Hebrews 3. Hebrews chapter 3. It's been a while since we've been here. Hebrews 3. The text is 3.7-19. We'll talk about what we talked about last time, just a short review. The title of the message would be, The Danger of Provoking God. the danger of provoking God, and the evidence of someone that would provoke God would be a hard heart, or a heart that's hardened. You know, whenever I open the Bible, I won't say whenever, but most times, and when I come to the Lord's Day service, I always want to come with a right heart. We always want to open the Word with a right heart. Listen, I've stepped away from it when my heart was not right because it's not the way that I should enter upon reading of God's Word. So it's always right to have prepared hearts, to have tender hearts, and have hearts ready to receive whatever God would speak to us. And so that's really the centerpiece of today's message. And if you remember last time, we talked about Moses, and there was a similarity or similarities between Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ, but then there was the supremacy of Jesus over Moses that the writer speaks to us about. This week we look at the people that Moses led and so the people that Christ also was sent to in the world. In Deuteronomy 18, you remember that Moses actually said, God's gonna send a prophet like me to you. That's actually, if you think about that passage, that is a very high commendation for Moses. The Lord's gonna send you a prophet like me. So there were similarities, but Jesus was far supreme to what Moses ever was. In fact, in Hebrews 3.1, the writer says Jesus is that prophet. He is the apostle and high priest of our profession. We don't profess faith in Moses, we profess faith in Christ. The writer, I believe, was careful in the beginning, if you remember, to not disparage Moses in his exaltation of Christ. In fact, he shows a very high esteem for Moses to the people of God. He has a very honorable place in the history of redemption and the history of the kingdom of God. But he does not approach or come close to Christ. In Hebrews 3 and verses 3 and 4, and this is all just in review, We read that Jesus is worthy of more glory and honor than Moses because he's not only a servant of God, but he was God's own son. He was his son. He was not only part of the house, he's the actual foundation of the house. And he's the founder and architect and builder of the house. The house is his church. The house is the family of God. If you're in Christ, you are a part of the habitation of God. You are the habitation of God, Ephesians 2 says. God is in you. And listen, that's to be really deeply considered by any who would say that I am a Christian. By saying that, you're saying I am in the family of God. I am part of the house of God. But there's a condition, and that's where we kind of pick up in Hebrews 3 and following, 3, 6 and following. There's a condition and an admonition, and the writer, he writes that in verse 6, to each of us as part of the family of God, as a participant in the family of God, as a sharer in the family of God. And this admonition is designed to awaken each of us to a potential danger if we allow to arise within us. There's a potential danger to every child of God. And what the writer of Hebrews does here is he takes us back, because he's writing to Jewish believers of that day, and he's writing to us, but he takes us back to these Jewish believers' ancestors, and he uses their example to instruct them. So Hebrews 3.6, if you look there, he says, but Christ, as a son, not just a servant, but as a son over his own house, Moses could not say that, whose house we are. And then there's that word if. if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end. Those words hold fast, those are actually used in nautical terms, like of a ship, of holding course. It's actually used, the Greek word is katecho. I don't know how that relates to, the course of a ship, but it's a nautical term. So we must hold fast to our profession, but what is it that could rise within us and cause us to not hold fast to Christ? What is it that could rise up in you and in me? And if you'll notice when we read the text, the writer says, harden not your hearts. So that's something that we actually do. And it's by not doing what we should do. And it's by not hearing the way we should hear. And that's the big example. Last week was Moses. Now it's the people that Moses guided from Egypt through the wilderness to the land of Canaan, of which we know many didn't make it. And why? Because they didn't believe in the God that was carrying them along. And so they were 40 years in the wilderness. So what is it that might rise up within us? Sin and unbelief. Sin and unbelief. And we're about to read that and you'll see that in a moment. But listen, Jesus said, John 8, 30, you can listen or turn there in John chapter eight and verse 30. John chapter eight and verse 30. I'm using a new Bible, by the way. What a joy to go out there, and my son and his wife, the first thing they wanted to, they said, we have gifts for you, and they came in. And so they said, they bought, both my wife and I, new Bibles. That's really a blessing. So John chapter eight, verse 30, Jesus said this. As he spoke these words, and many believed on him, then Jesus put a condition on them. Jesus said to the Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples in deed, if you continue in my word. So it's a similar condition to what we see there in Hebrews chapter three. Now, listen, the book of