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Reading Hebrews 4:11-16 where we are reminded that Jesus is our Great High Priest, through whom we enter into God's rest and live in His righteousness. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Word of God is like a sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So let us use it that we would turn from sin and walk in righteousness when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the Word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .wutt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study of Hebrews chapter 4, attempting to finish up the chapter today. So picking up where we left off yesterday, I'll start reading in verse 11 through verse 16 in the Legacy Standard Bible.
This is the Word of the Lord. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience. For the Word of God is a living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we have an account to give. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things just like we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Now there's a few great verses here that are awesome to underline. If you're one of those persons who underlines a bunch of passages in your Bible, you have surely heard verse 12, the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.
And then of course we have the statement at the very close of this chapter, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.
Some very important verses in the book of Hebrews to underline here. Remember that the argument has been made at the start of chapter three, that Jesus is the greater Moses. And to give support to that argument, the preacher gives Psalm 95, that was in chapter three, verses seven through 11, and then exposits Psalm 95.
And this is kind of the conclusion of that exposition. I say kind of, because the things that are being talked about here, the main point that's brought out in chapters three and four is the main point in all of Hebrews, not to lose the faith, to continue to hold fast to Christ, do not fall into disobedience, and then not be able to enter into his rest, just as those perished in the wilderness.
That point is being made throughout Hebrews. So the verse by verse exposition, the exposing of the text, that's going to finish up at the conclusion of chapter four. There's going to be some other Old Testament passages that will be referenced and then exposited.
But the point of Hebrews altogether remains in what has been said here about Psalm 95, that we not lose our grasp on the truth that was proclaimed to us through the gospel, that we not get lazy in these things, that we not fall back into disobedience, but we continue to hold fast to Christ to the very end.
So once again, in verse 11, we read, therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest. That's the rest that we had finished talking about yesterday in verse 10. For the one who is entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, just as God rested from his.
So when we come into Christ, when we are in Christ Jesus, we rest from our works, for we were not able to attain righteousness or salvation or justification by our works anyway. We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross.
So let us be diligent to enter that rest, to rest in Christ, to continue to remember his finished work that was proclaimed to us in the gospel, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience. And this is calling back to, once again, those Israelites that fell in the desert.
As I mentioned to you yesterday, as is said to us in Romans 15 .4, these things were written down for our instruction, that through the encouragement of the scriptures and through endurance we might have hope.
The apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 10 .1, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
So again, it's been written down for us that we may learn from their example. Examples are passed on to us in a couple of different ways, right? There are good examples and there are bad examples. And those bad examples are an example to us in the sense that we would not be like them.
But those good examples set before us that we would follow in their way of righteousness, for the righteousness that they had came not from themselves, it came from God. As said even about Abraham, that it was by faith it was credited to him as righteousness.
It's not his righteousness, but it's God's righteousness that has been given to him. And so likewise for us, by faith in Jesus Christ, we are clothed in his righteousness. Our sins have been placed upon him and paid for by his death on the cross, his righteousness given to us.
So let us walk in that righteousness. We have positive examples coming up for us in the book of Hebrews. But for now, these examples have been given to us that we would not be as they were, that we would not lose our grip on the good news, the proclamation of the gospel that was given to us.
We would not fall into disobedience. By falling into disobedience and living in disobedience, living in, you know, lies or sexual immorality or anything that would be in rebellion against God, whatever is contrary to his law, that is sin.
As said in 1 John, sin is lawlessness. So whatever we do that is opposed to the word of God, we are sinning. Don't go after those things. Don't go after the passions of your flesh. Be after the things that are of Christ.
If we go after the disobedience and we live in that disobedience, then we live in unbelief and we have not entered into his rest. So once again, therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience.
Verse 12, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
So even when we're talking about being obedient, it's not just a matter of doing the thing that we know that we're supposed to do. We even have to do it with a right heart. And that is impossible to do.
It's impossible for us to change our demeanor or our disposition in such a way that we would go after the thing in a way that is honoring to God. You can look like on the outside that you are a God fearing person and you are obedient to his word.
But who knows what is going on on the inside? The Lord certainly knows. And you can know as well. Paul said before the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 13, examine yourselves, test yourselves to see if you are really in the faith.
And I think there is a necessity for us as well to examine ourselves, to see that our thoughts and our motives are pure, to be done in honor of the Lord, not to promote our own righteousness, but to boast in God.
