Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. Welcome back to “Christ Supreme in All Things.” In today’s passage, the overarching message is “Do Not Harden Your Hearts.” That’s the message the writer of Hebrews is trying to convey to his original audience, this group of Jewish Christians who are waffling in their commitment to Christ. And so, to emphasize his point, the author recalls that great paradigmatic story of waffling from the OT. 

Now when you look at the OT, there is one episode in that great book that is more significant for the Jewish people than all the others. It’s not the creation of the world in Genesis 1-2. It’s not the birth of Abraham or Isaac or Jacob, as important as those events are. It’s not the birth of David or the slaying of Goliath. The great story of the OT that gets repeated again and again as emblematic of God’s love for the Israelites is the Exodus. And the author of Hebrews piggybacks on that great story here. And it was a great story! 

The Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. They were mercilessly treated by their Egyptian captors after the kindness shown to them by the Hebrew Joseph. And yet, after ten devastating plagues by the God of Israel facilitated through Moses and Aaron, the Egyptians couldn’t wait to get the Israelites out of Egypt. And the Israelites were enriched as they left Egypt. And not only had God shown his power to them by these great plagues, but they also saw the amazing parting of the Red Sea. After seeing that great salvation, how could these Israelites ever doubt Yahweh, their God? How could they ever second-guess him or pine for Egypt again? 

And yet, that’s what they did. They grumbled in the wilderness. They murmured. They hardened their hearts. And the result of that hardening is that out of the thousands and thousands of Israelites that left Egypt through the miraculous deliverance of Yahweh, only two (over twenty years of age) entered the Promised Land: Joshua and Caleb (Num 14:29-30; 32:11-12). Even Moses’s hard heart got him in hot water with the LORD. And as the Israelites entered Canaan, he was on the outside looking in (Num 20:1-13; Deut 34:1-12). 

And so now the writer of Hebrews is taking that great episode in Israel’s history and warning them, “Don’t you do like them. Don’t you harden your hearts.” “You got saved. Jesus Christ delivered you from sin and death. But now you are second-guessing? Now you are pining after your pre-Christian days because of persecution? Don’t you go there. Don’t you de-convert.” 

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Here’s your outline for today. The enemy of this passage is a hard heart. We want to combat that. Charles Spurgeon said once, “Your hearts are every day either softening or hardening. The sun that shines with vehement heat melts the wax, but it, at the same time, hardens the clay.” So here are three ways to battle hard hearts as followers of Jesus. The first way is to… 

1) Heed the Holy Spirit (3:7-11)

The author says this in verse 7,

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 

Let’s start with that “therefore” and try to find out what it is there for. Last time we talked about Jesus as greater than Moses. And that was important because Moses was revered in the first century Jewish community. And the author of Hebrews said in verse 6, “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son.” Son trumps servant. Jesus trumps Moses. End of story. That was the overarching message from this passage (Heb 3:1-6). 

But look at the end of verse 6, “And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” That’s one of those pesky statements the author makes about the perseverance of the saints. And he’s not done with that topic. That leads right into verse 7 where he’s going to connect this statement about the perseverance of the saints with a passage that talks about the lack of perseverance among the OT Israelites. 

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 

Notice the present tense “says” by the way here. That’s intriguing. The Word of God is living and active. It speaks today. And the Holy Spirit speaks through it (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:21). 

“Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

What’s he talking about here? Well he’s talking about the Exodus. But he’s not talking about the fun parts of the Exodus where God did amazing miracles. That’s understood. He’s talking instead about the whiny, grumbling Israelites in the wilderness.

The specific passage that he’s quoting here isn’t from the Pentateuch. He’s actually quoting from Psalm 95 which is a historical psalm that summarizes the wilderness wandering of the Israelites. In fact, this psalm was one that was recited frequently in the Jewish synagogues. 

Let’s turn to that passage quickly. Psalm 95 starts, “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” 

You might say, “This psalm is great. There’s no mention of wilderness wandering here anywhere! Or hardness of heart!” Well, keep reading. The Psalmist writes in verse 7, “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah [Hebrew for “quarrelling” or “rebellion”], as on the day at Massah [Hebrew: “testing”] in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 

Now Psalm 95 was written around 1,000 BC. And the psalmist was saying in his day, “Yahweh is awesome, so don’t be like the Israelites in the wilderness who rebelled against him.” And now the author of Hebrews is saying likewise, “Yahweh Jesus is awesome, so don’t be like the Israelites in the wilderness who rebelled against him.” Today, if you hear his voice (via the Holy Spirit), listen to him. Obey him. 

