We'll do alright. We just never
get past being a sinner. Only a sinner. I started only
a sinner, and by the grace of God, I'll end only a sinner.
Saved by grace. Turn to Hebrews 3. We'll finish
this up, Lord willing. We left off in verse 6, the last
time we looked at this chapter, and last week we looked at Numbers
13-14. We saw the incident that is quoted
in this Scripture, which is actually quoted from Psalm 95. Psalm 95
is where David is quoting this Scripture, but you'll notice
that the author of that Scripture or the quotation of it, put it
that way, the quotation of it is said to be the Holy Spirit.
He doesn't attribute it to David. He said the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Ghost saith. Now the apostle here, he turns
to warning the Hebrews and us about an evil heart of unbelief
and departing from the living God. This troubles me. Coldness of heart troubles me.
Growing cold and indifferent is something I honestly fear.
I honestly fear growing cold and indifferent coming here,
standing in this pulpit, cold and indifferent. I fear that. I don't want that to happen.
I don't want that to happen to you. I don't want you to come
here because it's Thursday night or because it's Sunday. I want
us to come together to hear from God. And it should be the first
thing we do when we get up in the mornings to ask God TO ENABLE
ME TO STUDY, TO RECEIVE THE MESSAGE, AND THAT WHEN WE COME TOGETHER
HERE, THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS HONORED, AND YOU ARE FED,
YOU ARE EDIFIED, YOU GROW IN GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST. WELL, WE'VE WASTED OUR TIME.
IT'S NOT THAT WE'VE WASTED OUR TIME. REALLY, IT'S JUST EVIL
FOR ANY OTHER THING TO HAPPEN, FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE. AND THAT'S
WHAT HE'S WARNING AGAINST HERE. of unbelief and departing from
the living God because of trials that they were
going through. They were going through some
hard times. Now you and I have never seen really hard times
over the gospel like they saw. We've never seen it. And some
were being tempted to go back to the sacrifices. False teachers
had come along and was enticing them to go back under the sacrifices,
to go back under the old covenant, that what they were believing
was foolishness. What they had done in leaving
the old covenant and leaving the law, leaving the ceremonies, those false teachers were telling
them, that's foolishness. and life had become difficult
on them for following the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said,
With much persecution, with much tribulation, shall ye enter the
kingdom of heaven. It's not an easy road. It straightens
the gate and narrows the way. They say, You're narrow-minded.
Well, I'm as narrow-minded as the Word of God is, as narrow
as that gate is. And hopefully, as straight as
that way is, there's only one way, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
straight, and that's narrow, because there's only one way,
and that's Christ. So some of them, anyway, were
being drawn back. Paul, look over in Galatians
1. Here in Galatians 1. Listen to this. In Galatians 1, verse 6, Paul says, I marvel, I'm astonished
that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. which is not another,
there is no other gospel, but there be some that trouble you,
and would pervert the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." And
the apostle writing this to the Hebrews here, he knows that the
same thing is happening to them. He knows that. And so what he does here, he
uses Israel of old as an example of what not to do. Don't turn back. In their heart,
they were constantly turning back to Egypt. Every time trouble
arose, wish we'd never left Egypt. Wish we'd have died in Egypt.
Every time something come up, there was a little hardship,
there was a trouble, they wanted to go back. It's not going back,
it's going forward. Listen, whatever you and I go
through, and remember this, It's just part of the journey home.
It's ordained of God. It's already set in stone. We will go through it, and the
Lord is going to help us go through it. He's going to enable us to
go through it. And we're going to come out of it, like Job said,
when he has tried me, I'll come out as gold. I'll come out better
than when I went in. That's what he's saying. And
so what he's doing here, he's warning of this evil heart of
unbelief. He's warning here about being religious, but lost. I
don't want to be religious, but lost. I don't want to come up
short. And that's what he's talking
about. The apostle is not trying to get us to doubt, because to
doubt is not to believe. There's no virtue in doubting.
Doubting is unbelief. That's exactly what doubting
is. It's unbelief. He's not trying to get us to
doubt our salvation, but to give diligence. To give diligence
to faith in Christ. If there's anything in this life
that we must give diligence to, it's this. It's our relationship
to Jesus Christ. Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure, to follow Him at all cost, and never look
back." Never look back. It's to be grounded and settled
in the faith. That's what he says over in Colossians.
