Grace Community

In this Psalm of Ascent, we see how a believer on a journey going through sweat and tears, rejoices in the absolute confidence that God will restore the fortunes of His people. As Christians, we look back to the 'great things the Lord has done' and we know that He will restore all things - because He has already begun in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our dream of restoration is tied to reality - we know God will do it because of what He has already done, and we know it'll happen because He will bring our dreams to fruition - and not us. So we do the little we can do, sow, knowing that one day we will share and rejoice in His great success!

This is part 2 of these three points:
1. Today, hear His voice
2. Today, don't harden your heart
3. Today, enter God's rest.
From what the Holy Spirit says in Hebrews 3:7-10, we go to God's people in the Old Covenant and we see that the way they hardened their hearts was in these three ways:
a) Hardships can harden our hearts so that we don't hear God's voice
b) Lust for pleasure can harden our hearts so that we don't hear God's voice
c) Presumption can harden our hearts so that we don't hear God's voice
The reason God wants us to soften our hearts is because His heart is so soft to us! Knowing that we can't do this, He sent Jesus, the Perfect Israel, the Perfect Obedient Son, and Jesus perfectly fulfilled a, b and c. In the wilderness for 40 days he was tested in all these three areas and in each case, Jesus listened to the voice of God in His written words.
We didn't get to 3. but to enter God's rest simply means that the human heart arrives at the peace and wellbeing that God designed us to enjoy when we hear His voice and obey. 

Hebrews has shown us that Jesus is the Superior Word of God. Jesus is God's full and final Word to humanity. It is a living and active Word (4:12) that still speaks today. What God said 'in the past' is what God the Spirit says today because there is no past or future with God. He is Eternal and everything is 'at once' with the Eternal God.
For this reason, all that matters spiritually is that we hear His voice today. In this talk we explore the first of these three points:
1. Today, hear God's voice
2. Today, do not harden your heart
3. Today, enter God's rest

Consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: when it comes to Apostleship, the Word that God speaks in Jesus Who is the Word, eclipses all other words that came through other prophets. And Jesus is not just a talker, He is a doer, hence He is also the High Priest. 
In this passage the two houses that Moses and Jesus built are compared and we see that only the house that Jesus builds lasts - if we hold fast to our confidence (Jesus), and boast in our hope (the things we will inherit in Jesus one day.)

1. Moses and Jesus were both faithful house-builders
2. Moses was a faithful servant in God's house but Jesus is a faithful Son, over God's house
3. Moses' house didn't last, but we are God's house if we hold fast to Jesus.

When God send Jesus to us, God the Father was giving us everything we could possible want or need as regards a relationship with Him. And, as time will show, a relationship with Him is all we could ever want or need. All the treasures of God are in Jesus Christ. He is a Perfect and totally-Sufficient High Priest. This talk explores why Jesus is such a Perfect Priest.
1. He became like us in every respect.
2. He is merciful and faithful.
3. He made propitiation for our sins.
4. He always helps us every second, every moment, in every situation in our lives.

= consider Jesus, our Apostle and High Priest.

God has 'brought many sons to glory' by uniting us to Jesus. The way God gets us to glory is that...
1. Jesus sanctifies us through His suffering to bring us TO God (10-14)
2. Jesus delivers us through death FROM slavery to death (15-18)

Hebrews 3:1 THEREFORE, holy (point 1) brothers (point 2) who share in the heavenly calling (bringing us to glory), CONSIDER JESUS!

Hebrews 2:5-18 has this logic: God has subjected the disobedient and dying world to the True Man (5-9) AND God has united us to the True Man so that He delivers us from lifelong subjection to disobedience and death. (10-18) This talk only deals with 5-9.

As regards the first point, we see that God subjected all things to humanity but we failed miserably. This is why we don't see everything in subect to him, but instead we see a different 'Him' i.e. we don't look to ourselves, but to Him who was subjected to death and now risen and reigning in glory forever: Jesus. 

We also see how special a human being is. God is mindful of human beings and He cares for them. The context for every human being is the mind of God, and God's care.

To know what a True human being is supposed to be, we must look not at ourselves, but 'see Him' - Jesus. But Jesus is not just a model human being, He also did something for us. He became subject to death in order to deliver us who are in slavery to death and decay.

We have heard an extremely reliable message from God about Jesus. If we don't cling to that message we will drift into the just penalty that comes to those who drift from that message of salvation. This talk explores why the message we have heard is so reliable, what drifting looks like, what the just penalty looks like, and how we are encouraged to cling to God's message about His Son.

Only God can bear witness to Himself - logically. Otherwise we'd have more confidence in people who change and are fickle, than the Eternal Unchanging God. Thankfully, the Truth is that God is One Being in Three Persons. There are always Three Persons who bear witness. The Father, in the Spirits Words, testifies to the Son. The Son, who came into our world, bears witness to the Father in the power of the Spirit. And the Spirit speaks through the words themselves - they are His Words - testifying to the Father and the Son. This is what the Bible is. Hebrews 1 5-14 consists of the Father's witness to the Son in the Spirits words of the Bible. This talk looks closely at what the God the Father says about God the Son, and why it means absolutely everything!!!

In this fith and final talk on the first four verses of Hebrews we continue to see how much God has given us in the Son. We have already seen that the Son is the Final Prophet (1-3a); the Son is the Perfect Priest (3b) and in this talk, we see that the Son is the Absolute Divine Ruler who conquered His enemies in order to rescue His people (3c-4a).