A Bad Example

Q: What does the Bible say about unbelief?

The Bible teaches that unbelief is the root cause of all sin and keeps people from entering God's rest. Scripture outlines how unbelief led to the Israelites' downfall in the wilderness, as seen in Hebrews 3:19, which states, 'So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.' This principle is echoed throughout the Bible, emphasizing that it is through faith in Christ that we find acceptance and rest in God. Moreover, Jesus Himself explained that when the Comforter comes, He would convict the world of sin because they do not believe in Him (John 16:8). Undoubtedly, unbelief hampers our relationship with God and leads us further from the hope of salvation.

Q: How do we know that God loves us?

God's love for us is demonstrated by giving us Christ, which allows us to approach Him as our Father. The testimony of Scripture consistently affirms God's love for His people. As mentioned in Romans 8:15, believers have received the Spirit of adoption through which we cry, 'Abba, Father.' This relationship signifies that we are no longer in slavery to fear but are welcomed into a familial bond with God, rooted in His everlasting love. Furthermore, in Jeremiah 32:40, the Lord promises to make an everlasting covenant with His people, stating He will not turn away from them. Such truths reassure us of His unwavering love and commitment to our salvation and security in Christ.

Q: Why is it important to have a proper fear of God?

A proper fear of God drives believers to Christ and helps maintain their faith amidst trials. The fear of God is a theme deeply rooted in Scripture, where it is depicted not as a terror leading to despair, but as a reverent awe that fosters closeness to God. In Jeremiah 32:40, God promises to put His fear in the hearts of His people, leading to their faithfulness. This fear prompts a recognition of our limitations and dependence upon God, urging us to seek refuge in Christ during times of temptation and challenge. As it is also illustrated in Hebrews 5:7, even Christ, in His human experience, embodied this reverent fear, which propelled Him to pray for divine help through His suffering. Therefore, cultivating a healthy fear of God is essential for enduring faith and obedience.

Q: What does it mean to enter into God’s rest?

Entering into God's rest signifies finding salvation and peace through faith in Christ. Hebrews 3 highlights the warning against unbelief and its consequence—failing to enter God's rest, which symbolizes the ultimate salvation and peace granted to the believer. The Israelites, due to their unbelief, missed out on the promised land, thus serving as a potent example of the dire consequences of rejecting faith in God. To enter into God’s rest today means to fully trust in Christ's redemptive work, which assures believers of their salvation. As expressed in Romans 5:1, 'Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,' establishing a profound sense of rest from the burdens of sin and judgment.

Lord bid me to come unto thee. Compel me to approach thy throne of grace. That's our hope this morning. Good morning. Want us to begin with prayer and Jeff Toppenheim is preaching for Billy Argoropoulos over in Saint Petersburg this morning. So I want us to remember, remember them in prayer. Let's pray together.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that you have called us and commanded us to come. Lord, we would never be able to come into thy presence lest you had made it so that our sin could be put away and and so that we could have a righteousness before thee. We do approach thy throne of grace boldly confident that Christ has been successful in putting away all the sins of all of thy people and that he is our righteousness before thee. Lord, we are a needy people. You said that if we be burdened and heavy laden, that we are to come unto thee, there we would find rest for our souls. Lord, the burden of sin is heavy, laden upon our souls, and how thankful we are and how hopeful we are this morning that you would Take away that burden and cause us, Lord, to find our rest and all our joy in Christ.

We pray for Jeff and ask Lord that you would bless him as he preaches the gospel. Bless your your people there and enable them, Lord, to to worship thee. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. If you'd like to open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. And we'll begin reading at verse 15. While it is said, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke. Howbeit, not all they 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? To whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest? But to them that believed not."

Verse 19. So we see, and here's the summary of the verses we just read. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Now the Lord has made it clear that unbelief is the root cause of all our sin. He said that when the comforter came that he would convict us of sin because we believe not on him. Now, every child of God knows what that father knew when he cried, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. So much unbelief. So much walking by sight. So many distractions in this world and so many weaknesses in our own flesh. That we know something about fear. We know something about fear.

Ever since Adam sinned and the Lord cried out to him or called to him, Adam, where art thou? And Adam said, I heard you. I heard your voice in the garden. And I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Fear has been a part of human life ever since. And the kind of fear that Adam was talking about is that fear which causes us to hide from God. It is a slavish fear. It is a fear that comes as a result of sin and the fear of condemnation.

