The Danger in Not Believing, Part 3

What a great lead-in song to our study of Hebrews chapter 3. If you got your Bible, turn it with me if you would. We're looking at the second warning passage in the book of Hebrews, warning people about the urgency Coming to Christ.

Give me Jesus. The writer of Hebrews wants them to understand that Jesus is the all-sufficient, all-supreme ruler of the universe. And so he gives warnings to people who are listening, who might not have embraced Christ as the Lord and Savior of their lives. Many of the people were super believers. They weren 't supernatural believers, but superficial believers, shallow believers. They believed that Jesus existed. They believed that Jesus died. They believed that Jesus might even have risen again.

They believed that. But they had not entrusted themselves, embraced the Christ. And so the writer of Hebrews gives them a warning today. If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. As in the day of provocation in the wilderness. Because they needed to understand the severity of God's judgment. So important. You know, the Jews under God above us. That's why they wear yarmukahs, the men, right? Put on their head. Because they believe that God is always above them and all around them. So that yarmulke a symbol of what it is they say they believe.

And so they would understand Psalm 103. Our God is in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases. They understood that. They understood God above us. They even understood God made us. That is, God made us in His image. They believe in Genesis chapter 1, 26 and 27. They believe in the law, the Torah. And they believe that they were made in the image of the living God. And so they would affirm what we affirm: God is above us. God made us. They would also affirm God. With us. Because they understand Isaiah 7:1 that this virgin shall conceive, and his name Emmanuel be it translated God.

With us. They would affirm that. We know that Christ came and God was with us. So they would affirm that. In fact, that's why they celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles every year. And they go in their backyards and they build these thatched roofs and they live in their backyards for an entire week. To symbolize the fact that someday God's going to be with us. That God will be here and dwell among us. And He will, listen, He will provide for us while He's with us, and He will protect us while He is with us.

They believe all that. And yet, and yet, in the day of provocation, in the day of temptation, in the day of t. In the day of Merib and Mas, as Psalm 95 says, for some reason, they could not affirm God with them. Because in Exodus chapter 17, they would cry, Is the Lord really among us? Where is He? So, what is it they do believe? You see, it's very important that advers Gives clarity to your identity. Adversity gives clarity to your id. Temptation or provocation gives definition to your position.

Your position with Christ. We forget that. That in the day of adversity, your true character shines forth. That's who you really are. And the Jewish people in the wilderness, as David, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God in Psalm 95. Would tell them, his people in his day, a thousand years before the right of Hebrews, would quote Psalm 9. In Hebrews chapter 3, say the same thing to his people: that you got to be careful to make sure that you hear, you hearken to the voice of the living God.

Because if you harden your hearts to that voice and do not respond, as the Jewish people did in the day of provocation, in the day of temptation, in the wilderness, Th the wrath of God comes against you when he said, I swore in my wrath, they shall not ent my re. See, we affirm God above us. We affirm God made us. We affirm God with us. But we also affirm God in us. S, that was the mystery. Concealed in the old, revealed in the new. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:2. Christ in you.

That's why Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 13, verse number 5, these words: test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourself? That Jesus. Jesus Christ is in you, unless, of course, you fail the test. That's what he says. To the Corinthian church. That's 2 Corinthians 13:5. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he told them, Before you partake of the Lord's table, examine yourselves, unless you eat or drink of the table in an unworthy manner. So in the second letter to the Corinthians, he reiterates it by saying, Look, have you tested yourself?

Have you proved yourself? Do you know Jesus is actually in you? Do you know that? Can you know that? Yes, you can. And so for these Jewish people. The writer of Hebrews is addressing. He wants them to understand how Jesus can be in them. They would cry, Give me Jesus, give me the living God. May I embrace him for all that he is and all that he has done. You see, if God is above you, which he is, we affirm that. God made you, which we affirm because we're made in his image. God with you and God in you, then you affirm that God gave us, right?

His only begotten Son. And if he gave us his only begotten Son and He is in us, then God is for us. Romans chapter 8, right? If God be for you, who can be against you? If you affirm that God is for you, you affirm the fact that God has sent you to all the world to preach the gospel. And that's what the right of Hebrews is doing. Helping them to understand the essence of the urgency to respond. Let me read it to you once again.

