HEBREWS 3:7-19 - A "Good Christian Life"?

Introduction

One of the most rewarding parts of my day job is working with students who are using their VA Educational Benefits (GI Bill) to get a college degree. Military-connected students like veterans are really easy to work with: If I have a typical freshman student in my office and I tell him he needs to complete a form and bring it back to me, I usually will see him in a week or two (sometimes with the form filled out correctly!)

But if I tell one of my vets the same thing, they will be back in my office within 24 hours at the most, not only with that paper filled out, but the next three steps of the process already completed because they looked into it on their own and discovered what else they needed to do! For the most part, students who come to college out of military service are far more motivated, far more self-disciplined and “squared away” than their civilian counterparts.

Unless they aren’t… Not very often, but sometimes, I will deal with a student veteran who is the exact opposite of the typical specimen. They can’t be bothered to follow any rules or meet any deadlines or receive any instruction. They have become so hardened against authority that they become impossible to work with.

This happens with guys that leave the military, it happens with children who leave a home that enforced a standard without teaching love for the standard, it happens with people who come out of a harsh legalistic church, and it was liable to happen to the Jewish Christians that the writer of Hebrews is addressing here in our text this morning. Their years under the harsh strictures of Law tended to make them very antagonistic toward any kind of authority, whether it was good or not.

And so this is why the writer of Hebrews, after exhorting them to cling to Christ, reminds them that they must not become hardened to Him:

Hebrews 3:7–8 (LSB)

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,

He goes on to warn his readers in verse 12:

Hebrews 3:12 (LSB)

See to it brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

Now, we must not miss who it is that he is warning against becoming hard-hearted: “See to it, brothers...” This warning is for those who are identified with the people of God. He explicitly says as much in verse 16:

Hebrews 3:16 (LSB)

For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

In other words, people who had already been rescued from slavery in Egypt. People who had already passed through the waters of the Red Sea. To go back to the metaphor of the “household of faith” from last week, this warning is being given to those who are inside the house, not the strangers outside on the street!

This warning against hard-heartedness comes to those who are identifying themselves with the people of God. Thousands of people who were delivered under the blood of the Passover lamb out of Egypt went on to die of hard-heartedness in the wilderness. It is not enough to follow the Law, it is not enough to go through all the motions of a faithful believer if your heart is hardened against God. It is possible to live a scrupulously correct religious life and have a heart utterly hardened against God. Jesus himself encountered hard-hearted “faithful Jews”, didn’t He?

Mark 3:3–5 (LSB)

And He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Beloved, there are far too many people in churches today who live their Christian lives just like those Jews in that synagogue in mark 3. They enthusiastically show up for worship, they unhesitatingly affirm all the correct doctrines of the deity of Christ and salvation by grace through faith alone, they happily participate in church activities, they know how to make good choices with their lives, they get to be part of all of the joy and fellowship and peace that characterizes a church family—but their heart is hard as a stone toward God. You know the kind of folks I’m talking about. You know people like that—some of you (praise God!) USED to be like that.

And so the writer of Hebrews is warning his readers in the first century (and 21st century!) that it is not enough to be identified with the people of God if your own heart does not belong to Him:

A “good Christian life” is no SUBSTITUTE for a HEART that belongs to CHRIST

And so what are some of the danger signals that the author of Hebrews is warning us about? Where do we need to be on the lookout for signs of this kind of spiritual peril? First, as we have already seen, living “good Christian life” cannot make up for

I. A HARD heart (Hebrews 3:7-9)

Look again at verses 7-8:

Hebrews 3:7–8 (LSB)

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,

Now remember, he is quoting from Psalm 95, which is itself referencing the account in Exodus 17 that we read earlier. Psalm 95:7-8 reads:

Psalm 95:7–8 (LSB)

... Today, if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

“Meribah” means “quarrel” and “Massah” means “test”—we read this earlier in Exodus 17:7:

Exodus 17:7 (LSB)

So he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us or not?”

Think of it—God had promised to bring them out of slavery and into the Land He had promised—He had sworn to care for them and protect them and provide for them. But as soon as they got thirsty in the desert, they cried out:

Exodus 17:3 (LSB)

But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to put us and our children and our livestock to death with thirst?”

See here the first characteristic of a hard heart—it is a heart

That will SLANDER God’s CHARACTER (cp. Exodus 17:3, 7)

In grumbling against Moses, the hard-hearted Israelites were really grumbling against God, weren’t they? “God won’t take care of us—He can’t be trusted! This is just like Him—to bring us out here into the middle of this difficulty and then abandon us here!”

This is what it means to be hard-hearted against God—to find yourself in hardship or loss or difficulty or pain or uncertainty and begin to grumble that He has abandoned you. And there are far too many people who are “living a good Christian life” that secretly resent God for the state of their lives.

