ARE YOU AN UNBELIEVER?

Hebrews 3:12 (KJV)

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Hebrews 4:11 (KJV)

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

I find it disturbing that so many today can be a member of a church like ours and, for whatever reason, leave this place to join in with worldly churches or else quit church and join in with the world.

I can only conclude that they have always had a “heart of unbelief.”

I did not say that they were unsaved.

That is an issue that they must resolve with God.

But, saved or lost, they did not believe what they had been taught sufficiently to continue in it in their life.

This is the thing Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 warns us of.

This issue of unbelief is a principle topic in the Bible, even if it is not the one we focus on very much.

The illustration given throughout the Bible is that of Israel in the Wilderness.

We know two things about them:

1 Corinthians 10:1-6 (KJV)

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

1 Corinthians says “with many of them God was not well pleased…”

How many is many?

Numbers 26:64-65 (KJV)

But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

·   All of them were protected by the cloud

·   All of them crossed the Red Sea

·   All of them were “baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea”

·   All of them ate the same spiritual meat

·   All of them drank from the same spiritual Rock which was Christ

But only two of them, Joshua and Caleb, entered into the Promised Land.

The rest all died in the wilderness because of their unbelief.

It makes me wonder – how many of us are unbelievers?

Are you an unbeliever?

Through unbelief,

I. THEY REJECTED MOSES’ LEADERSHIP AT KADESH BARNEA

Numbers 13:1-3 (KJV)

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.

What you want to see is that Moses was the appointed leader but that God had instructed them to:

·   Come to Kadesh Barnea

·   Spy out the land and

·   Enter the Promised Land there

Numbers 13:25-33 (KJV)

And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a 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.

The 12 spies came back with the same report concerning the land but with differing opinions what to do with the information.

·   Two of them said we can take the land

·   Ten of them said it could not be done

The truth is, no opinion was needed. They were not sent to determine whether they could take the land, but to get a sense of what was in the land.

Numbers 14:1-4 (KJV)

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 unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

And 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 into Egypt?

And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

This is the account referenced in Hebrews 3-4

Hebrews 3:8-12 (KJV)

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

·   Moses took them where God led them

·   Moses told them what God said to them

·   Moses taught them to do what God said to do

But when the day was done, they did not believe God and they rejected the direction Moses took them.

They spent the next 40 years dying in the wilderness because of it.

Through unbelief,

II. THEY POINTED AT MOSES INSTEAD OF GOD

Numbers 16:41 (KJV)

But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD.

Here’s the story:

A Levite, Korah by name, had assembled a group of men around him to challenge the authority of Moses.

In response, Moses challenged them to bring their censors with incense to burn before the Lord.

The thing is set up.

Moses tells the people of Israel to choose sides.

A group gathers around Korah and Dathan and Abiram

The rest keep their distance from them.

Suddenly the earth opened up and swallowed all these people and their goods and a fire came down from heaven and killed another 250 who, though not standing next to Korah, had offered incense with him.

And the next morning all those who were not dead, blamed Moses that they had died.

·   Moses could not have made the earth open up

·   Moses could not have made fire fall from the sky

But the people blamed Moses.

They did this sort of thing time after time:

·   When Egypt attacked them at the Red Sea, they blamed Moses

·   When they didn’t have water to drink, they blamed Moses

·   When they got hungry for leeks and garlic, they blamed Moses

Every one of these people had:

·   Survived the death angel at the first Passover

·   Crossed the Red Sea on dry ground

·   Enjoyed the water God gave them from the Rock and

·   Feasted on the Manna God gave them from heaven

But not a one of them (except Joshua and Caleb) believed God’s hand was on Moses – at least not in the hard times.

Through unbelief,

III. MOSES TOOK HIS EYES OFF GOD AND ASSUMED AUTHORITY THAT WAS NOT HIS

Numbers 20:1-13 (KJV)

Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

Moses is, in my opinion, the best example of a pastor in the Bible, Old Testament or New.

But even Moses had a place of unbelief in his heart.

He is, to me, one of the most admirable men to have ever lived.

·   He gave up the riches of Egypt to identify with his lowly brethren, the Jews

·   He boldly stood before the Pharaoh and sought to free the bondage of Israel

·   He humbly led them to Sinai, where God gave them His law

·   He pled for them in prayer when God would have judged them

·   He patiently led them for 40 years watching them die one by one

I love Moses and strive to be some sort of the man he was.

But one day Moses had had enough.

These people had never trusted his leadership and had constantly blamed him for their problems and he had patiently endured it for the Lord’s sake.

·   One more time they complained

·   One more time Moses went to God for an answer

But this time Moses didn’t obey God – the Bible says he did not believe God.

Believing and obeying are one and the same thing.

   

Conclusion

Hebrews 4:1 (KJV)

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.

Scholars tell us that there would have been anywhere between two and six million Jews who escaped Egypt and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground.

Two to six million and only two of them received the promise of their own land.

A person might be able to argue that they got to live a good and godly life

·   They lived to be around 60 years old

·   They had all of their needs met

·   They married, had children and raised families

·   They worshiped God

·   They even won victories for God

But, because of their unbelief, they did not make it to the Promised Land.

And the Bible tells us

1 Corinthians 10:6 (KJV)

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

I wonder how many of us will never be the Christian God promised we could be, because we have an evil heart of unbelief?

Are you an unbeliever?