Ch. 3

v. 1 - “holy brethren” - those addressed are among

the sanctified of ch. 2:11-13,17

“partakers of the heavenly calling” - their calling is a

“heavenly” one.

“consider…..Christ Jesus” - fix earnestly your mental

gaze - earnestly, intensely, habitually - love Him and

serve Him

He is greater than the prophets, greater than the

angels, greater than Moses!

He is the Son of God and is now the Divine

Ambassador of men.

He is the Great High Priest - He expiates (atones),

propitiates (appeases), reconciles and intercedes !

“our profession” - confession - the Christian’s avowal

of his faith.

Believing in Jesus, joining His church, spreading His truth,

defending His honor, and especially reflecting Christ's

likeness in our lives!!

vs. 2-3 - "Christ......was faithful.....also Moses was

faithful" - What about us, you, me????

How will that play out in the end?

Christ is worthy of more honor than Moses -

in previous chapters of more honor than angels -

The words used are the same as in the account of

superiority over angels - the “glory and honor” are

the result of His obedience - ch. 2:9

This is different than the “glory which He had with

the Father before the world was” - John 17:5

Contrast this with Moses’ transitory “glory” on the

countenance of Moses in II Cor. 3:13-16

See Exodus 34:30-35

The whole Hebrew nation guarded the name & fame

of Moses with intense jealousy - but a greater than

Moses is here - the Arab world remembers Mohammed

with intense jealousy - but behold - a greater than

Mohammed is here - don't let anything like race

or racial problems distract you from the "Son of God"

Christ is also denoted to be the Builder of the House

of which Moses was a servant! Christ the Builder -

Moses only a stone in the building -

I Peter 2:5 - "ye also, as lively stones, are

built up a spiritual house"

I came across the idea of Christ

“passing through humanity to glory”

The glory won by Him “on account of

His suffering of death for the sins of

the world” rather than His

PRISTINE GLORY as the Divine Builder!

v. 4 - “He that built all things is God”

Every house has some builder - (a new one

is going up on my road) but God is the

Original Founder of all things!!!

Universe

Salvation

The Law, the Gospel, the Final Consumation -

the whole dispensation of redemption -

Clarence Larkin’s “Dispensational Truth”

vs. 5-6 - Moses - “a servant in”

Christ - “the Son over”

Moses gave testimony - I think of ch. 8:5***

But God spake to man “in His Son”!!!

Moses was inferior to Christ, not only in respect

to his personal position as a servant but also in

respect to his work which was “to testify before-

hand, prophetically, a fuller revelation to come!

We as Christians constitute the completed “house

of God” over which Christ reigns as Son (compare

ch. 11:39-40**)and the writer warns us of the

example of the Israelites, under Moses, who forfeited

their higher calling.

“hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the

hope firm unto the end” (boldness & confidence of

assured believers)

vs. 7-11 - A History Lesson - borrowed words from

the 95th Psalm - The children of Israel were

highly privileged - they had seen the Ten

Plagues, they had marched over the Red Sea

on dry land, they had been emancipated from

slavery - "they saw God's works for forty years"

they were fed from heaven with manna, they

received water miraculously from the Rock,

their clothes did not grow old on them, nor the

shoes on their feet - the were led in the daytime

by a shady pillar of cloud and at night by a

pillar of fire and light yet they were

MISERABLE & HABITUAL FAILURES

They despised these miracles and demanded other

signs on condition of believing - they doubted and

grumbled - they longed to go back to Egypt - they

refused God's command to go up and take Canaan -

they fell into idolatries like the heathen around them -

Zin, Rephidim, Taberah, Kadesh-barnea and

Shittim are names which remind us how the

ransomed Jews did "always err in their heart"

Since our continuing in God’s house is on

the condition of our steadfastness, beware of

failing, as the Israelites referred failed -

(see Psalm 95)

“Harden not your hearts” - expresses the obduration

(stubbornness is persistent wrong doing) which

comes from resistance of grace (Selah)

Two spheres working here - man - hardening due to his

own perversity - and God - judicially allowing the

hardening (as in Pharaoh’s case)

“tempted me, proved me and saw my works

(forty years)”

Is the writer thinking of a parallel from the

manifestation of Christ to the destruction of

Jerusalem - the Israelites of his day were

trying God by their rejection of the gospel or

in the case of some believers by their wavering

allegiance to it????

