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Entering Into Rest
George Verwer

George Verwer (1938 - 2023). American evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), born in Ramsey, New Jersey, to Dutch immigrant parents. At 14, Dorothea Clapp gave him a Gospel of John and prayed for his conversion, which occurred at 16 during a 1955 Billy Graham rally in New York. As student council president, he distributed 1,000 Gospels, leading 200 classmates to faith. In 1957, while at Maryville College, he and two friends sold possessions to fund a Mexico mission trip, distributing 20,000 Spanish tracts. At Moody Bible Institute, he met Drena Knecht, marrying her in 1960; they had three children. In 1961, after smuggling Bibles into the USSR and being deported, he founded OM in Spain, growing it to 6,100 workers across 110 nations by 2003, with ships like Logos distributing 70 million Scriptures. Verwer authored books like Out of the Comfort Zone, spoke globally, and pioneered short-term missions. He led OM until 2003, then focused on special projects in England. His world-map jacket and inflatable globe symbolized his passion for unreached peoples.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. He emphasizes the idea that God will cut the cords that bind us to sin and worldly things. The preacher describes how the Israelites panicked when they saw the Egyptians chasing after them, but Moses remained steadfast in his faith. He also highlights the challenges faced by the Israelites in the wilderness, including their grumbling and dissatisfaction. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God and not be tempted by temporary pleasures that lead to bondage.
Sermon Transcription
The fourth chapter of Hebrews. Therefore, fear, lest they promise being left off, of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn my wrath, if they shall not enter into my rest, although the works were finished of the foundation of the world. For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day, of this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. In this place again, it says, shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore, remaineth that some must enter therein. And they to whom it was first preached, enter not in because of unbelief. Again, he limited a certain day, saying in David today, after so long a time, as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he also has pleased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Let's pray. Father, we pray that thou would speak very clearly to us by these scriptures, and show us what you really have for us in these days. Lord, that we might know this rest, absolute rest of faith, and might we come into it through Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. I wonder if there's anyone tonight that's bearing a burden. I wonder if there's anyone tonight that's worried about something. You've been trying to put it out of your mind, but it's still there. Some burden, some worry, some problem, some sin, some habit. Being buffeted by the devil, seemingly, in your Christian life, I want to especially speak to you tonight. Perhaps that covers all of us. I want to speak to you about this rest that God speaks so clearly about here in the scriptures. He says, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. I think most of us know the story of Moses, this man who tried to take the law into his own hands. Moses was a murderer. Some of you perhaps know Moses because he gave the Ten Commandments. But I always personally think of Moses as a murderer, a sinner. He tried to take the law into his own hands way back in Egypt. Like many people, tried to get free from frustration, from worry, from problems, from sin, by taking things into their own hands. And what a frustrating experience Moses had. Because a friend saw him. A friend saw Moses when he tried to kill that man over there in Egypt. And one day Moses was trying to tell someone something, and the man said to Moses, and you are going to tell us something? We know that you killed so-and-so. Moses was very depressed by that. I believe, definitely, it's very clear in scripture, that Moses had a definite emotional problem. If they had psychiatrists in Egypt, they certainly would have sent him off for psychoanalysis. Because he had an extreme inferiority complex after that. And he never got over it, even when he faced God face-to-face in the burning bush. And so Moses left Egypt and he went out and he took care of the herd. Went out in the Sinai Peninsula. And there he was for years and years and years. His time, in a sense, racing away. And then we know the story of the burning bush. Moses was told to take his shoes off because he was on holy ground. And God called Moses to go back to deliver the people. And Moses was scared to death. Scared to death because he had this fear of past failure. Scared to death because he knew in his heart that he had really made a mess last time he tried to deliver even a few Egyptians or a few Jews or Israelites from Egypt. And we know the story of Moses, how God told him to go. And he said, well, I can't speak and I can't do this and can't do that. He had the 99 cants all in a row, like many other young people today. Perhaps like some of the young people here, well, I'll never be a witness for Christ. I can hardly speak. I'll never be a missionary. I don't like spiders and snakes. I'll never go on Operation Mobilization. I don't like to sleep on the floor. I'll never do this because I'm scared of that. Moses was like that. Not me, Lord. And it's a tremendous thing the way God dealt with Moses. Moses finally went back to Egypt to deliver his