In this sermon, the speaker shares personal experiences of people mistaking him for a commissioner and a Jew. He then references Galatians 4:19 and discusses the concept of the rest of God. He explains that God has already finished all things from the beginning of the world and that Satan has tried to divide the church and the Jews because both are necessary for the kingdom of God. The speaker also mentions the new Jerusalem and the gates mentioned in the Bible. He emphasizes the importance of aligning one's will with God's will and surrendering to Him completely.

Now, I know this is kind of, seems mental, because I want to pursue what we were on this morning. But, as I was looking at the picture and thinking about Jesus going up those steps, this is why He did it. He's got a goal. And that goal is that God wants a place to rest. See, we think of the rest, the way I taught it this morning, as being something for us. But it's something for God. John, did you have a question? Well, I think it was, probably, it was because, I'm thinking of history, I'm thinking of Tamerlane, the skull builder, and the different things that have happened in war. And the monsters that have, well, you just think of, for example, Stalin had many millions of people that starved to death and were otherwise killed to balance the economy. And there have been things like that through history. I think the thing that was different in the Holocaust was that it was an act of vicious hatred, rather than a war where someone is trying to conquer more territory, like when the Mongols came down against Rome. When you read the details, like having the rabbis clean the sidewalk with their tongue, or in one town they had a big picture of a big statue of a pig, and they put excrement on the pig's rear end, and then had a rabbi kiss it. See, these kind of things, there were many such things that happened like that, that were unusual. They were not acts of war to gain territory or to oppress an enemy, even when you consider the, when the Turks drove Christians, I don't know whether it was Seventh-day Adventists or what, drove them out of Turkey and things like that, or even in World War II, the march, the death march that the Japanese put the American soldiers through. It was more, or even in Cambodia, with Pol Pot and the atrocities that were there, and there's been things like that through history, and of course recently we've had in Africa the Hutsis and the Tutsis, and the genocide there, and there were a lot of atrocities there, but there was something, Hitler's idea was really satanic. It's hard to put it in terms of war. It was a hatred against a race of people with the intent to eliminate them, and I guess the thing that stood out so was because they were innocent and forced into such things, children killed, people thrown in the lime pits, and so on. What was particularly devastating was the fact that they were loaded on ships that cruised around to various countries, and none of the countries would receive them. They just had them shove off until they died, including the United States, and so that is kind of singular, but of course they're talking there about 2,000 years. It wasn't just the Holocaust. The Jews, they mentioned the thing that happened, the Spanish Inquisition, and other atrocities. They talked about Martin Luther and the way he punished the Jews, and see the Jews have been experiencing this for 2,000 years, so the other cases like the Hutsis and the Tutsis and the Mongols coming down against Rome and the other incidents of history, it didn't go on for 2,000 years. There's been a hatred of the Jews, and the idea is that they murdered Christ, and so there's just been a hatred. Actually, what is back of it is Satan, and he still is to this day. He still is to this day. They're still suffering the same perversity today. There's a perversity to it. The Arabs are saying there was no Holocaust. They're having a conference in Jordan of Arab leaders to show that there was no Holocaust, and what the Arabs are saying is we're the ones who are experiencing the Holocaust. So they have that kind of perversity, and putting out little children in the front line so they're shot, and then saying the Jews are killing children, or saying the Jews are on the offensive and are persecuting us when they're responding to violence. There's a perversity there that is really demonic, and it's because Satan knows that when the kingdom comes, it will come to the physical land and people of Israel. There's a Jerusalem on earth, and there's a Jerusalem in heaven, and the Jerusalem in heaven consists of people whose spirits are being made perfect, according to Hebrews 12, and when Christ comes, that Jerusalem will come with him and superimpose itself on the physical land and people of Israel, and the Jews living at that time will be saved, just like Saul of Tarsus was saved by an arbitrary act of God. He wasn't in church. He didn't raise his hand. He didn't accept Christ. He didn't repent and get saved. The Lord just hit him, blinded him, and said, go to a certain place and you'll