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Hebrews 3: 7-19, Do Not Harden Your Hearts
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Feb 19, 2025
Welcome back to our study of the book of Hebrews. Today we’ll give our attention to Hebrews 3, verses 7 through 19. Last week, we talked about the supremacy of Jesus over Moses, one of the most important figures of the Old Testament. Jesus as we saw is greater than Moses because He is God. Jesus being the true Son of God became the guarantor of a better covenant. He took on a human nature in order to live the righteous life that God intended for mankind and atoned for our Sins. He was faithful to God over God’s house ( the people of God) as a Son while Moses was faithful as a servant. The writer mentioned a critical theme in verse 6 and will give us the implications of that in the rest of the passage. We are considered members of the house of God if we hold on to the end to the teachings we’ve received. It is convenient to serve God when all things are running smooth in our lives. But times of persecution and trials are meant to authenticate us. In today’s passage we’ll learn how to remain steadfast in our walk by looking at the example of the people of God during and after their Exodus from Egypt.
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hello good morning and uh welcome back to our study of the book of hebrews
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last week we talked about chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 in which we mentioned
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that jesus was a greater than moses that's what we looked at and um
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we talked about the supremacy of jesus over moses and moses was on important figures of the old testament
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and as we saw we saw that jesus is greater than moses because he is god himself and he is
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faithful over god's house as a son while moses was faithful as a servant and we defined
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what the house of god was and the house of god is the people of god now we we
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say that jesus took on took upon a human nature in order to live the righteous
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life that god intended for mankind and he also atoned for our sins and as a
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result of his obedience god gave to the humanity the name that is above every
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name the name son so jesus again um the author mentions
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something very critical in verse six of chapter three and i want to read that to you before we go any further in chapter
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in verse six we read on the following he says but christ is faithful over god's
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house as his son and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and
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our boasting in our hope so that's what he mentioned and then we stopped there so basically the author is
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implying that it is convenient to serve god when all things are running smooth in our lives but
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what he's saying here is this like we are considered members of the house of god if you hold on to the end to the
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teachings we have received now it is very very convenient to serve god when things are like smooth but when things
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get complicated when we are going through a hard time when we are going through testing this is where
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our authenticity gets um put to the test okay god puts us to this to the fire to
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see what's in us and god already knows what's in us he already knows who those
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whom he has called so the testing is meant to show the genuineness of our
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faith so when times of persecution and and trials come they are meant to authenticate us
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so today's passage we are going to look at um what it means to remain a steadfast in
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our work by looking at the example of the people of god in the wilderness through the exodus from egypt so
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again we have to remember when uh the writer was uh pending down these these words in in chapter three and the entire
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chapter the entire book of hebrews he was talking to believers we probably were going through some kind of a
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persecution so you can imagine how easy it is to give up and to want to just shrink back and say you know what i
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don't like these things it's too much for me i want to just go back to what is comfortable and what is convenient so this is why he's writing those words and
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to tell us listen be steadfast and stay the course don't give up now because
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there are wait for you a crown somewhere so we're gonna talk about verses seven through 19 and this is
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probably uh one of the most difficult uh scripture to talk about because the
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theme there is basically staying steadfast and holding on and again
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authentication of our our faith now when when he started chapter three he referred to the people
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as holy brothers so i believe that he's talking to believers but then that when
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you read the entire chapter there are places where he says listen um unbelief now unbelief is not typically
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the characteristic of uh people that have been called by gods but we're gonna see the nuances and we're
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gonna try to understand what is going on here but before i do that i kind of want to give you a background and
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we're gonna read the entire chapter verses 7 to 19 and then i'm gonna give
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you a quick background and we're gonna get into understanding what this means so a rest for the people of god so
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verses seven therefore as the holy spirit says today if you hear his voice
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do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to
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the test and saw my works for 40 years therefore i was provoked with that
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generation and said they always go astray in their heart they have not
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known my ways as i swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest
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take care brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall
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away from the living god but exhort one another every day as long as it is
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called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for
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we have come to share in christ if indeed we hold our original confidence
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firm to the end as it is said today if you hear his voice do not harden your
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heart as in the rebellion for for who were those who heard and yet rebelled was it not all those who left egypt led
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by moses and with whom was he provoked for 40 years was it not with those who sinned
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whose bodies fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they shouldn't they would never
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enter his rest but to those who were disobedient so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief
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this is the word of god pay attention now let's try to
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understand what is going on here again in verse six okay we just learned that
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those who hold fast and hang on to the teachings of christ at the end are the ones who are truly considered members of
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the house of god so verses 7 to 11 give us the implications of the previous verse verse
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6 which i just read to you so in the writer he's quoting psalm 95 verses 7 to 11. so i want to
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read psalm 95 verses 7 to 11 and then we're gonna unpack this listen to the scripture for
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he is our god and we are the people of his pasture and the ship of his hand
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today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart assad may river as on the day at
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massa in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test and put me through the proof though they had seen
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my work for 40 years i loved that generation and said there are people who
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go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways therefore i swore in
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my wrath they shall not enter my rest again this is the lord speaking
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and we need to know why this is so important especially when it comes to the rest of god okay the people of
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israel they kept grumbling against the lord and showed by their attitude that
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they were not acquainted with his ways they didn't keep the word of god and god
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was angry with that generation and swore that they will not enter his rest and we need to know a bit
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of history about this rest before we go any further and i want to look at numbers 13 and numbers 14 and
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there is a verse that i will particularly want to zero in on once we finish the reading so let's go to
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numbers 13 and numbers 14. so actually let me give you a synopsis of numbers 13 and then i'm gonna read
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numbers 14 because it's going to be too long so basically in numbers 13 this is where the people of israel led by moses
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and aaron at the border of canon and then god tells uh moses send spice to the
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land to spite and to see what it looks like so moses sends 12 spies and among
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those 12 spies uh two particular one of our interests
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joshua who later on became the leader and then caleb and caleb was of the tribe of judah so the 12 people go on a
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40 days um reconnaissance and they go to check the land and then when they
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come back they indeed see that the land of canon like god said is a land that is
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fruitful it's flown with milk and honey there's like these fruits that they bring back that's like the land looks
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amazing because god had promised the people of israel that he was going to take them to the land to the land of
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canaan based on this covenant with abraham isaac and jacob he had told them he was going to give them that land and
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they were going to occupy the place and enjoy some kind of physical rest in there so when the people come back the
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spies came back 10 of them were like dude we saw the land
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it is indeed flown with milk and honey but the people that live there are like giant they're like we look like
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grasshoppers next to these people we are going to be destroyed they are going to swallow us
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we are not going to be able to take this land and i say those those 10 spies are speaking joshua and caleb remember that
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god has been with with us thus far if god delights in us he's going to give us the land as he promised so joshua and
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caleb demonstrate faith and they try to tell the people please stop spreading this negative news god gave us the land
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already we are going to swallow them we are going to take over don't be afraid just take courage and if people want to
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kill joshua and caleb they're telling them shut up we saw what we saw you guys
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shut up and then they infect the entire camp and now people are crying and thinking oh that we're gonna get
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destroyed we're gonna get killed and then we're gonna pick up for numbers 14. i'm gonna i want to read numbers 14
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because i believe this is important now let's listen to what happened it's a long chapter
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then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night and
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all the people of israel grumbled against against moses and aaron as usual and the whole congregation said to them
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would that we had died in the land of egypt or would that we had died in the
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wilderness why is the lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword our
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wives and our little ones will become a prey would it not be better for us to go back to egypt and they say it to one
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another let us choose a leader and go back to egypt now do you see how they are
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already behaving they want to go back to the land of captivity the land of bondage the land of
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um where they were being tortured they want to go back to that land when god just took them out of there and has been
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providing for them the entire time okay then let's read from verse five then
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moses and aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of israel and
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joshua the son of nun and caleb the son of jefune we were among those who had spied out the land
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tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of israel the land which we passed through to spite
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out is an exceedingly good land if the lord delights in us he will bring us
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into this land and give it to us a land that flows with milk and honey only do not rebel against the lord and
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do not fear the people of the land for they are bred for us their protection is
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removed from them and the lord is with us do not fear them then all the
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congregation said to stone them with stones but the glory of the lord appeared at the tenth of meeting to all
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the people of israel now you see what's going on joshua and caleb are trying to exalt the people they're trying to tell
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them listen don't be afraid god is with us and god is greater because he
