Those Who Were Disobedient (Hebrews 3:15-19)

Kootenai Church

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Please turn now to Hebrews chapter 3. We're going to read together verses 12 through the end of the chapter, verse 19,

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Hebrews 3. This falls after the quotation in verses 7 through 11 of the passage we read at the beginning from Psalm 95.

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So picking it up at verse 12. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living

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God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

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While it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me.

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For who provoked him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?

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And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

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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 not able to enter because of unbelief.

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Let's pray together. Father, we pray that you would grant to us the mercy of understanding your word in a spiritual sense.

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We pray that the words of this passage may not just fall upon our ears in a physical sense, that we would hear them, but that we would hear them with hearts and hearts that would be united with faith, so that the preaching and teaching of your word, the reading of your word, our thought and meditation around your word may cause that which you intend for it to cause a sanctifying effect in the hearts of your people.

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We pray that you would encourage us and equip us and exhort us, and even rebuke us where it is necessary through your word.

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Encourage our hearts together here as we join our minds and our hearts together to worship you in truth.

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We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. The last time we were together, which was a couple weeks ago, we were looking at chapter 3 and we just got through actually one verse in verse 14.

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And I had, this is in the middle of this warning passage, and I had mentioned to you that verses 14 through 19 pose for us, give to us a contrast between the believer and the unbeliever, belief and unbelief.

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And the believer is described in verse 14 when he writes, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

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And I suggested to you that a believer is one who holds fast all the way to the very end. A believer is one who holds to his assurance, his confession of faith, his confidence in Christ all the way to the end of his life.

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The unbeliever is the one who at some point will make, though he's made a profession of faith in Christ, he will walk away from that and turn away from that and abandon his profession, his confidence, his assurance.

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As John says in 1 John 2 verse 19, they go out from us because they're not of us. If they were of us, that is if they were believers, they would remain with us because the mark of a believer is one who sees through his confession, his assurance all the way firm until the very end.

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We may doubt, we may struggle, we may be discouraged, we may be down at times, but a believer does not abandon, a true believer does not abandon his confession and his assurance in Jesus Christ.

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He holds fast all the way to the very end. That is what marks a believer. And verse 14 is not a statement that says we will be saved if we do this.

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It is a statement that says we are saved because this is the evidence of our salvation. If we hold fast to the very end, we are partakers of Christ.

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We are partakers of Christ. How do we know that we are partakers of Christ? We know that we are partakers of Christ because we hold fast all the way firm until the very end.

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That's what marks a believer. Not a temporary, fleeting, changing faith that goes with the wind, doctrinally here one day and doctrinally there the next day, in love with Christ on Friday and abandoning

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Him on Saturday and then back in love with Him on Sunday. That's not the mark of a believer. The mark of a true believer is one who holds fast his confidence and assurance of his faith all the way to the very end.

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There is a rock -solid reality there, not because of the nature of a decision that we have made, but because of the nature of the faith that saves.

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We talked about that. Remember the distinction? Our discussion over whether or not salvation can be lost is not a discussion as to the reversibility or irreversibility of a decision.

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It is a difference, a distinction between the nature of saving faith. We believe that salvation is a gift, that the faith itself is a gift, that repentance is a divine work where God changes our hearts and turns us from darkness to light, from a love of darkness to a love for the truth and a love for light.

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That is a divine work that must be done in the heart of an unregenerate and unsaved individual. And because salvation and faith that brings salvation is a divine gift, it is not something that can just be had one day and gone the next.

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It is something that the believer has all the way to the very end. Then in verses 15 through 19, we have a description of an unbeliever.

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And I want you to notice in verse 15 when he quotes again Psalm 95, verse 15,

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Wladysh said, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. Now if that sounds familiar, it is because we read it at the beginning of our service in Psalm 95, and then we have studied it again up in verse 7 and 8 of this very same chapter.

