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How many sermons have you listened to in your lifetime? How many sermons have you listened to?
I probably listened to 2 ,000 John MacArthur sermons. I probably preached 2 ,000 sermons on my own and maybe listened to 6 ,000 other sermons, maybe 1 ,000 from S.
Lewis Johnson. Thousands of sermons. How many have you listened to? Did you just give an answer?
20? A lot, okay. A lot. You seem very happy today.
What was the best sermon that you heard? You've heard a lot of sermons preached. What would be the best sermon you heard?
And why do you think it was so good? When I first read the
Sermon on the Mount and began to study it, I thought to myself, Jesus' sermon in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is the best sermon
I've ever read. It's unbelievable that the Eternal Son cloaks
Himself with humanity, and He's not just a Savior and a Redeemer and a friend of sinners, but He's a preacher.
Jesus the preacher. I was captivated by Jesus the preacher. And it's hard to compare
Bible sermons and other things to one another. What's your favorite book of the Bible? Mine's Hebrews now, but 10 years ago it was
Ephesians. Right? And we change. But if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews 13, verse 22,
I want to remind you that Hebrews is a sermon. And it might, in fact, be your favorite sermon of all time.
It is an exposition. It is a sermon. The word sermon, sermo, is a Latin word.
It just means word. Sermon is a word, a word from the pulpit.
And here in the book of Hebrews, as we have been going through verse by verse, I think we're in message 33 in Hebrews 3.
But for right now, Hebrews 13, verse 22, the writer, the author says, whether it's
Paul the apostle or another apostle or one closely related, I appeal to you, brothers,
Hebrews 13, verse 22, bear with my word of exhortation,
Hebrews 1 -13, for I have written to you briefly. That could be a sermon in and of itself as well.
This is a brief sermon. By the way, if you read the book of Hebrews out loud, it will take you about 45 minutes to do it, which seems to be about the right time for a sermon length.
Word of exhortation right here in 13 -22 means an encouragement. It means a message.
And this is the book of Hebrews. It is an expository sermon on the greatness of Christ Jesus.
It might even be a collection of expositions based on certain texts. And so when you come to the book of Hebrews, you ought to say to yourself, there's no book like this.
Because where do we have a sermon written to people, live people, actual people that had problems and issues and things going on with their life, and here we get the inspired word for us in the text, and it's actually a sermon.
One man called it arguably the greatest Christian sermon ever written down. The book of Hebrews.
So ask yourself this question. Why is it such a great sermon? Why is it in the canon?
What makes a good sermon a good sermon? I know when you go home today and have lunch, you'll have roast pastor today along with roast chicken.
I know. But I hope you say, he was biblical today, he was faithful, he was
Christ -centered, or whatever you say. Not, I didn't like his tie. Actually, I've been told by one of you here in the congregation, when
I was at the door, they walked past and they said, I don't like your tie today. And it wasn't
Mrs. A. either. Because she picks them usually. What makes it a good sermon?
Conviction? Encouragement? A bunch of things that you have to do? Why are good sermons good sermons?
That's the question. And the answer in the book of Hebrews is this. Good sermons are sermons about Jesus Christ.
From start to finish, they talk about the Savior, Jesus Christ. Everywhere you go in the book of Hebrews, Jesus is greater.
Jesus is better than any prophet. He's greater than any king.
He's greater than Moses. He's greater than Aaron. He's greater than David. He's greater, greater, greater.
Everything about Jesus is better. And he wants to present these people who have real -life struggles a picture, a portrait, a biblical analysis of who
Jesus is. And before we go any further, I want to make sure I stress this. Friends who work at VBS, thank you.
Friends and beloved who work at AWANA, Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed.
It's our youth group on Wednesday nights. High school teachers, junior high teachers, junior church people, if you can hear me, the same goes for you.
You are purposed. You are commissioned to, with Paul, say,
I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, we don't preach ourselves, we preach Christ Jesus.
