January 5, 2025: Sunday School

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Hebrews 3:1-19
• Lesson
• Prayer

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Sermon Title: Do Not Harden Your Hearts

Scripture: Hebrews 3:7-19

I. Background and Context of the Passage

A. The central figure of Hebrews is Jesus the Messiah, who is better than all Old Testament persons, institutions, rituals, and sacrifices

B. The writer addresses three groups of Hebrews

1. Hebrew Christians who trust in Christ and are part of the church
2. Non-Christians who are intellectually convinced that Jesus is the Messiah but whose standing is uncertain
3. Non-Christians who are not convinced at all

C. The theme of Hebrews 3:7-19 is: Do not harden your hearts

D. Commentators referenced throughout

1. Matthew Henry (1706–1710)
2. John Owen (1616–1683), Puritan theologian and pastor, author of The Mortification of Sin (1656)
3. Arthur Pink (1886–1952), theologian and pastor, author of Studies in the Scriptures (1922–1952)
4. A. R. Fausset (1821–1910), contributor to the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary

II. Verse 7 — Today, If You Hear His Voice

A. The Holy Spirit is the Divine author behind the psalmist's words; the quotation is taken verbatim from Psalm 95:7-11

1. New Testament writers sometimes ascribe Old Testament quotations to individual human authors (Moses, David, Isaiah), sometimes to the books themselves, and sometimes directly to the Holy Spirit
2. The writer ascribes these words to the Holy Spirit to remind the Hebrews of the weightiness and divine authority of what follows

B. The Holy Spirit speaks primarily through Scripture; to hear his voice is to read and heed the Word of God

C. The word today carries a sense of urgent, precise timing — not to be deferred

1. Matthew Henry: the writer calls them to give speedy and present attention to the call of Christ, applying it with suitable affections and endeavors, for tomorrow may be too late
2. Illustration: D. L. Moody, after the Chicago Fire of 1871, resolved never again to tell people to go away and come back — today is the day of salvation

III. Verse 8 — Do Not Harden Your Hearts as in the Rebellion

A. The hardening warned against is the same sin committed by Israel at Meribah and Massah in the wilderness

B. Matthew Henry: hardening the heart is the spring of all other sins; Christ's calls regarding sin, holiness, and faith must not be shut out

C. John Owen: the heart in Scripture refers to the fullness of the person — the will, the affections, and the principle of all moral action; here it denotes stubbornness and obstinacy of the will

IV. Verse 9 — Your Fathers Tested God and Saw His Works for Forty Years

A. The wilderness generation saw extraordinary works — the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, manna, water from the rock — yet they fell into unbelief

B. Matthew Henry identifies aggravating circumstances of Israel's sin

1. They sinned in the wilderness, where they had immediate dependence on God
2. They sinned while God was testing and supplying them daily
3. They continued in sin for forty years

C. The root sin was unbelief — the worst of all sins

1. No sin sends a person to hell but unbelief; salvation comes only through faith in God's Son
2. Their heart errors produced errors in their lips and lives; they did not know God's ways in either his providence or his precepts

V. Verses 10-11 — God's Wrath and the Sworn Oath

A. Arthur Pink: God's patience was exhausted by Israel's persistent unbelief and rebellion; the sentence that they would not enter Canaan was irrevocable, confirmed by his oath

B. John Owen draws four observations

1. When God expresses great indignation against sin, it is to teach men the greatness of sin in themselves
2. God gives the same stability to his threatenings as to his promises
3. When men have provoked God by impenitence to a degree that their punishment becomes irrevocable, they will find severity in the execution
4. It is the presence of God alone that renders any place or condition good or desirable

C. The parallel to the contemporary readers: just as the Exodus generation was already saved out of Egypt but had not yet entered the promised land, so the Hebrews being addressed are saved by Christ's work but await the full fulfillment of the promise — this parallel will deepen throughout the book as Christ is shown to be the true high priest and the fulfillment of all Old Testament types