Title: Resting or Working?

May 14, 2006

Pastor Stephen Robbins

No Greater Love Family Church, WI

Praise the Lord. Matthew 11:28-30 is our theme, our main text. It says, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  The Lord wants us to rest. He said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Now notice that the way we’re going to be light and easy, or the way that we’re going to find rest for our souls is by learning of him. That’s what we’re taking up; just simply learning of Jesus, learning about Him. Learning what He has done for us in redemption, in His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His seating at the right hand of God, His being given the name above every other name. We’re not going to talk about your responsibility and what you need to do to please God, about how you need to live your life and how you need to conduct the affairs of your life. We’re not going to tell you about how to be a good father or how to be a good mother or how to be a good Christian or how to be a tither or how to be a giver. We’re not going to be talking about anything like that. We’re not even going to talk about walking in love. All we’re going to be talking about is God and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus. That’s why the Bible calls what we’re going to be teaching “milk.” It’s easy, you don’t have to chew, there’s no effort, just swallow. Just throw the bottle in your mouth and start drinking. Even a baby that comes out of the womb, it’s a natural response to suck, isn’t it? You’re just going to be sucking, just drinking the milk. It’s going to be easy for you to take and easy for you to digest.

We’ve been talking about the fact that there’s a Godward side to everything and a manward side to everything. You always teach the God side first. Why? It makes the man side easier. You always tell people what God has done before you tell them what man must do. Allot of our teaching today has told people what they must do but we’ve never told them what God has done. If man does not receive knowledge of the God side (if he does not know what God has done) the man side will always fail. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the area of purity or the love walk: walking in love toward man or toward God. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the area of the believer’s authority and exercising dominion. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the area of separating your lifestyle from that of the world, the area of healing or the area of receiving the blessings of God and being a blessing to others. Any area that you talk about you can see in the Word of God how you have to know the God side first in order for the man side to succeed. That is such a profound thing because what we have done is teach faith without first teaching grace. We’ve told people to “Believe you receive when you pray! Speak to your mountain! Resist the devil!” We’ve told them all those types of things but we never taught them grace first. We have never taught them first what God has done for them and then how to put faith in God’s grace, not faith in their works.

We’re going to teach the God side first, it makes the man side easier. We’re going to tell you things that God has done for us through Christ. We are not going to be talking about what man must do. The Lord told me some years ago, “Don’t teach the man side. Don’t teach man’s responsibility. Don’t tell men what men must do, that’s part of the problem; that is all they have ever heard is what they are supposed to do.” He said, “I want you to tell them not what they’re supposed to do,” He told me to tell them what He has done. And then He explained that if you don’t tell people what He has done, you have not given them any basis for faith. How can you have faith in something in which you don’t even know if it’s God’s will? If you don’t even know if God has done anything about it how can you have faith? You cannot have faith outside of the knowledge of God’s will.

We had also talked about grace and faith. We said that grace comes before faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith”. By grace through faith, the whole Christian life is like that. We don’t receive anything from God by works; we receive everything by grace through faith. We are receiving by faith what God already did in grace. Up until now allot of the teaching on faith comes from the standpoint that “faith moves God” or “faith moves the hand of God”. And that is simply not true. God already moved in grace and faith receives what God already provided in grace. A good way to be able to tell whether it’s an accurate faith confession is this: did God already provide it in grace? If He didn’t provide it in grace, faith can’t get it. That would straighten out a lot of weird faith confessions people have had over the years. People would base faith confessions on something that was their own will and not on the grace of God. We had people over the years going around claiming who there wife was going to be, or claiming who their husband was going to be. Well God didn’t supply your husband or your wife in grace. That’s not a part of your salvation or redemption.

