Hebrews 3:7-19
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Opening- Nehemiah 9:9-21
Opening- Nehemiah 9:9-21
This passage details the blessings God poured out on Israel over the course of 40 years.
God was faithful. They were not. And God judged them for it.
We have to learn from them.
The author of Hebrews here is really going to encourage his audience and us in a few ways so that what happened to them does not happen to us.
First- Obey today.
First- Obey today.
Look what the author of Hebrews says beginning in verse 7-9
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, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years.
The first thing we see here is that there should be real urgency when it comes to obeying God.
He says here, Today, not tomorrow, not next week, not when I finished sowing my wild oats. Not when I’m older.
Today. Right Now. Immediate obedience is required from the one who knows the truth. Immediate Obedience.
Today is you hear his voice.
The people of Israel were privileged to be sought after by God Himself.
He gave them Moses. He took them out of the land of Egypt. He took them out from under the bondage and yoke of slavery. He parted the Red Sea for them to pass through on dry ground.
He gave them the Law. He gave them Moses.
They were privileged to HEAR the voice of God through all of these acts and through God’s giving them the Law. The Law was God’s word.
But they didn’t listen. Not only did they not listen, they provoked God. They trash talked God.
Listen to these people
Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
They are led out by a miraculous work of God’s power and then they say, we were better off in Egypt.
They accuse God of bringing them out to kill them.
The author of Hebrews tells us that the people:
Hardened their hearts- In other words, they set their hearts against God. They dug their heels in, threw their fist up, and they are obstinate.
They provoked God. They tested God.
The Fathers of these people.
Listen again to what verses 7-9 says paying close attention to the end of verse 9.
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, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years.
They hardened their hearts. They tried God. They tested God. They would not listen despite God’s faithfulness.
FORTY YEARS of faithfulness. God was patient, and the people were obstinate.
The people of Israel witnessed God work over and over and over and over again, and over and over again, they dig their heels in, they make their declaration that they will not submit to God.
God was patient with them, but they were eventually judged. All of them minus 2 will die in the wilderness of their own rebellion.
The author of Hebrews urges us. Obey Today.
Do not suppose because God was gracious to them for forty years that you have that long. And also, remember God is long suffering, but he is not forever suffering.
He will judge disobedience. He is gracious to allow us to continue breathing his air as long as He has.
There is an urgency to this. Obey Today.
There is a judgment someday.
There is a judgment someday.
Look at what it says in verses 10-11
“Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
God was angry with this generation. The Exodus generation.
We would do well to understand God as a God who does become angry.
We often do not like to consider God in this way. We love to talk about his grace, his mercy, his love. But Beloved, God’s anger and wrath are just as much apart of His holy character as his love is.
And he does become angry.
But unlike us, his anger is not frivolous. Its not arbitrary anger like ours. Where we fly off the handle for no good reason.
God’s anger is specific. It is justified and it is directed against sin.
he tells us why he was angry in verse 10-
They went astray in their heart.
And They did not know my ways.
1.They went astray. They worshipped idols, and other gods. In Exodus 32, these same people he took out of Egypt, used the gold he gave them out of Egypt to fashion an idol. They went astray. After all God had done for them, they directed their worship elsewhere. in fact, they worshipped the gifts as opposed to the Giver.
We must be careful that we do not fall into the same trap. God has blessed us, but there is a real danger misdirecting our worship to the blessing rather than the blesser.
2. Verse 10 says- They did not know my ways. This is not referring to genuine ignorance. Where they just didn’t know what to do. No, this ignorance is due to willful neglect. Its not that they did not know. Its that they would not listen. He is saying they did not do his ways.
And because of that, God judges them. and rightly so.
There is a judgment day, someday.
Look at verse 11
As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
They will not get there. They will not enter the promise land. All but Joshua and Caleb who proved by their faith to be of a different heart, but for the rest of them, not one of them would enter into the rest of God.
This rest of God here is in reference to the Promised Land.
For that wicked generation, God would not allow them to enter Canaan.
They would all one by one by one fall in the wilderness, until every one of that generation, minus Joshua and Caleb were dead.
Judgment fell on all the disobedient.
The interesting part here is that, for so long, they were given constant revelation from God. And they enjoyed the benefits of God’s provision.
These same people, willingly followed Moses out of Egypt and walked on dry land where the Red Sea was .
These same people were happy to sit under neath the shelter of God while he poured out his plagues on Egypt.
These same people were happy to have their tummies filled by the Mannah. They were happy to drink of the water God provided.
They were happy to enjoy the heat of the pillar of fire by night and the cool of the cloud by day.
But again, they loved and appreciate the provisions but they DID NOT WORSHIP the provider. In fact the moment the provisions went dry, they began to complain.
This is how we can evaluate what we worship. This is how we know these people were not truly worshippers of God
The moment they experienced an ounce of pain, hunger or thirst, they begin to grumble. And again, we can evaluate ourselves in this way as well.
What do we value more? Our Wealth or God.
We say God, but what if our wealth disappears?
