November 21, 2025 • 27 mins
A single word carries urgent weight across centuries: today. Hebrews chapter 3 calls back to Psalm 95 and the turning point at Kadesh Barnea to expose how unbelief hardens even when people have seen God at work. We walk through that wilderness moment to uncover what it reveals about our own hearts, our habits, and our hope in Jesus. The warning is not abstract; it is pastoral and practical. Don’t harden your heart. Don’t drift from the person and work of Christ. Don’t let the deceitfulness of sin rewrite the story of your life.
The heart of the remedy is surprisingly ordinary: encourage one another day after day. We talk about the practical power of Christian fellowship—how stories, prayer, correction, and care soften our hearts and interrupt sin’s lies. Isolation makes compromise easier; community makes hope believable. If you’re feeling the pull to withdraw, this conversation offers a map back to tenderness, truth, and rest. Join us, and then reach out to someone who needs courage today.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so others can find the conversation. Your voice helps more people hear His voice—today.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
So far in the book of Hebrews, we've been soaring
through the lofty heights of thetheology of Jesus Christ.
We've learned that He is God.
We've learned that He is betterthan the prophets, better than
Moses, that He submitted Himselfto come down and serve us.
Because of that, He can be ourhigh priest.
(00:38):
How wonderful that is.
As we've been soaring throughthe heights, he occasionally
gives us some warnings.
And that is like a steel cablethat ties us down to the ground
and makes sure that we don'tdrift away.
Starting in chapter 3, verse 7,as we found, the writer of
Hebrews is very adept with theOld Testament, and he regularly
(01:00):
brings out passages where hementions Christ in the Old
Testament.
That's what we're going to seetoday.
Steve, can you read Hebrews 3,verses 7 through 11?
SPEAKER_00 (01:13):
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if
you hear his voice, do notharden your hearts as when they
provoked me, as in the day oftrial in the wilderness, where
your fathers tried me by testingme and saw my works for forty
years.
Therefore I was angry with thisgeneration, and said, They
(01:37):
always go astray in their heart,and they did not know my ways.
As I swore in my wrath, theyshall not enter my rest.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
Here, the writer of Hebrews is quoting the last part
of Psalm 95.
And as we just said, we can findChrist in the Old Testament.
Many places in the Old Testamentsupport critical New Testament
doctrines.
Too many times, I think, wefocus on the New Testament to
the exclusion of the OldTestament, thinking that the New
(02:10):
Testament doctrines are only inthe New Testament.
My friends, the Old Testamentsupports many of the New
Testament doctrines.
In fact, it's one book of theBible that is put together with
from one author and it's oneteaching.
So it all fits together.
And it's to our detriment thatwe ignore these passages in the
(02:31):
Old Testament.
I myself have been guilty toooften of not spending enough
time in the Old Testament andfinding the great New Testament
truths that are brought outthere.
Those who ignore the OldTestament do so at their peril.
I'm reminded of on the road toEmmaus when Christ was raised,
and there were two of thedisciples there.
(02:53):
And it says as they walkedalong, Christ took things out of
the Old Testament anddemonstrated his presence there.
Here, the writer starts quotingPsalm 95 in Hebrews 3:7.
Today, if you hear his voice,that phrase is the last section
in Psalm 95.
(03:14):
What's very interesting is thepassage that's really the
sentence where Hebrews startsquoting.
Then it says, Today, if you hearhis voice.
So the writer of Psalm 95 isspeaking about God.
(03:39):
And we are in his pasture.
And if we hear his voice,therefore, when the writer of
Hebrews takes this passage outof Psalm 95, it's demonstrating
that once again, his voice isGod's voice, which is Jesus'
voice.
When Hebrews speaks abouthearing his voice, the his that
(04:02):
is being talked about is thesame he as he is our God.
Hebrews 3 quotes Psalm 95 aboutJesus, and Psalm 95 is speaking
about God Almighty.
We can find Jesus in the OldTestament.
Then it gives warnings from theHoly Spirit.
The Holy Spirit says, therefore,the Holy Spirit is a person,
(04:24):
because the Holy Spirit canspeak, and only persons speak.
So Steve, looking at verse 8,what is the warning that he
gives us?
SPEAKER_00 (04:32):
He tells them not to harden their hearts in the same
way that previous Israelitesprovoked God as when they did at
the trial in the wilderness.
The background of this is foundin Numbers chapters 13 and 14.
Chapter 13, Moses, at theinstruction of God, sends out 12
(04:55):
spies into the promised land tofind out what the conditions
were to go into the land.
Those spies come back, and 10 ofthem say we can't take the land.
Two of them, Joshua and Caleb,say we can take the land if God
is with us.
And then chapter 14 relays theanger that God has because the
(05:18):
people at the end of chapter 13cause a revolt to happen, to
overthrow Moses, get anotherleader that's going to take them
back into Egypt.
So in the exchange with Moses inchapter 14, Moses pleads the
case of the people because Godsays, I'm going to wipe them out
and I'm going to start over withyou, Moses.
And Moses says, Don't do that.
(05:39):
What are all the other nationsgoing to say if you do that?
And so God pardons the people,but he tells Moses that this is
the 10th time that thesestubborn people have tested me.