That's what Paul writes to the Colossians. To be settled and
grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am confident that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. I am confident that Jesus Christ
is the Messiah. I'm confident that Jesus Christ
is Almighty God in the flesh. And I'm confident He's my Redeemer. He's my sacrifice. His blood
is the blood of the atonement for my sins. I'm confident of
that. And what he's saying is, don't
lose that. Don't lose that. Don't let this thing of unbelief
Creep up, and I'm telling you right now, it can creep up faster,
a lot more than you think it does. Have you ever put a question
mark on, why is God doing this? Why has God put me through this?
That's unbelief. Unbelief. And the slightest,
the slightest unbelief hardens the heart. It has a hardening
effect to it. The slightest unbelief has a
hardening effect to it. And do not judge God's care of
you, we sing a song that has this line in it, by feeble sense. Feelings come and feelings go. As that verse goes, feelings
are not worth believing. Are they? Feel good today, feel
bad tomorrow, feel good... Aren't you glad salvation is
not based on the way you feel? A believer now, a believer rarely
feels saved. They take God's Word at it. They
take God's Word at it. We joy in Christ, we hope in
Christ, but we don't trust our feelings because they're just
too fickle. We take God at His Word. He said,
Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. I take God at His Word on that. HE THAT COMES TO ME, I'LL NEVER
CAST HIM OUT." I take God's Word on that. I take Him at His Word
on that. As the Scripture says over in the Old Testament, AS
HE SAID, SHALL HE NOT DO? Absolutely. Absolutely. You can take God at His Word.
Now it says here in verse 7, WHEREFORE, THEREFORE, looking
back, Looking back there, actually verse 6, it says here back in
verse 6, But Christ has a Son over His own house, whose house
are we, if we hold fast to confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm to the end? That being so, therefore, as
the Holy Ghost... Now listen, and I caught this
when I was just upstairs a little bit ago. As the Holy Ghost saith... He didn't say, As the Holy Ghost
has said. It's present tense. He's speaking
now. He's speaking now. And what he's
saying now, listen, the Spirit of God is speaking. And this
gives weight to what has been said. As the Holy Ghost saith,
the author of this Scripture, which is Psalm 95, as well as
all the Scriptures, is the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of
God. God used men to write the Scriptures, but they wrote as they were moved
by God. This is the Word of God. It's not a commentary. I've got
a whole library up there full of commentaries that I read less
and less. I read this more and more. I'm
finding this to be more and more important. And I read the commentaries
less and less. But this is the Word of God.
Scripture interprets Scripture. All Scripture is given, it says,
by inspiration of God. Yes, God used men to write. He
used their personalities. It comes out in their writing.
But everything we have right here is what God had written.
What He had written. Now why is He pointing this out
that the Holy Spirit said this instead of David? He said this to give weight to
what he's about to deal with. This thing of unbelief. If you
were to pick out the worst of sins, I'm telling you, it would be
unbelief. I know most people pick out all
kinds of different things that we would count to be the worst,
but unbelief is the root of why people do what they do. Unbelief
is the reason Adam did what he did. As one writer said, it's
the mother of all sins. All sin begins with unbelief. Every sin. I don't care how little
it is, how big it is. It begins with unbelief. Not believing God who cannot
lie. Calling God a liar. That's what unbelief does. Unbelief.
And this is what Israel did in wilderness. They proved Him,
they put Him to the test for 40 years, and here's what they
were saying. You're lying. You won't take
care of us. You won't deliver us into the
promised land. Unbelief is calling God a liar. That's what unbelief does. So
he says this, And he's pointing this out that the Holy Spirit
said this to give weight to what he's going to talk about here.
It's just unbelievable. Going back under the old cover,
going back to bondage. Back to bondage. But as the Holy
Ghost saith today, you see, it's present tense. He saith today. If you will hear His voice, His
voice is the voice you want to hear. Let me ask you now, seriously. Do you want to hear His voice
tonight? Do you really? Do I? Do I really? LORD SPEAK,
THY SERVANT HEARETH. Is that really, really my heart? I want to hear God speak. I want
to hear His voice tonight. What's he saying to me? Well,
first of all, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Come to me and I'll give you
rest. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. I've learned this over the years.
