All right, let's give him a hand again. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 through 11. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 through 11. I'm going to read out of the NASB. "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testing me, and saw my works for forty years.' Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways.

As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.'" Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray for your blessing. We pray for the Spirit of God to use the words that you have ordained and illuminate our hearts. He who has ears, let him hear. I pray that your Son's voice may be made clear, that your children may hear His voice and follow Him and Him alone.

We ask for your anointing and your blessing over this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. The text that we're looking at this morning is a warning against apostasy. It is not limited to this text. In fact, you can say, you know, the title of the book of Hebrews is "Glorification of Christ" or "Exalting of Christ" or "Fixing your eyes upon Christ," but there's a reason why the author has chosen to go into detailed Christology.

And the reason why is because there's a danger of this church starting to slip into apostasy. So what he's saying here in this text, where he says in the previous week, "Consider Christ," is the reason why he is telling them to consider Christ, because of this drifting and this danger of apostasy for this church.

If you've been a Christian for any period of time, and I ask you, can you think of one individual that you thought, when you were younger, when you first became a Christian, that that person was a genuine Christian, or he was on fire for God, but is no longer walking with the Lord today?

I can guess, from my experience and my conversation and my own personal life, that probably, if not all, most of you will be able to name at least one or many people that at one point walked with the Lord, is no longer walking with God today. And maybe it might even have surprised you that these people were people that led you, encouraged you at one point, but they're not with the Lord anymore.

I remember very specifically, as a young pastor, seeing some of the people that I felt like was headed toward the right direction, but various things would happen in their life, and then seeing them just drift away and walk away from God. And I remember early on in ministry, it felt like a punch in the gut, you know, like investing so much time in prayer, meeting small groups, counseling, and then to have an event or something happen and just kind of walking away from God, thinking, "Man, this is just too hard." But since then, I've seen so many people walk away from their faith that it's no longer surprising.

In fact, it shouldn't be, but I've almost become numb to it. If anything, it's more surprising to see people persevere and stay on fire for God for a long period of time, because it's that rare. Sad to say. I remember this one particular event. Years ago, I was talking to an individual, and this young lady that used to be in my college ministry, she saw me talking, and I haven't seen her in a decade.

So she's already gotten married, and she was in her early 30s, and she was walking by, seeing me having one-to-one with somebody. And I guess she recognized me, and she tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hey, Pastor Peter, remember me?" And I turned around, "Yeah, sure enough. It's been over 10 years." And so I was very glad to see her, and we did a little bit of small talk.

And as she was walking away, she looked at me, and she said, "Oh, you guys meeting together. This must be some sort of counseling session or discipleship or something." And then she looked at me and said, "Oh, you're still doing the Jesus thing, huh?" And then I just kind of nodded my head, just kind of in nervous laughter, and then she just walked away.

And I remember as she was walking away, thinking, "Wow, she fell that far away." Because I remember in college, she would have been one of the people that I would have chosen in saying, "This person is going to be on fire for God and bear much fruit for the kingdom." But whatever happened in the last 10 years, she was actually surprised that I was still preaching the gospel.

Every single one of you can probably think of somebody and may have wondered, "What happened? How did somebody who seemed to be that committed and that focused, that sacrificial at one point in their life, drift that far away?" Webster's Dictionary describes the word apostasy as an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith.

And that's a secular definition of apostasy. Second Thessalonians 2.2, Paul warns that before Christ comes, that there's going to be a mass apostasy that's going to take place before the day of the Lord. Because of apostasy, according to Scripture, sometimes it's persecution, it could be false teaching, temptation, worldliness, defective knowledge of Christ, sin, or simply drifting or neglecting.

That's the primary concern that the author of the book of Hebrews has in the whole book of Hebrews. There is no specific mention of idolatry. There is sexual immorality, but the primary problem with the recipients of the book of Hebrews is they were simply neglecting. They were confessing Christ, but it wasn't important enough.

And they just started neglecting and drifting. That's why the repeated command over and over again, "How shall you escape if you neglect such a great salvation?" So the reason why the author is focusing all his attention on the beauty of Christ is to get them back to focus on Christ and to stop drifting.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, 16, "Pay close attention to yourself and your teaching, persevering in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you." In other words, he says watch your life and your doctrine, both of it, because if you don't do it and you begin to slip and drift, there's consequences over salvation for life.

