INS:Rest unto the recreation unto self?

   "THERE REMAINS, THEN, A SABBATH-REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD;"
-HEBREWS 4:9

   Do you or your church have any idea what this passage of scripture
means? After all look at the eating, drinking, buying, selling and
playing that takes place on the Christian "Sabbath- rest". Recreation
is not the rest of the Lord.

   Our "Sabbath-rest" day of Sunday, should be one of quietness, deep
worship and soul searching. It should not be a day filled with play
activity, buying and selling, or getting those needed jobs done around
the house. It should be a time of waiting on God.

   "THERE REMAINS, THEN, A SABBATH-REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD; FOR
ANYONE WHO ENTERS GOD'S REST ALSO RESTS FROM HIS OWN WORK, JUST AS GOD
DID FROM HIS." -HEBREWS 4:9-10

   This is true godliness. To rest from our work. After all scripture
tells us to, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved
children...", {Ephesians 5:1}. So rest from your working and your
doing. Let your church find out how to please the Lord on our
Sabbath-rest. Stop shopping and playing on Sunday and learn how to rest
before a Holy God.

   Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you thieves in the Lord,

   "THIS IS WHAT THE SOVEREIGN LORD, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, SAYS: 'IN
REPENTANCE AND REST IS YOUR SALVATION, IN QUIETNESS AND TRUST IS YOUR
STRENGTH, BUT YOU WOULD HAVE NONE OF IT." -ISAIAH 30:15

   REST OR RECREATION

   "SEED THAT FELL AMONG THORNS STANDS FOR THOSE WHO HEAR, BUT AS THEY
GO ON THEIR WAY THEY ARE CHOKED OUT BY LIFE'S WORRIES, RICHES AND
PLEASURES, AND THEY DO NOT MATURE." -LUKE 8:14

   The thorns, of course, are the churches that do not teach the need
to keep the Sabbath rest of God. The ones that are choked out are of
course those who do not pick up a daily cross but love the "worries",
"riches" and "pleasures" of this world. They love recreation and not
the rest that is in God. They love the church baseball teams, ski
trips, shopping and folly of this world. Such people and churches will
come to rest in the company of the damned.

   "HER PRIESTS {Preachers} DO VIOLENCE TO MY LAW AND PROFANE MY HOLY
THINGS; THEY DO NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE HOLY AND THE COMMON; THEY
TEACH THAT THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CLEAN AND THE UNCLEAN;
AND THEY SHUT THEIR EYES TO THE KEEPING OF MY SABBATHS, SO THAT I AM
PROFANED AMONG THEM." -EZEKIEL 22:26

   God is calling you to a rest on His Sunday. It should be a time in
which we rest only in God. Are you listening to the Holy Spirit? If you
were, you would not have come out to the EXPO '87 on Sunday. God called
His people in the past to a Holy Rest as an example for us to follow,
{1 Corinthians 10:11}. But they would not listen, no more than we seem
to be listening to the Holy Spirit today.

   "...TO WHOM HE SAID, 'THIS IS THE RESTING PLACE LET THE WEARY REST'
AND , 'THIS IS THE PLACE OF REPOSE'--BUT THEY WOULD NOT LISTEN." -1
SAMUEL 28:12

   It is time we begin to follow Jesus and find our rest in Him. And in
Him alone! Let Jesus fulfill Psalm 23:2 in your life so that you will
not sin against Him. "He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my
soul."

   GOD ALONE

   Part of carrying our daily crosses is to deny ourselves activity on
the Sabbath-rest day.

   "IT IS A SABBATH OR REST, AND YOU MUST DENY YOURSELVES; IT IS A
LASTING ORDINANCE." -LEVITICUS 16:31

   It must not be the slothfulness of the world, but a finding of rest
only in the Spirit of the living God, {Proverbs 24:33-34}. For those
churches and individuals who know the power of the cross and how to
enter the rest of God they will be blessed by the living God. However,
is God your only joy? Your first love? Have you denied your flesh the
pleasures of this world?

   "MY SOUL FINDS REST IN GOD ALONE; MY SALVATION COMES FROM HIM. HE
ALONE IS MY ROCK AND MY SALVATION; HE IS MY FORTRESS, I WILL NEVER BE
SHAKEN." -PSALM 62:1

   Only those who know how to enter the rest of God dare take this
promise on their lips! The rest are thieves and liars - worthy of hell
and all it's fire! One must weep, for most so-called Christians are
really worshippers of pleasure and self. It is the last days,

   "But mark this there will be terrible times in the last days. People
will be lovers of themselves...lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God..."

   Turn off that football game on Sunday and find your rest in "God
alone". Otherwise do not profess to be a Christian. You have no right
to. For if you do not keep it you are a fallen Christian.

   "Therefore, since the promise of entering still stands, let us be
careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it...for
anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God
did from his. Let us therefore, make every effort to enter that rest,
so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience."
{Hebrews 4}

   If you're a Christian businessman, be sure your business is closed
on Sunday. Families be sure you're leading your household all day long
into a Sabbath type rest. Don't you dare go skiing on Sunday. Get
before the Lord and be really blessed.

   SOUND DOCTRINE BBS