In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that God's rest is already available to believers. He mentions four different rests mentioned in the scripture, all designed by God to symbolize what He wants His people to enjoy. The preacher shares a personal testimony of a man named Thomas Cook who struggled to enter into God's rest. Cook had to surrender his own plans and ambitions to God and trust in His word. The preacher encourages the audience to enter into God's rest today, without delay, as waiting longer can lead to hardened hearts and weakened faith.

We gather for the reading of the word this morning, and it's found in the book of Hebrews, beginning in chapter 3 and continuing in chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 3, beginning to read at verse 18, continuing through the fourth chapter. To whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us 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, that I have sworn in my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this life, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place, again, they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again he limited it to a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart. For if Jesus, that is, Joshua, 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 is entered into his rest, he also hath peace 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. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our professions. For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Blessed Redeemer, we worship and adore thee together this morning. Thy name is wonderful. We adore thee. We magnify thee. You have done so much for us, unworthy as we were when you found us. You have made us kings and priests, and to our God we shall reign with thee forever and ever. Oh, what we taste this morning is only the smallest foretaste of what we hope for and expect and fully have confidence in, that thou art preparing for us in the ages to be unveiled in the future. How we praise thee, Lord, that you set your love upon us who were sinners, who were lost, who were rebels. You have won us with your love, you have captivated us with your charms, you have led us unerringly by your Spirit, you have provided for us out of your unwasting sustenance, you have given us so much more than we ever could have found in the world, you have supplied our need, you have replaced the power of sin by the power of your love and the power of your Spirit, you are with us this morning, you are interceding for us at the right hand of the Father, you have given the Holy Spirit, the Divine Comforter, to live within our hearts, we are thy children, we are joint heirs with thee, we are inheritors of all things present and all things to come, we glorify thy holy name, we are rich, we are the children of the King this morning, and we praise thy name for it all. Yet there are some in this company who have not entered into the riches of thy resources, they are not resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ, they are troubled, they are struggling, they are defeated, they are frustrated, they are discouraged. We pray, Lord, that thou would make this world to be alive this morning, there is a rest for the people of God, may they do diligence, may they make haste to cease from their own struggling, from their own labor, enter into the rest that has been finished from the foundation of the world and is available to those who have entered by faith today, may we be a people of rest in the midst of a tumultuous world, may we have that rest in the heart that shows on the countenance, that shows in our conversation, that shows in our disposition, that while the world rages and is full of turmoil about us, we may have the rest of God within our hearts imparted to those that are hungry today, fill them even while they are sitting in their seats with that faith that takes hold of thy word, thy rest that is finished and finalized and completed up to date and available in this very hour today. We are trusting thee for this and we give thee praise for this in the adorable name of our Savior, our Christ, our coming Redeemer. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. There is a rest that has been finished from before the foundation of the world for the people of God. It's amazing how many are not entering into this rest, as if they had to work for it, they had to pay for it, they had to design and finish it. It's already finished, it's already available, it's already provided. But as was true in the Old Testament time, it's so true today that because of an unbelieving heart, many are falling short of this rest. I was one time riding on an airplane, my first commercial flight on an aircraft from San Francisco to Kansas City. This was many years ago, it was an old propeller-driven aircraft and it took most of the day to get to the airport. I had spent practically all the money I had to get my ticket, rode all night long. At breakfast time the next morning, the stewardess came out serving breakfast to those who wanted it. She came to me and said, Would you like your breakfast now? I said, No, thank you, ma'am. I didn't have enough money to buy a breakfast, and so I passed by the opportunity for breakfast and watched the other people around me eating their hot biscuits and honey and bacon and eggs, and it smelled so good and it looked so good. I was so hungry and I pined away for my breakfast, but I had spent my money for a ticket and I thought, Well, this is one time I'll discipline myself and not buy a breakfast. But it really smelled good. It really was a nice-looking breakfast that she took tray after tray, passed me and distributed to the other passengers, and thought it was wonderful. All the rest of them can afford the breakfast, but I can't afford it. And finally she came back to me one more time and said, Are you ready now for your breakfast? I said, Well, how much does it cost? She said, It's already paid for. It's included in the price of your ticket. It's already paid for. You might as well eat it. I said, Bring on the breakfast. I'll have it. Bring it on. While the rest of them were polishing off their crumbs, I really sank into this. It was wonderful. It was already paid for, and I was just about to miss it. I'd like to get a truth across to