Watch Out!
Hebrews 3:7-19 ·March 30, 2025· Joel Passmore
Part of: Hebrews, Toward an Enduring Faith
Pastor Joel Passmore continues a sermon series on the Book of Hebrews and warns us against hardening our hearts against the sin in our lives.
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Have you ever heard someone give you a warning, tell you about a danger, and your first response may be in your mind or actually come out of your mouth was, oh, that'll never happen to me.
Have you ever said it and then regretted it later? Bree reminded me recently that five years and maybe two months ago, we were watching the news at my mom's house and it was this story about this weird virus that was happening over in Asia and we saw images of people wearing masks and stories of cities on lockdown and Bree looked at me and she goes, dad, is that going to happen here? And what do you think I said? Oh, that'll never happen. That'll never happen to us.
That'll never happen to me. We think that when we're kids and our parents warn us about something, right? Kids, am I right? Oh, mom, oh, dad. That'll never happen to me. I got news for you kids. You're still going to think that as an adult, probably, when you hear it from other adults. Sadly, we think that sometimes when we hear it from God. We hear a warning from him. Oh, that'll never happen to me. Thanks, God. I appreciate it. But you must be, you need to go talk to so-and-so.
They really need to hear that. That'll never happen to me. It's the person, of course, who thinks that'll never happen to me that's actually in the most danger.
We're in a sermon series on the book of Hebrews, and I mentioned a few weeks ago that Hebrews has several warning passages in it. And, really, so many of the New Testament letters have warning passages in them, but there's a little something extra in these Hebrew passages. A little extra sauce.
Today we come to the second warning passage. The first three are very stark. The ones towards the end of the book, they're a little bit more melded into his sermon. But these first three are pretty stark. This is the second one today. The warnings, you need to know this, the warnings that the preacher of the book of Hebrews gives to the people, they're not about the people that may come against them in that little house church, probably in Rome. It's not about authorities.
It's not warnings about people who might knock on their door and steal their property, or people that might harass them. It's not a warning about being put in prison or losing their freedom. He doesn't warn them about the danger out there. He warns them about the danger in here, inside themselves. That's the warning. The danger of a hardened heart.
The author of Hebrews wants them to know that this danger is real. It could happen to them. I just, I have to be honest with you, as I come to this text, I'm feeling two different ways.
Part of me, as your pastor, I want you to pay attention to this. To not dismiss it. Oh, that'll never happen to me. And I confess there's a part of me that wants it so much for you that there is a tendency to, like, amp it up and really get in your face in an unholy, like, I'm going to take control of the situation and really make you, I'm going to take you by the scruff of the neck and make you see for your own good, right? All right, that's not good.
All right, so I'm confessing that to you now. And yet, I can't retreat so much that the force of this passage doesn't come at you and confront you. And there's another part of me that, frankly, I'm confronted by this passage. The hardness of heart that's in me.
The warning, I'm not, I too need to not say, oh, that'll never happen to me. I'm a pastor, I'm in ministry, that'll never happen to me. No. Far be it for me to say that.
So let's come, let's come to Hebrews 3 soberly today, together. And trust God. Because this is real, but there is hope here. There's always hope. Remember, a warning wouldn't be given if it weren't needed. But a warning also wouldn't be given if there was no hope, right? Warnings come when it's needed and when there is still hope of a response. That's what we need to sit in today. This is God's holy word for us today.
Hebrews 3, 7 through 19. Let's pay attention to God speaking to us through his word. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart. Therefore, they have not known my ways, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any one 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, 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 40 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.
Pray with me. Lord God, we can trust you right now to sort through our hearts, to put your finger on the hard spots and to melt them with your love and your grace and your mercy. I pray that we would be spurred on towards greater belief that you would soften up our hearts. You'd help us to pay attention, not living as people without hope, but not also also not living carelessly, ignoring these things, but to take them in, to sit with you, to trust you as you sift through us and sanctify us.
Jesus, we pray this in your name. So the readers of this little book were in dire straits. Life was hard. This passage tells them, watch out, watch out. Hardship in life can lead to hardness of heart. So hardness in life can lead to hardship, hardship in life can lead to hardness of heart. God's word is living and active. Can I get an amen on that? I already did. God's word is living and active. It comes to us, the spirit, the word comes to us through the Holy Spirit and it has abiding relevance for us.
That's, you can tell that the preacher believes this because he opens with, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and then he quotes scripture. He reads and teaches Psalm 95. That's what he's teaching on in this passage. This Psalm, Psalm 95, is a cautionary tale.
Psalm 95, it's written about a much earlier point in Israel's history. Way back, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, that time. God heard the cries of his people as they groaned in Egypt. They were slaves. They were doing hard labor. Life was not good in Egypt.
