Beware of a Hard Heart

Introduction

Please turn in your bibles to Hebrews chapter 3:7-19 that is Hebrews chapter 3 verses 7-19. If you are using a Bible scattered throughout the chairs that will be on page 942, that is page 942. Well, for any of you that know me well you know that I am a little bit of a nerd. I enjoy a good Sci-Fi show from time to time and a few years ago Netflix remade the show Lost in Space. It is a story of the Robison family while traveling to Alpha Centuri, a new planet, but they have become “Lost in Space.” And on their journey they come across an alien robot name B-9 that forms a special bond with the boy Will Robinson. The family is unfamiliar with their new terrain and the dangers that threaten them so when danger is near B-9 will say, “Danger, Will Robinson.” And inevitability once B-9 says his line, “Danger, Will Robison” something dangerous will happen.

This text is for us what B-9 is to the Robison family. We don’t often live as if there is any danger around us, especially spiritual danger. In fact, most spiritual danger is not brought on quickly, but slowly. We don’t always see it coming because of the low hum drum nature of life. But don’t be fooled there is danger lurking. We must listen to this text and be warned by it. We must know that there is a real danger that can lead us to fall away from the living God. Read Hebrews 3:7-19

A Warning from the Past v. 7-11

First we want to see that our author gives a warning from the past. As he transitions out of the first portion Hebrews 3 in which he makes clear that Jesus is better than Moses as the builder of God’s house. Moses was faithful as a servant, but Jesus was faithful as a son. Yet, the house is not a physical structure but a family and we, who are Christians, are a part of that family. We are God’s house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. If we hold fast to our faith in Jesus, then we are a part of God’s household. The writer continues to unpack this idea of the need for perseverance in the Christian life by quoting psalm 95:7b-11. Hebrews 3:7–11 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ””

The backdrop of this Psalm is from Numbers 14 in which the people of Israel rebel against their leader Moses. Moses in Numbers 13 sent 12 spies into the land of Canaan, a land which about 500 years earlier God had promised to a man named Abraham. Abraham’s descendents become the nation of Israel. This people, Israel, in the book of Numbers has recently been delivered from the land of Egypt in which they were slaves, they traveled through the wilderness witnessing God’s miraclous provision in various ways and now they are at the thresh hold of this promised land. But when the 12 spies return 10 spies give a bad report and only 2 spies, men named Joshua and Caleb, give a good report. The bad report was the cities were well fortified and the people too mighty for the people of Israel to conquer. Therefore, those 10 spies suggested that the people not enter the promised land. However, Joshua says this, Numbers 14:8–9 “If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”” And the people respond this inspirational words in verse 10 like this Numbers 14:10 “Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.” The people want to stone or kill Moses, Joshua, and Caleb instead of obey God and enter the land that He has promised them. This is open rebellion. If we keep going in Numbers 14:33–34 we read the God decides to punish this people by not allowing them to enter the promised land for forty years. “And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’” This is enough time for all them except Caleb and Joshua to die. They never enter the land. Why? Because of their rebellion.

A word, rebellion, that you read in Hebrews 3:8 “do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,” However, this same verse in Psalm 95 reads like this Psalm 95:8 “do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,” So what is happening? What is Meribah and Massah? This is referring to another event that happens with the same people during their travels to Canaan through the wilderness. In the book of Exodus 17 the people become thirsty and they complain to Moses listen to this text. Exodus 17:2–4 “Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”” So, they aren’t quite ready to stone him yet, but they are close in Exodus 17. Just keep that in the back of your mind. Exodus 17 continues and in order to give the people water to drink Moses strikes a rock with his staff. When he does this God makes water flow out of the rock and the people are able to drink. Exodus 17:7 “And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”” The words Massah and Meribah means quarreling/rebellion and testing. So in Hebrews 3 the author is quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament chooses to translate the words rather than transliterate the words like our ESV does for Psalm 95.

David is the one who writes Psalm 95 about 500 years after the events of Exodus 17 and Numbers 14. He writes this Psalm as a means of warning for the people of Israel in his day to not rebel against the Lord like the wilderness generation did, but instead to worship and bow down to the Lord. He mixes the two events in the Psalm, why? Why reference Massah and Meribah? I believe it because David is helping us see what rebellion against God is. What it means to have a hardened heart. A hardened heart does not happen suddenly. The people of Israel were not banished from the promised land because they only rebelled against Moses in Numbers 14. They didn’t just choose to immediately stone him. But in Exodus 17 they were close, in Exodus 16 they grumbled about food and wanted to return to Egypt, before that they complained about water again. There is a constant refrain throughout the Exodus narrative of the people grumbling and wanting to return to Egypt. Their old way of life that was being slaves.

In Hebrews the people are tempted to return to their old way of life in reinstating the old sacrificial system. They are being lured away from their desires to stop trusting Jesus and instead to go back to their old ways. David and the author of Hebrews are reminding us that this doesn’t happen quickly. Our hearts to do not harden and turn away from Jesus in a moment, but rather little by little over time just like the wilderness generation.

There are three realities to rebellion that we must see this morning from this warning from the past.

It was continual - They grumbled from Exodus to Numbers and longed to return to their old way of life.

from the heart- The heart is the epicenter of all our decisions and actions. They very center of who we are. Hebrews 3:10 “Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’”

Had real consequences - Hebrews 3:11 “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”” Now, this is really important for us. If David, hundreds of years after the conquest of the promised land is able to still warn the people about not entering God’s rest then we must see that these consequences are not just about that temporal moment. The promised land was a type, a land and a home for God’s people pointing to a future reality. Hebrews 4:8–11 “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” The author of Hebrews is saying, that we are still striving for the rest. The rest is a heaven. God is saying if you harden your heart against him and fall into continual sin of the heart then you will not enter into his rest.

