews, which helps us tremendously to understand Christ and His greatness.
He begins by saying, “The prophets spoke to you in old days, and that was good. But in these last days, it is Christ, the Son of God, Who has come. It is His word that has been spoken to you. It is the final word. It is God’s word. It is the only word.”
What the prophets spoke, they spoke of Him. He is the word that you need to hear. You do not need any other word but His word. He is the Word of God.
He is the heir. Jewish believers, you think you are the heir, but He is the heir. Everything has been given to Him by the Father. He is the heir of all the universe and of all those who come to Christ. Because you are in Christ, you become a joint-heir, but He is the heir.
You live in this world, but He made it. He is the Maker, the Architect.
In the old days, the glory of God filled the tabernacle and the temple. Isaiah went up to the temple, and the glory of God filled it. But Christ is the exact image of the glory of God. He is the outworking of the glory of God.
You do not need the tabernacle and the temple any longer. He is the temple of God. He is the exact representation of God’s nature. You no longer need all the old types that pointed to the nature of God through history and tradition. He is God’s nature manifest.
By Him, the whole world is held together. All the universe is held together. Sometimes we struggle to hold our lives together, but let me tell you: He holds everything together by the word of His power.
Once a year, the high priest would go in and bring the sins of the people before God. That had to be done every year. But this One, this High Priest, has gone into that temple made without hands before God and has presented a sacrifice so pleasing to God the Father that there is no need for any other sacrifice.
It is a perfect, pure, holy, righteous sacrifice—His sacrifice. He has made purification for your sin. He has sat down as proof of His greatness, authority, and power. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father.
What else do you need? Why are you clinging to these old things? Some of it was good, but by clinging to it, you are forgetting and taking away from what is best.
This is the real question: Is Christ sufficient? Is Christ and His work on Calvary’s cross, brothers and sisters, sufficient?
The writer of Hebrews uses the nation of Israel and its wilderness experience as an example to prove his point. He said, “Your fathers saw My works for forty years in the wilderness, but they did not learn My ways. And I swore in My wrath that they would not enter My rest.”
Brothers and sisters, it is God’s great desire that we might enter into His rest. But from the example given, we see that there is a possibility of not entering His rest.
The whole first generation of Israel that came out of Egypt perished in the wilderness and never entered God’s rest through unbelief. They just did not believe God. They believed Him enough to leave Egypt, but they grumbled their way through life in the wilderness.
When God put them to the test and said, “It is time to cross this Jordan and enter My rest,” they said, “Whoa, we are not sure about that. There are giants over there. This does not seem like rest to me.” They did not go in.
Brothers and sisters, we need to grasp the significance of this: God was angry. God was angry with that generation. Finally, He said, “You have pushed Me to My limit. You are not going in.”
Of that whole generation, only two went in: Joshua and Caleb. That should be a sobering thought to us concerning this warning. We need to understand what God’s rest is and be diligent about entering into it, lest we miss God’s purpose and His heart for our lives.
Yes, we love the Lord. Yes, we look to Him for hand-to-mouth provision daily, and we can become satisfied with that way of life. But we never really reach the place in life for which the Lord delivered us in the first place.
He did not deliver us merely to let us wander around. He wants us to depend fully on Him, but He also wants us to enter His rest, which is far greater than wandering around the desert.
What does this Sabbath rest mean? Rest and Sabbath mean the same thing. What is it, and what does it have to do with all this?
In the first chapters of Genesis, we see creation. God created the heavens and the earth. On the sixth day, He created man, and on the seventh day, He rested. God rested. This was God’s Sabbath rest.
God was so pleased and satisfied with that work of creation that He rested in it and enjoyed it. He told Adam and Eve, “You need to honour this Sabbath day, this Sabbath rest.”
Remember, they were created on the sixth day. Their first day was really the Sabbath day. God said, “This is what you need to do. You need to begin by entering My rest.”
You might think God would say, “It is time to get up and go to work.” But He said, “No, it is time to rest. You need to rest in this great work of creation. I am so satisfied and so pleased with it, and I want you to consider that first.”
God is so serious about this Sabbath rest that it was the fourth commandment among the Ten Commandments: “You shall keep the Sabbath day and sanctify it.”
