You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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There was once a congregation of God's people that saw the power and the glory of God at work among them marvelously.
They sang praises to His greatness.
They regularly gathered together and heard His law read to them.
They were led by men called by God.
They talked often of God's truth.
They received God's provision enough to make budget 40 years in a row.
It was like manna falling from heaven or something.
And yet, neither the leader nor most of the people made it where God was taking them.
They started out fast with God, excited.
But they didn't finish well.
Sometimes churches and Christians start out with a bang, like a firecracker, looking and sounding so good,
but only to fade just as impressively and quickly.
And I think this is a particular concern in a culture where our attention spans are shrinking.
Flashy experiences are often needed to keep our commitment to anything or anyone.
We get bored, don't we?
Dissatisfied very quickly.
I bet every one of us has at home some project that we've started.
Maybe we got really close, but we never quite finished.
The writer to the Hebrews, who has been pointing us to the greatness of Jesus over and over,
he wants to ensure the churches that he's writing to endure, persevere, finish as well as they started with God,
even when life is tough.
And so, in chapter 3, he's going to do two things.
He's going to compare Jesus and Moses, and then he's going to give God's people a warning from their history,
the history of God's people in the Exodus generation that I just recounted for us a little bit.
Warning, he says.
This could happen to you, to y'all, to us.
Listen as I read to what he's warning against.
Listen for that.
And to how he tells us to guard against it.
Hebrews chapter 3.
The whole thing.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
who was faithful to him who appointed him,
just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.
For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.
Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant,
to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,
but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son,
and we are his house,
if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and our hope.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.
Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said,
they always go astray in their heart.
They have not known my ways.
As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
Take care, brothers,
lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart,
leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day,
as long as it is called today,
that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
For we share in Christ,
if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
As it is said,
today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?
Was it not all those who left Egypt, led by Moses?
And with whom was it that he was provoked for 40 years?
Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest,
but to those who were disobedient?
So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Thus far, God's holy word.
Let's pray.
God, these are challenging words for our hearts.
They are your words.
And so, by Holy Spirit, as you say here,
would you speak to us?
Would you give us ears to hear?
Would you soften our hearts?
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
It might be a compliment
to be told that you have rock-hard abs or biceps.
I wouldn't know, but I think it would be.
But you don't want to hear the doctor say,
you have a hard heart.
That is a problem physically.
And as this passage says, spiritually.
The preacher here is not telling the people
that they have hard hearts,
but he is warning them about the danger of that diagnosis,
showing them that it's a problem
that no one plans to have.
I'm going to have a hard heart.
No.
Yet it still happens.
So beware.
That spiritual sickness, hard heartedness,
is mentioned several times in this passage.
So I want us to see what that dangerous condition involves,
and then where it leads,
and how to prevent it.
First, we'll start with what a hard-hearted diagnosis involves.
It starts with the hardening being against God.
Notice the writer to the Hebrews turns to Psalm 95.
That's where this big quotation is from,
starting at verse 7.
That's a psalm that these Jewish Christians he's writing to
would have been very familiar with.
They would have heard it nearly every week of their lives
as they came to Sabbath worship.
We began our service with it this morning.
You know, come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
It's a reminder of the God that we worship.
And then there's a command.
Today, over and over.
Today, if you hear his voice,
don't harden your hearts.
Don't put him to the test.
Our hearts go astray
when they get distant from God's ways.
Verse 10.
We start to listen to man's voices
telling us where life is found
rather than God's.
Like the Israelites that we read about earlier, right?
Quarreling about the water.
Grumbling about their leaders.
We're not even sure anymore that God is really among us.
Is he really here?
Can we really trust him?
We so need that regular reminder, don't we?
See, I marched out of Egypt with God,
but now I'm thinking Egypt might have been better.
Amazing, right?
These people watched the plagues.
They survived the Passover.
They walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.
And they're wondering now about whether God or Pharaoh
would be a better provider for them.
Wow.
Y'all, that's the deceitfulness of sin.