be told what to do. I'm going to make you a minister. See, God can do that. He hadn't repented. He hadn't done anything to warrant that. That's an example of how God can save people, and the Bible says that after Jerusalem suffers, they haven't suffered all their suffering yet. They're going to suffer again under Antichrist, and when Christ comes, he's going to deliver Jerusalem. He's going to superimpose the spiritual Jerusalem on the natural Jerusalem, and then Christ will sit on the Temple Mount, which the western wall there is one side of the Temple Mount. Christ will sit there and govern the world from there, and Satan knows that. He knows that it's going to take both the Christian church and the physical land of Israel together to make the kingdom, and that's why he spent 2,000 years trying to put a division between the church and the Jews, because he knows the church has no city on earth. There's no city on earth that belongs to God that the church has. The only city on earth that God has called his own is Jerusalem. And so, what God begins, he always finishes. So we see that in the final wind-up, that the glorified church is the new Jerusalem, and there are 12 gates, and on each of those, there are four gates. Is that it? I can't remember now. Four gates. I think it's four gates, isn't that it? And three names. Anyway, on the gates, however they're distributed, are the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And that city is the glorified Christian church, the Bride of the Lamb. So it shows you that the two have to come together as one before you have the kingdom. And so Satan has worked for 2,000 years to keep the church and the Jews separate, because the kingdom can't come through the church alone, and it cannot come through the Jews alone. But as Paul taught us in Romans 11, that as soon as the number of Gentiles that God has predestined, the full number of Gentiles has come to salvation, then it says the Redeemer shall come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Israel until all Israel is saved. And Satan knows that. So we have had this battle all along of trying to separate the New Testament from the Old. That now we're under a dispensation of grace. In fact, they teach that the church age is not found. It's a mystery. It's not found in the Old Testament. So the idea is to cut the two. But as I showed you, the gospel was preached to the Jews of the Old Testament. They have the same spirit that we have. The difference is that no one prior to Christ's resurrection was ever born again. Because when you're born again, what you're doing is partaking of the resurrected Christ. Now you see, that means that all the old patriarchs, Abraham and all those, could not be in the kingdom, because you can't enter the kingdom or see the kingdom unless you're born again. And the answer to that, as I told you, is that the work of redemption proceeds independently of whether you're on the earth or dead. Because you see, those men had to accept Christ after his resurrection while they were in the spirit realm and had been, in the case of Abraham, for 2,000 years. So, it's a big picture. And the efforts of Satan have been... Martin Luther really vilified the Jews. And today, of course, we have the Reconstructionists that are telling... And the Reconstructionists are vicious toward the Jews. Judaism is of the devil, etc. etc. You see the things they write. And that's one of the aberrant doctrines that I told you about this morning that have come up because the church doesn't have an objective after Pentecost. And so, these things like the raptures come up, and the faith, and the prosperity, and the Reconstructionism, and filling your teeth with gold, and the year of Jubilee so you don't have to pay your bills. And all these things are coming up because the church doesn't know where it goes after Pentecost. But we know. We know where it's going from the feasts of the Lord. We know where it's going. It was at Passover, it's gone to Pentecost, and now we're coming to Tabernacles. And when we're talking about the rest of God, we're talking about Tabernacles. We're talking about this third great feast, and it's time for that now. Also, as part of the Feast of Tabernacles, could we see Micah 5, 1 and 2? This is very important to understand. If you notice that in the film clip, this is the first time that anything like this has happened. That Christians have gone in a wholesale manner to repent of the persecution of the Jews by the Christian church. See, that's one thing that made it so poignant, is these other things in history, even the genocides, but mostly wars where villages were overrun and everyone was killed and so on. As I mentioned Tamerlane and Genghis Khan and the others. It was not done by Christians. So the reason that the Christian church is involved is because the Jews are God's chosen people according to the Bible. I mean, when I'm preaching to you about the things that I preach, these are all Jewish apostles. And when those people who are our antecedents in the anointing of God were so viciously treated, the