So back to Hebrews 3. 

“Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion [Meribah], on the day of testing [Massah] in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” 

The author of Hebrews is connecting his first century world and the first century Jewish Christians to the Hebrews of the OT. And he’s saying, “Don’t do like them. Don’t harden your hearts like them. Stay sensitive and teachable to God’s voice!”

By the way, the actual location of Meribah and Massah is a place called Rephidim near Mt. Sinai (see Ex 17:1; Num 33:14-15). And what took place there was that the Israelites were complaining about a lack of water. So Moses struck the “rock of Horeb” and the water came out (Ex 17:1-7). And it was because of their complaining that Rephidim received the nicknames “Meribah” and “Massah.” 

The same thing happened years later in Kadesh-Barnea on the cusp of entering the Promised Land with a new generation of Israelites grumbling about water. That place got nicknamed “Meribah” too (Num 20:13, 24; 27:14). There is more than one location called “Meribah” in the OT because the Israelites were prone to rebellion. But this Meribah was especially infamous, because this is where Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it (Num 20:1-13). Moses’s hard heart and disobedience to God’s voice got him barred from the Promised Land too!

And the idea here is that when you hear God’s voice, and when you see God’s salvation, don’t harden your hearts towards him. Don’t let cynicism, negativity, or unbelief get the best of you. 

You might say, “How does God speak in our modern-day world, Pastor Tony? We aren’t Israelites in the wilderness.” True. But God is still speaking through his Holy Spirit. The author of Hebrews alludes to this in verse 7. The Holy Spirit speaks through God’s Word. The Holy Spirit speaks through the pages of the Bible. The Holy Spirit speaks likewise through conviction and through prompting and through the strengthening of your inner man (Eph 3:16; Rom 7:22-23). 

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. The Holy Spirit who co-wrote these Scriptures is the same Holy Spirit who indwells you as a believer. That’s a remarkable truth. And he’s the same Holy Spirit who draws unbelievers to salvation in Christ. If you hear his voice, if you sense his prompting, don’t harden your heart to him. Don’t be like Pharaoh in Egypt, and don’t be like Israelites in the wilderness. Heed him. Heed the Holy Spirit. 

Charles Spurgeon said once that the Bible never tells us to “repent tomorrow or wait for some convenient [time] to believe.” No, the Bible says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 

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Go ahead and write this down as #2. How do we battle hard hearts as followers of Jesus? First, we heed the Holy Spirit. And second, we… 

2) Exhort one another daily (3:12-13) 

Look at verse 12 with me. 

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 

This is a direct command from the author of Hebrews. This is an imperative mood verb—“Take care.” Do this! The Greek word is βλέπω which simply means to “look.” Look inward, brothers. Examine your heart. If there is evil there, cut it out. If there is unbelief there, mortify it. Don’t let unbelief fester. Don’t foster God-defiance in your heart.

What should we do instead? How do we combat a hard heart of unbelief? Well, we do the opposite. We soften our hearts towards God’s voice. We trust God; we don’t doubt him. We read his Word and believe it. And we apply it! We obey him, and we are sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. 

I heard a story once about a pastor who was counseling a young person coming home from college. He was a Christian kid who had left for college and started to doubt his Christian faith. And as he was speaking with the pastor he started saying, “How do I know that Jesus is really the only way to salvation? And how can I know that I am truly saved? And how can we really even trust the Bible?” 

So this pastor was prepared to tell this student all of his brilliant ideas about apologetics and the reliability of the Christian faith. But in that moment, he realized that something else was going on. And he simply asked this young Christian man, “Okay, how long have you been sleeping with your girlfriend?” And this college student said, “How did you know?” And the pastor said, “That’s the source of your unbelief. You are sinning, and that sin is harassing you. It’s causing you to doubt your assurance of salvation.”

The author of Hebrews gives us a sober warning here.

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 

Part of the Christian life is introspection. The Apostle Paul said, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5). The Apostle Peter said, “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” (2 Pet 1:10).

