10) Hebrews - Warning Part 2 Rebellion of the Heart
Notes
Transcript
“Be Reconciled to God” Root of Fruit Sin addressed “Unbelief, Pride, Selfishness”
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Call to Worship
12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.
Corporate Prayer -
Worship through Song
Scripture Reading
1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; 2 for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers. 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
Worship through Song
Worship through Song
Sermon
Prayer
Introduction
Introduction
We are continuing today in Hebrews chapter 3. Go ahead a turn there as we recap where we are at. We have come to the second warning to the church in the book. A warning that would have been very clear in the minds of the Jewish Christians. Let us read our passage for today.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested me, tried me, and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked to anger with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.” 12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. 14 For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. 15 As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. 16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Last week we looked at how God speaks through the Word of God through his scriptures. The author claims that is was the Holy Spirit that spoke Psalm 95. We also saw how other authors confirmed that same truth.
20 Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The words of God are captured by men that were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We looked at the consequences of treating the scripture as anything but God’s words. That if there are just words of men then they are easily manipulated and discarded. But these are the Words of God ans should be treated as such Holy instruction, Holy wisdom, Holy revelation. As believers I hope that we all desire to be complete and equipped as Paul wrote to Timothy.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The author says therefore as the Holy Spirit Says today if you hear his voice. Today means a time frame. A time frame that will not last forever but it has an unknown date of completion.
Rebellion
Rebellion
This is a quote of Psalm 95 with some minor adjustments.
1 Come, let’s shout joyfully to the Lord, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving; let’s shout triumphantly to him in song. 3 For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. 4 The depths of the earth are in his hand, and the mountain peaks are his. 5 The sea is his; he made it. His hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let’s worship and bow down; let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care. Today, if you hear his voice: 8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness 9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know my ways.” 11 So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.”
The author refers to the last three in a half verses of the psalm.
Psalm 95:7–11 (CSB)
7… Today, if you hear his voice: 8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness 9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know my ways.” 11 So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.”
The Psalmist is believed to be referring to two incidents that happened after the Exodus from Egypt.
The first is in Exodus 17. The Israelites had left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea on dry land. They were miraculously fed by manna and quail every day. The traveled and and then camped and there was a lack of water so the community grumbled against Moses and the Lord answered.
5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. 6 I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
This place Massah and Meribah would continually be referenced as a place of rebellion and testing by God. After this time they would receive the 10 commandments, they would hear the voice of God, the Laws would be given. God would promise to go ahead of them and wipe out their enemies.
20 “I am going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Be attentive to him and listen to him. Do not defy him, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for my name is in him. 22 But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. 23 For my angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.
God would establish a covenant with them. They would receive the instructions to build the tabernacle, ark and alter. They would experience the consequences of the golden calf. They would build the tabernacle. The priests would be established with the method and place of worship through the offerings to God.
For over two years the Israelites had seen, heard and felt the presence of the Lord. And they come to the promised land. 12 men are sent in to scout the land and when they return 10 of the men give a negative report claiming that the inhabitants of the land are too large and to many. They stirred up the people and they refused to enter the promised land.
The Lord responded with
11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise me? How long will they not trust in me despite all the signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.”
But Moses intercedes for the people. He pleads their case for them even though they have done nothing to deserve a reprieve.
20 The Lord responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested. 21 Yet as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested me these ten times and did not obey me, 23 will ever see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have despised me will see it.
Though they will not lose their lives they will be punished by not seeing the promise that was given.
26 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against me. 28 Tell them: As I live—this is the Lord’s declaration—I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. 29 Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more—because you have complained about me. 30 I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
All but the two scouts that gave a good report will see the promise. And what was different between these two and all of the others. It was their belief. They saw the same people the other 10 did but they remembered the promise that God would send his angel out before them and would wipe out the enemies of Israel.
This would not end the rebellion of God’s people.
This was the focus of the psalmist and the author of Hebrews.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested me, tried me, and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore I was provoked to anger with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.”
Rebellion is to provoke. It is the opposite of obedience. Our children are either in obedience or in rebellion. Today, in this time, before it is too late, do not harden you hearts as in the rebellion. Do not do what they did.
The psalmist said for 40 years I was disgusted with these people. They had seen all of my great works and my great love for them but they test and rebel against me.
The author changes this slightly and says they saw the works of God for 40 years and they were still rebellious and because of that they would not enter into his rest.
Do not become stubborn and heard hearted towards the voice of God. Some of you have children or maybe even spouses that have become hard hearted towards your voice. All you want is the very best for them but they do not hear your voice. They do not obey they just rebel. We have experienced this in many relationships in our lives. The author is warning the church to not be heard hearted. Hear from the Father, From the Son and from the Spirit. Hear from his word, hear from his people.
Paul speaks of it this way.
1 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did. 7 Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party. 8 Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day twenty-three thousand people died. 9 Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes. 10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
The Warning
The Warning
12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. 14 For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.
Watch out. Do not rebel. There is a living God. He proclaims himself throughout the universe. He proclaims himself in the big and the small. While there is still time while it is still today. Do not have an unbelieving heart that turns from the living God. He is speaking to the church and once again he is speaking to those that are in the community of believers but do not have saving faith in the good news of Jesus. That there were those in that time just like today that understand that understand the gospel but do not believe in it.
