Jesus is > than our Unbelief
Hebrews 3:7-19
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Downtown Fellowship
8-18-19
La Mano
[Picture - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mano_de_Punta_del_Este#/media/File:Thehandofpuntadeleste.jpg]
In the coastal town of Punta de Esta in Uruguay, there is a very famous statue emerging out of the sand on one of the most popular beaches. It is called “La Mano,” or “The Hand” and depicts the hand of a drowning man coming out of the sand. It was created by a Chilean artist as a warning that the waters off the coast were very dangerous for swimming and many people had drowned there.
In the same way, the verses we are going to study today serve as a warning for believers that were being tempted to find their hope in something other than the Gospel.
Jesus >
The book of Hebrews was written to early house churches in the area of Rome that were be persecuted for their faith.
We aren’t sure who wrote the book but we know it was written some time before AD 70 because the author doesn’t mention the destruction of the Temple.
In the first two chapters, we see a theme emerging. Jesus is greater. He’s greater than the prophets that came before Him. He’s greater than the angels. He’s even greater than Moses!
Verses 1-6 of chapter three, the case is made that Jesus and Moses were both faithful but Moses was a servant in God’s house while Jesus was a Son who created the house.
In verses 7-19, the writer is going to use the example of the Israelites unfaithfulness as a warning to these early Christians, and us, to keep holding on to our faith when things get difficult.
Turn with me to Hebrews 3:7.
Prayer
Illustration
The writer of Hebrews begins with an illustration.
That’s what David is doing in these verses and the writer of Hebrews cites these verses to say, “Hey remember how the Israelites test God with their ungrateful grumbling? Yeah, don’t be like them!”
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” (Hebrews 3:7-11)
The writer of Hebrews moves from a positive example of Moses faithfulness to the negative example of the Israelites unfaithfulness.
When writing about the Israelites time wandering in the desert, Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” (I Cor 10:11)
These verses are actually a commentary on an Old Testament passage from Psalm 95.
Notice that it begins, “as the Holy Spirit says…”. David wrote this Psalm under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Paul told Timothy that all Scriptures are “God breathed” (I Tim 3:16) and in the next chapter of Hebrews we see that the Word is “alive and active.” (Hebrews 4:12)
Notice also the tense - “as the Holy Spirit says…”. It is present tense. The Word spoke the original hearers of Psalm 95 and to the hearers of this letter. But it also speaks to us today.
The writer then quotes the second half of Psalm 95. The first half is a call to worship. But the second half recounts a very dark time in Israel’s history.
After 430 years of slavery in Egypt, God delivered them through a series of plagues, signs, and wonders. Moses lead them out of Egypt and the entire nation witnessed the parting of the Red Sea and the rescue from Pharaoh’s troops.
The Promised Land of Canaan was only an eleven days journey from the Red Sea. All they had to do was follow the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day and in less than two weeks they would be in the land of “milk and honey.”
David issues a command not to “harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.”
He is probably remembering at least two different very sad stories.
In Exodus 17, we find the Israelites in the Desert of Sin, geographically and spiritually. At Rephidim, they camped and the whole group began to grumble.
They were thirsty and that place had no water. So they grumbled at Moses, “Give us water to drink. God just brought us out of Egypt to watch us die of thirst!”
In Numbers, we see the Israelites wailing and craving the food of Egypt:
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6)
This is absurd! They had seen God take care of them in miraculous ways. Instead of trusting that God would provide them water to drink they began to complain and murmur.
They were ready to stone Moses to death when God told him to grab his staff and strike the rock Horeb and water will flow from it.
“And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7)
“Masaah” means trial and “Meribah” means quarreling. They were only a few days out of Egypt and they are already fighting with God and doubting His goodness.
David said that God was “angry with this generation…their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my ways.”
The word “angry” here is a word picture for waves crashing against rocks. Notice He did take their behaviors to task. He focused on their hearts. They had heart condition. They didn’t trust God, even after everything they had seen and experienced.
So God declared that they would never enter His rest. The concept of “rest” in important in the book of Hebrews.
Here David is writing about the rest that would come when the Promise Land was theirs.
So first we have an illustration. Next we have an instruction. Hebrews moves between exposition concerning Jesus and exhortations that confront our need for decisive action.
Instruction
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:12-15)
After saying, “You remember how the Israelites grumbled and complained? Don’t be like them. Trust God. He’s good. He will take care of you. Don’t turn back to Judaism. Hold on to your faith.
The Bible pictures the heart at the seat of emotions and will.
Solomon wrote to his son:
“Therefore, guard your heart, because everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)
It’s a call to examine their hearts. How easily we are deceived by sin and turn away from the living God.