I want the kids to make good crafts. I want the kids to learn manners. I mean,
I grew up with, if I ever did this, my dad would just whack me. No elbows on the table. But by the way, when
I caught dad doing it, I liked it. It was a good day.
Manners are fine. But Mormons have good manners. And a lot of other people can have good manners.
And other people teach you about good manners. You can go to goodmanners .com if you'd like,
YouTube channels about good manners. But where can the people in your VBS classes, in your
Sunday school classes, and in here, the worship service, where can they learn about Jesus if it's not here?
And so we are determined at Bethlehem Bible Church, we want to talk about the Savior because He is good news personified.
Jesus literally, if you could put it this way, in one sense, is the gospel. Because I can't separate
His person from His work, His redeeming love from the cross. It's all together.
He is, as Calvin said, cloaked with the gospel. Jesus is. So what you can learn from Hebrews, if it's not by command, it's by an example, an inspired example.
When you have an opportunity to stand up at your father's funeral, when you have an opportunity to teach the youth group, when you have an opportunity for Bible studies, friends, think about what the people need.
They need a good view of who Jesus is. And the writer of Hebrews won't let you forget it.
Sinclair Ferguson writes, It's obvious to me, and of engrossing concern, that the chief focus, the dominant note in the sermons
I preach, is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Is that true, preacher? Or is the dominant emphasis focused somewhere else, perhaps on how to overcome sin or how to live the
Christian life? Are the benefits to be received from the gospel? All are legitimate emphasis in their place, but that place is never center stage.
Ferguson, the same question can be asked more starkly in our techno -sermon age when many
Christians listen not only to the preaching of their own church, but to their favorite preachers that are in the contemporary galaxy.
Is the dominant theme, the lasting impression, the most natural word association into the relationship of preaching
I hear on the Internet Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Or is it something else?
I'm so happy we don't have to worry about that with the book of Hebrews. Let's go back to chapter 3, please, as we march verse by verse through the book of Hebrews extolling
Jesus Christ. He will not let you forget the person and work of Christ Jesus, your
Savior. And it is good to know who Jesus is. Yes, we are believers. Yes, we are saints.
Yes, we are trusting in the Messiah. But we are people who are in Christ. And so it's good to be reminded who
Jesus is because you are in Christ. Everything about this book is about Jesus.
Oh, I told you to go to chapter 3. I meant chapter 8, verse 1. If you want to know if this is true or not, how can everything in chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 be about Jesus?
Now, when I'm first learning how to preach, they would tell you to make some points and tell the congregation your point.
Tell the congregation what you're going to do and tell them where you're going to go, how you're going to get there, remind them, etc.
I was reading this week in Elizabethan England. Men were given bachelor's degree in theology but they were never taught to preach because any smart man could figure out how to preach.
That's interesting. Do you give people points? What's the main point? You can hear the preacher in chapter 8, verse 1.
Now the point in what we are saying is this. Isn't that good? What's the point? What's the so what?
The point in what we are saying is this. We have present tense right now such a high priest.
That's good news for any sinner who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.
What's the point of your sermon? Jesus is the high priest and He is a great high priest. Now let's go to chapter 3.
You would notice and you have heard enough sermons in your life that you say, you know, sometimes the pastor is talking about things that are just statements of fact, indicatives, this is true.
And then sometimes he starts meddling. He starts preaching. He starts saying things like, you, in light of who you are in Christ, you shouldn't complain.
In light of forgiveness, you should stop slandering. In light of Christ redeeming work, you should love your neighbor.
And you can hear echoes of, this is something that's said, that's a fact, and now here's my response.
This is gospel. This is law. This is indicative. This is imperative. And so every good sermon has that.
Statements of fact and then exhortations to respond. And so sprinkled within the book of Hebrews, there are not only just the imperatives, the indicatives about Jesus, there are some warning passages and this is the second warning passage.
