“Unbelieving Hearts Among God’s People”
(Hebrews 3:7-19)
Series: Captivated by Christ (Hebrews)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
I invite you to open your Bibles to Hebrews, chapter 3.
We have been preaching through the Book of Hebrews, verse-by-verse, and are in chapter 3 this morning. The writer of this letter is addressing a people known as the Hebrews. They were a congregation of people who had come to faith in Christ after having been raised in Judaism. They were deeply familiar with the Old Covenant and all the accoutrements of the Old Covenantal system—Moses and the Law, sacrifices, priests, including a fascination with angels.
Because of persecution and difficulties they were facing as new Christians, they were tempted to turn their backs upon Christ and go back to the old ways of the Old Covenant—essentially leaving Christianity and going back to Judaism. So the writer of Hebrews is warning them not to do this, not to neglect their great salvation. And what the writer does is to demonstrate the superiority of Jesus Christ over the old system of the Old Covenant. Jesus is better than anyone or anything—chapters 1 and 2: Jesus is better than the prophets and better than the angels and better than the Law.
Last time in chapter 3—Jesus is better than Moses, “the man” of Judaism. That was the beginning of chapter 3, verses 1-6. Remember: Jesus is worthy of more glory because the Messiah is better than Moses as the Builder is better than the Building, and as the Son is better than the Servant. Moses was a faithful servant in the house of God’s people, but Jesus is the faithful Son over the house of God’s people.
And it seems that this reflection upon Moses and God’s people in the Old Testament leads the writer to write about the unfaithfulness of God’s people who came out of the wilderness, Moses having led them out of Egyptian bondage. Remember this? The Exodus story? God’s people in slavery for 400 years, the back and forth with Pharaoh and Moses, and finally Moses leads God’s people out of Egypt and he’s going to take them into the Promised Land of Canaan, but the people lacked faith to enter the land and rebelled against Moses and murmured about Moses and so God punished them by causing them to wander 40 years in the wilderness until the unfaithful generation died out. So the writer reflects upon this tragedy and, quoting from Psalm 95, applies the Exodus narrative to the Hebrew people to whom he is writing.
So look for this as I read the text—verses 7 through 11—the teaching about the unfaithfulness of God’s people which is a direct quote of Psalm 95:7-11, same verse numbers! Chapter 3:7-11 is from Psalm 95:7-11. The teaching of the unfaithful, unbelieving, hard-heartedness of God’s people in the Old Testament Exodus story, verses 7-11. Then, the writer applies that wandering in the wilderness event to the Hebrews—lest what happened to those who died in the physical wilderness be true of the Hebrews and they die in the spiritual wilderness of unbelief. That’s verses 12 and following. You’ll note that there in verse 12: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you and evil heart of unbelief,” and on he goes from there.
Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Psalm 95:7-11)
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Psalm 95:7, 8)
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Pray.
Our message is entitled, “Unbelieving Hearts Among God’s People.” Unbelieving hearts among God’s people. The title suggests that while there is a group of people known as Christ-followers, the church, there may be many among the congregation, many among God’s people, who are not believers, who are actually unbelievers—just as there were many among God’s people in the Old Testament who failed to believe God, failed to remain faithful to God, who consequently died in the wilderness, failing to enter the Promised Land. What happened to those who died in the physical wilderness is a picture of what happens to those who die in the spiritual wilderness.
If Hebrews teaches us anything it teaches us that only those who remain faithful to God, who go on believing in God, will be those who enter into the Eternal Land of Promise, the Kingdom of God, the heavenly rest of Jesus Christ. Only those who are faithful followers of Christ—faithful to the end. See that there in verse 14?
Verse 14: “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” This is a similar statement to that which the writer made back up in verse 6 where the writer says that Jesus is the Son over His own house—the people of God— “whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope,” our hope in Christ firm to the end.
So there’s this theme of going on believing, continuing to demonstrate that we are “partakers of the heavenly calling (1)” and “partakers of Christ (14)” because “we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.”
