Don't Harden Your Heart (Hebrews 3:7-19)

What does it mean to harden your heart? Well look at the illustration that we’re given in verses 8-11. These verses are a quote from Psalm 95:7-11, which was written in David’s time, but talks about the time of Moses. Notice who the author tells us is ‘speaking’ in these verses. Psalm 95 talks about the forty years in the wilderness that God’s people had to endure because of the hardness of their hearts. Why did they have to spend forty years in the wilderness? Because they had hard hearts, which meant they grumbled and tested God. Remember what Jesus told the Devil in the wilderness in Matthew 4:7? You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. You shall trust Him instead.

Verse 9 tells us that the Israelites in the wilderness kept testing God. They kept complaining to Him, they kept asking for more, they kept not believing in Him. He rescued them from Egypt and they complained that they were better off as slaves. He fed them with manna six days a week, but they complained that it tasted bad. He showed them great miracles, but they went astray in their hearts and worshiped other gods, they didn’t trust in the God who saved them.

And you and I are about the same sometimes aren’t we? Sometimes we’re not satisfied with all that God has given us, and we complain, and we want more. The truth is that if Jesus never did another thing for us, in saving us, and creating this amazing world to live in, He’s already done more than enough. More than we deserve. But like the Israelites in the wilderness, we test, we grumble, we complain. Don’t be like that. Don’t fail the test in the wilderness like Israel did. We have the amazing privilege of living after Jesus came and died for us. Don’t harden your hearts to the goodness and love of God. Listen to Him, obey Him, trust Him. Today, the Holy Spirit says. Today listen. Today obey. Today there are things you need to sort out to grow in your relationship with Jesus. Today! You’re not promised tomorrow.

Don’t provoke the wrath of God by grumbling and testing Him. Trust Him, have a soft heart towards His Word and His commands. The reason Israel didn’t trust and hardened their hearts was because they didn’t listen. So listen to God, and trust in Him.

What’s the opposite of an unbelieving heart? Read verse 12 with me. What causes a hard heart? Unbelief. What caused Israel to moan and grumble about God? Unbelief. What’s the problem when you and I are not satisfied in everything God has given to us? Unbelief. So we can either believe in Jesus, and be thankful, and praise Him for everything He’s given to us. Or we can harden our hearts. The author tells us that this is evil. Have you ever thought about that? When you complain about God, when you complain about what He’s doing, or what He’s giving you, or anything, it’s evil.

And it causes us to fall away. Don’t harden your heart, because it causes you to fall away from Jesus. Where do I see that? At the end of verse 12 ‘leading you to fall away from the living God.’ The warning is pretty clear isn’t it? If we keep hardening our hearts to Jesus, if we keep ignoring the warnings, if we keep starving our faith and feeding our sin, eventually we’ll fall away. No one wakes up one day and says ‘this is the day I’ll fall away from Jesus.’ But slowly, over time, as we make poor choice after poor choice, as we sin and fail repent time and again, our hearts are heard, and we fall away. What a tragedy.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Look at the instruction in verses 13-14. I love the vision of church life we see in these verses. What’s the remedy to the danger of having a hard heart? Your Christian friends, your church, your family are the remedy. As they encourage you, and you encourage others, our hearts are protected from growing hard. The Christian life is a group project, and we all need each other. How long will we keep doing this for? As long as it is called today! As long as we live in this moment of history between Christ’s first and second comings, we will have to encourage each other. So who are you encouraging today? Who seems like they might be struggling today that could do with some help? Who looks like they’re lonely? Who is out of church?

Who is being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Who is listening to sins lies? Sin lies and tells you it doesn’t matter who you date, or whether you go to church, or read your Bible, or share your faith. The Bible tells us that these things matter a great deal. Who are you seeing around you who fits into these categories? Verse 14 gives the best reason possible for encouraging one another, ‘we have come to share in Christ.’ You brother or sister who is struggling, shares with you in the greatest faith in the world, the greatest thing in the world. How can we stand by and watch their hearts harden. And the end of verse 14 makes it even more clear how important our encouragement is: ‘if indeed we hold fast our original confidence to the end.’ What’s the author saying? The best way to prove that Jesus saved you is that Jesus is still saving you. Someone in your life needs that encouragement.