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that's in us is greater than he is that he that's in the world so don't be afraid of these people we have god on
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our side and if god is pleased with us then we are going to destroy them and take over this land
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but they won't listen and the glory of the lord appears and then we're going to see what happens and the lord said to
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moses how long will these people despise me and how long will they not believe in
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me in spite of all the signs that i've done among them i will strike them with
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the pestilence at the industry inherit them and i'll make of you a nation
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greater and mightier than they now the lord here is angry and he's going to he
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wants to destroy the people but i want you to see something important here he tells moses listen i am so tired of
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these people i want to destroy them and i'm going to make you moses into a great and mightier
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nation now moses has a choice here moses can say oh yes he can rob his hand and say
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yes god has seen me to be faithful so therefore i'm going to be the next one in line here no that's not what moses
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does let's see what moses does but moses said to the lord then the egyptians will hear of it for
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you brought up these people in your might from among them and they will tell the inhabitants of this land they have
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heard that you o lord are in the midst of his people for you o lord are seen face to face and your cloud stands over
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them and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night now if you kill these
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people as one man then the nations who have heard you your fame will say it is because the lord was not able to bring
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these people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness
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and now please let the power of the lord be great as you have promised saying the
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lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love forgiving iniquity and
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transgression but he will by no means clear the guilty visit visiting the
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iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation please pardon the iniquity of these
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people according to the greatness of your steadfast love just as you've forgiven these people from egypt until
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now now you see moses reaction it's almost like moses is more gracious
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than god but that's not the case what god did here was he was testing moses as
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well to see if moses was going to like be a selfish and self-centered say well
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i only care about myself i don't care what these people do but no moses enters seeds for the people
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you see the parallel jesus interceded for us and the seeds for the moses is a picture
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here of christ almost he intercedes for the people that say no please lord don't do that because people would hear of it
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and say that you were not able to bring them to the land that you promised and you destroyed them so he calls on god
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and say your frame is on the line and the scripture says tells us in psalm 23 yeah he leads us in paths of
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righteousness for his name's sake so for your name's sake moses is saying please
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pardon these people but then moses says because um please let the power of the lord be
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as great as you have promised the lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love so moses knows the
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character of god he said you are a god that's slow to anger but abounding in love now slow slowness to anger does not
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mean that god does not get angry because clearly the anger of the lord had the wrath of
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god was going to be poured upon the people but god is also a god of what steadfast love he's a forgiving god and
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he will forgive iniquity and transgression but then listen to what moses says next
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but he will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on
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the children to the third and the fourth generation sometimes what happens in our lives is when we don't repent of sins
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you you tend to see that there's a repetition with our children and their children and so forth and sometimes
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those things stay within the family and you hear christians talk about generational sins that's kind of from
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making now i don't want to get into great details about it but this is this is what this is talking about here
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okay so moses is entertaining for the people and telling god god you are god a
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god who is slow to anger and abounding in love now god showed this to moses when moses asked him to see his glory
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and god showed and declared his name to moses i mean god that is slow to anger and abundant in love but at the same
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time are by no means clear the guilty so you may be forgiven for the eternal uh
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you may be forgiven for your sins okay you may not be eternally damned but that doesn't mean that sometimes god is not
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going to discipline you yes as far as like your eternal destination you may have you may be
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forgiven but if you continue and insist on sinning god may visit you with his
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disciplinary hand and you will be chastised by god okay so now moses enters for the people and
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we're going to take it from verse 20 and down now god promises judgment this is
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the title of that subheading then the lord said i have pardoned according to your word so moses spoke
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then god pardoned but truly as i leave and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the lord none of the
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men who have seen my glory and my signs that i did in egypt and in the wilderness and yet have put me to the
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test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice shall see
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the land that i swore to give to their fathers and none of those who despise me shall see it but my servant caleb
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because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully i will bring him to the land into which
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he went and his descendant shall possess it now since they are malachite and the canaanite dwelling the valleys turn
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tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the red sea and the lord spoke to moses and aaron
