"Jesus" in Hebrews 4:8 should be "Joshua." This one of the few translator mistakes in the King James Version. The New King James Version corrects the verse to read "Joshua." In fact EVERY other English translation that I consulted (over 30!) translated this verse correctly as "Joshua."

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Our world is not a very pleasant place in which to live. Very few people live in a peaceful, family setting, because the devil is doing everything that he can to destroy the home. There are very few people in the world if any that have not been touched by the effects of divorce, abuse, violence, and hatred. It is very obvious that the world's philosophy of "live for yourself" and "put your own desires number 1" and "you don't really need a God or a church or to live according to ALL of God's Word" is an earthly philosophy that has created a world of confusion and a state of sinful pain. Sin may look good on the outside, but it always results in heartaches and pain. You do not have to live long in this world to discover that life in this sinful place can be quite painful.

"We know that preacher, what's the point?" My point is that the world today is in no way a "restful place to live." In fact, it is quite the opposite. The sinfulness of this world has created a common lifestyle of restlessness and spiritual and physical fatigue. But I have good news for you today. The scriptures say that "where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound." There is a principle in God's Word that when the world is full of evil and facing a flood of judgment, He will always provide plans for an ark of safety. Where His judgment will be poured out, God will first provide a way for those who trust Him to escape. Within the storm, He will provide a shelter for those who are under His wings of protection. There is a "secret place," a place of protection, a place of rest that God always provides for His people who will follow Him. If you want to follow Him, you will eventually have to enter into a state of rest, because that is where God will lead you. He created the universe and man in six days and then on the seventh day, He rested. Why did God rest? Was He, the all-powerful God, tired? Did the one who knows no limits reach a point of exhaustion? No. He was resting because He was using creation to teach man a powerful principle: when God does a great work in your life, and begins to create something from a void and forms something beautiful out of chaos and darkness, He is doing so to lead you into a "rest." A place where you cease to struggle and not know why. A place where the void and darkness that haunts you is removed and a new found meaning is implanted into your life. A place of peace and love and safety. A place that you can grow and be nourished and commune with Him. That is the point of serving God and allowing Him to work in your life: to enter into His rest!

Some people try to create their own rest. They work hard all of their life to have the perfect house and the perfect place to relax. There are millionaires who have worked all of their life to have a yacht in the Bahamas and a little island where they can go and find rest. But you cannot create your own rest. You can go on vacations till you are broke and tan or both, but it will not fix the turmoil in your family! I've had people tell me "preacher I don't come to church on Sunday because I need it to rest." You can take Sundays off and sleep for 24 hours straight, but you will still wake up with the same issues that you had before you slept. You may have slept soundly but you did not truly "rest." Some of those same people who have worked so hard to create "rest" with their wealth or time are the same people who jump from relationship to relationship and from rehab to rehab. Why? Because they are trying to create their own rest within this world. Somewhere deep inside, they know that they need to find rest, but they fail by trying to create it themselves. There is no substitute for the rest of God. There is a rest that you need and it is freely available in this world, but it only comes from Jesus Christ! He can provide what you cannot give yourself. He said:

Living for God is only hard when you try to do it half hearted. The burden and yoke of following Jesus' commandment is light and easy compared to the yoke and burden of sin and confusion. One of Elvis' hit songs right before his untimely death was "I Did It My Way." He died of an overdose of sleeping pills and uppers. Elvis was trying to find rest that fame, fortune, and talent could not bring him. So many people insist on following their own philosophy of life and living "their way" when "their way" has only brought hurt, confusion, and disillusion. The reason that they feel lonely or like they "are losing their mind" is because they are trusting in themselves and in a sinful lifestyle to give them happiness. I want it to be said of me that I have "lost my mind" but that I have done so to "find the mind of Christ!" Why would you trust in a religion that cannot change your situation or your problems? Why would you trust in yourself when doing so has only brought more loneliness and depression? There is a better way available today. I serve a God who has a way out. He has always created a place of rest for His people. I've comer here today to give you a message from the Almighty God of hope. I've come to tell you here today that there is hope for your situation. There is a rest available. If you will get Jesus involved, there is always hope!