I remember some years ago in Bible School them telling us about this lady that said that she was going to marry Kenneth Copeland. She cursed Gloria Copeland and commanded her to die in the name of Jesus because she had claimed Brother Copeland to be her husband. Well that’s just craziness. That’s nonsense. But people went that way with their faith confessions. They began to name and claim everything there is under the sun. Naming and claiming a million dollars. Naming and claiming this and naming and claiming that. Claiming everything they could think of. But if God didn’t supply it in grace, then faith can’t get it. Our faith is in His will. Our faith is in His Word. It’s not “faith in your faith”. It’s faith in Him and His will, His Word. It’s crazy what people come up with. But grace comes first and faith comes second. Faith does not come before grace; grace comes before faith. All faith does is come along and receive what God already provided by grace. Faith is not moving God to supply; faith is receiving God’s supply. 

Let’s bring it back to the new birth. The way you came into the kingdom of God was by grace through faith. The way that you continue in the kingdom of God is by grace through faith. Let’s say I came up to you right now and I shared the gospel message with you; the ministry of reconciliation, the gospel of peace. Is that sinner that I’m talking to waiting for God to send Jesus to die on the cross, rise again and sit down at the right hand of God so he can be saved? Is he waiting for that? No. God is waiting for the sinner to believe that He already did that. Don’t you see that the supply of salvation is there for every person on this planet, right now? The supply is in the Earth, it’s available to everybody who will believe it! Everybody that will believe it can receive it. Now if you don’t believe it you’re not going to receive it, but the supply was there. It’s not that person’s faith that’s going to move God to supply Jesus. Jesus was supplied and we go up to that person and we give them the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:19 “that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” We go up to Him and say, “Buddy, do you believe God already reconciled you?”  Not, “He’s going to reconcile you,” but “He already did.”  And that “God is not imputing your sins against you? For the last nearly 2000 years God has not imputed anybody’s sin.” So what you’re doing is bringing them back to something that was already done and getting them to believe that. And then he receives that and is at that moment saved, or born-again. And we know that salvation, from Scripture, and as you study out some of the basic Greek words, in relation to salvation you find out that salvation is an all-inclusive word. 

I like to say it this way. The new birth, when you got born again, you received salvation.  When you got born again and you came into here and you received salvation or your inheritance. But you had to get born into the family first. And when you got born into the family you received the inheritance. That salvation includes, not just salvation as far as being saved from hell and the lake of fire and the wrath of God and the destruction that is to come. That’s great, but beyond that it includes your deliverance. It includes your healing. It is your package deal. Everything’s included in that: the provisions, the protection, all the promises of God are right there in that salvation. 

The Lord gave me a different way of being able to explain it. Romans 9:30-32. “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.” Now notice verse 30 somebody attained and in verse 31 they have not attained. One has it and one doesn’t have it. He asks in verse 32 why the one that has not attained to the law of righteousness. “Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.” Why did the one man attain? He sought it by faith. Why did the other man not attain? He did not seek it by faith, but he sought it by works. The guy who attained sought it by faith. The guy who did not attain he sought it by works, by his own deeds, by his own efforts.

Now what about you? Why do you obtain or why do you not obtain? I have talked with people at different times and one of the common things you hear, or complaints that you hear out of people is this: “why am I not healed or delivered or blessed or prosperous” or whatever it was? “Why am I not healed? I confessed the Word 500 times a day. I go to church. I’m a good person. I pay my tithes. I give offerings to missions. I do Bible studies. I evangelize. I do all these things, why am I not healed?” The reason why is because you’re basing your faith off of you and what you have done. You have told me what you have done for Jesus, not what Jesus has done for you. You are basing your faith not in His grace; you’re basing your faith in your own good works. The reason you did not obtain or attain is because you sought it by works and not by faith. That’s where you get distorted: having faith in your faith. You’re actually having faith in your works and what you did, and how good you’ve been.

