I would like to ask you a rhetorical question today, but one nonetheless I want you to consider carefully in your hearts. The question is this; does God care about orthodoxy? Now a few churches that perhaps are no longer really orthodox may have co-opted that word as part of their title. And that is not the kind of orthodoxy I am referring to. What I mean by orthodox is that which is right, or true.
So the question is does God really care about what is right or true, or does He just want people to think about Him in some sort of generalized way, with some sort of sentiment or affection, and He likes it when we bring up HIs name and He gets especially happy when we say nice things about Him. And that is all that really matters to God. All the other stuff, such as truth, righteousness, justice, holiness, doctrine and so forth is not really what’s important to Him.
Well, I said it’s a rhetorical question because I am going to give you the answer. And the answer is found in the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’"
Now I could give you dozens of other texts to support this argument, that God cares about orthodoxy, but I will just give you one more, one that I probably quote every week, which John records Jesus as saying in John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So clearly, there is truth, and God wants us to worship Him in truth, that is, in orthodoxy.
As I said last week, God is not obligated to accept worship that is not in alignment with His truth. Cain and Abel are good examples that are given right at the outset of the scriptures, in which both offered up worship to God, and yet Cain’s offering was rejected and Abel’s offering was accepted.
Our text that we are looking at in Hebrews is part of an ongoing sermon or message that we are just looking at a part of today. And it proposes a difficulty because each segment is built upon the preceding passage, and so it helps to have knowledge of what was said previously. However, I don’t have the time to review everything up to this point. I will say though by way of context that in this passage, there is a contrast, or comparison between Jesus and Moses. And the author is saying that Jesus is superior to Moses in every way as the spokesman of God, and as the minister of God. And in continuing that comparison, he is giving a warning to those who have heard the word of Jesus and turned away, and he uses an illustration of the Israelites who rebelled against Moses as an warning for us.
Now it’s interesting that in regard to the question of orthodoxy, in regards to our worship being in Spirit and in truth, the author gives us in vs7 a quote from Psalm 95, which he attributes as authored by the Holy Spirit. Vs. 7 begins, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says…” He is going to quote from Psalm 95, but we know that David is the human author of Ps.95, but Hebrews is saying that the author of this scripture is from the Holy Spirit. This fulfills Jesus statement concerning worship perfectly, doesn’t it. Scripture is of the Spirit, so we can be assured that it’s the truth of God. So we find the truth about God, the truth about worship, from the word of God.
And that’s such a basic doctrine of Christianity that it should go without saying, but unfortunately in this day and age there is a tendency to think that God reveals himself in other ways, and they often take precedence over the word. But Jesus said in John 17:17, “Your word is truth.” We need to be on guard against people that are speaking as if they speak for God, as well as those people who think that God speaks to you in an audible voice in your head. God has spoken in His word. Back in chapter 1 vs2, it says that in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. And we have the word of God made more sure in the inspiration of the scriptures, as 2 Peter 2:21 says, men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
So first and foremost, if we are to know the truth about God, so that we may worship the Lord God in Spirit and in truth, then we must go to the source of truth, which is the Holy Scriptures.
Notice also that vs 7 says, “The Holy Spirit says, present tense. Not said 2000 years ago, though He did speak then, but He also speaks now, present tense. He says to you now, ““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. “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.’”
Now as I said this is a quote from Psalm 95. And it’s interesting that there are two parts to this Psalm, the one quoted here is preceded by a call to worship. Just to give you a sense of it, in verse 1,2 and 6 it says, “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. ... Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” So Psalm 95 is clearly a call to worship the Lord. And in that context, the Psalmist continues under the direction of the Holy Spirit to call God’s people to worship and then warns against disobedience as illustrated by the Israelites in the wilderness. So worship and disobedience are contrary to one another.
