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Hebrews 3:7-19 Do Not Harden Your Heart in UnBelief

Hebrews 3:7–19 (NKJV)  7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,   8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,   9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.   10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’   11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;   13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.   14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,   15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”   16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?   17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?   18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7–19 is a warning to humanity to turn to Jesus Christ before it’s too late.

  • This is a great big supernatural shove to anybody hanging on the edge of faith in Jesus Christ and hasn’t yet committed himself to that faith.
  • The Bible is clear that the more you’ve been exposed to the Gospel and still reject it, the greater your punishment in eternity.
  • It’s like being in an airliner that has lost it’s engines and is going to crash. You are given a parachute, all you have to do is jump to save yourself
  • Part fear, part doubt, part pride or partly because of hanging on to your possessions, you decide to take your chances by doing down with the plane and perish

Heb 3:7-19 is encouraging you to take the JUMP

The Hebrew Writer is warning against those who have heard the truth, but refuse to take the jump of faith in Jesus Christ.

  • Since the writers has already talked about Moses He wants to warn those hanging on the brink of decision
  • He does so by using an illustration right out of the experience of Moses.

Verses 7-11 are a quote from Psalms 95:7-11 – an illustration from Psalms where David is speaking about Moses.

  • God was working miracles in Israel, miracle after miracle after miracle but when they got in the wilderness and they didn’t believe God.

That’s unbelief in the face of overwhelming evidence. This is the picture of what David says in Psalm 95 as he warns people in his day

  • Today we all know people who have been exposed to the Gospel constantly, have been witnessed to, preached to, prayed for, talked to, have seen God at work in many ways around them… and they still harden their heart just like the Israelites in the wilderness after they left Egypt.

What does TODAY mean? Urgency. It means in the day of grace, it means NOW, it means “while there is still opportunity”

Hardening your heart is a matter of personal action, personal choice, personal will, personal decision… you CHOOSE to harden your heart

Exodus 17:1–7 (NKJV)  1 Moses was saying “you’ve already seen God at work, He has already proven Himself, why are you tempting Him now”?

This pattern was repeated over and over: “God we know you are real, we’ve seen what you can do but before we fully commit to You, could you just show us one more time something that proves you are for real?”

  • The Israelites established a pattern of testing God and still they never believed.
  • You don’t need more evidence….. you’re just unwilling to commit yourself to Christ because you love your sin, or the world, or your own selfish desires.

You can stand on the verge of receiving Jesus Christ so long and say – God, prove it some more. I’m not sure, I’m not ready”but one day God’s going to say:  You’ve had enough evidence, enough time, enough proof, enough teaching, enough example, enough opportunity.

Hebrews 3:10 – Grieved doesn’t just mean – “ unhappy”… it means: aggravated, vexed, displeased, wroth, angered. God is angry with sin and determined to punish it.

Hebrews 3:11 –  This whole crowd will die in the wilderness, they will never enter into My rest. He swore it in His anger.

It’s scary to have an “ evil heart of unbelief”…

  • The greatest evil in the world is: Unbelief- failure to believe God. Unbelief locks you out of God’s blessing forever
  • TODAY, respond to Christ before your heart grows cold and unbelieving and you wind up forever departing from the living God.

Hebrews 3:12 – To reject Jesus Christ is not to reject a pattern of religion, it is to walk away from the living God.

Hebrews 3:13 – call, encourage, invite, earnestly convince

  • Get along side each other and call urgently to them to turn to Jesus Christ.
  • We should not be ashamed to beg people to come to Jesus Christ

Hebrews 3:14 – What is the greatest proof that somebody is a believer? Perseverance, continuance.

There’s such a great danger in hearing and hearing and never receiving Christ.

  • Someday you’ll wake up to discover that grace is over, and TODAY has passed

Matthew 7:21–23 (NKJV)  21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.   22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’   23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

So MANY people will be right at the doorstep of Jesus but never take that step.

You don’t need more proof, more examples, more evidence from God. Jesus has already proved Himself.

He’s greater than the angels. He’s greater than Moses. He’s greater than the Law or the Old Covenant.

Don’t continue to ignore Him. One day your heart will be hard, and TOMORROW will be here… and it will be too late.