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saying how long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me i've heard the grumblings of the people of
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israel wish to grumble against me say to them as i leave declares the lord what
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you have said in my hearing i will do to you your dead bodies shall fall in this
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wilderness and all of your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upward will have grumbled against me not
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one shall come into the land where i swore that i will make you dwell except caleb the son of jeffrey and joshua the
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son of none but your little ones who you said will become a prey i will bring in
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and they shall know the land that you have rejected but as for you your dead body shall fall in this wilderness and
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your children shall be shepherded in the wilderness 40 years and shall suffer for your faithlessness
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until the last of your dead bodies lies in this wilderness according to the number of the days in which you spied
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out the land 40 days a year for each day you shall bear your iniquity 40 years
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and you shall know my displeasure i the lord have spoken surely this i will do
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to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me in this wilderness they shall come to a full end
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and they shall die and the man whom was sent to spy out the land who returned
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and made all the congregation grumbled against him by bringing up a bob report about the land the man who brought up a
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bad report of the land that died by a plague before the lord of those men who sent who went to spy out the land only
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joshua the son of nun and caleb the son of jefune remained alive
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now you see what's going on here god brings about his judgment and he said
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because of what you've done you guys are gonna wander in the wilderness for 40 years and anybody that was 20 and up
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was gonna die in the wilderness so they were given 40 years to basically repent of their iniquity
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okay so god chastised them they remain in the wilderness and they died all that
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generation died in the wilderness only their children and joshua and caleb were able to enter the land because of
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disobedience so as you can see clearly here you may be forgiven of sin but the consequences might remain and the
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consequences are actually god's showing us love because the scripture says god disciplines whom he loves and he was
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going to discipline the people of israel because they were not acquainted with his ways they have not known my ways god
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said and um i loved this generation because time in and time and again god showed
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them that he was with them he showed them signs he showed them wonders he gave them manner from heaven he gave
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them water twice on on two different occasions and they still grumbled against god they still tested him and
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they still wanted to go back into the land of egypt to bondage now the land of
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egypt represents for christians today a state of sin and then god takes them out
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of sin and he promises us a spiritual rest so i'm going to get into that now but i just wanted to make sure you
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understood the background to this um to this passage now
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again i wanted to zero in on verse 11 and 12 and the lord said to moses how long will these people despise me and
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how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that i've done among them i will strike them and with
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the pestilence and disinherit them and i'll make a few a nation greater and
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mightier than they now after that like we said moses interceded for the people
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and god pardoned their sins and yet they were still chastised by god which i just
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mentioned now all that generation died in the wilderness and not a single one of them
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saw the promised land at the exception of caleb joshua and the that generation's uh
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children now some people compare the land of canon uh to heaven but from the commentary
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that i read canon also represents the place of rest that god was preparing for
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the people of his house and for believers today it stands for the spiritual rest that jesus gives us so
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you see like god pardon their sins but just because because because they persisted in
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unbelief they did not enjoy the full uh the fullness of god's blessing they
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didn't get into the land they were out of egypt but they never entered canaan they were out of egypt
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out of the land of um bondage but they didn't enter cannon which is
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representative of the land of what uh physical rest where they were going to go there and possess the land and god
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was going to be there with them the rest of god god was going to give them some kind of physical rest they were going to
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enter the land yes they were going to fight they were going to get there but god was with them and they were going to enter and possess that land and they
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forfeited that because of unbelief so the writer of the book of hebrews is
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giving us a strong warning okay and he's exhausting on the people that he was writing to and us ultimately
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to not harden their our hearts like the people did in the wilderness because if we do that if we insist and persist in
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unbelief the same faith will await us and i want us to be very careful not to take god
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lightly it seems as safe like now whenever you go to a lot of churches
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they paint a picture of god that is a god that is too nice
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a god that only loves that never disciplines his children and therefore people get the wrong idea
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about god they think that god is uh a cosmic santa claus
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but those stories in the old testament were given to us so that we can learn and not make
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the same mistakes now the scripture said in in hebrews that if people when they disobeyed the
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the word of god that was given to angels were disciplined how much more will we be disciplined if we neglect such a
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great salvation there's a warning there if we continue and persist on unbelief
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we're going to be disciplined and he may not be pretty okay let's continue
