Book of Hebrews - Ch. 3

Father, we thank you for another day, and we thank you for the evening.

I thank you for these friends and brothers and sisters who've come together from a busy schedule and taking time out from doing

those things that are necessary and will have to be done in another time.

Father, taking time out to come and gather together in a place that has been committed to you for worship and service,

that, Father, we might search your Scripture and that we might understand more about Him who is the Living Word

by studying together.

We thank you, Father, for a church that is willing to lay aside time in its history and in

its service to just study the Word.

And, Father, I thank you for the refreshing thoughts, and I thank you for the refreshment of spirit that it is

to sense a pastor and people who want to study the Word.

And so, Father, I just pray that as we gather together again, we commit our minds to you that you might teach us that which would make us

more effective people, make us more faithful, more fruitful, and make us more joyous in our daily

walk.

Father, bless every life, every family, every personality that's present.

And, Father, we just pray that everything that's done will be conducive to the Spirit of God working in our lives, and we surrender

ourselves to you.

And in our heart of hearts, we just want to be what you want us to be.

And so, Father, we ask that you would guide our thinking together in this service, and we'll praise you for the privilege of studying together

at your feet.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The third argument by the writer of the book of Hebrews, whether it be Paul, Apollos, whoever it is,

the third argument, he has said in chapter 1 that Jesus Christ was superior to angels,

better than angels.

We said the word better, and then we recalled he said he's better than prophets.

He is better than prophets.

Now, he's going to get into dangerous ground because he is about to say to these Jewish people

that he is better than Moshe Rabbeinu, better than Rabbi Moses.

Now, when you go to a Jew and you start telling him that anybody is better than Moses, you

better have some proof, you better have some credibility, you better have something to authenticate that particular statement because

that's where the rubber hits the road, so to speak.

And yet, it is the third argument for the authority of Jesus Christ.

Now, Moses, of course, is the great hero of the Jewish nation.

He is called the great lawgiver.

He's called the great deliverer.

He's called the great leader and the great Moses.

Now, Paul, or the writer of the Hebrews, in order to prove the Messiah's, and

the word Messiah, you know that when I say Messiah, I may say Christ.

The word Christ, you and I know, is the English for the Greek Christos.

It means exactly the same as the Hebrew Mashiach, which is Messiah.

Messiah and Christ mean identically the same thing.

And it basically just simply means anointed one.

It doesn't mean the anointed one.

It means anointed one.

In order for Messiah, or Mashiach, to be the anointed one, it has to be Hamashiach, ha

meaning the.

So, when you say anointed one, you say Christ.

Now, if you tell me that, I know you're talking about Jesus.

If I say to you Christ, you know I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when you go out into the world, there are people who interpret the word Christ or interpret the word Messiah to refer to

a particular individual, but it may not be the one you're talking about.

So, his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then there's no mistaking who you are talking about.

But for us, we'll say Messiah, sometimes I will say Christ.

But in order for him to prove this, do you realize what he is saying to these people?

He is saying that Christianity is superior to Judaism.

If Christ is superior to Moses, then Christianity is superior to Judaism.

And this is traumatic at this time in history.

Do you realize that the first church was in Jerusalem and they would not even let Gentiles be a member of it?

Gentiles could not even be a member of the church.

And you remember in Acts chapter 15, when Paul and Barnabas went down and James was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem?

And Peter was there and it says, Peter spoke, Paul spoke.

Boy, you're talking about a fantastic business meeting.

What do you think would have happened if Peter stood up and said, this is the way it ought to be?

And Paul said, I think this is the way it ought to be.

Barnabas says, well, here's what I think.

And James and all of them are standing there together and they're talking and they are discussing whether or not the

gospel is to go out to the Gentile world or to stay with the Jewish people.

And do you know who made that decision?

James, the pastor.

You read Acts 15, brother, it was no board of anything meeting.

James got along with God and the scripture says he came back and says, this is what the Holy Spirit

wants us to do.

Paul, you and Barnabas will go out to the Gentile world.

Peter, the rest of us will stay and deal with the Jews.

And that's why Paul is called the apostle to the Gentiles.

And from that day on, Peter and Paul did not come back together again.

And a tremendous decision was made at that time.

And so in order for the writer of the Hebrews to be writing Jewish people at this time in history,

it's a tremendous thing for him to say Christianity is superior to Judaism.

And this was a part of the problem in that particular time.

Now, after it moved along, Gentiles didn't want Jews to come in.

And it's exactly that way today.

Gentiles don't like Jews intruding into the church.

