Please rise and join and sing with us Doxology. ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise Him above ye heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ Well, good morning and welcome to Sovereign Grace Chapel. It is my absolute privilege to welcome all of you here. It is a beautiful and glorious day because Jesus is on his throne and of his reign, it will be no end. So it is such a beautiful day and great to be here with all of you. This morning, if you are visiting with us, I just want to point out the Connect card. We would love to connect with you here. And if you would like more information on being baptized, more about membership, more about joining a group, or even meeting with a pastor, go ahead and fill this out and then drop it into the offering plate when it comes around. It is, again, it is just so good to be here with all of you this morning. Remain standing, I'm going to read the passage this morning from Hebrews chapter three, and this is verses 15 through 19. So this is what Pastor Matt will be preaching on here in just a bit. And it says this. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. While it is said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. For who provoked him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 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. That is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, you are our great Lord. You are our great shepherd. And we are so thankful that you are leading us. You are leading us through green pastures beside quiet waters. Lord, you are guiding us in the paths of righteousness. And God, even when we go through difficult things, we know you are there. You are our leader, our shepherd. But God, there are so many times that we do not listen to your voice. There are so many places where we harden our hearts, and God, I pray that this morning, God, that our hearts would be tender toward you. God, that we would submit ourselves under your word this morning. God, draw us to you this morning, teach us, help us to understand you better. God, we love you, you are such a great God, and we are so thankful that you are our shepherd, you are our king, and we submit our lives and our hearts and our world to you. God, we love you, we thank you for everything, and it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen, please join us in singing Be Thou My Vision. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart Not be all else to me, save that Thou art Thou my best thought, by day or by night Sleep in Thy presence, my light Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my true word I Thy true Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. I King of heaven, my victory won, Heaven's joys, bright heaven's sun Heart of my own heart Whatever befall, still be mine Still be my vision, oh ruler of all Immortal, invisible, God only wise Enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in light. Thy justice like mountains I soaring above, Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love. To all life Thou givest, to both great and small, In all life Thou livest, the true life of all. We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, And wither and perish, but not change a thing. Great Father of glory, pure Father of light, Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight. All praise we would render, O help us to see, Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee. Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee. We'll have the men come forward for our morning offering. Two great hymns. The first, a prayer. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Beautiful prayer for us to pray. That God would give us eyes to see who he is. And then the next one, immortal and visible. Our great king, to be able to worship him this morning. Well, let's go before this great God in prayer. You shall have no other gods before me. You should not make for yourself a graven image. Should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. honor your father and mother. You shall not murder. You shall not committed alter. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Do not covet. Lord, we are guilty before your holy law. the spotlight shines upon our hearts and we have not done as we ought to, nor have we done as we should have done. But we thank you that in the Lord Jesus Christ, our champion, we have a forerunner, a pioneer who's gone before us, who has endured the judgment of hell upon the cross, and risen from the dead so that we can have newness of life, forgiveness of sin, the promise of eternal life, and ultimately, a world where you have reversed the curse to come. And so Lord, we thank you and praise you for the perfect work of our Lord Jesus, We also come before you with our requests as we are a weak people. We pray for our brother Rodney. We pray that you would help him to recover quickly from this shoulder surgery. Lord, he's such a relentless faithful servant of yours, and Lord, I know it's difficult for him to be physically sidelined, so Lord, we pray that you would restore him to good health, he would be able to use that arm like he once was able to. I pray that you would help him in the midst of the pain to rest in you, bring comfort, I pray that he would suffer well even in the midst of his recovery. Lord, we also pray for loved ones who've recently finished cancer treatments. Brian's dad, dawn's brother. We pray Lord for upcoming good reports that they would continue on the path of good health. I pray that you would restore their bodies as they recover from all the side effects of cancer treatments. Lord, we pray as well for some of the upcoming events, especially for the outreach picnic. Lord, we pray that you would bring many people to come and hear the glorious good news of the gospel. and that you would bring forth repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. We pray also for governing officials. Lord, we pray for the Fifth Ward Councilman Patrick Kelly. We do pray for his salvation. We pray that you bring ministers of the gospel to him. We also pray as he requested for peace. Lord, if it's For personal peace, we pray that he would know that those who are justified in you have peace with God and can have a kind of inner tranquility. We also pray for peace in the city. We pray that you would restrain the evil. We pray that your hand of restraint would just