[0:00] Psalm 32, number 83 in the Psalter, Psalm number 83 in the Psalter.
[0:12] How blessed is he whose trespass hath freely been forgiven, whose sin is wholly covered before the sight of heaven.
[0:27] We shall sing the three verses. How blessed is he whose trespass hath freely been forgiven, How blessed is he whose trespass hath freely been forgiven, whose sin is wholly covered before the sight of heaven.
[1:01] That he's true now over, if you have not his sin, Whoever I have feared, whose heart is true within, But I can't kill each island, My strength was sent with grief, Thy heart was sent with grief, My soul found no relief, But then I owe my friends, My children are from me,
[2:04] When I have lost transgression, Then thou forgave us me.
[2:16] Oh, let her love be deeply In lines when thou art near, No well in cross shall reach them Nor cause their hearts to fear, In thee, O Lord, I am high in thee, Thou shamed me, Thou wilt, And for the light of the nations My heart will pass you through.
[3:07] We shall pray. We shall pray. Blessed be thy name, For the revelation Thou hast given of thy sin, In the sure word of the gospel, And blessed be thy name, That thou makest this revelation, Effectual to the salvation, Effectual to the salvation, And the consolation, Of thy people, As they pass through this wilderness, On their way to eternity.
[4:09] We pray, blessed one, That our own soul, At this present time, May be encouraged, strengthened, And comforted, By this glorious and ever abiding, Revelation of thy grace In the person of thy Son.
[4:43] May our heart rejoice in this, And may we have that blessed exercise of soul towards thee, That is glorifying to thee, And unspeakably precious and profitable, To those who are thus exercised.
[5:18] We would confess our unworthiness Of the least of thy goodness, Our continued sinfulness in thy sight.
[5:33] We would confess that we are unworthy And unfit To draw near to thee, Yet thy command to us is, To draw near on that new and living way, That thou hast consecrated through the veil, Yet thou commandest us, To come boldly To a throne of grace, That we may obtain mercy, And find grace to help us, In times of need.
[6:27] Thy word is most gracious, Thou dost reveal thyself, As be full of compassion, Not delighting In destroying thy creatures, But rather in calling them to do, But rather in calling them to thyself, That they may obtain The mercy that they need.
[7:04] May we be unable to see thy character, That we may have That blessed encouragement From thy serm, That would enable and constrain us To cast our burden upon thee, Believing that thou carest For us.
[7:30] Believing that thou carest For us. Do thou thyself work Mightily in us, Giving us in ourselves The evidence of thy gracious power, Of thy faithfulness, Of thy love, That would indeed lift up our heart And our mind, To thyself, May we be unable To contemplate Thy glory, As revealed In Christ Jesus.
[8:20] May this indeed be the exercise of our soul, As we profess To worship thee.
[8:35] Of ourselves we are nothing, Of ourselves we are nothing, And can do nothing, But thou canst do all things, There is nothing too hard for thee, And hence there is hope for us.
[8:54] Bless us, bless us, Bless us each one, We all need thee, For we must all appear Before the judgment seat of Christ, That we may receive The things done in the body, Whether they be good or evil.
[9:16] And may we through thy grace, Be so taught, And enlightened, As that we shall Take to ourselves by faith, The provision of thy grace, So that when we must meet thee, We may do so, With joy and joy and joy, And may we through thy grace, And may we through thy grace, Be so taught, And enlightened, As that we shall, Take to ourselves by faith, The provision of thy grace, So that when we must meet thee, We may do so, With joy and speak of thee, And full of glory, Bless thy word to us to this end, Bless it whenever it is read, Or proclaimed this day, Lord, Acknowledge it as thy, Made have free course, And may we do so, And be glorified, And be glorified, We pray thee to be gracious, To those who are denied, Our privileges, To the cast down, The perplexed, The discouraged,
[10:31] Lord, Lord, Lord, Be comforted, Lord, Be comfortably to their heart, May they feel that Underneath them, Are the everlasting yards, May there be a day of thy power, A day of the right hand, Of him that is most high, Among us and to the end, Of the earth, And enable us now to wait upon thee, Looking to thee, And to thee only, And take away all our sins, For the redeemer's sake, Amen.