You received the greatest miracle of all, the new birth, where you were translated out of one kingdom into another kingdom, when you were at your worst possible moment in life. You were a sinner bound by sin and Satan and at that moment you received the greatest miracle of life when you were not even thinking about the Lord and pleasing Him. But now what happens is, after we enter the kingdom of God totally by grace through faith… How did you get saved? You put all of your trust in the Savior. You didn’t take anything to yourself. You put everything you had into Him. You believed and trusted totally in Him. And that’s how you got saved… But after you got saved you changed the method of operation. Now “Jesus does 50% and I’m going to do the other 50%. I’ll put a little faith in Him but I’m going to put the other faith in me. And now I’ve got to be good enough before I can receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost. And I’ve got to be good enough before I can receive deliverance from that demon. Now I’ve got to be good enough. I’ve got to earn my way to receive that.” Salvation, the all-inclusive word of the gospel, meaning everything is involved in that word, salvation is a gift of God. It’s not a reward. A reward implies something you are working to get, trying to attain. Salvation is a gift. That gift was already there before you were ever good enough. If it was a reward it’s not there yet, it’s not there until you live up to a certain thing, then it’s there. But a gift is there already. It was there whether you were too bad or too good. Whatever you were, it was already there.

Do you go up to sinner and say, “If you stop smoking and cussing and chewing and doing drugs and partying, if you stop doing all those things then you can get saved”? You don’t tell a person that. You say, “Just get saved buddy! Just receive the gift!” Notice that they stumbled at that stumbling stone in the end of verse 32. Let’s finish up Romans 9:33. “As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” The stumbling stone, the rock of offense is Jesus and faith in Him. God made salvation and righteousness so simple that people trip over it. They always add something to it or take away from it. Isn’t that amazing? Just like Revelation says. They’re always trying to add to something or take away from it. They can’t just accept it, that it’s that easy. So they add something else to it, “You have to believe and do good works. You have to believe and join the church. You have to believe and be water baptized. It’s not enough just to believe.” What do they do? They add to it because God made it so simple and they stumble over the stumbling stone.

Go over to Romans 10:1-10. “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” What happens when you have zeal without knowledge? It always leads to error. “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, 'The man who does those things shall live by them.'” Notice he is still comparing and contrasting the righteousness of works and the righteousness of faith; the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith. They are two kinds of righteousness. The man who is the righteousness of works has not attained righteousness because he’s seeking it by his own works; that man, the Bible says him, has not obtained and is consumed with doing, “…the man who does those things shall live by them.”

The righteousness-of-faith-man does not live by the commandments, he lives by faith. The righteousness-of-works-man lives by the commandments. He’s consumed with doing and trying to be good enough. The righteousness-of-faith-man lives by faith. He walks by faith. As it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” He goes on in verse 6 and begins to explain in further detail. “But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say…” Now remember this is the righteousness of faith, this is something the righteousness of faith does not say. The righteousness of works would say something like this, and the reason why is because of righteousness of works is trying to go about and establish their own righteousness by their own efforts. They’re not depending on Jesus and what He did; they’re not depending of the gift of God, they’re depending on their own efforts. They’re not putting faith in a Savior, they’re putting faith in themselves and their efforts. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down from above)" What is Jesus doing right now, at the right hand of God? He’s ever-living to make intercession for us. The righteousness-of-works-man is not concerned about that. The righteousness-of-works-man is not putting faith into the intercession and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ because he’s trying to attain his own righteousness by his own works. He does not believe that Jesus is at the right hand of God ever-living to make intercession for us, so “let’s bring Him back down”. He goes on and he says, “or, 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” The righteousness-of-works-man, because he’s trying to establish his own righteousness by his own works, does not believe that Jesus Christ took away the sin of the world and went to the place of suffering, went to hell, and rose again on the third day. He’s trying to establish his own righteousness so he doesn’t believe that. He’s not trusting in that. He’s not trusting in Jesus. He’s trusting in himself. He does not believe that Jesus went down into the abyss and bore the punishment for our sins.

