Take Care

Today’s message is a challenging one

It was challenging to prepare and I imagine that it will be challenging to deliver

Hebrews 3:7–18 “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 fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 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. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?” 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief”

Take care, brothers and sisters!

One of the most loving things that we can do as people is to warn each other of danger

You remember the story of a man standing by the road holding a sign which said,

“The end is near! Turn back now!”

And a car came flying past, the driver stuck his head out the window and yelled, “Get off the road, you religious nut!”

The car disappeared around the corner and there was a screech and a crash

And the man holding the sign said, “Maybe I should have written, ‘Bridge out ahead’”

But when I’m driving, I’m thankful for those yellow warning signs along the road

A rough section of road

An especially sharp curve ahead

Or a steep hill ahead

I’m thankful for those signs

I’m thankful for people in my life who have warned me about things. My parents, and my mentors

As children

be careful around that stove. It’s hot and it will burn you badly!

Be careful crossing the road. Make sure that you look both ways

As a young person

Just stay away from alcohol. It’s addictive. Don’t let yourself become addicted to it

Don’t even start smoking

Be careful of the kind of people that you hang around

Stay close to Jesus

Be a part of His church!

As an adult

Watch your heart

Don’t let anger reside in your heart

Don’t let unforgiveness be a part of your life

Take care!

I am thankful for the warnings that I have been given in life! Have I always done a good job of following those warnings? No. sadly not.

But still, I think that in the brotherhood one of the best and most practical ways that we can show that we care for each other is to warn each other when we see some danger

And this is one of the things that the author of Hebrews is really good at doing.

Multiple warnings in this book that we need to take heed to

Remember, he is concerned that his listeners endure. Stay faithful! And we see this over and over again.

Take care! Don’t drift! Don’t become unfaithful!

And today, we have in our passage, one of his most strongly-worded warnings

It is a warning about having a hard and rebellious heart

And in order to support this warning, he quotes a Psalm

Turn there

Psalm 95.

English Standard Version Psalm 95

7b T

The psalmist mentions Meribah and Massah. What is he talking about here?

The answer to this is in Exodus 17. And i would like for us all to turn here.

1 At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin[a] and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. 2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded.

“Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”

3 But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!”

5 The Lord said to Moses, “Walk out in front of the people. Take your staff, the one you used when you struck the water of the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. 6 I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai.[b] Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on.

7 Moses named the place Massah (which means “test”) and Meribah (which means “arguing”) because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord here with us or not?”

This is the event that the author of Hebrews is thinking of as he issues a warning to his listeners and to us

There is something on his mind: Rest

His concern is that as we endure for the sake of Christ, we find rest in Him.

And we are going to be looking at that as we go along through Hebrews.

But first of all, we just need to talk about something. Something serious.

Something that will keep us from finding the rest that God intends for His people to find.

It’s something that we need to be warned of.

That is the danger of a rebellious and hard heart.

This is one thing, if not THE thing that keeps most of us from finding the rest that God intends for His people

This warning is for Believers

vs. 12: “Take care brothers.

In the world that I’ve spent a good part of my adult life, I’ve encountered various discussions about “can a Christian ‘lose’ their salvation.

And between denominations and different theological persuasions, we have various fallings out on this

The ones that say you can lose your salvation use passages like this one to try to “prove” that you can

It’s an argument that I refuse to have. I refuse to use proof texts to support either side of the argument

And I also don’t come down hard on those who say you can’t lose your salvation

But what I will preach all day long is that clearly, in the mind of this author, whether or not he believes that you can lose your salvation, he clearly believes that one of the most loving and caring things that he can do for us as Believers is warn us against the things that can creep into our lives

warn us against drifting away

Warn us against unbelief

And he clearly believes that walking with Christ demands participation from us. It demands striving for holiness, obedience, intimacy with Jesus

And we as Believers need to stay alert, and be reminded that we can’t just coast along in our lives

And so, he addresses his audience as “brothers”. (and sisters, I might add).

Disciples of Jesus, please listen to me!

Here is the heart of this passage today. Verse 12

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart

you know, when we read this, it should make each one of us sort of sit up and take notice

An evil, unbelieving heart? Really? is that possible?

I thought that the Holy Spirit was supposed to transform our hearts when we are saved. How could I possibly have an evil, unbelieving heart? What is he talking about here?

Look at some of the other words that are used in our passage today to describe what he is talking about

verse 8—a hard heart “Do not harden your heart”

verse 10—going astray

verse 12—falling away

No matter how it’s described, no matter the words used here, it’s clear that we are talking about some serious stuff

and it makes my heart sad to think that this could describe me if I don’t take care and consider my heart

And I want to be sure that I know what he’s talking about here

Let’s look for a bit at Exodus 17.