And he's concerned about the people and he wants them to keep believing and this is the warning passage, the danger of unbelief.
Chapter 3 verses 7 to the end of the chapter and even further into chapter 4 is about unbelief.
Jesus is so great, you must believe and there's a consequence if you don't. So what
I'm going to do today is I'm going to read Hebrews 3, 7 and following, making a couple quick comments and then we'll back up and work our way through as much as we can get.
Therefore, Hebrews 3, 7, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, he's going to be quoting now from Psalm 95.
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. And now he gives a little exposition of Psalm 95.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart. You almost hear the preaching, the imperatives, the response to the truth that Jesus is the
Savior and the majestic High Priest. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.
Where does that lead? Leading you to fall away from the living God. There's a root sin.
There's a master sin. There's a sin of all sins. It's unbelief. God has demonstrated who
He is and what He's done, not only to Israel, but to us in Scripture. And the response is you either affirm and believe and you know about it and assent to it and trust or you don't.
The Israelites in the desert stopped trusting in God. They stopped believing in God and that led to all kinds of rebellion and disobedience.
Instead, verse 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.
For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
And we'll talk about this much in the sermon. That either means, A, you can lose your salvation, which you can't, or B, if you do turn your back, it will be evidence that you never were a believer.
If you do believe to the end, it's evidence that you are. Verse 15, 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 He provoked for 40 years?
Was it not with 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 the root sin once again and unbelief.
The focus for this rider is this, since Jesus is so great, you better believe.
And if you are a believer, keep believing. And there are trials and troubles that these people were experiencing, the audience, the congregation.
But don't turn your back on Jesus because times are tough. Because if you turn your back on Jesus and go to where?
Yourself for self -salvation? I saw a book this week and it was something about this time the princess saves herself.
Have you seen that book? And I thought that's auto -sotirism at its finest.
Auto -sotirism, self -salvation. If Jesus is the only Savior, the only
High Priest, the only one who can, as it were, put His hand on God and put His hand on us as the
God -man to be the referee, the umpire, the mediator, the priest, then when you turn your back on Jesus, you turn your back to Him and you have to save yourself.
You have to keep yourself. Religion is there for you. Philosophy is there for you. But no salvation is there for you.
It's very similar to our day. These Jews were tempted to leave Jesus to sneak back to Judaism.
There's no hope there. You can just imagine a Muslim gets saved and says when they live in Iran, you know what?
Things are hard now in my life that I believe in Jesus. If I just turn my back on Jesus, I can come back together with my family.
By the way, this destroys this whole idea. Come to Jesus and your life's going to be great. Actually, probably come to Jesus and it's going to be harder for you.
It's going to be more difficult, but it's worth it because you're forgiven. If I just go back,
I can be in the synagogue. If I just go back, I can be with the economy of my friends. If I just go back, and He's saying you better not go back, look at the illustration of all the dead people laying there in the wilderness.
There are consequences to unbelief. I know you're tempted to go back, but unbelief has a bad ending.
The danger of unbelief. Now let's go back to chapter 3, verse 7 and see the connection again.
When I first taught the Bible, I thought verbs might be the most important part of the epistle. And they are very important.
Of course, every word is. How could you say some word is not? But you've got to get the connecting words.
Words like but are important. Therefore, if...
I could give you an outside illustration, not from Hebrews, but Ephesians 2, 1 -3, verse 4.
And you were dead in trespasses and sins, right? And slaves, and you were children of wrath even as the rest, verse 3 ends.
And what's the very next word? We're disobedient, we're dead in sins, we're slaves, of course, according to the world and according to the course of the prince of the power of the air, and we're bound up in sin.
And what's the very next word you would expect if God wasn't a God of grace and love as well as justice?
The very next word you'd expect is therefore. And He exercised
His justice. But what does Ephesians 2, verse 4 say? Even children of wrath as the rest, verse 2, but God being rich in mercy.
