Hebrews (Session 5) Chapter 4

well we're continuing our exploration of the epistle of the hebrews this is our fifth session and we're going to be focusing on chapter four now the entire letter is organized rather well it's it's primarily going to focus on the christology study of jesus christ and how he represents a new and better deliverer compared to the old testament and the early chapters deal with him presenting him better than the angels he's an apostle better than moses leader better than joshua better than aaron we're going right through judaism if you will and we'll ultimately get to the better covenant a better sanctuary better sacrifice and then a lot of practical things at the end this is the classical organization of the epistle but what it really overlooks is five specific warnings and the first of five occurred in chapter two the second one occurs in bridges chapter three and four actually the most troublesome passage in the new testament is the fifth warning which we'll deal with obviously uh when we get to chapter six and there's a final fifth one a fourth one and a fifth one wrapping up the the uh epistle but it's important to understand the integrity of these five warnings these aren't little uh diversions that are sort of inserted some authors tend to treat it that way that misses the real point they're an integrated pattern of five major warnings the first is deals with the danger of drifting which we dealt with in chapter two this time we're going to incur the third one the danger of disobedience in which bridges chapter three and four and then the big one is in chapter five and six and we're going to deal with that of course when we get there and then there's a couple more before we finish the book but we want to understand that this danger of disobedience this second of five warnings is going to be a kernel topic for not only chapter three but chapter four it actually bridges them but i want to emphasize once again that these five are a unit they go together and they each complement each other each one builds on the other in virtually a climactic pattern and each will intensify up until the fifth one which will be a wrap up one and all of these lean heavily on the experience of israel at kittish barnea in the wilderness and uh it's we're going to look at that very very carefully we had out of egypt in the exodus a redeemed people and yet they failed miserably at keith bernie and we want to understand what that involved and what it didn't involve and so we also need to understand that this entire epistle takes for granted that the reader is saved as a believer and this epistle does not deal with any opportunity or loss to forfeit somehow the past aspect of salvation which we call justification that's a once and for all 100 percent done by christ kind of thing so there is no attack in this epistle on the the eternal security of the believer and that's where a lot of confusion occurs where some of the passages if taken out of context would seem to suggest that the warnings that we're going to see admonish the believers to press on and obtain all that god has promised to the faithful overcomer and yes there are things you can forfeit justification is not one of them and these warnings represent the very real possibility of the loss of privileges or rewards offered to the believer and all this will be revealed at the judgment seat of christ the primary event that occurs right after the harpazzo the gathering of the church so what's at stake here are these believers going to lose their or what is it that they could lose forfeit not their salvation that's a key point and we've dealt with that in the past i point you to john 10 and other passages that nail that but what it does do it highlights the possibility of forfeiting rewards to the judgment seat of christ and we can't escape any of this by trying to apply it to other groups the burden of this epistle to the hebrews is not rescuing sinners from hell but rather it's to bring sons to glory the issue throughout the entire epistle is going on to maturity let's keep that in mind so as we look at the outline here last time we went from chapter 2 to chapter 3 and we got introduced into this whole idea that the apostle which is here used as a title of christ as the the apostle to the jews is better than moses and we're going we're going to now go to chapter four but we'll discover because the warning in the second of the five warnings bridges these two chapters to really we need to recognize that chapter four is really a continuation of chapter three so therefore there'll be some intensive review of chapter three as we go forward so let's just take another glimpse as where we were last time wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession christ jesus strange title to use of jesus christ it's the only place in the scripture where it speaks of him as an apostle the sent one the wherefore of course is a typical pauline connector connecting the what's just gone on to what's now coming this is sort of uh connecting the past to the to the future in terms of his rhetoric here and uh so and we go to uh holy brethren so the this is another underscore that the readers are presumed to be saved the their holy brethren these are not unbelievers he's writing this letter to and then he speaks of the heavenly calling which brings on a heavenly inheritance and that's really the whole subject here to become partakers we encounter the term metacoi which is a partaker of christ and not everybody is a medicoid not all believers are medically we want to understand what the differences are that's going to come up again and again and then he uses this strange expression of jesus christ calling him the apostle and the fact that he calls him an apostle is a clue as to who the writer is paul regarded felt his mandate was to the gentiles but to intrude on on this area apostle of the jews would be a super irrigation it's another reason paul didn't sign this epistle he's simply laying out some reasoning he's not presenting it as an apostle that he would that would be causing him mentally at least to be in intruding on what's in his mind uniquely christ's mission here but then we go continue in in hebrews 3 wherefore as the holy ghost saith today if you will hear his voice he's going to quote extensively here from psalm 95. today if you will hear his voice heart not your hearts is in the provocation in the day of temptation the wilderness that's that event that occurred in numbers 13 and 14 we'll be exploring in more detail when your father's tempted me proved me and saw my works for forty years wherefore i was grieved with that generation and said they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways so i swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest those are god's words being quoted in psalm 95 here is being quoted in hebrews 3. but it's interesting to note because it can be very important as we go in further chapters 2 that god swore an oath here be interesting just to make a list of the rare occasions that god swears an oath and that's going to be very important to understand as we proceed the wherefore again is this pauline connector that it connects in both directions what just what what's just been said to what's coming and this is the psalm that he's quoting let's just examine it to keep it in her mind