That ought to get our attention.
Verse 13 says,
our hearts can be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin.
They can become evil, unbelieving hearts.
Not because we set out to be evil
and do lots of bad stuff.
But because sin deceives us.
See, sin tells us what?
Life is to be found somewhere else apart from God.
Maybe not even far away.
Maybe just right here to the side a little bit.
And you get used to going to that place for life.
It becomes normal and natural
and your heart gets hard toward God.
It doesn't look to Him for life anymore.
Let me just give you some examples
of the deceitfulness of sin.
There are thousands.
Just imagine you're really wanting to be friends
with this girl at youth group.
But she keeps making fun of this other girl.
Talking bad about her and so,
but you really want to be her friend,
so you laugh along.
Sometimes you even chime in
with a little slight at the other girl.
So that the cool girl likes being with you.
And you're thinking,
you know, no one's hurt.
What's happened?
I'm just getting a friend.
But sin deceived you.
You're actually destroying
the possibility of safe friendship, aren't you?
Of real gospel community.
You'll never feel safe with that cool girl
if you're laughing at others.
Because how do you know
that they're not laughing at you
when you're not there?
Frustrated with the intimacy
in your own marriage?
You turn to digital images
on your screens.
You tell yourself at first things like,
I deserve this.
I'm not hurting anyone.
In fact, I'm avoiding arguments
with my spouse.
But sin deceived you.
You're actually misusing
another image bearer of God.
And you're avoiding the opportunity
for repentance
and forgiveness
and true love
in your marriage.
You're taking a cheap substitute
that won't actually love you.
You won't experience that.
And soon you find
you're both drifting
from God
and from one another.
Maybe you're increasingly angry
with other Christians
for how they're responding
to current events.
Just hypothetically.
You're so frustrated
with how they're not loving people.
They're not speaking out,
but they're silently compromising.
You're so angry
that instead of growing together
and leaning into that,
you disconnect
from church entirely.
I don't need them.
I've got Jesus.
And they don't need me.
But sin deceived you.
You're actually abandoning
brothers and sisters in need
in your own church family
while thinking you're helping
those who are in need
because you're not there with them
where Jesus puts you.
and you're setting yourself up
in your own mind
as the only one
who knows what's best.
You're isolating.
That's not what Jesus
made you for.
See, sin deceives us.
It promises us life
apart from God,
apart from His ways.
I know better about my life, right?
Who could know
as well as I do
what I need?
And we start to ignore
the conviction of sin
the preaching of God's word,
the brother or sister
who wants to challenge us
because our heart
has grown hard.
I mean, maybe we're not
the worst guy in the world.
We feel pretty decent
about ourselves,
but that's the problem.
We've gotten satisfied
with life on our own.
Sin.
Malcolm Muggeridge wrote about
this deceptive settling
in his autobiography.
The saddest thing to me
in looking back on my life
has been to recall
not so much the wickedness
I have been involved in,
the cruel and selfish
and egotistic things
I have done,
the hurt I have inflicted
on those I loved,
although all that's painful enough.
What hurts most
is the preference
I have so often shown
for what is inferior,
tenth rate,
when the first rate
was there for the having.
Like a man who goes shopping
and comes back
with cardboard shoes
when he might have had leather,
with dried fruit
when he might have had fresh,
with processed cheese
when he might have had cheddar,
with paper flowers
when the primroses were out.
God was there.
He said,
life,
joy,
rest,
peace,
hope,
love,
but I thought
I'd found a better way.
The end of that road
is getting hardened
in unbelief.
It's mentioned twice here
the evil,
unbelieving heart
there in verse 12.
That means it doesn't
keep its singular focus
on trust and hope
in God.
And then in verse 19,
at the end of the day,
the hard heart just
doesn't believe
in God
anymore.
A settled coldness
and distance
from God,
from His Word,
from His people,
even when you're around them
quite often.
You're just impervious
to them.
You're shut off
from them.
