Hebrews – Part 2 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I am so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We are gonna be sharing some of the greatest teaching in all of the scriptures. We’re gonna be sharing from Hebrews 4, talking about Jesus is our rest. Jesus is the one who finished the deal. He completed it. There’s nothing else that we need to do, just believe Jesus. Bless Him. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here today. It’s great to have Aaron. We’re talking today about the book of Hebrews. And we’re gonna be specifically in Hebrews 3, beginning this program, and it’s great. We’re talking about Jesus is better. And what the writer of Hebrews is saying in Hebrews 3 is that Jesus is better than Moses. And this is really a theme of the gospel. These Jewish believers had a temptation to move away from Jesus and to go back to performance, to go back to trusting the law, to trusting themselves rather than trusting Jesus. And so he’s just saying Jesus is better than angels. In chapter 1, he said, “Don’t move away from Jesus.” In chapter 2, he said, “Jesus really is the grace of God and Jesus identified with us.” And he ended up chapter 2 saying, “He’s a merciful and faithful high priest.” He’s merciful because he was tempted in all points like we are. He’s faithful because He never sinned. But then he jumps right here in Hebrews 3 and says, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” If you’re born again, you are partakers of the heavenly calling. We have been called to be part of God’s family, God’s kingdom. He said, “Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, who appointed him as Moses, was faithful in all of his house.” He said, “Jesus is faithful.” Praise God, He was faithful to the Father. He never sinned. He says, “For this man, Jesus, was counted more worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house.” So he said, “Jesus is the one who built this house.” He says, “For every house is built by some man that he who built all things as God and Moses barely faithful in all of his house as a servant for testimony to the things which were spoken after.” You know, and so Jesus built the house of God. Jesus is the builder of the church. Jesus said in Matthew 16, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” How did he build it? He built it by faith in Him. We put faith in Jesus, we become part of that house. And it’s really by faith in His grace. And he says this, “But Christ, as a Son over His own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast to the confidence.” We can’t let go of our faith. He’s saying, “Don’t move away from Jesus.” Don’t go back to performance and rejoicing of the hope. You know, the Bible says we are the circumcision. This is in Philippians 3, “Who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” It’s not through keeping the law. It’s not through the works of the law. Paul says in Galatians 2:16, “By the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight.” It is evident. He goes on and says, “For the just shall live by faith.” And he says, “Of the hope firm to the end.” So we gotta hold onto our hope. Don’t let go of your hope in Jesus. In Colossians 1:22 and 23, the scripture actually talks about that. And it says this. He says, “If you continue in the faith”, in verse 23, “Rooted and grounded and settled, be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” That’s what he said. Don’t move away from Jesus. Jesus is our hope. The gospel’s our hope. It’s not in what we do, it’s in what He has already done. And so he says, as the Holy Ghost says, “Today, you’ll hear His voice.” Now if you look at that in verse 7, and you go back to chapter 1:2 and verse 1, he says. In chapter 1:1 and 2, “God, at different times in different ways, spoke to the fathers by the prophets. And He’s in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” So he said, “Keep listening. The Holy Ghost is speaking.”

 

  Today.

 

  Jesus is speaking today.

 

  Today, right?

 

  Yeah, I know that Jesus is speaking today, like, He’s reaching hearts today.

 

  Right.

 

  I love that word today. He’s not done ministering. He’s not done being the high priest. He’s not done.

 

  Amen.

 

  Being the way to the Father. He’s still speaking to us today.

 