some of you people here this morning. It's already provided for. All of the struggle and all of the cost has already been paid. You can have it if you want it, because it's been paid for. You don't have to wait another 24 hours. You don't have to wait until the end of this camp and hope that in another camp meeting you may have it. It's already available. This is the plea of the Apostle here. See that none of you come short of this rest, because it's provided from the foundation of the world. I want to speak about entering God's rest by faith. In fact, in this passage of scripture there are four different rests spoken about, all of them designed by God, all of them in a sense God's rest, all of them symbolizing something of what God wants his people to enjoy here and now. We want to look at these four rests and then later how we enter into this rest. There is first creation rest, when God himself rested from his creative labor. This is spoken of in verse 10, God ceased from his labor. After six days of creation, God rested. Not because he was exhausted, not because he had done everything he could possibly do and he had just totally run out of strength. He was no more weary when he finished than when he began. He rested because what he had done was perfectly done. It was harmoniously done. There wasn't one jarring note of discord anywhere. Not one element of all his vast creation was out of joint. Not one element of that vast creation was in warfare against himself or against any other part of creation. God looked upon it and said it was very good. Everything that he had made reflected something of his own beauty, his own glory, his own majesty, his own grandeur. He looked upon it, it reflected his own perfect attributes and he said it was very good. And he rested because there was nothing in it all opposing his will. That's what God's rest is. When there's nothing there opposing God's will, then that's divine rest. It would have been wonderful if it had stayed that way. It did for a while. It stayed that way long enough to get an evidence and get a vision of what rest can really be like. But into that lovely picture there came a rebellious creature who wanted to spread his rebellion and he's been spreading it from that day till this. The rest of God was disturbed by the warring entrance of Satan and sin. Satan has been here ever since and sin has been here ever since. And where sin prevails there is no rest. Isaiah said, there is no rest, saith my God, to the wicked. No, every heart where sin prevails is a restless heart. Every life where sin abounds is a restless life. And every land where sin has gone is a restless land today. Sin produces restlessness, disharmony, war and discord. Sin hindered that first rest. Then there is the Sabbath rest. We have that referred to in verse 4. In a certain place he speaks of the seventh day on this rise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. That pattern of God's work and rest became a pattern for the work and rest of his people. He established this Sabbath of rest for his people. It became a sign between God and his chosen people that he was a holy God and they were committed to worship a holy Creator. I would like for you to look in Isaiah 58, where we have the secret of Sabbath rest. God designed one day out of seven in which his people were to experience true rest. That rest is analyzed and depicted for us by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 58, verses 13 and 14. If thou turn away thy foot, I want you to note the recurrence here of the word, thy. It's the distinction between human interest and God's glory. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing thine own way, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own word, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. If you people can ever get to the place where you put your own interest out of the way and make just one day out of seven God's day to honor him and exalt him and worship him and enjoy him and reverence his holiness, then you will find yourself lifted up in exultation to high places of delight and vision and heritage and a good food supply and a love relationship to your heavenly father. If you can do that just one day out of seven, it will be worth everything in all the world. But the issue is again that same old issue of sin, and this is where it's lodged in the human heart. Are we willing to put aside our own words, our own pleasures, our own desires, our own pathway, and turn with all our hearts to honor God and exalt him and worship him and let him have his way, even one day out of seven? They never were. They never were, because sin in the heart makes it impossible. It's a wonderful ideal, but it's impossible for the natural man to turn away from his own desires his own will, his own pleasure, his own words, his own pathway, his own ambitions, and just worship God with all his heart, because sin is exactly the opposite from that. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone in his own way. That's the universal nature of sin. Every man walks his own way. You can't just turn it off with a key. You can't just change all that by hoping you can or wishing you could. It's too deep a season. They never were able to keep God's holy Sabbath in the way Isaiah depicted it here. So the Sabbath rest, while it was a wonderful ideal, was a failure. And it's still the same basic problem faced right here today, and wherever people come up against the will of God, there's a head-on clash between my own pleasure, my own words, my own will, and the will of God. Neither God's will must prevail or our will shall prevail. We can't have them in warring discord and have rest. Here's a third rest depicted in this passage, and that is Canaan rest. That's what is referred to back in chapter 3 at great length. He's referring to the fact that back there the people of Israel refused and failed to enter into the land of Canaan, the rest that God had provided. Verse 18 of chapter 3, "...to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not, that those that grieved him forty years when they died in the wilderness, because they would not enter into the land that was prepared for them." The land of Canaan was a type of the inheritance of holiness. The land of Canaan is a type, it is not the reality, it is a type