RESTING IN CHRIST

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Resting in the Finished Works of Jesus

by Creflo Dollar | 5 Oct 2016

Summary

When we rest in the finished works of Jesus, they empower us. This happens when we stop laboring in our works, and come to the realization that we need God to work for us. The good news contained in the Scriptures is the Gospel of His grace. This grace is available to everyone, and without it, there is no rest. This rest is found in the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is not a particular day—it is Christ Himself. We cannot earn His grace through our own merits. We need only to accept it by faith, and this trust brings us into His rest.

A. We need God, and His grace, on our Christian walk. Our trust in Him brings us rest.   

1. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. Life is a vapor that vanishes after a little while. We should say, “If the Lord will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:14, 15).
   1. It is not up to us to say where we will be in the future, or what will happen. We need God to guide us.
2. The way of a man is not in himself. It is not in a person to direct their own steps (Jeremiah 10:23).
   1. If it is not in us to direct our own steps, then the steps of a righteous person are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23).
   2. With that in mind, we must stop every so often to make sure He is directing our steps. We should not direct our own steps with “good” ideas that are not God’s ideas.
   3. Once we realize this, we become extremely dependent on Him when situations arise. He loves to be depended on.
   4. We cannot produce the “God kind” of results unless He is working and we are confidently depending on Him.
3. We need God to be who we are. He does not need us to be Who He is. Our labor is not responsible for what we receive.
   1. When God brings you into the land He promised you, and gives you great cities you did not build, and houses full of good things which you did not fill, wells you did not dig, and vineyards you did not plant, be careful not to forget Him (Deuteronomy 6:10-12).
   2. I gave you land for which you did not work, cities to live in that you did not build, and vineyards to eat from that you did not build (Joshua 24:13).
4. The Gospel is specifically the Gospel of Grace. This is news that seems almost too good to be true.
   1. We must be cautious, aware, and diligent not to fall short of the promise given to us of entering into His rest. The Gospel was preached to us as well as to others, but those who did not hear it in faith did not profit from it. The works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:1-3).
   2. Nothing moves me, and I do not count my life as dear to me, so I might joyfully finish my course, and the ministry I received from Jesus to testify the Gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).
5. Grace and peace to you from God and Jesus, Who gave Himself to deliver us from this present evil world. I marvel that you are so quickly moved from Him Who called you into the grace of Christ, into another gospel. There are some who trouble you and pervert His Gospel (Galatians 1:3-7).
   1. Anything other than what Paul preached is not the Gospel of Grace. Paul emphasized that the Gospel of Christ is the grace of Christ.
   2. There is no other gospel. Grace is unmerited favor, and the Gospel of Grace makes all other blessings available.
   3. When we are commanded to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, we are being told to preach the grace of Christ.
6. Grace is not a curriculum or a subject matter. Grace is an actual Person, and we must keep our eyes on Him.
   1. The Word was made flesh, and lived among us. We saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
7. Do not cast away your confidence, which has a great recompense of reward. You need patience, so that after you have done God’s will, you might receive the promise (Hebews 10:35, 36).
   1. Our confidence has compensation. It is what escorts us into that place of rest, which puts us in a position to receive what has already been done.
   2. Patience means being consistently, constantly the same about what we have confidence in. We employ patience to maintain our confidence so that our faith will continue to work long enough to produce a harvest.

B. Everything has been completed for us. By faith, we enter the Sabbath, Who is Jesus.  

1. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, because the trying of your faith works patience (James 1:2, 3).
   1. Joy is not happiness, but it produces happiness. Joy comes from what we know through the Scriptures.
   2. When we talk about faith, we do not need more of it, we simply need to keep working it until we are satisfied with the results. Jesus used the analogy of the mustard seed, and He told the parable of the servant in the field to illustrate this point.
2. We make an error when we have the wrong idea about faith.
   1. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
   2. The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Habakkuk 2:4).
   3. We have the faith of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22).
   4. We have access by faith into the grace of God (Romans 5:1, 2).
3. God rested on the seventh day from all His works (Romans 4:4).
   1. He rested because He was finished.
   2. The seventh day is not just a day of rest, but the Sabbath. Many people misunderstand what the Sabbath really is about.
4. Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Work for six days, but rest on the seventh day. God worked and made the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day. He blessed and hallowed it (Exodus 20:8-11).
   1. This is a shadow of Jesus and of the things that would happen in the New Testament, when the new covenant was established after the cross.
5. Let no one judge you in respect to a holy day or the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come. The body is of Christ (Colossians 2:16, 17).
   1. The Sabbath represents Christ, and affirms that we depend on Him.
   2. Christ is Who the Old Testament refers to when it discusses the Sabbath. He is the body that cast the shadow of things to come, hinted at in the Old Testament. Jesus is our Sabbath.
6. If they shall enter into God’s rest, it remains that some shall enter in, and those to whom it was preached did not enter because of unbelief (Hebrews 4:5, 6).
   1. It is difficult for some people to believe that Jesus would do something for them without them having to earn it.
7. Christ has become of no effect to those who are justified by the Law. They have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4).
   1. Justified means to be declared righteous. To be justified by the Law means we must work to earn justification. This is the opposite of righteousness by faith.
   2. Falling from grace does not mean falling into sin. It means falling back into self-effort and performance