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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jevede Harris

A New Today

Our gracious Father who art in heaven, we are grateful to you Lord for another Sabbath.

We need a special outpouring of your Holy Spirit this morning.

We pray that in spite of everything that has happened, with the misfortune of not being able to print my notes, with the misfortune of a laptop that doesn't work very well.

We pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit will nonetheless be here, that you will place your words in my mouth.

And, Father, we pray that as we consecrate ourselves anew to you this morning, may we hear your voice speaking directly to our hearts.

Not my voice, not my message, but yours, O Lord, and yours be the glory today.

I noticed in preparing this message that Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 aren't exactly the easiest chapters in the Bible.

However, especially when you're trying to present it in about 30 minutes.

So I have broken down this message into 6 or 7 bite-sized pieces.

In order to get the message this morning, I'm going to ask us to focus on Paul's 6 or 7 concluding remarks, each 1 preceded by the word, therefore.

Turn with me as a preview to those concluding remarks.

Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

You may mark that 1 in your mind and in your Bibles.

The second which we will look at is Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1.

Let us therefore fear, Lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief.

Verse 9, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Verse 11, let us therefore, let us labor therefore to enter into his rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

And verse 16, let us therefore come boldly onto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Our therefore statements, which we will consider this morning as we study this passage.

Go back with me now to the first found in chapter 3 and verse 7.

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness." A review of Paul's major points to the Hebrews thus far, in chapter 1, Paul explained to the Hebrews that God the Father had spoken at various times and in various ways to the antecedents of the Christian church, that is, the Jewish forefathers, through the instrumentality of prophets.

However, in these most recent times, he has spoken to the current generation through 1 who was equal with God himself, that is Christ Jesus his son, the exact representation of his father's nature and 1 who is therefore superior to angels.

God's communication through his son Jesus was superior to every other mode that God has chosen to use in communicating to man.

Christ, who was truly God, became truly man, and as man suffered in the place of man to restore to him the dominion that he had lost to the devil at the time of the fall, to deliver him from death and to reconcile him to God.

Christ's human experience, his sacrifice, and his human experience, and his sacrifice, and resurrection equipped him to be a merciful and faithful high priest as he represents humanity in the heavenly sanctuary.

Jesus is superior to Moses even as much as the Creator is greater than the object created.

For while Moses was a servant in God's house, Jesus was a faithful son over God's house, a house by the way which he himself had built and over which he presides.

Paul says to the Hebrew Christians, by the way you are that house which Jesus built.

You are that house over which Jesus presides.

Therefore, you have an obligation to heed in its entirety the message of Christ, who made you and whom God has appointed over you.

So apparently the Hebrews were struggling to embrace Jesus's message in its totality.

So After outlining Jesus's credentials, Paul pleaded with them after quoting, even quoting what the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, that is today when you hear Jesus's voice, do not harden your hearts.

Do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of trial in the wilderness, verse 9, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years.

Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways.

The members of God's house of the Old Testament, under the leadership of Moses, hardened their hearts when God told them as a group to go in and possess the land of Canaan.

In their unbelief, you know this story well, in their unbelief that God could fulfill the promise that he had given to them to enter Canaan, they refused to obey, choosing rather to do what seemed most convenient.

The Bible says in Numbers chapter 14 verse 11 and 23 that they provoked the Lord by their refusal to obey, by their rebellion against their leaders, and by their obstinate decision to return to Egypt.

Numbers 14 verse 11, we hear there the cry, the heart of the Lord being expressed.

How long, he says, will this people provoke me?

Here God outlines what was the root of the problem that Israel had.

The root of their problem was that they would not believe.

Numbers 14 verse 23, surely the Lord says they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers.

In verse 11, so I swear in my wrath, God says, they shall not enter into my rest.

Now what is evident from scripture is that there are 2 aspects of this rest that God intended for Israel to have.

There was first a physical aspect which referred to their physical occupation of the land of Canaan along with the blessings that would attend their obedience.

