It's going back 40 years ago in India
and the Lord saved me.
I surrendered myself totally.
It wasn't a two-stage affair where I
first accepted him as saviour to escape hell
and then years later made him Lord.
It was total right from the beginning.
I was about 19 or 20 years old,
19 and a half.
And immediately, I had great ambitions in the
Navy, but immediately I said, Lord, I'm willing
to give up my job.
I'm willing to quit to serve you anytime,
but I want you to call me.
When you do, I'll quit.
I'm ready right now.
And five years after I was saved in
1964, on the 6th of May, 1964, God
called me very clearly to quit my job.
And my desire was to be an evangelist.
I wanted to go to some place where
the gospel had never been preached in India,
in the North.
And the years during that time when I
was in the Navy, I was, after I
was converted, one of the first things, I
took baptism and then one of the first
things I began to do was study God's
Word intensely.
Every spare moment I used to carry a
New Testament with me if I was standing
in a bus stop or sitting somewhere.
Study it, study it, study it, study it
right through.
And the second thing I began to pray
for earnestly was that I would be filled
or baptised to the Holy Spirit.
Because I knew that it's not just the
knowledge of the Word, I need power, power
to serve God.
I knew the secret was this, if I
was really going to live for God, I
needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit
and I needed to know God's Word.
The Navy didn't accept my resignation because you're
supposed to serve for, you know, I'd gone
through all the four and a half years
of military academy training and they spent a
lot of money on these cadets and they
don't expect you to quit.
We had to serve for a minimum of
20 years.
And by that time, I had served just
for five.
So they just turned on my, you see,
I just said in my resignation, Jesus Christ
has called me to serve and I don't
desire to serve my country anymore.
And that didn't make sense to the naval
headquarters in Delhi.
So they said nothing doing.
Well, so I spent my time preaching in
the streets in the city where the naval
base was located twice a week.
We used to work full day on all
days of the week.
It said Wednesday and Saturday were half days.
So Wednesday and Saturday, I would fast and
after our half day of work was over,
spend two, three hours in prayer with another
brother.
And every evening at four o'clock prayer
time, prayer was over.
I'd go out to the streets with just
one other brother.
Two of us would stand and preach the
gospel, sell gospels on the streets.
Many, I think I covered every street in
the town of Arunachalam where my naval base
was located.
Rain or sun, we'd go out.
And I spent a whole year like that.
And in the local church, I would share
what God had begun to teach me from
his word.
And over a period of time, you know,
it became clear to me that God hadn't
given me the gift of being an evangelist.
I didn't see souls being saved like other
people.
I had a desire.
I did everything possible.
And I said, Lord, I'll never do what
you don't gift me to do.
God kept me for too long.
Again, I applied for my release two or
three times.
And finally, in the sovereignty of God, I
think as far as I know, I was
the only naval officer in the Indian Navy
ever to be released without completing 20 years
of service.
It was just like Israelites coming out of
Egypt.
When I was finally released two years after
God called me in 66, I was convinced
that God had called me.
It was confirmation to me because I was
in an assembly where nobody supported my call.
They thought I should stay on in the
Navy and be a Christian there.
I was willing if that was what God
wanted me to do.
But I learned something there at that time,
that an obstacle in the way is not
a signal to retreat, a challenge to our
faith.
I was terribly discouraged when the naval headquarters
refused to release me.
I thought, how is that possible?
I mean, Almighty God called me and who
are these people to say no?
All the other believers, every single one of
them without exception, my local assembly said, see,
this is the proof that God doesn't want
you to leave.
God guides us by circumstances.
And here is a clear indication that you're
mistaken.
You were sincere.
You desired to serve the Lord, but you
were mistaken.
And it's very difficult when I was, 24
years old.
I'd just been born again for five years.
And here were all these much older believers,
elders in the church saying all that.
It wasn't easy to say, you fellows are
all wrong.
I was confused.
Well, I used to get along in my
room and say, Lord, if I'm wrong, just
show it to me.
I'll say I was wrong.
Maybe it wasn't a call from God at
all.
I began to see God, Lord, what do
you want me to do?
And it was a word that the Lord
spoke to my heart.
What did Moses do when Pharaoh said no?
Did he doubt whether God had spoken to
him?
That was my answer.
And you see, everybody in Israel doubted Moses.
This can't be God.
But Moses knew and he went back.
That was my answer.
And that's the time when I began to
learn that for every problem any man in
any country, in any century ever faces in
his life, there is an answer in Scripture,
if you know where to find it.
But if in that time of pressure and
crisis, you don't know the Scriptures, then of
course you don't know the answer to every
temptation that came to Jesus.
