Unbelief Is Deadly!

Old Testament scripture reading this morning is found in Numbers chapter 14.

We'll be reading verses one through 11, and then we'll jump to verses 20 to 33.

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.

And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt,

or would that we had died in this wilderness, why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the

sword?

Our wives, our little ones, will become a prey.

Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

And they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people

of Israel, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Japhonah, who

were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and said to all the

congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we pass through to spy it out is

an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into the land and give it to us, a land that flows

with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land, for they

are bred for us.

Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us.

Do not fear them.

Then all the congregation said to stone,.

Excuse me,.

Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones, but the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting

to all the people of Israel.

And the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people despise me?

And how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that I have done among

them?

I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of

you a nation greater and mightier than they.

Verse 20, then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word, but truly as I live,

and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my

signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these 10 times

and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their

fathers, and none of those who despise me shall see it.

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will

bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and

set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, how long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me?

I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumbled against me.

Say to them as I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing, I will do to you.

Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your numbers listed in the census

from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land

where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Jacob, the son of

Jephthah, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land

that you have rejected.

But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this, shall fall in this

wilderness, and your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 years and shall suffer

for your faithlessness until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.

Good morning.

Today's New Testament reading is Matthew 7, 21 through 23.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will

of my father, who is in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your

name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Please be seated.

If you would take your Bibles this morning and turn to Hebrews chapter three.

Hebrews three.

As we continue our study in the book of Hebrews, in order that we

get the entire context of this next section, I'm going to read chapter three, verse one through chapter four,

verse 13, all of it, which hangs together.

So we get the full context of the text for today.

Hebrews chapter three, verse one.

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle

and high priest of our confession who is faithful to him who appointed him just as Moses also

was faithful in all God's house.

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a

house has more honor than the house itself.

For every house is built by someone, but builder of all things is God.

Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be

spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.

And we are his house.

If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the

rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw

my works for 40 years.

Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart.

They have not known my ways.

As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

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.

For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

As it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?

Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

And with whom was he provoked for 40 years?

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed

to reach it.

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because

they were not united by faith with those who listened.

For we who have believed enter the rest, that rest, as he has said, as I

swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way,

and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest.

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news

failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, today,

saying through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice, do

not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have spoken of another day later on.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as did God from

his.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the

same sort of disobedience.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing

to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and

intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we

must give an account.

Let's pray.

God, now open our hearts, open our ears, open the inner man to what we have to hear today.

This is by your providence that we are in this text.

And so we are here to listen to the very voice of our Father as he speaks to us.

Help us now as we think through, as we look at, as we

seek to understand the text that you have given us for this day.

We humbly ask you to work in our hearts.

Remove from us pride, remove from us an unwillingness

to hear the truth, especially if it hits close to home.

Instead, help us to humbly hear and then to respond to you.

And we'll thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

John Calvin, of course, was the great Protestant reformer in Geneva, Switzerland.

And John Calvin was also, as he ministered in the church in Geneva, was also an expository

preacher of the word of God.

That is to say, he would preach through books, much like we do here.

He would preach through books of the Bible.

Well, as Calvin ministered in Geneva for a number of years, faithfully preaching through the text of Scripture,

a controversy erupted in Geneva.

And because of that, the city council threw him out of Geneva.

The legislative body of that city threw him out of Geneva, kicked him out.

And so he left Geneva and went to the city of Strasbourg, where he ministered for three years.

He ministered to a church of French refugees, but in three years, the

tide turned in Geneva, and so he returned.

He returned to that city.

And that first Sunday, as he entered the pulpit, he said, as I was saying,

and then continued with his exposition of the book that he had left off three years before.

And so this morning, I want to say to you, as I was saying,

and we'll pick it up right here in chapter three, verse 16 of Hebrews.

Now, I'm gonna spend some time reviewing what God has told us so far.

I think it's important for us to be up to speed before we dive into our text, verses 16 through

19.

You remember that this was written to Jewish people who were Christians, hence the name of the

book, Hebrews.

Who wrote it?

