Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 437 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Thomas: I know this--out of all the things in the world that we need and that we, as human beings want, it's rest. People are searching for it. They go everywhere in the world. They've substituted pleasure for rest. They've substituted wealth for rest. They've substituted psychology for rest. They've substituted just about everything you can think of.

-- Brother Jimmy Robbins: False religion.

-- Brother Thomas: That's right. Much of it is the fact that they're seeking something they don't have. It's a miracle of God if God brings you to His rest.

( congregational amens ).

I mean a miracle. It's a real miracle because nothing else in the world could give it to you. Nothing. It's the greatest thing I know of this side of eternity. It's the difference in having Christ and not having Him. I remember my wife-neither one of us was saved. I didn't have any kind of religion. I wasn't what you'd call a real bad person, but I wasn't saved. And here's why. I had never come to this rest. I didn't know what it was. I had never come to this rest.

My wife, she was raised a Mormon. If anybody hears this, now don't be offended because I don't want to offend people. I think everybody that has religion and it's become a substitute for salvation, -- and I'd say most of it is. That means Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, just about anything you would name, people are just that because that's all they are. They were taught that as children. They've never come to that rest.

Nobody can give you this rest but God. You can't get it-nobody can get it for you. It's for you, but you have to lay your life down to get it. Give your life up. This is something that this old man--I'm talking about the flesh-man now. I'm talking about this man that you live in here. This fellow that you are--you call yourself--he fights it every step of the way. He don't want you to, because it's the difference between life and death. You pass this encounter, there's life over here. Over here, it's death. And every one of us, without Christ, we're in this category of unbelief--death it is.

And strangely enough, many people join some kind of a church or something that offers them and tells them that if they will do this they'll get what they need. Now, this is no condemnation of any kind of a lodge or anything that people have embraced, but you take the Masons. I've had Masons tell me that if a person joins the Masons-some of you may be Masons and I'm not condemning you if you are-but it'll take you straight to salvation, but that's not so. I'll tell you any substitute for Christ is a lie.

( congregational amens ).

There is no substitute. He's the Way, He's the Truth and He's the Life, and no man comes unto the Father but by Him. That's the only way. Out of all the things you might join and become a faithful member and reap great rewards, there's nothing that will give you salvation if you by-pass Christ. He's our salvation.

( congregational amens ).

Hallelujah! He's the Way, He's the Truth, He's the Life. The Father knows whenever you lay down your arms. He knows. Old Brother Rhodes used to use this expression. He said when you throw your shotgun down. That means there's no more fighting. When it comes to Christ, He becomes your Lord. He's the Lord and God of your life. Hallelujah! After all, He is the God of this world. And I don't mean the devil. Some people call him the god of this world, but Jesus Christ is God. He's the Son of God. Hallelujah! And there is no other way under heaven, under the sun, that you can find life outside of Him.

( congregational amens ).

I'm just scattering around here. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers," that's you and me, "of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren," that's us, "that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." In other words He went through what He went through that He might be a faithful high priest--that's Jesus. This is what He's talking about.

Verse seven, "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways." God is not pleased with a people who just go to church.

( congregational amens ).

That's not what He wants out of you. He wants you to become a disciple. The word disciple means a learner, for you begin to learn the ways of God. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

"While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

Now, let's come on down to the fourth chapter. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a 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," now listen to this, "Do enter into rest."

This is what we're talking about. When you believe, you immediately move from the place of unrest to rest. What you do is come to the very end of yourself. You turn your hope of salvation, you turn your concern, your anxiety, your fear, you turn it all over to Him. You don't worry about it anymore. You place it in His hands. You don't do like the fellow that brought his burden up there and laid it down, then picked it up and walked off with it. You lay it down and you leave it. It's His problem, not yours anymore.

( congregational amens ).

There's several reasons you can do that. First of all, Jesus was tempted in all manner like as we are, yet without sin. That word tempted does not always mean what we translate it to mean, but it means tried sometimes--tried. We are tried. So sometimes when these temptations come, they are trials. God permits them. It's not to destroy you, but it's to help you.

And, it's not easy to overcome these temptations. We're all made out of the same kind of flesh. And, all flesh is exactly the same. Sometimes whenever you have these trials, you need to realize that God is permitting you to be tried. That's why trials by Peter was referred to as being more precious than gold, though it be tried by fire. They are. None of us are excluded from being tried.

