[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Hebrews chapter 3, starting in verse 1: “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope firm to the end” (ESV).

       The focus of the Christ is where be begin today—the One who came into the world to fulfill the law (see Matthew 5:17). God had sent Jesus into the world, and he shared his truth with the people, and then, after that, atoned for their sin. He became the ultimate High Priest. These Hebrew brothers and sisters had experienced God’s calling to come back to the way life is supposed to be, to come back into right relationship with him. This call to become one of God’s children would then lead to eventually being with God in Heaven someday. That was the focus. That’s where it would lead. Only right now, they still resided on the earth. They still had the world with all it’s complications to deal with. Yet, like Christ, they themselves could learn to be faithful to God, faithful to their call, to live righteous and holy lives in purity. The author already calls them “holy brothers.” Based on the teachings of Paul, we know that that is true. Once we become saved from our sins, become a new creation, become sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, we become holy. Even though we still reside in our sin affected flesh, we are nevertheless holy in our standing with God.

       As the comparison for Jesus in the Jewish person’s mind, the author brings up Moses. And, of course, this is no accident or random choice, but the author specifically chooses Moses since he was the ‘chief’ person of admiration in the Jewish person’s mind. We can remember that Jesus even came across this during his earthly ministry. It can be recalled, for instance, in John chapter 9 after Jesus healed the man blind from birth, that the Pharisees, in deliberating with that fellow, said to him, “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from” (John 9:29, ESV). It was either Abraham or Moses in the Hebrew consciousness. They were the two high ranking individuals. Why, it was Moses who received the Law, as recorded in the book of Exodus. He was there on Mount Sinai when God, through the work of angels, gave him the Ten Commandments and the rest of the written code. In fact, the Jews held Moses in such high regard, even from a more ‘secular’ or ‘worldly’ viewpoint, wherein he was believed to be learned in the ways of the Egyptian culture—things like math, astronomy, and even medicine. He was even the guy who killed the Egyptian early on for the defense of his people. Remember that?

       In twenty-first century America, it seems kind of hard to put ourselves in this old Jewish mindset at times, and to even come up with an illustration or comparison of what this whole love for Moses was like for them. For us, it would be like this. Let’s say an individual appeared on the scene and had all these new and interesting teachings, but then that fellow was killed. Well, in our minds, it would be like saying this ‘recent’ individual is more important than Ben Franklin, even though Ben Franklin discovered electricity, had many other inventions, was well versed in the ways of the world so that he had an interesting play on words, was a writer and even a statesmen. “So, you’re telling me,” someone might say, “this guy who lived a few years ago in our time is greater than Franklin?” Or, we could consider the top man himself, George Washington. He led the Patriot army through the Revolution to complete victory. Then, in an uncanny move, resigned his post without taking the kingship, and finally ended up being the country’s first President. “You are saying that this man is more significant than George Washington.” That seems to put things more in perspective for us.

       As a preliminary forerunner, Moses served for the setup that was to come (and much in the same way as we could say Franklin and Washington did). He was faithful in what God had assigned to him, and then came One later who was also faithful—and this later fellow is the focus of what the former fellow was pointing toward. Even Jesus talked about this, when he said to the Pharisees in John chapter 5: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (46, ESV). Moses pointed that there would be One coming, One who was really where the glory lay. It wasn’t in Moses that the glory lay, for he was merely a human. Christ, on the other hand, is God himself. The writer of Hebrews already told this to his audience back at the beginning of his letter, recall, for he said, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3, ESV). That fact has already been established. And Christ’s faithfulness, not only in his earthly ministry and keeping the Law, but also in his death on the cross, meant that he could be trusted above all others. He loved his fellow Jews to the end. Thus, anyone who holds onto that belief, completely and entirely to the end of life, can have the hope of being in, of dwelling in, peace forever after this life.

       Verse 7: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest’” (ESV).