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We read in our text about Joshua who had taken leadership of Israel from Moses. Moses was the leader that brought the people of God out of Egyptian slavery and into the wilderness. God purposefully brought them out into a wilderness area so that we, today, could learn a tremendous lesson from them. In fact, Paul wrote the Corinthian church that the events of Moses and Joshua's day were "examples for us to learn by." God gave them the law at Mount Sinai and then directed Moses to lead them to a place that He had prepared for them called the "promised land," the place where modern day Israel is. It was a land of abundant crops and God promised that they would live in houses that they did not build and in vineyards that they did not plant. The "promised land" that God had chosen is unique because it is completely surrounded by desert and wilderness. They passed through some of the hottest and driest desert in order to get to the edge of the promised land. God promised that this land would be "a place of rest" for His people and a place where they could worship Him without worrying about the influence or troubles of the spiritually dry world all around them. God had not caused Moses to lead the people into the wilderness to die, but to take them to a promised place of rest. He allowed the world around them to be a wilderness to cause them to long for the place of rest! And that's why God has allowed the world to become so sinful, so that people will long for His ways and the rest that only He can give!

The problem with the children of Israel was that they got to the edge of the promised land and stopped. They reached the edge of the promise land and they sent some spies over to check out the land and the spies came back with wonderful tales of beautiful homes and vineyards and crops and grapes the sizes of baseballs. But when the spies also mentioned that there was walled cities and giants in the land, the people began to doubt God and refused to enter into the place that God had prepared for them. They had reached the place of entering into their rest that God had given them, and yet because of unbelief they did not enter.

Let me mess up a good sermon by getting to the point right away. The promised land does not represent heaven. The Promised Land had giants in it and battles to fight against enemies. Heaven and the New Jerusalem will not have evil waiting for us. There will be no giants to overcome or walled cities to conquer. The Promised Land cannot representative of heaven. So when we talk about the rest that God can give, we are not talking about streets of gold and pearly gates. That place will be restful and peaceful, but that is not what is represented here by the promised land. We know that it represents something, though, because Paul told us that it was an example to us. So, what does the promised land of rest represent?

The answer may surprise you. The prophet Isaiah foretold of the rest that God had for His people in Isaiah chapter 28:

Isaiah said that the real rest from God was coming and it would come with God "speaking to the people with stammering lips and another tongue." That's how you would identify the rest and the refreshing place that God had for His people. It is no coincidence that Jesus Christ commanded His disciples to go no further in their life until they had received the Holy Ghost. He told them to go wait in Jerusalem until they received this Holy power from on high. In John 14, Jesus told them that He had been with them, but that He was going to be IN THEM when they received this Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is nothing more or less than receiving Jesus Christ into your life in Spirit form! And so in Acts chapter 2, we find the disciples obeying His commandments and there are about 120 people praying for this precious Holy Spirit to fall. The scriptures say:

When they received the Holy Ghost as Jesus had commanded, something interesting happened to let them know that they had received it: they began to "speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." In other words, the moment that they received the Holy Ghost, God changed their language of praise from their normal language and instantly caused them to speak in another language that they had never learned. They did not know what they were saying, because they were not creating the words with their mind: The Spirit was speaking through them in another language! Why did God choose something as strange as "speaking in other tongues" to accompany receiving the Holy Ghost? Because He was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah about the rest! Receiving the Holy Ghost was the rest that God had promised! The speaking in other tongues was the sign that He chose to show that they had entered into that rest. And receiving the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit changes your language was not just for the disciples and not just for that one day. In Acts chapter 8, the Samaritans received the same gift. In Acts chapter 10, non Jewish people -- Gentiles like you and I-- received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. In Acts chapter 19 believers who had never heard of the Holy Ghost received the same precious gift with the same sign. The rest of God was being poured out in great measure!