That's why He says here, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." Then He speaks of those who came out of Egypt. He said it wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard it. Did you know that most of the people who came out of Egypt's bondage, most of them never entered in. Very few of them entered in.

You say well, what about today? I believe it's exactly the same. I believe that's a type that's exactly like we have to put up with today. I believe that out of all the multitudes of people who join churches, that includes all of them -- when I say churches, I mean every one of them that claims to be a church, a place where people are supposed to find out about God. I believe that most of the people who join those churches, or embrace what they call the faith, I don't believe they've come to the Lord. They're still lost. They're still lost.

And, they will remain lost, until they personally--nobody can do this for you. This is something you have to do. There's nothing anybody can do for you when it comes to salvation. The Lord died. He shed His blood. They stretched Him out on that cross, put nails in His palms and in His feet, and He hung there between heaven and earth.

One time He cried, I thirst and they brought a sponge and dipped it in some vinegar and put it up to His lips. He turned His head away from it. He suffered. He had to pay your sin debt. Nobody else could. Every other person in this world was a sinner. No sinner could do it.

But He--the Lamb of God--He was the spotless Lamb of God. He died and paid your sin debt. He never committed adultery. He never lied. He never did an evil thing in His life. That's what He came for, to go to that cross. That was the thing that He came to do. The other things that He did were more or less incidental. But when He died on that cross, He defeated the devil.

( congregational amens ).

He broke his back. And every person that comes to Him, the great God of the universe, the God who made the universe -- just think about it, we call Him the great God of the universe. He's greater than the God of the universe, our God is. You say, "Why?" Well, because He holds it in His hands.

That God knows it the instant you put your trust in what Christ did on that cross for you. The instant you capitulate, surrender, and say "Lord, I'm Yours," He saves you, with faults and everything else. He don't ask you to get good to be saved. If He did, none of us could be saved. He don't ask you to do a thing, just trust in Him. Trust Him! What He did, He paid for your sin debt.

( congregational amens ).

And when you do that, He saves you. He comes into this heart. He indwells you. That's the greatest thing that can happen to you. I never will forget whenever the Lord saved me. Something had happened to me. I didn't know what exactly, I couldn't quite describe it, but I felt like a little baby. I know this. I went home and I remember the next meal I was eating. I was trying to eat but tears were running down both cheeks and dropping in my plate. Something had happened to me. I'll tell you, He was working me over. It was the most tremendous thing.

Who is that little girl there beside of you?

( laughter ).

I thought it was. Well, good.

That was something. I couldn't think of the Lord without weeping. I just couldn't. He had done something for me and it was still working. Hallelujah! I believe when God saves you, He's gonna make a new creature out of you. That's why Paul says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." That's what that really says instead of just creature. He's a new creation! You are part of the same creation that God has when He makes a new earth, new heavens. You're part of that. Did you ever hear of any of that ever being undone?

-- Congregation: No Sir.

-- Brother Thomas: That's right. And there won't be one single one of you undone. Hallelujah.

( congregational praise ).

The God that I'm talking about is a faithful God. The Bible says, "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." And that's true, and God will not fail. Not one soul, not one will put his or her trust in Him that will fail. Everybody knocks a homerun. He saves us.

And not only does He save us, but He keeps us. He keeps that which He saves. He's got a place for you already up there. He's got a place up there waiting on you. You know why? He says, if I go away, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself." And He's gone to prepare a place for us. I don't know what He has, but I know this, it'll be greater, it'll be more beautiful, more lasting, more secure than anything you have ever encountered. I cannot begin to tell you how great and how wonderful it's going to be. But I know this, God is going bless us with blessings that we could not even visualize.

( congregational amens ).

I'm glad today that I'm going. If He was to come today, I'd be ready. I wouldn't be ready because I've earned it either. Nobody can earn this salvation. You have to just accept it by faith. You say, well what is that? It's not feeling, it's faith. That's it. I'm going to give an invitation this morning. I feel like somebody here needs to walk the aisle. They need to surrender their life. You need to surrender to Christ. You need to let it be known openly that you want this Christ, you want this salvation. Let's stand and men, get your music here. Don't forget now, this is an opportunity that you have.

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