Latest / HBCWestminster / 10.20.21 Hebrews 3:7-19 Part 1 Tom Miller

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10.20.21 Hebrews 3:7-19 Part 1 Tom Miller · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We've been in Hebrews for a while. We're going to continue in Hebrews. But we're at the latter part of chapter 3. And it's just a good word that the writer of the Hebrews is trying to share with his struggling new Jewish believers. And remember, the writer is trying to encourage these relatively new believers. They're Jewish. Most of them are Jewish.
• 0:31
  And they're struggling. They're being persecuted on all sides. Their family at work in the marketplace. They probably aren't able to go to the synagogue or some of them are in Jerusalem in the temple. And they're just ostracized from every area. They're being pressured from every direction. And they're getting weary. They're getting tired. They're giving asses and
• 1:01
  30 years since Jesus ascended and they're beginning to say, Lord, how much longer can I take this? I don't know. Is this worth it? Have you ever felt like when you're going through the valley, when you got the pressure on you and things just seem piling up one after another and you feel like God's picking on you and you go, God, is this worth it?
• 1:33
  Do you know how weary I am? Do you know the promises that I don't see? Are you aware of how many prayers I don't think you're hearing? God, I'm ready to give up. That's where the Jewish Christians were there saying, Lord, I don't know if this is worth it. And the writer's saying it is. Keep focused on Jesus. He's just outlined in the first...
• 2:04
  Two and a half, three chapters. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. Jesus is higher than the angels, guys. And they thought the angels were it. Jesus is higher than the angels. And Jesus is your savior. He talks about that in chapter two. He says, Jesus is your savior and the one who is with you all the time. And then he's just said that Moses, the highest prophet in the,
• 2:35
  The Jewish theology, Jesus is higher than Moses. Guys, can you see how much God loves you? He's encouraging you. And that's where we find ourselves when we come into verse 7 of chapter 3. And Lance left off with chapter 6, but we'll start with chapter 3 and then we're going to pop back for just a second. But you need to see in this passage how God is encouraging.
• 3:08
  The believers. So he says in chapter 7, he says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, well, therefore. What's your adage? What's therefore? Therefore, right? Well, you got to go back to verse 6. We got to go back to verse 6. Lance shared this with us already. In verse 6, I'm going to share it from the message translation. In verse 6.
• 3:38
  says this in the message, now we are part of his, God's house, that is, the kingdom of God. We're part of the kingdom of God, people, if we continue courageously to hold firmly to our bold confidence and victorious hope in Jesus. See, what he's saying is, guys, remember, when you were first saved, remember, continue. You've been courageous up to this point.
• 4:07
  Don't give up your courage. Keep your hope in Jesus because he knows that's where our confidence in faith comes from, people. As we go through the fire, we've got to keep our hope in Jesus. And that's what the author is saying. Let's go back to verse 7. And he says, okay, therefore, now we know that means because we continue courageously,
• 4:37
  To hold firmly. To our hope. Therefore because we hold on to our hope. He says this. The Holy Spirit says. And then you should have a quote. And we have a whole string of five verses. Of a quote. That is taken. From Psalms 95. 7 to 11. We're not going to turn back there. We're going to look at it in two weeks. But Psalms 95. 7 to 11. Is.
• 5:09
  We're going to read it almost word for word right now. The author sits there and goes back to this psalm in trying to encourage the believer. And this is what we're going to read in just a minute. And it's an example of what happened when the Israelites hardened their hearts after coming out of Egypt. They came out of Egypt and...
• 5:37
  All they could do is murmur. All they could do is grumble and grouse and accuse Moses of this and accuse God of that. They didn't seem to appreciate anything. And the psalmist is saying, guys, you can't be like that. So let's read verse 7 through 14. Don't stand up because I'm going to read it in comment as we go. So if you just kind of stay with me, I'm going to kind of read that comment.
• 6:09
  those verses word for word. And it says this, verse 7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, this is the quote now, today, right now, today, if, that's a choice, guys. We have an if. We can make this choice. He's saying if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as Israel did in the rebellion. Now that's interesting. He says in the rebellion.
• 6:37
  In the Hebrew, in the Greek, that's a proper name. It's not the word rebellion. It's a proper name that means mirabah, if I can say that. It means quarreling. So he says, don't harm your heart as in the quarreling or in the day of testing. That word day of testing is another proper name. And this time it's masa, meaning testing.
• 7:05
  So he's saying this. He says, don't harden your heart in the mirabah, in the quarreling, or in the testing, the masah, in the wilderness, where your fathers, verse 9, where your fathers put me to the test. They saw my works. That is the miracles. They saw his miracles for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked. This is God. I was provoked. I was angry. That word is disgusted.