Verse 8 begins to get into what the word of faith does say. “But what does it say "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" Where is the word? In your mouth and in your heart. Now notice he didn’t just say in your mouth. He goes on and he says, “(that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth”. Now he’s telling you what the word of faith is. Do you want a definition for the word of faith? Look right here in verse 9 and 10. “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has (past tense) raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” He believes and confesses what God has already done for him in Christ Jesus. The righteousness-of-works-man is still over here striving, trying to obtain. But he has not obtained. Trying to attain it but he’s not getting it. He’s trying be good enough, trying to say the word enough, trying to live holy enough. “I’m going to try to make it to heaven. I’m trying to get healed. I’m trying to get blessed. I’m trying to have God meet my needs. I’m really trying!” But the righteousness-of-faith-man, what’s he doing? The righteousness-of-faith-man is over here and all he’s doing is resting. He’s sitting back resting in the finished work of the cross. Believing and speaking everything that Christ has already done for him.

So while one is trying to attain, the righteousness-of-faith-man says, “Buddy I’ve already attained. You’re trying to get righteous. I already am. You’re trying to make it to heaven but my citizenship is already there. You’re trying to get healed but my Bible tells me, my promise book says that by His stripes you were healed, past tense. You’re trying to get it. I already got it. You’re trying to obtain. I’ve already obtained. You’re trying to get blessed. I’ve already been blessed. For 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ', Ephesians 1:3.” Can you see that the righteousness-of-works-man is over here in his own works trying to get these things? But the righteousness-of-faith-man is not working to get it, he’s resting in it. It is a finished work. He is resting in the finished work of Jesus, believing and speaking everything that Jesus has already done for him. Again, the sinner is not waiting for God to send Jesus so he can get saved. God is waiting for the sinner to believe that He already did. And if he’ll believe and speak that He already did it, he receives. What about you? You have to believe and speak like it’s already done and then you receive. I’m going to say it one more time. He’s not working to get it or working for it, he’s resting in it.

You have got a lot of people working that should be resting. Jesus talked about it didn’t he? He said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor” labor is work. “And are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” What does he give, rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” That’s two times in a row he said you’re going to find rest. Verse 30 goes on to say “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” He tells us to rest. He tells us to be light and easy. We are not working for salvation, we are resting in salvation.

I want to bring out 3 things to you in Hebrews 4:1-10. “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest,” Who’s rest; His rest. “let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.” A lot of believers have come short of entering into his rest, enjoying the rest of God. “For indeed the gospel” Notice he’s talking about the Gospel. “was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard It.” Will the Word alone profit you?  No. You have to mix faith with the Word. The Word did not profit them because it was not being mixed with faith. The gospel won’t profit the sinner unless he mixes faith with it. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” It’s not the power of God unto salvation to everybody. It’s the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes it. 

Continue in Hebrews 4:3, “For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,' " although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” Even though the works were finished they did not rest. In these first few verses he’s referencing back to the promised land and that they didn’t enter in the first generation. They didn’t enter into the promised land or enter into His rest

Was the promised land going to be blessed or was it already blessed?  Wasn’t it already blessed? It was already a land flowing with milk and honey. It was already an abundant land. A land that was so blessed that when the spies went in there and they brought back a cluster of grapes they had to have two grown men take a pole and carry that cluster between them.  On a pole. Today you could pick up a cluster of grapes and hold them in one hand. But they had to carry it back a pole between two grown men to show them the fruit of the land. Apparently that was not typical, otherwise why bring it back? If every place in the world was that blessed then why bring it back? They would have said “Oh yeah, we know there’s grapes everywhere that size.” But they were used to little clusters like you and me, not big clusters where one grape will fill your stomach. If you eat one grape you’re full. That’s your fruit for the day, bless God. It’s whole lot easier to fulfill that triangle thing. Eat one grape and that’s your fruit for the day. It’s hilarious. But the land was pre-blessed. It was already blessed. Before they ever got there it was blessed. It was already prepared for them.