They've provoked me.
And as a result of this tenthtime, they're not going to be
able to go into the promisedland.
Anyone the age of 20 and abovewould not go into the promised
(06:04):
land.
Only the 19 years of age andyounger, and Joshua and Caleb.
That meant Aaron, that meantMiriam, Moses' sister, among all
the other generation that didn'tgo into the promised land
because of this stubbornnessthat the people showed.
But that's the backdrop.
So here the writer of Hebrews istaking this event that the
(06:28):
people would be very familiarwith because they're Hebrews
themselves, of knowing whathappened at Kadesh Barnia.
And even though the peoplerepented, whenever God gave them
this judgment, you're not goingto go into the promised land.
It says that they repented andthey mourned because they
weren't going to go in.
(06:49):
It was an irrevocable decisionthat the people made, and they
couldn't control the consequenceof it, which was they weren't
going to find the rest of goinginto the land.
That's the land of promise andthe rest that they would have
there.
So as we look at this, thewriter of Hebrews is giving them
(07:09):
a warning.
You're under persecution.
We know that they are because ofthe story of Saul that was
persecuting the new church, theChristians.
He's telling them, stay withJesus.
Jesus is above the angels, he'sabove the prophets, he's even
above Moses.
And as you mentioned at thebeginning of this session, he's
here as a servant to us.
(07:31):
He can relate to us.
He calls us brethren and all thethings that we've talked about
in these previous sessions.
And he's encouraging them, staywith Jesus, stay with him, and
don't make an irrevocabledecision like your forefathers
did at Kadesh Barnea.
There's already an outstandingirrevocable decision of their
(07:52):
current generation of theleadership rejecting Jesus
Christ.
And there's an impendingjudgment that's coming because
Jesus told them in Matthew 24that there's going to be a
judgment that the destruction ofthe temple is forthcoming at
some point.
The writer of Hebrews doesn'tknow when that's going to
happen, but it's some type of animpending judgment that's
(08:14):
coming.
And the writer of Hebrews isencouraging the people that he's
writing to stick with JesusChrist.
He is above all, and he you'vemade the right decision and
continue on with him.
Don't associate yourselves andput yourselves back under a
judgment that's going to happenregarding the temple.
(08:36):
Your salvation is secured, butyet there's going to be a
judgment that's going to comerelated to that.
So I think that's the backdropof everything here in these few
verses that we've just gotthrough reading.
SPEAKER_01 (08:48):
He's been way up in the lofty heights talking about
the wonderful person of JesusChrist, who he is and what he's
done.
Here he gives two warnings.
In verse 8, do not harden yourhearts.
And then down in verse 12, takecare, brethren, that there not
be any one of you an evil,unbelieving heart.
(09:09):
So he has two warnings here.
And it's written to Christians,take care, brethren, it says.
SPEAKER_00 (10:10):
There was that big council that was discussed in
Acts chapter 15 related toGentiles.
Now, these are Hebrews that he'swriting to, but again, the
picture is that there's pressureon them to really disassociate
themselves with Jesus Christ andcome back into the fold, so to
speak, of Judaism.
(10:32):
And the writer is warning ofthat.
So their individual salvation isnot in question.
Just like some of the peoplethat didn't get to go into the
promised land, there werebelievers and non-believers that
were in that generation thatdidn't get to go in.
But the decision and theconsequence of them not
(10:52):
believing that God was going togive them the land.
In fact, even in at thebeginning of chapter 13 in
Numbers, God tells Moses, Go andsend out spies into the land
that I'm going to give you tofind out and discover what's
(11:13):
there.
And of course, that was beingdone for Moses and the people.
It wasn't being done for God'sbenefit.
He knew what the situation was.
So we're spending some time herebecause this section isn't
talking about losing salvation.
It's talking about stayingfaithful with your conviction
that you've made and yourdecision that you've made and
(11:35):
not fall prey to wanting to goback to the world.
In this case, they're buying tobe pulled back into Judaism with
us as individuals, Gentilebelievers, and hear that the
world that we live in, we'reunder constant pressure to go
back to worldly ways.
We're fighting the flesh all thetime.
So we are to stay convicted withthe faith that we have that
(11:59):
Jesus Christ is going to get usthrough any type of situation we
find ourselves in, and we staywith him and stick with him and
don't go and depend on ourselvesor on the worldly ways to try
and get us through.
Stay with our decision of JesusChrist.
Our salvation is secure, but ourtravails and travels through
(12:22):
this world are much better if westay with Christ.
And that's basically what thewriter is telling these Hebrews.
Your situation is going to bemuch better if you stick with
Jesus Christ than it is if yougo back under Judaism.
Don't be like your forefathers,like they had, and harden their
hearts to what God's promiseswere to them regarding the
(12:44):
promised land.
Stay with Jesus Christ, and yoursituation will be much better.
SPEAKER_01 (12:50):
Why is he warning believers?
Again, take care, brethren, thatyou don't have a hard heart,
unbelieving heart.
We ask why he would do that.
Well, he gave us the answer inverse 10 and said, they always
go astray in their heart.
What he's saying in thispassage, he quotes this passage
that's about the 40-yearwilderness march, which was
(13:12):
caused by unbelief.