this is psalm 95 picking up about verse six come now let us bow down in worship let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god and we are the people of his pastor and the sheep of his hand then we come to the part that has been quoted so often in the new testament today if you will hear his voice harden not your heart as in the provocation as in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your father's tempted me prove me saw my work forty years long was i grieved with this generation and said it is it is a people that do air in their heart that have not known my ways unto whom i swear in my wrath that they shall not enter into my wrist so our our rendering of it in as we see it in psalm 95 is pretty matches pretty tightly to the way it's quoted in hebrews but this last verse verse 11 unto whom i swear in my wrath that's scary god so angry that he swears an oath that they shall not enter into my rest and that's going to lead us to the main topic of what we're going to deal with here in chapter four what do you mean by the rest so we're going to look we're looking at chapters three and four and one of the issues that's going to emerge in our perceptions here is what is meant by rest a strange word and may not mean what you first assume it means and he speaks of a creation rest he speaks of a canaan rest and a sabbath rest are they the same thing and if not how do they differ what do they have in common so let's take a look at rests we're going to see this term here of course in the he addressed to the hebrew christians but they're quote quoting i'm going to move up earlier in time back to psalm 95 written in the times of david so david alludes to this same thing in fact that's what we're quoting in psalm 95 but that in turn is alluding to an event that occurs at kiddish barnea in numbers 13 and 14. so they're here on the uh uh listed in chronological order but we're looking back from our presence at present time being a hebrews reader here back to david in fact even earlier back to moses at kedis barnea and these the two illusions in numbers 13 and psalm 95 is sometimes called the canaan rest because it deals with their failure to enter into their arrest at kiddish bardia and we're going to call that the canaan rest to distinguish it from a couple of others that are going to surface in our study now the main point here is that whatever was available to them that they blew at kiddish barnea apparently is still open to them because that's the point of psalm 95 david's alluding to it and implying that that offer to enter into god's rest is still open to them in the days of david so whatever it is wasn't foreclosed for from them at kedis barnea except maybe in some limited sense as we want to get a sense that as we go here so let's continue in chapter three wherefore as the holy ghost saith today if he will hear his voice hard not your hearts as in the provocation the day of temptation the wilderness this again is of course quoting from psalm 95 but notice that the scripture here ascribes that not to david which of course penned it but it attributes this to the holy ghost interesting thing that this is a underscore of the inspiration of the word here and this term provocation keeps coming up which isn't obvious unless you really know your bible so what is it relating to the provocation the greek word is parabakrasmos which is used only three times in the new testament and all three times it's in this chapter so even though it's familiar in our ears it's primarily because of this passage now we know from numbers 14 that the children of israel provoke god 10 times while they're in the wilderness but this particular one was the turning point this changed their history this caused them to take a 40-year detour for what should have been an 11-day journey our god is immutable it's interesting that the israelites however so thoroughly upset god that he swore on his own name that they would not enter the promised land now many times in the scripture we see the term that god repents when he's talking to moses or amos he'll present something and apparently moses or amos would talk him out of it well most scholars would recognize that as an anthropomorphism god knew it in advance what he's really going to do and so he's in a sense toying with them when he he tells moses he's going to wipe out everybody and most of well don't do if you do that then this this this and moses renegotiates it same thing happened with amos where several times god says what he's going to do and amos prays about it and god would appear to change his mind it it's not as if he really changed his mind he's that's his way of of communicating and but there are cases where god swears an oath which forecloses his opportunity to repent and that's really the point of swearing an oath and it it would be instructive as you go through your bible to note those places where god swears an oath that's a very very important way of underlining it and so god made up inherent kidness burning he made up his mind and he would not repent the idea of god repenting is a key aspect when we get to chapter six but let's examine at this point numbers 14 so we have this pivotal event at cadiz bernier clear in our minds first question i have of you what do these people have in common we've got a list of people here there's 12 of them what do they have in common well if i tell you that they're from 12 different tribes you can begin to guess who they are and of course that turns out that 10 of them are the ones that brought the back the bad report two of them caleb and o'shea later called joshua is the ones that distinguish themselves by having the faith to go in and take over the land so let's take a look at numbers 14 and just take a look at the chapter because it's so pivotal for our understanding here all the congregation have lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night and all the children of israel murmured in chapter 13 is when they sent the spies and the spies came back with this bad report all the children of israel murmured against moses and against aaron get that all the the whole nation was upset with moses and the holy congress said unto him would god that we had died in the land of egypt or would god that we had died in this wilderness well they're going to get their wish you got to be careful what you wish for wherefore hath the lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword that our wives and our children should be a prey were it not better for us to return into egypt so this is the murmuring going on they said one to another let us make a captain and let us return to egypt then mozarin fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation children this was not a casual issue this caused major major tension and joshua the son of noon and caleb the son of jefuna which were of them that searched the land rent their clothes and they spake under all the company of the children israel saying the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land and if the lord delighted us then he will bring us into this land and give it us a land which floweth with milk and honey only rebel not ye against the lord neither fear ye the people of the land for they are bred for us their defenses departed from them and the lord is with us fear them not that was the the attitude of joshua and caleb however