You remember Jesus said, yeah, but it's written
this, so I'm not going to do it.
And even when the devil quoted Scripture to
him, he said, but it's also written.
So I see from Jesus' example that here
was a trial and there was an answer
in Scripture.
Then there was another trial, there was an
answer in Scripture.
And then there was another trial, there was
an answer in Scripture, which teaches me that
for all of my life and everything I
face, there's an answer in Scripture if I
know where to find it.
And Jesus knew because he spent years meditating
and he didn't even have a Bible at
home.
He listened carefully in the synagogue when the
Scriptures were read.
He knew it so thoroughly by the age
of 12.
There's a secret, there's an answer in the
Scriptures to every problem we can ever face,
whatever it is.
As I said, I mean, I wanted to
go to Rajasthan or someplace like that.
And I was ready and when I quit
the Navy, I spent, again, weeks fasting, praying,
seeking God, Lord, what do you want me
to do?
God never opened the door for me.
I was ready to go anywhere, but he
never opened the door for me to be
an evangelist or a missionary as I wanted
to be in some part of India that
hadn't heard the Gospel.
I've never lost in my heart that burden.
I say, okay, if God didn't call me,
I can fellowship with other people who are
doing that work, which I wanted to do,
but I couldn't do.
Pray for them, encourage them.
I get different missionary magazines in my home
and read them, different groups working in different
parts of India.
And I realized that, you know, evangelism is
exciting to hear a report like that and
to see people healed, even buffaloes healed.
Wonderful.
A healing ministry is exciting.
A teaching ministry is not so exciting.
You don't have buffaloes healed or anything like
that.
It can be a bit drab.
You don't have statistics to report and things
like that.
But I've discovered one thing through the years.
In my younger days, it used to bring
me a lot of unrest.
What am I doing for the Lord?
I hear a whole lot of people that
need to be reached with the Gospel.
What am I doing?
And I've discovered something through the years that
you have to do that thing in the
body of Christ that God called you to
be.
I cannot do what I want to do.
I must be willing for anything.
God prepares me for something.
Now, if I'm unwilling to do something because
it's difficult or it involves a lot of
sacrifice, then it's a different thing altogether.
If I'm willing for anything and then God
doesn't give me what I want, then I
have to accept whatever God gives me.
And that's not second best.
That is the very best for me.
And in the body of Christ, this understanding
has really helped me never to be in
competition with any other believer.
I say that sincerely.
I cannot honestly think that I've even been
tempted to be jealous of another brother's ministry
or his success, even if he's far younger.
I've just wholeheartedly rejoiced because I've seen my
place in the body of Christ.
And I see all jealousy and competition, and
there's a lot of that, unfortunately, in Christ's
body.
It's because we're not secure in God and
the place he's called us to fulfill.
See, when we think of the different functions
of the body, there's no part that's competing
with another.
There's no part of this body that's jealous
of another.
The left hand is not jealous that the
right hand does all the signing checks and
important jobs like that.
It just rejoices.
Even though it knows it'll never sign one
check in all its life.
I can support another one who's doing a
job that I can never do.
And it's not inferior because of that.
It doesn't have to feel inferior.
You know, the moment you begin to feel
inferior, you're going to get into competition, one
day or the other.
You've got to recognize that there's no ministry
in the body of Christ that's inferior.
It's not just pulpit ministry that's important.
The Bible speaks about apostles in 1 Corinthians
12.
It speaks about helps.
Hardly anybody seeks for that gift.
There are different functions.
And one day when we stand in eternity,
we'll discover that just like in the human
body, a whole lot of small little things
fulfill a tremendous function.
You know, a small little vein or an
artery where it gets a little blocked, and
a man dies, got a heart attack.
If he'd lost his hand, he wouldn't have
died.
He could have still lived.
But this small, teeny weeny little blood vessel
got a block and he died.
That's how important that small little blood vessel
is in the body of Christ too.
Shouldn't have anything blocking the free flow of
the life of Jesus Christ.
It's very easy for us even in Christian
work to be at unrest.
Unrest.
For many years I was in Christian work
and I was in unrest.
I was in unrest because I wanted to
accomplish something.
I wanted to show that I was doing
something.
And as long as I was in that
desire to impress and to show and to
prove, and we are like that when we
are young, I was in unrest.
I came to rest when I didn't want
to impress anyone anymore.
I didn't want to show that I was
serving God.
I didn't want to show anybody anything.
Then I came to rest.
And then I understood why in the Old
Testament there was this tremendous importance given to
the Sabbath day.