[11:31] We may now consider together, For a little as we shall be enabled, Words you will find, In the epistle to the Hebrews, The epistle to the Hebrews, The third chapter, Hebrews chapter three, At verse 12, Let us call today, Lest any of you, Be hardened, Through the deceitfulness, Of sin, Lest any of you, Be hardened, Through the deceitfulness, Of sin,
[12:33] Lest any of you, Be hardened, Through the deceitfulness, Of sin, 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, Lest any of you, Be hardened, Take heed, brethren, Lest any of you, An evil heart, Of unbelief, In departing, From the living God, But, Exhort, One another daily, Lest any of you, Be hardened, By the deceitfulness, Of sin, In man, Let us lightened,ray And uncle Б chaotic, As fast DC, And any of you, Be hardened, In body, With tem extensive, Крас cross Ohhください, And the hell was Diego, When, By the感 가운데, Of the Messiah, And die of you, Be hardened, In the epistle to the евos, And love sites, In the epic blame, Of sin, If so, An evil heart, Of unbelief, In departing, From the living God, But, Exhort, One another daily, Lest any of you, Bibside, And the�를ck during the deceitfulness, Of sin, Lest any of you, Be hardened, By the deceitfulness, Of sin, of sin.
[13:20] The call of this text, as of many other passages in scripture, is this.
[13:33] Watch. Be vigilant. Be sober. For your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
[14:00] Take heed, brethren. But there is something further, something nearer. Than the roaring lion.
[14:17] There is an evil heart of unbelief, whose very nature is to depart from the living God.
[14:34] Oh, when the apostle says, take heed, lest this be in you.
[14:48] He does not, of course, imply that there are some in whom there is not an evil heart of unbelief.
[15:00] He does not mean that there is such a thing in this life as being wholly and entirely the rent of such an heart.
[15:18] but he does mean that they were to take heed lest this evil heart should have dominion over them.
[15:37] it was something against which there was to struggle to put forth every effort of which there were capable and to call mightily and to God lest this evil heart of unbelief should have dominion over them.
[16:15] Take heed. Now the question naturally arises, where did this heart come from?
[16:35] It certainly was not part of man's original constitution.
[16:46] for God made man upright. But he didn't continue like that.
[16:59] And why? Well, because of unbelief. Because he departed from the living God.
[17:13] man and this departure was of such an issue that man could never read his steps.
[17:28] Neither could he rid himself of the consequences of this departure. Hence, now, in a state of sin and misery, this is part of that sin and misery that he has an evil heart, a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
[18:02] it. Now, we might ask, in what does this wickedness consist?
[18:19] That's a wide field, you may see, yes, very wide indeed. but what is the very essence of this evil heart, of the evil of this heart?
[18:34] Well, he tells us, it departs from the living God. It departs, it continues in that original sin which man committed in the garden.
[19:02] He departed from the living God, and the evil of his heart makes itself known by continuing to depart.
[19:15] it carries on in the same course. Hence the need of man to be turned or to be converted, which means to be turned.
[19:36] He needs to be turned. His departure from God is of such an age that he continues to depart.
[19:51] Man goes astray from the womb speaking lies. He goes astray and continues to go astray.
[20:07] Now, what are the consequences of departing from God? well, Jeremiah, in the charge he brings against his own generation, says that Israel had committed two great sins, two great evils, things, that they had forsaken God, the fountain of living water, that's number one.
[20:46] But having forsaken God, the fountain of living water, they weren't content to do nothing.
[20:59] No, they had to say to work, substituting something for the fountain which they had forsaken. They dug out for themselves, cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no water.
[21:26] My people have committed two great evils. They have forsaken me. They have departed from me. The fountain of living water, how to depart from the fountain of living waters is to wander into the region of death.
[21:53] Death, to depart from God, is to fall into death.
[22:03] death. This is the evil of the heart, an evil heart. It departs from the living God.
[22:19] Now, there are two things that can be said of this. It is an evil. evil. It is a sin. It is at hand with gift.
[22:36] But not only is it an evil thing, but it is also a bitter thing. It is evil.
[22:47] It is wrong. but it brings bitterness in its train. It should not be.
[23:06] Man should not depart from God. There is nothing that can possibly justify this slightest deviation from God.
[23:23] Man is duty bound as a creature to cleave unto God as the source of his being and of his life.
[23:35] And to depart from him or to turn aside from him is the essence of the evil of which man is capable. there is nothing worse than this.
[23:51] There can be nothing worse. It is wraps up in itself every evil imaginable to depart from the living God.
[24:10] take heed. Lest this evil heart that departs from God be in you. Now while of course the words are primarily spoken to those who made a public profession of religion, they are also applicable to man in any condition.
[24:40] And further more, we all make a profession of religion, one way or another. Hence the words speak to us directly.
[24:59] Take it lest there be in you, in you, this heart that departs from God.
[25:16] Now the heart that never turned to God is in a state of total alienation or absolute departure from God.