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so as we saw that the writer is is quoting psalm 95
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so i kind of wanted to to add like some more remarks so we read like the following verse 10 and
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11 of psalm 95 for 40 years i loved that generation and said there are a people
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who go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways therefore i swore
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in my wrath they shall not enter my rest now the people of israel were at the
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border of canon they were at the border the place of rest that god was preparing for them and after moses sent out the spies two
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of them like we saw display the kind of faith that god loves and they turn out the spies incited the people to grumble
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against moses and aaron and ultimately against the lord and god was angry with
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that generation and wanted to destroy them all and as we saw moses intercede for the people but so god swore that
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they would not enter the land of canon and they were wonderful 40 years in the wilderness until that whole generation
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had been wiped out so how are we to interpret this like today okay so i said and i'm gonna
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suggest the following now if you look in in verse six of hebrews uh the scripture says but christ is
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faithful over god's house as a son and we are his house if indeed we hold fast
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our confidence in our boasting in our hope and we also mentioned he also mentions
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that in verse 14 for we have come to share in christ if indeed we hold our
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original confidence firm to the end so what does all that mean in terms of understanding the rest of god okay well
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it could mean that some believers those saved will live in spiritual restlessness
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because of constantly doubting the word of god and want to enjoy a lifelong
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fellowship with him it could mean that or you may also mean that those who don't enter the rest of god were not
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part of the house of god from the get-go they were never converted so no matter
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how you slice it you don't want to be in that position because i don't want to
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to temper and to play with the word of god i want to say well you may be safe but you may still be living in unbelief
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i don't even want to play games like that i think it's better to not even mention that yes you may be saved but
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you may still be living in um but if i think it's better to say if you are still in living in unbelief you may not
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be saved at all i think it's important that we examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith
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this is why the testing comes this is why all these testings and trials come to test the genuineness of our faith it
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is not easy i'm not suggesting that uh we are spiritually giant because we've triumphed over our trials we can't
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even triumph unless the holy spirit himself works in us both to will and act
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according to the word of god so the trials are meant to sift between the true ship and
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the false sheep and verses 10 and 12 15 warn us about
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that so we're gonna take it we're gonna read the rest listen to what the verses say take care
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of brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall
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away from the living god but exalt one another every day as long as it is
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called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for
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we have come to share in christ if indeed we hold our original confidence
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firm to the end as said he said today if you hear his voice do not harden your
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heart as in the rebellion so the writer is saying in verse 12 that in light of everything that he has told
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them they ought to be careful not to harbor any bitterness of heart any
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unbelief toward god that may lead them to fall away from the living god now what does it mean to fall away from the
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living god we already saw how the people of israel were drifting from god they started drifting and eventually they
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remained in the wilderness for 40 years they were not acquainted with his ways so i don't want to give any kind of
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false hopes and play a game like with these verses falling away from god to me is
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synonymous to being faithless okay and then god isn't pleased with faith and
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faithlessness or unbelief because the scripture says also in hebrews chapter
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11 or 12 without faith it is impossible to please god and faith comes by hearing
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and hearing by the word of god so i don't want to keep saying to people that yeah you may fall away from god but
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still be saved it's just not something that i want to entertain because we do that too much in churches today so we
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don't have to have we don't want to have a hard heart like i don't want my heart to be hard and i don't want that
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okay so he's warning us he said do not be dis hardened by the deceitfulness of sin
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it's easy for us to drift away because in in in in verse in in verse three he
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be he began in chapter two to talk about we don't want to drift away from the word of god
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when we ignore it so if you if you if you let your bible collect dust if you
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don't get into the word of god because how is god going to speak to you yes he speaks through dreams and wonders and
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stuff like that i'm not saying that he doesn't do that but he has given us his word we have the word of god if you
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don't get into the word of god because what the scripture says in romans 12 uh
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be transformed by the renewing of your mind okay how does your mind get renewing by reading the word of god
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because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god now yes you can open your bible and still be
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mean nothing to you but god is going to engage his children through his word as you get into the
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word of god as the word of god slices you as the word of god shows you who you are you begin to repent and there's a
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process of repentance that is ongoing until your last breath so we are told here don't harden your heart when god