of the spiritual rest that God has for his people. There are so many significant things about the land of Canaan that point out what God has for his people when they enter into his rest. Let's just notice a few of these things. There were enemies in the land. Back in Deuteronomy 7, we have a vivid description of the land, of the enemies that were there, of God's promise that he would give them this land and destroy every single one of their enemies if they would press forward by faith to possess the land. He said, I'm not going to destroy them instantaneously, all of them, because if they were all destroyed in an instant, a wild beast would take over the land you haven't yet occupied. So I'm going to destroy them one by one as you advance and take them. This is one difference with the crisis experience of holiness. In the crisis experience of holiness, God does a thoroughgoing work in an instant of time. The enemies are destroyed not one a week or one a month, they are destroyed instantaneously. But here we do have a depiction of some of the characteristics that God wants removed from any place, whether it's in the heart of man or in the promised land, that would keep his people from having rest there. There are a number of enemies in the land. I would particularly like to take the one list of them given in Numbers 13.28. There are some of the enemies in the land listed, enemies that God wanted them to destroy utterly. One of them that is mentioned there is Amalek, and maybe he's the most significant of them all. I wish we had a whole hour just to talk about Amalek. He is such a significant figure in the Old Testament. He is one of the Old Testament types of the fleshly, or carnal, life. Amalek was the grandson of Esau. He got a good beginning to be a fleshly, carnal man. For Esau was the one that God rejected and chose Jacob. Jacob and Esau are types of opposing elements, warring within the soul of man. For within their mother there was a struggle going on between Jacob and Esau, and he came to God and said, Lord, why am I as I am? He said, there are two nations warring within thy womb. This is significant of the warfare that goes on in the double-minded man, the man who does not have spiritual rest in his soul. God chose Jacob and rejected Esau. But out of the lineage of Esau came this man Amalek. Amalek was always set against the people of God and the progress of the cause of God. You remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they sang their song of triumph at the Red Sea and started marching until they came to Rephidim, a place of rest and beauty. The scripture says, Then came Amalek. Amalek always comes along when people are getting close to the land of promise to set up his defenses and bar the way into God's divine land of rest and land of promise. Then came Amalek. That's the first place we meet him in warfare against God's people, I believe. But that's also the first place where we see Joshua, the first place that Joshua appears. Joshua, who has the same name as Jesus in the Old Testament. That's why our translators have actually put the word Jesus in verse 8, where it should be Joshua. Their names are so close together, they mean exactly the same thing. Joshua is the Old Testament type of Jesus. He appeared at the same site where Amalek appeared, and he set himself against Amalek. I'm so glad that Jesus Christ has come to set himself up against all of the powers of Amalek. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of Amalek, the works of the devil, the works of sin and the flesh. God decreed at Rephidim that Amalek was to be destroyed from off the face of the earth. His memory was to be brought out from off the face of the earth. That's what God said he wanted to have done to Amalek, brought him out until there's not a trace of him left, until he'll be utterly forgotten on the face of the earth. They warred against him for one day until sundown, but they didn't destroy him. They discomfited him, they weakened him, they destroyed some of the Amalekites, they kept the battle up until sundown, but they didn't finish him off. So many people do just the same way. They stay in this battle until Amalek is weakened somewhat, he is discomfited, but he isn't destroyed. They stay in it until sundown, but not until sunrise. Amalek is a little weakened and sort of battered, but he is able to recoup his forces and he'll show up again down the line. And here we find Amalek in the Holy Land. He was out in the wilderness while they were on the way to the Holy Land, and now they've come to enter it and he's inside too, as well as outside. And he is one of those to be destroyed. In fact, King Saul, the first king of Israel, was sent on an expedition one day with his army. I want you to finish the task, God said, that was given so long ago. I want Amalek to be totally slaughtered out, get rid of him. Everything he is and everything he has, all that he possesses, just destroy Amalek utterly off the face of the earth. He doesn't belong. And Saul did just about like had been done before. He slaughtered a lot of cattle and a lot of people, but he looked upon a few of the best cattle and he looked upon Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and he said, Well, I think I'll save the best. Some of this really is too good to be destroyed. And he fed Agag and the best of the cattle. Finally, when Saul came to die, it was an Amalekite that flew him. Too bad. If Saul had slain the Amalekites, he wouldn't have been slain by an Amalekite. And if you would carry on until sin dies in you, sin would never slay you. This is the issue in the hearts of men. Either this battle is carried through to a complete removal of the foe of sin in the heart, or that sin is going to stay there lurking and ready to spring on you in an unwary moment and bring you down. It's just that important an issue that we carry through to the destruction of the forces of Amalek. Let's look at a few of these others. There was a Jebusite in the land. The word Jebusite means to be polluted or trampled underfoot. Something as filthy as if it was taken out of the dust and the dirt where it had been walked upon and trampled underfoot. It's corruption. It's uncleanness, uncleanness of desires, of lust, of affection, of attitude. There are the Amorites. Amorite means one who seeks publicity