A Warning for Worship

Amen, you may be seated. Let's go to the

Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you with a great gratitude for what you have accomplished in Jesus Christ.

Our souls were in a desperate state due to the wrath that is to come for all those who are not in Jesus Christ and you have provided a savior in him.

You have given us a great salvation in him and you have given us your spirit whereby we might believe and might continue in the walk that you have prepared for us.

God, we ask that you would allow us to continue in this way and to continue in this path and that you would grant us perseverance, that you would keep us from temptation, that you would deliver us from evil, and that you would give us a sight toward your kingdom, that we would eagerly look for the day that Christ returns and that we dwell with him and we pray that this would cloud out our sensibilities, that would lead us to desire temporary pleasures over those greater and eternal ones that you have prepared for us.

We thank you for your great mercy on this congregation and saving us and blessing us and giving us your word and all the many ways that you've provided for us, including just giving us our daily bread.

We ask that you would continue to do so. God, we pray for comfort in this world of loss and sickness and death.

This is a reality that continues to exist and blessed are those who mourn.

Lord, as we mourn the loss of our sister Sue, we ask that you would grant us the comfort that can be only had in Jesus Christ and that we would not grieve as others do who are without hope, but that we would grieve as ones who have a great hope in Jesus Christ, knowing that we will be reunited not only with her, but with all the saints.

Lord, we thank you for this great provision that you've given in Jesus Christ and we pray that though this reality is not seen with our physical eyes, that you would give us spiritual senses whereby we might know this truth more fully and embrace it completely and that this would drive our action so that we might be faithful servants and that on that final day, you would tell us, well done, good and faithful servant.

We thank you for this excellent hope that we have and we pray that you would give us everything necessary in order to endure in this life and to reach that final day.

In Jesus' name, amen. Please turn your Bible to Leviticus 13.

In Leviticus 13, we will be reading about laws regarding leprosy as we continue through our reading of Leviticus.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, when a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priest and the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body.

And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a case of leprous disease.

When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean. But if the spot is white in the skin of his body, it appears no deeper than the skin and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall shut up the diseased person for seven days and the priest shall examine him on the seventh day.

And if in his eyes the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up for another seven days and the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day.

And if the diseased area has faded and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean.

It is only an eruption. And he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the eruption spreads in the skin after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again before the priest and the priest shall look.

And if the eruption has spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprous disease.

When a man is afflicted with a leprous disease, he shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall look. And if there is a white swelling in the skin that has turned the hair white and there is raw flesh in the swelling, it is a chronic leprous disease in the skin of his body.

And the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not shut him up for he is unclean.

And if the leprous disease breaks out in the skin so that the leprous disease covers all the skin of the diseased person from the head to the foot so far as the priest can see, then the priest shall look.

And if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease. It has turned white and he is clean.

But when raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean and the priest shall examine the raw flesh and pronounce him unclean.

Raw flesh is unclean for it is a leprous disease. But if the raw flesh recovers and turns white again, then he shall come to the priest and the priest shall examine him.

And if the disease has turned white and the priest shall pronounce the diseased person clean, he is clean.

If there is in the skin of one's body a boil and it heals and in the place of the boil there comes a white swelling or a reddish -white spot, then it shall be shown to the priest and the priest shall look.

And if it appears deeper than the skin and its hair has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It is a case of leprous disease that has broken out in the boil. But if the priest examines it and there is no white hair in it and it is not deeper than the skin but has faded, then the priest shall shut him up seven days.

And if it spreads in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a disease. But if the spot remains in the one place and does not spread, it is a scar of the boil.

Then the priest shall pronounce him clean. Or when the body has a burn on its skin and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a spot, reddish -white or white, the priest shall examine it.

And if the hair in the spot has turned white and it appears deeper than the skin, then it is a leprous disease.

It has broken out in the burn and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a case of leprous disease.

But if the priest examines it and there's no white hair in the spot and it is not deeper than the skin but has faded, the priest shall shut him up seven days.

And the priest shall examine him the seventh day. If it is spreading in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It is a case of leprous disease. But if the spot remains in one place and does not spread in the skin but has faded, it is a swelling from the burn.

And the priest shall pronounce him clean for it is the scar of the burn. When a man or woman has a disease on the head or the beard, the priest shall examine the disease.

And if it appears deeper than the skin and the hair and it is yellow and thin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean.

It is an itch, a leprous disease of the head or the beard. And if the priest examines the itching disease and it appears no deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up the person with the itching disease for seven days.

And on the seventh day, the priest shall examine the disease. If the itch has not spread and there is in it no yellow hair and the itch appears to be no deeper than the skin, then he shall shave himself.

But the itch he shall not shave and the priest shall shut up the person with the itching disease for another seven days.