Someone has said that 365 times in the Bible, God said, fear not. I haven't counted them, I don't know. But the Lord knows that you and I need to hear those words from him. Lest we fall in our unbelief, looking away from Christ and being gripped by the fear of sin and judgment. The Lord tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 2, for God has not given us the spirit of fear.

The spirit of fear came as a result of sin. didn't come from God. God gave us the spirit of power. The power to believe God. The power to trust him, the power to rest in Christ. We would not have that power if the Lord did not give us the power. God has given us the spirit of power and of love.

The ability to love Christ, the ability to love God's word, the ability to love the gospel, the ability to love one another. That's the spirit that God gives, not the spirit of fear and the spirit of a sound mind. an understanding mind, a discerning mind, a mind that knows the difference between that which is holy and that which is profane, that which is true and that which is a lie. That's the spirit that God gives. Power, love, and a sound mind.

Paul tells us in Romans chapter eight, verse 15, you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. As we just sang in that hymn, We're able to come boldly before the throne of grace and find help. What is our help? It's to put away this fear, this slavish fear. It's to find relief and deliverance for sin. That's our time of need.

And we're able to come boldly before the throne of grace, confident that Christ has made it so that we can call God our Father, our Father, Abba Father, and know that he loves us more than we could ever love even our own children, as much as we love them. The Lord said, if you be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more? your heavenly father, where our love for our children is nothing compared to his love for us. And that's the only thing that conquers our fear. That's the only thing that gives us comfort in knowing that that sin has been successfully put away and that we have a righteousness before God that enables us to come All of that having been said, with that coming and with that comfort and with that confidence that we have in Christ, the Bible speaks of a fear that believers do have.

It's not a slavish fear. It's not a fear of condemnation. It's not a fear that would cause us to do like our father Adam and seek to hide from God. It is a fear that does just the opposite. It is a fear that drives us to Christ. And I believe that's what the Lord is telling us here in Hebrews chapter three. He's using those Israelites in the wilderness as an example.

And he's saying to us, they didn't believe me. And because of their unbelief, they were not able to enter into my rest. They were not able to find rest for their souls, and they were not able to find eternal rest in glory. They could not enter into the promised land. They all had to die in the wilderness. And the Lord saying to you and me, be on guard. Lest you fall. Into the same spirit of unbelief. And every believer knows that that spirit of unbelief. Is in there. Is in their flesh. It's in their daily experience. What does our fear do? Is it?

Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 32. Jeremiah chapter 32. And look with me at verse 40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I love the way the Holy Spirit says that. I will make, that's our new birth. That's when the Lord is pleased to call us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Give us the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of a sound mind. That's when he gives us faith to look to Christ and causes us to run to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need. I will give them.

That comes in a moment of time for every child of God. Paul said, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to make himself known in me. That's a, that's a period of time. That's a time in life when the Lord, when the Lord reveals himself. I will make. But then, but then we have something that's timeless in the same sentence, in the same promise.

Yes, I'm going to make this covenant a truth to them in time, but it's not going to begin then. When they come to see what the covenant is all about, they're going to rejoice in knowing that it's an everlasting covenant. It never had a beginning. It never had a beginning. It didn't begin with them coming to believe. It began in the eternal, everlasting covenant of grace that I established in myself before time ever was.

And what I have made to be in eternity can never be done away with in time. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them. There's our hope that he will not turn away. How could he change something that's everlasting? If this covenant never had a beginning and never has an end, which is what everlasting means, then we have the hope that God can never turn away.

I will never turn away from them. To do them good, And I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. Now here's a holy fear. This is not the sinful fear that causes us to hide from God or run from God. This is not the slavish fear that causes us to lose hope and comfort. This is the fear of God that the Lord said, I'll put in your heart and it's never going to go away and it's going to cause you to come to me.

Come to me. So When the Lord uses the Israelites in the Old Testament as an example and he says they fell in the wilderness and they never entered my rest because of their unbelief, the child of God knows that they have enough unbelief experience with unbelief in their own lives to know that if the Lord doesn't make them to differ. And if the Lord doesn't give them faith, and if the Lord doesn't give them a proper fear of God, they'll die in the wilderness and never enter into God's rest. Never enter into God's rest. The perfect example we have of this fear of God is found in Hebrews chapter five. The perfect example of the fear of God is found in Hebrews chapter 5. As is all perfection found, it is found in Christ.

Verse 7, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience. by the things which he suffered. Our Lord made after the likeness of sinful, there's a mystery here. Here's God incarnate, the fullness of the Godhead, who is living in this world, fearing his father, Believing, that's the word fear here.