He sent Moses to deliver them because he heard their cries and he brought them out of slavery. They left as free people. They plundered the Egyptians as they left. The Egyptians were like heaping stuff on them. Just go. Get out of here. God told them it would happen. They left richer than they came in. They crossed the Red Sea. Their enemies destroyed behind them and they were headed to the promised land. This was going to be a difficult journey.
Okay. But they had seen the Lord work. They had seen his miracles, his wonders. They followed a pillar of cloud at day and a pillar of fire at night. Imagine that.
So, of course, at every point that they had a need, they simply came to God in prayer with faithful hearts. Right? No, that's not exactly how the story went.
All that God had done so far doesn't seem to mean anything to them. They said, I know he used to do nice things for us, but what has he done for us lately?
They got hungry and they cried. This is a direct quote. If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. Where we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. God gives them manna. They were thirsty and they said, why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Is the Lord among us or not? Pillar of cloud right over here. So God told Moses to strike the rock. And out gushed water. And they were given what they needed.
Later, they craved different food. They wept. And they cried. And they said, we remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing. Again, these are all direct quotes from the Bible. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt and cost nothing. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up. There's nothing at all but this manna to look at.
God gave them quail. I'll just say it. Worst road trip ever. When are we going to get there? I'm hungry. I don't like this food. Dad, he's on my side.
This trip is lame. I want to go back. Moses at one point says to God, look, if it's going to be like this, just kill me now. I'm serious. He said that. Some of the places that they stopped get renamed because of their bad behavior. They get renamed about their bad behavior. They get names in Hebrew that translate to things like testing, grumbling, rebellion. My family has had plenty of stressful moments on road trips, but I never thought of doing that.
I never thought of saying, this rest area shall henceforth be known as argument land. Look, kids, remember last year when we stopped at Whiny Creek and then we ate at the Dairy Queen of Great Woe?
Road trips are super stressful. There's cramped quarters. You're away from home. You don't have leg room. You don't like the stuff you have. The stuff that you really now, it turns out you wanted and needed is back home.
The passage describes this as the day of testing. That's what it says. The day of testing. But they responded to the day of testing. How do they handle it? By putting God to the test.
They said, no, no, no. We're not going to be tested. If there's anyone being tested here, it's the Lord. They put His provision, His plans, His promises up on trial. We're going to prosecute Him for doing this to us. We don't think you really care, God. And with each episode, they hardened their hearts. Like putting clay in an oven. They were getting harder and harder. Mount Sinai. The mountain shook. Smoke descended on it. Moses went up to meet with God.
But it took a little bit too long coming back from his meeting with God. So the people said to Aaron, make us gods to go before us. For this Moses, we don't know what's happened to him.
As God said in this psalm that Hebrews 3 quotes, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. They spent so much time with Him. So much time with Him. He showed them so much about His character. About who He was. But at each moment of distress, they show that they don't really know what He's all about. They don't really know Him.
The final straw comes when they reach the edge of the promised land. A group of spies goes in and comes back saying, we got good news and bad news. The good news is, it's a great land. Just like the Lord said, it's ripe. And it's good. And it's fertile. The bad news is, there are people there. Did you guys know that there were people there? And they were big people. They're like mighty warriors. We are not able to go up against them, for they are stronger than we are.
That's what they said. And right on cue, all of the people cry out and say, why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Wouldn't it be better for us just to go back to Egypt?
God decided this was the time. He pronounced judgment on that generation. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. The rest is the promised land where He had been taking them. And I want you to take note, when it says wrath here, this is not a temper tantrum. This is not God flying off the handle like we do. This is a righteous anger against rebellion and unbelief. He was very patient, but he reached a point where he said, I'm making a decision.
These people will not enter. That generation, he said, was not going to go into Canaan. Verse 16, the preacher reminds us, for who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? Listen, over one million adults left Egypt in the Exodus. Well over one million. When they entered the promised land 40 years later, of those one million plus adults, two entered the promised land. Joshua and Caleb.
Two. Now this should sober us up. And it should make us eager to hear how we could be different. How can things be different for us? Preacher, tell us. Tell us. One who wrote Hebrews long ago under the authority of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Tell us. How can we be different?
Listen, the New Testament compares the Christian life to the wilderness time. This is a good thing to think about. We're living in between two great events. The deliverance from sin that Christ accomplished on the cross. That's your deliverance. If you believe in Jesus, if your faith is in Him, you've been delivered. You've been led out of captivity. If that's your exodus, okay? You're living in between that event and the arrival at the promised land, which is when Jesus returns, bringing in the new heavens and the new earth.
You're living in between these two events just like they were. Just like this generation in the wilderness. In between is the day of testing. That's what this time is. On one hand, we've seen so much we have many reasons to believe God to hold on to His promises. Now listen, I know that you might, there's a part of you that might say, yeah, but those people back in the Exodus time, they saw more. They saw the plagues. They saw the miracles. They saw the pillar of cloud and the fire.