people and became a mighty man. In the hands of God. It's a tremendous story, the story of Moses. There's so much to learn from it. And so we know that God used Moses to deliver the people from Egypt. Some people read that in the Bible and think, well, isn't that a nice story? Sort of like a hero story. But what's it there for? The Bible tells us in Corinthians that these things are written for our example. They have a purpose. It's not just for flannel dry for the Sunday school children. They have a definite purpose. And this great story of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt is a picture of the redemption that we have when we are taken by the Lord Jesus Christ, when we are redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, when we trust in Christ, when we believe in Christ, we are delivered from Egypt. Egypt represents bondage. They were in slavery to Egypt. The Bible says he that commits sin is a servant of sin. He that commits sin is a servant of sin. I used to think as a young boy I could play with sin. Even as a teenager, I thought, well, I can play at some of these simple things. I mean, after all, I can always stop whenever I want. Soon I discovered that I wasn't playing with sin, but sin was playing with me. That's what was happening to the children of Israel in Egypt. They were in bondage. They were slaves in Egypt. And then they were delivered. Some of you remember the story of the Passover when the tremendous judgment came down upon Egypt, the final judgment that finally released or brought to pass the release of the children of Israel. And the angel of the Lord went and smoked the firstborn, smoked the child. The only child that would not be smoked was the one when there was the blood of a lamb. Place of the doorpost. And where there was blood, the angel passed over. Some of you perhaps didn't know that's where the word Passover came from. The angel of the Lord passed over because the blood was there. Tremendous picture. And in that day of judgment, it is because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that there shall be no judgment upon us. And if you've never experienced redemption, if you've never been born again, of course, there's no hope. The wrath of God is hanging upon you. And there's no hope as it was for the firstborn of Egypt. When this happened that night, Pharaoh said, that's the people go. And they started for the Red Sea. Great multitudes of people in probably what is the first recorded operation mobilization in the word of God. I have to get that in. True. But it was and it mobilized. The transport department was scratching their heads. This was the biggest thing they'd ever handled by for years. And they were just getting all the animals greased up and everything ready. For this great mobilization toward the Red Sea. And someone estimates that there were several million people. A lot of arguments, but it was certainly over a million people, including all the women and the children, because, you know, in those days obeying that word be fruitful and multiplied. So there was a great multitude of children. And it wasn't a little youth movement like O.M. They had their families. And I guess they must have had a very interesting time with their married couples and trying to arrange proper accommodation. But anyway, they headed for the Red Sea. And they weren't very far off when old Pharaoh again changed his mind. And he decided he was going to pursue them. And he wasn't going to let them go. This is so true. So true of that man who decides he's going to be through with Satan. He's going to get free from Egypt. He's going to cut the cords that are binding him to sin and self and all the other things of this world. And soon as he starts thinking about it and he starts toward freedom, the powers of darkness come after him like the chariots of Egypt. And now we have that great picture of Moses standing by the Red Sea with this great multitude of people and the animals and all the things that they were bringing with them. And the people began to hear, began to see way off in the distance, far away, the dust was blowing in the air as the fiery chariots or the chariots of the Egyptians were pressing hard to catch up with him. And that was panic night. So like the night you're all going to go over across the channel and no one gets on the boat. And it was panic night. And it looked like they were all going to get killed. They all began to grumble. And Moses, this man who once suffered from an inferiority complex, this murderer, this man who was scared to do anything for God, that night had one of the greatest victories in his life. As a whole camp was mumbling, if you've ever had that, you know it isn't a very pleasant experience. And everybody around you is groaning, you've done something wrong. And that's what they were doing. Moses, you've taken us out of here, we're all going to get killed. Why didn't you leave us back there? Why, we weren't doing that bad after all. And here in the midst, Moses had all these grumbling people behind him. He had all these chariots coming and all the Egyptians pursuing, ready to just slaughter them and drive them back into bondage, into slavery. And ahead of him, he had the Red Sea. What a picture this is. I've been tempted so many times to go see that film about him. Of course, I can just imagine what they do with this thing on the screen. And what a picture it is of this great multitude of people. I say, this has helped me so much in this leadership of this little group. Why, any time I felt that I was ever accomplishing anything and trying to lead a group of young people, I just read this passage over again and I