A Greater Calling
Jesus is Greater: An Exposition of Hebrews

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Good morning, church! We’re continuing our series today through the book of Hebrews. We’re in part five of this series, which brings us up to the end of chapter three, which we’ll be covering today. We’ve entitled this series, “Jesus is Greater.” He’s greater than all.

We find this theme in Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.” He’s got a greater name. He’s greater than the angels. He’s greater than Moses.

This whole book of Hebrews is speaking to those who came from a Jewish background, but they are coming to faith in Jesus. The author of Hebrews is explaining to them why He’s the greatest.

Today we’re going to talk about why He has the greatest calling; Jesus has a greater calling. That’s what we’re talking about today and if you’re going to consider that, you have to ask yourselves a couple of questions: One is, “What is the calling of Jesus?” Two is, “Why is Jesus’ calling the greatest?”

The calling of Jesus is this; it’s found in Matthew 11:28 (NLT) Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Amazingly enough, His calling is the greatest because of the nature of the calling. He doesn’t call us to a religion, but to a relationship. He doesn’t call us to a philosophy, but to a Person. He calls us to Himself. This is one of the most amazing callings in all of human history. He says, “Come to me and I will give you rest.” It’s a great calling because it’s a unique calling; He says this rest is found in Him. It’s a great calling because He’s the only one who can give us rest. He’s the only one that can give us relief. We all need relief. We need rest. We need rest from fighting and terrorism, from news reports about Israel and Hamas. We need relief from what’s going on in the Middle East and what’s going on in Ukraine riots in our streets because of political infighting among our people. We need relief from shootings in Maine, concerns about the economy and about inflation, growing anxiety and suicidal ideation among our young people.

Where can we turn? Whose voice should we listen to? There are many offering relief; many who think they have ideas on how we can find peace and how we can find rest. Among all of those voices is the voice of Jesus saying, “Come to me,” and yet, in America, we’ve heard that voice so often, we’ve heard the gospel so often that we are in danger of hardening our hearts towards it. Of saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard that, but I’m going to try this instead.’

That’s what this message is about from Hebrews chapter three. We are in danger of having a calloused or hard heart towards the calling of Jesus. We need to pay close attention to responding to His calling.

As we look in the book of Hebrews chapter three, the author warned the Hebrews not to harden their hearts against the great calling of Jesus. I believe, today, that we can heed this warning not to harden our hearts.

As we look at the text today, I think we’ll see four ways that we can rightly respond to the calling of Jesus. Let’s dig in.

Hebrews 3:7-19 (ESV) 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 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.” This is God’s word. Amen.

We’re looking for four ways on how to rightly respond to the great calling of Jesus. Here’s the first way:

1. Respond immediately.

How do we rightly respond? We respond immediately. I want you to note that the key word in the text is “today.” The word, “today,” is in today’s scripture three times. We see it at the beginning, middle and end of this passage. The word, “today,” tells us to respond to the calling of Jesus. Take note of this. The author of Hebrews is a Jewish background preacher. He recognizes that he needs to quote the Old Testament in order to preach to them. What we really have here is him preaching a sermon from Psalm 95. He begins by reading the text from Psalm 95. You see this in verses 8 to 11. Then, he begins to tell us how to respond to the text. It’s a good sermon from the preacher to Hebrews.

I would have you take note of one thing before we dig in; he begins in verse seven by saying, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says…” A moment ago, I said, “this is God’s word” and you said, “Amen.” That’s our way of saying, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says.’

One of the things that you can ask thethe Bible is, “What does the Bible claim for itself?” This is called “internal evidence.” What’s inside the Bible that it speaks of itself about? Does the Bible claim to be the word of God?

Here, we see a very high view of scripture from the author of Hebrews. He says that it was the Holy Spirit speaking, as he quotes Psalm 95. It’s like what we say at the beginning of every time I preach. I say, “This is God’s word,” and you say, “Amen.” That’s all of us saying, in agreement, that this word is above us; it comes from God. It comes from the Holy Spirit. Let’s not miss that.

The author of Hebrews begins to preach and he says, 7 “…Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,…” There’s a sense of urgency when God speaks where to respond immediately. God wants immediate response .