And on the seventh day, the priest shall examine the itch. And if the itch has not spread in the skin and it appears to be no deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

But if the itch spreads in the skin after his cleansing, then the priest shall examine him.

And if the itch has spread in the skin, the priest need not seek for the yellow hair.

He is unclean. But if in his eyes the itch is unchanged and the black hair has grown in it, the itch is healed and he is clean and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

When a man or woman has spots in the skin of the body, white spots, the priest shall look.

And if the spots on the skin of the body are of dull white, it is leukoderma that has broken out in the skin.

He is clean. If a man's hair falls out from his head, he is bald.

He is clean. And if a man's hair falls out from his forehead, he has baldness of the forehead. He is clean.

But if there is on the bald head or on the bald forehead a reddish white diseased area, it is a leprous disease breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead.

Then the priest shall examine him. And if the diseased swelling is reddish white on his bald head or in his bald forehead, like the appearance of a leprous disease in the skin of the body, he is a leprous man.

He is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean. His disease is on his head.

The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose.

He shall cover his upper lip and cry out, unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.

He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. So there's much written here about this, about leprosy.

And it's still uncertain to this day what exactly this disease is. People have different theories and thoughts on what it is.

But it seems very clear that the point in scripture of having these laws about cleanliness is to illustrate our moral duties, to illustrate things about sin.

And it sets us up later for in the New Testament where Jesus heals the leprous man. Or you have the case of man being healed from from Naaman being healed from leprosy later in the ministry of Elijah.

And so what does this what does this tell us? What should we take away from us from this?

Should this tell us about quarantining and how to go about serious diseases?

Perhaps there's things you could gather there. But the reality is this is speaking to, as the

New Testament demonstrates by Jesus healing leprous people and speaking of the the need for a cleansing from not just physical diseases, but sin is speaking to the danger of sin.

Sin is incredibly cancerous. It is incredibly viral.

It is something that that spreads. It is infectious. And so we should be eager to guard ourselves from sin and to cut off from us those who are who are engaged in serious sin.

Now this is the case both with the kind of friends that you might make, as the Bible says, bad company corrupts good morals.

Or it is also the case within the church that the church is supposed to be free from those who have a disease that might spread to others.

And by disease, I'm not referring to physical disease, but to a spiritual disease. And so this is very, the reason why

Scripture gives this to us in such extreme detail,

I believe, is to communicate the kind of care, the kind of special attention that needs to be given to assessing spiritual conditions, to assessing the danger that is involved with sin.

And that we should not be too eager to identify something that needs to be seriously cut off, but at the same time, we should be eager when it is the case that it has been discerned that it needs to be cut off.

And we should, as the priests are doing, be able to say whether something is clean or unclean.

And so let this be a warning as you are facing temptations this upcoming week, that you resist those temptations and you keep yourself away from that which is, which is leprous, that which is unclean.

Please turn in your Bible to Mark 12, verses 1 through 12. Mark 12, and he began to speak to them in parables.

A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.

When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty -handed. And he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.

And he sent another and they killed him and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.

He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them saying, they will respect my son.

But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours.

And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do?

He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them.

So they left him and went away. So Jesus tells us this parable of these tenants who owned this land or rather cultivate it for the owner.

And they rejected the man when he came to get the harvest, rejected his servants, rejected his son.

And then he quotes this scripture, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

And so this, it's clear this speaks of Jesus. That Jesus is the the son who was loved by the father and he was sent to the people.

And people have rejected him and killed him. And this is precisely what happened to Jesus Christ. And so those who reject the son, what will the owner do?

The owner will come and destroy them. But those who receive his son, those the owner will reward.

So here's the, here is the way to think about these things together. You know this danger of sin, this danger of a leprous disease, it leads one to be not right with their maker.

It leads one to be at odds with their God. Such that when when he comes and he asks for his harvest and there is no harvest ready, what would we do?

We would reject him. We will reject him and reject his son. But, but by the mercy of Jesus Christ, he cleanses people from leprosy.

And he can cleanse your soul from whatever sickness that ails it. Such that you would be ready for that harvest and you would not be a tenant who, who if you were put in a place of leadership over the harvest, you would reject him wanting it for yourself.

But rather, you would receive him knowing that he is the merciful and kind one who saves.

So today, no matter what your situation is, you know, call out to Jesus Christ that you might be cleansed from sin and that you might be ready for that day when he returns.

Because Jesus has come once and he was rejected. But then he rose from the dead and he is coming again.

And there will be people on that day who are not ready for him, who will be ready to reject him rather.

But those who are ready to receive him will be put in a seat of honor. Let us continue singing with hymn number 220,

Blessed Jesus at Thy Word.