Whether or not your heart is hard is a matter of life and death. Read verses 15-19 with me. The author starts to sum up his argument. Don’t harden your heart, because those that did harden their hearts didn’t get away with it. They provoked God, and fell in the wilderness, and did not enter God’s rest. God’s rest is something the author will talk more about in chapter 4, but the application for us is clear. If we harden our hearts, we will fall, just like they did. If we behave like the Israelites did in the wilderness, we’ll suffer the same fate. They didn’t enter the promised land because of unbelief, and if we continue in unbelief, with a hard heart, neither will we.

The illustration, the invitation and the instruction are all worthless if they don’t lead us to faith in Jesus. Proverbs 29:1 warns us ‘he who is often reproved yet stiffens his neck (or hardens his heart) will suddenly be broken beyond healing.’ Jude 5 reminds us that after Jesus saved a people out of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe. One the way home tonight you’ll put your faith in your car and the roads, the next time you eat out, you’ll put your faith in the restaurant. Don’t harden your heart, put your faith in Jesus.

On Papercut Persecution

On Sunday morning i walked out of my church building, enjoyed the warm early autumn breeze, and walked to my car, hand in hand with me wife., I wasn't confronted with blood, dismembered body parts and screams.

On Friday afternoon my wife and I did a little bit of shopping. We were safe, we were free to move around where we chose. No one shot us because we couldn't name the prophet's mother.

In the light of these weekend's terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Kenya, it seems almost mind blowingly insensitive to ask whether Christians in the west are being persecuted, or to talk about persecution in the west in any way shape or form. It's almost funny that removing the ten commandments from a public place, or calling it a winter festival is mentioned in the same breath as suicide bombers and shooters.

Of course we don't face persecution. I'm currently sitting on a million dollar church and school campus, with my door open. The biggest fear i have is that when the babies in the day care down the hall wake up i won't be able to hear myself think. This afternoon i'll walk across campus to the socc...football field. I'll coach our boys team against another Christian school. We'll pray beforehand. No one will shoot at us. If it goes badly, i'll probably be the angriest one there! I live five minutes from our church building, and Trinity is the sixth church i drive past. Eastern North Carolina ia the buckle of the Bible belt. We're free. Free to worship and free to enjoy our faith. Of course we're not being persecuted. How can we be so insensitive?

But let's think about something else for a moment. What do we expect our government to do in Pakistan or Kenya? Send aid? Send help? Issue a statement? Do something or anything? Why? Why should we expect western governments to protect Christians in Pakistan if they won't protect them in London? Why do we expect a government that views Christians in their own country as (at best) an inconvenience  to do anything to help Christians in another. I mean, we really shouldn't should we?

But hang on, am i comparing government legislation with being blown up or shot by a lunatic? But persecution is as persecution does. Are the restrictions on USAF chaplains the same as being shot or held hostage in a mall? No. Is being arrested for preaching in Perth the same as being blown up because you're attending church? No.

But when we think about persecution, we must avoid falling into equal and opposite errors. We must avoid thinking that legislation that allows two men to get 'married' is in the same category as being blown up at church. Because it isn't. The western church must not claim it's being persecuted if we want to have any fellowship with our brothers in the Middle East.

But, we must not fall into the opposite but equal trap. There is increasing hostility towards Biblical Christianity in the public sphere of American life. It's increasingly obvious that soon it will be intellectually and culturally unacceptable to be a Biblical Christian in America. It already is in some parts of the country. And that probably won't be a bad thing. But it is a real thing.