The people of Israel, as we know, had been slaves in the land of Egypt. Exodus 1 and 2 tell us that story, and it is a bleak picture

The people are forced to work, making bricks, building cities and towns

To add insult to injury, the Pharaoh doesn’t give them the materials that they need. They have to find their own materials to make the bricks

And then if that isn’t bad enough, the Pharaoh issues an edict that all the firstborn sons are to be thrown into the river

The people are desperate. They are helpless. Their fate is controlled by the Egyptians. There is absolutely nothing that they can do to help themselves

But then God raises up a deliverer. He raises up Moses to be the savior of his people

And through the power of God, Moses leads the people out of slavery and they begin the journey to a land of rest. A land flowing with the blessing of God. A land of safety

and on the journey, they are led by God Himself. They are protected and sheltered by Him

they experienced His mighty deliverance as He led them through the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh’s army

The people are free! And things are only going to get better for them. All that they need to do is trust in the goodness of God. All they need to do is obey Him and trust that all that He would indeed do all that He said He would do. That He will take care of them, and bring them safely into the land of rest that He had promised

But that’s not what happened. Instead, the people found every occasion to grumble and complain

Just in the previous chapter, the people were grumbling because they didn’t have enough to eat. They thought, anyway. “We don’t have bread. We don’t have meat. Moses, what kind of a leader are you anyway, to bring us out here? It makes no sense! Things were better when we were in slavery!”

And Moses told them, your grumbling is not against Aaron and me, but it’s against God! So beware! You are walking on some dangerous territory

But God is a God who is full of mercy.

and in His mercy supplies manna and quail for them to eat. He says, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.”

His intent was for the people’s hearts to be toward Him as their God, their Father, their Shepherd, their protector, the One who had all that they needed

Yet, it seems that they didn’t know that God was their LORD.

they persisted in grumbling. Exodus 17, the very next chapter: “Now we don’t have any water to drink.”

Are you crazy Moses? Are you crazy, God? Why did you bring us out here just to kill us?

And there was something that happened at this point, and I’m struggling to know exactly what happened

But the Psalmist in Psalm 95 said that it was at this point that God said, or He swore in His wrath, “These people will never enter into my rest!”

They will NEVER enter the Promised Land!

They will NEVER experience the rest that I have planned for them!

God’s word was final on this because He had sworn an oath. And as we know, this generation of people never did enter into the rest that God had planned for them

Folks, this is serious stuff!

This is a people who had been delivered by God

A people whom God had already claimed as His own!

They thought their issue was their physical needs.

I need bread

I need meat

I need water

i need i need i need

but that wasn’t their problem

Their problem was much deeper and much more serious than their physical situation

Their problem was their inability, or more likely, their refusal to recognize God as their LORD.

They refused to recognize what God had done for them and

The refused to recognize what God was continuing to do for them

They developed hard and rebellious hearts

In fact, their hearts had become so hardened that they even doubted the LORD’s presence among them.

It says in Exodus 17:7 “7 And he called the name of the place Massah (to put to the test) and Meribah, (quarreling and complaining) because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?””

Yeah. Their hearts had become so hard that they could not accept what God had done for them and was doing for them and among them at that very moment

And that gets to the heart of their issue and that gets to the heart of why God swore in His wrath, “They shall never enter my rest”.

And it’s this issue that the author of Hebrews wants us to pay very close attention to.

It is an issue of the heart

It’s a heart that consciously or unconsciously asks the question, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

And this passage is telling us, even we as Believers can develop a heart like this

He asks us these rhetorical questions which he answers with another rhetorical question

Who were those who heard and rebelled?

wasn’t it those who left Egypt led by Moses?

With whom was God provoked for 40 years?

Wasn’t it with those who sinned, and who died in the wilderness?

To whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest?

Wasn’t it to those who were disobedient?

These people had experienced first hand and in a miraculous way the incredible mercy and salvation of God

And yet that seemed to be completely lost on them

And because God refused to be their puppet. Because God did not

act like they thought He should act

do what they thought He should do

take care of them the way that they thought they needed to be taken care of

they said, “Pffft. Well. Is God really among us or not?”

And folks, this is what we are being warned about

It’s this same attitude of the heart that can so quickly come upon us:

discontent

murmuring

complaining

Wondering why God doesn’t do what we think He should do, or act the way that we think He should act

This, despite the fact that He has already done far more than we could ask or then we even deserve

He has sent us a deliverer

He came to us when we were in helpless, in bondage, without hope

He has saved us and brought us out from bondage

He has given us our own Exodus!

and yet so many times we still look at God and say, “Why haven’t you..…(fill in the blank)

We look around at our various situations and we wonder if God is really among us, or if He really cares because He hasn’t quite pitched up the way that we think He should

We might even look at our church and say, “Is God really among us?” because He hasn’t done what we think He should

And we live, we wallow in this discontent.

