Good evening, everybody. If you
will, open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 3. There are times I've heard men stand
before me to say that, you know, they have a message to deliver.
And sometimes I've also heard them say that they're kind of
preaching to themselves and they're going to allow you to listen
in. And I think this is one of those times where I'm preaching
to myself and I'm going to allow you to listen in because what
you'll find, and as all God's people find, is often the weaknesses
that I have are going to be the same weaknesses you struggle
with also. And what I hope you find in this is having some understanding
more of what this verse means and where it points us to. So
we're gonna look at Hebrews chapter three, and I'm gonna look just
at verse 12. It says, take heed, brethren, lest
there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. Well, from the outset, this is
kind of a frightening verse. We look at this and think there
are, when we look at ourselves, my own evil heart speaks much
louder than my voice can say, because the voice that I have
speaks from the heart that's within me. Who is this written
to? Well, I think the verse tells
us it's written to those who would call themselves brethren.
And this is frightening because when you read a verse like this,
you think, well, I don't want that to be me. And when I start
thinking about it, I look here and say, well, is it me? I can
tell you this. If you are someone who is sitting
here thinking about someone else and hopes that they're hearing
this, you have every reason to be fearful. Because the scripture
is not written for you to minister to someone else what it's saying
to you The scripture tells us let a man examine himself And
so let him eat thereof of that bread and drink of that cup.
So the scripture is written for us not for Other people or us
to judge other people so that's for i'll say that from the outset
because that's always kind of a when you read that you think
well I wonder if so-and-so is hearing this. And sometimes the
reality is that's when I really need to hear it most, when I'm
thinking those things. That being said, and I think
this is the struggle of the new man with the old man inside of
me, I'm tired of being afraid. And I'm tired of wondering. There
are moments that I'm given where I wonder, am I really saved?
Do I really believe what I profess to believe? I think every believer
at different points of time is given that opportunity to think
on that, probably more than what we care to admit. Probably when
we're able to actually to worship and to hear the gospel preached
and to feed on the word, it's that short moment that we're
able to step out of that. And all we've got to do is step
out the door and go back into the world, and then everything
falls apart. Somebody cuts in front of you
in traffic, does something, makes you mad, and it's like it's all
gone. And it's like I'm back to ground zero again. And it
doesn't take me long to get there. And I find I spend more time
being aware of being in that state than I do being able to
feel that I can commune and be you know, what the new man is
inside me. And so that part I think is the struggle. Tired of being
afraid, of wondering if I'm going to be saved, wondering for somebody
like me who does the things I do, who thinks the things I think,
how can God have anything to do with me? Do I presume to have
entranced into the halls of the redeemed by the blood of God's
son, someone like me? How can I lay claim to something
like this? How can I ever feel worthy to
be able to step before him being the way I am? He who endured
obedience, of which I can't do the very least, I can't keep
one commandment one time. And yet he endured and never
did not not keep a commandment He endured until the end that
which I can't even I can't even enter into it because I can't
keep one I am weary with being burdened
by my unbelief and part of being burdened with your unbelief is
having some Evidence that you do believe it's only the new
man that can see the failure of the old man Before I believed,
I wasn't even aware of how much darkness I was even in. But then
the Lord opens your eyes, he opens your heart, gives you a
new heart, you can believe and then you see, oh my, I've been
in a bad place and it's been that way all along and I didn't
even know it. Now, I have no doubt in the person
and the work of Christ, the power that is in His name, who He is,
the brightness of the glory of God. I have no doubt in Him.
I have no doubt in what He did. I have no doubt how the Father
sees Him. But I find doubt in me. And this is, I think, the struggle
that we have when we're not looking to Christ. When we stop looking
to Christ, just as Peter, when the Lord said, step out onto
the water, come to me, Peter, something that we can't ever
do, Peter gets out there, he's like, hey, I'm on the water,
and he's walking to the Lord, and he sees the wind and the
waves, boisterous, big waves, the winds, it's like, oh, I'm
out on the water, this is not good, I know I can't walk on
the water, and he starts to go down. He looked away from Christ,
Lord, save me. And the Lord reached down and
pulled him up. This is our experience in this world. We have so many
more experiences of being the one who's sinking in the water.