If a Jew comes into the church and has a yarmulke on, a skullcap, they say, he's still under the law.

And it has nothing to do with the law whatsoever.

It is a part of its culture.

It's like someone from India who would come in wearing a sari.

It's no different in the world.

And yet, because of a lack of understanding, that's why you can't get Jews into the church today.

That's why Jews won't come into the church today.

Because they know that they are not wanted in the church by most people.

And so it has been a problem.

Well, the writer of the Hebrews doesn't fade him.

He moves right out into that area.

And the first thing he says is that in the office that he holds, Jesus Christ is superior.

In the office that he holds, he is superior.

And the first two verses, he hits it very quickly.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider.

We talked Sunday morning about the word consider.

Consider.

Pay close attention.

Observe attentively.

The apostle and high priest is calling Jesus an apostle.

You see that?

The apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him as

also Moses was faithful in all of his house.

Now Moses was primarily what?

What office did Moses hold?

Well, what would you say to categorize Moses?

You and I would agree that he was a prophet primarily.

Primarily he was a prophet.

He's the one who spoke out the things of God.

There are many scriptures.

Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 to 19, Acts 3, 22, and other places.

But also, he also functioned as a priest.

On more than one occasion, Moses was a prophet, but he also functioned as a priest.

In Psalm 99, 6, it gives us a reference here.

And then, are you aware that in Deuteronomy 33, verses 4 through 7, that Moses is called a king?

In Deuteronomy 33, verses 4 through 7, he was a prophet, and a priest, and a king.

So when the New Testament tells me that God will raise up, and the scripture says in the Old Testament that God was going to raise

up, and you put them together and it says God was going to raise up a prophet like unto Moses, it's not one who's going to be a

prophet and a priest and a king, but would be greater than Moses.

And so Moses had these offices.

Now, what's the basic difference he's saying here?

What he's going to lead us into that Moses was called by God, was he not?

Jesus was sent by God, and it's all different in the world.

It's a matter of from whence you came.

Moses was raised up from an earthly group of people, and Jesus was sent from the heavenly pinnacles of glory to walk the sandy

shores of Galilee.

And he is the apostle.

The word apostle, essentially, in its technical meaning is the sent one.

Sent ones.

We say messengers, apostolos, messengers of the Lord.

But when you see it here, and the King James does rightly capitalize the word apostle here, and it says the

apostle, then the sent one, he is the one that was sent for that purpose.

Now, Moses was a servant, was he not?

What is the Christ?

What is Messiah?

What's the difference?

Servant and his son.

Servant and his son.

That's a basic difference that he's going to talk about in this passage of scripture.

And not only that, Moses served in the house of the Lord.

Look when he pleads at verse 3.

This man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath built the house hath

more honor than the house.

For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house.

So what he's saying here is that Moses, being who he was, Moses

is serving in the house, but Christ is over the house.

He's over the house.

Now, one additional thing is Moses never was, what, the high priest in Israel.

Who was the first high priest of Israel?

Pardon me?

Aaron.

Aaron, yes.

The brother of Moses.

That's one office Moses never had.

Now, Aaron could go into the Holy of Holies, could he not, in the tabernacle?

He could go into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, once a year.

He went in, not without blood.

He went in there, and anybody else who went in there would have been killed instantly.

And if he ever went in without blood, he would have been killed instantly.

Moses was never allowed to do that, but it says Jesus, in verse 1, is the high priest.

He has been able to do that, which Moses could not do.

So Moses being a prophet of the law and Jesus being a prophet of godliness

and being a prophet of grace, the apostle of grace.

Now, grace is in the Old Testament, don't make a mistake.

People in the Old Testament experience the grace of God just like people in the New Testament just like you do.

There's no old Bible and a new Bible.

It is one Bible.

And the people in the Old Testament experienced the grace of God and they were saved by faith just exactly like you are saved by faith.

There's no difference in it whatsoever.

The difference is the progression of God's revelation and what he required of them through faithfulness and obedience and the

grace that he gave.

And so Moses is dealing with an earthly -oriented people, and Jesus is dealing with a heavenly

-oriented people.

You and I are not earthly -oriented people.

You're only here for 89 years, 100 if you're fortunate, or unfortunate, whichever way you want to put it.

And yet, what is that?

That your life is like the breath of your hand.

It's like a wisp of paper.

89 years is nothing if you compare that to eternity.

But the Israelites are earthly -oriented and you are not earthly -oriented people.

And this is a major difference concerning Moses and concerning Christ.

But the major, major difference is Moses sinned.