The people had seen the greatworks.
They had seen my works for 40years in verse 9 here.
And they had seen that, yet theydidn't believe.
So they could not enter thepromised land.
So the contrast here is thateven though they had seen all
(13:35):
these things, they still had ahard, unbelieving heart and
couldn't go into the land.
And the writer of Hebrews issaying, don't be like that.
Now, regardless of what webelieve about eternal security,
the fact is we look around ourchurches and we see people that
are there one day and the nextday they're not.
They walk away from the faithbecause they have an unbelieving
(13:59):
heart that falls away from theliving God.
The warning is about not holdingto the key teachings that he has
told us.
It starts off with, therefore.
And he says, Therefore, holdfast to these things and don't
(14:24):
fall away.
Notice the warning is aboutdoctrines about Jesus Christ
that have to do with his person.
My liberal friend, the warningshere are not about social
action.
The risk here that he's warningus about is not having to do
with feeding the poor orensuring social justice.
(14:45):
We should do those things.
And many churches do indeed needsome encouragement to do social
action.
But that's not what this warningis about.
This warning is about fallingaway from true doctrine.
He's been giving us almost puredoctrine for the whole book now.
And now we've had two warnings.
(15:06):
Chapter two, verse one, do notdrift away from the truth.
And three, seven, do not fallaway because of a hardened,
unbelieving heart.
Verse nine speaks about Israel'stime wandering in the
wilderness.
And remember, Moses, as Stevepointed out a minute ago, sent
out the 12 spies.
(15:27):
They had seen all the miracles,yet Israel doubted.
Right at the point of enteringthe promised land, the people
doubted.
So as punishment, they couldn'tenter the land.
Entering the promised land, yes,it was a picture of salvation,
but that's not really thewarning here.
He's just making this analogy asthe nation.
(15:49):
He's saying, remember thoseguys, they all fell away.
Don't be like that.
With unbelief, there's death inthe wilderness.
With unbelief, you'll bewandering apart from God.
With unbelief, you won't getinto the promised land that is
God's best, that is God's rest.
If you don't trust God, you'renot going to enter into God's
(16:12):
rest.
This warning is about a hard,unbelieving heart, and it's very
serious.
This teaching here is a greatwarning to all of us.
They fell away, they saw greatermiracles than most of us have
seen, and yet they fell away.
We need to be very sober, veryserious about doing what it says
(16:34):
there.
In this next section, he's goingto tell us how to make sure that
we don't fall away.
Steve, can you start at verse 12and read down to verse 15?
SPEAKER_00 (16:43):
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of
you an evil, unbelieving heartthat falls away from the living
God.
But encourage one another dayafter day, as long as it is
still called today, so that noneof you will be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin.
For we have become partakers ofChrist if we hold fast the
(17:06):
beginning of our assurance firmuntil the end, while it is said,
Today, if you hear his voice, donot harden your hearts as when
they provoked me.
SPEAKER_01 (17:17):
So we've had a couple of warnings now.
Chapter 2, verse 1 warned usagainst drifting away.
312 warns us against fallingaway.
The cause of falling away wouldbe an evil, unbelieving heart.
And here, unbelief is associatedwith evilness.
God is good, therefore, unbeliefin the good results in evil.
(17:42):
It's very clear, you're eitherwith God or you're rejected God
or said God's not important, inwhich case you have evil in your
heart.
Verse 13, sin is deceitful.
If we stay in sin, our minds andour hearts will be deceived.
And he says here the cause ofthe unbelief is often sin.
(18:07):
And then in verse 13, Steve,what is the solution to the risk
of falling away?
SPEAKER_00 (18:13):
It says right there at the beginning that the
believers should encourage oneanother day after day.
You get this picture that it'snot just a one-time action, but
it's one that is to be doneevery day, is to encourage
different believers.
So in our case, Glenn, if wehave particular people that
(18:33):
maybe have stopped coming to oursmall group or our church
service or something like that,we should go out and encourage
them to come back, but we shouldalso go maybe try to find out
why it is that you're not comingto the small group anymore?
Is there anything I can help youwith?
Is there anything I canencourage you about to get you
(18:55):
to return back to it?
Why would we want to do that?
It's because in the small groupand in the church service,
that's where they hear about theword of God.
And they also have fellowshipwith fellow believers.
There's great strength inbuilding up your faith by being
around fellow believers.
So fellowship of believers is animportant thing.
(19:15):
And I think it points that outhere in verse 13.
Encourage one another day afterday.
SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
The warning was about an unbelieving hard heart,
and the solution was theencouraging one another day
after day.
So why is it that being aroundother believers helps soften our
heart and help people to stay inthe faith and continue as
(19:42):
believers?
What is it about Christianfellowship that helps with that?
SPEAKER_00 (19:46):
Well, the simple answer is that seeing other
fellow believers and hearingtheir stories of their
struggles, of their lifeactivities, and how they are
interacting with God, Jesusother ways, I think that gives
encouragement to people.
And it also gives an outlet forpeople to be able to discuss
whatever's going on in theirlife with fellow believers.
(20:08):
If you're a believer and you'retrying to discuss things of your
faith to a non-believer, there'scertain things, most things that
they're not going to understand.