Maybe I'm just talking to myself, but the reality for me is that. But I ask myself, can I approach
unto the gate? The gate that we are told is
the gates leading into heaven. We are told it's narrow. So there's
not a lot that can go through it. And there are only few who
find it. So what that tells me is that
the vast majority of those who think they're going to the great,
they're not going to it. Can I come inside and can I really
believe that I won't be found out as a fraud, as an imposter,
that somebody's going to look at me just like the man that
came to the wedding feast and say, he doesn't have on a wedding
garment. Why is he in here? Why won't
that be me? Those are the questions I ask
myself. Why will I not be pointed towards the wide gate and the
broad road that lead to destruction? This is my greatest fear. And
I think in reading this verse, it kind of hit me like a ton
of bricks that like, what makes me not that person written right
there? What makes you not that person
that's written right here? good men, bad men, those that
are rich in this world, the poor, kind, cruel, fathers, mothers,
children, people who want to see someone on the other side
and there are people who don't even believe there is another
side. All are the same before the God of this book. And so
this is the reality is we are all found guilty before God.
We can't stand before him. We have broken his law. We can't
keep it one time. We stand before him condemned
outside of Christ. God either loves me or he does
not. Those that he loves will enter
and those that he does not will take their place with the damned.
I don't want that to be me. I don't want that to be you.
But I am tired of feeling fear and inadequacy in this world. and it will not be over, this
is the spoiler, until we lose this body in this world. We will
always struggle with fear, we will always struggle with unbelief,
and there will be a day I can look at me and stand with God
and say, yes, this fleshly body has no business being in here.
My spirit, my soul, if I'm in Christ, I do. That's the only
way I will be in. But as far as this flesh, this
body, it has no business being anywhere near Him because of
who I am, what I've done. If you will, I want to build
on this fear. Look at Luke chapter 23. I think this is a very clear
account of the two thieves that were hanging next to the Lord
when he was being crucified. Look at a few verses in Luke
23. I'm going to pick up in verse 39. And one of the male factors,
one of the thieves, which were hanged, railed on him, saying,
If thou be Christ, save us, save thyself and us. But the other
answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing
that thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath
done nothing amiss. You can see out of the thief,
and I think sometimes that I've heard messages where people attribute
more than what the scripture actually gives us here. What
these thieves knew of the Lord When they started, they were
both railing against him. You'll see in the other accounts.
But at some point, one of the thieves here has been given something
that the other one didn't have. The Lord did something for him.
You see a level of resignation to understanding his own guilt. We are receiving what we deserve. I have committed a crime that
is now worthy of death. I'm not saying that you're not
just in punishing me. I'm here because I need to be.
Because this is what's right and what ought to happen to me.
There's a level of resignation. And you see that their own guilt,
one doesn't care whether he's guilty or not. The other one
sees his guilt before the Lord. And now, he realizes he is forced
to deal with a living God. He's laying there or he's hanging
there knowing soon he'll die. And then he will be forced to
deal with what's next. And what he has seen and heard
all these things going, you know, the Lord speaking the whole time
he's there. He had to have heard the scriptures at some point.