restrain all the murderous activity in the city. We pray for law enforcement that you would help them to be able to carry out their task of your design in restraining evil. We pray for righteousness to prevail in their midst. We pray for our country as we see all the turmoil and just the craziness of last weekend with the assassination attempt, Lord, Our hearts are heavy and we pray for peace. We know that ultimate peace will not come till the prince of peace comes, but we pray that more and more people would get behind the ideals that have formed this country that ultimately are rooted in the truth of your word and that this would have a unifying impact upon our country. We pray for the unborn. We grieve over the reality that the seemingly no parties are standing up out of the two current parties standing up for the rights of unborn Children and Lord, we pray that you would give us the courage to be a voice for the voiceless. We pray for the pregnancy help center and the important work they do and giving ultrasounds to pregnant women. That's Lord. That's more and more women would change their minds and see that that unborn baby is indeed a baby, a child made in your image. We pray also for other local churches that pray for Tri County Bible Church. We pray that they would just continue to be a beacon of light and hope and gospel truth in the midst of a dark world. We pray for Pastor Joe and Pastor Greg and their leadership there that they would shepherd your flock well, that more and more people would be coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we do also pray as well that you would globally advance your gospel. We thank you for the faithful gospel workers that we can support across this globe. We pray particularly for Alan Sandy Luciano and Alan's work in the Philippines. We pray that you would just use him as an instrument in your hand to train many church leaders, pastors, preachers, to equip them to preach your word and to counsel from your word and that your church in the Philippines might be built up and strengthened. We pray especially, Lord, for those people, those church leaders, pastors who come to the training from that southern island of Mindanao, just knowing how so much of that island is under the darkness of Islam and we pray for those pastors that they would be faithful to uphold the gospel in the midst of the lies of Islam and that you would bring many Muslims to bow their knee to King Jesus We pray that you would use this offering in a way that would glorify your name to advance your kingdom purposes, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, please join us in singing, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus Just to take Him at His word Just to rest upon His promise Just to know the saith the Lord Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him How I proved Him And our Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for grace to trust Him more Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus Just to trust His cleansing blood Just in simple faith to plunge me Need the healing, cleansing blood Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him How I proved Him Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for grace to trust Him more Yes, too sweet to trust in Jesus Just from sin and self to cease Just from Jesus simply taking Life and rest and joy and peace Jesus, Jesus Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend And I know that Thou art with me And will be with me to the end Jesus, Jesus How I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus Oh, for grace to trust Him more You could turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. Pastor Josh read it at the beginning. If you're visiting with us, we work our way through books of the Bible, so we're working our way through the book of Hebrews. If you need a Bible, there should be a church Bible somewhere in the slot close by in front of you. And if you do have one of those, it's on page 1,608. So 1608. It feels like something important happened then, 1608, not sure what it was. Page 1608, Hebrews chapter three, verse 15, down to verse 19. While it was said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. for who provoked him when they had heard. Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses and with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness 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. All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Let's pray. Lord God, we do come before you and ask for your help that you would give us understanding into these ancient words, thousands of years old, some that will refer to in the Old Testament, even thousands of years more older. And yet man's nature has not changed. You have not changed. your solution that's found in the Lord Jesus Christ for our greatest problem has not changed. And so, Lord, we believe that these ancient words are transcendingly relevant to us here this morning. And so, Lord, we're asking for your help. Give us eyes to see in Jesus name. Amen. Imagine being a Hebrew family in ancient Egypt. You get word that there is this fellow by the name of Moses who's having meetings with the king of Egypt. and these cosmic plagues begin to take place. And as Moses instructs the different tribe leaders in Egypt of the Jewish people down to the different elders down to the different heads of family, there are certain instructions that are coming with each of these plagues. begins with the Nile River, that seemingly life-giving source of water turning into blood. Moving on to the frogs. The Egyptians had a frog god, and so God said, you guys like frogs? I'll give you lots of frogs. To the lice, to the gnats, and to the flies, and to the livestock, to the boils, to the hail, to the locusts, and then to three days of darkness. You know, remember the ancient Egyptians, they worshiped Ra, the sun god. And so God says, you like to worship the sun? Let me flip the switch off. And then down to that last horrifying plague. which would take every firstborn son in Egypt as that firstborn son of Pharaoh was on his path to deification to ascend to the throne of Pharaoh himself. God strikes down that firstborn son and all the firstborn in Egypt. And there's certain instructions that would have been given to each and every household of the family that they were to take a lamb and to slaughter that lamb and there would