Hebrews is filled with warnings to the Jewish believers of the first century. And God is teaching us today from what he wrote. And dear brethren, part of that is that we are responsible to keep ourselves on course, fixed upon Christ, like a ship should be kept on course. In fact, look at Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27, you'll see the same Greek word, different English words here, Acts 27 and verse 37, I believe. And you remember when Paul was on this ship and they were in the storm, and they began to throw the merchandise out of the ship to survive, and they saw an island. and the ship was like to be broken. It was in a tempest called Uroclodon. If you look it up, it actually means like a hurricane. And it says in verse 37, we were all in the ship, 203 score and 16 souls, 275 people. And when they had eaten enough, because Paul told them, look, we need to eat. We haven't eaten in many days. They lightened the ship and cast the wheat into the sea. And when it was day, they knew not the land, they couldn't see it, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, a creek. that was on the land, into which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind, and made towards shore. That's the same word as hold fast. Katecho, the Greek word, it means they put the ship on course. And beloved, the writer of Hebrews is telling us we need to stay on course. So they made towards shore. They made toward that little narrow creek, creek. So we need to make toward that straight gate in that narrow way, which leads to life. So we need to keep ourselves on course, beloved. And this is what the writer of Hebrews is telling the Jewish Christians of the first century. Now look at Revelation 3.10, and there are several passages in Hebrews that we could go to that tell us to hold fast, and we'll see one here. There's another one in chapter four, but we won't read them, we'll just say that. Revelation 3.10, this is to the church of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, verse 10, he tells this church, because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation. So you see that God keeps us, but you're responsible to keep yourselves. You must hold fast to the profession of your faith without wavering, in Hebrews tells us that. So, He says, I will keep thee from the hour of temptation. And listen, beloved, this was a literal church, Church of Philadelphia. It was a literal church that the Lord was speaking to, and he's speaking to us today. You need to keep yourself. This is not futuristic, this is now. You need to keep yourself from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast. which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Hold fast. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. There it is, added to the building. And he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. And then I love, this is written seven times in chapters two and three of Revelation. Jesus even used this same phrase, verse 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let us hear, let us have ears to hear. We must make sure every time we come to the word of God. So as we pick up in verse seven, The writer of Hebrews begins with the word wherefore. Now, come with me to the throne of grace. Father, please help us. Oh Lord, I pray to have a visitation from thee. I thank you. I look forward to hearing what was in the first hour. I thank you for the children's Sunday school. I pray now that you would visit us in our spirit. Speak to every soul. in the way that only you can do it, Father. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So the writer begins with wherefore in verse 7. Now he just encouraged and admonished them, and he's admonishing us. So He just encouraged them that the Spirit of God is speaking to them, and He's teaching us. He instructed them by recounting to them, and as we read this text, I want you to go back to Psalm 95 first because it's almost the same text verbatim, and this is quoted by the writer of Hebrews in this text. In fact, they're both verses 7 to 11. Psalm 95, 7 to 11, and it's Hebrews 3, 7 to 11, so same verses, but notice in Psalm 95, He says in verse seven in the second part, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation or in the days when you provoked God, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my work. 40 years long was I grieved with this generation and said, it is a people that do err or stray in their heart and they have not known my ways unto whom I swear in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. Now go back to Hebrews three and we'll pick up and we'll read the balance of this chapter. Verse seven, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, and that's very interesting because that's a Psalm of David. So now the writer's saying the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. He says, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me and proved me, They basically tested God, and they saw my works 40 years. Wherefore I was grieved, or wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest. Now, from verses seven to verse 11 is in parentheses, if you'll notice there. So if you go back up to verse seven, wherefore, Now go down to verse 12. Take heed, brethren, with this in mind, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, like your ancestors. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. That's just like what we read in verse six. Then he says in verse 15, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke. We don't wanna be that some. He says, how be it, not all, that's the crowd you wanna be in. Not all that came out of Egypt by Moses did provoke God. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? These were the ones who would not hear and would not believe. And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So the writer takes Jewish believers of his day and he takes us back to Old Testament Israel and Old Testament Israel's past sins. He uses them for an example. Beloved, that's what we're to do. The book of Romans tells us the things that are written aforetime or of the past, they're written for your learning, that you would learn not to do as they did. And we're gonna read another passage in a moment. And so he told them, and this is significant, he told them in Psalm 95, here in verse seven of chapter three, he told us, he tells them, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith. And remember, we just read in Revelation, We need to hear what the Spirit would say to the churches. Hear what the Spirit would say. Beloved, if you're like me, you want to hear what the Spirit's going to say to you. The Spirit's not going to speak to you in an audible voice. He's going to speak to you from the Word of God. This is one thing that the people, many of the people of Old Testament Israel, did not do. Many of them, with many of them, God was not well pleased. So today, beloved, it's incumbent on every one of us to hear what the Spirit will say to us. Now listen, you and I listen to many audible voices each day in our lives. Audible meaning you can hear them. You hear people speaking to you. So we hear those voices. But there's one who has an inaudible voice, and we must give our greatest attention to him. He is the person of the Spirit of God. He is the one that you should give your undivided attention to for a time each day, my friends, from the Word, whether it's in a verse, whether it's in a word, whether it's in a chapter of the Word of God. We need to hear what the Spirit would say to us. Listen, if you would grow in grace and not do as Old Testament Israel, and by the way, not do like many do today, if you would grow in grace, be built up in your faith, live a godly life, not err in your heart or stray in your heart like Israel did, it's not going to happen automatically. You can't just say, yes, I believe in Christ and never do anything else actively in your own life to follow Christ. But today and every day, your Christian life must be defined by you actively listening, actively hearing, actively reading, actually actively taking in and obeying what the spirit of God is saying to you from the word. That's gotta be part of your life. If you don't gather with the church and you're not in the word, you're not going to hear the voice of God. You won't. This is one of the means of grace where God speaks to his church, one of the most prominent means. And so we are not, even in this letter, forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of many are, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. And so, beloved, we must not do that. We're not going to hear the voice of God. If we're not in the world, we're not gathering with God's people. We're not in fellowship. We're not sharing the things that the Lord is speaking to us and teaching us. So he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Do you have ears to hear? Listen, I'll tell you, sometimes when I'm in an ill humor, when I'm having a bad day, I'll open my Bible. I don't have ears to hear because I'm consumed with perhaps whatever it is that I'm going through and I have to get myself right. I need to repent of my sin before God. I need to go to the word and have God speak to my heart. Listen, the hardening of a heart doesn't happen all at once. It happens slowly. It happens slowly. So the writer of the Hebrew letter here is teaching Jewish believers, don't be like your ancestors who refused to obey my servant Moses. They rebelled against the one whom I sent to them. So don't you be like them, like they were to Moses, toward my son, Jesus, whom I have sent to save you from your sins and to carry you into that place of eternal rest. Don't provoke God like they did. Don't tempt and test the patience of the long-suffering, impatient God. It's the goodness and long-suffering of God that leads us to repentance. So don't test God, he's telling them. Listen, embraced and unconfessed sin within your hearts will cause your heart to harden against God. And the result will be this. If you embrace sin, the result will be that your heart will harden and you will not hear the words of God. You will turn a deaf ear to it. You will resist it within. And listen, I think if we're honest with ourselves, we know what it's like to have a hard heart. You can actually see it sometimes. I'm going to show you an example. Turn to Zechariah. Turn to Zechariah. While you're turning there, Paul in the book of Romans, he talked to the Christians at Rome. And he said, if you're one that judges others and you do the same things, you're just as bad as they are. And if that's the type of life you live, that you always look at the sins of others and you never look at your own sins, you have both a hard and an impenitent heart. You have a hard heart and you refuse to repent. And when you're like that, he says, you're treasuring up unto yourself wrath. That's what these people did in Old Testament Israel. God was so good to them. He was continually good to them. He kept going back to them. He kept sending his servants, the