and he's seeing these things fulfilled before him, the sky
goes dark, that all these things being fulfilled in the Old Testament
Scriptures are coming to pass here before him, and he realizes,
this is not just anybody hanging next to me. The superscription
that was written over his head saying, this is the king of the
Jews, is more than just the king of a people. It's a spiritual
people. And things go from bad to worse
This is not just someone hanging next to me, this is God's Son,
the Son of God, who is one with God, hanging next to me. And
now, here we are, all hanging, going to die, and now we're going
to go meet His Father. And yet, we're here railing on
Him, They've nailed him here. And he says that we were getting
what we justly deserved, but he didn't do anything. He is
not worthy of what has happened to him. And now I'm going to
meet his father. And can you imagine what you
just think of you that have children would do to protect your own
child from people who would hurt them, who would unjustly abuse
them and everything that the Lord experienced And now you're
going to meet his father. This is not good. And he has
some understanding of the gravity of what is coming upon him. And
at some point he understands if he accepts his son and I'm
with his son, then he can accept me. And so that's why he asks
the Lord, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, would you
remember me? simplest act of faith, simplest that we will
read in the scripture. What is saving faith? What is
the bare minimum? This is it. It's trusting the
Lord to deliver me before his father. It's trusting the Lord
to cleanse me of my sins because I can't do it for me. I know
I'm guilty and there's nothing I can do. And I am just like
him hanging next to the Lord and I'm gonna go to meet his
father. This is not good. And this is where he is at this
time. Hebrews 1031 it says it is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God We worship
a living God The majority of this world does not realize there
is a living God God is some idea that they have it's a set of
morals. It's a set of a history book
here It's a guideline. It's all these things, but it's
not the book of the living God and this is who we worship and
who we will all be one day forced to deal with. It is a terrifying
position to consider to be found as an enemy of God. The scriptures
are full of warnings. Woe to them that walk against
him and his ways. How can I escape? Because ultimately
at the end of the day when If given the opportunity to look
into the Lamb's Book of Life, there's one name I'm looking
for. It's going to be mine first. And then I'll look for yours,
but mine is going to be the first one I'm going to look for. And
how can I escape this? Because here we have God gave
us His Word. And somewhere in this Word, there's
salvation. This points to someone and what
He did, which is salvation to a people. We have that Word here
with us now. And we need to know what this
word says. I can't just make it up and hope
it's gonna be all right in the end, because it tells us the
gate's narrow. And there are few that find it,
and it is a very exacting way that this book prescribes, I
need to know because I want to be into the kingdom of heaven.
I don't wanna be the one standing outside the house, knocking on
the door and says, it's too late. My interpretation on what I think
salvation is, or the way God should be, or how he should save,
or even who he should save, is utterly meaningless. There's
no meaning whatsoever about what I think. What I think means nothing
if it's in contrast to what this book says. The ends do not justify
the means. What we think has nothing to
do with what God will do with us as he says he will in his
word. And here's a great example that
came to my mind. David, the man after God's own
heart, king of Israel. We can say God's hand was on
this man. God used him mightily to be,
he was his choice as the anointed king because Saul was the people's
king. Saul was removed and he put David
in his place. He used many mighty acts that
David did. So we can say David knew the
Lord. The Lord's hand was on him. He
said he was a man after my own heart. But David tried his own
way with God and he failed. Now where does that leave you
or I? if David could not approach his own way, what he thought,
what his interpretation of something and why it may have been a different
way, but it should have been okay with God. In the end, it
was not. And what I want us to consider
here is, I'm not gonna read it just for time's sake, but it's
in 2 Samuel 6 and also 1 Chronicles 13. It's the account of when
David decided to bring the ark back into Jerusalem. This is
a celebratory event. We have the Ark back. The Philistines
have had it and went through all this trouble because we lost
it in battle. We're going to bring it back.
This is the glory of Israel, the Ark. There's power in it,
you know, and we're going to bring it back. Now, there's some
very specific things that were written about the Ark, how it
was to be transported. who was to move it, how it was
to be moved. All these things were very clearly
described in this book, but that's not how David approached it,
did he? David approached it a very different way, and that did not
work out for him very well. David went to bring the bark
back. So what did he do? He sent men. I think it said
30,000, if I remember correct, 30,000 soldiers to go get this.
We're going to make this a big show. Everybody's going to see
it. He brought in a music processional
so that not they have horns, they have harps, all this music
going on that they had. So everybody's going to see this
is going to be like a parade, a celebratory parade, bringing
it back in. There was a cart, there were
trumpets. We're going to celebrate. And what happened when They put
the ark on a cart, and that cart was pulled by some oxen. And
those oxen stumbled when they came into the threshing floor,
or basically the marketplace, kind of. And the cart started
tipping, and so you have the ark sitting on top of the cart. And so what's going to happen?