One of the things that we teach from the word of God when we’re teaching parents how to parent their children is this statement – “Slow obedience is no obedience.” Teach your children to obey immediately.

As believers, we’re followers of Jesus. We’re children of God and we’re to learn to obey immediately and respond immediately to the call of Jesus. This is the call that we see here. Circle the word, “today.” It’s in this passage three times; it’s in verse seven, verse 13 and verse 15. Respond today if you hear, but not everyone has ears to hear. If you hear, then respond. If you’re hearing and you’re not responding, be aware of what happens to your heart. Every time you tell God to “wait,” “I’ll get to it tomorrow, “I’m too busy with my stuff” or “no” , you’re hardening your heart.

The Greek word for “harden” here is “sklērunō.” It’s where we get the word “sclerosis.” “Arteriosclerosis,” hardening of the arteries, comes from the Greek word, “sklērunō” here. It’s not hardening of the arteries here in this passage, though. It’s hardening of the “kardia” in the Greek, which is the hardening of the heart. We’re not speaking of this heart. He’s not talking about medicine right now. He’s talking about your spiritual center; that the heart is emblematic of the “seed of the will” of who you are. Every time you tell God, “no,” every time you tell God, “wait,” you’re hardening your heart towards God.

Respond immediately; this is what this word requires. This is what the preacher to the Jewish background people is saying here in the text. Psalm 95 was what he wanted to preach to them. ‘Today, don’t harden your hearts. Answer Christ’s call today. Answer it today. Don’t put it off. Answer it today.’

That word, “harden,” could also be the idea of “to be obstinate,” “to be stubborn.” It also has the idea of “calloused.”

Now, I have some pretty good calluses right now because it’s the Fall season and I’ve worked in the yard all summer long. I was building a deck in my backyard recently, too, so I’ve got some good calluses. It comes from the repetitive use of tools that rub up against my hand. Every Spring, when I get out in the yard and start working, I will get a couple of blisters, but then, I get calluses and I don’t feel it anymore. This is what happens when you get a callus. You lose sensitivity; you lose feeling and every time you rub over it with a tool, you get a thicker callus and you have less feeling.

The same is with the spiritual heart. Every time you say, “wait,” to God, every time you say, “I’ll get to it tomorrow, Lord ,” every time you say, “No, I’m afraid, God; I’m afraid to do that. It’s outside of my comfort zone,” another layer of callus forms on your spiritual heart. You get, not just a spiritual heart that’s hardened, but you, also, get hard of hearing when God calls. You get a heart that doesn’t “hear” well when God calls.

The author of Hebrews is quoting from Psalm 95. He says, 8 “do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,” He’s speaking of their forefathers, who rebelled in the wilderness. Whenever they came to the Promised Land, they sent in the twelve spies; ten of them came back with a negative report. Two of them, Caleb and Joshua, came back with a positive report, but the other ten came back and said, ‘We were like grasshoppers and they were like giants.’ The people were terrified and they began to grumble and complain – ‘We should have never left Egypt.’ They begin a vote on getting a new leader. They want to kick Moses out and get a new leader. God said that this was rebellion; they had provoked Him. They had tested Him. He goes on to say, in verse 9 and 10, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’

We live in a generation today that’s constantly putting God to the test – ‘Let’s see how far we can get. Let’s see how far we can “color outside the lines.”’ We test God’s mercy. We test His grace. We go astray and then, we test God for it. We blame Him for it.

Verse nine says, “where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.” They saw My works for forty years. They saw the ten plagues I put on Egypt; they saw how I brought them out of slavery. They walked across dry land, across the Red Sea, and they saw Me destroy the army of Pharaoh as the sea closed in upon them. They were fed with bread from Heaven every day for forty years. They saw water rush out of the rock; it fed and gave water to all their flocks and all the people. They saw these miracles. Their shoes didn’t even wear out for forty years. They didn’t even have to go buy new shoes. They saw all these things, but when they pulled up to the Promised Land, the place of rest, they rebelled.

In verse 10, it says, Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ He’s talking about their forefathers. He’s speaking to the Hebrew believers and He’s trying to help them understand something about Jesus. They’re trying to figure out how to bring their Judaism into the new covenant and he’s reminding them, ‘Hey, you need to respond now, because look at how they did not respond after everything I did for them.’