Go to Deuteronomy 6:10-11. God told them, “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,  houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant.” They didn’t plant, they didn’t dig, they didn’t build, they didn’t fill. It was already filled, already built, already blessed, already dug, already planted. All they had to do was walk in and possess the land. That’s all they had to do. It was already there! They didn’t have to go in and fill it with good things. They didn’t have to go in and build the large and beautiful cities. They were pre-built, pre-filled, pre-planted, and pre-dug. They didn’t have to work, they had to do what? Go in and rest because it was already done. Let’s say you went out and bought a plot of land and were going to build on it. First you’d have to fix up the land, till the soil, get it ready, and then build the house. You’re doing work, aren’t you? But what if you go out and the land already bought and paid for, the ground has already been professionally landscaped, they already planted the garden for you, the well’s already dug. You have water plumbing already in there. The house is already filled with every good thing; you don’t have to go out do any shopping, you don’t have to look for the sofa that you want, everything is in there already. All you have to do is go in there and do what Rest!  It’s already there! Now you’d have to be an idiot to go in there and start to work and think that you have to do it all over again after we’ve built you this nice big house, filled with every good thing, with land that’s already blessed, and everything’s done.

This is one parallel he’s drawing to salvation. They heard the gospel and we heard the gospel. The gospel for them was the promised land that was already blessed and already taken care of. That’s good news isn’t it? Continue in Hebrews 4:4. Here’s another illustration that he uses to try to get a point across to us who believe, “For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’”. He’s going to use another example. Notice, “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”. Reading on in verse 5, “and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest." Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” There’s still a rest then isn’t there? This is awesome right here, watch verse 10, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” The pre-requisite to entering rest is ceasing from your own works. He’s speaking of three different rests. He’s talking about the rest in Creation, the rest of the promised land, and the rest of salvation we have today. The promised land: referring to Joshua. Creation: when God rested. Salvation: hearing the gospel but not mixing faith with it and they could not enter in. That is the rest he is referring to that “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” But in order to enter that rest you have to cease from your works. Oh, this is awesome! 

To enter his rest, verse 10 says that you have to cease from your works, as God did from His. Can you get saved, born again, by not fully trusting in Jesus? Can you think, “Well Jesus, you do 50% and I’ll do the other 50% and we’ll call it even?” Can you do that? No. In order to get saved and enter the rest of being born again you had to cease from trying to save yourself.  From trying to be good enough, trying to pay your way in or buy your way in. You had to stop trying to earn your way in or trying to earn your keep.  You had to pull back from that, cease from your own works and rest in His.  If you kept working you could not enter. You had to cease from your working and believe to enter into His rest. They didn’t have to go build the promised land, they had to go enter the one that God had already prepared.  Adam did not have to build the garden. God already prepared it and all he had to do was go enter in. 

Hebrews 4:4 brings it back to creation. “For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’”. Did God rest because He was just weary and tired? Did He say, “You know that was a whole lot of work out there today Holy Ghost. Let’s just sit back, we have to take it easy, man, we need a day off.  We’re overworked and underpaid.” No. He wasn’t. God neither sleeps nor slumbers; he doesn’t need any rest. The reason that you need to rest is because you have a physical body. When Jesus was in the Earth He had a physical body, so needed to rest. We find Him sitting down at the well, resting. You have body. You need to rest. But God doesn’t need to rest, he’s a spirit. The reason that God rested was because it was finished. It was complete. There was nothing else that needed to be done. Everything was finished. Because everything was finished, what did he do? Rest.

Remember Hebrew 10:10. “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as (just like) God did from His”.

Why did God rest? It was finished. We are to rest or cease from our works, as God, or just like God did from His. He rested because it was already done. Why do we rest? Because it was already done. There’s nothing else to do. There’s nothing to add to it. We are not working for salvation, we are resting in salvation.  The Sabbath day, under the law, under the Old Testament, was simply a type and shadow of salvation. What did they do on the Sabbath day? They rested, they did not work. That is a type of the salvation we rest in it, not work for it. For people to come into salvation and work and strive and strain to try to attain or try to obtain, would be like the Jews going into the promised land and once they get there and trying to build large and beautiful cities when they’re already there. It’s like going into a brand new house that is already perfect and tearing it down.