  Amen, and that’s what he’s saying. He said in Hebrews 12, he follows this through and he says, “The blood of Jesus speaks better things than the blood of Abel.” The blood of Abel cried out of the ground for judgment, but the blood of Jesus cries from the throne of God for mercy. And God is speaking to us today through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. And he says, “So the Holy Ghost says, ‘Today, hear His voice.'” Do not harden your heart as in the provocation. Don’t harden your heart to God. You know, God is speaking to you, but don’t harden your heart. God is speaking, are we listening? I think the challenge is a lot of people just aren’t listening. They’re kind of hard of hearing and different things can harden your heart. And that’s what he begins to talk about in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Sin can harden your heart. Unbelief can harden your heart. Rebellion can harden your heart. He says, “When your fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my works for 40 years, where have I was grieved with that generation.” He said, “Today, they always err in their heart as they have not known my ways. So I sworn in my wrath, they will not enter my rest.” You gotta keep listening to God. You gotta keep listening to Jesus. You gotta keep listening to the Holy Spirit. Keep listening to the Word of God. The Word of God still speaks to us today. Man, I don’t know about you, but the word of God speaks to me. And God will speak to me. I constantly read the word. I read the word for, you know, I read a few chapters this morning. I was super busy, had a lot of things going, but I read a few chapters before I came to work. Praise God. And I just keep it. I like what Smith Wigglesworth said. He said, “Read it through, write it down, pray it in, work it out.” Amen, but God is speaking to us. And he says, “I swear they won’t enter into my rest.” Man, we wanna stay connected to Jesus. You know, stay. You know, and we’re talking about entering into rest. It’s talking about entering into the finished work of Christ, that He’s already done it.

 

  You don’t wanna fall away from, drift away from Jesus. Jesus is the point, you know.

 

  Right?

 

  And I see that people, you know, here, the writer of Hebrews is writing to these Jewish believers, saying, “Don’t drift away from Jesus. Don’t drift away from grace and go back to the law.” You know, today, people have a tendency to drift away from the main thing. They have a tendency to drift away from Jesus being the main thing. Sometimes, it’s, you know, drifting back to legalism, to looking at yourself more than at Jesus. Sometimes, it’s drifting away at, you know, just the ways of the world. Like, let’s turn our church into entertainment. And it’s not really about Jesus anymore. It’s just about just a social club or entertainment or the personality of a leader. You know, those things are gonna fall.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, and those things aren’t, they’re gonna be shaken and they’re not gonna remain.

 