In Exodus 31, He said that if anyone desecrated the Sabbath day or worked on the Sabbath day, they were to be put to death. Not honouring the Sabbath day is really allowing death to enter in.
But that is Old Testament. How does the Sabbath apply today? Man fell. Adam sinned and fell into sin. His nature became sinful and self-centred rather than God-centred. His thoughts were on himself and what he could achieve, rather than on what God was after and on God’s purpose.
Man developed a sin nature. So corrupted did man become that it even affected creation. Death entered into creation as well, and the whole first creation of God was spoiled because of man’s failure through sin.
Adam became a sinner by sinning, and that sin nature was passed on through the generations. Today, brothers and sisters, we do not become sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We have that sin nature within us.
The first creation was totally spoiled. Adam had failed. So God sent His second Man, and that second Man, as the Bible calls Him, is Jesus Christ. When Christ was put on the cross, Jesus was the last Adam but the second Man.
God’s judgment fell upon all that first creation because it was marred. It could not be restored or improved upon. God judged it and said, “That first creation is over. I want a new creation, and My Son is the beginning of that new creation.”
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
— 2 Corinthians 5:17
If you are in Adam, you are an old creature. But if you are in Christ, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you are in Him. There is a new creation in you. Old things have passed away.
That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You have a fundamental problem. You are not acceptable. You must be born again. You must become a new creation in Christ.” That is the acceptable creation that will enter God’s purpose.
When we accept Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in and quickens our spirit, which has been dead toward God and unable to communicate with God. We become alive in Jesus Christ, and a new life comes into us. That new life is Jesus Christ. The very life of Christ is in us—the life of God.
It is not the life of Adam. Yes, we still have that life with us, but God’s judgment is upon it. One day, not only our bodies but our entire being will be totally set free, and it will be all Christ. Hallelujah.
With the first creation, God was pleased and rested. He said, “This is My Sabbath. Observe it. It is important.”
With this new creation, Jesus was the One Who completely satisfied the Father in beginning a new creation in Himself. Therefore, Christ is God’s Sabbath. We need to understand that.
Even the Old Testament type of observing a day looked forward to the day of the new, heavenly creation. God’s real Sabbath is His Son, Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is not something we observe only weekly, as they did in the Old Testament. Daily, hourly, moment by moment, we take up Jesus Christ as God’s Sabbath rest.
That is why it is important that we enter into His rest—into all that Jesus is and into all the work of the new creation that He accomplished on Calvary’s cross. We have that new life in us, but it has to mature, grow, and come into the reality of all Christ has accomplished.
God can rest again because of what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross. We are part of that new generation.
The writer of Hebrews illustrates this through Israel’s first generation. They wanted to be delivered, and that was Moses’ heart as well. God told him to deliver them. But in the Song of Moses, we see that God had a purpose: “I am going to bring you into a place where I will put My name, and you will build a sanctuary there for Me.”
Coming out of Egypt met man’s need. It met the need of the Jewish nation in bondage. But that was not ultimately God’s purpose. His purpose and heart were that they would enter the promised land, a place where He would eventually put His name—a permanent place of rest.
Even that was only a type. It looked to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came as the temple of God on this earth. God could put His name on His Son, Jesus Christ. He fully represented God. He was the temple of God.
That is why He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was the temple of God. Yet His physical body, which He bore while walking on this earth, was unable to fully express the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, and one hundred and twenty believers were baptized into one body—the body of Christ. It is not merely mystical; it is real. In that body, Christ can reveal His fullness: “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”
In this way, God receives His full purpose: a place where He can rest, a place where He can put His name, a permanent place of rest. And it is Jesus Christ.
Israel was to enter the promised land and possess it. The Lord said, “Everywhere you put your foot is yours. I have already given it to you. But by faith, you have to go in and put your foot down on it.”
They failed through unbelief. How does this apply to us today? Christ is our promised land. When we accept Jesus Christ, we are called to take up the cross and follow Him. He provides for us, and we are to mature in Christ and fulfil His purpose.
We must begin by entering His rest, which means apprehending all of Christ and His work at Calvary’s cross. God has given it to us, but by faith we must apprehend it, just as Israel had to enter the land and put their foot upon it, saying, “It is mine.” It is always through faith.
