Hebrews 3:7,15
7Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith), Today if ye will hear his voice, 8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 15While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
The Audience
- The Hebrew Christian.
- The Hebrew non-Christian (intellectually convinced)
- The Hebrew non-Christian (unconvinced willfully ignorant)
1. A POWERFUL MESSAGE
A. The Author of the Message.
Hebrews 3:7a
7Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,…
Psalm 95:6-7
6O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 7For he is our God;…Today if ye will hear his voice, 8Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
B. The Authority of the Message.
Psalm 95:11
Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Hebrews 3:8
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
2. A PRACTICAL MESSAGE
A. Their lives were BLESSED.
Hebrews 3:9
9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years
Exodus 16:35
And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
Deuteronomy 2:7b…these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.
B. Their Faith was BROKEN
Hebrews 3:10
10Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Hebrews 3:11-12
11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Hebrews 3:12 AMP
12[Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.
C. Their Opportunity was BANISHED .
Numbers 14:11
The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?
How long will they refuse to believe in me…
35I the LORD have said, … unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: …
…in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
How God Reveals His Wrath
- Ultimate wrath – (hell)
- Cataclysmic wrath (flood)
- Eschatological wrath (tribulation/judgments)
- Consequential wrath (unrestrained lives)
Romans 1:28-32
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
3. A PERSONAL MESSAGE
A. Check your HEART
Hebrews 3:12
12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
B. Connect With One Another
Hebrews 3:13
13But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
C. Consider a Clear and Present Danger
Proverbs 29:1
He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.