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He actually quotes that passage three times in this warning passage. I think that that is significant. He quotes it at the beginning, he quotes it here in the middle, and he quotes it again at the end.

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And I think it is significant because the purpose of the author is to explain this quotation from Psalm 95.

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So in verse 7 he says, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness.

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He is quoting Psalm 95 verses 7 and 8 there. And remember Psalm 95 does not stand alone.

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Psalm 95 is an explanation, an application of the lesson learned from Numbers 13 and 14.

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And that is the wilderness generation, the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. So David is reflecting back upon that, and he says,

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Do not harden your hearts as when they did, the children of Israel in the wilderness. And now the author of Hebrews is reflecting back upon Psalm 95, 7 and 8, and saying,

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Here is the lesson that we learned from that. And then you'll notice chapter 4 verse 7, the author quotes it again.

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He again fixes a certain day. Today, saying through David, after so long a time, just as has been said before,

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Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. So he is making direct application here, and the intention of the author is to warn us against the very real danger of having a hardened heart.

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He does not want there to be anyone in his congregation of ears who may not have yet embraced Jesus Christ, who seeing the works of God, seeing the power of God displayed and the grace of God displayed, hearing

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God's voice in Scripture, understanding the truth that is in Jesus Christ. He doesn't want anybody in his congregation to see that and to make a decision to turn around and to reject that and to remain in unbelief.

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And that danger that existed in Moses' day, that they would see the works of God and turn away from it in disobedience, it existed in David's day, that they would see the hand of God, the works of God, the promises of God, and yet remain in unbelief, that danger existed in the author of Hebrews' day, that they having heard the gospel and seen the gospel and witnessed the power of God through the apostles and in the lives of the people of God, that somebody would turn away from that and remain in unbelief, and the same danger exists today.

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It is a perpetual and continual danger, this danger of a hardened heart. Now as I said, it is not possible for a believer, one who has been changed by the grace of God, whose heart now is a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone, it is not possible for a believer to have their hearts hardened to that point where they are completely in unbelief because the faith that saves us is not our faith, it's not our decision, it's not our work, it's not our activity, it's something that God does, and since it is a divine gift, that belief will remain there in the heart of a believer.

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But it is possible for us as believers to get hardened hearts because of our own disobedience and our sin, and to become apathetic and cold to spiritual things and to the call of the gospel, it's possible for that to happen, and it's discouraging and it's horrible when it does happen, it affects us spiritually, and we ought not to let it happen, so there is a way in which we can take away that warning, something we can take from that warning.

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But those that the author is concerned about are those who are in unbelief and having seen the truth, that they would remain in unbelief.

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And because they remain in unbelief, their hearts would be hardened and they would miss

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God's rest, which he describes in chapter 4. This is the concern of the author, that the one who is in unbelief would remain in unbelief and not give heed to the truth that they know to be true.

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That is what a hardened heart is. And that clearly the wilderness generation did have a hardened heart, didn't they?

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And there is a vicious circle to unbelief, by the way. The one who is in unbelief, who hears the gospel, and then he considers it, and he knows what's to be true, and he sees the truth, and he says, no,

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I'm not going to believe, I'm not going to repent, I'm not going to embrace Christ, I'm not going to reach out and take the gift of eternal life,

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I hate that, I don't want that, I would rather have my sin, I would rather have my self -loathing, I would rather have my own wallowing in my immorality and iniquity.

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The one who does that and will not repent, they are hardened by that act of unbelief.

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The act of unbelief hardens the heart, so that the unbeliever remains in an unbelieving state, and then responds to truth in unbelief, which hardens the heart, and keeps them in an unbelieving state, which then causes them to respond to truth in unbelief.

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And do you see this vicious circle? And the farther it goes and the longer it goes, the harder and harder the heart becomes to the point where it is absolutely hardened, stone hard, and they give no heed to it, and they just don't care.

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And if you met that individual, usually they're older people, who have lived their lives 85, 90 years on the earth, and they get to a point where they don't even give consideration to it.