Christianity is continuing to believe. Christianity is continuing to be captivated by Christ. Christianity is beginning as a true believer and ending as a true believers. “We hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.”
In issuing these warnings, this now the second warning in Hebrews, the writer does not mean to unsettle true Christians. He is not attempting to discourage those who are sensitive to the Holy Spirit as true sons of God. He is not seeking to rattle true Christians, true believers, who are following Christ day by day. On the contrary he is encouraging them to keep their eyes on Jesus. It’s like he’s saying, “Don’t stop! You can do this! Keep moving!” And that’s the way true Christians read and hear these warnings.
Having said that, the warnings here about continuing after Christ, to not stop believing, to not harden our hearts, do grab our attention, don’t they? We know all too well how easy it is to fall into sin. So the writer writes these warnings as the means by which Christians get back up and get back into the Christian race. And for those who are not believers, these warning passages serve to illustrate that no unbelievers will inherit the Promised Land of eternal rest apart from turning to Jesus and following Him day by day.
Look at verse 7:
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Now before we go any further, note something really cool here. The writer says in verse 7, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says” and then he quotes from Psalm 95. What may we learn here? Well, we learn that the Holy Spirit speaks today! As the Holy Spirit says, present tense. And the Holy Spirit speaks in ways consistent with His Word. The writer teaches the divine authorship of the Old Testament. As the Holy Spirit says, then quoting from Psalm 95, “Today if you will hear His voice.” This is an illustration of the truth of 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is God-breathed. All of it—Old Testament, the direct teaching of 2 Timothy, and the New Testament, as well. The entire Bible is God-breathed. So read it all—Old Testament and New Testament!
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Psalm 95:7-11)
So that’s the teaching, quoting from the Old Testament, Psalm 95. Then, the application in verses 12 and following:
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
See the application? Don’t be like the unbelieving, hard-hearted people of the Old Testament who wandered in the wilderness. See to it that you not have “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God!” Don’t depart! Don’t drift away! Don’t neglect your great salvation in Christ!
It’s a straightforward, “in your face” kind of warning. I find the bluntness refreshing. It reminded me of a person I recall hearing about from Chuck Lawless. Some of you know Chuck Lawless. He’s spoken here some years ago and he used to be at Southern Seminary. He is now dean and one of the vice presidents of Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Our ministerial staff takes time each week in our staff meeting for “Staff Development.” We have been blessed by many blog posts by Chuck Lawless.
Chuck once told about how a young Christian classmate in elementary school witnessed to him every morning. Chuck said when he arrived at the school in the morning, this young classmate would be there at the front door and would greet him every single morning by saying, “Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t die last night or you would have gone to hell.” He did that every school day for like nine months.
In his later reflection, Chuck shared that the young man’s approach may not have been the most winsome evangelistic strategy, but he said it definitely got him to thinking and was one of those things that led to his internalizing the gospel message: “It’s a good thing you didn’t die last night or you would have gone to hell.”
The writer of Hebrews wants us to do some hard thinking, too. He wants us to examine ourselves and check out our hearts, “lest there be in any of us and evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Exhort one another! Encourage one another daily! Daily, “while it is called ‘Today.’” When is today? Today! Several times in this passage the writer of Hebrews uses this word “Today.” You see it here in verse 13 and it is in verse 7, and verse 15, and even into chapter 4 and verse 7—twice there the word occurs today, today.
Following Christ is about following Him today. We continue to follow as long as it is called today. Every day we live, that day is called today. The word of Christian living is today.
The word of the world is “Tomorrow.” Satan tempts you to put off Christ till tomorrow. To not think of Jesus until tomorrow. We know, don’t we, the danger of putting off for tomorrow things we should do today, don’t we? Even in the general sense of procrastination.
I nearly always think of this poem about tomorrow written by Edgar Albert Guest, one of my favorite American Poets. It’s about the danger of allowing the opportunities of today to slip away by putting them off till tomorrow:
He was going to be all that a mortal should be
Tomorrow.
