Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Hebrews 3:7:
Hebrews 3:7-11
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest. What does the word Sabbath mean? It means rest.
What we are going to see begin to develop here is a third reason why God created the Sabbath. Something is being introduced so that we will use the Sabbath in the right way as a springboard to greater things. The Sabbath was made for man.
Let's go back to Psalm 95:7, to the scripture that Paul just quoted. First, look at the very beginning so that you can see the context in which this appears. This is one of those Psalms that the commentators call a Sabbath Psalm.
It is indicating an activity that is taking place on the Sabbath. That's when people gather before God, and shout joyfully, and come before His presence with thanksgiving. Of course, anybody can do that in prayer as well, but this is a Sabbath Psalm.
That is its broad application. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today has two applications right in the context here.
Today, in its broadest application, means the day of salvation in which we are living. The day in which we are called. The day in which we are converted.
The day in which we have the opportunity to go on to the perfection that God wants us to achieve. In its narrow application, it is the Sabbath. That's when we hear it primarily on the Sabbath.
We appear before the ministry, and God inspires and speaks through the ministry; and we hear the lessons that He has for us that day. Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me. You can see that it is a direct quote of this there in Hebrews 3.
So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Then, Paul uses Today, from Psalm 95:7 in its broad sense.
That is, the time that we are called. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. That's important.
To the end. What was happening to these people? They were neglecting things.
They weren't holding steadfast to the end. Things were drifting away. They were drifting away.
He begins, then, to show that the quotation from Psalm 95:7 has never been fulfilled.
We cannot literally hear the sound of His voice, but we can hear what He says and does in quite a number of ways. A beautiful example is one that David used where he said that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Each day and each night utters speech and knowledge of God, and its sound is heard throughout the world.
This is a poetic way of saying that the creation voices the knowledge of God to us. We hear His voice speaking to us in the written word, in the preaching of His truth by His ministers, in the events of His providence, and sometimes in our own conscience. In each of these aspects, when His truth is involved, His word is personally speaking to us.
He expects His children to hear, to listen with understanding, and to apply it today, right now, in the present. Do not put it off until tomorrow. That is the kind of attitude that He wants in His children.
Even as the creation continuously witnesses for God each day across the face of the whole earth, Christ's voice speaks to His church throughout the ages wherever they happen to be. He does not want His children to put off repentance until tomorrow. We will act with alacrity if we appreciate the power, not in cringing terror, but in reverence, in appreciation of the fact that God intended us to use His word, His voice, to enhance and give life.
We have voice, word, spirit, power, and hearing. The next link is that we have to believe it. The great difficulty in our mind regarding this relationship we have with God is within our will.
If there is within a person an unwillingness to listen to God's voice, an unwillingness to allow God to reign over him, an unwillingness to pay attention to his relationship with God, that person will make little or no effort to yield or overcome. That person will create a thousand difficulties that prevent him from really engaging himself in a relationship serving God. Virtually everything will attract his eye or ear and distract him.
He will neglect what he knows he ought to do. His heart will gradually become insensitive, and it will be hardened to the hearing of God's voice.
Jesus Christ is the epitome of loyalty and faithfulness. He is called a merciful high priest and He fulfills the role finally and ultimately in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people. Jesus Christ is faithful in Moses' role.
He surpasses and fulfills the faithfulness and loyalty of Moses in building and ruling the household of God and the church of God. We are in danger of being depersonalized, of having our hearts hardened. Unbelief is faithlessness, and part of faith is loyalty; therefore disloyalty equates to unbelief, to faithlessness.
It is loyalty to God and Jesus Christ first, and then to our brethren, as long as we are following God and doing what He says in His inspired holy written word. The servant owns nothing, is heir to nothing, has no authority and no right to control anything and is himself wholly at the will of another. A son, however, is the heir of all, has a prospective right to all and is looked up to by all with respect if he is a good son or righteous son.
The idea is not merely that Christ is a son; it is that as a son, He is placed over the whole arrangements of the household and is one to whom all is entrusted as if it were His own. We are part of God the Father and Jesus Christ's family. We belong to the family over which Christ has been placed as the Firstborn Son.
Jesus Christ is the consummation of God's determined loyalty to His gracious covenant relationship with His people. Christ is faithful and loyal to the Father and the Father to Him. We have the wonderful opportunity to be part of this faithful and loyal family.
The training ground for it is here and now, in our own households, and in the household of God. Loyalty means enduring commitment to a person over a long period of time, often with the implication of the commitment persisting in the face of obstacles that threaten the lasting commitment. Jesus Christ's words on loyalty and faithfulness suggest complete sacrifice for others, which is exactly what Jesus Christ did.
God taught the Israelites His ways, but they never knew them. Paul's exhortation is very urgent and sobering. He warns to beware lest we be like them, as in the day of rebellion when they hardened their hearts against God.
The stakes are much higher for us. It is not just a matter of physical life being lost or physical destruction. Once we are talking about spiritual Israel, we are talking about eternal life at stake.
If we express the same attitudes and actions as they did with the knowledge and the calling that we have, the effect is so much worse. We should be terrified of falling short of God's Kingdom. We should fear not entering into that rest, because if we do not, that is it.
This passage is quoted from a Sabbath psalm, where "today" refers to the weekly Sabbath. It calls to hear His voice, the voice of God, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion during the day of trial in the wilderness. The appeal Paul makes is that they not harden their hearts.