prophets. He kept Moses calm. He had to calm Moses. There was a time when Moses actually, as it seems in the scriptures, had to quell the wrath of God. He intervened for the people of Israel. So you see, there was so much done for these people, they had every advantage, and still they hardened their hearts against God. Zechariah chapter seven, this is a good example. This is in the captivity, when the children of Israel were in captivity, and they were seeking whether they should fast or not, because they were in captivity. Look at verse four. It says, Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even these seventy years, or those seventy years, did you at all fast unto me, even to me? In other words, did you actually fast and were your hearts toward me? And when you did eat and when you did drink, did ye not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Should you not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment. He's telling him to tell this to the people. Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother, and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. but they refused to hearken and they pulled away the shoulder. I did that for the kids in the back. You ever do that when you try and grab one of your kids and you're trying to get something across to them and they do like that? You've seen that. Hey, come here. Look, they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts, they made their hearts as an adamant stone. It's like a flint rock. Lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts has sent in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it has come to pass that as he cried, that is the Lord, and they would not hear, so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. A hard heart is terrible To have, my friends, I pray that none of us, I pray that none of our hearts are in the hardening stages. These were the people of God, the people of Israel, the professed people of God. If you'd have asked all of them, you believe in the God of Israel? Oh, yes. And the writer of Hebrews is speaking to Jewish Christians. And what this should bring forth within each of us is a living spiritual response to repent of our sins, to hold fast to Christ with all of our hearts so that we might prevent our hearts from hardening in unbelief, that we might prevent it. And since they would not hear or obey God or believe his word, God's swear in his wrath that they would not enter into his rest. and they didn't enter into that promised land. Look at 1 Corinthians. You'll see their sins. 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Again, we learn from a former example. This is a warning to the church at Corinth. It's a warning to us. Paul says, moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all of our fathers, our ancestors, were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they did all eat of that same spiritual meat, the manna. And they did all drink of that same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things, were our examples. So this is an example to us, my friends, in the New Testament church. These things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. These are the evidences of a hard heart. These are the things a hard heart will do. A hard heart will continue to sin. They lusted after evil things, neither be idolaters as some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and 20,000. Neither let us tempt or test Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world to come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed, lest ye fall." Listen, the children of Israel had every advantage. They had every privilege as a people, as do we now, with the word of God, my friends, that we have. But they would not hear, and most importantly, they would not heed or obey the truth of God's word. Listen, when God consistently engages someone for the good of their souls, listen to me, when God consistently engages someone for the good of their souls and they refuse his goodness and they treat him with contempt, God is grieved and God is provoked to anger. And so today, Hebrews 3.7, go back there, so today, And look how many times the writer says today, look at verse seven. So today, knowing all this and knowing what happened, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And listen, the more I read the scriptures, the more I see how important it is for us to ask ourselves personal questions when we read the word of God. When we read this and it says, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, that's when we stop and ask the Lord, am I hardening my heart, Lord? Am I doing this, Lord? We need to ask ourselves these questions. We need to challenge ourselves when we read the Word of God. Is this me, Father? Show me where there's rocks, stones, hard places in my heart. Show me if I am departing from the living God. Show me if I have secret sin. Help me not to harden my heart as they did in the day of provocation when they provoked the Lord. And you could say this was one instance. I think it speaks of the many instances when they provoked God. Says in the day of temptation, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 40 years. Wherefore, God says, I was grieved with that generation. And he said, they do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath that they will not enter into my rest. So verse 12, take heed, brethren. With all that, take heed, brethren, Christians. lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, or you could say a hardened