American Christians in 2013 might only face 'papercut' persecution. But if someone kept cutting you with paper, you'd be sure not to give them a knife, wouldn't you?

My Dear Galatians...Pow!

Letter writers are affectionate people aren't they? I'd never really thought of it before, but how often in the course of normal conversation do we greet people with 'my dear?' But when we write letters, we do it all the time. It's just convention of course, the letters we write to the bank, or the health insurance company, or the taxman might not end up very affectionate!

Letter writer's in Paul's time had conventions too. Introductions, greetings, and a wish for beneficence. Paul normally followed this tradition, but not when he wrote to the Galatians. His letter to them opens with more of a punch in the face than a kiss on the cheek.

Why? Because important matters were at hand, and time couldn't be wasted. The Galatians, by their actions if not their words, were denying the Gospel. They were turning away from the Gospel to 'another' Gospel, really no Gospel at all, and were risking anathema because of it. This was no time for convention, this was a time to confront his readers with the reality, the very God-ness of God.

How does he do that? He starts by reminding his readers who he is. He's an apostle, sent by Jesus, for Jesus, to them. Sent by God, not by another man, with God's message, not the message of another man. It was a message that had cost him a lot, a message that would eventually cost him his life. He didn't care to be made much of, like his opponents. The Galatians were challenged about who they were listening to, and why they were listening. We live in a culture of a million voices don't we. Voices on tv, on the internet, in the workplace, in the culture. Who are we listening to? God's messengers, or the world. The divinely commissioned Apostle or the Judaizers? God, or man?

Paul then reminds his readers why these things matter so much. He reminds them that God the Father has raised Jesus from the dead. They didn't gather to worship a dead icon. Jesus isn't a new Moses, helpful and holy, but dead. He's alive. And because He's alive, prayer works, and repentance is free, but sin is deadly and abandoning the Gospel suicidal. Paul reminds the Galatians, and us, that church is not a game. Jesus is alive, so don't turn away from Him. Jesus is alive, and has proved Himself by walking out of the tomb, it's astonishing that you leave him as soon as you see something shiny. The Galatians, and us. Paul doesn't leave us with the option of a Gospel-lite, of adding a Jesus layer to our American dream. Jesus is alive, so desecrate the altars of your idols. Who is our Gospel about? God, or man?

And Paul reminds is in verse 2 that we're all in this together. He doesn't need the authority of 'all the brothers who are with me,' but he has it. The Gospel wasn't Paul idea, the brothers are with him, the brothers that God has saved and added. Are you with the brothers? Galatians, are you with the brothers in Jerusalem, in Antioch, or Corinth and in Thessaloniki? Or have you abandoned us? Are we with the brothers in Greenville, Reading, Provo and Seoul or have we abandoned them?  If we've abandoned the brothers with our bodies, maybe it's because we've abandoned the Father with our heart.

Paul never got over being knocked off his horse on the way to Damascus. He was overflowing with His Savior till his dying breath. He knew what was of God, and what was of man, and he was prepared to pack a punch with that truth...even when he was saying hello.

A Man Aflame for God

Luther's principles in religion and ethics must be constantly borne in mind if he is at not to appear unintelligible and even petty. The primary consideration with him was always the pre-eminance of religion. In a society where the lesser breed were given to gaming, roistering and wenching, the Diet of Worms was a veritable Venusburg - at a time when the choicer sort were glorying in the accomplishments of man, strode this Luther, entranced by the songs of Angels, stunned by the wrath of God, entranced by the wonder of creation, lyrical over the divine mercy, a man aflame for God. For such a person there was no question which mattered much save this: How do i stand before God?

He never would shirk a mundane task such as exhorting the elector the repair the city wall to keep the peasants' pigs from rooted up the village gardens, but he was never supremely concerned about pigs, gardens, walls, cities princes or any and all of the blessings and nuisances of this mortal life. The ultimate problem was always God, and man's relationship to God. For this reason political and social reforms were a matter of comparative indifference. Whatever would foster the understanding, dissemination and practice of God's Word should be encouraged, and whatever impeded it must be opposed. This is why it's futile to to inquire whether Luther was a democrat, aristocrat, autocrat or anything else. Religion was the chief end for him, everything else was peripheral.