be a kind of a basin in which the blood from that lamb would drip and then you know, branches of hyssop would be dipped and they would place the blood upon the doorpost of the house so that when that angel of Yahweh came and visited in his judgment, that it would pass over the house that believed God, that trusted what Yahweh had said and did what he said. And so every household that did not believe and did not trust experienced God's judgment. And then, of course, there's that final plague. Finally, Pharaoh, having hardened his heart over and over with each plague, he finally says that he had had enough. Get out of here! And so those Hebrews begin to leave that land of Egypt, but they don't leave empty-handed, do they? They leave, having plundered the Egyptians of all their jewelry, as the Egyptians are like, here, here, we don't want your god here anymore, take this stuff with you. But sadly and tragically, they left not only with the jewelry of the Egyptians in their pockets, but their gods as well. And you remember it was not long after that that they are miraculously delivered through the Red Sea and God swallows up the Egyptian army in that Red Sea so that there would have been Egyptian soldiers strewn all over the shores of that Red Sea. And then God enters into a covenant relationship with his people, having miraculously and gloriously delivered them, having saved them. He enters into a covenant relationship and gives his standards of the law in that covenant relationship. And they agree to it. They say, yes, Lord, we will follow you. You have saved us. But you remember it's not long after that that Moses goes up on the mountain and the Israelites want some kind of visible representation and they take all that gold that had been given to them in Egypt and they melt it down and craft it into a golden calf and begin to engage in false worship. And then eventually God is going to bring them into that promised land, that land flowing with milk and honey, that land in which when they sent the spies into that land, some of those spies came back holding a cluster of grape between two men on a stick. I mean, can you imagine what those grapes would have looked like? Like, imagine watermelon-sized grapes, you know? Imagine eating one of those grapes. I mean, it was truly an abundant land that God was going to give to them. But as those spies went into that land, remember, 10 of the 12 did not believe the promise of God. They saw how big the Canaanites were, and they said, there's no way we can take them. We're like mere grasshoppers compared with them. and this unbelief and grumbling influence and spread throughout all the camp of Israel, despite the testimony of truth, the testimony of Joshua and Caleb who said, we believe God can give us the land. The people believe the lies and didn't believe the truth. And so God was angry with that generation and promised that that generation would not enter into the promised land. And they did it. That whole generation died in the wilderness, everybody 20 years and older. But then some hundred years later, after they are in the land, and they're in the land of Israel, and the kingdom is united under David, David pens Psalm 95, the same psalm that the author of Hebrews is citing over and over throughout this section. And that psalm is a call to worship. In fact, we sometimes sing it. Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our God, our maker, for he is our God and we are the sheep of his pasture. Familiar psalm, right? But that's not the end of the psalm. Because despite there was a call for ancient Israel in David's day, and he is alluding to that ancient generation that died in the wilderness, there was a call for them to worship as well. And so David, alluding to that ancient instance of God delivering the Hebrews out of Egypt, says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And then, thousands of years later, the author of Hebrews piggybacks off of David and his allusion to the ancient Exodus and says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. And so imagine you, not now as, you know, one of those ancient Hebrews during the Exodus, but now you're one of those Jewish people in the midst of that first century congregation. that first century congregation who maybe you first heard the gospel that Jesus is the Messiah and that he came and did miracles and he died and rose from the dead and you and your family begin to believe and you begin to follow Jesus and you're reading these letters that are being circulated by the apostles and you're following Jesus but then persecution begins to come. And some people are losing their jobs because of it. And there's other Jewish people who are saying, well, maybe you can just come back to us. You don't need to believe in Jesus. You're safe if you just come back to Judaism, come back to the law, come back to Torah. You don't need Jesus. And some people begin to go back. They begin to turn away from Jesus and go back to Judaism. And so it's in that context that the author of Hebrews is writing this letter. In this context, in Hebrews chapter three, he's laying down a warning. He says, remember, you're not all that different from those ancient Hebrews who were in the desert. who made a good start, you need to finish the race. And if you don't finish the race, there will be judgment to pay. Because just like them, they started out at the beginning. God had rescued them in the exodus, and they began, but they actually did not believe. Because had they believed, they would have persevered in believing. Somebody says that the faith that fizzles was faulty from the first. The faith that fizzles was faulty from the first. If it's not genuine saving faith wrought by the Holy Spirit of God, it may falter out. And one of the means that God uses to cause his people to continue to persevere in the faith are the warnings that he gives in scripture, namely, don't stop believing. keep believing, persevere in the faith. And so let's look at verse 15. Let's pick up the story. The author now here having, so he began this section. This section begins back in verse seven. Verse seven, all the way down to Chapter 3 verse 7 all the way down to verse 11 is a citation from Psalm 95. He's paralleling Psalm 95, with whom he's writing to. And then he gives the application in verse 12 through 14. See to it, brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. And then