He couldn't even go into the Promised Land.

And Christ was perfect.

Christ was perfect.

Although tested, he was perfect and lived a sinless life.

And that's why he says pay attention to him in verse 1.

Consider him.

I mean, think about who he is.

Think about what he's done.

Don't just use his name.

Think about what's going on with him.

And so, we find that he moves along in verse 3 and verse 4, 5, and then he goes on down to verse 6.

But Christ as son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast to confidence

and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end.

Now the scripture says Moses was faithful.

You see, a person may make a mistake in their life, but God forgives mistakes and considers them faithful.

And God considers Moses faithful, and Moses is in that great chapter of faith in Hebrews 11 that we'll see.

And Jesus is like unto the prophet Moses.

And so that's why when you go and you read the scripture in Romans 10, verse 17, it says there are sins and iniquity, which I remember no more.

You may remember them, but God doesn't.

And when God forgives, he forgives.

And so he considers him righteous, and Moses is considered a righteous man.

Isn't it interesting you read the story of David that the scripture says about King David that he followed the Lord in all things?

But you and I know David had some problems in his life, but the major thing about David is David always repented.

David always repented.

And when a person repents, God just erases it and stops him all over again.

And so he could say David was righteous in all these things.

Why?

David followed, he was a man after God's own heart.

Well if he was a man after God's own heart, then he had to be righteous.

And this is what he's indicating to us in the man Moses.

Moses was a servant.

Moses served in the house.

Christ is the son.

He rules over the house.

And Moses was a servant in Israel, which was God's Old Testament household.

Christ essentially is over the church, which is God's New Testament household, if you want to make that kind

of a distinction.

Now in 2 Samuel 7, we mentioned that.

You recall about David, the Davidic covenant, God's covenant with David, where God said in verse 16 that he would establish a house

of David, make a lineage.

And he'd have a whole household of the faithful.

And Jesus Christ traces his lineage all the way back through David.

David.

You recall it.

Look with me.

You have something you already know.

But turn to the book of Levi chapter 1.

Look at chapter 1 with me.

It's something you've already noticed.

I'm sure old times past.

Levi chapter 1.

It's Matthew.

His name is Levi.

You've got to listen.

Yeah.

Boy, you already knew that, didn't you?

Sure.

Well, we'll call him by his name, Levi Matthew.

In the first 16 verses, you have what's called a genealogy.

Generations.

Now you've noticed this on many occasions, but for chance there's a new Christian here or someone who's not picked up on it.

Let's just share this with them.

In chapter 1 verse 1, the book of the generations, the book of the genealogy of

Jesus Christ.

Now watch it.

The son of David, the son of Abraham.

Now anytime you list a family tree, the oldest persons list first.

But here he isn't.

Here the patriarchal line yields itself to the kingly line because Matthew is writing

his portion of the New Testament concerning Jesus.

He's going to prove to the Jewish people that Jesus is the king of the Jews and he's the rightful heir to the throne of David.

And so he descends the son of David and he puts David ahead of Abraham.

And so Jesus called the son of David, indicating that he is the one that is promised by the Lord.

Now the church, as I say, is the heavenly household.

It is interesting when you study the Old Testament scriptures that Israel time again is referred to, and it's a little used phrase,

and yet I've heard very few sermons on this.

Israel is called wife of Jehovah, and the church is called bride of Christ in the New Testament.

But Israel is the wife of Jehovah and has an eternal relationship with God.

You might well study Romans chapter 11, where Paul says that there will come out of Zion the deliverer who will turn

away ungodliness from Israel, for this is my covenant with them, and I will turn away their captivity before their eyes, and

concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake.

And so they have an eternal relationship of the faithful remnant of Israel with God the Father through Jesus who is the

Messiah.

The church has an eternal relationship primarily centered in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, the King of

kings, and the Lord of lords.

In the heavenly realm we see two songs, the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, indicating Israel and the church.

Israel and the church, all of it pointing to the glory of Christ as the center figure, and all the worship of heaven centers around him, of

course.

So now he's dealing with this kind of a mind.

This is the mind that these people have in this passage of scripture.

And so, in Galatians chapter 3, it talks about being the seed of Abraham.

Now let me correct something here, for chance someone may not, may be thinking of this, and many of you don't, but everywhere I go,

I hear people talking about, we are spiritual Jews.

That is an impossibility.

Nowhere in the holy scriptures will you ever find the phrase that says that Christians are spiritual Jews.

It never says such a thing.

That is the figment of somebody's spiritualizing imagination.

It just isn't so.

Well, we are spiritual Israel.

