Don’t Repeat History
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Today we will be in Hebrews 3:7-11 when you are there say Amen. It reads:
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.’ ”
Pray
In 1986, Nasa was preparing to Launch the Space Shuttle Challenger into space. Some of the engineers in the midst of building this rocket made note that some of the O rings on the rocket boosters may fail under cold temperatures.
Then comes the launch morning… it is far colder than it has ever been for a launch… The team of engineers said we should delay the launch, this is not safe these O-rings may not last. But, due to preasure to meet the timelines they were a go for launch… 73 seconds after launch, the shuttle exploded… killing all 7 Astronauts aboard.
Come to find out after further investigation. They learned that NASA had been warned about this exact same risk years earlier and every single time, they downplayed it and sure enough history repeated itself but this time it was catastrophic.
Our text today may not be a space shuttle with some bad O-rings, but we have a text before us that tells of a great failure by our Israelite ancestors, and if we take head of these words, we can successfully avoid repeating history, with eternal implications.
Israel time and time again did not trust the Lord and kept telling Moses that God needed to prove himself to have their trust and faith, but the generation in the wilderness after the exodus, failed to stand firm with God, let us not repeat history.
Transitional Sentence
In order to not repeat history the Author of Hebrews gives us 3 directives to follow:
Stop testing if God is true, he has nothing to prove.
Start trusting in the Lord by Knowing his ways
Step into his rest through faith
Let’s start with that first one:
Stop testing if God is True, He Has Nothing to Prove
Stop testing if God is True, He Has Nothing to Prove
Verse 7 starts Hebrews 3:7
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
Bare with me for a second because this first line helps us to have the right posture to step into our section today which is a quotation from the book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 95.
The Author here indicates that these words are the words of the Holy Spirit. This tells us 2 things about the quotation we are about to read. Number 1 that these are authoritative words and are breathed out scripture meaning they are not just the writer of Hebrew’s thoughts or the writer of Psalm 95’s thoughts but the working of the Lord. Nubmer 2, it tells us that this is a breathing text meaning this isn’t some dead scroll that we can reference for pure historical understanding but it is an active document that is relevant to the reader at the time of this letter but that also means for you person in the room that these words are active for us today. So as we approach this reference to the old testament, realize these are the active working of the holy spirit breathed out for our encouragement, rebuke, reproof, for all good works.
We continue in verse 7:
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.
Here we hit a historical and contextual road block that we need to address and that is What Rebellion? What testing in what wilderness?
Lets Read quickly the text from Psalm 95:7-11 which reads:
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
The original text actually uses different names Meribah and Massah. Now this situation being referenced here in Psalm 95 is of a story that the Hebrew people in the new testament text would have known very well and it is from Exodus 17 where after the people of Israel were freed from Egypt and after many signs and wonders the Lord provided time and time again and they reached a place where they had no water and immediately tested the Lord calling on him to prove he cares for them.
The Lord either way, chose to provide for them that day and they named the place Massah and Meribah which respectively mean “to put to the test” and “to find fault, quarrel” because the people tested the Lord to saying “is the Lord among us or not?”.
But look back at our Hebrews passage, why did the writer choose to be more ambiguous with the naming calling it “rebellion” and “day of testing”. The author of Hebrews is interpretively quoting the text of Psalm 95 because as you see at the end of our text we have in verse 11 the Lord swearing they will not enter his rest. Well, our Exodus text doesn’t point to such a final type of judgment as that.
The author here is intending to interpret Psalm 95 in light of Numbers 14. Now Numbers 14 is long and I could spend all night on it but to summarize, they had reached the edge of the land that was promised to Israel, they sent spies to go spy on the land to see what was happening. Some of the spies came back after and gave a bad report about the ability for the people of Israel to conquer the people there. One of them, Caleb, tried to plead with the people that no in fact they very well could go into the land because the Lord was on their side, but the people rebelled and even sought to stone him but the Lord stepped in.
After this situation, the Lord said he was going to destroy all the people of Israel and start with a mightier people and Moses pleaded with the Lord to spare them and he did in that time spare them but here is where we get to the important bit, Numbers 14:22-23 says:
none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
After all that the Lord had shown them, all of the provision, all of the signs and wonders, all of the works of the Lord leading up to this point, yet the people still doubted and still rebelled and still said “God you must not be there otherwise you would show us”
This is what our Author is pointing to in his interpretation, this is the “rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test”.
Application
Church listen to me, Do NOT test the Lord your God. We see it all over the place in scripture. Matthew 4:7 “Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”” or Deuteronomy 6:16 ““You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.”