verse 10 but all the congregation made stoned them with stones this is having a different difference of opinion okay and the glory of the lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of israel that must have got their attention they're mad enough that they're about to stone these two uh witnesses but god himself intervenes and that must have been a dramatic moment and the lord said unto moses how long will this people provoke me let's see that's why they call it the prophet this event's called the provocation how long will these people provoke me how long will it be are they believe me for all the signs which i have shown among them get the picture here only 11 days ago they had they're delivered from the death of the firstborn in egypt and uh and so on you know a dramatic dramatic uh uh series of events you would think they would be uh still operating under the awe of these experiences of the last few weeks god continues i will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them and will make of the a greater nation and mightier than their in other words he's proposing to moses he can write them all out and start over that's the threat that's implied there but notice what he's saying i will disinherit them key word as we to understand the the the vocabulary here in hebrews 3 verse 17 it alludes to all this but with whom was he grieved 40 years was it not with them that sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and to whom swear he that he should not that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believe not i want you to notice that the rest is equivalent to inheriting they're almost synonymous that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believe not for we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief we're continuing our numbers review god has just indicated moses is going to wipe them all out start over moses said to the lord then the egyptians will hear it for thou broughtest up these people in thy might from among them and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land for they have heard that thou lord art among his people and thou lord art seen face to face and that thy cloud standeth over them and that thou goes before them by time in a pil by day time in a pillar of a cloud and in pillar of fire by night now if thou should kill all his people as one man then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak i think you know this it's just amusing to see moses trying to manipulate god appealing to god's pride so to speak and then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak saying because the lord was not able to bring this people to the land which he swear unto them therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness and now i beseech thee let the power of my lord be great according to as thou has spoken saying the lord is long suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation pardon i beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy as thou hast forgiven this people from egypt even until now that's moses's appeal to god and god responds to that in in verse 20. the lord said i have pardoned according to thy word so understand that god forgave them for their lack of faith he pardoned them but as truly as i live god continuing all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the lord i want you to notice that he's pardoned him but even though he's pardoned them something else is coming because all these men which have seen my glory and my miracles which i did in egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice surely they shall not see the land which i swear unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it so even though they're forgiven they're not going to inherit what god had given to them here's the key word surely they shall not see the land which i swear unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoke we see it so there's a two-part oath here that's critical to understanding numbers 14. the first is that god that god pardoned them according to moses petition that can only mean that the people were forgiven of the iniquity of the sin that they had just committed in the same breath though the lord uttered the second part of his oath denying them entrance into the land so they're saved they don't return to egypt but at the same time they don't get the inheritance that would would have been theirs had they had faith continuing numbers 14 but my servant caleb because he had another spirit in him hath followed me fully and him will i bring into the land wherein to he went and his seed shall possess it the malachites the canaanites dwelt in the valley and tomorrow turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the red sea and the lord spoken to moses and unto aaron saying how long shall i bear this with this evil congregation which remember against me i have heard from heard the murmurings of the children of israel which they murmur against me saying to them as truly as i live saith the lord as ye have spoken mine ears so will i do to you your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness in all that were numbered of you according to your whole number from 20 years old and upward which have murmured against me and doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which i s where to make you dwell therein save caleb son of jehuna and joshua the son of noon i swear unto you there's that key point god's worn oath which means he can't deviate from that oath but then he continues but your little ones which he said should be a prey them will i bring in and they shall know the land which ye have despised but it's for you your carcasses they shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness after the number of the days in which he searched the land even forty days that was how long the spies had to search it all out each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities even forty years and ye shall know my breach your promise i the lord have said i will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me in this wilderness they shall be consumed and there shall they die this two-part oath that he mentioned as if to reinforce that he says as i live the lord repeats that three times that their corpses shall fall in this wilderness he re-emphasizes underscores that and by the way as you analyze this you cannot equate their failure to enter canaan uh or the untimely death can be equated with damnation those are not the issues here some people uh make a get into trouble trying to over over apply the uh possible analogies continuing numbers 14 and the men which moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land died by the plague before the lord apparently they died specifically early rest didn't take him 40 years to to to be taken out of the picture and uh so but joshua the son of noon and caleb the son of jefuna they were of the men that went to search the land they lived still and moses told told these sayings unto all the children of israel and the people mourned greatly and they rose up early in the morning and got up into the top of the mountain saying lo we we be here and we will go up into the place which the lord hath promised for we have sinned so they changed their mind the people themselves repented of what they did they repented but it was too late god did not repent because