A hard heart will slander God’s character, and it is a heart

That will FORGET God’s FAITHFULNESS (vv. 8-9)

Look at verses 8 and 9 of our text:

Hebrews 3:8–9 (LSB)

DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.

It wasn’t just there at Meribah that God’s people succumbed to hard-heartedness—they spent forty years seeing God’s faithfulness at every turn—bread from heaven, quail for meat, a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, victory over all their enemies in battle; shoes that never wore out and clothing that never frayed, Og the king of Bashan fallen under their swords—and they forgot about all of it! For all of the miraculous things they saw for decades of YHWH’s faithful lovingkindness to them, their hard hearts forgot about all of it.

There are some people out there “living the good Christian life” who have seen God provide for them over and over, who have been recipients of His faithful care and sustenance; He has never failed to give them each day their daily bread—but the transmission blows out of their car or their water well gives out, and they fall apart: “Where is God now, when I need Him? Why didn’t He keep this from happening??” Surely, those blows are sometimes far worse than some material inconvenience, and it is natural to cry out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1). But to have a fixed and settled attitude that says “God cannot be trusted; He never comes through for me, He says He cares, but He doesn’t”—that is a warning sign of hardness of heart creeping in.

God’s Word here in Hebrews warns us not to live “good Christian lives” while at the same time hardening our hearts against Him. A “good Christian life” cannot make up for a hard heart, and it cannot make up for

II. A STRAYING heart (Hebrews 3:10)

This is the warning of Hebrews 3:10:

Hebrews 3:10 (LSB)

“THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;

Think back to our opening illustration of someone who has come out of a strict environment of rules and regulations and punishments and penalties—they can become so calloused, so hardened by that experience that they develop a stubborn resistance to any kind of discipline or rule: “Go ahead and fire me, I’m not going to submit!” Now, this can be good when you are standing up for what’s right; when you are loving what God loves and hating what He hates.

But it is deadly when it is God’s discipline that you are resisting. A hard heart is a straying heart; it will not obey even God--

It does not FEAR God’s ANGER

God says that their constant disobedience, their constant flaunting of His decrees made Him angry, (some translations say He was provoked by them, or grieved by them) but they didn’t care. “What is His anger to us? We are His children, after all—He won’t do anything to us!”

I fear that there are far too many people that are “Living the good Christian life” who have no regard whatsoever for provoking God. Because we affirm that under Christ we have escaped the judicial wrath of God for our sin, we misread Romans 8:1. Where it reads

Romans 8:1 (LSB)

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We tend to read it, “Therefore there are now no consequences for those who are in Christ Jesus”! But the writer of Hebrews is warning his brothers in Christ not to disregard God’s anger! Yes, it is the anger of a father who disciplines an unruly child and not the wrath of a holy God executing the death penalty on a sinner, but that does not mean that there are no consequences for disregarding His character or His call to holiness.

Because this is what is at the root of a hard, straying heart—

It does not DESIRE God’s HOLINESS (cp. Lev. 11:45; Num. 11:5-6)

Hebrews 3:10 (LSB)

“THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;

For forty years in the desert, the Old Covenant people of God were bound together to YHWH by the covenant that He made with them at Sinai—the covenant represented by the blood of the Passover lamb under which they sheltered from the angel of death in the land of Goshen; the covenant sealed by their passing through the waters of the Red Sea into their freedom. They had been given His covenant Name that demonstrated that He is YHWH, the great “I AM”, the God who was (and is) utterly separated, utterly unique, utterly set apart—and they were called to be set apart as well!

Leviticus 11:45 (LSB)

‘For I am Yahweh who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

But for 40 years in the wilderness, all they wanted was to go back to Egypt. All they wanted was to go back to their slavery, go back to what God had delivered them out of, because it was comfortable to them; it was more satisfying to them than to be set apart to Him:

Numbers 11:5–6 (LSB)

“We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is dried up. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”

Beloved, if they fell in the wilderness because slavery in Egypt was better than freedom with God because at least in Egypt they got free fish dinners, and being fed the bread of Heaven by the very hand of YHWH was loathsome to them—if their bones rotted in the desert because they wanted to go back to the slavery to Egypt that the blood of the Passover lamb was shed to rescue them from, then how much more do they incur the anger of God who want to disregard the blood of Christ that purchased them from their slavery to sin? Who still want to get drunk on the weekends, who still want to surf the porn sites, who still want to flirt with a married co-worker, who still want to slander and gossip behind their victims’ backs, who still want to steep the bitter brew of their grudges and refuse to forgive as Christ forgave them? Living a “good Christian life” will not shield you from the consequences of a hard heart toward God.