• 7:36
  Can you imagine God getting angry? Disgusted? I don't want him, dude. Not me. With that generation, he said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. Let me drill down on that word known. In the Greek, it's kenosko. And I love that word because it's not just I know you. I know Liz. She has helped us in the city. I know Liz. She's great.
• 8:09
  And so in others of you, I know you. I can greet you. I know you by name. But I know you. But the word gnosko means is it's not just I know you. It's based on a relationship and experience. So I just don't know you casually. I have a relationship with you. I've experienced. I've walked with you for a time.
• 8:38
  I know you. And it's a progressive, intimate knowledge of someone. So see, I kind of know you, but that's not gnosko. And I tell you what, I gnosko my wife. I know my wife. I know her because we've experienced good, bad, and ugly. But we've walked through it. We've got a relationship. I know her.
• 9:08
  She knows me. And there's a gnosko there. Do you see that? And he said, you have not known. You have not gnosko my ways, guys. The Israelites didn't know God. And I want us to begin to know God. If you don't, keep drilling in. Keep walking with him. Don't give up to the bad, good, and the ugly, and the blessings, and the...
• 9:34
  good times and bad times, that's when we walk with God and we get to know God and we get to love God and we get to gnosko Him. And it goes on in verse 11. And I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. We're going to talk about rest in two weeks. So good. And because of this, he tells them to take care. Take care, brothers, lest there be any of you in evil.
• 10:07
  That's a wicked, vicious, and evil unbelief. No faith, lack of faith. It's evil and it's unbelief. Unbelieving heart leading to fall away from the living God. Now I'm going to share a little bit of that because Lance set me up last week. So we're going to talk about a little bit of falling away from the living God. But he goes on and says, exhort, be consistently, exhort one another.
• 10:38
  every day as long as it's called today. And you're saying, do it now. Exhort one another. And I would say to you, exhort each other. And that word is a continuation. It means exhort continually. Keep continually exhorting each other. That's the beauty of the fellowship. That's why we come to church. That's why you can't be the lone ranger at home.
• 11:07
  I need your exhortation. I need your encouragement. I need you to keep me honest. And he says, people, that's what he was telling the Jewish believers, encourage each other. Exhort each other now. Don't let them fall away. Be together. You need each other. And we need each other.
• 11:34
  He says, continue to do that every day as long as it's called today. So that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Let me say it another way. That none of you be deceived by sin and harden your heart against God. I don't want to be deceived. So easy though to be deceived by the world. To go left instead of when we're supposed to go right. And we tend to blame God for that reason.
• 12:05
  And he wants us to know, stay with God. Don't harden your heart against God. Verse 14, for we, and again he's talking to believers, we have come to share in Christ. That is, we've come to share in all his promises and all his blessings. We really have. Sometimes we don't see it, but we have. And if indeed we hold our original confidence firm,
• 12:34
  to the end. If we hold on to the end, remember he's telling these weary, weary believers, hold on to the end. It's worth it. It's worth it. The New Living Translation talks about that last verse and it says, for if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share
• 13:02
  in all that belongs to Christ. He's telling them, guys, if you just hold on, you'll share all the goodness all the way to the end. Don't, don't give up. Don't give up. Well, let's go back. Let's go to verse 12. I want to look at verse 12 fairly quickly. And this is a very strong warning that he's giving these new believers. And so,
• 13:37
  Verse 12 is saying, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil and unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. Now that word fall away is a pretty harsh word you're going to see. But you need to look at it in context. That word falling away means to desert, to revolt, to rebel.
• 14:07
  And it speaks about a condition of relationship. It means to remove oneself or to separate oneself from somebody. And so he's talking about don't separate yourself from the living God. Guys, don't fall back to Judaism. Don't do it. And some of you don't fall back into old ways because of the pressure or the situation that you're in. But he's saying,
• 14:39
  stay there. Don't separate yourself from the only thing you've got going, and that's the living God. One translation says, don't stand aloof from the living God. And you've got to realize, this is a decision that you make. He's telling the believers here, you are making this decision. If you stay in Jesus, or you make a choice to move away
• 15:11
  from the living God. Don't do it. And the thing we've got to realize is from this word, the Greek word, we derive a noun, and if I can say it in the Greek, it's apostasis. The noun is apostasis, and it means to revolt. And then there's a noun, and it's apostatis, and it means to desert.