church didn't help. It happened in Lutheran Germany. The Catholic church. Lord, the Pope that was in charge of the church at that time compromised, compromised, compromised with Hitler and the Nazis. In fact, it was so bad that when one of those cattle cars, and you remember the picture of the cattle car? The Jews were put in there. There were no sanitation facilities and they were in there for days. There was no place to go to the bathroom. They were urinating on each other. And one of those cars went through Rome, taking the Jews of Rome and the Pope did nothing about it. And the English diplomats, the American diplomats were all pleading with the Pope, speak out against this. Because Hitler was very afraid of any political power. He was very paranoid about that. And his associates kept him from anything that would make him think that there was going to be any kind of a popular uprising. Well, the Catholic church in Germany was very powerful. And if the Pope, it was Pope Pius XII, if he had spoken out, Hitler would have never come to power because there was enough political power in the Catholic church, not to mention the Lutherans, but in the Catholic church to stop him. But instead, the word down from the Pope took all the backbone out of most of the Catholic bishops so they didn't speak out. And Hitler played the game very well with the Pope. The Pope, as I read this story, sounds to me like he was trying to wait and see who was going to win so that the Catholic church would be in with the winner. So he very carefully played it so that he wasn't on either side. As a result, Hitler was able to kill all these Jews. And yet the Catholic church comes from a Jewish background, with Jewish scriptures. And that's why the Christian church now is so not going over there to repent about what happened with the African genocide because that was not a Christian thing. This was a persecution of Jews within Catholic countries. Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Miriam could tell you other, not to mention Germany. These were Christian countries. And they did nothing about it. And that's why they're repenting because these are God's people. I was over one time walking around the walls. I walked around the whole old city. Because the Bible says walk around the walls thereof. And it came into my mind. Okay, I'm going to walk around the whole city. It doesn't take that long. And God said to me, I have not forgotten my people. That's why you see these 12 tribes of Israel, and they were scallywags. Reuben, they were scallywags, these men. Their names are on the gates of the glorified Christian church, the new Jerusalem. God doesn't change. What he does is he chooses who he wants. And then he brings you through terrible times like he did, like where it says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. The next line says, cry unto Jerusalem that she has received double for her sins. God said in another place, you alone have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for your sins. Your reward for being close to God is to be chastened. And if you'll stop to think, all that are mothers and dads here, when kids act up somewhere, you chasten your own children. You're more concerned that your own children mind than that the neighbor's mind. You go after your own children first. If children are acting up, I remember one time in Palo Alto, we were at a celebration, and they had one of these, what they call in Mexican, a piñata hanging down. And, you know, the kids are supposed to be blindfolded, and then they try to hit it and get the goodies out of it. Well, one kid, with his eyes open, went over a smart aleck and started beating on the thing that he could see it to get the candy out of it. And his father was sitting near us, and he was mortified. Mortified. Now, if somebody else's child had done it, he'd have probably said, well, he's a smart kid, you know. But it was his boy, and he was wiped out. Ashamed. You've got to remember that when you're close to God. He doesn't go after the guy down the street. He goes after you. You're his child. And when you do something wrong, he's wiped out. That's why the Lord said, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. See, we've got it wrong. We think, well, we accepted Christ, so we come home free. No. It's the opposite. God is merciful to the people of the world because they're ignorant. We're the ones that catch it. We'll never forget that. Draw near to God, what you're going to get is chastening. But it's a good chastening because everybody will get it sooner or later. If the righteous scarcely be saved, scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? And we're scarcely, and the context of that is suffering. Judgment begins in the house of God. But if you notice at Micah, see, now we're in this day. That's why this is an unprecedented gathering of Christians to repent because of the Christian persecution of the Jews for 2,000 years. We can't expect the unsaved to repent for the way they treated the Jews. We're the ones that knew better. The Catholics and the