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wants something in your life deal with it right away and the writer is encouraging his readers and us to keep spurring one
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another onto good works joshua and caleb tried to do that to the people they're trying to say no guys
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come on don't don't don't lose hope though the people will listen and it happens today you try to talk to
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somebody about the word of god they dismiss you they tell you i don't want to hear it i don't want to deal with it
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and there is a sense in which they drift away and eventually they fall away from the living god
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and the kicker is in verse 14 where he says that this is how we have come to really know god that the only way to
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know god to know that we know god is by holding our original confidence firm to the end and i want to mention alongside
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that verse on first john two verse three to foster supporting verse listen to what first john 2 says here
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verse 3 to 4 and by this we know that we have come to know him we have come to
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know him intimately if we keep his command met whoever says i know him but
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does not keep his commandment is a liar and the truth is not in him now you see
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how john is so clear he said this is how we know that we have come to know god if you keep his commandment if you claim
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that you know him but do not keep his commandment you're a liar and the truth is not in you so i don't that's what i'm saying i
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don't want to temper with the word of god because in verse 15 we read today if you
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hear his voice do not harden your heart as in the rebellion so
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if you hear the word of god if god has granted you to listen and to hear his word don't harden your heart
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because he's gonna soften you and say please lord i know what you said about me i know what your word says i'm going
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to obey now faith again comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god god knows that he is
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and god knows who's going to listen to his word and who's going to reject it so i pray that as you read these words
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it penetrates you because the word of god is alive and then we're going to finish with
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verses um 16 to 19. listen to what the scripture says for for who were those who heard
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and yet rebelled was it not all those who left egypt led by moses and with whom was he provoked for 40
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years was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness and to
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whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient so we see that they were
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unable to enter because of unbelief see those people were saved they went
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through the sea they went through all of that they went through the testing they i mean god took them out of egypt
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okay but the scripture says that but with most of them god was not pleased because they were disobedient
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because of unbelief god does not take unbelief lightly i
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think sometimes we entertain these thoughts as if god looks looks at unbelief and and tell us oh it's okay
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that you don't believe me no god absolutely abhors unbelief because
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when we we don't believe the word of god we are calling him a liar when the scripture says that in the in
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the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and people question that with all the evidence that we've been
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given and when they question that is they make it to seem as if god is okay with it that
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god has to prove to them that he exists i mean this is this is crazy because the existence of god is plain to everyone
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like roman says for even though they knew god they did not honor him as god but they became futile in their thinking
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and their foolish hearts were darkened so why what when we when we don't believe the word of god
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is not because we can't believe it it's because uh of our own
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sinful nature unbelief okay morally we hate god's word because he slices us and
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what do we do when we hear the word of god and we don't like it because we don't like it because it's pointing something in us that we don't like so
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therefore we're trying to find a reason to resist the word of god so the word of god is true
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but we resist it because of our own moral inability
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moral failures we don't want to hear god's word because it's it's it's exposing us
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so therefore we're trying to find a way to cover up our sin and then we say well i just don't have enough evidence to
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believe this when god has given us so much evidence in his word
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i mean the word of god is clear concise so when we continue to to resist it
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it may show by that that we don't truly know god or if we are his children he he's going to
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discipline us because he's not going to let us get away with it so i don't know where you stand
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but the scripture says today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart as in the
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rebellion because you saw what happened and those things were meant for our learning today we have so much more than
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those people had so when we continue in unbelief it's actually worse for us and i think we've gotten to a
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point in our society where when things happen in our lives we no longer even connect with the wrath of god we just
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think they just happen no sometimes when your life
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when you see that there is like if you call yourself a believer and you are in
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constant disobedience of the word of god when you you you've gone astray and you see that things are happening in your
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life maybe it's time god is trying to speak to you say listen i'm going to
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cause you to suffer until you repent of your sin this is god's loving disciplinary hand
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because he can just let you drift and let you just go because if you are not a child of god why will he discipline you
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but the discipline of the lord is actually an act of his love as well so i would say examine yourself because i
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have to do it too on a daily basis it's easy for us to fall away from the living god when we begin to harden our heart
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all right so that's all i wanted to share today have a wonderful time and i'll see you next week