Welcome to our program. I'll
be preaching again from Hebrews chapter 3 beginning at verse
7. The title of the message is this,
The Sin of Unbelief. Now I want you to pay particular
attention to this message because I think it will help you to understand
something about the scriptures and the gospel and salvation,
the issues of eternal life, and show the tragedy and the greatness
of unbelief, the sin of unbelief. If I were to ask you this question,
what is the greatest sin? There would probably be a whole
lot of different answers, but basically we could say this,
the greatest sin against God is unbelief. The Bible teaches
that unbelief is a denial of everything. Unbelief of God now.
Unbelief of the gospel of God's salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ
is a denial of everything that God is. You think about it. If you promise something to someone
and they don't believe you, they're casting shame and reproach against
your character. Well, it's the same with God.
The Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples in the book of
John chapter 16, that the first thing the Holy Spirit would convict
sinners of in salvation is the sin of unbelief. He said he will
convince them of unbelief, of sin, because they believe not
on me. In other words, unbelief renders
everything we do in the sight of God to be sinful. Without
faith, the scripture says in Hebrews 11, it is impossible
to please God. Well, the Apostle Paul in Hebrews
chapter 3 had been showing in the first few verses of this
chapter how Christ exceeds in glory even above Moses. Now, Moses was highly esteemed
in Jewish society, in Jewish religion. Moses was the main
prophet. He was the highest of all the
prophets to the Jews. He's the one who led the children
of Israel out of Egypt, and they were established as a nation
under the old covenant. The law given on Sinai, the Ten
Commandments, the ceremonial law, and all of those laws. Moses
was the mediator of that covenant. But Paul writes here, he says
that Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is greater than Moses, and he
proved that in so many ways. Moses was just a sinner saved
by grace. He's part of the house, but Christ
is the builder of the house. Christ is Moses' Savior. Moses
wrote of Christ. Now, in verse 7, he gives another
warning. And the warning here is a warning
against unbelief. In other words, since Christ
is greater than Moses, then be sure that you don't fall under
the sin of unbelief. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Now, he goes back into the history
of the Hebrew people under Moses. As Moses led them out of Egypt
and across the Red Sea, and into the wilderness to the promised
land. And he shows that the Hebrew people under Moses murmured and
complained in unbelief to the point to where they could not
enter into the promised land because of unbelief. And there
we have a picture of how it is impossible to enter into the
blessings of salvation by grace without faith. Now, faith is
the gift of God. Salvation is not conditioned
or based upon faith, but faith is the means by which we enter
into the blessings and the peace and the confidence of salvation
based on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says in verse 7 of Hebrews
3, he says, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if you
will hear His voice. Now, he begins here to quote
from the 95th Psalm, Psalm 95. And I want you to notice, first
of all, that he attributes the Scriptures in Psalm 95, not to
David or not to one of the psalmists, but to God. He says, the Holy
Spirit saith. In other words, now, and that's
important, because what it shows us is that this book, which was
written by so many different men over so many thousands of
years, was actually written by God. Men who were inspired by
the Holy Spirit wrote these scriptures. They were just the instruments.
But we actually attribute the authorship of the Bible to God. 2 Timothy chapter 3 says that
every scripture is God-bred, inspired of God, verbally inspired. This is the Word of God. So that
when I preach to you, you must judge my preaching by how it
fits with the Word of God. And the only way we know it's
the Word of God is as it shows us Christ, who is God, who is
eternal life. So he says, today, if you will
hear His voice, hearing the voice of God through the Scriptures,
through the preached Word. How do I know I'm hearing His
voice? He's not talking about an audible voice that we hear
in a dream, or hear with the physical ear. He's talking about
hearing God's voice as revealed in his word. Isaiah said it in
the book of Isaiah, chapter 8 and verse 20. He said, to the law
and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word,
there's no light in them. You see, the gospel is the gospel
of God. When a man preaches the gospel
of God's grace, that's the voice of God, actually. That man is
just an instrument. He's just a voice. John the Baptist
said that. He said, I'm just a voice of
one crying in the wilderness, preaching the Word of God. Now
listen to me. If a man comes along and preaches another gospel,
a gospel of works, a gospel of legal salvation, self-righteousness,
that's not the voice of God. That's the voice of the man.
