When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, His enemy becomes your enemy, Your enemy wants to destroy you, destroy your testimony, steal your inheritance and take others down with you.

Your inheritance has both future and present components.

This is how Peter describes your future inheritance- I Peter 1:³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴ To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

⁵ Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Your inheritance is incorruptible: i.e. it cannot be perverted, dissolved or decayed

Your inheritance is undefiled; i.e. cannot be made dirty

Your inheritance fades not away; i e. cannot become dim, lose freshness, strength or health

Your inheritance is reserved for you in Heaven; i.e. set apart particularly for you and kept by special arrangement for you

In this series we will examine the present components of your inheritance, which your enemy seeks to steal.  The first present component we will examine is ‘rest’.

What is rest?

Cessation from action, motion, labor, or exertion

Freedom from that which wearies or disturbs

Fixed and settled, freed from the uncertainty of hoping somehow and somewhere to discover truth, peace, happiness, and eternal life.

Being confident and trustful

Hebrews 4:⁹ There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

¹⁰ For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Paul compares Christians to the Israelites set free from Egypt in Hebrews 4:¹ 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.

² 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.

³ For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴ For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

⁵ And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

⁶ Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

⁷ Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

Why can you rest?

1) You can rest because Jesus Christ accomplished it all! The final words of Jesus Christ as He took the penalty and punishment for your sins and for my sins –John 19:²⁸ After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

²⁹ Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

³⁰ When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Because the price has been paid, there is nothing you need do to add to what Jesus paid and there is nothing you could ever do to take away from what Jesus paid. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you can fully rest in His finished work for you!

2) You can rest because Jesus Christ owns the rest

³ For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

ownership = legal right of possession

What does Jesus Christ taking ownership of the rest mean to you?

3) You can rest because there is no condemnation-Romans 8:¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

³ For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

⁴ That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

⁵ For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

⁶ For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

⁸ So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

¹⁰ And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

¹¹ But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Remember your enemy wants to steal your inheritance – Revelation 12:⁷ And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

⁸ And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

⁹ And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

What does it mean to you to have no condemnation?

4) You can rest because your High Priest has entered into His rest-Hebrews 4:

¹⁴ 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 profession.

¹⁵ For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

What does it mean to you to have your High Priest already entered into His rest?

5) You can rest because your rest remains without end!- Hebrews 4:⁹ There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

¹⁰ For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

How do you enter into His rest?

The only “labor” you need is to keep believing that Jesus paid it all so you don’t fall as the Israelites did in the wilderness.

³ For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

What does ‘the works were finished before the foundation of the world’ mean to you?

Is there nothing you and I need do? Labor to keep on believing

¹¹ Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

¹² 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.

¹³ 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.

How can you labor? Make time to read His Word and meditate on it; pray

What do these verses recorded by King David mean to you?-Psalm 95:¹ O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

² Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

³ For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

⁴ In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

⁵ The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

⁷ For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

⁸ Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

⁹ When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

¹⁰ Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

¹¹ Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Jesus paid it all –Elvena Hall, 1865

I hear the Savior say, “Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all.”

Refrain:
Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him, My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side, I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots And melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,” Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down, All down at Jesus’ feet.

Questions for reflection

1) Are you living with your inheritance of rest or are you still working for something He already provides?

2) Do you fully accept the penalty for all your sins has been paid in full?

Note: I spent several years not enjoying the rest Jesus gave to me. I did not realize that Jesus Christ knew at the time He saved me all the sins I had committed and would commit. I thought His forgiveness was for the past. So every time I sinned after I was saved, I thought Jesus Christ was disappointed in me. I learned that Jesus Christ is all knowing and has made a way for us when we sin after we are saved. His forgiveness at the time of salvation is for all your sins; i. e. past, present and the future! Here is His answer in 1 John 1:⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

3) Is there some area of your life where you are still working to gain His favor? Why?

4) What does ‘fully resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ’ look like?

5) Why did Jesus say “It is finished”?

6) How can you claim your inheritance of rest every moment?

7) What are some practical ways to hold onto your rest when people criticize you?

8) Is there some aspect in which you struggle for acceptance and forgiveness? How can Jesus Christ, your High priest help?

9) What does it mean to you to cease from your own works?

Our focus – Hebrews 12:¹ Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our challenge – Dearly Beloved,

Run with your eyes on Jesus alone!

Run in faith that Jesus loves you, has uniquely designed and created only one you, has a good plan for your life, runs with you and will accomplish His purposes for you and through you!

Run in His strength alone!

Run with your eyes on the prize!

Run with the desire to finish strong!

Run with the desire to finish with your lamp burning!

Run with the expectation of being in His physical presence when you cross your finish line!

Run to His glory alone!

Run and keep on running!

Coach Patti