       After all that has been said in comparing Christ to Moses, now the emphasis moves to a call—an examination even—for every person to be sure they are in the right with God. Some people are hearing these truths for the first time—the Truth about Christ. Some people already think they believe, but they may not really believe with a pure and sincere heart. Many, there were, in the old group of Israelites, out there in wilderness, when they were being lead by Moses, who thought they believed in God. The belief was present that they were going to be saved due to their being part of the ‘collective’ group. Many became hardened in their hearts, and turned to other gods, turned to other ways, despite all that God had done for them. He continued to show himself to be true, yet the people would either not really come back to him, or they would turn away again. They refused to accept God for how he really is. Perhaps they wanted God to be a certain way. Maybe they wanted him to be distant because of their sin; they wanted to keep their sin. Maybe they wanted him to be like the pagan gods, of which, by the way, he often acquiesced in certain ways. They loved the Law, we know that much, and they wanted God to have them live through the Law. They wanted him to be something other than he was—a loving, personal God, who was reasonable.

       All of this disobedience provokes wrath. Notice that it’s not that God’s in a wrathful state—as is often taught. It’s not that God dwells constantly in a ‘wrathful’ state, as a wrathful being, like the ancient Greek god Zeus. Sin certainly will lead to wrath—there is no doubt about that. In this case with the Israelites in the Old Testament, the writer says that God was “provoked” to wrath. If he was an angry God, or in a wrathful state against sinners all the time, he couldn’t be “provoked” into it since he would already be in it. John, in his Gospel, paints a very different view, when he talks about how God so loved the world. It wasn’t that God was such in a wrathful state that he sent his only Son to appease his wrath. That’s not what it says. A lot of people don’t understand this. A careful examination of Scripture, however, will show that God loves those who don’t know him, and wants them to come into relationship with him. It’s not that he hates them until they are saved. It’s not even that he only focuses on his ‘justice’ until he can show his mercy and grace. That’s not that way it works.

       Verse 12: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (ESV).

       The author turns his focus onto us, and specifically the state of our hearts. The choice to believe or not to believe. That is the question. We may currently believe, and we may be tempted to fall away, or as we might say, to walk away. Perhaps we didn’t get something that we wanted? The wife or husband never showed up. “I’m past 40 years old,” you may say, “been praying for 25 years, and the person hasn’t shown up.” So, what you’re really saying is that your relationship with God is based on God’s performance. Not your performance, but God’s performance. So, if God hasn’t been able to give you what you’ve wanted, desired, and prayed for, he’s in danger of being ‘fired’ by you. That’s a common theme, right now, isn't it? It is seen out on the campaign trails. Well, is God fired? Notice that the author beckons us to focus on exhorting one another, and this so that we don’t eventually become “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” A hardness of heart could occur. What does it mean to exhort? Interestingly enough, exhort means to encourage, but not only to encourage, but we might say, ‘strongly encourage.’ If that’s what it means, then it’s important we are thinking the right thoughts, thinking about all that is in fact good for us, instead of focusing on that one, two, or three things that are wrong, or not the way we want them. We ought not to violate what we talked about two weeks ago, that concept of “What you see is all there is.” “What you see is all there is.” Remember that? (see Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, chapter 7).

       It’s so easy for us to forget all the good things which are right before our eyes, and to focus on those things that are ‘hitting us.’ Those circumstances that we don’t feel are right, and aren’t fair for us when we compare ourselves, our lives, with others. There is so much that is right for us. There could be so much that is worse. But due to our blindness, due to holding in mind only a narrow perspective, we miss that which is right and commit a ‘focusing illusion’ when it comes to a problem we face (see also in Kahneman’s book chapter 38). The problem is made out to be so grand, so great, that it becomes bigger than life itself. It becomes to sole focus of our life. When we don’t have something ‘surrendered,’ as we talked about a lot a long time ago during the Study of James (back in 2019-2020), when we don’t have something surrendered, it can grow to become so big in our focus that it becomes ‘deceitful’ for us. We think that if we obtain this or that, that life will somehow magically change and become so much better. Yet, all we really need to do is look at those around us and see that ‘things’ or ‘people’ really don’t change our fulfillment of life that much. Do they? So you’re telling me, if you’re a person still looking for a spouse, that every person who is married is fulfilled, and is living a completely happy life without problems? Really? The research doesn’t show it—it shows the opposite! Or every person who obtains that house—moving from an apartment to a house—that instantly move up a level to greater happiness in life? Does the house remain new forever? Or does it become routine, and after a couple years, taken for granted, and no longer become new?