I tell you the truth, Christian, you have seen more than they have. Because you know the name of the Redeemer, Jesus. You know the work that He did. You have all of the record of how God accomplished salvation in Jesus and you have been revealed the final story in Revelation, what's going to happen. You have seen more.
And on the other hand, life is hard. It's just because we've seen a whole lot doesn't make life easy. Our allegiance to Jesus, it makes us stand out. How many people in here are feeling that your allegiance to Jesus makes you stand out? And not always in a good way. Most often in a hard way. People consider us backwards at best and dangerous at worst.
There's so much pressure to compromise on what we believe and how we live. And being a Christian, if you haven't discovered this yet, you will. It does not exempt us from hardships. Being a Christian does not get you out of the hard things in life. Our loved ones still get sick. Our jobs are still difficult. We still get laid off. Our bills still add up.
We still wonder, what is my life amounting to? What is happening? This is the day of testing. And it is good to wake up and realize it for what it is. It's wise to think of that way. And listen, how can the day of testing be something that produces in you a stronger, enduring faith? That's the question. How can this day of testing strengthen your faith? Make it endure instead of leading you to put God to the test? That's the fork in the road for all of us at the day of testing.
Which way are we going to go? The preacher gives us three ways. Three ways for us to go the first way. For it to produce enduring faith in us. Not in spite of the day of testing, but through the day of testing that we are living in.
Here's the first one. The preacher says, examine yourself. Examine yourself. He writes, take care. When we say take care, it's just a way of saying goodbye. Take care. It's just kind of something we toss off. We mean well. But here it means beware. When the preacher says this, it means something like this sign. I like this sign because it really tells you that there's a danger. That sign was on the Newport cliff walk up in Rhode Island. Stay on the paved path.
Steep cliffs. High risk of injury. And that guy, he's not just thinking about falling. He's in the midst of falling. Sideways. There are parts of this walk with no handrails and it's often windy. There is a real risk of falling. And this sign is trying to sober you up. Beware. That's what it means when it says take care here. Take care like when you're about to go on this walk and you see this sign, you're like, oh, that's for real. The thing that can make us fall is not a gust of wind or a slippery rock, but an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God.
It's our hearts that must be examined. And this is challenging. Jeremiah says, the heart is deceitful above all things. How can we examine our hearts? How do we know what we're looking at? Well, here is one telltale sign complaining.
Here's a helpful quote. Complaint is the flag of ingratitude and it waves above the center of unbelieving hearts. We certainly see that in the wilderness generation, right? And I'll just speak for myself. I certainly see that in my life. As I came into this year, there was a couple things God put on my heart to seek Him about and pray for myself. Lord, help me grow in humility and help me grow in gratitude.
Feel free to ask me how that's going. Really, I'm giving you permission. Now? Yeah, it's going okay. But this passage is helping. Don't be complacent and abide grumbling and complaining, especially when it's about our Lord God. Don't abide it. See it for what it is. Do you know when you go to your fridge and you look at something that you're like, oh, that's a leftover I'd like to eat. And then you open it and there's like stuff growing on it. You know how you respond?
Ugh! That's how I want you to see complaining in your own heart about God. When you see it, I want you to go, ugh! Get this out of here. Throw it away. Clean out this dish. I want this gone. Take care. Take care.
Now, examining yourself, it goes further when you pair it with the second thing that the preacher says here. each other. The Greek word behind exhort is perakaleo. Perakaleo. It could be translated and it is translated in your Bibles. Encourage, urge, implore, that kind of thing. That's how it's translated. But to get the best understanding of this word, let me break it down. Para is a preposition that means next to, with, alongside. and kaleo is a verb that means to call out by name or to address someone.
So, perakaleo means to address someone from alongside them. That means to do it, you've got to get near and you've got to speak up. Okay? If you're going to exhort each other, you've got to get near to someone and you've got to speak up. Now see, we like to just do one or the other. Right? We see someone from far away and we're like, hey buddy, that's not a good idea. You really need to think about your life. That's the social media approach. Right?
Or, other times, we like to get near but never really say anything that's real. We just want relationships to be light and easy. Like a pillow. We talk about sports, we tell jokes, we chew the fat, we swap stories, we share our interests. But how often do we say, hey friend, there's something I need to tell you.
There's something I want to ask you about. There's something that I've noticed. Does the word of God have your attention? We need to get near and speak up.
That is a huge part of avoiding what happened to the wilderness generation. The hardness of heart. Don't take it upon yourself to take care of your own heart.
Give and receive exhortation. The reason we need it is because so that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceives us. The way that it deceives me is not the way that it deceives you and so maybe you are the one that can tell me how I've been deceived. You see? It's like this. Some people are crazy and they like to keep dangerous exotic animals as pets. Have you seen these people? They'll have a tiger or a bear. Something that's deadly.
