An Evil Heart of Unbelief — Phil Beach Jr.

The Warning Against an Evil Heart of Unbelief

Hallelujah Turn your Bibles if you would please to. But Whatever lot we find ourself in this particular portion of scripture is essential and The meaning the message behind this scripture is so all-important to you and I as Christians.

Hebrews chapter 4 verse number 12. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Take heed. Be alarmed be aware be cautious Brethren lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief.

Want to entitle this this morning an evil heart of unbelief. The word evil comes from a very very strong word in the New Testament a Greek word and it could be translated wicked malicious or mischievous.

Wicked malicious or mischievous. The scripture here is Warning us to take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief Departing from the living God. Now if we were to look at this scripture in light of its context in the book of Hebrews and in addition to its Context in the book of Hebrews if we were to look at this scripture in its context in the Old Testament Where the writer of the book of Hebrews is drawing his resource we would learn a very very important lesson Along the lines of an evil heart of unbelief.

Not only would we learn an important lesson, but we would also be instructed as to the effects that an evil heart of unbelief has on Ourself as well as those that we are near. So it is imperative that in light of the movement of God's Spirit that is Evidenced in a most remarkable way in our midst these days.

Not only in our midst but in the midst of the Saints in multitudes of places. It is very important for us to understand that an evil heart of unbelief Is a sure tool in the hands of the wicked one to bring to a whole The move of God in our life whether it is personally.

Whether it's the move of God in our families. Whether it's the move of God in a local church whether it's the move of God in the church at large. An evil heart of unbelief is a Sure way that the enemy can quench and stop the move of God from prospering in our lives.

An evil heart of unbelief will will prevent the move of God to prosper in your life personally as a Christian in relation to your walk with God. An Evil heart of unbelief will surely as a dam will come and stop the waters from flowing.

Not only will it stop the waters from flowing in your life personally. But it'll stop the waters of flowing in your family's life. An evil heart of unbelief will do that. Not only will it affect your family But an evil heart of unbelief will affect the local companies of believers that you're fellowshipping with.

Oh yes, it will if the enemy can get a foothold of an evil heart of unbelief in us it is a sure way to introduce poison and death and Confusion and all kinds of evil works into our lives. So let us be as the scripture says in a state of alarm in a state of taking heed.

Let us take heed to the evil heart of unbelief. Actually if we could together this morning ask God to give us a mindset. Every soldier that goes to war is trained and taught I Myself as a former police officer was trained and taught That when I had my uniform on and I had my gun at my side.

And I was either driving around in my squad car or walking around on the streets. I had to always be aware that because of the uniform that I had on there was somewhere an enemy who hated me simply by associating myself with the Gulfport Police Department and Having a uniform on or driving in a marked unit.

I was Meat for somebody. There was somebody who was my enemy. And I was taught in Police Academy That a sure way to get yourself killed is to let your guard down and walk around in your uniform or drive around in a marked unit with a mindset of being unprepared or unguarded.

The moment a police officer puts his guard down and begins to Take an attitude of oh, I don't need to be that careful. I don't need to be that cautious. I can just sort of get into the routine of things.

What the greatest danger in being a police officer is developing a routine. The greatest danger of being a police officer is developing an attitude of Predictability. The enemy or an enemy in a city loves it.

When a police officer or the police Department is predictable when they can watch a police officer and know what they're going to do. Oh, I know what this police officer does when he drives into the 7-eleven.

He puts his guard down. He goes in and talks to the pretty girl. Oh Yeah the police officers go in these places where you sell coffee all the time and they just love it because they walk in there and They've got the uniform and the authority and the power and the pretty girls love it.

So when they go into these places, let me tell you something the guard comes down. They're no longer police officers. Defending the city of Gulfport being alerted for any kind of evil or suspicious person.

No but they're walking in there and they're sort of chatting and sort of shooting the bull and sort of talking about things and what they did the night before at the bar and whether the girl has a Prospective possibility of dating her and their guard comes down and if any thug walks into that Restaurant or that place of business and sees a police officer sitting there with his leg up like this.

