The ultimate author of the Bible is God the Holy Spirit. The words we have in our hands were breathed out by God into the minds of men who wrote by His direction and the letter to the Hebrews is no exception. Because of the great love with which God in Christ loved these feeble saints, He moved this man, whose name has been lost to us, to write what we call the book of Hebrews. He doesn’t write in anger, rather he speaks the truth in love. He addresses their minds, asks them to think, and then act. He says some very difficult things, but he does so with respect. He must say difficult things, he must be honest, he must speak truth that hurts because each one of his readers will live forever in Heaven or Hell depending on what they do with Jesus. Will they abandon their professed faith in Him and return to Judaism proving they never believed in Jesus as Savior and Lord? Or will they hold fast to Christ and be saved for all time and eternity? There is much at stake therefore, the writer piles argument upon argument to make the case that Jesus is the only mediator between God and sinners! Jesus is the only way to God!

The word “therefore” is used 24 times in this letter (NASB translation). In the first three chapters the writer uses “therefore” to transition from an explanation of truth to the response he wants from his readers, he does so 6 times. Two of those instances are found in our text today. Please open your Bibles to Hebrews 3:7-19 . . .

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, 8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, 9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. 10 "THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART; AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; 11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’" 12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.