That's to say, there are some groups and some people who are very righteous in their life, good morals. In fact, if you were to think of a group of people who are very committed in being moral and upright citizens, you think of maybe Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses who strive, going door to door, being persecuted and yelled at and mocked, and yet they're out there every week.

Right moral, hardworking people, yet in their doctrines about who Jesus is, they become apostate. And all that would have been for nothing. There are some people, and the concern that we have and where we live, is that people who have very good orthodox teaching. If you were to ask the fundamentals of Christian faith, there are many people that surround us, that can tell us about who Jesus is, about his identity, about the Trinity, about justification, sanctification, glorification, yet in their life they have become apostate.

Their life looks nothing like what a Christian should live. It looks no different than a non-Christian. So there are people who have become apostate in doctrine, but there's also a great number of people who have become apostate in their right doctrine, but their life has drifted far away from God.

See the whole book of Hebrews is a book warning the church. Apostasy doesn't always look like just packing up your bags and leaving and then joining the secular world and saying, "You know what, I'm going to worship idols, I'm going to make money my God." That's not what apostasy looks like in most cases.

In most cases, our hearts and our life just begin to drift, and then you wake up one day realizing that maybe you don't really even believe. What I want to do today and next week, we want to take a look at this text in 7 through 11. There are five things that I've kind of, you can divide it any way you want, but there are five things that I want to point out about the dangers of apostasy and how it happens.

Today I'm going to be dealing with two of them, and then next week I'm going to be dealing with the next three. Initially I wanted to do all of it together, but I don't want to cram it all. So today I'm going to be dealing with two of them.

The first two is that apostasy happens when we defer our obedience to a future date. Apostasy happens when we defer our obedience to a future date. Two, apostasy happens when we harden our hearts against God. Number three, apostasy happens when we do not learn from the past mistakes. Fourth, apostasy happens when our hearts begin to drift away from God and toward the world.

And then the end result of apostasy, according to scripture, is that we are not able to enter the rest. So the last three part of it we're going to deal with next week, the first two we'll deal with this morning. So the first one, apostasy happens when we defer our obedience to the future.

In verse 7 it says, "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness." The word "today" is repeated over and over again, not only in the book of Hebrews, but all throughout scripture. He says the exact same thing, "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart." That same phrase repeated in verse 15, chapter 4, verse 7.

Exact same phrase. "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart." Again in verse 13, he says, "Encourage one another day after day as long as it is called today." There is a sense of urgency. There is a sense of urgency that when you hear the gospel, to respond.

When you hear the challenge or a rebuke or an encouragement, to respond immediately. Because delayed obedience is disobedience. If I ask one of my children, "Hey, take out the trash on Thursday." He says, "You know, I intend to take it out, but I'm going to take it out on Saturday." Saturday is useless because the trash is going to be picked up on Friday.

So he may say, he may have convinced himself, "I'm going to do it, but the trash needs to be out today, Thursday night, or else Friday, your obedience on Saturday is completely useless." When God says to obey, and he calls his people to come, and we say, we don't say no, but we say not now.

In 2 Corinthians 6, it says, "For he says, 'At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.' Behold now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation." Why this sense of urgency? Why does obedience and response have to happen immediately?

Because obedience that is delayed already says that there is a disobedient heart. It is not a man, it is not a heart of surrender. And what we don't recognize is that we think that revelation will always be there, that God's voice will always, well we have the scripture, if I don't obey today, I mean there's going to be another sermon next week.

If I don't like this church, there's a church down the street. If I don't like that, I can go online. It's just everywhere. But there is a difference between revelation and illumination. Illumination we have any time we want. You can wake up 3 in the morning, you can listen to a sermon.

If you don't like this church, you can go down the street and you can hear another sermon. If you don't like that type of sermon, you can go to another church and hear another sermon. If you don't like this pastor, you can go to the next pastor. But there is a difference between revelation and illumination.

Revelation is the written word of God that is given that we can read and study and understand what it says. Illumination is where the Holy Spirit takes the written word of God and He convicts us and He calls us to repentance. Why the gospel is preached to the same group of people and certain people give their lives to Christ and other people harden their hearts toward God.

That's illumination. You can read the scripture, one day, same passage, but God takes that passage and He reveals your heart and He convicts your sins and causes you to give your life to Christ. That's illumination. In Isaiah chapter 55, it says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found." Meaning, you will always have revelation, but illumination is not constant.