The word, “provoked,” could be translated, “to be grieved with,” “to be displeased with,” “to be disgusted with.” The Lord was “disgusted” with them .

It reminds me of what Jesus said to the Church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation. He said, ‘you were neither hot nor cold, so I spewed you out.’ Literally, ‘I vomited you out.’ You made me sick with your lack of commitment. Verse 10, “I was provoked with that generation.And he said to him, he said, they always go astray in their heart. “ That’s where it always starts. Sin always begins in the heart and then it goes to the outward behavior. They’ve not known His ways and so He swore in His wrath. They shall not enter My rest. They’re going to die in the wilderness.

The word, “wrath,” is a scary word for us. We think of man’s uncontrolled anger, but that’s not what this means. This is God’s righteous response to man’s rebellion and sin. This is God’s holy response to sin. This word, “wrath,” could also be the idea of judgment. He is a holy God; He has to judge sin. He can’t just let it go, but because He’s a loving God and a merciful God, He let it go to the limit. He let it go until it tested Him; it was to His limit and so, He poured out His wrath and they died in the wilderness.

This is how the preacher begins, the preacher to the Hebrews. He begins with this – ‘be sure that you answer immediately this question about Jesus being the greatest. Quit putting it off. Don’t be like your forefathers in the wilderness who rebelled.’

In the book of 2 Corinthians, we read this, 2 Corinthians 6:2 (NLT) For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.” Are you putting it off? Has God called you?

Maybe someone’s here today and He’s been calling you to faith, to believe in Him, to make Him your Lord and Savior and you’ve been thinking, Yeah, but I’m young and there’s some stuff that I still want to do. I’m afraid if I turn my life over to Christ, I’ll have to stop doing this or I won’t be able to try that. Well, you’re right. If you turn your life over to Christ, you probably won’t be wanting to do that or to try this other thing. You’re right about that, but be careful, for tomorrow is not guaranteed. Today is the day of salvation.

The scripture says to respond immediately. Someone is here and you’re a believer. You’ve responded to salvation, but you haven’t responded to that recent calling He’s given you. He’s given you instruction and it’s always out of your comfort zone. He always calls us out of our comfort zone because that’s where it takes faith to walk. What’s He telling you to do and you’re saying “no?”

When you say, “no,” every time you say, “wait,” another layer of callous forms over your spiritual heart. Respond immediately; respond today .

Matthew reports that there were disciples that wanted to follow Jesus and He was saying, “Come follow me.” One particular disciple said this in Matthew 8:21-23 (NLT) 21 “Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father. 22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.”

That seems kind of harsh to say; someone is about to have a funeral. Some have suggested it’s a strange request at any rate. Had his father already died or was he saying, ‘I really don’t want to follow You right now because my dad doesn’t believe in You and I don’t want to face the disagreement with my dad. Let’s wait until I bury him and then I’ll follow You.’ Some have suggested that might have been what was going on. Others have said that he was perhaps the first born son and he had to follow the Jewish rules of grief, which meant that he would need to spend at least one year waiting for his father who had died.

There were tombs that had a bed on one side. The room next door would be the place where they would put the ossuary chest. Ossuary chests were bone boxes carved out of stone with a lid that would be about the length of a human femur. It would take a year for the body to decompose and then the eldest would go in and gather the bones and commission this bone box. All of these bone boxes would be in the side room facing it. This was the family room; it was the family tomb.

Some have suggested that this man was saying, ‘I’ll follow you next year.’ We don’t know, but Jesus knew. He knew that there was something awry; there was something wrong with this man’s heart. He was putting off the call of Jesus.

What about you? Every time you put off the call of Jesus, another layer of hardness forms. Be careful about getting a hard heart from not immediately obeying and following the call of Jesus.

HOW TO RIGHTLY RESPOND TO THE GREAT CALLING OF JESUS:

2. Respond carefully.

At verse 12, the author of Hebrews gives us his second instruction. He says, “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 command in the Greek imperative. You had better take care and it gives you a warning.

