Hebrews 3.end part III
September 1st 2013
Communion
Welcome.
And let’s join together in our monthly memorial for our Lord.
Let’s begin with prayer.
I invite you to come forward and take these elements up into your hands – wine and unleavened bread.
Now typically we invite you to come forward and to take the elements and to ingest them as you are so move – on your own.
But I want to ask everyone if they would take the elements back to their chairs and then why don’t we break this open a bit and take a few minutes to openly share our gratitude and belief on Him.
This sharing is not mandatory – no guilt or compulsion – but we’ll open it up to you to publicly express your heart for Jesus (please make your expressions about Him and your relationship to Him).
And then we’ll take the elements together (as one) – as believers and members of His body and church.
So please – come forward and take these elements, then return to your chairs and wait to ingest them (if you would).
(MUSIC until all have received the elements.)
Sharing sentiments to the Lord.
Partaking the elements together.
Prayer
Music
Alright, we’ve covered the import of faith in the walk of all who love the Lord and we have done this using the example the writer of Hebrews uses in chapter three to prove this point – the Children of Israel being led out of Egypt, into the wilderness, and languishing in fears which lead to doubt.
Faith or fear, seems to be the message here because in the case of the COI it always seems to be fear that lead to their doubting.
So let’s read the last passages of chapter three, revisit what they are talking about, then finalize it all with by spending a few moments on the topic and import of faith over fear.
Last week we read:
12 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.”
And our remaining passages say (again)
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
12 and 13 say (which we covered last week):
“Therefore, take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, and exhort one another daily . . .
And then the writer applies the message to believers, to brethren and sisters in the Body of Christ, saying in verse 14
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast . . . unto the end.”
Then, in verse 15, the writer once again returns to his use of the example of the COI, saying
15 While it is said, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Using the language of Psalm 95 (which talks about the COI in the wilderness) the writer petitions believers to not delay and to act in taking measures not to harden our hearts, as when the COI provoked God.
(verse 16)
Then speaking of those who actually came out of Egypt he writes:
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
Here the King James complicates our comprehension (in my opinion) so perhaps a more understandable way to read this would be
16 For some of the COI, when they had heard God speak, did provoke or anger Him: however not all that came out of Egypt by Moses did this.
How many of the Children of Israel angered God through their faithlessness when they came out of bondage?
Apparently most, but not all.
Here’s the gig, which will be review for most of you:
But from what I can tell God sent Moses into the land of Egypt to rescue and deliver His people from being in slavery to the Egyptians.
This is no different . . . than how He sends people to deliver us with the Good News.
And with the Children of Israel in bondage to a superpower, God delivers ten supernatural plagues to get their captors to “let His people go.”
Similarly, each of us can look back over at how we were “delivered” (from whatever kept us bound) by God and His miraculous means.
You with me so far?
Then, while the COI are fleeing from their captivity God literally puts up a wall of fire to keep their pursuing enemies off their backs before parting the Red Sea granting them total delivery and access to a new life just waiting for them on the other side of the sea.
So has God protected each of us with unseen angels of fire who kept enemies bent on keeping us from pursuing the new life and then lead us to the waters of baptism entered in through faith.
So, there on the other side of the Red Sea is where each of us sort of stands once we have come to know Jesus as Lord. We’ve been delivered from bondage but there lies out ahead of us more – much more – to
conquer and overcome.
The question is will we:
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto our own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and let Him direct our paths.”
Or will we “trust in the arm of the flesh with all our reason and lean unto our own perspectives and fears and ignore Him in all our ways but instead direct our own course?”
As baptized babes in Christ He starts out slow with us, doesn’t He? He allows us to bask in our new journey a while, feeling like we can conquer the world and nothing can trouble or shake us.
He did this with the COI from the time they left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and even got out into the wilderness a bit.
But then He wisely and out of love for our ability to stand and grow and produce fruits of faith he allows a challenge here, a test there – with all of it leading to the point where we are prepared to truly walk amidst enemy giants without fear.
Standing on the shores of their deliverance from bondage, the COI are given two years of having to learn to patiently wait and trust in the Lord to deliver them from different trying circumstances.