Protestants in Germany knew better. And there were a handful of people who helped them, Christians at peril of their lives like Corrie ten Boom and her sister finally end up in a concentration camp because they helped the Jews. But you see, they remember them. They call them the righteous Gentiles. And they have memorials to them in Israel. But see, the whole Christian church. Here we are, Christian America. President Roosevelt was president at the time. The Jewish ship comes to our shores to let these poor people off that are suffering, and we turn them away. Christian America. But you notice what God says in the end time. Therefore, verse 3, Israel will be abandoned until the time comes when she who is in labor gives birth. Now, what that's talking about is what's happening in this church and other churches like this one. We are in a travail. We're saved and we know it. We've been filled with the Spirit and we know it. And now there's something happening to us and we're not sure what it is, but we know we're not there yet. What it is, is Christ, who is, as I said this morning, who is the resurrection and is the life, is being formed in us. My little children of whom I travail and birth until Christ be formed in you. This is happening. Therefore, the people who are living the victorious life, they feel this within them. The first thing they want to do is go back to Israel. It's the first thing they want to do because it's the Spirit of Christ in them. That's his land. That's where he was born. That's where he was raised. These are his people. We're not his people, except by calling. But see, the Jew has a tremendous advantage. The gospel is to him first. This is his bread. And we're eating the children's bread. And what do we do? We tell them, if we're not persecuting them, we tell them they've got to become a Gentile like us in order to be saved. We had a young lady in the church here some years ago. And she went to one of the outstanding Christian leaders. If I told you his name, you'd know it. And she said, now, originally, Christianity was for the Jews, and we Gentiles were brought into a Jewish church. And his response was, yes, but that's changed. Now the church is Gentile, and the Jews have to be brought into a Gentile church. He doesn't have a verse, a half a verse. The church is fundamentally Jewish. It's so hard. That's why Paul said, remember and don't forget, you're not holding up the root. The root is holding you up. Well, see, we've become arrogant through the years, and we think, well, there's something, you know, back there that God did. The first Christian church was 5,000 Orthodox Jews. The first body of Christ on the earth. And it's never changed. It is to the Jew first. And we did not help them. We did not help them. But now, Christ is being formed. So you get these kind of things. You get Christians going over there and acknowledging. I'm sure some of those ministers were Lutheran. Well, it was Martin Luther that vilified the Jews. And they're repenting of it. We've got the Pope there. Pope John, I think his name is, at the Western Wall, repenting because of the way the Catholics treated the Jews. Look at it. So she who is in labor gives birth. That means that we have come now when God is ready to form Christ in people. She is the church. What she brings forth is Christ. Well, then we come to this unanswerable question. Is it Christ in us, or is it us, or who is it? When Paul said he was crucified with Christ and he lived, and yet it was not he but Christ who lived in him, then you come to this impossible question. Is it Paul or is it Christ? You can't answer that. Because in physics, in the constraints that we're under, in space and time, mass and so on, two cannot be one. They cannot be the same. But in the spirit realm, they can be the same. And that's why the Trinity, the Godhead, poses such a problem. Is Christ the Father? Isn't he? Well, he's so totally the Father that he who has Christ has the Father. He who has seen Christ has seen the Father. And yet we know that there's a different person there. Otherwise, the agony in Gethsemane is just so much nonsense. Not my will but yours be done. There's two wills there. And when you've got two wills, you've got two people. I don't understand that. How can that be? Well, you can't understand it. You have to experience it. And then it's as natural as dew on the grass in the morning. Christ is God's Son. So big deal. That's what he is. Is he the Father? No, he's not the Father. He's the Father's Son. But we pray to him, we call him God. Yes, God made him God. And he is of the substance and nature of God. Right? Yeah, I don't think any Orthodox person would disagree. They might disagree with some of my terminology. But in no way are we running down Christ. He's God. He's our Lord. We pray to him. But he is not the Father. But he is one with the Father. That's what's happening to us. Is it Paul? Or is it Christ? You say, how do you do Paul? Or how do you do Christ? Well, is it Paul or is it Christ? I'm not living. It's Christ who is living in me. Well, then it's