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They certainly do not want to repent by the time they're at that age. They just become recalcitrant in their sin, and they're rebellion and impenitent, and the heart is hardened to the point where it does not even heed or hear or understand or is even moved by the gospel at all.

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That is the very real danger. Now you'll notice in verse 16 through 17, 18, that there are three questions that are asked by the author.

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I just want you to notice these three questions, and then we'll take a moment to kind of break each one of them down.

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Verse 16, For who provoked him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

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See, this guy's a good preacher because he asks you a question, and then he turns around and he answers the question for you. This is what the job of the preacher is, to raise a question and then answer it.

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And this is what he does. In fact, he raises three questions, and all three of these questions, verse 16 is, who provoked him?

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Verse 17, with whom was he angry? And verse 18, to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest?

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All three of these questions point us back to the quotation in verses 7 through 11 from Psalm 95.

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Notice it. Verse 16 is a reference to verse 8. Verse 8 says, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness.

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Look at the question of verse 16. For who provoked him when they had heard? So he is asking the first question based upon the statement in verse 8.

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The second question in verse 17, with whom was he angry? He is quoting there, referencing there, verse 10.

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Therefore, I was angry with this generation. And the question in verse 18, and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest?

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That is from verse 11. And so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest. You see what he's doing?

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He quoted the passage of Scripture, then he is asking three questions, working his way through the passage, and then giving answer to these questions, and then he is applying the truth in verse 19.

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That, by the way, is an expository sermon. That's what an expository sermon is. You'll notice that the author does not quote the passage of Scripture, find one word or phrase that he wants to camp on, and then just run off and tell stories from his own personal life.

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Do you notice that? Now, that is what you get in, that's typical fare in most evangelical churches, but that's not an expository sermon.

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What the author is doing here, and I've said before, I think the book of Hebrews is an exposition of Psalm 110.

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And the rest of it are quotations to sort of buttress his explanation of Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is the backdrop of the book of Hebrews, and the author is quoting that several times throughout the book.

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He is explaining and applying Psalm 110. Here he does it with Psalm 95.

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He quotes Psalm 95, and then he gives basically a three -point, three -question, three -answer, and then an application in verse 19, or a conclusion in verse 19.

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That is an expository sermon. So there are three questions, and thus there are three lessons that we can learn. Notice verse 16.

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Here's where we get into the three questions as they are stated and answered. Oh, one last observation. The first two, there's a question and an answer, a question and an answer, and the third one, there is a question that contains the answer.

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There's nothing to make of that, I just wanted to point that out. Okay, question number one, verse 16, Now he's asking a second question there, but really that second question is to answer the first question.

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Have you ever met somebody who annoys you because they answer your questions with a question? Horrible, right? Isn't it?

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It does. So that's the first thing he does here, he asks a question, who provoked God? And then the answer to that is, was it not all those who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?

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Verse 16. Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt, led by Moses. Who was it that provoked

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God? It was those who heard. Verse 16, they provoked him when they had heard.

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Those who had provoked God in the wilderness, numbers 13 and 14, They were not a generation of people who were ignorant.

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That reference to, it was those who heard, is intended to remind us again of the command in verse 15,

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So those who were in the wilderness, heard the word of God, through Moses, they saw the manifold power of God displayed in so many ways, having heard his will, and knew his will, and understood his will, they rebelled against it.

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And so the question, who was it that provoked God? It was those who heard. It was all those who came out of Egypt, under Moses.

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Now that is intended to point to something very specific, and it is intended to point to something that is very significant.

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What is specific and significant is this, those who came out of Egypt, you can in no way say that they were ignorant of what

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God had commanded them, could you? Was this a generation of people who were wandering in the wilderness, wondering what the will of God was?

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Or what the purpose of God was for them being in the wilderness? Didn't they know that? They had known that.

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They had heard the word of God through Moses. They had seen and heard the word of God on Mount Sinai.

