Hebrews chapter 3. We're going to be looking at
verses 7. Actually, I'll go to verse 12
and make a comment or two, but really verse 12, I'd like to
take up in more detail next week, but we'll call it verses 3 to
12. But before we read, let's have
a word of prayer. Our Father, are so thankful this
evening that You've allowed us another time, one more time,
to be able to come together and to hear Your Word. Lord, cause
us to enter in, being blessed by Your Holy Spirit, to that
which You have to say to us. Speak, we pray. For Christ's
sake, cause us to hear. In the name of the Lord Jesus,
we ask these things. Amen. Let's read verses 7 to 12. Wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost saith today, if you will hear His voice, harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation,
and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have
not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an heart of unbelief in departing from the
living God." When we began this chapter, the
Apostle, by the Spirit of God, instructed God's people to consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Now that consideration encompasses
His deity and His humanity. It's talking about Him who is
the Apostle sent from God, Deity. And it's talking about the High
Priest of our profession, Deity, joined with human flesh who is
now ever living to make intercession for us. Now, we consider Him,
observe Him, the Apostle says. Consider Him with weight. in
light of God's mercy, that we could even consider Him tonight,
to think this is He who has come from heaven, God Himself, the
Word made flesh, joined to humanity. A body hast Thou prepared me. And now He who intercedes for
us, pleading His own merit, His own blood. Now what was it that
we considered? Well, verse 2 told us, "...who
was faithful to him that appointed him." Faithful. Just like the
last half of verse 2, Moses was faithful in all of his house,
not Moses' house, in the Lord's house. Moses was faithful in
God's house. Faithfully, he spoke the testimony
that the Lord gave him from Mount Sinai. Faithful. But the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Scripture says forth, verse 3, was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses because inasmuch as he who hath built
the house hath more honor than the house, Christ is the Son
over His own house, whose house we are, the Scripture says, verse
6, if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm
unto the end. Now, I want us to look at the
Scriptures tonight And I want us to understand one thing. I
want to bring something out so I can set forth something and
clarify before we even go any farther. That word, if, in verse
6, it is not if we hold fast. There is no possibility that
a regenerated sheep can possibly ever be lost. You know that. There is no possibility that
those that Almighty God has everlastingly loved, those that the Son has
eternally betrothed Himself to, gave Himself to, united them
with Himself, there is no possibility that any of God's people are
ever going to be lost. Salvation is by the grace of
God. You know that. But that word,
if, right there, is a word that is placed there by the Spirit
of God that we might consider in light of the Scriptures whether
our profession lines up with God's Word. Now, I'm going to
tell you something. Everybody and their brother considers themselves, by and
large, to be saved. Are you a Christian? Yes, I'm
a Christian. And I hear people on television all the time. Everybody's
a Christian. Popular to be a Christian. It's not our ability to hold
to the Lord Jesus Christ But it's our confidence in the Lord
Jesus Christ that He holds us. We know that. If Almighty God
keeps us, it's going to evidence itself in a certain way. So this
Scripture that we're getting ready to look at tonight is not
set forth to cause God's people to doubt. It's a setting forth
of God's standard by which God Almighty sets forth, this is
the way my people are. And I'll tell you what a believer
will do. As I've said before, believers' spiritual ears, as
soon as he hears something like that, his ears will go up. They'll
turn it like a horse. They're going to go, I want to
hear what the Word of God has got to say. Let me hear what
the Spirit says. The Lord Jesus Christ, faithful
apostle from God, faithful high priest, counted worthy of more
glory and honor. Moses, the scripture says, faithful,
faithful, faithfully. Moses himself, the
law himself, our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. causes
us to cast ourselves upon the mercy of Almighty God. Faithful. Faithful. So we're considering
tonight the issue of faithfulness before God. The Scripture begins in verse
7, and the first word is wherefore. And then there's a parenthesis. And I want you to notice where
that parenthesis ends. the end of verse 11. So really,
you could read the word wherefore in verse 7 and go right to verse
12 and it would read like this. Wherefore, take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. Now the Spirit of God is going
to reveal something. Paul the Apostle is speaking.
