HEBREWS – PART ONE – LESSON 1
“The Five Deadly D’s That Destroy Faith”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
Well, you have read through Hebrews, haven’t you? It is quite a book, isn’t it? I believe that it is the book that the church of Jesus Christ so desperately needs today, and I believe that it is one of the most marvelous books in all the New Testament., because it draws you to the very throne of grace where you see Jesus, your High Priest, ever living to make intercession for you. It is a book that tells you how you can make it, how you can persevere, how you can keep from fainting, how you can go on to maturity, and I can’t wait to teach you that book. But before I do, I am going to have to allow you a couple more weeks to get into that book and see truth for yourself. So I want to give you some background material that will lead you and prepare you for what you are reading in Hebrews, so what I teach today, and what I teach next week, keep in mind as you read and do your homework on Hebrews, whether you are taking it in and living it out, or whether you are building upon precept upon precept.
I want to talk to you about five deadly D’s that can destroy your faith. I want to look at these in the light of the children of Israel. Go to Hebrews, Chapter 1, as out introduction. (1) “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, (2) in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” Then move to 2:1, “For this reasons [because God has spoken to us, because He has given His final revelation in His Son] we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (2) For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, (3) how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
Last week we looked at Joshua 1, and we saw that we could have victory; we saw that we could make it. We saw that we could be more than conquerors. Now, as you have read Hebrews, you have understood why God led me to teach you from Joshua 1, why He has led me back into the history of Israel. The reason I have done this is because you have seen that God, through the author of Hebrews, refers to the children of Israel—especially in Chapters 3 and 4. He mentions Joshua; He mentions the children of Israel; He mentions their wanderings in the wilderness, and He tells us that some of them missed what God had for them because they did not listen to what God said, because they really didn’t hear Him. It is one thing to hear, with the hearing of your ears, so it comes into your ears, but it is another thing to hear so that it has an effect on you. Real hearing brings a result. I want to show you the importance of hearing, a hearing that leads us to obedience. I want to show us Israel; I want to take you back to Numbers 13 and 14, and look at the children of Israel, and look at how they failed to hear what God was saying in times past through the prophets in many and diverse ways.
As you read through the Old Testament (I don’t know whether you are a student of the Old Testament or not, but if you have taken some of our Old Testament courses, you have done a study on angels. We know that in the Old Testament, many times the angel of the Lord would appear to the children of Israel, and He would tell them what to do, or He would bring a revelation to them. We have even seen this in Joshua, as Joshua prepares to go in and take the land of Canaan. An angel of the Lord stands before him, the captain of the hosts. So there is God speaking to Joshua in different ways, and speaking to the children of Israel in times past. Now He has spoken to us in His Son. He is saying, “Those people needed to listen.” We need to listen. “Those people failed in their Christian life, because they did not really hear what God was saying so as to believe it and so as to obey it.” In Hebrews, He is saying that we need to be careful too, about what we hear, lest we drift away.
I want to take you back to our map of the landof Israel, and I want to put you into context. This is the GreatSea(as it is called in the Bible) over here, referring to the Mediterranean Sea. Then we move to the right over here, to the east, and we have the Sea of Galilee coming down. Then we have the Jordan River, and then we have the Dead Sea. This is the land of Canaan, all the way to the coast. Then if you would come down around the bottom of the bowl of the Mediterranean Sea, over to the west, you would see Egypt. The children of Egypt came out of the land of Egypt, they went down to Mount Sinai, and at Mount Sinai they received the Ten Commandments. Then they came up to Kadeah-Barnea, where they sent out twelve spies to spy out the land of Canaan, because they were to go into the land of Canaan. This was the land, as we saw last week, that God had given to them for an everlasting possession. He promised it to Abraham, He confirmed His covenant with oath with Isaac, and confirmed it also to Jacob.
In Numbers 13:17, we find the children of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea, and God is speaking to them. “When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them,” [These were twelve representatives, one from each of the tribes of Israel. Two of those men are very prominent in the Scriptures—one is Joshua, and one is Caleb.] ‘Go up there into the Negev;’ [The Negev is the southern part of the land of Canaan.] ‘then go up into the hill country. (18) And see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. (19) And how is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? (20) And how is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.’ Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.”
When the children of Israel came back out of Hebron, out of the land of Canaan, back to Kadesh-Barnea, they brought grapes, and those grapes were so heavy that they had to carry them on a pole between their shoulders. They came back, and they told the people that the land was just like God said. Look at v. 27. “Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with the milk and honey, and this is its fruit. (28) Nevertheless,” [The KJV says “But.” Sometimes it is those exceptions in our lives that get to us. “It is what God had said. It is what God had told them, but …”] “The people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.” [I can just see their eyes—just wide open.] (29) “Amalek is living in the land of Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of Jordan.” [In other words, “Yes it is like God says, but there are enemies in that land.” God kept the land filled with the enemies because He needed the land occupied. He needed the land not to be desolate or not to be barren, because when He was going to move the people in they were going to move into cities that were already prepared for them. They were going to move in and have grain fields and all of those things ready, so the people would have all that food and all that produce to eat. He was going to destroy those people, because they had refused to hear the word of the Lord.]