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They had seen the wisdom of God, and the power of God demonstrated in the pillar of fire that guided them by night, and the pillar of smoke that guided them during the day.

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They had seen that. They had heard that. They had heard the voice of God on the mountain to the point where they said, we don't want to hear anymore, we don't want to have that anymore.

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It terrified them. They heard the thunderings. They saw the signs. This was not an ignorant people, and yet they remained in unbelief.

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It was an inexcusable unbelief because of all that they knew and all that they had seen, all that they had heard and experienced.

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They knew. Oftentimes we think that unbelief is due to an ignorance in the people that we are talking to. And we just think to ourselves, if only

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I could show to that hardened unbeliever the manuscript evidence for the

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New Testament, then they would believe. If only I could demonstrate to them that evolution is false and that there is a creator, then they would believe.

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If only I could answer all of their questions about this false religion and that objection and this mystery and this theory.

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If only I could explain to them how the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man work together. If only

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I could explain to them how it is that Scripture is inspired. If only I could answer all of their objections, then they would believe.

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Is that true? Is any statement that I've just made true? No, it's not. There's nothing you can do.

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That is not to say that we do not have an apologetic concern or an apologetic effort in our witness encounters and our presentation of the gospel.

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There ought to be that. Paul walked into the synagogue, as was his custom, on the Sabbath day and reasoned with them from the

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Scripture, showing them that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and that he had to suffer and then rise again on the third day.

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Paul went and he gave evidence, he gave reasons, he reasoned with them from the Scripture. But our approach apologetically, when we defend the faith or answer people's questions and objections in presenting the gospel, our approach and our goal in that is not so that they would have all of their questions answered so that they would believe.

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We should understand that their questions are nothing more than excuses for their unbelief.

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That's what their questions and objections are. And the minute you answer a question or objection, I've had this happen and maybe you have as well, they say,

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I don't believe, or I reject that because of this, and they present something and you go ahead and answer it. There's only eight, ten different objections that atheists typically raise, and so it's not difficult to get your head around what those are and to answer them.

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Then you answer and they say, yeah, but I still, I'm not going to believe because of this. See, all you're doing in answering questions and objections is not trying to answer their questions so that they can believe.

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You're answering their questions and objections because you are taking away all of the excuses for their unbelief and you are laying bare their unbelief that their unbelief is inexcusable.

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They know the truth. Their conscience testifies to the truth. They are, in the words of Romans 1, completely without excuse.

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See, unbelief is like a well -dressed man. Very horrible and ugly on the inside, but dressed up in all these fancy clothes.

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And then when you begin to answer the questions and objections, all you're doing is you are stripping off that clothing and you are laying their unbelief naked and bare before everybody so that it can be seen in all of its ugly horror for what it is.

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An inexcusable rebellion against the benevolent and sovereign creator of the universe. That's what unbelief is.

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So answering questions and objections does not enable them to believe. It just shows that their objections and their questions are nothing more than thinly veiled excuses, rationalizations for their hard -hearted unbelief and their impenitence.

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And so that applies to the wilderness generation of people who came out of Egypt as well.

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They all came out under Moses. So those are the ones who heard. They saw the signs. They saw the miracles. This is an inexcusable unbelief that he is describing here.

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And by the way, there's sort of a subtle argument that's going on here and I'll just make you aware of it. I'll point it out to you. Remember this warning passage is in the context of comparing

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Jesus with Moses. Remember chapter 1 and 2 is about comparing Jesus with the angels to show that Jesus was greater than the angels from every angle and every presentation of that from the

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Old Testament. That was the point of the author. Then he switches to Moses and we are comparing now Jesus with Moses to show that Jesus is greater than Moses.

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Jesus is not only greater than the angels, he's greater than Moses. So that's the backdrop of the warning passage. Let me ask you a question about Moses.

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Let's say I'm going to ask you a question and I'm going to answer it just like he does here. Let me ask you a question about Moses. Of all of those that he brought out of bondage and sin in Egypt, how many of them did he lead into the promised land?