  But the word of God is gonna endure forever. Amen. So we need to build it on the Word and build it on Jesus who is the living Word. Amen? Hallelujah. So he says, “Take heed, brethren, unless there be, in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief.” He says, “Unbelief is from an evil heart and departing from the living God.” Don’t move away from Jesus. Don’t move away from God. If you’re moving away from Jesus, if you’re moving away from the gospel, if you’re moving away from the message of grace, you’re departing from God. That’s what he’s saying here. He says, “But exhort one another daily, while it’s called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin is deceitful. In Romans 7:11, Paul says, “Sin deceived me and thereby slew me.” You know, sin will kill you. Sin is deadly. Paul talks about in Romans 6, why we shouldn’t be involved in sin. He says, “Number one, because you’re dead to it. Number two, because you’re free from it. Number three, because you have authority over it. And number four, because it’ll kill you.” But in Romans 7 he says this, and this is what he’s talking about. He says, “Don’t be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”, in Romans chapter 7. He’s like, “Sin will kill you, legalism will kill you.” And there can be this sin. Sin means to miss the mark. And if you’re moving away from Jesus and moving into self-performance and self-trust, did you know what that in itself is sin? And he says this, he says, “For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” We use that verse in the first part of this broadcast from Colossians chapter 1 that talks about, don’t leave your faith in Jesus. Don’t move away. Hold onto your hope and your faith. Praise God. And so he says this, well, he said, “Today, if you hear His voice, God is speaking.” That’s what he’s saying. God is speaking through Jesus. God is speaking in these last days through the Holy Spirit. Do not harden your heart as they did in the provocation. You know, there’s some people have hardened their heart. God is speaking, but they’re not hearing Him. You know, and the Bible actually talks about that we can have a conscience that is seared. You know, your conscience is, you know, a couple of different aspects of your conscience, but you can have a conscience that’s too active and be legalistic and be trusting your performance. And it’s all about you and not about Jesus. Or you can have a conscience that is seared because you’ve just been living like the devil. And you don’t wanna be on either side of that. You want to keep a good conscience. And you know, really the balance to the grace and faith message is having a good conscience. Paul said, “I’ve exercised myself to keep a good conscience before God and man.” And if you don’t have a good conscience, you’re gonna wreck your ship of faith. So keep a good conscience. And he says this, he says, “For some, when they’d heard, did provoke, how be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom who was grieved 40 years. Was it not those who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?” They sinned by not believing God. And God had to let a whole generation die off in the wilderness because they refused to believe Him. I don’t ever believe it was God’s plan to let Israel wander around in the wilderness for, you know, 40 years. It was God’s plan to take them out of Egypt and to take them into the promised land. But they hardened their heart and did not believe Him. So we had to have a generation die off ’cause they refused to believe. And so what he’s saying is, man, if you start trusting yourself, if you start trusting your performance, you’re gonna go into a wilderness. I don’t believe that God’s will is for anybody to have dry times and dry seasons in their life. Do you know God doesn’t want you to have a wilderness season? But it’s because people harden their heart. People get deceived and they start looking at their self and looking at their performance and looking at something else besides Jesus. And that’s what leads them into the wilderness. And so it’s like, man, don’t move away from Jesus. Keep listening to God. Keep listening to Christ. Keep listening to the Holy Spirit. He said, “For when some had heard, they did provoke how be it, not all came out of Egypt by Moses.” God had to let this wilderness, you know, this generation of people die up. “Their carcasses fell in the wilderness to whom he swore that they would not enter into His rest, but to those who believe not.” Man, if you don’t believe, you’re not gonna enter. You’re not gonna receive. Man, keep believing the word of God. Keep believing the promises. Keep trusting Jesus. So we see they cannot enter in because of their unbelief. Unbelief will keep you out of the things of God. Sin just like sin. Unbelief, sin, wrong teaching, legalism, all these things, lack of knowledge, all these things will keep you out of what God has for you. So keep pressing into Jesus. Keep pressing into the gospel. Don’t move away. We’re gonna come back in the second half of this broadcast. This is some of the greatest teaching in the whole Bible, talking about the rest of faith. And you don’t wanna miss the second half of this broadcast from Hebrew chapter 4. So stay tuned, we’ll be right back after this short message. Blessings. Hi, friends. I’m so glad that you’re watching today. I have my son, Aaron, with me, and we are teaching on the book of Hebrews. This is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And we have some great teaching available on our website, CharisChristianCenter.com. It’s free of charge, downloadable, Hebrews The Better Covenant, Hebrews, Jesus Makes Everything Better. And my book also, “Hebrews the Better Covenant”. I wanna tell you that the blood of Jesus has, once and for all, settled the issue. The blood of Jesus has already appeased the wrath of God. The fact is God’s anger was appeased at the cross. And God is not mad at you. He’s not even upset. Praise the Lord, friends. I’m glad you stayed with us. I’m gonna ask Aaron to read. We’re in Hebrews chapter 4, the first five verses. And we just talked about how we don’t want to move away from Jesus. We don’t want to be hardened. We want to keep listening to Jesus. Don’t move away through unbelief. Don’t move away through, harden your heart through sin. Don’t move away through, you know, wrong teaching, through all these different things, you know, but keep trusting Jesus, Amen? But now we’re gonna move into talking about entering into God’s rest. This is some of the greatest teaching in the Bible.

 

  So here in Hebrews 4, it says, “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 is preached to us as well as to them, but the Word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith and those who heard it.” I love that. There are promises of God. I love that He talks about this promise of rest. You know, we have lots of promises in scripture. There are thousands of scriptures that talk about the promises that we have as believers in God from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And these promises that are found throughout the Old Testament, they still are available to us as believers today through Jesus. So one of these great promises is a promise of rest.

 

  Amen.

 

  That’s a amazing promise.

 

  Well we rest in the finished work of Christ, Jesus has really completed all the promises, all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him, Amen, to the glory of God by us. And whether it’s a promise of healing or promise of prosperity or peace, or whatever promise you’re believing, really, you receive that promise because of Jesus.

 

  And the, you know, it says the gospel was preached to them. So he was saying that, you know, the gospel was preached to Moses. It was preached to the children of Israel as they were leaving Egypt. The gospel has actually been preached.

 

  You know, they ate that Passover lamb and they left Egypt, Aaron. And there wasn’t one sick, weak, poor person among them. Over 2 million strong. Think how powerful that covenant was. And you know, the Passover lamb wasn’t about them. It was about you get in the house, Amen. The blood’s on the house, Amen? And the blood has done the work. So we enter in because of Jesus.

 

  It says, “It has to be mixed with faith.” The promises of God have to be mixed with faith. If you don’t have faith, you’re not gonna receive it.

 

  You gotta believe it to receive it. And if you really believe it, you’re gonna say something about it.

