 Okay, good morning and welcome to this class. We'll continue with our session here on the book of Hebrews all right, so let's pray and We will pick up from where we stopped On a request someone who is not prayed so far on this class to kindly unmute and pray That would be good. All right Any volunteers, okay, it's all right if you've prayed on this class before but Yeah, anyone can Yes, sister Father God we thank you this morning Father thank you for Settling the issue and giving us this access to the class Lord Please bless us as we gather in your presence this morning Well as a new a fresh open our hearts and minds to receive your word Lord God Father God father quicken our hearts to be in line in tune with your word and Father give us the grace to imbibe whatever truths you have to teaching us a lot God Father let them become life and flesh in us that they may flow through us in the name of Jesus. Thank you for our Ma'am Nancy, let's each one of us empower us this day in Jesus name immense Amen. Thank you sister. Thank you so much for leading in prayer We have been talking about entering God's rest and we saw how faith and patience So important for us to enter the promises of God we've understood the several aspects about the God kind of rest which is Available for every believer and it is really an initiative on the part of each believer to enter that rest That's why the term enter there because that's something that each one of us needs to do on our or rather Have that initiative to enter into the kind of rest that God is offering us so we talked a lot about that and Right after that, you know we Began reading Hebrews chapter 4. We saw there that again the writer goes on to reiterating some of those same things about entering the rest and You know to respond to the promptings of the Lord. He uses this term called as today Where he says that if you hear God's voice don't harden your heart But respond to him immediately, which is what God really expects of us here in verse 8 So I'm gonna start off from verse 8 of chapter 4 where The scripture says for if Joshua had given them rest then he would not afterward have spoken of another day There remains was nine there remains therefore a rest for the people of God For he who has entered his rest has himself also seized from his works as God did from his so we also talked about the fact that God is Omnipotent and therefore he is Not someone who requires the rest but the concept of God's rest has to do more with him finishing What he had intended to do so he finished his work and thereby he rested He offers us a Rest which is greater Than the rest that people experienced when they entered into the promised land because in this context He is talking about rest. He began talking about rest as if to enter into the promises of God enter into the promised land So he makes a reference here in verse 8 to Joshua Where he says if Joshua had given them rest now Joshua and Caleb where those two people who went into the promised land and They led the conquest of the promised land part by part now one more beautiful thing about the mention of Joshua is the fact that the Name Joshua, you know it it it is sort of Similar to the name of Jesus like in terms of its You know the meaning and it means salvation. So he's saying that the Human salvation or the things that mankind has to offer for for us to enter into rest It's not been enough for us, which is why God sent the Lord Jesus for us to complete that Work for us. So that actual rest has come to us through Jesus. So that Word Joshua is Significant because it talks about Salvation, okay, but our ultimate salvation is from the Lord Jesus Christ So then again in verse 11, he says something like let us therefore be diligent to enter that Rest list anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience There is this term called diligent We said so far that for us to enter into God's rest one very important thing is faith But here he adds the term diligent. So we can We can recognize there is also this concept of diligent faith diligence is being a nest diligent is you know sort of Making up your mind about something and working on it without, you know, letting it go So that's the simple understanding of this term diligence. Now when he says diligent faith What he means is a Consistent faith a consistent faith which does not move away No matter how things are and how circumstances are and how life situations are so we've been saying that the listeners Where in a phase of their lives where they were discouraged to the point that they could have even given up their faith and Which is why he's saying that we need to hold on to faith. We need to continue in faith and Not just, you know, faith that may come in Just some rushes or sort of, you know, some spurts, but Faith which is consistent faith, which is earnest faith, which is diligent So hold on to your faith and don't compromise it So let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest that simply means have the kind of Diligent faith, okay, which is required And if one does not have diligent faith, what are what is the risk that they run? They too Can fall? Okay, similar to the disobedience of the Israelites now He goes ahead and he talks about the power of God's word. So let's read this I would like to request someone to please read verses 12 and 13 Chapter 4 verses 12 and 13 For the word of God is living in that day Shop with an immature edged sword, piercing through the divisions of soul, and of spirit, of joints, and of narrow, and inserting the thoughts and tensions of the heart And no creature is living from the self, but all are needed with exposed to the eyes of him to run an escape account Point out towards the Powerful word of God here in verse 12. It's an oft-repeated scripture. So I'm sure we all already understand it quite well We'll try to see What are all the different aspects about the word of God that are spoken in in this particular verse verse 12? it says for the word of God is living and Powerful so when he says that the word of God is living we understand that the