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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty: The Book of Hebrews

Norman McNulty

Hebrews 1:1-9: Introduction and Divinity of Christ

Hebrews 1:9-2:9 “The Enemy After the Cross”

Hebrews 2:9-18 “The Humanity of Christ”

Hebrews 3 & 4 “God’s Rest”

Hebrews 5 and 6 “Milk or Strong Meat?”

Hebrews 7  “The Melchizedek Priesthood”

Hebrews 8 “The New Covenant High Priest”

Hebrews 9  “The Holy of Holies”

Hebrews 9:23-10:13  “The Blotting Out of Sin”

Hebrews 10:13-39  “Seated at the Right Hand of God”

Hebrews 11:1-7  “Faith in the Creator God”

Hebrews 11:8-40 Pilgrims and Strangers

Hebrews 11:39-12:4 Jesus and the Last Generation

Hebrews 12:5-29 “The Highway to Mount Zion”

Hebrews 13 “Final Class and Summary of Book”

So let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the Sabbath day and for the opportunity to study your word.

Bless us now as we study from the book of Hebrews.

May it enlighten our minds for the truths of our time.

Okay, and with our book classes it is a little more interactive, so I'll have some of you reading verses.

You can ask questions, make comments, and we have a microphone for that, So just a reminder of that.

We kind of got into chapter 3, an introduction into that.

But basically what we've seen so far, Chapter 1 shows that Jesus truly is God.

Chapter 2 shows that Jesus truly is man and he was made in all things like his brethren.

His brethren are those who are sanctified.

This week we're going to look at chapter 3 and chapter 4 and let's go ahead and have a volunteer to read Hebrews 3 verses 1 to 3.

Raja, if you could read Hebrews 3 verses 1-3.

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

For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house." Okay.

Now if you look at chapter 3, the first 6 verses compare Christ to Moses and then verses 7 to 19 show how Israel hardened their hearts against God during their experience in the wilderness.

And basically what we've seen so far and we've talked about this.

In chapter 1, Christ is better than the angels, he is God.

And chapter 5, we'll see that he's a better high priest.

Chapter 7 we'll see he's better than the Levitical priesthood.

Chapter 8 we see there's a better covenant.

But here we see Christ is better than Moses and yet Moses is being exhorted for his faithfulness.

So it's not like Moses is being put down, it's just that Christ is better.

And we talked about this last week as well, briefly.

Chapter 1 and chapter 2 show us that because Christ is God and because Christ is man, He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.

Christ is the name associated with His divinity.

Jesus is the name associated with His humanity.

Now we already kind of covered this last week, so I'm going to keep moving here.

So Christ is worthy to be our high priest and our apostle.

Moses was counted worthy of glory, but Christ of more glory.

And then let's have a volunteer to read verses 4 to 6.

Hebrews chapter 3 verses 4 to 6, right back there.

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, as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.

But Christ as his Son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Okay, now what Paul is doing here is very important because this is written in the 60s AD, the first century, and the Jewish Christians are still keeping the ceremonial Mosaic Law.

And what Paul is saying is, look, Moses was faithful and the house that he built was good but what Christ has built is better.

So Let's not get stuck in something that was built by a good man that pointed to something that was better that was going to come and now it has come.

And so that's basically what Paul is saying here.

And he is telling us that Christ is the Son over his own house, and we are part of that house if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm unto the end.

And if you go to Romans 8, it talks about how we are the sons of God when we accept Christ, when we walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

And so Christ is the 1 who builds all things.

So yes, Moses may have built the house during his time, but really, he was just doing what God told him, and then when Jesus came, he built a better house, so to speak.

And that is the way of salvation that Christ established as our Savior, as our Apostle and High Priest.

Now on the basis of that, in these first 6 verses, what Paul is showing us is that Christ is better than Moses.

So if Christ is better than Moses, even though Moses was a good man, at this point in Earth's history, who should we be following?

And On the basis of that, Paul then gives a warning to his readers, and that warning is just as true today as it was when he wrote this back then.

And it starts in verse 7, and I'd like a volunteer to read verses 7 to 10.

Joelle, why don't you read Hebrews 3, 7-10.

Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your father's Tempted me proved me and saw my works 40 days wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said they do always err in their heart they have not known my ways reverse 11 so I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest okay so verse 7 starts off.

This is the Holy Ghost speaking, and Paul is actually quoting from Psalms 95, And the interesting point about this is Psalms 95 is written after the children of Israel entered into the promised land.

And yet in Psalms 95 it says that the children of Israel did not enter into God's rest.

So if Psalms 95 says that the children of Israel didn't enter into God's rest, it's not talking really about entering into Canaan exclusively.

That was just the place that they were trying to go, but they were in the promised land when Psalms 95 was written, and the psalmist is saying, "'They shall not enter into my rest.'" And now Paul is quoting it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to say, hey, they shall not enter into my rest.

And he's using it to say today, listen to the Holy Spirit again, and hear God's voice.

And it's so easy for humanity to harden their hearts against the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And notice then what it says, in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years.

Now, what Paul is saying here is that the children of Israel saw the works of God for 40 years and after 40 years by verse 10 he still says I was grieved with that generation and said they do all way err in their heart.

Now that's a sad story That God's people, these are the people who saw the Red Sea opened supernaturally.

They saw the earth shake, they heard the voice of God, they saw the law given, they saw manna miraculously fall on the ground every day except the Sabbath for 40 years, and yet the indictment of that generation after 40 years was they do always err in their heart.

And Paul is saying to us, hey, you know what?

That's not just the case of that generation.

It can be the case of our generation if we ignore or provoke God the way they did.

Now, the question is what did they do to provoke God to wrath?

Right after the Red Sea experience, they come to Mara and they say, God led us out here in the wilderness to die.

They weren't just saying it, they meant it.

And then second time, after the water in Mara is turned from bitter to sweet, then they come into the wilderness, there's no water again, and they say the same thing.

Then after the manna's been provided for a while, they complain about the manna.

So then God sends them a quill and it kills a lot of them.

Then when the spies go into, this isn't necessarily in chronological order, but then when the spies go to scout out the promised land, 10 of the 12 say that we can't overcome the land, that there's giants in the land, and we cannot conquer that land.

Mind you, they've seen the Red Sea parted and the Egyptians destroyed when they were surrounded and boxed in.

They've had their temporal needs provided.

Their shoes and their clothes did not wear out supernaturally, they knew that that couldn't happen naturally, all of those things, and yet they continue to doubt God.

And finally, at the end of the 40 years, they provoked God for a final time when they ran out of water again, God tested them again, and this time they actually made Moses lose his temper, which of course there was no excuse for, so that kept him out of the promised land, and they were still doubting the promises of God.

And so after 40 years, after all of that, God says, 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." Now, as a practical application for each 1 of us, God tested the Israelites in each 1 of those situations to see how they would respond to that test.

He had given them plenty of evidence for them to know that God can work to do things in His powerful and supernatural way.

Red sea, bitter water to sweet, water coming out of a rock, all of those things.

And yet, every time they were tested, they said, we can't get out of this 1.

We've had moments in our life where God has clearly provided for us.

Maybe we needed a job, maybe it was when we found the truth for the first time and everything came together and it all made sense.

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Series

Norman McNulty: The Book of Hebrews

Hebrews 3 & 4 “God’s Rest”

Transcript

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