For as Paul said in 1st Corinthians 132, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Now on the day of judgment, the works that we will be judged for will be according to what God's word says. So just as God is going to judge us according to his word.
So this is the way that we measure ourselves as well to examine our own conduct, our own way of life, to examine our hearts before God. We use the word of God. And this word is living and active. It pierces to our hearts.
It convicts our souls. If we are in sin, if we're doing anything wrong and we look into the word of God and God's word exposes that in us, it penetrates and the Holy Spirit is going to get down to the core of our hearts, right down to our soul, that we would feel convicted over our sin and want to repent of that.
And when we turn to Jesus Christ and ask for his forgiveness, and we do that genuinely, it genuinely comes from a genuine heart, not just going through the motions, not just ticking off some sort of religious box, but we genuinely desire Christ.
We hate our sin and we love God. That feeling, that desire in us will be real when the Holy Spirit is the one that has so moved our hearts. And this examination, all of this comes by the word of God. Even our growth in faith comes by the word of God.
For as it said in Romans 10, 17, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. So recognizing our wrong, having the desire to be right, growing in Christ, all of that comes by our examination of the word of God.
James says in James 1, to not just be hearers of the word, but do what it says. If someone hears the word and doesn't do what it says, he's like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and then immediately walks away and forgets what he looks like.
Now that sounds absurd. How do you look at yourself in a mirror and then walk away and, oh, I forgot what I look like. And so you go back to looking at yourself in the mirror again, who forgets what they look like just seconds after they looked at themselves.
But that's what it's like for us. If we hear God's word, we know what to do. We know what pleases God. We know what obedience looks like, and yet we walk away and we don't do it. It's as if we've just looked at our face in the mirror and then turned around and forgotten what we look like.
God's word for us is a mirror reflecting back to us the condition of our hearts. When we hear the spirit of God speaking through these words, we recognize I'm either in line with this or I am living in opposition to it.
And so where we recognize that we need to repent, do so. And we have this promise in first John one, nine. If we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God's word judges the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. We can do that examination now and let it be done now and work out these evil things from within us before we have to stand before God in judgment.
It's by this word, God is going to judge everybody in the end. So let us judge ourselves by it now that we may walk according to these things. In Psalm 66 verses 18 to 20, if I see wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear, but certainly God has heard.
He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer nor his loving kindness from me. And at the end of Psalm 139, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.
Perhaps one of the ways that you can start off your day or maybe end your day this way is by asking the Lord to expose to you any of those ways that you have lived contrary to what he has said in his word.
You have behaved today in a way that is contrary to Christ. Ask him to search that out in you so that you would walk in a way that is holy. Do you desire holiness? I don't know about you, but I want holiness so much.
I don't want there to be any stain of sin in me at all. So whatever those secret hidden places are where I'm harboring sin or not checking myself or maybe I'm not even aware of the problem. I want God to search those things out in me, convict my heart so that I can work those things out and live a life of holiness.
That's what the preacher is encouraging of the people here. God's word would penetrate the heart way deep down into the center. There is nothing that you can hide from God for he knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart and he will expose those things and cleanse us of those things if we ask for his forgiveness that we may walk in holiness all our days.
Verse 13, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we have an account to give. Now this is kind of a bookend to what we read at the very start of chapter four.
So that's chapter four, verse 13, chapter four, verse one, therefore let us fear lest while a promise remains of entering into his rest, any one of you may seem to have fallen short of it. So we should live in fear, not in fear in such a way that we're constantly worried about God hitting us with a lightning bolt or something like, you know, I'm just afraid of judgment falling down upon me at any moment.
This is a cautious fear that we would be careful to walk in righteousness, not becoming lazy with it, not becoming too self-confident that we would then lose our grip on the faith and go after the desires of our flesh or the temptations of the world.
But we are careful because no creature is hidden from his sight. God knows everything. All things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we have to give an account. So we go on these last few verses of chapter four, verses 14 to 16.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us take hold of our confession. This is a reminder that comes back up again and again that we would continue to hold fast to our confession of faith.
It was in chapter one. It was in chapter two. Remember these things that have been spoken to you. Remember who was being talked about when you heard the gospel. It is Jesus Christ who is our savior. There is no other way.