God allows them to face wondering where they would get
water
food
leadership while he tied Moses up with business on Sinai
Could they overcome “the same old same old” manna of life,
Would they let FEAR overwhelm them or would they let FAITH.
This is what the writer of Hebrews is warning you and I against – that “brethren” (or believers) not be as the COI in the wilderness – but to press forward in faith toward the promised land.
Now, let me make something clear on how I see the Promised Land – you may disagree but I think I can support the premise –if I’m wrong God forgive me.
The Promised Land for the COI is a picture of what God has in store for each of us in our Christian walk.
It represents the work He would have all of us enter into, lead by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and first prepared through some wilderness travel.
Many tend to think the Promise Land is a picture of heaven but this would be a mistake. It is better understood as our Christian walk of restful work.
More on this in a moment.
What is really interesting about the COI and the experience that the writer is drawing from is they were only two years out from their liberation from Egypt when they blew it once and for all and God said, “you’re gonna die out here in the wilderness.”
See, it was around the two year mark that the Israelites got to “the gates” so to speak of the Promised Land.
In reality they were not prepared to enter in as they faithlessly failed to endure the tests and trials God was using to prepare them.
But their fear of entering into what God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the final straw.
See, prior to going in and entering into their spirit-led walk of faith with God they sent twelve spies to slip in and check things out. What they discovered is one reason I believe the promised land is a picture for the mature, faith-filled Christian walk because inside, while there was plenty of fruit and provision (it was called the Land of Milk and Honey) it was also infested with all sorts of “ites” or pagan people groups – some of them described as giants.
So, while God had given them their own promised land, the twelve spies learned that taking possession of it was going to include some serious warfare.
When the 12 spies came back (after forty days) ten of them said that the land was full of giants, that the kingdoms they had established were too well fortified and there was no way they would be able to defeat them.
See, they saw victory over the inhabitants of the Promised Land by and through fleshly means – and failed to remember that with the True and Living God on their side they would be victorious.
I mean, only two years earlier God had delivered them out of the powerful grip of Egypt with some of the most amazing displays of His supernatural power and here are ten of the twelve spies saying, “NO WAY, we will get slaughtered.”
And the vast majority of the COI believed the ten spies report.
The principles are perfectly interchangeable for believers today.
We have people who have been delivered from captivity, they are baptized, and God is leading them toward their own Christian walk in a land of milk and honey but a land full of spiritual warfare.
Some, out of fear, see the giants lurking ahead, and say,
“Can’t do it. Can’t enter. Not able. Not strong enough.”
Admittedly, there seems to be others who enter in but seek to fight the giants without God, but by and through the arm of the flesh – and spend their lives nurturing a Christian walk by the flesh (as the COI did, at times – but this is discussion is for another day).
But when FEAR overcome the COI due to the ten spy report, God said, “fine. You will never enter into my rest because of your unbelief.”
Remember, there were two spies of the twelve, JOSHUA (who accompanied Moses up to Mt Sinai, by the way) and CALEB who came back with a good, favorable, and fearless report.
But the COI believed the fearful report over the faithful.
And verses 16 -19 summarize the results, saying:
16 For some of the COI, when they had heard God speak, did provoke or anger Him: however not all that came out of Egypt by Moses (failed).
Then 17 asks:
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Yes it was, we could reply. And then he reiterates in 18
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that . . . believed not?
We could again reply in the affirmative. And then he concludes in verse 19:
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
And the point is made.
When the COI listened to the ten spies it was only two years out from bondage and it was at this point that God said,
“That’s it. I’m done with you because of your unbelief.”
And subsequent to this any and all men who are twenty years old (and older) wandered around in the wilderness until they all died, “their carcasses falling in the dust.”
This is a picture folks. A picture for all of us – myself included.
The writer of Hebrews is trying to tell the Body that we were NOT saved merely to be saved – no matter what modern Evangelical focuses tends to infer.
The release from bondage is a wonderful event. The baptism and glowing infancy of our faith are as wonderful as our years as cared-for children in the school yard.
