Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2002

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Introduction:  In the original garden where Adam and Eve dwelt in the very presence of God, it was not until they had sinned that they realized they had no clothes and so  in light of the new circumstance, the Lord God slaughtered some animals for their fur and clad the newly sensitive sinners so that they could stand upright before Him again.  In the course of time, the Covenant sign of circumcision was instituted and called interestingly enough an “uncovering”, thus harkening back to the original sin with which we are all infected to our eternal disadvantage. 

Down through the Old Covenant era, signs and seals as well as pointed instructions and examples and teachings of what must come to past in the distant future were revealed by the prophets, priests and kings of Israel.  These same teachings were also sufficient to reveal the sorry state of natural mankind born without hope in heaven because of the first Adam’s fall from grace.  And well may we show our lineage to Adam in the sinful course of our daily lives.  Lives that would only grow worse and worse if we were not restrained by the laws of nations and the spiritual dampening influence of the Holy Spirit.  Such is the natural course of human interest and intent that after the flood, the Lord God of heaven and earth began to limit the length of human life  just so we all could not become what we really want to be!

Have you heard or read about the profound moral sickness and absolutely wicked manipulation of people done by the Saddam sons?  Their ongoing actions the last decade are indeed reminiscent of their Babylonian and Assyrian forebears.  In deed, you have to go to the former Mayan culture to find examples of sportsmen being cut up for loosing to other players!  Then there is the report of the terrible gigantic shredding machine wherein  if he sort of liked you, but still wanted to kill you: one of the sons would have you thrown in head first.  But, if he really had it in for you and wanted to make you suffer  the opposite methodology would be used.  And one of the tyrannical sons dares to call our troops to negotiate an honorable surrender?  I think not, we should give him a choice between a firing squad or being turned over to his own people.

And yet you may well ask, as do many of the worldly:  why should the ordinary person who, while less than perfect  never attains the supreme notoriety of the Saddam sons?  The short answer is simply the same failure of Adam and Eve:  disobedience to the law of God.  The Creator God is not ambivalent about the fact of sin, any sin  to disobey God is to call down His eternal wrath which at the very least means you will find little enjoyment in the next life and you can be assured it will be far longer than the present  stretching as we understand on into eternity: forever and ever, which is a very long time!

Development:  Given these grim facts of reality we are admonished by the Apostle here to:  “ strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.  But, but  if God is a sovereign electing God what hope is there for me?  To answer that necessary question we have to outline the position of our passage in the course of the whole book of Hebrews.  As my working outline goes, we are just finishing up the fourth section of the book and we are poised on the beginning of a fifth section which will describe for us the grace and mercy of God Almighty who appointed the “Second Adam,” his own Son Jesus Christ to be the Great High Priest who would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the elect people of God in every age and place.

1.  We began our study of Hebrews last fall with a careful consideration of the finality of Christ in the first three verses of chapter one.  By this finality we must understand that Jesus Christ is God’s last redemptive word to all of mankind.  It matters not the human significance of any sin, but the very fact that one was disobedient to the revealed law and grace of God.  As one Puritan so aptly put it:  “We are commanded to come to Christ” in order to be saved.  Of course, as we look around the world today, we realize there is no great stampede to obey even the grace explicit in that invitation!

What can we say of the human situation if the vast majority of the population is not willing to save themselves through such a kind and gracious offer?  Is it because we do not really comprehend who this man Jesus Christ really was?

2.  To explain the blunt and brutal facts, the second division of this book (Hebrews 1: 4-14) is dedicated to prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ as a person is better than the Angels.  These are beings of course that are very popular in our day and time.  Guardian Angels abound in stores and stories and such are the vain hope of millions  that somehow these immortal beings with eternal life of their own may somehow intercede and arrange a like salvation for mere mortals.

But the only Angels we are likely to be attracted to are of the fallen demonic kind.  In that vein, I was always amazed over the last twenty-five years how the quiet, gentle and kind young ladies of “good breeding” and intentions would almost all fall head over heals for the scum of all the earth?  You see, we cannot choose well  even if the beings chosen are of an angelic kind.  Those whose interest is in this realm will miss the bus, so to speak  because the Angels are nothing more than created beings of a different sort than we.  So thus, they have no powers or influence beyond what they are charged by the God or Satan whom they gladly serve faithfully.

3.  In chapter two the Apostle spends his efforts in a careful admonition and reflection upon the person and purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ.  His uniqueness as the only Son of God is stressed.  It is also explained how His sinless life and steadfast trip to the suffering on the cross and His resurrection from the dead can heal the breach with God once accomplished by Adam in his day.  The Apostle sums up the plot and purpose of this wonderful book in verse seventeen:  “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

In the crude and often ignored words of every evangelist:  Jesus Christ died on the cross in your place, so that you may have life and spiritual health in and through Him.

4.  In chapters three and the majority of verse four through our meditations for today, the Apostle outlines the relationship of the New Covenant in Christ to the Old Covenant revealed through Moses.  And in this comparative argument the stress is laid on the concept of eternal life and how the common crowd have found every opportunity to miss the boat, the bus or as the Scriptures would have it: the way to eternal life.  That is all the phrase “The Rest” really means.  And yet, we can in Christ have a foretaste of the glory to come in being known by Him in this life and thereby being spiritually enabled   to go on and do our best to please Him in and through a thoughtful obedience to His revelations!

The plain message of this section is the fact that the grace and mercy offered through Christ is better than the judgment of the law revealed through Moses.  Of course, we understand that the teachings of the law are a necessary prelude to our conception and understanding of sin.  And a proper understanding of the fact of sin means that some way out of that fallen condition must be desired for our eternal well being.  And thus we come to the fifth section wherein the  “propitiation for the sins of the people.” will be carefully and fully explained.

Application:  But to reap eternal gain from that explanation, our hearts must be pierced by the power of the Spirit so that we understand the necessity for the sacrificial work of our Great High Priest.

Look carefully there at the words in verse eleven, and may the words be engraved upon your heart to set your sight on heaven and eternity with Christ.  "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience."  Well, you may ask, who can know the true state of our hearts heart?  Look carefully at the closing verses of this section.  Like the closing arguments of many scriptural passages, there is an evangelical urgency here to get right with God.

Listen carefully to God's promise to those who would rather not accept His final rest:  "the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword.  It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

Yes, like those who wondered and wandered in the wilderness with Moses, Jesus knows our inward thoughts.  He knows very well who does not acknowledge Him as God and King.  In the Middle East, some bright and promising intelligence officer came up with a deck of cards to describe the “crème de la crude” of Saddam’s notorious regime.  And those cards have been particularly popular and are selling like hot cakes.  Some of the wanted have even been found and the search goes on for others.

Well, the Lord God of all the earth doesn’t have a playing card with your picture on it, but He does indeed have The Book of Life where the elect of all the earth are listed from before time.  The most important fact to you in this life and the next is this:  are you on that short list?  I would challenge you if you do not know for certain to study and pray about your personal calling.  I challenge you in the spiritual theme of this passage so that you may attain the rest.  May the Holy Spirit contend with your spirit and make it so, Amen.