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A lot? All? Most? Two? Caleb and Joshua were the only ones that left

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Egypt and entered the promised land. Two. Of those whom Moses freed and delivered from bondage, how many of them were brought safely through to eternal rest or to their earthly rest?

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Two. By that measure, would you call Moses a successful deliverer? No, you would not.

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Now let's compare Jesus to Moses. Of those whom

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Jesus delivers from their bondage in sin and the darkness and the kingdom of darkness, how many of them does he take through to eternal rest?

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How many of them? All of them without exception. You understand why Jesus is greater than Moses? How many of those whom

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Moses delivered did he bring in? Two. He brought in two. By that measure, he is a failure.

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By any measure, Jesus is an incredible success. He loses none. We know this.

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He loses none. All that the Father gives me will come to me. Those who come to me I will not cast out. This is the will of the

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Father that all that he has given to me will come to me. They will believe in me. I will give them eternal life and I will raise them up at the last day.

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How many does he lose? Zero. If he loses one, he has failed to do what the Father gave him to do. And Jesus is not a failure.

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Because Jesus is not a failure, he will successfully deliver to eternal rest all those whom the

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Father has given to him, whom the Father has drawn to him, to whom all of those of whom he has committed to Jesus will be delivered by Jesus faithfully and successfully all the way to rest.

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Jesus brings to rest all whom he has delivered from their bondage. Moses brought in to rest two of those whom he had delivered from their bondage.

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Therefore, Jesus is greater than Moses. Okay, so that's the second question. That's the first question. Now the second question, with whom was

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God angry? Verse 17. And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose body fell in the wilderness?

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God's anger burned against an entire generation of Jewish adults because they rebelled in the wilderness.

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And though they knew what God had called them to do and told them to do, they were not ignorant of it. They remained hardened and in unbelief.

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And as a result, God was angry with those who sinned. That's the answer. With whom was he angry?

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Verse 17. Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Sometimes we think that God's anger is capricious or random or that it just flares up as if the eyes of the

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Lord walk to and fro throughout the course of the whole earth, looking for somebody that he can flare up on that day and just pour out his anger upon that day.

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That is not our God. God's anger is not random. It's not capricious. It's not reckless in any way whatsoever.

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It is a settled wrath against inexcusable unbelief.

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That is the wrath of God. So with whom was he angry? With those who knew God and obeyed him,

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Caleb and Joshua? No, it was with an entire generation of Jewish adults who knew the truth and they turned away from it.

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And so God was righteous in his anger. God's anger is a righteous anger. It was against them for their sins and against this entire generation of this nation whom

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God's anger burned against. And it was a just and righteous anger. God had every right to be angry with them.

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It wasn't one sin that they committed that God said, okay, you're all going to die for this one sin. It wasn't one sin.

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If we go back to Numbers 13 and 14, you remember there is a point in that narrative where God is describing his anger and describing the judgment.

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And he says, these people have rebelled against me these 10 times. This was a number of weeks ago, but I remember saying to you at that time, there's some discussion as to what those 10 times refers to.

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Was this a recollection of all of the rebellion that they had rebelled against God with since the time that Moses went there to deliver them?

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When they said, we want to stay in Egypt, why have you brought us out? You remember all of those, the series of rebellions, they'd come out of the land of Egypt and they're out in the wilderness and they complain about being brought out there by Moses to die when they get to the

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Red Sea. And so there is this rebellion and this unbelief there. And God delivers them through that, takes them through the Red Sea. And they get right on the other side of it and say, we want water to drink.

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Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Better for us to stay in Egypt than to be out here and to die in this wilderness. So God gives them water.

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Why have you not fed us out here? This is a horrible situation. Oh, that we were back in Egypt with all the leeks and the melons and all the good stuff back in Egypt.

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Yeah, and making bricks all day long. You forget about that. But they remember all the good stuff that was in Egypt and they want to go back to that.