[25:30] never the less. The injunction goes out, the admonition, the warning, the exhortation speaks to those in such a condition.
[25:52] there is nothing more dangerous than for us to try to evade the word of God by taking shelter in a false refuge.
[26:19] and that is what happens very often, especially with those who hear the gospel.
[26:36] They try to evade the false. They try to blunt the point of the shafts or the arrows of God.
[26:49] as they are aimed at them. And there are innumerable refuges of lies.
[27:04] One of them, perhaps a very common one is, well, that doesn't speak to me. I don't profess to be anything. Well, there is one thing you must profess to be.
[27:19] you must profess to be a creature, a human being, a creature endowed with reason and with conscience.
[27:38] And to you are such a creature, God speaks. apart from anything else to qualify your condition or state, he speaks to you and to me as creatures.
[27:57] take take heed, lest you be under the dominion of the evil heart that departs from God.
[28:21] Why take heed? because it is a most dangerous condition to be in.
[28:33] From any point of view, it is a most undesirable condition to depart from the living God.
[28:50] All bitterness in life and in death, all bitterness that comes to man by way of judgment is to be referred directly to his departure from God.
[29:16] And to continue in that condition is to continue in death. Now, these are facts that cannot begin said.
[29:32] They have lived large over every page of the word of God. Take heed.
[29:46] But now we may ask, how does this heart of unbelief, how does it depart from the living God? This evil heart, how does it depart?
[30:01] Well, it departs in unbelief. unbelief and departing from God are inseparable.
[30:19] There can be no departing from God but through unbelief. As there can be no returning to God but by faith, so there can be no departing from him but by unbelief.
[30:41] Now, what is unbelief? what is it? And what does it consist?
[30:54] Can we analyze it? Or should we even try to analyze it in such a way as to see something of its nature and of its consequences?
[31:13] well, we may up to a point at least. The essence of unbelief is this. Not to receive what God says.
[31:34] You see, that's very simple. Oh, well, it may be. but that is the very essence of unbelief. To turn aside from the word of God, to treat it as if it were not true.
[32:01] That's unbelief. In the first place, unbelief is not to be analyzed in relation to my own condition for eternity.
[32:18] That is, some people would say that unbelief consists in believing that you are not saved. And there is a general opinion abroad that if you say long enough and long enough that you have saved and that you have faith.
[32:43] That prevails in many circles. Well, as a matter of fact, unbelief faith and faith are not to be defined in those terms at all.
[32:58] These are secondary, but primarily they are to be defined and described in man's reaction to God's word.
[33:14] Do you believe the word of God? do you really believe it? Do you believe that every sin deserves God's wrath both in this life and in that which is to come?
[33:42] Do you believe that? I say yes, I believe that. Now, there's another state. What effect has that belief upon you?
[33:57] You believe that sin deserves eternal damnation. You say you believe that. What effect has that done?
[34:13] what does it produce in your mind? Well, for the moment, we'll assume that it produces nothing worthy of the name.
[34:29] You go on day by day as if that were not true. Now, how can we prove that?
[34:40] Well, that doesn't need any proof. that's self-evident. For remember, if you really believed that your sin deserves damnation, that would immediately produce defects and results that you could not keep asking.
[35:08] believe that he's in a state of love at all, whatever he says.
[35:34] He doesn't believe it. believe is waning. The heart departs from God through unbelief.
[35:49] It doesn't receive God's testimony regarding sin. He turns away from it.
[35:59] doesn't believe it. And when a man does believe it, when a man is saved to that extent from the power of unbelief, then immediately and automatically results follow.
[36:23] This is gone. no man or woman can be at ease, facing a lost eternity and knowing it, believing it.
[36:39] It simply cannot be. We have to trace our ease oftentimes not to our faith, but to our unbelief.
[36:50] And that is the reigning spirit against which Paul war, against which he warns the believers, not only unbelievers, in which this spirit reigns supreme, but in believers also.
[37:15] They are in danger of coming under the power of the spirit, the spirit of unbelief. And even a believer may have no ease, which he shouldn't have at all, which is the result of his unbelief, not the result of his faith.
[37:41] Now, as that is true, regarding man's condition, in relation to God as a lawgiver, and as a judge, it is equally true, of man's condition in relation to God, as he makes himself known as the Savior of the lost.
[38:06] Do you believe? We read in the Apostles' Creed, I believe in Jesus Christ. Do we? Do we believe in him?
[38:17] him? Are we sure we believe in him? Should we not examine our belief in that respect also?
[38:35] Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Who suffered under Pardius Pilate? Who was crucified? Dead and buried?