And as part of that introspection, look at verse 13. 

13 But exhort one another every day,

That’s a really encouraging verse right there. Because this doesn’t have to be an isolated thing. There’s introspection, but there is also community. Philip Hughes writes this in his commentary, “Christians have a corporate as well as an individual responsibility. Personal concern that is merely introspective and introverted is both selfish and unhealthy.” Hughes adds concerning the Israelites, “How different might have been the story of the Israelites in the wilderness if only they had daily fostered among themselves a constant faith in God instead of mutually inciting a spirit of rebellion and unbelief!” 

The author of Hebrews says it this way. Actually he gives a command.

13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

Here’s another command in verse 13. “Exhort one another.” The Greek is παρακαλέω meaning “urge” or “exhort” or even “plead.” And “one another” is code here for those in the church (i.e. the “brothers” at the beginning of verse 12). 

In fact the author says, “Exhort one another every day!” Do you see that in verse 13? “No, Pastor Tony, I only do Christian things on Sunday.” Well not according to this verse. We have a daily duty to help our brothers and sisters in Christ to battle hardheartedness. Maybe that comes through phone calls and texts one to another? Maybe that’s done through small group engagement throughout the week? Maybe that comes as husbands and wives and family members exhort one another to stave off sin, and stave off unbelief, and stave off bitterness, and stave off the hardening of our hearts?

“As long as it is called ‘today.’” Everyone see that? Today. Remember what Jesus said, “Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt 6:34, NIV). The KJV says it this way, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Don’t worry about tomorrow. Don’t be overly concerned about what’s coming down the pike. The battle is a daily battle. Fight sin today. Fight unbelief today. Fight hardheartedness in this present darkness. Make war against it now. 

I remember hearing John Piper say once, “I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings — and I see so little war. Murmur, murmur, murmur. “Why am I this way?” Make war! If you wonder how to make war, go to the manual. Don’t just bellyache about your failures. Make war!” 

That’s so inspiring to me. But I would add to that, that war-making and sin-defying doesn’t have to be a one-man battle. It’s not you against the world. Yes, Christ is with you. And yes, Christ gives you the strength. But also Christ has given you his church. He has given you brothers and sisters in Christ as fellow soldiers in the battle against sin.  Access that power. Don’t fight sin in isolation.  

Rich Mullins said it so many years ago, “I will be my brother’s keeper.” You know who asked cynically, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain did after he killed his brother (Gen 4:9). Don’t be like Cain. Be your brother’s keeper. “Exhort one another every day.”

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So the battle against hardheartedness involves heeding the Spirit. It involves exhorting one another daily. One more thing. Go ahead and write this down as #3. It also involves feeding our faith. How else can we battle hard hearts as followers of Jesus? Here’s how. We…

3) Feed our faith not unbelief (3:14-19)

The writer of Hebrews says, 

14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 

See that “perseverance of the saints” talk again. You better get used to that. This is a repeated motif throughout the book of Hebrews. And the basic idea is this—real Christians persevere. Real Christians aren’t just professors, they are progressors. They are perseverers. 

By the way, the “come to share in” language here is μέτοχος, which means a “partner” or a “partaker.” It’s the same word that Luke uses in Luke 5:7 when Peter signaled for James and John to come help them with their amazing catch of fish that Jesus triggered. Remember that? Luke says, “They [Peter and probably Andrew] signaled to their partners [μέτοχος, James and John] in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.” In a similar way, we are “partners” with Christ, we are “partakers” with Christ, we are co-heirs with Christ Jesus if we hold fast to our original confidence till the end. 

The “original confidence” is a reference to our faith. In other words, true believers persevere. True partakers are perseverers. They don’t bug out after a few hardships in this life. They don’t defy God and abandon him on the way to the Promised Land. The technical word for that is apostatize. True believers don’t apostatize. Apostasy happens when false converts prove themselves unbelievers. Does that ever happen in Christian circles? Does that ever happen in the church? You better believe it does. 

And here’s how the author of Hebrews analogizes what he sees with the events of the OT. 

15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 

Don’t be like those Israelites who defied God and stopped listening to God. 

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 

17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 

18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 

This string of rhetorical questions is a literary device called a subjectio [sub-yek-tio]. It’s a way of piling on questions to make a point. That’s what the author does here. He piles on the rhetorical questions. 

