Provoking God with a Hardened Heart

This past week was particularly marked by stories and reminders of death. We had the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Footage was revealed of a murder in North Carolina. I saw a report of a murder in Canada and one of 71 civilians murdered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during a funeral. Then, of course, there was the assassination on a college campus in Utah. Each story has its own victims and perpetrators, and, of course, each has its own backstory. But the common theme is death.

It seems like most people agree that stories like this should be a wakeup call, but the problem is that we don’t agree on what it should be a wakeup call for. How should w respond to what’s happened or to what’s happening?

There really isn’t just one answer to that question. People are going to disagree on what the proper response is, and even if you agree with someone on a particular response, that doesn’t mean you hold that response at the same level as the other person. So, you’ve got all kinds of responses, and you’ve got a range of weight or seriousness to give to each one.

As the church of God, we need to start that at the most foundational level, this is a wakeup call to the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Death is the result of sin, and the only solution to sin and death is that you respond in faith and repentance to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Luke 13 tells us about a time when a crowd approached Jesus regarding the awful deaths of some Galileans. Basically, they wanted Jesus’ take on the story. I’m going to paraphrase it, but his basic response is: “Do you think those guys that died were any different? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” And then he mentions another story where a group of people died, and he says the same thing. “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus wasn’t trying to be insensitive to the personal or political or sociological issues tied to those deaths, but He knew the people needed a wakeup call about a fundamental truth. We will all die, and we will all face the judgment of God.

This is the heart behind our passage today in Hebrews 3. This is not just a theological or doctrinal message. Whoever delivered this message wasn’t just giving a lesson in theology, he was giving the people a wakeup call.

This passage is taken right out of Psalm 95. This is the second part of the psalm. The first part is a call to true worship. The second part is a caution about false worship.

Let me read it for us in Hebrews 3, from verse 7 to verse 11. Hebrews 3:7-11. Here’s what it says—Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

Verse 7 starts with the word “therefore,” which is a bridge between what’s already been said and what’s about to be said. In light of what we’ve already covered in Hebrews, which is the superiority and necessity of Christ, a warning is coming for all of us.

In giving this exhortation, the writer appeals to the highest authority possible, which is the word of God Himself. And for a Jewish audience, they would have known exactly what was being said.

Back in verse 6, there was the reminder that Christ is greater than Moses in God’s house, and we are part of that house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Our only hope for eternity is Christ. It’s not in any political figure or any political movement. Stay with Christ.

If any of us walks away from Jesus, morally, doctrinally, theologically, or practically, we demonstrate that we never truly belonged to God. Everything we thought we had will be gone. It was never really ours.

Back in chapter 2, the exhortation was that we must pay much closer attention to the message of Christ so that we would not drift away from it. In chapter 3, verse 1, the exhortation is consider Jesus. Look to Him. Focus on Him.

The message of our passage today boils down to one exhortation or warning—do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts.

To Harden Your Heart is to Repeatedly Refuse to Respond

A hard heart is an unresponsive heart. It’s the opposite of a soft heart. Soft clay can be molded, but once it’s hardened, it doesn’t move. In fact, if you try to reshape it, it breaks.

That’s what happens with a heart that’s been hardened toward God. It doesn’t respond to Him anymore, and it will eventually be crushed in judgment.

How does a heart become hard? Verses 7 says it’s connected wo hearing God’s voice. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing to hear God’s voice, but it’s a caution that simply hearing God’s voice isn’t enough. There’s a danger as well.

The example given to us here of hardened hearts is the first generation of Israelites that left Egypt under Moses. And in verse 9, God says that generation saw my works for forty years. A heart becomes hard when it fails to respond over and over again. This generation saw the power and the goodness of God for forty years, but they never responded appropriately. Their hearts were hardened.

It makes me think a lot about our generation today because we are characterized by an overabundance of outrage and shock. One of the key distinctives of our time is how flooded we are with things that are enraging, disgusting, fearful, obscene, and scandalous. Those things are perpetuated by social media and news outlets because it hooks people.

Some of the outrage we see is rooted in fact, some in fiction. Some of the outrage we see is real and genuine, and some is imagined and manufactured. This outrage is even quantified. It’s measured in clicks and view and shares and likes.

Here’s the problem with that kind of culture—similar to the story about the boy who cried wolf, many people no longer know how to respond to news that is genuinely horrifying or warning them of danger. That’s why you end up with people filming a crime or a natural disaster rather than fleeing to safety or stepping in to help.

The evidence and the results of sin and death are all around us, and yet, rather than turn to God for truth and hope, most people just go about their normal lives. We live in a culture that is, or is rapidly becoming, numb to warnings.

But even sadder than a numbness in the culture is the numbness in the church of God.

The message of Hebrews was delivered to a people who were professing faith. Hebrews 3 cites Psalm 95 which was written to Israelites, the people of God. The first generation of Israelites, which the psalm mentions, had heard and seen the glory of God.