Transpose “the consummation of the Age”

"I sware in my wrath" - reflect the intensity and

the depth of the Divine displeasure

"whose carcasses fell in the wilderness" - v. 17

suggests the deep misery of the retribution which

came upon that entire generation.

Let us beware of a ruin more fearful of those who

despise the gospel and the blood of the covenant -

ch. 10:29 - (READ)

"Take heed brethren" is the key note of this

epistle!

v. 7 - "hear His voice" - speaks to us now and exhorts

every man, woman or child - He speaks

through His Son - ch. 10:28

There is no question as to whether God will speak to

man or not, but whether man will listen - it implies that

God speaks to man on a daily basis - by prohibition,

by persuasion, by caution or encouragement, or by

warning.

Our duty is to hear God's voice - the season to hear is

"TODAY" - heed God's voice NOW

Psalm 81:13-16

"harden not your hearts" - men do so by:

a. disregarding the voice of God

b. not listening to conscience

c. postponing religious duties

d. neglecting the great salvation

e. despising or resisting the Holy Spirit

Eph. 4:18-19 - "alienation" and "past feeling"

“So I sware in my wrath” - see Numbers 14:21

“as truly as I live” and again in v. 28 - in

reference to the spies returning and there being

a universal spirit of “unbelief”

“if they shall enter my rest” - a strong oath

expressing negation.

ALSO CONNECT THIS SECTION WITH

CH. 2:1-3!!!!

v. 12 - “Take heed, brethren” - the warning of

the 95th Psalm - the drift being - You have

being called under the Son to a far higher

position than the fathers under Moses -

your position as theirs was - conditional on

your faithfulness - see that you do not forfeit

it as they did.

The “Today” is the present day of grace and points

to a truer rest than that of Canaan offered to the

faithful!

Watch that you present wavering may not end

up in APOSTASY (the outcome of such an

“evil heart of unbelief!”)

It is impossible to be stationary in our relation to Him!

Either we are drawing near or are departing from the

Living God!

Unbelief is distrust of God, a want of faith in His

promises and providence - especially in refusal

to commit to and confide in the Lord Jesus Christ -

God's Only Son - unbelief may presume upon God's

mercy or neglect it or even despair of it!

Nothing is more absurd than unbelief in God!!!

“from the LIVING GOD” - BEWARE - Deut. 6:10-25

Acts of refusal to listen to God's voice petrify

into habits - habits form character (engraved)

A human heart hardened by unbelief and

confirmed into moral insensibility (this age)

will lapse into atheism, immorality or

settled worldliness (or all three - a bad

combination) and UNLESS DIVINE GRACE

INTERPOSES, THE INDIVIDUAL WILL

FOREVER "fall away from the Living God"

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth

take heed lest he fall"

Those who are fallen today were standing

yesterday - some standing today will be

fallen tomorrow.

v. 13 - "Exhort one another" - church members

are to promote one another's welfare -

The church must keep itself from

APOSTASY (a falling away from the

Living God) by the mutual admonition

of its members!

“lest any one of you be hardened through the

deceitfulness of sin”

Sin is a deceiver, it distorts the spiritual vision,

(a la Rosie O’Donnell) and causes one to take

a false view of things.

Our continued dallying with sin (to act playfully

and to deal lightly) may have as its result,

final obduracy (stubbornness in wrongdoing)

To put it in a modern perspective:

(a) an imperfect appreciation or even a

depreciation of the gospel revelation (where

are the lost people today - used to be the lost

would come to church?)

(b) neglecting attendance at Christian worship

and remissness in mutual admonition

(c) failure of moral purity in personal lives

(d) reliance on the world and avoiding Christian

persecution (siding with the enemy - “he that

is not with me is against me”

The only way of avoiding the deceitfulness of sin

is to be so intent on our Savior's business as to have

no time, no inclination, to attend to what sin has

to say!

v. 14 - “partakers (partners or companions) of Christ”

- His glory!

See II Peter 1:4***

v. 15 - Back to square one - “Today”!!!!!!