Are You Being Hardened By The Deceitfulness Of Sin?

Brothers and sisters, as we continue to look at Paul's warnings in Hebrews, please note that he addresses the believers as "holy brothers" and then warns them "See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God."

It is so easy for us as believers to simply read past this and assume that we are OK. Especially in this day of ear tickling preachers who do not warn. They use the scriptures that please their hearers and do not give the countless warnings which are designed to keep us on the straight and narrow path. Jesus warns us:

"13“Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is spacious that leads to destruction, and many people are entering by it. 14How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the road that leads to life, and there aren’t many people who find it!” Matthew 7 ISV 

Friends, we need the warnings and we should use them to drive us to stay close to the Savior 's side. Many are being destroyed by false teachers who have people say a sinner's prayer and then pronounce them "saved". This is not scriptural and has created churches filled with pastors and members who are goats and not sheep. Today will be the last day for some of them. Paul would not warn them if it were not possible for them to repent and return. We are to judge ourselves to make sure we are in the faith, as Paul says elsewhere:

"However, you must remain firmly established and steadfast in the faith, without being moved from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant". Colossians 1:23 ISV

Hebrews 3 ISV

1Therefore, holy brothers, partners in a heavenly calling, keep your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. 2He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’sa household, 3because he is worthy of greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4After all, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5Moses was faithful in all God’sb household as a servant who was to testify to what would be said later, 6but the Messiahc was faithfuld as the Son in charge of God’se household, and we are his household if we hold on to our courage and the hope in which we rejoice.f

7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

8do not harden your hearts

as they did when they provoked me

during the time of testing in the wilderness.

9There your ancestors tested me,

even though they had seen my actions 10for 40 years.

That is why I was indignant with that generation and said,

‘They are always going astray in their hearts,

and they have not known my ways.’

11So in my anger I swore a solemn oath

that they would never enter my rest.”g

12See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God. 13Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, 14because we are the Messiah’sh partners only if we hold on to our original confidence to the end.i 15As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts

as they did when they provoked me.”j

16Now who heard him and provoked him? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt ledk by Moses? 17And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell dead in the wilderness? 18And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not? 19So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.