Illumination is His kindness that leads us to repentance. Where God is allowing you to hear His voice. There's a reason why Jesus, before He preaches, says, "He who has ears, let him hear." He's not talking to people who are deaf. Some people have a hard time hearing, so He says, "If you can hear me, come near." That's not what He's saying, obviously.

He's talking about people whose ears have been opened to the word of God. As He was preaching, those who God has been gracious to open your ears to hear the truth that He is about to preach, "He who has ears, let him hear." In James chapter 4, 13-14, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit,' yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." We don't have control over tomorrow. We have no idea if tomorrow you will be here. You have no idea if you would even have the desire. In fact, the majority of people who grew up in the church never outright say, or very few never outright say, "I reject Christ.

I don't believe this anymore." The majority of people who go astray from God, who become apostates, typically the response is, "Not now. I got so much debt. My children are so young. I just started a business. I don't have enough for retirement. When I finish my school, when I get this job, when I save enough money, if I pay my bills and get rid of my student loans," and there's always delay.

I'm planning to do it, but it's not a good time right now. But what ends up happening is you have no idea. You say, "You know what? Now is the time." And you revisit this a week later, a month later, a year later. You don't have the desire. The Word of God, same Word of God is being preached, and your heart has become hearted.

Nothing makes any sense. Nothing is penetrating. Not realizing a delayed response was disobedience. That's why he says, "Now, today, if you hear his voice, today, if you are convicted, today is the time that God calls you." God doesn't give you things today and then expects you to respond tomorrow.

Then he'll, he wouldn't talk to you tomorrow. If he's preaching today, if he's calling you today, he says, "Today, now is the time." Luke 17, 27-30 is describing the end times and what the world would be like when he comes. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

It was the same that has happened in the days of Lot. They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building, but on the day of the Lord, when out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

So it will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. Do you notice the warning that is given about the coming of Christ and judgment that is coming, that the life that's described, and there's idolatry, there's murder, there's coveting, there's lying, there's slander.

He doesn't mention that. He says they're going to be marrying, they're going to be drinking, they're going to be eating, they're going to be building, they're going to be selling. It's just normal life. It's going to be like everybody else in this world. They're going to go to school, they're going to get married, have kids, pay their bills, put some money in retirement, live a nice, comfortable life, and all of a sudden, bam, the judgment is going to come, like a thief in the night, like birth pains of a pregnant woman that's going to come suddenly, and all of a sudden, everything in your life is going to change.

Where you and I live, the greatest danger is the chasing of the American dream. That is the greatest deception, that is the greatest drain of our spiritual lives. It is not pursuit of idolatry. Yes, many people struggle with pornography, and that is an issue. But overall, the greatest thing that is sucking the church dry is this desire to have a taste of the American dream, where we are constantly fed.

We live in a great country where we are able to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. And in and of itself, how can that be sinful? How can that be dangerous? Because if we're not careful, and if we're not sober, it is the pursuit of what is good, the pursuit of what is good that causes us to forfeit what is the best.

And that is our constant, constant danger. We know the distinguished marks between chasing after the world and chasing after God. We know that. But the temptation is, what's so wrong with focusing my energy on my children? What's so wrong about putting money away in retirement? What's so wrong about moving up ahead in life?

And none of that, in and of itself, is wrong. But the Bible says, at the end times, before judgment comes, our life, the life of the world is going to look exactly like anybody else. They're just going to live as if they're going to go on forever before judgment comes.

That's why Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3.1, "Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified." Why does he pray for rapid spread? He's not satisfied with just doing his part. And he's the one who says, "I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may be saved." He teaches us about predestination, about election, about adoption.

Why is there such an urgency to get the gospel out? Because tomorrow, he doesn't know if he's going to be there. He doesn't know for his generation, for those people at that time, God has called him to be, to share the gospel. There was a sense of urgency in his heart for the salvation of the lost.

But today, and again, our greatest life sucker, our greatest killer of joy, killer of life, there are many things. But the primary thing is this false pursuit of things that we think are going to make us happy. And all it does is lead to frustration and destruction. That's why he says today, it is his kindness that leads us to repentance.

If you hear the word of God, and it makes any sense to you, that wasn't you. If you're sitting there basically saying, "Okay, you know, I got nothing to gain from this." Right? If you're sitting there and the word of God is convicting you in any bit, the Bible says, it's his kindness that has caused you to be there.

He opened your ears, he softened your heart, he caused you to see. It's his kindness that leads you to repentance. And when God calls you to repentance, and you say, "Not now. What about this? And what about that?" And the reason why this is so important is the next thing.