That is our work: faith. Let me use another word. We must believe in Christ—Who He is and all that He has done. Then we will enter His rest.
Let me say it another way: if we have truly believed, then we can rest.
We can say, “Thank You, Lord. I am Yours. I have been purchased with a price. Your blood has redeemed me, and I can rest in that. I am not nervous about it. Lord, I am not concerned. I am secure because of Your sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, and I am at rest.”
Jesus said:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
— Matthew 11:28
Sin is a heavy burden. The only way to unload that burden is to rest in what Christ has done. That is entering His rest.
I want to talk about this matter of assurance. Through the years, I have met many brothers and sisters who struggle with assurance. They say, “Jerry, I have accepted Christ, but I am troubled. I just cannot rest in that. I am always concerned that maybe I did not really accept Christ, or maybe I am not really a Christian.”
Of course, they fail, as all of us do, and that reinforces their lack of security in Christ.
Years ago, a dear sister in the Lord came to me. I had known her for quite a few years, but I did not realize how much she struggled with this issue. She said, “Dear brother, I am confused. I am not sure that I am the Lord’s. I do not know. I wonder. It really bothers me and tears me up, and I do not know what to do.”
I began to say, “Sister, you know that all your sins have been taken care of on the cross.” She said, “I know, but Jerry, honestly, I am filthy. I feel defiled. I feel like I cannot even approach God.”
I said, “But sister, the Lord says not only have I washed your sins away, but they are gone forever. I do not even remember them. God does not remember them.” She said, “Well, Jerry, I know that.”
I said, “But sister, you were saved by grace. That was not even of yourself. God came to you and gave you grace to believe Him.”
She struggled, and then she said these words. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit settled upon it. She said, “Jerry, I do not deserve to be saved.”
Something touched my heart. We had been talking for about an hour, and it was lunchtime. I said, “Sister, why do we not take a break? I have some apples and bananas. Would you like a banana and just take it easy for a moment?”
She took the banana. As she began to peel it, I said, “Why did you take the banana?” She laughed and said, “Well, you offered it to me.”
I said, “Yes, I did offer it to you. But why did you take it?” She said, “You were kind and thoughtful enough to realize that I might be hungry. We had been talking a while, so you offered it to me, and I took it.”
I said, “But let me ask you a question: did you deserve it? What did you do to deserve it?”
She looked at me and said, “Nothing.” Then her eyes brightened, a big smile came over her face, and it was over. The light had come.
She did not deserve it, but God freely gave it to her by simply accepting it. Praise the Lord. She entered God’s rest.
That is the point I am making. I saw her on and off for years after that, and every time she came, she would smile that big smile. That was all she had to do. I knew she was still at rest. Praise the Lord. She had entered His rest.
Let me talk about defilement a little more. Some Christians are overwhelmed with a sense of defilement. It may be caused by something in their past, by sins they have committed, or by sins committed against them—abuses committed against them. They feel defiled.
Brothers and sisters, we can be defiled by the sins of others. But have we not heard of God’s rest? If anyone here has that sense of defilement, God has rest for you.
Go back to the Old Testament and read about the red heifer offering. It is a type of Christ. Sometimes a priest had to handle a dead body. It was not his fault; he had done nothing wrong. Yet the Lord said that, in handling the body, he had become defiled.
But God had provision for it. He said, “Take the red heifer, completely consume it on the altar fire, take the ashes, mix them with water, and wash yourselves.” There was more to the purification, but the point was that the ashes and blood were mixed with water.
Jesus Christ has not only taken your sins and guilt, but for those who have experienced sins against them—the defiling things—His blood has taken that as well. That is what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross.
That is how powerful His blood is. Not only does it do away with sin before God, but your guilt is gone because there is nothing left to be guilty of. God has forgotten it. The defilement of sin has been washed in the blood of Christ. You are no longer defiled. Thank God.
Fear, anxiety, and the accusations of the enemy—these are matters in which we must enter God’s rest. I went through a struggle with fear myself. A number of others in our midst have struggled with fear and anxiety attacks, as they are called.
Personally, I thought I had literally gone insane, until the Lord showed me, “Jerry, you are not insane. You are being attacked, and you have not taken up My provision.”
