 Good morning and welcome. Thank you for connecting to this morning's class. Let's pray and get started Heavenly Father we thank you for this day Lord. We thank you for this opportunity that you've given Lord and father We pray may your word be sown in our hearts Lord and father let it Lord develop deep roots and enable us so God to Nurture your word and father see it bear fruit Lord at 30 60 and a hundred fold Father we commit ourselves into your hands and our families and Lord we just pray for your hand of protection and blessing upon us. Oh God. Thank you Lord. Thank you once again for this time in your presence in Jesus name. We pray amen All right So this morning we will continue with the subject that we've been looking at so far. We've gone through Hebrews chapter 1 Hebrews chapter 2 and we said that in essence Hebrews chapter 1 was more about the Lord Jesus as deity or Lord Jesus as God the second person or in the Trinity and we also saw how the author Explained that the angels are subject to the Lord Jesus. So they they are not Exalted above him. They are created beings and so he makes a comparison between angels and Jesus to make it very very clear That we need to worship Jesus Christ in chapter 2. It was more about the humanity of our Lord Jesus and the whole chapter began by the author Telling us not to neglect the salvation which we have in Christ Jesus It was really beautiful that both these passages or the writer of the book of Hebrews Starts off by explaining the divine nature of Christ and then the human nature at the same time This is the mystery that we talk about in the Trinity where Jesus is both fully man as well as fully God And it was good to see how Jesus shared in our humanity. He too went through all kinds of Challenges, but he did not give up. He became a High priest for us who represents us well and we see that he was we said Perfect through sufferings which means that he was already perfect, but he just underwent the human Challenges right which otherwise he would not have experienced But he even experienced those things which make him the best high priest that we could ask for because he's able to understand As he's able to call us brothers. Okay, that's where if you've ever heard, you know, Jesus my brother That's that's one of the places where we get this Jesus shared in our humanity and therefore he's become a brother to us And then we talked a little bit about the Atonement the work of atonement that the Lord Jesus did from verse 14 to verse 18 of Hebrews chapter 2 where we saw that he undertook, you know in flesh and Blood and he himself died for us because of which we now have There is victory over the devil that is one thing but the other important thing is the fear of death Which mankind was facing that Jesus is already Overcome for us. So we don't have to be afraid death is not the end for a believer And we also saw that he is the one who made Propitiation for our sins meaning he paid the price for our sins and completed his work on the cross and verse 18 which is also a key verse where we saw For in that he himself has suffered being tempted. He's able to aid those who are Tempted so because he's gone through all these things He has become that perfect high priest who's able to help us out and Especially when we are going through temptation we can call upon him He understands us and he will walk us through it and then we went on to Hebrews chapter 3 where We talked about Jesus being greater than Moses. We saw how the author he calls the believers by with affirming terms holy brethren Partakers of the heavenly calling and you know, he affirms who they are in Christ and he says that though Moses is revered among the Jews He is but a man and a leader of the people whereas the Lord Jesus Christ is God himself and he is the owner of the house. So he gave that illustration of a house the house which is built and Somebody who works in the house is subject to the one who's actually built the house And so Jesus is the builder of the house. Whereas Moses was but a Person who helped out in the house. So Why did he do that? He did that because he knew that the Jews held Moses in very high regard Now he wants them to know that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that Moses spoke about and so Jesus has much higher Much higher position and that people need to understand that especially the Jewish people Otherwise remember they were persecuted and struggling and so the tendency That temptation which they had was to go back to their Jewish roots Which is something that he was warning the people about and telling them, please don't neglect Don't even think of going back and while he was speaking these things to them. He tells them Regarding responding to the voice of God readily and we said that you know One must not carry a heart of unbelief and a heart of unbelief can happen because of many reasons and The keyword we looked at it today. He said respond to God today If God is speaking to you and overcome that unbelief. So that's where where we were at So now we'll continue Hebrews chapter 3 from verse 12 to verse 19 I don't think we read it. We were reading section by section So would like to request one of us to read from Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12 to verse 19 verse 12 Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in Departing from the living God, but exalt one another daily while it is called today Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence Said fast to the end while it is said today if you will hear his voice Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion For who having heard rebelled Indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses now with whom was he angry 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness and To whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? But to those who did not obey so we see that they could not enter