heart in departing from the living God. Again, how will I know my heart is hardening? I will begin departing from God. I will begin distancing myself from the privileges and the means of grace which God has given to me. You will begin to distance yourself from people who you know are Christians. You won't want to talk to them. You will lose affection for the brethren. You will lose a desire for the church gathering. You won't want to fellowship. You won't want to pray. and you won't want to open up the word. Those are evidences that your heart is hardening. You will become spiritually cold, lifeless, disobedient, and self-willed. When hearing God's word hardens your heart, you're in a bad place. Because that's, I hope you can see that, they heard and provoked. They heard and hardened. I think about this all the time. So I preach something like today, and now I need to get down from here and be what I just preached, and not be the opposite. I must not have a double heart. I must not have a heart in a heart. I can't be the Jimmy behind the pulpit and the Jimmy out there. They must not be different, they must be the same. And this is how we must think. We can't be a different person in church in the gathering. In other words, we don't come in here and become saints and go out there and become sinners. So we need, we must be, and that should weigh on our hearts if that's happening. And listen, we're all tested and tempted and tried, and we go out there and yes, we do fall, but beloved, this is what we have to take to heart. Lord, help me not to embrace any sin. Help me to not be an unbeliever out there and a believer in here. Help me not to have that hard heart. And so then how is a hard heart cured? How do I cure my heart if it's hard? Well, it's gotta be broken. You gotta break it. You can't do it. God must. Jeremiah 23, 29. God told Jeremiah, is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord? And then he says, and is my word not like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? My friends, that's what we need. Listen, it's going to be The Word of God being wielded by the Spirit of God in your heart, that's how your heart is going to be broken and brought into a place of tenderness and humility before God. That is the heart that you must have to receive the truth of God's Word. You have to have a heart surgery, like a real heart surgery, like when they transplant, you know, they'll take a bad heart out of a person. The surgeon puts a not a new one, but a one from somebody else. It is a new heart. So we need new hearts, a new heart. Also, while I give you in a new spirit, while I put within you after I break the old one. And I will take away the stone heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh and put my spirit within you and cause you to love my statutes and my ways and you shall be my people and I shall be your God. God's got to do it all. I can't fix my hard heart. I can't fix the hard places in my heart. I need God to do it. And this is where you have to go down the road of your straight and narrow Christian life all by yourself with God. You must do this. And beloved, the first part of doing it is you need to be one that's honest with yourself. Listen, the Lord, it's amazing to me that God will even give me a minute to come into his presence, but he says, thus saith the high and lofty one, which inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. He says, I dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a humble and contrite spirit. I will speak to them. I will look to that. In fact, in Isaiah 66, it actually means God will regard one like that. He regards us. It's all about the heart. It's all about the heart. Listen, a hard heart's gonna provoke God, a broken and a contrite heart. God loves it. Look at Isaiah 66 too, just listen. He says, for those things, he talks about the creation, the heaven and the earth. In verse two he says, for all those things has my hand made, I've made the creation, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. And it's almost like God saying, but this is what I really like. He says, but to this man will I look. It means will I esteem. or this man will I regard and be pleased with, this man or woman, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembleth at my word. At the word, when you hear the word, it has the right effect because it's not received from a hard heart. I often think of that with James says, you believe there's one God, you do well, the devils believe and tremble. It ought to be very convicting that the devils believe and tremble and we don't. And they can't be saved. There's no redemption for them. But they know what it is to face God and they tremble. Shouldn't we, my friends, Psalm 34, two more passages and I'll wind down here. Psalm 34 and verse 18. You don't, listen, the whole section here is you don't want to provoke God. You don't want to have a hard heart like your ancestors of old. You're Jewish believers. Those are your relatives. You don't want to do like that. They did that to Moses. You don't want to do this to Christ. In fact, in Hebrews 10, he says, how much sorer punishment will those receive that have done this to Christ? Psalm 3418, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. And save us such as be as of contrite spirit. Oh. God, break my heart. Let that be your prayer. Break my stony heart. Let me not have a stony heart. David, in Psalm 51, you could say that David was in a time of being hardened and departing, and God recovered him. And here in