In Revelation, it says:
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
— Revelation 12:11
When the blood is shown, the enemy cannot enter that ground. We need to know that. The blood is powerful against the enemy, because when he sees the blood, he knows he has lost.
If you take the blood, brothers and sisters, the enemy cannot approach that ground. Sometimes he accurately accuses us. But if we go to the Lord and confess our sins, they are dealt with in Christ because of the blood sacrifice. We can say, “That is under the blood.”
He may remind you a thousand times, but it is under the blood. You can rest in the fact that it is under the blood. Christ remembers it no more, and it is gone.
It is the same way with fear. When the enemy sees that blood, he has to back off.
The fear that used to hit me was like standing ankle-deep in the ocean and seeing a fifty-foot wave coming to wipe me out. I could see it coming, but I was frozen until it wiped me out.
The Lord showed me the precious power of the blood of Jesus. He said, “Jerry, just mention the blood.” Every time, the enemy would back off.
For me, it was a process. It did not happen instantly, but deliverance came. Others have testified of the same thing. Brothers and sisters, this is entering into the work of Calvary—entering God’s rest in your life and making it real in your life.
Think of the Passover. When Israel came out of Egypt, the angel of death was coming upon the whole nation. There was only one way not to be destroyed, not to have the firstborn in the family destroyed: they had to take the blood of a lamb and put it over their door.
What they were really saying was, “We believe what God has told us. We believe that the only thing that will keep us from the power of death is the blood of the lamb.” In our case, it is the blood of Jesus. That is the provision in Calvary’s cross.
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace.
— Romans 6:14
How many of us have entered into His rest concerning this matter? For some, there seems to be a prevailing sin in life that keeps coming back. Frankly, it can seem to have dominion over us. We ask, “What can I do? Is it even possible to have victory in this area?”
Brothers and sisters, we still have a sin nature within us, but Romans says we no longer have to live under its power. It is still there, but you do not have to live under its power.
Why? Because at Calvary’s cross, we were put in Christ and crucified with Him. The Word is very clear: the old man, the slave to the sin nature, has been crucified. If the slave of sin has been crucified and remains in the place of death, sin has no one to act upon and no one to do its work. He is dead.
Paul is very clear: “He who has died is freed from sin.” That does not mean you will never sin again, but it means you have been freed from its power. You do not have to submit to it any longer because you are dead.
The great thing is to remain in the place of death, and that is through faith. You say, “Lord, I may not understand or be able to grasp this co-crucifixion with Christ on the cross, but Your Word says it. It is clear. Lord, it must be true. I want to rest in what You have said: sin no longer has dominion over me.”
When the sin nature begins to activate, the flesh rises up, and the old man wants to come off the cross, so to speak, we can say, “Wait a minute. I am dead in Christ. I am going to rest in that.”
“Lord, I cannot deal with this. I am a dead man. You have to deal with it. You can deal with it. Your life in me can deal with it.” That is the life that overcomes.
Your willpower can never overcome the enemy’s ability to excite the sin nature and the flesh. Willpower is not what works. It is Spirit power—God working in you by His life.
There is teaching in Christianity today that the sin nature has been eradicated. In other words, when you are crucified with Christ on the cross, even the sin nature is eradicated.
But the Word is very clear: if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. It is a matter of remaining in the Spirit.
Some believe the sin nature itself has been eradicated, and then they say, “But we are still sinning. We still have problems. What is the issue?” They conclude that the sin must be demonic spirits within them, and that freedom comes by identifying and casting them out.
My question is this: is that what the Word of God says? Is that really entering God’s rest—letting Him deal with it—or is it us doing the work and not resting?
I think that approach can bring soul satisfaction, because people are honestly seeking the Lord, trying to grow in Christ, and trying to be sanctified. By doing these things, they may feel they have accomplished something in the Lord.
But brothers and sisters, I feel strongly about this: our problem is not simply spirits. I am not saying there are no demons or spirits. I have dealt with a few in my life, and I have encountered people whom the Lord confirmed to me were demon-possessed.
But our central problem is that this sin nature, the flesh, the old man, has been crucified with Christ on the cross. Yet in our practical experience, the old man can be stirred.