or prominence, the one who loves to see his own name in print, who loves to hear himself adulated and honored, who loves the aura of high office, not for the service that can be performed, but for the honor that comes from being there. That's the Amorite that needs to be destroyed. God needs servants that will fill offices, but he needs people that will do it with humility, taking all their resources from God and giving all their praise back to God. God sees fit to use any of us as channels of blessing. It's not to our credit, brethren. We are unworthy servants at the very best. All honor and praise and worship and adoration belong unto him. A marvel is that he could use any of us to accomplish anything, but it's only by his grace. Let the Amorite spirit be utterly destroyed out of the midst of us, that spirit that seeks after prominence and position and praise, and give us a spirit that will bow down in dust before Jesus Christ. Unless he helps us, there is nothing to be done worth lasting. There is the Hittite. The word Hittite means fear or terror. How many fears there are that fill the souls of the unsanctified, fear of men, fear of the world, fear of what people will say about us, fear of the reproached, fear of failure, fear of death, fear to stand up for Jesus, fear to witness, fear to have the accusing glances and the mockery and the scorn of the world, fear, terror, dread. Well, the Hittite needs to be destroyed. Anak was there. Out of Anak came the giants. Oh, these giants are still with us today. The word Anak means to adorn yourself with a necklace that chokes your breath off. It's not interesting. These old Hebrew words were full of meaning. You wouldn't think out of a four-letter word like that you could get so much, but that's what it signified in the beginning. The word Anak meant to have a necklace around you so tight and so heavy that it began to choke your breath away. I think maybe you can just make the application of this. There are lots of adornments, lots of chains, lots of bands that choke our spiritual breath off, so laden down with that which will appeal to the outward man and appeal to the world, that we find ourselves gasping and strangling and suffocating for a good, deep, life-giving spiritual breath. Anak must be destroyed with all the rest of them. The Canaanite was there. The Canaanites filled the land, and the word Canaanite means to humiliate and to defeat or overcome. Either the Canaanites or the Canaanites must be defeated or he is going to defeat one or the other. There is no reconciliation with the Canaanites. The people of Israel tried for a few years to make such a reconciliation. It did not work. They were sold into captivity. My dear friends, there are people right here in this congregation this morning that are either going to find a real conclusive victory over that inner corruption, that inner warfare, that inner enemy against God, or they are going to go down themselves in defeat. It is the issue of real victory in Christ or real failure under the power of sin. Those people, of course, were afraid of these guys. They were afraid of these enemies in the land. Why? We are in their sight like grasshoppers, they said. God gave a promise in Deuteronomy 7. He said, Remember what I did to Pharaoh. I am a great God. You folks couldn't have gotten yourself out from under the bondage of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Remember what I did to Pharaoh. I was able to handle Pharaoh and all of his army. I am the same God today. I can handle these people in the land. If you will go in by faith, I can take care of them. You say that these people will hide in caves and get under rocks and hide in bushes and the woods and get behind mountains and hide under rocks and stones and in secret. How in the world can we ever get through all of these and get them out? God said, I have a message. I can get them out. It won't be real hard, really. He said, I'll send my hornet. I have some hornets, God said. And these hornets can go anywhere a Hittite can go. They can go anywhere an Amalekite can go. They can go anywhere an Agagite can go. They can go behind the stones and into the crevices and through the forest and under the rock piles and behind the wood piles. Anywhere an Agagite can go, a hornet can go. Pretty soon there will be an Agagite coming out. There will be an Amalekite coming out. There will be a Jebusite coming out on the run. When he comes out, you just bring him down. I'll send the hornets after him. The hornet will bring every one of them out into the open. These people can't stand the hornets. They'll never endure my hornets. My hornets will overcome every one of them. They'll run them out of their hiding places. We'll get the job done. God said, you just go right on in by faith. We'll handle these people. You'll go in by faith. Well, thank God. This is God's plan. Utterly, totally, to destroy, obliterate the enemy. Rest to them. Well, in the first place, they refused to go in at Kadesh Garnia. They just looked at the enemy and they said, they're too big for us. We're like grasshoppers. They're like giants. They outnumber us. After all, they have walled cities. We cannot, we cannot, they're too big for us. And the Hebrew writer said, the problem, the problem was an evil part of unbelief. The problem wasn't in the size of the giants. It wasn't in the thickness of the city walls. It wasn't in the number of enemies that possessed the land. The problem was right in the heart of the people, an evil part of unbelief. The problem was the deceitfulness of sin. That's what he said. He said, be careful lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. He's talking about the sin of the heart. This deceitful principle we were talking about yesterday. The very basic root of sin is deceitfulness in the heart, the deceitfulness of sin. Take heed, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. It's so easy to look at our problems, look at our failures, look at our weaknesses, look at the times we've tried and been defeated. Just keep looking at yourself, and look at your problems. And the longer you look, the bigger they become, and the littler God becomes, and the harder your heart becomes. Yes, I see people come and go and come and go and come and go from the altar of prayer. And this is one thing that