He's believing his father. He's trusting his father. He's finding a need to depend upon his heavenly father for everything. Everything. A perfect example of what it is to fear God. Was there any fear of man in the heart of Christ? Was there any fear of his circumstance? No, he feared God. Turn to me to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11.

Now, in Romans chapter 11, the Lord is speaking of, he's likening the Jewish church, the Old Testament church, to an olive tree. And as John the Baptist said, the ax has been laid to the tree and the tree has been cut down and God has grafted into the stump of that tree, olive branches, from the Gentile world, and that's the Gentile church. And the life that those branches have is coming from the root of the tree. And we know who that root is. Job said this. He said, don't persecute me. The root of the matter is in me. Christ is the root of that tree, and we've been grafted in.

And some of the Gentiles, I mean, there was such animosity, culturally speaking, between the Jewish people and the Gentiles. The Gentiles hated the Jews. The Jews believed that all Gentiles were dogs. That was a great, I mean, nothing like we know anything about in our generation, at least. And some of the Gentiles, Some of the Roman Gentiles may be reading these words and thinking, well there, you've been looking down your self-righteous nose, which is what the Jews did toward the Gentiles.

But look now what God has done. He has cut your tree down and he's grafted us into the root. So that's what's being said here. Look at verse 17 in Romans chapter 11. And if some of the branches be broken off, that's Israel being broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partook of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, speaking to the Gentiles, speaking to us, have you been grafted in? Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.

God grafted you into the olive tree by faith, not by works, by faith. Faith by its very nature is the admission that I have no works. Faith by its very nature is the confession that I didn't do anything to earn this. God gave it to me. It was a free gift.

And so these Gentiles who were boasting against the self-righteous Jews, saying, well, look what God's done for us. And the Lord's saying, don't boast, don't boast. Yeah, they were broken off because of their unbelief, but you were grafted in because the belief that God gave you was by free and sovereign grace through faith. And that you did not come up with on your own. It was a gift from God.

So you continue to be afraid of yourself. There's three things we ought to be afraid of. We need to be afraid of ourselves. You know, when our kids were teenagers, a time or two, they would say, when they wanted to go do something or go somewhere, and we would tell them no, they would say, don't you trust me? They only got away with that once or twice. And my response was such that they couldn't ask that question again. And I just simply said, I trust you as much as I trust myself.

And I don't trust myself. and there are places I cannot go. There are places I cannot be. I'm afraid of myself. Secondly, we need to be afraid to be left to ourselves. Lord, if you leave me alone to myself, I will destroy myself and I will not be saved. Lord, I'm afraid to be left to myself.

And thirdly, we need to be afraid of ever standing in the presence of a holy God without a savior, without an advocate, without a sin bearer, without a redeemer, without one who can present to God a righteousness that will be acceptable to God. Now that's, I believe that's part of this fear that God puts, that he said in Jeremiah, I'm going to put my fear in them. I'm going to put my fear in them. So when we read about these Israelites who died in the wilderness and never entered into God's rest, And we look at these other passages of scripture, the Lord is telling us, but let's look at one more. Let's look at one more. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And look with me at verse 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11.

Now, all these things happened unto them for examples. Talking about what happened to the Old Testament Jews in the wilderness. These things happened to them for an example, and they are written for our admonition. Now, that word admonition, simply means to lay something upon your mind, to lay it upon your mind, to think about it, to consider it, to give it serious consideration. These things were written for our admonition, that we might reflect upon what they did and know that we are prone to do the same thing. Upon whom, let's read this verse all together, verse 11. Now all these things happened unto them, for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

We're living in the end of time. Wherefore? And here it is, look at verse 12. Wherefore, let him who thinketh that he standeth take heed lest he fall. And that same thing we just read in Romans, same thing the Lord's telling us in Hebrews chapter three.

Brethren, we know by our own experience what unbelief is. Unbelief is the cause of all of our sin. What is the Lord saying? Lord, we come to God for faith. We don't come to him with our faith. Lord, give me faith. Lord, bid me to come unto thee. Lord, keep me. Lord, protect me. Lord Jesus, represent me before God almighty. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord, I'll fall.

If you don't keep me, if you don't keep me, I'll fall. If any man doesn't believe that about himself, he hasn't taken heed. Let's back up to, verse one of first Corinthians chapter 10 and see what the Lord's saying to us about these Old Testament Israelites.