Think in terms of Creation. God rested on the Seventh day because it was complete. Now think about that. God created everything that man would ever need first. Then after He creates everything that man would ever need, God creates man as his final creation on the final day of creation. On the sixth day, after God created everything man would ever need, He creates man and man enters His rest on the seventh day. Nothing else could be done. 

When Adam has a need arise, does he say, “Now God, I could really use an apple down here, give me an apple tree, God.” Does he need to say that?  No. There are already apple trees in the garden. All he needs to do is find out where the apple tree is, go over there, pull one off the tree and eat it.  He didn’t have to beg God and say, “God I need more of this.”

Do you realize that God hasn’t created anything since the first six days.  After that it’s been a seed, time, and harvest, “As long as the Earth remains.” Every seed producing after it’s own kind. So there was no need for Him to create anything else because everything else would just continue to procreate. The Seed goes into the earth, it procreates, creates another tree of its own kind, another plant of its own kind, another bush of its own kind.  The same thing with animals and with people. Every seed is producing after its own kind. God has never created anything else. So when man needed an apple, he didn’t cry out to God, “I need an apple!” He went and found the apple and partook and enjoyed. When they went into the promised land they didn’t have to cry out “Oh God, give us the land!” or “God give us a nice house! God we need some wells dug here!” All they needed to do was go in there and partake. Possess the land. It’s the same thing in salvation. God went ahead of us in the Lord Jesus Christ and prepared salvation for us. Everything we would ever need is in salvation, it’s in our inheritance. We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” Romans 8:17. He prepared everything we would ever need and then through the new birth we get placed right smack-dab in the middle of everything He already provided.

Adam did not earn the garden. He was created into it. We did not earn salvation, we were re-created into it. We received the new birth and we got born into the family and the family was already blessed. Everything we ever needed was already there. His divine power, 2 Peter 1:3 tells us, “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” Everything you need for life, your natural life, and everything you need for Godliness, your spiritual life, has already been given to us in Christ. Again, Adam, when he had a need for fruit didn’t have to cry out for more. He just had to go and partake and enjoy what was already there. He had to go find it and then he could partake and enjoy. It’s the same thing with you in salvation. Everything’s been given to you and all you have to do is partake and enjoy. Find out where it is, partake and enjoy. You don’t have to beg, or twist God’s arm, any more than Adam had to beg and twist God’s arm to get Him to make something in the garden.

This is going to be powerful later when we start to talk about the man side.  All Adam had to do is keep the garden. The word keep means “to guard, maintain” it. Do you know what you need to do with your salvation?  Keep it. Guard it. Maintain it. Don’t let the thief do what he did to Adam to you.  Don’t let the thief steal your stuff. Guard it. Guard your spiritual garden.  Guard your salvation, the inheritance that God has given you. Don’t let the thief come in and steal it from you. So how does the thief steals it from you?  Remember, the only thing God told Adam to do was, “Hey buddy, don’t let the devil come in there and steal it from you. Just guard the garden.” But you know what Christians have done? They haven’t been guarding their garden.  They’ve let the devil, who used false doctrine and deception, come in and steal their inheritance. Christians have fallen asleep on watch. They’ve fallen asleep and let the devil come in and devour their goods. Stealing from them, killing them, destroying them, and the whole time Christians are just sitting there idly by. Why? They don’t know what’s already been provided.

When I say know, I don’t mean a mental fabrication in your head. I mean, it becoming real to you. To where you can say, “Man, the peace of God is mine. I refuse to allow anything to steal peace because peace is mine. As much as it belongs to God, as much as it belongs to Jesus, is as much as it belongs to me!” But you know what we do?  We let every little Tom, Dick, and Harry steal our peace. And then we blame everybody else, “Well, you shouldn’t have gotten on my nerves.” But what’s the real problem? You didn’t guard your garden. You see we don’t think about that, but it is part of your inheritance. Jesus said in John 14:27“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” You don’t let your heart be troubled or let it be afraid, that’s your job.