in They could not enter in because of unbelief Thank you, Rosalind. So in this section we Continue to see the exaltation of the writer where again he's telling these people just because of your discouragement Just because of your problems Just because of some of the delays that you are experiencing Don't let go of your faith because this faith that you now have in Christ You must understand that he is God Jesus is the Christ and you know Jesus is greater than any of the patriarchs that you hold so high up and he is Going back to the story of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt and Highlighting the fact that they had a heart of unbelief They saw God do so many wonderful things and yet they could not believe and in the same way He's telling them don't develop that heart of unbelief like the Israelites See here some of the things that he says so going back to verse 12 He says lest there be in any of you Evil heart of unbelief Okay, so he's calling it evil heart. What is the heart of unbelief to God? It's evil because we are not trusting God. So it's an evil heart of unbelief and He Associates departing from the living God so What do we see through this see when we carry unbelief it has the property of Taking us astray It Could bring no some commentary said defilement defilement of the heart the purity of our heart Can be corrupted and so Unbelief to say to say the least is it is dangerous. No wonder Jesus talked so much about faith And said even if you have you know like a tiny Mustard seed faith you can move the mountain and Unbelief can hinder, you know what God can do through faith And so Unbelief is something that one must stay away from and the writer here Associates it with evil evil heart of unbelief and associates it with departing So when the heart gets corrupted and Defiled by unbelief we run the risk of going away from God and we've seen earlier that this may not be Very It's not like one day we wake up and say today. I don't want to follow God, but it's very subtle no day by day Allowing that discouragement and doubt to grow in our hearts and slowly it kind of engulfs the entire space and We no longer have belief. We have given the entire You know sort of portion of our heart to unbelief and then that leads you astray So these are the dangers and the author is saying don't entertain Unbelief now does it mean that we cannot have doubts you we know that that's not what this is saying We've learned about faith in our first year course Yes, sometimes we may have questions and we may have some doubts, which is normal It's natural and that's all right because that should lead us to Know or search about God much more and hopefully you know lead us to greater faith in God That's not the kind of unbelief that we are talking about But the unbelief that we're talking about here is a heart of rebellion No, which is just not willing to trust in God just not willing to obey God like the Israelites And then in verse 13 he says but exalt one another daily While it is called today Let's any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of riches a couple of things for us to note here Exalt one another daily. So there is an encouragement to believers to be there for each other to Nudge one another forward in the faith. So this talks about the benefits of a believing Fellowship a believing community when we are a part of a believing community We can encourage each other. Maybe we share a scripture or a prophetic word or you know We we share our testimony and in this way, what are we doing? So we are encouraging our brother and our sister in a time of waiting in a time of discouragement so and Why is he bringing this in During while speaking to the Jewish believers because as we've been saying time and again, they were discouraged they were in a place where maybe they wanted to give up and Disappointments do this to us or anything that happens in our lives which which discourages us can Push us to a place of unbelief and going away from God So that is why as believers when we see somebody is discouraged or somebody is going through a Painful time in their lives to just be there for them Right. Maybe our encouragement sometimes is only listening to them We may not even give them any advice, but just be there. You're just Listen just be available to help and that's the way the believing community should be and that's what the author means Here when y'all are going through discouragement be there for each other and encourage each other in the faith And that is something a believing fellowship must do and he says while it is called today. So he's saying Immediately Right now be there to encourage each other in the faith. You don't give up. Don't let the others give up and He reminds us of the deceitfulness of sin That's another phrase that we observe here so correct that he Associates deception with sin sin is deceptive. Isn't it when we look back at the Garden of Eden and what Satan told Eve that if you eat this you'll become like God Was that fully correct? Actually, no. Yes He you know, he may have intended that you'll get to know right good and evil The way God knows those things but it was just part truth But most of what would happen if they disobeyed God and ate that fruit is that they would be corrupted by sin That part Satan didn't tell them and so what he actually did was deceived and The author is reminding the believers and saying sin is very deceptive The amplified version puts it very beautifully. There are certain words used to describe this deceptive It says cleverness Delusive glamour and sophistication. It just appears very good. It appears very Beneficial but ultimately it leads us down the wrong path and brings destruction in our lives And that's what sin does to us Satan lies to us and says, you know It'll give you those it'll give you pleasure. It'll make you happy But the pleasure and happiness is very momentary and the