The ark's going to tip, and it's going to fall over. Everything's
going to fall out, and it might break. So what's Uzzah, one of
the guys riding along, he reaches up, one of the key soldiers who
was chosen to drive the cart reaches up to stable it so it
doesn't fall over. God killed him for doing that. And so we think, wait a minute,
Why would he do that? That would be horrible for that
to happen. How embarrassing, how awful and
dishonoring God for his, you know, ark that is, you know,
the visual representation of him being with the people and
they came, you know, all this way for it to be broken. It seems
like we were good intentioned in this. We didn't want the ark
to fall over, but he had good intentions. Surely God would
be understanding of this. No. David was wrong in everything
he did in bringing this Ark. Number one, the Ark was told
it had to be carried by the Levites. Only the sons of Levi were permitted
to carry that Ark. And it had to be carried on wooden
staves, wooden sticks. And so there would be six Levites
that would bear the Ark. And so it had to be walked. But
that's not really very fast. It would take a long time. So
David's like, well, let's put it on a cart. We'll bring it
here a little faster. Raise it up where everybody can see it
more. Uzzah did not regard the word of the Lord to be as exacting
as it is. He knew that you didn't touch
the ark. How do you think they loaded it on the cart? They had
to get it up there in a way where they didn't get killed putting
it on there. So the Levites had to have loaded it up there. So
it was there, but when he put his hand on it, God struck him
dead. Because there is no gray area
with God. There is no understanding or
putting aside his word because of what our interpretation is,
what our intentions are. He struck him dead. He said,
don't touch the ark. My way must match God's exactly. There can be no difference. Otherwise,
what are we doing this for? If I just make up my own way,
what's the point? My way has to match his. Christ
said, I am the way, singular. There is one way, not a way,
not the way, as long as your intention is good, which is what
we see there with David. God's adherence to his word is
exacting, and he is intolerant of all who approach any other
way. We must bow the knee to his way. Ultimately, this is what it is
about. And everyone has a different
point of their rebellion. And so we are met to meet that
in our lives. What do you mean by that? Saul of Tarsus, he was a Jew
of Jews, Israelite of Israelites. He was educated in a way the
others weren't. His adherence to the law went far beyond what
the average Israelite was. He had the makings far above
you and I or those who are around him as far as the law of God
went. But what was his point of rebellion before God? Saul,
you gotta leave the law. Everything that you thought that
recommended you gotta leave it behind and if you don't do that,
you can't come God had to stop him on the road the bright light
had to have him be taught by somebody who was a nobody Because
he was taught by the best of the best in his day. He had to
be taught by someone who was a nobody rich young ruler Lord
I've kept all these things in the law from my youth up what
what prohibits me from from following you, what prohibits me from entering
into heaven? Rich young ruler, your money's
your God, you gotta leave it. If you can't leave it, you can't
follow me. We are all met with a different
road by our rebellion. Cain, he brought his fruit of
the ground, the greatest thing that he could have brought before
God. Here his brother is, he's just bringing an old sheep. But
look what I did, it was months of work, this is beautiful, it's
food, it's everything for us. Cain, you can't bring it, that's
the works of the ground. You gotta leave it, you gotta
come by the blood of the lamb. Everything that you've done,
everything that you stand for right now means nothing, you
gotta stand behind your little brother and he's gonna bring
the lamb in and that's the only way you'll be accepted. You leave
it or don't, this is your point of rebellion. Abraham, you have
to sacrifice your son, The one that you waited late in life,
that was a miracle that he was even born, we've got to sacrifice
him or you can't come. What is your point of rebellion?
All the Old Testament kings, they either were one of two things.
They either walked in the way of the Lord or, and there's two
here, they were evil idol worshipers. Or secondly, it says they walked
in the ways of the Lord, but they didn't tear down the high
places. So they kept to the idol worship or their old religion.
Here's the point where rebellion is met. The fate of the idol
worshipers is the same as the ones who mixed following the
Lord and holding on to their old religion. They were both
lost in the end. So what that tells me is God
is utterly intolerant of anything that is not following his way.