he goes back to Psalm 95. So kind of sandwiched between these references to Psalm 95 is the application in the middle, namely keep believing, keep persevering in the faith, encourage one another. This highlights how important the body of Christ is in us speaking the truth to one another. And so now, here in verse 15, he goes back and alludes again to Psalm 95. And really, he's going to keep alluding to Psalm 95 all the way through the end of chapter 4. And it's very interesting from a kind of interpretive perspective because on the one hand, he's highlighting those ancient Hebrews as a bad example, right? Don't be like them. disbelieve, don't fail to believe and fail to enter into that rest. But he also is reading that ancient event in a kind of redemptive historical way or maybe you're familiar with the word typology as a pattern, as a picture of those ancient Israelites in covenant with God's people failing to enter. He's highlighting that as a picture of these whom he's writing to as possibly failing to enter into heaven because they don't persevere in the faith. And so now he goes back to this allusion to those ancient Hebrews, and he's gonna ask three questions, and he's asking these three questions with other questions that are implicit answers to those questions. Each of these questions comes up in verse 16, 17, and 18, and then he kind of gives the conclusion of it all. So the first question we see in verse 16. For who provoked him when they had heard? And by the way, each of these questions is either who or whom. And so he's specifically and intentionally drawing our attention to those ancient Hebrews who died in the wilderness. And so the first question he asks, he says, for who provoked him, that is God, Yahweh, God of Israel, who provoked him when they heard? When they heard. when they heard about God and his promises, when they had experienced that great exodus. Who was it who provoked him? Answer? He answers with another question. Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? So what's his point here? His point is that these ancient Israelites had tremendous privilege. That generation that provoked the Lord was the generation, that same generation whom God had led out of Egypt through Moses, through all those glorious and grand miracles. like I just alluded to, who had heard the voice of God from Mount Sinai, who had heard the voice of God mediated either through Moses or even through angels and the giving of the law, this was a tremendously privileged people. They had seen God's faithfulness over and over and over as he provided water out of rocks, food from heaven, clothes that did not wear out, They were a generation that experienced tremendous privilege. They heard the voice of God. They saw the works of God. And yet, God was incensed with them. God was irritated with them. God was angry with them. His people, His people whom He had hand-plucked out of Egypt, His people who were the descendants of Abraham, who He had made these special promises to so many years prior. His people whom He had passed this promise down through Isaac and to Jacob and then to the 12 tribes of Israel and even... He had done so much for them. And they had made a start, a good go, in initially following the Lord as they followed that cloud by day and that fire by night in that ancient wilderness. But it was that same generation who had experienced such tremendous privilege, such tremendous grace from God, such tremendous blessing, who God was angry with. Next question, verse 17, and with whom was he angry for 40 years? Again, the next question, with whom was he angry for 40 years? Again, God brought them out of Egypt. It wasn't very long before they made their way to Kadesh Barnea. That was when they sent in the 12 spies. And it was some 40 years of them remaining in that desert and not going into the promised land. Why? Because God was angry with them. for 40 years, and there was a kind of a poetic justice to the consequence of 40 years, because you remember, the spies were sent in for how many days? For 40 days. The spies were sent in for 40 days, and when they came back, they came back with an unbelieving report that the rest of Israel believed, and so God says, okay, I'll give you a year for every day. And notice how the author of Hebrews answers this question. Again, notice the whom question, verse 17. And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned? God was angry with those who sinned. They had missed the mark. They had not obeyed God as they ought to. They did not believe. And then notice this. He further describes this same people whom God was angry with for 40 years as those whose corpses fell in the wilderness. This is a very graphic way to describe their end. Their corpses fell in the wilderness. It was very important for the Jewish people to have a proper burial. But if you read the book of Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, bodies were dropping in mass, right? They would do stupid things. Remember one of the instances of them grumbling and complaining and God sends these fiery serpents and bodies are dropping. Now, I think on that occasion there was 23,000 that died. How do you bury 23,000 people quickly before hungry desert-dwelling birds start getting hungry? How do you bury that many bodies before the stench is intense? And so God says these, and again, this is highlighting that this was God's judgment upon them. That their end would be a disgraceful end in the desert. Not even oftentimes receiving a proper burial. It reminds me of that proverb. Some of you parents, this is your favorite proverb, the eye that mocks the father. The eye that scorns the mother will be plucked out by the ravens of the valley. You know, I can just imagine a parent, you know, birds are gonna come eat your eyes out. But the point is, is you're likely to receive a premature and disgraceful death if you dishonor your parents. So much that you'll become food for ravenous birds. And so this, again, this is God highlighting, it was this people, the people whom God had delivered out, whom God was angry with. He was angry with them for 40 years. Next question. Verse 18. And to whom did he swear they would not enter his rest? Again, notice the whom. The who, the whom, the whom. Who is he talking about? This people who not only died in the wilderness, everybody who was over the age of 20 back at Kadesh Barnea, each of them had a death