But in love the living God wants us to mature. And one way He does this is allowing trials and difficulties to pop-up under our tender feet.
Again, this is all preparatory for what He is guiding each of us to do . . . to be . . . by and through Him and His spiritual leadership.
But many – most, it seems – standing on the edge of the Christian walk God has for us, look ahead, and . . . fear! Just as the COI feared the inhabitants of the promised land.
And they never enter in but instead die and languish as people freed but never matured in the faith.
I’m gonna get strong here folks.
We are kidding ourselves if we think we can receive Jesus, and come to church once a week, and think this is what God has for us individually.
The bounds of His desires for our spiritual maturation brought about by our faith in Him are endless – but He will go only as far as our faith will carry us.
I cannot tell you how many men and women I have met with and counseled who are bogged down right outside the Red Sea, or are flailing about due to fear of thirst, or hunger, or other worries and fears they have actually SEEN God fix for them in the past!
And then there are those who fear entering the land promised and prepared for them by the true and living God.
I meet five to ten of them a year.
They have met His trials with fearless faith, they have studied His word, they have matured greatly . . . but out of fear, they refuse to enter in.
The giants of their lives overwhelm them – and in my experience it has typically been with men.
“You’re not worthy,” their giants scream.
“How will you make a living?”
“You don’t know the word!”
“What if, what if, what if, what if!”
Then there’s always these . . . these ( I don’t know what you wanna call them) – these “Christian pragmatists,” who always pop up out of nowhere and think God has made them the voice of reason in matters pertaining to the Kingdom.
They wanna warn you, tell you how dangerous entering your walk is, how we need to use “wisdom” in our decisions – for me it’s all bull. It’s fear-based.
I freaking hate it because all they do is what the ten spies did.
But remember, there were twelve spies that went out, not just ten.
In fact the only ones to enter the promised land who were older than twenty years of age were these two spies – Joshua and Caleb – why did they enter in?
Because they returned with a good and fearless report.
They had full faith and belief that God would defeat all of their enemies once they went into the Promised Land to conquer and possess it.
It is not by accident that it was Joshua (Jesus real name) who replaced Moses and eventually led the Children in.
See, the picture is that the Law (Moses) could never successfully take or lead us into our Christian walk (but only the Lord Himself). Amen.
And so Joshua lead the COI first over the Jordan River (a picture of baptism of the Holy Spirit) then enters in leading the COI who were under twenty when their forefathers failed to enter in due to unbelief.
And by Joshua’s fearless faith in God alone He and the COI proceed to literally wiped their enemies off the face of the earth and conquered and possessed the land that God had promised their forefathers.
The Israelites lost their one and only chance to go into this Promised Land due to one main reason – fear overriding the full faith and belief that God could – and would – to see them through to victory.
And as a result, they not only lost out on the biggest blessing of their entire life – they failed to enter into His rest.
We don’t have to follow suit.
Notice the writer of Hebrews, referring to the COR asks (in verse 17):
“With who was God angry, was it not them that SINNED . . .
And then in verse 18 he adds that they were the ones who . . .
18 . . . believed not?
And end chapter 3 with:
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
From this I would suggest that we have firmly established that the sin of unbelief , of disbelief, was in large part all that mattered to the COI . . . and all that it is all that matters now.
The import of faith cannot be overstated in the lives of believers.
It is an interesting “substance” this thing called faith, and without question we could spend at least a year examining the topic.
But some principles to consider and reflect upon as we wrap up chapter three.
First of all, I would suggest that it is our level or presence of faith that details the freedom and or liberty in Christ.
Little faith, little freedom. Let me explain.
If we believe that God has saved us by His Son but we are culpable for any and every action we take after receiving this knowledge (like we must maintain our salvation by avoiding alcohol, or tobacco, or R-rated movies – stuff like that) you had better NOT drink or smoke or see R-rated movies).
But the reason is your faith (or lack of it) dictates this to be so. On the subject of eating meats Romans 14:22-23 says:
Romans 14:22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Some have very broad and liberal views toward their Christian walk – they can drink beer, get tattoos, and yes, smoke pot where smoking pot is legal.
Get over it.
