Let us turn tonight to Hebrews
chapter 3. We'll take up in verse 7, where we
left off last time. Hebrews chapter 3 and 7 through
the end of the chapter. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith today, if you will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts
as in the provocation, in the day of temptation, in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved
with that generation and said, they do always err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath, they
shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called today. Lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin, for we are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. While it is said, today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation,
for some, when they had heard, did provoke. Now be it not all
that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved
40 years? Was it not with them that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? and to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believed not. So we say that they could not
enter in because of unbelief, the sin of unbelief. That's the title of the message,
the sin of unbelief. In these verses that we've just
read, the writer sounds a warning. a very clear and a very needful
warning against the sin of unbelief. This warning is always needed. It's always needed. It's always
needed to be considered by those of us who profess faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In looking at these verses, We
see a very clear testimony to the authorship of the scriptures. If you look in verse seven at
what the writer says, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, as the
Holy Ghost saith. He is quoting, of course, from
Psalm 95, a Psalm which was written by David, But it was a psalm,
as all the word of God, inspired by God the Holy Spirit. It was
God the Holy Spirit who said, that's what the verse tells us,
as the Holy Ghost saith, God spoke. All scripture is given
by inspiration of God. That is, all scripture is God-breathed. God-breathed. When we think about
those to whom this letter was originally written, these Hebrews,
now over 2,000 years ago, the writer quotes from a psalm
that had been written approximately 800 years before that. And it speaks of a history that
took place some hundreds of years before that. To those people
who originally this letter was written, we might say, well,
that's ancient history. That's ancient history, that
psalm, and that historical fact that is recorded in that psalm. That's ancient history. And now
here we are some 2,000 years later, how much more might we
say, well, that's ancient history to us? And the point I want to
emphasize is simply this. If the Old Testament, as well
as the New Testament, if it were simply the words of men, then
we would not need to listen. We would not need to take heed
to hear. But this is the Word of God. The Holy Ghost saith. It's important, isn't it? God,
and it will always be important. I like that verse in Proverbs
6, where Solomon said this about the Word of God. What a blessed
truth it is. He said, when thou goest, it
shall lead thee. When thou goest, it shall lead
thee, the Word of God. When thou sleepest, it will keep
thee. And when thou wakest, it will
talk with thee." That's the Word of God, isn't it? It leads us,
it keeps us, and it speaks to us. It is God's Word. The Holy Ghost saith. Now, looking at these verses
that we've read here, I want to point four things out to us
in relation to this sin of unbelief. in relation to the sin of unbelief. First, the warning. The warning
is found in verses seven and eight. Wherefore, as the Holy
Ghost saith today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation, in
the wilderness. The warning. And I want you to
notice that the warning begins with the word today. Today, now,
tonight. If we were to see a house on
fire, if you were driving down the road, down the street, and
you saw a house on fire, you wouldn't go home and write that
person a letter who lived in that house and warned them that
their house was on fire. No, you would stop your car and
you would go immediately and warn them, your house is on fire. Today. Today. Those of us who
preach the gospel, those of us who teach the word of God, we
must recognize that there is a sense of urgency. Every time
that we preach, every time that we teach the word of God, we
are not promised tomorrow, none of us are. I read just yesterday,
a pastor friend of mine in his bulletin told an experience that
he had One of the men invited someone he worked with to come
and visit their church. This is some time back. And the
man came on Sunday night and listened to the preaching of
the gospel. The next evening, about eight
o'clock, he was out walking his dog and had a massive heart attack. My friend was the last man to
preach to that man. And the church that he attended
He certainly didn't hear the gospel there, this man who had
visited the church, the church, his home church. He never heard
the gospel there. So the last time he heard, he
heard the gospel. Whether that had any effect upon
him or not, I don't know. We don't know. But I do know
this today, today, you and I, And when we think about this,
what he says here, today, if you will hear his voice, we have the freedom, you and
I, we have the freedom, we have Bibles, and we can read our Bibles
every day. And we have services here three
times a week, and we can come and hear the preaching of the
gospel. But does that mean that we always hear his voice? Sometimes we hear his voice. Sometimes as we are reading his
word, he speaks to us. Sometimes when the preacher is
preaching, we hear his voice. Today, we're not guaranteed that
every time we read the word of God, every time we meet and hear
the preaching of the gospel, that we are going to hear his
voice. There's a sense of urgency here. When we do hear His voice,
maybe He's speaking to someone here tonight. When we do hear
His voice today, today is the day, not tomorrow, not a week
from now, but today, tonight is the night, is the time to
respond to His voice. Now the warning here is against
hardening the heart. You know, we hear sometimes about
the hardening of the arteries, and some people suffer from that.