But a fellow believer is goingto understand that.
This isn't unbelief of themfalling away and becoming
(20:30):
non-believers and losing theirsalvation.
This means that continuing alongwith the faith, as you've just
put it so aptly, meaning thatit's evidence of their belief.
The faith that he's encouragingthem not to go away from is the
evidence of their faith.
Let me give an illustration.
One of whenever I receive adriver's license from the state
(20:55):
or government, I get two things.
I get one that's on the booksthat says I have permission to
drive on the roads of that stateand across the United States.
And then I also get a littledriver's license card as well
that is proof that I have adriver's license on the books.
(21:16):
And if I'm out driving and Icommit an infraction, I get
pulled over, and the policeofficer asks me for my driver's
license.
If I don't happen to have itwith me, that doesn't mean that
I don't have a license to drivein the state and across the
United States.
What it means is I don't haveany evidence at the time that I
(21:38):
have a license to drive withinthe state.
And so I think that's close towhat the writer is encouraging
here is that where's theevidence that they have in their
faith of continuing on with it?
Don't let your heart becomejaded.
Don't let your heart becomehardened, maybe with the
situations that you findyourself in, and that you walk
(22:01):
away from the faith or fall awayfrom the faith and start
becoming somebody that justdisassociates themselves with
other believers.
Salvation is not an issue.
He's calling them brethren.
Earlier, he's told them thatthey had been called and that
they were sanctified.
So he's not discussingsalvation, but what he is
discussing is their sanctifiedlife, a stories of continuing in
(22:25):
the faith so that they can livea prosperous lifestyle and one
in which they are happy and muchmore content living in Christ
than they are of one livingclose to the world, which
doesn't really bringsatisfaction and contentment.
So I think it's very importantthat we encourage each other to
(22:48):
stay in the faith so that we canhave a daily life in Jesus
Christ and to continue onbecause we're going to be in a
much better situation doing thatthan we would be if we fall back
into the ways of the world.
SPEAKER_01 (23:01):
In this passage, he's tying together at least
three concepts that are relatedto each other.
One is this idea of an evil,unbelieving, hard heart, then
there is Christian fellowship,then there's sin.
And the connections here he'smaking are rather nuanced.
At the end of verse 13, it sayssin is deceitful and will harden
(23:25):
our hearts.
So when you see unbelievers witha hard heart, oftentimes the
root of the unbelief is apersonal sin that they have that
they don't want to release.
They love their sin and theyknow that if they go to God, who
God's going to ask them to giveup their sin.
So oftentimes people rejectChrist simply because they have
(23:48):
a personal sin that they lovemore than Christ.
They refuse to let it go.
That is the root of many ofexcuses or objection.
Oftentimes the excuses are justthat.
The Christian should be verycareful.
(24:11):
And he I'll even use the wordafraid.
Christians should be afraid ofgetting comfortable with sin in
their lives.
Simply because it says here, sinis deceitful, is the word it
uses here in Hebrews.
Sin is going to make you thinkthat sin is fun at the
beginning.
But if you tolerate it andaccept it and live with it, it's
(24:33):
going to wrap chains around youand enslave you and deceive you,
and it will take away your life.
The joy of your life will begone first, and ultimately it'll
take away your spiritual andyour physical life.
And that's what he's warningabout.
And one of the solutions forthat is to encourage each other
(24:54):
day after day, as long as it iscalled today, is the language it
says.
So encouraging Christians shouldbe an ongoing daily activity.
Christians should not be bythemselves.
Steve, what is the risk ofChristians not being in a good
local church, but being out bythemselves?
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
I think that you just described it when you said
that they should be afraidbecause the world is really
strong in a pull it has on them.
And you become isolated.
The people of the world aren'tgoing to understand you and
understand the things thatyou're going through, not in a
spiritual sense.
And you just lose that sense ofcommunity with fellow believers.
(25:39):
So I think the danger isbecoming isolated away from
fellow believers.
It's not a good situation to bein.
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
When you're with other believers, you're going to
get encouragement.
You're going to see other peoplethat have personal struggles
themselves.
You're going to care about them,and you're not going to want to
destroy your witness in front ofyour friends.
You will get increasing amountsof Christian teaching and
Christian ideas from yourfriends.
(26:06):
When you're off by yourself,sins tend to not be corrected.
It becomes easier to fall away.
The emphasis here in thispassage is on the word today.
The important things in theBible are always for today.
1 Corinthians 6, 2, now is theacceptable time.
Behold, now is the day ofsalvation.
(26:28):
And again, in Romans 13, 11,quote, it is already the time to
awaken from sleep.
The biblical time for trustingin Jesus is today.
And it says in verse 14, we arepartakers or sharers in Christ.
And so Christians should alwaysbe looking for other believers.
Elsewhere in the New Testament,it says, do not forsake the
(26:50):
assembling together of thebrethren.
So we should all be with otherChristians on a regular basis to
encourage them so they canencourage us and we can pray for
each other.
That way we won't get hard,unbelieving hearts and won't
fall away.
Steve, I find this to be a greathelp.
SPEAKER_00 (27:09):
There's been times whenever I haven't really fallen
away from the faith, but I foundmyself being not associated with
a local congregation or a localsmall group.
