"Trust the Voice of God!"

Intro: Story of tickets we bought from a guy and the lady at the stadium told us they were fake. “You have to be careful who you trust these days.” There is only one we can place our trust in, and that is Yaweh. The one true God. So, how do we actually do this? That’s the question that so many people really wrestle with.

The directive here in our passage today leads us to this huge sense of urgency to respond to the Voice of God and His Words, and not to turn a deaf ear, so that we have a hardened heart. We need to trust in God and what he has done for us which leads to obedient lives. Let me begin today by asking you this simple question. Do you have a desire to obey what God is telling you to obey? Or the opposite may have happened in your life, and you find today that you have a rebellious spirit. You are not listening to God ,and your not trusting God.

The warning here from our text comes to us from the example of the rebellious Israelites who didn’t trust God when he told them to enter into the Promise Land. The feared the giants of the land and ultimately the people didn’t trust God. (Numbers 13 and 14) The author wants his audience and us to get the point here, don’t be like this wilderness generation, trust in the Lord your God today Church.

1. Pay Attention to the Works of God.

Hebrews 3:7–11 ESV

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

These verses here are a quote from Psalm 95:7-11. Right off the bat here the author wants us to see something important. Here in verse seven he uses this word TODAY! This word means the present moment, while God’s Words are fresh and hot on our hearts and minds. When you hear God’ voice through His Word, immediately give heed to it, we listen and then obey or put into practice, what God tells us to do. This is so important that we see the author repeat the same word in verse 13, then again in verse 15, and finally again in chapter 4 verse 7. He wants us to get the point of don’t put it off any longer, pay attention to God’s voice through his Word because there are some life changing things that he wants us to see.

When we don’t pay attention to God’s Voice eventually over time we begin to have a hardened heart or a rebellious heart. This is exactly what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness. They put God to the test and even though they saw some amazing and incredible works of God they forgot about Him and went astray. Think about everything this generation witnessed.

-They saw all the plagues that God did in Egypt.

-They witnessed God spare their firstborn child.

-They finally left the bondage of slavery in Egypt. They had cried out to God for years to deliver them and it finally happened.

-They witnessed God’s miraculous hand of deliverance when they crossed the Red Sea.

-They saw how God provided food, water, shelter for His people. And how he led them by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.

-They even saw into the Promise land.

How many times do we do the same thing? Has there come a time in your life where you know what God has done? You know He is powerful and mighty. You know that you can run to him for guidance and help and yet how often do we forget about him and run astray to our own way?

-The way of pleasure. Seeking what we want.

-The way of looking to others for hope and trust.

-The way of seeking other gods instead of the God.

The last word that I need to mention here is the word Rest. It’s important that we understand what this means. Notice in verse 11 the author is telling his audience that the Israelites shall not enter my rest. The earthly rest which God promised to give them in the land of Canaan was a life free of slavery. But, because of their rebellion an entire generation of people were prohibited from entering the rest in the Promise Land.

The application here for us is that today our spiritual rest comes from the Lord. Let me explain this. At Salvation we as believers enter into a true rest, which is a spiritual promise, because we never have to try and earn our salvation or do something through our own self-righteousness.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It’s because of God’s Work that we can have rest and salvation. Trusting in God is a life changing thing!

2. Be on Guard.

Hebrews 3:12–15 ESV

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 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. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

So, there are two questions that we must address here. The first question is what do we need to be on guard against? And the second question is how do we stay on guard?

To begin with, the author gives us a warning to take care of to be on guard. His warning here is to the brothers. This is addressed this way to help us see that there may have been some potential people in the Hebrew audience who had similar characteristics as the Israelite generation which died out in the wilderness. These would have been unbelieving Jewish brothers mixed in the church with believers. With the holy brothers that Danny mentioned from verse 1 last week.

The challenge here for us, is to help us see our Need for Christ, and to come to Him for salvation before it’s too late. If you have breath today it’s not too late.

So, what should we be on guard against? This is the first question I want to try and answer. Verse 12 tells us the first part to this answer. “An evil, unbelieving heart.” Everyone wether we like it or not is born with such a heart. We are totally depraved.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

For the Hebrew people as well as us today this would be a disbelief in what Christ has done for us. This was a moving away from God. The second thing that we must be on guard against is found in verse 13. The deceitfulness of sin. Think about all the ways this plays out.

