“Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with this generation,
And said, “They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways”;
As I swore in My wrath,
“They shall not enter My rest.”’
“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” (Hebrews 3:7-14 NASB’95)
The subject matter is Jesus Christ. And it is our walks of faith in the Lord Jesus, and it is the importance of holding fast our confidence and hope we have in the Lord Jesus, by faith in him, until the very end. And then there is a warning to us all who profess faith in Jesus Christ. If we hear the voice of the Lord speaking truth to our hearts, we must not harden our hearts against the truth of God’s Word to us as so many of them did who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and who did not enter into God’s eternal rest.
Many of them stubbornly held on to their sinful practices and they would not heed the warnings of God to them. For they were idolaters, drunkards, revelers, the sexually immoral, and those who put Christ to the test and who grumbled against God. And those things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they craved (desired). And they were written down for our instruction so that we will not follow in their footsteps and end up with the same result of death, and not life eternal with God.
For if we stubbornly hold on to any sinful practices, and if we refuse to deny the flesh and to submit to God and to obey his commands, because we love our sins more than God, which is not love for God at all, then we will suffer the same results as the Israelites did who did the same during their time in the wilderness. We will die in our sins and we will not have eternal life with God. For Jesus gave his life up for us on that cross that we might die with him to sin and now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living.
There are many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ, though, who do not think this applies to them. They feel convinced that all their sins are forgiven and that heaven is guaranteed them when they die based on a profession of faith in Jesus Christ they made at some time in their lives. They do not believe these warnings apply to them, and so they ignore them, and they continue in their deliberate and habitual sins and not in walks of obedience to our Lord. They will not inherit eternal life with God.
And this is not the only warning of this nature in the New Testament Scriptures. They are all throughout the New Testament writings. For we are taught that if we profess that we are in fellowship with God, but while we walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, we are liars. And if we claim to know God but while we do not make obedience to God and to his commands our practice, we are liars who do not live by the truth. If sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not have eternal life with God.
So, the encouragement to us here is for us to take care that there not be in any one of us an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. So, we are to be those who are encouraging each other day after day so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And this is love in action when we exhort other Christians and we warn them against falling away, back into sin, and of failure to obey our Lord’s commands. For we have become partakers of Christ if we remain faithful to him until the end.
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
If You Hear His Voice
An Original Work / April 9, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
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