THE HEART OF UNBELIEF HEB.3:7-19
Today I’ll talk for a little while about a heart of unbelief:
Let me say before we began that the writer here is not writing this epistle to lost people, these believing Hebrews were in danger of trying to slip back under the law of Moses, or so they thought.
And then some people try to explain away the “problem” of losing your salvation by claiming that these readers were not truly born again, but were only professors of the Christian faith.
But the writer, whom I believe to be Paul called them,” Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling (3:1).
He told them that they had a High Priest in heaven (4:14), which he would not have written if they were lost. And according to 6:4 they had been made partakers of the Holy Spirit
At the heart of every problem is a problem of the heart
The writer is contrasting the Old Testament system of law with the New Testament ministry of grace.
He is making it clear that the Jewish religious system was temporary and that it could not bring in the eternal “better things” that are found in Jesus Christ. Eternal is a third word that is important to the message of Hebrews.
Christ is the “author of eternal salvation” (5:9). Through His death, He “obtained eternal redemption” (9:12) and He shares with believers “the promise of eternal inheritance” (9:15).
The word better is used 13 times in this book of Hebrews, as the writer shows the superiority of Jesus Christ and His salvation over the Hebrew system of religion.
Listen as I read today’s text;
Hebrews 3:7-19
7Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
And let me say that we that are saved today don’t fully know His ways at this time either, not like we will one day.
11So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15While it is said, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Reference- Ps. 95
16For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
In these verses we find a warning directed to the unbelieving, and the judgment is that of missing God’s rest. Not losing ones salvation.
So the wilderness wanderings represent to us today: the experiences of believers who will not claim their spiritual inheritances in Christ, who doubt God’s Word and live in restless unbelief.
The writer mentioned two different “rests” found in Old Testament history: (1) God’s Sabbath rest, when He ceased from His Creation activities Gen. 2:2) (2) Israel’s rest in Canaan ( Deut. 12:9; Josh. 21:43-45).
But the writer saw in these “rests” illustrations of the spiritual experiences of believers today.
The Sabbath rest is a picture of our rest in Christ through salvation (Heb. 4:3, and see Matt. 11:28).
The Canaan rest is a picture of our present rest as we claim our inheritance in Christ (Heb. 4:11-13; the first is the rest of salvation; the second is the rest of submission.
It’s true that God was with these Hebrew believers at the time this epistle was written to them, as He was with Israel; but they didn’t enjoy the fullness of God’s blessing. They are “out of Egypt” but they are not yet “in Canaan.” Let me say that Canaan is not a picture of heaven, but it’s a picture of saved peoples journey while we’re here on this earth. We have battles here, as they did then, but God was always with His people.
The importance of this warning and the danger of disobeying are pointed out in two ways.
First of all, we read in v.1, “as the Holy Ghost saith”, the word “ saith,” is in the present tense. And The Holy Spirit is still speaking today!
2ndly, God is speaking today through His Son Jesus Christ—through someone greater than the prophets and greater than the angels and greater than Moses.
This shows that the One so supreme is to be obeyed supremely. Man must believe and obey Christ—believe His promise of salvation and of eternal rest in the promised land of heaven.
The command is this; 8Harden not your hearts, This is a charge from the Holy Spirit Himself, and it is directed to every generation of believers. It was not only a charge to Israel. How do we know this? Because the word “saith” is in the present tense.
The Holy Spirit is still speaking today. The charge is for all people of every generation; and there is great danger in disobeying the charge.
Israel had hardened their hearts, After the Jews had been freed from Egyptian slavery, they wandered about in the wilderness of the Sinai desert for forty years. During their wanderings, they committed four gross sins that hardened their hearts.
1st; they provoked God.
Notice the two phrases “in the provocation” and “in the day of temptation.”
8Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Israel sinned in the wilderness while wandering about in the desert, they had become very thirsty and they began to disbelieve God—to distrust that He cared and would provide, and the began to regret that they had left the world of Egypt.
Let me remind us that” Egypt is symbolic of the world;” I’m afraid that many Christians today look back at the things the world seems to offer.
Israel rebelled against God, did not believe that He would take care of them. They lost their trust in Him and began to criticize and murmur and grumble against Him and Moses, who was God’s appointed leader.
They tried God for forty years. God took care of Israel for forty long years as the nation wandered throughout the desert of Sinai.
He gave them food and water and all the other necessities of life, and He protected them from all surrounding enemies. Yet the people continued to harden their hearts against God, to disbelieve and distrust Him.
They acted as though He had to meet their approval instead of them meeting His.
They put Him to the test to see if He was really good and would meet their needs.
They proved God in v.9 to them; it seems as though they were thinking- if God proved faithful then He would be worthy of their obedience and loyalty. They wanted Him to prove Himself first, and then they would follow Him.
They were unwilling to prove themselves, unwilling to show that they really believed and trusted God. They showed total disobedience.
God had promised to meet Israel’s needs and He always had. They didn’t have the luxuries and all the nice things of life, they were on a journey and if they obeyed God they would receive the better things on further down the road so to speak, and you and I, if we’ll remain true to God He will reward us when we reach the end of our journey.
But they had God’s care and provision, and most of all they had the promise of God’s land and rest. But they always went astray—always chose not to believe God. They disobeyed and distrusted God for some forty years, or until that ---------generation had died off.
They didn’t know God’s way. God’s way is faith and trust.
God wants the same as any father wants: to be trusted. No matter how little or how much a father can provide, he wants to be trusted that he does care and will provide for his children.
The same is true of God today. God does not want murmuring or grumbling, questioning, distrust, unbelief, or disobedience.
God wants faith and trust, for faith and trust are the ways that God teaches men to trust Him more. Let us learn to depend upon God, and learn to walk with God.
The reason God created us to start with was for us to know Him and to fellowship with Him.
And the way we can get to know Him and to fellowship with Him is to learn to trust Him more and more. And often this brings trials and testing.
This is what Israel failed to learn; this was the great failure of Israel: unbelief and disobedience. They never learned that God’s way was belief and trust.
And the result of this disbelief was judgment.
The people chose not to follow God; therefore, they were never able to inherit the Promised Land or to enter God’s rest. They missed the permanent peace and provision of God Himself. They all died in the wilderness, the very ones who had been set free from the world of bondage in Egypt. Not a single one ever entered God’s Promised Land and rest, Only they’re off spring and Josiah & Caleb entered in.
Nums. 14: 29-33 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Israel for the most part has always been a rebellious people:
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye--
Acts 28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them
Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God
Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin
Proverbs 28:14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief
Proverbs 29:1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy
The great failure of Israel was this: they just failed to believe God—to trust that He would do what he said: take care of them, provide for their needs, and give them the Promised Land and rest.
The great failure of people today is the very same thing—unbelief. People just do not believe God—that He will do what He says: take care of them, provide for their necessities, and give them the promised land of heaven and the eternal rest from the wilderness of this world.
Today is the day for believing and walking in Christ. Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow a person may be snapped out of this world by some accident or become a broken and hopeless person because of some bad news or unexpected event.
At most, life is only as a vapor or a flower: here today and gone tomorrow. Therefore, we must exhort one another to trust Christ and His promises and to follow Him as He has dictated.
Ephes. 5:15-16 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil
James 1:10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away
James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away
Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and are spent without hope
Psalm 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity
Lets put our hope & TRUST IN Him.