Well, this is a much greater calamity here, my friends, than
the hardening of the arteries. This is a hardening of the heart. And it is clearly this from the
words in verse 12, when he said, take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, an evil heart Hardening
the heart produces an evil heart of unbelief. And once again,
we are reminded that the root of our problem, the root of man's
problem is the heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Only the Lord. He's the only one. That's the
reason the psalmist prayed, Search me, O God, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me. This is the root of the problem.
This is the root of a believer's problem. When we grow cold and
indifferent to the things of God, the problem, we want to
blame the preacher, we want to blame whatever. No, the problem
is the heart. Of course, we used to sing, it's
me, O Lord. It's me, O Lord, standing in
the need of prayer. It's not my brother, my sister,
but it's me, O Lord. The heart, the heart. This was Israel's sin, to which
the text here refers. They heard the report. They sent
12 spies. into the land of promise. There
they are in the wilderness, and they're right on the verge of
going into the land of promise that God had promised them, a
land flowing with milk and honey. But they sent 12 spies out. 10 of them come back with an
evil report, an evil report, a report that told the people,
well, there's giants in the land. There's giants in that land.
And I want to tell you something, the cities in that land, they
have walls built up to the heavens. Think about this. What if the
giants had been twice as big as they were? And the walls had
been twice as high as they were? Would that have meant that it
was impossible for their God to give them the land? no matter
how many enemies were in the land, God. And they had witnessed,
they had witnessed the power of God, the hand of God in Egypt. And when they came to the Red
Sea, what a tremendous miracle was that, my friends, to watch
that sea part. And yes, it parted. And they
walked through on dry ground. And then when their enemies,
Pharaoh and his armies, have said, the scripture says, to
do the same thing, they were overthrown. All of their enemies
were destroyed in the Red Sea. But now they hear an evil report
that there's giants in the land. The cities have walls built up
to the heavens, and so they did not believe God. Notice these
three steps. This is what I see here. Notice
these three steps. First, they did not hear God's
voice. That's number one. They did not
hear God's voice, God's word. Second, when they did not hear
God's voice, they hardened their hearts. And third, This resulted
in departing from the living God. Not hearing his voice. Hardening of the heart, departing
from the living God. The awful sin of unbelief. Here's the second. So there's
a warning. The second is the result. Verses 9 through 11. When your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my works forty years, wherefore I was grieved
with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart,
and they have not known my way. So I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest. They provoked God's wrath. I swore, God says, the Holy Ghost
saith, I swore in my wrath. And pay attention to these words
in verse nine. These words where he said, and
saw my works, saw my works 40 years. And then in verse 10,
they saw my works, but they have not known my ways. I want you
to think about works and ways. They saw my works, but they have
not known my ways. You know what God said about
Moses in Psalm 103? He made known his ways unto Moses. His ways. God made known His
ways unto Moses, His acts, His works unto the children of Israel. They saw His works. They saw
the miracles. But God did not make known His
ways unto Every man, every woman who was born in this world, we
all see God's acts. We see his works. We live in
his world. We see in creation, the wisdom
of God, the power of God, so that man, all men, no matter
where they are born, no matter what conditions they are born
into, my friends, all men are left without excuse. Because
there's a witness in creation that there is God. There is a
God. All men born in this world see
God's acts in creation so that they are all without excuse,
but they glorify Him not. This is what Paul says in Romans
chapter 1. They glorify Him not as God. In other words, they do not believe
Him. The sin of unbelief. The Israelites to whom this text
refers, they were not atheists. They did not say that they did
not believe that there is a God, but they did not believe God. They provoked God to wrath by
their unbelief. They did not submit to Him. Now
their unbelief resulted in God not allowing them to enter into
the promised land. If we think of the promised land
as a picture of salvation, a picture of rest, spiritual rest, then
