Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. We'd all agree that God is angry with the wicked, but think: Does God ever get angry with Christians? The answer might surprise you. We need to face the reality of Hebrews chapter three today. The key reason why God sometimes gets angry with His children.
From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Our current series is Highlights from Hebrews, and today we turn to Hebrews chapter three. Pastor, you're teaching today about living with missed opportunities. What's this all about?
Well, Dave, all of us are aware that the children of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness because of their disobedience, and yes, God was angry with them.
Now, when God becomes angry with us, it's not as if His anger is directed toward the fact that we have sinned, but rather that we have disappointed Him. That might be a better way to put it. But either way. God does not tolerate disobedience on the part of His children, and many of us have missed opportunities. While speaking about an opportunity, I'm holding in my hands a book entitled One, Two, Three.
Jesus Loves Me. It's actually written by my lovely wife Rebecca, and I want to emphasize: today is the last day we're making it available. Rebecca took the numbers one to ten, and she tied them to various passages, various stories of the New Testament, so that your child will not only learn how to count. But also be introduced to Jesus. It's a wonderful Christmas gift, wonderful opportunity for you to get a gift that will be a blessing to a couple or to some friends.
It's entitled One Two Three. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. Here's what you can do: go to rtwoffer dot com. That's rtwoffer dot com, or call us at one eight eight eight. Two one eight ninety three thirty seven.
Now, because this is the last day we're making this book available, I hope that you stay tuned because I'm going to be giving you the contact info again and reminding you of how this book can be used. I want us today to begin by thinking a little bit about your temper. You do have one, don't you? You know, we as human beings, we have our boiling point. We can blow our stack rather easily.
Some more easily than others. All of us have become angry. We've lost our temper, and we wish that we wouldn't have because we we did wrong by doing it. There is such a thing as righteous anger. There's also a lot of something called unrighteous anger.
And I think that one of the reasons that we sometimes make mistakes is because we have limited knowledge. We we don't know all the facts, and yet we comment on the facts, and we say things that we later regret because we mistook the situation. I can't even begin to tell you the number of times that I've been angry with Rebecca to be very embarrassed later to discover that I had become angry and I and I didn't know everything. I hadn't heard the full story.
So we're limited in our understanding, and we are also limited in the way we feel. We are in a good mood; our kids can get away with almost anything. We're in a bad mood, and we're lashing out, and we're angry at the slightest thing. I remember growing up just like you, and you can remember it too. How I never went to my parents unless I first discerned the mood, depending on what I wanted.
You know, you knew that this was not the time to ask for what you wanted, and then there were those relaxed moments when you thought this might be the time, because all of us have our moods. And then another problem with us as humans, with our tempers, the fact that we, we don't have a good, accurate concept of justice.
Sometimes we overreact because we're too strict, and sometimes we're too lenient, and that's why parents don't agree. Not everyone agrees with the way in which we reared our children, and we might not agree with the way you reared yours because we're imperfect. We ourselves stand in the need of grace, and so some people give more grace, and some people withhold grace. But now I want you to think for a moment about God and His anger. Take your Bibles and turn to the third chapter of the book of Hebrews, and we come to chapter three, and we discover that God can be angry.
I wrestled with this message because I know we live in a day and age when we have a gentler, kinder God who's not supposed to be angry. In fact, I can imagine somebody coming up to me afterwards and saying, "You know, my God doesn't get angry." By the way, if you feel that way, please come and talk to me afterwards. I'd like to help you over that hump, so to speak, because there's some things I'd like to lovingly say to you if you think that you have a God who doesn't become angry. But in Hebrews chapter three, we're shocked at God's anger. Verse ten: Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, "They do always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways." And I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter into my rest." That's anger.
Says in verse fifteen, "They hardened their hearts; they provoked me." God was upset. The Greek word means he was wrought up. He was he was worked up over this.
Now you think about God's anger, and you find out that it does not have our limitations because He knows all things. God has never become angry and then had to regret it because He miscalculated it, and there was there's a piece of the information that was missing. That's never happened with God. He's never overlooked anything. He never had some new light shed on the situation that would enable him to see the issue a little bit better.
Secondly, God is not subject to mood fluctuations like we are. Do you realize that God is always in a good mood? He has to be because how could we possibly rejoice in God if He were grumpy someday? We rejoice in God on a day that He happens to be angry without cause, or I should say, in a bad mood. No, that that's not possible.
Pun coming up. Listen up, everybody. To put it clearly, God is never moody. We are moody. I'm moody.
But God isn't moody.
Furthermore, God has a perfect standard of justice.
So when He gets angry, His is always a just kind of anger. When God says, "I was angry and I swore in my anger," they will not enter into my rest. It was done with justice and legitimacy.
Now the question is why all this anger coming from God? In order to understand this passage, we should put it in context. You remember the first message that we preached: Chapter one, Christ is greater and more superior than the angels. Chapter two, He is more superior than any other priest. Chapter three, He is more superior than Moses.
You'll notice it says. In verse one of chapter three, therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses was faithful over all his house, for he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, just as much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.