You've slowly rubbed
a callous on your heart,
even in church,
and you've kept rubbing it
so you no longer feel
conviction.
You no longer feel
a longing.
You no longer feel
anything.
Listen,
it's possible
to hear and see God
and still rebel
in unbelief.
To sit among His people
and still reject
His lordship
in your life,
His love
for you
to feel nothing.
You started so well
with God,
but then sin deceived
and your heart
began to harden.
It's a serious diagnosis.
How serious
is spiritual hard-heartedness?
What's the prognosis
for you
if it takes you down?
Take care.
Watch out.
Lest there be
in any of you
an evil,
unbelieving heart
leading you
to fall away
from the living God.
No one wants that.
Away from the God
who made you
to be with Him.
Certainly,
that wouldn't be me,
right?
Look where I am.
I'm sitting in church.
I've been in church
my whole life.
I know more theology
than my pastor.
I've led
the fundraising campaign.
We got that golden calf
up in no time.
Listen to the pastor's heart
concerned for his people.
Who was it
that finished so poorly
back then
in the wilderness?
Stuck in the wilderness
40 years,
buried there.
It was a whole generation,
he says,
of people
who followed
Moses' footsteps
out of Egypt
and across the Red Sea.
They started
so fast
with God,
it seemed.
No one had ever seen
the greatness of God
the way they had.
They are the ones
who sinned,
died in the wilderness,
were disobedient.
They didn't really believe.
They showed it
when God said,
here,
come in
and take this land
that I'm giving you.
And they said,
yeah,
but there's giants.
How?
You know,
Egypt might have been
better than that.
We know better than Yahweh
what is best for us.
Unbelief.
Powerful,
painful
unbelief.
The prognosis
for the hard heart
is it's unable
to enter
God's rest.
Makes sense,
doesn't it?
If your heart
is hardened against God
looking for life
somewhere else
and anything else
that you can find,
you can't enjoy
the rest
that God offers
only in Himself.
There's no rest
to relieve you.
No heaven
to look forward to.
No promises
to count on.
No love
to revel in.
No peace
to calm you.
No God
to hold you.
Now that's dark,
right?
I mean,
not a lot of
cheer and chuckles
from me today.
Neither the pastor
to the Hebrews
nor this pastor
wants to talk
about that
potential diagnosis
and prognosis
without telling you
how to avoid it.
What's the prescription?
Are you ready for that?
What do I do?
I don't want to end up there.
What's the prescription
to prevent
hard heartedness?
Notice,
good news,
he's writing to those
who haven't hardened yet,
at least not beyond
help or hope.
He's warning them
and he's encouraging them
as a community.
If you're hearing me,
it's not too late.
To keep your heart soft,
first pill
to take daily.
Speak
to one another's hearts.
I want to look more closely
at verses
12 and 13.
take care,
brothers and sisters,
lest there be in any of you
an evil,
unbelieving heart
leading you to fall away
from the living God.
But,
instead of falling away
from the living God
with an unbelieving heart,
what?
What?
But,
exhort one another
every day,
as long as it is called today,
that none of you
may be hardened
by the deceitfulness
of sin.
You notice there
how many hearts
you're supposed to be
watching carefully,
taking care,
that you don't,
how many of them?
Is it just one?
Is it just your own
that you're responsible for?
It's not,
is it?
It's all your brothers
and sisters.
Take care,
lest in any of you
so that none of you,
you need to be watching out
for all of them.
It is your job
to make sure
the deceitfulness
of sin
does not harden you
or anyone else
in your family.
Oh,
pastor,
I just wanted to take
my pill at home
every day
and just carry on
with my life.
Nope,
not an option.
Exhort
one another
every day.
It's that beautiful word
parakaleo
translated,
you'll know it as
counsel
or encourage,
exhort,
help,
comfort.
Literally,
it means
call
alongside.
It means
come beside
a brother
or sister
and yell at them
in love.
like a heart
massage.
Soften
their hearts
to God.
Don't let sin
deceive them
and harden them.