it was the sin of unbelief that keeps men from salvation. It keeps men in their lost condition. Those who do not trust in God's
son as their only savior from sin. have not entered into His
rest. It is not Christ plus anything. That's a message that we need
to hear, we need to learn, we need to remember. It's not Christ
plus anything. It's not Christ plus our baptism. It's not Christ plus our good
works. It's not Christ plus anything. It's Christ and Christ alone. He and His finished work is the way of salvation. It's
Christ alone, Christ alone. The apostle Peter in Acts chapter
four made it ever so clear when he said, neither, neither is
there salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He's the only way, it's Christ
alone. Third, the application, verses
12 and 13. So the warning, the result, now
the application. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from
the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called
today. Lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. Notice that he calls these, that
he warns, brethren. Did you notice that? Take heed,
brethren. Here's a warning. It's a very
serious warning and yet it is a warning which is given to those
that he refers to as brethren. Listen to this question. Is it possible for a true child
of God to fall away and be lost? Now that's the question. Is it
possible? for a true child of God to fall
away and be lost? Well, you know the short answer
to that question is no. No, it is not possible. But now here's the real question. Here's the real question. Is
it possible for one who only professes to be saved, but really
isn't, to fall away? And the answer to that question
is yes. Yes. And we have an example given
to us, if you will, in 1 John. 1 John chapter 2. Is it possible for one who only
professes to be saved but really isn't saved to fall away? Yes. In 1 John chapter 2 and verses
18 through 20, the Apostle said,
little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that
Antichrist shall come, even now, are there many Antichrists whereby
we know that it is the last time. They went out from us. These
Antichrists, they went out from us. And every person who deserts,
who goes away from Christ, is an antichrist. He's against Christ. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. You see my question? Is it possible
for one who merely professes to be saved, but really isn't,
to fall away? Absolutely. And John tells us
about some. They went out from us, so they
must have been of them at one time. They went out from us,
but here's the thing, if they had been of us, really of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now
watch this. But you, little children, you
have an unction from the Holy One. And you know all things. And every person who has an unction
from the Holy One knows Christ, or comes to know Christ, and
shall continue. If you look back at the writer's
admonition here in Hebrews, Two things I want to mention. First,
he said, beware. Beware of departing from the
living God. Beware of turning away from Christ. Beware of any message. Beware
of any messenger that does not focus on Christ. Beware. of departing from the
living God. People tell me sometimes, well,
he says some good things. Well, sure he does. Every man
says some good things from time to time. But is his emphasis,
is his message Christ and Christ alone? Beware, brethren, of departing
from the living God, from departing from the message that is Christ
alone. You remember I've told you this
before, but in the Reformation, in the 1500s, they had that watchword,
which was sola, along, along. The scriptures along, grace along,
faith along, Christ along. Beware of departing from the
living God. And number two, exhort. Exhort
one another while it is called today. Now, this must be true
of all of us. It's not just the preacher's
job. This must be true of all of us. We must, as the writer
of Hebrews later tells us in chapter 10, consider one another. Consider one another to provoke
unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together. Here's the fourth thing I want
us to notice. First, we've seen the warning,
the result, the application. But fourth, in verses 14 through
19, partakers of Christ. For we are made partakers of
Christ. Now, the last time, if you look
back in verse one, the last time in verse one, we saw this word
partaker. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling. The word partaker means a sharer
or a participant. A participant of the heavenly,
the effectual calling. In that calling, that effectual
call, we are united to Christ. We are made partakers of Christ,
as this verse tells us. For we are made partakers of
Christ. We don't make ourselves partakers
of Christ. It's not my decision. It's not
your decision. It's not any man's decision.