You can't find me a verse of scripture that makes that statement either.

What you are, is you are children of Abraham, you are children of the promise, you are the seed

of Abraham by faith.

Abraham is the father of the faithful.

He is the father of the leading.

And the way that you come in that, you come into a part of Genesis 12, 1 -3, where God gave

Abraham seven promises, and Christians get in on one of those promises, and the other

six are related to earthly things with the nation of Israel.

In these shall all families of the earth be blessed, and that's the way we as Christians come into that, through the Lord

Jesus.

And so we are spiritual seed of Abraham, because we have exercised faith in him.

And we have been believing, and by believing, we have been made righteous, just like Abraham believed God, and it was

accounted on him to righteousness.

Now that's what Paul is saying in Galatians 3, but the book of Galatians, the book of Galatians does not

deal with the church and Israel, it deals with law and grace.

Law and grace.

And the only place that Paul deals with the Jewish problem is in Romans 9, 10, and 11.

And he essentially doesn't deal with it anywhere else except making a reference in Romans 2.

And so consequently what I'm saying is that it is not true, as this I understand the scripture, that the

church is spiritual Israel, or that you are a spiritual Jew.

You are not.

The Jew primarily refers to the tribe of Judah, although it is used generally in some places in scripture, such as

Zechariah 12 -14.

The first Hebrew was Abraham, the first Israelite was Jacob.

And so you don't fit into that, but you are on the spiritual seed of Abraham.

The spiritual seed of Abraham.

But more importantly, you are a part of the bride of Christ, the church.

That unique thing that stands out amongst all ages, and it is the apple of Christ's eye.

It is the apple of his eye, and that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And by the church I'm simply meaning all born -again believers.

Now two other thoughts concerning Moses and Christ.

First of all, Moses was a sermon, while Christ is the Son.

What that suggests to you and me is that the Old Testament ministry of the Lord was that of legal

bondage.

Now, don't think of bondage in the bad sense.

It was a ministry in the Old Testament of legal bondage, whereas New Testament

Christianity is that of rejoicing.

It is that of freedom, liberty, and joy in the Lord.

I'll give you an example.

We sometimes, I think, are a little hard, and my being Jewish and a Jewish Christian, I have to be careful that my prejudice and bias

doesn't slip in, but I do think that we were quite hard sometimes on the people of Israel in the sense we say, well, how come they didn't

do this and how come they did this?

Ladies and gentlemen, if you had to offer a sacrifice every time you sinned, what would you do?

I mean, if you had to go off for a cow or a bull, or you had to go buy you some birds, and three and four times a day

you were offering a transgression sacrifice, you were offering a peace sacrifice, every Passover you had to offer

a lamb, and every time you turn around you had to go off for a goat, and every time you turn around you had to go to the temple, and you were in the temple morning, you were in the

temple at noon, you were in the temple at night, and you had to wash your hands.

On the Sabbath you couldn't go anywhere, couldn't walk over five -eighths of a mile, you had to wash your hands and do this, and you had to do all these prayers three times

a year, you had to go to Jerusalem, tell me how faithful would you be?

Because many of your people who criticize the Israelites don't come to your church any Sunday morning, some come Sunday

morning and never come Sunday night, some come on Sunday morning and never come again, some come on Easter, some come on

Christmas, and yet they are members of your church, and if this church ever tries to remove them from your church role, you'd be in a war with

them, and the pastor would be in a war with some of you.

Excuse me.

And yet we turn around and criticize the Israelites, who in many ways had demands placed upon them, you and I have never had placed upon us,

and yet we are critical of them sometimes for their lack of faithfulness, when we turn around and rationalize our unfaithfulness

away, and we say, well, we are under grace, and we don't have to do all that, you better thank God, but you see, they were too,

they were too.

But God has placed demands upon us, but theirs was a legal bondage, a legal bondage, whereas ours, it is

not true, ours is one of liberty and joy, not licensed, but liberty and joy.

We can do whatever we want to do as Christians.

As Christians, there are some things we just don't want to do.

There are things we are committed not to do, and so our minds are turned in different directions, and yet we don't have to go

through all these rituals that they do.

We are considered righteous by the Lord, and so this is what he's saying here, in Galatians chapter

2, verse 4, he says the same thing in all of Galatians chapter 4, he deals with this particular matter,

and the Old Testament law is actually in Galatians 5, verse 1, called a yoke of bondage, a

yoke of bondage, why?

Because it is that, it is very difficult to do that, it would be extremely difficult for a person to

keep the law as it is given, 613 Mosaic laws are displayed in the book

of Leviticus, 613 laws that they had to

keep.

