Belief is Not Enough MSS

Hebrews 3:7-19 Sermon MSS – Belief is Not Enough

I. Introduction

a. Lord of the Rings is probably my favorite fiction book. I read it last year and was absolutely spellbound. I mean – what an epic! It tops out at 1100 pages and takes you from the sleepy shire, into the depths of Middle Earth in Moria, to the beautiful mountain city of Minas Tirith, and finally to the horrid fires of Mt. Doom in Mordor. All the while you feel the tension mounting as Frodo carries the vile ring to be destroyed. You fel every moment on the adventure, you feel the weight as all of Earth is at stake during the titanic struggle between good and evil. It all builds up, as all stories do, to a climactic moment when the hero faces the enemy for the last time in a decisive moment. The promised triumph has finally arrived. Lord of the Rings offers an amazing climax. After 1000 pages of seeing Frodo wrestle with the ring he approaches the fire of Mt. Doom, ring in hand, struggling its seduction and deceitfulness. When we expect him to overcome the evil – he fails. Frodo’s will – his heart- has finally become so hardened by the ring that he seize it for himself. In his moment of triumph he becomes a tragedy. Failing to do what he set out to do…almost. By providence, Gollum, whom Frodo spared, overcome by his own lust for the ring attacks to take it back. He succeeds in stealing it and rejoices. But in his sinful revelry he falls taking the ring into the fire with him. Imagine if Gollum had not been there! What a different story it would be! It would utterly change the meaning of all that came before it. Instead of good triumphing, evil would lead to tragedy.

b. How a story ends really matters, it is the thing upon which the whole tale depends. Will the hero make? Or not? In a way, life is like this, how our lives end – in triumph with Christ or in tragedy plunged into hell, determines what meaning our lives had. In life the danger of tragedy at the end is very real.

II. Transition

a. This is exactly what the author of Hebrews has in mind as he writes to the church; the Jewish Christians who were contemplating going back to Judaism. He’s worried that the triumph if their faith might soon end in the tragedy of apostasy.

b. The Jewish Christians to whom he wrote were enduring persecution, probably under Nero. Christianity was not a legal religion in Rome, Judaism was and so a great temptation was presented to them. After all, it is not as if they would be offering sacrifices to pagan gods or denying the Living God. They could go back to the Temple and live in peace. Yet, they would be rejecting Jesus and denying that He is the Messiah. So, our author wrote.

c. Until now, he has been showing How Jesus is superior to literally everything. Hebrews 3:1-6 shows us how Jesus is greater than Moses. The Great Lawgiver the man who spoke to God as one does to a friend, was a servant in the house, but Jesus is Son over all of it.

i. So now the author of Hebrews has begun to draw a conclusion from this glorious truth and that is what we will be looking at today in Hebrews 3:7-19.

d. Overview

i. A Tragedy in the Wilderness – 3:7-11

ii. A Fight for Endurance – 3:12-14

iii. A Call to Triumph – 3:15-19

e. Read Text

III. Main Body

a. A Tragedy in the Wilderness – 3:7-11

i. Exposition

1. Israel Hardened her heart

a. The author begins with a “therefore,” signifying that he is drawing an inference from what just said. Like I said earlier, he is drawing some things out from 3:1-6. Here it goes something like this: because Jesus is better than Moses heed the warning from Psalm 95.

b. So what is the warning from Psalm 85? Well I order to make sense out of that we actually need to go all the way back to Numbers 13-14. Israel, after having been saved out of Egypt by God’s defeating of Egypt’s gods through the plagues, being led by fire and a cloud, receiving God’s Covenant at Sinai in fire and snoke, and being the unique people having His presence dwell with them, were now preparing to receive the Promised Land.

c. So, Numbers 13:1-24, they sent out 12 twelve spies to scout out the land – the very land God promised them and the very reason they had left Egypt in the first place. Now, they had returned, and as Numbers 13:25-33 tells us they brought back a frightening report. The people are strong, they have huge fortified cities, and on top of it all there’s giants there!