It's God. For he hath made him unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So then it is
written, he that glorieth He that glorieth, he that boasteth. Glory in the Lord. In the Lord,
in the Lord only. Salvation is of the Lord. From the beginning to the last. And there is no end. Thank God.
There is no end. He gives unto us eternal life. Partakers, we're made to share. Made to share, to benefit in
all that Christ has done. All that he has done. He is our
living head and we are made members, partakers of Christ. Members
of his body, his mystical body. Now partakers of Christ persevere. In other words, they hold fast
their confidence. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. The confidence that which we
have professed, our confidence is Christ. And true believers,
those who are made partakers of Christ, they do persevere. You know, one of the promises
of the new covenant, there are many promises and they're all
yay and amen in Christ. But one of the promises that
we find in Jeremiah is this, I will make an everlasting covenant
with them. Now notice God saying, I will
not turn away from them to do them good. That's good, isn't
it? That's God's promise. I will
not turn away from them to do them good. Well, maybe they'll
turn away from you. Oh, no. Oh, no. But I will put
my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me. Thank God. You and I, those of
us who know Christ tonight, I'm sure we would have departed a
hundred times before now if it were not for God's persevering,
preservation. I read this in the Psalms this
morning, Psalm 37. It says, for the Lord loveth
judgment and forsaketh not his saints. You say, well, I'm not
a, if you're a believer, you are a saint. You've been set
apart. The Lord loveth judgment and
forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved Forever! You know, when people used to
can and preserve things and put them up, I remember my wife's
grandmother lived in Texarkana. We used to visit her quite often
in the summer. And she had a, she called it
a smokehouse, I think, but it was really a little room, a pretty
good size room. And she had that place filled
with canned things and jars of things. And I tell you, she was
someone who went through the Great Depression. And those people
who went through that, they knew what it was to preserve and keep
things and be ready for a rainy day. But you know, even those
vegetables and fruit that are preserved, they have an expiration
date, don't they? You better eat it, you better
use it before it passes over. But I'm telling you what, God's
children, God's saints, we have no expiration date. We are preserved
forever. And the reason we persevere,
and we do, is because we are preserved. preserved by the Lord. The believer's perseverance,
now listen, the believer's perseverance does not qualify him for heaven. The only thing that qualifies
a man or a woman for heaven is the blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ. Your faith doesn't qualify you
for heaven. Yes, you must believe. I understand
that. But your faith doesn't save you.
Your faith did not die for you. Your faith did not put away your
sins. The only thing that qualifies
a person for heaven is Christ, his blood and his righteousness. Those who turn away from Christ
do so because of unbelief. And just like the Israelites,
here's the warning that the writer is giving to these who were Jews,
Hebrews, And they were under persecution, and they were being
tempted to go back to what we today call Judaism. And so the
apostle is sounding a warning here, just like the Israelites
of old in that provocation, they did not believe God. And because
of their unbelief, they did not enter into the land of promise. The awful sin of unbelief. People, all of us, I guess, we
categorize sins and we think this sin is It's bad and every
sin is bad, don't get me wrong, but we have a tendency in our
thinking to think this sin is the worst. I'll tell you something,
the sin of unbelief, I don't know if there could be a worse
sin than that. Not to believe God. not to believe the God who
cannot lie. And he has given us his word. What an affront. What a sin not
to believe God. God help us to believe. Amen. Amen. Let's sing a hymn and we'll
be dismissed.