in the wilderness. And none of them, and he doesn't get into exceptions here, because I know you good Bible students are immediately thinking, well what about Joshua and Caleb? Right? Okay? You're right. Okay? The Bible doesn't always give us the exceptions, and he's gonna talk about Joshua in the next chapter. Joshua and Caleb did go into the promised land. But nobody else did. Nobody else. It was this generation. Notice how he answers it here at the end of verse 18. But to those who were disobedient, God said they would not enter into his rest. And again, his rest is an allusion to Canaan. This was God's promise to get them into the land. This was God's promise from the beginning of the exodus that he was going to bring his people into the land as a fulfillment of that ancient promise that he had made to Abraham. And they didn't believe. They sinned. They disobeyed. And as a result, none of them actually made it. We say, what's the point of all this? Well, he sums it up at the end of verse 19 with a so. So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. They were not able to enter because of unbelief. He sums it up and with his spiritual diagnostic tool, he diagnoses that the problem with that ancient generation that died in the wilderness, whom God was incensed with, who God vowed that they would not enter into the promised land. Their problem was unbelief. They did not believe. And so again, you say, what's the point of this? The author of Hebrews is drawing upon this ancient story of unbelief as a warning to those to whom he's writing, say, don't be like them. They didn't cross the finish line. They didn't make it to Canaan. Why? Because they did not persevere in faith. And they were a greatly privileged people. And again, he's talking to a first century audience who had seen the works of God. We see in chapter 2, it would appear that they had seen real miracles. They had seen genuine conversions. They had heard the testimony of the apostles. People who are eyewitnesses of the resurrected Lord. And they had made a good start in the Christian life. They had made a good beginning. But the author of Hebrews is saying, you must continue steadfast in that because bodies have been dropping. People have been turning back. People have been falling away from the living God, and you must encourage one another as long as it is called today, lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. It's a clarion call to persevere in belief. Now, again, this is a warning, and again, I know many of you good theological students Immediately think of all those glorious promises of how John 10 that Jesus says, no one can snatch the sheep out of my hand. My father is greater than all. No one can be snatched out of his hand. All that the Father gives me, Jesus says, will come to me, and those who come to me, what, I will raise up on the last day? Philippians 1.6, he who began a good work in you will carry it on till the day of Christ Jesus. God causes his people to persevere. Yes, that is true. But that's another passage for another day. Okay, and I don't wanna muzzle these warnings. by running to other passages. It's always something that's easy to see with somebody else, right? And then you say, well what about this passage here, right? So I have to believe that God uses his means of keeping his people, or not only all those glorious promises, the keeping power of the Lord Jesus, the persevering work of the Holy Spirit. You know, Romans 8, how about that? Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. But God also uses these warnings in the lives of believers to put a swift kick in our behind to say, don't go that way. That is the way of unbelief. And if you don't persevere in faith, you will go to hell. And so, guess what? We need to persevere in the faith, okay? We need to kick against a hardening heart of unbelief. And so, I was gonna give one of those negative outlines, you know, how to harden your heart and go to hell, but I can't do that. I tried to do that some weeks back. And so, three necessary responses for maintaining a soft, persevering heart of belief. Three necessary responses to maintaining a soft, persevering heart of belief. So we're taking the negative warning of the author of Hebrews, and don't worry, there's enough negativity and warning in Hebrews. You'll get your healthy dose of it. But this is just kind of more looking at the positive. The first point is to listen to the Word of God. Listen to the Word of God. This is how this section starts, verse 15. While it is said, again, he quotes Psalm 95, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, And then we also see in his question in verse 16, for who provoked him when they had what? Heard. Who provoked him when they had heard? That hearing of the voice of God is necessary for a soft heart that continues to believe. Now, you also know that a heart that hears the word of God, and does not believe the Word of God is a heart that's on its way to hardening, right? And so, hearing the Word of God, listening to the voice of God is a necessary condition, but it's not a sufficient condition, right? It's necessary. You have to hear the voice of God. to have a soft heart, but you can hear the voice of God as he speaks to us through his word, and you can have a hardened heart. Brother, this past week reminded me of a Spurgeonic quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. The same sun, you know, hot day, even in Northeastern Ohio, you put wax in the sun and that sun can beat down and soften the wax. But also, if it's clay, a ball field, it can harden the dirt, it can harden the clay. So it is with hearing the word of God. And then Spurgeon goes on to say, in the same gospel, which melts some persons to repentance, hardens others in their sins. So the word of God, hearing the voice of God is necessary for a soft heart that continues to believe. But also, be careful, because it's a dangerous enterprise, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Because if you don't respond properly, then it can have the opposite effect. But nonetheless, we must place ourselves in the hearing of the Word of God. And again, some of you people may be tempted, well, you may think, well, I don't believe, and based off what you're saying, and hearing the word of God, I'm just gonna harden my heart more, so what's the point of hearing God's word? And I wanna say, but God's word is also