We'll be looking again in the
book of Hebrews if you'd like to turn there. Hebrews chapter three. Our subject this hour is unbelief.
Unbelief. This hour, I hope to answer these
four questions, what is unbelief? What is the root cause of it?
What is the final effect of it? And what is the cure from it?
I've titled the message the heart of the matter, the heart of the
matter. Let's read our text, Hebrews
three, verse 12. Says, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelieving in departing from the living
God. But exhort one another daily why it is called today, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For
we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast into the end. While it is said today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.
For some, when they had heard, did provoke, how be it 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? And to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believe not?" So we see that they could not enter in
because of unbelief. The heart of the matter, unbelief. The heart of the matter is a
matter of the heart. That's not supposed to be a funny
saying, but try to remember that saying. I mean, that's a very
good saying. The heart of the matter is it's
a matter of the heart. Our heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. That's the heart that we have
in this flesh. That's right now, from birth. We don't have to
do anything to have a deceitful heart. We don't have to do anything
to have a wicked heart. It's from birth. Our heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, full of unbelief
and sin. And when I say full, that means
there's no room for anything else. There's not 50% unbelief
in it, 50% wickedness, 50%, no, it's 100% full of wickedness,
full of unbelief, full of sin. Well, what is unbelief? Simply
put, it's not believing God. It's not believing God. It's
not taking God at His word. It's not believing God. These
Jews in our text had physically left Egypt, as we had mentioned
in the first hour, and they refused to believe God. They refused
to be saved God's way as we heard the first hour, but they refused
to believe that he was right and they were wrong. They refused
to bow to his commandments. They refused to obey his word.
They refused his prophet. How many prophets did we see
in Israel that they would stone them, they would kill them, they
set away. You remember that one king, king of Judah and king
of Israel that They got together and they said, should we go up
and fight in this battle? Should we go up against the army
of, and I can't remember the army they were going to fight
against. And he said, we'll call the prophets and ask them. And they
called the prophets and they came and they said, yeah, you
can go up and fight and you'll have a great victory. Everything's
going to be great. And the King said, but I don't know. I still
don't feel good about this. And he looks at the other King
and he says, is there any other prophet that you know of? He
says, yeah, there's one, but I hate him. I hate him. Every
time I call on him, he tells me nothing but bad news. No,
he tells him the truth. That's the problem with people.
They don't want the truth. Our hearts hate the truth. Hearing
that our heart is desperately wicked. That's not a positive
thing to hear unless the Lord showed you the remedy of that
desperately wicked heart being the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
the gospel. It's all by grace. These Jews,
well, I'll finish what I was saying. They brought the prophet
in and the prophet for sure said, if you go down there, you'll
surely die. He said, see, I told you all he would do is give us
bad news. And they decided to go down anyways.
And what happened? They died because of the prophet's
word came from the Lord. It was the truth. It was the
truth. What of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Did they not hate him? Did they not take up stones to
kill him? Did they not try to push him off the cliff? Did they
not say, away with this man, let his blood be on us and on
our children? Why? They hated the truth. That's
the heart of the matter. The hate that we have for God,
the hate that we have towards God, the truth of God. We want
to be right. Every man is right in his own
eyes, in every way. That's what the scripture tells
us and what we heard the first hour. Well, these Jews in the wilderness,
they refused to hear God's prophet. They refused to bow into the
Lord. They murmured, they complained, they cussed and fussed. All they
could do was based upon their circumstances. They didn't believe
God. They had saw the Red Sea. They
had saw the plagues. They'd saw all these things,
but still did not believe God. No matter what they physically
saw, it wasn't enough for them to believe God. And it's the
same today. It's the same today. No matter
what we see, we won't believe, not physically, not physical
sight. Think about Peter. He's a good
example of this. Lord comes walking on the water,
and Peter sees the disciples are afraid of him being a spirit.
And Lord said, be not afraid, it is I. And Peter said, if it
be you, Lord, bid me come. And he said, come. And Peter
walks on the water. Peter believed the Lord long enough to walk
on the water. Why didn't he just continue walking
on the water to the Lord? Have you ever thought about that?