he swore an oath so therefore they suffered defeat when they subsequently tried to enter the land on their own and they get ai and they really they were in big trouble so god is jealous about sharing his glories the underscore here and those to whom he should to those to whom he shows great mighty works and his glory take heed now if god held them accountable for his great deeds boy what position that does that put us in because we have seen through the centuries even greater things than they were held accountable for but it's interesting the impossibility of repentance that it was going to give us trouble when we get to hebrews chapter 6 the repentance that's at issue may be on god's part not the people's part we'll defer that until we get to chapter six but recognize that that's an overlooked possibility by many many that review that passage these are all believers their justification is not at issue in first corinthians 3 deals with that in effect judgment and not mercy will emanate from the bema seat of christ and with a just recompense reward positive and negative is appropriate and there's a whole study that undergirds that that you take in on on your own though what really is going on in the judgment seat every one of us has an appointment every one of us are due for a final exam before the lord himself getting back to hebrews 3 which this was all an amplification of when your fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my works 40 years wherefore i was grieved for that generation said they do always err in their heart have not known my ways for 40 years they've been rebellious against the lord deuteronomy 9 that underscores this they do always air in their heart which is exactly what moses documents in in deuteronomy 9 and elsewhere continuing hebrews so i swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest that is the heavy indictment that is nailed to the masted here so in the historical sense they've been wandering for 40 years on a detour but god took an oath over over a million people we estimate came out in the exodus out of egypt only two inherited the land and moses wasn't one of them now i've said that many times but my friend gordon has corrected my arithmetic because my mathematics faulty because he pointed out that those that were under 20 did inherit so yes they were you know 60 years on going so so it's a it wasn't just two that inherited the land those that were under 20 obviously survived to become mature adults entering the land so my arithmetic is a little sloppy there anyway moving on take heat brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living god that is the warning that is the emphasis of the writer's focus on all of this unbelief is sin and to exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin today she hardened out your hearts it's the admonition that david puts in psalm 95. does this mean that any of us could fall away are we vulnerable and if so to what important issues today you know what tomorrow is i love this you know what tomorrow is tomorrow's the day when idol men work tomorrow is the day that fools repent i love that never thought about it that way what do i mean by that tomorrow is satan's today he doesn't care what good resolutions you make as long as they're scheduled for tomorrow tomorrow i'll work tomorrow repent satan loves that no today is the point of issue and so today is the day of decision that means right now and while you still have opportunity because you know not what a day may bring forth no i love that tomorrow is the day when idlemen work that's and tomorrow is the day that fools repent are you a fool are you idle or are you diligent and committed for we are made partakers of christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end partakers this is a key word you see we have to indeed god rewards those that hold our confidence to the end but we're not talking about justification that's 100 done by jesus christ and 100 percent in the hands of our father and i know in whom i believe that he is able to keep that which i've committed unto him against that day no this is doing something else are you a partaker in christ you are if big if you hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until the end the word there is metacoi a partaker and there's a key if here a conditional if critical important critically important what is it that we must hold steadfast to the end that's what you've got to decide as we go through the study while it is said today if he will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation he's repeating again this quote from psalm 95 what's the penalty for harding your heart it's seen in the example of the wilderness wanderings a 40-year spiritual detour how many of us can look at a portion of our lives a couple of decades in my case for example where i knew i was saved long ago and i walked um it didn't turn my back on the lord but at the same time i often have seen those two those 20 years were clouded by a certain awareness of liberalism a certain lack of commitment and i remember walter martin pointed out to me chuck those are the years the locusts have eaten i said what does that mean it's because god promises to give you those back and indeed he has and and but i look back decades of uh where i could have been so much more productive could have done so much more had i really uh followed through at kittish barnea upon the report of the the committee that they sent out they failed due to unbelief the entire generation except for joshua and caleb passed away before the nation could enter the land it says 40 years that's the round numbers of course this is intended to the hebrew christians there today was how long it was between the preaching of christ and jerusalem's impending overthrow the window that's operative here with this epistle is the window between the time they first heard the gospel and the fall of jerusalem in 70 a.d where it was over and uh so that was normally 40 years and that's the same length of time that they sojourn in the wilderness actually it was 38. if you look at deuteronomy 2 verse 14 we'll discover that the precise period is actually 38 years and jesus when jesus in luke 21 speaks if this generation shall not pass away he's warning them that when the city is surrounded get out of town don't let your friends get to come back it's all in luke 21. again from the time he told him that until the fall of jerusalem remember under the romans was 38 years from 3280 to 70 a.d is 38 years so it's interesting that that generational period that here's alluded to in the hebrews is the same generational period that is applicable in numbers 14. so the summary of rests here we have the hebrew and remember david david's allusion to all of this in in in psalm 95 implies it was renewed then but back in cadiz barnea there today was 38 years the hebrew christians reading this epistle their today was from between 32 and 70 38 years that's kind of fun for someone they had heard it did provoke albeit not all that came out of egypt by moses not all that came out of egypt they were a blood redeemed people but they lost their inheritance due to unbelief is the whole point and again moses wasn't one of them moses didn't get the inheritance does that mean he was wasn't saved no because he shows up at the in matthew 17 at the transfiguration so forth