The Lord says that we have to learn to live by faith. We have to learn to rest in His finished work. We say, “Lord, I am dead. I take You at Your Word. This thing is trying to tempt me. My flesh is arising. The sin nature is activated. Now I trust in Your Holy Spirit to deal with this.”
It is the Holy Spirit Who wrestles against the flesh, and the flesh wrestles against the Holy Spirit. It is not our work to wrestle; it is the Holy Spirit’s work. I truly believe this is the way to victory: resting in what Christ has done—God’s Sabbath.
Sometimes we turn to other means or methods. But the Lord says, “If it is not My Sabbath rest, if it is not Christ and His work on Calvary’s cross that is at the heart of this, then it is not honouring the Sabbath.” Eventually, it brings in death.
Remember David, when he desired to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. We know David’s heart for the house of God. He realized that the house of God would be meaningless without the ark, because the ark represented the very presence of God.
David found where the ark was, gathered the whole assembly, built a new ox cart, loaded the ark upon it, and started back toward Jerusalem.
The wheel caught in a ditch, the ark began to tilt, and Uzzah reached up to steady it. It was a commendable thing to do. But as soon as he touched it, he was struck dead.
Why? David was distraught with the Lord. He did not understand why God had done this. But praise the Lord, David went back to God’s Word and asked, “Lord, what is going on?”
The Lord said, “You did not do it My way. You put it on an ox cart. It was supposed to be carried with staves through the rings of the ark and lifted upon the shoulders.”
That seems harsh. But that is how much God guards His way. When it comes to Christ and His finished work, God guards it. It is His Sabbath rest, and He guards it diligently.
David’s motive was pure. His heart was right. His motive was righteous. David loved the Lord and gave his whole life to Him. But his means was wrong.
God had to show him how important it was that the means be right. What we must see is that Christ in His finished work is not only what we want to possess; He is the way as well. He is the means to God’s end.
Christ said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
— John 14:6
Old things have passed away. That is 2 Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away; all things have become new.
Do you believe that? Have you entered God’s rest that you are a new creature in Christ? God actually dwells in you. You are a new creation. Praise God, the old creation has been nailed to the cross.
Do not try to live by the old creation. Accept what God has done. You are an entirely new creature.
Your history—both good and bad—is gone before God. We tend to think mostly about the bad, but the good and the bad, your history in Adam, is over. What God is interested in is the life of Christ in you: how that life is progressing, developing, and operating in you. All the rest is under judgment.
For many years, psychology has crept into the Christian message. Psychology is the study of the soul. Just as the study of the body gives us medicines and other helps, psychology studies the soul and has discovered certain truths about how it operates. Some of its basic assumptions may be wrong, but it is the study of the soul.
However, psychology does not have the answer. Christ is our answer. It is a spiritual answer; it is the issue.
One method is called healing of the memories. Christians struggle with bad memories, and some suggest that we should take time before the Lord, go back, and try to remember all the bad things that come to our hearts.
When a bad memory comes up, they say we should bring it before the Lord, take responsibility for it, ask the Lord for forgiveness, and clear up the memory in order to cleanse the soul.
Brothers and sisters, our soul is healed through the blood of Jesus Christ and the work of Calvary, not by digging up our past. The Lord is very clear: our past has been judged. It is out of God’s mind. It is gone. We need to enter God’s rest.
You can have peace about your past. If something is bothering you, enter God’s rest by believing and taking up His Word. Say, “Lord, I have been crucified with Christ. That whole past is gone. Hallelujah. I am a new creation, and I want to walk in that new creation.”
“I do not even know all that I can be yet in Christ. I have not discovered it all, but I am a new creation.” The Lord is not interested in fixing up the old man, brothers and sisters. It is the new man.
There is another method called encounter groups. Christians gather together and share deeply personal things. Some of you may have attended these and been helped, so I want to speak carefully about them.
In healing of memories, it can release your soul. You feel the burden lifted because you have put it away. But have you really put it away? If it has not been put away by entering God’s rest, then the relief may be temporary.
Psychologists have discovered that discussing the past can help. They will often go back to your childhood, asking how your mother treated you, whether you were a happy baby, or whether you were disciplined too much. I am not trying to be funny; it is serious. They believe that by bringing things out and dealing with them, help comes.