Notice also the emphasis on “Today.” “Today if you hear His voice…” Today emphasizes the urgency of the word of God. Today is the acceptable time. Today while it is still today. He equates putting off until tomorrow or until a more convenient day is the means of hardening your heart. Today is the day God calls you to repentance. Tomorrow may never come. Some of you here today may never again hear the gospel presented to you as you have heard today. Last Friday a family was on Route 1, I believe, heading home from vacation and a car came across the median and hit them and 5 of the 6 family members were killed. So there is an urgency to the message because we do not know the day or the time when we will die, but also there is an urgency to answer the message because to resist it, or put it off until tomorrow is the means of hardening your heart against God. And that is exactly the purpose of this illustration, as it says “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”
Now we can identify the exact situation the Spirit is referring to here, by the use of the words, “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.” He is referring to two events, one at the beginning of the exodus of the children of Israel, and the other at the end of their journey, when they were ready to enter the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. The first is recorded in Exodus 17, when the children of Israel came from the wilderness of Sin, and they complained and grumbled against Moses because they were thirsty and said, and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” God told Moses to strike the rock, and water came out. But what they did was displeasing to the Lord, so that Moses named the place Massah and Meribah, which means test and quarrel, because they tested the Lord there.
So they grumbled, they complained, and they were even ready to stone Moses. Many people who have become Christians have feelings like this. Sometimes there are problems in the family. Sometimes there are problems in the business. I’ve heard Christians say, and I can sympathize with them, “Ever since I’ve become a Christian. My whole life is turned upside down. And now I’m really suffering and going through all kinds of trials.” And sometimes they wonder if “maybe I made the wrong decision.”
The problem a lot of times is that we have the wrong perspective as Christians. We have a temporal perspective instead of an eternal perspective. We expect as Christians that God is going to take away all the earthly trials and tribulations so we can enjoy an abundant life. The problem is the same as that of the Israelites. Our focus is not on how we may serve God, but on how He needs to serve me. So when God doesn’t meet my temporal, fleshly expectations in the time and manner that I want to be served, then I lose patience with Him. We’re ready to disown God, because we are convinced that He must not love us if He allows us to go through difficulties. We even go so far as to think God is a liar, that He doesn’t keep His promises. And that’s exactly what the Israelites did in the wilderness. That pattern of rebellion continued, and culminated in their refusal to enter into the land of Canaan. And so God brought judgment against them and said this generation would not enter the land, but they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they all had died.
Then 40 years later, the Israelites do the same thing all over again. This time it’s found in Numbers 20. The entire generation of their fathers had died in the wilderness. This is the second generation. And they come to the very same place, Massah and Maribah, that their fathers had complained about, and this time they do the very same thing. They complain and say, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Why then have you brought the LORD’S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” And once again God brought water from the rock to supply their need, but again God was displeased.
I found myself just the other day comparing my life with those who don’t even know the Lord. And from my perspective at that moment, it seemed that the unrighteous lived lives of ease and plenty. But the lot of my life was learning to do without, and facing all sorts of trials. And I think it’s very common for us to start to compare ourselves with others when things don’t go exactly as we would like them to. And we become disgruntled in our faith. Even worse, in our hearts we start to turn away from the Lord.
So because of their hardened hearts, their testing of God, and provoking God to anger, He says in vs 10, “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.’”
Notice that God is concerned about the heart. He said first, “Do not harden your hearts.” Now He says, “they always go astray in their hearts.” The heart is the soul of man, the seat of the will, the intellect and the emotions of man. The scriptures say that the heart is deceitful and wicked and unknowable. But God will disclose the secrets of the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Thus, as we said at the beginning, Jesus who knows the hearts says “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’"
David said in Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” The essential necessity then for worshipping God in spirit and in truth is that we first have the right heart. Salvation is an appeal to God for a new heart and it is promised as a result of our conversion in Ezekiel 36:26-27 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” When we receive a new heart, that is a new mind, new attitudes, and a new will, we will find that we have a desire to be obedient to the Lord, and the old things will pass away, and all things become new. That’s the essence of salvation that is missing in many church goers today. They may intellectually believe in God, but they have not had a transformation from God, a new birth that results in their conversion. And that is a supernatural act of God to give you a new heart.
Without that transformation of the heart, you cannot please God. You cannot enter the rest that God promises, because your heart is not aligned with God. And so the author of Hebrews says in vs12, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Notice now there is a further progression of a hardened heart, and that is an evil, unbelieving heart.
Now that word used for falling away is the same word we get apostasy from. I won’t try to pronounce it in Greek, but it sounds very similar to apostasy. Apostasy is a serious sin. It’s a sin of renouncing God. And there have been many people that perhaps were brought up in a Christian home, or a Christian church, and then have gone on to renounce God altogether and become an atheist. That’s becoming apostate. I’m not sure that is what this verse is talking about. I think it has to be taken in context with the next two verses, and in that regard I think it’s talking about someone who is withdrawing from church, they have drifted away from fellowship with God. After all, that is what chapter 2 vs1 warned of, the danger of drifting away. That tendency to go astray leads to a second danger, that is the danger of hardening your heart. And I think it’s saying that happens by withdrawing from the fellowship of believers.