And then I've had people reachout to me and say, why don't you
come join us?
And so it's so much better ifwe're in fellow Christians
rather than just being byyourself out there in the world.
(27:30):
We'll pull it to the curb fortoday.
SPEAKER_01 (27:32):
We've got still more to do in this chapter and in
this book, but we trust thatyou'll be back here with us next
time as we continue to reasonthrough the Bible.
SPEAKER_00 (27:43):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
So far in the book of Hebrews, we've been soaring
through the lofty heights of thetheology of Jesus Christ.
We've learned that He is God.
We've learned that He is betterthan the prophets, better than
Moses, that He submitted Himselfto come down and serve us.
Because of that, He can be ourhigh priest.
(00:38):
How wonderful that is.
As we've been soaring throughthe heights, he occasionally
gives us some warnings.
And that is like a steel cablethat ties us down to the ground
and makes sure that we don'tdrift away.
Starting in chapter 3, verse 7,as we found, the writer of
Hebrews is very adept with theOld Testament, and he regularly
(01:00):
brings out passages where hementions Christ in the Old
Testament.
That's what we're going to seetoday.
Steve, can you read Hebrews 3,verses 7 through 11?
SPEAKER_00 (01:13):
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if
you hear his voice, do notharden your hearts as when they
provoked me, as in the day oftrial in the wilderness, where
your fathers tried me by testingme and saw my works for forty
years.
Therefore I was angry with thisgeneration, and said, They
(01:37):
always go astray in their heart,and they did not know my ways.
As I swore in my wrath, theyshall not enter my rest.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
Here, the writer of Hebrews is quoting the last part
of Psalm 95.
And as we just said, we can findChrist in the Old Testament.
Many places in the Old Testamentsupport critical New Testament
doctrines.
Too many times, I think, wefocus on the New Testament to
the exclusion of the OldTestament, thinking that the New
(02:10):
Testament doctrines are only inthe New Testament.
My friends, the Old Testamentsupports many of the New
Testament doctrines.
In fact, it's one book of theBible that is put together with
from one author and it's oneteaching.
So it all fits together.
And it's to our detriment thatwe ignore these passages in the
(02:31):
Old Testament.
I myself have been guilty toooften of not spending enough
time in the Old Testament andfinding the great New Testament
truths that are brought outthere.
Those who ignore the OldTestament do so at their peril.
I'm reminded of on the road toEmmaus when Christ was raised,
and there were two of thedisciples there.
(02:53):
And it says as they walkedalong, Christ took things out of
the Old Testament anddemonstrated his presence there.
Here, the writer starts quotingPsalm 95 in Hebrews 3:7.
Today, if you hear his voice,that phrase is the last section
in Psalm 95.
(03:14):
What's very interesting is thepassage that's really the
sentence where Hebrews startsquoting.
Then it says, Today, if you hearhis voice.
So the writer of Psalm 95 isspeaking about God.
(03:39):
And we are in his pasture.
And if we hear his voice,therefore, when the writer of
Hebrews takes this passage outof Psalm 95, it's demonstrating
that once again, his voice isGod's voice, which is Jesus'
voice.
When Hebrews speaks abouthearing his voice, the his that
(04:02):
is being talked about is thesame he as he is our God.
Hebrews 3 quotes Psalm 95 aboutJesus, and Psalm 95 is speaking
about God Almighty.
We can find Jesus in the OldTestament.
Then it gives warnings from theHoly Spirit.
The Holy Spirit says, therefore,the Holy Spirit is a person,
(04:24):
because the Holy Spirit canspeak, and only persons speak.
So Steve, looking at verse 8,what is the warning that he
gives us?
SPEAKER_00 (04:32):
He tells them not to harden their hearts in the same
way that previous Israelitesprovoked God as when they did at
the trial in the wilderness.
The background of this is foundin Numbers chapters 13 and 14.
Chapter 13, Moses, at theinstruction of God, sends out 12
(04:55):
spies into the promised land tofind out what the conditions
were to go into the land.
Those spies come back, and 10 ofthem say we can't take the land.
Two of them, Joshua and Caleb,say we can take the land if God
is with us.
And then chapter 14 relays theanger that God has because the
(05:18):
people at the end of chapter 13cause a revolt to happen, to
overthrow Moses, get anotherleader that's going to take them
back into Egypt.
So in the exchange with Moses inchapter 14, Moses pleads the
case of the people because Godsays, I'm going to wipe them out
and I'm going to start over withyou, Moses.
And Moses says, Don't do that.
(05:39):
What are all the other nationsgoing to say if you do that?
And so God pardons the people,but he tells Moses that this is
the 10th time that thesestubborn people have tested me.
They've provoked me.
And as a result of this tenthtime, they're not going to be
able to go into the promisedland.
Anyone the age of 20 and abovewould not go into the promised
(06:04):
land.
Only the 19 years of age andyounger, and Joshua and Caleb.
That meant Aaron, that meantMiriam, Moses' sister, among all
the other generation that didn'tgo into the promised land
because of this stubbornnessthat the people showed.
But that's the backdrop.