We have our Seventh-day Adventist friends today
who believe that, some of them are real
believers, who believe that the important thing is
to keep that Sabbath, literally.
I disagree with that.
That's not what the Sabbath is meant for.
It was an Old Testament command which was
teaching a great New Testament truth.
Let me turn you to a verse here
in Exodus chapter 31 verse 12 to 17.
The Lord spoke to Moses, as for you
speak to the sons of Israel saying you
shall surely observe my Sabbaths for this is
a sign to me and you throughout your
generations you may know that I am the
Lord who sanctifies you.
And then the last part of verse 24
it says anyone who does any work on
the Sabbath day that person will be cut
off from among the people.
And the last part of verse 15, whoever
does any work on the Sabbath day will
be put to death.
Now you can understand a man being put
to death for murder or perhaps for rape,
but for not keeping the Sabbath, that's really
something.
And there's an instance in the last verses
of Numbers 15 where a man was put
to death just for picking up sticks on
the Sabbath day.
That's all he did.
He didn't light a fire or anything.
He just went out to collect some sticks.
And you read about that in the last
few verses of Numbers 15.
The man was put to death.
God was trying to impress upon those people
in the Old Testament.
You know like sacrifice for example.
Every day in the temple, in the tabernacle,
an animal was being killed.
Every single day, number of them.
And if you went around to that brazen
altar it was all splattered with blood, blood,
blood for 1500 years.
God drills something into their head.
You cannot approach me without sacrifice.
Without blood there is no remission of sins.
And it finally came to an end when
Jesus died.
And people understood this is it.
This is what it was all pointing towards.
The sacrifice of the cross, the blood Jesus
shed on the cross, which is the only
way any man can approach God.
Now it is the same with the Sabbath.
For 1500 years they had to shut down
their work on Friday sunset right up to
Saturday sunset.
They counted their days from the evening to
the morning.
And that was their Sabbath.
Everything was shut down.
I don't think we see it anywhere.
It is not even seen among the Seventy
Adventists.
There is nowhere the type of complete cessation
from work.
There must be something very, very important that
God was trying to stress.
Which I doubt whether even Christians, believers have
understood like they have understood what God was
trying to stress through the sacrifice of the
brazen altar every day.
I believe it is just as important.
Jesus said, come to me all you that
labor and are heavy laden and I will
bring you into this Sabbath.
That is the meaning of that verse.
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
Learn from me and you shall find that
Sabbath in your soul.
Well, I give you my testimony.
I was born again, baptized, baptized in the
Spirit.
I hadn't come to rest.
I was laboring.
I was heavy laden.
I was laboring to impress.
There was unrest.
And there was a verse of scripture that
was true of my condition in those days.
And that verse is in Hebrews chapter 4
and verse 9.
There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the
people of God.
This is not for unbelievers.
Matthew 11, 28, come to me all you
that labor and are heavy laden and I
will give you rest.
I always used to think it was for
unbelievers, but I found a lot more believers
who labor and are heavy laden and weary
who need to come to rest.
There remains a Sabbath rest for God's people.
I needed a Sabbath rest which I didn't
have.
God calls us to a life of rest
in him and from there to serve him.
And that's when I first saw in scripture
how when God created Adam his first day
was a day of rest.
Because Adam was created towards the end of
the sixth day.
That would be Friday afternoon.
And immediately after he was created and he
had his wife, when the day began in
the evening and the morning were the seventh
day, it was a day of rest.
His first day on earth was a day
of rest.
There remains that Sabbath rest for the people
of God.
It says God rested from his work.
Verse 4, Hebrews 4, somewhere it says, And
God rested on the seventh day from all
his works.
Verse 10, The one who has entered his
rest has also rested from his works as
God did from his.
Have you understood that verse?
What does that mean?
That the one who has entered his rest
has rested from his works as God did
from his.
It can mean many things.
You can find your application for it in
your own life.
What does it mean to rest from my
works?
I do something and I rest.
I'm not waiting to compare that with somebody
else's work.
I'm not waiting for somebody to appreciate it
or approve it.
Anything.
I've rested.
I've done it before God and I'm at
rest.
We can apply it like that.
We could apply it to resting from working
in my own strength without the power of
the Holy Spirit.
You know, like the disciples went out fishing
and they toiled all night.
That was their work.
Their work, work, work, work from six o
'clock in the evening till maybe five o
'clock next morning.
Caught nothing.
And they rested.
Said, Okay, we're finished.
We give up.
God says, Okay, now I'll fill your net.
They entered into rest.
See, that's the point at which God comes
to us.
