3:1-4:13
When reading Hebrews, it’s important to realize there is a kind of story line that goes along with this book…so before I jump into this morning’s message, I need to set the context so that you can see how it relates to what has been previously said.
Something I have mentioned extensively the past three weeks and is key to understanding today’s message…it is the warning in Hebrews 4:11 when the author is urging us to “strive to enter” in God’s rest, “so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” as those in the Exodus generation did.
The people of Israel…the Exodus generation simply refused to trust God…they refused to believe God’s promises…they hardened their hearts and mocked him and murmured when He promised that He would provide for them.
Couple things that shouldn’t be done…1) to blame God and 2) harden your heart towards God…the consequences are devastating…this is why the author of Hebrews wrote (Hebrews 3:15):
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts
As a pastor or anyone for that matter…trying to counsel someone spiritually… it’s important to know some information about the person you’re counseling.
FIRST…where are they in their relationship with God…how they’re responding to Him…how much do they know about Jesus…these are crucial things to know in order to have an effective counseling ministry.
But at the same time, we need to be cautious when making any assessments with respect to their relationship with God because it is possible to incorrectly judge a person because of a lack of Christian love and shortsighted biblical discernment on our part…goes back to what I said last week.
I don’t believe it’s ever acceptable to conclude that someone is not saved…I can look at their lifestyle and assess that their living is less than Christlike…but I cannot make a judgement regarding their salvation.
The Bible puts emphasis on a person’s spiritual state. That’s why it’s important to understand the seriousness of this hardened heart situation that’s referred to extensively throughout Scripture.
The first time Scripture speaks of hardening someone’s heart is in Exodus in reference to Pharaoh.
Anyone’s heart can harden…not something that only occurs in unbelievers… even faithful Christians can harden their hearts [Mark 6:52 / 8:4].
Characteristics of a Hardened Heart using Pharaoh as the example.
A Hardened Heart Does Not Obey God (Ex. 7:13, 22). The first and most obvious characteristic… a hardened heart does not obey God…whether it’s a believer or an unbeliever…Christians can harden their hearts.
A Hardened Heart Does Not Recognize the “Finger of God” (Ex. 8:19). A person with a hardened heart does not recognize the spiritual realities around him…they cannot see the way God is working in their situation… even though family, relatives, and friends may be telling them, so they refuse to see the providence of God in their situation.
A Hardened Heart Wants Something from God but Does Not Hear God. (Ex. 8:28) At the end of the fourth plague Pharaoh is wanting something from God… “Plead for me” while he might want something from God…relief…his persistent denial of letting the people go reveals that …he is not willing to hear God…the people you counsel…might be looking for something from God…but not willing to hear the whole counsel of God.
A Hardened Heart Expects the Word of God to Fail (Ex. 9:7). Counselees despises the warnings of Scripture…they expect the Word of God to fail believing it not to be true. Pharaoh did not believe the livestock of Israel would not die from the plague…he sent people to check in anticipation of seeing the Word of God failing.
A Hardened Heart Remains Hardened Even under Severe Pain (Ex. 9:8-12). Halfway through the plagues, Pharaoh is miserable and yet is still hardened…wanting relief but not willing to soften his heart despite severe pain… they’re not looking for an inner change, but outer relief…expect to see those you counsel under severe pain to still be stubborn in sin.
A Hardened Heart May Even Say the Right Words (Ex. 9:27) A word of caution…they might say the right words…but with no true intention to change… both Saul (1 Sam. 15:24, 30) and Pharaoh said the right words: “I have sinned” but there was no sincerity in their words.
A Hardened Heart is Blind to Its Chaos (Ex. 10:7). It’s interesting that Pharaoh’s servants were ready to let the people of Israel go. They recognize that Egypt is ruined, but Pharaoh does not.
A Hardened Heart Blames the Messenger Instead of Recognizing Its Condition (Ex. 10:28) Pharaoh gets angry…not with his sin, but with Moses and with God. A hardened heart blames the messenger and God instead of recognizing its own condition.