 

  And here we see, you know, the promises of God, that’s like the grace of God being given to us, being spoken to us, being God’s will to us. But faith is your part.

 

  Right.

 

  The promises are God’s grace to you. But to receive it, you have to reach out in faith.

 

  It’s the promise of the gospel. But it takes faith to believe it and receive it. Now look at what he goes on and says in verse 3, “For we who have believed enter into rest. As He has said, ‘I’ve sworn in my wrath if they will enter into my rest. Although, the works were finished from the foundation of the world.'” This is powerful. The works were finished from the foundation of the world. With Jesus, the Bible says this in Revelation 13, I think it’s verse 8, but it says, “Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Man, he’s talking about Jesus is the the one who secured these promises for us. And when we believe, we enter in to that completed work that He’s done. And he says, “For in a certain place, he spoke of the seventh day in this way, saying, ‘God did rest the seventh day from all his work.'” In other words, God created the heaven and earth, everything in it in six days. And the seventh day, He rested. And He’s saying we’re entering into rest. So when He rested, what did He do? Nothing. What do we have to do to receive the promises? Nothing. We just gotta believe them. And just rest in what Jesus has done. And he says, “He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day, God rest of the seventh day. And in this place, if they shall enter into my rest.” That’s a big if. There’s a lot of people that didn’t enter into the promised land. God wanted them to, but they didn’t. There’s a lot of people today that don’t enter into the promises of God. And it’s not because of God. It’s not because God is this master controller sitting in heaven, and you’re like these little puppets that He’s just up there pulling strings. You know what? God made all things available to you through grace, through Jesus. He said, “Listen, salvation is my will. Forgiveness is my will. Healing is my will. Peace is my will. Provision is my will. But you gotta believe it to receive it.” And when you believe it, it’s not like, oh God, if I do this. It’s not, you just believe it because Jesus already did the work. He said in this day, “If they will enter into my rest.” If you will believe it, you can receive it. You know, it takes faith to please God. It talks about that in Hebrews 11:6. And you know what? If you don’t believe, you’re just not gonna receive. There’s a lot of people that have heard the same things preach that I have and they’re really not receiving them because they limited God by their unbelief. And just like the children of Israel limited God by their unbelief. And we go on and says in verse six, saying, “Therefore, it remains that some must enter therein. And they, to whom it was first preached, entered not in because of their unbelief.” Unbelief will keep you out of the things of God. You know, I have a great teaching on unbelief, the enemy of our faith. And really, what’s hindering a lot of people is not that they don’t have faith, it’s the fact that they’re just operating in unbelief.

 

  Well, unbelief here, and I know you’re reading from the King James and the new King James, it says disobedience.

 

  Yeah, so here, you know, really, unbelief is equated with disobedience.

 

  Obedience really is equivalent to believing. If you study out Romans chapter 10, I think it’s in about verse 15, disobedience and unbelief, you know, they go together and you gotta believe God. And so he says again, he limits a certain day saying David today. So David came along, right? Abraham was about 2,000 years before Christ. And then Moses came 400 years later, right? So about 1,600 years before Christ, Moses lived. And then David was about 1,000 years before Christ. So about 600 years after Moses, you know, came out of Egypt. And then a few years later, Joshua took the children of Israel who was right there with Moses coming out of Egypt into the Promised Land. And what he says, David said, today, so five to 600 years after the children of Israel came into the promised Land, David said, “Today, at so long a time, as it said today, if you’ll hear his voice harden not your heart.” So saying David is saying they hadn’t entered in yet.

 

  Well, David, you know, actually, when David was born, Jerusalem was still under the control of the Jebusites. So David had this desire to take all the promise on. He knew that there was a promise that remained.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, this hill that Abraham sacrifice, you know, was gonna sacrifice Isaac on. And he had this revelation that, you know, God is Jehovah Jirah. David wanted to take that hill. He wanted to take all of the promises that God had available.