Holy All our knowledge, sense, and sight

Thine and deepest darkness shrouded

Till thy spirit break our night With the bleams of truth on cloud

Thou must work all good within us

Glorious Lord, Thy self -implored Proceeding Open Thou our ears and heart

Help us by Thy Spirit's pleading

Hear the praises, hear and bless

Our prayers and praises Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Praise to Thee an adoration

Grant that we Thy word may trust And obtain to consolation

Must ponder till we sing Thy praises yonder

Please turn your Bible to Hebrews 3. When you have

Hebrews 3, please stand for the reading of God's Word. We'll begin in verse 7.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice, Do not harden your hearts,

On the day of testing in the wilderness, Where your fathers put me to the test And saw my works for forty 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 an iniquity In many 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 the day, 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. 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 forty years? Was it not with those who sinned,

Whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And with whom did he swear That they would not enter his rest,

But those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter Because of unbelief.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for this warning.

We ask that you would open our ears, open our hearts, that we might receive your word, and that you would give us an understanding that as we gather for worship on a regular basis that our ears would be open and our hearts as well.

In Jesus' name, amen. In this passage here, in this book, the author has been repeatedly telling us that the importance of hearing the voice of Christ begins by speaking of the voice of Christ.

It says, Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his

Son. And then it says in chapter 2, If the message declared by angels was reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

In other words, so great a message delivered by someone greater, Jesus Christ. And in chapter 3, it began by saying,

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession, comparing him to Moses, speaking of him as an apostle, pointing to the fact that he has been sent with a message, that we are to hear his voice.

And here in this passage, he, the author, here, cites

Psalm 95 in order to state the importance of hearing the voice of Christ as it is read, as it is given to us.

And so it is important that as we gather for worship, that this is what we are doing. We are gathering to hear the voice of Christ and it is important that we do hear the voice of Christ, that we do not harden our hearts to the voice of Christ.

And this whole passage is a warning against that, a warning against the hardening of the heart.

And so there are many ways that we should consider how this voice is being given to us.

How God is speaking to us through Scripture.

If you will please turn to Psalm 95. We will look to this occasionally, since this passage is a quotation of Psalm 95.

I want to explain to you the importance of this Psalm. You might recognize the first two verses here.

O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.

These were the first two verses that were read this morning in this worship service. They were also verses that were modified in order to rhyme and make the first hymn that we sang here.

This passage, this Psalm is a call to worship. It is a passage that would have been read in synagogues.

It is a passage that would have been read in the context of worship to call the people to worship. It is why we opened up our own service with it as a call to worship.

And so, when the author of Hebrews cites this Psalm, it is not just to go through some aspects of history that he could have gone through himself without citing the

Psalm. Rather, it is to bring to mind the importance of what this is saying in the context of worship.

That as we worship God, as we are called to hear his voice, that we should not reject his word, that we should not grumble against him, that we should not harden our hearts.

It continues on in verse 3. It says, You might also recognize these words from the hymn that we sang.

So why should we worship him? He is the creator of all things, and all things are in his hand.

If you are to go about and enjoy life, what are you enjoying? You are enjoying the things of this created world.

And so, can you truly enjoy them apart from being right with the one who created them, the one who controls them all?

It is impossible to do so. You might have some temporary pleasures, but ultimately you will be dismayed if you think that you can continue enjoying these things apart from a right relationship with this creator.

And then another call to worship in verses 6 and 7. It says, For he, and why, what is the reason?

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. The sheep of his hand.

So, not only should we praise him because he created all things, we should praise him because he created us. He created all things, and he created us.

We are his sheep. We depend upon him. All things come from his hand. What is the duty of a sheep?

The duty of the sheep is to hear the voice of the shepherd. And we would be very foolish sheep if we did not hear the voice of the shepherd.

We would go to places where there are not green pastures. We would end up in a desert, end up in a ditch, end up in some flood where we are not safe and rather destroyed.

It continues on, and it says what we read of in Hebrews 3.

The day, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah. As on the day at Massa in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work, for forty years

I loathed that generation and said they are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.

Therefore I swore my wrath. They shall not enter my rest. And you'll notice that in Hebrews here, this psalm is not quoted just once, but it is repeatedly cited throughout the chapter and throughout the next chapter even, that the author repeatedly goes to it to make this point that as we come to worship, we should hear the voice of Christ.

And so how does he introduce this passage in Hebrews 3? He says, therefore as the

Holy Spirit says. He does not credit this to the human author, but rather credits it to the divine author.

The author of Hebrews here has a pattern of doing this. Later on he'll say, as it is somewhere written.

This is the kind of way that the author of Hebrews speaks. Not to actually express ignorance about who wrote this.

In fact, in the very next chapter, he says in verse 7 saying through David.

He knows this was written by David. He's affirming this was written by David. But in ignoring that, he is giving primary credit to the divine author that you need to listen to this not because David said it, but rather because it is coming from the

Holy Spirit. It is scripture, it is the word of God, and it is coming from the

Spirit. Now not only is it coming from the Spirit, but it is also the voice of Christ.