Keep your garden. He did His job. He gave you peace, now keep it. He gave you joy, now keep it. He gave you love, now walk in it. He gave you faith, now do something with it. He gave you power, now walk in it. He gave you authority, now use it. He gave us authority and we’ve been like that person that was given the one talent, we went and buried it in the ground. We dug a hole and buried it. Instead of using our inheritance we’ve let the devil come in and steal it right from under our nose and the whole time we’ve blamed everybody else for it, “Well you know every time Gary comes around me, I just lose my peace. Every time Betty gets around I just lose my joy.” No! That joy was a gift. That’s part of your inheritance. You’re supposed to keep it. You’re supposed to guard it and not let anything steal your joy.

You don’t have the joy of the devil, you have the joy of the Lord. I don’t think we think about all those things as being part of our inheritance. We think in terms of healing and deliverance from demons and then we just kind of stop there. No condemnation is part of my inheritance. I’m not going to let the devil steal that away from me by making me feel condemned and guilty all the time try to steal away from you a sense of righteousness.  I’m not going to let the devil steal my sense of righteousness. “I’m the righteousness of faith; it was a gift, and not of works. I’m righteous whether I feel like it or not. I’m saved whether I wake up feeling saved or not. I’m saved!” You are not always going to feel saved, but it doesn’t matter what you feel.

We blame everybody else and everything else for why we’re missing out on our inheritance, why we lost our peace, why we lost our joy. “The only reason I lost my joy is they got on my nerves. The only reason I got offended is because of them.” Well wait a minute now. “You’ve got love, buddy. You’ve got more love than you know what to do with. You’ve got so much love that there’s no limit to it. You’ve got love that endures all things.” You say, “I do?” That’s the problem. You don’t know. It’s not a part of you.  When I say it’s not a part of you, I’m saying, it’s got to be so real to you.  Your mind has got to be so renewed with it, that it becomes a part of you, that the second you get tempted to get into strife or get into envy or get into division or get into something else, the first thing that crops up is, “Wait a minute. That is not how love would respond. I have love in me and it is God’s love and it has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit,

“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:5. I have as much love as God has right now.” That’s what I mean by knowing it. It’s got to be such a part of your thinking. It’s got to be such a part of your thought life to where that’s what you think whenever temptation comes to get outside of love, or to not walk in forgiveness. And that’s got to be your first thought, not “They offended me. They hurt me. I’m mad at them.” That cannot be your first thought. Is God’s first thought every time you sin, “I’m mad at them”?  Is God’s first thought when you don’t talk to Him today, “Well, they just don’t talk to me anymore, they just snub me.” Does God say, “Next time they try to talk to me I’m just going to snub them right back!  I’m not even going to talk to them! They want an answer from prayer, they can come get me because they never talk to me! I’m mad! I’ve got a reason to be mad!” It’s humorous when you think about it isn’t it? Could you imagine God acting like that? 

You know if God acted like that he’d be a big baby. Do you know what you are? A big baby! A four years old with your little lip stuck. “If you snub me and I’ll snub you back!” You’re totally carnal, totally moved by the senses, totally moved by feelings, totally moved by wrong thoughts, totally moved by every little thought that comes across your mind. I don’t think people realize how quickly they buy into lies. The devil throws a lie into your mind and you believe it right away. He deceives you and you lose your inheritance. Deceives you and next thing you know you’re on the outside of your garden looking in, trying to figure out why you aren’t enjoying it.  “Man, why aren’t I enjoying my garden?”  Well, you’re thinking about the wrong thing. Thinking on it and acting on it. And now you’re on the outside of your garden looking in. Looking at your inheritance but not enjoying it.  And the devil’s eating your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and having a time with it, throwing your testimony into the dirt while he’s at it. Adam doesn’t have a very good testimony does he? He lived in the perfect environment and sinned. You can’t get more messed up than that. But it just goes to show you that even if you live in the perfect environment, it doesn’t mean you’ll do the right thing. But we like to say, “Well, that’s my environment.  It’s everything around me that’s the problem.”

