The Call of the Church

Hebrews 3:7–19 KJV 1900

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

A warning is going out to Jewish Christians

The point of Hebrews is to present Jesus better than everything else, and that Jesus is the mediator of a new and better covenant than the old

Context

David in Psalm 95:7-11 says the very same thing that we read in Hebrews

And it refers to Israel in the wilderness, and what went on in the wilderness

Psalm 95, reflects on Israel’s disobedience and rejection of Moses in the Exodus wanderings.

God was working miracles in Egypt – miracle, after miracle, after miracle.

They escaped Egypt and immediately they didn’t believe God.

An illustration of unbelief in the face of overwhelming evidence

God had revealed Himself — They knew how He had revealed Himself.

Yet they did not believe.

And so as a result they wandered for 40 years in a circle because of their unbelief — journey of a few weeks took 40 years

Now this becomes a picture for us.

It becomes a picture for what David says in Psalm 95 as he warns in his days – see, David was warning 1,000 years before Hebrews was written by saying, “Now people, don’t you in my day” – in David’s day – “don’t you harden your heart against God like Israel did in the wilderness.” And now the writer of Hebrews is saying, “Now you Hebrews, living when I’m writing, don’t you do what David warned the people not to do in his day, which the people in Moses’ day had done.”

Things haven’t changed a lot.

And I can stand up in front of you today and say, “‘Don’t do today what the writer of Hebrews told the Hebrews not to do because David told the Hebrews not to do it, because Moses said they did it.’”

And so we see the pattern traces itself all the way along.

Verse 7 states that the Holy Spirit is speaking

It wasn’t David in Psalms 95 giving his opinion

The Bible is given to us by inspiration and is profitable for us

— What does today mean?

Well, he uses it in verse 7, 13, 15; chapter 4, verse 7.

It’s the word of urgency.

It may mean less than 24 hours — It may mean now, this very moment.

If you know the truth of Jesus Christ, if you know the Gospel of Jesus Christ, don’t do what Israel did when they knew God’s truth, when they saw God’s revelation.

Don’t harden your heart.

II Corinthians 6:2 For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, And in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

“Harden not your hearts, but today hear His voice!”

And men today as in the time of the Hebrews, even more than in the time of David, and in the time of Moses had the privilege of hearing God’s voice as God spoke — respond today/now

— And notice it says, “If you will hear.”

Hearing God is a matter of your own will.

There is that possibility of hardening the heart as Israel did and seeing the sad results

And so in verse 8 says, “Harden not your hearts as they did in the day of provocation in the day of trial in the wilderness.”

You know, hardening your heart is also a matter of personal action.

In I Timothy 4:2, where Paul says that the heart of a man or the conscience of a man can become seared as with a hot iron, like scar tissue?

A heart can harden itself against the gospel and God’s word

You can harden your heart against the warning of the Holy Spirit

And the word seared means burned; and when it’s once burned, the skin is then insensitive.

Today if you’ll enact your will to hear God’s voice, don’t harden your heart.

And your heart gets harder every time you say no to Jesus Christ when you know the truth.

This is happening in the church today

We hear truth and refuse to do anything with it

Hearers of the Word only — deceiving your own self

— Now notice in verse 8 how he picks out the specific illustration.

It says, “Don’t do it as in the provocation in the day of temptation/trial in the wilderness.”

Now the words “provocation” and “trial” or “testing” are important words, and they take us immediately right back to a record of Exodus 17

Exodus 17:1-2 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

In other words, What are you tempting God for? — God’s provided for us all along

Why are you testing God again?

Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

Massah — which means trial or tested

Meribah — which means striving

Israel — That’s the craziest thing you could ever test God on at this point.

God has just released them from Egypt by fantastic miracles, fantastic plagues that He brought, the opening of the Red Sea, manna in the morning, every day, the cloud, the whole thing leading them through the wilderness as a people, and now they say, “Is God among us?”

That’s the character of unbelief, it never has enough proof.

You don’t need more proof, my friend, about whether God is real.

You don’t need more proof about God’s love for you

You don’t need more proof that sin is destructive

You don’t need more proof that the Bible’s way of life is the better healthier way

So they had failed to believe God’s promise.

But they loved their sin, they loved their selfishness, they loved their own plans and their own ideas, and they would not put themselves in God’s hands.

Hebrews 3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, And saw my works forty years.

It wasn’t just at Massah and Meribah they did it, they did it all the way through the wilderness.