What shall we do?

We say, well, thank God, we only got two, and we can't even keep them.

To love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, love him maybe like yourself, you and I struggle with those two, and we criticize those people because they can't

keep 613, see what I'm saying?

You out here know what I'm saying, is that what you're telling me?

The other one is, and I think this is so, so very important, so very important, in this

particular passage, it talks about Moses and

comparing him with Christ, is the fact that Christ is the fulfillment of everything that is spoken of

in the Old Testament.

Look at verse 5, and Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for testimony of

those things which were to be spoken after.

The Old Testament was shadows and types and pictures of that which was to come.

In our literature, you can see that we have several things, we have a whole list of tapes on Christian living as seen

in the tabernacle in the wilderness that Moses built.

You and I know as Christians that every item in that tabernacle speaks of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus,

even to the silver hooks, everything in that correlates exactly.

When you look at the Gospel of John, and you begin with chapter 1 of John, as you walk through the chapter breakdown of John, you will

follow that the Gospel of John follows every item in that tabernacle.

Every single item, his chapter breakdown correlates exactly.

As you move towards the Holy of Holies, that's exactly what John does in his Gospel.

Now, whether he knew it or the Holy Spirit just led him to put it that way, it's beyond my mind, but I know that it is there.

But yet, we know those Old Testament things, they were just shadows, they were just pictures looking forward to that one

substitutionary atonement through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything moved towards him, and yet, sometimes they saw and sometimes they did not see.

And so, it says those things in this verse which were to be spoken after.

In Christ, we have the true light shining.

I am the light of the world.

And so, we have that very, very clearly.

And then, we go down to verse 7, and he changes.

And he's going to talk about something that he spends the next entire chapter talking about.

And it's something that you and I probably have the most difficulty in getting to.

And that is, Christ gives a greater rest than Moses was able to give the Israelites.

A greater rest than they were able to give.

The word rest appears 12 times in chapters 3 and 4, R -E -S -T, rest.

12 times, you will find it.

Now, 12 is a significant figure in it.

You got 12 apostles, you got 12 tribes of Israel, 12 is a significant number.

And if you want to know what that is, you can write me and get my little book on the number 7, where we deal with numbers.

See, I don't have to make long announcements, I just drop them in as we go along here, and then you know what's available to you.

But the writer for the book of Hebrews uses Israel and the Jewish people as

illustrations of spiritual truth.

He's just illustrating the spiritual truth.

He does this in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

In fact, many of the writers of the New Testament use Israel as a picture of truth to us that we ought to learn.

First of all, the Jews were in Egypt.

Look at chapter 3, verse 7.

Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit saith today, if you will hear his voice.

Now, verses 7 through 11 of chapter 3 in Hebrews, he's going to quote Psalm 95,

verses 7 to 11.

Psalm 95, verses 7 to 11 are quoted in chapter 3, verses 7 through 11.

Not verbatim, but you'll find that those phrases are almost exactly like it.

Verse 8, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the days of the testing, of the tempting, or the trial in the wilderness.

When your fathers put me to the test, proved me, and saw my works for 40 years.

And so, he's referring back that the Jewish people were in bondage in Egypt for how long?

We say 400 years.

The Bible says 420 years.

They were actually there 420 years.

Now, they were there, and they were languishing on the tyranny of the Pharaohs.

And you and I know that Egypt in the New Testament, I'm not talking about the Egyptian people, but Egypt is always a picture of the

world in the Bible.

When he talks about Egypt in a spiritual sense, it's a picture of being in the world.

And so, what he's saying is that the Israelites were in bondage in the world.

And in like manner, Christians are in bondage in the world.

And he has to bring the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, and he's got to bring you and me out of bondage in this world.

He said, you are in the world, but you are not of the world.

There is to be a separation in the life of the Christian.

We are not to be isolated from people in the world, but we are to be separated in our activities, in our friendships, in our

fellowships, in our associations, in our goals, in our dreams, in our hopes, in our aspirations, in our direction, in our

purpose.

All those things, we are to be separated, and we are to be different.

They may not agree with us, they may not like that, but that is immaterial.

We are to be separated people.

We are to be peculiar people in the way that our lifestyle functions, and this is what he's saying.

Secondly, what else occurred between the people of Israel that is similar to what, how were they redeemed?

Do you recall in Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12, he says, take a lamb.

Didn't he say take a lamb on the 10th day of the month of Nisan, N -I -S -A -N.