It reminds me of the warning, back in Hebrews, chapter two, where he says, “lest you drift away.” In this passage today, it says, ‘unless you fall away, lest you fall away.’ ‘Take care, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.’

“Unbelieving” is where we get this idea of “no faith,” “unfaithful.” Keep an eye on your heart and watch how you’re grumbling and complaining.

The Israelites grumbled and complained in the wilderness. You can almost hear them complaining – You know, when we were back in Egypt, we were still in slavery, but we had vegetables and we didn’t have to eat this “heavenly bread” every day. It is so hot in the wilderness.

One of the ways you can tell that your heart is not right and that it’s falling into unbelief is when you wake up grumbling and complaining. Now, some of you did that when you got up this morning, didn’t you? Even if you’re sitting there thinking, No, I didn’t, your spouse is sitting there and they’re probably elbowing you right now. You are feeling that in your ribs right now. That was you. You got up complaining today. You got up saying, ‘Oh, my goodness. I am so tired. I should stay at home today . ‘Grumbling and complaining is evidence of a heart problem, of a hardening of the heart.

The author goes on to say that it’s evidence of an unbelieving heart. When you have an unbelieving heart, it’s any place that you’re doubting God.

Do we have any “worry warts” in the house? Is it your habit to worry about everything? I don’t know how we’re gonna pay this bill – you doubt God’s provision. I don’t know if I’m gonna survive this – you doubt God’s sustenance, His power to heal you and keep you as long as you’re supposed to be here. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive this person – you doubt God’s power of reconciliation and forgiveness for you and not just for you, but so that you can forgive others. In any place that you’re worried is evidence of an unbelieving heart. It’s evidence of an evil heart that still has this mixture in it . He says to be careful. Take care. This idea of taking care means to keep your eyes on this. Examine your hearts; take heart. Say, ‘Holy Spirit, look at me; help me, because there’s danger of falling away from the living God, of falling away from dependence on God and becoming dependent on other voices that say, hey, come over here, drink this and you’ll feel better. Take this, you’ll feel better. Try this, you’ll find rest. Come over here. There’s a lot of voices calling. Be careful, you’ll fall away.

The Greek word is “aposstēnai,” failure to stand, not standing. What does that Greek word sound like? It sounds like “apostasy.” That’s where the word comes from “to fall away.” Watch your heart. Guard your heart.

Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Get regular “heart exams” from God. Take a look at what’s in your heart.

How do you get these checkups, these heart checkups, to help you with your heart? Psalm 139 talks about it. Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT) 23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Ask Jesus to be your heart physician. Ask Jesus to speak to you from His word today and as you read His word, be ready. He’s going to highlight to the Holy Spirit, Who speaks through His word, something that you need to reflect on for your heart. Maybe, you’re not reading the Bible regularly. You’re not getting regular “heart checkups.” We have forgetful hearts.

God speaks to us today. He still calls; He speaks to us through His Word, but you’re not listening. The heart hardens if you’re not listening. God speak to my heart.

At the beginning of the year, I sign up people to read the Bible together. We use the One Year Bible; it gives you a little bit of the Old Testament, a little bit of the New Testament and Psalms and Proverbs daily, so you have a daily reading. We’ve only got two more months to go in this year. We’ve almost finished ten months. I think this is my twentieth year leading us through the One Year Bible reading. I post a daily devotional thought on Facebook every day.

Today, I was drawn to the reading of Psalms. Lamentations was the Old Testament reading. Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet,” is weeping over Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit didn’t really lead me there today. The New Testament, from Philemon, I understood, but the Holy Spirit didn’t lead me there. Then, I got to Psalms. I got to this section in Psalms, written by David. He was determining, in advance , how he was going to face certain things. He was determined not to look upon anything vile or vulgar. He had made a predetermination that, if something was not going to be of God, if something was going to be empty and vulgar, He was not going to look at that. I felt like the Holy Spirit highlighted that one for me. I comment on that one today because, even though I’m 65 years old and I’m a pastor, like you, the world is throwing so many images at me all of the time. If you’re a man (know this, women, about your man) we’re very visually driven. Things that come in through the “eye gate” can really twist a man. It can do the same to a woman, but men are particularly vulnerable to things like pornography. I was talking about my One Year Bible devotion and I put it on Facebook. I also put it on Twitter and X. I’m starting to think that I need to “X out of X” because there’s this new thing happening to me, that’s so evil. I post scripture daily and there’s now people commenting on it. I’ll check on it, because they say they’re following me. I’m just this naive kind of guy, I’ll click on who’s following me and it’ll be porn. I tell the Lord, ‘Whoa, Lord, I have told You I am not going to look at this. I’ve predetermined in my heart that I will not look at anything vile or vulgar because I don’t want it to affect my heart. Help me, Lord.’ Can I not even post scripture without the evil one jumping on? I’m trying to put scripture out there for people, that might be far from God, to be brought near and the evil one is out there. He’s mining for pastors; he wants to ruin us. I shouldn’t be surprised. We have to be careful about what we focus on. We have to take care of our hearts.