And then in verse 10-11 you see God’s response — You will not enter because of unbelief

Deuteronomy 2:14 And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them.

They saw 40 years of proof

There have been Christians doubt God for decades

The evidence is in — No reason to doubt God

They erred in their hearts.

Sin deceives, and it deceives in the heart.

So how do we combat this?

I believe it is an important ministry of the church

I. Brethren — This is IMPORTANT

Vs 12

An invitation to saved people — Take Care

Be careful not to turn away from God — departing

Hebrews was written to 3 different type of Jewish people — believing Jews, Jews on the fence, and unsaved Jewish people convincing them that Jesus is better

They were shrinking back — or due to situation/persecution they could have

Why is our heart hardened? — Sin

Brow beating doesn’t help

We have seen in it if grown up in church

I have known nothing but the church all of my life

I have seen friends, colleagues, and those I have ministered to abandon and forsake God

When heart was hardened by sin was unstable then made to feel worse

And the church missed an opportunity to exhort

Church isn’t about an experience it is about discipleship

Church isn’t about religion it is about relationship

Relationship with God but also a relationship with each other — God gave it

II. Exhort — Coming along side

Vs 13

Instruction — to prevent

But — Conjunction — instead of hardening exhort

“Get alongside each other and call to each other urgently.”

Parakaleō, from which we get paraklētos, which is the name of the Holy Spirit really – the Paraclete  – the one called alongside to help

Exhort — Encourage to action

Exhort means to challenge

Society today is offended by challenges

Exhort one another — come along side and challenge

Is there anyone in your life that can come along side and challenge you on something you are doing?

Is there anyone in your life you have the ability to come along side and challenge?

Daily today Vs 13 — Redundant?

It is stressing the importance of the command — and urgency

Exhorting is found somewhere else in the book of Hebrews

10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

I’m not saying it is not talking about faithfulness to collective worship

But it is a call to remain faithful to exhortation

Can be done in preaching — yes

But should be seen in private as well

Every cookout, party, church function is not a time to just small talk but to exhort

Relationships must first be created

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care

Do we see this in churches today?

Young teaching the old — turn to

Titus 2:1-8 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

Not just for pastors — part of preaching

But for everyone to come along side

Speaking — sound doctrine

Teach — what is proper

Shew — a pattern

It says aged — did you know a way to encourage yourself as an older Christian?

Get near a zealous new believer to fan that flame

I haven’t seen much of this in almost my entire life

III. Partakers with Christ

Vs 14

A. Made to be partners with Christ

Partakers — partner

How do we defeat hard heartedness in the church?

Exhorting one another

Reminding one another of who we are in Christ

Growing in our understanding of Who Christ is and Who we are Made in HIM

Partners with Christ — Made is established as — only through the work of Jesus

Not because of who we are!

B. Hold

Preservere — steadfast until the end

Some — most didn’t believe — it grieved/provoked God

C. He was promising them Rest

Vs 18 — Physical blessing

Promised land had hard times but the blessings of not building homes and planting — Rest

God wanted them to partner with Him for more then wilderness wandering

He invites us to rest — Come unto me all that labor and I will give you rest! in our understanding of Who Christ is and Who we are in HIM

IV. Confidence verses unbelief

Vs 14b and vs 19

Hold to confidence — hope — Biblical definition is faith

The Israelites were delivered by faith from the Egyptians when the death angel passed over the homes with the blood applied

The Israelites stopped living by faith after their redemption

We were saved by faith

But then they were commanded to live by faith

The just shall live by faith

Vs 16 and 17 — They died in the wilderness

Came out of Egypt — all of them

Saw one of the greatest periods of miracles

And yet they missed out on the rest that was available for them

As Christians we have seen so many great things

Doubting by being deceived by sin — It won’t affect me

Our rest is not in a place like the Israelites but in a person Jesus Christ

While we do not forfeit our eternal rest

Sin hardens our heart and disbelief causes us to miss that His grace is sufficient for us

Let’s walk by faith — exhort others to walk by faith

If we fail to take hold of all that has been promised us — through Christ.

We are to hold fast to our faith to our life's end, as we abide in Him, rest in Him, and trust Him in all things.

Vs 15 hear — understand to lead to action

Hear what? His Voice

We have a tool to help in this ministry — His voice — The Word of God

Take action and pick up this ministry of exhortation

Because we need each other to not be deceived by sin

To not have our heart hardened

To partner with Christ

To live by faith