See,
it's a lot
more than just
hang out
with one another.
You know,
play pickleball,
read a book,
shoot the breeze,
tell jokes.
No,
speak to one
another's hearts.
What's going on there?
In context,
this is saying
the practical,
personal remedy
that God gives
against the deceitfulness
of sin
in your heart
is brothers
and sisters
who make the truth
of Jesus
seem more beautiful
than the lies
of sin.
That's God's remedy.
That's the pill.
Brothers and sisters
who make the truth
of Jesus
seem more beautiful
to you
than the lies
of sin.
Sometimes that means
calling you out
on the lies of sin
they see you believing.
Sometimes that will mean
sharing their own struggles
and praying together.
Sometimes that will mean
coming alongside you
and yelling
the wonder
and the worth
of Jesus
so loudly
in your ear
that it drowns out
anything else
that you may be
listening to.
I have so many
of those in my life.
I hope you do.
So many.
I'm so thankful.
I think that God knew
that I was going
to need so much help
to see the deceitfulness
of my sin
to see the worth
of my Savior.
He's given me
so many
many of you.
I'll come back to that.
Speak to
one
another.
Let me just point out
briefly
no matter how
spiritual you are
this is
part of the Bible
that you can't obey.
on your own
by yourself.
Even if you and God
are having really
great quiet times
even if you have
already read
the entire Bible
reading plan for the year
and prayed all of the
prayers in the booklets
you can't do this.
You actually have to have
a grace group
whether you call it
that or not.
You need other people.
Listen,
you are in
rebellion against God
disobedience
to His Word
if you aren't
actively seeking
people to speak
into your heart
while you speak
into theirs.
It's that serious.
How often
do we need to take
this pill?
Every day
as long as it is
called today
until Jesus returns
you never stop
needing this.
This is not some
legalistic 24 hour
period where you
must speak
to one another
or else.
Listen,
if you miss
the preventive
medication once
you're probably
okay that night
but never stop
taking it regularly,
right?
That's the warning.
Hardness
will begin
to develop.
You know
one of the things
that means?
It means
that
I am not
able to do
this for you.
A sermon
on Sunday
and a quirky
video on Wednesday
that you skip
over to remind
you about the
worth of Jesus
that's not enough.
You need to
find your people.
Find a grace
group.
Ask someone
to yell
alongside you.
Offer to yell
alongside them.
Blame it on me
if you need to
if it's awkward.
Blame it on
Hebrews.
But do it.
I want to
urge you to do it
today.
This afternoon.
Today
in the words
of Hebrews
reach out
to at least
one person.
Can I just
challenge each
of you to do
that?
Reach out
to one person
or one group
at a minimum
and just say
you do this
for me.
Thank you.
Please don't
stop.
or I so
need you
to do this
for me.
Would you
please
would you
please do
this for me?
Make a note
somewhere right
now so that you
do it this
afternoon that you
reach out and
say brother
sister let me be
your shelter.
Let me shine
light into your
life.
Some of you are
texting right now
that's not what
I said.
God sees you
this afternoon
do that.
That's a big
part of the
prescription here.
Speak to one
another.
But it's not
just to be
talkative.
Remember it's
to our hearts.
So what is it
that we're saying?
What are we
speaking about?
We speak to
one another
so that we
listen ultimately
to God's
voice.
That's the one
we need to
hear right?
Twice the
preacher quotes
that line from
Psalm 95.
He's really
focused on that
first part.
Today if you
hear his
voice do
not harden
your hearts.
Stay soft.
Stay warm
to what God
says.
Even if it
challenges you
especially if it
challenges you
keep sitting
under God's
word.
You don't know
what to say
to your friend
when you reach
out, when you
speak to them
one day.
Share something
you read in
your Bible
reading.
Even copy
and paste it.
Anything that
helped you see
your need for
Jesus and his
graciously meeting
your need.
Just share it
with them.
Look at verse
seven.
