Let me add my welcome to Winston's. Isn't it great that we can come
and hear about a wonderful Savior who accomplished the salvation
of his people there at the cross? It's a great place to come and
a great message to hear. You know, I was reminded by our
brother Bill in the back. He was talking about a call to
repentance. You know, just every gospel message
is really a call to repentance. It's a call for all of us If
we have something in our mind that's not consistent with this
Word, not consistent with Christ having all the glory and salvation,
to change it. Change our mind. Conform to this
Word and conform to that Christ. So, if you would be turning,
I started to tell you to be turning, you ought to have been turning
all the time. Turn to Hebrews chapter 3. We're going to continue
a study here that I began a few weeks ago. But we are today,
I think, going to finally get to what I promised you the first
time I stood before you in this passage. We're going to get to
a warning that's contained in this word. The context of Hebrews
3 is a warning. It's been an exhortation. It's
been a lot of different things. But we're going to get to a warning
today in verse 12. I'm going to try to cover these
last few verses here, verses 12 through 19. And I'm not going
to read these verses for Let's take a time. We're just going
to go ahead. I'll read them as I get to them. We've been looking at this and
we've seen an example here of unbelief, an example of those
who in the Old Testament came to the promised land and refused
to enter in according to God's promise and God's command simply
because he promised it to their father Abraham. Now, after he
pronounced a judgment on them and said, well, since you won't
enter in, I'll let your children enter in, but you're going to
wander in the wilderness until those 20 years old and above
are perished or dead, and your children will enter in. And after
he pronounced that judgment, they said, well, maybe we'd better
do this. Maybe we'd better enter this
land. So they attempted to go up on their own and were slaughtered.
The picture of this whole setting and scene here is them refusing
not to enter in simply by the promise of God is a picture of
sinners in any generation, every generation, refusing to enter
into that salvation which Christ has worked out by His finished
work and all that He accomplished for those elect sinners that
God gave Him. led and died for there at the
cross and established that righteousness that enabled God to be just and
justify all that the Father gave him. It's a picture of sinners
refusing to enter into that salvation that Christ has already accomplished
for his people. So let's just bear that in mind
as we continue to look here. Let me remind you of a couple
of things back in these former verses before we actually get
to verse 12. It said in verse 10, he was grieved
with that generation. sorely vexed or highly displeased
with that generation and said they do always err. They are
always being deceived. Two reasons I gave you why they
hardened their hearts against God's testimony. They always
were being deceived in their heart by circumstances, by traditions,
by whatever, by a message that their fathers had, whatever.
They were always being deceived. And they did not know the ways
of God. They did not know His way of
salvation. They did not know how God could be just and justify
ungodly sinners. Those two reasons. So God swore
in verse 11, in His wrath, they shall not, by no means, in no
case, Those who continue on in such unbelief shall not enter
into my rest. Now let's go to verse 12. Here's the warning. He says,
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living God. Let me say one
more thing about those in our example. Those in our example,
as well as all sinners who lived before the cross, were accountable
to God's promise. He promised Abraham. salvation
and he promised salvation based on what Christ the Messiah would
come and accomplish for his people so those before the cross were
responsible accountable to God for his promise now those since
the Christ said of Abraham Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he
saw it and was glad. He looked forward by God's promise
to the coming Messiah. And he rejoiced in what he saw.
He rejoiced in what God told him. He rejoiced in that salvation
that he saw would be completed by Christ. Those after the cross
are accountable to God for the declaration of Christ's finished
work. See, Christ has finished the
work. He has redeemed and justified every sin that the Father gave
him. So we're accountable for the declaration of that finished
work and the salvation that Christ has accomplished for those same
chosen people. Now, Abraham and all before the
cross looked forward to the day that Christ would come and rejoiced
in him. Believers rejoiced in him. Those
of us who know God today as a just God and a Savior look back. But
the object of that, their looking forward and our looking back,
is exactly the same. It's exactly the same Savior.
They knew Him exactly the same way we did. They knew Him as
that One who would accomplish the salvation of His people by
His work alone, leaving no need for contribution from sinners
whatsoever. So, now let's get to this warning.
I want to tell you four things here if I get to them today.
First, this is a warning. Second, it's a warning to brethren.
Third, it's a warning to individuals. And then fourth, we'll look at
the warning specifically. But first, this is a warning.