Everybody’s an environmentalist in the spiritual sense. “It’s my environment. That’s why I’m so messed up and jacked up in my thinking. I’m jacked up because I’ve got jacked up environment. It’s everybody else.” No, you and the devil got together just like Adam and the devil got together and you sided in with him instead of siding in with God. And you believed that feeling more than you believed the Word. Because you didn’t feel love that day, you chose to not walk in love. But if you’re mind is renewed, your first thought is, “Wait a minute, love acts this way and not that way.”  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that over the last number of months.  “Love doesn’t act that way. Love acts this way so that’s the way I’m going to act. Love can endure everything. Love suffers long. It’s patient. It’s kind.  It’s not envious. It’s not jealous, it’s not vain glorious. It’s not sick in its own reward.” But again it’s already prepared, it’s already there. All we have to do is go rest in the work that he did. Remember again Romans 9:30-32. We talked about the man who was working and had not attained. But the other man was resting and he had already attained. All he’s doing is sitting back and believing and speaking everything that Jesus already did for Him.  Now that’s what we’re going to challenge you to do. We’re going to talk about the God side and like I said, in the future, we’re going to come back and we’re going to get into some of the those things we started to bring in today and talk about how people lose out and why people are on the outside of their garden looking in.

I’m going to close with this statement here. Ever since Creation, God has done this, this has been God’s method of operation: He prepares it ahead of time and you come along and receive it. Since the six days of Creation, what did God do on the seventh day? He Rested. What did man do? He rested with God. If you go on a little bit further, he comes on up to Abram (Abraham) and says, “Abraham, I have made you a father of many nations.”  Past tense. God Already did it. “Do you believe that Abram?” “ Sure.”  “Then go around and call yourself that, alright? I’m changing your name to Abraham. You’re the father of a multitude. Go around and talk like it.”  “Yes, sir. I’m Abraham, the father of a multitude.” You go on a bit further and you get down to the promised land. The promised land was already prepared. When they were slaves in Egypt when God had the promised land ready. You were a slave in sin and God already had the promised land prepared. All you had to do was leave Egypt and go to the promised land.  But a lot of us get caught out there in the wilderness with those wilderness people, with their unbelief, disobedience and stiff-neckedness. They got hung up out there but the Promised Land was already prepared. Then you come on down the line and you get down to salvation. Salvation was prepared already and all you had to do was believe and receive; enjoy it.

If you go even further the line down from there and you find out that Jesus is preparing a place for you right now. When you get to heaven are you going to have to work on your mansion some more? No. Heaven is already prepared. Your mansion is being built and will be built before you ever get there.  From Genesis to Revelation, God always does it this way. Another way to talk about once saved always saved is this: Is God working on a mansion you’re not going to fill one day? Working away, and than” Oh man they lost it again. We’re going to have to tear down that mansion because they didn’t make it, they lost their salvation. And here we spent the last three years working on that mansion!”

From Genesis to Revelation, from the garden to heaven, that’s the way God has always done things and will always do things. He prepares it ahead of time and all you do is believe it, receive it, and walk in it. You don’t work for it.  You cease from your works and enter into His rest.

I don’t know about you, but I can tell already, just in the last three weeks how this has impacting your thinking, how it impacts your believing right away, if you let it. As I’ve said in past times, you have to keep yourselves stirred up about. You always have to remind yourselves of these things otherwise you’ll let it slip and you’ll let the adversary in let him take your stuff from you. Don’t think of love or peace or joy or power as being some far off thing. Think of those things as already being present inside of you through salvation. Otherwise your mentality is going to be, “I’ve got to get peace from over there and bring it to here.” But that’s not true. “Oh I have to get comfort and bring it from there over to here.”  No. The God of all comfort lives in you. The Comforter is in you. Not outside of you only. He is outside of you, He’s everywhere, but He’s in you.  And I think that’s a real radical shift in your thinking.  You’re not trying to pull it over, it’s already in you.  Praise God.

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