Remember that the heart is “deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9)
Have you ever walked into a spider web that you couldn’t see? Many times, that how subtle sin is.
What’s the writer’s instruction to these Hebrew Christians?
“Encourage each other daily, as long as it’s called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
These Christians are being called to hang on and endure in their faith. But they cannot do that as “lone ranger Christians.” As John Piper has written, “Perseverance is a community project.”
Paul, writing about spiritual gifts to the church at Corinth,
“…so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5)
Let me make some comments on this idea for your church:
We need each other because sin is so deceitful and the deceitfulness of sin hardens our hearts against God.
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:6-7)
Sin can blind us to the reality of consequences so it is so important that we love each other enough to encourage faithfulness.
When we do see someone being deceived by sin, we need to ask God for the strength to speak truth in love.
Matthew recorded Jesus’ words on the subject:
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” (Matthew 5:15-17)
Paul told the believers in Galatia to be gentle when doing this:
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)
We see the communal nature of this kind of encouragement in these verses. We are to be watching out for red flags and encouraging each other in the faith. We are to take relational risks because we love the person and don’t want to see them suffer.
As a pastor, I’ve had the opportunity to do this many times. I went to a friend’s house and sat down with him and asked him point blank, “Are you committing adultery on your wife and three daughters?” Without hesitation, he said yes. I then asked him to take out his phone and call her and end it right now in front of me and his wife. He stared at me for a while and finally said, “Nope.” I burst into tears. I cried. I begged. If he wasn’t a foot taller than me, I would have fought him.
He blew up his marriage and hurt his girls terribly. Many years later, I saw him in public and he came over and hugged me and whispered in my ear, “I’m so sorry.” He wished he had listened to me.
* We need to encourage each other by building each other up in their faith in Christ.
If we just all allowed our words to be filtered through the Ephesians 4:29 strainer, our church would be stronger:
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Eph 4:29)
This is where Bible Study and Sunday school, small groups, and Christian fellowship make such a difference in Christians lives.
Pic [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10219914678041412&set=t.1355449132&type=3&theater]
My wife has her tribe - Becky, Beth, Marci, Sara. For the past 17 years, they have been a team. They have raised their children together, cried together, laughed together, played together, played together, mourned together, and prayed together. They have been there for each other. It’s been a beautiful thing to watch. They have been each other’s cheerleader when life got tough and have confronted in love when needed.
We need to have a group of people in our lives that have permission to ask us hard questions and confront us if they notice red flags. We need to have safe people that we can confess our sins to. When we confess a sin to another person, that sin loses its power. The power of sin is the shame and isolation it brings. When we bring it out into the light, the power of sin loses its punch.
One of the most important questions that we can ask each other is “how can I pray for you?” One of the worst things we can do is grumble and complain.
We are going to return to these verses at the end of the sermon and look one word.
The Main Issue
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:16-19)
These verses are an allusion back to the book of Numbers.
In Numbers 14, Moses had sent out 12 leaders to spy out of the Promised Land. They had returned and were terrified. Ten of them told the people, “The people are huge and we are like grasshoppers. If we try to go into the land, we will be slaughtered.”
But Joshua and Caleb reminded them that the Lord was with them and He would lead them into the land.
Listen to these ungrateful people:
“All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” (Numbers 14:2-4)
Because of their sin of disobedience, God said that none of that entire generation would enter the Promised Land, except for Joshua and Caleb. And for every day they spied out of the land (40 days), they would wandered in the wilderness (40 years).
After that generation died off, He would lead their children into the land.
After Moses reported this judgement, the people went up to a high hill and said, “We have sinned. We’re ready to go in to the land now.” But it was too late.
Over 600,000 men over the age of twenty perished in the desert. 14,600 days. 90 funerals a day. Why?
Look closely at verse 19 again.
“So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (v. 19)
Unbelief is the main issue.
Now let me make a distinction quickly. The opposite of faith is unbelief, not doubt. Doubt says, “I don’t know. I don’t get it. I’ve got questions.”
Jude encourages us to be gentle with those who doubt:
“Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 22)
Unbelief is willful disobedience.
Sin entered the world through an act of overt rebellion against God’s goodness:
“Did God really say?”
Unbelief is the worst of all sins. It’s actually the root of all sin. It’s the sin that hardens our hearts and deceives us into thinking that we can be our own God.
The spies had seen the plagues in Egypt, especially the “passover.” They had witness the parting of the Red Sea. They simply didn’t believe God would act on their behalf.
William Newell defines unbelief as “not the inability to understand but an unwillingness to trust.”