Take heed, brethren, is a warning. That Greek word you see here
for take heed is, you won't remember this blepho, but it simply means
to see. It's the word for see. But it
means a lot more than just seeing with your eyes. It means perceive
what you see. It means turn your thought. Your
thoughts. Direct your mind. Consider what
you're looking at. Contemplate it. Look at it. Weigh
it carefully and examine the matter at hand. Take heed. Examine
this matter that's being presented before you. Our Lord used this
same word in Mark 18 when He told His disciples, Take heed.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. In
other words, contemplate. Wait carefully what they're saying. Beware of what they're saying.
And he used it again in Mark 12, 38 through 40. Beware of
the scribes, which love to go in long clothing and love salutations
in the marketplaces and the chief seats in the synagogues in the
uppermost rooms at peace, which devour widows' houses and for
a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive greater damnation. Consider Beware of the scribes. Consider. Be on guard against
the hypocrisy of such men. The verb here, take heed, is
a present tense verb, which means it's a continuous action. Continue
to take heed. Don't ever stop taking heed.
Don't ever stop being beware. Don't ever stop contemplating
your thoughts against what God's testimony says, especially concerning
that salvation worked out by Christ. And it's an active verb,
which means you do, you're providing the action. It's not something
being done to you. It's you taking the heed. And
it's imperative, which is a mood of command. It's a command. Take heed. It's a warning. So
the first thing we see here is it's a warning. The second thing,
it's a warning to brethren. He said, take heed, brethren.
And he already started out this context, this chapter, by calling
these holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. So he's
talking to brethren here. He's talking not to the world
in general. He's not even talking to the
religious world in general. But this warning is directed
at those under the true gospel. who claim to believe the true
gospel, who claim to be resting all of their hope and all of
their assurance of final glory in none other than Christ alone
and that which He's accomplished. The warning is against an evil
heart of unbelief, it's said here in verse 12. An evil heart
of some belief is that heart which at some point causes sinners
left with hearts of unbelief. It causes them to depart from
the living God. Therefore, it's of necessity
towards those who at least by right doctrine claim to be worshiping
the living God. In other words, if I'm not sitting
under the right doctrine that at least presents to my mind
the living God, there's no possibility my heart could not be an evil
heart of unbelief. It's an unbelief and it will
remain there unless I am at least given mental agreement to the
right doctrine of the living God. You can't fall away from
the living God unless you're sitting under the gospel, which
is the only message that identifies the living God. Now, Randy preached
to us about the living God just a couple of weeks ago, and I'll
make mention of that in a minute, about some of the things he said.
But this is a warning, and it's a warning to brethren, a warning
to those like you and me who sit under the gospel week in
and week out, who claim to be resting in Christ alone for all
of salvation. But also it's a warning to individuals. Look again there in verse 12.
He said, Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps thou shalt be in
you. And the sense is they'll be found
in you, discovered in you. The sense there. They'll be discovered
in you an evil heart of unbelief. But in any of you, and the sense
is in any one of you, in any one of us individuals, lest there
be discovered in any one of us an evil heart of unbelief. Verse
13 says, Encourage one another day, lest any of you, again,
any one of you, any individual among you, should be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin. The warning is toward individuals
who sit under and claim to believe the gospel. Those considered
as brethren, but it is toward individuals. And you might say
to me, but you don't know how long I've been coming to this
church. It's to any one of you. You don't know how much time
I spend in prayer and in study to any one of you. You don't
know how often and how zealously I witness this gospel out in
the world to any one of you. You don't know how much I give
to this ministry to any one of you. You don't know how much
persecution I suffer just to be here, just to separate myself
from my family and my friends who go to other churches to any
one of you. This is from the pulpit, from
the person who stands here and delivers the gospel to the pew. It's to anyone. It's to individuals. Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps
there should be found in any one of you a wicked heart of
unbelief, causing you to depart or fall away from the living
God. All right? So we've seen that
it's a warning. It's a warning to brethren, and
it's a warning to individuals. Now let's consider the context
of this warning. We're being warned and we're
being called on to beware here, being commanded to consider,
but what are we being warned to beware of? We're being warned
against sin. Now, that's obvious. The Bible
warns against sin, but it's not just sin in general. It's specific
sin. We're being warned against the
sin of unbelief. And I'm going to make a bold
statement here and a broad statement, and then I'm going to back it
up by what I'm going to tell you from the Word from here on. Unbelief
is the greatest enemy of all sinners. Saved sinners, lost
sinners, chosen sinners, not chosen sinners. Unbelief is the