This is the illustration that he gives. There are three points to Hebrews 3, verses 7 and 19. There's the illustration, there's the injunction, there's the implications. We've just covered the illustration over the last couple of weeks. And that's all the further we going to get today. But that's okay because you need to understand it. He says, once again, Hebrews chapter 3, verse number 7: Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says today, Fear 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 40 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. That illustration is from Exodus chapter 17. That illustration culminates in Numbers chapter 14 when God said that's it Why? Because Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse number 7, the Lord said this. Remember, do not forget. How you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

Wow. See, that was the character and nature of the Jewish people. Who say by the way, they believe in God? They affirm their belief in God. They affirm the fact that they are monotheistic. They believe in one God. Hero Israel, the Our God one, the great Shem. But believing in God is not enough to save you. It's not. Because the demons believe, yet they tremble. And we saw in John's Gospel that many people believed in Jesus, but he was not committing him to them because he knew what was in their hearts.

That's why Paul says, 2 Corinthians 13:5, take the test, examine yourself, prove yourself to see if Jesus is actually in you. That's the most important thing. And so that's what the right of Hebrews is trying to help the people to understand. So he takes them back. To an illustration from David's time, a thousand years earlier, that really was from a time 500 years before that, with Israel in the wilderness. Where they tested the Lord their God. They tried the Lord their God. We told you last week, what did they doubt?

They doubted his. Provision. We're thirsty. You've brought us out here to die. Where is God? Is he really among us? They doubted his provision, they doubted his presence. Numbers 14, they doubted his promises. And yet, they would affirm God above us. God made us. God with us. But in reality, their lives denied all of that. What does your life reveal about you? What happens to you in the day of adversity? The day of trial, the day of temptation. What reveals, what is revealed about you in those days?

And that's why the writer of Hebrews compels these people. To come to Christ. What was it that led the nation of Israel? To doubt their God, to question His presence among them, to live in rebellion from the day they left Egypt. Until the day they arrived in the land of Canaan. What was it for those 40 years that caused them to rebel, that made the Lord say, I swear in my wrath, you shall not enter my rest. You will die in the wilderness. What a tragedy. Imagine being a child under 20 years of age, watching your parents die in the wilderness.

And knowing that you're not going into the promised land until all those 20 years and older are dead. You're saying, as you walk in the wilderness around and around and around, because that's what they did, walked in a circle. S, boy, I sure hope that old geezer dies soon so we can get into the land of promise because until they die, we're still going to keep going in circles. But because they went into the land for 40 days, Numbers 14, and came back, and ten spies had a negative report. And the nation believed the negativity of that report.

God said, For every day, you'll walk a year. Wow. Until you're all dead. And then you will go into the promised land. You would think that all those children Would have learned, right? You think that they would have learned from the bad example of their parents? They would have realized that, you know what, man, I don't want to be in the position my mom and dad are in, so I'm not going to do this thing. I'm going to believe in the living God. I'm going to trust the living God. I'm going to believe every word He says, but you know what?

They got into the land. After all the warnings that Moses gave them, they still rebelled against the truth of God's Word. What was it that caused all that? Well, the writer of Hebrews tells us. That's what's so great about the illustration. Everything you need to know is right there in Psalm 95. Everything you need to understand is right here in Hebrews chapter 3. That's what he says. You ready? He says these words. He says, verse 10: Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my.

Ways two things that cause them to harden their heart. Which caused the writer of Hebrews to say, Look, today if you hear voice, don't harden your heart. Two things. Are you ready? Write them down. Write them in your Bible. Indelibly etch them in the front portion of your mind. Number one, indifference to the Word of God.

And number two, ignorance toward the ways of God. Indifference to the Word of God, ignorance to the ways of God. That's what he says. He says, these people always go astray in their hearts. It's a word that means to wander. These people are always wandering away from that which is true. They're indifferent to what is true. They hear what is true. They hear what God says, but they don't hearken to what God says.