practice does not make perfect. You don't get stronger by practicing coming and going from an altar of prayer. The more a person comes and goes away in deceit, the smaller his faith becomes, but the more his confidence is shaky and toppery. The longer they looked at the giants, the bigger they became. A person can become harder and harder by just coming and going, because he never exercises faith. He never comes to the place where he casts himself upon the greatness of God. Faith shrivels as we keep on concentrating on our problems and thinking of our failures, nourishing our unbelief, going over again our problems and our peculiar difficulties and our enemies and our animosities. Faith shrivels and the heart hardens. What's the problem? The heart of unbelief. Unbelief that needs to be renounced, that needs to be put away under the blood. We need to stop looking at our problems and our failures and make an all-out surrender to let God take over and do what he has promised to do, and stand by it until it is done. Faith is the eye that sees the invisible. Faith is the ear that hears the inaudible. Faith is the hand that grasps the intangible and cries, I know it shall be done. Stop looking at the enemy. Stop looking at the problem and look to God. He has promised on the authority of his eternal word, he can destroy all of the enemies out from before us. Hallelujah forever! But they didn't enter into the Canaan rest. So God provided another rest. There remains a rest for the people of God. This is God's rest in the soul. After these other rests were disturbed and failed of their ideals, God announced another rest that remains for the people of God. A rest in the soul. A rest that is to be accomplished in the soul because God has a remedy that he has revealed that goes to the very root of the disturbance, the very root of the cause of restlessness, the sin in the heart of man. We've already referred to it here in an earlier message, but we have it right here in this chapter. The word of God is able to go to the deep seat of sin in the heart and locate it. The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to penetrate, it's able to divide asunder, it's able to open those hard, bony chambers and expose to God's view every secret, hidden thing. Just like the high priest slaughtered his victim of sacrifice and opened the bones and split the joints and laid the whole thing inside out until there wasn't a hidden chamber lurking there to conceal anything from the view of the priest. The word of God is able to penetrate into the heart of man and locate everything that is there that would rise to trouble us along the way. Hallelujah! God has instruments that are designed to get the trouble located within us. You've heard the story, I'm sure, of dear old Amanda Smith, precious colored lady of years ago who was well saved. But as she began to walk with God, she recognized that there was something in her heart that wasn't subject to the will of God. And the more she tried to serve God, the more this thing hindered and appalled. She wanted holiness of her. She didn't know how to find it or where to go to get it. She went to an elder and he said, just do all the good you can, keep on praying. But she was hungry and that didn't satisfy her. But she was searching the word of God. And the word said, when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you, falsely rejoice and be exceedingly glad. But she didn't rejoice and be exceedingly glad when they reviled her and persecuted her. She had resentment in her heart, don't you? And she knew that wasn't right. The word located her problem. But she didn't yet know how to find deliverance. So she went on reading and she found this is the will of God, even your sanctification. She went to a deacon in the church and she said, what is this deacon? What is this sanctification? Oh, that's the grace you get when you die. You can't have it when you live. But she wanted it while she lived. She was still hungry. She kept on praying. She kept on studying. And the more she studied, the more she saw the word expose the sin of her heart, condemn it. Then she went to a holiness meeting and she heard somebody that had the truth straight and strong. She got her heart sanctified and she was ablaze of glory and blessing as long as she lived, I guess. Trading abroad the praise and worship and reverence and adoration of Almighty God. The word located her needs. What the word locates? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses. This book of Hebrews is a mighty book about the blood. The God of peace that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you that which is well, pleasing, and exciting, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and majesty and dominion from now on forevermore. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant, it is the blood that has power to cleanse the heart from sin. Hallelujah. This is God's rest. The rest in which the sinfulness, the warfare of the heart is put to an end. Those inner enemies of selfishness and pride and animosity and jealousy and criticism and quarrelsomeness and selfishness and pride and self-seeking and worldly lusts are destroyed, just like the hornets drove out the Jebusites and they were open to be slaughtered. The word of God exposes these inner movings of sin to the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. When the blood cleanses, there is rest in the soul. In our seminary over in Korea we had a precious young man come to enroll in our classes. He had been raised a Presbyterian. He had attended for some 25 years. But into the same village where he lived there came a Bible woman with a tent and began to preach holiness. People began to come down from the big church and attend the little tent, because God was working there, he was doing things among the people. They hadn't had the tent there very long until the beer tavern in that village was closed up. People were getting saved. People who were attending the big stuffy church that wasn't giving them any meat or giving them any spirit to life began to come down to the humble tent and find God and find power in their lives. This young man was one who started attending there, and he heard this message of holiness. It sounded different. It was different. It sounded good to him. He wanted to learn more