Chapter
Four As we enter into the 4th chapter of the book of Hebrews, we are immediately
struck by the burden of the Holy Spirit expressed here through the writer of Hebrews
to bring us into God's rest. The last two verses of chapter 3 give a solemn indictment
against those who, because of their unbelief, could not enter into the promised
land. Those Israelites in the days of Joshua, both those who entered into the
promised land and those who failed to do so because of their unbelief, are only
types and shadows of that greater company, the eternal Church of Jesus Christ,
who are destined to enter into God's promised land, the fulness of the Spirit.
So, also, there are those today who, like the unbelieving Jews, will fail to receive
the fulness of God because of their unbelief. Nothing that God ever spoke has
failed to come to pass. His Word has always been true. Therefore, it is a terrible
sin and an insult to God's character to doubt His promises for His church. This
is the one sin that is guaranteed to keep people from entering into the precious
promises given by the Spirit. Our failures, our shortcomings, our inabilities,
are not mentioned as reasons why we shall miss the fulness of the Kingdom. The
one thing God is warning us strongly about in this portion of scripture is unbelief.
Hearing the gospel, and even acting upon it in a measure is not enough.
"Land
of Milk and Honey"
The Jews heard the good news of the Promised Land. They
even sent spies in to spy out the land. They brought back the fruit of the land.
They told of the land that flows with milk and honey. And after judgments of God
came upon them in Numbers 14, they decided they would go ahead and go into the
Promised Land, in spite of Moses' admonition that God had changed His mind, was
going to judge them for their wickedness and take in their children in a future
generation. In Numbers 14:40 we read, "And they rose up early in the morning and
get them into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up
unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said,
Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper.
Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies."
But the people were stubborn. Just as they would not listen to the promises of
God, now they would not listen to God's rebuke through His servant, Moses. So
they tried to go on up to the top of the hill and press on into the Promised Land
on their own accord and with their own strength. But, the Bible says that the
Amalekites and the Canaanites came down and smote them and threw them out of the
land. So it is today. We see those who refuse to take the Promised Land God's
way. They refuse to hear the voice of the Spirit to make an end to the Adam nature,
and enter into the fulness of God as the Lord has promised. But then as it were,
they suddenly sense that they are about to miss out on something great, and so,
they attempt to go into the holy things of God with the natural mind and with
the natural strength. But the Amalekites, a type of the flesh, and the Canaanites,
a type of satanic powers, will defeat them, and do defeat them even as in the
days of Moses. The Word that was preached unto them did not profit them because
it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. And so today, the hearts of
carnal men full of unbelief do not profit from either the word of promise or the
word of rebuke, because they do not mix faith with that which they hear. Trying
to fulfill the promises of God by natural strength or by the cunning of man's
mind is not the answer. There must come an end of man's strength and an entering
into God's rest. This is the Sabbath, the rest that God is speaking to us about
here in Hebrews 4.
God's Sabbath
The words of the song writer express
so beautifully that condition which will exist in the earth when men have entered
into God's rest, when Jesus Christ is truly Lord and when the Adam nature has
been put to the Cross.
"He will heal your broken-hearted,
He will
cause your blind to see;
He will make your lame to walk again,
He will
set your captives free.
Every prison will be opened,
Every yoke He'll
take away;
And the Lord shall reign in Zion,
For it is God's Sabbath
Day.
Rivers shall flow in the wilderness,
Floods from heaven descend;
All the earth shall be filled with His holiness,
Forever, world without
end.
Every valley shall be exalted,
Every mountain made low.
The crooked shall be straight again,
Ere the Spirit of the Lord shall flow.
Like rivers in the high place,
Like floods on the burning sand;
Upon the poor and needy,
God's blessing shall descend."
This chapter
in Hebrews makes it plain that the Sabbath day is not just a Mosaic law concerning
one day in the week, nor is it the natural land of Canaan that the Jews look forward
to entering, nor is it just the thousand year Day of the Lord or Kingdom Age which
we are about to enter. The Sabbath of God is a relationship to God, a place in
God where He is absolute Lord and where the fulness of God is manifested in His
people. God will not stop working until He brings this about. In the creation
of this world, God worked for six days bringing into being this creation, and
He did not stop working until He had His creation as He desired it, including
the creation of His man who should rule this world. But that Adamic creation is
only a small picture of the greater glory that He is bringing about in these past
6,000 years or six days of man's history. These six days of labor by the Lord
will end with the creation or bringing forth of a new creation man who will rule
and reign with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years. What happens after that Kingdom Age
is finished and that thousand years is over, is another part of the mysteries
of God's eternal glory and purposes which we shall deal with later. But in this
chapter of Hebrews, there is a divine exhortation for God's people to awaken to
the absolute necessity of laying down their own lives and their own labors and
the strength of the natural man and letting God be Lord of His creation. This
is the doorway into God's Sabbath.