realized this was just a small-time joke. And a virgin of millions of people, the animals, everybody groaning, complaining, the Egyptians, the Red Sea. Why, I would have sought for tranquilizers, aspirins, anything to keep me free from that situation. Moses did one thing. He stood and he waited for the mercy of God. He believed God. And as he believed God, a miracle took place, the same as how we believe God in 1965. Miracles can take place. And the waters of the Red Sea rolled back, stopped straight, and they went through. Imagine these grumbling, mumbling Israelites. They were just about chewing their nails, like the guy who prayed for 10,000 pounds and knew it would never come. And the next morning, somebody came in with a check for 10,000 pounds and he just about fell off his chair. And that's the way these people were. They were amazed. Moses was right. He believed God. Everyone else was grumbling. Everyone else was scared. Everyone else was in a panic. Moses believed God. You know, that's the mark of a man of God. That's the mark of a spiritual leader. When everybody else is losing their head, when everyone is pushing the panic button, when everybody's looking for the aspirin bottle, when everybody's looking for the tranquilizers, the man of God stands and waits for the mercy of the Lord. And across the Red Sea they went in mighty, rejoicing company of people. And the Egyptians, hard pressed upon, just like Satan on the back of a new convert. Just like the devil. The very night I was converted, I stepped out of Madison Square Garden where I'd accepted Christ. And the very night I bumped into a petty boy who couldn't stand my face and he plastered me and I was on the cement in about a minute. That was my first experience of the warfare. And it was very real. And this is the way it was. The Egyptians were on the back. And this is the way it will be with you. If you accept Christ or if you have accepted Christ recently, you'll feel a charred wheels of hell running hard. And you better separate yourself as far as you can. And that's what happened. They got on the other side of the Red Sea. And again, they believed God. And as the Egyptians started coming across the water, their wheels were just rolling hard and they were coming across the water all of a sudden. The water came back and there were no more Egyptians to be seen. There must have been at that point, an absolute dead silence at the awe of God's wrath. And I want to tell you, maybe you've heard an Andy Panby baby story about a God of love standing upstairs with a big cigar laughing at everybody in their sins. But the Bible says the wrath of God is a very real thing. And these people who play at sin, people who play with Egypt, people who do not come and accept that blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are hanging or sitting underneath the wrath of God. And it's only the mercy of God. The Bible says it's only the mercy of God. It's only the long suffering of God that keeps the wrath of God coming down. I was saying today, as I was speaking to the Spaniards, it used to be I had a lot of trouble understanding the doctrine of hell. When I was at university, I could not understand this doctrine. It plagued me, it bothered me. How could a God of love send anyone to hell? And I want to tell you now, after years of a little bit of learning and waiting upon God and studying his word and getting a right picture of what man is, you think, I thought God couldn't send anyone to hell because I had a distorted view of both God and man. I thought man was somebody. I thought we were pretty good after all. We had discovered the electric iron. We had discovered the rockets going into space. We had discovered automobiles that travel around and all these great things. And I had a hellish view of man, a great deadly thing that the devil wants to give all of us. So I thought man was pretty good. So God should never send man to hell. The reason people have trouble believing in hell is because they have an elevated view of man. But the more I've got to know man, and the more I've got to read the Bible, the lower and lower I've seen what man really is. What is life is a flower that today isn't tomorrow, withereth away. As a breath that disappears. And I've seen that life and that man are nothing. We are creatures, creatures. Now I have a great trouble, not so much with hell. Once in a while I have a few battles over that. But now I'm having great trouble understanding heaven. I'll tell you how any of us are going to get into the presence of God. How any of us will get into the presence of a holy, righteous, perfect God is beyond my understanding. I can't picture myself walking down the street someday and I step on an anthill. Some of these little crummy red ants that, you know, they sting you. And I step on this anthill and about six of them drop dead. A couple of them are wounded. Oh, I'm hurt. Oh, I've hurt these ants. Quick, get the ambulance. I mean, that's ridiculous. Who would ever be concerned if they step on an anthill? Only the Jains in India, they would be. They wear masks so they don't bother any insects. But if you walk out tomorrow, you step on an anthill, probably look down, oh dear, just walk on it. You don't worry about that, would you? And yet, we think that's a poor comparison. Why should we worry about ants? But do you really think that that is a comparison? I believe there's a far distant comparison, and that's God and man. Why God would even look at us? Why God would even wink at us? I'll never forget a great scientist was speaking once on this subject and he said God was creating a few billion galaxies one day. And that's what are