No one should be kinder or braver than he
Tomorrow.
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
Who’d be glad of a lift and who needed it, too;
On him he would call and see what he could do
Tomorrow.
Each morning he stacked up the letters he’d write
Tomorrow.
And thought of the folks he would fill with delight
Tomorrow.
It was too bad, indeed, he was busy today,
And hadn’t a minute to stop on his way;
More time he would have to give others, he’d say
Tomorrow.
The greatest of workers this man would have been
Tomorrow.
The world would have known him, had he ever seen
Tomorrow.
But the fact is he died and he faded from view,
And all that he left here when living was through
Was a mountain of things he intended to do
Tomorrow.
Edgar Albert Guest. Tomorrow. True, isn’t it? So the writer says here in verse 13: “Exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Verse 14:
14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
15 while it is said (and again here a quote from Psalm 95): “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Then the application again of Psalm 95 upon the Hebrews in verses 16 to the end of the chapter, by use of rhetorical questions:
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? (and the answer is yes)
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? (yes, that’s right; several hundred thousand corpses fell in the wilderness)
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? (No one else, just those who did not obey, who did not believe)
19 So (or therefore) we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
So the warning is: “Don’t be like them!” Don’t harden your heart. Don’t fail to believe God. Don’t turn your back on God by turning your back on Christ. Stay faithful, faithful to the end. Keep running for Christ!
Let me give you two main actions and then a number of warnings about hardening our hearts. First the two main actions to take that come right out of verses 12 and 13:
**Two Main Actions:
1) Personal Responsibility—Take Care of Your Own Heart (12)
Verse 12, “Beware (see to it; be careful), brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”
More in a moment about how to guard our hearts from becoming “evil hearts of unbelief.” For now, note that this is a matter of personal responsibility. Each Christian must take care of his own heart and see that he “Not depart from the living God.” Remember Christianity is about continuing, keeping on, moving forward.
I picked up a copy of the NY Times Thursday. I don’t read the NY Times a lot, but when traveling I’m always drawn to them in the airport. Aside from the left-leaning political slant, it’s pretty good writing.
Anyway there was a story on Scott Hamilton, the TV voice of figure skating for for decades. Many of you will remember how he won the gold medal back in 1984 in a memorable performance in Sarajevo. Since then he has fought off cancer and a number of brain tumors, but he was always the guy in the Broadcast Booth providing commentary on the Olympic skaters.
For the first time Hamilton at the Olympics was put in a “back seat” sort of role, no longer the main voice, demoted to an entirely different role and no longer in the Broadcast Booth providing commentary. The producers thanked him for his years of service and said it was time for a change.
The article was about Hamilton’s response, highlighting his ability to persevere and “bounce back” from challenges over the years and overcoming the odds. I was particularly struck by this statement. He says: “I calculated once how many times I fell during my skating career—41,600 times. But here’s the funny thing:” he added, “I got up 41,600 times.” He said, “That’s the muscle you have to build in your psyche—the one that reminds you to just get up.”
In fact, the article’s headline reads: “Fall Down. Get Back Up. Repeat.” In many ways that describes the Christian life of perseverance. There are those times we fall down. What will we do? We will get back up. And when we fall down again, what will we do again? Get back up. Fall Down. Get Back Up. Repeat. Personal responsibility. But there is also corporate accountability.
2) Corporate Accountability—Take Care of the Hearts of Others (13)
The Christian faith is a “one-another” faith. We are disciples who make disciples of others. That’s inherent in our vision statement. We are disciples who make disciples. That means we care about the hearts of our brothers and sisters. That means we love each other and encourage one another. Recall verse 13: “but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Encourage one another. Live for one another in the body of Christ such that you say, “Hey, keep moving! Keep going! Don’t stop!”