If I bring something with me, even in the smallest way that's
different from what he says in his word, these are the examples
we have in patterns in scripture. So what am I to do? Because we
read here, back in our text, to beware lest there be an evil
heart of unbelief. And that's frightening. I say,
Lord, make me come to you. If I've never come before, why
not now? I've never come before, I'm lost
if I don't come. Even if I've come a thousand
times before by his power, I still need his power as much now as
I did the first time. And I'll need it again tomorrow
if I live another day. Lord has to work in me something
that I can't do for myself. Lord, make me to come. Because
if you don't, I won't. Cause me to abandon any false
or foolish beliefs that are outside your word. I want saving faith. Lord, ask the Lord to give you
saving faith. these are things that you can
ask the Lord will give you with full assurance he will. We have
all these doubts but Lord we have someone we can go to to
ask for these things. Make me clean. I'm filthy. You
said in your word you have the power to do so. I see in me everything
I see in me is nothing but filth and something that I'm ashamed
of every day. You don't know the darkness in
my heart, you know the darkness in your own heart, the things
that nobody else knows about you, that you think, that you
feel, that you do, that nobody else sees but you and God. These
are the things, Lord, cleanse me of these. I don't want these
things. He says in Hebrews 7.25, wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost. that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
What this tells me is the ability of Christ. If I come to God through
the person in Christ, there is no limit to what I will be given.
There's nothing that I can do that is so great that he can't
do more for me. My sin can never be so bad that
he can't wash it away. I can never be so weak that he
can't be stronger. he can do for me, I can never
be so filled with unbelief that he can't give me faith to believe. God is always greater than what
our deficit is. So with all my doubts, my fear,
and my unbelief, can I go home and lay my head down on my pillow
tonight with full assurance that I'm one that he would claim as
his own? One that he calls his own child,
and he says, Fear not, I'm with thee. Can I say that for me? Is it presumptuous for me to
take that on? I stand loved, I stand accepted,
and I stand welcomed home like the prodigal son. You remember
him? He said, Father, give me half
of what's coming to me out of my inheritance, and I'm gonna
go, and I'm gonna leave here. And he wasted, it says, on riotous
living. He lived it up, did whatever
he wants, and then, when he ran out of money, he had to go work
in the field. And then there was a famine,
and he was hungry, and everything dried up! And he had to come
home, but he knew how ashamed he was to come home to his father,
and said, I'm not even worthy to be called a son for what I've
done. I have no business even calling myself a son to my father's
house, but maybe he'll let me be a servant. Maybe he'll let
me come home and do that. And I can just live as a servant
in my father's house because they live okay. Because it's
got to be better than this. So he goes home and before he
even gets, he's rehearsed what he said the whole time to tell
his father, I'm going to tell him this and I hope he'll let
me home. The whole time, his father, you
know, every day he's looking down that road, wondering, is
my son going to come home today? I hope he is. And then he sees
him. And before he could get the words
out of his mouth, his father put a robe on him, a ring on
his finger and said, he's going to kill the fatted calf because
my son's home. He was dead and now he's alive.
The father forgave him. The father forgave him because
his forgiveness was not found in what he had to say to his
father. He was a son. And if you and
I are sons and daughters of God, it's through adoption. Christ
has adopted us. We are his children. And so I
can walk in and know that I have forgiveness with my father. I
know that I'm reconciled to him and he with me. Can I claim these
promises? Well, it tells us the way is
extremely narrow. It's unbending, but yet it's
wide, because anyone who will may come. There is a prescribed
way that I must come, but anyone who will, they can come. So I
want to give you, in closing, three reasons that are founded
on three scriptures, because really that's what matters. I
can give you any reason you want, but if it's not a scripture in
this book that gives me any confidence, what difference does it make?