You have several indicators in your dash if you’re driving a car. Your car has several indicators in the dashboard. Speedometer, gas, oil, temperature. If you don’t take heed of these you may find yourself on the side of the road with a speeding ticket or you may run out of gas. If you ignore them, you’ll find yourself, eventually, on the side of the road, perhaps, with smoke coming out from under the hood or a police officer standing next to you, writing out a ticket because you forgot to notice the speedometer. If you ignore the warnings in the dash, you’ll find yourself on the side of the road.

If you ignore your heart condition, if you don’t take care or you fail to keep an eye on your heart condition, you’ll find yourself falling away. When you first began to love Jesus and follow Jesus with all your heart, you have to further maintain your heart. You have to take care. Then, the author of Hebrews gets to verse 13, which leads us to our third way that we rightly respond.

HOW TO RIGHTLY RESPOND TO THE GREAT CALLING OF JESUS:

3. Respond continually.

In verse 13, we encounter another Greek imperative – “Exhort one another.” It’s in the “command voice.” Exhort, encourage would be a synonym, encourage comfort, challenge, admonish, call on one side. Exhort one another every day, so,

Remember, we were talking earlier about how we have forgetful hearts? We gather together on the first day of the week. The first day of the week is the day that Jesus was raised from the grave. That’s why we gather on the first day of the week. We gather to worship Him, but we also gather to exhort one another because we have forgetful hearts. There are other voices calling us all the time, so we gather like this.

You’re here, today, and you have this rhythm of life. You can’t fall away from it because if you do, you start to wonder. You start listening to the wrong voices.We gather together, because “You can’t do the one anothers without one another.” You can’t exhort one another without one another.

I have already tried preaching to these empty seats in 2020. I tried that. I don’t ever want to do it again. One of our small groups felt sorry for me and took life size photos of themselves and stuck them to the chairs. One Sunday, back in the spring of 2020, I preached to those photos, but it wasn’t the same. It was funny, but it wasn’t the same. I need to see you. I need to talk to you. I need to be embraced, shake hands and cry with you. I need to sing with you. I need to laugh with you. I can’t do the one another commands without you. I can’t be exhorted by you and you can’t be exhorted by me without being with each other. We need to be together continually because we have forgetful hearts.

Verse 13 says, “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.” What is today called? It is called, “today.” Every day is called “today.” Once you get to it, continually respond because the Lord is speaking, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin calls, it tempts, it’s deceitful, it makes claims for itself that are untrue. Sin says, ‘Come over here. Come over here, this will make you feel better. Try this.’

Eve, in the book of Genesis, did this very thing and Adam gave into the temptation, as well. Look, it looks good to the eyes. It tastes good. You’ll be like God. Take a bite. This is the deceitfulness of sin. It always “over promises” . It always looks good.The first bite tastes good, but it leads us to death. Those voices are calling all of the time. Come over here; try this, but when we gather together, one of you says, ‘Hey look, don’t even go over there because I did one time and I almost died over there.’ Sometimes that makes us want to go over there all the more. We are tempted to know what it is like, but no, it’s deceitful. It’s deceitful. It lies to us.

Encourage one another. Exhort one another. Verse 14 says, “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” When we come together, Christ is present in this place and something wonderful happens as we gather under the preaching of God’s word and the singing together of God’s word. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us in the present tense, not just from the ancient Word of God, but from the present incarnate Word of God, living out through us in this very moment, so that we’re exhorted, we are encouraged and we’re built up. It’s happening right now. Is your heart open? Respond continually.