There is no being higher. There is not a plan B in God's plan of salvation. Christ is it. So hold fast to Christ. Take hold of that confession. He is our great high priest. Now, while verse 13 is kind of a bookend to verse one, verse 14 is a bookend to the start of chapter three.
Like we have a whole section here that's starting to be summed up as we're finishing up chapter four. So remember, at the start of chapter three, the argument was made that Jesus is the greater Moses.
He is the greater high priest. So since we have a great high priest, he who passes into the holy of holies on our behalf and atones for our sin, that's what the high priest did on the day of atonement on Yom Kippur.
He atoned for the sins of the people. Christ has done that for us. He has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God. So let us take hold of our confession. Jesus, as the greatest high priest, has gone into a place that no one could walk into.
Now, the high priest, whether it was in the tabernacle or in the temple, that high priest went into a place that none of the other people of Israel, in fact, no one else in the world could go into the holy of holies, only the high priest.
And he did that only once a year to atone for the sins of the people. And he walked in there three times, first to atone for his own sins, then for the other priests and then for the rest of the people of Israel, sprinkling the blood of the lamb that was sacrificed on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.
So he did that and only he could do that, and he had to follow very strict rules to even be fitting, to even be worthy of walking into that place where God was, the presence of God right there on the top of the Ark of the Covenant to sacrifice on behalf of the people.
That was just a single place on earth, the place where God dwelled in the holy of holies. That high priest could not have ascended into heaven to atone for the sins of the people. But Jesus has done that for us.
He ascended into heaven. He has entered into the heavenly place and atone for us there. And that's really where it matters. Hence why an argument is going to be made a little bit later on in Hebrews. The blood of bulls and goats never had the power to forgive anybody of sins anyway.
Where we need to be forgiven our sins is before God in his throne room. So it's there that our sins are forgiven, not in some geographical location on earth. And so we trust that Jesus Christ is the one who has entered in on our behalf and atone for our sins before God, because it is to him that we owe our debt.
And Jesus paid it with his death on the cross, as said in Colossians 2. I read this section yesterday. Our debt was paid by being nailed to the cross. Jesus paid for it on our behalf. So in the heavenly registry, there are not sins that are being held against us.
Jesus has expunged our sins. They are no more. We have been justified by faith. He has taken our sins, thrown them as far as the east is from the west and remembered them no more, as it says in the Psalms.
I have blotted out your transgressions, as it says in Isaiah. As far as God is concerned, our sins have been washed away. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, it says in verse 15, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are now talking about weakness there.
We're talking about our the temptations that are around us all the time. Jesus was tempted. So he can sympathize with us in that he is tempted, but he never gave in to that temptation. He is without sin.
He was tempted in all things like we are yet without sin so that he has been perfected as that perfect sacrifice who can enter into the holy of holies on our behalf. But we ourselves, we have sinned, we have been tempted and we sin.
But we also have the great example and the power to resist that temptation in Jesus Christ, he who was tempted and resisted. And so through Christ, we can resist that temptation as well. I read from first Corinthians 10 a moment ago.
This is verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it.
We have a way of escape and Jesus Christ gives that it gives that ability to us to recognize the temptation and flee from it that we may not fall into disobedience, but walk in uprightness and holiness.
Finally, verse 16, therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We draw near with confidence. We know that we can enter into the place of God because Christ has entered in for us.
So we may draw near to him resisting the devil and he will flee from us. We draw near to God and he will draw near to us that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You are not expected to have to walk this road or fight these battles, these spiritual battles, temptations, things like that.
You're not expected to have to fight that on your own. In fact, if you try to do that on your own, you are self-righteous and you will fail. But we are meant to draw near to Christ and rely upon him and he will give us the strength and the ability to walk in holiness, to resist the evil and walk in uprightness in his name.
I often close with this prayer, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. That's right out of Psalm 23. Ask that of God every day. Forgive me of my sins and lead me in paths of righteousness.
Let's do that now. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we've read here, what we have learned, and may we continue to hold fast to our confession of faith. Who is Jesus Christ? He who died for us rose again.
He entered into the holy of holies for us. It is through him that our sins are forgiven and we are clothed in his righteousness. So make us to walk in his righteousness today. Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and we find grace to help in time of need.
Give us the ability to resist temptation and walk in holiness. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake, for it is to your great name belongs all the honor and the glory forever. Amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.