We live in a world where we have free trials for everything and so we wait to really commit to anything until we have tried it to be true until we have TESTED IT.
Sometimes it is as simple as a new app or a new subscription or even a new car which you can now try for 30 days in some cases, but this filters to worse things like saying that you have to live together with your girlfriend before you can know whether you will want to marry her.
One thing all these have in common is that they all will fail in some way, the app will fail to live up to expectation, the car will break down one day, and your spouse will be imperfect because they are human.
The one thing about God though is that he never will and never has. He is perfect, he is Holy he is the creator and maker of all that is, including you and your life. He sovereignly works all things out in your life according to his will. BUT on top of that like for the Israelites, he graciously provides for us always without fail.
For the Israelites, he brought them out of Egypt, provided food from the sky daily for 40 years!
But for some reason, a little bit of thirst and “God are you really there?”
Church we do this and sometimes don’t even realize it.
We say “God, if you love me you will do this for me.”
“God, if you really love me you will help me get this new Job.”
“God, if you are calling me to go here or go there, give me a miraculous sign that makes it clear, prove to me that your hand is in this”
Don’t hear me wrong, we need to pray that the Lord would guide us, but that is with a faith that he is going to even if it isn’t what we want it to. This is a heart issue, like our text says “do not harden your hearts”.
Lastly in this section you see reference to 40 years. The intention of the author is to make clear that the Lord didn’t just condemn them at the first mention of doubt, he showed himself and proved him self time and time again and after all the that time, it was never enough.
It is easy to say I trust something when I have had time to test and prove it’s worthiness, but faith in the Lord is not a let me try it out first and see how I like it kind of deal.
It is a look into my word and see that I am who I say I am, that I have proven time and time again that my ways are better, that I have your best interest at heart and that I am for you.
If we want to learn from the mistakes of our ancestors then Do not test if God is true, he has nothing to prove, he has given us no reason to doubt who he says he is. WE specifically have the grace of this whole book to read and to know who he is.
Transition to point 2
This leads me to the second directive the Author of Hebrews gives us to follow:
Start Trusting in the Lord by Knowing his Ways.
Start Trusting in the Lord by Knowing his Ways.
We must trust in the Lord, and the way we do that is by knowing his ways.
Believing in him IS knowing him.
Verse 10 Continues:
Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
This word provoked in the greek is not a very commonly used term in the new testament but it means that the Lord was angry with the people of Israel, not just disappointed but angry.
In numbers it talks about 10 times he has allowed them to test him and every time he has chosen to show him self true to the untrusting people of Israel and it was never enough.
it says here “they always go astray in their heart”.
No matter how many times the Lord showed grace and favor on behalf of his people, it was never enough they still doubted him and sought after idols and selfish ways. What is key here for our point though is the second part of that sentence which is separated by a semi colon which says
“They have not known my ways”
If you remember from english class, a semicolon is used when you have to statements with a closely related meaning to them. Essentially you are saying the same thing.
So they always go astray in their hearts, well what does that mean, they have not known my ways.
So what is the opposite of that? To know his ways are to not go astray right?
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
or Psalm 25:4–5 “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”
The scripture is flooded with texts that speak on us knowing the way of the Lord. Now is he saying we must know every will of the Lord and every way of him? No that is not what is meant here but that we would know him through his word.
Someone has said before, if you want to hear God speak to you audibly, then read your bible aloud.
The word of the Lord is right here *holds up bible* it is right at your fingertips and we are so blessed to have all that we need in order to know God.
We also have the promised helper, the one who did the work of changing our hearts to faith; that is, the holy spirit. He will guide us in all righteousness and help us to discern the word of God.
Do you think I come up here and just share my thoughts on these bible verses just based on my own thoughts alone? No I believe that when we put our faith and trust in the Lord he opens our eyes to see him THROUGH his word.
This knowing though is an intimate knowing, like how you know your spouse.
I know that Alicia doesn’t like mushrooms mainly because of their texture. Or that she likes to hold up a blanket to her nose as a comfort when she lays down to rest at night.
I know these things because I spend time with her daily, not because she gave me a write up of all the things to know and said make sure you know this for the quiz.
We should know the Lord in this way. Spend time with him, talk to him as you would a close friend, a confidant. Talk to him like the heavenly father he is.
If the Israelites would have known his ways, they wouldn’t have doubt wondering if he was going to provide water for them or lead them into the land of Cannon safely. Why? Because they would know that the Lord keeps his covenants and keeps his promises with his people. He promised them that there was coming a land that they would inherit as his children yet they chose to turn their trust to themselves.