Here I Stand. Roland Bainton, P214 (paragraph mine)

Along with being simply the nicest feeling book i've ever held in my hands, Bainton's biography of Luther is one of the most helpful. Luther was something of a mystery to people even in his own time, even before he started to reform. Some felt he spent too much time in confession, naming every little sin, instead of going out and doing the work of a monk. If this is madness, it's an ailment i want, frankly. Then, when the Reformation took hold, some felt he didn't got far enough, while some felt he went too far. He remains something of a mystery today, it's hard to fit him into a box. Is that just because he was 'a man aflame for God?' I wonder if we're so unused to seeing men make their every decision based on the proclamation of God's Word, rather than political or social expediency that it seems strange to us. If that's the case, it says much more about us than it does Luther.

Consider Jesus

Can i tell you a secret? I didn't much like coffee when i first drunk it. I remember the morning well, i was at one of the coffee bars on Reading University's campus, and ordered an 'americano,' with no real idea what that might be. I was pretty sure i'd been poisoned, and i'm sure i didn't finish it. But, for whatever reason, i wanted to drink coffee, so i kept going. First with milk and sugar (forgive me) and sometime around the summer of 2007, black and fresh and strong, as the Lord surely intended.

Why am i telling you all this? Because i think it's a good analogy for the Christian's relationship with Jesus. In Hebrews 3:1 the author tells his readers to 'consider Jesus,' to think about Him to remember Him and to listen to Him. The first six verses of chapter 3 segway into one of the first sections of exhortation, and out of the wonderful picture of Jesus we find in chapter 2.

Consider Jesus, high priest and apostle. Offering and offerer. Messenger and message. Consider Jesus, the crushed crusher. Consider Jesus, the sympathetic sufferer who knows what you're going through. When we start to consider Jesus, it takes a little bit of work. Like me and coffee, you have to really want to do it. When i started reading the Bible every day i could only read maybe half a chapter at a time, now i spend my day reading, studying, thinking and applying about it. When i started to pray it felt like a chore, now i set my alarm early to make sure i have the time. We grow in our consideration of Jesus, all of us.

Even Paul, probably the greatest Christian who ever was. In Philippians 3:10 he wrote of his desire to know Him, and His power. If Paul needed to know Jesus more, then surely we do. Maybe this is the reason that much of our joy is paper thin, we simply don't consider Jesus. In times of trouble we comfort ourselves with any number of idols and false gods. We consider our bank balance, our friends and our success at work, but seldom Jesus.

Maybe this is why so much of evangelical culture looks like the world. We don't consider Jesus, we chase numbers on Sunday, better facilities and more programmes. And in not considering Jesus, we forget that He is quite capable of building His church without the latest fad left over from the nineties.

Like coffee and me, we simply have to consider Jesus until we enjoy Him. We have spend time with Jesus until we can imagine nothing else. We have to make time in our days, ask for the Spirit's help, and behold our saviour. Then we will become what pleases Him. Then in times of trouble, or in times of triumph, then, whether our church is going multi meeting, or we're meeting in a room off to the side we will naturally 'remember Jesus Christ, descendant of David, risen from the dead...' And in remembering, rejoice.

An Interview with Henry Scougal

Bill Bryson speaks for many when he defines Puritanism as 'the fear that someone, somewhere, might be enjoying themselves.' If the Puritans seem like creatures from a different planet, it's only because church culture has slipped so far from Biblical Christianity.

Lately i've been re-reading 'The Life of God in the Soul of Man' by Henry Scougal. The main thesis of the book is summed up in the title, that Christian life is a divine life, the very life of God, communion with God evidenced and outworked in our souls through good works. He was 27 when he wrote it (if not younger) which makes me feel like Caesar looking at Alexander's statue.