When we're not out to impress anyone, we're
not out to compete with anyone.
We're not in unrest because I can't do
what somebody else does.
I used to be in unrest, you know.
I'd hear all these exciting stories out in
the mission field and I'd say, Oh, what
am I doing?
And I'd get into unrest.
And that didn't help what God wanted to
do through me.
So I said, Praise the Lord.
I'm so excited that that brother is doing
that.
But I'm not going to get in unrest.
I'm just going to rejoice with him.
I'm going to do my little part.
Maybe my part's not as exciting as his.
I want to do my little part for
the body of Christ, faithfully till the end
of my life.
You know, in Exodus chapter 20, we read
of the Ten Commandments.
And one of the commandments was about the
Sabbath.
And it's very interesting.
You have all these, thou shalt, thou shalt
not, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt
not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou
shalt not, thou shalt not.
This is the Ten Commandments.
That's all there is.
It's basically, this is what you must do.
This is what you mustn't do.
You must do this.
You shall do this.
You shall not do that.
You should not do.
It's very easy for our Christian life to
become like that.
For many Christians, for me anyway, it was
like that for many years.
I was supposed to do certain things.
I was supposed to read my Bible every
morning.
I was supposed to pray for a certain
time.
I was supposed to witness.
I was supposed to go for meetings on
Sunday.
It was a bunch of rules and regulations.
I was not supposed to watch movies.
I was not supposed to do this.
I was not supposed to do the other
thing and a whole lot of things.
And if I kept it all, I was
a good Christian.
Actually, I was just a good Pharisee.
That's all.
That's the result of keeping commandments.
Whether you keep these Ten Commandments or the
Ten Thousand Commandments we can have today in
Christendom.
And it always brings unrest.
It often leads to depression, discouragement, competition, jealousy.
There remains a Sabbath rest for the people
of God.
Exodus chapter 20.
Then the Lord gave another instruction.
It's very interesting.
It comes immediately after that.
Chapter 21.
He said, If you buy a Hebrew slave,
he serves you for six years.
In the seventh, he must go free.
That's a law.
And if he comes alone, he goes out
alone.
If he comes to the wife, he goes
to the wife.
But verse 5.
Now this is the important part.
If the slave plainly says, I love my
master, I will not go out free.
He is free.
He doesn't have to serve anymore.
He's been released from that bondage.
But he voluntarily chooses.
There's no thou shalt.
For six years, it was thou shalt.
You've been purchased.
You're a slave.
Thou shalt.
Thou shalt not.
Thou shalt.
Thou shalt not.
Thou shalt.
Thou shalt not.
He heard that for six years and he
had to do it.
He never got any salary.
He never got any benefits, no bonuses.
Nothing.
For six years.
And then the seventh was the Sabbath.
He was free.
The Sabbath brought freedom.
Jesus came to set us free.
Now he's completely free.
And he can go where he likes.
There's no thou shalt.
No thou shalt not.
You don't have to go and clean the
restrooms anymore.
You don't have to sweep the floor.
You don't have to go and cook the
food in the kitchen.
You can go free.
You can do completely.
Do whatever you like.
And he says, no, I'm not going to
go.
I love my master.
He's been so good to me.
I will not go out free.
And then his master will bring him to
God.
It says in verse six, my translation.
He'll bring him to the God, to the
judges who acted in God's name.
And bring him to the door.
Verse six.
And his master will pierce his ear with
an awl, indicating this ear is from now
on going to listen only to one master.
And he shall serve his master, not for
six years.
Not for 66 years.
Permanently.
Now this is different from the first six
years.
The first six years was thou shalt, thou
shalt not.
Don't do this.
And many times he must have wanted to
have a little freedom.
He couldn't.
Oh, I have to do this.
I'm a slave.
But now it is different.
Now his service was in an altogether different
basis.
I'm free.
I can go out if I want.
But I choose not to go.
This is the difference between the old covenant
and the new covenant.
Exodus 20 is the old covenant.
And Exodus 21 is the new covenant.
Isn't it interesting that the Lord put it
just next to each other for those who
want to see it.
This is what brings us to rest.
I love my master.
I will not go out free.
I don't have to serve.
There is no thou shalt in my life
anymore.
I have come to rest.
There is no thou shalt not see dirty
pictures or thou shalt not do this.
It's gone.
I've entered into rest.
Those were in the first six years.
I love my master.
There is no asking like Peter.
Oh Lord, do I have to alone have
to live this life of sacrifice where my
hands will be stretched out and somebody else
will take me where I don't want to
go?
And what about John?
Is he going to have a cushy life?
There are no more questions like that.