verse 51, in this penitential psalm that he wrote in verse 17, he says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. So today, my friends, my brethren, today is the day to deal with your heart if it is in hardening or if it is hardened. To put off dealing with a hard heart is to continue to depart from God. But worse, when we harden our hearts against God, we provoke and grieve him as well. So today is the day to act. And several times in this passage, you see that word today. It's two words, but it's today. It's one. So he says, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. He says, exhort one another daily. And so that's a responsibility that we have toward each other to help each other. So exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So we see what the hardener is. Then he says, while it is said today, if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. And then in chapter four, he says, today, after so long a time, as it is said today, If you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. It's like you're saying, all right, enough. You've said today enough. Well, no, he hasn't, because God said to put it in there that many times. So today. I've never liked those salesmen that come over to your house and said, you got to buy this today, or it's going to cost $5,000 more. And that turns me off. I said, nope. Well, this ain't a salesman, my friends, and we're talking about your never dying soul. Today is the day. So now verse 16, just look there. Hebrews 3.16, we'll finish up. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 16. He says, For some, when they heard, did provoke. We don't want to be those. And listen, that's another question to ask yourself. Lord, am I hearing and provoking? I don't want to be that person. I don't want to hear and provoke. I really don't. And I pray that you don't. I want to be part of this next group. How be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. They didn't all provoke. They didn't all fall in the wilderness. but the ones that provoked did. But with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he, and we'll get into this rest next time, whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, into that promised land? Those that wouldn't believe. Listen, the Christian life is not a life of unbelief. But there are times when we have to pray, Father, please help my unbelief. And so the Christian life is not a life of unbelief, but we need to ask God to help us. It's not a life of continuing in sin. It's not a life of provoking God from hard and impenitent hearts. The Christian life, my dear brethren, is a life of faith. It's believing God. It's trusting God. It's pleasing God with humble hearts of obedience that are broken, tender, and contrite. What a terrible thing to be a hearer of God's word and a hardener of your own heart. That's the really bad thing. It's one thing to be an unbeliever having never heard the word of God. It's quite another thing to have heard the word of God and hardened your heart against it. Don't do to God today as the children of Israel did in the past. Don't grieve and provoke God by unbelief and sin. And I want to encourage you with verses 12 and 14 again, because here's the exhortation, verses 14 to 16, or verses 12 to 14, I'm sorry. So he says, take heed Brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. If we reside in unbelief, we're going to depart, but exhort one another. There's one of these one another's and we need to be there for each other. You need to help your brother and sister, pray for them, encourage them, send them a text with a verse, call them. How are you doing? Can I pray for you? Can I help you? Exhort one another daily. while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And so we're helpers of one another's faith. And he says, for we are made partakers, sharers in Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence in Christ steadfast to the end. So let that be who we are, my friends. And listen, I think in large part, you are doing that. But let us be careful to continue to do it, to take heed to do it. Ask yourself questions when you read the word of God. When you read something in the scriptures, ask the Lord, is this me? Is it not me? And be honest with yourself and with the Lord. And listen, I know that God will help you. but we need to go to him in sincerity with single hearts in this, and God will help us. Listen, God saved us, and God's, if it's not for God, we won't be kept. And so we need God. Salvation is of the Lord, but beloved, with that in mind, you need to continue to hold fast to your profession of faith in Christ without wavering. Amen. Let's dismiss in prayer. Lord, thank you for your word. I pray that more than any that are here, that I will take heed to the words of the writer of the book of Hebrews. Help me, Heavenly Father, and help these dear saints, O God, to walk with you. Father, Help them to look upon their own lives in the light of the Holy Scripture. Help each of us to hear what the Spirit is saying to us. And help us, oh God, to be obedient to your word. Help us to have tender hearts, contrite hearts. Help us to have hearts that would tremble at your word. And I pray for the lost, for any who are here, whose hearts are still naturally hardened. I pray that you would break their stony hearts. Give them a new heart. I pray that they would believe the gospel of Jesus Christ to the saving of their souls. And we'll give you the praise. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.