And it does help. I am not saying it does not. But is this really God’s rest? Do you not want eternal rest—the rest that sets us totally free and sets our spirit free, not merely the soul?
The soul is really healed when the spirit is allowed to come into the soul and fill it with the life of Christ. The soul is a vessel for the spirit.
Group interaction works in a similar way. Christians share intimate things, sometimes things that husbands and wives have kept hidden for years. When those things come out, there can be a great release and a lifted burden.
Those present share in that release, and a unique bond can be formed because something important and deeply personal has been shared. It is a powerful thing. But is that God’s rest?
God wants us to see that we are a new creation in Him and that the old has been crucified. Our brother is going into those waters shortly, if I will quit talking, and the old will be passed away. That is God’s declaration.
Let me touch on one other matter: the sins of the fathers being passed on. This has been discussed among us recently, and for years it has been an issue among Word of Faith believers.
In Exodus 34, God is described as merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin to thousands, yet not clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the third and fourth generation.
God’s emphasis in that verse is His forgiveness of sin to thousands. He says, in effect, “Come to Me. Ask Me for forgiveness, and I will willingly forgive you. But if you do not, you remain guilty, and I have to deal with that guilt.”
Our sins do affect others. They can affect future generations. But that does not mean God has cursed future generations. It means that our sins can affect our children. We know that, do we not?
Some see this as God’s curse. When Adam sinned, God did curse the ground: there would be thorns and thistles. God pronounced painful childbirth, and He told Adam that by the sweat of his brow he would have to work. Sin brought God’s judgment—the curse.
But Galatians 3:13 says:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
— Galatians 3:13
That is Christ’s rest from the judgment God has upon sin. Christ became a curse so that you might be set free from the curse. That is His rest.
You may feel that something your parents did affected you, and it probably has. But when you accept Jesus Christ, the past is gone. The new man in Christ has only one past: Christ Himself.
When our Lord Jesus went to the cross of Calvary, what was upon His head? A crown of thorns.
It is not hard to see what that crown of thorns represents. It represents the curse—God’s curse. Jesus allowed the crown of thorns, God’s curse, to come upon Him on Calvary’s cross.
Brothers and sisters, if you believe in Jesus Christ, there is no curse for you. Can you rest in that? Can you just rest in that?
The nation of Israel interpreted the sins of the fathers to mean that a son would have to pay the price for his father’s sins, and a father would have to pay the price for his son’s sins.
But in Ezekiel 18, God corrects that misunderstanding:
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
— Ezekiel 18:2-3
As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he shall die in his iniquity.
Yet say ye, Why doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?
When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all My statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.
— Ezekiel 18:18-20
God is a righteous God, brothers and sisters. His mercy is to thousands. If we do not have a repentant heart, He must deal with it. But each person is responsible before God.
Let me sum up. God’s Sabbath rest is so important. It is Christ in all His finished work. God is at rest in that, and we need to learn to rest in that same finished work.
I have tried to point out through these practical examples that, in dealing with issues and problems in our lives, we may turn to other methods and means. But I want to assure you, as the writer of Hebrews sought to do, that Christ and His work on Calvary’s cross are all-sufficient for your soul, spirit, and body.
He is sufficient. He is the all in all. Let us not desecrate God’s Sabbath rest. Rather, let us rest with Him.
The Sabbath was Adam’s first day. That is where the Lord wants us always to begin with any problem, any issue, anything in our lives. He says, “What you need to do first is rest.”
If you look at Me long enough, if you look at what I have done on Calvary long enough, the Spirit will show you that there is an answer in Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, my heart is that we would not allow even good things to get in the way of God’s best and take away from God’s best.
Lord, we come to Thee today. Lord, Thou hast asked us to enter the promised land. Thou hast asked us to enter Thy rest.
Lord, forgive us for our unbelief, our lack of faith, and our unseeing eye. Lord, I pray that from this day forward we could see nothing but Jesus and Him crucified.
Lord, may we see the greatness and glory of Christ. O Lord, fill our hearts with Thyself.
Lord, I particularly ask now that Thou wouldst bless this baptism. Lord Jesus, glorify Thyself in this baptism and through this young man.
Lord, may he know the reality of what it is to be not only crucified in Christ, but risen in Christ and seated with Christ in heavenly places. I pray in Jesus’ name.