As the Holy
Spirit says,
interesting way to
quote scripture
isn't it?
As the Holy
Spirit says,
God speaks to
us in his
word.
Doesn't he?
Notice just
for a minute
that this
really neat
dynamic that's
going on.
This is God
the Holy Spirit
speaking in
Psalm 95
to speak to
God's people
then about
something that
happened several
hundred years
before that they
need to heed the
warning of and
learn from.
You see what's
happening there?
Learn from them
the Holy Spirit
says.
And then the
writer to the
Hebrews takes
Psalm 95
several hundred
years after that
and says,
look back to
that.
God's still
speaking.
Listen again
to him.
And here we
are now gathered
several hundred
years later
looking back to
the writer writing
to the Hebrews
and saying,
listen to what
he says.
God is speaking.
The Holy Spirit
speaks to you
today and says,
don't miss this.
If you hear his
voice, don't
harden your
heart.
God still speaks
by his spirit
through his word.
You can count
on it.
Today, today,
if you hear his
voice, listen up.
Don't turn away.
Keep listening.
So that ultimately
you hold fast
to Jesus.
Did you remember
that's where this
whole passage
started?
Some of you were
wondering if I was
going to make it
back to that.
Verse 1.
Consider
Jesus.
Fix
your thoughts
on Jesus
is what it
means.
He is the one
that you most
need to help
you endure.
See,
the Israelites
who wandered
in the wilderness,
who failed to
finish well,
they had a good
leader,
didn't they?
Moses was
indeed the epitome
of greatness
for the Jews
and sure enough,
he was faithful
to God.
This is not
ripping on Moses
here.
God sent Moses
to deliver his
message to his
people and then
to deliver his
people from
bondage.
He represented
God to the
people and then
he represented
the people to
God when he
pled for God
to show mercy
on them.
What an
amazing,
incredible guy.
But just like
he did with
the angels
in chapter 2,
the writer here
is giving a
warning saying,
if the people
following Moses
fell away
and missed out
on something
good,
how much
more will
people following
Jesus who
fall away from
him miss out
on something
good?
See,
while Moses
is a servant,
he says,
of God,
Jesus is the
son of God.
Moses,
you're outranked.
While Moses
is a part of
God's house,
Jesus builds
the house.
Moses,
you're outdone.
Jesus is the
apostle of our
confession,
the one we
affirm as sent
by God from
heaven to dwell
with us.
The prophet
like Moses,
but even greater
than Moses.
Jesus is also
the high priest
of our
confession,
the one who
represents us
before God
by making the
ultimate sacrifice,
right?
So that no one
in him,
no one following
Jesus,
no one in his
family ever
fails to make
it home.
So glory to
Jesus,
right?
Glory and glory
and more glory
because he
brings us
home.
See,
we're really
close to
Jesus.
We are his
brothers and
sisters,
it says.
Isn't that
beautiful?
That reminder
to you right
as he's
warning you.
We are in
the second
analogy,
we are God's
house,
which is why
every single
brick,
every one of
us is needed.
We must cling
to one another,
let no one fall
away because God
lives here.
Wow,
what an amazing
thing we're a
part of.
And then he
says,
we share in
Christ as
long as we
hold fast our
confidence to
the end.
Is that what
he's saying?
As long as our
grip is strong
enough, is that
what will do
it?
No.
He talks about
our confidence
in Jesus.
Our boasting
and our hope
is Jesus.
He indeed
enables us to
endure and
to finish
what we
started with
him.
Isn't this
amazing that
we're not
actually on
our own?
We have a
share, a
stake in
Christ, the
enduring one.
We're in
him.
I want to
show you as
we close a
clip from
the 1992
Olympics.
I suspect
many of you
will have
seen it.
One of the
great moments
in Olympic
history,
British
sprinter
Derek
Redmond
was really
fast.
He ran
away with
his first
heat in
the 400
meters.
This you're
about to
see is his
semifinal heat
and I'm
going to
commentate for
us so I
can make some
points along
the way.