Now, don't miss his point. What he's saying is, is that Jesus is now superior to Moses, and if God was angry with that generation because they didn't respect Moses, beware of what God might think and do to you if you do not respect His beloved Son.
Now, this is a serious message today. Of course, all my messages are serious, but there are some that are more serious than others, and this one is a high degree of seriousness. Serious in capitals today, and so the Lord is saying that under Moses they had great opportunities and they blew it.
Now with Christ we have even greater opportunities. Beware, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Beware, lest it be true of you too.
Well, what I'd like to do today is to give you a few reasons why God was so wrought up over what happened in the desert. What was it that set him off so that he would swear in his wrath, "I will not let these people into the rest"? Couple of things, three to be more exact. First of all, I want you to notice that they hardened their hearts. Verse eight: Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me.
They made their hearts closed to God. What does it mean to harden your heart?
Well, one of the things that it means is that no matter how many blessings God gives you, you close your life to Him. You shut the door. You put the sign over your heart that says, "Do not disturb." Basically, let me be alone. That is a hard heart. A person with a hard heart is a person who doesn't listen to God, even when God shouts to him with a megaphone.
His ears are closed. He no longer responds to God because he's decided, no matter what, God, you're not going to get through to me. That's hard heartedness. Hard heartedness always has with it, of necessity, I believe, bitterness. If this is the way the church is going to be, then I'm going to be mad at the church, and I'm going to be mad at the church's God.
This is the way that my parents treated me. I'm going to be angry with my parents. I'm going to be angry at their God. And if this is the way God runs His world. I prayed that this person would be healed, and God didn't heal him.
I prayed for this job, and God gave me sickness instead. If this is if this is the way God runs His universe, I'm finished. Don't talk to me about God. Bitterness, beware. Man sitting in a meeting.
Hearing testimonies about how God was transforming men and making them humble and broken, sat in the back of the room and took his fist and and he hit it into his hand and he said, "God, you'll never get me." He had been golfing early that morning. You know that there are some people who actually get up early in the morning to golf. I'm serious, and I'm told that many of these people are perfectly normal in other ways. But he said, "God, you'll never get me," because he had a hot temper and five children, and knew that if God ever got him, he was going to have to humble himself and apologize to his children for his irrational anger. And he was a he man, and he men don't do that.
Well, I'm glad to tell you today that God did get him. God got him. But that's hardness of heart. There is bitterness. There is rationalization.
The most difficult thing that we can ever say is "I was wrong." Therefore, the human heart doesn't live with that kind of self-revelation. It is all these defense mechanisms, and it says, "I am not wrong because I can steal money from my employer because he does not pay me enough." After all, he's stealing from me. Or it begins to rationalize and say, "I can walk away from this marriage because she is difficult to live with, or he is difficult to live with." You see, we bring to every situation we bring our own rationalization. We come armed with a pack of arsenals to try to prove to ourselves that we're not the one that is at fault. God is; He's the one who made it difficult for me.
He's the one who didn't answer my prayers. He's the one, you see. That's the problem. It's not me. If you knew the whole situation, you'd know that I have a right to be angry.
Beware, lest there be in you a hard heart. Oh, beware! I don't know how old I was when I began to use an alarm clock. There was a period of time in which I'm sure my parents woke me. Sure, they woke me at times because I did go to school occasionally when I was young.
But there also was a time when I said I'm going to use an alarm clock. The first time this thing, you know, those old alarm clocks—not these modern things that buzz you so nicely. I mean, we're talking about the ones that clang and bang and the walls rattle. But I'll tell you, when that thing went off, I was out of bed instantly. Halfway in the middle of the room, thinking that the world had come to an end.
Within ten days, I was sleeping through this thing. You get used to it.
Some of you have had so much truth, you've had so much gospel, you've had so many sermons, you've had so much appeal. That was for emphasis. There, you've had all that, and you're sleeping through it. You're sleeping through it. Oh, beware, lest there be in you a hard heart.
How soft should our hearts be?
Well, someone has said that our hearts should be so soft that should a leaf fall onto our hearts, it would leave an imprint.
Now, that's a soft heart. That's why in the Old Testament it says, "Plow up the ground." Why? It's ground that has been so long dormant, and you can live with yourself so long that you no longer hear God. You don't expect to hear him, and when he speaks, you turn him off. You turn him off.
I wouldn't doubt, but there'd be some who are listening to this message who, after it is over, you get into your car, you go home, you turn on the television, and you stifle whatever God might be saying to you at this moment.
So they had a hard heart. God said, "I'm not amused." Secondly, it says that they tested God. You'll notice it says in verse nine, "Where your fathers tried me by testing me." Now you have to understand the context. This quotation, which you see in your Bible, which is kind of set off in my Bible, it is all capitals, is really a quote from Psalm ninety-five. But Psalm ninety-five is talking here about the Book of Exodus, chapter seventeen.
Let me remind you of the story that when they came across the Red Sea, they were very thirsty. God led them in the desert and let them be thirsty.