Colossians 3:16 (ESV) “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Respond continually. Following Jesus is the greatest adventure on planet Earth. When we follow Him, He speaks to us. He guides us. He only gets quiet when we harden our hearts by saying, “no” or “wait.” He waits until we say “yes.” We need each other to remind each other and to warn each other about the deceitfulness of sin and those other voices.

HOW TO RIGHTLY RESPOND TO THE GREAT CALLING OF JESUS:

4. Respond obediently.

We’re down to verse 15. The author of Hebrews decides to take a look at that psalm again. He’s a good preacher. Let’s go back and look at the Word one more time. He says, ‘I want to underline that word, “today,” with you one more time, but this time I want to pull out that part about rebellion. Earlier, he hit the word, “today,” really hard, but now he wants to hit the word, “rebellion,” really hard.

Verse 15 says, As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Then he says, in verse 16, “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?”

He works through five kinds of rhetorical questions to bring us to the answer.The author asks 5 obvious questions of his Hebrew audience, asking them to answer (1) who “heard yet rebelled?” (16), (2) who “left Egypt led by Moses?” (16), (3) with whom was God “provoked for forty years?” (17), (4) who “sinned” and died in the wilderness? (17), (5) and to whom God “swear that they would not enter His rest?” (18). Answer to the 5 questions? Those who were…

He says in verse 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?” It was those who were disobedient. It was those who rebelled; those who were disobedient.

Then, he gives it a certain kind of disobedience. He says it’s the disobedience of unbelief in verse 19, “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” Isn’t that interesting? He puts obedience and belief as being intimately connected, so that saving faith is obedient faith.

There’s a kind of faith that’s not saving faith. It’s kind of like you went to a buffet and you got a little of this and a little of that and you’ve put together your own religion. It’s like a form of godliness without the power of life change.

Here we are; where we live used to be called “the Bible belt.” I don’t know if we could still say that there’s anything that’s a “Bible belt” here anymore. Life is changing in our culture. The danger of living in “the Bible belt” is people grew up going to church and they got a form of “godliness.” They got what I call “churchianity” instead of Christianity. You can go stand in the garage, but that doesn’t make you an automobile. You can sit in a church pew and that doesn’t make you a Christian. This “churchianity” inoculates you against the real thing because you think you’re saved. You think you have faith but you don’t, because you don’t have obedient faith. It’s like you’re a Christian atheist.

You claim to be a Christian, but you live like God doesn’t exist every day of your life because you have the worst sin of all. The worst sin of all, the unforgivable sin, is the sin of unbelief, of rejecting the call of Jesus. He’s died for our sins; he’s paid for every sin. If you don’t accept it, then you’ll not enter His peace. You’ll not enter his rest. Verse 19 says, “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

There’s someone here this morning who has a form of religion. You have a form of religion. Jesus is your “add on;” you need Him when you are in trouble. We pray like this, when we get up in the morning, ‘I have this meeting. I have to pay this bill. I gotta go do this. I gotta pick up the kids. Hey, Jesus, would You come along with me and help me do my stuff?’ We pray like that, rather than saying, ‘Jesus, thank You for another day. Thank You that I’m alive today. There must be a purpose for me today. Would You tell me what You want me to see, what You want me to hear, what You want me to do today? As I encounter every portion of today, help me to have ears to hear those who need You. Help me to have hands that are ready to help. Help me to have the strength and help me to be patient with my family. Lord Jesus, help me to be You today. Live in me in such a real fashion today so that I live like You.’ That’s obedient faith. That’s faith that says, ‘He’s the Lord and I’m not. He’s God and I’m not. How can I join You in what you’re doing today, Jesus?’

James talks about the importance of the kind of faith that results in obedience. He says in James 2:20 (KJV) “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

Then, Jesus talks about it. He equates obedience and belief. He says in John 3:36 (ESV) “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

When you hear the call, it’s not enough to hear the call. You have to obey the call and say, “yes,” to Jesus. That’s saving faith. There has to be a moment in your life where you’ve heard it. That’s intellect. You know the facts about Jesus. He died on the cross. He was raised on the third day . He lives today. He wants you to come and follow Him. That’s the intellectual aspect.