billions of galaxies. Look tonight, if you got in a rocket ship and went faster than the speed of light out into space, you can never do this. But if you did at faster than the speed of light out into space, science could tell you exactly how far you have to go out to see Noah getting into the ark. Tonight, you can make that trip. Science could tell you exactly how far you'd have to go out to see Abraham coming out of Ur of the Chaldees. Science could tell you how far and how fast you'd have to go tonight to see Moses crossing the Red Sea. And you know you wouldn't even be out of our galaxy. You wouldn't even be out of our galaxy. And there are millions and millions and millions of galaxies larger than ours. There's some sun so big out there, some stars so big that you could take our sun and the earth revolving around that sun and put it inside that other sun. God created this. And there one day, way out in one of the crummiest dustbins of the universe, there was the earth. And there was man. What is man that thou art mindful of him, saith the word of God, worse than nothing. There we were. And beyond that, the fact that this man, these men, had turned their backs on God. As if I went down and finally humbled myself and crawled down with a pair of tweezers to try to fix the ant's leg, to try to help me, he looked back into my face and said, get out of here, buddy. I'll do it myself. And that's just what man has done. God has had mercy. God has wanted to help man. And man has turned his back. Don't bother me. Don't bother me. I'll go my own way. And the Bible says, through the prophet Isaiah, all we like sheep have gone astray. Sigmund Freud, a few years ago, came up with a statement, men are illogical. This great pseudo-psychiatrist and psychologist, he was hailed as one of the greatest medical geniuses of his day. I remember going into the Freudian Museum many years ago in Washington, D.C. Rooms and rooms and rooms, floors and floors and floors of displays about Freud. Great intellectual giant. He psychoanalyzed more people than any other man of his day. After psychoanalyzing hundreds of people and going through their minds, he made this conclusion, among many others, of course. He said, man is illogical. Oh, that's wonderful. The world said, this brilliant man, he's detected this great truth. Man is illogical. Thousands of years ago, this prophet Isaiah, without ever doing one case of psychoanalysis, said the same thing. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all turned to our own way. Well, psychology, they don't bother with the Bible. Like the men who worked on George Washington when he was dying. They didn't bother with the Bible. And so they bled the great president to death. And right next to where he was bleeding to death, because they were taking blood out of him. And they took too much blood out of George Washington. Finally, he died. Right next to the bed where he died was a copy of the Holy Scriptures that says the life of a man is in his blood. But medicine was too stupid. Too stupid. Look, man has always resisted truth. Man has always been illogical. Man has always resisted the truth of God. There was a great man in Austria who discovered that people in hospitals should wash their hands. You say, well, that's no great discovery. I'll tell you, it was then. That people in the hospitals, the nurses and the doctors should wash their hands. In those days, so many women who just had babies were dying. And they were just dying like flies. And everybody wondered why. And this man discovered that people were working with dead bodies in one part of the hospital, and dead people had just died. And then they'd come over and work on mothers who had just had a baby. And they were dying. They were dying, hundreds of them. And he concluded that the answer is to wash your hands. They mocked him. The leading doctors of that day, it was only a few hundred years ago, mocked this guy. He's nuts. Washing our hands. What a waste of time that's going to be. Washing our hands around the hospital. He experimented in one hospital and put sinks in. And the people washed their hands and the mortality rate among the mothers just went right down. And very few were dying. But do you think they would believe it? Of course they wouldn't. And they finally had a campaign and tore every sink out of the hospital. And it wasn't until that man was dead and buried, that medicine realized that washing hands is one of the greatest and most important factors in dealing with medical cases and with women who have just had babies. In fact, every other case. And now that disease is practically unheard of. Any man who's discovered truth in this world has had a hard time. No wonder they crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth with the greatest package of truth ever given to man. No wonder they nailed him to a cross and spit on him and said, Crucify him! And they said it with a hate beyond anything we've ever seen. Because he came with truth and man has resisted truth. Look, when the Bible says we're enemies of God, it's not telling a fairy tale. We are enemies of God! And if you've never been born again, and I say this for those of us going out as we deal with people in the streets, we must realize we're not dealing with nice people. I get all this information. Well, he's not born again, but he's a good fellow. What do you mean he's not born again, but he's a good fellow? He's an enemy of God! He's lost! He's in rebellion of God! He is a reprobate. He's completely cast away. There's no hope for him. Lest he return and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, if we'd only realized something of what