word of God is alive It is in other words not a dormant entity that the word of God Has life in it. Okay. So the way we can Recognize, you know what the ability of the word is that the word can Speak back to us accurately I am sure this has been the experience of all of us as we read God's word It's not that, you know, we are we are the ones who are only trying to engage with the word But on the from the other side we feel like the word is engaging with us You know in our own situation and that's the beauty of God's word. It's not Dormant, it's not inert, but it is alive and The word of God speaks to us the word of God also Answers us when we Read it carefully. We can almost you know here In the sense that okay, sometimes I know that we may not get those direct answers but God is leading us in a certain path and transforming us from within and the word of God Engages with us. So the word of God really helps us meet with God Yeah, it's beyond a set of information, but the word of God helps us You know encounter God in a powerful way. So the next thing there is that the word of God is powerful. So The word being alive and the word Engaging with us speaking to us that is understood now when we say that the word is powerful it has the ability to do wonders in our lives One of the greatest struggles of mankind is to experience change from within Lasting change We can use the term transformation of the the heart of a person the the mind of a person but God's word promises us in Romans 12 verse 2 It says do not be conformed to this one, but be Transformed by the renewing of your mind now that is something that The world cannot offer us an entire taste we can see some You know some changes here and there because of information That is available in the world, but God's word promises us Transformation through the renewing of our mind Renewing of our mind has to do with taking in the word. So when we take in the word It's powerful It can even transform a person or somebody who's given to the word over a period of time Let's say, you know or we ourselves when we observe our journey and notice the changes We're amazed by what has happened That because we have been yielding ourselves to the word of God So that is the power of God's word God's word is able to transform us God's word is really powerful That it also Reveals the person of God to us There's a place where Jesus rebukes You know learners of scripture in John chapter 5 where he says that you search the scriptures And you think in this you have eternal life, but you know these scriptures testify of me So here's the other powerful thing about the word of God. The word of God helps us know God It reveals God to us. So that's again, you know, the beauty of Studying the Bible. So whenever we read the Bible, you know We must do it with that passion of knowing God because Jesus said that these Scriptures testify of me. So we will find God. We will find Jesus will find the Attributes the character of God in the scriptures and that's the power of the scriptures We also understand that the word is powerful It it gives us faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God So in that sense again, like if I want to build faith in my life Let's say for healing or for Blessing or anything like, you know, serving in the ministry for growing in my walk with the Lord Any kind of faith that I want to build within myself will come from the word faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, so That is again another powerful aspect of the word There are many, you know, we can just keep listing and listing and listing but I am in a just I'm just sharing The word of God is the sword of the spirit. So in spiritual warfare the way Jesus he said it is written. It is written use the sword. So it's powerful And it helps us fight against the enemy and the works of the devil The word of God has the ability to cleanse us Jesus told his disciples. He said You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you and again We read that Jesus will wash the church with the water of the word So as we listen to the word, you know, what's happening We are being cleansed all the dust all the unnecessary dirt of the world Everything is just being removed off of us and that is again the work of the word So you see the word of God is living It's active. It's powerful. It's doing a work in us while we may just think that okay I'm listening to God's word. I'm taking in God's word. What can it do? It's doing a lot It's doing a lot in us building faith cleaning us up and you know Transforming us making the kind of making us the kind of people that God wants us to be Provided we yield to the word and Jesus also said in John 15. He said That you know, if you abide in me my words abide abide in you Then what is the result? You will bear much fruit. So blessing if you want to term it as being fruitful or being useful for God or You know, if the word prosper doesn't offend us then we can use that term the word Prosperous us Spiritually the word prosperous us in in every area of our lives and these are the blessings of the word of God you know with the word we can Build down Build up all that is there in Jeremiah chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 again We can see the the creative power of God's word At work. So these are all some of the features of God's word that we can recognize when we say that his word is Powerful and what else do we read in this scripture? We see here that He says sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow And is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So the word of God is able to Help us Distinguish that's what it means distinguish between what distinguish between what is What is coming from the spirit what is coming from the soul? Okay, so the word of the more of the word of God we take it to ourselves It helps us divide The actual truth of God's word from you know other thoughts or worldly patterns worldly ideas And that is the meaning so in in a in a certain way You know, you could say that it does that diagnosis analysis and diagnosis of