Chatting a mile a minute without looking around and being aware of his environment. He says good we can get this place when this officer is in here. Why. Because they've let their guard down. They're unprepared.

There's a story that has been taught or not taught but has been told to the police officers in Gulfport Police Department for many Years it relates. Well, there's two stories. Actually one story is that there's a certain police officer who had befriended a thug an evil guy but he had befriended him and This guy was a street guy and he was a druggie and he was a thief and he was all the kinds of things that street people are that don't know how to walk straight and He had befriended this guy and over a number of years had become good friends with him.

But there was a certain day when he saw this particular person Walking down the street at a pretty rapid rate. So he stopped his police car and got out and started working toward him and was saying hey, what's going on guy?

What he usually does. Little did he know that this thug had just robbed the local business. Now friend or not. This thug was a thug. That's one thing when you become friends with a thug on the street.

He'll turn on you in a moment. If you're a threat to him, you might be his friend. He might say what's up cop? What's up, man? You know, let's have a cup of coffee. But let me tell you something if it's a matter of his life or your life his skin or your skin.

He'll he'll knife you in the back in a second. So what happened was this guy panicked. Because he had thought That This cop who his friend. Who he had befriended he knew he was a cop and he knew he was gonna do his business.

He thought that he had gotten a report the place was robbed and that he was chasing after him thinking. Hey, did you do it? So what does he do. He turns around and looks at him and Stares at him and the cop is there saying what's up, man?

What are you doing? You're walking so fast the guy pulls out a gun goes like this and blows him away. Blows him away. Another story of a police officer who had apprehended an old lady with a cast. She had a cast on her leg and I can't recall why he was at why she was apprehended.

But to make a long story short, excuse me. Okay, she was driving with improper paperwork and she had to leave the car and go and drive back with the police officer. So what does he do? He puts her in the back seat of the car is driving along.

She pulls a gun a little teeny gun out from her cast and shoots him in the back of the head and kills him. Number one you never ever put anybody in your police car who has broken the law without first.

Making sure that they are unarmed. Secondly, if anybody has been arrested You are to handcuff them. You never put a person in your car without handcuffing them. So therefore two rules were broken. Why.

Well, he put his guard down. She's an old lady. She's harmless. She couldn't hurt anyone. He had a hole through the back of his head. He's dead. The guy who befriended the thug when he turned around and looked at him the police officer wasn't alarmed.

He had his guard down. I'm sort of friends with this guy. Well, it was putting his arm his guard down that resulted in him losing his life. And I understand he had a wife and some young children. It was a traumatic experience.

But the whole purpose of these two stories is to relate the fact that as a police officer or as a military person You have to realize that there is a potential enemy everywhere you go by virtue of your association.

With that With that system of authority that you're involved in now I would like us together this morning if we could for a short time help us Lord help us to be able to see that as Christians we have an enemy and that we mustn't ever put our guard down in Relation to this enemy and our enemy together Corporately and individually is an evil heart of unbelief.

And Just as the police officers put their guard down and the enemy killed them both likewise beloved be assured by the word of the Lord that if you put your guard down and you allow an evil heart of unbelief to grow in your life without Combating it with the spiritual weapons that God has provided us an evil heart of unbelief.

Will rob you of your joy will rob you of your faith will rob you of your sense of peace will rob you of your Sanity will rob you of your long suffering and your peace and will bring you into a place where you are wretched blind miserable naked poor where you are Grasping for hope and you begin to go into places.

You shouldn't go to try and find hope. That's what this evil heart of unbelief will do. Hebrews chapter 4. Or actually let's Let's begin in in Hebrews. Did I say Hebrews 4 12? I'm sorry. I meant to say Hebrews 3 12.

I just caught my error Hebrews 3 12, excuse me. Yes, Hebrews 4 12 is a great verse. But that's not the particular one that we're referring to now. Let's go to verse number 7 of Hebrews 3 and let's just get a little feel of the context here.