In the first chapter Scougal discusses what real Christianity is, what it looks like, and what it's not. he cautions us against simply judging our affections and actions against those of other men, as many have different temperaments, and many are drawn to the rewards of Heaven in a purely earthly way, without any of the inner change that the Gospel brings.

So what are the evidences of saving faith? 'The root of divine life is faith, it's chief branches are love to God, charity to man, purity and humility. The following comes from pages 55 and 56 of his book.

What is faith?

It is nothing else than a sense or feeling persuasion of spiritual things. It has a peculiar relation to the declarations of God's mercy, and reconcilableness with sinners through a mediator, and therefore, receiving it's denomination through it's principle object is ordinarily termed, faith in Jesus Christ.

What is love of God?

The love of God is the delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto Him desiring above all things to please Him, and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with Him... It grounds itself on His infinite goodness manifested in all His works of creation and providence.

What is charity to man?

A soul thus possessed with such divine love must need be enlarged to all mankind...because of the relation they have to God, and His image stamped upon them. All the parts of justice, all the duty we owe our neighbour are...comprehended for he who doth truly love the world will be nearly concerned with the welfare of every one of them. He will resent any evil that befalls others, as if it happened to himself.

What is purity?

A abstractedness from the body and mastery over inferior appetites. A temper and disposition of the mind as make a man despise and abstain from all pleasures and delights...which are sinful in themselves or tend to extinguish or lessen our relish of the more divine pleasures. A resoluteness to undergo any hardships he may meet in the performance of his duty so that not only chastity and temperance but also Christian courage and magnanimity may come under this head. 

What is humility?

Humility imports a deep sense of our own meanness with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgement of all we are to the divine bounty. This is always accompanied by submission to the will of God and great deadness towards the glory of the world and the applause of men.

Where else do we see the such faith, love, charity, humility and purity than in Jesus? And how else can we be faithful, loving, humble and pure than through a relationship with Him?

Marvel

Second Thessalonians 1:11 is becoming one of my favourite verses about the end of time. It tells us that Christ will return to be 'marveled at'. When Christ returns we will be weak at the knees with astonishment, our minds well and truly blown by the majesty and shear marvelous-ness of Jesus.

But we needn't wait until that day to marvel at the Son of God, in fact i'd argue, and base my preaching and teaching on the argument, that to survive, and thrive as a Christina we must marvel at Jesus. We have a view of Jesus that makes every other attraction and distraction in the world, look dim and boring. We must make the world to Jesus as every other woman is to our spouse. Our marriages won't survive if we are as interested in other women, our faith won't survive if we are as interested in other gods.

Hebrews exists to help us do just that. I think (because John Piper told me) that the money shot of the whole book is Hebrews 13:13: 'let us go to Him...' The author spends the preceding chapter telling us who 'Him,' is and why He's worth it. Oh and He's worth it. worth reproach instead of riches, worth living in a cave, worth the confiscation of your property. 

Chapter 2:10-18 paint this truth in bold colours for us. Jesus is our salvation author. He's the pioneer and leader of our salvation. The stunning truth is that it was fitting for Him to taste death for us. Fitting! us! Are you marveling yet?! It fit God's character and attributes for Jesus to lay down His life for you and me! What sort of other-worldly good news is this?

Jesus is our sanctifying brother. He is not ashamed of us in the midst of the congregation, He claims us as His own, because we all have the same source, God. He calls us to trust our common Father, and to delight in trusting Him. Maybe you're ashamed of what you've done this week or today. But Jesus looks at you and says 'sanctified!' 'Not ashamed!' 'Brother!'