Mercy begins by delaying obedience, but when we delay our obedience, the second thing happens. They harden their hearts toward God. They harden their hearts toward God. In the book of Revelations, chapter 2, the warning against the church of Ephesus, though they were religiously very upright people, he says, "I have this against you, that you have forsaken your first love." You know, the dangerous thing in our culture is we automatically assume that if you've been a Christian for a while, and the longer you've been a Christian, that your fire has already died.

If you're a young Christian on fire, you give testimony, we assume that, "Oh, you're new. You're in a honeymoon stage." Right? And that's what we think about marriage, too. You know, it's like, the people who are the most excited about their marriage are the ones who just got married.

And if you've been married for 10 years, less. 20 years, even less. 30 years, ball and chains. Right? Or, "I've got to train this monkey to do dishes." Like, that's the way we talk, because we think that if you've been married for a long period of time, your love has died, and you're just persevering, and that's sad.

But that's the way people think. That's not what God intended. But sad thing is, that's applied even to our walk with God. When people are on fire, it's like, "Oh, when did you get saved?" "Oh, last week I got saved." It's like, "Yeah, that's great." You know? If somebody's been a Christian for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, you just automatically assume that you're jaded.

Right? You're cynical. You know, you're just kind of in the back, just watching. Sad to say, the reason why that perspective is true is because, observably, it is true. That's not what God intended. The Bible says that we didn't... In Revelation chapter 2, it doesn't say, "You've lost your first love," as if we were carrying something, and it just slipped through our fingers, and we had a hole in our pocket, and we lost it.

That's not how it's described. The Bible says, "You have forsaken. You have left. You have abandoned your first love." He says, he didn't say, "Don't let your heart be hardened." He says, "Do not harden your heart." It's first degree. It's with intent. You know exactly where this is going, and you chose it anyway.

If we delay our obedience, a year later, you're not going to be in the same place. Our faith is living and active, just like the Word of God. So the stream that you stand in, that is moving, five minutes later is not the same stream. So when God calls you, and you say, "You know what?

Maybe after a little bit, maybe when our kids are a little bit older, maybe when the bills are paid, and the Word of God comes, your heart is not in the same place anymore." And you're wondering, "How did I get here? I used to sing these songs, and it used to move me and convict me.

I used to come to the Bible study. I used to love the study of the Word of God. I used to love the fellowship, but what happened?" God's call cannot be turned on and off. You may have revelation anytime you want, but illumination is by the kindness of God.

That's why He says, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Do not deliberately harden your heart." In Isaiah 64, verse 8, it says, "God is the potter, and we are the clay." And the illustration is that God is the one who is molding us, and as clay, we need to be moldable.

And that's why God continues to call the nation of Israel being stiff-necked. Stiff-necked is somebody who is stiff and will not yield, will not bend. He was not going to be molded. I don't know how many of you have experience in making pottery. I don't, but I have some experience in working with cement.

Cement, you add water, you know, and you pour it wherever, whatever it is that you are cementing, you have a limited time window. If you make a mistake and it's lumpy, you can't come back the next day and then say, "Okay, let me fix, smooth this out." You can't.

When the water hardens, it's useless. So if it's not formed the way you want, you have to break it up and throw it away. It's useless. So that period where you pour the water and it's moldable, that's the time where you need to make it straight. That's the time you need to mold it the way that you desire.

And that's what the Word of God says. When the Word of God is taught and you are convicted, and you say, "Man, I really need to do this. God really convicted me." And then the next statement is, "Not today, tomorrow." But the problem is tomorrow doesn't come. And when you say, "I'm ready now, God.

Where are you?" The Bible says in the book of Amos, the prophet goes to a nation of Israel who was hyper-religious during that period of time, and yet they were committing all kinds of sins before God, and yet they were making all these sacrifices. And God kept on calling them, calling them, sending prophet after prophet, and they would not listen.

And as a final judgment to the nation of Israel, at the end of the book of Amos, he says, "A famine is going to come, but not a famine of rain or of food or of harvest, but the famine of the Word of God." That they're going to be staggering from place to place, wanting to hear from God, but it will not be given.

In other words, the opportunity for you to hear and repent has come, but now it is gone. That's why I said, "Today, do not harden your heart." Verse 8 and 9, "Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testimony and saw my works for forty years." This is a direct quote from Psalm 95, 7 through 9.