about it, so he enrolled in our seminary. He enrolled in my course in the theology of holiness. He was a brilliant young man. He already had a master's degree and had been working at a public newspaper office. Well-educated, brilliant mind. I was teaching that class, and day after day I'd look into the face of that young man, and he would be staring at me in that placid, that critical, that penetrating oriental way. I couldn't tell whether he was saying yes or no. He just looked at me with a cold, penetrating stare. I would go on teaching holiness and I'd look into his face and pray, O God, do something in the heart of that man. He was just staring at me with a most penetrating stare, cold, analytical, wouldn't smile, wouldn't nod his head, wouldn't shake his hand, just staring at me. I prayed, Lord, help him. What's he thinking? But one day he followed me out of class into the office, and there were tears welling up in his eyes. He said, I want to tell you something, Brother Olin. I've been sitting in this class and the other classes you've been teaching. I just want to give you my testimony. For 25 years I've tried to be a Christian, but I've had a warfare with inward lust in my heart. At times I was almost driven over the brink of despair. I thought if there's nothing better than this, I'd just as well give it up. Just this warfare, this warfare with lust in my heart. But I wasn't willing to give them up. I knew I wanted to be a Christian, but there it was, warfare, lust. I heard the preaching and it sounded good. I heard your teaching on holiness and it sounded good. I thought, why, if there was such a life as that, I'd like to have it at any cost. But I've tried as hard as I can possibly try these 25 years to have victory. And if it means I have to try a little harder, I can't try any harder than I've already tried. But then I heard you say, or heard you emphasize from Philippians chapter 3, that Paul suffered the loss of all things and counted them lost, that he might know Christ and the power of his resurrection. I thought if there's a power of God available to come down and take hold of me and lift me to this level of victory over all inward sin, oh, there's hope for me. If it doesn't mean that I just have to struggle a little harder and try to live a little taller, oh, thank God there's hope for me. Brother Yoakum, he said, I want to tell you that I began to let my hopes rise on the authority of God's word. I've been to the cleansing fountain of blood, the blood that cleanses from all sin. And I want to tell you today, the blood has cleansed my heart from all sin, just like God's word said it was. And it's working today. And my heart has been cleansed of its corrupt and warring luck. I have peace in my heart for the first time in my life. And it's working. And I thank God. And I want to thank you for coming to America and letting me know that I don't have to live on in my pollution and my inward battle and my loss. God has sanctified my soul. Oh, hallelujah. Whatever the word of God reveals, the blood will cleanse out of the way. God does not expose our sin just to add to our misery. He exposes our sin to add to our liberty. Take away our sin and make us free. Now, I don't mean that as long as we're in this world, we're going to be free from all outward adversity. No, the world will rage all around us with its adversity. We will be tempest-tossed and driven by affliction and disappointment and perplexity. But oh, thank God there's a central place at the very heart of our being where there's a great calm. The ocean tides may roar and rage all around, but where we are, there's a calm and the vessel is smoothly sailing onward into the eternal harbor. At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky, flinging its cloudy pillars high, is a place of central calm. So amidst the rush of earthly things, I find a place where my spirit sings in the hollow of his palm. Oh, thank God for peace in the heart. Men may assail you, the devil may attack you, people may misinterpret you, the world may scorn you and mock you, they may set you at naught, but there's still a place in your central being where there's a song in the night because rest has come into the heart. Hallelujah for rest in the soul. I know a little bit about what I'm talking. I've been through a few things that have put this rest to the test. And I just want to say hallelujah that when people turn against you and lie about you and lay all the blame upon you falsely, that you can still have a song in your heart in the night. You can still have peace of God in your heart in the daytime. You can still know that God is there and I am here and he is mine. My soul is rest in the midst of the storm. Hallelujah to Jesus forever. Let the devil roar. Storms come. There's a sheltered place in the soul where God and I have sweet communion together. For the enemy has been cast out and the sun has come in its fullness to fill that place in our heart and hold us steady and keep us calm and let us rest in the midst of the strife. Blessed be his name. How do we enter into this rest? Well, the writer makes it plain. We do not enter in by our labor. We cannot labor our way in. It says here in verse 10, he that has entered into his rest, he hath ceased from his own work as God did from his. The works were finished, he says, before the foundation of the world. The work has been done. God did the work. I like to think of God as a great architect. Oh, maybe he has his cap on with his green visor down and sitting down at his big planning desk. I'm humanizing a little bit here, but I like to imagine God as a great architect. There came a time when he designed and he planned out the universe, the stars, what a masterful plan, what an engineering feat it was to build a universe. Man, what an architectural performance to build a universe that runs as harmoniously and as beautifully as this universe does. One day we're going to be with the elders who look out over all of creation from a heavenly standpoint. And those elders fell down and worshiped God. Lord, thou hast created all things. What a creator! You made all of this for your own pleasure. They are in work. That's going to be a day. I like science. I'm looking forward to the day when I get to look at creation from a heavenly standpoint. I get thrilled from looking