It's a little
long.
There's
Redmond in
lane five
wearing blue.
You'll be able
to tell who he
is in just a
minute.
He separates
from the pack
but he starts
really fast.
He's looking
good.
He's there
in the middle
looking strong
really, really
fast.
A little
faster than
me.
And then
oh no.
Oh.
He tears
his hamstring
and he's
down as the
other racers
kind of keep
going and he
just falls on
the track and
there they are
headed to the
finish line but
he is all
the way back
and then he
hobbles up
and he starts
limping his
way around
the track.
Look at his
face.
Like the
agony that he's
feeling.
You get a
close up here in
just a second.
He can barely
keep moving.
All of a sudden
somebody comes
running down out
of the stands.
Anybody know
who that is?
That's his
dad.
His dad gets
by security,
right?
Nobody's stopping
him.
And he
finds his
son, puts
his arm
around him.
Redmond
later, you
can keep
watching, just
listen to me.
Redmond says
what his dad
was saying to
him here.
He said the
first thing he
said was,
you're a
champion.
You've got
nothing to
prove.
You're a
champion.
He was
telling him
he didn't
have to keep
going.
He said,
I want to
get to the
finish line.
His dad
said, hey,
okay.
We started
this together.
We're going
to finish
this together.
He said,
that's what he
kept whispering
in his ear.
We're going
to finish
this together.
You will
notice that
his dad
has no
interest,
by the way,
in anybody
else helping.
It's one
of my
favorite parts.
He keeps
brushing up.
Dude, we
got this.
Leave us
alone.
Get off
the camera.
All the
way.
All the
way to the
finish line.
You can't
hear this
because I
turned the
audio off,
but as
they cross
the finish
line here,
there is
a huge
roar from
the crowd
like nobody
else who
won any
race.
Listen,
God has
challenged you
and warned
you pretty
hard today.
I feel
that.
The beauty
of the
word of
God,
of the
gospel of
Jesus,
is that
God is
not standing
far away
doing that.
When you've
fallen,
when you're
despairing,
when you're
not sure
that you
can finish
the race
and hold
on,
God has
come down
out of
heaven,
out of
the stands,
if you will,
and he's
put his
arm around
you and
said,
we started
this together.
I made
you.
I chose
you.
I went
to the
cross for
you.
I rose
from the
grave for
you.
I'm with
you now,
and I'm
coming back
for you.
We started
this together.
We're going
to finish
this together.
And that
roar from
the crowd,
I think
that's the
brothers and
sisters who
are yelling
alongside you.
They're yet
one more
reminder to
lean on
Jesus,
to hold
fast to
him,
the
faithful
savior.
They're
yelling so
that Jesus
can whisper
in your
ear right
now.
With his
arm around
you,
he's saying,
you don't
have to
figure it
all out.
You don't
have to
be the
strong one.
You don't
have to
have the
strength
to make
it to
the finish
line.
You just
trust me.
Lean on
me.
I'll bring
you home.
We're going
to finish
this together.
Today,
if you
hear his
voice,
don't
harden your
hearts.
Jesus,
help us
hear you.
Even if
you're
whispering to
us,
especially if
you're
shouting in
our pain,
help us to
know there's
someone holding
us,
to whom we
can hold
fast in our
weakness,
cast our
broken selves
on,
and be
safe,
and be
helped,
and be
strengthened
for however
many days
you have
left for
us here,
and for
an eternity
that we
look forward
to with
you.
Thank you
for being
our older
brother,
for coming
to us,
and making
us a part
of your
family.
Soften
our hearts.
Holy Spirit,
we need
you to
work.
Our
stony
hearts are
slow to
relent,
but Jesus,
you're so
beautiful,
you're so
wonderful,
you're so
good,
you can
make them
soft,
that we
might trust
you and
walk with
you even
today.
Do that
work right
now.
Keep working
on us and
don't let us
forget.
We ask in
your name.
Amen.
For more
information,
visit us
online at
southwood.org.