Hebrews 3:7-19
Passage Hebrews 3:7-19
Speaker Ben Tanner
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This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.
So, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for 40 years, they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation. I said, their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways. So I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest.
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily as long as it's called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
As has just been said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion. Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Joe. Thank you. Oh, I'm very loud.
Joe, thank you so much for. For reading that for us. Let me encourage you to keep your service sheets open so that you can see that Bible passage, not an easy one for us this morning. And so I'm going to do what we always do, which is ask the Lord to help us as we spend time in that. Shall we pray together, Father, thank you so, so much that your word speaks, father, like any relationship, sometimes there are things that are easy and lovely for us to hear.
Sometimes there are challenges for us to hear as well, and say, Father, I pray that I would not dare have the arrogance not to say what you have to say today in this passage. But moreover, I pray that by your spirit, you would use these words, that those of us who hear them, myself included, would be spurred on to love you more, enjoy you more, would be spurred on to enjoy that rest that your word speaks of. Amen. I'm told that Franklin Roosevelt didn't particularly like receiving lines as a president. He would stand there and people would come down.
You know, the kind of things that you get at weddings. Hello. Hello. Yes. Nice to see you.
And he didn't like the fact that nobody really cared what he had to say. And so one day, apparently because he was sick of kind of not really being listened to or not really having meaningful conversation, he decided to play a trick. And so as everybody came down, he murmured to them, I murdered my grandmother this morning. And he did it for each of them. And the responses would come back, you're doing a great job, mister president.
Keep going, mister president. God's with you, mister President. Until apparently he got to the last guy who was an ambassador for another country and he smiled conspiratorially and leant forward and said, she must have had it coming.
I love it. How annoying, though. Must it have got? If you get to that stage of whispering that to hundreds of people and only one person responded, and that's very similar to what you do to God. Ouch.
Is that a little bit harsh? Is that unfair? It's a question I've wrestled with as I've looked at this passage. It's a question I'm going to encourage us to wrestle with as we look at this passage. It's a passage that is written in the book of Hebrews.
For those of you who have joined us for the first time today, or first time in a while, we're looking at this book. It's a book that's written to people who were Jewish, people who had become Christians, and the temptation for them is to go back. Go back to the kind of socially accepted religion of before, go back to the religion that is still legal and held in esteem. Go back to a religion that doesn't cost them as much. Go back to a religion that feels familiar.
And the writer to the Hebrews is again and again and again saying, don't do that. Don't go back there. And we see it today. He repeatedly quotes today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion. If you hear God's voice, don't harden your hearts as they did in the rebellion.
Now. It's important actually, that right at this stage, I just come right out at the start of our time together and say, there are, there are at least two kinds of people in this room. There'll be some of us for whom the christian life is one where we're kind of really struggling at the moment. And there's a part of us that goes, am I even a Christian? After what happened this last week, after what I did, after what I said, can God ever really want somebody like me?
And if you are in that place, you need to know that whilst ever you are calling out to God, whilst ever you are clinging hold of Christ. Christ, his mercy is more than any sin you can bring to him. We're going to take communion later. It's going to show us again. Christ died in our place.
He's done that. There is no beyond the pale.
He says it, doesn't it? Verse 14. We've come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold to our conviction firmly to the very end.
And yet there's at least one other type of person here today. And that's the type of person for whom actually, we're kind of complacent, you know, like, yeah, I'm a Christian. Of course I'm a Christian. I've got that story of how I became a Christian 20 years ago that I trot out. And so therefore, yeah, that's me, I'm fine.
And maybe some of us read this passage and we go, oh, yeah, I'm glad such and such is here, because they really need to hear it. But actually, I'm fine. A warning like that doesn't really apply to me, does it?
And for those of us who are in that place, this passage wants to say, wait a second. Today, if you hear God's voice, did you hear that today, not yesterday, not 20 years ago, you say, but here's the thing, Ben, I'm fine because I had that experience. I was in that prayer meeting and the Holy Spirit whapped me and wow. And I'm there. Of course I'm fine, aren't I?
I've had spiritual experiences. I've seen, I've wept over sin in my past.
Look at verse 16. Who were those who heard and rebelled? Were they not all that Moses led out of Egypt? This passage reflects back on. It actually reflects back on psalm 95, which itself reflects back on a time in Israel's history when God had taken his people out of slavery through the Red Sea, had literally parted the sea in front of them.
Remember, it's the whole pillar of cloud, pillar of fire, angel of the Lord doing incredible things, leads them through the desert there to get into God's promised land. And what do God's people do, the visible people of Israel? They look and they say, we don't trust your promises, God. We don't believe what you're going to do. And so that generation die out in the wilderness.