Unbelief leads to fear and pride. Sin makes our hearts hard. It can make you deaf to His voice. It leads to isolation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this about sin:
“Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdrawals him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.”
God will judge unbelief. If we remember back to verse 11:
“So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.” (v. 11)
Those Israelites that didn’t trust God to give them victory in the Promise Land would not enter the land of milk and honey. Those that have a willful, disobedient heart of unbelief, will not experience the ultimate rest in heaven.
Invitation
Let’s wrap this up by looking at just two words in these verses. The first one is “if.”
“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”
While our union with Christ is sure after salvation, our communion with Christ can ebb and flow. Sometimes you feel close and other times you feel distance. And sometimes you are tempted to lose hope.
[pic - https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.gospelherald.com%2Fdata%2Fimages%2Ffull%2F19972%2Fjonathan-cain.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gospelherald.com%2Farticles%2F67437%2F20161021%2Fjourney-keyboardist-shares-how-influence-of-paula-white-led-him-to-christ.htm&docid=VHHTKcidKZhnXM&tbnid=HoTjoE36kC0h8M%3A&vet=10ahUKEwido8vZnP7jAhUPI6wKHRxPBH0QMwiuASguMC4..i&w=630&h=420&safe=active&bih=728&biw=1353&q=jonathan%20cain&ved=0ahUKEwido8vZnP7jAhUPI6wKHRxPBH0QMwiuASguMC4&iact=mrc&uact=8]
Jonathan Cain is the keyboardist for the rock group Journey. In the last few years, he has committed his life to Christ and released a couple of worship projects.
He told the story about how hard it was trying to break into the “industry” and having even just a little measure of success. Somewhere along the way, he had written something that his dad had said to him many times, “Don’t Stop Believing.” This song ended up being one of the most popular songs of all time.
The Hebrews that this book was written to were struggling with persecution and tempted to find something else to put their hope in. The message for them and us is - hold on! Keep going! Don’t despair! God can be trusted.
Hold fast to the Gospel. That’s your foundation. That’s your hope. That’s your confidence.
That leads us to our second vital word - Today!
Twice in these verses, the writer quotes David’s words:
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” (v. 7,15)
This is not necessarily a 24 hour period of time but a day of grace.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth:
“As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:1-2)
It’s been said that “tomorrow is the devil’s day.” He will tell you that you can wait to commit your life to Christ. You have time.
On October 8, 1871, D.L. Moody was preaching to the largest crowd he had ever faced. He preached a sermon entitled, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called the Christ?” From Matthew 27:22.
He finished with these words:
“I wish you would take this text home with you and turn it over in your minds during the week, and next Sabbath we will come to Calvary and the Cross, and we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth.”
Ira Sankey ended the service with this hymn:
To-day the Savior calls;
For refuge fly;
The storm of justice falls,
And death is nigh.
But he never finished the hymn. Pandemonium broke out as the Great Chicago Fire broke out and by morning much of the city lay in ashes. Many who were there that night perished.
Moody was inconsolable and said:
“I have never since dared,” he said, “to give an audience a week to think of their salvation. If they were lost they might rise up in judgment against me. I have never seen that congregation since. I will never meet those people until I meet them in another world. But I want to tell you of one lesson that I learned that night which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach, to press Christ upon the people then and there and try to bring them to a decision on the spot. I would rather have that right hand cut off than to give an audience a week now to decide what to do with Jesus.”
Where are you TODAY with Christ? Not something that happened in church camp when you were eight. Not something that happened 30 years ago.
At the age of 12, I said a prayer, walked an aisle, signed a card, and was baptized. The pastor put his arm around me and said, “What’s your name kid? Jeff is a brand new Christian. The only problem was that was no more a Christian than a NBA basketball player! Just jumped through religious hoops.
My teenager years were about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. In that order.
[Pic - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154614434270274&set=pb.862370273.-2207520000.1565643423.&type=3&theater]
Mark got saved, radically saved. He came home and said, “I got saved today. You’re all going to hell. Pass the mash potatoes.”
I worshiped a book. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too. He had people praying for me. And God is good at getting our attention.
I walked into an armed robbery and had a gun put to my head. Thought I was going to die. Went home and Mark said, “What would happen to you if he had pulled the trigger?” I replied, “I’d be in hell jamming with Jimi Hendrix.”
Sent me on a search. I attended a fall retreat in Moscow…Tn. Rich taught on prodigal son. Explain. Weren’t home to party and committed my life to Christ on a couch Dec 31, 1991.
When you stand before the judgement, you cannot say, “I didn’t know.” Because now both Williams boys have told you.
How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? (Hebrew 2:2)
