So we have only sketchily touched upon the chapters one and two, and I was asked very earnestly, will you please go over what you covered this morning because some of us have not yet completed our notes. Well, tomorrow night I'll do that. So in the meantime, you have an opportunity to get your little notebook and your pencil and prepare yourself for some daily jottings, morning and evening. Because if your memory is like mine, it's the thing you forget with. And just writing these things down, even if you lose your notes immediately afterwards, serves to impress at least part of what has been said upon your heart and mind. Now we've been reminded that the air conditioner is not working as it should be, that just so you'll appreciate it when it is. How many of you are feeling hot tonight? Will you put your hands up? Will you men please feel free to take off your jacket so that you can be comfortable? Thank you, Brother Tomon. And Brother Maine. And other brethren. Now, those brethren have no excuse for going to sleep. I've news for you it's going down to forty tomorrow, so enjoy it while you have it. This morning in talking to you about the chapters one and two, we touched upon these thoughts. that in them the Lord Jesus is presented as a revelation of God, not a revelation from God, but a revelation of God, and as such we see him superior to the prophets in verses one and two in chapter one, and superior to the angels in the rest of chapter one and all of chapter two. Now in chapters three and four we are going to see the Lord Jesus presented as a Savior from God. And once again we are going to see his superiority. He is shown to us in these two chapters as being better than Moses and better than Joshua. Now let's just mark the Bible here shall we so that we know what it is that we are referring to. Look at chapter three. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. for this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses. Now in my Bible I have a little box around that portion of verse three. This man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses. Now what is the Spirit of God telling us here? He's telling us that the one who is superior to the prophets in chapter one, and superior to the angels in chapters one and two, is also superior to Moses. Now then a little further down in chapter four, verse seven, Again he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today after so long a time as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not after would have spoken of another day? Now please don't be confused here. Consult the margin of your Bible, and you'll find that the word Jesus is changed in the margin to Joshua. Now they come from the same root. Savior. And the reference in verse eight of chapter four is not to the Lord Jesus Christ, but to Joshua. So please make a note of that in your Bible, will you? And again, in my Bible I have a little box around these words. If Jesus or Joshua had given them rest, and the word if signifies that he did not give them true rest, there was only one who could. and that of course was the Lord Jesus. So here we have his superiority over Joshua. Now the presentation here is not of the Lord Jesus as a revelation of God, but of the Lord Jesus as a Savior from God. Moses was a Savior from God. Joshua was a Savior from God for the people. But the Lord Jesus was a greater Savior than either of them. Better than Moses and better than Joshua. Now that's our subject for this evening. And I want particularly to concentrate upon Moses. But because I don't intend to mention this again in our series of studies, I do want you to notice that there are parts of both the first two chapters and these second two chapters, and also a part of chapter six. These parts are in parenthesis. Now, you know what that means, don't you, because you're very intelligent. It means that these are sections in a bracket. Now, although God, in the epistle to the Hebrews, in dividing the epistle into two parts, the greater part of which deals with the person of Christ, and the latter smaller section deals with the practice of Christianity, God the Spirit does not confine his practical exhortations to the last three and a half chapters. He doesn't want us to be so heavenly-minded as to be no earthly use. And so he intersperses certain practical portions in between these pieces that have to do with the person of the Lord Jesus. Now I want to make reference to four of these parentheses as we find them in chapters one, two, three, four, and six. And the Spirit of God is very beautifully tied them together with one single expression. Let's look for them, shall we? The first of these parentheses is in chapter two, the verses one, two, three, and four. Now in my Bible, I have drawn a line down in the margin linking these four verses, because they are verses in a bracket. They stand by themselves. You can understand that. Listen to what he said here. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. And that's the tenor of these four verses which are very, very solemn and practical. What the Spirit of God is saying, I've given you a glimpse of the Lord Jesus in His majesty and power, and I'm going to continue to do that. but in view of his majestic person, the wonder of it, and his superiority, what kind of people ought we who bear his name to be?" Now that's the first parenthesis, and I'm going to come back and make reference to it in a moment or two. Now the second one begins in verse three, in chapter three, and verse seven. And this is a long one. And again, in the margin of my Bible, I have a line that separates the portion from verse seven of chapter three all the way through verse seven of chapter four. Now that's very convenient. It begins with verse seven of chapter three and it ends with verse seven of chapter four. Now this is another parenthesis. Now again, that's not surprising. Listen to the language. Today if ye will hear his word, his voice, harden not your heart, as in the day of the propagation. Again it's very solemn, and it's very practical, and it's a very personal challenge. And as it began, so it ends. Verse four of chapter, verse seven of chapter four. Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Now that's the second bracket or parenthesis and we're going to come back to it. Now the third one is very close to it. It begins with verse eleven. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of an unbelief. Very solemn, very practical. For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. For all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And again in my Bible I have a line drawn vertically in the margin that links together verses eleven, twelve and thirteen as the third bracket or parenthesis. Now the fourth one begins with verse one of chapter six. And it runs through verse twelve of the same chapter. Once again I have a vertical line in the margin of my Bible that runs down the first twelve verses of chapter six. And again it's easy to see why God has inserted these words here. Therefore, leaving the principles or rudiments or elements of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. Now, these then are the four parentheses. Now I said that the Spirit of God links them. And he does with a word with which he introduces these four brackets. Go back again to chapter two. And notice the very first word is the word, therefore. Now whenever in the Bible you come across the word, therefore, find out what it's there for. And do the same with the word, wherefore. These words, therefore and wherefore, they cast us back to what has gone before, and they say in effect, in view of what we have just said, this and that and the other. Now I'm going to leave these four parentheses for you to look at at your leisure. But will you notice what is said in the first, summing it up? Verse one of chapter two, therefore heed. This is an exhortation that has to do with our attention. Have you got that? Therefore, he. It's an exhortation that has to do with our attention. Very necessary that we give attention to these things. I hope that being so privileged, so many of you, as living at the Park of the Palms and coming so often to the meetings, And hearing so often the Word of God, you don't allow the familiarity to breed contempt. You know it's possible to get so used to hearing a presentation of the Word of God as to get to the place where it no longer has a practical effect upon your lives. Now the Word of God says it is possible for us to let slip the things that we've learned. Now think about that. The man with whom I became associated at seventeen years of age when I gave up a job I'd had for a few months to come out into full-time service for God, and I've been out in full-time service ever since, that man used to pray audibly. And he was an old man with a gray beard. His name was Mr. Luffin. And more than once I've heard him pray, oh, God keep me from becoming a wicked old man. I was seventeen. I thought he had one foot in the grave the first time I met him, that he was an old man already, and I was rocked on my heels the first time from an adjoining room I heard him pray that prayer. There was a man who was face to face with a realization that one is never too old to let slip, and to lose the blessing of things one has cherished all the days of their lives up until that point. Therefore heed. Pray that God will ever keep you sensitive to the operation of his word upon your heart and your way of living. Therefore heed. It's an exhortation that has to do with our attention. Now let's go to the second bracket, which begins in chapter three at verse seven and ends in chapter four at verse seven. And right in the middle, verse one of chapter four is this word. Let us therefore fear. Now the first bracket, therefore heed. The second bracket, therefore fear. If the first parenthesis was an exhortation that has to do with our attention, the second is an exhortation that has to do with our devotion. It's not enough to hear and to heed, but we must know what it is to develop a holy awe and fear concerning these spiritual things, never daring to take them for granted. The third parenthesis begins in this same chapter four, and with the verse eleven, and once again we have the word therefore. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Let us heed, bracket number one. Let us fear, bracket number two. And let us labor, bracket number three. Now if the first is an exhortation with regard to our attention, and the second is an exhortation with regard to our devotion, the third is an exhortation with regard to our occupation. Let us therefore labour. Let us feed. Let us fear. Let us labor our occupation. I know you've heard about the young man who, although he was a Christian and lived with a Christian landlady, he couldn't get up in the morning. Oh, he found it so hard to drag his feet out of bed and get going. His day always had a slow start, but it really had a quick start, because he would grab a piece of bread and dash out of the door, and that was his breakfast. And one day his Christian landlady, she remonstrated with him, and she said, George, You know that's not the way to start the day. You know that you ought to have a good and leisurely breakfast, and before that you ought to have a time with the Lord. Well, he said, Mrs. Jones, I know you're right. But it is really your fault that I start my day so hurriedly and I find it so difficult to get out of bed. She said, well, now you can't blame me. I stand at the foot of the stairs and I call you a half a dozen times every morning and still you don't get up. Well, he said, it's not that you don't try to get me out of bed, but it's just that you hung the wrong text over my bed. She didn't remember what text was hanging over his bed. So she went up to three and over the head of his bed with these words, Occupy till I come. I once heard a godly pastor say he found it easier to get sinners into the meetings and to get saints out of their bed. And he proved that every time he had an early morning prayer meeting. Our occupation is not to be the easy place. Our occupation is to be with the costly place and the place of sacrifice. Let us heed our attention. Let us fear our devotion. Let us labor our occupation. And then the last parenthesis, of course, is in chapter six and these first twelve verses. And the very first one says, therefore leaving the rudiments of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on. Now this is an exhortation that has to do with our progression. You know, good Christian living is like riding a bicycle. You gotta keep going or else you fall off. If you're not making progress as a Christian, you're back sliding. No Christian ever stands still, you know. No Christian ever stands still. If you don't go on, you go back. It's one or the other. Compared with fifteen years ago, what kind of a Christian are you today? You know, we imagine sometimes that we've lived so many years. I know there are no old folk at Park of the Palms, but there are those who've lived a considerable length of time. And, you know, sometimes we get the idea, well, we've done our job and so on, and now let the younger folk get busy and do it. But, you know, when your work is done, the Lord will take you home. While you're here, you've still got a job unfinished. So let us never feel we can ever sit down and rest upon our laurels considering our job is well done. The H. Spurgeon was once approached by someone on the behalf of retired missionaries. And they said to him, sir, what would you do? What are you prepared to do for our retired missionary? He said, put them up against a wall and shoot them. Now what he meant was, real missionaries never retired. They have to sometimes leave the field because the rigors of the field are a little too much, but when they come home you watch them. They don't lay down their tools. They realize that being abroad doesn't make them a missionary. Knowing the Lord, loving the Lord, leads to serving the Lord, and even the retired missionaries are not retired missionaries. And that was what Mr. Spurgeon was pointing out. Missionaries never retire. They're like old soldiers. They never die. They simply fade away. But the fact is, you know, the Lord is not going to take us home till our job is done. And when he does, it'll be the signal. But until he does, we've got to keep right on the job. Maybe you haven't quite as much strength as you used to have. Maybe you're not quite as energetically as you used to be. And maybe you can't move around quite as fast as one day in the past you have done. And maybe it is that in these days you find yourself considerably confined. It just means that other areas of activity are wide open to you. You know, I once went to visit a man in Swansea in Glamorganshire, and I went to cheer him up. Because years before he had a dreadful accident, he fell on a twenty-four inch circular saw, and he lost both his arms and both his legs. And when eventually he recovered, that is, his wounds were healed, he couldn't even turn himself on his bed. He was dependent upon other people to do everything for him except one thing. He could turn his head from side to side, and that's all that he could do. And I went to visit that man to cheer him up, but I was the one who got encouraged and cheered. And I'll tell you why. He said, Mr. Woodhouse, don't pity me. He said, you know, it wasn't until God laid me aside on my back like this that I got saved. And then he said, after God saved me, he opened up for me such a remarkable ministry. My life is full. It's constantly overflowing with his joy. He said, look at my wall. And I looked at his wall. And within range that he could see, he had columns of names. And he spent his days praying for people. But that wasn't the thing that particularly thrilled me. He said to me, Mr. Woodhouse, I want you