Now God did enough miracles so that they could trust Him. I mean, remember the miracles of the plagues that were given in Egypt, and then they came across that Red Sea, and as they were coming across the sea, it parted, and they were astounded at the miracles, and they sang that wonderful song that we had a part of it read to us today: "The horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea." And then God said, "What I'm going to do in the desert?
Now, let me ask you a question: What is the thing that you need most in the desert? You could live for a couple of days without food. You could live with a couple of days without other kinds of provisions. You could sleep outside and still survive without a tent. But there's one thing that you need, and that is water.
So God says, 'You know, because you need water the most, I'm going to test you with regard to the thing that is most necessary for you, namely water.'" And so God let them go in the desert, and they walked three days without water. You remember, and then they came to Mara, and then the same story happens again in Exodus seventeen, and and they begin to grumble at Moses, and they say, Moses, why did you bring us out of Egypt to die here in this desert? It's your fault. And every night around the campfire, if they lit a fire, they'd always say, "We have a topic for discussion." But the topic was always the same topic, namely, "Is God with us or isn't He?" That was the discussion. God said, "I'm not taking this lightly.
Look at all that I've done for you, and then you guys talking like this." And so He said to Moses. He said, "You go ahead and strike the rock, and water will flow." And Moses struck the rock, and water flowed. But God says, "This is is Mariba. This is the place of testing. I have the right to test you, but you have no right to test me.
To put me to the test to see whether or not I will come through for you." Parenthesis. Remember that they were there in the desert by the will of God. They were thirsty by the will of God. This was their appointed time to be tested. And why were they being tested?
That their faith might increase. See, as long as God answers our prayers, our faith grows quietly and slowly. But when God stops answering our prayers, and when there is no water, and when there is no job, and when your employer tells you that you are fired, and when there is injustice that comes your way, now your faith has the opportunity to begin to grow in leaps and bounds. You see, to believe God when everything is going well, that's how our faith grows silently. But to believe Him when that which is most precious to us is taken away, then faith begins to grow more quickly, and you begin to leap in your relationship with God.
Let me say it again: They were there by divine appointment. God said, "Be thirsty." They said, "We don't like it. We're not going to trust God because what if He doesn't come through?" Well, He had in the past.
Now, what the author of Hebrews here is saying to those Jews who believed in Christ but then began to wonder whether Christ was enough, and when they began to to wonder whether God was really believable, he said, "Beware of testing God." Beware of discarding all the miracles in the past, and then saying, "Now, God, if you want me to believe you, you have to do this. You have to give me that job. You have to heal that person. You have to heal this relationship. You must do this, God, or I'm not going to believe you." Beware!
That is testing God. Don't ever test God. One day the devil came to Jesus, and in that temptation he took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and said, "You know, cast yourself down." And then the devil, you know, who obviously must attend Sunday school because he knew some verses. The devil says, "Because you know it's written in the Psalms, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." So Jesus, jump, God will catch you. Notice what the devil was doing.
Instead of putting verses of scripture alongside one another, he was bringing verses of scripture against one another. And if there's anything that he would like us to do, it is to sin while we have our finger on a text of scripture that we can quote. And Jesus said, "Thou shalt not test the Lord thy God." That's what the Bible says. But worship him only. Don't try to put God into a box.
Don't try to put Him in a corner so that He must come through for you. Beware.
Well, this is Pastor Luther, and it's so important for us to recognize that the devil always wants to get us off track, even yes, quoting verses of Scripture.
Well, today's the last day. We're making a special resource available for you. It's a book entitled One, Two, Three, Jesus Loves Me. What my wife Rebecca did is she took the numbers one to ten and then tied them to a story in the life of Jesus.
So your child is going to learn how to count, but also learn about Jesus. Here's what you do. You go to rtwoffer.com.
Now, I want to point out that a book like this is a tremendous help as we think about a bedtime routine. This will help calm your child at the end of the day. The child will go to sleep focused on Jesus. Once again, here's the contact info because, as I already emphasized, this is the last time we're making it available. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. By the way, you can see a picture of the book at rtwoffer.com. Go there right now. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Luxer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. The moment of death is something we all face; something that raises questions for everyone.
One running to win listener is trying to sort out the details and has this question: Those of us who die in Christ today, do we go to paradise or to heaven?
Well, you know, the answer I think is that paradise is heaven. I can't seem to find a great distinction in the Bible between paradise and heaven. I think that when Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise," I think that that paradise is heaven.
So the good news is that whether we call it paradise or heaven, it is an unbelievable place. I has not seen. Neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.
So, no matter what we call it, eternity is going to be great. It sure is. Thank you, Doctor Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can go to our website at rtwoffer dot com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. That's one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven.
You can write to us at Running to Win, sixteen thirty-five North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois six zero six one four. Irwin Lutzer has brought part one of Living with Missed Opportunities, the second of six messages in a series on highlights from Hebrews.
Next time, more warnings about unbelief we must take seriously. Running to win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. For Pastor Irwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