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So God gives them manna from heaven. Then they complain about the manna. Oh, if you'd only give us meat to eat. Back in Egypt we had meat, so God gives them quail.

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And then again, they complain about the water. Then they get to the land of Egypt and they complain about the giants and going into there and the effort that it's going to take to go in and to conquer the land.

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And God finally says, these people have rebelled against me these 10 times. Now was it that series of rebellions, or I suggested to you from Numbers 14, was it 10 separate and distinct rebellious acts that they did just in connection with going into the land that Moses does not record for us each one of those 10 individual acts of rebellion, but it's possible that there was this onslaught, this 10 rebellious acts that they did before going into the land that God finally said, that's enough.

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Which one was it? Could have been both, right? It was not one sin.

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It was not one act. It was not because this nation got up one day and had a bad day and they sinned and then

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God just went overboard with anger and wrath. That's not it at all. They had a history of being an uncircumcised, a stiff -necked people of demonstrating their rebellion and their hatred for the truth and for the

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God who delivered them. Their rebellion and their unbelief was an act of sinful and inexcusable hatred for God.

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For that reason, their bodies fell in the wilderness. With whom was he angry? It was with those who sinned.

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Was he angry with Joshua and Caleb? Not at all. They didn't sin. They said, let's go into the land.

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God has promised to give it to us. He'll fulfill it. Let's just step in and see what God will do. And they rebelled against that.

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It wasn't angry with Joshua and Caleb but it was with all those, save only Joshua and Caleb, that God brought out of Egypt. Those were the ones who provoked him.

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Those were the ones with whom he was angry. Now the third question, to whom did God punish or to whom did he swear his punishment or promise his punishment?

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Verse 18. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient? And here, again, the question is contained, the answer is contained in the question.

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Was it not those who were disobedient whom God swore to punish that they would not enter into his rest?

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And of course, in the mind of the author, it is Caleb and Joshua who are exempted from this entire discussion. They're not to be considered as part of this rebellious generation of Jews.

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But they alone, those who were disobedient. Now in this case, it happened to be an entire generation of Jewish people who saw God's works.

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That's why they become the quintessential example of an inexcusable unbelief. They'd seen it. They had heard it. God was angry with them.

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They provoked him. He was angry with them. And so he swore to them, you shall not enter the rest.

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You shall not enter into what I have promised you. And another generation would come along and enter into that. So they were the ones who were punished.

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They were the ones whom God swore that they would not enter his rest. And they had themselves and themselves alone to blame for God's judgment.

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When unbelievers stand before the throne of God on judgment day, no unbeliever will be able to say, I had not enough evidence.

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Bertrand Russell, the famed 18th and early 19th century atheist, once said that when

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I stand before God, somebody asked him, what are you going to say when you stand before God if God does exist? And Bertrand Russell said, when

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I stand before God, if he exists, I will say to him, why did you not give us enough evidence? He's not going to say that.

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No, he's not. He had plenty of evidence. Lack of evidence is not the reason for his unbelief.

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What is it? Love for darkness. Every single time. This generation of Jews that perished in the wilderness loved darkness rather than light.

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The problem was not that they were ignorant. The problem was not that they didn't know. The problem was not that they lacked some circumstance or right situation.

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They had nothing but themselves and themselves alone to blame. It wasn't because they lacked God's goodness or even demonstrations of God's goodness.

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I've heard atheists say, I don't believe in God because God, if he exists, has never done anything for me. That is a stunning act of rebellion, selfishness, and unbelief.

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It's inexcusable in light of all the good things that God does. Even upon those who rebel against him and kick against him and deny his existence.

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Sometimes we're like teenagers. We deny the existence of one who showers us with their goodness.

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Did your teenager do that? Pretend you don't exist? While they're eating dinner with you? That's what an atheist does.