God is. This God of creation. The first words in the scripture, what are they? In the beginning, God created heavens and earth. I tell you, it's thrilling. If you can look at the stars and the galaxies, and it doesn't thrill your soul, I say you've probably got frostbitten souls. And this God looks down upon creatures. Little nobodies running to and fro, trying to make their money. Imagine how small this business we are engaged in, this earth, looks to God. As he sees man sitting behind his great riches. Now they're going to throw the 17th satellite out into space. One communist who had me in arrest when I was in Russia. He said, we've proven there is no God. He looked at us in the face. He said, we've been up in the space, and we've looked around. Oh, but we haven't seen God up there. And he really believed it. The Russians really believe that they have proven that there is no God. I want to tell you when the God of the heavens, beyond all of galaxies and all of space, that they haven't even penetrated the outer level of the outer circle of the outer part of the outer fringe of the outer layer. The God of the space, when he looks down at that, all of them in derision. How God must look down and aren't going. No wonder God says, lay all your treasure in this garbage can. This earth, this place that will disintegrate in a mighty burst of frozen heat, which was told thousands of years ago before they knew anything about nuclear physics, which tells that a nuclear explosion, when an explosion brings off a tremendous burst of fervent heat. Lay all your treasures in a trash can. Put your treasures with the galaxies beyond in heaven. But man doesn't pay any attention. Man treats the Westminster Bank as if it were the Bank of Glory. And even the most godly Christians at times are bound by material things. And you read the teachings of Jesus, you read the teachings of the Apostle Paul, and you see that these men were free from this garbage can of an earth. They didn't put up land above. They were pilgrims passing through. Oh, I tell you, it's tremendous. And yet, so many prefer Egypt. So many prefer Egypt. The flesh pots of Egypt. And here was Moses. It tells us, I think, in Hebrews 11, that Moses decided that he would rather suffer with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And oh, I pray you'll remember that. When I've been tempted even as a Christian to go back, I thought of those words. Sin for a season. That's what it is. Many a young girl, many a young man, for a season, for five minutes, for ten minutes of what this world calls fun, of what this world calls pleasure, has thrown themselves back into bondage. Oh, I tell you, it's heartbreaking. We have to get on with the story because time is going back. We know that after the people got across the Red Sea, they came into the wilderness. I would love to talk to you all night about the wilderness. The problems! Very similar to some of the problems we have on O.M. The grumblers. Those that weren't satisfied with the diet. Those that were sort of getting hungry for increased proteins. Good, my wife isn't here. The problems that Moses faced. You know what the Bible calls the Israelites? It calls them a stiff-necked people. They were. They wandered in the wilderness and they never got into the promised land. That's the church of the 20th century. We're a wilderness church. Humblers, groaners, complainers. Hungry for the fresh parts of Egypt. We don't want to go to heaven. We do, we do. We don't want to go back to Egypt, but can we bring a little bit of Egypt over with us? But that wasn't God's plan. God had promised them a place of rest. God had promised them a place of blessing. God had promised them a land that flowed with milk and with honey. Spiritual blessings. That was God's plan. He never meant for them to live on that all their life. But it tells us when they sent the spies into the land, they came back and they said what? You remember? Oh, they said, they said a Moses. Just a giant in the land of Moses. We look at those giants and they're like grasshoppers. You can't take that land. You can't go there. You couldn't possibly do it Moses. It's an impossible task. Like world evangelization, it just can't be done. Three billion people in the world today. Half of them have never heard of Jesus Christ. We see the giants in the land. Communism sticks its dirty fist in the air. Giants in the land. The sons of Attucks. The sons of Marks. They raise their fists. The church is a closed country. We mark off one third of the whole world. And blind eyes, we say to hell with all of you. Giants in the land. But there were two fools for Christ. One was Caleb and the other was Joshua. One had the deeper life vocabulary and the other was a bit too excited to get the right vocabulary. And Caleb said, let's go up and get the land. We can overcome it. I can just hear one of our deeper life speakers. Wait a minute, buddy. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're trying. You're striving. Well, I can hear Joseph saying, well, okay. You give me the vocabulary, but anyway, let's go up. He just believed God. He didn't have all the vocabulary, but he believed God. Joshua, perhaps a little more mature, a little older. He said, look, this is the strategy. We'll delight in the Lord and he'll give us the land. We'll delight in the Lord and he will give us that the people wouldn't miss it. They wouldn't miss it. Why has this always been the same with the people of God? They will not listen to the Joshua's. They will not listen to the Caleb's. And many a Caleb and many a Joshua of the 20th century has gone to his grave an unheeded man. All mightn't be willing to listen. There is a place promised to the people of God. There is a rest, it says in Hebrews 4. It's on the other side of Jordan. I think of that great hymn, oh Jordan road, oh Jordan road. Many, many years later, there were two men and a multitude of people that ran across Jordan in another miraculous entry. You know, I'll tell you, whenever God goes to do something, he always begins it with a miraculous. Our God is a God of the impossible. No wonder the university student can't understand it. I don't expect him to understand it. Our God is a God of the impossible. Do you know doing impossibilities is part of the very nature of God? Because really what we call impossible is the sort of natural with God. God is God, he can do what he likes. Like one great preacher said, well, I not only believe but the whale swallowed Jonah. I believe in a God that could have enabled Jonah to swallow a whale, true. And so Jordan road that they went into the promised land and that's where God wants you tonight. And I wonder, I wonder if you're there. Young person, if you go out to fight for Christ in Turkey or in India or in Europe, if you go out into this battle with a wilderness life, feeding on nana, in unbelief, resting in your own effort, it says here in Hebrews 4, for he that is entered into his rest, he also has to see from his own work. And if you go out in this campaign with your own efforts, your own work, your own evangelistic zeal, your own ability to preach, your own little pat memory versus poodle up in your brain, all of your little abilities, your little manuals memorized and all of this business. If you go out trying and trying and trying, it will be one great hell. God says the one that entered into that rest has ceased from his own work. How'd you come to that point? Young person, whether you cease from your own work, no longer it's I, no longer it's me, those words aren't even found in the Lord's prayer. If you can pray the Lord's prayers, he gave it as an example. You'll never find the word I, you'll never find the word my, you'll never find the word me, and you'll never find the word mine. And I believe God wants every one of us in this movement in that place of rest. The only place. Absolutely. It is God's provision for you. And we see that we enter into this rest because Christ entered into that rest. And other evenings we will see the significance of this as we contemplate and realize what Jesus did on the cross and what it means to be truly identified with Jesus Christ and his death so that you realize that he has been crucified with you and therefore you have been crucified with him. It's not something that's going to happen next week. Well, maybe if I wait on the Lord, maybe if I try hard, maybe if I memorize 78 more scriptures, then I'll realize that I've been crucified with Christ. No, no, no, ye have been crucified with Jesus Christ. And if you believe that tonight, you'll enter into that rest in a miraculous way as they crossed Jordan those years ago in a miraculous way. And it is a definite experience. Oh, wait a minute, they say. Wait a minute. You're getting on dangerous ground. I've never had any Jordan experience where you'd better haven't. I don't care what you call it. I'm not going to argue over the vocabulary, but I want to tell you coming into this place of rest is something real. It's something definite. I'm not saying you have to have a date. I'm not saying you have to explain a phenomenon. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying you have to know you're in. You have to know you're in. Now, some people are born again and they know the date. Praise God, watch this. 1955, I was born again in the spirit. I wept and I walked out of Madison Square Garden and got knocked on the pavement as I already told you. It's a very real experience. However, I have had people just as born again as myself, just as much alive in Christ myself. They don't have any date. But they know they have been born again. They know that they have been brought by the precious blood. They have experienced something real, something definite. Even though they don't know the date, the time, or the place, they know it happened. And it is the same thing as we come into this experience of victory. Same thing as we come into this rest. We might not have a date. We might not be able to describe a little phenomenon. But we know we're in. Praise God, we know it. And you cannot leave here to go to the continent again, nor to the Muslim world of India, without knowing that you have entered into that rest. You have entered into that life of Jesus Christ, that life of rest. You have entered in and been identified with him in his death. Therefore, you are identified with him in his resurrection, which is life, which is the life of rest, which is ceasing from your own dead earth. Some of you have the idea, well, if I keep memorizing my Bible, keep striving along, keep reading, keep obeying the manual, keep doing what my leader tells me, then I'm going to get the blessing and I'm going to be successful in Christian work. You'll go on with it and you'll eventually get a migraine headache. All these things we're studying, this will not take us into the promised land. Young people, there's only one way in. By faith. Faith turns the key that rolls the rivers back and takes the worst of sinners through the water. You must realize tonight what Jesus has done for you on the cross. You perhaps have sat around the Lord's table for years and you've heard the message of the cross before and maybe you've been to Keswick and Wednesday and all the other. But I'll tell you, you must experience it. You must know that you're in that