Because I want you to see this morning from the Word of God. I this is a broad subject, but I want to be able to focus in on What an evil heart of unbelief is in context to what Hebrews chapter 3 is talking about and then in context to the story that Hebrews chapter 3 is Drawing its information from and if we just focus in on that simple story We're going to catch a glimpse of what an evil heart of unbelief is.

That's going to be very sobering and You're going to see as I did when God began to minister this to me I have been guilty of an evil heart of unbelief. But thank God That the power of the Word of God and the faithful Holy Spirit whoever lives and abides with us Combats it and gives me the power to resist it but I have fallen prey to an evil heart of unbelief because as you and I will see as we look into the word an evil heart of unbelief isn't Abandoning the Christian life and going out to a bar and getting drunk or going to New York City and and I and Sleeping with a prostitute or something like that.

That's not any now that is an evil heart of unbelief. Don't get me wrong, but that's not the kind of evil heart of unbelief that the scriptures are speaking about here. It's a much more subtle form of Evil, it's a much more subtle scheme of the devil.

And so we have to be aware of this evil heart of unbelief. Let's begin reading in verse number seven wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith Today if you will hear his voice Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness now Immediately we have to stop we have to think this through the writer of Hebrews is Warning those who read this book that they are not to harden their heart against the voice of God as They did in the wilderness so the Context of where the Holy Ghost is drawing the information that he's writing in Hebrews chapter 3 is found in numbers chapter 13 Beginning in verse number 25.

We won't go there now, but that's the story that the Holy Spirit is Drawing from in particular. That's the story. Now watch this Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

When your father's tempted me and proved me and saw my works 40 years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said they do always Err in their heart and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath.

They shall not enter my rest. Now what's the rest that he's talking about there the land of Canaan the fruitful land that flowed with milk and honey. Hallelujah, so God was grieved with them and he was troubled with them and he was he was very Displeased with them and he and he said that they tempted him and they tried him for 40 years.

Because they didn't know his ways and they erred in his heart. Now that brings us to verse number 12 take heed brethren. Take heed therefore take heed that is Understand the story of what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness.

Understand what they did. Understand the consequences of their actions. It resulted in them not being able to go into the land of Canaan. It resulted in them wandering for 40 years whatever they did in in in the wilderness that that caused God to be grieved and Troubled.

The writer of Hebrews the Holy Ghost Calls it an evil heart of unbelief. Whatever they did. So now we're developing now what we're seeing here is this an evil heart of unbelief in the context of this writing.

Directly relates to what the Israelites did in the wilderness. So now we've taken the broad general picture of all the possibilities of what an evil heart of unbelief could be. Because I'm sure that if we gave everyone opportunity everyone could come up with something that would be a genuine example of a possible evil heart of unbelief.

But we have just eliminated that broad spectrum and we have now narrowed it down to a specific story a specific people a specific event and what they did and the Consequences of what they did and God said that was an evil heart of unbelief.

Departing from the Living God it is that Context it is that specific incident that God has placed upon my heart this morning to share last you and I fall under the same example of unbelief and failed to enter in to the fullness of what God wants to bring us into as a company of people as Families and as individuals with our relationship with Jesus Christ.

The devil is a liar and I pray this morning that God will disarm and scatter his schemes and devices and that the word of the Living God may prevail and Empower us to resist an evil heart of unbelief.

Israel's Wilderness Failure and the Connection Between the Heart and Words

Turn your Bibles if you would before we go to Numbers chapter 13 I want to show you the connection between our heart and our words. You will find listen carefully. You will find that the evil heart of unbelief that the children of Israel fell prey to that resulted in them being banned from the land of Canaan and Them having to wander for 40 years in the wilderness and all of their carcasses dying and that God had to raise up a brand new Generation who would go into the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua the son of none.