So here the writer of Hebrews istaking this event that the
(06:28):
people would be very familiarwith because they're Hebrews
themselves, of knowing whathappened at Kadesh Barnia.
And even though the peoplerepented, whenever God gave them
this judgment, you're not goingto go into the promised land.
It says that they repented andthey mourned because they
weren't going to go in.
(06:49):
It was an irrevocable decisionthat the people made, and they
couldn't control the consequenceof it, which was they weren't
going to find the rest of goinginto the land.
That's the land of promise andthe rest that they would have
there.
So as we look at this, thewriter of Hebrews is giving them
(07:09):
a warning.
You're under persecution.
We know that they are because ofthe story of Saul that was
persecuting the new church, theChristians.
He's telling them, stay withJesus.
Jesus is above the angels, he'sabove the prophets, he's even
above Moses.
And as you mentioned at thebeginning of this session, he's
here as a servant to us.
(07:31):
He can relate to us.
He calls us brethren and all thethings that we've talked about
in these previous sessions.
And he's encouraging them, staywith Jesus, stay with him, and
don't make an irrevocabledecision like your forefathers
did at Kadesh Barnea.
There's already an outstandingirrevocable decision of their
(07:52):
current generation of theleadership rejecting Jesus
Christ.
And there's an impendingjudgment that's coming because
Jesus told them in Matthew 24that there's going to be a
judgment that the destruction ofthe temple is forthcoming at
some point.
The writer of Hebrews doesn'tknow when that's going to
happen, but it's some type of animpending judgment that's
(08:14):
coming.
And the writer of Hebrews isencouraging the people that he's
writing to stick with JesusChrist.
He is above all, and he you'vemade the right decision and
continue on with him.
Don't associate yourselves andput yourselves back under a
judgment that's going to happenregarding the temple.
(08:36):
Your salvation is secured, butyet there's going to be a
judgment that's going to comerelated to that.
So I think that's the backdropof everything here in these few
verses that we've just gotthrough reading.
SPEAKER_01 (08:48):
He's been way up in the lofty heights talking about
the wonderful person of JesusChrist, who he is and what he's
done.
Here he gives two warnings.
In verse 8, do not harden yourhearts.
And then down in verse 12, takecare, brethren, that there not
be any one of you an evil,unbelieving heart.
(09:09):
So he has two warnings here.
And it's written to Christians,take care, brethren, it says.
SPEAKER_00 (10:10):
There was that big council that was discussed in
Acts chapter 15 related toGentiles.
Now, these are Hebrews that he'swriting to, but again, the
picture is that there's pressureon them to really disassociate
themselves with Jesus Christ andcome back into the fold, so to
speak, of Judaism.
(10:32):
And the writer is warning ofthat.
So their individual salvation isnot in question.
Just like some of the peoplethat didn't get to go into the
promised land, there werebelievers and non-believers that
were in that generation thatdidn't get to go in.
But the decision and theconsequence of them not
(10:52):
believing that God was going togive them the land.
In fact, even in at thebeginning of chapter 13 in
Numbers, God tells Moses, Go andsend out spies into the land
that I'm going to give you tofind out and discover what's
(11:13):
there.
And of course, that was beingdone for Moses and the people.
It wasn't being done for God'sbenefit.
He knew what the situation was.
So we're spending some time herebecause this section isn't
talking about losing salvation.
It's talking about stayingfaithful with your conviction
that you've made and yourdecision that you've made and
(11:35):
not fall prey to wanting to goback to the world.
In this case, they're buying tobe pulled back into Judaism with
us as individuals, Gentilebelievers, and hear that the
world that we live in, we'reunder constant pressure to go
back to worldly ways.
We're fighting the flesh all thetime.
So we are to stay convicted withthe faith that we have that
(11:59):
Jesus Christ is going to get usthrough any type of situation we
find ourselves in, and we staywith him and stick with him and
don't go and depend on ourselvesor on the worldly ways to try
and get us through.
Stay with our decision of JesusChrist.
Our salvation is secure, but ourtravails and travels through
(12:22):
this world are much better if westay with Christ.
And that's basically what thewriter is telling these Hebrews.
Your situation is going to bemuch better if you stick with
Jesus Christ than it is if yougo back under Judaism.
Don't be like your forefathers,like they had, and harden their
hearts to what God's promiseswere to them regarding the
(12:44):
promised land.
Stay with Jesus Christ, and yoursituation will be much better.
SPEAKER_01 (12:50):
Why is he warning believers?
Again, take care, brethren, thatyou don't have a hard heart,
unbelieving heart.
We ask why he would do that.
Well, he gave us the answer inverse 10 and said, they always
go astray in their heart.
What he's saying in thispassage, he quotes this passage
that's about the 40-yearwilderness march, which was
(13:12):
caused by unbelief.
The people had seen the greatworks.
They had seen my works for 40years in verse 9 here.
And they had seen that, yet theydidn't believe.
So they could not enter thepromised land.
So the contrast here is thateven though they had seen all
(13:35):
these things, they still had ahard, unbelieving heart and
couldn't go into the land.
And the writer of Hebrews issaying, don't be like that.
Now, regardless of what webelieve about eternal security,
the fact is we look around ourchurches and we see people that
are there one day and the nextday they're not.
