“Emotions are irrelevant.” Leonard Nimoy a.k.a. “Spock”

“True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” Jonathon Edwards

Psalm 95:7b-10 Psalm 95:7b-10 7b “Today if you will hear His voice…. 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.”

I.God warns against complaining A. Complaining is incompatible with worship. B. Complaining is an act of revolt against God’s rule.

Exodus 17:7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Deuteronomy 8:3-4 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord… Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord…

Numbers 11:4-5 4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

C. Complaining is a symptom of an even deeper problem. 1. A hardening heart 2. A wandering heart 3. An unbelieving heart

II.God declares His verdict on defiant complainers. So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” Question: What exactly is this rest that is denied “complainers?”

III. A NT postscript: God’s answer for the complaining heart (Hebrews 3:7-4:16)

Matthew 11: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

“Thou movest us to delight in praising thee; for Thou hast formed us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till thy find rest in thee.” Augustine, in Confessions.