Participants: Ty Gibson, James Rafferty
Series Code: BOTB
Program Code: BOTB00005A
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00:20 The Bible is composed of 66 books, written by more
00:25 than forty different authors. 00:27 And yet with all this diverse material and diverse 00:31 personalities, we discern in Scripture, running themes 00:36 cohesive ideas that indicate the workings of a mind behind 00:41 the scenes, the mind of the Holy Spirit inspiring 00:44 these various authors. 00:45 Welcome to Books of the Book, I am Ty Gibson and with me is 00:49 my co-host, James Rafferty 00:51 And the book we are looking at right now in the Bible, James 00:55 is the book of Hebrews and we are on chapter 4, 00:57 Hebrews chapter 4, well we are talking about rest. 01:01 You remember that stuff we needed when 01:04 first got here to 3ABN? 01:05 It was interesting, was it? 01:07 We were tired, we had traveled a long way, all the way 01:09 from Oregon, through Denver, through St. Louis, and then 01:13 driven down here to 3ABN, and we went into this little 01:17 apartment were we are staying and we fell asleep 01:19 a little bit late, set our alarm, 01:21 woke up in the morning, drug ourselves out 01:24 of bed because of time change, two hours, 01:26 we're just beat, we just want a little bit more rest, 01:29 better not, we can't keep them waiting in the studio, 01:32 Got out here and we were one hour early. 01:36 Why? Well because the clocks, in that little apartment we were 01:40 staying in, hadn't been changed so we had adjusted 01:43 to the wrong time. 01:44 Nobody was here, we barely got into the building, 01:46 and we just thought, Oh! we could have used 01:48 that extra hour of rest, REST! 01:50 To have... - Rest! -Yeah! 01:51 What Paul is picking up here in Hebrews chapter 4, rest. 01:54 Spiritual rest, James, is far more significant, 01:58 than physical rest, there is a salvation in rest. 02:03 That is brought to our attention here in Hebrews chapter 4, 02:06 and just like Paul has done before, in chapter 3 and 02:09 chapter 2, he begins chapter 4 by introducing a new topic, 02:14 a related topic, but new, with the word "therefore". 02:19 He is referring back to what has been covered thus far, 02:23 specifically in chapter 3 02:25 He says, therefore since a promise remains of entering 02:30 His rest, capital H, this is Jesus, let us fear lest 02:35 any of you seem to come short of it. 02:38 So we are invited, we are indeed admonished 02:41 to enter into this rest that Jesus holds out before us. 02:45 Based upon His promise, I like this because this 02:48 is contrasting the promise of God, that we have just learned 02:51 in chapter 3, is sure and steadfast, even in our rebellion 02:55 His word stands fast. 02:57 He will allow us to experience the consequences of sin. 03:01 Many times in our lives so that we can understand 03:04 what those consequences are, and so we can understand 03:06 that He is faithful, He can be trusted and His word 03:09 is faithful to accomplish. 03:11 When He makes a promise it will accomplish, 03:13 it will, He will follow through with that. 03:15 So the promise here is contrasted with the fear the 03:18 phobia of losing out, missing out, now we have phobias 03:22 about a lot of things. 03:23 You know some people have phobias about height, 03:24 I'm kind of scared of the myself. 03:26 Spiders, small confined places, claustrophobic. 03:30 This is a phobia that is natural to the human heart. 03:33 One, that Paul is saying, is contrasted with the 03:37 promise of God's word. 03:38 This fear and this phobia that we of missing out, of losing out 03:43 on something, a lot of people are undermined in their faith 03:47 in and their confidence in God, because there is a phobia 03:50 built up about trusting in His word, thinking or making it 03:54 making believe that His word is fairy tales, it can't be real 03:59 the Bible isn't trustworthy. 04:00 So God has to work through this and establish faith, 04:03 First of all in His word, who He is, so this phobia can be 04:07 destroyed and you can trust His promise. 04:08 It seems like in Paul's context, that faith is 04:12 the antonym for fear. 04:14 Faith is what we are invited into, in order to displace 04:19 fear from our hearts. 04:20 To build up within us a confidence that Jesus will 04:25 complete that He has begun in us, and to build up a confidence 04:29 in us that He is the one that initiated, and in Himself 04:32 achieved the work of salvation apart from 04:35 our contribution, or participation. 04:38 Referring back to chapter 1, and verse 3, which was a guiding 04:43 point that we really need to keep in mind. 04:45 And that is that Jesus as the Creator, as the God of Heaven, 04:49 come down to earth, in our human nature, accomplished 04:52 our salvation, purged our sins, by Himself. 04:57 That is the basis of the rest that we are invited into 05:01 in Hebrews chapter 4. 05:03 We are to rest in a salvation that He has achieved. 05:09 Now it is clearly brought out verse 2, when you look at 05:11 verse 2, it says, "For unto us was the gospel preached, 05:14 as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit 05:19 them with faith in them that heard it. " 05:22 Now this is one of my favorite texts in the New Testament. 