Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

I’m going to start this morning in Hebrews chapter 3 then we will visit Numbers 20, Genesis 3 and stop in Romans 7.So if everyone is in Hebrews 3 we will start at verse 7 and go to 19

Hebrews 3:7-19 (New International Version)

I want to focus on three things that are said in this section of scripture.

Vs. 8 8do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion,

Vs. 11 11So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’

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And Vs. 13 so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

First I want to point out that this is addressed to Christians verse 1 of this chapter says therefore Holy brothers and sisters, so the author is talking to fellow Christians.

Let’s go back to verse 8 where the writer tells us that the Holy Spirit says; “do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

Notice that; “do not harden your hearts.”

It is an act of our will to harden our hearts.

In Exodus we see the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart referred to in two ways.

The Lord said I will harden his heart.

(Exodus 4:21) and

Pharoah hardened his heart (Exodus 8:15)

The hardening of our hearts is not something God does so we will be like little robots.

God Hardening Pharaoh’s heart is just God allowing Pharaoh to do what is already in his heart.

The hardening of our hearts is something we do.

We choose to soften our hearts or harden them sometimes God arranges events to help ge our hearts where He wants them, but just as pharaoh’s pride forced him to harden his heart we let circumstances harden or soften our hearts.

So we are told not to harden our hearts as they did in the rebellion.

I want to first address the broad way the author of Hebrews is approaching this scripture and then I’m going to tighten it up a little and look at the narrow way of looking at verse 8.

The author is talking about how God did not allow the Israelites into the Promised Land because of their unbelief.

God has saved and delivered them.

That is important to see.

The Israelites have already been saved.

As I pointed out earlier the author of Hebrews was talking about Christians and here we have the saved Israelites, kinda of like the Old testament version of Christians.So they have been saved and delivered but the Promised Land that they were to be given is not going to be theirs during their lifetime because they doubt.

They did not believe that God was truly going to take care of them.

Numbers 13 tells of the spies being sent into the Promised Land and they come back talking about the military strength and the fortifications of the cities and then they compare their selves to Grasshoppers amongst these people who were giants.

These spies say “we can’t do this.

We can’t do this.

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And they are right.

They are right, they can’t do it.

But God can.

These people have already seen the miracles of the plagues.

God not only delivered them but made them rich when the Egyptians paid them to leave.

They saw the Red Sea split open.

Think about that miracle by itself.

Any one ever drained a pond and immediately walked in it afterwards.

You sink to your knees in the mud but the Israelites had the sea split and crossed on dry ground.

Then God allowed the waters to overtake the Egyptians.

Just imagine seeing this and then to doubt God.

They have survived battles, by armies much stronger and more well trained .They have had bitter water turned sweet, seen manna fall from the sky.

God has taken care of these people but when He says “Go and take your reward” they say “We can’t.”

Caleb and Joshua were the only two that didn’t harden their hearts and they were the only ones that got to see their reward on this side of heaven.

All the others let unbelief harden their hearts.

Think about that they were saved but because sin hardened their hearts they did not get an earthly reward.

I’m not saying that Caleb and Joshua didn’t suffer they went through the exact same things as all the other Israelites but to them it wasn’t as bad because they knew that God was carrying them and they got to see the reward of their belief that God would conquer the promised land

Now to the narrow look into this scripture “Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”[

This comes from Psalm 95 and in Psalm 95 it refers to the wilderness as Meribah and Massah.

The events at Meribah and Massah are recorded in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. they refer to Moses getting water from the Rock at Meribah.

Now God instructs Moses to talk to the rock and strike it once.

Let’s look at Numbers 20:10-13

He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”

11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff.

Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Moses in his anger at the unbelief of the Israelites hardened his heart and did not honor God as Holy.

Because of that Moses did not get to enter the Promised Land in his lifetime.

Do you see a pattern?

The hardening of our hearts to sin stops us from receiving the reward that God has in store for us.

Now a reward might be the blessing in getting to see someone we know come to Christ.

One of the hardest things I have had to endure was seeing someone I care about hate me for being honest about what the bible says.

But I endured I stayed focused on Jesus and what he wanted and the greatest reward was seeing that person start going to church regularly.

If we follow Jesus and do not let our hearts be hardened by sins deceitfulness we will get to see the reward of our efforts.

Lets go back to Hebrews 3. Verses 12 and 13 12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Moses heart was hardened by the disbelief of those around him and that lead to his sin.

Let’s look at two other people who allowed sins deceitfulness to harden their hearts.

Lets back up to Adam and Eve

Genesis 3 is the infamous chapter called the fall.

Let’s look at what happened though.3:1-6 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.

Notice we are told here that the serpent was crafty or we could say deceitful.

He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Notice what he just did he misquoted what God had said in an effort to cause confusion and doubt.

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’

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4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.

5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

The beauty of the sinful fruit hardened the heart of Eve.

Think about that the allure of sin hardened Eve’s Heart .

Satan changed sin from something that kills and destroys to something desirable.

And she gave some to her husband.

Adam loved Eve and in his love for a woman Adam disobeyed God

The love of a woman hardened Adam’s heart.

Disbelief of those around hardened moses’ heart

Beauty hardened Eve’s heart.

Love Hardened Adam’s heart.

, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

So what Hardens our hearts and how does sin deceive us.

Last summer I caught a Garter Snake in the yard.

Dustin and I played with it for a while a Savannah took a picture of us holding it.

I put the picture on my screensaver at work.

A woman I work with walked up and looked at it with disgust asking what is that.

I said my son!

She replied No, not the boy.

I said oh, That would be me.

I have been married long enough that I have learned that when a woman is holding sharp objects and gets that insane look in her eyes its time for the jokes to stop so I told it was a Garter snake.

What