So the promised land represents the rest of the Holy Ghost! I want you to notice the similarities between Moses leading the children of God to the edge of the promised land and the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 where the Holy Ghost was poured out. Moses led them to the edge of the promised land, but then the people had to decide whether or not they believed God enough to enter into that rest after they heard the report of 12 men. After the Holy Ghost was poured out, the people of Israel, God's chosen people, began to hear about these crazy people who were speaking in tongues and acting like they were drunk and a crowd began to form. When the people heard the sermon of Peter and saw the report of the 120 people who had just come from the promised place, they had to choose whether to believe and enter into that rest or to doubt God and walk away from that rest. The people in Moses' day chose unbelief, but the people on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 chose to believe Peter's message:

When they responded in faith, God filled them with the same Holy Ghost as the others had received! They had received the real promised land! They had entered into the rest of God which is the infilling of the Holy Ghost! If you have never experienced the infilling of the Holy Ghost, then you are missing out on the most powerful experience that you ever received! God did not just give His rest to a select few, but Peter said in verse 39, that the promise of the Holy Ghost, this spiritual promised land, was available for the everyone that was listening to him then, to their children and grandchildren and on down, even all that God would call! God is still calling men today to a closer walk with Him! God is still calling men to repentance! That means that you can receive this rest today! You can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! You can enter into the promised land that God has for you! But you must believe that God can do it for you! You cannot view it through disbelief like the children of Israel did! There is still a rest available today.

Some people try to discount receiving the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues because it does not fit "their opinion" or tradition. They like to quote the scripture in I Corinthians chapter 13 that says one day that tongues will cease. And that is true. There is coming a day when the door will close to be able to enter into this rest of the Holy Ghost and receiving it with the evidence of speaking with other tongues will cease to happen. But that same verse that they misquote says that knowledge will also cease in that day and that prophecies will all be fulfilled. But I'm here today to tell you that knowledge is still increasing on the earth and we are smarter than we ever have been before. When you sit down and look at the latest greatest computer on your desk, that is proof to you that knowledge is increasing and that means that God is still pouring out the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. There are still prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. Jesus Christ has not yet come back. That means that God is still filling people with the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Don't stay in the wilderness, enter into that place of rest! It's a promised place to you as long as God is calling and drawing men closer to Him!

There are three types of faith. The children of Israel had two of the three. The one that they were lacking is the one that caused them to not enter into the rest that God had for them. You need all three in order to enter into that rest. The scripture tells us that the Holy Ghost is a promise to those who will Repent of their sins, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Sometimes God responds to people's faith and gives people the Holy Ghost before they are baptized in water, but they still must be baptized in Jesus' name. It happened like that in Acts chapter 10. The point is that if you have truly repented of your sins and you have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, then God has promised you the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you have not yet received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and you have done everything that you are supposed to do, then it is probably because you are lacking in one of the three areas of faith:

Faith of Anticipation - You believe in a future prophesied event. For example, I believe that Jesus Christ will come back one day. I believe it with all of my heart. That is Faith of Anticipation. I live for Him because I believe that He is coming back. Most people do not have any problem with this type of faith, because it really doesn't change anything. No matter how hard I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back, it doesn't make Him come back any sooner! The children of Israel who were standing on the edge of the promised land of rest didn't have a problem with faith of anticipation. They believed that one day a Messiah would come and they believed it with all of their heart.