05:24 Why? Because it indicates, that in the Old Testament 05:28 the gospel was preached, in the Old testament people 05:30 were saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the 05:32 Old Testament salvation was through faith and not by works. 05:36 Lot of people today, are under the wrong impression 05:39 that the Old Testament and the Old covenant people were saved 05:41 through obedience to the law. 05:43 NO! Never, never has been, never will be. 05:46 It has always been salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 05:50 Always been the good news of the gospel. 05:52 And this is another place where we see Paul as the author of 05:55 Hebrews, because Paul warns us, not only here, but also in 05:58 Galatians who were being bewitched by 06:00 this legalistic experience. 06:01 He warns us that we need to trust in the gospel. 06:05 We need to be grounded in the gospel, and the gospel is 06:08 preached in the Old Testament 06:09 Here it is preached to Israel, there it was preached to Abraham 06:12 The gospel was, has always been the foundation, the bases 06:16 of salvation, it parallels Ephesians 2 that we 06:19 talked about earlier, "for by grace you are saved through 06:21 faith and not and not of yourselves it is the gift 06:22 of God, not of works less any man should boast. " 06:25 Well a lot of people, James, are going to have difficulty 06:29 ah, pinpointing where the gospel was preached 06:32 in the Old Testament because the dispensationalist idea 06:36 that strictly divides the Old and New Testament and says 06:40 that salvation was by obedience to the law, in Old Testament 06:43 times, but by grace in the New Testament times, that 06:45 idea is so common, and people are so entrenched in that way 06:51 of thinking, that often times people draw a blank. 06:54 What do you mean the gospel was preached 06:55 in the Old Testament? 06:57 But I know of at least two examples that are prominent 06:59 examples of what Paul is talking about here, 07:02 that the gospel was preached in the Old Testament, 07:03 number one, in the context of Hebrews, which referring back 07:07 to the entire, typical sanctuary service, that entire service 07:12 revolved around the sacrifice of the Lamb on the alter 07:17 and the carrying of the blood into the Holy Place, into the 07:20 Most holy place in the day of atonement, very clearly 07:23 that entire symbolic service, it was a type, it was an object. 07:28 lesson of the sacrificial death of Jesus, the love of God 07:32 manifested in Him, and the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ 07:36 all the way through the process of salvation, is the power 07:40 by which we are saved. 07:41 So clearly, in that sanctuary service, we have the gospel 07:45 being preached in type and symbol, but I also, James, 07:48 and this really came as a surprise to me as I was studying 07:51 the Scriptures, and it dawned on me that even the Ten Commandment 07:56 law of God is a place in the Old Testament where the 08:01 gospel is preached. 08:02 The gospel is actually infolded in the Ten Commandment law. 08:08 It is in fact, you know what is really interesting? there are 08:12 two places in Exodus chapter 20, where we look at some parallels 08:15 right here with Hebrews chapter 4, 08:17 the first one is in Ex. 20:1,2, where God says, I am the Lord 08:24 thy God that delivered you out of the bondage of Egyptian, 08:27 out of the Egyptian bondage, I delivered you. 08:30 And when you look at you realize that comes before any 08:33 thou shalt or thou shalt not. 08:35 That's right! That's right! 08:36 I delivered you out of Egyptian bondage therefore have no 08:38 other Gods before me. 08:39 How did God deliver them out of Egyptian bondage? 08:42 It is so clear if you look at the history, 08:44 if you go to Exodus 20, where this statement 08:47 is made of the, in the Ten Commandments 08:48 You go back to chapter 16, and we can see clearly 08:53 that the point of deliverance, for the children of Israel, 08:58 from slavery in Egypt, was the blood of the Passover Lamb. 09:01 On the door post..., that's right, that blood of the lamb 09:09 was symbolic, it pointed forward to the Lamb of God 09:12 Jesus Christ, Who would take away the sins of the world. 09:15 So literally, the gospel, or the cross of Jesus Christ, 09:16 is explicit in the Ten Commandments. 09:23 Basically what the Ten Commandments say 09:25 if you read the whole law, beginning at Exodus 20 verse 1, 09:30 God doesn't just say, thou shalt, thou shalt not, God says 09:33 I delivered you, by the blood of the Passover Lamb 09:36 there fore in the power of that grace, of that deliverance 09:42 my accomplishment, therefore have no other Gods before me. 09:48 and the Ten Commandments unfold, so in that sense, 09:51 we can look at the Ten Commandments and say wow, 09:53 these commandments are promises. 