next thing you realize is your your entangled if you've seen wool when we Maybe we buy it and they have neatly put it together Sometimes they don't roll it into a ball. We are supposed to do it So if it's neatly rolled into a ball, it's fine. We can handle it But imagine we buy it and then before we can roll it in You know, it's it's all messed up. It's so difficult to unentangle a thread or wool sin In our lives is like that. We think we can handle it But before we know it, we are stuck and then we're trying to sort it out from here and there But you know, it might be too late and we don't have the the capacity to come out of sin Which is what the author is warning us about. He said unbelief Deceptiveness of sin. These are all dangerous things. Don't even venture there with the excuse that I'm so discouraged So, okay, you know, I'm letting go of my faith. I'm letting go of my Wisdom my heart of submission to God. I'll just do anything. Okay, because you know, nothing has worked out for me so to not be in that state where we are allowing unbelief and stepping into sin and Pushing ourselves away from God Then, you know, he goes on he says Remember that we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence Steady fast to the end. So it's speaking of tenacious faith Yesterday we had a sermon on tenacious faith where We must have faith that is unshakable Okay, will there be different seasons Yes, there will be as You know, we see in the Gospels where Jesus said and you build your house build it on a rock because There'll be rain. There'll be winds. All kinds of seasons will come and go But faith must stand and when we build it on the word of God, we will be able to stand Okay, so that's the kind of faith we need and if we do stand steadfast till the end is What he's talking here about he says then we are partakers of Christ then truly we have understood what we have put our faith in and You know, we we are walking out who we are in Christ And again, you know the reminder he says today if you will hear his voice Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So when the author repeats this over and over again it's like a plea or he's pleading with the people and Telling them, please don't give up. Please don't give up if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you then Be sensitive and respond. Don't make your hearts hard your hearts hard And he reminds them of these people of Israel in verse 16 He says for who having heard rebelled indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses and That God was angry for tears Was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter His rest but to those who did not obey. So we see that they could not enter in because of Unbelief, so he's talking about the people of Israel their rebellion their Hardness of heart and he's saying that they made God angry and They also apart from making God angry. They missed out on On there is a concept that he introduces right here the rest of God The rest of God and we will continue to see this at least 11 times. He's repeating this Phrase the rest of God in chapter 3 and chapter 4. We are going to read we are going to understand what it means But he's saying the children of Israel One is they made God angry Through disobedience rebellion hardness of heart sin Second is they missed out They missed out. This is what sin does to us, right? You miss out. God has all these amazing wonderful plans for us and We do whatever we like However, the plans that God has for us are something that we end up missing so for 40 years He was angry 40 years, you know, the interesting part is when you study about the number of days that one needs to go from Egypt to The Promised Land came in Okay, somewhere I read that it's just about I mean it's a matter of days in one place I saw that it was Given as 11 days if they really wanted they could have reached the Promised Land in 11 days now Some you could enter the Promised Land in 11 days, but this generation is going round and round for how many years? 40 years Just think about it. That's what disobedience does Rebellion does hardness of heart does sin does to us God has Wonderful promises, but we don't believe him and Unbelieve is keeping us out of the Promised Land and here Painted uses the word rest Okay, rest associated with You could say the Promised Land. They never entered the rest. We know they never entered the Promised Land Ultimately who entered the Promised Land? It was Caleb. It was Joshua. What is the Characteristic in both of these are people that gave them an opportunity to step into the Promised Land They had a good report They had a heart of faith Compared to the others because the others never believed that they will be able to possess the land, but two men Who can be called as men of faith? They stepped in To the Promised Land or in other words Was 18 he says Enter his rest So they entered the Promised Land Whereas the others did not Rebellion hardness of heart One it makes God angry second it keeps us out of The blessings of God And So no matter what we are going through in our lives, it should only drive us closer to God It must only make us stronger in faith rather than pushing us away from God Having the heart of unbelief. What will it do? It will not allow us to enter Into the promises of God or into the blessings of God So now let's just move on from here We've seen about the heart of unbelief. We've Began talking about the rest of God Now let us continue with chapter 4 where we will read further about rest So could someone please start with Hebrews chapter 4 and read from verses 1 to 7 therefore Since a promise remains of entering his rest Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them But the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it For we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swore in my rock They shall not enter my rest Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way