So what you need to determine is, am I preaching the Word of
God? If I'm preaching from this Bible,
if I'm rightly dividing the word of truth, it's the voice of God. So he says, today if you will
hear his voice, verse 8, harden not your hearts as in the provocation,
in the day of temptation, in the wilderness, verse 9, when
your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Now here he's referring back
to the children of Israel, the Hebrew children, as they came
out of Egypt and as they were on their way to the promise.
Do you remember what happened? They came out of Egypt. Moses
was sent there to lead them out of Egypt. Do you remember the
plagues that was upon Pharaoh and Egypt and how the Hebrew
children came to the brink of the Red Sea? Now you remember
there in Exodus chapter 14 it's spoken how they began to murmur.
They came upon the Red Sea and they looked behind them and there
was Pharaoh's army in hot pursuit. And they began to murmur. They
began to complain. Now we're going to hear about
murmuring and complaining. Listen to me. When it comes to
murmuring and complaining against God's promises, that is nothing
more than unbelief. They began to attack Moses, began
to complain against him. God said he would bring us out
of this land, you see, and here we are between the Red Sea and
Pharaoh's army. We're going to be destroyed.
It would have been better if you'd left us back in Egypt, they said.
And Moses, he went to God on behalf of the people. And you
remember God raised up that pillar of fire and that cloud that would
protect him from Pharaoh's army. And you remember what happened
there, how God parted the Red Sea and the Hebrew children crossed
over on dry land. You remember what Moses said
before the Red Sea parted? He said, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. Now these people murmuring, worrying,
fretting, complaining, and unbelieving. And Moses said, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. Do you know that's the same as
the call of the Gospel? I see people today in religion
working and working, trying to work their way into God's favor,
trying to work their way into man's favor, trying to earn their
rewards, trying to earn their way into heaven, trying to work
to be good enough, to be holy, to make themselves fit and qualified. All their works, legal, religion,
just preachers put such a burden on people's backs, and I want
to just stand up like Moses and say, listen to me, stand still,
Peace be still. See the salvation of the Lord.
It's not something you work for. It's not something you have to
make yourself qualified for and fit for. This salvation is the
sovereign grace of God in Christ. He finished the work. He's the
one who makes his people fit and holy and qualified. We're
not qualified in ourselves. Salvations of the Lord. Stand
still. and see the salvation of the
Lord." Well, they crossed over on dry land. But here's the point. When they begin to complain and
murmur against God, that's a provocation. That's what he says. Harden not
your hearts as in the provocation. That means they provoked God.
They went against God. They provoked his anger and his
wrath. Later on when they got into the
Promised Land, you remember Moses went up on Mount Sinai and received
the law. And they complained and murmured
about how long it was taking him. It just wasn't in their
time frame. And you know what happened, how
they got together and they brought all their gold and melted it
down and made a golden calf. You remember when Moses came
down off the Mount, what happened? How God destroyed those who would
not stand with him and Moses. they provoke God. There was another
time later on when they began to complain and murmur against
Moses and there were some other people who won some of the responsibility
and leadership because they said, well Moses has too much on him
and God destroyed them. The people began to complain
and murmur and you remember God in the book of Numbers, it's
recorded how he sent fiery snakes, poisonous snakes to bite the
people and kill them. Moses interceded for the people
And God told Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. And he said, tell the people,
instruct them that when they look at the serpent of brass,
they'll live. And those who looked lived. Christ
used that in John chapter 3 when he was talking to Nicodemus as
a picture of himself on the cross. He said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have
eternal life. You see, just as the Hebrew children
who looked to the serpent of brass lived physically, they
didn't die from the poison of the snakes, those who looked
to Christ, on the cross, his finished work, his blood, his
righteousness will live eternally and not be killed by the poison
of sin. But again we see a situation
there where the children of Israel, they provoked God. Later on they
came up to the promised land and God had promised them, that's
why it's called the promised land. He said I'll give it to
you. He said I promised it to your father Abraham 430 years
before they came out of Egypt. And he said, I promised you,
I'll give it to you. Your obtaining the land was not
based on their strength, their goodness, their efforts. It was
all a gift from God. And instead of just going on
over into the promised land, instead of believing God and
trusting in His power, trusting in His faithfulness, trusting
in His strength and goodness, instead of doing that, they sent
spies over into the land. And those spies came back. And
when they came back, there were two reports. There was a majority
report and a minority report. The majority report said, oh,
there's too many people over in that land, and they're too
big, they're giants there, and we cannot take it. We don't have
the strength to take this land from them. Well, that's true.