Christ. Good morning, Jesus. No, I'm not Jesus. I'm Paul. But you said it's Christ who's living in you. Yeah, well, put it together. I can't. It doesn't come together in the physics of our constraints. But in the spirit realm, it's a piece of cake. We know we're not Jesus Christ. We know that. And yet we're coming to the place that God wants us to come to the place that when people see us, they see Christ and they feel Christ. And we become trees of life as Jesus is so that we can give life. But we're not Jesus Christ. But yet we are. You see? We are and we aren't. It's like Adam and Eve. The Bible says, and He called their name Adam. Well, who was Eve? Was she Adam? No and yes. Well, why no? Because she was a separate person not from Him that He could love. But why yes? Because every part of her was made from Adam. Now, that's the rest of God. And that's what God wants. And we have a terrible time with that because we sense that we're being used and we don't like it. We're being used and we don't like it. We want to be ourself. I want to do it self, Mother. I want to do it self. Well, God says, you know, I have a need. That's the first thing you've got to understand. That God has a need. God, we are God's rest. We enter His rest. Well, why does God need to rest? Is He tired? No, He's not tired. Well then, what is it all about? What it is all about, as I told you, is that God had a rebellion on His hands. And when a king has a rebellion on his hands, he has no rest. So, God has a creation here. He has all these angels and other divine orders that we don't know about, plus the Melchizedekian priesthood, plus all these people He's created, most of whom are on the spirit realm and a handful are on the earth at any given time. And God loves them. He loves them. And the whole creation is in rebellion against Him, including the Christian church. Boy, you go preaching about the Lordship of Christ and taking up your cross and people go, I don't know, out of here. Think about Mother's Day or something. This is a little rich for my blood. We don't trust Him. We don't love Him. He can't find rest in us because when God wants to go this way, we want to go that way. I'm not sure I want God that close. And I don't want to be used. I don't want God to use me to rest. I want to be self. Isn't that true? It takes a lot to follow God to the place where you find your chief joy in being used by God, to put it that way, so that God can find rest. Now, God cannot find rest in me if I've got one eye on the world or I'm being moved around by the lust of my flesh and soul or I've got my ideas of how things should be. How can God find rest in a thing like that? We've got two wills going there. My will and God's will. So, sooner or later, something's got to give. And that's exactly where we are right now. That's exactly where we are. Now, if you guys... By that I mean our whole church. Is everybody there? If we in this church can say to God that eternal yes, I realize I was created not so I could be what I think I ought to be and have a good time doing it, but for your sake that you might have rest, that you might have a chariot, that you might have hands and feet and another unique personality that you can present to your creatures so they can learn to love you and be blessed by you and learn to obey you, if you can say, yes, God, that's what I want. I want that. I don't want to be myself. I want to be you. Then you're home free. And if God could get just as many people as this church to say that, that's radium. That's the pure stuff. Out of all the pitchblende which represents the Christian church comes uranium, which is more fervent Christians, but out of that's got to come the radium. Out of that has got to come the people who have said the same yes to God that Christ has. You are content to be what the Father is. And we're to be content to be what Christ is. And it isn't a case where we become a puppet at all. We still retain our own will, but of our own will we have chosen to be one with God. And that choice is constantly being applied. As we grow older, different challenges come, and that's constantly being applied. Are we still willing to be crucified? Are we still willing to live in resurrection life? It never stops. As God said, Oh, I've got a place of rest coming up here. So he begins to work on it. And more pruning and more lessons. And will it never stop? Oh, it'll stop someday. But think of what is being accomplished in you. You have no idea any more than I do what it will mean to you if you can say this eternal yes to God. My life is over, Lord. I'm going to be the rest of God. That's my choice. Even though there's things within me that I can feel that are rebelling, it doesn't matter. With my mouth. See, I was reading that in my devotions. There's a blind man, and Jesus going down to Jericho, and there's a blind man. It's obvious he's blind. And he gets up on his feet and he approaches Jesus. He can't see. And Jesus said to him, What do you want? What do you want me to do for you? See, now that teaches us something. It reminds me of one of the