to look at the third column from the left about halfway down the column. And I found the third column from the left halfway down and there was my name. He'd never met me before. Yet that man had prayed consistently for me for this by name. every day. Now you would really have thought that there was a man who had no ministry, no possibility of a ministry. He could turn his head and he made use not only of one wall but two walls. He had himself deliberately put into a small room so that he could read names on the other side that were written rather larger. He didn't want to waste any effort when he turned his head. You know, there are some of us, and we have already made up our minds that the time has come to settle down now and take care of ourselves. See, you won't do half as good a job as the Lord will do. You let him do it, taking care. You take care of the Lord's business, and the Lord will take care of your business. Let us go on. Now, here, of course, is an exhortation that has to do with our progression. I'm not going to spend any more time there because I didn't intend to make this the message in my time was nearly gone. But it's very important. Attention, devotion, occupation and progression. All links to the word letters and links to the word therefore. because of the tenor of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is a presentation of the person of Christ in all his wonder and glory, because of this, let us feed, let us fear, let us labor, and let us keep going on. Now then quickly, chapters three and four, and Moses and Joshua. Look at what he said about Moses, will you? Moses was faithful. Verse two says that in chapter three. He was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house. What a faithful man Moses was. He was faithful. The Bible says so. He was faithful in his house. And you know, that's a very important thing. You know, home is the place where we treated the best and we grumbled the most. You ever notice? Home is the place where we let down our hair. And that's where the fur flies. The fact is, you know, that we sometimes think that our loved ones love us so much. We have a right to expect them to be whipping boys. And when things on the outside don't please us, we come home and we pour out all our frustrations on loved ones at home. And they love us so much, they don't chop us, you know. That's a good English word. They don't betray us. They don't tell other... But the kind of Christian you really are is the kind of Christian you are at home. This man was faithful. He was faithful in his house. He was faithful in all his house. And then he says, Moses verily was faithful. God wants us to see how very faithful this man was. And then he says, the Lord Jesus was far more faithful. Moses was faithful. Christ was faithful. Verse five says so. Moses was faithful in the house of Israel. The Lord Jesus was faithful in the house of God. Here you see, then, his superiority. Verse two and verse six. Because in verse six we read, Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Now look again at these verses. Look at verse three. This man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath built it the house have more honor than the house." Mr. Willie said to me today, you lived in Canada, you moved down to Jersey, now it's time you thought of moving further south. Strange thing, they said that to me in Hollywood last week too. And you know, it's very attractive to me. Tomorrow I'm going to take a look at some of these lots. Don't you get there before me, will you? But, however, I suppose I was a little stimulated, and although it's the Lord's Day, I took a walk a couple of houses from where Mrs. Clark lived, and they're building a house there. Now, I don't know the lady who's going to own that house, but I took the liberty of wandering through her house and the process of building. Now, when it's finished, it'll be a very lovely home. But, you know, it won't matter like the people who live in it. The person who owns the house is far more important than the house. Now here, the Spirit of God is saying to us, Moses was faithful in the house of Israel. The Lord Jesus was faithful in the house of God. He must be superior. And then says the Spirit of God, Moses was faithful as a member of the house. And Christ was faithful as the maker of the house. Now the maker of the house is more important than the member of the house. He is the one responsible for bringing into being. So again, here we have the superiority of the Lord Jesus. But read again, and you'll find that verse five says, Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant. Verse six, but Christ as a son over his own house. Now we go back to what we read of the prophets. They and Moses with them were servants. But the Lord Jesus... was the Son. So you see, although I'm rushing through this now, having taken my time in moving in another direction, you can see here how very clearly the Spirit of God is saying that the one who in chapter one is seen to be superior to the prophets, and in that same chapter and chapter two, superior to the angels is in chapter three seen to be superior to Moses. Moses was faithful in the house of Israel. The Lord Jesus was faithful in the house of God. Moses was faithful as a member of the house. The Lord