We don't know exactly who wrote it.

Many people have been suggested, but we will not know until glory who exactly wrote this book.

But whoever he was, he had a deep and compassionate concern for his brothers and sisters in

Christ.

He may, and I think this is probably true, he may have been a pastor that

they knew.

In fact, as he closes the book, he says in chapter three, verse 22, I appeal to

you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you

briefly.

That term, that's a term, word of exhortation, that's a term that essentially means sermon.

So this is not so much a letter or an epistle as it is a written sermon, a

sermon written to the people of God, a sermon for us today.

And it was a sermon urging the readers to stay faithful to Christ.

I would say that's the underlying theme.

It's about staying faithful to Christ.

Now what was going on at that time that would cause this pastor to write to his Christian Jewish friends?

I always remember this.

Every book of the Bible has some kind of a context.

None of the writers of Scripture sat down and said, I think I'll write something today.

They're all written to real people in real situations.

And he wrote this letter, this sermon, if you will, to real people in a real situation.

What was it?

Well, from the clues we can pick up from the book, these were Jewish Christians who faced persecution.

It seems that they had begun their pilgrimage well, but were now contemplating renouncing their

faith in Christ.

You see that in this very chapter in verses 12 through 14, where we left off.

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's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the

deceitfulness of sin, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold to our

original confidence firm to the end.

It seemed like they were ready to let go, that they were ready to let go.

In fact, it appears that they considered renouncing their trust in Jesus and returning to the old

ways of Judaism, the old sacrificial system, the old way that they had grown up with, that they knew

intimately.

We pick that up as we read this book.

That's what their temptation was.

Now, why would they want to go back to Judaism?

Because Judaism was a legal religion in the Christian empire.

You could practice that religion without fear of persecution.

It'd be much easier to go back to something that they knew, something indeed that God had

given at one time in the history of God's people.

Let's go back to that.

It would be safer.

We're still doing what God had told us to do, right?

Well, that may have been part of the pressure.

It could be that they harbored doubts about the gospel.

They were used to very tangible, concrete expressions of faith contained in the Old

Testament rituals and priesthood and sacrifices.

And now, they were told that one becomes right with God through Jesus Christ, that you're actually made

right with God through the proclamation of a message of a person, a person that they had never seen or heard.

And this is what will make us right with God.

Forgiven of their sins by merely believing in the death of Jesus, loyalty to the gospel evidently

was wearing thin.

And hence, this written sermon.

The writer pastor explains then how Jesus fulfills and supersedes the rituals, the

priesthood and the sacrifices of Judaism.

And since he's the ultimate, there's no sense in going back.

In fact, there's danger in going back to those old ways.

And so, this is a sermon intended to move you to action.

If I were to sum this up, if I were to sum up the purpose of this epistle, the purpose of this

sermon, it is intended to exhort you.

It is intended to move you to action.

God intends to move you to remain faithful to Jesus

in the face of persecution.

Now look, it's possible that we'll face persecution.

At this moment in our culture, we are facing social ostracism.

We are condemned as bigots and such, and we haven't had to face

the shedding of blood yet.

But maybe that's over the horizon.

I don't know.

I don't know what's over the horizon, but it's entirely feasible that persecution is coming our way.

And we need to be prepared for that because when persecution comes, you will be tempted to

abandon Jesus.

When it comes to saying I'm going to live or die, depending on my confession of Christ, you will be tempted to

abandon Jesus.

And you need to hear the words of this sermon.

We need to endure hardship rather than abandon Jesus and take the easy way out.

Its purpose is to motivate you to an unwavering trust in Jesus as your only hope.

God intends to motivate you to continue trusting in Jesus when you're tempted to move away from him.

Short of persecution, you may be tempted to move away from him.

He explains all that Jesus accomplished in order to assure you that you have not misplaced your

faith, that since Jesus is the ultimate expression of the will of God, is the ultimate sacrifice,

the ultimate revelation, all of that, that your faith then is not misplaced by

putting it all in Jesus.

And you have to know that to abandon Jesus is to abandon your only hope.