the people at large repented and god forgave them but the physical consequences of their sin had to be paid continuing but with whom was he greed 40 years was he not with them that had sinned because whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and to whom swear he that that they should not introduce rest but to them that believe not that's the issue believing not and and disobedience are equivalent terms so that we see that they could not enter in because of their unbelief and the inheritance their inheritance was conditional on what unfaithfulness so is ours our inheritance not our salvation our inheritance is conditional notice that israel did not lose their status as redeemed people they did not go back to egypt and slay back as you know slaves again no they they were redeemed and we know that moses was saved if for no other reason many other reasons but we see we see him visibly in matthew 17 and luke 9. so uh but they did lose the blessing of their inheritance and promised land moses was dean after 40 120 years 40 growing up in egypt 40 on the back side of the desert in midian and 40 in the wilderness wanderings and he didn't get to enter in lest therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should come short of it is there a rest promise to you what is that going to be we'll get into that here in a minute but you too can forfeit if you fall short so we're now going to end at chapter four which is just a continuation of this whole discussion a continuation of what's called the second warning here let us therefore speaking of us we the readers and the writer puts himself in that same category with the readers let us therefore fear awe and this is first of many led us all through the book and uh so there is a now a danger for these believers and here we speak of fear in the sense of the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge fear in the sense of awe not fearless of terror although that could be appropriate too no in the sense of awe let us uh a promise being left us of entering into his rest what on earth is his rest as far as we're concerned we're not worrying about entering kanan but what is the analogy what is our arrest involved well the word rest is misleading the dictionary gives you several different meanings its primary meaning is the cessation of movement to come to rest it implies motion that's now stopped and something has stopped cessation of movement or action or this is equivalent cessation of labor it's when you're through with your job you rest doesn't mean you're relaxing or sleeping it means you no longer hammering those nails or whatever you've come to the end of that task it's a state of freedom from exertion in that sense it can be freedom of aim come to rest in sense of freedom from anxiety of emotional anxiety it can also be we can refer to the repose of sleep that refreshes your body and so forth or the repose of death it sometimes uses that term when someone is is been freed from earthly toil altogether these are a different mean what's being used here what's the rest being offered here see it's possible that the faith of these jewish believers that this is written to is going to be tried because of the persecution that they're starting to undertake at the time this apostle this epistle is being written and because of their present situation they too can fall short just as the people at cadiz bernie fell short they can fall short of what god wants them to attain in this life and the promise of god's rest here is still available to them and us because it was never totally fulfilled the promise the rest of the new testament was unfulfilled and it was not withdrawn is the point it's available to those who want it now the entire purpose of this letter to the to the hebrews is to get the jewish believers to enter in to the fullness of what god has available to them the writer uses two different words for rest in this chapter the primary one he uses is the word catapultus which is used eight times in chapters three and four and uh outside of the book of hebrews this word is used only once in the entire new testament that's in book of acts but the word in all these uses means the cessation of activity it means rest in the sense of ceasing we want you to cease your own works and not and rely only on his the septuagint includes notable passages where the word for arrest catapults in connection with israel's possession of the land is clearly paralleled all through the old testament with the word clernomia which is inheritance the word for rest and inheritance in the old testament sense are virtually synonyms so what they forfeited there was their inheritance of the land see for them their rest was their inheritance and moses clearly shows that for israel their rest was the inheritance of the land the land of canaan in the same way the term rest was the writer's functional equivalent for a christian's inheritance now the christians and promises isn't the land it's something else but whatever it is it's something that has to be earned by faithfulness the christians uh our heirs is all through the scripture and all through the epistle of hebrews that there were heirs too it's affirmed before back in chapter one and it's going to be reaffirmed again in chapter six and elsewhere moses showed that israel's rest was their inheritance and that same thing's true for you and i our rest is our inheritance that begs the question of key what is our inheritance and uh see these jewish believers that this is written to had severed their relationship to their established systems by being baptized when they were when they baptized them publicly that was their way of closing the door on judaism and committing themselves to the lordship of christ that's what the baptism signified there and that's going to be emphasized when we get to chapter 10. the renunciation of the established judaism is what has incurred the wrath of their establishment community and they all were undergoing intense persecution and that's what prompts them to consider going back under that judaism umbrella and that's what is being denied them by the writer of the hebrew the epistle here he points out they have not yet been martyred but they will and many will face that possibility we're already ahead probably had that experience but if they're going to mingle with those that are observing established rituals in the temple those persecuting them the concept was that they might forget that they had previously renounced it by their baptism so by pretending they're still in judaism they thought they could avoid but that's an effect of denying christ and that's a tough spot to realize that they're in and there's analogies today even paul by the way had observed jewish rituals as memorials to christ during his ministry we see that in acts and mentioned first corinthians so because of all this many of these were not assembling with other believers but we're trying to re-identify themselves with established judaism in order to escape persecution that's what the writer is arguing against and just like their ancestors back at caterpillar the recipients of this epistle had a promise of god of entering into his rest this is not the rest of salvation in the sense of justification because they're already recognized as believers and it's also not the future millennial rest in which all persecution will cease therefore we can conclude that the rest is that faith life rest which the believer enters by faith in which he enjoys the inheritance that god gives to those that are faithful that's resting from our attempts and relying on the holy spirit's leading so we have the hebrew christians here before prior to that we have psalm 95 and all alluding to the rest what we call the canaan rest the offer is still open and the today is is as we've indicated but unto us in chapter four we're starting to make some progress and 4 now 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 see these readers were without excuse because they had the gospel preaching of them and again he draws a parallel to numbers 13 and 14. 