It says, therefore as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice. Now whose voice is he speaking of here?

He has decided to quote this psalm at this particular point in the chapter because he wants to apply this not to the voice of God generically considered, but rather to speak of the voice of Christ, the very theme that this book is about.

Remember, this is how the book started. Long ago at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his

Son. He's not left that theme behind. It's the theme throughout the whole book. And so, who is the voice that we are supposed to be hearing when we come to worship the

Lord? Who is the voice? This is the voice of Christ that we are to be hearing.

The voice of Christ through his apostles. The voice of Christ through his prophets. We are to be hearing his voice because it comes with that authority.

It's not the authority of David. It's the authority of the Spirit. It's the authority of the Son. And it is even the authority of the

Father because how does the Father communicate? The Father communicates through the Son. And even as it says in John that the

Son does not Jesus says in John 5 19

So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord but only that what he sees the

Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. And this includes what he says.

The Father has spoken and the Son is the Word of God. Why does

John 1 1 call the Son the Word of God? Because the Father is speaking through the

Son. And so this is the voice of Jesus. This is the voice of the Spirit. This is the voice of the

Father. This is the whole Trinity speaking to us, calling us to worship, saying today if you hear his voice.

Now what is the significance of the word today? Today, as you might imagine, speaks of today.

It speaks of this very day that we are living right now. In fact, later on in verse 13 it will say,

But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. Speaking, alluding to the psalm that was just quoted.

As long as it is called today, a modern way of saying that would be every day that ends in Y. Every day that ends in Y, you should be exhorting one another.

Every day that ends in Y, you should be hearing his voice. But now there is a special way that it also applies to us because as this is a call to worship, this today refers even more particularly to the day on which we are gathered for worship.

And you see that in the next chapter when it speaks of this day continuing on. It says today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua would have given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a

Sabbath rest for the people of God. So there is a special way that this today speaks of this continued experience that we have in coming before our maker and worshiping him.

So this day applies today not only to us because it is a day that ends in Y, but also because it is the

Lord's day. It is the day that we are gathered together for worship. And then beyond that, there is a special way that it applies to us because this day also refers to something greater than it did in the time of the

Psalms. It refers to this day that has happened in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And just to illustrate that beyond clearly the author of Hebrews is applying this to a

New Testament congregation, but similarly you may be familiar with this.

Psalm 2 -7 says, I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today

I have begotten you. Psalm 2 also a Psalm of David speaks of the son being begotten today, on this day.

Now, many questions come up here. What is this referring to? Is this referring to is it referring to Jesus being begotten in time?

And many have made the error of failing to recognize him as being eternally begotten because of this passage and they think that, oh, he was begotten at some point in time.

That's not the case, but he is declared to be the son of God at some point in time. He is always the son of God.

He is always of God, but he is declared to be the son of God when at the resurrection. Romans 1 -4 says, he was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead,

Jesus Christ our Lord. And so, this today that is spoken of prophetically in the

Psalms, just as it is in Psalm 2 when David says today prophetically speaking of the day of resurrection.

So, it prophetically speaks of the day of resurrection. So, this one in Psalm 95 is prophetically, according to the pattern of the writer of Hebrews here, applied to that day of resurrection.

That day of resurrection that we celebrate now on a weekly basis. And so, there are three counts on which we especially need to sense the urgency here.

It is today because it is every day that ends in Y. It is today because it is the day that we are gathered for worship.

And it is today because this is the day on which Jesus is raised from the dead. And we live in a post -resurrection era.

And so, this especially applies to us. People read this

Psalm and they think, well, this especially applies to the Hebrews because they were the ones who went through Massa. They were the ones who went through Meribah.

They were the ones who saw all the signs and wonders. We haven't seen those things. No, this especially applies to us.

This especially applies to us even more than it applied to them. That we must hear the voice of Christ. We have far less excuse than they do.

We have far more revelation that we have been given. And so, we must hear the voice of Christ and we must not harden our hearts as in the rebellion.

And so, he says that. He says, today, if you hear his voice, you are hearing his voice now as we read the

Scriptures, as it's being preached to you, which is the means by which God's Word is supposed to be declared, is through preaching, is through explanation, that even the preached

Word is the Word of Christ. That you are supposed to be hearing this voice. It says, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

Now, what is a hardening of heart? It is a dullness of heart. It is a beginning to lack sensitivity to the

Word of God whereby one might receive it and benefit from it. Now, this is not to suggest that people begin with soft hearts that are eager to receive the

Word of God and then by some activity then become hardened.

Rather, the Bible says that by nature, we have stony hearts. Yet, God, through his

Spirit, makes us able to hear, should he be gracious to us, that we would.