You will find that the evil heart of unbelief That snare the children of Israel Directly related to what they said. Not just what they said listen closely. Not just what they said on a casual level. But it is what they said in response to God.

It was what they said in response to what God said to them. Boy, we are now Focusing in we've got a magnifying glass now. We have eliminated all the vast Possibilities of what an evil heart of unbelief could be though many of the things we would come up with would be genuine and bona fide.

But we've now by the power of the Spirit of God. We've brought it down to a very very Specific thing and that is what are you saying? In response to what God has said Matthew chapter 12 verse number 33.

Either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit Corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit. Oh Generation of vipers How can ye being evil speak good things now?

Listen closely. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh a Good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure in His heart brings forth evil things.

But I say unto you every Idol word That men shall speak. They shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned or Thou shalt be judged.

We see here an incredible connection Between what's in the heart and what comes out of the mouth. We also see here an incredible connection between what we say and the day of judgment. That is we will have to give an account for everything We said and then lastly we see a most profound statement and this statement in verse number 37 Perfectly is illustrated in the story of numbers chapter 13.

For by thy words now you remember this verse when we go to numbers chapter 13 you remember it and you see how profound God is and how incredible this message of an evil heart of unbelief is in the scriptures and how we must pray and fervently pray and be on guard and recognize it to be a Enemy an enemy that we must fight against because of its possible Ruinous effect that it could have on our lives by thy words that shall be justified and By thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Numbers chapter 13 the children of Israel had Been in the land of bondage for 400 years approximately 400 years. They were in the land of Egypt. They were under the Belligerent tyrancy of Pharaoh king of Egypt Who despised the children of Israel, but I'll tell you why he despised him.

He was afraid of him. He was afraid of him because their numbers had multiplied to such great volume or great Numbers that he thought my my if there was ever a revolt we'd be in trouble. So he despised the children of Israel and he and he and he appointed Taskmasters over the children of Israel and they had become slaves To the Egyptians and they were in slavery and they were treated like slaves.

Do you know how slaves are treated? Do you know every imaginable sin that could be committed against a human being was committed against the Israelites while they were in? Egypt, do you think these taskmasters respected the women, you know where I'm going?

Don't you you think they respected their bodies I? Say not. You think they humiliated and shamed their bodies in front of their men? Probably I think so. What could you do if you were a slave and you had a wife and your wife was suddenly?

Snatched before you and there in your presence. She was seduced. And if you'd lifted your hand up you were whipped or beaten or killed. What could you do but sit there and suffer the pain? Unheard of pain and Humiliation of watching your wife being defamed and defaced right in your presence as one of those barbarian Taskmasters abused her physically or maybe one of your sons.

I'm Sure that they didn't know the Old Testament law since it hadn't been written yet. So therefore I'm sure they were engaging in all kinds of impure physical acts with the boy childs to perverts they were Egyptians men without moral men without fear of God.

So we see the setting here it was a it was a Incredible setting but thank God the Bible says that God appeared to Moses on the backside of the desert and he said Moses I have heard the cry and the groaning of my people and I've decided to go set him free.

So Israel had God raise up a deliverer and His name was Moses and God was going to use Moses to deliver Israel out of the land of Egypt and they certainly did. God raised up Moses and performed many signs and wonders and Therefore as a result, he rescued the entire nation out from the land of Egypt.

He caused the Red Sea to open up and they went through on dry ground. We know the story and they shouted and Miriam song the horse and the rider thrown into the sea. Hallelujah to God great victory and that brings us up to verse numbers chapter 13.

Numbers chapter 13. After they went to Mount Sinai and God gave him the law and revealed his moral perfections. God taught him a bunch of things about the way he wanted them to act. Verse number one. And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying send thou men That they may search the land of Canaan which I give unto the children of Israel.

Let's stop right there. What did God just say? God just said send man into the land of Canaan to search it out, which I give unto the children of Israel. Who committed himself to giving the land to the children of Israel?