Jesus was faithful as the maker of the house. Moses was faithful as a servant in the house. The Lord Jesus was faithful as a son over the house. All of this you find in these verses. Here then is the superiority of the Lord Jesus over Moses. And what is brought before us is the worth of the Lord Jesus, as compared with the worth of Moses. Then we come to his work and the work of Joshua. Yeah, look at this verse eight. It's just a very brief verse. If Joshua had given them rest, then would he not after would have spoken of another day. Now the saviorhood of the Lord Jesus is in view here. He is being presented as a savior from God, superior to Moses, and superior to Joshua. Now if you read the parenthesis before this and the one that follows, you will find that the theme there is exactly what we have in verse eight. It is a rest. And here there is a contrast between the earthly rest given to the children of Israel, which was not really rest, and the spiritual eternal rest which is given to the children of God, which is rest that is true rest. If you were to turn, if we had time, we would turn to Acts chapter seven, but we won't do it now. We would find that here Joshua is referred to, even as Moses is referred to, and we are reminded, as we read the story of Joshua and the people of God, under the old order, the old economy, and if you know what happened, Moses struck the rock when he should have spoken to the rock, and because of that he was never permitted to enter the promised land. Don't you believe that? He appeared with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. So make no mistake about it. Moses entered the Promised Land. But he was not permitted to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. He died and God buried him and no man knew where. Joshua was raised up of God to lead the people of Israel in triumph into the Promised Land. And you read about the things that happened in the Old Testament. And you'll find that Joshua brought the people into earthly possession. That was wonderful. Because they had been so long without them. But how superior is our Savior, the Lord Jesus? He brings us into heavenly possessions. The possessions of the children of Israel were taken away from them. But yours and mine never can be. Again you read the history of Israel at this point in their history, and you'll find that Joshua led the people into numerous battles. They fought here, they fought there, they fought in other places, and from time to time they won, and from time to time they lost. But when we come to our heavenly favor, the Lord Jesus, we find he did all the fighting for us. We don't have to lift a weapon. It says, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Wonderful thing to be a conqueror. What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? It means that somebody else does the fighting, wins the victory, and we share the spoils of the battle. And that's what happened. When the Lord Jesus went to the cross, he grappled there with all the forces of hell, and in the darkness there he fought the fight that brought about the possibility of your salvation and mine. And now, having conquered, he offers to share with us as a free gift, all the fruits of his victory. Not only salvation from sin, which will deliver us from hell, but salvation from sin in our daily lives. You know those of us who are Christians, we have been saved. It happened the moment of conversion, when the penalty of sin was once and for all done away. But we're also being saved. Because the power of sin is still a very real thing. And from day to day we must get the victory over it. but the one who saves us from the penalty of sin is capable of saving us from the power of sin and we have been saved and are being saved are going to be saved because one day is going to take us out of its very presence and will be done away forever and the whole sticky filthy business will be behind us once and for all and then we shall know all that has been laid up for us in the person and through the work of the Lord Jesus. Joshua led the people into numerous battles, and even when they won, they were not so fortunate as you and I because someone else fought our battle, won it so wondrously, and now invites us to enter into the fruits of that victory. And then we find, as we read Israel's history, that Joshua settled the people in the land only temporarily. You and I have our plots spaked out in the glory, and nobody can touch them. They are reserved for us eternally. I go to prepare a place for you. You know, when I heard of our brother being taken to the hospital with emphysema, my mind went back some six or seven years. When I was the superintendent at the Macaulay Water Street Mission, I'm now mostly on the road. But there was a man staggered into our front door. His name was George, and he was a man suffering from emphysema. Emphysema. He had spent several nights, and it was the winter, sleeping on the street. Now with his last ounce of strength, he dragged himself through the mission door and almost collapsed on the floor. We put him to bed. The nurse gave him a shot, and we nursed him back to health. You know, that man became a permanent resident of the mission. He died just a year or so ago, and I stood with just two men of the mission beside