The 10th day of the month of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar, God said, this will be the beginning of months for you, and that was the last month.

He said, this will be the beginning of the months for you, and you take that lamb, he says, and you take that lamb, you check it out, make sure it's a

male, firstborn, first year, no bones broken, no bruises, no blemishes, and you offer it, and he says in Exodus 12, he says,

you offer it on the 14th day of the month.

Now 10th day to the 14th day is five days.

Five is the Bible number for grace.

And on the 14th day of the month, he said, you kill that lamb and put the blood on the lintel and the doorpost.

Now numbers are in the Bible, and dates are significant, sometimes, most of the time, they are very significant in what you and

I believe.

Now you and I know about the lamb, and you know the story of how Moses killed the lamb and put it on the lintel and the doorpost that was

protecting him from the death angel that was coming in.

Now it is quite interesting to me that when I go read the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 9, verses 25, 6,

and 7, when you read about the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel.

Now it is my contention that it is impossible for a person to understand anything, basically, about Bible prophecy without

understanding something about the 70 weeks prophecies of Daniel.

It is that key passage, and one of the great passages, and one of the top four passages that relate 2 Samuel

7 is one, and in Daniel chapter 9, when he talks about the 70 week prophecy, what it says is, from the time of

the going out of the decree, for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, to the rebuilding of the temple, the

Messiah would come.

Now Daniel wrote that back in the Old Testament.

And he said he would be cut off at a certain time.

He would be cut off out of the land of the living, not for himself, but for his people.

Then later on he talks about how a prince would come who would destroy the city of Jerusalem.

Now it is fascinating to me that when I go back to the 10th day of the month of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar, when

God told Moses to take that little lamb, and he took it into that house, who was in the house with Moses, do you remember?

Who was his brother?

High priest?

Aram.

Aram was going to be the high priest of Israel.

When Jesus rode that donkey into Jerusalem to die on the cross, do you know what day of the month it was?

It was the 10th day of the month of Nisan.

The same day that God told Moses to take that lamb.

And he went in, and who was the first person that he saw when they came and got him out of the garden against him and captured him?

Who was the first person that met the Lamb of God?

It was the high priest of Israel, just like that lamb was in Egypt.

And you can walk all the way down that story and you can find it in Jesus was crucified on the 14th day of the month, according to the

Jewish calendar, according to Holy Scripture.

And the scriptures would have required, Jewish law would have required, that he be killed at three o 'clock in the afternoon.

Because that's exactly when the Passover lamb was killed, between the evenings, which comes out at three o 'clock in the afternoon.

If you study the calendar, you might want to get my tape on which day he was crucified and it'll be all right.

It won't be on the test, don't worry, take a deep breath.

But you see, when the Bible says Moses and the prophets, they spoke about me, dear people, it's up

to you and me to find out how it spoke about him.

If it talks about Jesus, then you and I want to know about him.

And we ought to go back in there and we can find him in every book.

You can find him in the Psalms, you can find him in the prophets.

People say, I don't like to read that stuff, it's dry and boring.

That is because you're not looking for your Lord in there.

You're looking for some fact about something.

But if you go and understand, this whole book just exclaims the majesty of Jesus.

This whole book just proudly proclaims that Jesus is Lord, anywhere you want to go in there.

Why, then it makes it a little more exciting to read it and try to find him in those places.

Try to find his footprints as you walk through the scriptures.

Oh, we always around those African violets of the crucifixion.

We hang about the flourishing rose of Calvary.

But you see in God's garden, there are beautiful flowers that you do not see unless you push aside those big roses and violets

and go down in and find those beautiful gardenias.

You can find those beautiful petunias and you can find those beautiful little things all through God's word if we're willing to walk

through there.

The tragedy is most Christians have learned all they're ever going to learn about the Bible.

They've learned all they're going to learn and God help anybody that ever tries to teach them intravenously or any other way, they are not going to accept

it.

They regurgitate it and they don't like it.

So you and I are not that way and that's why we're here.

So we understand that God redeemed them.

Now God promised the Jews a land of blessing and what he's promised us is a life of blessing

and a promise of a place in heaven with him in his blessed presence.

So God then takes the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of the world, and he passes them through the Red Sea, which is a picture

of our separation from the world.

And he leads them right up to Canaan and they don't go in.

At that particular point, a strange thing happened.

They did not enter into that rest that God promised and you know that God sent some spies out into the land

and they all came back and everybody said, no, no, no, no.

And how many men said yes?

Two.

That time the majority was wrong and just because the majority votes something doesn't make it right.