Like a support crew encourages a runner to keep running, making sure the runner is hydrated and stays physically and mentally strong. There’s a really neat documentary you can watch on Youtube about the Badwater 135 ultra marathon. A marathon is 26 miles. This ultra marathon is 135 miles. Can you believe it?! The Badwater 135 ultra marathon is a journey through the Badwater Basin in California’s Death Valley. The race is held in mid-July with temperatures reaching upwards of 130 degrees Fahrenheit. In the movie, there’s one runner, Gabriel Flores, whose support crew consists of his two brothers. And it’s cool to watch his brothers encourage Gabriel to keep running. One of them comes up alongside him from time to time and says, “Gabriel, you are my hero!” And I kept thinking of that as I read this portion of the passage. I could picture Christians coming alongside one another and saying, “Don’t stop, keep moving, you are my hero!” But that’s the idea here.
See the end of verse 13 there? “lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” I want to conclude with an application of that verse.
I was listening to a sermon by Alistair Begg where he applied to this passage the classic book on the Christian life by John Bunyan, the book Pilgrim’s Progress. We referenced it not too long ago in our Reformation studies last fall. John Bunyan in the 17th Century, wrote the entire book, an allegory, during his 12 year imprisonment in England, put in prison for preaching the gospel without a license—hard to even imagine.
Bunyan was a master storyteller who conveyed numerous Christian truths through conversations between characters in the story, characters who are persevering, moving forward in the Christian faith, enduring to the end. There’s a section where the main character, Christian, is having a conversation with Hopeful and they are talking about a fella named Temporary. As his name suggests, Temporary, was a man who followed Christ—temporarily—and fell back to old ways and sin. From their reflections on backsliding, Christian offers nine reasons professing Christians fall into sin. Of course, Bunyan, is behind the writing and—applied to our passage here in Hebrews—you could call these “Nine Warning Signs We May Be Hardening our Hearts.” Note the progression here. First:
1. As much as they can, they turn their thoughts away from any reminder of God, death, and judgment to come.
2. Then they gradually cease their private duties, such as devotional prayer, curbing their lusts, being vigilant, being repentant for sin, and the like.
3. Then they shun the company of lively and sincere Christians.
4. After that they grow indifferent to public duties such as hearing and reading the Word, gathering together for worship, and the like.
5. Then they begin to find fault with some of the godly, and the devilish purpose behind this is to find some alleged reason for turning away from religion.
6. Then they begin to associate with worldly, immoral, and sensual men.
7. Then they secretly indulge in worldly and lewd conversations; and they are happy if they can find any who are considered honest doing the same, so they may use their example as an excuse to indulge more boldly.
8. After this they begin to play with little sins openly.
9. And then, being hardened, they show themselves as they really are. Launched again into the gulf of misery, they are lost forever in their own deception, unless a miracle of grace prevents it.
—Bunyan, John. The New Pilgrim’s Progress (1989, Discovery House Publishers)
I share the list with you as a warning to each and every one of us—including myself. I do this in keeping with verses 12 and 13, that we “exhort one another—lest any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Has sin got a hold of you? Don’t be deceived by it. Don’t allow a flirtation with sin de-sensitize your heart. Do not harden your heart.
As we respond to this teaching, we respond as either believers or unbelievers. But the application is the same to both: “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.”
Bow your heads for prayer.
Some of us need to repent this morning. If you’re not a Christian, if you’re not following Jesus, not following after Christ, today, today—let go of your sin and embrace Christ. In a moment we will sing our response song and I encourage you to repent from sin and turn to Christ. If you want help with this, you can come forward while we sing and I’ll meet you up front here and we’ll talk after the worship service. You can also come forward during this time if you’d like more information about connecting through baptism and joining the church.
Those of you who are Christians, are you guilty of allowing your heart to be hardened? Let go of those sins you’ve been playing with. Confess to Christ and receive the pardon that is yours through the grace of Christ—pardon whenever you turn from the right. Confess to the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. Say to Him, “Here am I.”
Pray.
Now stand and sing and respond however you need to respond.
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