okay This is the condition of the heart It exposes the thoughts and intents of our hearts. We may think that What I'm thinking is right But as we engage with the word If those thoughts are fleshly then you know the word it's almost like we're reading the bible And the bible is hitting a torchlight at our hearts and saying, you know, this is not okay or that is not okay This is what God's word says and so you need to align yourself to What God's heart is all about so the hidden things get exposed and sometimes that is The most uncomfortable thing for many of us because we know that if we start engaging with the word It'll tell us the truth and sooner or later You know, we will have to face that conviction within ourselves and overcome Those ungodly or unfruitful Okay, I got disconnected there for a moment. Let's resume We were talking about the power of God's word and we said that God's word is also able to expose our thoughts and Intents now coming to verse 13 As there is no creature hidden from his sight But all things are naked and open To the eyes of him to whom we must give account Okay, so we had some aircrafts flying over us. We couldn't Speak louder than their noise Okay, we will Try and understand what this particular verse is saying So it simply says that nothing is hidden Okay, before God, he's on the ship. That's another attribute of God and so Absolutely everything is open to him Okay, and it also says that we must give account to God and That is Something that we are all aware of that there will be a time when we have to Give an account for the lives that we have lived And the things that we have done now moving ahead. We'll we'll talk more um But this the the next section is about the Lord Jesus at him being the High priest So I want to request someone to read from verse 14 to verse 16 and I also want to encourage us. Please don't get distracted. I know we've had quite a few interruptions today, but Things are fine now. So let's keep the focus versus 14 through 16 And if someone can read it, that'll be great Hebrew chapter 4 verse 14 to 16 Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the son of god let us hold fast our confession For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses But was was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Amen Amen. Thank you We have been repeatedly told about the qualities of Jesus and how he is greater than anything that the Believers have seen or experienced thus far. So the writer talked about how Jesus is deity. He talked about how the Lord Jesus Has embraced humanity fully and then in chapter 3 we saw how he Spoke of Jesus more highly than Moses now here He is giving us an emphasis on the fact that the Lord Jesus is a great high priest Okay, a great high priest. He has passed through the heavens And he goes ahead and describes, you know qualities of the Lord Jesus. He's passed through the heavens Jesus the son of god And he also goes on to talk about the high priest who can sympathize with us. He can sympathize with us simply because he has experienced the the same Things that we are going through now. Now one of the one of the important Things for us to recognize is that in his humanity the Lord Jesus was not exempt from The afflictions of the world one of which is temptation now satan Comes with the methods of his workings that we have Talked about in earlier courses his devices his vials One major way in which he tries to afflict mankind is through Temptation and when one gives him to temptation They fall into sin But look at this. We are told that Jesus is someone who was at all points tempted that is simply saying That as a human being all the temptations, you know, which were possible They came upon Jesus now being tempted it in itself is not sin Temptation can happen but yielding to temptation. So we usually say That the first thought is not a sin because sometimes satan can plant that first thought in our minds But when we go along with it and think the second thought aligned to what satan is Suggesting that's when we are sinning. So temptation can come away. Jesus was tempted As we are but notice what the scripture says yet without sin because Even though satan presented many ideas to Jesus he Fought against the devil, you know, I'm sure he would have said, you know, it is written It is written the way he did it in the wilderness When satan was putting thoughts in his mind. So Jesus was tempted in every way yet without sin How is it helpful for us? It is helpful for us because the Lord Jesus who is the great high priest He is now our representative. And so he is able to judge us based on the human experience Okay, he's he's not disconnected to the human experience Since he's had that human experience. He knows the challenges. He knows the struggles and That is why the writer is encouraging the believers and in a in a sense What he's trying to say is your discouragement is not a surprise for God God understands But don't let this challenge lead you into sin Instead, he says you come to God. You approach God. So in verse 16 He says let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So we have now a sympathizing a sympathetic high priest Who represents us very well and this must give us courage to enter God's presence You know in James there is this scripture where James, right? He says when we lack wisdom, let's ask God He gives to all abundantly and he gives without reproach reproach is when Somebody gives us but they give us With a sense of con condemning us where they say, you know, you don't deserve this I should actually not be giving you but because I'm so gracious. I will give you look at what you've done So that is reproach where One is put down, but when we look at Jesus our high priest One of the things that gives us great confidence is He sympathizes with our weaknesses You know that should be all the more an encouragement for us to not hide our faults to not hide Our shortcomings to not hide, you know, those weaknesses those gaps where But we come before him saying God, I know you understand That this is how I feel. These are the