Now I understand that he took his eyes off of the Lord, I realize
that, but he believed for a brief moment, enough to walk on the
water. He obeyed the word of the Lord
and believed long enough to walk on the water physically, so why
did he stop believing? Because Peter was basing everything
off of what Peter was doing off of what he was seeing, what he
was seeing. And that's what religion does. It sees and it reacts, it sees
and it does and seeing there is no believing that can come
through seeing, not by physical sight, not by physical sight. He had a physical experience
of walking on the water. Who was it that was holding him
up above the water? Was it Peter? Was it Peter's
faith? Was it Peter's faith? If we're
saying that it was the faith of Christ given to Peter and
Peter can claim it as being bestowed upon him, then yes, it was Peter's
faith. But if we're saying, no, it was the faith found in Peter
because of Peter, no, that's not it. No such thing. That's
not true faith. Faith is the gift of God, isn't
it? Faith comes from the Lord. No amount of a physical experience,
even walking on the water, is enough to cause you and I to
believe. Peter, just a few chapters later, I would remind you, denied
affiliation with the Lord because of fear. Denied affiliation with
him. Right before that, and he had
already made the confession, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, but the Lord told him that Satan hath desired
to sift thee as wheat, but when you're converted, strengthen
the brethren. So Peter knew the right words,
but he wasn't converted till later on. Lord told him I prayed
for you that your faith fail not that's why Peter survived
or stood the test if you want to put it that way later on whenever
he stood on the day of Pentecost and declared the glorious news
of the gospel and 5000 souls believe because of the faith
the Lord gave him he made him believe. Having a physical experience
changes nothing internally. We still have a root problem. We still have the heart of the
matter. The flesh is unable to believe
God. The flesh wants to trust in its own power, in its own
devices, in its own thoughts. Not resting in the covenant of
God, but making our own covenant, covenant with death, he calls
it needs to be to be voided. He said, I'll disannul your covenant,
it won't stand. The heart of the matter is that
we have a heart problem. First Corinthians 2.14 says,
but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. It's described in
our text as an evil heart of unbelief. An evil heart of unbelief. And what that causes is departing. Departing from the living God.
That's the root of the problem, and that's the result of the
problem. An evil heart of unbelief causing us to flee or depart
from the living God. All unbelief is, brethren, is
just the result of being left to ourself. Understand that unbelief
is just what the flesh does naturally. It's like breathing. How much
have you thought about your breath since you've been sitting here
or your heartbeat? Are you controlling your heartbeat right now? No.
Now you could say the impulses from your brain is, But the truth
of the matter is, is we don't have any control over our heartbeat.
We might be able to slow it down by deep breaths. They say whenever
your heart rate gets up and you start feeling kind of panicky,
just take deep breaths. Everything's going to be fine.
Control your heart. Control your breathing, all that. Some of
that's true, but I can't make my heartbeat beat right now and
then beat right. I can't control it that way.
You understand what I'm saying? It's the same in our flesh with
our unbelief. It just keeps on ticking. Unbelief just keeps
ticking every second. Unbelief. Unbelief. Unbelief.
Can't help it. Not controlling it. It's what
we are. It's what we do. We don't mean
to. That's why Paul said, In me that
is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Who shall deliver me from
this body of death? That's all that this body can
produce is death. Spiritually speaking. We don't try to be full of unbelief. We just are. Sin is the cause
and the result of our unbelief. It's all we can produce. It's
grievous to learn to know that every choice that we make, every
choice that we made, every word that we have spoken, every thought
that we have thought stems from our evil, deceitful heart of
unbelief, it stems from our fear, it stems from our pride, and
all of that's unbelief. That's every bit of it. When
we're afraid, is it not unbelief? The Lord said, fear not, only
believe. When we're afraid, it's unbelief.
Whenever we're prideful, we're self-absorbed, is that not unbelief?
We're not looking to Christ, we're prideful. We are naturally hardened to
the truth. That's what the text says. Lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Brethren,
we naturally oppose ourself. That's what the scripture says.
We naturally oppose ourself. Did you know that? You're against
yourself. I'm against myself by nature.
When it comes to spiritual things and the things of God, I oppose
myself. And until the Lord says live
and shows us what we are and the depravity, we'll take sides
with ourself constantly. We'll take up for ourself. We'll
defend ourself. I'm not as bad as this person. I haven't done
this. I haven't done that. And the Lord said, it doesn't
matter. You're full of unbelief. You're full of sin. You and I will never say truth,
Lord, you're right and I'm wrong and take sides with God. That's
what salvation does. It literally we take sides with
God against ourself. We say, I am the man. I am vile. I am the sinner. Have mercy on
me, the sinner. Because of our sin, we're born
lifeless, full of self and full of unbelief. What is unbelief? It's not believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ as all in salvation. It's not believing
in him as all when it pertains to life and immortality. Where
does unbelief come from? Well, it comes from out of the
abundance of the heart, doesn't it? It comes from our heart. We inherited it from our father,
Adam. And what is the end result of it? Look in verse 19. So we
see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. That's
the end result of it. Because of our unbelief, we cannot
enter in to the kingdom of heaven. We cannot enter into the rest
of God only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Left to ourselves,
we would deceive ourselves all the way to hell. That's what
we would do. It's a sad condition for the
individual that stands before the Lord not being found in Christ,
thinking that they'll be able to justify themselves for what
they have done or what they have not done. When the Lord says
guilty, there is no plea bargain. There is, you know, there's a,
I read, I think it was this last week, that somebody who had a
life sentence, they were, they had spent 60 something years
in prison or whatever, and they let them out. Because of good
behavior and whatever else, they let him out. Because of their
own probation or whatever, but they let him out. It wasn't really
a life sentence, was it? Because of their good behavior
and what they had done, they felt like they had served enough
and they'd really rehabilitated, whatever it was. I don't know
the whole reason they let him out, but they let the guy out.