[38:51] Who rose again from the dead on the third day and ascended up into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father?
[39:04] Do you believe that? and if so, again we ask, what effect has that belief on your heart, on your mind, and on your conscience?
[39:25] Belief of the truth cannot be fruitless. It cannot be barren. It must bring forth fruit. in a very nature of things.
[39:42] What effect has it on your heart? Or it will say we believe in Jesus Christ.
[39:54] In what way? and since when? How has this come about? And what is more important, what fruit does this bear?
[40:15] faith? While those who believe in Jesus Christ, that is, those who are saved from unbelief in this respect, believe in him as the Son of God, the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of his person.
[40:46] They believe in him as their sacrifice for sin, as their advocate with the Father. And because of this, they have peace.
[41:04] Not the peace of the dead, not the peace of unbelief, but the peace of faith.
[41:17] How do you distinguish between the two? The peace of death that follows unbelief or the peace of faith that follows that glorious and blessed manifestation of the spirit in the soul, the manifestation of Christ as the propitiation for certain?
[41:45] The peace that follows that, how is it distinguished from the peace of death, the peace of unbelief? Well, of course, in their nature, they're different, but we might put it like this.
[42:04] peace of conscience that flows from our accompanies justification, adoption, and sanctification is the peace that is dependent upon Christ.
[42:26] It is absolutely dependent upon him. that is to say, only as I see him can I have peace.
[42:42] Only as I understand something of the glory of his person and work can my conscience be addressed. Then it rests in him.
[42:58] In him. him. And not in another. Not in myself. Not in anyone else. Not even in the work of the spirit.
[43:12] But in Christ. In what he is and in what he has accomplished. There are many who go around looking for peace from the work of the spirit and not from the work of Christ.
[43:40] Needless to say the work of the spirit is most honorable most glorious and pure love. But it is not to the work of the spirit I am to look in order to have peace.
[43:57] But to the work of Christ. Many people argue like this. Now, if I only had this, if I only had this frame of mind, repent, if I only could be sorry for my sin, if I only could repent and so on, then I would have some hope.
[44:25] It is a blessed thing, my friends, to be sorry for our sins. It is a blessed thing to repent. But our repentance is not the basis of our peace.
[44:39] we are not to look for peace in what we call marks of grace. The marks of grace are the discerning of the work of the spirit.
[44:58] But remember, that is not the ground of peace for any sinner. No. Glorious and blessed as that is. That is, it is not presented in the scheme of salvation, in the economy of grace, as a ground for peace.
[45:18] No, my friends, no. It is Christ Jesus. It is he who is our peace, if we have any.
[45:34] He himself and if my conscience is to have peace, it must look not to the work of the spirit in me, but to the work of Christ for me.
[45:52] That is the ground of the peace of any sinner. And furthermore, this is the only peace that God has to offer.
[46:11] I may draw false consolation even from a true work of grace. Yes, the order of things is important, my friends.
[46:29] don't throw things out of order. Keep them in the order that God has placed in them.
[46:45] We shall do so, of course, only as the Lord himself will teach us. I think that most of those through our experience peace will agree with us that for long enough they were looking for it where it was not to be found.
[47:10] They were looking for peace, or they were looking for grounds of comfort in themselves. peace to peace to peace because God didn't mean that they should.
[47:31] But when they realized what their peace was, or rather who their peace was, peace then, in that connection, and we underline this, in that connection, they stopped looking to themselves, they looked to him, and they were lightened, and their faces were not as he, they looked to him, anointed with the ocean which is from on high, and there they saw their peace, the peace of God, that passeth knowledge.
[48:19] They were saved from their unbelief, their unbelief in Jesus Christ. Departing from the living God, God, now, do we say, you may ask, you may ask, that the heart that does not rest in God is departing from him, that's precisely what we say, whether in the sinner or in the sin, the heart that does not rest in God is departed from him, that may be partial or it may be absolute, absolute in the dead sinner, partial in the saint.
[49:22] But it's the same nature in both cases. There are no two sins, there are no two types of unbelief.
[49:36] Sometimes you would think that some people are of the impression that there are two types of sin and two types of unbelief. that the sin of the believer is different from the sin of the unbeliever considered as sin.
[49:54] Of course it is not. Sin is sin and it's nothing else. Unbelief is unbelief and it's nothing else. Whatever it is, in sinner or in sin, it is of the same nature, it has the same tendency, it works the same way.
[50:19] Hence the injunction, hence the point of it, take heed brethren. He is not doubting their grace at all. He puts that beyond question by the title he gives them.