A Hardened Heart may be beyond Healing (Prov. 29:11). How long will the hard-hearted person continue in their sin? …don’t know…the patience of God has a limit…many times judgment is not immediate because God is merciful and gracious…however, judgment will come because God is holy and righteous. Judgment came for Pharaoh and will come to that hard-hearted person you’re counselling.
It’s been suggested that having a hardened heart is a condition that only people on the other side of God develop…that’s not true.
Beginning in Hebrews 3:1 up to Hebrews 4:13 is a long section where the writer explains why the Word of God should be a warning against a hardened heart… using the Exodus generation as the example of those who refused to trust God …they refused to believe Him when He made promises…they mocked Him and murmured when He promised that He would provide for them.
Jesus likened the Word of God to a seed in the Parable of the sower [Matt. 13] using an unplanted seed to represent the Bible…noting that the seed of the gospel falls on four kinds of soils representing people’s hearts:
1) the seed that falls on the hard road…as soon as they hear it…Satan… represented by birds comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
2) the hard rocky road with a thin layer of soil over it symbolizing those who hear the word and receive it with joy…but since there is little soil on the hard road the seed can’t take hold and it lasts only a short time.
3) the soil infested with thorns…they hear the word but the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things choke the word making it unfruitful.
Having a hardened heart is similar to three of the kinds of soil Jesus is referring to in the Parable of the Sower…I originally said there are four types of soil.
4) The fourth kind of soil is the goodsoil that falls on a receptive heart and is accepted…see how small the chance is of receiving God’s word.
If you’ve been a Christian for very long, you’ve probably watched someone make a profession of faith followed by dramatic change in their life…then suddenly or gradually they stop coming to church…they begin to avoid other Christians…soon they’re back to their old ways…and you wonder what happened? …was their conversion genuine?
In the scenario I described is the condition of the Christian who’s suffering from a hardened heart…how does a person get a hardened heart?
A number of reasons can result in people having a hardened heart…could be because of something that has happened somewhere in their past…possibly a loss of trust in a relationship and they were hurt, betrayed, or rejected.
For the Christian, the conditions likely to cause hard-heartedness:
—the inability to see…understand…hear…and remember…like the Israelites in the wilderness too often we forget how God has blessed us in the past.
—Sin can cause hearts to grow hard, especially continual and unrepentant sin.
—It can be the result of failing to listen to the Word of God and to receive what God is attempting to teach you.
You decide how you’re going to receive the message…some listen with an open heart, wanting to do what God says while others listen to the same message and say, “I’ve heard that before…that’s old hat…you’re not telling me anything new.” And their hearts will get harder.
The problem is…the same message that impacts one person can actually cause another person to have a hardened heart…they become hardened by the very truth that should have softened them.
The author of Hebrews is concerned that his readers may be the rocky soil that withers under affliction or persecution…that there was a danger of them going back to a more comfortable lifestyle in their old Jewish religion to avoid the trials of being a Christian.
Failure to heed the warnings of the Word of God has eternal implications… hence the importance in reading…memorizing…and knowing the Word of God.
12 For the word of God is living and active…discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Regarding the Bible as the written word of God…it is unlike any other book… it’s not intended to produce an emotional or social effect in a person…the Bible brings about lasting changes in a person because the Bible is a living document.
But how can this be? …if the primary expression the “Word of God” is meant to be the Bible, how can we say this book is living? …it’s just paper and ink bound together by imitation leather.
It doesn’t move under its own power…it doesn’t think or feel or make choices… so how can we speak of the Bible…just a book…as the living Word of God?
It is living because the God whose word it is, lives…the Bible is not a dead letter…it’s not like the newspaper that you read today and then discover tomorrow that it is outdated…riddled with errors…and of no further benefit.