You're rich in sin, but He's rich in mercy. So it's very important. And the first word here is similarly important, therefore.
He's not charting new territory. He's going back to what was just said because there are implications. You've probably heard it said in one of those 10 ,000 sermons you've heard.
What is the therefore? Therefore. And it sounds corny, but it's good.
And I'm from Nebraska, so there. He takes you back.
And what's He taking you back to? You say, well, all the way to 1 -1 maybe? But certainly to chapter 3, verse 1.
Jesus made you holy brothers. He's given you a heavenly calling. He's the apostle who was sent to do the work of God.
He's the high priest who's the mediator. Moses was faithful.
Jesus is more faithful. Moses was a part of the house. Jesus is the builder.
Moses was a servant, and Jesus is the Son. In light of all that, therefore. What's the response?
Nah, can't be bothered. Don't want to deal with it. Because those are all true, keep believing.
Verse 6, and we are His house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in hope.
What's the context so far? People read that and say, well, you know what, I better keep my own salvation. God saved me, but I have to keep my own salvation.
Friends, read the book of Hebrews. It has nothing to do with saving yourself. It has nothing to do with keeping yourself saved.
That would contradict the very theme of this book, that Jesus Christ finishes His work and sets down.
Work is complete. He doesn't say, you start running the race by grace, and now you finish by works.
I save you by salvation, by grace alone. You keep yourself. Of course He's not saying that. That ignores the entire book.
You don't keep yourself saved. But if you do keep believing, you show evidence that you are.
You show fruit that you are. So I just stop for a second and ask you the question. Since there is a faith that doesn't save, a temporary faith, a transitory faith, a faith that believes while everything is going good, and then there's a real faith that lasts all the way because it's given by God and persevered by God, and you respond with perseverance.
Which one are you? Well, I believed when
I was a kid, but I don't really anymore. I signed the card, but that was just signing the card, and I got all involved with this emotional thing.
I was afraid of hell. I walked the aisle. I got slain in the spirit, whatever these things are, but I don't really believe anymore.
There's a bunch of dead people in the wilderness, and there's a warning to unbelief. That's the writer of Hebrews. But on the flip side, if you have confidence in Jesus Christ, that He's your
Savior, and you trusted in Him, when did I get saved? 1989, I believed the
Lord. But the question now is, Mike, are you believing today? It's not just, I believed and then went on my merry life.
It's, are you believing today? That's the question. Because if this is keeping yourself, if this is holding yourself, if this is sinless perfection, where if you sin, you're kicked out of the family of God, I have a question for you.
How are you doing? How are you doing keeping yourself? It's impossible.
So you are kept by God, and you are forgiven, and you are justified by faith alone. Are you believing?
If you believe, you show that you have real saving faith. If you don't, He's going to try to tell you, you must believe.
Look at what's going on in the desert. Yes, Christians must persevere.
But their perseverance isn't saving. Their perseverance is an evidence or a fruit. You can't say,
I trusted Jesus 20 years ago, but now I do whatever I want. No. Am I trusting the
Lord right now? And who is that Lord? Did we not learn last week in chapter 3, verse 6?
Take a look at it again. If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope, what's the object?
What are you holding fast? Confidence in our hope. Who's the hope? It's the Lord Jesus. Centered around the great sacrifice of the great high priest who offered himself once for a sacrifice for all times and sat down.
You have access to God. I mentioned it last week just in passing, so I want to flesh it out a little bit.
That word confidence means you are so secure, you can kind of talk about it.
It's a feeling that you have about security. That you're so at home you can just talk the way you want.
You know, I've been told that if you have people over to your house and it's a western kind of house and you let them keep their shoes on, when they come to talk about private matters, they don't like to talk about it very much.
So if you say, come over to my house and by the way, take your shoes off, that's a good way to manipulate them to let them just confess everything.
I'm just kidding. It keeps your floors clean too. But you know when you're at somebody's house and you just feel so at home, you can just talk naturally?