greatest enemy of sinners. First, it's the greatest enemy
of those not chosen in Christ. These are those Christ did not
represent, those he did not die for, those he did not redeem
and justify. And it's because of their continued
unbelief that they will perish under the just and eternal wrath
of God. Look back with me at a verse
that I've quoted for you several times in John 3. John 3 and verse 36. I want you
to look at this verse a minute with me. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. The reason any sinner believes
on the Son is because he's been given life. It's because the
Spirit of God has visited him and shown him that the only way
God could be just and justify an ungodly sinner like him is
based on that righteousness that Christ wrought out and the Father
imputed, charged his account. there to cross. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son, now that's the sinner who goes through his life and refuses
to believe on the Son. He remains in unbelief. He that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him. Unbelief is the reason that sinners
will perish. Ultimately, because they refuse
the salvation that God has provided in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now look back at our context,
and I'll show you that reason again here in this context. Look
at, look on down at verse 15 here in Hebrews 3. He says here, while it said today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation,
for some when they had heard did provoke. They blasphemed. That's what Bill said that word
is, and that's what it is. They blasphemed God. They wouldn't
obey him. They wouldn't enter that promised
land based on his promise alone. Some did provoke, albeit not
all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved
forty years? Was it not with them that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? Now, let's
stop right there for just a second. It says, Was it not with them
that sinned? Was there any one of them, either
that didn't enter the promised land, or did enter the promised
land, that hadn't sinned? So, what I told you, he's talking
about something specific here, and he'll go on and explain it
here, what that specific is. It's the sin of unbelief. Look at verse 18. And to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that could be that obeyed not, but believed not is fine. And
then go on to verse 19. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. The reason any sinner perishes
is because he or she will not. They continually refuse to enter
into that salvation. provided by God and accomplished
by Christ in His work on the cross. They perish not because
there is no salvation provided. They perish only because they
will have no part of the only salvation there is, salvation
in the finished work of Christ alone. They perish not because
they weren't chosen in Christ. Now, I know that no sinner that
God didn't choose is going to be saved. I know that. But that's not what the Word
says. That's not the reason the Word
says sinners perish. They perish not because they're
not chosen. They perish not because they were condemned in a representative. We all were condemned by one
sin, charged to our account, the sin of our federal head and
representative Adam way back there in the garden. And we became
condemned. We came under the just sentence The sentence of
eternal death, right there, based on sin imputed. But sinners don't
perish because we were condemned and represented. And they don't perish because
they personally transgress God's law. They perish because they
refuse the only way of salvation in which God is the just justifier
of ungodly sinners, the blood and imputed righteousness of
Christ alone. What I've tried to tell you right
here and show you back over there in John 3 and here in this context
is unbelief is the greatest enemy of those not chosen in Christ.
God has sworn that no sinner will be delivered from his wrath
whose heart remains in unbelief. Look at verse 19 again and you
can see that. So we see that these could not
enter in. They had no ability to enter
in. Why? Because of unbelief. But unbelief is not only the
greatest enemy of those not chosen, but it's also the greatest enemy
of God's elect. Both before regeneration and
after regeneration. Both while we're still in ignorance,
in this world, going about to establish a righteousness of
our own, just like all other sinners in the world, and after
God has brought us to the light of His glory in the face of Jesus
Christ in the gospel, and shown us that the only way He can justify
any sinner is by the work of Christ alone. Unbelief is not only the greatest
enemy of those not chosen, but it's also the greatest enemy
of the elect. Now, I want you to look with
me at Paul as an example of this, that unbelief is the greatest
enemy of God's elect. Look with me back a few pages
here to 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 13. I'll look at verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus our
Lord, who hath enabled me, or that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Who was before? Before he put
me into the ministry, before he brought me to the light, before
he delivered me out of darkness and ignorance of Christ. Who
was before a blasphemer? and a persecutor and injurious,
but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Now Paul is describing himself
before God delivered him out of the darkness and ignorance
of this world's religion under Christ here. And he's not using
ignorance to justify what he did. Ignorance is not an excuse
for sinners. There's no justification for
what Paul did. He's simply stating the reason
he did these things to God and to his church, persecuted the
church. And he's simply stating why he did it. And the reason
