Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Open your Bibles this evening to the New Testament book of Hebrews chapter 3.

I would like for us to read first Hebrews chapter 3 verses 7-9, 13, 15.

Read Hebrews.

Hebrews 3:7-9 “7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.”

Hebrews 3:13 “13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Hebrews 3:15 “15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

I would like for you to make note of the phrase To day if ye will hear his voice.

And now flip over to Psalm 95 please.

Psalm 95 “1 O come, let us sing unto the Lord: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God, And a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: The strength of the hills is his also.

5 The sea is his, and he made it: And his hands formed the dry land.

6 O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

7 For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, Proved me, and saw my work.

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, And they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath That they should not enter into my rest.”

Read the entire Psalm.

Let’s pray.

I want you tonight to consider simple truth that was cited by the penman of Hebrews from this Psalm.

The psalmist cited His example from the history of the children of Israel as they wandered after leaving Egypt as an example for God’s people.

I want you and I to consider this exhortation, “To Day if ye will hear His voice.” in verse 7 of Psalm 95.

It is also found in verse 7 of Hebrews 3, and verse number 15.

Would you notice with me first of all:

I.

The timing of this call.

The timing of this call is marked by the phrase “To Day...”

Multiple times it is repeated in Hebrews chapter 3, stressing the urgency of the call.

At New Years, typically we begin to look in two different directions.

We look backwards.

We look backwards at all that has taken place over the past year.

We rejoice for what the Lord has done.

We evaluate what needs to be improved.

We contemplate all that has gone on in our lives, the lives of our families and the life of this local church family.

We look forward.

Then we turn our attention to what is before us.

If the Lord tarries, we will move into a new year, with new days and new opportunities before us.

It is a time when we look forward and plan and prepare for what the Lord would have us to do.

I want us to understand though, that the timing of this call is different.

It is not a call to look backwards, although the history of the nation of Israel is cited.

It is not a call to look forward although the writer of Hebrews designs for Jewish Christian to walk triumphantly in Christ.

This word, To-day really is speaking about this present moment.

As we think about this phrase, we should understand that the timing of this call is now.

The Word of God is not talking about what is going to take place tomorrow.

The Word of God is not talking about the next day, or even a week or month from now.

But in simplicity and in truth, we find an active call from God Himself…

“To-day if ye will hear his voice...”

Sometimes the Devil’s greatest word in the life of the believer is tomorrow.

We design to do this or that tomorrow, but God is presently calling us To-day.

We understand from the Scriptures and also our own lives experiences that tomorrow is always in the future and not guaranteed.

We have the capacity and ability to contemplate the future and to prepare for tomorrow and God has given that to us.

But God’s call upon our lives is today.

It is this moment.

Who will hear the Lord tomorrow if he is not willing to do so today?

Who will be obedient to Christ tomorrow if he does not make a decision to do so today?

Who will read His Word tomorrow if he will not decide to read it today?

Promises and plans for tomorrow are wonderful, but brothers and sisters let us begin at once with Today.

And so we see the timing of this call, but Secondly notice:

II.

The testing of this call.

The Bible says, “To-day if ye will hear his voice...”

The testing comes to each and every one of us in the form of the word “if”…

This is the fork in road, this is the choice before each one of us…

There is a decision that must be made in the life of the individual.

This decision is not for tomorrow, but for To-day..

It is for the very moment that we sit here in this sanctuary.

It is the testing of His call.

Without going back to the passage in the book of Hebrews and reviewing all of the history of the nation of Israel who were delivered out of Egypt, we come to understand that the children of Israel had many “if” moments to hear His voice.

Suffice to say, the Word of God warns us not to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

You see the people of God according to verse 9 of Hebrews 3 “saw” God’s “works forty years...”

They gazed at the works of God in their lives and yet in the valley of decision in the time of “if” they would not hear the Lord.

The Bible says that they were missing the key of faith.

Hebrews 4:2 states this, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

This matter of trust, belief, and confidence in God was absent.

What is going to make the difference for you in this moment of decision concerning God and His Word?

It is this matter of trust, it is this matter of faith.

Example: I am reminded of the scene I have seen play out many times.

A scene of which I myself have also experienced.

A father when He is teaching his child to trust him will ask him to jump off of the edge of the pool into his arms.

The child though hesitant at first finally has enough confidence in his father, at his bidding takes the leap.

After hearing for time the beckoning call of Dad, and recounting all of His fathers care for him before takes the leap.

My fellow Christian could I ask tonight, what good is hearing the Word of God without belief?

Faith does come by hearing, but in hearing we must receive the Word of the Lord.

The testing of this call is tonight, and it is a question to every child of God…will you choose to hear Him…will you trust Him?

So we see not only the timing of this call, the testing of this call but thirdly:

III.

The totality of this call.

Who is this call to?

We could say without a doubt it is to the Hebrews.

The Hebrew Christian dealt with a difficulty peculiar to their national heritage.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for a Hebrew Christian in the 1st Century.

When we look at the life of Paul we see what kind of difficulty they no doubt faced.

As we study and read the book of Hebrews, we begin to understand, at least to a point the wrestlings that they must have felt.

Nevertheless, I can say equally that the Christian of the 1st Century does not know what it is like to be an American Christian in the 21st Century.

The writer of the book of Hebrews no doubt had the Hebrew Christian in mind, but that does not mean that this letter has no application for us.

Yes, we are far removed by time and culture from the 1st Century Christian, but our wonderful Lord and Saviour is faithful and His Word applies to us today.

You see we are all men created in the image of God, we all have entered into God’s family through the doorway of faith by God’s marvelous grace.

Regardless of whether I am a Christian in the 1st century or the 21st century we have a common bond in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 3:11 “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”