12 men came back from the promised land gave a report and the children made a wrong decision as a result of that these jewish believers had received a message from 12 apostles remember there's 12 12 apostles that are going to rule on 12 thrones over the 12 tribes remember got to remember the jewishness of all that the emphasis here is on the necessity of faith to attain spiritual blessings from an inheritance he continues for we which have believed do enter into rest as he said as i've sworn in my wrath if they shall if they shall enter into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world now there's a change of term here the quote here is speaks of my rest what rest is that that's a creation risk because god is speaking to the rest he took when did god cease his works genesis 2 the creation was finished god finished it and he didn't he didn't go to sleep didn't he didn't take a nap no he just stopped creating that's where most of us that's well we actually we get into the whole entropy laws which really were introduced in response to genesis 3 but he says my rest it is referring to god's creation rest for we we which have believed to enter to arrest the state that we who have believed uses the past tense and refers to the writer and the readers they have already entered in to that to that part of it they do enter into rest the author then switches to present tense we who do now enter into that rest presently entering to that spiritual rest so this paradigm he's going to point out that the final facet of the rest the final facet is yet future there's part of this past there's part of it present as part of a future we're going to discover the that parody going on again the point that because they have believed they have begun to enter into his creation rest through the final facet although the final is still yet future these jewish believers must continue to exercise faith to enjoy what this rest has to offer the writer again points out the wilderness generation did not interest even though god had pos had possessed it since the creation god through the psalmist david announced the continued existence of the future rest now he spake in a certain place on the seventh day on this wise if he was four is pointing out you know introducing the analogy not just back to the david back to genesis 2. he spake of a certain place of the seventh day on this wise that god did rest on the seventh day from all his works what is rest implying here ceasing from your works okay works in a sense of where you're trying to earn your salvation you can't do that god has done it all and that's really what we're talking about resting from this is a reference to genesis 2. the word here by the way is shabbat which means to cease desist or rest so again we have the we have these previous rest that we looked at so far so far we were alluding back to the canaan rest but now we've introduced a deeper illusion here that goes even before cadiz barnea and that's genesis 2. for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day and this was that god did rest on the seventh day from all his works and in this place again if in this place now if they shall enter into my rest so he's use that word if they again there's an if there's a condition on this particular arrest the authors just linked god's sabbath rest at the time of creation with the rest that the israelites missed in the desert some conceptually they have something in common that's what he's focusing on the typology of the salvation rest is used to show that israel failed to enter into the rest by what by divine decree because god swore an oath so god could not repent or change it they had to do what he indicated seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief israel failed to enter him because of unbelief nevertheless the invitation to enter god's rest remains open it remaineth that some must enter in so it's still open who's it open to those are going to be faithful it remaineth that some must enter therein now let's summarize all this though through an exposition from the old testament concept arrest the author exhorted them to hold fast to what to their confidence in christ this was meant to encourage them to face the hardships boldly as the day approaches what day when the land would be burned that's going to be show up in hebrews 6 and when the temple worship will disappear and that's going to be predicted in hebrews 8. so this is a very contemporary letter specifically tailored to those 38 years between christ's ministry and the fall of jerusalem but it has lessons for all of us that's why it's here using psalm 95 the author warned that the lack of faith and confidence in christ could jeopardize the rest similar to what happened to the exodus generation potentially resulting in their loss of physical life potentially losing physical life god's rest refers to israel's worship before the personal presence of yodevah in 7 which could be forfeited by hardened rebellious hearts like those of the exit generation what we want to make sure we don't have is hardened hearts where we fail to enter into the promises he's of inheritance he's given us the readers could still entertain his rest by continuing to place their faith in the life-sustaining presence of god the offer of rest is not limited exodus generation because it was first experienced by adam and eve in the garden after god rested and you get into that by taking take a look at chapter exodus 2 uh genesis 2. neither was it limited to the occupation of the land under joshua because david himself he wasn't limited to adam he wasn't just limited to the the exodus generation numbers 14 no because david re-offers it if you will in psalm 95 and it's here underscored for us in effect in the new testament in the epistle of hebrews again he limits a certain day saying and david today after a long time as it is said today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts this is verse seven continuing and so the failure of the israelites did not nullify that some will enter into that rest according to god renewed the offer as late as the time of david that's important to us at that time god called and said again said a certain day calling it today presenting this opportunity to all readers of the psalm for whom today becomes their own today what's our today our today is right now and uh today today today so this is we have it today also and if jesus had given them rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another day so see the old testament could have been quoted by as many to show the rest had already been entered via the conquest of the land josh