Verse one, moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant. Don't be ignorant of these things. Don't be, don't be unmindful. What does the word ignorant mean? It means to not know. What did we say that the word admonition means? It means to lay it on your mind. Think about it. Understand it. So don't be ignorant. Understand. I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren.

How that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. That cloud was Christ. That sea was the sea of separation. And the picture of our baptism in Christ puts away our natural separation that we have with God. They were all baptized into Moses and in the cloud and in the sea, and they did all eat the same spiritual meat. They ate that manna that fell from heaven. They heard what God said. They did all drink the same spiritual drink. They drank from that rock. That rock was Christ that followed them throughout the wilderness.

Verse five. But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Brethren, you and I live in a wilderness, and there are wild beasts everywhere. And the watering holes are few and far between. The little oasis is here and there. God provides you an oasis, get to it, drink. Drink freely, because out there it's dry.

There's nothing to satisfy the need for fear and the need for my sin outside of Christ. Now these things were our example. to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play." Now that is an Old Testament quote where they sat down to eat and to drink in celebration of the gospel. They heard, they saw what God did, they participated in religious activity, and they got up from their religious activity and they went right back to the unbelief of the wilderness. These things are written for our example.

Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and was destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition so that we can lay these things on our mind.

Think about these things. Remember these things. Upon whom the ends of the world are come. We're not gonna be here much longer. Wherefore, let him that thinketh that he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Don't think that you're insulated, that you're not vulnerable enough to be able to, these warnings are given to us to expose our vulnerability. And verse 13, what am I gonna do?

I'm tempted to murmur. I'm tempted to lust after things of the flesh. I'm tempted to look away from Christ. I'm tempted to drink of the polluted waters of broken cisterns in the world. I'm tempted to forsake the assembling of myself with the believers and not make the effort to come to the oasis and hear and drink from the water of life. So what do I do in all these temptations?

And so the Lord says, there's no temptation taken you, but such as is common to all men. Don't believe that these temptations are unique to you. All men experience them. But God is faithful. Some will proudly say, well, I'm not tempted. Some will just give in to the temptations. Other will say, Lord, I'm tempted and I'm not faithful and I need your faithfulness. I need you to be faithful to me. When we believe not, he remaineth faithful for he cannot deny himself. There's our problem. Lord, my unbelief. Here's God's promise.

When you don't believe, when you're tempted, and there's unbelief in our temptations. When the Bible says that he was tempted in all ways that we are, yet without sin, don't think that he suffered temptations in the same way that we do. We sin in our temptations. Now in bearing our sins in his body upon that tree, he experienced there what the temptation of sin was to its infinite, eternal degree, and satisfied the justice of God by that.

But when you're tempted, he's faithful. He's faithful. and he will not suffer you, this is the rest of verse 13, he will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able. And you've heard it said, I've heard it many times, God won't put more on you than you can bear.

And they get it from that verse or from that phrase of that verse. And that's the way men do. They rest the scriptures to their own destruction. They twist the word of God. They pick out bits and pieces to satisfy them, but they don't see the whole truth.

If God never puts on us, don't stop right here. If God doesn't put on us more than we can bear, then we don't need him. That's not what the Lord's saying. I'm not going to put on you more than you can bear. You know you have more on you than you can bear.

Not just with your sin, but with your circumstances, and your relationships, and your trials and troubles. But. will with the temptation. Look, here it is. Also, make a way of escape that you might be able to merit. With the temptation, he is faithful also. He's the one that put, these trials are set from God. Count it all joy, my brother, when you fall into divers temptations. For the trine of your faith worketh patience, and patience, when it is complete, makes us perfect and entire, lacking nothing. These temptations are given to us, drive us to Christ.

He is that way of escape. He's the way of escape. And his strength is made perfect in our weakness. And I believe that's what the Lord is saying all the many times that we see him reminding us of those Israelites who fell in the wilderness and never entered into God's rest because of their unbelief. He's saying unto me and you, you know what unbelief is, don't you?

I'm gonna put my fear in your heart. The proper fear of yourself. The proper fear of being left to yourself and the proper fear of standing before God by yourself. And that fear is going to drive you to the throne of grace to find help in your time of need. Let's take a break. Thank you.

A Bad Example

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about unbelief?

How do we know that God loves us?

Why is it important to have a proper fear of God?

What does it mean to enter into God’s rest?

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A Bad Example

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about unbelief?

How do we know that God loves us?

Why is it important to have a proper fear of God?

What does it mean to enter into God’s rest?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

Comments

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