Who was it? God said I Will give the children of Israel the land of Canaan. By thy words that shall be justified and by thy words Thou shalt be condemned or thou shalt be judged. God Committed himself the immutability of his character.

I the Lord God the Omnipotent one the one that placed the stars in the sky the one that calls him by name the one that sets the boundaries to the sea and the ocean. I the Lord have taken you up and I am Rescued you from the land of Egypt and I have taken the responsibility To bring you into the land of Canaan.

I will do it. I God said I will do it. It will be my power my authority my spirit my omnipotence. I will do it. It's important that we remember that God says I will do it. An evil heart of unbelief. Verse 25.

We're about to see The thing that the book of Hebrews was talking about. We're about to see what the book of Hebrews was talking about when it said take heed that she Not have an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God verse number 20 verse number 25.

And they returned from searching of the land after 40 days and They now who's they? Who's they here? Who's it referring to? The 12 Spies remember what God says here send our men verse number 2 numbers 13 that they may search the land Which I shall give unto the children of Israel of every tribe so Moses picked out one man from every tribe and These 12 men went in and searched the land of Canaan for how long?

They returned after searching for 40 days. So here this is this is incredible here. God sends 12 men into the land of Canaan To search it out. Now remember these men went into the land of Canaan after hearing God tell them I Will give the land of Canaan to you.

But when they went into the land of Canaan they encountered some things so let's see what they encountered and they returned verse 25 from searching the land of Canaan after 40 days and they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel Under the wilderness of Peron Ducatus and brought back word unto them.

Let's stop right there My god They brought back word unto them now this is directly relating to the warning in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12 take heed brethren lest any of you have an evil heart of unbelief we have found in the New Testament that The heart and the words are directly related and now we see that after these spies Visited Canaan for 40 days.

They came back and what did they bring? They brought word unto them. So now these 12 spies are about listen. These 12 spies are about to speak. They're about to tell the children of Israel About the land of Canaan and they told him and said we came unto the land whither thou sent us us and surely it floweth with milk and honey and This is the fruit of it.

The Bible says in verse 23 that when they came to the brook of Eschol and cut down from fence a branch with one cluster of grapes and they bear it between two upon a staff and They brought of the pomegranates of the figs.

So can you imagine a cluster of grapes so big that they had to carry it on a staff? Have you ever seen grapes so big they had a cluster of grapes. So this land was incredible and they're affirming this in verse number 27.

So there they are in some ways agreeing with what God said. God told him it's a land flowing with milk and honey. It's a land that I watch out day and night. I take care of it and I'm gonna bring you into it and they're partly agreeing now.

They're saying yes, it surely is a land flowing with milk and honey and look at these cluster of grapes. Nevertheless The people be strong. That dwell on the land and the cities are walled and very great and moreover We saw the children of a knock there.

Now, I don't believe that they're sinning yet. I believe they're simply stating the facts. The land is flowing with milk and honey. Here's a cluster of grapes and I'm telling you there are some pretty big dudes in that land.

Absolutely true. There were some big dudes in that land and the Amalekites throw on the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell on the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan.

Now I want you to skip verse 30 and go to verse 32 and They that is the ten spies see two of them were Joshua and Caleb and the other ten or two of them had a good rapport and Ten of them had a bad rapport.

This is we're finishing now the bad rapport and They brought up an evil rapport of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel saying the land through which we have gone to search is a land eaten up by the inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature and there we saw the Giants the sons of Anak which come of the Giants and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight and all the Congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept all night and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole Congregation said unto them would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God that we had died in the wilderness.

Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword. That our wives and our children should be a prey. Were it not better for us to return unto Egypt. And they said one to another Let us make a captain and let us return unto Egypt.

The Evil Report and Its Effects on the Congregation

Beloved pay close attention. Pay close attention to the things that are happening now pay close attention to what the Holy Ghost would say to us now. We see that God commissioned twelve men to go into a land and to spy it out.