he gives is unbelief. That's when Paul was lost, when
he was wandering around in the religion of this world, ignorant
of Christ. It's when he was ignorant of
a just God and Savior. It's when he was ignorant of
the finished work and the accomplished salvation that Christ worked
out. Now, before regeneration, that's
a picture of all the elect. I mean, the Scripture says that
we are by nature children of wrath, even as others. We're
bound up in this world's religion, trying to work out our own acceptance
with God just like everybody else before God brings us to
the light. And when did Paul's ignorance
end? Did it end when he saw the light, as some say? When he walked
an aisle? When he asked Christ to come
into his heart? No. What does it say in that
verse in 1 Timothy 1? It says, when he obtained mercy. That is, when he was made to
understand that the only way a sinner can stand in God's sight
and be declared just is based on the blood and imputed righteousness
of Christ alone. When he obtained mercy. That's
when he obtained. That's when he knew about the
mercy of God in Christ. Now this is when Paul, as I said,
was a lost man. A lost sheep. wandering around
in this world's religion. And he rightly attributes his
blasphemy and persecution of the church to the sin of unbelief. I did it ignorantly in unbelief,
he said. Well, what about after God saved
him? What about after God delivered him from ignorance of Christ's
person and work? What about after he obtained
mercy? What about after he knew of Christ? What about after he
was resting in Christ for all of his salvation? I want you
to look with me over at Romans chapter 7. I want to remind you periodically
here that I'm talking about a specific sin. The sin of unbelief. Not sin in general, but one specific
sin. I believe in Romans 7, especially
in the latter part here, Paul is describing when he speaks
of the evil that he cannot get away from. The evil that's ever
present, even when he would do good, I believe that he's talking
about the very same thing the writer of Hebrews is talking
about in our lesson. He's talking about the sin of
unbelief. Look in verse 21, Romans 7 and verse 21. Paul said, I find in a law that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. Paul is speaking
here as a regenerate sinner. When does a sinner claim to be
in any way participating, rightly claim to be in any way participating
in that which is good? Well, there's only one time,
and that's when he's attributing all of his salvation, all of
his standing with God, all of his acceptance with God into
blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only time we're ever having any participation in that which
is good. So when he says, when I would
do good here, he's saying, when I would, just rest completely,
totally, absolutely, and 100% of the time, all the time, in
Christ and His finished work alone. I find an evil, evil that's
present with me. And that evil is the unbelief
in his heart. By the Spirit of God in regeneration,
God's elect are in time delivered, that is, liberated from a heart
of unbelief. Let me quote you Romans 6, 17
and 18, but God be thanked, you were the servants of sin. But
you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which
you were delivered, being then made free, liberated. You remember we studied this.
Liberated from sin's dominion, from that hold it had upon us
to keep us trying to work out our own salvation. Being then
made free from sin, you became servants of the righteousness. In regeneration, the Spirit of
God does deliver every one of God's elect from the heart of
unbelief. But there's still a lot of unbelief
still remaining in that heart. We just can't get away from it.
Although every regenerate sinner has been liberated from a heart
of unbelief, yet the sin of unbelief still remains in every regenerate
sinner's heart. You might remember last week,
you probably don't, but anyway, I'll remind you something Winston
mentioned last week in his message about the fight of faith. And
he was referring to the battle, the struggle going on continually
in the heart of a born-again believing sinner. And that struggle
is at all times and in all situations just to rest in the finished
work of Christ alone. That's our struggle. That's the
battle that goes on in our minds. It's the battle The religious
world, apart from the gospel, knows nothing about, but it's
the struggle we face daily. When situations arise, when doubts
rise up in our heart, when presumption, we think, well, God was pleased
with me for that. No, God's pleased with me for
one reason and one reason alone, because of the finished work
of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that reckoned in
my account, and for no other reason. The world in its religion thinks
that the Spirit of God is attempting to eliminate sin from sinners.
That's what they think. They think His work is getting
sinners to think better, do better, be better. Well, shouldn't we
think better, do better, and be better? Absolutely. Of course
we should. We should never diminish in any
way the evil of sin. It's evil. It's evil in God's
sight. And we should never diminish it. And we should never try to
justify ourselves in sin. You can't justify yourself in
sin. Just admit it. Just confess it. Just bring it
to God, because that's the only right thing to do with it. You
can't justify it. But the Spirit's work is not
to make sinners better. That's not what He's doing in
this world. The Spirit's work is to lead sinners to rest. in
the finished work of Christ alone. He says, He will take the things
of mine and He will show them unto you. Those things are all
that Christ has done to put away the sin of His sheep and to give
them a just, unchangeable standing of righteousness before God.