It doesn't make it wrong but the majority is not always right.

Many times it is but not always and this is one of those times when the majority was wrong and it cost every

single Israelite except Joshua and Caleb their life of that original group that went out.

Of the original generation, they all lost their lives because they believed the majority.

Now don't get all huffed up and proud and say, well, I've been telling them they ought to do what I told them.

No, it doesn't work that way either.

It doesn't work that way either.

There is a balance to be found in all of this and we have to find that balance.

And so the nation did not enter in.

And so what he does is he begins to warn them in this particular time.

He gets in verse 7 and he goes all the way down through verse 19 and he begins to warn the

people.

And he talks to them about being very careful that they don't fall into the same thing.

And in chapter 3 and 4, you'll find that he mentions three kinds of rest that he's going to discuss with them.

Three kinds of rest that he deals with.

The first one is in chapter 4, verse 3, if you'll look with me.

We'll just touch on these.

For we who have believed do enter into rest.

That is the rest of salvation.

You rest in your salvation.

The next one is in chapter 4, verse 11.

Chapter 4, verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest and that is a rest of victory.

That's a rest in daily victory in the life in the midst of trials and that is symbolized by Canaan.

Canaan is never a picture of heaven in the scripture.

I hear people all the time talking about on Jordan's stormy banks, I stand cast a wishful eye and they want to go on and on to Canaan.

Canaan, listen, in heaven there's going to be no wars, there's going to be no trials, there's going to be no troubles, no tears, no heartaches, no death.

And yet in Canaan there were all of those things.

Canaan is a picture of your daily life, victory in spite of all of those things and peace in the midst of all

of those storms.

And then the third one is in chapter 4, verse 9, where it talks about there remains therefore rest to the

people of God.

That is the Greek word sabbatismo, which means a future eternal rest.

It's a picture of God himself in rest.

God himself in rest.

And so these rests are pictured in the scriptures concerning that.

It's the heavenly rest.

Now, we'll look at these a little clearer, more clearly when we get into chapter 4.

I want to move very quickly so that we can get there.

But just please keep in your mind that Canaan is never a picture of heaven.

It is only a picture of your victory in your daily life.

We have been brought out of the bondage of the world and now we ought to be, we ought to be in rest.

But there's a reason why we aren't.

There's a reason why we aren't.

And as I said, Paul from verse 7 through 11, he quoted Psalm 95.

And there is a reason for that.

You might want at your leisure to read Exodus chapter 17.

So here's the basic theme of Hebrews.

Let's go on to maturity.

Let's go on to completion.

Let's go on to perfection, maturity.

Let's go on to that so that we can have that rest of our daily life.

Not be caught up in the turmoil of all that is going on around us.

Now what happens?

Notice me in verse 12.

Here's why we don't get into Canaan.

Here's why people, Christians are not restful.

Here's why Christians don't have confidence.

Here's why you find Christians on Valium and everything else because they don't have peace and confidence and assurance and rest in their

heart, in their mind, and in their soul.

Verse 12, take heed brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief.

That's what happened to the Israelites.

They did not believe.

Joshua and Caleb did, but the rest of them didn't.

In departing from the living God, departing, apostasy, hold the truth and turn away from it.

Don't do that.

You know the truth, stand for it.

But exhort one another daily.

It's what he's talking about.

Exhort one another.

Encourage one another.

And don't have these besetting sins that come in.

How do we do it?

First of all, departing from the living God, we don't hear his word.

And then we are deceived by sin.

Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin deceives.

It brings pleasure for a moment, the scripture tells us.

He says, encourage one another.

Don't criticize each other.

Don't beat each other down.

Exhort one another to go on.

Encourage each other.

Edify each other.

Lift each other up.

I'm going to make a statement that I believe you know well, but you know I find sometimes that Christians are the most unforgiving

people in the world.

I find, I find, you find somebody in the church that has a problem.

You know why people no longer come to the front of the church and say, I want you to pray for me.

I have this problem and they just pour their heart out.

You know why they don't?

Because first of all, they know they'll be criticized.

Secondly, they know that it'll be all over the city within 15 minutes after you leave this church.

And yet, it's exactly the place where the Bible says, confess your faults one to another.

That doesn't mean we just do it for the fun of it.

It's because it brings a cleansing to the heart and we are to encourage one another, to love one another, and to pray for one another.

But how many would dare do it?

Oh, we want everybody else to do it, but we won't do it.

And I'm grateful.

Now there are churches that I'm grateful I have a pastor that our church does that.

And it has the freedom.

Oh, we have people that are criticized, but they don't hang around long.