You know what's interesting is, David is writing this Psalm, in Psalm 95, dealing with the same problem that the author of Hebrews is dealing with the problem 2,000 years ago. The event that David is referring to happened 400 years before he writes Psalm 95. So that particular event that they are referring to is repeated all over Scripture as an example of the apostasy of the nation of Israel.

And I'm going to show you that. I'm going to give you some verses. I mean, it must have been some horrendous sin that all throughout Scripture, that this becomes the example of Israel's rebellion against God. The text that they are referring to, or the event that is referring to, is located in Exodus chapter 17, 1 through 7.

And this is the event that David is referring to, and this is the event that the author of Hebrews is referring to. Now normally I don't like to read long texts, but I think we need to understand the context of this verse, because this is used as a primary example of warning of what not to do.

So let me read that with you. So follow along as I read this. Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of sin according to the command of the Lord and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water, and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" Stop right there.

Of all the examples, of all the examples that can be given about the rebellion and stiff-neckedness of Israel, what is mentioned here is innocuous. I mean, of all the things that you can talk about, about the rebellion of Israel, they were thirsty and they said, "Give me some water." I mean, the whole book of Psalms is about crying out to God.

Why? What are you, God? And how come the unrighteous are prospering? What are you going to do with my enemies? And the whole book of Psalms is complaining. Not all of it, but a big chunk of it. So what is it about the nation of Israel? What is it that they were doing that is being used as a primary example of Israel's rebellion against God?

Verse 4, "So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, 'What shall I do to these people? A little more, they will stone me.' Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hands your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and there will come out of it that the people may drink.' And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Masah and Merjbah, which literally means to test or to quarrel with God.

This is because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, because of the test of the Lord, saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?'" Let's dig a little bit further, what he says. Hebrews chapter 3, 8-9 was a direct quote from Psalm 95. He says, "As in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tried me by testing me." You notice that in this basically same sentence, the word trial and tested is mentioned three separate times.

The first two are from the same root word, and it is neither positive or negative. It's just like when you test something to prove something, to see the quality of something. That's the word that is used here, to try or to test. The word for testing is a different word, but again, it is not neither positive or negative, but it is used negatively in this text.

Now all of that is just kind of a setup to help us understand this text. What he is saying here, what David is saying, and it is quoted by this passage, is God was bringing the nation of Israel through the wilderness to prove them, to test them. Just like it says in the book of James, "Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds." That God is using that to prove the genuineness of your faith.

He says that's what God was doing to the nation of Israel, but what did they do? They took that proving, turned it around, and they tested God. They turned it around saying, "And here's where the problem lies." It's not simply that they were thirsty and saying, "God, where is this water?" In verse 7, what does it say?

They tested him, "And is the Lord among us or not?" They were testing God and saying, "If you are real, if you are really among us, why don't you give us the water?" So God was causing them or proving their faith. They turned it around and they began to point finger at God.

Why are you doing this to us? On the surface superficially, it looks innocuous. It looks innocent. Who wouldn't be complaining if you have young children and they are not able to drink water? Why wouldn't they say, "God, we need water. Help us." The whole book of Psalm is a pleading before God before that.

But their sin and their rebellion was they look at their circumstance and when they were squeezed, what came out was rebellion. When they were squeezed, what came out was unbelief. And that's what he is referring to, that they were stiff-necked. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 14, it says, "You should not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massa." Repeatedly over and over again.

Luke chapter 4, verse 12, when Jesus is being tested, he answered in quoting that passage, it is said, "You should not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massa." And then they turned the tables around and say, "Why are you doing this to me?" And what was revealed when they got squeezed was what they valued.

They weren't following God. They were demanding that God follow them. And when God didn't give them what they wanted, they questioned him. Where are you? Do you see the danger and how dangerous this is? That on the surface it looks very innocent, but behind that God saw apostasy. And why that is used over and over and over and over again as an example that we do not fall into the same sin.

While they were drinking, while they were marrying, while they were eating, while they were buying, while they were selling, the judgment came. That is the danger of where you and I live. Because the sins of us drifting away from God, it seems innocuous. And everything seems okay until trials come and then it reveals what you really value.

We weren't following Christ at all. We were committed to the same things we were committed before we became Christian, but now we have Jesus' help. Their hearts became so hardened that they no longer recognized God as God. You know, this week I was reading an article that was so ridiculous.