and Got rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this place. They shall not enter my rest Since therefore it remains that some must enter it and those to whom it was first preached Did not enter because of disobedience Again, he designates a certain day saying in David Today after such a long time as it has been said Today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts Okay, thank you, Lohslin As I said he's continuing to plead with the believers And and telling them please don't give up. Please don't give up There is an opportunity and a possibility to enter the rest of God and Just the way Caleb and Joshua entered you too can enter into the rest of God But what is it that you need? It would be a heart of faith Because unbelief will keep us away from the rest of God. So in this passage again, he's talking about the rest So in verse one he says there is a promise To enter the rest of God In the earlier section the rest of God was referring to the land of Canaan Because they didn't enter the people didn't enter Canaan, but Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan Canaan or the promised land We could sort of You know Understand that in spiritual terms as Receiving all the blessings of God Okay receiving all the blessings of God now under the new covenant, how can one receive all the blessings of God or How can one receive salvation? How can one have peace with God? How can one have? The assurance in their heart that you know their sins are forgiven and now they can worship God in Spirit and in truth and God accepts their worship Only when they have salvation so the rest of God For us to understand right now Is also, you know kind of giving us the picture of the salvation that Jesus bought for us So one can enter into that salvation But what does it need for us to enter into salvation faith in God So when we put our faith in the finished work of the cross we enter into His rest So you see this his rest has many dimensions That's what I'm trying to explain to us. It has many dimensions one of course is about salvation How do we receive salvation by putting our faith in the finished work of the cross and the Author is selling the believers to first of all settle that They're already believers and you know, they can receive from the work of salvation They don't have to be afraid every single day wondering whether, you know Their relationship with God is okay or not and all of that. Secondly The rest of God is also under the new covenant It it it has the element of grace because up until Jesus's redemptive work It was about observance of the mosaic law and if they break Even a small like like the smallest a section of the law there were consequences which they needed to bear And that in itself, you know, you you can see how difficult life would have been under the mosaic law But now the rest of God is to believe in the finished work of the cross and to come into a place in Christ where You know, we we are experiencing the grace That Jesus has poured upon our lives And yeah, and to just enjoy God and worship him all of this has has been made available To the Jewish believers and so he's reminding them. Look, we have all this in Christ This is the rest every single day. We can walk with peace, right as believers You and I can testify to that we can walk in peace saying hey, whatever happens today I know one thing my relationship with God is right and You know, my eternity is is secure because I already have salvation and I'm walking right with the Lord And I don't have to do this thing of salvation by works anymore because Jesus is completely Finished what needed to be done. So it's it's about salvation First we said rest was about going entering into Canaan secondly We are saying his rest is a picture of the salvation that Jesus has bought for us And let's just move on here in the passage. I was explaining verse one and verse two He says for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them But the word which they heard did not profit them nor being mixed with faith in those who heard it So he's reminding people about the importance of faith and he says What we hear? Okay, yeah, he's mentioning the gospel, but the word of God that we hear It's got to be mixed with faith meaning when we hear the word of God Believe it if we don't believe it There's really no It doesn't produce in our lives, but when we believe it it produces so faith applying faith When we hear the word is very very crucial. So he's still Talking about unbelief and faith verse 3 he goes on And he says for we who have believed do enter that rest as he had said So I swore in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So he's Sort of to make us understand about faith and belief He's saying the ones who did not believe they missed out Okay, so we better believe and he says the works were finished from the foundation of the world Okay, this again is an interesting thought. How can God say that the works were finished From the foundation of the world because we know Jesus came 2,000 years right after things Adam and Eve sinned and 2,000 years later roughly Was it 2,000 or 4,000? I think 4,000 right? Yeah, so anyway Not in the book of Genesis, but Jesus came much later that much we understand But here the author is saying works were finished from the foundation of the world. What does it mean? Give very interesting thought here For God His work is finished in his mind Okay, something for us to understand. So when the world was created In his in God's knowing in his mind God knew everything that is going to take place that Adam and Eve will sin Sin will corrupt the world but in his mind The Lord Jesus would go and he would do the work of redemption and everything right the whole plan of What is going to unfold in the world was already in the mind of God at the foundation of the world and Based on that the writer is saying the works