When it comes to the Lord, justice must be served, and you and I
cannot satisfy justice by our sacrifice. Justice has only been
served one time and satisfied, and it's by and through the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. When men hear that they can't
do anything to save themselves, they would justify their intentions,
but it's still not good enough. Men will say, that's not fair.
That's not fair. But only those who have been
found in the Lord Jesus Christ shown that we are sinners know
what fairness is and what fairness is not. It's not fair that we
receive grace. It's not fair that we receive
mercy. By definition, grace is getting what we do not deserve,
and mercy is not getting what we do deserve. We deserve death,
and the Lord gives us life. That's mercy and grace. We deserve
hell, and the Lord gives us eternal glory with himself. That's mercy
and grace. Well, that's not fair to me and
you, is it? We deserve hell. We deserve to die. We have unbelief
in us. We have sin in us. Why would
he choose to do that? According to the determinate
counsel and good pleasure of his will. That's the only reason.
According to the riches of his grace, according to the abundance
of his mercy that's renewed every day. That brings us to the last
question I had. And I tried to get through the
first three questions as quickly as I could because the good news
is in the last question. What is the cure? What is the
cure for our unbelief? What is the remedy for our sin?
What is the hope to be cleansed from the deepest stain of sin? You ever seen the stain that
you have inside of you called sin? How deep down does it go? To the very bottom. the very
bottom. I was, I got a stain on my clothes
recently and it could be faded out by washing it a little bit. Stain was still there. Nothing
I could do to get rid of it. I began to think about the stain
that we have as sin on our soul. and how deep that goes. And I
saw, as I was trying to rub out the stain, I thought, that's
what men do in religion by nature. We try to rub out the stain of
our sin by doing. That's exactly what we're doing.
The Lord calls it iniquity. All we're doing is we're rubbing
more mud on the stain. There's only one cure for the
stain of sin. It's the blood of Christ. There's only one way
to be washed. And it's through and by His will,
His choice, His power. That's the remedy for our unbelief. He gives faith to believe in
that blood. He robes us in white garments,
whiter than snow. For by grace, I quoted this the
first hour too, but for by grace are you saved through faith in
that not of yourself. It's not that you did something
to get rid of the stain, Christ did on the cross of Calvary.
The matter of fact, he absorbed our stain into himself to put
it away by his own blood. And he washed it and made us
water than snow. Faith, the faith of Christ, to
be enabled to believe in the precious blood of Christ alone.
Faith does not look at circumstances, does not look at your choices
made, does not look at your lifestyle, does not look at how good you
are or how bad you are not. Faith looks to Christ. Faith
doesn't examine our flesh at all. Looks to his finished work
alone as our justification before God. Turn with me to Romans three. We looked at this last week too. Paul made this statement. He
said, examine yourself to see if you be in the faith. And men
use that religion and they literally take it as if they're supposed
to have some kind of a scale for their life and they weigh
their scale to see if they're in the faith based upon what
they do or they don't do. That's not what Paul's talking
about there. Paul didn't say, Paul wasn't saying examine your
flesh. He was saying, look inside of yourself and see if there
be anything that you are clinging to outside of Christ. Look to
see if you're looking to any remedy other than the blood of
Christ for the deep stain that's within you. Look to see if you're
looking to any other source of light to purge the darkness that
you are, because there is no other source of light. There
is no other remedy. There is no other cure. That's what it
means to examine yourself. Romans 3, let's read two verses,
verses 24 and 25. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. The Lord gives faith
in the blood of Christ. He is revealed as our justification
before God. The heart of the matter is that
we need a new heart to believe. We need to believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need his blood. We have to
have his blood to be justified, to be cleansed of this unbelief.
See, everything about us, being the sin that we are, being the
full of unbelief that we are, it has to be put away. It can't
be that, okay, I'm gonna wipe the slate clean and from here
on out, do better. And that's what religion teaches,
but that's not the case. No, it's past, present and future
sin that Christ bore in his body. All the unbelief that's in you
right now, Christ took into himself and nailed it to his cross. And
hear what he said in Ezekiel chapter 11. I will give them
one heart. I will put a new spirit within
you and I will take out the stony heart of their flesh and I will
give them a heart of flesh. A new heart that believes God
by faith. We must be made to believe. We
must be made the righteousness of God in Christ. And that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did in taking our unbelief into
himself and owning our sin. Owning our sin. If the Lord had never been made
guilty, Lord had never been made guilty, he would have never had
to die. The wages of sin is death. He took our wages, didn't he?