place of rest that you have been crucified with Jesus Christ so that you can say as Paul, not I, but Christ which liveth within me. This is not just words. I know you've heard it before here in Jolly England, but it's not words. It's something God wants you to enter into. It's something he wants you to know. And when you enter into this, those anxieties, they disappear. The place of rest in Christ is a place that's free from worry. You know, I don't believe in worry. The man came to me and said, look, do you believe in immorality? Wouldn't take very long to answer that, would it? But if someone came up to me and said, well, do you believe in worry? They might expect some other answer. I don't believe in either one of them. And I'll tell you, I've seen worry do more to some people than I've seen immorality do. The sin of the 20th century. Age of mechanics, push buttons, catch up with the Joneses. All this worry. Tell you we're in that place of rest. Peace from your own works. Resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Worry is as far from you as immorality. I don't believe in worry. I can get a hundred letters on my desk with all kinds of problems, all kinds of confusing issues. Not knowing where people should go. Don't know where the money is going to come from. Don't know how the vehicles are going to go. People are having problems with the system. Fine. Do you know what I do with it? 1 Peter 5, 7, 8. Casting all your cares upon the Lord. All your cares to you. I can take the letters. I even say it sometimes verbally. I say, now Lord, all these letters, these telegrams, they're yours. I'm going to bed. And you can testify, my wife can testify many a night. She got in the bed and she was just going over to look at the baby for a minute. She said, honey, will you just wait for me a minute? She said to me, I said, sure thing. She went over to look at the baby. When she came back, I was gone. I don't believe in worry because I believe that I'm in that place of rest. I believe that Jesus Christ was crucified for all the worries of the world. And if Christ was crucified for it, why in the world should I be concerned about it again? And that's true of every area of life. Every frustration, every inferiority complex, everything that bothers you, the things you know that you're a failure in. All these things are gone now. They're all back on the other side of Jordan. Don't try to bring them over. We know as saved people, we shouldn't go back to Egypt and try to bring out things from Egypt into our lives. The same thing is that people living in this life of victory, knowing life on a higher plane, knowing the life that's described so tremendously in Romans 6 and 7. Knowing the life that's explained there in Hebrews 4. We don't go back into the wilderness for occasional holidays to see what we can bring into the promised land. We're over. We're in. And whenever anything comes of a wilderness experience back into our life, we immediately look to the Lord Jesus, and we look to the cross and say, no, Lord, that's not true. I've died today, I'm alive to you. I've entered it, and it's gone. Looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation. You know, it's very hard to communicate this message. Whenever a human vessel tries to communicate divine truth, it always gets a little bit shotted up in the process. I'll never forget the words of Brother Buck's saying, he's preached together so much lately. We've made some comment about the message as well. You realize what you can get from a clay pot. And it's through these tremendous truths, these great divine truths concerning this life in Christ, this life of rest, this life of victory, this life of fullness of the Spirit. Why, when I try to communicate it, try to express it, I know my personality, my ways, my customs, my vocabulary, my accent can be a real hindrance. I pray it won't be. I pray by the grace of God tonight, young person, you realize that there is a place of rest for you. You'll be seized from your own work, your own striving, your own efforts, your own zeal. And now it will be Jesus Christ, the lovely, radiating, victorious life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrected life, the abundant life, the exchange life, the overcoming life, the powerful life, the gentle life, the meek life, the loving life, the long-suffering life, the kind life, Jesus life, your only hope, you know, Jesus Christ. His saving, satisfying, sin-forgiving life. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Entering Into Rest
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George Verwer (1938 - 2023). American evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), born in Ramsey, New Jersey, to Dutch immigrant parents. At 14, Dorothea Clapp gave him a Gospel of John and prayed for his conversion, which occurred at 16 during a 1955 Billy Graham rally in New York. As student council president, he distributed 1,000 Gospels, leading 200 classmates to faith. In 1957, while at Maryville College, he and two friends sold possessions to fund a Mexico mission trip, distributing 20,000 Spanish tracts. At Moody Bible Institute, he met Drena Knecht, marrying her in 1960; they had three children. In 1961, after smuggling Bibles into the USSR and being deported, he founded OM in Spain, growing it to 6,100 workers across 110 nations by 2003, with ships like Logos distributing 70 million Scriptures. Verwer authored books like Out of the Comfort Zone, spoke globally, and pioneered short-term missions. He led OM until 2003, then focused on special projects in England. His world-map jacket and inflatable globe symbolized his passion for unreached peoples.