The command is that as we hear, we are not to harden our hearts further, becoming further and further away from the truth because though the natural man has a stony heart, he may become hardened and more hardened to the point where he cannot receive it anymore.

In fact, that is the good analogy here is clay. You have clay and it can get harder and you can add water and it can get softer.

But if you allow it to get hardened enough, if you bake it in an oven and turn it into a mug or some kind of piece of ceramic, there's no way of making that soft again.

You can't take a coffee mug and make that clay softer anymore. It is done.

This is the danger that Hebrews repeatedly points to. If you harden yourself, there is a point of no return.

There is a point in which God will restore one, that God will soften the heart and even though they are born by nature stony, but there is a point of no return.

We must fear God in order that we would not reach that point. This is a surprising thing that he would say to speak of hardening your hearts on the day of the rebellion.

If you read the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, and you look at the people, sure you can see that they sin, sure

God gets angry at them, but when you think of the word hardened heart, what figure do you think of in the first five books of the

Bible? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You're not thinking of the Israelites. The Israelites are not the one who it repeatedly says is hardening his heart.

Who is it? It is Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the one who is repeatedly hardening his heart against God, rejecting

God, and the people are saved. You think of hardening his heart, oh that's the enemy of God, that's the other nation, that's a people that doesn't apply to us.

No, the danger here in Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3 is not of Pharaoh, it's not of some outsider hardening his heart, but you, you who are hearing the word of God, you who identify among the people of God of hardening your heart.

And so, do not harden your heart, receive the word of God.

Now we are called to be Bereans where we test the scriptures, but being a Berean is something very different than being a skeptic.

If you're familiar with the Bereans, they were in Acts, they were certain Jews who were very receptive to the word of God and yet at the same time they were testing the things that Paul said to see whether they were true.

Now that is a good activity, that is an example of someone who is receiving the word of God, but some people think that that warrants all kinds of skepticism where they just kind of scoff at the word as it's given and are eager to reject everything that comes to them.

No, you must be eager to receive the word of God and you must be eager to receive it now.

People don't realize the kind of danger that they're in as they hear the word of God. You have a responsibility in this moment.

There's no neutrality, you can't just sit through this. You either receive the word of God or you do not receive it, you reject it.

And every moment that you reject it, that is not good for your heart.

It is something that hardens the heart when you reject the word. So you must come to worship realizing the danger that you are in as you worship.

Worship is a wonderful thing, we draw closer to our maker, we receive great blessings from worship.

It is there for our good and yet there is a great, great danger in worshiping

God because there are more and more opportunities to reject his word and to fail to hear it.

So you should be thinking about how you can be eager to receive the word of God. What can you do?

Do you come to church without enough rest the night before in order to be able to receive it and respond to it well?

Do you come in a way where you have done your own due diligence in studying the word so that you would know the truth that is being said and wouldn't be confused about it?

Do you talk about the word afterward? With your children do you cultivate a culture of hearing the word of God and trying to encourage them to respond to it?

If you don't already do this, I would ask you to when you go home, ask your children what they remember from Sunday school, what they remember from the service.

Explain to them. Develop a culture of this in your home. Even develop a culture of this in the church.

After word, at lunch, if you are looking for topics to discuss, sermon is the best topic that you can discuss because this is what we should be doing.

We should be cultivating a culture of hearing the word of God receptively.

The alternative to that is not neutral. The alternative to that is a hardening of heart.

It says, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test and saw my work for forty years.

This is something that is especially, as I've just said, something that is especially dangerous when one hears the word of God.

People usually don't think of hearing as being an opportunity for hardening, but hearing is an opportunity for hardening. This is repeatedly stated throughout scripture.

One who does not hear the word of God, there is not an opportunity for them to harden their heart in the same way. Isaiah 6, he is given a commission to preach to the people, to speak to them the words of God, and with what end?

What is the reason in Isaiah 6? In Isaiah 6, it says in order that their hearts would be hardened.

So he is given a commission to speak to them, not so that they would believe, but because God had designed that like Pharaoh, they would harden their hearts.

And what is the means for that happening? That means is the word of God. The word of God is a very dangerous thing.

It can soften hearts. The Holy Spirit uses it to soften hearts, but every moment that it is rejected, it hardens hearts.

So God sometimes sends his word not as a blessing, but as a judgment on people.

The nation that gathers to hear God and his word, yet with unreceptive hearts, that is a judgment that is far greater than people realize.

There is some blessing in being a part of a nation that has so much Christian culture, so much recognition of God's truths, but by and large throughout this nation, what you see is that a lot of people are receiving

God's word, but without a heart that is receptive to God's word. This is a judgment.

This is like what you see in Isaiah, where the word of God is being sent to people, not as a blessing, but as a curse.

It is a terrifying thing to be afraid of. Like I said, it is an opportunity for hardening.