Labor by the Spirit
Entering
into God's rest does not mean a lazy attitude of non-work, nor a cessation of
activity. There is much to be accomplished in the Kingdom Age. In fact, much more
will be done by those who have entered into God's rest than has ever been done
before in the history of the Church. But that which is accomplished shall be done
by the power of the Spirit. It shall be a ceasing from our own works, a laying
down of our own lives. Verse 9 tells us, "There remaineth therefore, a rest to
the people of God." This verse makes it plain that the sabbath day was not the
seventh day that God gave to the people of Israel by the Mosaic law as the day
of rest. Neither is it the land of Canaan that the Jews entered into under the
ministry of Joshua. For verse 8 makes it plain that if God's Sabbath was that
land of rest that Joshua brought them into when he took them over Canaan, then
David would not have prophetically spoken of another day. At the time of the writing
of the book of Hebrews, the children of Israel were living in the land of Canaan.
Their laws were strict concerning the seventh day sabbath. Yet, verse 9 tells
us that at this time there still remains a rest to the people of God. Verse 10
goes on to tell us that anyone who is still working at his own works, in his own
power, operating by the natural mind, has not yet entered into God's rest or God's
sabbath. Then we have a solemn warning in Verse 11, "Therefore", he says, meaning,
because of what we have just been saying, "let us labor to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Those Jews that wandered
40 years in the wilderness have provided us with a vivid example of how we also
can miss the Kingdom of God if we exhibit that same kind of unbelief. Labor to
enter into His rest. How strange the wording of that statement! How can we labor
to enter into rest? How can we work toward coming to the place where we stop working?
Philippians 2 says: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." When
you try to lay down your own labors, when you attempt to turn loose of the control
of your own life and give it over into the hands of God, you will find it to be
the hardest work that you have ever done. Yet, this is what the Spirit is calling
for. This is how the Spirit is leading us and directing us. Labor to enter into
rest.
The Living Word of God
Now we come to a powerful scripture,
one that is familiar to all Bible lovers. In verse 12 we read, "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." The Amplified Bible
expresses it thus: "The word that God speaks is alive and full of power--making
it active, operative, energizing and effective." And we read in Wuest's Expanded
Translation: "For actively alive is the Word of God and energetic and sharper
than any twoedged sword." Rotherham's Translation says: "For living is the Word
of God and energetic." The Moffat's Translation is very expressive: "For the Logos
of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge".
Now we understand that the word, the Logos of God, is more than the written Scriptures.
It is God's expression in every way that God has spoken and expressed Himself
to mankind. Christ Jesus Himself was the Logos, the Living Word of God. For God
expressed Himself to mankind through Christ. The Christ of the end-time shall
be living epistles, the expression of God to their generation. But let me make
one thing very plain. Those who think and preach that the scriptures, the written
Word, the Bible, is just dead letter and is not the Word of God, are in deep error.
For God has expressed Himself to us through the pages of this glorious Book. Just
as God's church in the world today does not fully express God's glory and will
and purpose to the world, so we understand that the Bible, the written scriptures,
even with all the different translations that are offered, cannot give us the
full expression of truth that God has given through the original writings of the
Law, the Prophets, and the Apostles. But I want to declare to you today that the
Kingdom Age shall not end until there has been a full expression of the character
and nature of God in His Body on the earth, the church of Jesus Christ, as well
as a full expression of God's truth and an understanding of His purposes through
the written scriptures, this book we call the Bible. Men are saying today that
we no longer need the Bible, that it is only dead letter. They say: "The letter
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." It is true that like a sharp twoedged sword,
the letter killeth. But it is not the Christ that the letter kills, it is the
Adam nature. And that is what God is after. That is why He is revealing Himself,
His truth, through the book, that He might slay that dragon that resides in humanity,
that Adam nature. For the Spirit cannot bring forth the resurrection life of Christ
in humanity until the letter has slain that Adam nature. So throw away the book,
if you will, but you'll only find yourself walking in darkness, without light.
Verse 12 declares unto us that the Word of God is alive and that it is full of
energy. Beloved, here is a divine principle laid down in scripture that will give
you an energetic life, that will destroy the afflictions of physical weaknesses
that will try to come upon you. Apply the Word of God to your body. Divine energy,
divine health, divine life will be yours as you walk and rest in the Word of God.