• 15:43
  Now, do you hear a Greek word in there? Or an English word? Hear an English word? Apostasy? Apostasy? And of course, you know, apostasy is, the dictionary says, it's a desertion or a departure from one's religion. And you know, in times of stress throughout the church, we heard about apostasy and what you do with apostates and how horrible it is. And he's trying to tell these believers,
• 16:15
  Don't do that. Don't pull away from the living God, but realize that the passage isn't talking about salvation, that you're going to lose your salvation. It's not talking about eternity in hell. It's talking about a relationship with the living God. Don't pull away from God. It's simple. Don't be rebellious. Don't miss God's blessing. Stay in there, in the midst.
• 16:49
  Of the battle. Let's skip back to verse 8. Skip back to verse 8. And verse 8 says this. Do not harden your hearts. As the Israelites did. In the rebellion. On the day of testing. And you think about. Wait a minute. How could they harden their hearts? Think about all the miracles. That God did. As he brought them out of Egypt. You know we've got.
• 17:24
  The ten plagues. I mean, they went through the ten plagues. Many of them, they didn't go through it. They saw the Egyptians, right? They didn't have to go through it. They saw God's miracle. God split the Red Sea. They walked across on dry ground. God drowned the Egyptian army. I laugh when people sit there and say, talking about the Red Sea, and they walked across it on dry ground, and they say, yeah, it was only three feet deep. Then, of course, the next miracle, right, is how did the...
• 17:55
  Egyptian army drowned in three feet of water, guys. So you can't have it both ways. God gave them manna. You know, somebody did it. Some figures, I have no idea how they did this, but they figured that if there was maybe three million people, I don't know, plus or minus, take your guess, that they would need 4,500 tons of manna a day. I don't know how they figured that one out, but that's a lot of manna, 4,500.
• 18:27
  tons. Quail every day. Now, if just one person got one quail a day, what, three million quails? Can you imagine every night seeing three million quails fly out of the east and just flop right into your pot? I got that one. Yeah. Mom, this week, tonight, I want barbecue. I want barbecue in the middle of boogers. Three million.
• 19:02
  Imagine how dark the sky must have been. And they're grumbling. They don't remember the miracles of God. How about water? Everyday water. Somebody figured out they needed maybe up to 15 million gallons of water a day for themselves and their flock. I mean, that's a hoot of water. Everyday. And they just grumbled. They still hardened their hearts. Don't let me harden my heart.
• 19:34
  See your miracles every day. How many of you are aware of the fact that I got to work without an accident? You know, I got another day of divine health. My family's blessed as they come in and blessed as they go out. I don't want to forget your daily miracles, Lord. I don't want them to become common. Can you imagine? Every day, more manna. Oh, boy. Another night of quail.
• 20:04
  But no, it's a blessing of God. Don't make it, don't allow anything God does for you to become common, to become routine. Every day, make it special. Recognize how special he is. Then let's look at the latter part of verse 8. And he says, don't harden your hearts as the Israels did in the rebellion in the day of testing.
• 20:33
  We're talking about a definite pronoun here. We're talking about Meribah and Mesa. They're proper names. And that is being referred to. He's referring them to every Jewish believer would have known exactly what he was referring to. He's referring to Exodus 17, 1 through 7. He's talking about the children of Israel have come out of Egypt.
• 21:03
  They've experienced a couple of weeks of manna and quail and water. And they get to a place that's called Raphadim. And we're going to see what happens there. So Exodus 17, 1 through 7, it says this. And all the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages. That is, they were going from place to place.
• 21:33
  Can you just see them place to place? According to the commandment of the Lord, encamped at Rephidim, and it means refreshment. That's important. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted for water.
• 22:00
  And the people grumbled against Moses. Can you just see it? And said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock? Yeah, that's really believing God. So Moses cried to the Lord. And right then, if we could look at it, God answered Moses' question. And remember the situation? God told Moses to do what? Go to the rock.
• 22:30
  Strike the rock and you have what? Thousands of gallons of water. And that's what happened. And then we go on and it says, and he called the name of the place Masa, which means testing, and Meribah, which means quarreling, because the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying, is this the Lord among us or not? How many times?
• 23:03
  Have I had challenges in my life? Going through the valley, going through the darkness, and I would say, God, where are you? Are you really here? Is this scripture really true? You said you supply all my needs. I got three kids, Lord. I got a dog, a house, a mortgage, and I got nothing in the summer right now because I was a teacher. Lord, are you going to provide?
• 23:35
  Are you there? Are you really there, Lord? Have you ever been there? And said, Lord, I don't know. Again, the writer of Hebrews is talking to the Jewish believers and he knows that's where they're at. They're crying out and saying, God, where are you? And the writer's saying something so profound. So profound. And there's some key questions I want to ask you.