There is no hope without him.

That's what this book is about.

This book is not just a theological treatise about how Jesus supersedes and fulfills everything in the Old

Testament.

This is a book intended to motivate you to remain true to him no matter what the

circumstances.

Now, how does our Jewish pastor friend accomplish that purpose?

By showing us the superiority of Jesus.

It is a theological treatise in the sense of showing us the superiority of Jesus, that Jesus is the ultimate

and final revelation from God.

Nevertheless, it is not just that.

It shows us the superiority of Jesus so that we remain faithful to him and don't take a

substitute and don't take another way.

He began by telling us, you remember, in the first four verses, that God speaks finally and

supremely in Jesus so that all that follows is God essentially saying, my son is the

final expression of everything I require of you.

We saw in chapter one, verse five then, all the way through chapter two, verse 18, we saw that Jesus

is superior to the angels.

And then in chapter two, verse 19, now through chapter four, verse 13, where we are, right

smack dab in the middle of all that, Jesus is superior to Moses.

Now, last time we were together, we were in chapter three.

And our writer tells us that Jesus, as the builder of God's house, as the builder of

God's people, surpasses Moses, who is a servant in that

house.

Jesus is the builder of the house.

And as the son, he surpasses Moses in authority.

Then he turns, beginning in verse seven, he turns us

to Psalm 95, a Psalm of David to tell us, to warn us,

that we must not harden our hearts as the nation of Israel did in the wilderness.

And it's interesting that he says, the spirit of God says, in other words, this writer, this

unknown Jewish pastor is clearly convinced that if you want to hear the spirit talk,

you find it and you find his voice in the scripture.

The spirit says to us.

And then he quotes David in Psalm 95.

And what he does is he quotes us to tell us we must listen to that warning of

hardening our hearts because it is still today.

It is still today.

God's warning can still be heard in the scriptures, a warning against hardening of your hearts, against

rebellion, against testing God.

Such rebellion, he says, leads to God's judgment.

You will not enter that rest.

Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, don't test him, don't

rebel, or you will not enter his rest.

Because of the danger of judgment, verses 12 through 15, he says, be diligent,

exhort one another so that sin's deceitfulness will not harden your heart and persevere in

faith.

If you do not do those things, you may end up with an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from

the living God.

We come now then to our text in verses 16 through 19.

That was a long introduction, wasn't it?

Necessary, though.

Verses 16 through 19, where God, through our pastor friend, turns our attention to the nation of

Israel again.

Let's read it, verses 16 through 19.

For who are those who heard and yet rebelled?

Was it not all those who left Egypt, led by Moses?

And with whom was he provoked for 40 years?

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest?

But to those who were disobedient.

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Now note this, there's the statement that you've got to latch onto in this text.

They were not able to enter the rest because of what?

Because of unbelief, unbelief.

Now by these reminders of the past, by turning our attention to essentially, by turning our attention

essentially to Numbers 14, where the whole story is told, by turning

our attention to Numbers 14, he wants to give us these reminders of the past in order to

drive you to diligence and exhortation and perseverance.

He wants to drive you to that end.

What will keep you from entering God's rest?

Unbelief, that's the point, unbelief.

So as we look at this, let's look at two things this morning.

First of all, remind yourself of God's judgment on you.

On unbelief.

Remind yourself of God's judgment on unbelief.

What made God so angry at these people?

Why was he so mad at them?

Because their unbelieving rebellion against the Lord was inexcusable.

There's no excuse, absolutely none for their unbelief.

And it's not as if they were saying, I'm not sure, I have doubts.

That wasn't it.

It was plain, unadulterated, inexcusable unbelief.

They heard God himself speak to them.

Verse 16, for who were those who heard and yet rebelled?

God spoke to them.

He spoke to them.

They had, and what else?

They had experienced a mighty rescue from the land of Egypt.

There were these incredible, miraculous plagues that fell upon the whole nation in order to deliver

them.

They witnessed all of that.

They stood on the edge of the Red Sea, trapped between Pharaoh's chariot core and the Red Sea.

