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.The backdrop to Psalm 95 2.The message of Psalm 95 3.Psalm 95 as employed by the author of Hebrews 4.The message of Hebrews for us

II. The Backdrop to Psalm 95 A.Exodus 17:1-7 (beginning of 40 years) 1. 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

B.Numbers 14: Spies sent out (13:1-24) 2. Two reports (13:25-33) 3. Revolt against Moses and Aaron – ready to stone them and return to Egypt (14:1-10) 4. God is angry – form a new nation through Moses (14:1-12) 5. Moses intercedes (14:13-19) 6. God forgives their iniquity (14:20) 7. 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 and your eyes (15:37-41) 3. Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram – swallowed up (16:1-35) 4. People grumbled against Moses and Aaron – plague kills 14,700 (16:41-50) 5. No water, people grumble (20:1-5) 6. Moses told to speak to the rock, but strikes it instead (20:6-11) 7. 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 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 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 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. We are a body / our brother’s keeper. b. The needy (drifting / hard hearted / deceived by sin) may not know it. c. We are obligated to exhort each other, so that no one becomes hardened by sin’s deception. 2.Forsaking / departing from (apostasy) the Living God – how can we explain this? a. Apostasy is not the violation of a code of conduct; it is the denial of faith in Jesus. b. See chart.

Sin Hard heart Unbelief Exhortation Rebuke Removal Eternal Judgment Apparent Belief Denial of Christ Crisis

B.Verses 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 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 3:16- 18) 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.The author of Hebrews is using Psalm 95 just as psalmist did. B.The exhortations of Psalm 95 and Hebrews 2 and 3 are virtually identical. 1. Listen/pay attention to God’s Word (Psalm 95:7b; Heb. 1:1-3; 2:1-4) 2. Don’t become hard hearted and disobedient/rebellious due to unbelief (Psalm 95:7-11; Hebrews 3 and 4). 3. The consequence of unbelief is failure to enter into God’s rest. C.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. Sabbath rest of Genesis 2: What 1st generation failed to attain 3. That attained under Joshua 4. A present rest offered in Psalm A future, eternal, rest E.We cannot always conclude that “failure to enter rest” = “are not believers” or “don’t make it to heaven.” F.Note to application to that first generation who witnessed the coming of Messiah.

G.We are our brother’s keeper. H.We tend to be reactive (corrective), at best. I.We should be more proactive (preventative). J.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, Anyone is at liberty to use this lesson for educational purposes only, with or without credit.