Faith of the Past - You believe that God did what He said He did in the past. For example, you believe that God really did save Daniel from the Lion's Den. You believe that Jesus Christ was really resurrected from the dead. You believe that everything happened in the Bible like it is recorded. Faith of the Past is very important and sometimes people refuse to believe in the validity of God's Word. That makes it impossible to receive the Holy Ghost, because you cannot separate God from His Word, and to doubt His Word is to doubt Him! The children of Israel did not fail to enter into the promised place of rest because of a lack of Faith of the Past, however, because they believed that it had been God who delivered them from the Egyptian army. They believed that God had given them His Law and caused Mount Sinai to shake and tremble. The children of Israel had a lack of the third kind of faith and it's the most common problem when people have not received the rest of the Holy Ghost:

Right-now faith - You believe that God will do for you what He has promised right now, in your life, for you, today in this service. The children of Israel did not enter into the promised place because they lacked "right now faith." They allowed giants to intimidate them from getting everything that God had for them.

I'm preaching to people today who believe that God did mighty things and even poured out the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues in the past! And you even believe that He will do mighty things and is coming back in the future. But do you have "right now faith!" If God did it back then and He has promised it to you today, then He CAN fill you with the Holy Ghost today. But it depends upon whether or not you have "right now faith." If you will come to Him with faith believing and refuse to allow the giants of tradition, or intimidation, or shyness, or your past to rise up and cause doubt, you can receive the rest that God has for you even today! God will fill you with the Holy Ghost, if you will repent of your sins and yield to Him in praise! But you must cast doubt from your mind. Doubt is exactly what kept the children of Israel out of the land of rest. But be like the thousands who heard Peter's message on the Day of Pentecost! They responded with faith and God filled them with the Holy Ghost! Why try to trust your own rest!? Why keep depending upon your own way!? You can have the rest of God today! You can enter into that promised place! You can receive the Holy Ghost today!

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When you read the book of Hebrews, you are reading a book written to Jewish Christians who were torn between Moses' law and the Early Church that Jesus Christ had come to establish. We read our text out of the fourth chapter of Hebrews where the writer is addressing Jewish people who were saying "we live in the promised land that God gave the Jewish people, therefore we do not need to receive the Holy Ghost." They did not understand that the promised land was representative of the Holy Ghost. God allowed the children of Israel to enter into that land to teach them about the Holy Ghost that was to come. They thought that because they lived in the land of Israel that they had received that rest, but the writer punched holes in their excuse by saying, if the promised land of Israel was all that God was talking about, the why did God prophesy of a rest to come!? Why did Isaiah, who also lived in the literal land of Israel, prophesy of a rest that was coming from God where He would speak to the people with another tongue!? The writer continued in our text:

In other words, there is still a rest beyond just living in the literal land of Israel. And then the writer makes these statements:

We must guard ourselves that we do not fall into the same trap that Israel did and say "well I don't know if God can do that for us today." There's a world today that does not teach the infilling of the Holy Ghost because they don't believe that God can really fill people with the Holy Ghost and cause them to speak with other tongues as the fulfillment of that rest, but I'm here today to tell you that spiritual rest is not obtained from living in a particular place or location! Just living in such and such land, or just coming to church does not mean that you have entered into the rest of God! If you have never received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance, then you have not truly experienced the rest that God has for you! God has a rest and a peace that passeth all understanding. The Holy Ghost can make the difference where religion and tradition cannot! It will change your life! Don't doubt God's Word today! He can fill you today! He can perform your miracle today! He can heal you today in this service! It has nothing with being in a particular location. You don't need to travel to some statue that man has set up and pray in order to receive healing. You need to have faith. God is here right now to do a mighty work, but do you believe that He can do it for you!? Do you have "right-now faith!?"

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I wish to finish this sermon with this. I am also preaching to some people here today that have received the Holy Ghost and yet you still need the rest of God. You have received rest from worrying about your sins and your past, but there are other areas of your life that are still in turmoil. I want you to listen to me today. Remember that the promised land represents and teaches us lessons about the workings of the Holy Ghost.

