AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF.
Hebrews 3: 12 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.
Continuation of THE SECOND WARNING
Hebrews 3: 7- 4: 13.
Not to come short of the promised Rest.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
The great practical aim of the Epistle is to call us to faith. It is with this view that it will show us what a sure ground we have for it in the word and Oath of God, in the person and power of our Heavenly High Priest. It will remind us how unbelief has been the cause of all falling away from God, and all failing of entrance into the enjoyment of His Promise and His Rest, as faith has in all ages been the one power in which God's saints have lived and worked. It has already spoken of "holding fast our Boldness and the Glorying of our hope firm to the end"; it here uses the word "believe" for the first time in the call to beware of an evil heart of unbelief. (In this case the word "receive" may have been a better word as we are to become receptive of the Living Word [Rhema]. We are to be willing to receive all that the first Adam had lost by faith or simply trusting God or the taking of Him at His Word through inspiration within our heart at first then to our understand or brain matter which at times may be defective of that receptivity. In other wards we are to be teachable, trainable and learn discipline. Emphasis added)
An evil heart of unbelief. Think a moment of what the expression means. And note first the place the heart takes in religion. We have heard the warning (verse 7), Harden not your hearts. It is in the heart God speaks, and where He longs to give His Blessing. On that there followed God's complaint, "They do always err in their heart; they did not know My ways." It is a heart that goes wrong that cannot know God's ways. And so here again, it is the evil heart that cannot believe, that falls away from the Living God. Do let us, in our study of the Epistle and in our whole religious life, beware of rejoicing in beautiful thoughts and happy feelings, while the heart, with its desire and will and love, is not wholly given up to God. In our intercourse with God, everything depends on the heart. It is with the heart man believes and receives the Salvation of God.
An evil heart of unbelief. Many think and speak of unbelief as a frailty; they wish to believe, but do not feel able; their faith, they say, is too weak. And of course they have no sense of guilt or shame connected with it: not being able to do a thing is counted a sufficient excuse for not doing it. God thinks differently. The Holy Ghost speaks of the evil heart of unbelief. The heart is the organ God created in man for holding fellowship (intimacy) with Himself. Faith is its first natural function; by faith and love it lives in God. It is the ear that hears the voice of God, the eye that can ever see Him and the unseen world; the capacity for knowing and receiving all that God can communicate. It begins as trust in the word spoken; it grows into fellowship (intimacy) with the Person who speaks; its fruit is the reception of all God has to bestow. Sin turned the heart from the unseen to the seen, from God to self, and faith in God lost the place it was meant to have, and became a faith in the visible world and its goods. And now unbelief, whether avowed and definite, or more secret and unconscious, is the great mark of the evil heart, the great proof of sin, the great cause of everlasting darkness and damnation. There is no warning the professing Christian Church needs to have sounded more loudly than this one to the Hebrews: Take heed lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the Living God.
In falling away from the Living God. This is the terrible evil of unbelief; it incapacitates a man for holding fellowship (intimacy) with God as the Living One. The expression, the Living God, occurs four times in the Epistle. In the Old Testament it contrasted God with the dead idols, who could not hear or speak or help. Alas, how often professing Christians have, instead of a graven image, the more dangerous idol of a thought-image--- a conception of the mind to which they bring their worship. The Living God, speaking in His Son, hearing them when they speak, working out in them His mighty Salvation--- the Living God who Loves and is loved,--- Him they know not. With all their Christian profession and religious exercises there is an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the Living God.
Let us take the warning. Ere we come to the deeper Truth the Epistle has to teach us, let us learn well our first lesson: the one thing God looks to, the one thing we need to receive, the fulness of Blessing our great High Priest has for us and waits to bestow, is a heart of faith--- a true heart drawing nigh to God in fulness of faith (10: 23). Take heed--- we ought to give more abundant heed--- lest there be in any of us, even for a moment, an evil heart of unbelief. Let us cast out everything that can cause or can strengthen it, whether it be worldliness or formality, too little Knowledge, or too much head-knowledge of God's word, too little looking to the state of our heart or too much preoccupation with self; let us take heed lest there be at any time in us an evil heart of unbelief. Let a tender heart, hearkening to His voice, Listening to and Trusting His word, ever be the sacrifice we bring Him.
With the heart man believes, whether in God or the world. As our heart is, so is our faith, and so our life. Our enjoyment of Christ, our spiritual strength and fruitfulness, our nearness to God, and our experience of His working in us, all depend, not upon single, isolated acts of faith, but upon the state of the heart. Therefore God breathes into us the Spirit of faith, to keep our heart ever tender and open towards Him. Oh, let us above everything beware of an evil heart of unbelief.
And if we would know how true living faith is to be obtained and increased, note the connection. As unbelief falls away from the Living God, so faith draws nigh to Him and is fed and nourished in His presence. Practice the presence of God in deep humility and stillness of heart. Thirst for God, the Living God. "My soul, be silent before God: for my expectation is from Him". He is the Living God. He sees and hears and feels and loves. He speaks and gives and works, and reveals Himself. His presence wakens and strengthens and satisfies faith. Bow in lowly meditation and worship before the Living God, and faith will waken up and grow into Boldness and the glorying of hope. He is the Living God, who makes alive, out of whom Life comes into them that draw near to Him: tarry in His presence--- that, and nothing else, but that, most surely, will free you from the evil heart of unbelief.
1. Unbelief and falling away from the Living God: remember with holy fear the close connection. They act and react on each other.
2. The faithfulness of Jesus fills the heart with the fulness of faith. You remember the lesson? Here It Is the same again: drawing nigh to the Living God will fill the heart with Living faith. And the Epistle is going to teach us how God draws nigh to us in Jesus, and how in Jesus we draw nigh to God.
3. Never speak or think of unbelief as a weakness, but always as the sin of sins, the fruitful mother of all sin.
4. The Living God in Heaven, and the believing heart on earth: these are the two powers that meet and satisfy each other. Let your faith know of no other measure or limit than the Living God. Let it be Living faith in a Living God.
(Though not part of this Epistle the book of Revelation can best come to light as a Living faith of things taking place first in Heaven then on earth or first on earth then in Heaven as scenes in a modern day movie. Emphasis added)
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