that that many people would argue that's foreclosed it but this is a rebuttal to that because the writers are both simple and sufficient if it had been so god would not have spoken later later about another day so it's still open is the point and the psalm which you know forms this text disproves any notion that the test had already been entered into and was no longer open so there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of god now he turns away from the canaan rest now to focus on the sabbath rest a different greek word is now used here for this chapter in this chapter for this rest sapatismus and it's only used here in the entire news testament it's found elsewhere in greek literature but each case it refers not to the sabbath day as we think of it but rather the sabbath observance of celebration the view that's emphasized here is that of a celebration and that's a very interesting perspective we so often think of this keeping the sabbath in the from the judaistic legalistic view don't do this and don't do that most of us fail and some of them fail to really get the spirit of the sabbath which is to celebrate the creation of god and we can even do that today is to celebrate the creation of god and sabotismos it's it's the emphasis is not cessation of daily activities but rather the unhindered opportunity for the people to celebrate god's self-sustaining presence among them that's really the thrust of the sabbath rest even in judaism if it's done properly and as such the sabbath celebration was meant to be a time of festive praise including special sacrifices commemorating god's provisions and that's really what the sabbath is supposed to be all about not following 613 rules or whatever its origin in creation suggests that his sabbath celebration transcends the rest forfeited by the exodus generation and enjoyed under david and joshua so this rest remains available today to everyone that believes if we understand what it really embraces for he that has entered into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as god did from his so this is in effect the ultimate refutation of what we would call legalism trying to please god by following rules is not the point that's striving fleshly rather than resting in the leading of the spirit which is what he's talking about ceased from their own works entering into god's rest here is ceasing from our works and our own works we need to model our lives after jesus christ who is faithful to the one who appointed him as mentioned earlier in hebrews 3 and must be careful to hold firmly to until the end to the end that confidence we had at the first only then would they be able to rest from their works in the joyful possession of their inheritance in the messianic kingdom and by the way that's a key thought now starting to merge out of all of this the ultimate rest the ultimate inheritance is in the king the messianic kingdom and many people fail to appreciate the book of hebrews because they don't recognize its its uh focus on the fulfillment of the davidic covenant which of course is what we call the millennium so here's some report we have the creation rest in genesis 2. we have the canaan rest that's alluded to getting on a kid ishmael but in psalm and also in this epistle but the ultimate rest is the millennial rest which is indeed of course yet future all the way there's a past tense of rest in the sense of our justification our rest that christ our justification is done 100 by christ alone we can't add to it to try to do that as blasphemy there's a present tense of resting and that's spiritual maturity walking by the spirit and not being under recognizing we're no longer under the law and that boy that's really going to emerge as we get to uh chapter seven and following and there's ultimate future tense the kingdom inheritance and it's a it's it's very worthwhile to really undertake a study of the kingdom and to recognize there is a kingdom coming that's what the the angel confirmed to mary in our chris what we call christmas celebration the nativity that her child would sit on the throne of david the pivotal event in the book of acts is acts 15 where they argue what is a gentile to be saved and what james quotes is amos 9 verse 11 is that god is again going to establish the tabernacle of david the idea of a davidic kingdom on the planet earth is what the millennium is all about there's more prophecy on that period than any other period in the history in in the bible less labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief so let us labor i mean we got to strive in a sense yes we want to labor to enter into that rest and uh this is different than the assurance that all christians have that we have eternal life and that we will be raised up to enjoy it in the presence of god there's more to it than just that is the point you want to be partaking as a metacoi of the messiah and his dominion over creation by doing his will until the end so that when when we appear before that judgment sea of christ you can say well done good and faithful servant everybody before the judgment seat will be saved only some will be rewarded for their faithfulness so we are partakers of christ if we hold to the beginning of our confidence to steadfast them again here's this flashing back to chapter 3 verse 14. the medicoid if this is critically important if we hold fast to the end and if we become a medical way how do we do that well essentially in the book of revelation we have overcomers every one of the seven letters has has an overcomer and they have specific promises of things that they will are entitled to by virtue of their faithfulness and uh what will they get they'll be closed in white be pillars in the lord's temple be granted power over the nations they'll enjoy the tree of life not be subject to spiritual death have their names acknowledged by christ be fed out of hidden manna have a white stone with her name write his own name all these are worthy of careful study and they're not that just because you're saved doesn't mean that you've become an overcomer that's exactly the thrust of the commitments that are appended to each of those letters and to sit with christ on his throne some will some won't how do you become an overcomer well you remain loyal to god according to revelation 2 3 they overcame tribulation and remained faithful they were spiritually zealous they did not deny christ they did not defile their garments they kept the word of his patience you know it's interesting that even peter denied christ and of course was reinstated before it was all over they lose salvation no but he lost his apostleship call tell all the disciples and peter jesus says and that gets all straightened out of course in john 20 you know the story so there is a chain of inheritance to be conscious of from sanctification that leads to partaking being and the partaking leads to overcoming and overcoming leads to inheriting that that's the chain finishing up uh for the word of the we now the final part of this chapter shifts gears a little bit on another emphasis that's very exciting for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing ascender of the soul and spirit and of the joints of morrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart see having completed now at this point in the exposition of psalm 95 which all that foregoing