And they'll keep it as a pet. Now I've seen some of these stories and they always end up the same way. The owner is like, oh, it's under control. Oh, I've raised him since he was just a little tiny tiger cub. He would never hurt me. He would never hurt me. Arr!
And then the person's on the news. Do you know sin is like a wild animal? It is dangerous. It is not something that you can control and yet we all keep certain sins as pets. We keep them in our house. We keep them around, within reach, in our homes, in our lives, in our hearts. We are convinced it won't hurt us. I've got this under control.
It takes other people coming alongside and having the courage to speak up who see that thing for what it is and to say to us, to urge us, to exhort us, are you crazy?
Get that thing out of your life. One of these days it's going to kill you. Do you know that that's an act of brotherly or sisterly love? Now I know those conversations don't always go that great. No one exhorts somebody else perfectly with a completely holy spirit. We have a lot of work to do there. We have to pull the log out of our own eye before we go to the speck on someone else. All that. But it doesn't get us off the hook here to exhort. It is an act of brotherly or sisterly love and we need to give and receive that to each other.
We need to be open to that. And then when we hear it, we need to take the next step and confess that sin and kick it out of our lives. Get it out of there.
And here's the last thing. The last thing the preacher says. He says, act now. The readers of Hebrews knew that Psalm 95 was frequently used as a call to worship. Just like we had a call to worship this morning from Psalms, they too in their synagogue services used the Psalms as a call to worship. Psalm 95 was a frequent one. For generations worshipers would begin the service hearing, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Today.
Today. Now the preacher says, exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. Today. Today. What are you going to do today? I wake up every morning thinking about that. What am I going to do today?
Many things in life seem urgent. They tell us, they scream at us, this is urgent, but very, very few are truly important. At the top of that list is your spiritual health. Of all the parts in your life, it is the only one that I can say to you, you should never ever neglect it. Don't neglect it.
Let's suppose that somehow you had the time and the energy to exercise every day, to reply to every text and email within the hour, to arrive at every appointment you have five minutes early, to finish every project at work and at home, to make every meal from scratch, to keep your yard mowed and your car washed and your laundry folded and then send out the perfect Christmas card to all of your friends and acquaintances the day after Thanksgiving.
That sounds pretty good, huh? I tell you the truth, if you did all that, but your heart was hard with unbelief towards God, it's all foolishness. it's all a waste of time, a colossal waste of time.
There is nothing in this world worth more of your time and attention than Him. Nothing. Young people, are you listening? People who are not so young anymore, are you listening?
Nothing is worth more than Him, not your job, not your friends, not your chores, not your social media feed, not your hobbies, not your sports teams, not your children, not even your spouse. Nothing. Don't let those things and those people keep you from pursuing a healthy spiritual life.
Those things aren't as valuable of your today as the Lord is. Today. Today. Abide in Me, Jesus says, and you will bear much fruit. He doesn't say, respond to all of your emails promptly. And you will bear much fruit. He doesn't say, get to the end of your YouTube feed and you will bear much fruit.
We have so many responsibilities, so many distractions, and such a limited bandwidth. Don't let your spiritual life get only the frayed edges of your week.
Put it in the middle. Fill other things up around around it. Act now. Now listen, if you're already trying to do that, here's the thing about these exhortations, the take care, the exhort one another, the act now. If you're doing that, that's great. You don't have to walk out of here condemned. Please, no one should walk out of here condemned. But you don't have to let this text just be like, oh, I'm not doing enough. Just keep at it. Just keep at it.
Know that you are making good decisions, that you're being wise. Just keep at it. But if you're feeling convicted about this warning, about something in this warning, don't leave here talking about what you're going to do tomorrow. Do something today.
Don't put best to be the enemy of better. Don't wait until you have a perfect plan for your spiritual life to get going on it. Just do something. Warnings are only given if they're needed and warnings are only given if there's hope. For all who hear them, there is hope. Hardness of heart is a deadly problem, but hearts can be changed. Your heart can be changed. Promise in Ezekiel is that through his spirit God will work a deep change in people. Listen to this.
I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you to the Savior that called you. Drawing close to him. He is your hope. He is the one that will change your heart. He is the one that will lead you toward the place that you're going towards the promised land.
He was made like us and he experienced the day he obeyed. He never rebelled and he did it so that rebels like us could be forgiven. Praise God. There is hope for the hard hearted. There is hope for you and there is hope for me. For the stony parts of our heart. God wants to make them soft. Take care. Exhort each other and act now friends. Come to Jesus today and ask him to change and listen to them when they speak up. Confess your sins and be softened in the ever flowing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because his grace is greater than our sins.