How do we know they do not believe in it? We will see it in the results of an unbelieving heard heart. They will stop hearing the voice of God. They will become hard against the words of God and the correction of God. They will continue to do it their own way. My way isn’t so bad.
They will choose to live in rebellion and not in obedience. This does not mean that there are perfect people. There are those that desire to be in obedience. They are grieved when they stumble. They repent and try again. When they encounter the rebuke of the Lord they are stirred to do something about it.
This is much different than the rebellious. They groan and blame God for the misfortune of their own actions. They are justifiers. They always have an excuse and a defence for things that they know are wrong.
When confronted with truth they do not hear it. It goes in one ear and out the other.
The church is full of imperfect people. Imperfect families. With a perfect savior. A perfect living God. When people encounter the living God, with the perfect truth, the response will be yes Lord I hear you or did I hear something?
Sin is deceiving and it is attractive to the nature of men and women. We are to encourage each other, while it is still called today. Encourage each other in what? In platitudes and attaboys no in dealing with sin. Why because it is sin that hardens a heart, that creates evil unbelieving hearts.
The problem today is that there is no encouragement in many church communities that is based in truth. Oh there is a lot of encouragement but not what God is saying through the author here. The word We are to encourage each other to hold firmly to Christ. A believer is a participant in christ from the start of spiritual life. Not at the end. We do not know who is truly saved or not so we must continue to encourage each other.
The world is famishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the church is famishing for want of His presence.
— A. W. Tozer
Each other daily. While there is time while it is today.
The author ends this section with.
15 As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. 16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
This is referring back to Numbers 14.
Who was it that hard heard hearts and rebelled? It was those that came out of Egypt.
Who was God angry at for 40 years? Wasn’t it those who sinned.
26 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against me. 28 Tell them: As I live—this is the Lord’s declaration—I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. 29 Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more—because you have complained about me. 30 I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
Who were unable to enter his rest? Enter the promised land? It was the disobedient?
Unbelief
Unbelief
He say we see that they were unable to enter the rest? Why, because of unbelief. The great sin of unbelief. The line between lostness and salvation is not knowledge, how much you know, what degree you have, how many years you have been in church. It is not works, not how hard you work in church, how many hours of service, how much you have given to the church.
The line between lostness and salvation it belief. To have faith and belief in the Gospel of Jesus. He calls out to his people today is the day. Like Paul did.
1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!
Unbelief is a sin that the longer is carries on the harder a person’s heart becomes. There are those who have never heard the gospel who have never heard of God or what he has done for mankind. These are not the people the author is speaking to. He is speaking to unbeliever who have heard the truth. Have seen the work of God but still do not have faith in Christ. The do not see today as important. They always have tomorrow to respond. The issue is that as a person hears the voice of God but doesn’t respond their hearts are hardened. They as for more proof. More evidence. If God does this or that then I will believe.
The Israelites has seen God directly work in their lives over and over and it wasn’t enough to believe that God would do what God said he would. They did not trust or have faith in him.
Unbelief led to hard hearts, which led to a tuning out of God. God spoke but they did not hear or respond.
Only a heart that has become soft will hear the voice of God and respond to it.
There is a very hard truth in scripture that we wrestle with and that is that when today is over. Not when someones life is ended even though that maybe the day but there may come a time in a person’s life where they become so hard hearted that they cannot be saved.
1 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, 2 through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.
Seared comes from the greek word that means to become insensitive or cauterized. There will be those that turn away from Christ not as losing salvation but proving that they were never saved to begin with.
4 For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, 6 and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. 7 For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned.
The longer someone is in the community of believers and the longer they experience God but do not come to saving faith the more there is a danger of them falling away.
From Egypt to the end of the OT there is a constant theme of rebellion, unbelief, and people ignoring the voice of the Lord. Prophet after prophet come but many do not listen. There are points where God say speak this even though I know they will not listen but keep telling them.
The asked the question when things did not go they way they wanted. Is God with us? It is faith to know that yes he is. The evidence is all around.
Historical Evidence, Biblical Evidence, Personal Testimony for others and our own lives.
But unbelief is not logical it does not see these things or give God the Glory for them. They are coincidences or justified away in many ways.
Jesus said
31 “But he told him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
Hebrews: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Proof of the Bible’s Inspiration
Most people do not need more proof that God is real or that Jesus is His Son and the Savior. They need to hate and repent of their sin and to commit themselves to Him. A God who is continually tested will never be accepted. The one who tests God today does so for the same reason as did the Israelites in Moses day—to put Him off, because they love their sin, their own way, their own plans too much to give them up for God’s.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Hebrews Exposition
That is the thing that provokes God—unbelief. Not so much the unbelief of the head as the unbelief of the heart, when the heart will not yield to the plan of salvation, when men want to be saved by their own works, or else are indifferent altogether about whether they are saved or not. It is heart-unbelief that damns men. It is heart-faith that is the means of salvation. “With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness” (Rom 10:10), but heart-unbelief leads to, and seals, his ruin.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.