his grave and the undertaker. That was all. But, you know, that man used to say to me, when he knew that I was giving up the superintendency to move into the work as director at large, he was very fearful. Said, Mr. Woodhouse. Does this mean I will have to leave the mission? The new superintendent won't know me. And maybe he'll feel because I'm able to do so little that I'm idle. And maybe he'll put me out. I said, George, I'm making you a promise. You will never be put out of the mission. But you know, that fear persisted. Eventually it gradually died. One day he said to me, Mr. Woodhouse, what's going to happen to me? I don't have a new family. He said, I don't... I don't have anybody who cares what happens to me. He said, Mr. Woodhouse, when I die, will I be buried in Potter's Field? I said, George, what will it matter where your body lands? You know the Lord Jesus? I know that, he said, but somehow I think about it. I said, George, the Lord has provided us with twenty-four plots in the cemetery, and I'm promising you that you won't go to Potter's Field. You know, I stood beside that grave. as we lowered his body in. Very simple coffin. I never got the bill from the undertaker. He buried him and never sent me a bill. But I watched the coffin lowered into the grave and I waited there until the coffin was at the bottom of the hole. And I looked down the last glimpse of George's coffin and I walked away. I was so glad that wasn't the end for George. Do you know that man spent the last two months of his life sleeping on his feet? He couldn't lie down in bed. He used to sleep standing beside his hospital bed with his head on his arms and getting snatches of sleep. They would take him and put him into an iron lung from time to time to give him a little extra relief, but he dreaded it. He hated the iron lungs. I made a point each Christmas day, the last two years of his life when he was in the hospital, of going on Christmas Day to see him. Just to let him know somebody was thinking about him on Christmas Day. But you know, we buried that man. He has now discovered just how much was his all along. He was afraid he might lose his home in the mission. He was afraid he might land in Potter's Field. But you know where he landed? He landed in the glory and today he's enjoying and nobody's going to be able to oust him all of those treasures and possessions that were made his at the moment of his conversion. Joshua brought the people into earthly possessions. The Lord Jesus has brought us into heavenly possessions. Joshua led the people into numerous battles. But the Lord Jesus has won our fight and now we share the fruits of his victory. Joshua settled the people in the land only temporarily. You know they were driven out afterwards. But our lot in heaven is permanently guaranteed. And one day, and you know, I'm convinced it's not going to be very much longer. We're going to find ourselves enjoying all of those things that sometimes we've thought about in our own imperfect way. You know, as a Christian, You know all these things. You're so very human. So very human. Do you sometimes get a little scared of dying? Do you? You know, you're very ordinary and human if you do. Because death is an enemy and the Bible says so. Yet the fact is, inexorably, every one of us, even all of us young folk here, we're moving in that direction. But you know, when the moment comes, the Lord gives us grace to live or give us grace to die. And we are going to have, as surely as we've served him, an abundant entrance. And in spite of what the devil may say, in spite of our own human fears, as we face this unknown experience, it is going to be for us the doorway to glory, the doorway to everything our hearts have yearned for, ever since we were old enough to have our first longing. So adequate, so wonderful is the Lord Jesus. As a revelation of God, superior to the prophets, superior to the angels, as a favor from God, superior to Moses, superior to Joshua. Now when do we think all that I want is in Jesus? He satisfies, joy he supplies, life would be worthless without him, for all things in Jesus. I want. Shall we bow in prayer? Then again we shall sit quietly for a moment of meditation as the service comes to its completion. Our Father, once again we thank you for the instruction of thy word. We thank you for the presentation of the Lord Jesus in his majesty and wonder. We thank thee, Lord, for the solemn exhortations to our own hearts. And now we pray that what we have pondered this evening to leave its mark upon our lives. May we be just a little more happy as Christians, because of the glorious future of which we've been reminded. May we be a little more responsible as Christians, because of the reminders we have had concerning our living from moment to moment, and hour to hour, and day by day. And grant, O Lord, too, that we may be delivered from the thought that our work is through, and that we can lay down our tools. Remind us constantly that men and women are dying around us. There was never a time when we needed to pray more. There never was a time when we needed to witness more. There was never a time when we needed to radiate our Christianity more than today. All God enable us to do as we pray, as we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.