• 24:12
  Was Moses lost? Was he lost? He didn't know where he was going? Or did God lead him to Raphadim? Did he lead him to the place of no water? He said he did. By commandment, he led them to a place of no water. That's a God I serve. That's a God I want to witness to people too. Hey, serve God, he'll lead you to a place of no water. Let me ask you another question.
• 24:57
  So did God lead Israel to a place where there seemed to be no water? Is it possible that God would ever lead us into a no water situation? I'm going to test some of your theology right now. I'm going to push you, but this is what the Lord's saying. Has he ever led you into a no water situation? Where you get there and say, God, where are you? There's no water here.
• 25:32
  My kids have no water. My flocks have no water. And you led us here, God. That's the God I serve. Well, the answer is in the name of the place that the Lord brought him to. See, he commanded the Israelites to go to Raphadim. And remember what that meant? A place of refreshment. He didn't mean for them to be out of water. He meant them to look to him because he was going to be their provider.
• 26:08
  He wanted them to come with expectation and with faith and to look around and go, God, I don't see anything here. But you know what? You were faithful yesterday. You're going to be faithful today. And I don't know, Lord, what you're going to do to provide with this finances. My car's wrecked. My child's sick and I don't have the money. But God, you're my provider.
• 26:44
  You're my healer. That's what he wanted the children of Israel to do and to say, Lord, we're here. Where are you? I can't wait to see the miracle you're going to do to get me out of this mess. That's Raphadim, see? That's a place of refreshment. It represents a promise from God to supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
• 27:15
  He expected them to look to him for their provision of water. And instead of believing God, the Israelites quarreled and grumbled with Moses. Man, have I been there. Grumbled, complained, groused, angry, upset, discouraged. You name it. I mean, the whole game, right? I don't look at me like that.
• 27:50
  That's where the people were. And the writer is saying, no. When we find ourselves in a dry place or a challenging situation, are we going to believe that we're camping at Raphidim and experience God's blessings? Or are we going to live in Meribah and grumble with God? See, in Matthew 11, and I'll close with this, Jesus wants us to find
• 28:23
  Rest in no water situations. He's talking about that in chapter 11 of Matthew. And then he ends that in verse 30 and it says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. See what he's saying is our no water situations are certainly a burden. He's not saying it's not a burden. He's not saying these people were probably happy when they looked around and saw no water.
• 28:55
  He's not saying that. He's not saying the yoke is going to be easy. But you know what? Jesus is our yoke fellow. He's right there with us pulling. And if we'll just pull with him, if we'll just walk with him in faith and understanding and expectancy, that yoke isn't a big deal. Yeah, we're plowing. Yeah, I can feel it.
• 29:25
  That's not exactly fun, but you know what? When we see God come through, it doesn't get any better than that. When we see a kid is healed by God's favor and grace and power and mercy, nothing better than seeing our kid healed or seeing that our finances met. That burden is...
• 29:51
  It's there. I don't deny that. I don't deny that I'm in financial straits. I don't deny my child is sick. But I don't look at that. I look to the living God. He's telling people, will you quit looking at your situation and look to the living God. Don't fall away. Expect Raphadim, not Mirabah. See, we look to God for our help with faith and expectation and find ourselves.
• 30:25
  living in Raphadim with a light burden. That's abundant living. That's God's grace. And that's the challenge the writer to the Hebrews is giving to the faltering, weary people that he's writing to. In the midst of their problems, in the midst of their hard times, God has not forgotten them. He's not left them in Meribah, but he wants them to move into Raphadim.
• 30:58
  A place where God will continue to show them his mercy. He'll continue to provide for all their needs. And he'll continue to demonstrate his faithfulness. And I tell you tonight, we begin to live in Raphidim. He may not take away that burden right away. You may be walking with him with that yoke for a while longer.
• 31:29
  But he is your provider. He is your healer. He is the God that is faithful. He is the God of miracles. And he is the God that loves us with an everlasting love. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you that even though some of us are weary, we're beat down, we're wondering how you're going to come through.
• 32:00
  Lord, but you are faithful. I pray for everyone here, Lord, that they can begin to understand that. Lord, as they go home, Lord, may they realize that, yeah, maybe you led them into this no rain situation, but God, you're the same God that provided the water. You're the same God that's going to provide the way out. Because you said you'd always give us a way of escape.
• 32:31
  And so, Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness. I thank you for your blessing on every single person here, every single household. God, you reveal yourself to them. They'd see you bigger, see you more grand than they ever have before. They can trust you more than they ever have before. And they'll be able to begin to not be looking at the lack of water, but they'll be looking expectancy.
• 33:03
  of the water provider. And you'll bless them. Bless them as they come in. Bless them as they go out. And I thank you, Lord, for your word. In Jesus' name, amen.