Sometimes when I'm around some of you, I think to myself, got to keep the pastor hat on. Don't want anybody to know, you know,
I'm like a real you. I'm really sinful like you and frail like you. Got to kind of be careful, watch what you say.
Sometimes I've had lunch with Scott Fair and I've said to him, you know, I just felt like I was just like normal today.
He didn't treat me like, you know, some big shot like you know I am.
Scott, he was here 20 years ago and he said, what do you want me to call you? Because they voted me in.
There was 40 votes for, zero votes against, and two abstentions. Charlie was the only one that had any brains with Elaine because they abstained.
I was mad at him initially. But he's like, how can I vote after only knowing this guy for a week?
So I got voted in that night and in spite of what Charlie and Elaine did.
And you notice now what I'm doing? I'm talking in a way that makes me feel very confident, very homey.
I just am so comfortable that I can just talk. And can you imagine standing before God on the day of judgment?
I'd like to just go to a courtroom and stand before a judge. What if you did murder somebody and they caught you red -handed with the camera?
And you stand before the judge and there's a jury. I'm telling you, knees are knocking. You're not going to be able to explain things very well because you know you're guilty.
And in fact, every one of us, every one of you, stands before the tribunal of God guilty of sin, high -handed sin and treason.
And you're not going to be talking, explaining, the jury system was rigged and the camera wasn't right. You don't talk at all.
You just shut up. But now, as we learned last week, because of the work of Christ, all those sins are paid for and we have
His righteousness as well and now we can stand, Jude says, in His presence, blameless with great joy.
And we can stand in the presence of God who's now not just God Almighty, He's your
Father and you're the Son. Did not Jesus say, as said of Jesus in chapter 2 of Hebrews, He's our brother?
Then you feel so at home and confident words just flow freely. You have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
The grounds for your boldness, though, is not in you and your holding on to salvation and your perseverance.
The ground of your salvation forever and always is the perfect work of Christ Jesus. He fulfilled the sacrificial system.
And then you boast about it. You're boasting not in yourself, Hebrews says, no.
You boast in the object of your hope. So I ask you again, are you trusting in Jesus Christ as your
Savior and sin -bearer and Lord? That's the question. If you come to this passage and say, you know what?
I am trusting, but I sin. I have good news for you. Because Jesus takes care of all those sins.
We do not believe in perfectionism at this church because the only perfectionism you could ever achieve, and by the way,
God expects perfection, a perpetual, persistent perfection to get into heaven.
See Matthew 5, verse 48. Your only hope for perfection has to be outside of you because Jesus perfectly obeys.
You're like, you know, my assurance is low because I keep looking inside of myself. Well, maybe you should look inside of yourself, but take ten good looks at who
Jesus is first because your assurance has to be based on the perfect work of Christ. He is not saying in this warning section, if you ever sinned, you've lost your salvation.
He is not saying your salvation depends on your works. He is not saying there are conditions for salvation.
Friends, that is a trap because any kind of work system in the book of Hebrews for a warning system, it has to push you to the perfect work of Christ.
Now you say, Mike, why are you belaboring this? So far you've gone through one word and it's therefore because I like sermons.
No, it's important. The warning passages are so misunderstood because what we do is we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone.
And now because of the warning passage, we've got to keep our salvation secure. Question, does a
Christian cease to be a Christian when he or she commits a sin? The arch heretic
Charles Finney answers, whenever he sins, he must for the time being cease to be holy.
This is self -evident. Whenever he sins, he must be condemned. He must incur the penalty of the law of God.
If it be said that the precept is still binding on him, but that with respect to the
Christian, the penalty is forever set aside or abrogated, I reply, to abrogate the penalty is to repeal the precept, for a precept without penalty is no law.
In these respects then, the sinning Christian and the unconverted sinner are upon precisely the same ground.
Well, I will say this for Finney. He knew that God required perfect obedience. But the problem that he didn't get is, we can't give that obedience.