I come to Christ every day for rest. Forty years ago, around forty
years ago, I heard the Gospel and I believed the Gospel and
I found rest. But you know, I have found over
the years that I still have to come to Him every day for rest. Lord, help me rest. Help me rest
in You. Help me quiet this inward turmoil. Quiet indwelling sin. Give me
rest in my mind, in my heart. Give me the ability to trust
You. No matter what the storm is, no matter how bad the storm
is, give me the ability to rest and have peace and trust you
all the way through it, however long it takes. You know, some
trials are short and some are long. Some are long. And what he's going to be talking
about here is perseverance in the faith. Continuing. Continuing. You know, I can tell you how I know if a
person has been saved. It's when they die in the faith.
These all died in faith. If I draw back, and this is one
of the things he's dealing with, if I draw back and I lose my
interest in Christ, if I lose that, I never had it, first of
all. I never had it. This matter of once saved, always
saved, it's so messed up. It's so messed up. Once in grace,
always in grace. like it happened the day that
I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. My eternal security started before
the world was started. My eternal security is in God
who is eternal. That's my eternal security. It's
in Christ who stood for me in the covenant of grace. That's
my eternal security. And if I have that, if God has
given that to me, And if I'm His, and you're His, we will
persevere in the faith. We will do it. But if any man
draws back, Paul said, my soul has no pleasure in Him. The reason I'm bringing this
out is because someone has said to me, this has been probably
a year ago, He doesn't believe the gospel of God's grace or
meaning as can be, but he made a profession back when he was
a young man, young man. He's still just a drunk. He's an alcoholic, womanizer. Of course, he's gotten old now,
so it's hard for him to do either one. That's so. It's hard for him to keep up
with it now. He can't do either one. But he told me, He said,
I believe when I die, I'm going to go to heaven. And you know
why he believed that? Because of something he did years
ago. He accepted Jesus as his personal
savior. He said, I believe in eternity. And once saved, always
saved. I thought, boy, you're in sad,
sad shape. Sad, sad shape. But let's get back to this. I want you to note the urgency
in these words. He says, "...Wherefore, as the
Holy Ghost saith, today if you will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts." Don't put a question mark on God's Word. Don't start
saying, but this, but that. No, don't harden your hearts.
But listen and receive His Word. as in the provocation, rebellion
in the day of temptation, or testing in the wilderness. When
your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works in providence,
all that God did for them, for forty years they saw this. 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. We know that salvation is of
the Lord. We know that. We know that just
beyond a shadow of a doubt salvation is of the Lord. We know that
God has a chosen people. We know that He'll call them
by His Spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that Christ died
for them, Christ redeemed them. We know that. But the apostle
here is warning us. He's saying here, guard your
hearts. You know, Solomon said that to
his son. My son, give me thine heart, for out of it are the
issues of life. Guard your heart at all times,
at all costs. They are always subject to attacks
of unbelief. You know that. If you know yourself,
you know that it's subject to unbelief. You know, if you look
back at your life, you'll think, why did God put me through this?
Or just putting a question, just a why? Instead of resting, it's the
Lord. Let Him do as He will. Trust Him. Trust Him. And once unbelief starts to grow,
it grows rapidly. It grows rapidly. But also here,
we should never presume that God will speak to our hearts
at any time. Listen, this is not a right,
this is a privilege. What we have right now is a privilege.
It's a privilege. To have the gospel preached is
a privilege. It's an act of God's grace. and we should never presume that
God is going to speak at any time. He may not. Remember last
week when Moses told them what God was going to do to them for
not believing, for not going? And they said, All right, we'll
go. And it was too late. Too late. They tried to go and a bunch
of them was killed. It was too late. God commands response today. Today. To think I have tomorrow
is presumption. I didn't create tomorrow. Did
you? God did. God did. I have right now. And
that's what He's saying. Today, if you'll hear His voice,
and right now here at this time, Lord, speak. Speak to my heart. Speak to the heart of the people
right now. Through your Word, give me an interest. He gives this warning, Harden
not your hearts against the truth. A hardened heart is an evil heart
of unbelief. This was Israel's sin in the
wilderness, they murmured. In one place God said, I hear
your murmuring. Now listen, this is important.
All murmuring, all complaining comes from a heart of unbelief. Remember that. All complaining. You say, I believe the gospel? Let me say something here. Don't worry, I'm not muddying
up the water. Scripture talks about us believing God. It's
not just believing God concerning redemption. It's not believing God just concerning
the five points of Calvinism, what we call the doctrines of
grace. When a believer believes God,
That believer believes God for absolutely everything, for time
and eternity. That's what it involves. It's
not just, I believe God for this, but I'm having trouble with it. No. When we believe God, we believe
God for absolutely everything. We trust Him for our daily food.