The Word of God here in Hebrews 3 warns us about the signs of a hard heart—it warns us not to have a straying heart that does not fear God’s anger or desire His holiness. If that hard, straying heart continues to manifest itself, if it goes on and on without any remedy or any sign of turning, it eventually reveals itself to be

III. An UNBELIEVING heart (Hebrews 3:12-13)

The author of Hebrews makes his warning as plain as can be in verse 12 of our text

Hebrews 3:12 (LSB)

See to it brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

If that hard, straying heart never changes, if there is no sign of repentance or sorrow or inclination to change, then what is revealed is in fact a heart of unbelief—a heart that never knew God to begin with. Now, we’ve made this distinction before and we will make it again throughout this series: A truly regenerate heart that has come in genuine repentance and faith to Jesus Christ cannot be lost again. Not one of the elect can fall away from salvation.

The warning here in this passage is not that a Christian can lose his salvation; the warning is to those who have no warrant for believing they are Christians. Someone who checks all the boxes of living a “good Christian life”—church attendance, Bible reading, tithing, and all the rest—can still have a heart that does not belong to Christ. A heart hardened towards Him, a heart that does not believe in Him. Eventually that unbelieving heart will reveal itself, when

It falls AWAY from God (v. 12a)

Astrophysicists tell us that 98 percent of the mass of our entire solar system is found in the Sun itself. All the other material in the solar system—planets, moons, asteroids, comets, all of it—is merely circling that center of gravity like bubbles circling a drain, falling incrementally closer to that center every moment.

A heart that falls away from God is a heart whose center of gravity is something other than God. Whatever it might be—pleasure, pride, popularity, wealth, career—whatever is the center of your universe, that is what your heart will be drawn toward. There will always be something else more attractive than the Living God for an unbelieving heart—it may be happy to orbit in Christian circles when it suits it to do so, but someday its true center will be revealed, and it will fall away.

And the reason that our passage warns us so urgently to take care that we do not possess an evil, unbelieving heart is because it can be so easy to miss—an unbelieving heart is so often camouflaged in the middle of a “good Christian life” because

It has been DECEIVED by sin (v. 13)

Verse 13 of our text warns

Hebrews 3:13 (LSB)

... that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Once again—the warning in this passage is not that a genuine Christian can lose his salvation; the warning here is to be diligent to know that you are a genuine Christian.

Because sin is by its very nature deceitful; it is treacherous. Some people think they are Christians because they used to party on weekends, and they used to steal tools from work and they used to lie to their husbands about where they were all night—and now they don’t do any of that anymore, that must mean they are Christians. But everyone who died in the desert was delivered from bondage in Egypt, too!

Some people think that because they have stopped running with a bad crowd and have become part of a church—they have a new circle of friends, they aren’t being influenced by sinful or rebellious peers anymore—that this is the indication that they are Christians. But sin is so deceitful, so treacherous, that it will gladly fade into the background of your life and your relationships in order to make you think that you are “living the good Christian life” and therefore out of danger of God’s wrath.

Richard Baxter once wrote:

Some are so foolish to think that they are converted by taking up some new opinion. And some think if they have but been affrighted by the fears of Hell, and had conviction and tortures of conscience, and thereupon have purposed and promised amendment, and take up a life of civil behavior and outward religion, that this must needs be true conversion. And these are the poor deluded souls that are like to lose the benefit of all our persuasions; and when they hear that the wicked must turn or die, they think that this is not spoken to them; for they are not wicked, but turned already. (Richard Baxter, The Wicked and the Converted, quoted in Daily Readings from the Puritans, edited by Randall J. Pederson, 2012, January 17)

But simply “living a good Christian life” is no substitute for a heart that belongs to Jesus Christ. A heart that has not just “turned over a new leaf”, but a heart that has been fundamentally and radically transformed by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. As Baxter writes

But then, as you love your souls, remember what turning it is the Scripture speaks of. It is not to mend the old house, but to pull down all, and build anew on Christ, the rock and sure foundation. It is not to mend somewhat in a carnal course of life, but to mortify the flesh, and live after the Spirit. It is not to serve the flesh and the world, in a more reformed way, without any scandalous disgraceful sins, and with a certain kind of religiousness; but it is to change your master, and your works, and end, and to set your face the contrary way, and do all for the life that you never saw, and dedicate yourselves and all you have to God. This is the change that must be made, if you will live (ibid, Jan. 25)

And so what do we learn here in our passage this morning about that change? What do we see here about a heart that is not hardened or straying or unbelieving? Look here with me as we see what Hebrews 3 teaches us about

IV. A heart that BELONGS to Christ (Hebrews 3:14-15)

Look with me at verses 14-15:

Hebrews 3:14–15 (LSB)

For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.”