That's what the Spirit does. That's what He's doing. That's
what He's doing in the hearts of those that have been brought
to Christ right now. He's teaching us. He's drawing
us. He's leading us. He's exhorting us to rest in
Christ's finished work alone. So Paul says that it's the sin
of unbelief that keeps a believer from doing, that is, from resting
in Christ alone, even though he desires to do so. I desire
to just rest there, but I face situations that cause my mind
to go elsewhere, and I know you do too. I've been delivered from a heart
of unbelief. That unbelief, it still crops up in my mind. And
I'll remind you of one that I mentioned last time. The writer of Hebrews
calls the sin of unbelief the sin that so easily besets I'll
quote you Hebrews 12 and verse 1. Wherefore, seeing your compass
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin that so easily besets us. What's that sin? It's
the sin of looking somewhere else for assurance before God,
but in the finished work of Christ alone. So Paul is a good example
that the sin of unbelief is the greatest enemy of God's elect,
both before and after salvation. Now, I've got three reasons here,
and I'm not going to get into these reasons, but I might just
mention them. There are three reasons, and
in this context of Scripture right here, three reasons why
remaining unbelief is still the regenerate, the believing sinner's
greatest enemy. And I'm just going to mention
them, and I'll come back and talk about them next time. First
of all, it's unbelief that causes sinners to defect or depart from
the living God. Look there in verse 12. Lest
there be found in any one of you an evil heart of belief,
causing any to depart from the living God. That's the first
reason. Second reason, why unbelief is the greatest enemy of even
the regenerate sinner, because It's the deceivalness of that
sin, the sin of unbelief, that hardens the hearts of sinners,
in verse 13. He said, Exhort one another daily.
Exhort one another in the finished work of Christ. Exhort one another
in the Gospel. While it's called today, in other
words, don't put it off, lest any of you be hardened through
the That says, through the deceitfulness of sin. But in the original,
it says, deceitfulness of the sin. It's one sin. It's the sin
of unbelief. And then thirdly, it's because
it is deliverance from the sin of unbelief that provides the
only evidence of regeneration and true conversion. And we'll
really have to get into this verse more next time. Verse 14,
For we are made partakers. And that word partakers means
sharers in all that Christ has accomplished by his work for
his people. Shares in it. We're made shares
in it if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until
the end. That's until its end, really.
What's the beginning of our confidence? When did you begin You had so
much confidence when you heard this gospel, and God caused you
to believe it, to separate yourself from the religion you were in,
to separate yourself from your family in a religious manner.
You had so much confidence. Now, what gave you that confidence?
I'll tell you what it was. It was the finished work of Christ,
accomplishing all your salvation. That's the only thing it could
be. It was His righteousness imputed, charged to your account,
that gives you an unchangeable standing before God. It was Christ
putting away your sin by His own death on the cross. That's
what it was. But I'll talk about those more
next time. I want to give you one final question. If true believers
are still so prone to the sin of unbelief, and we are. We're
prone to it. We don't have a heart of unbelief,
but we still have unbelief in our heart. And if we're so prone
to the sin of unbelief, The sin which kept those in our example
here from entering into the promised land. They perished in the wilderness. They wandered there for 40 years.
And it's the sin which leaves the unconverted, those who refuse
to believe salvation conditioned on Christ alone, it leaves the
unconverted in a state of perishing. So where can any of us find any
comfort and assurance before God, then, if we still have this
sin in us? Kept these from entering into the promised land. And it
keeps any sinner who remains in that heart of unbelief from
entering into salvation, from being saved. How can we find
any assurance? Only in one place. In the mercy
of God found in the person and work of Christ alone. If the
gospel causes you to rejoice in a Savior who accomplished
all of your salvation and rests all of your hope and all of your
assurance before God right there, You are a participant in God's
greatest miracle. You know that? You are. The greatest
miracle ever performed, the greatest miracle this world will ever
see is the just justification of an ungodly sinner entirely
and completely by the work of his representative, the Lord
Jesus Christ. If that's your mind, rejoice
in it. Find comfort in it. Find assurance
before God in it. As Winston prayed, come boldly
to the throne of grace based on the merits of Christ alone.
If not, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any one of you
an evil heart of unbelief.