It is living because it is the instrument God uses to impart life to us…the Bible is the living Word of God because of what it does…(1 Peter 1:23-25).
you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God
James 1:18 echoes Peter’s sentiment: ‘He brought us forth by the word of truth’
But for the serious Christians who see the word of God as living and active, verse 12 and 13 amplify the importance of not hardening your hearts…and
why the Word of God should be a warning to those who fail to receive it by faith and fail to live according to the guiding precepts of Scripture.
12 For the word of God is living…able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare
The description of God’s word being ‘living’ means that it has a power inherent to itself…that the written word of God accomplishes God’s purposes…bringing about God’s desired effects…all God has to do is just speak it.
Example…Peter preached the Word of God at Pentecost…3000 people were saved…later the apostles preached the Word and the church grew to 5000… God’s word is living and active…it always fulfills its intended purpose…it will never return to God void.
The important thing for us is…it’s not if you read your Bible…but if you let your Bible read you…is God’s word alive and actively working in your life (OR) is it dead on a shelf at home?
The believer has good reason to give special attention to their spiritual condition because the Word judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart whereby two things happen 1) we become convicted of sin…or… 2) we justify our actions.
Nothing is hidden from God…everything is ‘open’ and ‘laid bare’ (τετραχηλισμένα) to the eyes of God…this is a pretty graphic word in the Greek.
The idea is to bend a person’s neck back to slit their throat…hence to lay open …to expose and uncover the inner most secrets of the heart.
The Word of God compels us to see ourselves as we really are because we are laid bare before God…nothing can be concealed from His presence…the metaphor of the throat being open and laid bare is a powerful image of the total exposure of the human heart to the all-seeing eyes of a holy God.
It is impossible to hide sinful thoughts and attitudes from God…we cannot hide our motives from Him…He knows what we’re thinking before we open our mouths…even if we don’t verbalize them.
He already knows our thoughts and motives…there is nothing and will be nothing in the universe that is unexposed to God.
Hebrews 4:13 concludes the first major section of the book…the book starts out in the prologue with God speaking to us in these last days by His Son [1:1] … presenting Christ as God’s fulfilled and final revelation…surpassing the revelations given in the O. T. and concluding that God is speaking to us through His ‘word’ [4:12].
Because the theological arguments in Hebrews are more complex than many of those found in the rest of the New Testament…it questions God’s inspiration of the Bible…the argument is:
…what does the author’s repeated use of the word ‘today’ mean…does the word ‘today’ indicate that God who spoke to the father by the prophets 4000 years ago is still speaking today?
…what does the author mean in his repeated use of the word ‘rest’ …is it a theological metaphor for the temple…is it still available 4000 years later…or is it referring to heaven?
…when the author writes about the word of God is he referring to Jesus who is the Word of God…who is still speaking to us…or…2) that God is speaking to us through Scripture? Both are true.
There are countless articles that support all those views…as well as disagreeing …the discussion goes on and on…even down to the minute details that most people care less about.
That’s the kind of information you want when writing a thesis…it’s called filler … fluff…your filling space…but what does it do for me sitting here in church this morning wanting to hear how God is working in my life?
The language of the Scriptures is human…however, the message these men wrote down came from God…God is the true author of the Scriptures…that is why the Bible is the Word of God.
Here’s what’s important…said all that so I can say this…why not say it in the first place…because I want you to know how God’s word is living and active in your life.
The practical applications of this theme are given throughout the book
…readers are told that there can be no turning back to the old way of life
…as hearers of the word…do not harden your hearts
…nothing is hidden from God…everything is ‘open’ and ‘laid bare’
…as God’s people we must now look only to him, whose atoning death and
resurrection have opened the way into the sanctuary of God’s presence.
The word is received with attention to faith and prayer where it is kept in the heart as soft soil receives the seed…no birds can pick it up…no underlying rockhindering its root from growing…no thorns being allowed to spring up to choke out the seed…thus only the seed of the word has opportunity to grow.
The heavenly teachings that are received into the heart—reappear in our character…in our conduct…in our disposition…in how we act…and in our service to God…it settles down deep into the life or every Christian…but ONLY if we allow it to.