09:56 This is God, not simply telling us we ought to do, 10:00 this is God saying, if you will partake of the delivery 10:04 grace that is provided for you in Jesus, I promise you 10:09 you will have no other Gods before me, I promise you 10:11 won't commit adultery, I promise you won't kill, lie, steal 10:15 because My grace will empower you and will deliver you 10:20 in such a way that you won't be in bondage 10:22 to these things anymore. 10:23 So there is that same principle again, defined right here in 10:27 Hebrews chapter 4 in relationship Exodus, 10:29 in relationship to the Old Testament 10:30 in relation to the gospel. 10:31 Another principle you find is the same one in Hebrews 2 10:34 Fear, the fear factor is part of our experience. 10:37 In Exodus chapter 20, as he closes, as Moses closes this 10:41 admonition, he talks to the people and he says to them, 10:44 verse 20, "Fear not for God has come to prove you, that His 10:49 fear may be before your faces that you may sin not. " 10:52 Now this is really important because while God wants to 10:55 remove fear from our hearts, He also wants to put fear 10:59 into our hearts. 11:00 And that's what is being talked about in Hebrews 4. 11:02 There is a fear that God wants to remove, Hebrews 11:04 chapter 2, and there is a fear God wants us to have. 11:06 The fear He wants us to remove is the fear of having a 11:10 relationship with Him, the fear of missing out on salvation. 11:13 The fear He wants us to have is the fear of reverence for Him. 11:16 An awe of Him, honoring Him, following Him in responding 11:21 to Him, of being in communication with Him, 11:24 as He wants to be with us. 11:26 I think it's fascinating the Exodus 20:20 verse 11:28 uses the word "fear" twice in one sentence, and one time the 11:34 word fear is used in a negative sense, and the other time it is 11:36 used in a positive sense. 11:38 It's almost contradictive if you don't understand the word 11:41 is used two different ways in Scripture, because Moses 11:43 basically says, don't fear, FEAR! 11:46 Don't fear in some way, on some level, but do fear in some way 11:52 on another level. 11:54 That's why it is really not a contradiction of verse like 11:57 Revelation 14, where we are told by the first angel message, 12:02 Fear you God and give glory to Him. 12:03 But then you have 1 John chapter 4 that says, 12:07 perfect love casts out fear. 12:09 So which is it? Fear or no fear? 12:12 Well the fact is, it's both. 12:13 Fear and don't fear. 12:15 Fear God in a reverential way, fear God with love and awe. 12:21 Fear God even with trembling in that awe. 12:24 But don't fear God as a person, don't fear God's 12:28 motives towards you. 12:29 Don't fear God's attitude towards you. 12:31 God loves you, God wants to save you, let His love cast out 12:36 banish all that kind of fear from your heart. 12:38 But instill within us a fear, is what the Bible calls in 12:44 another place, Godly fear. 12:46 Here is another thing that the book of Hebrews 4 is 12:48 working toward, Paul here is encouraging us also to look 12:53 at the experience of ancient Israel, and fear that we would 12:56 follow them and not enter into a different experience. 12:59 Now verse 3 he says, "For we which do believe enter into 13:03 rest as he said, as I have sworn 13:06 in My wrath, they shall enter my rest: 13:08 although the works were 13:09 finished from the foundation of the world. " 13:11 Paul here, and in the following verses, is making a comparison 13:16 between spiritual rest and the seventh-day Sabbath rest. 13:21 The Sabbath rest of the commandments. 13:23 And he is saying there is a spiritual rest and there is a 13:26 Sabbath rest, and he contrasts the two for a, to make a 13:29 very important point and that is this, these Jews, the Nation 13:34 of Israel, while keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, failed 13:38 to enter into spiritual rest, salvation rest in Jesus Christ. 13:40 In fact, when Jesus was crucified, they went to Pilate, 13:44 they went to the Roman governor, and actually asked him 13:46 if they could remove the body of the Messiah, their Redeemer, 13:51 remove that body from the cross, so that they could keep the 13:54 seventh-day Sabbath of the law. 13:57 Now understand this, Paul is not against the law, not 13:59 in anyway, but Paul was raised law-keeping. 14:02 Paul was raised emphasizing the law, Paul was raised 14:04 trusting in the law of salvation and he's realized 14:07 NO! so he is sending a directive here to the Hebrews, a directive 14:10 to the sins of the Galatians, 14:12 NO! We can't trust in salvation by works, 14:14 salvation by the law, that is never been the way God saves. 14:17 We need to look at the experience and realize, there's 14:20 a difference between the way we are saved, 14:22 and the seventh-day Sabbath. 14:24 They are connected, but there is a contrast between the two. 14:27 And we are going to see how they are connected 14:28 as we follow these verses down, but for now he is saying there 14:31 is a distinction between the two let's make that distinction 14:33 clear, we are not saved by keeping the Sabbath, we are 14:36 saved through entering into Christ's rest. 14:38 For now James, we just need to take a short break. 14:41 But we will be right back in a moment to continue 14:43 our study of Hebrews chapter 4. |
Revised 2014-12-17