If their faith allows them who are we to judge it? See, we don’t know what they believe nor how much faith and trust they put on God so we shut our mouths and let God do the condemning.
Our victory in overcoming is through faith not flesh. The COI looked to their flesh and would not enter in, but our victory is completely centered upon our faith and trust in Him.
1st John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
All the way down the line of the biblical narrative we have examples of men and women who chose to move and live and act in faith rather than flesh.
Abraham was promised by God that he would have posterity ad nauseum but that he needed to take and sacrifice his son.
His faith in God’s promise to give him billions offspring through Isaac moved to trusting God and to take his son up the mount . . . to build an altar . . even to get all the way to the point where he raised the knife up over him – before God stepped in and took over.
Wow. No wonder he is known as the father of faith.
Remember the faith of David as a young man? All the nation of Israel is afraid of Goliath and what does young ruddy David say when everyone doubted his ability?
He reflected back on what God HAD done in his life, and in the face of those miracles believed and trusted He would do it again, saying:
“The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”
The COI could have said this when hearing the report of giants:
The Lord that delivered us out of the hands of the Egyptians will deliver us from these enemies.
Just as each of us are free to say, when challenged by the giants in our Christian walk:
“The Lord who saved me out of Mormonism he will deliver me out of the grip of this enemy.”
The Lord who broke the chains of this world from my life, He will deliver me from this debt, from this obsession, from this depression, from this substance.”
“This Lord who gave me new life will provide the means to sustain me now!”
Faith.
See, faithlessness is frequently just a reaction to fear and fears.
We fear poverty.
We fear death.
We fear being nobody.
We fear hell.
Where faith says “He will provide, He will heal, He will use me, and He has saved me from the pit,” fear says, “I have to do it myself – including the idea that I have to protect myself.”
The extremely interesting thing about fear is I believe it works in the same way as faith in some strange way.
In other words, if through our faith we are able to overcome and have victory over this world, I wonder if through fear we are rewarded with the very thing that frightens us.
I am not talking about positive mental attitude or name it and claim it garbage.
I’m simply curious if we choose to live in fear we will receive the fruit of where our fears were focused.
Notice that the children of Israel were all fearful about being left to roam about the wilderness and to even die there!
And that is exactly what happened to almost all of those who came out of Egypt.
In the Book of Job we remember the story, right.
The angels of heaven gathered around God to “present themselves” before Him and Satan was among them and God says what have you been doing and he intimates that he has been roaming to and fro over the earth looking for someone to harvest (so to speak).
And GOD suggests to Satan to consider (who He calls) His servant Job.
Satan tells God Job only loves Him because of all the good stuff that he has been blessed with so God says,
Take it all – just don’t take his life.
In the next chapter he loses everything – except his wife (which I would suggest pictures the oneness of a married couple and therefore to kill his wife would have been equal to killing him).
Anyway, Job responds by praising and worshipping God, saying something to the effect of:
“Hey, I came out of the womb naked, I can return to the grave in the same way – God is Good. No problem.
After another meeting with God, Satan is allowed to attack Job’s health, and this dropped him to the earth, where he sat, scraping the scabs off himself with a piece of broken pottery.
Seven days later, seven days of silence sitting in the dust with some friends, Job opens his mouth, and besides cursing the day of his birth (but he never curses God – he questions Him but does not curse Him) but after wishing for non-existence, he says something really interesting in chapter 3 verse 25:
He says:
Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
In Hebrew, it is translated, “I feared a fear, and it came upon me.”
(long beat)
Couldn’t really say if these fears are given as warning premonitions by God or Satan or if Satan tries to get us to focus on them as a means to give them life, but since faith is rewarded with the fulfillment of God’s promises toward us, I can’t help but wonder if the same holds true for fear.
What I can say, without equivocation, is Jesus told all to set all doubts aside, that there is no fear in love, and that in the presence of fear, human beings have essentially three responses, two of which are of the flesh, and one is of the Spirit.
We can choose, in the face of fear to fight, we can choose to take flight, or we can, as God would have it, respond to all fear with faith in Him and Him alone.
Questions or comments?
Prayer.
Song.