It's just as important. That I trust God for my daily
food is I trust God for my salvation. Listen, it's the same faith. It's the same faith. It's to
trust Him at all times, in all situations. That's why he's saying here,
Israel murmured, They complained, and
the reason they complained, and the reason anytime we complain,
we don't believe God. It's unbelief. They refused to
enter the promised land because the people were giants. They repeatedly didn't believe
God in the face, in the face of all the miracles that they
witnessed. They saw the Red Sea, the manna
from heaven. Water out of the rock? Well,
if I saw all that, I'd believe God. Listen, you and I have a
greater witness. This is better than seeing the
red seed departed. This is better than seeing the
manna in the morning. We have God's Word. Take Him
at His Word. He cannot lie. He cannot lie. They did not believe God, they
professed to know God, but now listen, in works they denied
Him. In their life, in their conduct, they denied what they
said they believed. Faith and conduct always go together. Now take heed, brethren, lest
there be in any of you an evil-hearted, of unbelief in departing from
the living God." This is serious business. And notice this, he
says, take heed brethren, not bunch of atheists. First of all, he calls them brethren
because he's speaking to them in love. That's why he's writing
this, it's in love. But he's speaking here to those
who professed, who confessed Christ. Not from a bunch of atheists,
but people who profess to believe. And he knew that some of them
were teetering on going back. Or the Holy Spirit would not
have moved him to write this. This is so important for us because
it's written. If it wasn't important, it wouldn't
be written. It wouldn't be written. And here's a mistake I believe
that Israel made. And we see it if you go back
and read their history going through the wilderness. And I
think that we've got so many today in preaching that they
present God as One who exists only to meet our needs. God does not exist to meet my
needs. He's someone to be worshipped.
He's someone to be believed. He's someone to be absolutely
100% committed to. Trusted. I tell you, let's beware of this
kind of spirit that God is just supposed to answer my prayer
like, you know, give me what I want. I've been maybe prayed about
something and it hasn't happened. Well, that's where we say, Lord,
Thy will be done. That's how that prayer ends.
When the Lord taught His disciples to pray, Thy will be done on
earth as in heaven, in my house as in heaven. Now, how do we fight such an
evil heart of unbelief? Here's how we do it in verse
13, "...but exhort one another daily." Encourage one another
daily. It's not just for the preacher
here. This is for you also. Call on one another. Talk to
one another. Encourage one another. Speak
to one another of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hold one another up. Don't be
a stumbling block, but hold one another up. While it is called today, God
has given us, this is a day of grace. We are standing in a day of grace. And here I stand preaching the
Gospel, we're reading His Word, and He's saying one more time
today, today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin, harden not your hearts now. Stir one another up. You know how we do this? By our
own faithfulness. By our own faithfulness. through
the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we do it? By our love
to one another, expressing our love to one another. As the Scripture says, Love not
in word only, but in deed and in truth. The Word says, Provoke one another
to love. And the only way you can provoke
someone to love is to love them. That's how you provoke someone
to love. That's how you move someone to love. It's by loving
them. I tell you, sin is so deceitful.
It has such a hardening effect that we need to encourage one
another, look after one another, call one another. Don't just
wait till we meet here. Call on one another, especially
if you hear someone's having a difficult time. Because sooner
or later, your turn will come. I promise you, sooner or later,
your turn will come. You know, people usually leave
the gospel little by little, and they don't even realize what's
happening. This excuse, that excuse, before long, they don't
even need an excuse. They don't even show up anymore. They just quit coming and they
drift away, drift away, slip. Beware lest you let these things
slip. Take heed lest you let these
things slip, drift away. Now, note, while it is called
today, while the gospel is still being preached here today, believe
now. I tell you what, every time I
get up every morning, and you do too, whether you even realize
it or not, you believe all over again. Don't you? You believe
all over again. Every day we believe God. And
it says in verse 14, For we are made partakers of Christ. We
are beneficiaries of all that Christ has done, all that He
is. We are united to the Lord Jesus
Christ in such a way that everything God's given Him belongs to us
too. If, what a big if, if we hold the beginning of our confidence.