And it's just amazing to me how somebody could fall away this far. You know the show Bachelorette? Don't nod your head because I don't want to hear it. I've never watched the show, but I understand the premise. You know, they choose a pretty girl, they get ten decent looking guys, and then she's supposed to choose one of them, right?

And in that process, there's a lot of sexual activity that takes place, at least according to the article. But the reason why this made the news was because this one young lady, and I forgot her name, was professing to be a practicing Christian. And there's rumors that were going around that in the context of choosing which bachelor that she was going to choose, that she was sleeping around with different guys.

So they asked her, "How are you able to do what you're doing as a professing Christian?" And this is an exact quote. "I can do whatever. I sin daily and Jesus still loves me." That's an exact quote that I copied. "I can do whatever. I sin daily and Jesus still loves me." Christ is not our Lord.

Christ is being used to help her with whatever it is that she is pursuing. And if we're not careful, if we're not paying attention, we're not sober, we can easily fall into that same sin. Sins that are obvious. I mean, if you're struggling with pornography, no one's going to fight against that.

"I'm struggling with that." And you're seeking help, you're getting counseling. We know what it is. We know when idolatry is clear. We know when you're coveting and slandering and it is sinful before God. We know that. And so we combat that. But the most dangerous sins are the sins that we have compromised and we've allowed and we've justified.

And it allows us to slowly drift away from God. And next thing you know, you're nowhere near God. And you can say something like this without blinking an eye. On national television, "I can do whatever. I sin daily and Jesus still loves me." There's a reason why Exodus chapter 17, 1 through 7 is used as a primary example of all the sins that Israel committed.

I mean, Israel at one point in their history, sacrificed their children. Like open idolatry, Asherah worship, Baal worship. They defiled the temple with false idols. I mean, consider all the sins that they committed that the author and David could have chosen to say, "Do not be like the nation of Israel.

Do not make child sacrifices. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery." But that's not what he chooses as a primary example of their rebellion. So when they got squeezed, they turned their finger toward God. Where are you? It revealed what they value. Hebrews chapter 3, 8 to 9. Matthew chapter 13, 14, 16 says, "In their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand.

You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull. With their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and I would heal them.

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear." Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. There may be no tomorrow. When your children are grown up, not only will your hearts be hardened, so will your children.

Religious activity does not raise up godly children. They just become religious people. Religious people are the hardest people to reach with the gospel because they think they know because they memorize scripture. I shared with you last week, if you asked me before I became a Christian, "What do I believe about Jesus?" I would have given you an orthodox answer because I memorized scripture.

Because I went to VBS, I never missed church, but I had no idea who Jesus was. If we delay obedience, in God's eyes, it's disobedience. And we are hardening our heart to the point where we wake up one day and the word of God makes no sense to you.

And it sounds like nothing more than instructions on building IKEA furniture that you have no intention to build. It's just information. Let me conclude with this challenge. A rhetorical question. If you gave all your life to Christ today, how will your life be different? If you gave all of it and Christ was Lord of all of your life, how will it change your future?

How will it change the way you handle finances? How will it change the way you choose who you marry, where you work, what you pursue? Obviously that's a rhetorical question. But if you think to yourself, "Man, if I really gave my life, it would be this different." Then the next question is, "Then haven't you delayed obedience?" You didn't say no.

You know that God is speaking to you in certain areas of your life. You know that that's something that God wants you to surrender. And you don't say no, you just say not now. Some of you are sitting here with your hearts so hardened that all you can think about is get over with it.

I pray that that's not the case. That most of you, that your hearts have become soft enough that when you hear His voice that you would respond, that you would not harden your heart. That it is the kindness of God, the fact that you're sitting here and listening, and if you're convicted even a little bit, that that wasn't you.

You didn't wake up this morning and say, "I'm going to have a soft heart. I'm going to open my ears so that I can hear." God, in His grace, allowed you to be here and hear His Word. And for you to understand even a bit of it, it's because of His kindness that is leading you to repentance.

And if you say not now, you will leave this room with a hardened heart, and next week it will be harder. Next week it will be even harder than that. And that is why He says today, today, not tomorrow, not tonight, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

Let me ask our worship team to come and take some time to lead us in prayer. Don't think about other people. Don't think about other situations. If you have caught yourself in your heart, you've been wrapped up in your studies, in your goals, in your family, relationships, whatever it may have been, but your heart has become so hardened that the Word of God is no longer penetrating, take some time to come before the Lord.

"Lord, help me. Open my ears that I may hear, that I may follow my Savior." So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.