And we have people who just come and sometimes it's, I mean, they just pour their heart out.

And you talk about courage.

And yet, they are loved and encouraged and lifted and moved and edified and strengthened.

And there are other churches I know that do it.

I trust yours is one that does that.

But we ought to have that freedom in any church that honors the Lord, where we'd have a freedom to share with one another.

And that's what he's talking about here.

For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the

end.

We don't want to drift from the Word by neglect.

We don't want to doubt His Word.

We don't want to become dull towards His Word.

While it is to said, today if you will hear His voice.

And those are those exhortations that we talked about the other evening.

And so, he's applying this and he's saying, let's don't do that.

Look at verse 16, the last sentence.

Did not all that come out of Egypt by Moses?

This is what they did.

Don't be like them.

Don't be like they are.

They were bought by blood and covered by a cloud, yet most of them died in the wilderness.

They had God's presence, a pillar of fire and a cloud leading them by day and leading them by night.

The cloud was over the tabernacle.

He said, when the cloud rises up, you move.

When the cloud sets down, you stay, whether it be a day or a month, a year.

And they did.

And God gave them water from a rock, manna from heaven.

God performed miracle after miracle after miracle, and yet most of them lost their lives.

Isn't it true that we Christians have been hanging around church for years and years and years, while other Christians have just been blessed by the Lord and excited in the

Lord.

God's used them to win souls and so forth.

We're sitting around saying, I wish I was like that.

Boy, I wish I was happy like they are.

I mean, they're just happy all the time.

I don't understand them.

I mean, I don't understand them.

You know, I don't think they're real.

I don't.

He can't be real.

Look, she can't be real.

Why?

She's just happy all the time.

Why?

Yeah, she says she prays about everything.

Can you believe that?

Well, you know what we say?

I don't know anything else to do but pray.

If you prayed first, you'd save yourself a lot of problems.

And save yourself money.

Save yourself time.

Well, we do everything we can, and then we'll take it to the Lord.

That's the way we are.

And that's exactly the way the Israelites were.

And Paul said, don't be that way.

The writer of the Hebrews says, don't do that.

Don't do that.

Follow what God is telling you to do.

Listen to his voice, verse 17.

Verse 17 and 15, not hearing his voice.

Verse 13, allowing ourselves to be deceived by sin.

And Obed chapter 2, 1 through 4, it talks about drifting through neglect and doubting the word.

And sin is deceptive.

It is deceptive.

It, again, small and gradually becomes larger.

Ladies and gentlemen, young people, mountains are made out of grains of sand.

And any problem you and I face in our life that is a major problem, it didn't just pop up today.

It started as a little difficulty, a little tension, a little deception, a little rebellion, a little

selfishness, a little self -centeredness, a little egotism, a little egocentric attitude, a little self -pity, a little self

-righteousness, a little self -sufficiency, a little self -dependency.

It had some little start down there, and then all of a sudden, it's a mountain.

It's saying, well, look what happened.

We never saw it coming.

We never saw, and we won't ever see it coming.

That's why the Bible says, confess your sins.

If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Get them when they're small, and you can move a grain of sand, but listen, you got to have help to move a mountain.

You just kick that grain of sand out of the way, and just keep on going.

Just flip it out of the way and go.

And forget about it.

Now, you know that's true, don't you?

I know you do.

Let me give you an example.

I'll promise you that some of you sitting right here, about three weeks or a month ago or two months ago, you sinned.

You didn't mean to.

You didn't plan on it, but you did.

And you asked the Lord to forgive you of that sin.

And you know as well as I do, He did forgive you of that sin, and yet I'll promise you today, you've been thinking about it.

See, the devil's smart, and he just keeps bringing it back up.

He knows you've been forgiven, and he knows that God doesn't remember it no more.

He blots them out as the sun is blot out by the clouds and buries them in the depths of the sea and removes your iniquity, hides them behind his back and remembers them

no more.

He knows all that, moves them as far east, west, and west, but he wants to make sure you don't remember it.

And we sit around wondering, why not?

You ain't never going to figure out why you didn't.

Just confess it and go on with the Lord.

Press on and stop worrying about it.

Let it be water under the bridge, and let it go on over the falls of life, and forget it and go on.

It'll keep you off the valium, lady.

I guarantee you, it'll keep ulcers out of your system, brother.

But Satan knows us.

He knows us like a book.

He's been around a long time.

And so, he said, don't do these things.

Then he moves over into chapter four.

This chapter just continues along the theme of rest.

And we'll be through here in just a few moments.