d. Then, in Numbers 14:1-9, the Bible tells us they panicked and even cried out that their children and wives will become spoil for the Canaanites. They decided to set up a new leader for themselves and in a moment of rebellious madness determined to go back to Egypt! So delusional they were that when Caleb, one of the spies who gave a good report, tried to persuade them not to do this evil deed they tried to stone him, Moses, Aaron, and Joshua! Only the Glory of God Himself stopped their madness. So, in 11-12 God tells Moses he will now inherit the promise, Moses intercedes for Israel before God to spare the people. Moses, as we see in vs 14:16, pleads with God not on the basis of a special status for Israel, or perhaps because of their good hearts, but rather he appeals to God’s own glory and zeal for His name. God then relents from immediately destroying Israel but look at what He says. READ 14:20-38. He pardons according to what Moses says, but it is not forgiveness per se!

i. He swears and oath to keep them from the very thing he swore an oath to Abraham to give them! He even inverts their own words telling them that while their own bodies shall fall in the wilderness, their children will inherit the land! Those children who they said would be prey shall be the predators instead. So, Israel’s great triumph became a tragedy.

2. Psalm 95

a. That is the backdrop of Psalm 85. Ps 95 was probably written in David’s day. We also know that was likely that it was used every Sabbath day in liturgy.

b. It has two parts. The first 5 verses glorify God for His salvation, kingship, dominion and creatorship of the world.

c. 6-11 are a warning drawn from Numbers 14 – as an aside if you looked at 95 in your OT you might notice it says “Meribah and Massa,” instead of rebellion and testing – that is what those two Hebrews names actually mean, the author of Hebrews brought the over into Greek literally and that is why it looks a little different – but it means the same thing. Now the warning here is fairly straight forward – if we have a great God, when He calls you to His rest do not harden your hearts and rebel against Him! It is a timeless warning for a timeless danger.

d. Israel was led astray in her heart – 3:10

i. Israel allowed herself to be constantly led astray from God in the wilderness. They complain constantly and worshipped a golden calf while Moses was upon Mt. Sinai. Sin had seduced their hearts and led them from God.

ii. They didn’t know God’s ways either! Clearly, intellectually, they knew what He had commanded but what they lacked was the experiential knowledge of obedience to God’s ways.

iii. God is not merely waxing poetic but is telling us exactly what went wrong and why He said what He did in vs 3:11.

e. God Swore 3:11

i. So God condemned them to wander, He swore in His anger they would never enter His rest.

ii. This is the warning for God’s people, this is the thing the author wants us to see. He was pointing to the warning they would know and saying to the Christians: “this is you!” You are shrinking back from God’s true and final rest in His Messiah, who fulfilled all the promises of the OT, who died to save us from our sins. You are denying Him and going back to slavery under the law.

f. Do not let your triumph become a tragedy! O beloved this danger is so real, not just for them but for all of us today. Can you feel the wright of the tragedy of rejecting God’s promises?

ii. Illustration

1. It is like a woman after loving her high-school sweetheart, and waiting so long to final marry him and embrace life as a wife, going out and playing the harlot at a brothel on her wedding night. She should be in the marriage bed experiencing the greatness of the mystery of marriage but instead turns herself into a tragedy and destroys her covenant love with her new husband.

iii. Application

1. This danger is so real for Christians – or at least people who profess to be so – the danger here is not understanding what it means to actually have faith. In America we tell people they need to believe in God, say a prayer, walk an aisle and you’re good. But mere belief is not enough! They saw first hand God’s deeds. They believed He loved them and knew His commands, but when the chips were down that faith was defective.

2. That is because faith is more than bare assent. James 2:19 warns us that even demons believe in God and shudder.

a. The Reformers distinguished between three elements of faith, notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Knowledge, belief, and trust.

b. It is obvious here the people had knowledge and belief but also had no trust in God. They had no personal belief that God really would make good on His promises. Their lack of trust led to losing their knowledge and belief ultimately too.

3. Having trust in God leads to an obedient and living faith – Fides Viva – Just as James 2:14-17 tells us, faith without obedience isn’t. That is rebellion. Real faith which is saved by grace alone and Christ alone apart from works completely! Is faith which leads to obedience.

4. Therefore, examine yourselves. Do you live an obedient life or a rebellious life?

a. Do you find yourself rejecting what God’s Word tells you because you aren’t really a Christian? Do you, for example, indulge in pornography because you do not believe Jesus is worth the loss of your pleasure. Do you withhold forgiveness from others because it is too costly for you?

b. Or perhaps you are an unbeliever here today, seeing your guilt against God. You know that Jesus has died on the Cross to pay for the sins of those who repent and believe, yet you resist. Do not harden your heart! Hear His Voice! Listen and repent. Jesus will forgive you and give you grace. He will impute to you His righteousness and give you rest.