They didn't have the strength to take that land. But God never
told them that they could only have the land if they were strong
enough to take it. He said, I'm strong enough. The
battle's not yours. It's mine. I've already given
it to you. Just go over and possess it. But the majority report was
based on unbelief. The minority report came back
by two men, Joshua and Caleb. Joshua, he represents Christ. Caleb represents the faithful.
And they said, basically, let's go over and possess the land.
It's already ours. God gave it to us. That's faith.
But because the children of Israel provoked God in their unbelief,
they were forbidden. That first generation that came
out of Egypt was forbidden from going over into the Promised
Land, and they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
And then later on, the next generation went into the Promised Land.
Well, that's just another picture of those who don't believe the
Gospel. Salvation is not something that you can only have if you're
good enough or if you're strong enough to get it and to keep
it. Salvation is a promise from God
in Christ. And only those who have salvation
are only those who, like Caleb, follow Joshua. Those are the
faithful who look to Christ. Now, those who don't do that
are simply provoking God. And it's out of the hardness
of their hearts. Harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation in the day of temptation." It's like they're
testing God. You don't test God. You don't put God to the test.
God has proven Himself over and over and over again. It's unbelief
to provoke God. It's unbelief to test him. And
he says, don't do that. You who are hearing the gospel,
don't be like those rebellious, unbelieving children of Israel,
the Hebrew children, that when they tempted God and proved Him
and saw His works 40 years, they had to wander in that wilderness
40 years. He says in verse 10, he says,
Wherefore, or for this reason, I was grieved with that generation,
and said, They do always err in their hearts, and they have
not known my ways." You see, this unbelief denies God. This unbelief opposes God. And this grief is not an emotion
where God was sad or cried tears. The grief was God's anger against
their sin. It's His wrath upon their sin.
And it says, they do always err in their heart. You know, unbelief
is a matter of the heart. The heart, the mind, the affections,
the will. Those who disbelieve God, they
don't know God. He said, they don't know my ways.
What are God's ways? God's way of salvation is the
way of sovereign, free, mercy and grace. That's the only way
God saves sinners. You know, you see so many different
denominations today, so many different ones who call themselves
Christian, and they differ. They differ on how God saves
sinners. But you see, God only has one
way. of saving sinners. And Christ said it. He said,
I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. God's way of salvation is a way
of grace. Man's way is a way of works. God's way of salvation is forgiveness
from all our sins totally, completely, and forever by the blood of Christ. Man's way is forgiveness based
upon something he does. God's way of salvation is righteousness
not in us or by us, but in Christ. God made Him to be sin, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. God's way of salvation, or man's
way of salvation, is establishing a righteousness of his own against
God in unbelief. God's way of holiness is holiness
in Christ, being washed and cleansed, pure and white in his blood.
Man's way of salvation is holiness by his efforts, unbelief, provoking
God. So he says in verse 11, now listen
to this very carefully, now here's the Hebrew children, they provoke
God, they're wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, and
God says, so I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my
rest. Now that rest refers to Canaan,
the promised land. It was a physical place of rest
from the bondage of Egypt, from the wandering in the wilderness.
But because of their unbelief, because of their provocation,
they provoked God. Because of their hardness of
heart, God swore in His wrath, they'll not enter into that rest.
They wouldn't enter into the promised land. That generation
was forbidden to enter in because of unbelief. Now, what does it
mean, God swore in his wrath? Well, you know, people swear
by different things that they think will bind them to an oath.
But God swears, and when He swears, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter
6, that He can swear by nothing greater than themselves. That's
the nature of the oath. You know, when men take an oath
and they swear. They swear by something greater than themselves.
And they feel that binds them to keep their word. Just like
someone might say, well, I swear by the moon, or I swear by the
stars. And some people blasphemously
say, well, I swear by God, you see. And we're not to do that.
The Bible forbids that. But let me tell you something.
There's nothing greater than God. But the Bible says that God has
the right, and He swears by Himself because He can swear by nothing
greater. Now, here's what that means.