It is an occasion of hardening. Are you all familiar with these videos? I have never actually seen one, but it is called

Baby Einstein. I think Disney put them out a while ago. The idea was that you would show these videos to your infant or your toddler and it would have things like Beethoven playing over certain kinds of teaching or something.

If your kid would watch these videos, they would be able to develop a keener intelligence and a sense of things.

There was no real research done on this until there was. What they found was just the opposite.

You sit your kid in front of the screen where they are hearing stuff. They are learning what to tune out. They are learning to just ignore this, ignore that, developing all kinds of patterns of not being able to maintain attention on things.

Disney ended up getting sued over this. They had posited this thing as some kind of thing that would turn your child into an

Einstein, but it was actually making kids dumb. What was that teaching?

It was an opportunity for them becoming duller to the things that were being spoken.

It is the same with us. We hear the word of God and if we don't receive it, if we are not of hearts that are receptive to it, our hearts become duller to it.

Just like the child who is not ready to receive the things being taught through a video.

It says here, it speaks of fathers, it says where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.

It speaks of the fathers, it speaks of a generation. These fathers, these fathers are those who had not entered the land of Canaan because all but Caleb and Joshua had given a bad report.

They had looked at the land and they were too afraid. They did not trust the Lord. It is not just that they did not trust the

Lord to conquer his enemies or be good to his promise about the land of Canaan. They did not trust the gospel in particular.

The gospel given in Genesis 3 .15 is from the woman would come one who would crush the head of the serpent.

Did they believe that that offspring would be given through Abraham through their own people? Had they believed that, they would have trusted the

Lord to do what was necessary in order to establish the kingdom to bring this king that would give them rest. This is what they did not trust.

It is not just that they did not trust God's strength. They specifically did not trust his promise in the gospel and they rejected that and they were not permitted to enter this land of Canaan.

His point in talking about fathers, you remember in Hebrews 1 it said long ago many times in many ways

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. The point here is to say that we have a special proclivity toward this sin.

As he is talking to Hebrews he speaks of their fathers and as their fathers not just Pharaoh but even their fathers were rejecting the

Lord, hardening their hearts. They have a special proclivity to the sin. That does not mean that we do not as well.

In fact, you look at the epistles and it very frequently speaks of the

Old Testament Israelites as our fathers, as the fathers of Gentiles. It is the case that even for us, and if you look at your own lineage and all the countless unbelievers that existed in that lineage, you have a great danger of following after the pattern of your physical fathers.

The true sons of Abraham are the sons of faith. Do not think that you are immune to this because of your heritage either as an

American or as a third generation Christian or someone who has grown up in the church. No, that is not the case.

In fact, in many ways these things put you in more danger if you have been understanding what we have been saying.

There are great benefits and blessings to that but hopefully you understand what I am saying when there are more dangers of just tuning it all out.

There is an interesting thing that has happened here. You may notice that there is when the authors of the

New Testament quote the Old Testament, sometimes it will be a little bit different. Sometimes those differences, and they were not working with the modern standards that we have of quotations where you are using physical quote marks, actual

English quotation marks and then this needs to be exact and if it is not then you are guilty of attributing words incorrectly.

They are not working with those same standards. Occasionally they are different. Sometimes that is because it is just a matter of translation.

They are quoting from Greek versions of Scripture and the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.

That is the case with Meribah and Massah. Meribah and Massah did not make it through translation.

It is just called testing and rebellion. These are actually what the words Massah and Meribah mean.

That is not of the fact that they chose to translate those with the meaning behind the words instead of keeping them as proper nouns is not really of much consequence.

However, there is something that the author does that is not just from the translation that he is using, the translation of Scriptures in Greek known as the

Septuagint. That is here he inserts the word therefore in verse 10.

This word in Greek, dio, says therefore I was provoked with that generation. You will notice in Psalm 95 what did it say without the therefore?

How is it translated? It says they put me to the proof though they had seen my works.

For 40 years I loathed that generation. In Psalm 95 the 40 years the natural way of reading it is to interpret it as applying to the time of punishment.

The people had an opportunity to trust God, they didn't so they have this 40 years of punishment. What is going on in Hebrews 3 when the author of his own volition is inserting a therefore into the quotation?

It breaks the sentence so that the 40 is associated elsewhere. Where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.

This isn't describing the length of the punishment here in Hebrews 3, this is describing the degree of provocation these are people who their sin was not the punctiliar bad report that was given before they were about to enter the land.

Rather it's the whole 40 years that they spent in the wilderness constantly complaining and grumbling before the

Lord. And this 40 year period is significant for a few reasons.

One I think it is very I haven't thought about this too much, it's just kind of struck me yesterday and maybe there's something to this.