the agent that softens the heart. The agent that God uses to give a new heart. And so don't abandon the word of God. First Peter chapter one, I think it's around verse 22, he says, you have been born again by that living seed, the word of God. James chapter one, in verse, 18 that says He brought us forth by His will through the Word of Truth so that we would be the firstfruits of His creation. He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that the Word of God is the agent that God uses in raising the dead. The Word of God is the agent that God uses in keeping His people having a soft heart that's pliable, that continues in the faith. And so, you need to make it a priority in your life to come under the hearing of the Word of God, whether it's privately, in your private devotions, whether it's gathering with God's people, coming under the preached Word, the public reading of God's Word, the singing of His Word. We need to be a people of the book. and to make it a priority in our lives. Because it's often when the heart begins to drift and gets hardened that it begins to move itself away from the hearing of God's word. And it's dangerous. So we need to place ourselves under the hearing of God's word. Adolph Sapphire, as a helpful commentary on the book of Hebrews. He says, oh, how deftly and sweetly does he speak to us in the person of his son, Jesus. The word incarnate who died for us on Golgotha. The heart must respond. God's voice is to soften the heart. This is the purpose of the divine word, to make our hearts tender. Alas, by nature we are hard-hearted. And what we call good and soft-hearted is not in reality in God's sight. When we receive God's word in the heart, when we acknowledge our sin, when we adore God's mercies, when we desire God's fellowship, when we see Jesus who came to save us, to wash our feet and shed his blood for our salvation, the heart becomes soft and tender for repentance, faith, patience, hope of heaven. All these things make the heart tender, tender towards God, tender towards our fellow men. And so, Adolf Sapphire's conclusion is that we need to hear God's Word because it is when we hear the voice of God that we encounter this God who is. This God who saves, this God, again, who demonstrated such kindness to those ancient Hebrews in the first Exodus. And so it's as if the author of Hebrews is telling us, remember how God first spoke to you when you were first converted and you first believed and your heart was set aflame and you begin to follow the Lord and this is the voice of God and continue to listen to his voice. To hear what he says. Again, this is of the utmost importance. I mean, if somebody important begins to speak, you begin to listen. If a police officer gives a loud directive, put your hands up, you listen. Or at least if you have half a brain, you listen. You respond, right? You listen. Well, when the voice of Almighty God speaks, we must listen. We must heed what he has said. One of the early presidents of Princeton Theological Seminary, who was noted to be one of the greatest preachers of the South, In fact, it was Patrick Henry's favorite preacher. You know the great give me liberty or give me death guy? His favorite preacher was Samuel Davies. Well, there's this story of Samuel Davies traveling around trying to raise funds for the newly formed Princeton Theological Seminary. And he traveled across the pond to Britain, and he was speaking before the king. And evidently, in the midst of his sermon, the king was snickering, laughing. And Samuel Davies stopped in the middle of his sermon. And he said, In the animal world, when the king of the jungle roars, all the animals remain silent. So when the lion of the tribe of Judah speaks through his word, all the kings of the earth will close their mouth. May I proceed? That takes some courage. But you get the point, is that, you see, this is, when we're thinking rightly, when we're hearing God's Word, it has a softening effect upon our heart because we're called to attention. This is the voice of Almighty God. He is the one who speaks to us. I must listen, I must believe, I must do whatever He says, because it's Him who's speaking. This is not mere suggestion. This is not mere good advice. This is almighty God, the creator, the one whom I will stand before at the judgment. He is the one who's speaking. Again, Richard Baxter and his directory. He was kind of the original biblical counselor. He has so many directives, and he's giving directives on avoiding a hard heart, maintaining a soft, believing heart. He says, nothing more will affect and awe the heart and overrule it in matters of religion than the true knowledge of God. We will not talk sleepily or contemptuously to a king. How much less should we be stupid or contemptuous before the God of heaven? It is that God whom angels worship that sustaineth the world, that keepeth us in life, that is always present, observing all that we think or say or do, whose commands are upon us and with whom we have to do in all things. So Baxter's directive is clear. Remember who is speaking as he speaks to us through his word. And this will have a softening effect upon your heart. And again, you may be sitting here this morning conscious that you have a hard heart. That you have a hard heart of unbelief. That you have a stony heart, that your heart is indifferent to the things of God. Your heart is indifferent towards sin. You yawn over Jesus. There's a God in heaven who delights to give new hearts. In fact, one of his new covenant promises in Ezekiel chapter 36, beginning in verse 26, he says, I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone. What is a heart of stone? But a hard, unbelieving heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to do my judgments. The God of heaven is in the business of giving heart transplants. So my friend, if you were here this morning and you recognize your heart is stone cold hard, you are an unbeliever. I tell you on the authority of God's word, God can take out that heart of stone, cry out to him, beg him, say, Lord, give me a new heart. My heart does not believe. I need you to give me a new heart. And God delights by the power of His Spirit to give new hearts. And if you find yourself believing, seeing Jesus for who He is, having a tender conscience towards sin, these are evidences that you do have a new heart. You're not okay with sin. You're not making a truce