What happened?

God split the Red Sea and they walked across, not just walked across, they walked across on dry ground.

Do you ever think about that?

Right?

You get the water out of the way, what do you expect?

You expect them to go all the way through, across the Red Sea, but they don't, do they?

They walk on dry ground.

That's how miraculous it was.

And then on top of that, the whole chariot core is wiped out as the Red Sea collapses

on the chariots as they run across that dry ground.

They saw that, they saw all of that.

They'd experienced a supernatural provision, the daily provision of manna every day so

that they would not go hungry.

And water when they needed it.

They were never without water.

You ever thought about that?

You notice that certain places in the narrative you see that God miraculously supplies them with water.

They never were without water.

With all of that, with all of that, they still did not

believe that God would give them the land of Canaan.

They thought that God would not or could not keep his promise.

After all of that, they stood on the edge of Jordan and said, if we go into that

land, it will kill us and our wives and our children.

After they'd seen all of that, that's what they were saying.

I don't know about you, but I think God had a right to be angry, don't you?

Now notice verse 17, his judgment can be unrelenting.

It's an unrelenting, who?

And with whom was he provoked for 40 years?

Was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

He was provoked for 40 years.

You ever been provoked?

I mean, you know, you go to work.

It's your first day on the job, right?

And you go to work and you gotta go to the bathroom.

Right, it's break time.

So you ask one of your coworkers where the bathroom is and he sends you in a certain direction and

you end up in a closet.

Ha ha, isn't that funny?

And then they start stealing your lunch.

That ever happened to you?

Happened to me one time.

I was mad just for them stealing my lunch, right?

And then, right, and then they ask you, they tell you, oh, go ask the

foreman for the sky hook.

That ever happened to you?

Happened to me.

And so you go ask the foreman for the sky hook and he absolutely ridicules you because, you

know, he's in on the game too.

And then they paint all kinds of things on your locker.

Nasty words, they spray paint it all over the locker, right?

And then they hide some of the parts you need to get the job done and, you know, they have to

stop the line and you're the one at fault because you don't have the parts, all those sorts.

You get angry, don't you?

And would you say rightfully you were angry?

Yeah, there may be a little bit of sin mixed in there, no doubt, but you've been provoked.

Now think about this holy, infinitely righteous God who never makes a mistake, who is

never, never angry without cause.

What does it say about him?

He was provoked for 40 years, right?

This is, and because of that, he litters the wilderness with the bodies of

everyone who's 20 years and older.

He litters the wilderness with the bodies of an entire generation.

That is unrelenting judgment.

He will execute that judgment until all who sinned in unbelief experience his wrath.

Not only that, God's judgment was unalterable.

Verse 19, or verse 18, and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to

those who were disobedient?

He swore, David's made that clear in Psalm 95, and you notice that our

writer's gonna keep quoting that section, he swore they would not enter his rest.

Remember, he had made a covenant.

The very existence of this nation depended on a covenant that God had made with Abraham,

that Abraham would be blessed beyond measure and that his descendants would inherit the promised

land.

Now he takes an oath, that's a sure promise, but here's another sure promise.

Not one of you who's 20 years and older will enter the land you will experience my judgment.

That was unalterable, that was unalterable.

They had exhausted God's patience with their blatant, consistent rebellion.

There was no second chance for them.

You say, well, that's great, great history lesson.

Thank you, it's not a history lesson.

Why do you think he says things like, for who were those who heard and yet rebelled?

Was it not all those who left Egypt by Moses?

And with whom was he provoked for 40 years?

And to whom did he swear that he would not enter his rest?

Why does he say that?

He's trying to get the point across.

Like the ancient people of God who have also experienced rescue and liberation, so have we, we

have experienced great rescue and liberation and we haven't attained the rest yet.

Not quite, we're not there yet.

The point is we have seen greater works of God.

Have we not?

You say, but God doesn't speak to us.

Hey, listen, God speaks to you every single day in the scriptures.

You hear more of God than they ever did.