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Insist that God does not exist and that he hasn't done anything for them. Even while we eat his food and enjoy his blessings and his graces and his goodness.

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And that is why unbelief is so utterly inexcusable. It's not because of a lack of goodness or circumstances.

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And they will have themselves and themselves only to blame. And they will stand before God. And unbelief will be stripped of all of its excuses.

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All of its reasons. Unbelief will stand there bare and naked before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

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And he will know everything. And he will judge everything. And the unbeliever will be without anything to say.

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Bertrand Russell will not stand before God on Judgment Day and say, you didn't give us enough evidence. Bertrand Russell will stand before God on Judgment Day and he will realize all the evidence that he had and how he acted in hard -hearted and impenitent unbelief, impenitent unbelief for his entire life.

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So these three questions all point to the one point. The one conclusion of verse 19.

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So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. It is unbelief that keeps one out of the promised rest of God.

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That's what it is. What keeps us out of God's promised rest is not one sin committed by a believer.

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It's not one unforgivable sin that can never be washed away by the blood of Christ. It's not even a heaping helping of all of these sins.

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What keeps us out of God's promised rest is unbelief. That in spite of all of the evidence and the gracious offers of the gospel that God has given to us and to those who refuse to believe, in spite of all of that kindness and goodness and all of the light that they have received, they will not believe.

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And so it is because of unbelief that they are kept out of God's rest. So just as to the children of Israel, God said in Numbers 13 and 14, you will not enter my rest because you would not believe.

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And God said it in Psalm 95 in David's day, that what keeps us out of God's rest is our unbelief.

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And just as in the day of Hebrews, what keeps us out of rest, God's eternal grace and eternal life is our unbelief.

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So it is true today that men and women are kept out of God's gracious rest, his eternal life, because of unbelief.

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So the responsibility rests with men. They must believe. And so we command them to believe.

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We implore them to believe. We explain to them that eternal life is had because of belief. And if you will believe, if you will turn and repent of your sin and believe this day, you can be forgiven of all your sins, no matter how gross, no matter how many, no matter how hidden or secret, all of your sins can be washed away.

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And not only that, but your conscience can be cleansed. And you can have eternal life and be forgiven and adopted into the family of God and be secure in that salvation and in that eternal life for the rest of your days and be brought safely through to eternal glory and heaven and eternal rest and the glories and the delights of being at the right hand of God for all of eternity.

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That can be yours today. If you will believe with a repentant belief, not a mental assent, but if you will in your heart, turn from your sin and believe and place your faith in Jesus Christ, you can have that.

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And the unbeliever says, no, I will not. I do not want it. I have my questions.

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I have my excuses. I have my reasons for my unbelief, and I would prefer to stay in it.

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And if you prefer to stay in it, unbeliever, then you shall have the results of that. And what are the results of it? Verse 19, you're kept out of rest because of unbelief.

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You don't have rest for your soul. You don't have rest for your anguish. You don't have rest from your sin.

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You don't have rest from your conscience. You don't have rest because you will not believe. That is what keeps you out.

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Not the sovereignty of God, not the fact that He chose some and not others, not the fact that He died for some and not others.

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None of those things keep you out of eternal life. What keeps the unbeliever out of eternal life is the fact that they will not believe.

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It's an excusable unbelief, and their judgment is just, and their damnation is righteous.

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It is sad, it is horrible, but it is just, and it is righteous. And I want you to notice the description of this generation that is described here.

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Throughout this entire passage, they are described as those who have hardened hearts, who have provoked God, they are under His anger, they have sinned, they are disobedient, and they are unbelieving.

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Does that sound to you like a Christian? If it does not, then there is no way that this warning passage can be describing somebody who loses their salvation, period.

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It doesn't take an example of unbelievers being judged by God in the Old Testament and say, see, therefore, believers can be judged by God when they die.

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That does not work. Those two things do not add up. The example is one of unbelievers being judged because they refuse to believe even though they knew the truth, and the author here is warning his hearers, if there are any among you who know the truth and you turn from it, you will be judged just like those in David's day, just like those in the first century, and just like those in Numbers 13 and 14.