with sin. Your heart does love Jesus. You need to continue to place yourself under the hearing of God's word to maintain that heart. But not only to listen to the word of God, but secondly to believe the word of God. Notice the conclusion in verse 19, so we see that they were not able to enter. Why? Because of unbelief. It's fascinating here. Again, the author doesn't, he doesn't bring up the golden calf like I did earlier. He doesn't bring up the immorality that takes place at Beth Peor when Phineas has to come in and drive a spear through that couple. He doesn't bring up any of the multitudes of heinous sins that we see from that generation. He summarizes it all with one word, unbelief. Unbelief. They did not believe. Again, Adolf Sapphire says, many much more striking and to our mind more fearful sins could have been pointed out. But God thinks of the one greater sin than all is unbelief. We are saved by faith. We are lost through unbelief. The heart is purified by faith. The heart is hardened by unbelief. Faith brings us nigh to God. Unbelief is departure from God. Faith is that one agent that brings us to God, that keeps our hearts soft as we believe what God has said to us. And so it is of the utmost imperative that we hear the Word of God, but we also believe the Word of God. We have to believe. It was Joshua and Caleb who believed, right? In one sense, it seems so simple, right? Just believe. God said, I'll give you this promised land, believe. God says, salvation, eternal life in the Lord Jesus, believe. We believe all kinds of things. You go to a restaurant, you place your order, They bring out that order and you believe that they have not done something sinister with your food. I just ruined your lunch. You turn on the faucet. You put your cup underneath the faucet. You drink. You believe. You trust. that there are not some kind of sinister contaminants in there. We say, well, I got me one of those gravitational water filters. Yeah, we do too. And you believe, you believe those black tubes are collecting all the bad poisons and all the psychotropic drugs and whatever else is floating in our water system. You believe. When you put your foot on the gas pedal, you believe. You believe that that mechanism is gonna cause those pistons to fire, that that combustible engine is gonna make those tires move to get you to that destination you want to get to. You enter onto an airplane, you believe. You believe it's going to get you to that destination. Now of course all these are examples that are very unspiritual. But the principle is still true that we are called to believe, not contrary to evidence, The God who's created the heavens and the earth, who sustains our very being. The God who's spoken to us in his word. The God who, when he brought forth his word, did it with such tremendous miracles and amazing things that he did. Even Jesus rising from the dead. You must believe. You must believe. You must believe what God says about who you are. That you are a wretched rebel against your creator. That you deserve eternal damnation. You must believe that God in the wonder of his kindness has sent forth the Lord Jesus, born of a woman, born under the law, as a perfect representative to bring you to the eternal Canaan. You must continue believing. You must believe. Again, in one sense, it's simple. In another sense, it's impossible. Because the human heart is so rebellious, we believe all kinds of things, but we're smarter than God. That's for old fogies. That's retrograde. That's not progressive. Friend, you must believe. And so again, this is, This is where we must regularly hear the word of God, but we must respond with a heart of faith. We must remind ourselves of those promises that God speaks to us through his word, and we must take them by faith and believe. This is how we continue to have a soft heart that believes. By receiving and believing what he has said. This is why the late Jerry Bridges would often talk about preaching the gospel to yourself daily. In fact, he likened it to one of those wind-up watches that you have to crank up daily. You have to wind it up. You have to wind up your heart with the gospel to remind yourself every day, today I deserve to be in hell. In the wonder of God's grace, he sent forth the Lord Jesus, and I believe that he died for me on my behalf and rose from the dead. I mean, if we wind up our hearts with that every day, then we're going to help cultivate a soft heart. In our parenting, as we sin against our children, or sin against our spouse, if we're winding up our heart with the gospel, and not trying to deny our sin, which is anti-gospel by the way. When we deny our sin, when we're not quick to confess our sin, we're not living in light of the gospel and we're hardening our heart, but instead to say, I sinned against you. Will you forgive me? To speak to God, God, I've sinned against you. I snapped at my children. I snapped at my wife. God, forgive me. And you keep A tender conscience as you believe the promise of the gospel. And again, it softens your hearts, right? When you hear and are reminded of what God has done for you in Christ. Again, listen to Baxter. Think often of the love of God in Christ and of the bloody suffering of your Redeemer. For it hath a mighty power to melt the heart. If love and the love of God and so great and wonderful love will not soften your hardened heart, what will? If the love of God in the gospel doesn't soften your heart, what will? Again, you find yourself embittered and self-righteous and holding somebody's sin over them, wanting to punish them. How do you soften your heart? Ephesians 4, 31, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven. How can you have a hard, self-righteous heart when you remember that God has taken the cursor and dragged it over all of your sins, hit the cut button, and pasted it on the back of the Lord Jesus? How can you keep a hard heart? But not only to hear the word of God, to believe the word of God, but thirdly and lastly, to obey the word of God. Notice the besetting sin of these ancient Israelites in verse 17, and with whom was he angry for 40 years. Was it not with those who sinned? Again, notice how he describes them. Those who sinned. whose corpses fell in the wilderness, verse 18, and with whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but those who were disobedient. Disobedient. Again, the pathway to maintaining a