Hebrews 3:12-19

When Moses woke up that morning in the wilderness, he probably had no idea that he was about to embark on a 40 year saga. 

By this point, he had been leading God’s people for a little over a year, to get them into the land God had promised for them.  Now, they were standing on the edge of it.  

So God spoke to Moses (Numbers 13), as He had many times before, and He told him to appoint 12 men (one from each tribe) to go spy out the land of Canaan, their new home. Think of it like the ancient version of an open house.  

The men are sent out, and when they return 40 days later the people are waiting in eager expectation to hear all about this awesome new land.  Instead, they bring news that would have made the whole nation’s stomachs churn.  The land the Lord had led them to was absolutely beautiful… but the inhabitants were absolutely terrifying.  There were strong, fortified cities with intimidating military power and huge strong men that made the Israelites feel like grasshoppers in comparison (their words).    

All but two of the twelve men insist that they must not even attempt to take the land the Lord had promised.  And tragically, the whole nation agreed. They abandon the promises of God and instead follow their own fleshly impulses.  

Their hearts were hardened towards God, and they were self-deceived.  

This wasn’t just fear… this was what theologians sometimes refer to as the root of all sin, which is unbelief.   

• Behind every sin is a disbelief in God’s plan or goodness or sufficiency or grace or providence or ability to give us our greatest joy… or some combination of those.   

• When we sin, we effectively say: I want it my way instead of God’s way.  

• And that’s what the Israelites did there in the wilderness. 

• It’s the same thing Adam and Eve did in the Garden, and it’s the same thing you and I do in big or small ways on a daily basis. 

So… the Lord pronounced judgment on them and gave them what they wanted.  He said (if I could paraphrase): ‘fine, if you don’t want to enter the land, you won’t.  Instead, you’ll wander in the wilderness outside the promised land for 40 years (one year for every day you spied out the land) until every person from that doubtful, unbelieving generation is dead. Your kids will enter, but you won’t. Gen Z will make it; The Boomers won’t!’.  

In fact, there were only two guys from that original generation who made it: Caleb and Joshua. 

Caleb and Joshua were the faithful few.  The ones who, even when the loud majority said ‘we’re not going to trust God for this one…’, said, ‘we are’.  

Everyone else was caught in unbelief, and didn’t make it into the promised land. 

And the chilling point that the author of Hebrews has been making to his original audience and to us as well is this: If you’re not careful, you could end up just like them!   

You could fail to make it too… into the proverbial Promised Land of eternity with God.  

What is the recourse for such a danger? The author has been dropping imperatives for us across the past couple chapters… 

• Back in chapter 2, it was pay close attention to what we have heard…

• In 3:1 it was consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful…

• Last week, in 3:8 do not harden your hearts 

Today we get two clear commands. Two courses of action we must take to make sure we are like Caleb and Joshua, and not like the rest who fell away.  The first command is inward focused, the second is outward focused. 

First, in verse 12 we are commanded: 

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 

This is a call for inward examination.  

It’s a call to look inside ourselves and test our hearts and make sure we are not becoming numb to the Holy Spirit’s leadership in our lives.  

Notice, it says, “take care, brothers, lest there be in any of YOU an evil, unbelieving heart, leading YOU to fall away…” 

We are called first to examine our own hearts. 

• 2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV): 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

From time to time we need to ask ourselves the hard questions.  I personally like to use the Savior, Treasure, Lord test on myself. I’ll ask myself: 

• Am I embracing Jesus as my Savior today?  

• Am I exalting Jesus as my Treasure today? 

• Am I enthroning Jesus as my Lord today? 

It’s sobering to think that there are some in the Church today who will not make it.  Who will fall away.  

“I thought once you’re saved you’re always saved!?” 

You are. 

• Jesus said, “I will lose none whom the Father has given me.” 

• Paul said, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” 

• Romans 8 says, “those whom He justified He also glorified”. 

So… why does Hebrews warn “brothers” against falling away?  Isn’t “brothers” synonymous with ‘Christians’?  How do we reconcile this?    

Well… 

According to the verse, who are those who fall away? It is those with an evil, unbelieving heart.  

In other words, it is those who are within the community of faith, and appear to be ‘brothers’ in the Lord (that’s why Paul says, take care, brothers) … but in reality they prove that they are illegitimate by their unbelief.  

The New Testament has a category for this type of person… 

Jesus said: 

• Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV): 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

In the Parable of the Soils, where Jesus speaks of seed planted in various kinds of soil as a metaphor for the way different kinds of hearts receive the message of the gospel, he says: 

• Luke 8:13 (ESV): 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

In 1 Timothy, Paul warns the young pastor Timothy:

• 1 Timothy 4:1 (ESV): 4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith…

Back in Hebrews chapter 2, it was this sort of person the author had in mind when he said: 

• “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it…. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (2:1-3) 

Two realities emerge from these passages:

1. Nobody is saved by association.

• It’s not enough to just be in church and around people who know Jesus. YOU have to know Jesus.   

2. Some within the church will be self-deceived.

• Some people think they are in the faith when in fact, they are still unregenerate and worldly.  

• Their hearts are hardened to the voice of God, they don’t trust God’s plan for their lives, they don’t have a relationship with Him by faith in Jesus.   