It must be given to us by a declaration through faith. Go to chapter 4 as I'm still talking about how do we look at these warning passages.
Well, first of all, the warning passages about unbelief here in chapter 3. But if you don't read the whole context of the book of Hebrews, you kind of mistake these exhortations.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands. He's talking about salvation rest.
He's not talking about the promised land, physical things anymore, spiritual rest. Let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
Hey, if I'm not godly enough, I won't reach it. If I don't have enough obedience, I won't reach it. If I don't do enough
Christian things, I won't reach it. Is he really saying that? If he is, how are you doing? Is there a condition for the promises of God in Christ Jesus?
Well, even verse 2, if you keep reading, gives you the good news. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them.
Why? Because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed entered that rest.
What is going on in Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 and other warning passages is this. It is you must keep believing and you show evidence that you are a believer.
And if there's someone in the congregation that's not a believer, he's warning you, believe. Now let's go back to chapter 3 and deal with this a little bit more.
Chapter 3, verse 7 through 11 is a quotation from Psalm 95. And then chapter 3, verses 12 to 19 is a commentary on Psalm 95.
And the point is, Israel was unbelieving and they were slain in the wilderness. Don't be an unbeliever.
If you're a believer, keep on believing. Earlier in chapter 3, here's
Jesus, the good example. Now in chapter 3, here's Israel, the bad example.
Jesus was faithful to his calling. Israel was unfaithful. Take a good long look at this negative example of unbelief.
Now, if you have a Bible like I do, it shows you with a larger tab, a larger margin, that this is indented so that you say to yourself, oh yeah, that's from the
Old Testament. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice.
And so I think it might be a good idea for us to go find that psalm, Psalm 95, and see in fact what it does say.
If this is an exposition of the psalm, well then what's the psalm? So let's go back to Psalm 95.
This author of Hebrews is preaching a sermon about Jesus. And he gives lots of exhortations at the end, and sprinkled throughout he gives exhortations, not to save yourself, not to keep yourself saved, but to persevere in faith.
The means to the end is used. But those means are not the ground of salvation.
Only Jesus is the ground of salvation. Psalm 95. We love this psalm at the beginning, but then we kind of cut it off.
And you'll see why. What a great song of praise. What a call to salvation. Oh come let us sing to Yahweh, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Sounds just like what we had in Psalm 148, 149, 150. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.
Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For Yahweh is a great
God. And a king, a great king above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, and he made it. And his hands formed the dry land.
What's the response? Oh come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker.
When William Carey arrived in India in 1792, he saw above the porthole of the mission, written by his predecessor
Christian Schwartz, Oh come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker. Why?
Verse 7, For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. I mean the reasons to worship.
God's a great king. He's a great king above all gods. He's sovereign over the depths. He's sovereign over the heights. He's sovereign as a creator.
He's a personal God. And then it changes. It's such a dramatic mood change that some liberal scholars say, the psalmist didn't write this.
It was added on because this doesn't make any sense at all. This would fail as some kind of Getty song.
It's just all upbeat and everything, all happy and then now here comes the black keys of the piano, the minor keys.
And there's even a change of speaker. Spurgeon said,
It has about it the ring like the church bells at the beginning, lively peals and then dropping to a funeral knell as if tolling at the funeral of the generation which perished in the wilderness.
And this is the psalm that's in Hebrews 3. This portion right here. Today if you would hear his voice.
I know today maybe you're wanting to turn your back on Jesus. Listeners of the sermon in Hebrews, of sermon of Hebrews, but don't.
Today's the day. You can almost hear Acts chapter 4. Today is the day of salvation. There's a warning here today.
If you would hear his voice, there's urgency. You're alive. Don't harden your hearts.
Verse 8, as in Meribah, as in the day of Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me as though they had seen my work.
Meribah means contend. Massa means test. They're out in the wilderness and they don't take
God at his word and they grumble and they test. And you can see the correlation.