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? 

Answer: “The Israelites.”

Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 

Answer: “Yes, it was. They saw God’s power displayed in Egypt and yet they still rebelled.”

17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? 

Answer: “Once again, the Israelites… those Israelites who saw his power in the Exodus provoked him.” 

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 

Answer: “Yes! Yes, it was.” “Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who believed God’s Word concerning the Promised Land. And they were the only ones who didn’t die in the wilderness.”

18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 

Answer: “Those Israelites. Those Israelites and nobody else. That’s who he swore to.” 

19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. 

It’s amazing to me how the author of Hebrews equates disobedience and unbelief. They are two sides of the same coin. They are both the products of hardheartedness. 

But theologically speaking, I have to conclude that one does proceed from the other. Just like faithfulness flows from faith, so unfaithfulness flows from unbelief. In other words, disobedience results from doubt and rejection of God’s Word. And the warning here in Hebrews is “Don’t you go down that road of disbelief.” “Don’t you harden your heart.” 

Here’s how I’m framing it in this message. “Feed your faith, not unbelief.” “How do I feed my faith, Pastor Tony?” Well, get to church on Sunday morning and hear God’s Word preached. Get into the Word daily, not just Sunday. Get into a small group where men and women are challenging you and encouraging you and exhorting you in your faith. And hopefully they are also helping you beat back the enticement of sin in your heart. 

Al Mohler says this: “Immersing oneself in the community of saints, in the care and watchfulness of the local church, in the preaching of God’s Word, and in the exhortation of fellow believers remedies an evil, unbelieving heart. These things protect us from falling away. The author again highlights the urgency of this task. We must immerse ourselves in these things ‘today.’ Tomorrow is no guarantee.” 

And let me give you a final thing that feeds your faith. Always remember the gospel. Never stop glorying in the truth of the gospel. Sing songs about the gospel. Pray prayers of thanksgiving for the gospel. “What’s the gospel, Pastor Tony?” It’s that we as sinners were condemned before a righteous God. But God in his mercy sent his son to die for us, and faith in his death and resurrection changes us from sinners to saints… from enemies of God to sons and daughters of God. That’s the gospel. 

And part of that gospel, as this passage alludes to, is that we will someday enter into God’s rest. “What’s that mean, Pastor Tony? Entering into God’s rest? I want that.” Yeah, me too. Come back next week and we’ll talk about it. 

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Let me switch gears here before we close with communion. I want to share an important story with you. I had a good friend in Illinois who was something of a mentor to me. He served as an elder with me for a while. And he actually led this small group in the Chicago area that was eclectic with many different kinds of people. And he had this one guy in his group that was just kind of there. He would come every week, and he would participate. But he wasn’t really active in terms of spiritual disciplines. He was nebulous with his theology. He was evasive with accountability questions. 

Well one Sunday the pastor preached a simple gospel message, and lo and behold, this guy came forward at the end of the service and prayed with an elder to receive Christ. The reason that this guy was so blah in small group is because he wasn’t really saved. He was just following the crowd. And he had done this for years. 

Tommy Nelson tells a similar story about someone in their church they just called “Granny,” an older lady in the congregation who everyone thought was saved. But sure enough, she got saved late in life. She confessed to the fact that, despite being a fixture in the church for decades, she had never trusted Christ as her Savior. 

You know stories like that terrify me as a pastor. I wonder to myself, “Who’s faking it here at church?” And thankfully, I believe in the sovereignty of God. It doesn’t ultimately hinge on me or my ability to discern the sincerity of every person’s faith in this room. But I do want to say this, and I want to say it as a minister of the gospel and as the senior pastor of this church. Listen, God’s Word teaches that we are sinners condemned for eternity, and it’s only by faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” If you are hearing that today for the first time or the thousandth time, let me implore you, don’t harden your heart to the gospel today. 

By the way, what’s the most common word used in this passage—Hebrews 3:7-19? It’s the word “today” (3:7, 13, 15). Today if you hear his voice don’t harden your heart! I don’t know about tomorrow. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow. The Bible doesn’t tell you to repent and heed God’s Word tomorrow. It says “today.” So if the shoe fits, you wear it! Receive the Word of God today. Believe the Word of God today and put your faith in Christ.