Soul and Spirit
This Word of God will divide that which is soulish
from that which is spirit. I have been in meetings where people were stirred purely
on a soulish basis. Tears were shed, shouts broke forth, and yet, when they left,
their spirits had not been touched. Sons had been sung with great talent and musical
ability. Sermons had gone forth with much eloquence. Large offerings had been
taken with a great deal of persuasion. The church building had been beautiful
and sumptuous, and decorated to produce awe and a feeling of solemnity, but it
was all calculated only to touch the soul life. It is at a time like this when
the true Word of God coming forth under the unction of the Holy Ghost will reveal
the soulishness of man and divide it from the Spirit of God. The first man Adam
was made a living soul. That which is soulish pertains to the first Adam. The
last Adam was a life-giving Spirit. That which is spirit pertains to Christ Jesus
our Lord. There can be no eternal mixture of Adam and Christ. The Word of God
divides asunder the soul and spirit. The Word of God separates the Christ life
from the Adamic life. This is the purpose of God to bring us into His rest, and
bring us under that sharp sword of the Word of God. The marrow of the bone is
that place where the blood is produced, the natural blood that brings life to
the natural body. The life of the flesh is in the blood. But flesh and blood cannot
inherit the Kingdom of God, and the Word of God goes down into the very source
of life for this Adam nature, for Adam must be dealt with before the fulness of
Christ can come forth. There is nothing we can hide form God. Everything is open
and naked unto the yes of Him with whom we have to do. The thoughts and intents
of our heart are as open and clear to God as if we spoke them out loud. So there
is no reason for us to be anything but honest to the Lord and to ourselves. We
cannot deceive Him, and why should we deceive ourselves? God is calling for an
honesty in His people. Our shortcomings He is aware of. Our failures He knows
about. Our weaknesses are not hid from Him. But He would have us to be honest--honest
with Him, with ourselves, an honest with one another. Let us stop deceiving each
other, beloved, for a deceptive spirit cannot enter into God's rest, cannot receive
the fulness of God's Spirit that He has planned for us.
The Throne of Grace
Now that God has spoken to us a warning about unbelief and given us again
the promise of His Sabbath, revealing to us that there is no alternative, there
is no other way but to yield to His Spirit and obey the Word of God. Now in verse
14 He begins to deal with the truth of our great high priest who brings all our
weaknesses, failures, and shortcomings to the throne of grace to obtain mercy
and help in the time of need. The book of Hebrews is a book of better things.
We saw in earlier chapters that Jesus had a better nature than that of the angels.
He had a better dominion than that of Adam. He had a better house than that of
Moses.
And now the Holy Spirit is telling us that Jesus is a better High
Priest than the Levitical priests, the sons of Aaron that ministered in the temple
there in Jerusalem. More than 30 years after the death, burial, resurrection,
and ascension of the Lord Jesus, more than 30 years after the descent of the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Spirit-filled Christians, many of them priests
who had become believers of the Lord Jesus, were still worshipping in the temple
on Mount Moriah. They were still offering up the blood of bulls and goats on the
feast days to atone for their sins. They were still looking to the golden altar
of incense to offer up incense unto God. But into this temple worship they were
trying to bring the truths of the resurrected Christ. Beloved, it will not work.
That old order is finished. It is dead. God has laid it aside. You cannot sanctify
the temple worship and the Mosaic law any further by bringing the truths of Jesus
Christ into that old order. The Aaronic priesthood is no longer God's high priest
over His people. We have a better High Priest passed into the heavens, the Lord
Jesus Christ He is the administrator of a better covenant. He has offered up,
not the blood of bulls and goats, but His own precious blood, efficacious and
effective for the cleansing of sin. The blood of bulls and goats offered up by
those Levitical priests was only a prophetic promise of the Saviour that was coming
to pour out His own life as an eternal offering for the sins of His people. But,
before He poured out His life, He lived among men, was touched with the feeling
of their infirmities. He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin. No bullock,
no goat, no lamb ever knew what it was to be tempted with sin as mankind is tempted.
They never knew the desperate cry in the heart of humanity for fellowship with
their God. Therefore, the lives and the blood of bulls and goats could not really
atone for our sins, nor bring us into right relationship with God. They were only
a type, a shadow, a promise, but now we have a High Priest who knows our infirmities,
who was tempted as we are, who is touched with our needs as we bring them unto
Him, for He lived among us. He knows the lives that we live. And this is the High
Priest Whose life was poured out for us, who can truly bring us before God at
the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace in the time of need.
Confessing Christ
Therefore, the Amplified Bible says: "Let us hold
fast our confession of faith in Him." We not only confess our sins to Him. We
not only confess our failures, our weaknesses, our inability to do as we ought
and to be what we should, but we also confess our faith in Christ. We confess
His life within us. We confess that He is able to do in us what we are unable
to do for ourselves. He is our High Priest, and is there to represent us and knows
and understands our needs, and desires to meet those needs. This is our confession.
We cannot confess defeat, for we are a victorious people. We cannot confess sorrow
and discouragement, for we are anointed with the oil of gladness, as He was. We
cannot confess doubt and unbelief, for we are full of faith in Him. We cannot
confess our own works, for we have cased form our own works and entered into God's
Sabbath. Thus with these glorious statements about our great High Priest, God
prepares our hearts for chapter Five, where He introduces us to the order of Melchisedec.
Bill
Britton Hebrews the book of better things