In Numbers 14 they literally threatened to chose another leader among them to take them back to Egypt!!
Understand what I am telling you to do here church; I am not saying muscle up and make sure you perfectly know the Lord in all his ways, you are going to fail time and time again. But this is the whole point of Hebrews, Christ is better than angels, Christ is greater than Moses, he is a better high priest, and he is a better advocate for us. We can trust that he knows the struggles we deal with intimately. And when we put our hope and trust in him, when we confess that we don’t have it figured out and confess our sins to him, believer, he is just and righteous to forgive us.
Why?
Because Jesus came to make it so. He was sent by the father to save a people by way of death on a cross taking the full punishment of the past present and future sins we commit.
Ok Austin, that is all fine we don’t test God and we seek to know him, what does that mean though?
It means we get to do what that generation was barred from doing, entering into his rest which is my last point.
Transition to final Point
To break the cycle and not repeat history, we need to Step into his rest through faith.
Step into His Rest Through Faith
Step into His Rest Through Faith
Verse 11 says:
As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
The People of Israel in Kadesh were promised that they would not enter into the promised land and that their children would instead.
His judgment on that generation was for them to wonder the wilderness until every last one of them died.
Church use the example of Israel in the wilderness as a reminder, a reminder that God is not to be tested and he expects his people to know him and worship him as the God that he is.
The Hebrews Author wanted to remind the Jews in his audienceof the judgement of their ancestors and to encourage them to press on, to endure and perservere through the trials.
This should be a Solemn reminder but also a beautiful encouragement, and why is that? Because this is a living word, yes the rest that the Israelites knew and expected back then was a specific promised land, but it also points to a promise of a greater rest. Eternal rest with Christ.
God promised that that Generation would not enter his rest, but that the next would. It was the judgement of one generation that brought on the inclusion and promise of the next.
Likewise, most of us in this room who are gentile believers, were welcomed in because of the hard hearts of Israel.
Another parallel is that their harness brought on our salvation because it is the reason Christ had to come and die. We had no chance of entering his eternal rest by our own merit. This is a perfect kingdom, a perfect promised land and only the righteous make it in and we are not righteous on our own.
Our true eternal rest is Christ, he is the promised rest that we enter into with joy and thanksgiving. The only way we get there is through his sacrifice on our behalf and the faith that he gave us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters, I want you to be encouraged today, that we have the ability to look back and see what not to do, and to have the substance in full of what will bring us into the eternal rest where there is no pain, there is no sin, death is no more.
There is another angle to the rest that is found in Christ, that is, that we can enter into it in part now. The Lord is gracious to give us a real sense of rest in the finished work of Christ even now in this life. We don’t have to worry for what is to come because we have a God who provides for all our needs.
The Israelites failed in the wilderness to obey God, but Christ obeyed perfectly in the wilderness when tested, and lived a perfect sinnless life so that he could provide a way for us to enter into a far greater promised land, better than the land of Cannon, Eternal Life with him. A place flowing with milk and honey, a perfect rest where sin is no more, and all those who have been forgiven by the death and resurrection of Christ will live forever.
But we must respond in faith by repenting of our sin, turning away from it and toward the Lord and knowing his ways. Even you believer in the room who is right now struggling with sin or doubt. Turn to Christ this night and every moment. We should be constantly refocusing on Christ so we don’t lose sight of the grace we have been given.
If you are in this room and you do not know the Lord, the call is clear in the word. Put your trust in the one and only true God through his Son Jesus that died on a cross taking the weight of sin on his shoulders that you may have forgiveness of your sin and life everlasting; Eternal Rest.
Don’t wait to surrender your life to him, our life is but a vapor here today and gone tomorrow.
Romans 10:9 says “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
our text says “Today if you hear his voice”. So Turn to Christ.
Believer, stop trying to test God, he has already proven himself time and time again and we have his word written down so we can know his ways.
This life is hard, temptation waits at the door ready for us to stumble but the Lord is gracious and his work on the Cross was final, you can’t take that away.
But we are not called to be saved and sit back and watch the world burn. We are called good works which he has prepared for us to do. Do not harden your hearts as the Israelites did in the wilderness after seeing the Lords faithfulness time and time again.
Don’t repeat the history of our Israelite ancestors, turn to Christ meaning focus everything in your life on him. That may mean waking up early to read your word before your house is awake. Maybe that means choosing to pray for the guy who cut you off in traffic. Or share the gospel with that coworker you have known for the last 10 years and never shared the truth of this beautiful Gospel.