5. But what if in your heart you feel a true faith and yet fear? How can hold on? Let’s see what the author says in 3:12-14.

b. A Fight for Endurance – 3:12-14

i. Exposition

1. Search your heart lest you fall

a. Take care. The first thing we see here is the author exhorting us to take care. Why? What are we to search for to avoid the tragedy of Israel? The answer is we are to look within ourselves for an evil, unbelieving heart. Now why are we to look for that? Because it will cause us to fall away from the Living God, just as Israel did.

b. So what is an unbelieving and evil heart? Well, it is the kind of heart which tricks itself into thinking it believes in God but in reality does not. Is that not exactly what happened to Israel? They, I’m sure, thought of themselves as loyal to God’s Covenant, but in reality they were loyal to their own desires. This in turn caused them to reject God’s promise, they fell away from God and into death in the wilderness. The author of Hebrews wants us to search our own hearts to make this does not happen to us. Now I want to stress something here. There are two mistakes a Christian can make here. (1) Is thinking that he is saying we can lose our salvation. This is emphatically not what he saying. I believe that for a few reasons (i) is that we have already established that the Israelites themselves did not believe at all! But were rebels the whole time. (ii) Look at vs 14, we are partakers if we hold fast. Real believers hold fast, the implication being those who did not hold fast never partook, (iii) what are we looking for in the first place? An unbelieving heart! Unbelieving hearts cannot have saving faith otherwise Israel would not have died! I could go on but I think that makes it clear enough he does not mean that. (2) our second mistake is assuming he’s not talking about us. He is writing to Christians, yet they are seriously contemplating going back. Why? Because they may not really have saving faith. They may just be along for the ride. We should not just casually dismiss the possibility we’re self-deceived and sitting in church Amen-ing the very passage God is going to cite when He damns us on Judgment Day! So we need to tale the warning seriously.

c. Exhort one another to resist sin.

i. Next we see, building on this, the author gives us another command. Exhort each other daily, while it is still called today. Why? So that we are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I want to make a few observations about this verse, (1) see its urgency, while it is still today, he’s referring back to Ps 85 again, and what he means is that we don’t have all the time in the world to exhort one another. Time is short and previous. (2) before we talk about how to encourage each other to obey God we need to see the danger here. The thing we are trying to prevent is having hearts hardened by sin.

ii. What does it mean to have a heart hardened by sin? Well, we need to think about sin for a moment. What is sin, really? To answer that question consider what happens when we sin. When I, a Christian sin, doing something that God hates, I’m actually God’s truth. God says that holy behavior is preferable to unholy behavior, but in my sin I’m living as if that is not true. The reality of God’s wrath is far from my mind, the blessings of obedience are absent, and the grace of Christ is rejected. Afterall, if I really believed those things would I still sin? Of course not! And that is how it starts. Sin deceives us into believing God’s promises are untrue and therefore engenders resistance to Him and His Word.

1. Sometimes, when this happens God chooses to hand our wills over too these sinful desires to die in unbelief. A punishment for sin may very well being hardened by God like Pharaoh in Exodus. Romans 1:18-32 paints a vivid picture of this.

2. It is what happens every day across America. Pagans Sin and God hands them over to destruction. It happens to people who deceive themselves into believing they are Christians. Recently, a major figure In the SBC, a man who fought in the Conservative resurgence was discovered to have paid off a young man he’d molested some $400,000 to cover it up. All the while he put on a public show pretending to stand for Christ and family values. Beloved, this could be talking about you. If you do not think so, maybe you say “ich, what a hypocrite, I actually do obey what God says, it could happen to me! I’m a good Christian- I’m a good person.” Remember, it was “good people,” pious Jews who crucified Jesus! It was people who saw God defeat Egypt! It is people who breathe God’s air and drink God’s water, and feel the warmth of God’s sunshine loving them who suppress the truth and rebel against Him!

