So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
A person can give an audience to the gospel; he can understand the report about God’s Son and His work on the cross, and still indurate his heart toward God. The Holy Spirit’s voice discloses the truth of grace to men and women, but it is the decision of people to either believe or become spiritually hardened. Never cause yourself to have an unfeeling, stubborn heart of unbelief. Rather, believe God’s word and be healed.
Many times the Israelites provoked God in the wilderness; once for bread, when God sent them manna; again for water, when Moses struck the rock; again when they made the golden calf of idolatry; again, when they refused to believe Caleb and Joshua’s good report and then refused to possess the land; and other times as well. We must never disbelieve God’s promises as they did in the provocation, when Israel initiated God to anger for forty years. Instead, let’s hear the Holy Spirit’s voice and believe.
We must never scrutinize God, for the Almighty is not pleased when we carefully inspect Him as if to critique His nature and will. God gets angry at such behavior, because the testing of the Lord shows a heart that roams and wanders away from the truth. The way of Jesus, which is His mode of operation, must be known by those who are His. The way of the Lord is that road to Calvary, where our High Priest was sacrificed for our sins and where we receive the robe of righteousness as a gift, to cover sin, and clothed with God’s imputed goodness. May our hearts not ever be out of the way, but may we know the grace of God, and believe His great promise about His Son.
That whole generation of accountable ones went astray. A whole population saw what God did, and yet rebelled. Think of all the miracles they observed: the parting sea, the pillar of fire, the manna from heaven, the water out of the rock, and many others, and yet they were deceived and left God.
In verse 11, God did not declare this terrible oath out of joy, but anger. God, with vengeance and wrath, swore that those unbelievers, for we will see that their problem was unbelief, would never enter His rest. The abode of God, which is His rest, will never be entered into by the unbeliever in Jesus Christ, but wrath, indignation, and eternal fury will be his sad possessions forever and ever.
See to it that you do not have an evil heart of unbelief, or of no faith. All lewdness, badness, harm, maliciousness, and wickedness come from the unbelieving heart. Unbelief is the problem in our context, so have faith and be secure. Unbelief causes people to turn away from God, so have trust and live. Unbelief cancels our rest, which is God’s rest, so accept the gospel and be free.
We must see to it that we do not lack saving faith. God will not believe for us. He offers salvation, but it’s our responsibility to receive it by faith, apart from works.
To commit the sin of apostasy is synonymous with unbelief. The heart is called evil because of unbelief. To disbelieve the gospel is to fall away. A person removes himself from grace the moment unfaithfulness fills the heart. See to it that you always believe. The power to believe or not believe is in your hands.
Instead of doubts and fears, encouragement should be the watchword of the day. God gently invites us to His side. We are called near by the blood of Jesus. This means that it is Christ’s sacrifice that brings our acceptance with God, not our sacrifices. Hopeful consolation should be ours every day, otherwise sin will harden us. We must understand grace, or the offenses of the flesh, through the frustration of our failure, will delude us and render us to be stubborn souls that cannot receive the free gift of life in Christ.
Encouragement, through the good news of free salvation in the blood, is the way to a soft heart of faith. A soft heart of faith is
opposite to a hard heart of disbelief.
Holding fast to the confession of our faith is our responsibility. We must set out to meet the definite goal of final salvation. Some preach only beginnings, saying that salvation is secured at the starting point of faith. Others only touch on the endings, harping again and again about the need to endure. But scripture teaches grace and continued grace. Christians start with grace when they accept the gift of eternal life. Christians must continue in grace as this verse teaches. Grace is for the believer, so continue in grace as this verse teaches. Grace is for the believer, so continue in this confidence.
What does it mean when it says, “continue to hold onto the confidence?” I believe this confidence stands for the trust that we have for Jesus; the trust that says, “Jesus will bring us through.” If we continue in the confidence, or in the assurance that we have a Savior, we shall be finally saved, if not, then salvation will be lost to us. We are saved, we are being saved, we will be saved.
The confidence that Hebrews 3:14 is referring to is a confidence in the Lord. This is verified by Phil. 1:6. If we are confident that God will carry on what He began in us, then He will. If we let go of our confidence in Christ, because of whatever life hands us, then the good work will cease, and beginnings will be all we have.
All stability is found in Christ. You cannot fall while fixing your eyes on Jesus. It’s up to you! The end is not very far away. Life is fleeting and our respective vapors are
quickly disappearing. So trust in Christ with continuity. Keep the trustworthy Jesus in memory, for He lived and died for us, and then He lived again, never to return to the grave, except to call us out of ours, in resurrection life! Amen.