Talk from STP: Exposition of Hebrews 3:7-13

Text:

7So, as the Holy Spirit says:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
8do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
9where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
10That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.'
11So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.' "[a]

12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

First, Observation

Context: The Israelites and the way they saw God in the desert--first, the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of smoke and of fire, hearing God's terrible voice on the mountain, witnessing his retribution for the Golden Calf, fed first by quail, then day by day from heaven by bread, the plague among them, the fire, the snakes. No generation had such clear and undeniable sign of God's power, his reality, his terrible hatred of disobedience, the assuredness of his punishment of it.

Then, the testing. They were instructed to enter the land, but when they saw the inhabitants, they shrank back. Thus, their hearts were expose as sinful. They showed that they didn't believe that God could save them.

Note: These people had seen more of God than anyone else, but their hearts had not been changed. No miracle, no amazing sign can cause us to believe if our hearts are not change. An important thing to keep in mind when someone says, "If only God would give me a sign and show me that he is real."

Instruction: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts"

Q: How do we hear his voice?
A: He speaks in only one way today--through his Word. The message, the revelation is complete. However, there are two kinds of hearing (thus Jesus, he who has ears let him hear).

The first hearing is ordinary hearing, to read the Word as any other book, its contents coherently taken in and made sense of.

The second hearing is to read it as though God were speaking through it--to see that it is actually God who communicates to you in the Word. This is why we call the Word living. (Tozer--The Word of God once spoken continues to be spoken)

Q: How do we harden our hearts?
A: The same way the Israelites did--by shrinking back from obedience to the Word. This is a lack of faith.

Q: What can cause us to harden our hearts?
A: Fear, a desire for pleasure, worldly success. In the case of the Israelites it was fear and desire for pleasure.

Q: What is the consequence of an unbelieving heart?
A: "I was angry with them...their bodies fell in the desert"-- They never entered the Promised Land, a terrible punishment, for what it represents unto us, hell, final banishment from God's country.

Paul calls this a "sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God." The heart that hears God and knows it to be God speaking, but in the trial, falls away.

The trial: Who will you obey? Yourself, or God?

Q: What does a sinful unbelieving heart look like?
A: You cannot see it until it is time to choose. All the people heard God's voice, all of them saw his glory. But most turned away, although a few (Joshua, Caleb) obeyed.
----
So, Paul says, all of you also have heard God's voice. How do you know whether you have a sinful unbelieving heart? Or what remedy can we use to make sure that we do not have hearts that will fail when tested?

"See to it that none of you has one"
--Look and examine each other's hearts. Watch out for this type of heart in others.
"Exhort one another daily"
--Exhortation involves both rebuke and affirmation. Exhortation involves encouraging someone towards a goal and correcting them when they lose sight of the goal.

Q: What does exhortation prevent?
A: It stops sin from hardening us. Secret sins, disobedience in small ways gradually harden the heart so that when the trial comes, we fail.

Q: How long should we do this?
A: Not until we feel confident in ourselves, not until we think the job is done, but "as long as it is called Today," in other words, until we die or Christ returns.

Second, Interpretation

(The drawing of doctrine out of our observations)

1. The only way to ensure that we have sincere faith, to ensure that we will make it to the end, is to allow other people to see our lives and speak into them.
--This is the only way God has commanded. The man who hides himself, the independent man WILL fall.
--We are not meant to make it on our own. We cannot.

2. Fellowship is making every part of ourselves, even the ugly and shameful parts, known to others. Not once, but constantly throughout our lives. Where this is not happening, THERE IS NOT TRUE FELLOWSHIP.

3. It is not enough just to share our lives. We must be willing to be rebuked and corrected.

4. The main thing we must be alert for in others' lives is sin as it deceives--though we are often unable to see deceit at work in our own hearts, we can see it in the lives of others.

Interlude: A Short Comment on the Deceitfulness of Sin

Deception is manipulation--it is convincing somebody to act in a certain way through the utilization of a LIE.

Deception is a lie which others act upon.

Example of this is what I warned against in the context of evangelism: We invite someone to speak to us by implying that our motive is no more than to get to know them, hear from them, etc. We disguise our motives to get someone to hear the gospel. This is deception and Paul forbids it. [Note for my blog readers: Boom. Do you ever try and evangelize through disguised motives? Stop it.]

Sin does the same thing. It offers to us several lies, e.g.
1. This will satisfy you and make you happy.
2. This is better/safer than what God could offer.
3. There will be no consequences for this.
But these are lies.

The process of deception works like this.
--Our satisfaction with God wanes, through inattention, distraction, etc.
--Our eye is captured by some sin. We consider it, think on it. It seems to offer life to us.
--Our hearts conspire to take it. We listen to and accept a rationalization that allows us to take it.
--Once the deed is committed, we at first feel guilty, but gradually our consciences grow "seared as with a hot iron" until our hearts are hard.
This is one way.

Broadly speaking, sin in its many forms is attractive to our sinful hearts, and we will deceive ourselves in order to participate in it. We are constantly rationalizing, convincing ourselves of our own virtue. We WANT to think well of ourselves.

Because sin is deceitful, we must allow others to see our hearts.

Because sin is deceitful, you must admit that you may be deceived. Remember, deceived people DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE DECEIVED.

Third, Application

1) To our mind

We must be suspicious of our hearts. The Word probes our hearts, and we must both analyze our own hearts in the light of the Word and allow others to do the same. This is what it means to be humble. If you are humble, you will assume sin is in your motives, you will question your desires carefully.

Adjust mentally what you expect from this life. Do you expect that following Jesus will be easy? Like the Israelites in the desert didn't, you should prepare your hearts for the trial, for the time when God will ask us to believe in him and follow despite what we see.

We must think of our Christian lives as communal, shared lives. We must prepare each others' hearts to follow Jesus. Do you think of yourself alone when you think of your Christian walk?

2) To the heart

Some questions to ask yourself
--Do I desire more to be rid of a particular sin, or to maintain a good standing in someone else's eyes?
--Does my heart go out to something God has forbidden in the Word?
--Do I tend to see right and wrong with reference to social acceptability, or to God's command?

(Some things are unthinkable because of culture. Abhoring and fleeing from such things does not show that the heart is converted unto God.)

3) To the will

If there is sin in your life that you are hiding, confess it to others. Resolve not to hide sin. Put into your life people who you can confess sin to.

Be committed, throughout your life, to pursuing vulnerability.

In the Christina community which you are a part of, ask others to apply the Word to your life, and be willing to accept the results. This will not be easy.

Final Warning: If you do not have someone examining your life, you are in danger. This is the way God has the designed the Church to grow.