You know more of God's mind than they ever did.

In fact, you know more of God's mind than David did.

God speaks to you.

We have revealed to us the gospel of the Lord Jesus with these final words of forgiveness

and cleansing.

We know the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

We see in the scriptures, his ascension to glory in order to make intercession for his people.

We have seen more and we have seen greater than they ever did.

In fact, one writer says the ground of our faith is so solid that we have every reason

to grip it firmly by faith to the end of our pilgrimage.

And so we ought to hear the warning we heard before in chapter two, how shall we escape

if we neglect so great a salvation?

We've seen greater, we've seen more.

So remind yourself of God's judgment.

Remind yourself of the nature of unbelief.

I think this is key.

I think this is key for us to understand.

Again, don't lose sight of the fact that this terrible judgment fell on God's people because of unbelief.

That's the whole point.

Verse 19, so they didn't enter because of unbelief.

All right?

It was a refusal to trust that God would keep his word.

It was a refusal to embrace God's promise that provoked his

unrelenting, unalterable judgment.

The refusal to embrace God's promise.

But it's interesting, isn't it?

Do you notice what words he uses in 16, 17, and 18?

He uses words like rebellion, sin, and

disobedience.

You say, wait a minute, what does that have to do with faith?

What does that have to do with faith?

Simply this, rebellion, sin, and disobedience are the inevitable

fruit of unbelief.

The inevitable fruit of unbelief, rebellion, sin, and disobedience.

Because that generation refused to trust that God would keep his word, they rebelled,

they sinned, they disobeyed.

At the heart of it all is unbelief.

Of course, the point is that your refusal to embrace God's promise

inevitably leads to rebellion, sin,

disobedience, and God's judgment.

The refusal to embrace God's promise leads to rebellion, he says.

The refusal to embrace God's promise leads to determination to abandon God's

command and to do what you want.

In other words, what we're saying here is that you then don't do what God says and

do what you want.

That's what unbelief is going to lead to when you don't believe the promises of God.

Because they didn't believe God, well, let's turn at it, look at Numbers 14, turn to it.

Numbers 14, you heard it read this morning, Jans read it

to us.

Numbers 14, notice how you remember the story.

Moses sent in the spies to spy out the land.

They came back and said, this is a great land.

However, the cities have walls that reach to the skies.

Their defenses are impregnable.

And we look like grasshoppers to these people.

They're unconquerable, right?

And they came back with that report, except for two men, right?

Joshua and Caleb, who said, no, no, no.

God's promised us this land.

It doesn't matter what's going on there.

We'll take it.

But they didn't believe it, and what happened?

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night.

And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or

would that we had died in this wilderness, why is the Lord bringing us into this land

to fall by the sword?

Our wives and our little ones will become prey.

Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

And they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.

Please note what's going on here.

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly, the congregation, the people of Israel, and Joshua, the

son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to

all the congregation, the people of Israel, the land which we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows

with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread

for us, right?

Notice, because they didn't believe God would drive out the Canaanites like he promised,

the Israelites refused to go into the land and they decided to choose another leader

and to stone Joshua and Caleb.

That's rebellion.

God won't keep his promise, so let's do this.

Let's choose another leader.

Let's kill these troublemakers.

You see, because they didn't believe, they didn't believe that God would keep his word, what happened?

They rebelled.

They determined to go their way.

We have a better plan than God does and we'll choose a leader and we'll go back to Egypt.

The refusal, as he says in verse 18, the refusal to

embrace God's promise leads to sin, verse 17,

leads to sin.

The refusal to embrace God's promises caused them, caused those people to

attribute evil to God.

Do you see that?

You see what they say?

Look at, why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?

Our wives, our little ones will become a prey.

Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

They're a sin, my friends, attributing evil intentions to God.

He said, they're saying, hey, he brought us here to go into this land to wipe us out, to make a

prey of us and our wives and our children.

That's what God wanted to do.

They feared death if they submitted to God's command.

But what happened?

They experienced death by the hand of God because of their

sin.

God won't keep his promise.