We say, I had that experience. They say, I had that experience. We say, I've seen God do mighty things in my life. They say, well, we've seen in part, the Red Sea. We say, but I've been struck by the Holy Spirit.
They say, I've seen the angel of the Lord as a pillar of fire. I stood there as Mount Sinai shook the psalmist. And the writer to Hebrews say, not yesterday, if you heard his voice, what happened? They say, today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. Some of us get really kind of theological, and we say, well, you know, once saved, I'm always saved, arent I?
And once, yes, thats true. But look at what verse 14 says. Weve come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. In other words, proof that you were truly saved, then is that youre still saved today. Proof of past conversion is present convertedness.
And so the writer says, today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. And we say, okay, God, how are you going to speak to me? We saw at the start of Hebrews long ago, in various ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, and now he's spoken by his son. But we see even in this passage that he continues to speak. Did he notice as the writer speaks about psalm 95, he says verse seven.
So as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, notice the tense there. So as the Holy Spirit was once saying, doesn't say that, does it? What does verse seven say? As the Holy Spirit said?
No, it says, as the Holy Spirit says today. In other words, as he quotes from psalm 95, written hundreds of years before this, as we read this, written thousands of years before. Now, the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, I believe as we've opened up the scriptures, you have. So the question then comes, are we going to harden our hearts loads of different ways in which we can do that? We can harden our hearts in all sorts of ways, can't we?
Maybe it's by hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in the scriptures. And we go, ouch. Yeah, that's a challenge. And then immediately we go out and forget all about it. Ouch.
Yeah, I was really challenged at church this morning, but what's for lunch? But what are we doing the rest of the day? Maybe it's by avoiding God's word. You know, the time comes when we'd normally open up the scriptures of a day and we go, actually, I just don't really want to do that today. I'm going to put it to one side.
I'm not going to hear his voice on purpose because I don't want to respond to it. Oh, I mean, I'll call it busyness at the end of the day, I'll lie in my bed and say I was far too busy. I mean, I had time to watch that tv programme or to eat that food, but I didn't have time to read my Bible because the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts.
Maybe we explain it away. Ouch, that hurts. God can't really be saying, you know, that some people didn't enter his rest, so therefore I'm going to try and explain it away before it ever challenges me. There was a temptation, I've got to be really honest with you, there was a temptation, as I was writing this sermon, to just back off a bit, just say, oh, that's a bit hard to hear, isn't it? But I can't do that, and we can't do that in our lives.
We can't harden our hearts, because hardening our hearts, well, it sets forward a chain of events, like a boat is anchored to an anchor, with a chain hardening our hearts. We see. Verse twelve. See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful heart. Verse 13, I think it is, yes.
Calls it sin's deceitfulness. You see, if I'm hardening my heart to God's word, to the truth, then I'm really going to struggle with the deceitfulness of sin.
Back in the garden, what did Satan do? He started by saying, did God really say, let me just undermine truth a little bit? And then what happens? At that stage, they look and they see the fruits. And seeing that it was desirable for gaining knowledge, they took and they eat.
You see, the thing about sin is it's deceptive, it's desirable. Nobody ever sets out at the start of the day and goes, do you know what? I'm going to be really sinful today. That's what I'm up for, some good old fashioned sin that's going to be really bad for me and it's going to really mess up my relationships. That's what I'm up for today.
Nobody does that, do they? No. What we do is we look at things and we go, oh, that looks good, that looks enticing, that looks sensible, that looks wise, that seems reasonable. That's going to be what's best for me, isn't it? Sin is deceitful.
And the only way that we're going to stand firm against the deceitfulness of sin, ultimately, is by looking at the truth. Don't harden your hearts against God's word.
But worse, that chain continues. Verse twelve. See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns from the living God.
A heart that's revealed ultimately to be unbelieving.
See, it's that battle with sin that at one stage, we think is a battle that stops really being a battle, that starts being a normality, that ends up with me despising anybody who's going to challenge me in that area, that has me walking away from God, missing out on his rest. And put away that inner lawyer right now that's saying, no. What's saved, always save. Ben? I'm okay.
No, no, no. Listen very carefully to this warning. He says today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. That doesn't mean that if you flipped up with sin this morning that you are hardening your heart, that doesn't mean that you've crossed the pale. If you've made mistakes this week that you deeply, deeply regret.
I'm not saying that. I'm asking you this morning, as you hear God's voice challenging you, are you dismissing it or are you taking it to heart?
The Israelites had every reason to trust God, humanly speaking, and yet they didn't. By the time they don't enter his rest, I think it's actually the 10th time that they've rebelled against him, disclosing hearts that never truly believed. In fact, we see that, don't we?