Narnia tales. One of the people there said concerning Aslan, I think he wants us to ask him what we need or what we want. And Jesus wants you to say to him, even if you're rebelling inside. See, with your mouth you're condemned. Salvation is by your mouth. And when you say to the Lord, when you take words and say to the Lord, I've heard the message of the rest of God, and this is what I want. Make me want to want it. I feel rebellion in me. Make me want to want it, Lord. It's so much more valuable than anything that can be conceived. And I don't want to come short of this thing because I'm going to die someday. We're all going to die someday. And then you don't have any more chance like we have now. Maybe some other kind of chance, but not like we have now where we can't see God and we're oppressed by the devil in our own flesh and the whole civilization and everything. And if we can come out of this cauldron, this cesspool that we're in and say, God, all I want is You. You need a resting place. You got your boy. And mean it. Stay with it. Year in and year out. Why, my goodness, when your brief life is over and you walk into eternity, you see what you've done? You've attained the resurrection. You have passed from the Adamic life into the resurrection. Christ is the resurrection. You say, what is the resurrection? It's Christ. It's a person. The resurrection is a person. He is the life. I am the resurrection and the life. He is the life. And here you started off as an Adamic person in all your corruption. Your good points and your bad points. And now you have persevered with God until your old nature has passed away. All things have become new. Christ is in you. You know what's going to happen when you die? You're going to keep on walking because you're already alive. Brother Fullerton said that one time. I couldn't quite get it. I'm getting closer to it now. I see what he meant. He said, I used to think I was going to die and go to sleep or something. He says, I'm not. I'm going to walk in the glory. Why? Because you've already attained the resurrection. Not the resurrection of the body. That's another matter altogether. Not confusing the two. There's a resurrection of the body. I'm talking about what Paul was talking about when he said, if by any means, I may attain the resurrection. He was talking about in v. 10. That's v. 11 of Philippians 3. In v. 10 he says, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings because it's those sufferings that keep creating resurrection. Have you ever had your good than evil spoken of? Well, I have. I've had people opune to me things that are not even part of me. Just toss them around and say them so much I think people believe they're the truth. I think the people that say them believe they're the truth. They've said them so much. And I refuse to get drawn into that. The Lord, that's just part of the sufferings of Christ. And what that produces with me, it refines my nature. So now I have no reputation. Great, neither did Jesus. But what comes out of that? Christ. Resurrection. That I may know Him. And the power of His resurrection. See, that comes first. And the fellowship of His sufferings because without that resurrection life, you can't endure the sufferings. See, the sufferings then become an aimless kind of random pain in the neck. Life just becomes an intolerable pain. But when you have His life in you, see then, there's a part of you that's alive. There's a part that's dead. It's like John the Baptist said, I must decrease. He must increase. That's the story of our life. And the least in the kingdom is greater than John because John was an Adamic man. But he that is least in the kingdom is a part of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, how could he that is least in the kingdom be greater than John? Least in the kingdom. Least is greater than John. It's because John was an anointed Adamic man. And there's been powerful Adamic men who were anointed like Abraham and Elijah and Elisha. People whose lives put us to shame. But he that is least in the kingdom is greater than any of these because he has Christ in him. That doesn't mean whoever is least in the church is greater than John. Because there are numerous Christians, probably the majority of them, that hardly have any of Christ. They've never even heard such a thing. They're religious people. They're in the Christian religion. So when something comes up like the Holocaust or the Jews, they can't respond because all they are is a natural man making a profession of Christ. They're not greater than John. It's the people in the kingdom that are greater than John. And the people in the kingdom are people who have gone through the travail that has resulted in the forming of Christ in them. Make sense? Alright, that's the rest of God. That's what it is. It is the diminution of our natural nature. Counting it dead. Each day counting it dead. And then God brings it to pass. We say, that's what I want. And then He accomplishes it. He crucifies it. I am crucified with Christ. Therefore, Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth. And