Transcript Slide 1

Near to the Heart of God
A Study of the Book of Hebrews
Lesson 8
Hebrews 3:7 – 19
Resisting A Rest
I.
Introduction
A. This is a message about entering rest on a “Labor
Day” weekend.
B. Where we are in Hebrews.
C. An overview of this lesson.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The backdrop to Psalm 95
The message of Psalm 95
Psalm 95 as employed by the author of Hebrews
The message of Hebrews for us
II.
The Backdrop to Psalm 95
A.
Exodus 17:1-7 (beginning of 40 years)
Israel just passed through Red Sea
2. Bitter water at Marah (15:22-26)
3. Wilderness of Sin – “It was better in Egypt” God gives
Bread and meat from heaven (16:1-36)
4. Rephidim – no water (17:1-7)
People quarrel with Moses: “You brought us here to kill us”
Moses struck the rock, water came out
Place named Massah and Meribah
1.
B. Numbers 14:20-35
1. Spies sent out (13:1-24)
2. Two reports (13:25-33)
3. Revolt against Moses and Aaron – ready to stone
4.
5.
6.
7.
them and return to Egypt (14:1-10)
God is angry – form a new nation through Moses
(14:1-12)
Moses intercedes (14:13-19)
God forgives their iniquity (14:20)
This generation will not enter the land, but will die in
the wilderness (14:21-35).
C. Numbers 20:1-13 (end of 40 years)
1. Sabbath-breaker stoned (15:32-36)
2. Remember commandments – beware of your heart
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
and your eyes (15:37-41)
Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram – swallowed
up (16:1-35)
People grumbled against Moses and Aaron – plague
kills 14,700 (16:41-50)
No water, people grumble (20:1-5)
Moses told to speak to the rock, but strikes it instead
(20:6-11)
Moses disciplined for his unbelief and disobedience
The place is called “Meribah” (20:12-13)
III.
Psalm 95, the basis of Hebrews 3 and 4
A.
The text of Psalm 95
1 Come! Let’s sing for joy to the Lord! Let’s shout out
praises to our protector who delivers us! 2 Let’s enter his
presence with thanksgiving! Let’s shout out to him in
celebration! 3 For the Lord is a great God, a great king
who is superior to all gods. 4 The depths of the earth
are in his hand, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it. His hands formed the
dry land. 6 Come! Let’s bow down and worship! Let’s
kneel before the Lord, our creator! 7 For he is our God;
we are the people of his pasture, the sheep he owns
(Psalm 95:1-7a).
The text of Psalm 95 (cont’d)
Today, if only you would obey him! 8 He says, “Do not be
stubborn like they were at Meribah, like they were that day at
Massah in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors challenged
my authority, and tried my patience, even though they had seen
my work. 10 For forty years I was continually disgusted with that
generation, and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; they do
not obey my commands.’ 11 So I made a vow in my anger, ‘They
will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them’”
(Psalm 95:7b-11).
B. Observations regarding Psalm 95
1. Verses 1-7a – a call to worship and praise
2. Verses 7b-11 – exhortation and warning
3. Only verses 7b-11 are cited by the author of
Hebrews, and they are the basis for the exhortation
of chapters 3 and 4.
4. Verses 7b-11 are an exhortation based upon the
failures of the nation Israel in the wilderness (over 40
years – vs. 10).
5. It is the failure of an entire generation, over a 40 year
time span.
6. Their failure: err in heart, don’t know God’s ways,
rebelled against God
7. The correction: listen, don’t harden, worship
8. Failing to enter rest = failure to enter land
9. Israel’s failure (unbelief and disobedience) and
its consequences (don’t enter land) included
Moses and Aaron (Numbers 20:12)
10. The psalmist was doing exactly what the writer to
the Hebrews is doing, and what he exhorts us to
do as well: gather to worship and to warn and
exhort one another, lest any fail to hear, to
believe, and to obey God.
IV.
Hebrews 3:12-19
A.
Verses 12-13
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil,
unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God. 13 But exhort
one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none
of you may become hardened by sin’s deception.
1.
Note the corporate dimensions – why?
a.
b.
c.
2.
We are a body / our brother’s keeper.
The needy (drifting / hard hearted / deceived by sin) may not
know it.
We are obligated to exhort each other, so that no one becomes
hardened by sin’s deception.
Forsaking / departing from (apostasy) the Living God –
how can we explain this?
a.
b.
Apostasy is not the violation of a code of conduct; it is the denial
of faith in Jesus.
See chart.
Rebuke
Exhortation
Unbelief
Removal
Eternal
Judgment
Sin
Hard heart
Apparent Belief
Denial of Christ
Crisis
B. Verses 14-15
14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we
hold our initial confidence firm until the end. 15 As it
says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do
not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
1. Saving faith is evident in the perseverance of our
faith.
2. Perseverance occurs one day at a time.
3. Perseverance is promoted by hearing and heeding
God’s Word.
C. Verses 16-18
16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who
came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership? 17 And against
whom was God provoked for forty years? Was it not those
who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? 18
And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his
rest, except those who were disobedient? (Hebrews 3:1618)
1. Those who failed heard and saw the exodus (v. 16).
2. Their unbelief was persistent (40 years – v. 17).
3. Lack of perseverance leads to disobedience (verse 18).
D.
Verse 19
So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief
(Hebrews 3:19).
1. Unbelief is the root of sin.
2. Unbelief is the root of apostasy.
3. Unbelief is the reason why people do not enter
into God’s rest.
V.
Conclusion
A.
B.
The author of Hebrews is using Psalm 95 just as
psalmist did.
The exhortations of Psalm 95 and Hebrews 2
and 3 are virtually identical.
1.
2.
3.
C.
Listen/pay attention to God’s Word (Psalm 95:7b;
Heb. 1:1-3; 2:1-4)
Don’t become hard hearted and
disobedient/rebellious due to unbelief (Psalm
95:7-11; Hebrews 3 and 4).
The consequence of unbelief is failure to enter
into God’s rest.
Failure to enter God’s rest is not yet fully
defined. Here = not entering the land
D.
Elsewhere in Hebrews 2 and 3 we will find
several other definitions of “rest”.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
E.
F.
Sabbath rest of Genesis 2:1-3
What 1st generation failed to attain
That attained under Joshua
A present rest offered in Psalm 95
A future, eternal, rest
We cannot always conclude that “failure to
enter rest” = “are not believers” or “don’t make
it to heaven.”
Note to application to that first generation who
witnessed the coming of Messiah.
G.
H.
I.
J.
We are our brother’s keeper.
We tend to be reactive (corrective), at best.
We should be more proactive (preventative).
The importance of corporate gathering for
worship and edification.
Copyright © 2008 by Robert L. Deffinbaugh. This is the edited PowerPoint
presentation of Lesson 8 in the series, Near to the Heart of God, A Study of
the Book of Hebrews prepared by Robert L. Deffinbaugh for August 31, 2008.
Anyone is at liberty to use this lesson for educational purposes only, with or
without credit.