If you want to make sure you are on track to enter into eternity with Jesus, there must be continual inward examination.  

The second imperative is this: 

13 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.  

This is a call to outward exhortation. 

What does it mean to exhort? 

To exhort is to “earnestly support or encourage a response or action”.

It’s about urging, strengthening, prompting someone toward obedience.   

To urge others to keep going. 

Paul uses the same Greek word: 

• 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (ESV): 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

• Charles Spurgeon: Exhortation is the hammer which drives the nail of doctrine into the heart.

What does exhortation look like? 

• It’s pulling your friend aside and asking how you can be praying for them

• It’s noticing that someone has been missing from church gatherings, and sending them a message checking in on them

• It’s seeing something in someone’s life that isn’t consistent with what God wants for them, and lovingly bringing it to their attention.  

• It’s asking each other how our personal times of prayer have been going. 

• Asking what we’ve been reading in God’s Word.  

• Asking who we’ve been sharing our faith with. 

• It’s noticing spiritual gifts in one another and encouraging each other to use them.  

• Families: family worship (prayer, reading the word, singing hymns) is an invaluable form of exhortation for your kids! 

Who are we commanded to exhort?

Answer:

…one another. 

Who is included in: ‘one another’? 

To put it plainly: Those who are fellow members of our local church.

• The author of Hebrews is writing to a church.  Yes, his words are universally applicable to all Christians everywhere, but they are designed to play out in the context of a local body of believers who are committed to one another. 

• Much of the commands of the New Testament ONLY make sense in the context of a local church. 

This is a powerful reminder that we are called to follow Jesus in community, not solo.  

If you are a follower of Jesus, you need your church and your church needs you. 

You are a vital member of the body of Christ.  Just like a human body needs each part to function properly, the church needs YOU and the other members in order to function properly and reach the world for Christ. (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12).   

You have been gifted by the Holy Spirit uniquely to serve others and build others up.  

You are not a spectator in the bleachers; you are a vital member of the team on the field.  

And one of the primary ways you participate on this team called the church is by exhorting others. 

How often are we to exhort one another? 

Answer: 

every day, as long as it is called “today,” 

The early church didn’t just gather once a week; they did life together. 

Life is busy, and I’m not suggesting we need to attend church programs every day, but we should be intentional to spend time together when we can and maximize that time to build each other up in Christ. 

The point is: exhortation is not something we do occasionally, but something we do constantly.  

Why do we exhort one another every day? 

What is at stake if we fail to exhort one another? 

Answer: 

that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

Exhortation and sin are inversely proportional.  

The less we are exhorted, the more likely we are to fall into sin. And sin is deceptive. It messes with our moral compass and numbs us to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Once we are in sin, our judgment is impaired.  It doesn’t take long for us to be guided by our emotions and the lusts of our flesh instead of being guided by the Holy Spirit.   

It’s a slippery slope, as they say. 

Before we know it, we are like those described in Isaiah 5:20, who “call good evil, and evil good”.  Our hearts become hardened, and even when God speaks clearly we are not prepared to hear it.  

We see this all over our society today.  

But the opposite is also true: The more we are exhorted, the less susceptible we are to the deceitfulness of sin, and the more sensitive we are to the voice of God in our lives.  

Next time you feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit to encourage a brother or sister in Christ, or to spur them on in some way, think about how powerful that word of exhortation is.  It has the power to keep them from sin, to keep their heart from being deceived and hardened.  It’s a powerful responsibility the Lord has given us! 

Make no mistake: You are the instrument that God wants to use in someone else’s life to help them persevere in the faith.   

With all of this in mind, let’s read the last verses of chapter 3 together… 

14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 

15 As it is said, 

      “Today, if you hear his voice, 

      do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

If those verses shake you up, that’s good; that means they’re having their intended effect in your life.  Passages like this are designed, as a means of God’s grace, to prompt us to take action. 

Just like that generation who wandered in the wilderness, you and I have been delivered from bondage. In their case, it was freedom from slavery in Egypt; in our case it is freedom from slavery to sin. 

Just like them, we are headed towards the Promised Land; our heavenly inheritance. 

And just like them, we are being tested in this wilderness of life.  We are living in the wilderness; in the time of testing.  That’s why evil persists in our world, and why things are not the way they should be.  But for those who persevere in faith, glory awaits.   

• 1 Peter 1:6–7 (NLT): 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

The beginning of chapter 3 told us to fix our thoughts on Jesus, our apostle and High Priest.  

The Israelites should have fixed their minds on Moses, their leader. He was worthy of being followed and trusted.  

How much more should we follow and trust Jesus, even when things are uncertain.  How much more should we encourage one another to continue trusting and following Him.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that He did perfectly what Israel (and all of humanity) has failed to do.  He was sent into the wilderness for His own testing (Matt. 4), and He didn’t doubt God the Father for a single minute.  He endured and obeyed and trusted, and He leaned on God’s Word through it all. (Matthew 4)  

Then He went to the cross to pay for the failures of the rest of us wanderers.  

Jesus is worth trusting, not just because He’s a great example to follow but because He has shown His love for us by living and dying for us, to bring us to God.  

• 1 Peter 3:18 (ESV): 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…

Our salvation is secure in Him.  Let’s continue to cling to Him as our Savior, Treasure and Lord and exhort one another as long as it is called today.