(30) “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, ‘We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.’” [In other words, God said that He is going to give it to us; He is going to give it to us. We need to believe Him; we can do it.] (31) “But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.’ (32) So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. (33) There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.’” [What are they saying? “It is not what God promised. It is not the way God said.” They are going against the word of God. They are going to listen to those ten spies, rather than listening to God’s word. They are going to walk by what their eyes can see, rather than walking by faith. What do the Scriptures say? The Scriptures teach us that, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” If we walk by sight, we are not walking by faith. We have got to walk by what God says, no matter how things seem to be.]
Numbers 14:1 says, “Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night, (2) And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! (3) And why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? (4) So they said to one another, ‘Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.’” [What are they doing? They are mumbling; they are complaining; they are not believing God. They are listening to man instead of listening to God. They are saying, “We should have died in Egypt. We would have been better off if we had died in this wilderness. Our children are going to become plunder if we go in there.” God is listening very, very carefully, and watch what He says in v. 11.]
(11) “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will this people spurn Me; And how long will they not believe in Me,” [How long will they not listen to Me? How long will they not adhere to My words? This is what He is going to say to us in Hebrews. God has spoken through His Son. Listen to Him. Don’t allow yourself to drift away. Don’t allow yourself to neglect so great a salvation.] “And how long will they not believe Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?” [In other words, have I failed? I told them I would bring them out of the land of Egypt; I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I delivered them from Pharaoh; I parted the Red Sea; they crossed over on dry land. I devoured their enemies. I led them by a cloud; I led them by a pillar of fire at night. I have done all these things. I have provided manna for them. Why, why will they not believe Me?”
I want to show you the result of not believing. In v. 27, God is speaking to Moses and Aaron, and He is saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. (28) Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you;’” [You wanted to die? You wanted to die in Egypt? You wanted to die in the wilderness?] (29) “‘your corpses shall fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me, (3) Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.’” [“You wouldn’t believe me.” Who is blessed by God? Those that hear the wordof God and obey the word of God,those that step out and walk on the water of faith, believing God, keeping their eyes on Him, no matter what. Those are the ones who are blessed by God. And those are the ones that reap the reward of faith. He is saying, “All of your men twenty years old and over are all going to die in the wilderness—except two men, Joshua and Caleb, because they believed Me. Not only that, you said that your children would become a prey. I am going to show you this--that your children that you said would die are not going to die.]
Look at v. 31. “Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. (32) But as for you, your corpses shall fall in this wilderness. (33) And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they shall suffer for your unfaithfulness.” [You know, that is what has happened today. It really is. That is what has happened today. You look at generation after generation after generation, and you see that one generation reaps the consequences of the others’ disobedience to God. You see that sin is passed down from the second and the third and the fourth generation, because a father turns his back on the word of God. He gets too busy; he doesn’t have time. He is going to make a living for his family, and he goes out and turns his back. So what do you have? You have a son then that is raised apart from the word of God, that is raised without the example of a godly father. And sin creeps in, and sin has its effect.]
One generation suffers for the unfaithfulness of another. Somehow we have to bring a halt to it. I want our generation to bring a halt to it. I want Christians today to hear what God has said in His Son, and to listen, and to know that we have a great High Priest, and there He sits at the right hand of the throne of God. We can come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in the time of need. This is what we need to know. We need to know that we have someone who is better than the prophets, who is better than the angels, who is better than Moses, who is better than Aaron, who has a better covenant than the old covenant, who has entered into a better, the real sanctuary, who has entered into the throne of God and made atonement for us, once for all, and sat down at the right hand of God—because His work is complete. There He sits, someone who has been touched with the feeling of our infirmities, someone who was tempted in all points as we are, someone who was made like us so that He can be a gentle High Priest, someone who can help us in the time of need. God wants to draw you in the book of Hebrews into the very Holy of Holies, so that you can live in the very presence of God, hearing His word, and doing His will, and reaping the wonderful benefits of it.
But He has a warning too, and you saw this as you read through Hebrews. You may not understand it at this point, and I must admit that some of them are very difficult to understand. Hebrews 6 is very difficult to understand. Hebrews 10 is very difficult to understand. And you have those warnings, and you are going to look at those even more next week. They are hard to understand, but I believe that they are warning to you, and they are warnings to me, and they are warnings to all of those that profess the name of Jesus Christ. They are warnings that are saying, “Listen; listen to God. Hear Him. Don’t drift away. The children of Israel drifted away. They wandered forty years in the wilderness.
Let’s go to I Corinthians 10, where God gives us an overview of the history of Israel, and teaches us practical lessons for our lives by using them as examples. If you understand this passage, it will help you understand Hebrews. Keep these things in mind; I am not just treading water. There is a purpose in everything that I am doing. God has led me this way. (1) “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;” [When it says, “Our fathers were all under the cloud,” what is he talking about? Remember when they came out of the land of Egypt? Remember when they were frightened and the Egyptian army was pursuing them? Remember what God did? He put a pillar of fire between them and the Egyptian army. He put a pillar of cloud during the day, and a pillar of fire during the night, and he put them between the Egyptian army and the Jews. Then later on, after they crossed the Red Sea, He moved that pillar of cloud, He moved that pillar of fire before the children of Israel, and He led them. They knew where to go because they followed that cloud. He is saying, “I want you to know that our fathers were all under the cloud. They all, everyone that came out of the land of Egypt, every Jew or every Hebrew that came out of the land of Egypt, came out under the cloud. Every Jew that came out of the land of Egypt went through the sea. They all had the same benefits.]