We have truly become partakers of Christ; we genuinely belong to Him when we have a heart that

Listens to the VOICE of God in His WORD (v. 15, cp. Heb. 3:7)

A heart that belongs to Christ is softened to hear His voice and obey it. In his commentary on this passage, Matthew Henry says about this verse:

When he tells you of the evil of sin, the excellency of holiness, the necessity of receiving him by faith as your Saviour, do not shut your ear and heart against such a voice as this. (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Hebrews 3:7–19))

A heart that belongs to Christ will always be evaluating itself in the light of God’s word; not out of fear of falling away or out of a cringing submission that is terrified of God’s disapproval. But the kind of careful attention that a gardener takes in weeding a garden—every weed bigger than your thumbnail gets pulled up so that the garden will be able to bear fruit!

A heart that loves Christ will always want to keep the decks clear, keep the accounts short, so that there is no opportunity for sin to get in the way of its delight in Him. A heart that belongs to Christ will trust His character and faithfulness in trials; will desire His holiness and fear His chastening; will always be pulled to Him as the center of gravity of its whole universe, not trusting the false promises of sin but fighting sin at every turn and running to the overflowing grace of God when it succumbs to sin. And the way that you keep your heart soft to hear His voice is by delighting yourself with His Word.

This is why we have copies of Bible reading plans available for you to take; this is why every worship service includes reading God’s Word together; this is why every sermon begins with the words Turn with me in your Bible to… This is why we teach our children to read at all—is so they can grow up reading this Book. You cannot keep your heart from turning hard if you never turn to this Book!

Listen to the voice of God in His word, and secondly, look at verse 13:

Hebrews 3:13 (LSB)

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “TODAY,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Your heart is soft toward Christ and not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin when it

Receives the ENCOURAGEMENT of God’s PEOPLE (v. 13)

Depend on it—if you forsake gathering with other believers, if you isolate yourself from the gathered worship of the saints on a regular basis, you will fall victim to the deceitfulness of sin. The way that God has ordained you to grow in likeness to Christ, the way that you keep on guard against the lies and snares of sin in your life is by standing back-to-back with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

That is why coming here on Sunday morning is the highest priority you can have as a Christian. If you name the Name of Christ, if you would claim to be a Christian, then as you love your own soul you come to church every single Sunday. I am aghast at the number of people who simply won’t fight to make this day a priority. Their boss gets mad if they ask for Sundays off even though the Civil Rights Act guarantees it; their kids always seem to have an away game on Sunday; their hunting trips or camping weekends always extend over Sunday; it’s the only day of the week they get to sleep in—as if an extra hour’s sleep will protect them from the deceitfulness of sin that tells them they don’t need to go to church in order to please God because they’re “saved by grace, not works”.

(And already the hard-hearted stubbornness starts to rear its ugly head, doesn’t it? “Well, where does he get off telling us what do to with our Sunday mornings?” Except its not me saying it—it is the Word of God that you claim to submit to.)

And when are you to do this? How often are you to encourage and be encouraged by your fellow believers? Once a week on Sunday? No—this is your duty every day: “As long as it is TODAY!” Day after day, at every opportunity, to encourage one another and protect one another from the deceitfulness of sin. When we hold our membership classes here at Bethel, we make it clear that one of the commitments you make when you become a member is that you give (especially the elders but also other members) the right to speak into your life when they see you falling prey to the deceitfulness of sin—and you have the responsibility to do the same for them as well.

A heart that belongs to Christ listens to the voice of God in His Word—it is a heart that receives the encouragement of God’s people, and it is a heart that

Trusts the PROMISE of God’s SALVATION (v. 14)

Once again the writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers to hold fast to Christ:

Hebrews 3:14 (LSB)

For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

The hard-hearted wanderers in the wilderness abandoned their hope in God’s salvation at Meribah:

Exodus 17:7 (LSB)

So he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us or not?”

Beloved, don’t succumb to that hard-hearted attitude that says that God can’t be trusted to save you; that He doesn’t care about you or that He won’t look after you. You have the greatest, most steadfast assurance that can ever be imagined: The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! It is not the blood of a Passover lamb that purchased you from the angel of Death, it is the blood of the spotless Lamb of God Himself shed for your deliverance from eternal death under God’s wrath—and you are never too far gone for Him to save!

It doesn’t matter how hard-hearted you have become; it doesn’t matter how hypocritically you have “lived a good Christian life” while secretly rejecting Christ; it doesn’t matter how lousy you are at being a Christian—all that matters is that Jesus Christ is the One Who saves you! He is your guarantee before a holy God; He is the center of your universe; He is the treasure to be found at the heart of every worship service; He is the Presence that rustles in every page of your Bible—and your delight in Him is what drives everything you do in the Christian life!

So lay down all the failures, all the shortcomings, all the hypocrisies of “the good Christian life”—lay them on the blood-soaked ground at the foot of His Cross, and never look at them again. Let your gaze be filled with nothing more or less than the perfect redemption and complete atonement and eternal salvation that is yours because of the work of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LSB)

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________