I believe that's who wrote this. The Apostle is speaking to a
group of Jews, and Paul is reminding them of something. And this something
is taken by the Spirit of God, and it's brought out of the book
of Psalms, Psalm 95, verses 7 to 11. That's a quote from verse
7, as the Holy Ghost saith, right on down through the end of the
11th chapter. It's a quote out of Psalm 95. And this is what the Apostle
Paul is saying as the Spirit of God speaks. He said there was a lot of shouting,
a lot of rejoicing, a lot of happiness, an outward show when
Israel came out of Egypt. They were all happy. The Lord
had delivered them. But 40 years revealed something
that the first day didn't. It was there, but that first
day didn't reveal it. The truth of the matter was that
many that came out of Egypt were not God's elect. They were not
found in the Lord Jesus Christ, and time proved it. Now tonight,
the Spirit of God, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, today,
if you will hear His voice, The actual literal of that is, if
you hear His voice. If you hear His voice. If you
have ears to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, harden not
your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years. Now, let me tell you the beauty
of that Scripture. The Holy Spirit is telling believers. Now, this word can be to those
that were there, the Hebrews. It can be here to us. It can
be to me, to you. Listen. Listen. He is telling
those that hear His voice to not do something, that is, harden
your hearts, Harden not your hearts. He's telling them to
not do something that only God Himself can keep them from doing. Harden not your heart. I'm going
to tell you something, if the Lord doesn't do that for me,
if God Almighty doesn't keep me, I'm not going to be able
to keep myself. Harden not your heart, just like
this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you do that? Not unless Almighty God gives
you faith to believe. You can't. Harden not your heart. And a believer immediately will
say, Lord, oh, keep me by Your grace. Lord, help me. Without You, I can do nothing. We find this expression, hardening
the heart. We find that expression often
in the Word of God, and for the most part, it's pertaining or
it's connected with, actually, spiritual blindness and unbelief. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Mark, the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 3,
Mark 3. Mark 3, look in verse 1 to 5,
and he entered, Mark 3, Verse 1, He entered again into the
synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath
day that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which
had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them,
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil? To
save life or to kill? But they held their peace. And
when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness," where that word is interpreted, the blindness
of their hearts, "...he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine
hand. And he stretched it out, and
his hand was restored whole as the other." A new heart hears
the voice of Christ and follows Him. A hard heart, a hardened
heart is that heart of a stony ground hearer that eventually
will evidence itself. There are scriptures that ascribe
this act of hardening of the heart. Sometimes it's ascribed
to the Lord doing it. Turn with me to Exodus 4, Exodus
chapter 4. Exodus 4.21, and the Lord said unto Moses,
When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those
wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand. But
I will harden his heart, and he shall not let the people go. Look at chapter 7 of Exodus,
Exodus 7, 13. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart
that he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. And the
Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses
to let the people go. And then in the New Testament,
I want you to turn to the Gospel according to John chapter 12.
John 12, verse 37, But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the
saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he
spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath
the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe
because that Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes
nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should
heal them. The scripture sets forth. Brother
Henry Mahan made a comment on this Scripture and he said, they
would not believe and they could not believe. Men by nature will not come to
Christ and they cannot come to Christ unless God is pleased
and graced to call them, to teach them, to reveal to them His redemptive
glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the facts. Almighty
God is sovereign. And a man is responsible before
God for unbelief. Harden not your heart. If Almighty God withholds light,
man has no hope. But listen to me. They would
not believe they would not believe. His ways are not our ways. His ways are far above our ways. Do you know what a believer does
right now? He casts himself upon God Almighty and he says, Lord,
help me. Lord, help me. Don't leave me
to myself. Almighty God has set forth these
Scriptures to cause His people to cast themselves upon His mercy. Oh, that He would show mercy
to this frail creature. Harden not your hearts as in
the provocation. Now, we realize that that's a
command that can only be obeyed by Almighty God giving us a new
heart. This is what the The Spirit of
God is saying, don't be harsh. Don't be harsh or stubborn or
hard against the Lord as your fathers were in the wilderness.
That's what He's saying. Don't. Don't do it. Don't do
it. This attitude, it usually doesn't manifest itself all at
one time. They came out and what they did,
they began to to set forth that they were thankful
for that which the Lord had done for them. He said, Harden not
your hearts, as in the provocation and the day of temptation in
the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years. Now, Israel's rebellion was set
forth under two terms. They tempted me. They proved
me. Well, I had to look it up. I
mean, this is one of those Scriptures that you just... You know, I
want to know. I want to know what the Spirit
of God is saying. They tempted me. Tempting. To
try from an evil motive to manipulate God. Tempted. To try from an evil motive. I want you to turn to Matthew
4. I know we're turning a lot, but that's OK. Matthew 4, verse 5 to 7, to tempt, to try
from an evil motive to manipulate God. Matthew 4, verse 5, then
the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him
on a pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him, Thou be the Son of God." What
disrespect! You that believe, there is no
if with you. There is no if with you when
it comes to Him being God's Son. Lord, as you say, Lord you are. Thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge
concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus saith
unto him, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. This is tempt, to try from an
evil motive to manipulate God. You that believe, you know what
you're doing? You're bowing. See, when the
apostle wrote to these Jews, he was telling them, he said,
this is the evidence of an unbeliever. From an evil heart, they'll attempt
to manipulate God. What a believer does is they
bow. They bow. They bow to God's good providence. Tempt the Lord thy God. Don't
tempt him with presumption or with distrust. Don't tempt God
by presuming him to do what you think he should. That's to question
his sovereignty. You just sing a song about if
it's health or if it's sickness, if it's wealth, if it's poverty. We don't question His goodness,
mercy, and grace. Lord, as You have so directed,
thank You. A believer would never, never
question God's sovereignty, never question God's providence. Oh,
there is a... I know the frailty of our flesh.