Hey, wait a second. Fast forward to the New Testament. The sermon of Hebrews is being delivered and there are people who turned their back on Judaism and now it's not working out so well for them in the synagogue and in the economic culture and where they live and they're getting persecuted.
If I only could go back. And what this psalmist is talking about in Psalm 95 is remember when
Israel was out in the middle of the wilderness in Exodus chapter 17 and they wanted water and they were complaining and quarreling and testing
God. You bring us all the way out in the middle of the wilderness and we have no water. And then remember, what did
Moses do? I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock, God said to Moses, and water will come out of it that my people may drink.
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He hits the rock and the rock pours out water.
By the way, if you'd like to be a liberal, I'll still be nice to you. But I will try to convince you that liberal solutions to supernatural things are ridiculous.
Jesus didn't really walk on the water in the Sea of Galilee. There's a little sandbar there. All the armies of Pharaoh didn't drown in the
Red Sea. They drowned in six inches of water.
This one, one guy says, here's what basically happened, and the commentator even uses this language.
Remember Beverly Hillbillies? Jed Clampett? He shoots and by accident, randomly, up comes...
You guys are pagans, you know the exact words. I couldn't remember, but you know them perfectly.
Hits the right spot, up comes a bubbling crude. Moses just somehow hits the thing and uncaps it, and oh, here comes all the water.
God said, you know what? I'm your God in the wilderness, and I'm going to take you to the promised land, and you trust me. And it was, we want the leeks, we want the garlic, we want this, we want to go back to Egypt.
And in the book of Hebrews, and even with you, you say, you know, I believe, I think I believe,
I want to believe, but the siren song said, come back. Listen, if you turn your back on Jesus, there's no hope for you.
That's the point of Hebrews. Even 1 Corinthians 10, it says, these things, talking about this incident and more, happened to them as an example.
They were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages have come.
I mean, their life serves as a beacon. Don't do that. And it wasn't that they were just disobedient.
They were, but it's because they didn't trust God, they didn't believe. That is the sin, the sin of unbelief.
Look at verse 10. For 40 years I loathed that generation.
And that is intense. For 40 years, I looked at those unbelieving people, and I was nauseated.
That's the word. I wanted to throw up, God says, usually in that language.
The tender shepherd of Israel, guiding the people through the wilderness.
They need water. He gives it. They need manna. He gives it. They need shoes that won't wear out.
He gives it. Everything they need, He gives. Fast forward to the New Testament. Everything that you need to stand before a holy
God forgiven, He gives it to you through faith. Don't turn your back. Keep believing.
Verse 11, Therefore I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter my rest. They're not going to make it to the promised land.
And now if we turn our Bibles back to Hebrews chapter 3, the promised land for Christians is not
Israel. It's salvation. A rest in salvation.
Actually go to chapter 10 and we're going to wrap up here. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews. Readers and listeners were persecuted, harassed, complained, they murmured.
Should they turn back? Should they turn back? Chapter 10 verse 32.
But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated.
For you had compassion on those in prison, see, for their faith. And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Rest. Eternal rest. Not Israel the land. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. And here's some examples of this very thing.
Before I read 11 .32. Before I read anything from the faith chapter.
Here's how we typically read Hebrews 11. It's called the hall of what? Faith. And you know what we do?
We turn it into the hall of faithfulness. Abraham was faithful. Moses was faithful.
Sarah was faithful. Gideon was faithful. Is that what the hall of faith really is? There's a difference, remember, between faith and faithfulness.
They were all trusting in this Jesus. I mean, can you imagine? Here's how we read the book of Hebrews. Chapter 1, it's about Jesus.
Chapter 2 is about Jesus. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And now 11 is about Abraham. No, Abraham had faith in Jesus, the
Messiah to come. Gideon had faith in Jesus. So don't lose your mind when you get to chapter 11 and think, well, you know what?