The period of time in between the resurrection of Christ and the falling of the temple. So Christ was born so he lived 33 years before he was crucified and he was born around most people think you know who have done the math and everything around 4

BC 3 BC. And so he's dying he's being crucified and raised back to life right around 30

AD and then the temple falls in 70 AD. Now that is an interesting span of time that happens to be 40 years.

Now like I said I was only just thinking about this yesterday but it seems that the people of Israel have brought on the same sin by grumbling against God's provision of son for 40 years and then

God God is done with them and angry with them. Anyway that seems like a bit yeah a little too coincidental.

That does seem to be organized by the spirit of God for history to have been ordained that way.

However, also if we think about ourselves in the state that we are in. So we're in a place where we have we have gone through the exodus.

Christ has freed people from bondage. And yet the fact that he has freed people from bondage does not mean that every person who identifies with his people has that peace of God or is truly of his people.

And so what stage are we in right now in this New Testament journey if we were to parallel it to the

Old Testament experience. We're not being brought out of Egypt so much as we are already have been brought out of Egypt going through the wilderness.

And so what are people doing right now as they identify among God's people yet may not be truly of his people.

Are they those who grumble as they did at Masa and Meribah. And this is another reason too why

I think the author is fine leaving those, quoting those as is without reinserting them as proper nouns so that they don't refer to those particular events and rather because he intends to speak of this whole period of the 40 years as a time of provocation.

Us being in that time of testing now. That time of us being tested but more importantly when it talks about testing it's talking about us putting

God to the test. We should not put God to the test. We should recognize that just coming to church, just identifying as among God's people does not make us part of God's people.

It's only those who have truly received his word that can have the peace of God that are among his people. And these things are given as examples for us as 1

Corinthians 10 6 says. 1 Corinthians 10 6 speaking of this time in Israel's history as well says that these are given as examples for us.

We are not to be grumblers. We are not to be people who are dissatisfied with God's provision.

What were the Hebrews at this time? What were they what kind of grumbling were they doing?

They were dissatisfied with God's provision of sun. The Old Testament Israelites dissatisfied with God's provision of meat dissatisfied with the manna he gave dissatisfied with the water he gave dissatisfied with his provision.

What were they dissatisfied with potentially? There were many of them who were thinking about going back to the old temple system because they were dissatisfied with the sun they didn't think he was enough.

And what is it that people today are dissatisfied with when they grumble at God, when they identify among his people but then grumble at him, aren't receptive to his word?

They are grumbling against his sun. They are dissatisfied with his provision of that manna from heaven of that bread of heaven who is

Jesus Christ. They are dissatisfied with the waters of life. They are dissatisfied with his provision.

So do not be that one. Be one of contentment who recognize that what God has given is good and it is sufficient.

The tenth commandment says not to covet. We should not covet but we should rather be content knowing that God is good and his provision is sufficient.

The foolishness of seeing all kinds of signs and wonders over the period of 40 years they are seeing all kinds of miracles and rejecting him, not thinking he is powerful enough.

There is a tendency in us to say if I had seen those miracles I would have done that. What we have seen is so much more.

What we have is so much more. Christ is risen from the dead in our era. He was not yet crucified and risen from the dead in their era.

We have the wholeness of the counsel of God in our era. We have New Testament worship which is so much more free and so much more enlivened with the

Spirit of God in this era. This is something we were talking about in Sunday school as well. It doesn't matter if you haven't seen a rock struck and water come out.

It doesn't matter if you haven't seen quail miraculously given or manna fall from heaven. What we have is so much better and we are far guiltier for rejecting it.

Come to the word eagerly. Come to it reverently. Know that today as you hear God's voice, you are responsible to respond to it and receive it.

Not to grumble against it throughout your week as you feel that what God has given you is not enough. You want something more.

It's certainly good to desire more but to think that He hasn't given you what is perfectly right and good is to grumble against Him and to be just like those in the desert.

This is really the core of all sins. I've preached on this before but that tenth commandment is a very special commandment.

Not to covet. To be content. When Jesus speaks to the rich young ruler after he's listed the second table of the law and listed five commandments except for that last one.

He talks about not murdering. He talks about honoring your father and mother. He talks about not stealing.

Not lying. Not committing adultery. The guy says, I've done all these things. He says, one thing you lack. What is that?

Contentment. Give away all your things. You don't need these things. Do not covet. Paul said that if the law had not said thou shall not covet, he wouldn't have understood.

That tenth commandment is interpreting the other commandments. It's showing that it's all a matter of the heart. You can be a part of any kind of pagan society and know that it's wrong to murder but it's that tenth commandment is showing it's not just about these external actions, it's about the heart.

It really cuts to the heart of it all. When we grumble against God, this is the deepest kind of sin that we are committing when we grumble against him.

Describes the nature of the penalty here. The 40 years having been stuck to the provocation rather than to the penalty which is intentional on the part of the author.