They walk away from the faithbecause they have an unbelieving
(13:59):
heart that falls away from theliving God.
The warning is about not holdingto the key teachings that he has
told us.
It starts off with, therefore.
And he says, Therefore, holdfast to these things and don't
(14:24):
fall away.
Notice the warning is aboutdoctrines about Jesus Christ
that have to do with his person.
My liberal friend, the warningshere are not about social
action.
The risk here that he's warningus about is not having to do
with feeding the poor orensuring social justice.
(14:45):
We should do those things.
And many churches do indeed needsome encouragement to do social
action.
But that's not what this warningis about.
This warning is about fallingaway from true doctrine.
He's been giving us almost puredoctrine for the whole book now.
And now we've had two warnings.
(15:06):
Chapter two, verse one, do notdrift away from the truth.
And three, seven, do not fallaway because of a hardened,
unbelieving heart.
Verse nine speaks about Israel'stime wandering in the
wilderness.
And remember, Moses, as Stevepointed out a minute ago, sent
out the 12 spies.
(15:27):
They had seen all the miracles,yet Israel doubted.
Right at the point of enteringthe promised land, the people
doubted.
So as punishment, they couldn'tenter the land.
Entering the promised land, yes,it was a picture of salvation,
but that's not really thewarning here.
He's just making this analogy asthe nation.
(15:49):
He's saying, remember thoseguys, they all fell away.
Don't be like that.
With unbelief, there's death inthe wilderness.
With unbelief, you'll bewandering apart from God.
With unbelief, you won't getinto the promised land that is
God's best, that is God's rest.
If you don't trust God, you'renot going to enter into God's
(16:12):
rest.
This warning is about a hard,unbelieving heart, and it's very
serious.
This teaching here is a greatwarning to all of us.
They fell away, they saw greatermiracles than most of us have
seen, and yet they fell away.
We need to be very sober, veryserious about doing what it says
(16:34):
there.
In this next section, he's goingto tell us how to make sure that
we don't fall away.
Steve, can you start at verse 12and read down to verse 15?
SPEAKER_00 (16:43):
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of
you an evil, unbelieving heartthat falls away from the living
God.
But encourage one another dayafter day, as long as it is
still called today, so that noneof you will be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin.
For we have become partakers ofChrist if we hold fast the
(17:06):
beginning of our assurance firmuntil the end, while it is said,
Today, if you hear his voice, donot harden your hearts as when
they provoked me.
SPEAKER_01 (17:17):
So we've had a couple of warnings now.
Chapter 2, verse 1 warned usagainst drifting away.
312 warns us against fallingaway.
The cause of falling away wouldbe an evil, unbelieving heart.
And here, unbelief is associatedwith evilness.
God is good, therefore, unbeliefin the good results in evil.
(17:42):
It's very clear, you're eitherwith God or you're rejected God
or said God's not important, inwhich case you have evil in your
heart.
Verse 13, sin is deceitful.
If we stay in sin, our minds andour hearts will be deceived.
And he says here the cause ofthe unbelief is often sin.
(18:07):
And then in verse 13, Steve,what is the solution to the risk
of falling away?
SPEAKER_00 (18:13):
It says right there at the beginning that the
believers should encourage oneanother day after day.
You get this picture that it'snot just a one-time action, but
it's one that is to be doneevery day, is to encourage
different believers.
So in our case, Glenn, if wehave particular people that
(18:33):
maybe have stopped coming to oursmall group or our church
service or something like that,we should go out and encourage
them to come back, but we shouldalso go maybe try to find out
why it is that you're not comingto the small group anymore?
Is there anything I can help youwith?
Is there anything I canencourage you about to get you
(18:55):
to return back to it?
Why would we want to do that?
It's because in the small groupand in the church service,
that's where they hear about theword of God.
And they also have fellowshipwith fellow believers.
There's great strength inbuilding up your faith by being
around fellow believers.
So fellowship of believers is animportant thing.
(19:15):
And I think it points that outhere in verse 13.
Encourage one another day afterday.
SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
The warning was about an unbelieving hard heart,
and the solution was theencouraging one another day
after day.
So why is it that being aroundother believers helps soften our
heart and help people to stay inthe faith and continue as
(19:42):
believers?
What is it about Christianfellowship that helps with that?
SPEAKER_00 (19:46):
Well, the simple answer is that seeing other
fellow believers and hearingtheir stories of their
struggles, of their lifeactivities, and how they are
interacting with God, Jesusother ways, I think that gives
encouragement to people.
And it also gives an outlet forpeople to be able to discuss
whatever's going on in theirlife with fellow believers.
(20:08):
If you're a believer and you'retrying to discuss things of your
faith to a non-believer, there'scertain things, most things that
they're not going to understand.
But a fellow believer is goingto understand that.
This isn't unbelief of themfalling away and becoming
(20:30):
non-believers and losing theirsalvation.
This means that continuing alongwith the faith, as you've just
put it so aptly, meaning thatit's evidence of their belief.
The faith that he's encouragingthem not to go away from is the
evidence of their faith.
Let me give an illustration.
One of whenever I receive adriver's license from the state
(20:55):
or government, I get two things.
I get one that's on the booksthat says I have permission to
drive on the roads of that stateand across the United States.