Those of us who come to church and hear God’s word on a regular basis are in a greater danger of hardening our hearts than the rest of the world is. There is an infinitely greater blessing for us if we listen and respond, but there is a more severe judgment if we fail. We hear the message over and over again, and if we don’t respond appropriately, our hearts will be hardened. That’s the danger every single one of us faces when we hear God’s word.

It’s like a noise in the engine of your car. At first, you plan to do something about it, but after enough time passes, you don’t even hear it anymore, so you do nothing.

The danger of a hardened heart is why this quotation starts with the word “Today.” Today, as long as you can still hear God’s voice, don’t harden your heart. Today, you still have a chance to respond. Tomorrow, it may not be there. Tomorrow, it may be too late.

That’s why Isaiah 55:6 says—Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. The invitation of God will not last forever because either Christ will come or your heart will be hardened against it, maybe never to respond again.

Keeping your heart from being hardened means you listen to God’s message, not just intellectually, an not just emotionally, but you listen volitionally. Your listening needs to turn to action.

If you’re dying from a poisonous snake bite, it’s not enough to know there’s an antivenom. It’s not enough to even believe that the doctor has the right antivenom. You need to take it. You need to receive it into your body.

The same is true with Jesus. It’s not enough to know he saves people. It’s not even enough to believe that He saves people, or that He died and rose again. That’s necessary, but it’s not enough. You need to receive Jesus for yourself. You need to go to him in prayer, calling out for mercy, and you need to commit yourself to serving Him with your life. You surrender to Him. That’s what it means to repent. That’s what it means that He is Lord.

The citation in Hebrews helps us realize how serious it is to hear God’s voice but not to respond appropriately. Hardening our hearts against the word of God is not a trivial thing. It’s not a minor infraction. Notice how it’s described in this passage. This will be our main outline for today, and I’ve got seven points. Seven definitions or results of hardening your heart by not listening immediately to the word of God.

Number 1, to harden your heart is to rebel against God.

To harden your heart is to fight against God

Verse 8 says—Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Some translations say “the day of provocation.” The Hebrew word here is Meribah, which you might remember means strife.

If you’re at home and your dad asks you to take out the trash, maybe you could say, “Sure, Dad, but I’m doing my homework right now,” or “I’m on a phone call. Let me finish this up first and then I’ll do that.” Your dad might not have a problem with that, but that is not how we get to respond to God.

If we don’t listen to God fully and immediately that is rebellion. That is to fight against Him. God is not someone to whom we can say, “Just give me some time. I’ll listen to you, but let me do it in my own time and in my own way.” If that’s your attitude toward God, it’s not that you’re being polite. It’s that you’re being rebellious. You’re fighting against the will of a holy God who is King of all creation.

The greatest call of God is to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, to trust in His death and resurrection, to recognize your sin, and call out for mercy. That’s the call of the gospel. That’s the only way to be reconciled to God. And the Bible says “Today is the day of salvation.” You don’t wait. You don’t put that off until tomorrow.

Luke 9 talks about a man who said to Jesus, “Sure I’ll follow you, but first let me go back home and say goodbye. Here’s what Jesus said to that guy: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Again, He wasn’t being insensitive. It was a wakeup call to the realty of what it means to follow Him. Not to obey right away is rebellion.

Number 2, to harden your heart is to test God.

To harden your heart is to test God

The second half of verse 8 says it was the day of testing. On the one hand, God was testing Israel, but they responded by testing God sinfully. Verse 9 says that generation put God to the test.

There is a proper way, we might say, of testing God. In Malachi 3, God says to the people, “Test Me in what I’m saying. Listen to me, and I will bless you.” That’s coming from a heart of faith, a heart that believes God will be faithful to His promises.

But Israel’s testing of God was from a heart of unbelief. It was like what Jesus said about Israel in the time of His own ministry. It was an evil and adulterous generation craving for more signs. They will never be satisfied because they come with unbelief.

This is like the person who says, “Okay, God, I’ll listen to you. I’ll surrender my life to You. But first, you need to get me a new car,” or “fix my husband,” or “give me lots of money,” or whatever else. That’s a heart that is not submitting to God as the Judge but rather putting Him on trial as if He’s obligated to meet your demands. It’s a dangerous thing to test God. It’s a form of rebellion, and it will harden your heart.

A third reality we see is that to harden your heart is to provoke God.

To harden your heart is to provoke God

Look at verse 10. God says—Therefore I was provoked with that generation. I was provoked.

The Old Testament translation says, “I loathed that generation,” which speaks of a deep hatred or disgust. It’s connected to a word that means to vomit out. It’s produces a violent reaction.

If you fail to listen to God repeatedly, it could be that He is growing sick of you. He’s not indifferent to your response. Romans says that this world is storing up wrath for itself. The credit card bill is just growing and growing, and one day God is coming to collect. If you don’t answer God right away in the proper way, He is being provoked.

Let’s see a fourth reality. Number 4, to harden your heart is to stray from God.

