Coachlight Bible
Study – Hebrews Chapter 3
Enter His Rest By Trusting
In God’s Word Stedfast unto the End
The economy of the Jews was looked upon by the Hebrews as having two
main components: Moses and the high priest.
The apostle Paul shows Christ’s superiority over both of these in
chapter three. While both Moses and Christ were faithful, it is Who Christ is
that makes Him superior, not just His faithfulness.
In the last part of chapter three and the first part of chapter four,
we have the second exhortation in the book of Hebrews. The readers are to stay away from doubting
God’s Word like their ancestors did, and to enter into God’s rest. This rest has a condition. The condition on
the people of God is that, “We hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast
unto the end.”
This section of Hebrews shows us in the first six verses of chapter 3,
that the household in which Moses did his work did not bring rest to the people
of God. Similarly, in the first thirteen
verses of chapter four, we find no rest for God’s people, in the land which
Joshua led God’s people. Christ,
however, the Apostle and High Priest as the builder of the house and the
Sabbath, has placed His people in the house of God and has given eternal rest
for His people.
Psalm 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation.
Psalm 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make
a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psalm 95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all
gods.
Psalm 95:4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength
of the hills is his also.
Psalm 95:5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry
land.
Psalm 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the
LORD our maker.
Psalm 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and
the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Psalm 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the
day of temptation in the wilderness:
Psalm 95:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
Psalm 95:10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and
said, It is
a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
I. Christ –
A. Both Moses and Christ were faithful in the “house”
Hebrews 3:1
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
Hebrews 3:2 Who was
faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his
house.
1. Notice Paul calls his readers “holy brethren”
a. Holy because they are separated or sanctified unto God
b. Brethren – Demonstrates that Jews & Gentiles are in the same family
2. Notice Paul calls Christ “Apostle”
a. This is the only time in the Bible this term used for Christ
b. The word “apostle” means one that is sent – God sent Christ
3. Notice Paul calls Christ “High Priest”
a. Everything the high priest did pointed forward to Christ’s work
b. Christ did the work that no man could do
B. Christ is superior – not just because of His faithfulness, but by His
position
Hebrews 3:3 For this
man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath
builded the house hath more honour than the house.
Hebrews 3:4 For every
house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
Hebrews 3:5 And Moses
verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those
things which were to be spoken after;
Hebrews 3:6 But
Christ as a 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.
1. God built all things
2. Every house on earth is built by some man
a. Moses was faithful in God’s house as a servant
b. Christ is faithful in His own house as a Son over His own house
3. The Hebrews are God’s house if they hold fast their hope to
the end
C. A quote from Psalms 95
Hebrews 3:7 Wherefore
(as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Hebrews 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Hebrews 3:9 When your
fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Hebrews 3:10
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in
their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Hebrews 3:11 So I
sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
1. Paul calls the Psalm the voice of
the Holy Spirit
2. The Israelites tempted God, proved God and saw His works 40 years
3. Within a month of deliverance, the Israelites saw God performing His
Word
a. The last of the plagues – Exodus 12
b. God leading by pillars of cloud and fire – Exodus 13
c. The
d. Bitter water purified at Marah – Exodus 15
e. God’s provision of quail and manna – Exodus 16
f. The miracle of water supplied – Exodus 17:1-7
1. Became symbolic of
2. Became symbolic of
3. Immediately the people chided with Moses and tempted God
Exodus 17:7 And he
called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the
children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD
among us, or not?
II. The Second Exhortation In The Book Of
Hebrews
A. Exhortation to believe God’s Word
Hebrews 3:12 Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing<868> from the living God.
Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is
called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews
1. The word “depart” – aphistemi – Is where we get our word apostasy – A deliberate
departure from God’s full revelation
868 afisthmi aphistemi af-is’-tay-mee
from 575
and 2476; TDNT-1:512,88; v AV-depart 10, draw away 1, fall away 1,
refrain 1, withdraw self 1, depart from 1; 15
1) to make stand off, cause to withdraw, to remove
1a) to excite to revolt
2) to stand off, to stand aloof
2a) to go away, to depart from anyone - 2b) to desert,
withdraw from one
2c) to fall away, become faithless - 2d) to shun, flee from
2e) to cease to vex one - 2f) to withdraw one’s self from,
to fall away
2g) to keep one’s self from, absent one’s self from
2. The Israelites were tempted by an evil heart of unbelief of God’s
revelation
3. The Hebrews were tempted by an evil heart of unbelief of God’s
revelation
a. They were tempted to go back to Judaism
b. Judaism is only the partial revelation from God – Denying the full
Gospel
B. The Hebrews are instructed to exhort each other with the Word
1. God’s Part - “we are made” - the perfect tense – “we have
become”
a. Strongs - 1096. ginomai ginomai ghin’-om-ahee; a prolongation and middle
voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be ("gen"-erate), i.e.
(reflexively) to become (come into being), used with great latitude (literal,
figurative, intensive, etc.):— arise, be assembled, be(-come, -fall, -have
self), be brought (to pass), (be) come (to pass), continue, be divided, draw,
be ended, fall, be finished, follow, be found, be fulfilled, + God forbid,
grow, happen, have, be kept, be made, be married, be ordained to be, partake,
pass, be performed, be published, require, seem, be showed, X soon as it was,
sound, be taken, be turned, use, wax, will, would, be wrought.
b. Robertson’s word pictures - For we are become partakers of Christ (metocoi gar tou cristou
gegonamen). Second perfect active of ginomai, "we have become," not
the equivalent of esmen (are). For metocoi see #1:9; 3:1; 6:4. We have become partners with Christ and
hence (gar, for) should not be tricked into
apostasy.
2. Our part - if we hold the beginning of our confidence
stedfast unto the end;
Hebrews 3:15 While it
is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation.
Hebrews
Hebrews
Hebrews 3:18 And to
whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that
believed not?
Hebrews
B. The Hebrews are exhorted to enter into
God’s rest – Faith Mixed with God’s Word
1. The Lord Spoke to Moses
Numbers 13:2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan,
which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall
ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
2. The spies gave their report
Numbers 13:27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land
whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is
the fruit of it.
Numbers 13:28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land,
and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of
Anak there.
Numbers 13:29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the
Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the
Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of
3. Caleb interpreted the spies report correctly
Numbers 13:30 And
Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and
possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
4. Some of the spies although doubted and gave an evil report
Numbers
Numbers 13:32 And
they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the
children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it,
is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we
saw in it are men of a great stature.
Numbers 13:33 And
there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we
were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
5. The Israelites again did not put their trust in God – Their trust
was in
Numbers 14:1 And all
the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that
night.
Numbers 14:2 And all
the children of
Numbers 14:3 And
wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that
our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to
return into
Numbers 14:4 And they
said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into
6. Moses intercedes
Numbers 14:17 And
now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast
spoken, saying,
Numbers 14:18 The LORD
is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and
by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation.
Numbers 14:19 Pardon,
I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy
mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from
7. The Lord answers
Numbers
Numbers
Numbers 14:22 Because
all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt
and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not
hearkened to my voice;
Numbers 14:23 Surely
they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any
of them that provoked me see it:
8. The Lord then instructed
Numbers 14:28 Say
unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears,
so will I do to you:
Numbers 14:29 Your
carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you,
according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me,
Numbers 14:30
Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you
dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Numbers 14:31 But
your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and
they shall know the land which ye have despised.
Numbers 14:32 But as
for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
Numbers 14:33 And
your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your
whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Numbers 14:34 After
the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day
for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know
my breach of promise.
Numbers 14:35 I the
LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are
gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and
there they shall die.
9. The Spies with the evil report dies
Numbers 14:36 And the
men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the
congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
Numbers 14:37 Even
those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague
before the LORD.
Numbers 14:38 But
Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men
that went to search the land, lived still.
C. Three Questions of chapter 3
1. Who was it that provoked God in the wilderness?
2. With whom was God grieved for 40 Years?
3. Who was it that God said would not enter into His rest?
The answer to all
three questions is:
Those who put their trust in circumstances instead of God’s Word
Hebrews 14:12 For the
word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We should put our trust in God’s Word
stedfast unto the end,
And enter into His rest