When you first came to Christ, you were confident He's able
to save you. You were confident He's the Savior
and there is no other. You were confident that He is
God and there is no other. Hold that. Keep that. Grow in
that. Don't lose that. We continue in the faith. We
continue to look to Christ alone for all we need to the end of
our lives on this earth. And then we die in the faith.
I want to be among those written of in Hebrews 11. These all died
in faith. They all died believing God. I didn't die believing a doctrine,
a system. I died believing God. Now don't think, though, after
saying that, don't think that our perseverance qualifies us
for heaven. It reveals that we are truly
born of God. That's what perseverance reveals,
that you were truly born of God. He says in verse 15, While it
said, Today, if you will hear His voice, I want to hear His
voice, Lord, speak. Harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation, the rebellion, for some, when they heard, They
heard God speak. They heard the promise of God
giving them that land. And when it came time to get
it, they wouldn't go over. They wouldn't go over. And they tested God. They tested
Him. That's why they say, you tested
me time and time again. Now in the Greek, that means
they tested him again to see whether they'd be as good or
evil in him. It's to test a person to see what that person is made
of. Can you imagine that? A worm like us testing God to see if there's good or bad
in him? But how be it, listen, not all
that came out of Egypt by Moses, not all of them were lost, not
all of them provoked God. There were some that believed.
God has a remnant. God has a people. Not all of
them were like that, but most of them were. Most of them were.
But some of them heard God and they still provoked Him. God
told them to go possess the land. They said, I don't think so.
Here's what unbelief says, and you remember the message last
week. Unbelief says, Lord, those giants are bigger than you. Those giants are bigger than
you. That's unbelief. Caleb said,
let's take it, it's good, the Lord's with us, let's go get
it. That's faith. Faith doesn't see the giants
bigger than God, it sees God bigger than everything. Bigger
than everything and everyone. Over in Deuteronomy 1.8 it says,
"...Behold, I have set the land before you, Go in and possess
the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
Notwithstanding, you would not go up, but rebelled against the
commandment of the LORD your God." You say, Would that ever happen
to me? Could I ever have such a heart of unbelief? Well, He wouldn't be giving us
a warning if we weren't standing in danger of it, if we didn't
stand in danger of it. Because I tell you what, there's
more unbelief in every believer in here than you and I would
ever want to know of and admit to. All right, now closing. You and
I have heard a greater call We've heard the call of the Gospel.
We've heard the call of grace. Remember He said, take heed to
the things which we've heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip. You go back over to verse 1 and it says that He has
spoken to us by His Son. We've heard the Son of God Himself
has spoken. We've heard a greater call. A greater call. We've been delivered
from the bondage of sin. We've professed to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what He says. Continue
to believe in the face of all opposition, all trouble. Don't you back down. Don't you
get an evil heart of putting a question mark over God's care
of you, over God's Word. You continue to go on. You continue
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ until the day you lay on that
bed and you're taking your last breath and you're about to go
into the land of Canaan. I want to be like Caleb where
it says he was of another spirit. He believed God. He was ready
to go. He was ready to take off. Don't draw back. Don't presume. But don't quit. Don't quit. Everyone who leaves
will leave because of unbelief. It's evident they never knew
God. And I scribbled this out here
just a little bit ago. I thought, how does this apply
to us in this day? Because we don't live under the
law, the ceremony laws. We're not drawn back to that.
We don't have anybody trying to draw us back to offering sacrifices
and stuff. And I thought about this. I thought,
how does this apply to me in this day? Well, I thought about
family. Family can put pressure on you.
Some people I've known one that was kicked out from the family. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother more than me is not worthy of me. Career, our career, putting it
first. Going after to get it established
first. Ourselves, personal interest
in our things, in other things. Lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. Those things creep in. Now what
I'm telling you, these things creep in. And false religion
giving too much attention to it. Too much attention to it. Today, today, the Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking again to us here on Thursday night. Lord, let me hear Your voice. Speak to my heart. Break my heart. Bring me to You. Arrest my attention. Let me learn of You. Listen, flame that interest that
You gave me 40 years ago. Flame that interest. Don't let it grow cold. Don't
let me grow cold and indifferent. It can happen because I can look
back in my life, especially when I was in business, I can look
back at a time when I was in business and I was starting to
grow cold. I was starting to get a little
indifferent. I can look back and I can tell you the truth.
It was pulling me away like a magnet to steel. And God, by His grace, removed
it. He removed it.