had done and which involves israel's failure into the rest the writer now brings this warning that this what we call warning number two to a conclusion that is sobering on the one hand and comforting on the other the word of god is quick it's alive it's alive and this is the very greek term that from which we get the word energy and so on it's alive and uh powerful and uh powerful is that word that it means active effectual powerful and uh isaiah 55 so shall my word be that go forth out of my mouth and it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which i please and shall prosper to the thing that i sinner what a commitment god's my word shall not return void isaiah 55 11 jeremiah 23 9 this is not my word like as a fire the lord says like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces and continuing in hebrews 4 for the word of god is quick and powerful and and sharpening it to a sword piercing even the dividing asunder of the soul in the spirit sharper than any two that two-edged sword thing is all through the scripture by the way and that's one of the reasons psychology is doomed because psychology is trying to map the internal architecture of an infinite state machine from its external behavior and that's in in in system engineering a non-sequitur and that's the dilemma that psychology's in because they can only deal with the external behavior they have that you can't discern the arc architecture in an infinite state machine by that kind of behavior it's well known in in the engineering world but not so widely appreciated in a broader sense the word uh tumuteros is precise decisive it's sharp and uh psalm 149 let the praise of god be in their mouth and two-edged sword in their hand there's that term again you hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in isaiah 49 in the shadow of his hand hath yet he hid me make me pause shaft and so forth take that in ephesians 6 the armor of god we have the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which i think most of us are familiar with that idiom he had his right hand seven stars and ava's mouth went a sharp two-edged sword how tragic it is that we some artists classic artists have tried to paint christ from revelation and they have they literally have a sword coming out of his mouth well idiomatically it's it's a mixing of graphic metaphors but the point is clearly the word of god is the two-edged sword repent or else i will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with what the sword of my mouth again that's him and even revelation 19 the climactic one he was clothed with vester dipped in blood his name is called the word of god and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed fine linen white and clean and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that should smite it it's interesting how these idioms are used consistently in both the old and new testament and the beast was taken with him a false prophet the miracle form deceived them that received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his name and they were both cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant were slain with what this the sword of him that sat upon the earth the sword which proceeded out of his mouth there again is the the consistent use of these metaphors dividing asunder the soul and the spirit most of us use those terms so sloppily but the soul and the spirit are distinct and the word psyche or soul and pneuma breath or spirit are distinct but the only way you can discern between them is through the word of god not from psychological treatises or what have you and the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart is in the old testament phrase is used in search of the reigns in jeremiah 17 and so on the word thoughts points to the objective aspects of the thought process the word intense points to the subject the subjective aspect of the thinking process the word of god can discern between the two what a man is thinking and why he is thinking it and some people say why is this in the scripture well it's to keep us out of the act how often we try to presume intense because the word of god isn't all these things and because the word will call believers into account someday these jewish believers need to give diligence to press on to spiritual maturity that's the main theme of this entire epistle wrapping it up neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do wow that's disturbing but all things are naked and open unto him and unto the eyes of him with whom we have do all christians will someday stand before the judgment seat of christ they give account for their lives and no that's we picked that up in romans 14 but also the definitive passages second corinthians 5 10. it's it's our destiny and if at that time their lives are seen to be marked by the kind of failure they have been warned against they will suffer the loss of reward not their salvation the reward that's what first corinthians 3 details we've been through that seeing then that we have such a great high priest that's introducing a topic it's going to be the main topic when we get to chapter seven seeing that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens jesus the son of god let us hold fast to our profession great high priest see there's every reason to hold firmly to the faith we possess because jesus priesthood has been already alluded to twice in this chapter in this epistle and we're going to be now moving into those passages that are going to really define and explain what that means to us we have not we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities but wasn't all points tempted like as we are yet without sin so he knows where we're at he's been there the only one who fully resists temptation can know the extent of its force only one who fully resists temptation can know the extent of its force therefore the sinless one has a greater capacity for compassion than any sinner could have for a fellow sinner that's not obvious until you think about it but very interesting it's the only one that resists temptation completely and there's only one person that's done that only the sinless one has a greater capacity for compassion than any sinner could have for a fellow sinner so from all this let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need the throne of grace indeed so for our next session hebrews chapter five we're now going to turn to the third pillar of judaism the levitical priesthood we've been through angels we've been through moses now we're going to go to the priesthood and we'll explore the definitive presentations of the ultimate priesthood we're starting a whole section section 5 through 10 is primarily going to deal with the ultimate priesthood the ultimate covenants the ultimate our ultimate high priest we're also going to encounter next time when we get chapter 5 we're going to set the stage for what many would consider the most troublesome passage in the entire bible in chapter 6 verses 4 through six there's a passage that taken out of context can be very disturbing and yet if we put it in context in the pistol in general and in the warnings in particular it'll be surprisingly clear i believe but be prepared that warning number three is the watershed issue for many students so with that let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020