3. That is why we are to exhort one another, so that does not happen. You see, vs 14 makes plain that saving faith will endure to the end, it will survive. One way which God has ordained for that to occur is by our mutual exhortation of one another daily. Daily we are to remind one another of how deadly sin is. I’ve often said to believers that you really do have a worst enemy, and it isn’t Satan. It’s you! Sin’s desire is for you. So, God has told us to watch out for each other so that through each of us, in the mystery of God’s wisdom, His plans might come to fruition. It is the very warnings God uses to keep us.

ii. Illustration

1. Think back to our LOTR intro. Sam was the ideal companion. He watched himself all throughout the book because he knew how dangerous the ring was! He had no romantic notions, he knew deadliness when he saw it. But he also watched out for Frodo. He encouraged him to rest, gave up his own food and water even. And ultimately it was Sam who carried Frodo up to the mountain itself. We need to be like Christians who think like Sam.

iii. Application

1. We need to be like Sam.

2. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Daily? Really? That is weird and uncomfortable.” Be that as it may, it is your duty as a Christian. It is what Baptists for years intended church membership to achieve. It is why Baptists made Church Covenants. So that believers could hold one another accountable to walk after Jesus and endure. Not only is it a duty, it is a great privilege! God wants to use you to help strengthen the faith of His people! Is that not amazing?

3. So how do we do it? Well first and foremost, we need to really know one another in the church. Church cannot merely be a Sunday Country club. We need deep and meaningful friendships. Sharing meals, spending time, and laughing with one another

4. Second, we need to value each other as more important than ourselves. An old pastor of mine when preaching this same text pointed out that we need to love each other more than we want praise and approval from one another. If we are eaten up by what others believe about us we are really loving ourselves and not each other.

5. Finally, we need to both encourage one another with God’s promises and warn each other when we see sin and danger in our lives.

a. One example would be “Hey brother, I saw you get angry with your wife and not apologize, let’s talk about it.” Or “Hey, when I saw you last sister all you did was rag on people and gossip. God hates that, let’s pray about it.”

b. Encouragements could be a reminder when you see a downtrodden Christian that Jesus died to take away his sin. Reminding people of God’s victory and how He will fill the Earth with His glory.

c. If any unbelievers are here know that you need more than a brother to guide you. You need God’s mercy to soften your heart from unbelief. Jesus died, the Son of God who is God, to pay for the sins of those who have faith in Him. But unless God drags you, as John 6:44 says, your heart will be left hard and heading into God’s wrath forever in hell. But in this life you’ll feel his wrath as your mind is given over to darkness. Eventually, you may be so given over that you cannot tell right from wrong. That is exactly why grown men see no problem having 8 year-olds boys live as girls on drugs to keep themselves from puberty, yet write articles saying neutering dogs is not okay. Because God’s wrath is on them, their consciences have been seared, they are given over by God and cannot repent. Woe to them that call good evil and evil good!

i. So throw yourself on God’s mercy. Fly to Him and ask for His grace in your heart and join His people heading to the Celestial City.

c. A Call to Triumph – 3:15-19

i. Exposition

1. Who rebelled? Those who heard Moses

a. So now we’ve come to the third point this morning, coming from the last part of this passage. The author here asks 3 rhetorical questions drawn from his text and then gives us a final conclusion -rendering his verdict on what happened. These serve kind of as an emphatic exhortation driving home what he’s been getting at this whole time: tragedy is a very real possibility no matter who you are.

b. So the first question is this: Who were the ones who heard God’s voice and yet rebelled against Him? The answer is still shocking even as far along as we are right now: those who were saved out of Egypt. It was the people delivered out of slavery. It was those who saw the might deeds of God all this time. In other words, it doesn’t matter what you see, where you were or who you are, God’s demand is God’s demand. We should not think just because we enjoy the benefits of being in a church that we are safe.

2. With whom was He provoked? Those who sinned and fell in the wilderness.

a. His second question brings out another aspect for us to consider: who was God provoked with for 40 years? Those who did not do what God commanded. It is those who died, whose bodies fell in the desert. These who took God’s Covenant upon themselves, who came out so far, and were saved -they sinned by refusing God’s gracious gift of the land. They did not repent and turn back to God.

b. Which as a point here: God is provoked by sin. There’s an idea that God’s job is just to forgive and that is all he does. In fact a philosopher once said just that! Often times if you ask a person what the most important attribute of God is they will of course say, “His love, God is love.” But beloved that is actually not the most important attribute of God. Isaiah 6 recounts how the Seraphim flew around the Might throne of god crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory!” 6:3. In the Bible repetition is a form of emphasis. For instance when Jesus says, “Truly, truly.” He’s speaking emphatically. To repeat once was emphatic and to repeat 3 times was to elevate something to the superlative degree. And with only one attribute of God do we see this: holiness. That is why the Bible frequently calls God the Holy One. Holiness is the very essence of who he is. His love is not merely love it is a holy love. His justice is holy justice. Holiness is not merely moral purity, it is the very transcendent self-consecration of God. He is far above us, beyond us, different than us. Perfect in all His ways. God is Holy. So, He is provoked by sin, yes He is. He hates sin, the Bible even tells us that He hates the wicked. The OT Ps. 95 even says He loathed this generation in the wilderness. So beloved we must see that is indeed loving but also holy and pure. He will not allow sin to go unchecked.