 

  Amen. And he’s saying they’re available to us. But ultimately, what he’s saying here, Aaron, is that Jesus is the one that did this. And he says in verse 8, “For if Jesus,” some translation say Joshua. Joshua was a type of Jesus bringing them into the promised land. Jesus had given them rest, then he would not have afterwards spoken of another day. If entering into the promised land is what it was about, he would not spoken of another day. What he’s saying is Jesus is the one. It’s Jesus. Don’t move away from Jesus. Jesus is the one who brings you into the promises. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises. Jesus is the one who did the work. So don’t go think you have to add something to Jesus. It’s not about your performance. You can’t improve on what’s already done, what’s perfect. And Jesus is perfect. Jesus completed the deal. Jesus finished it. He says there remains there for rest of the people of God, for he that is entered into His rest. Look at verse 10. “He has ceased from His own works as God did from His.” When God created heaven and earth, on the seventh day, He rested. He said, “Jesus completed the deal.” Jesus finishes the deal. There’s nothing that you can do to improve on Jesus. And so he says, “Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest.” The hardest work you’ll ever do is labor to enter into rest. Realize it’s not me, it’s not my performance, it’s not my giving, it’s not my church going. I do all those things. It’s not my Bible reading. It’s not how much I pray. It’s just trust in Jesus. And when you completely trust Jesus, guess what? You wanna pray more. You wanna read your Bible more. You wanna give more. You wanna go to church more. It’s just so simple. People have to complicate it. And so he says, “Let’s labor to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Keep believing Jesus. Don’t move away from Jesus. Don’t move away from the gospel, from the grace of God. For the word of God is alive. Jesus is the living word and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit. You know, the Bible, the Word, the living Word, will tell you the difference between what’s coming out of your brain and what’s coming out of your spirit. Some people are motivated a lot more by emotions and their brain. The first Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam, this is 1 Corinthians 15, was made a life-giving spirit. And that’s, I believe, one of Adam’s major problems is living out of his soul rather than his spirit. And so we got more than Adam in Christ. And he says this, “And the joints in the morrow is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of your heart.” Jesus will tell you what’s coming out of your head and what’s coming out of your spirit. And the word of God will reveal the difference. Man, you can take the word of God and straighten things out.

 

  The intents of the heart. That’s really powerful too.

 

  Yeah.

 

  What’s the motivation behind what they’re doing?

 

  Yeah, he goes on talking about Jesus. He said, “You’re not hiding anything from Him. Neither is there any creation that’s not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” He says, “Seeing them that we have this great high priest that is passed into heaven.” Jesus already did the work. Let us hold fast to our profession. Keep believing. Keep speaking the word of God for we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. But he was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin. Jesus never sinned. And He brings us into the promise of God. Therefore, let us come boldly. We run to the throne of grace. Jesus reigns not from a throne of judgment today, but from a throne of grace. And he says this, that we may have trained mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. There is grace for you.

 

  Amen, I wanna say this last verse here, Hebrews 4:16, “That we can come boldly into the throne of grace to find help in time of need.” You know, whenever you need help, whenever you need to go before God, you can picture how Jesus came before the Father. When He conquered sin, when He conquered death, when He conquered hell, He took the keys. He ran into the throne room. He ran to see the Father. And that’s how we can come into the presence of God.

 

  Amen, we come in the name of Jesus. It’s saying, man, we have the power of attorney to use His name because of what He accomplished in his death and resurrection. The gospel is not about us, it’s not about how good or bad we are. None of us would make it if it was. It’s about Jesus. Man, if you need prayer today for healing, if you need prayer for provision, for a relationship, whatever it is, give us a call. We have trained prayer ministers ready to receive your calls and check out our website. We have great teaching. You can also see us Sunday mornings live at CharisChristianCenter.com. Thank you so much and God bless you today.

 

  In the Hebrews package, which includes Hebrews The Better Covenant and Hebrews, Jesus Changes Everything, you’ll learn how the new covenant is better than the old simply because of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of each teaching, a $70 value free of charge. You can also order the book, “Hebrews the Better Covenant” for 9.99. Download your free teachings and purchase the book today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Hey everyone, my good friend Jesse Duplantis is gonna be here Sunday, November 5th at 6:30 p.m. at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. You don’t wanna miss it.

 

  You. let God do what he wants and he’ll bless you beyond your wildest dreams. Spiritually, physically, and financially.

 

  Come be encouraged with the word of God in Brother Jesse Duplantis, Sunday, November 5th at Charis Christian Center.

 

  Thanks for watching Grace for Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at P.O. Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on Grace for Today.