challenges. These are the struggles and you know, uh, receive the mercy and grace Which God has to offer and uh, so beautifully You know, we can talk about every word here. Uh, it says throne of grace throne of grace grace is unmerited favor Where we don't really deserve that favor Uh, however, God is giving it to us. So he has a throne of grace from which we can receive unmerited favor and you know mercy is like Um forgiveness though we deserve punishment instead of punishment. We are given mercy So we have a great God who is able to release mercy. He's also able to give us grace in our time of need So when we go through discouragements, the best thing to do is to run to God Because we understand he sympathizes with our weaknesses Uh, he has a throne of grace. He's able to give us mercy He's able to release grace in our time of need and uh, he's the writer is actually encouraging the believers to have the right approach and he's saying come boldly again It's it's like a lot of encouragement packed into a few words there boldly is Without hesitation freely with a sense of assurance where we can lay aside All our anxiety like Philippians 4 6 it says, you know, don't be anxious about anything but in everything with Thanksgiving make your request known to God so we can make our request known to God and God is there to hear us God is there to answer our prayers. So let's pause for a bit. Is there anything you want to add or talk about? Uh, I know we touched on so many things But yeah, feel free Uh, Avni, did you want to say something? No, ma'am. Oh, okay. Sure Okay, no problem. Uh, yes, Christopher I guess thank you pastor. I wanted to just uh, try to understand how, um The word rest in these verses um and you know, uh the encouragement to you know to seek the crest And and you know be part of the rest uh, how it relates to God's rest on the seventh day And also the the word or the word of God. How does that all relate together? I just wanted to understand that Okay, so uh, Christopher you're saying How does the rest which is given here relate with God's rest of the seventh day? Right Yes, yes, and also how how I mean how does it relate to uh, you know Getting that rest or how how does it relate to the word of God? Okay, uh, so Uh, as far as I I'll answer your second question first as far as the word of God is concerned um It's it's an encouragement. I don't think it's flowing in line with rest because as you can notice, uh Even in one given chapter there are Different themes So now we did Hebrews chapter four. We talked about rest initially Then we talked about the word of God and then we uh, uh, just now we talked about Jesus being the high priest So how does it relate and connect? Actually, you may not there may not be an exact connection It it it's not flowing in that sense These are separate subjects that he is addressing just to encourage the believers. Okay, so that that is The answer to your second part of the question now talking about Uh rest and uh, how does this rest relate to God's rest? See God Rested not because he was tired But because he finished what he needed to do and when he rested on the seventh day He seized from his work. He seized from his labor. He seized from his striving Now that is related to our faith When we are living our life with faith, we are seizing from our striving in works Okay, so that is the great that that is the the very direct interpretation of uh The the rest that is being talked about now. We have of course tried to expand it the rest in all its fullness and see you know many other things that rest means rest, you know in terms of receiving God's promises and Seizing from the laws and all those things but here primarily God seized from his works and so when we become believers we have salvation we seize from our labor Which tries to earn God's favor that is the primary meaning of rest over here Uh, and I think you know, um both are the same right like seizing from striving seizing from works God seized on the seventh day and when we are now in faith. We also seized from our Works to earn salvation. Uh, does that make sense? Christopher? Ah, yes, uh, but just uh, just just trying to understand the that relationship of uh, sorry relating the you know the word at the wrist that um that caught uh You know hit on the seven day Uh, he's going through the verses again Uh, the very next paragraph is talking about, you know, I mean as in verse number and verse number 11 So let's let therefore be diligent to enter that rest Less than even for according to the same example of disobedience And then the next one is saying the word of God is believing and powerful. So what you mentioned was that Now in a way, they are related are they unrelated? Subjects or topics um I'm just thinking is there's something between between verse number 11 and verse number 10 Okay, so, uh, verse number Verse number 11 and verse number 10 Okay So, uh, see, uh, I just shared that it's about living a life Of faith Okay, living a life of faith So when we live a life of faith We are able to experience rest in God now that may not necessarily mean that We don't have anything to do down here on the earth But whatever we are doing we are doing it in faith. So it's it's uh primarily to seize from our striving And to live this life in faith that is entering God's rest and uh when it comes to Yeah, that that would be the link because for between verses 10 and 11 Uh, if you're looking for a for a link between verses 11 and 12 As far as i'm concerned, I don't think there's like a direct link there but The author may have spoken about the word of God because the word generates faith Because in verse 11 he's talking about diligent Enter the rest or diligent faith is what he's talking about And where can you get that faith? You can get it from the word. So An indirect link or a uh a small connect there can be You know, uh Sort of pulled pulled out of those verses Is that okay? Okay, sure. Thank you Thank you and thank you everyone. Uh, we will take a break for 10 minutes and we will continue From hebrews 5 right after that See you soon