And we see that God put his own name behind the victory. We see that God himself said I will give you the land. The twelve spies came back and ten of them said we can't do it. Because it's too hard. There's Giants.

There's things in the land that are more than we can handle. There's a situation that I foresee in the land of Canaan Moses that I can't handle. I see that there's gonna be a problem that that I don't have the Resources to deal with.

I feel like I'm a little grasshopper and they're Giants. God We can't do it. Listen carefully. An evil heart of unbelief according to the context of Hebrews 3 and numbers 13 is hearing God's promise to what he's going to do in the church through the resurrection of his son and then saying it can't be done.

It is too hard. There are too many enemies. There are too many difficulties. God I know you said that we'll have the victory but it can't be done. An evil heart of unbelief is Looking at the situation at the difficulty at the Circumstance and Allowing it to make God a liar.

An evil heart of unbelief is an evil report. An Evil report is To search out. Whatever it is that God said I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna give you the victory over it. Whatever it might be to search it out come back and say can't do it.

Too much too big too impossible. It's impossible. God said I'm gonna give it to you. I search out the land and come back and say Oh God telling you you don't know what you're asking for. An evil heart of unbelief is Believing Something whatever it might be instead of what God has said.

Notice now that we have understood in context what an evil heart of unbelief is. I want you to see for a few moments what the effects are. What are the effects of an evil heart of unbelief. When you or I bring back an evil report.

That is when God says that we can do something and then we come back and say it can't be done. What effect does that have on people they hear us? What effect does it have? Hallelujah verse number 1 chapter 14 and all the Congregation lifted up their voice and cried and the people wept that night and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole Congregation said to them what the God that we had died in the land of Egypt or what the God that we had died in the wilderness.

The effects that an evil report has on a person or a group of people or on a congregation when you come and bring a testimony that contradicts what God says it creates mourning and weeping and murmuring and complaining it discourages the heart of people.

It takes the energy and the faith and the will and the hope right out of them and they Get to where they say. I wish we weren't even here. I wish we never came this way. I wish God would have left us in Egypt.

It took totally destroys it totally annuls all of what God is wanting to do in our life and it all comes and it all starts and it all festers out of an evil heart of unbelief now verse number 30 chapter 13 numbers.

Let's look at the opposite of an evil heart of unbelief. Hallelujah to God for a Joshua and a Caleb if there was no Joshua and Caleb. This would be quite a depressing story, wouldn't it? This would be a very discouraging message.

Wouldn't it be if I now said alright beloved? Let's bow our heads and pray. Look at how miserable. Look at how impossible the situation is. Look at beloved. There's no hope I know what God says, but there's no hope.

I just pray somehow you'll make it by the skin of your teeth. I have nothing more to say goodbye and good night. Wouldn't that be awful? But hallelujah to God Lucy. Hallelujah, we've got a verse 30 here.

Listen carefully and Caleb stilled the people before Moses. When God Finds a man or a woman or a group of men and women who refuse to be like the ten spies Who have an evil heart of unbelief? But by the grace of God and by the power of God they Refuse to give way to an evil report.

The first thing they do is begin to still the people. You see there was a stirring going on among the people. But this wasn't a Holy Ghost stirring. This was an unholy devil stirring. You know something I wanted to mention and I don't want to forget.

The Lord is here in your home and you succumb to doubts and fears and start talking about him. Before you know it the devil's all over you and everyone that's listening to you your words. Isn't it true that if I am under the power of the Holy Ghost and I speak the Word of God the power of God is released.

Absolutely true if under the Holy Ghost I speak God's Word the power of God is released. Well, likewise beloved if you're under the power of the devil and you are bombarded with inspiration from devils and demons and unbelief and the accuser of God the accuser of God's Word and you speak The things that you are being Bombarded with and you speak it out and you speak it out into the ears of people that is Releasing the power of the devil to come and to work all kinds of havoc in your life depression despondency anger unbelief contentions all manner of evil things happen when people Give an evil report.