That’s why the next verse, 13, says, “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” The antidote to falling away is to get together with other believers day after day and encourage one another. The enemy is always trying to get the Christian alone. But like an ember in a fire, when you draw it out of the fire pit and put it off by itself, it begins to go out and grow cold.
But to come together in assembly, to fellowship with one another, we stimulate and encourage one another so that hardness of the heart does not happen. A few chapters later, in Hebrews 10:24-25 we read, “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” So the falling away He is warning us of comes often through isolation, where the enemy is able to wear us down through trial and temptation, and thus get us to sin against God.
And that idea of harboring sin is endemic to hardening of the heart. Notice it says in vs.13, “so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin results in hardening your heart. Sin is deceitful. The enemy tells us that a little sin doesn’t matter. That God will forgive you. That you’re just human. That a man (or a woman) has to do what a man’s gotta do. That’s the deceitfulness of sin. It’s the lie that your sin will have no consequences. But don’t forget the verse that I quoted last week from Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” Do not think that you can live in unrepentant sin and not have to worry about it because God doesn’t care about it. That’s a lie of Satan. God is not mocked. God will not be tested as the Israelites tested God in the wilderness of Sin. God reproves and chastises those who are His.
So a hardened heart is that heart that holds onto sin. And true worship of God is impossible if we continue in sin. But the evidence of our salvation, the evidence that we are children of God, is that we continue in our faith. And that continuance of our faith is what our sanctification is all about. That perseverance in faith is the means by which we are able to participate in all that Christ has promised us. Vs.14, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” To become partaker of Christ is to partake of His nature first, and His ministry, and then His inheritance. That’s our goal, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. A heart that is cleansed and holy through faith in Christ, receives the fullness of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, who helps us to live like Christ, so that we might one day be raised like Christ, to be like Christ because we shall see Him as He is, and then to reign with Christ. That’s what it means to be partakers with Christ. That’s what it means to be sanctified through Christ.
And that perseverance of faith in trials, that continuance of faith to the end, is something that happens day after day, even today, as long as it’s today. I like that quote from Winnie the Pooh, in which he asked, “What day is it?” And Piglet squealed, “It’s today!” And Winnie the Pooh squealed in return, “My favorite day!” I think Today is God’s favorite day as well. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me.” No matter which day of the week it is, if you’re alive it is always today. Today is the time to turn to the Lord in repentance and faith. Tomorrow may be too late, but there is time today. Do not harden your heart today. But call upon Him today while He may be found.
Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
So"TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.” Then the Spirit asks in vs16 "For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?” In other words, it was those who had come out of captivity. In the church age that would indicate that we who are Christians who have been brought out of captivity can provoke the Lord to anger by hardening our hearts.
Then the Spirit asks another question in Vs. 17 “And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?” To continue the parallel with the New Testament church, then that would correlate with Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth, who were coming to church to eat the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin and the indication is that God put them to death. Listen to 1Cor. 11:29-32 “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” God will bring discipline to bear on His children that harden their hearts in disobedience. And that discipline can even progress to the point of God taking your life, so that you are judged in the body, but saved in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6) (1Cor.5:5)
And then one final question in vs18 “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.” So there is a progression here which the Spirit warns starts with a hardening of the heart, which leads to going astray in your hearts, which results in an evil, unbelieving, disobedient heart, which brings about the judgment of God.
Now I pray that no one here today hardens your heart against what the Holy Spirit is saying. I’m not saying it. Roy Harrell doesn’t know your heart. I may see some outward evidence that indicates a condition of the heart, but I don’t know your heart. But God knows your heart. The good news is that God is willing and able to give you a new heart, to replace that heart of stone with a heart of flesh. To put His Spirit within you, so that you will keep His statues and walk in HIs ordinances. So that you might walk in the truth, that you might walk in the Spirit. And it’s available to all who call upon Him in faith and repentance. David called out to God after His sin, and prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Pray that prayer today, while it is still today, that you may know the forgiveness and cleanness that God can give. If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Today you have heard His voice. Do not harden your heart. Call upon Jesus today and enter into HIs rest.
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