See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God:
5 sermons cite this verse
… He marveled at their unbelief. That's why in Hebrews 3, verse 12, we read, Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Why? Because unbelief will rob you of God's blessings. Now, when it says he could do no mighty work there, don't misunderstand that. It has nothing to do with his ability or his power. As much as saying he was morally compelled not to do any miraculous works there. And here's why. Miracles confirm people's faith. They do not produce faith. A lot of people say, well, if I could see a miracle, then I'd believe. No, you wouldn't. You'd explain it away. You'd psychologize it away. You'd rationalize it away. If you want to believe, you will. If you don't want to believe, you won't. Remember the story that Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus? Both of them died. And the rich man said to Abraham, who was being, Lazarus, the poor beggar, was being comforted by Abraham. …
… So this is where I want to look at that sister passage just briefly. I'll read for you here Hebrews 3, verses 12 to 13. And I want you to hear the similarity with Hebrews 10, 24, and 25. This is Hebrews 3, 12 and 13. Look for the speaking grace on display here in Hebrews 3. He says, take care, brothers. Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That word exhort is the same word that we translate in courage in Hebrews chapter 10. I don't know why they're translated differently. That's okay. That word is often translated as encourage. The encouragement is with words or exhortation or helping somebody. But the help is a word help. That's what's linking these two passages together. So there's a power of words for Christian endurance and persistence in the Christian life. …
It is one promise of the covenant of grace, that the saints shall keep God’s commandments. Ezek. xi. 19, 20.—Yet that is no argument that they have no need to take care to keep these commandments, or to do their duty. So the promise of God, that the saints shall persevere in holiness, is no argument that it is not necessary that they should take heed lest they fall away. Therefore the Scriptures abundantly warn men to watch over themselves diligently, and to give earnest heed lest they fall away. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Cor. x. 12. “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” Heb. iii. 12-14. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, 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 unto the end.” Heb. iv. 1. “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” 2 Pet. iii. 17.“Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.” 2 John 8. “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”—Thus you see how earnestly the Scriptures press on Christians exhortations to take diligent heed to themselves that they fall not away. And certainly these cautions are not without reason. …
Men are very apt to bring their principles to their practices, and not their practices to their principles, as they ought to do. They, in their practice, comply not with their consciences; but all their strife is to bring their consciences to comply with their practice. On the account of this deceitfulness of sin, and because we have so much sin dwelling in our hearts, it is a difficult thing to pass a true judgment on our own ways and practices. On this account we should make diligent search, and be much concerned to know whether there be not some wicked way in us. Heb. iii. 12, 13. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Men can more easily see faults in others than they can in themselves. When they see others out of the way, they will presently condemn them, when perhaps they do, or have done, the same, or the like, themselves, and in themselves justify it. Men can discern motes in others’ eyes, better than they can beams in their own. Prov. xxi. 2. “Every way of man is right in his own eyes.” The heart in this matter is exceedingly deceitful. Jer. xvii. 9. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” We ought not therefore to trust in our own hearts in this matter, but to keep a jealous eye on ourselves, to pry into our own hearts and ways, and to cry to God that he would search us. Prov. xxviii. 26. “He that trusteth his own heart is a fool.” …
Of course it might so happen in this or that particular case,--just as the same person is moved by one warning, not by another, not moved by a warning to-day, moved by a warning to-morrow; but I am sure, taking men as we find them, miracles would leave them, as far as their conduct is concerned, very much as they are. They would be very much startled and impressed at first, but the impression would wear away. And thus our Saviour's words would come true of all those multitudes who have the Bible to read, and know what they ought to do, but do it not:--"If they hear not Moses and the Prophets," He says, "neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Do we never recollect times when we have said, "We shall never forget this; it will be a warning all through our lives"? have we never implored God's forgiveness with the most eager promises of amendment? have we never felt as if we were brought quite into a new world, in gratitude and joy? Yet was the result what we had expected? We cannot anticipate more from miracles, than before now we have anticipated from warnings, which came to nought. And now, what is the real reason why we do not seek God with all our hearts, and devote ourselves to His service, if the absence of miracles be not the reason, as most assuredly it is not? What was it that made the Israelites disobedient, who had miracles? St. Paul informs us, and exhorts us in consequence. "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness . . . take heed . . . lest there be in any of you" (as there was among the Jews) "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God." Moses had been commissioned to say the same thing at the very time; "Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep My Commandments always!" We cannot serve God, because we want the will and the heart to serve Him. We like any thing better than religion, as the Jews before us. The Jews liked this world; they liked mirth and feasting. "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play;" so do we. They liked glitter and show, and the world's fashions. "Give us a king like the nations," they said to Samuel; so do we. They wished to be let alone; they liked ease; they liked their own way; they disliked to make war against the natural impulses and leanings of their own minds; they disliked to attend to the state of their souls, to have to treat themselves as spiritually sick and infirm, to watch, and rule, and chasten, and refrain, and change themselves; and so do we. They disliked to think of God, and to observe and attend His ordinances, and to reverence Him; they called it a weariness to frequent His courts; and they found this or that false worship more pleasant, satisfactory, congenial to their feelings, than the service of the Judge of quick and dead; and so do we: and therefore we disobey God as they did,--not that we have not miracles; for they actually had them, and it made no difference. We act as they did, though they had miracles, and we have not; because there is one cause of it common both to them and us--heartlessness in religious matters, an evil heart of unbelief, both they and we disobey and disbelieve, because we do not love. …