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The pattern of God is always judgment upon unbelievers who turn from the truth and they know the truth, but they refuse to repent and to believe.

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This is not a passage describing how Christians can lose their salvation. This is a passage describing how unbelievers are judged by God for remaining in unbelief even though it is completely inexcusable, and they know the truth and they have seen the truth.

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That's what this passage describes. So this is not describing Christians who lose their salvation.

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It's not describing the way in which we are saved by persevering. There's a contrast between the believer and the unbeliever.

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The believer is one who holds on to the very end. The unbeliever is one who is judged in the end because he has lived his life and died in impenitent unbelief.

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Christian, let me address first the unbeliever. If you're sitting here today and you've never trusted

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Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have no one to blame but yourself. All your excuses, all your questions are nothing more than thinly veiled disguises for an inexcusable, hard -hearted, impenitent unbelief.

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A rebellion against a good and sovereign God who has showered His goodness upon you every day since the day you were born.

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It has been an unrelenting grace in your life that you are even still alive and here today. The fact that you hear the gospel, you understand the gospel, and you have heard the

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Word of God is God's grace to you. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. If you do, you will be kept out of rest just like the wilderness generation, just like every unbeliever who has died in his sin before you.

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I promise you that. Christian, what is it that makes you to differ between the hard -hearted, rebellious sinner and what you are today?

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What makes you to differ? We ought to be reminded that it is nothing but the grace of God and the grace of God alone.

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If it were not for the grace of God, that would be us remaining in our unbelief. We can only look to God and thank

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Him that He has opened our eyes, that He has changed our heart, that He has made us to know the truth, that He has done that work of grace in our hearts.

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And we ought to pray and pray fervently for those who remain in unbelief that God will do the same to them so that they may escape

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His eternal wrath and enjoy His rest and His eternal life. What distinguishes us from the unbeliever is the grace of God.

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It is the sovereign grace of God and we owe our salvation to that and to that alone. Not because we were wiser and so we believed, not because we were smarter and so we believed, not because our circumstances were different and so we believed, not because we were born in a different house and so that's why we became believers.

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If we are in faith and if we are in Christ, we owe that salvation to the grace of God and God alone. Let's pray.

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Father, we thank You that You are merciful and good and kind. You are kind and merciful to sinners and to those who do not deserve or merit

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Your grace or Your kindness in any way. And if we were to weigh out our sins and to consider the gravity of the damnation that we who are in Christ would deserve, it would overwhelm us.

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But we thank You that as the psalmist says, that we are blessed because You have not imputed our transgressions or our sins to us, but instead

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You have imputed to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You are to be praised and honored and glorified because You have done a work of salvation in our hearts and we thank

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You for it. We thank You that Your grace has distinguished between us and the world. We thank

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You that Your grace has made the gospel effective in our hearts and You have opened our eyes that You turned us from our sins.

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You gave us the faith to believe that You sanctify us, that You secure us, that it is all the work of Christ and Christ alone.

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And we long for that day when we will stand before You and we will give Him praise and glorify His great name because of that work of redemption.

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We will enjoy pleasures at Your right hand forevermore. We will enjoy that life eternal and the blessings that come with it.

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We will enjoy one another and our fellowship, which will be sweet. These are things that we long for and we thank

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You for. And we pray for any who are here among us today who do not know Jesus Christ, that You would draw them to You, that You would soften their hearts, that You would do that sovereign work of regenerating grace in their lives so that they may know

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Christ and know Him in an eternal life way, not just a mental ascent but to know

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Him and to place their faith and their trust in Him. May they turn to Christ and see their need for Him and please, we pray, that You would expose the unbelief for what it is, inexcusable and hard -heartedness, and bring them to salvation that the

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Son may receive the full reward for all of His sufferings and that He may be glorified by all those who are