Believe me, I know. But I'll tell you this, a believer
is going to bow. They're going to bow. That word
doesn't come. His gospel doesn't come in word
only. It comes in power and in the
Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. And they follow after. They tempted
me and they proved me to test for the reason of acceptance. Now this is what I mean. Can you imagine the heart, the
evil heart of unbelief that says, I am not going to believe God
unless he proves himself to me. You know, Thomas made a statement
like that, and by God's grace, the Lord revealed Himself to
him and showed him. And for every child of God, He
does the same. We find ourselves struggling,
I know. But God Almighty for Christ's
sake has shown mercy to us. But if the Lord leaves us to
an evil heart of unbelief, that we would question His sovereignty,
question His dealings, and put Him to the test? Who art thou? Paul says, O man
that replies against God. Whenever an unbeliever hears
of God's sovereign grace, do you know why they hate that gospel,
hate that message of God's sovereignty? because Almighty God has revealed. There's a stony heart there. For those that He's everlastingly
loved, He said, I'm going to remove that heart of stone. If He does not remove a heart
of stone, He's God. If He removes that heart of stone,
He does so in power and mercy and grace and compassion. You
that believe the very thought of questioning His sovereignty,
think, how can I question Him that is so good to me? How can
I doubt to prove Him, to ask or to demand
of Him A reason for me to accept His providence? Paul summed it up with this. How can you say, why have you
made me thus? A believer can't. That thought
just can't. It's just not there. He's going
to bow to God Almighty. He said, harden not your hearts
As in the provocation of the day of temptation of the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, tempted me, proved
me and saw my works forty years. They crossed the Red Sea on dry
ground. I don't I don't care what people
say, I don't care if they say it was really the Reed Sea and
it was really low tide. Almighty God parted the waters.
They walked across, the Scripture says, on dry ground. They ate
manna every day. They ate quail. There was a rock
that followed them. And they drank from the rock. Fiery serpents were biting them.
Moses built a brazen altar. God told him, he said, you lift
up that brazen serpent. And he said, whosoever looks
is going to be healed. They'll live. A pillar of a cloud
guided them during the day. And it was a pillar of fire.
And that pillar of fire moved and they followed it. Forty years,
your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years."
You think, I just can't imagine. I can't imagine anybody beholding
the wonder and the power and the grace of Almighty God. I can't imagine anybody, not
bowing to Him that had such obviously manifested Himself. This church has been here over
fifty years. Fifty years. Almighty God raised up a faithful
preacher. And the miracle of God's grace
and mercy was manifested in the lives of some people in this
community. And God Almighty has called them
out of darkness. And He's taught them the glorious
gospel of free grace. And men's hearts are hardened
against it. Hardened against the God of this
Bible. You're going to have to prove
more to me, that's what they say, than that. Harden not your
heart. Wherefore I was grieved, verse
10, with that generation, and said, They do always err in their
heart, and they have not known my ways. It is the evidence of
unbelief. to tempt, to prove, to doubt,
to rebel against God's Christ. Whenever the Spirit of God says
unto us, and we have ears to hear, when He says, harden not
your hearts, with that command comes the power
that their hearts are not hardened. When they hear the command, harden
not your heart, the power and grace and mercy and compassion
of God is what keeps them from hardening their hearts. I don't
have the power to either not harden it or to keep it from
not being hardened. I don't have that power. Salvation
is of the Lord. I can apply this Word to myself. The Spirit of God can say to
me, Marvin, don't harden your heart. And my thought is this,
Lord, if You keep me, I'm kept. Lord, if You turn me, I'm turned.