No, sorry. Verse.
Wait a second. I've lost it in my Bible. This is the danger of not writing it down. But he says, doesn't he?
Yes. Verse ten. Thank you. Verse ten. That was why I was angry with that generation.
I said, their hearts have always gone astray, and they have not known my ways. They've seen lots about me. They've been part of the visible group of people who follow me, and yet they've never actually known my ways. How do I know? Because they don't trust me now.
But. But where, then, is the encouragement as we come to a passage like this that's tricky for us? The encouragement is right there in the middle, verse 13. But encourage one another daily as long as it's called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. He says, look, part of the way in which you're going to keep on going, part of the way in which you're going to stop yourself from being hardened is one another.
It is those people around you. For the writers, to the Hebrews, a Christian who is not part of a church family is like a bit of coal that's out of a fire. A friend of mine uses this analogy all the time. You take a bit of coal and you take it out of a fire and at first it stands out, doesn't it? It's bright there, sat on the hearth, half an hour later, it slowly dulled and the fire is going out.
In that particular. No, coal needs other bits of coal around it that are going to challenge and encourage it. Well, I'm mixing my metaphors are going to keep it going, and we Christians need other people who are going to challenge and encourage us. We need to be part of a local church where other people are going to be challenging and encouraging, saying to us, keep going, keep going. Yes, I'm praying for you.
Let me put my arm around you. And some of you guys are like, okay, but Ben, you're literally preaching to the choir. We're here in church and that is great. It's great to be in church. But let me ask you, are you here in a way that is enough for you to be encouraging one another daily as you look around the people here this morning, or look around your growth group if you're part of one?
Do people know enough about your life to actually encourage you daily? Do they know about that meeting on Thursday that you've got, well, you know, your boss wants to take shortcuts. That isn't right and you're going to need to stand up and you don't want to do so. Do they know about that? Do they know about that struggle that you're struggling with at the moment?
Do they know about that family situation? That hurts?
Are they praying for you? Will you get a text message on Thursday saying, hey, I'm praying for you about that meeting? Will you get somebody popping over on Sunday and saying, hey, I know it's been a really hard week for you. How's it going?
One person who knew this is a guy called Johnny Brownlee. Back in 2016, he took part in what I think is the most physically exerting thing you can do, which is a triathlon. And he was pretty good at it. He was going for the world championship. I believe he was about to win the world championship.
And then this happened.
Oh, and he's starting to slow and there is a little way to go. There's half a k to go. And Johnny is running out of time and he's losing.
He's losing his sense of direction. This is worry. Oh, goodness me, this is a horrible sight. Jonathan Brownlee has lost it now and has staggered to a stop at the side of the course and alice has stopped to help him along. And Alastair is going to try and carry his brother home.
Dramatic scenes in Cozumel as the Olympic champion carries his younger brother towards the podium. Oh, my God. I cannot believe what we are seeing here. Matt, is this allowed? Is he allowed to help his brother?
You know, is that part of the rules? I'm not too sure. We've never seen anything like this before.
Unbelievable scenes. Unbelievable scenes in Cozumel. The Brownlee brothers, arm in arm. But it's not by way of celebration. Henry Schumann celebrating he's going to win this race in Cozumel out of nowhere.
But we have to be concerned about the health of Jonathan Brownlee. And they're not even on the final straight stretch yet. Schuman wins in Cozumel. The brothers are coming home arm in arm to finish in second and third. But Johnny can hardly stand and Alistair is having to drag him across the line and pushing him home, pushing him home for second.
Johnny finishes in second. Goodness me, what an incredible conclusion here in Cozumel.
I've never seen anything like that anywhere in world sports.
Johnny couldn't hide it, could he? His legs had given up. He was struggling. Maybe you're here this morning and your legs are giving up spiritually and you are struggling. Today's the day to look around and to say to a brother or to a sister, put your arm around me.
Will you pray for me? Only last night I was struggling with this again.
Will you help me?
Maybe you're here and actually things are going really well for you at the moment. You love the Lord. Today's the day when you need to look around and say, okay, how do I encourage others? Who am I encouraging? Maybe you're somebody who's a few steps further down the race and you can find a young person who you could encourage and put an arm round.
I've been there. Yeah, that's really hard. Let me pray with you through that. Let me encourage you with the words that we've heard this morning. Today.
If you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. As we come together in communion in a few minutes time, that's a great time for us to be reminded. Be reminded Jesus has done it all for us. We just cling to him. But be reminded that that is the place that all of us are coming as we come together to the table, as we go out from this place this week, encourage one another daily as long as it's called today.
Amen.