Moses didn't lead children of Israel into the promised land because of their unbelief. Moses died and Joshua assumed command. Under Joshua's leadership and direction, the children of God entered into the promised place. God miraculously parted the Jordan River for them to march across. Then God gave them instructions to attack the largest and most fortified city in the land, Jericho. They marched around it silently for seven days. On the seventh day, they praised God with all their might, and the great walls fell down! Even to this day, there is tremendous power in praise and worship. I've never seen anyone able to enter into the rest of receiving the Holy Ghost without first worshipping God with everything that they have. When you worship God, walls fall down! When you praise Him with everything in you, barriers between you and Him drop. There is not a situation that you cannot get the victory over in Jesus Christ, but you will only get it through worshiping God with everything in you!

The point is that God directed and helped them to take the largest enemy strongholds. And then the great miracles seemed to stop. In our other text in Joshua chapter 18 we find that after they had entered into the Promised Land, that there were still seven tribes who were still camping together and living as if they were in the wilderness and who had not received everything that God wanted to give them because they were waiting on God to kill the small pockets of resistance in their inheritances. So Joshua called them altogether:

They met in a place named "Shiloh." Do you know what "Shiloh" means? It means "rest!" And there in the place of rest, Joshua asked them: "how long are you going to wait before you get what God has already promised that He would give you!?" And then Joshua commanded that three men be taken from each of the seven tribes and they were to go mark out the boundary of the land that God had given them and they were to come back with a report to Joshua, and then take the land and themselves get rid of the few small enemies that were still there.

God has already fought and won the big battles for us! He has already conquered the greatest strongholds of fear and evil. When He went to Calvary, He conquered Satan and the power of sin. When He rose again from the dead, He conquered death, hell, and the grave! When you Repent of your sins, and are baptized in Jesus name for the remission of sins, and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, you are reaping the benefits of Jesus' great victory over these things! When you are baptized in Jesus' name and have had His blood applied to your life, you do not have to fear Satan or your sinful past! Jesus has conquered them for you and applied that victory to your life by you obeying His Word! Just as God fought the victory against Jericho for Israel when they obeyed His command, so does God forgive us and wash our sins away when we obey the commands of His Word to Repent and get Baptized in His name! Then when you receive the Holy Ghost, you have entered into that place of rest. But there are still going to be areas of your life that you need to get the enemy out of! You may have entered into the rest of your salvation from sin and hell, but perhaps, you need that same rest applied to your family or marriage! Perhaps you've got a situation that you need the Holy Ghost to bring peace into! The Holy Ghost is not just a one time experience! But hear the message of Joshua: you define how far you go into what God has given you! You mark your own territory in the Holy Ghost. I've known some people to enter into the place of rest after receiving the Holy Ghost but refuse to press further and allow the rest of the Holy Ghost to enter more than just their salvation.

Get beyond your normal barriers! How long will you sit there full of the power and spirit of God and yet allow pride or prejudice or the past to rob you of a healthy life, a joyful attitude, and a rest in every area that you need! The Holy Ghost wants to touch every situation in your life, not just the salvational area! God can help every area of your life! God can heal anything! But you must be willing to get beyond just entering into that place of rest, and must be willing to explore the limits that God has for you!

There are people in here that God has called to be used in the Gift of the Spirit. There are people in here that God wants to anoint mightily to win others to God and pray others through to the Holy Ghost! There are people here today that God is calling to become prayer warriors who fight from their knees and their closets. There are people whom God is calling to do mighty things! But He is waiting on you to act and press toward the place that He has called you to do! He is not going to remove every single doubt and every obstacle for you. He has given you victory over the large strongholds of the enemy. It is up to you to define your limits in God! He will bless you as much as you want to be blessed! He will give you as much as you are willing to take!

Whether you need to receive the Holy Ghost and enter into the rest, or whether or not you need to move further into that rest today, I have preached to you! The Holy Ghost can empower you to receive what you need to receive! The question is really up to you. God said that He would do it. Do you believe that God can really do it right now!? For those of you who do, there is still a rest available.