Three reasons, three scriptures of why I can come to him and
why I don't want to be this person here that has an evil heart of
unbelief. The first tells us in Romans
10, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Well, will you call upon his
name? Because that's about as simple
as it is. It's not just audibly to call
his name. To call is to believe. These are the same word. And
we're not calling as an option, as just an empty call, and boy,
I hope this works. I'm gonna call. It's like throwing
a fishing line in the water. You hope you catch something,
and if you don't, you don't. That's not this. We're given
assurance here. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord will be saved, shall be saved. There is an assurance
there. There's not a question. And we're
calling, having faith in the one that we're calling to. You're
calling upon the name of the Lord. His name, there is power
behind his name. It's his name that the wind and
the waves listen to. It was through his voice they
obeyed him. It is through his name that the
devils of this world tremble. They're in great fear of him
and confess his name. So there's power in his name.
We are to call upon the name of the Lord. Secondly, 1 John
5, 1 says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. Do you believe
that Jesus is the Christ? And that's not just his title,
that he actually is king. If there is a king, he's the
king. He's the king of kings. He's
the prophet. He is the mouthpiece of God.
The words that he speaks are the very word of God. He is the
word. And he is the priest, our intercessor. The only way that I can come
into my father's house is through him. through what he did, the
life he lived, the blood he shed, that's the only means by which
I can approach. He is my intercessor, he's my priest, the means by
which I can approach. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Christ, the king, the prophet, and the priest? And
lastly, in Revelation 22, 17, it says, the spirit and the bride
say, come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is
a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water
of life freely." Will you take of that water? You only will
if God gives you an unquenchable thirst. And when you read this
word here, let him take of the water of life, first of all,
it's whosoever. In all these three verses, it's
whosoever. As far as the people in this
room go, We're all a whosoever. So you can't be saying, well,
he's not talking to me. Whosoever is anyone. If God gives
you that thirst, then you are commanded to take the water of
life. And he says freely, which means there's nothing you can
bring. You don't want to bring anything.
It's already free. It's bought. It's paid for. It's
purchased. It's his gift to his people. And we are called upon to take
this water. In John 4, when the account of
the woman at the well, and he comes there and he asks for a
drink, and she and he talk a little bit, and eventually he tells
her, whosoever shall drink of this water shall never thirst
again. And what he's talking about here
is the well of water that is in him springing up within you
into eternal life. We're not talking about the water
in the bucket anymore, are we? Because that's what she had.
He's talking about whoever drinks of this water, the water that
I'm going to give you. And the water that he gives you
is his spirit. It's the new birth within you,
the new man that resides in you. And in turn, this quenching thirst
is only quenched by the water of his word. And what we find
is when we're thirsty, we come to the word. When we're thirsty,
we pray to Him. When we're thirsty, we commune
with God. He's given us this well of water
that's springing up within us. It's faith in Christ. It's all
these things, and it's never-ending. And it will always quench whatever
our thirst is, and we're told to come. So whosoever may come,
may call upon the Lord, may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and
may come and take this water of life freely. May God grant
us the will, and he can only grant us this will in the new
birth, because otherwise we won't come. Otherwise, we are going
to be the one described here with the evil heart that falls
away. Because if he doesn't hold on
to us, we will go away. We will wander away. If you don't
know that about yourself and haven't seen that in yourself,
May the Lord teach you that so you'll call him to keep you. May God grant us the will to
do so, to believe, to call upon his name, and to take the water
of life freely, that we might be called the sons of God. And in being so called, we might
have a heart of faith that calls us to never leave him. And I
pray the Lord Daily I ask him, Lord, don't leave me. Lord, give
me a saving faith. If it's possible, I'll go away. I know that about myself. It
might be quick, it might be slow, but I will go away. Lord, keep
me. And what he tells us in his word
is that he won't let, not one, not one that is in his father's
hand will get away. He holds onto them. So I pray
that for me, and for you that the Lord holds on to us, that
he'll give you life. These are the words that I have
to myself and these are the words that I have to unite tonight
in the hopes that the Lord will give you faith and give you the
confidence through his word that we're to come to him and to call
upon his name. And he says in his word, if we
do, that person shall be saved. I'll leave you there.