To harden your heart is to stray from God

Verse 10 says—They always go astray in their heart. The word there literally refers to wandering, and it made sense for that first generation of Israelites because they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. But that physical wandering was connected to a spiritual wandering. They were drifting away from God.

Sometimes, when people come to church a bunch of times, and they don’t see or experience the results they’re hoping for, they might say, “It’s just so difficult because it feels like God is so far away.” Well, it may not e that God has moved away from you; it could be that you’re the one moving away from God. You’ve drifted.

God’s at the same spot on the beach, but you’re out in the ocean drifting away. And in your foolishness, you’re shouting, “Where are you going, God? Why are you so far away?” It’s a ridiculous statement. But it happens in our relationships with other people, and it happens with God.

If a wife spends all her spare time on her phone, her husband might start feeling excluded. She could be ignoring him. And one day, the wife might think, “My husband isn’t close to me anymore.” But he may be right where he was a week ago, it’s the wife that’s moved. She’s drifted.

Well, the people of God are described as His bride, and every time we hear the word of God and we don’t respond appropriately in repentance and faith and obedience, we’re straying from Him. We’re creating a distance. That’s why hearing God’s voice can be a dangerous thing.

Let’s move on to a fifth reality. Number 5, to harden your heart is to forfeit the knowledge of God.

To harden your heart is to forfeit the knowledge of God

God doesn’t want us to know Him in an abstract way. And the joy of knowing God doesn’t come from knowing facts about Him. It comes from knowing Him experientially.

The end of verse 10 says—They have not known my ways. There’s a practical way to understand that phrase, in the sense that they don’t know how to please God. They don’t know how to walk in righteousness. But behind that, it’s a people that don’t really know God. They don’t know how He operates. They don’t know His heart.

This is what Jesus said about the Pharisees. Their hearts are far from me. They didn’t have the heart of God. They did not know His ways. That’s why they couldn’t understand the forgiveness of a sinner.

How do you make a Pharisee? You give them the word of God over and over again and let them get away without the proper response. That’s what the Pharisees did. They justified their sin as obedience. If their elderly parents needed money for their care, the Pharisees donated the money to church. “Sorry, Mom, I don’t have any money. I gave it to God!” And Jesus told them how wicked they were. Their hearts were hardened by disobedience, and they did not know the ways of the Lord.

Reality number 6 is a result of provoking God. To harden your heart is to invite God’s wrath.

To harden your heart is to invite God’s wrath

God will respond to the hard hearts, and when He does, unless he graciously decides to soften that heart, He will respond in wrath. His patience will run out. In verse 11, God says, He swears in His wrath.

The wrath of God is not a popular topic to talk about, but it’s a biblical one. Like I already said, a disobedient generation is storing up wrath for itself before a holy God.

I remember talking to a man who works with appliances, and I asked him what the most common problem was with a dryer. “That’s easy,” he said. “People don’t clean the lint filter.” If you let that filter pile up, your machine can’t breathe. And if that piles up enough, it’s not just that your clothes wont’ dry, it’s that the entire thing will catch fire. People leave their homes with the dryer running, and they get back, and the entire house is destroyed.

That’s what you do when you hear the word of God and fail to respond. You feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but you say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” You’re storing up wrath for yourself on the day of Jesus Christ.

When someone come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, they are saved from their sins, and they are saved from the wrath to come. That’s the wrath of God we deserve, but which was placed on His Son instead.

Wrath, for us, is prohibited. We are put away wrath. But wrath is also used for God, which means that wrath is not inherently sinful. But wrath is designed for God who is the Judge. God the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and He will come in fiery retribution.

Lastly, we find this reminder: To harden your heart is to forfeit the blessing of God.

To harden your heart is to forfeit the blessing of God

We’ll talk more about this next week as we see the author of Hebrews picks up on the “rest” of God. But the first generation that left Israel was awaiting a glorious inheritance, but God said, “You will not enter.” They forfeited that blessing because of their disobedience. They did not respond appropriately.

The same thing happens today. People come to church, and they see the blessings of His word and His people. And they think that the earthly blessings of the church mean they have an eternal blessing awaiting them as well.

But Jesus said there will be people expecting to go into heaven, but instead they are headed to judgment. They knew about Christ, but they never knew Him personally. They never responded appropriately.

The final word in this quotation, “rest”  is a reminder that the tone here is not just that of some grumpy guy slamming his fist, trying to get the people to shape up. No, his heart is that they would be blessed. This is the heart of the father of Proverbs. This is the heart of God who says, “Why will you die? But if you harden your heart, you will not enter My rest.”

God’s desire is that none should perish, but that all would come to repentance. But those who refuse his rest will only get wrath. This is the wakeup call we all need to hear. This is reason we need to tell ourselves and one another, “Consider Jesus. Don’t harden your heart. Cling to Jesus.”

And if your concern is that your heart has already begun to harden, go to Jesus, and He will give you a new one. That’s what God said to the Israelites, “I will circumcise your hearts. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” That’s the goodness of God. He exposes our sin to us, and He points us to Himself as the Savior and the Redeemer.