What do we value more? Our Health or God
We say God but what about when our Health disappears? What about when the choice is our health or God?
What do we value more? Our happiness or God?
We may say God but what about when our happiness ends.
Who are we more likely to listen to? Others or God.
This Exodus generation proved to be unbelievers by their actions.
The author of Hebrews here is pleading with his audience.
Look at them. Look at their example.
Observe their scattered bodies in the wilderness and repent.
Don’t be like them. There is a judgment day, someday.
Pay attention, Don’t fall away.
Pay attention, Don’t fall away.
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
Take care. Pay careful attention that there is none of us who has an unbelieving heart that would fall away.
He is encouraging believers here, to pay attention not just to themselves but to others.
To investigate each other as we walk this Christian life.
To make sure, no root of unbelief is left. Why does he say this though?
Because he understands those who have unbelieving hearts will one day meet the God they have hardened their heart against.
How does he presume that we do this? What gift has God given us to help us not fall away?
The encouragement of other believers.
Encourage Each other Day by Day.
Encourage Each other Day by Day.
This verse commands believers to step in to other people’s lives.
It commands constant daily encouragement. Daily contact with other believer to encourage each other in the fight of faith.
This isn’t talking about just meeting on Sunday, although I believe meeting on the Lord’s day is NECESSARY for believers.
I genuinely am concerned about the church as a whole, with regard to the current climate that we are in that discourages meeting together.
It burden my heart to know that there are people on our church membership roll who do not and have not attended this church in YEARS.
You say why does this burden your heart? Thats their choice.
Because of verse like this one.
The warning and the exhortation is to continue encouraging each other. Day after Day.
Its constant contact with other believers.
One thing I think is missing in the church today is accountability. There is a missing element of contact with each other.
I believe this is why larger church are really popular. It is easy to blend, to go unnoticed, and to even miss several Sundays without ever being contacted or missed.
But being a small church doesn’t mean we are immune to this.
We cannot allow each other. Anyone, to isolate themselves from the body.
Check on people. Now more than ever. Don’t assume that they are okay spiritually.
Also, for those at home, watching online, please understand, watching a service online falls way short of regularly meeting together with the church. Be careful not to isolate yourself from the body.
I have to ask:
When’s the last time you called someone to ask them about their spiritual life? People need to be checked on.
I need you to check on me.
There is a strength that comes from encouraging interaction with believers. That is implicit in this verse.
And we need it. We need people to encourage, teach us, cry with us, laugh with us, and if necessary rebuke us. But if we have no contact with each other, that can’t happen.
Whenever I became the pastor of this church, I became a member of this church which means you now have the right and the responisibity to speak truth into my life, and I need it.
The body of Christ. The local church is not just a place where we come to worship. it is a place where we find encouragement to walk daily in Christ.
Why?
So that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
We are all fighting the same fight, against sin, Let’s help each other. Sin is deceitful. Sin paints a picture that is not reality. It provides a wonderful looking bait that hides the hook beneath.
(Joking about other fish telling their friends about the hook after you throw it back.)
We need other believers warning us and encouraging us not to fall for sin’s deception.
Faith until the final day.
Faith until the final day.
For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
Read it again
I love the way he puts this here because he there is really no way to confuse this.
We prove we are partakers of Christ by holding fast to Him.
Jesus said it this way.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
are you holding fast to Christ?
This is not a loose association. This is a steady grip on Christ.
It is a real danger. In fact, it is damning to have a lackadaisical mindset of following Christ.
Where the Word of God is merely a book on your shelf rather than the words of life to you.
Where prayer is treated like an emergency pill to take rather than necessary for life itself.
Where gathering together as the body of Christ is an option to be considered rather than a command to be obeyed.
Where other pursuits and the worries of this world choke out your faith.
We are not much removed from the Exodus generation here in our context.
We live in a time and have lived through a time over the past 250 years where God has been gracious to allow us to live in a country where freedom of religion was celebrated.
There is a church literally on every corner.
We have heard the Gospel. We know the truth.
And so did they. They witnessed the very hand of God himself in miraculous feats.
They ate bread that God provided every single day. He literally rained it on top of them.
But their experience of blessing did not lead that group of people to worship him. Rather, they fell away into sin. they became comfortable. They provoked God with their idolatry, and HE JUDGED THEM.
I would remind you of Hebrews chapter 2
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
If we turn our back on God. If we fall away and do not hold fast, we will face the same judgment they did. Why? Because if someone falls away they are proving that they never truly believed.
You say, how do you know that.
Look at the rest of this passage.
The author of Hebrews is going to ask a series of rhetorical questions in order to warn the hearers of becoming like them.
while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry 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 not able to enter because of unbelief.
They provoked God who had been gracious to hiM.
They lived in a constant state of sin.
They were judged.
All but two did not enter in to Canaan. Why?
Because they proved to be unbelievers.
What will you prove to be?
Genuine believers will hold fast in believing the Gospel.
The gospel isn’t something we hear once and respond to in our lives. its much more than that. It is our firm hope and confidence.
Grab hold of Jesus until the very end.