And while we wallow in discontent, we just think that we are being practical.

and if it was up to us, things would be different

and our hearts become hardened and we stray away to the things that we think will bring us fulfillment

work, entertainment, frivolous activities, thrills,

Our our hearts become hard and we live in constant anger, resentment, restlessness

This kind of heart is deceitful, as it says in our passage, because we so easily think, “what I want is what God would want”

Surely, God can see that, can’t He? Doesn’t He know that I need...

Doesn’t He know that our church should be....this way

While all the while, Jesus is standing there, arms wide open and saying, “Come, enter into my rest that I have prepared for you. come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The Bible calls this kind of heart, an evil, unbelieving heart, and we are warned, “Take Care!”

Because it’s this hard, evil, unbelieving heart that can lead us to fall away from the living God vs. 12

The picture is bleak. It’s concerning. The possibility that this could happen to me makes me tremble on the inside

So, what are we to do?

Here’s what we do. According to this passage,

Exhort one another! vs. 13

To urge, implore, to encourage strongly. I

It’s not quite a command, but it is a strong warning

It is what the author of Hebrews is doing when He says, “Take care, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart”. That is an exhortation!

It’s not just a suggestion. It’s almost like getting in someone’s face and being as up front with that person as you can be!

Because you recognize the danger that they are in!

It’s like someone walking toward an airplane propeller. Would you say, “Hey, ahem, you might want to...ahhh, look out there.”

No! You would say “WATCH OUT!! DANGER!!!” That’s an exhortation!

And you do it, not because you are better than that person, or because you think that you know more than they do. You simply see the danger, and they don’t for whatever reason!

This is the tone, that I think we should read this passage with. TAKE CARE!!

an exhortation there is danger nearby and we don’t want to fall victim to that danger

I love you, and I don’t want YOU to fall victim to that danger

Exhort one another every day

verse 13. Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today”.

This whole exhortation starts actually in verse 7

“Today, if you will hear His voice” Do not harden your hearts

Will you hear His voice?

Have you heard the voice of God?

Are you hearing the voice of God?

Or are you just hearing my voice?

well, I don’t believe anything that preacher says anyway

The Holy Spirit is speaking! He is speaking TODAY!

He is speaking to you

He is speaking to me

Basically this, as long as you still have time, as long as Christ still gives you opportunity, continue to exhort one another

Don’t give up! Keep doing it! Make it a regular part of your Christian fellowship!

The problem is, we often do.

How many of you exhort each other in this way. How many of us warn each other when we see discontent, anger, murmuring, grumbling, or any other attitudes and actions which display something in the heart that needs to be addressed?

How many of us do that? Or do we wait for the preacher to do this?

I have to admit that, strangely enough, it is easier for me to do this when I’m up front than it is when I am in conversations with you.

It’s something that I need to work on

But we don’t do it,

probably because we get used to these things and we don’t realize the seriousness of it. We don’t see these things as God sees it.

we don’t understand that our very intimacy and relationship with God is at stake here

and we don’t do this, because we don’t know how the other person will receive it

admit it, we are affected (infected) by the attitudes of our culture which say, “you do you and I’ll do me”. How dare you call my motives into question?

These attitudes have crept into the church as well, and it is difficult for us to be honest with each other!

But, brothers and sisters, there are serious matters at stake here!

The most loving thing that we can do for each other is warn each other in a loving, humble, honest way when we see heart attitudes which do not reflect the incredible and awesome mercy of God!

The reason that we can, and should, be able to exhort each other is this

We have come to share Christ vs. 14

That is the glue the binds us together

we have come to share in His mercy, His grace, His love

We have come to share in the unity that He brings, and that He desires for us!

We commune together, we worship together, we fellowship together. And we do this all in the name of Jesus!

We want, or we should want, for each other what we have experienced in Him!

And so when you hear someone grumbling or criticizing or finding fault, we should be able to say to that person, “Hey, there’s something better than that! Have you experienced the rest that is found in Jesus”

Because we realize that if we are grumbling and discontented, we are not experiencing the rest of Jesus

If you have experienced freedom from bondage, you should exhort others to that same experience

if you have experienced freedom from discontent and anger, you should exhort others toward that same end!

If you have experienced the Holy Spirit working in miraculous and powerful ways in your life, then you should exhort others to

That is why we are here today!

I don’t want to have my heart become hard or unbelieving or evil.

I don’t want any of you to have hearts that are hard or unbelieving or evil

I don’t want any of us to experience the judgement or wrath of God for having such hearts which basically throw His mercy back in His face

I want ALL of us to experience the rest that He offers us!

What are the things in your life that you tend to murmur or complain about?

Do you need to repent of a discontented heart?