Warning Against Unbelief

“Warning against unbelief”

Sermon 2

Hebrews 3:7-12

Recently I saw a video:

of a man standing on a busy street corner,

next to a jewelry store that buys gold and silver.

He was trying to give away something to people the who walked by

He approached people one at a time:

- and offered to give them either a $20 bill

- or a one ounce gold coin

- it was their choice

Everyone of them took the $20 bill:

- it was so strange

- I guess they didn’t think the gold was real

- he tried to get them to go to the gold store to confirm it was a real

The man was trying to:

give away a coin worth about $1,600

But no one wanted it

They were skeptical

The coin was real:

- but nobody believed him

- they wouldn’t trust him

- so they settled for something worth substantially less.

If only they would have believed…they would have gained so MUCH!!

That is actually the message we need to hear today:

- is we need to believe

- not that a coin is real and valuable

- but that God is real, powerful and loves us

WE need to put our full confidence in God

Today we will be in Hebrews 3:

- continuing in the series

- about the 5 warnings in the book of Hebrews

Todays warning in Hebrews is:

- a warning against unbelief

- a warning to obey

- a warning against hardening your heart

“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.” Hebrews 3:8-9 (NIV)

Notice…

1. A warning against unbelief and an expectation of immediate action

The word TODAY catches my eye:

- it means immediately

- it means now

- it means don’t delay or put it off

Today MEANS NOW…

But many think they’ll trust God later

And this message is not only evangelistic

It is meant for those who call themselves Christians

In fact this book is written to Christians

WE all agree that belief:

- is essential for salvation

- but we are to continue in our belief

- throughout our lives…

THe text also references hardened hearts:

And specifically it says

Not to harden your heart

As others have done,

meaning they made a decision to harden their hearts

Hearts that are hardened:

Do not listen for God

And therefore they do not hear God, and:

their lives don’t reflect that they know God.

A physical heart:

that becomes hard,

indicates the body,

which owns the heart, is dead.

We must not become dead to God:

We must make the choice to

have hearts soft and pliable to God,

To understand these warnings and the situation:

We have to think back to the Old Testament

Which is looking back to the rebellion of the Hebrew people

in the Old Testament Exodus from Egypt.

Let’s look at the time and setting :

- We remember that the Israelites

- had spent 430 in Egyptian bondage

- that through miracles and Mose’s leadership

The nation:

- was delivered from Egyptian pain and slavery and

- into the promised land

O, wait a minute:

- they didn’t go directly into the promised land?

- they didn’t get to enter into this land of milk and honey

- because they were rebellious

Let’s take a minute:

- and remember that we and the Hebrew Christians

- have been delivered from the slavery and bondage to sin

- that we have been saved from something and saved for something

I see parallels between:

- us, the Hebrew Christians and

- those who just came out of Egyptian slavery

- each of us have been saved out of the fire so to speak

- but we haven’t reached our final destination

2. Belief and faithfulness are requirements to enter God’s rest

“That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” Hebrews 3:10-11 (NIV)

We will see in the text and remember from our own studies:

- that this people and generation

- that Moses led out of Egypt

- Never made it to the promised land

They died in the dessert:

- specifically because of their lack of belief

- they did not trust God to deliver them into the promised land

- they were called rebels of God and caused God to be angry

Let’s remember what they saw God do FOR THEM…