He wants to kill us in Canaan.

So, because they didn't believe that, what did they do?

Let's stone Joshua and Caleb.

Let's choose our own leaders.

The refusal to embrace God's promise leads to disobedience, verse 18.

God had commanded them to go to Canaan, but they disobeyed the command.

As one writer put it, they refused to believe that their divine protector could dispossess Canaan's

pagan powers and give them the land he had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God won't keep his promise.

So, we're not gonna do what he tells us to do.

Listen, the refusal to embrace God's promise, the refusal to believe that God means what

he says leads to rebellion, sin, and disobedience.

At the heart of those things is unbelief.

And when those things show up, it's a sign that you do not believe

God.

Did you hear me?

When those things show up, it is a sign

of unbelief, no matter what your lips may say.

Someone may profess over and over that he or she believes that Jesus is the sacrifice for sin.

They may say it, and they may say that he is the Lord,

but if he doesn't obey, it's not the real deal.

It's not the real deal.

Let's take an example here.

Let's just take a few examples.

John 10 .10, just to go there.

John 10 .10, it's one of my favorite promises of the Lord Jesus.

John 10 .10, the thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy

but I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly or have it to the full.

He's talking about his sheep here.

Now, if you don't believe that promise, what happens?

Your marriage gets difficult.

Well, your spouse isn't what you want them to be or even what God expects them to be.

And so the way to a full, satisfying life is to get rid of your spouse.

Don't tell me that you believe in Jesus when you don't believe this promise.

He's saying, if you do what I say, you will have an abundant life.

Even if it means living in a difficult marriage, you will have an abundant life.

Oh, many, many, many, many times I've sat with people and said that.

Jesus is not a liar.

Why is immorality so rampant?

You know one reason why?

Here's why.

I don't believe Jesus when he says, if I'm single, I can still have an

abundant life.

In fact, he promises me an abundant life no matter what state I'm in.

Why is there so much immorality?

Because I don't believe Jesus.

I don't believe Jesus.

I'm going to sin, because that's what will give me what I want.

Jesus says, or one of the apostles, a spokesman for Jesus said this, don't

take revenge.

Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

Do you believe that Jesus will repay?

Right?

You know what happens when you don't believe that?

You get vengeful with your tongue, and you start gossiping and saying hateful things about people.

Why?

Well, you don't really believe that God's going to come through and set it all straight.

And I say to you this,.

Every sin that you commit, you can trace right down to a root of unbelief.

Now we're not just talking about particular sins here, we're talking about now turning away from Jesus and

abandoning his claims, his claims

of being Lord, his claims of being Savior.

When our life is characterized by those things, we don't

believe.

All rebellion, sin, and disobedience flows out of

unbelief.

At the heart of every person who falls away from the living God is unbelief.

It's unbelief.

At the root of apostasy is a refusal to embrace

the promises of God.

At the root of perseverance, staying with the Lord Jesus, hanging

on to him, looking to him as your only hope, at the root of that kind of perseverance is the

confidence that God will remain true to his promises.

And so you must know and feed on the promises of God.

Can I say to you, some of you here right now, some of you here right now are saying to yourself,

I don't know if I can do it.

I don't know if I can persevere.

It's not an issue of willpower.

It's an issue of knowing and believing the promises of God and rehearsing those

promises, not gutting it out so hopefully I'll make it to the end,

but believe.

That's at the root of staying with Jesus, believing what he says,

believing it.

So know and rehearse the promises of God over and

over and over again.

It's belief that fuels it all.

And so we exhort one another to remember God's promises and to encourage one another to believe them because

unbelief is deadly.

May God help us then to know and believe the promises

of God and to help one another do that.

Father,

thank you for your word.

Thank you that you are a God who is merciful

and holy, who empowers and demands

loyalty.

Thank you for the Lord Jesus who is our only hope.

Father, help us to grow in our trust and help us to

do that as we rehearse and remind ourselves and believe the

promises of God.

Grant that, we pray,.

For your glory and our good,.

In Jesus' name, amen.