out through this dust-wrapped ball of earth and look on creation. But when we look at it from a heavenly standpoint, it's really going to be exciting. But before God ever planned out his earthly physical creation, he had another plan on his drawing board. He was planning out redemption. Before the foundation of the world, he had drawn out a plan of redemption, a perfect plan, not just patchwork, not just a bunch of Band-Aids. A real redemption, a real cure. God has chosen you in Christ from before the foundation of the world, that ye should be holy and without blame before him in love. That was his first plan. He drew it out. What's it going to cost? He tallied it all up. Well, pretty expensive. It's going to cost a blot on my own beloved son. But it's worth it. I'm going to pay it. The plan was signed and sealed and perfected and delivered. And it's available to you and me right here today. The works have all been finished. The cross of Jesus Christ demonstrated to all the world. It's an effective plan. It's a powerful plan. All the hosts of hell were defeated with a crescendo of defeat at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. You don't have to work for this. You don't have to struggle and groan for two weeks for this. Your struggling will never get you in. The works have all been done. And we don't enter by delay either. Verse 11, Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Well, I thought you said we were not supposed to labor. Well, this is a different word here. The word translated labor here means let's get in a hurry. Let's be prompt. Let's be earnest. Let's use all speed and all diligence. Let's stop our waiting. Let's stop our delaying. Let us make haste, quickly, today. Yes, sir, today, to enter into this rest. I want you to notice how many times he comes down on this word today. Verse 13, exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Verse 15, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Chapter 4, verse 7, again he limited a certain day saying today. After so long a time as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. This is the word of God. The work has all been done. Let us make haste. Let us press on. The longer we wait, the harder our hearts will become. The longer we wait, the weaker our faith will become. The longer we wait, the more the devil will magnify our enemies and our difficulty. Let us make haste. Let us do diligence. Let us count this the all-supreme business we have to do, to enter into this rest that God has provided for us. But of course Satan comes along and he teases and he tantalizes and he said, you can't trust God. Remember the other time you thought you were sanctified and you said you were and you really weren't. Remember that, don't you? Yes, I sure do. Now just don't forget it. Just remember the time that you thought you had victory and this enemy arose and overcame you and this enemy appeared and frightened you out of your victory. Remember! Yes, I remember. The enemy comes in and he says, not today. The Holy Ghost says today. We are to exhort one another and say today, and that's what I'm trying to do. Today. God's word says today. The Holy Spirit says today. We are entreating you and say today. Satan says, not today. It's tragic. It is really a tragedy, the number of people that have been coming and going from an altar of prayer, just coming and going. I've been among companies of people where they came as methodically to the altar as they went to their place of business on Monday morning. And they came with as little faith and went with as little faith, just coming back and forth to the altar as a routine. The altar doesn't give the victory. As a matter of fact, you wouldn't have to come to an altar if you had faith. I was preaching on this theme over in Korea one time, and when the service was over there were several came forward and prayed through and testified. And one man got up back at his feet and he said, while the service was going on, while Brother Yoakum, while you were preaching this morning I made a decision. I said, when this conference is over I'm going away to a mountain prayer house and spend a week. I'm going to stay up there for a week and I believe I can get sanctified in a week in a mountain prayer house. But then you came down to this stressing what God's word says. God says today. The Holy Spirit says today. Don't harden your heart. Don't let unbelief take over. And he said, I'm not going to the mountain prayer house. As a matter of fact, I took hold of that and right at my feet the Holy Spirit came in his form. And it could happen to some of you sitting right there right now. If you'd say, Lord, I'm putting over all of my faults and my failures and my fears and all of my unbelief, I'm casting it over on the blood of Jesus Christ and this very moment I'm, by faith, I am entering in by faith into the finished work that's been finished from before the foundation of the world. I refuse to struggle any farther. I refuse to wait any longer. I refuse to wait any longer. Lord, I'm going to go in today. The word says today. The Spirit says today. The church says today. What do you say today if you will enter in? You can be filled, can receive this rest. Perhaps you've read the book by Thomas Cook on New Testament holiness. He was a very devoted Christian, but he was struggling with his inward corruption. For three years he continued in this struggle. The more he struggled, the more he prayed, the more he saw the horror, the pollution of his inward carnal life. But he didn't know about the message of holiness. After three years or so he learned about the promise of holiness, and he wanted it. He began to seek God. And the closer he got to God, the more horrible did his sin appear to him. He struggled to overcome. He made a consecration. He died out to his reputation and everything else, but there was no victory. For months he continued in this state, crying out to God, but not entering in. Then he learned that the problem was the unbelief of his heart. He had never really come to a crisis moment of commitment and simple trust. As we pointed out about Jesus on the cross, he came to a place where he said, my part is finished and now I at this moment commit everything into God's hands. He never made this commitment of faith. But he was still hindered because