Danger, Will Robison. Danger, Redemption Hill Church we cannot ignore our sin patterns. We must be on guard and be willing to put our sin to death. Because our text also gives us a warning from the present.

Warning for the Present v. 12-14

Hebrews 3:12–14 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

He is speaking to Jewish Christians and addresses them as brothers. He speaks to these Christians or at least to people that appear to be Christians and tells them to take care and to be guard against an evil, unbelieving heart. That the evil unbelieving heart will lead you to fall away from the living God. These are people who at the very least have made a profession of faith with their mouths, but we do not know if they believe in God from their hearts. We simply cannot know that about anyone.

What we know from the text is that there are folks who are called brothers and who are warned about the real possibility of falling away. The means of them falling away is that they have an evil and unbelieving heart. That those who “fall away” are those who do not believe. But that unbelief does not come upon us quickly, but rather comes from a hardened heart like the wilderness generation. From continual desire to return to the old way of life that is from the heart. That is to say we can look like Christians on the outside but God knows the heart.

So how does someone get an evil, unbelieving heart? By being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Must beware! Sin is deceitful. Unbelief follows a heart the is given over to sinful habits. Sin lies to us in 3 ways:

Not sin at all - This is possibly the rejection of a straight forward Christian doctrine like the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Meaning that Jesus is the only way to be saved. You might think to yourself, no Josh, I think Jesus is a way to know God, but not the only way to know God. It is sinful to believe such a thing. Beware! John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” These kinds of compromises can lead to an evil and unbelieving heart.

Not a big deal- You fail and sin and instead of fighting sin through God’s means (his Spirit, His Word, and his people) to comfort yourself saying everyone does this. It’s not a big deal. Beware! James 1:14–15 “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” All sin kills.

I can’t change- And therefore it doesn’t matter that you still struggle. You have become hopeless in your fight against sin and therefore you are just calling it in. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

So how do we hold firm our original confidence firm to the end? That faith you had when you first believed. When you gave your life to Christ and you knew that you had come to shared in Him. Hebrews 3:13 “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” This is why we are here this morning and every Sunday morning. It is why we have community groups, it why many of us meet up with other believers throughout the week to read God’s word. We NEED one another if we are to make it to the end. We must encourage one another every day as long as it is called today. The word today is used in verse 7, 13, and 15 in this text. It is referring to the this present moment. The day of salvation. Because a different is day is coming and on that day, the day of judgement it will be too late. But right now, we can still turn from sin. And until that final day we pursue Christ together. It is those who persevere to the end that will be saved.

Pastors are a necessity in our lives, but so are other church members. It is wonderful that we have Youtube and podcast and other means of hearing good Bible teaching, but don’t miss God’s plan to keep you til the end. It isn’t the internet, it is his church. You need people like your fellow church members and they need you in order to hold fast our original confidence to the end. That’s how we make it to glory. One faithful step after the other with the household of God. Together we serve the Son that died for us.

T/S- this is vitally important so important that the warning is repeated.

A Warning Repeated v. 15-19

Hebrews 3:15–19 “As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

The author re-quotes Psalm 95:7b-8. He then asked a series of rhetorical questions as a means to head off his foreseen objections. He believes that the reader will object to his argument. That we will hear this passage and say, Well did the people of God really rebel against God? And did God really punish them? And is that punishment still a viable threat today?

So in his questions he makes clear that those who heard and rebelled were all of those who left Egypt by Moses. It was people who claimed to be the people of God. Those who on the outside were Israelites. But we are reminded Galatians 3:7 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” Not just those who appear to be God’s people, but those who believe in God. And those who only appear to worship, but are changed in their hearts they will be punished.

He was provoked, angry with, those who rebelled. They sinned and their bodies (our carcasses) fell in the wilderness. Disbelief will be proven through actions over time. It was those who were disobedient that that would not enter into his rest. The heart is manifest through the actions of people and you can’t hide unbelief forever. You cannot simply claim to follow Jesus you must actually follow him!

Jesus says this of the Pharisees and scribes, Matthew 23:27–28 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

This text is a warning to the legalists and the licentious. The legalists believes that their good works and good behavior make them right before God. They are clean on the outside, but on the inside they are dirty. They don’t having saving faith, but because their hope is in their own works. While the licentious believe that their immorality is inconsequential to their relationship with God. They say, hey I’m saved by grace alone who cares about my immorality and sin.

We are saved by grace alone, but those who are saved are changed. They manifest their salvation through their increase in of personal holiness throughout their lifetime. The author of Hebrews is saying if you believe the Jesus is the Son of God who are going to live like He is the son of God. Because both legalism and licentiousness have the same root: unbelief. The legalists might claim they believe all the right doctrine, but so long as they cling to self-righteousness they don’t really believe in the Son that tasted death for everyone! The licentious may claim they have faith in Christ, but if they continue in sin they don’t really believe that God punishes sinners.

Conclusion

So what does this all mean for us today. As we look at this warning to beware of an evil unbelieving heart what should we do? What difference does this make for Monday morning. Monday morning difference:

Do a spiritual inventory. If you were to fail morally in a big way, what would it be?

Seek relationships in your church, in which you can confess sin and gain counsel

Know that God both punishes sin and provides confidence

This sermon is meant to be a warning to us all. The passage is meant to be a warning to us all, but we also must remember that we do share in Christ. That through the body of Christ we can hold on to our original confidence firm to the end. Because God is holding on to you. Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”