Then there’s the emotional aspect of the heart. We have the intellectual aspect, but the emotional aspect is when you feel something. Everybody has a different way of feeling. You feel something, the Holy Spirit moving and urging you, but it’s still not saving faith until, as an act of the will, (the heart is the seed of the will) you say, “yes,” to Jesus. Yes, I believe You’re my Lord and Savior. I give my life to You. I surrender my will to You. I give You my life. I want to arrange every aspect of my life around following You. This is saving faith. This is obedient faith.

There’s a movement today, among young folk, it’s called “deconstructing your faith.” Have you heard of this? Young people in their twenties and thirties, even into their forties, who were probably brought up in the church and they believe because their parents told them to. They wereprobably part of a youth group, but now they’re “deconstructing their faith.” They’re taking it apart. They’re becoming skeptics, trying to find a new way of thinking.

I read an article, recently, that talked about four possible reasons for this trend. One, is church hurt. They were hurt by the church and so they’re throwing “the baby out with the bathwater.” The church hurt me, it connected to Jesus, so I’m throwing out Jesus, too. Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’ve been hurt by the church. Maybe you’re here and somebody convinced you to show up, but you were hurt by a previous church. You’re looking for a perfect church. You won’t find one and if you do, don’t join it because you’ll mess it up. There’s no perfect church. If you think the church won’t hurt you, it will because “hurt people hurt people.” It has to be about the call of Jesus. It can’t be because you’re looking for perfection in other people. That’s one reason some people are “deconstructing their faith.” They’ve been hurt.

Another reason for this trend is poor teaching. They grew up with poor teaching and as soon as Satan came along and said, ‘Did God really say that?” they don’t know; maybe He didn’t and so, they didn’t have firm biblical teaching. When the evil one tempts them, they have no foundation. That’s another reason for deconstruction.

Here’s a third reason they give – desire to sin. They’ve already fallen into the deceitfulness of sin and rather than repenting and admitting it, it’s just easier to “deconstruct their faith” and identify themselves with their new sin. It’s just easier to come up with a new version, “deconstruct” it and come up with your own “buffet” of what it means to be a Christian.

Here’s the fourth reason – they give Street Cred. It’s just hip, it’s cool to be a skeptic. It’s cool. It’s the cultural ethos of our day to just question everything . That’s why so many “de-conversion” stories are similar. It’s like they’re reading from the same script. It’s just hip to be a skeptic.

What about you? Do you have saving faith, obedient faith? Are you suffering from a hardened heart from saying, “no,” to the call of Jesus, or would you answer His call today? Would you decide that today is the day? From now on, help me to always have a sensitive heart that says, “yes,” to You.

I like finishing with hymns, if I can. I’m an old guy, so I always remember old hymns. When I was preparing the sermon. I had a hymn in my head. It was written by Will L. Thompson in 1880:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he’s waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, oh sinner, come home!

Will you answer? Will you respond?

Let’s pray. You’re calling, Jesus; You’re always calling, “Behold. I stand at the door and knock.” You’re always knocking. I wonder if there’s anyone this morning that would say, “yes” and open the door. Anyone that would say, ‘I’m here, Lord; speak.’ Is it you? I’m praying for you right now. Pray with me, ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I hear You and I accept You today. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. I believe that You died on the cross, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I hear You calling. Come into my life. I want to come home. I want to come home to You. Come into my life, forgive me of my sin and make me the person You want me to be. I want to be a child of God and follow You all the days of my life.’ Answer the call. He’s talking. He’s speaking . He’s inviting. Others are here today and you know Him; you’ve said, “yes,” to Him, but you’ve been saying, “no,” to Him lately. He’s told you to do something that’s outside of your comfort zone. He told you to forgive somebody that you can’t forgive. You keep telling yourself, ‘I can’t forgive Him.’ He’s told you to try something that you’re afraid to do. He’s told you to quit something that you’re afraid to quit. He’s calling. He’s always calling. You know what it is. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us. Lord, here I am; speak. My “yes” is on the table. in Jesus’ name. Amen.