Lord, but if You leave me to myself, what am I going to do? You see, this Scripture sets
forth the marvelous grace of God in keeping His people. Do you have a heart that is not
hard before God? Who gets all the honor for that? He has made us and not we ourselves. If you can find an ounce of rejoicing,
it is because God Almighty has kept you. Those that came out
and hardened their hearts, do you think that their hearts
were truly hardened? Yes, they were. The Lord said,
I was grieved with that generation. They do always err in their heart. They have not known My ways. If any of us here don't err in
our hearts, you know why we don't. because He's given us a new heart
and kept us. If we don't err in our ways,
it's because He by Spirit has led us. Oh, I'm telling you what
great rejoicing we have for the mercy of God Almighty. He would
do something for us that we couldn't do. They've not known my ways,
not understood my ways. That is, they don't understand
the way that I work. That's what it means. They don't
know the way I walk. They don't know my means. The
secret counsel of Almighty God, that belongs to Him. That which
is revealed belongs to us and our children. The Lord, in closing, has revealed
His pleasure in His people assembling to worship. Harden not your hearts. I've
thought an awful lot about a scripture that I spoke on when I was down
in Spring Lake here last week. Paul exhorted the people, he
said, continue in the grace of God. I've made mention of this
before. I need to hear it again. Continue
in the grace of God. Let me tell you, well, first
of all, think about this. How am I going to continue in
the grace of God unless God Almighty continues me in the grace of
God? You see what I'm saying? These are commands. You ever
notice how the Lord commands that which is impossible for
us to do? How will you believe unless He
gives me faith? How will you come when He says,
No man can come except my Father. Oh, but if you do, you don't
tempt Him. You don't tempt Him out of an
evil heart. You don't try to prove Him. Let
me tell you what you do. You thank Him. You thank Him
for His mercy and grace Continuing the grace of God,
I wrote this down. The Lord has revealed His pleasure
in His people assembling to worship, and they love to do it. And His people delight in following
after Him according to His providence, and to meet with them in secret
prayer. When you pray, continue in the
grace of God. Make much of hearing the gospel
preached. Continue in the grace of God.
Search the Scriptures. Search the Scriptures. Continue
in the grace of God when you pray. God's people don't harden their
heart against that because God Almighty keeps it. So I swear, verse 11, in my wrath,
they shall not enter into my rest. Now, that rest back in
the Old Testament was actually Canaan. It was a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Canaan is a picture. You say,
well, that's a picture of heaven. Yeah, that's good. That's true.
Christ, who is our rest. God's people enter into rest
right now. You're resting right now. You're
resting now. You're resting in Christ. You're
resting in comfort. You're resting in peace. You're
resting in love. You're resting in hope, joy. There's a rest for the people
of God. And there's an eternal rest.
Heaven itself. Canaan. A picture. A rest. From our labors, God Almighty said, for those
that harden their hearts against Him, against His Christ, against
His gospel, I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my
rest. And I'm going to read verse 12,
and Lord willing, we'll take this up. Paul says, Brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God. I'll leave you with this thought. And we'll take this
up next time. No believer that Almighty God
has called out of darkness ever departs. They don't. They will
not. They cannot because we're kept
by the power of God. That statement right there is
a statement or a standard by which men consider what Almighty
God says concerning their stand before Him. They believe Him. And when you find one who claims,
who professes to be a believer, And they do not measure up to
this book. And can I give you the one, one
measurement? There's one measurement. There's
one, one right here. There's one measurement. Here
it is. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear him. Hear him. Hear him. When we hear Him, I'll tell you
what we'll do. We'll hear Him in the Gospel.
We'll hear the Lord Jesus Christ set forth by His Holy Spirit
that Almighty God the Father chose a people in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And He did so because it pleased
Him. And we won't harden our heart
against that. We're going to say that electing grace is sovereign
grace. They'll hear the Lord Jesus Christ and He'll say, I lay down my
life for the sheep. They'll hear Him say, all that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." They'll hear Him say in that high priestly
prayer, Father, I pray not for the world, but I pray for those
You've given Me out of the world. Thine they were, Thou gavest
them Me. They'll hear Him say, You have given Me power over
all flesh that I might give eternal life. to all that you've given
me, to whomsoever I will." And they won't harden their heart
against that. They'll hear of irresistible
grace. They'll hear of the Spirit of God that blows like the wind
and calls God's people. They'll hear the Apostle Paul
say, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb, He called me by His grace and
revealed His Son in me. And if you have ears to hear,
let me tell you something, you don't harden your heart against
that. You say, Lord, that's the greatest message I ever heard
in my life because it's an expression of Your heart. If you hear His
voice, harden not your heart. And God's people have a heart
that's not hard for Him. They love Him. They love Him
who is God Almighty. They bow to Him. This is not
a message that causes God's people to doubt. This is a message of
God's standard whereby God Almighty says this is the way my people
are. This is what they believe. This is what they know. This
is how they're going to act. They're not going to tempt me.
They're not going to have an evil heart. They're not going
to manipulate me. That's not fair. They're not
going to prove me. They're not going to say, well,
you're going to have to show me something more than that. You think I'm going to believe
that just because I found this in a book? God's people do. What sayeth
the Scriptures? Oh, may the Lord be pleased to
bless us to our heart, cause us to be thankful for His indescribable
mercy and grace. Harden not your heart in God's
people. Say, Lord, thank you for giving
me a new heart, a heart of flesh. For Christ's sake, amen.