he expected that that moment of victory would be marked by some great emotional exaltation. And if you are looking for an emotional exaltation, you are looking in the wrong direction. There may be one and there may not be one. If there is, it's a byproduct and not the thing itself. If there isn't, you need not be worried, because emotional demonstrations vary with our temperamental makeup. Then Thomas Cook saw that he must totally trust God to do the work in his own way, with whatever manifestation it chose God to give to him. And he said, I will do it. He went into a meeting where some of his friends had met together. They were gathered for prayer and testimony. He came to the place where he was determined to be sanctified holy before he got off his knees in that service. He told the people so. While he was kneeling there telling God, I'm not going to rise from my knees until by faith I enter into this grace of sanctifying fulness, there came to his heart that verse of scripture that has blessed so many. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us right now, present tense, this present moment, the blood cleanseth us from all sin. He made a verbal commitment, right out loud. He declared openly, I claim this blessing right now. Not because he felt any different, but because he recognized there had to be a pinpointed moment of faith, where he exercised his faith in God. I know some people don't like this. They just don't like to take it by faith. But there does come a moment, my friend, when we know we're walking in the light, when we know our part is finished, when there's only one thing left to do and you have to do it or you'll never in all the world have the victory that God has for you. And that's a moment of simple, total faith in the authority of God's Word and the faithfulness of God to verify his word. I claim this blessing this very moment. The refining fire came down and went through his heart, melting, burning, filling, energizing. And if you've ever read his book on New Testament holiness, you know he had the blessing. It spills forth in every page of his writing. It overflows. It's amazing how much spiritual blessing can be put in black and white on the printed pages of a book, because the man that wrote it had what he was writing about. Do you have this read this morning? Let me tell you one more account, a personal friend of mine, a dear friend of mine from Korea. He told me about a day in his young life when he was over in Japan living with a Japanese pastor and his family. The Japanese and the Koreans didn't have too good feelings among themselves, and the Japanese resented this Korean boy, and he resented their resentment. He had in his heart this resentment. He knew it wasn't right. He was a Christian. He went and talked to the woman. She was a holiness missionary about it, and she pointed him to the way of holiness, that God would cleanse this out of his heart. So he went before God and began to pray for this. God showed him that if he was going to live this kind of life, he would have to surrender all of his plans and all of his ambition, all of his will to God. But he had his own plans, he had his own ambition, and God said to him, will you yield or will you not? Finally he said, I will. I yield. He did, but he still didn't get the victory. Then he thought that he must trust God, but he had a doubtful heart. He found it very difficult to believe that it would be real. But he came to a point where he said, whether I have any feeling or not, I do right now trust God's word. I do now. Satan whispered to him, he said, it won't work. You don't feel any different, do you? He said, no, I don't feel any different, but God's word is true, and devil, you are a liar, and I'm going to keep on believing God. If I never feel anything, I'm going to step out of their faith. I've surrendered to God. I'm willing to do his will. I know the need of my heart. I've confessed it to God. I do here and now trust God, and I'm not going to give in to one single doubt from you, old devil. I'm going to keep on trusting God. Nothing seemed to happen. No great emotional experience came to him, but he just went on about his work. I do trust God. I am right now, I am trusting God. And Satan would try to whisper what didn't make any difference in your life. Well, he said, I'm trusting God, and that's something I didn't used to do. I'm trusting God. Whether you want me to or not, I'm trusting God. I've made my commitment. If God shows me anything else he wants me to do, I'm willing to do it. I'm already ready to do it. I'm trusting God. I'm trusting God. He said, I went on my way for three days, just kept saying it over, and the devil tried to tease me out, and I refused to be teased out. I just kept saying, I'm trusting God. I've obeyed him. I'm trusting him. I'm trusting God. And he said, the third evening I was going home, I was ready to get on to the subway car down underground, and I raised my foot to get in the subway car, and I said one more time, I'm trusting God. And suddenly he said there was something that filled my soul. A river of peace began rushing through, and a fountain began to flow, and a shout broke out in my heart, and I went hurrying my way home and entered the door, and I said to the pastor's wife, I want to tell you something. She said, you don't need to tell me. It's written all over you. I know what's happened. You've entered in. There comes a place, my friend, where we can say just like Jesus did, it's finished. My part is done. There isn't one thing to do but say, I'm trusting God. I'm standing on your promise. Let the devil mock me. Let him laugh at me. I don't care what kind of feeling comes or goes. I'm trusting God. His authority is abiding. His word is unchanging. His promise is eternally faithful. I am resting, sweetly resting on the authority of his word, on the power of his blood. Hallelujah to Jesus. Today, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Let's be sure that there being a promise left to us, any of you seem to come short of it because of unbelief or delay. You can enter in right where you are. You can enter in over in your room. You can enter in in the dining hall. But if you do enter in, it will not be by struggling or waiting or groaning. You will enter in by faith into God's rest. Let us stand together.