the rest of His brothers return to join the Israelites. Now, who are the brothers of Christ? Romans 8.29 The ruler of Israel has brothers. Romans 8.29 Somebody have it there? There it is. This is the ruler. The son is the ruler. That he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Born. She who travails has brought forth. Then, his brothers will return to the Israelites. That's why this coming up in the Christian church, this desire to go back to Israel. That's why people go there and stay. Every time I've been there, I felt like this is where I belong. This is my home. This is what it feels like. And one day, I was mistaken for a Jew over 20 times. I think God did that for a sign. I had a woman walk. Ben Maimon Street. And she walks out. She starts talking to me about the city. About the condition of the roads there. She thought I was a commissioner or something. City of commission. But one after another, Lord, what are you trying to tell me here? I count them up 20 times. Over 20 times. People just come up to me. Young people. Everything. Thought I was a Jew. Isn't that ridiculous? The remnant of his brothers. And Galatians 4.19 also, because I've yelled that at you so much, you need to know where it is. Galatians 4.19. You should have this memorized. Now, we're talking about the rest of God. You remember, while we're looking for Galatians 4.19, do you remember the three great dimensions of the rest of God? Do you remember them? First, that God finished all things from the beginning of the world so you don't have to go out and create your own heaven and earth. Second, do you remember? The eternal Sabbath where you always do His will and not your own and you delight in it. Remember the third? War. That it is a war. Joshua. That you have to enter the land of promise by war. Those three things. But all that it boils down to is that you cease from doing your own works. You cease from doing your own works. Why do you cease from doing your own works? Because God did. That's Genesis 2, verse 2. We'll look at that next. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth. See, it's the ministry that prevails. It's the ministry that prevails. You would find in Psalm 68 that it says that He ascended, gave gifts to men or consisting of men. It gives the purpose that God might have a resting place. The reason we have the gifts and ministries in the church is that God might have a resting place. That's Psalm 68. I forget the verse. I wrote it down here. Psalm 68, verse 18. Alright. Until Christ is formed in you. That means exactly what it says. It does not mean until you try to be a better Christian. There's something supernatural. That that's formed in you is the rest of God. That's why He was telling those Hebrew Christians, go on, you're not there yet. And that rest of God is resurrection. It's learning to live in resurrection life. He is the resurrection. The resurrection of the body is not nearly as important as the resurrection of the inner nature. Because without the resurrection of the inner nature, first place, you're not going to get a resurrection of your body because God is not foolish. He's not going to put a self-centered person in a body like that of Christ. That's nonsense. You have to get it first inside. And you can. It isn't all that difficult. You know how Paul knew that Christ had not been formed in them? You know how he knew? Because they were going back and talking about circumcision. They were going back under the things of the Jewish law. And you see, that's why he knew. It's only in your head. It hasn't been formed in your heart yet. You wouldn't be going back into messianic practices if you had the real stuff. People are hung up on that today. Whoa! Christians are not finding substance in evangelical theology, so they're going back under the law. Various forms of the law. I understand it, but I don't appreciate it. I'll tell you. So Paul was filling up that which is behind the sufferings of Christ for His body's sake, so that Christ would be formed. When Christ is formed in them, then they're protected from false teachers. So we're looking now at Genesis 2, verse 2. So you get the feeling of the rest of God. What is God talking about? My rest. You know. Genesis 2, 2. By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing so. Back up to verse 1, if you would be so kind. Verse 1. Alright, back up even one more. The last verse of chapter 1. Alright. There was evening, and there was morning the sixth day. What was created on the sixth day? Man. Alright, now. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing. So on the seventh day, He rested from all His work. What's missing? The evening and the morning. There's an evening and a morning for six days. We don't know what that means because for the first three days, there was no sun, moon, or stars. And so how there was an evening and a morning, I'm not here to answer whether it was 24 hours or 24 million years, I'm not here to answer. It doesn't really matter. It's just that's the way it was. We say amen. But it's this seventh. See, it's this seventh day God quit working. He wasn't tired. He was not tired. God does not get tired. He quit working. He stopped working. And He says to you and me, enter My rest. In other words, Psalm 139, verse 16. And then we're through. Why are you and I struggling to accomplish something when God finished it? And I say if I'm in the rest of God, wonderful. I'm lazy anyway. I don't like to work. Old rocking chairs got me. Listen, you work just as hard in the rest of God as you did not in the rest of God. That thing doesn't mean you don't do anything. It means that what you do is what God wants you to do. That's the difference. Have we got Psalm 139, 16 up there? Just cast your eyeballs on that. That's a stunner. When your eyes saw My unformed body all the days ordained for Me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Now, you can't get much more specific than that. And so, God has your life planned out. Does that mean it will happen necessarily? It's inevitable? Absolutely not. There are Scriptures that say things like, let no one take your crown. Salvation is always an opportunity. God has your life, every page for a day, all out, and He knows what He wants. And He's resting. And He says to you, quit writing your own pages. Present your body a living sacrifice. Prove My will. Rest in My love. The day will bring forth problems, but there will be grace for those problems. Don't worry about tomorrow. I know what I'm doing. And there's no evening and morning. It goes on forever. Hallelujah. Yes, Andrew. It's John 7, 17 I think. And it sure is true. Lord, Jesus when He was praying said, Father, I've given them the words that You gave Me. And they have received them, believed them, and they know that I came from You. Is that at 7, 17? There it is. If anyone chooses to do God's will. That was the verse that got me saved. Because I didn't even believe there was a God. But I knew I needed something. Because this life is meaningless. You work so you get food, so you get strength, so you work. I'm not into that. I'm not up for that. And I stand on the fantail on an LST on my way to Hawaii, standing on the fantail, thinking wouldn't it be just easy, just easy to just jump over the back and get out of this rat race. I was on my way to Oahu. But before we left San Diego, we were downtown. Some lady handed me a tract. And I kind of looked at it. But I think she prayed for me. Because I didn't even read the thing. But I still think that lady prayed for me. She was back in the doorway. It was dark. And the servicemen would be walking. We were just cruising around town. Walking by. And she'd step out of this dark doorway and hand me a tract. And I think she prayed for me. And here I'm thinking these philosophical thoughts on the LST. Why not just, this crazy life doesn't mean anything. I'll just jump off the stern here, off the fantail, and be done with it. Just bye bye. Drown. It's not a bad way to go actually. But somehow God prevented that. And when I got over to Oahu, moved into a tent in Sixth Base Depot, I moved into a tent with a backslid Baptist boy. Backslid Baptist boy. He's from New Jersey as I remember. I was trying to think of his name. It'll come to me. And I began asking questions about the gospel. I don't know. God. And he got back to the Lord. And he knew his Bible. I mean this Baptist boy, he knew his Bible. And as fast as he would tell me things, he was telling me about the Holy of Holies and the Day of Atonement. And it seemed like I knew it before he told me. It just was like a burst of revelation. But this verse, I read it in a Christian book. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Now I was having doubts. And I said, alright. Okay. I'll do it. Whatever I think is your will. I knew it was wrong to be drinking beer, which I was doing. I knew that was wrong. And I felt, well, it's not right going to the movies. Where I ever got that from, I don't know. I knew it wasn't right to swear. I didn't know much else. I hadn't been raised in church. And I said, I'll do that. And pray, but you've got to show me. And that was the deal. John 7, 17. And I'm still doing it. He's still proving it. That was 1945. That was before some of you were born. Connie, that was before you were born. You weren't born in 1945. That was 1945 when that happened. I still think it was that lady there in that little doorway there, downtown San Diego that had prayed. I believe that's what it was. The Lord led me right to this Baptist boy. Hallelujah. God is real. God is real. Wow. Okay. Well, I think we're ready. We've had a good evening. And we've seen Jerusalem. And Stan's got just the right song all ready. Right in his vest pocket. He's ready to go. And what others? Because a year later in Japan, the Lord called me to preach. Boy, I had a real experience with that. Whoa. Talk about the Lord proving Himself. Oh, you people weren't even born. Ha! His dad was... Oh, thanks. I'll shut my mouth on that one. Shall we, Stan? My dad wasn't even born. How do you like that? And I regard him as my son. Now I've got to regard him as my grandson.