For reference you may read Deuteronomy 12, Deuteronomy 28, Joshua 1 verse 15 and Joshua 21.

So there was that physical aspect to the rest that God intended for Israel, but the fuller, grander aspects of this promised rest was spiritual in nature.

The Lord intended that his people as a nation would become partakers of his holiness, completely consecrated to him.

For reference, Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 9 to 10.

But we go on reading in Hebrews chapter 3 looking at verses 14 to 15.

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

While it is said today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation." This passage indirectly expresses why Israel had become, why Israel had failed to become partakers with Christ.

They did not hold firmly till the end the confidence that they had at first.

Indeed, happy is the Christian who holds fast that confidence which he had when he first accepted Christ.

This concept of perseverance on the part of those who profess Christ is fundamental to this message, so fundamental in fact that Paul repeats it in his concluding statement as we shall see.

They failed to nurture their belief until their hearts were hardened.

And this was the reason why Israel failed to enter the spiritual aspect of God's rest.

They failed to become partners with Christ.

Now, Paul wishes to make an extension of this verse to the Hebrew Christians and of course to the church today.

It is our privilege to form and maintain a spiritual union with Christ beyond which we have not yet experienced.

And we as a church, we as a Sabbath school, we as a church at large, have a responsibility to help each other to attain to this goal.

The Bible says that this is a part that each 1 of us as individual members in God's church have to play.

Encourage 1 another, the Bible says, while it is still called today, lest any 1 of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Today refers of course to the long period of probation which God has continued to extend to his people from the beginning of creation until now.

It also extends to the short period of probation, which extends to each individual, for life after all is short, during which we are admonished to faithful obedience to God.

While probation day lasts, the Bible says, and the invitation to enter God's rest is still being extended.

It behoves us as we see our brothers and sisters who are at risk at being deceived by sin.

In fact, each 1 of us here have that risk of being deceived into sin.

So it behooves each of us to, as the Bible says, encourage 1 another, as it is called today, encourage 1 another while this great day of probation lasts.

Ellen White says, speak often words that will be a strength and an inspiration to those who hear.

We are all together too indifferent in regard to 1 another.

We forget that our fellow laborers are often in need of words of hope and a cheer.

When 1 is in trouble, call upon him and speak comforting words to him.

Nothing profound, simply it is our duty to encourage 1 another, the Bible says, while this day of probation lasts.

Hebrews chapter 4 And verse 1, our second therefore statement, the Bible says, Therefore let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

God had extended a promise of rest to Israel, physical occupation of the land of Canaan, plus all the blessings which God intended for them should they continue in obedience, but greater, far greater was the spiritual union with Christ, which God, which would constitute them a holy people belonging entirely to God.

But we see according to Hebrews chapter 3 verse 11, that Israel was made unable to enter this rest because of their unbelief, because of their unbelief and their subsequent disobedience.

Therefore Paul says to the Hebrew Christians, this promise of rest still stands and you, my friends, must be afraid to distrust it.

Because if you distrust this promise Paul contends, you will suffer the same fate as Israel.

You too will come short of God's rest." So verse 2, 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.

Israel of old had the gospel preached to them, but Israel disbelieved the gospel, therefore it did not profit them.

Paul says that this same gospel has been preached to the Hebrew Christians and of course to us Christians today.

Will we by contrast believe the gospel message so that we can be profited thereby?

Chapter 4 verse 3 says, For we which have believed do enter into rest as he has said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter, as I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest." In other words, the same spiritual rest that was extended to Israel, but which they failed to enter, was now being extended to the Christian Church, and by faith, Paul says, some were entering God's rest.

You may be reminded of Matthew chapter 28 verse 29, where Jesus extends to us an invitation to enter into that rest.

Come unto me, he says, all of you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls." This rest of soul, Paul says, those who believe are experiencing in accordance with God's declaration that those who did not believe would not enter.

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A New Today

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