He took our wages into himself. He owned it. He talked about
his sorrows. Have you ever been grieved over
your unbelief, your sin? No man's ever been grieved like
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for his people.
He bore every sin, every wicked thought, Every time that I have
had unbelief in my life, every time that I have failed to look
to Him as I ought, every time that I sin, every bad thought
that I've had, every word that I've spoken wrong, even the very
flesh that I am, the Lord Jesus Christ took all of that into
Himself and He owned it. He poured out His soul unto death
so that you and I would be seen right now as never Once having
any unbelief whatsoever. You and I would be seen right
now. The Lord's people would be seen right now as being perfectly
faithful to God in everything. Always. He did that, so you and
I would be seen as the very righteousness of God in Christ that we would
be seeing the holiness of God in Christ Jesus. The Lord sees his people as faithful
in Christ. And because of this, because
of his faith given to his people, we really believe Christ is all. The new man really believes.
The new man has never sinned once. The new man has never had
one bit of unbelief one time. The new man always looks to Christ. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Why? They walk according to the
spirit, not according to the flesh. What does that mean? They
don't walk according to unbelief anymore. They walk according
to the belief of the Lord Jesus Christ being all. If I were to
ask you, are you a sinner? You would say truth. Truth, I
am a sinner. I am a sinner. If I was to ask
you who is the savior of his people, you would say the Lord
Jesus Christ, no doubt. If I said to you, what is your
hope for eternal life? Would you say, well, my hope
is that I did this or I did that? No. My hope is that when Christ
Jesus offered himself upon the cross of Calvary to his father,
his father was well pleased with that sacrifice and put away all
the sin that he was bearing in his body. but the sacrifice of
himself. He resurrected his son and now
his son is seated. Everyone that Christ died for
has been redeemed. I believe that. If you believe
that, it's because he's given you faith to believe that. He's
given you a new man to believe that. Only the Lord's people
believe Christ is all in salvation. Christ is all in salvation. We walk after his spirit. That's
how he sees it. That's how it is. We don't see
it that way, do we? Do you see that you're walking
after the spirit? Don't examine yourself, look to Christ. Look
to Christ and live, that's what he says. When the father looks
upon his elect, he sees the faithfulness of his son, whom he is well pleased
with. When he sees his people, he sees
the blood. This is the remedy for the unbelief. This is the
cleansing of the stain. This is the solution for the
problem that we are. Christ Jesus and his precious
blood. As a matter of fact, the Lord sees that we've always believed
in Christ. Think about that. From the time
you were born to the time you die, what Christ accomplished
on the cross of Calvary is that you have always believed 100%,
always. That's what he accomplished.
That's what he gives to his people by faith. We just get to experience
it in time whenever he says live. We get to experience glorification
one day whenever he calls us. We're waiting, aren't we, to
experience these things. It is the Lord's faithfulness
bestowed because of his finished work. This is the heart of the
matter. This is the heart of the matter. He's give his people
a new heart. We must be saved by grace alone or we'll never
be saved, but here what first Peter two nine says in closing.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people. that you should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but now
are the people of God, which hath not obtained mercy, but
now have obtained mercy. There's a song that says, oh,
to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.
Isn't it true that by grace alone, by mercy alone, we find ourself
in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing him, not because of what we've
done or what we haven't done, but because of what he has done
for his people. The Lord has cured the heart
of the matter by his finished work. Did you know, and I love
this, I wrote, Lord allowed me to write this down like last
thing this morning. I've never thought of this. The
Lord never sees that Peter denied him. Think about that. Think
about that. The Lord never sees that Peter
denied him. He put it away. He put it away. That's what the Lord accomplished
on the cross of Calvary. Satan says, Peter denied you.
The Lord says, no, he didn't. I've put that away. It's gone.
It's gone, and so it is the same with you and I. Our unbelief
cannot separate us from the Lord. Our unbelief cannot cause us
to depart from Him. We are in Him. Scripture says,
the Lord was praying to His Father in John 17. He said, I in them,
talking about His people. I in you, you in me, I in them. We're just one with the Father,
one with the Son. Peter never denied Jesus Christ
in God's sight. God's people are seen as faithful
and with no unbelief. The heart of the matter. The
heart of the matter, this is what the Lord fixed. This is
what the Lord cured. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished by his blood alone. Let's pray. Father, cause us
to believe. Cause us to rest. In your name,
Amen. In closing.