It means to those who believe not, to those who provoke God
in the hardness of their heart, God swears by himself and everything
that he is that they'll not enter in. In other words, everything
that God is in his nature is in opposition to those who believe
not. And the great thing about this
is, is that those who believe God, God swears an oath to them
by Himself. Everything that He is in His
nature is engaged for them. If God be for us, who can be
against us? So what I'm saying is this. If you don't believe
Christ, if you don't seek salvation totally by Him, according to
God's promise and God's oath, you are in opposition to God
Himself. and everything God is, and God
is in opposition to you. But those who come to Christ,
they'll enter into that eternal rest. The earthly land of Canaan
was a type of eternal rest in Christ, salvation. So he says
in verse 12 of Hebrews 3, now the apostle addresses these Hebrews
who are hearing the gospel. He says, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. in departing
from the living God. Now we know that if a person
is a true brother or a sister in Christ, there will not be
found in that person an evil heart of unbelief. But here we've
got to consider the context. There were those amongst these
Hebrew professors who merely professed to believe the gospel
but who were wavering, some had left altogether, and proven that
they were never brethren. You know, the Bible never teaches
that a man can be saved and then lose salvation. And people wonder
about that. They say, well, what about this
one that I thought was saved, who did claim to believe the
gospel, but who left it? Well, the Bible is very clear
about that. It tells us in 1 John chapter 2 that those who went
out from us were never of us. That's John 2, 18 and 19. They
were never of us. Had they been of us, had they
been true spiritual brethren, they would have no doubt remained
with us. But they went out from us that it may be made manifest
that they never were of us. In other words, a person who
looks like to us that they are saved, and who claims to believe
the gospel, but who leaves it and forsakes it, the Bible tells
us to look at that person as one who had never truly believed
it at all. They just had an outward profession.
You see, we can be fooled sometimes. Now, we can. God can't be fooled. He knows His people. The foundation
of the Lord stands assured. God knows them that are His.
You can't fool God, but now we can be fooled. So Paul addresses
them in this way here in Hebrews 3 and verse 12. You who profess
to believe the gospel, you who profess to be my brethren in
Christ, take heed, listen very carefully, and pay attention
to what I'm about to say, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. lest you
turn out to be false professors. That's what he's talking about
here. Now notice here there's some statements here that you
need to pay attention to in verse 12. He says, lest there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief. Now what that tells us there
is that any person who does not believe God who does not know
Christ and trust Him and believe in Him, according to God's testimony,
that person has an evil heart. In God's sight now, now he may
be moral in man's sight, he may be religious, he may even be
charitable according to the standards of men. But my friend, it doesn't
matter how you appear outwardly to men, if you're an unbeliever,
you don't know Christ, you're not submitted to His blood and
His righteousness as that which alone saves you and entitles
you to all of salvation. You haven't entered into that
rest. God looks upon that heart as being evil. An evil heart
of unbelief. And that evil heart of unbelief
is a departure from the living God. It sets a person into, evidences
rather, a person in a state of condemnation. So he says in verse
13, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, while
there's time, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. Exhort one another, encourage
one another. Now he's talking to people under
the gospel now, not just in religion. And he says, encourage one another,
warn one another. help one another now, while it's
cold today, while there's time. There's coming a time when there
won't be time. It'll be too late when the Lord
comes again or when you die. You see, there's time right now. Now is the day of salvation.
Seek the Lord while he may be found, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. The deceitfulness of sin
there can mean many things. But I think mainly in the context
here, it's talking about the deceptiveness of a false profession. Don't be caught up in that. And
then in verse 14, here we have another if statement. He says,
For we are made partakers of Christ, fellowshipers with Christ,
participants in the grace of God through Christ, if we hold
the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Now again,
Here's an if that is not conditional, but it's evidence. And that's
important. We fellowship with Christ. The
Bible says in 1 John 1 that if we have fellowship in salvation
with one another, our fellowship is with the Father and with the
Son. So Paul writes here, We are made fellowshippers, partakers
of Christ. We know Him, love Him, trust
Him from the heart in faith, God-given faith. And the evidence
of that is we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. Now what is our confidence? Christ
is our confidence. Philippians 3 and verse 3 shows
us that. Where Paul said, we are the circumcision,
we worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. My confidence is not in myself,
it's not in my church, it's not in my baptism, it's not in my
works. My whole confidence of salvation
from beginning until completion, final glory, is in Christ and
Him crucified. I have no confidence anywhere
else. Now the evidence of being a fellowshipper with Christ,
the evidence of being a true brother in Christ, the evidence
of being a sinner saved by the grace of God, is that all who
are fellowshippers with Christ, all who know Him, trust Him,
believe in Him, they'll hold fast that confidence in Him until
the end. They'll persevere until the end.