3. God Swore

a. That is why He passed judgment on Israel here. He, in His wrath, his holy wrath, He could not allow them to enter His rest. It would be for Him to cease to be God. The rejection of His gracious salvation and rest in the land meant there was nowhere else for Israel to go but into wrath.

b. This is why Paul so emphatically says, “May it never be!” when in Romans 6 he answers the objection, “should we sin so grace might abound?” Of course not! How can we, who died to sin because of Christ live in it?! When we are a part of a New Humanity in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit can we live disobedient lives? How vulgar and despicable! God is Holy! He is thrice Holy! To think I such a way is to prove we have never tasted of His goodness by faith. We have never fallen broken before that bloody cross which was so stained because of our sin! We have never felt the reality of our guilt before a holy God if this is our mind.

c. It is this that makes the gospel so extraordinary. That the Son of God Himself would take on flesh, live a perfect life, satisfying the perfect demand of the Law, and die on a Cross satisfying His wrath for us and conquering death in His resurrection, is the greatest triumph in all of History. It is Christ Jesus who is Lord and Savior, who is greater than Moses, who reigns and turns tragedy into triumph. He is the perfect revelation of God’s holy justice and holy love.

d. This is why we must persevere in faith. This is why we must encourage one another daily, this is why we dare not presume upon His kindness or our baptism or our external righteousness. But rather must throw ourselves upon His mercy! The Christian life is fraught with danger and it is only by Christ we can do what needs doing.

e. It is this which makes rebellion and unbelief so dangerous. This is the passion which made the author of Hebrews write. He loves Jesus and these people and yet he fears they may not enter God’s rest because of unbelief. He fears they ma be false converts walking into the danger of Romans 2:1-5.

ii. Illustration

1. A horrible example of this was a recently departed famous Christian apologist who was recently discovered to have been leading a double life of unrepentant sexual sin, abusing women, and even using ministry funds to do it. What a terrifying thought! It should horrify us! We should see the greatness of Christ and cling to Him, shuddering at any thoughts otherwise.

iii. Application

1. So beloved, I would plead with you to see this as a call to triumph. Go to Jesus every day and confess your sins to Him.

a. Be specific. Don’t just pray and generically ask for forgiveness, but go to Him and confess all the gory details. Realize to whom you have access! The Holy One wants to receive your confession. In fact, the Apostle John tells us if we confess our sins He is righteous and faithful to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness!

b. No one can persevere quite like a forgiven sinner. There is no greater triumph than for a brand plucked from the fire running the race with endurance by confessing sins to Jesus and renouncing sin for obedience. It is only a justified sinner who can please God at all.

2. Unbelievers

a. Will you quit fighting God today? Rebelling? After all if you spurn Christ to whom can you run? Where will you go when all rest belongs to God? When Christ is the only salvation there is? Acts says that there is only one number under Heaven by which we must be saved. Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Lord.

IV. Conclusion

a. God keeps His promises.

i. To believers and unbelievers alike I will close with this.

1. God’s holiness is also a holy faithfulness. Even though the wilderness rebels did not enter tha land God did ultimately bring their children to the land. Listen to Joshua 21:44-45, God gave them rest on every side from their enemies. Every single promise He made has come true. Every tragic judgment and triumphant promise has come to pass.

2. Genesis 3:15 records God’s first promise ever given to man. And 2000 years ago Jesus came fulfilled it and defeated death. God’s Christ lives, reigns, and even now He is putting His enemies under His feet. He will advance His kingdom by His powerful Gospel Word until as Numbers 14:20-21 tells us that Earth will be filled with His glory.

3. Here in America it seems like that cannot be true – but it is. No matter what giants may be in the land here, Jesus reigns. The gospel will prevail and as Isaiah 11:9 says the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

a. Believe my brothers and sisters, and endure!

4. As the old song goes, This is my Father’s World, O’ Let me ne’er forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.

V. Prayer

a. O’ God, please grant us faith to believe, love to exhort, and endurance in hope until the end. Amen.