-Sin lies to us.

-Sin deceives us. Romans 7:11

Romans 7:11 ESV

11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

-Sin tricks us into thinking we are ok and that our particular sin is not that bad. The Hebrew people deceived themselves with the reasoning that their rejection of Jesus and what He had done for them was being faithful to Judaism or the old way of things. They were hanging on the the Old Levitical system, which was a rejection of the Living Word of God, which comes thru Christ. Choosing the path of unbelief always leads to death.

The second question that I want to answer here is how do we stay on guard against sin? How do we guard against our hearts being hardened? Verse 13 tells us that we are too exhort one another daily. Of course we should have individual accountability, but there is also this sense of the church having some corporate responsibility. As long as we deal with temptation here on earth, we need others to encourage us, to pray for us and to hold us accountable. That is what was happening in the church during the time of Hebrews, and it is what needs to happen here in our church today. The strategy of the devil is that he wants us to isolate ourselves and not come together as a church family. We need each other.

The other part of this comes in our own individual lives. We see this in verse 14 which is similar to verse 6 that we talked about last week. We as believers never stop being on guard. We don’t give up our faith when things get difficult. There is this theme here that as believers we continue to persevere in our faith until the Lord calls us home. There are many today who call themselves Christians, but have walked away from the Lord and therefore we would say never truly knew Him.

1 John 2:19 ESV

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

3. Watch out for a Rebellious Spirit.

Hebrews 3:15–19 ESV

15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The first quotation of this is back in verse 7 which emphasizes today. We definitely see this sense of urgency. The second quotation that we now see here in verse 15 emphasizes the word rebellion. How many times do we see God’s people rebel against him, or a king or leader rebel against God? Just take a look at Kings or Chronicles and you can see the list of all the kings who abandoned God. This happened over and over again just like it does today.

So, again the message is loud and clear: DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS PEOPLE!!!!

What is so interesting for us is that the author uses 4 different terms to drive the point of rebellion home for us.

-Verse 16 tells us who were those who heard the message and yet they rebelled. They were rebels.

-Verse 17 tells us who were those who heard? It was the sinners.

-Verse 18 tells us who were those who heard? Those who were disobedient.

-Verse 19 tells us again who were those who heard? Those who had unbelieving hearts.

The Israelites who died off in the wilderness were victims of their own unbelief. This was a sad thing.

Conclusion: Our life as believers can look like that of these Israelites who were part of the wilderness generation. In one sense these people experienced God’s mighty deliverance. These people left Egypt and the enslavement that went with it. But, on the other side of the equation was that once all of this happened to them, they refused to trust in their divine protector. They forgot that it was God who helped them and guided them along the way. They forgot that God not only had promised them this land ,but that God was just handing these other nations over to them. The battle belonged to the Lord and yet they missed it.

How often do we do the same thing? We miss the good news, and the Lord’s wonderful works. We forget that God is still in control and is ruling and reigning on his throne.

Church, life in this world’s wilderness gives us many opportunities to see how God works and how we can really trust in His ways. However, the wilderness times can also test our trust in God. Has this happened in your life lately? And will you be able to see through the deceitfulness of sin? Will you lean in ,and listen to God’s living word speak, or will you follow the way of the world? Will you give in to the voices of doubt and discouragement? Allowing this to happen.

Hebrews 12:15 ESV

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Church any time we open up God’s Word we are made aware of His Wonderful Works. We are reminded how God delivered his people from Egypt. We also see how God delivered them again and helped them to cross the Red Sea. Constantly God provided food, water, shelter and many other things for his people. Eventually God led his people to the Promise Land and down through History we see His amazing works. All of these works were incredible ,but none were more important than when we open up to the New Testament and see that God gave us the gift of His Son Jesus. Jesus came so that we might have life and be freed from the enslavement of sin.

I want to leave you with this today. Our confidence in Christ should be solid and firm. We have every reason today to hold firmly to our faith as we journey through this life.