And how many times have we warned over the years that when you hear the Word of God and you don't respond to what God's Word says, and we'll reiterate this with our series. On Wednesday nights, that when we go through the foundations that fortify the family, when you hear the principles and you don't obey them, you are in the process of hardening your heart. So that your family can't be fortified as it needs to be. But in this case, they hardened their hearts to the truth of the living God and they fell away.

Why? Because they were indifferent to the Word of God in their hearts. Oh, on the outside? We believe God's above us. We believe God made us. We believe God's with us. But in the day of adversity, in the day of provocation in the wilderness, in the day of temptation, in the day of meribah, in the day of Messiah, Exodus chapter 17. In the day of adversity, their identity with the living God was clearly seen. They did not believe. They did not belie. These people always go astray in their hearts. And maybe that 's you today.

You're coming to church and you're looking all good on the outside and you're all dressed in your Sunday best and you're coming and you're doing. Doing what you do on Sunday morning, making everybody believe that on the outside, yeah, Jesus is in you, but on the inside, He's absent. He's not there. Because you haven't embraced the Christ. In the inside, you really doubt that what God says.

Is true. On the outside, there might be conformity to what's going on because of pressure from your wife or your husband, or pressure from your children, or pressure from your church, or whatever the case may be, and you feel this outward conformity. To the things of God, excuse me, but on the inside, which we really can't see, Christ is not there. Because there is indifference to the word of truth, to the word of God. It's not that It's not that you outright reject it necessarily, or you outright rebel against it.

You just doubt the promises of God. That he's going to do exactly what he says he's going to do. You know, in that day of adversity, when it comes, and it does. That's where the character of a man or a woman shines or is completely blurred because they do not have Ch in them. Are you indifferent to the Word of God? You see, in the Gospel of Luke, The Lord condemns those who are indifferent toward His W and says that those who are indifferent toward His Word Are in jeopardy of a more horrible condemnation than those who are outright rebellious.

Toward his word. This is what he says. Listen carefully. You know it well. You've heard it before. Luke chapter 10: Christ has sent out the 70. Told them to go into the cities and preach the gospel. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, he will set before you. Heal those in it that are sick, and say to, The kingdom of God is coming near to you. But whatever city you enter, And they do not receive you. Go out into its streets and say, Even the dust of your city, which clings to our feet, we wipe off and protest against you, yet be sure of this: that the kingdom of God has come near.

Then this warning. Luke 10, verse number 12. I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Khor, woe to you, Beths! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in that judgment than for you. And you, Caper, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades. The Lord makes a comparison.

Three cities with three cities. Three im, greedy, violent Covetous, nast cities: Sodom, Tyre. In Sidon. And contrast them with three, as we would interpret them, as good cities. Ch, Bethsaida, and Caper. Three cities that welcome the Christ. Three cities that never outwardly rebelled or rejected the Christ. Three cities that, for all practical purposes, would sit and listen to the Christ, hear his words, but they just were indifferent to the words of Christ. Bethsaida was where Philip was from, where Andrew was from.

Where the feeding of the 5,000 took place. If you've been to Israel with me, you know that. They would see all kinds of miracles. Caper was the home city of Jesus during his earthly ministry. Never once did they want to kick him out of their synagogue like they did in Nazareth, his homet. They would sit and listen to Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth. And even in that synagogue, he would cast out a man filled with demons. They would see miracle after miracle after miracle. And yet, they never truly embraced the Christ.

Oh, they liked having Christ around. It's pretty cool having everybody healed in your homet. That 's pretty neat. Hearing him speak the way he speaks, because never a man spoke like this man spoke. And to be able to be saying, Yeah, Jesus is his home, his home base is right here in our city, Caper. Yeah, we know Jesus well, he's right here. We eat with him. We fellowship with him. We hear his sermons. We see his miracles. Oh, yeah, he's right here. But they were indifferent. To the truth, to the wor of God.

Oh, outwardly, they would look like they accepted the Christ. But on the inside, they were indifferent to the words that he spoke. Not so sure about that, Jesus. Not so sure that that's the only way. But nevertheless, we like the way you speak. So please come back and speak some more. We like the miracles you do, so come back and do some more miracles. It's always great to see somebody healed. So come back and do some more. And Christ makes a comparison and simply say that self religion Condemns more than sinful reject of God's Word.