       Verse 15: “As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies 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 unable to enter because of unbelief” (ESV).

       The call of us, as Christians, (taken from Psalm 95) goes both for those who are not currently part of the faith, who have never been, and it also goes for those who already are, who perhaps have been for a while now. It is to both groups of individuals. To those who don’t know God, and to those who already do. An individual in either group of people can harden their heart. It’s often thought that a person who isn’t saved cannot resist God’s pull, his tug on their heart, or that a person who is already identified as a Christian will not turn back. Yet, by this point our experience, as a Christian, if we’ve been around the church for a while, we know that neither position is the case. A person can resist the call of God to come into personal relationship with him—we know that. This is usually accomplished by distraction, by distracting oneself from the truth that was presented to them. And a person can turn away from the faith after already being an established member. This usually occurs because the person is lead astray by the ‘lusts’ of this world, or because something bad happens in their life and they can’t understand why God didn’t protect them from it. It’s usually one of these two things. This is why—by the way—if we are a Christian, that we want to be living with the surrendered mindset. Nothing ought be held as too great a value, whether that be our spouse, our children, our money, our possessions, our career, our status in society, our reputation, whatever it is, we want to hold these things in such a way that we wouldn’t lose our faith if we were to lose any of them. All of the afore to mentioned things are transitory, and are subject to change. It’s important to remember that, and value them in that light, to be thankful for what we have while we have it with a loose grip.

       The problem the Israelites faced in the Old Testament times of Moses and their wondering in the wilderness was that of the desire for water, believe it or not. They were thirsty. This is recorded in Exodus chapter 17. There in verse 7, it says that the Israelites “tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” when they didn’t have water to drink, the water they desired. That’s something we can often do ourselves. In fact, if we read Exodus chapter 17 and verses 1 through 7, we can replace ourselves with the Israelites and water with whatever it is we want. We can read the passage like that. And, that being the case, what is that we want or that we hold in a high enough position that we say that if we don’t have it, or if we lose it, that’s it. We don’t believe God loves us or is with us? What is more important than our relationship with God? If we are a fair weather Christian, only one who follows when things are going well, we’re going to find ourselves in trouble. It provokes God’s wrath when so called Christians are quick to abandon him and leave because they didn’t get something that they desired, or because something has departed from their lives. This is a hard teaching for sure. Yet, at the same time, really, it’s an encouragement for us in two ways. It’s an encouragement, again, to keep everything surrendered, and two, if we have lost something and are still in the faith, we know we are on the right track. Of course, when things are lost, whatever they are (even if not persons), their is a grieving process that needs to be worked through, and sometimes that process can take years for certain individuals. That’s just the way it works, unfortunately. But where are we on the other side of that?

       Often times people have expectations of life, and of God, of which they ‘expect’ events to go a certain way, and then when they don’t go that way, they get upset with God. It has been seen more than once this kind of attitude in a person who was married and then got divorced. The person prayed that God would keep the marriage together, that he would help that situation, but the marriage still ended in divorce. This is a tuff one for folks. And then if a person is left with a mindset which thinks that God predetermines everything, that becomes a real problem. They are left to face this seeming truth that God ‘predetermined’ for them to be divorced, and often that doesn’t go all so well. Yet, if a person is able to shift from that mindset, that programming, and instead embrace the concept that human beings have free will, and can make incorrect choices, then they are able to see that what has transpired in fact was not God’s fault. They are able to start to understand that even God cannot just do whatever he pleases in any situation as he has allowed persons (and spiritual beings) to have free will. Often people get trapped by their own mindsets, that which has been adapted from Christian teaching that really isn’t taking everything into consideration. Often it means well, but it falls short of reality, and what people experience in their lives. The goal for us, as Christians, is to stay with God no matter what happens. No matter what anyone does, and no matter what power would come against us. When we do that, we show that our faith is indeed true, and we can have real peace of mind because we still have the most important Person there is, who is God himself.

- Daniel Litton