He then describes the penalty. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and I said they always go astray in their hearts.

They have not known my ways as I swore my wrath. They shall not enter my rest. Provoked with that generation.

They always go astray in their hearts. They go astray in their hearts they do not know what truth is. It might seem like a bit much to say always.

Is this hyperbole? Is it really always that they go astray in their hearts?

But consider this. Consider that Romans consider that Romans speaks of those who do not have the spirit of God not being able to please him.

Right? Those who do not have the spirit are not able to please him. Hebrews 11 6 later on it will say that those who do not have faith are not able to please him.

They always go astray in their heart. It is not hyperbole. It is true that they always go astray in their heart.

As a penalty also this is recorded against them. It is not merely a matter that is forgotten in history but it is something that is recorded against them as it says here.

Therefore I was provoked and said God said this they always astray in their hearts.

This is not just his internal monologue that it is describing here.

He has actually said this to them and it is recorded against them in scripture. Deuteronomy, the last book of the books of Moses, it famously ends with the song of Moses.

What does the song of Moses say? For they are a nation void of counsel and there is no understanding in them.

If they were wise they would understand this. They would discern their latter end. It will be recorded against the one who hardens his heart and is not receptive to the word of God.

It will be recorded against them. They do not know the ways of God.

To know God's ways is to know his goodness. It is to experience his goodness. Those who do not have that they do not truly know him.

As I swore my wrath they shall not enter my rest. The rest of God, the blessings not only of heaven, the author of Hebrews will make this clear later on, even those

Old Testament believers were anticipating the blessings of heaven. Hebrews 11 explains that.

Even just the kind of special peace that they were supposed to receive in entering the promised land they did not get, there is a special peace that we are supposed to be able to receive through the blessings of our

New Testament existence post Christ, post his resurrection, in this church, in the

New Testament assembly that God has created that people are not able to receive.

It is not just heaven but even the kind of peace that you can enjoy in this life is not available apart from being receptive to his word.

The one who hardens his heart does not receive these things. On top of that it comes with an oath that God swears in his wrath.

He is fixed against them so that they have no hope. These are all terrifying things but this is coming in the context of the voice of Christ not being something that destroys.

It only destroys those who reject it but it gives life to those who hear it. Today hear his voice.

He is one who has come with a message. He is the apostle that Hebrews 3 .1 speaks of who has come with a message of life, a message of salvation as Hebrews 2 says that he has come with.

Hear this voice from him. This passage here in Hebrews 3 quoting

Psalm 95 which speaks of Meribah and Massa. Meribah and Massa, forgive me if I did not explain this earlier but these are the occasions on which, there are two occasions on which there was a rock that God gave water from and the people had complained to God about it, about not having water, that they were testing

God. This rock the New Testament says is Christ. That Christ is the one who follows us around in the wilderness as this rock seemed to and gives water to the people of God.

This is what 1 Corinthians 10 describes that he is that rock. Now you can test God at this rock and be dissatisfied with the water that God brings or you can receive that from that rock and have the water of life.

Rather than not knowing God's ways, you can know his ways. Later on in Hebrews 11 it will describe the blessings of the new covenant as being a knowledge of God that other people don't have.

God writing his law on your heart, God writing them on your mind so that you can know him. They will each know him and no one will have to say to his brother know the

Lord because they will all know him. You can know the Lord if you hear the words of Jesus Christ if you hear this message of salvation that he has died for the sins of his people that trusting in this by trusting in this his righteousness is credited to you so that you can have a right standing before God and you can know

God having this mediator, having access to the throne of grace. And then when it talks about swearing in his wrath they shall not enter his rest we have the oath of God.

Later on this becomes a big theme in Hebrews 2 is to have God not swear against us but rather to swear for us, to give us his oath because men tend to be untrusting and need something more concrete something harder.

God has not only given us his word but he has even given us his oath and that oath is made in the blood of Jesus Christ and then through all that we can enter the rest of God, we can experience the rest of God not just in the afterlife but we can experience the rest of God in a special way that not even the

Old Testament believers had access to. Here in this New Testament church and all these things are accessible through Jesus Christ do not harden your heart do not reject his word, do not come here with dull ears ready to sit through politely, not being receptive to his word.

Rather come being eager to hear what he has for you in order that you might receive all the blessings from it and none of the curses, and none of the curses.

Let's pray Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for your son who is that rock from which the water comes.

We thank you for your son who is that manna in the wilderness we thank you for the bread of life and we ask that we would hear his voice, that we would be receptive to the spirit as he speaks, we would be receptive to your son as he speaks, we would be receptive to you as you speak through them and Lord we ask that we would receive all the benefits that come from your word and that we would not reject it, that you would not harden us but rather that you would soften us more and more through the words of Christ and the word that we receive these good benefits.