were finished From the foundation of the world. It doesn't mean they were sort of you know, like it all took place But in the mind of God Everything was settled So that's why we say God is a God of plan and design because he thinks Plans it's the plan is very clear-cut in his mind and That's the understanding that the author is giving us here God already knew that he would send Jesus and you know redemption would take place and he's telling the people just believe If you believe with your whole heart, then you can experience the rest of God now Let's look at we've been saying there is a rest. There is a rest. What is that rest? It? Symbolizes the promised land the rest symbolizes Salvation that Jesus gave us that rest symbolizes salvation by through faith without faith We cannot have it. We've got to mix what we hear with faith So all that we've understood but we've also been saying his rest his rest so we can Recognize that there is something like There is a rest but it is God kind of rest or God's rest Okay, I know that we all understand rest in our own way the way we live our lives and We just take some time off and our body feels rested our mind feels rested Yes, all of that is part of resting but He says Enter my rest Earlier, we've been reading Entering his rest So there is a God kind of rest Okay, there is a rest that God undertook And He wants us to be partakers of the God kind of rest Okay, so that also is another dimension to what we are seeing here So in verse 4 he talks about the creation of the world for he has Spoken in a certain place on the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his works So you see the works were finished in God's mind, but then he implemented them six days Seventh day God Rested so let me pause here before we explain further my question is why did God rest? So any thoughts on that? Have you ever thought about it? Why did God rest? He did not simply rest, but he had finished his work Okay, so he did not simply rest, but he finished his work. Okay, fine Any other thoughts about why God rested? huh That's actually okay He rested so that we too may rest one day from our busy life Sure. Yes, I understand that we give us a pattern. That's true. That's true Why did he rest? Did he need rest was God tired after creating six days creation everything he finished He would have been like, huh, I need a good sleep. Good night's sleep. I think we all understand that He did not need it in the way that, you know, we see rest where He became tired or weary Or slow No, because the same Bible says, you know, he's a God deny the slumbers nor sleeps. Okay He's the eternal God. He never grows weary never grows tired but he rested and As Paul stated if it is Showing us that God finished what he needed to do and So he seized from doing that activity Okay So that is an understanding that we get So when it says it rested he did not continue to create the world everything six days. He finished I know that the the the scientific world states all kinds of theories that, you know, a Million years a billion years and God or things are still being created But as far as the Bible is concerned, you finish everything six days and He did not continue doing that anymore He stopped with that particular task Okay, secondly His rest is Like once he has completed everything properly You know, it's like It there's a sense of peace in it everything that needed to be done is now done That's peace. There's sort of, you know Like a sense of being settled being settled. So he entered into that So when God is inviting us and saying enter my rest enter my rest What he's really saying is you know to come to that place of believing him coming to that place of Having peace in him Right after we've done everything we need to believe We just settle ourselves in him Interesting him. That's the place where he is inviting us to and he's saying If we believe in God, we will be able to enter that rest Okay, and we have the opportunity to enter that rest So in verse 6 since therefore it remains that some must enter it and those to whom it was first Preach did not enter because of disobedience and verse 7 again He designates a certain day saying in David today after such a long time as it has been said today If you hear if you will hear his voice to not harden your hearts So basically he's calling them back to faith or a place of fully trusting in God where when we trust in God like that it's Not only about, you know getting physical rest or getting a holiday or getting a break The rest is much deeper than that, you know, we we are having this this sense of incredible peace in God and Faith in God. We are so anchored in God that we are experiencing that God kind of rest Which can only come by believing when we don't have a heart of faith We will miss out on you know this kind of rest. So I think I'll just stop here for today We'll think this through and pick up regarding the God kind of rest in the next class Just want to request maybe one of us to pray before we close today Hey heavenly father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this day We thank you for your beautiful truths that you have given us Lord But I pray that you will equip us develop into someone who fully trust in you Who fully relies on you and God we will be people who listens to your word today Jesus right at this time But we won't harden our hearts. We won't be deceived by the skills of Satan But God we will always rely on you look and see so that we can enter into this promised rest that is in front of We can experience the blessings of the salvation that we have received But I pray that you will help us throughout the journey be with us and guide us We thank you for Nancy ma'am and we thank you for everything that we learned today in Jesus name. I pray Amen, thank you. Thank you. Jeffy now. Thank you everyone. God bless you Have a you know wonderful rest of the day. Bye for now