Why is he having it easy and why
am I going to have a tough life?
Those are all in those first six years
of thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt
not, whatever comparison.
Is my life more difficult and am I
getting as much as him?
All this is old covenant.
There remains a Sabbath rest for God's people.
Come to me all you who are weary
and weighed down with this yoke.
Take my yoke for it's easy.
It's love.
Love is, it can be there and the
sad thing is it can go.
It went in the case of the elder
in Ephesus.
We read the Lord told him, you've left
your first love.
It's gone.
And when love goes, you're back under the
old covenant again.
You're back under rules and regulations and unrest
and competition and jealousy and comparison and all
the wretched things that there were.
Jesus never expected us to live by the
old covenant.
The old covenant was only there to show
how man should not live, how he cannot
live.
You cannot live like this.
The old custom and the law was, you
read that in Deuteronomy 28 especially.
If you do this, I'll bless you here,
here I'll bless you.
I'll give you prosperous.
I'll give you many children.
I'll bless your cattle, your business, everything.
And if you don't do this, you're going
to get sickness and madness and blindness and
your children will suffer.
And so people obeyed.
They obeyed out of the threat of punishment
and the expectation of reward.
But when Jesus came, he never said anything
like that.
He said, if you love me, keep my
commandments.
That's all.
This is the new covenant.
There's no threat of punishment and there's no
giving out rewards.
He said, if you follow me, you'll be
persecuted.
You will be rejected by the world like
I was rejected.
You'll be hated.
You'll have to die.
You want to come?
Come and die.
I invite you.
And here and there, people say, I love
my master.
I don't have to do this, but I'm
going to do it.
I don't have to sacrifice.
I'm not living under thou shalt sacrifice if
thou shalt be a wholehearted Christian.
That's the law.
I know there are people who come to
missionary work with certain Christian organizations on that
basis.
And I think they're the most miserable, most
unhappy people.
They'd be far better off going and doing
some other secular work because they're trying to
live under the old covenant.
There's only one basis on which we can
serve the Lord.
I love my master.
I will not go out free.
I said that to the Lord 40 years
ago, and I have fought a battle through
the years to keep on saying that to
the Lord year after year after year.
And it's brought rest into my life.
As I said, I'm not in competition with
anyone.
I praise God for every ministry.
Some I don't agree with, but Christ is
being preached.
Some souls are being saved.
Praise the Lord.
I rejoice.
I can fully understand what Paul said when
he said Christ is being preached out of
envy.
Well, praise the Lord.
Christ is being preached.
Somebody's getting saved.
I'm not here to criticize another person who
does it in a different way.
In the days of unrest, there's a lot
of this criticism.
Everybody must do it my way.
Thou shalt because I had laws for myself
and I had laws for other people.
But we finish with all that.
I want to encourage you, dear brothers and
sisters, come up higher.
It's an invitation.
It's not thou shalt go up higher.
It's an invitation.
The Lord wants us to do the same
thing we're doing, but from a completely different
motivation, from a completely different standpoint.
Come up higher from a position of rest.
There is a place of quiet rest near
to the heart of God, a place where
sin cannot molest near to the heart of
God, a place where temptations to jealousy, competition,
backbiting, criticism, tearing down others, pulling down others,
trying to show that I'm better and trying
to impress, cannot molest near to the heart
of God.
There remains a Sabbath rest for God's people
and any of us can enter it.
It's not a matter of time.
You don't have to be a believer for
20 years.
It says, let us strive to enter into
this rest.
That's what Hebrews 4 says.
Lest any of us fail, lest any of
us get so occupied with serving.
Oh, there's a need, there's a need.
We got to work.
Six days is not enough.
We got to work the seventh day as
well.
God says, come to rest.
Your life will be far more effective if
you serve me from a place of rest,
says the Lord.
Let's seek with all our hearts to enter
in.
The Holy Spirit has come to bring us
to rest.
There's a lovely verse in Isaiah 63, I
think it says, the Spirit of God led
him to rest.
Isaiah 63 verse 14, the Spirit of the
Lord gave them rest.
That's what the Holy Spirit's come for.
Let's pray.
Jesus says, come to me, those who are
weary and heavy laden, trying to live up
to a certain standard that you can never
attain to, trying to impress, trying to achieve
something.
Let your work remain as a memorial long
after you're gone.
The Lord says, give up all that.
Let's come to rest in me.
Just love me and do what you can.
You're not in competition with anyone.
Heavenly Father, help us all.
We're a needy people.
We live in a world full of unrest.
Help us to demonstrate to this ungodly generation
that life of rest you called us to.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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