soft, believing heart is hearing the Word of God, believing the Word of God, and then acting upon the Word of God, doing it. doing what he says. Again, Baxter says, think well of the unspeakable greatness and importance of those truths and things which should affect you, and of those duties which are required of you. Eternity of joy or torment is such an amazing thing that one would think eerie thought, and every mention either of it or anything concerneth it should go to our very hearts and deeply affect us and should command the obedience and service of our souls. And so friend, make it a habit as God brings conviction of sin to your heart and you're reminded of the wonder of his gospel. You believe the gospel, but you also repent. You do what you're supposed to do. You act upon it. You do it. If the Lord is bringing conviction upon your heart, you don't put it off. You don't continue to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, lest you be what? Hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. A heart that puts off obedience is a heart that is on the pathway to hardening. And so, you have to yield. And of course, there's a connection between belief and behavior, right? Faith, as James says, in what? Works. The heart that believes, it produces doing. And if there's no doing, then maybe there's no believing, no faith. And so, we must persevere in a heart of faith. And we do this by hearing God's word, believing God's word, and obeying God's word. Let me close with an illustration, another illustration from ancient Israel. You remember the boy king by the name of Josiah? who was eight years old when he ascended the throne in Israel. And the Bible says that it was in his 18th year So he's roughly around the age 26 years old, that he gives some instructions for some monies to be given to some of the priests for renovations to take place in the temple. The temple had become run down and needed some touch up. In the midst of the renovation and cleanup project, they come across the book of the law. They come across the word of God that had evidently been neglected to the point at which this was something novel, a Bible. And so one of the priests comes and brings it before young 26 year old Josiah and begins to read from the scriptures. And do you remember Josiah's response? He begins to tear his clothes. His heart is broken as he hears about God's standard, as he hears about his standards for the kings, as he hears about his standards of righteousness and obedience and exclusive worship that is to be reserved for him alone. Do you remember not long after that, Josiah, begins to implement some change. He acts, he obeys, he sees all the idolatry in ancient Israel, and he begins destroying the false idols. He begins calling the people back to a covenant relationship with the true and living God. He's calling them to repentance as he himself is repenting. And the testimony of scripture as God speaks to him through one of the prophets was that Josiah had a soft heart, a heart that responded. Why? He heard the word of God, he believed the word of God, and he obeyed the word of God. Let's pray. Lord God, Nothing new and innovative here this morning. Just back to the basics. But yet, Lord, we need you. We need you to hear you, to believe you, and to obey you. Help us, oh Lord, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is you who are at work in us, both to will and to work for your good pleasure. Amen. We're gonna close in song. So let's stand and respond with belief and prayer. What love could remember, no wrongs we have done I'm nescient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more What patience would wait as we constantly roam? What Father so tender is calling us home? He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor. Our sins they are many, His mercy is more. Praise the Lord! His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more What riches of kindness He lavished on us! His blood was the payment, His life was the cost. We stood neath a debt we could never afford. Our sins they are many, His mercy is more. Praise the Lord! His mercy is more Stronger than darkness to every morn Our sins they are many His mercy is more Our sins they are many His mercy is more Thank you, Pastor Matt. What a great reminder this morning. We were reminded to listen to the Word of God, to believe the Word of God, and to obey the Word of God so that we can have a soft heart, a heart of persevering belief. What a great message. I don't think any of us set out to have a hardened heart of unbelief, do we? I trust that you desire to have a soft heart of persevering belief. So again, thank you, Pastor Matt. Couple of announcements this morning. I'm not even sure the first announcement that I have to qualify it as being for the women because it's the women's summer salad dinner. See guys, we wouldn't even be tempted. Like, oh great, we're gonna have salad this Friday. Now, I might be tempted if you said that's part of the meal, but yeah. So ladies, you guys are having a summer salad dinner this, and I see a lot of the ladies are signing up for it, but maybe you've not signed up yet and want to go. Make sure you do so. I understand, you know, it sounds kind of intriguing because I guess this lettuce is being provided. More importantly, as a guy, I think all the additional things that you're going to put on that salad, I'm sure there's steak and chicken and eggs. At least that's how I would envision it. But ladies, you are invited. That is this Friday at 6. So if you haven't signed up, please do so. And then lastly, we are having the evangelism and outreach picnic. That is on Saturday, October 1. October, Saturday, August 3rd, and that'll be food, inflatables, there'll be games, and most importantly, it is our attempt to reach our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we trust that you wanna be a part of that, that you'll be praying for that event. There is a volunteer sheet out at the events table. Sign up that way. I think Jesse's also sending out a message that says, hey, sign up, volunteer. You want to be a part of that? Set that date aside. Also, in line with that, you can also share this with other people. So there is an event created on Facebook, so you can invite your friends, your enemies, do that through Facebook. So, okay. Well, let me give you the benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. God bless.