And then I also get a littledriver's license card as well
that is proof that I have adriver's license on the books.
(21:16):
And if I'm out driving and Icommit an infraction, I get
pulled over, and the policeofficer asks me for my driver's
license.
If I don't happen to have itwith me, that doesn't mean that
I don't have a license to drivein the state and across the
United States.
What it means is I don't haveany evidence at the time that I
(21:38):
have a license to drive withinthe state.
And so I think that's close towhat the writer is encouraging
here is that where's theevidence that they have in their
faith of continuing on with it?
Don't let your heart becomejaded.
Don't let your heart becomehardened, maybe with the
situations that you findyourself in, and that you walk
(22:01):
away from the faith or fall awayfrom the faith and start
becoming somebody that justdisassociates themselves with
other believers.
Salvation is not an issue.
He's calling them brethren.
Earlier, he's told them thatthey had been called and that
they were sanctified.
So he's not discussingsalvation, but what he is
discussing is their sanctifiedlife, a stories of continuing in
(22:25):
the faith so that they can livea prosperous lifestyle and one
in which they are happy and muchmore content living in Christ
than they are of one livingclose to the world, which
doesn't really bringsatisfaction and contentment.
So I think it's very importantthat we encourage each other to
(22:48):
stay in the faith so that we canhave a daily life in Jesus
Christ and to continue onbecause we're going to be in a
much better situation doing thatthan we would be if we fall back
into the ways of the world.
SPEAKER_01 (23:01):
In this passage, he's tying together at least
three concepts that are relatedto each other.
One is this idea of an evil,unbelieving, hard heart, then
there is Christian fellowship,then there's sin.
And the connections here he'smaking are rather nuanced.
At the end of verse 13, it sayssin is deceitful and will harden
(23:25):
our hearts.
So when you see unbelievers witha hard heart, oftentimes the
root of the unbelief is apersonal sin that they have that
they don't want to release.
They love their sin and theyknow that if they go to God, who
God's going to ask them to giveup their sin.
So oftentimes people rejectChrist simply because they have
(23:48):
a personal sin that they lovemore than Christ.
They refuse to let it go.
That is the root of many ofexcuses or objection.
Oftentimes the excuses are justthat.
The Christian should be verycareful.
(24:11):
And he I'll even use the wordafraid.
Christians should be afraid ofgetting comfortable with sin in
their lives.
Simply because it says here, sinis deceitful, is the word it
uses here in Hebrews.
Sin is going to make you thinkthat sin is fun at the
beginning.
But if you tolerate it andaccept it and live with it, it's
(24:33):
going to wrap chains around youand enslave you and deceive you,
and it will take away your life.
The joy of your life will begone first, and ultimately it'll
take away your spiritual andyour physical life.
And that's what he's warningabout.
And one of the solutions forthat is to encourage each other
(24:54):
day after day, as long as it iscalled today, is the language it
says.
So encouraging Christians shouldbe an ongoing daily activity.
Christians should not be bythemselves.
Steve, what is the risk ofChristians not being in a good
local church, but being out bythemselves?
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
I think that you just described it when you said
that they should be afraidbecause the world is really
strong in a pull it has on them.
And you become isolated.
The people of the world aren'tgoing to understand you and
understand the things thatyou're going through, not in a
spiritual sense.
And you just lose that sense ofcommunity with fellow believers.
(25:39):
So I think the danger isbecoming isolated away from
fellow believers.
It's not a good situation to bein.
SPEAKER_01 (25:46):
When you're with other believers, you're going to
get encouragement.
You're going to see other peoplethat have personal struggles
themselves.
You're going to care about them,and you're not going to want to
destroy your witness in front ofyour friends.
You will get increasing amountsof Christian teaching and
Christian ideas from yourfriends.
(26:06):
When you're off by yourself,sins tend to not be corrected.
It becomes easier to fall away.
The emphasis here in thispassage is on the word today.
The important things in theBible are always for today.
1 Corinthians 6, 2, now is theacceptable time.
Behold, now is the day ofsalvation.
(26:28):
And again, in Romans 13, 11,quote, it is already the time to
awaken from sleep.
The biblical time for trustingin Jesus is today.
And it says in verse 14, we arepartakers or sharers in Christ.
And so Christians should alwaysbe looking for other believers.
Elsewhere in the New Testament,it says, do not forsake the
(26:50):
assembling together of thebrethren.
So we should all be with otherChristians on a regular basis to
encourage them so they canencourage us and we can pray for
each other.
That way we won't get hard,unbelieving hearts and won't
fall away.
Steve, I find this to be a greathelp.
SPEAKER_00 (27:09):
There's been times whenever I haven't really fallen
away from the faith, but I foundmyself being not associated with
a local congregation or a localsmall group.
And then I've had people reachout to me and say, why don't you
come join us?
And so it's so much better ifwe're in fellow Christians
rather than just being byyourself out there in the world.
(27:30):
We'll pull it to the curb fortoday.
SPEAKER_01 (27:32):
We've got still more to do in this chapter and in
this book, but we trust thatyou'll be back here with us next
time as we continue to reasonthrough the Bible.
SPEAKER_00 (27:43):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
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