Self-righteous rebellion because they were self-righteous. They would condemn the people of Sodom. After all, they're immoral. After all, they live in sin. They're godless. The people of Tyre and Sidon, those are nasty people. They're violent, greedy people. But we're self-righteous. We love God. God's above us. God made us, and we believe God is with us. And yet, Jesus wasn't in them. Because they were indifferent to the truth of God's holy word. You see, what led to a hardened heart for the nation of Israel is simply the fact that when they heard God speak, They did not respond.

They did not come to him. Earlier in Luke's Gospel, in the ninth chapter, Christ says this. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. After all, it's Jesus. Where are you going, Jesus? I will follow you wherever you go. Now remember, Jesus knows what's in the heart of man. So Jesus says, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

You want to follow me? This is where we're going. We're going to a place of discomfort. You're going to be uncomfortable if you follow me. It's going be difficult for you. If you're materialistic, you let the comforts of this life, it's going be hard for you. Because even the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. So, someone in the audience listening to that, as Christ said these words, said to another, follow me. And this guy listening said, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.

His father wasn't dead yet. Let me wait till my father dies because if he dies, I'll get his inheritance.

And even though the son of man might have no place to lay his head, I will have a place to lay my head because I will have the inheritance and I'll be okay. So wait till my father dies, then I'll follow you. They said to him, Allow the dead, the spiritually dead. To bury their own de. But as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. Another also said, I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home.

I will follow you, but let me first go back and say goodbye to those at home. And Jesus said to him, No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Three people, three people on the outside desirous of wanting to follow Christ. For all practical purposes, look eager to follow the Christ, right? But there's no record of any response by them, is there? There's no record of saying, You what, Lord, you're right. I will deny myself. I will take up my cross.

I will follow you wherever you go. Because remember this, rep always requires three main issues which Christ hits on. You want to follow me? You must truly be repentant. Repentance demands a severance, an allegiance. And obedience, a severance from the things of the world. And allegiance to the wor of truth, in obedience to the ways of God. And Christ hit all those issues in conversation with three people. And there was no response. They were just indifferent to the word of God. They would not embrace the truth of the living God.

How sad is that? So, the right of Hebrews tells us what God says. They always go astray in their hearts. They're always wandering around. They hear the truth. But they don't commit themselves to the truth. They hear the voice of God. I mean, after all, the children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire by night, a cloud by day. They saw the miracles of God, right? And God would speak audibly to them, speak through Moses to them. And although they heard, they did not truly hear what God said. They just were indifferent.

They doubted. And that came to light in the day of adversity. In the day of trial, temptation, the wilderness, the true colors were seen. And it kept revealing itself over and over and over again in the life of the nation. Of Israel. How about you? How do you respond to the Word of God? Do you sit there and on the outside look like everything's okay and maybe say amen and nod your head and sing some songs and give some money and take a few trips and do that kind of thing? Or is Jesus really in you?

Have you understood or understood what God has said in His Word about following Him? Can you actually say, give me Jesus? That's all I want. That's all I need. I want the Christ. I want to follow him. I want to serve him. And that's what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get them to understand. So he says, listen, this is why your hearts are hardened. This is why you're not responding. You're hearing what the Spirit of God says.

Today, if you hear His voice, as the Spirit says, don't harden your hearts. You've heard what the Spirit says about the Christ. What will you do? How will you respond? Because if you don't respond now, for today is the day of salvation. You are in danger of doing exactly what your forefathers did, of hardening your hearts. And that illustration comes from the life of Pharaoh, who hardened his heart against God. And then God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And when God hardens your heart, all opportunity to respond to the light is negated.

You will die and perish in your sins. That's the warning. But not only were they indifferent to the Word of God, they were ignorant. Of the ways of God. But I'll cover that for you next week. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you for the truth of your word, the opportunity to examine ourselves in light of it. And may we come this day before the Lord's table with clean hands, pure hearts. Ready to embrace all that you have as we remember our Lord's death until he comes again. In Jesus' name, amen.