I have to follow the faith of Abraham. No, you follow the object of Abraham's faith.
Because Abraham, if I want to follow his faith, let's see, the first time he said, here, here's my wife
Sarah. She's not really my wife. She's my sister. You sleep with her so I can live. Was that the first time he did that or the second time?
We're not to follow his faith. We're to follow the one in whom he's trusting. Chapter 11, verse 32, and what more shall
I say? Doesn't this sound like a sermon? For time would fail me.
It's a sermon. You can feel he's got to land the plane.
The first four points always go longer than the last three points of the sermon. I could tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.
What do you mean of Samson? The guy was a complete loser. Go get me a wife. What do you mean
Jephthah? The first thing that comes to my house, out of my house, you sacrifice it. I will sacrifice it.
Why are they in the hall of faith? Because they, even though they were so sinful, they believed in the object of their faith,
Jesus, who through faith, not faithfulness, not obedience, trusting in the
Messiah. They conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.
Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. Hey, if you're listening to this
Hebrews and you want to turn back because you're losing some houses and you're getting thrown in jail, these people, they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with a sword, they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though commended through their faithfulness, I think not, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Chapter 12, verse 3, Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility.
Here's the book of Hebrews. I along with you, but I'm going to just preach to you.
You're sinful and you've fallen short of the glory of God. And God requires perfect obedience to the law.
And your only hope is to trust in the one who perfectly obeyed the law and credited that to your account and who also bore your sins, and his name is
Jesus, and he confirmed that great double imputation by being raised from the dead. God requires perfection to get into heaven.
And you can either trust in Jesus' perfection or you can provide your own, which you'll fail.
And the book of Hebrews is not, don't ever sin or you're out, because that takes away the work of Christ.
The book of Hebrews is this, if you don't believe in this Jesus, it is or else, because he's the sin bearer.
And this gives good news to those who don't love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength like they should, who don't love their neighbor like they should even as Christians.
Jesus is the one who perfectly loves God, perfectly obeys, and you need to keep believing in him no matter what.
When the doctor calls and says you've got cancer, keep believing. When your dad dies, keep believing.
When your kids have no grandparents, keep believing. When you're estranged from your sons, keep believing.
When your back is up against the wall financially, keep believing. When the nuclear bombs hit, keep believing, because your only recompense, your only way back is to perfect obedience to the law and you will be undone.
So no matter what the trials and what the troubles, he tries to focus on what every sermon should focus on that's worth its weight in gold.
I'm going to talk to you today about Jesus, because he obeys the law, because the
Father loves sinners so much, Jesus loves sinners so much, he came to do that very thing. Don't turn your back on Jesus, there's no hope for you.
And if you keep believing in Jesus, there's rest. Let's pray.
Father, I look forward to that ultimate day of glory, but on the earth it's still good, joy we can have.
I think of those persecuted believers that Peter was writing to, some losing their lives, and he says,
In this you greatly rejoice. Not in ourselves we greatly rejoice, because we fall so short even now.
We are sinful people, but justified, redeemed, reconciled. We would readily confess that when we're in adversity, there's a temptation.
When we have unpleasant circumstances in our life, there's a temptation. But Father, I pray that you would help us be warned by the
Israelites that those temptations to turn our back on the
Son bring death, eternal death. So I pray you would shore up our faith, and let us see once again the object of our salvation,
Jesus the mediator. And I pray if there's someone here today who's not a Christian, they're going through the motions, they're believing because of their father's faith or their mother's faith, today's the day.
There's no hope, and there's no hope for those who want to trust in themselves and not take you at your word.
Father, I'm thankful that my fight against sin, that the congregation's fight against sin doesn't make us lose our salvation.
It proves we are saved, the struggle with sin. And so,
Father, we don't want to sin. We want to be those men and women who look to the
Lord and Savior who conquered sin and death and hell on our behalf. In His name we pray.