 Jesus is our Satan-conquerer. He tasted death, drank it down, drained the cup, and left it in the grave. Satan took his best shot, and lies defeated on the mat. And because of that we're free. Free from the fear of death. In fact it's even better than that. The devil's greatest weapon has become our greatest vehicle. Where oh death is your sting? Taken by Jesus, all the way into the grave, and left there.

And Jesus is our sympathizer. It's not angles that He helps, it's you and me. This lion is the lamb. This king is the feet washer. This God is here for us. The Gospel is not 'help wanted,' but 'come and eat.' Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted, much much more than any of us.

What else in the world offers this? Who else in the world offers this? There's nothing, there's no one. Let us out rejoice, out marvel, the offers of sin, and let us go to Him.

God's Commitment To His Mission

God is totally, eternally committed to bringing glory to Himself by bringing people to Jesus.

God’s first concern is His own glory. It has to be, because God is not an idol worship, and God is the only being in the universe for whom this is not idol worship. The best news, the Gospel news, is that God’s is glorified on Earth primarily by the salvation of sinners, that’s you and me. Remember in John 17:1 Jesus prays ‘father glorify your son that your son may glorify you.’ That is, send me to the cross, that the whole world may look to me an be saved, and as they are saved they will glorify you.

Since this is the story of God, and the story of the church, we should expect it to be the story of the Bible. And it is. From Genesis to Revelation we find a God bringing glory to Himself by bringing a people to Jesus. It’s a lifetimes’ study to unpack all of this, so we’re going to land in four different places this evening, Genesis 3:9, 2 Samuel 7:13, Habbakuk 2:14, and of course, Matthew 28.

Look at Genesis 3:9. The Lord called out to Adam and Eve. He came looking for them. He knew what they had done and He knew they were hiding, but it didn’t stop Him. He came out looking for them. And so must we. He came looking for them in their sin, He came looking for us in our sin, now He sends us to look for others.

In 2 Samuel 7:13 we read ‘He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.’ What’s happening here? David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, but God told Him that He was going to do something instead. And what was that something? One of David’s sons would sit on David’s throne forever. Who is this son? Jesus! That’s why Mathew’s Gospel starts with a long list of names, so that we know who Jesus is. David’s Son who sits on the throne. And if He sits on the throne as our King, shouldn’t the greatest ambition of our lives be to serve Him and honour Him and extend His kingdom? We are ambassadors of the King, we have to tell people that He reigns!

And this King really will reign over all the Earth. Look at Habakkuk 2:14. ‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters fill the seas.’ Habakkuk was depressed and confused about God’s plan, and how did God remedy that? By showing Him a glorious vision of the future. God’s glory filling the whole earth, as the waters fill all the sea. This is why in Revelation 21 we learn that the Heavenly city is 12,000 stadia cubed, that was the size of the known world back then. Jesus says something similar in Matthew 24:14, this Gospel will be preached to all kingdoms of earth, and then the end will come. So the challenge is, get involved in the great commission, or waste your life. There’s no need to wait and see which team will come out on top and then join in. the church comes out on top. So join in!
And that brings us to Matthew 28:18-20.

What is Jesus calling us to? To be a witness. To tell people about Him. We all know how to witness. In a few weeks the parents among us will be witnessing about new class schedules and morning routines, by the end of the month, the college football fans among us will be witnessing about that pass, or that catch, or that tackle. Psalm 45:1 teaches us that our hearts will overflow with whatever our hearts find pleasing. Lets hope it’s Jesus most of the time.

Where does Jesus tell us to go? Everywhere! Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the outermost part. Across the street, across the state, across the world. Acts ends when the Gospel had reached Rome, the outermost part in those days, the world will end when the Gospel reaches the outermost part of this planet.
And why should we go? It’s scary isn’t it? Moreso to cross the street that to cross the state sometimes. But look at the two promises Jesus makes to us. Firstly, He has all authority in Heaven and on Earth, so we’re never on enemy territory, or even neutral territory, and secondly because He’ll be with us as we gfo. He’ll be with us as we preach, disciple and baptize.