[50:33] Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. in departing from the living God.
[50:51] An evil heart departs and departs in unbelief. Yes. Now, of course, the opposite of this is faith.
[51:08] the heart that does not depart in unbelief is the heart that is hold by a new principle.
[51:21] A new principle that expresses and exercises itself in the form of faith.
[51:33] Faith is the opposite of unbelief. if we are not to depart from him by unbelief, we are to cleave unto him by faith.
[51:48] Well, of course, that is implied in what is said here. Take it lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief departed from the living God.
[52:02] Father, cleave unto him by faith. No, apply this in a converse way, or apply the converse of this.
[52:22] It means see that there be in you a new heart of faith, not an evil heart, of unbelief, but a new heart in which faith dwells, and of which faith is the motivating principle, in cleaving, not in depart, but in cleaving to the living God.
[52:56] heart. This is the prayer of the psalmist, when he says, let my heart cleave unto thee, that I may fear thy name continually.
[53:16] Strange as it is, departing from God results in that insensibility of spirit that results in man not fearing God, but in cleaving to him, as the psalmist says, he fears God.
[53:41] and this is the fear, which is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of glorifying God by obedience to him, walking in his way.
[54:06] Now, he gives us one cure one cure for this. They were to take heed lest this type of heart would be in them.
[54:20] They were to exhort one another daily. Daily. The scriptures know of no condition at which man may arrive where he doesn't need any teaching anymore.
[54:47] Exhort one another. Exhort one another daily.
[55:01] As he said, you need all the help you can get. all the help you can get from God and all the help you may get from man.
[55:17] You need it all in order to take heed that this evil heart of unbelief will not depart from the living God or that such a principle may not lay in you.
[55:31] Exhort one another daily. You can't let up. There is no time when one can sit back and say I am safe for the present at least.
[55:48] No. No. You are always within reach of the enemy and he is ready at all times to take advantage of any opportunity that may be afforded him.
[56:08] One another daily. Why so? Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
[56:22] Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Now this deceitfulness of sin is to be guarded against not only as far as what we call outward and gross sin is concerned but especially against the deceitfulness of sin in our religious tears fall in the heart.
[57:00] The deceitfulness of sin is never to be more dreaded than when it takes a religious form.
[57:11] that is putting the words of the apostle in another way where he says Satan himself may appear as an angel of light and that is when he is most dangerous God now how does the deceitfulness of sin take a religious form?
[57:42] In this then it makes unbelief respectable. That's one of its forms. It makes people to glory in their unbelief.
[58:00] Surely nobody does that. Yes, my friends, thousands. They compliment themselves on their unbelief and consequently on their departing from God and on their evil heart.
[58:26] Oh, they wouldn't put it like that. Oh, no, no. But they would put it like this. So and so makes a profession of religion.
[58:43] Yes, he's a hypocrite. So they say, we don't make any profession. We don't pretend that we are religious at all.
[58:57] And they think that they are to be highly commended for that. They glory in their unbelief. That is one of the forms of the deceitfulness of sin.
[59:17] One of its most dangerous forms too. Take it less this happens to you. That you be hardened.
[59:32] Hardened in such a way as that neither the terror of the law of God nor the proclamation of his love will move your heart anymore.
[59:45] Not even in a natural way. That happens through the deceitfulness of sin. not only we say through the commission of gross sins against the law but through glory in unbelief.
[60:08] No wonder though the apostle says take it. You know of course why this letter was written. The aim of the letter in particular was to safeguard those who were in danger of going back from the profession of the gospel to the ritual of the law.
[60:39] They were those who were in danger of being ensnared by the Judaizing teachers those who say well we'll return we'll go back to the law.
[61:01] Didn't that sound nice? Didn't that sound well? They didn't say we'll go on and live and grow sin. No no. But we'll go back and we'll keep the law of Moses.
[61:14] when all the time despite their thinking they were being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
[61:31] We are no better than they were. Hence the word comes to us with all its force with all its authority take heed.
[61:47] Take heed. It is time to awake out of sleep. Judgment is drawing near. Eternity is drawing near.
[61:59] And when we come to the judgment we cannot dare compliment ourselves on our unbelief. No.
[62:13] the reality of the judgment will be too much for that. Then nothing will do but this that we should be found in Christ not having your own righteousness which is of the law.
[62:34] we cannot say then or try to compliment ourselves that at least we are not hypocrites.
[62:45] Some people we have heard that we have heard it often we don't profess anything no very good we are honest yes very good but that's not no way in my life you take shelter in that only because of unbelief and true unbelief if you were saved from that unbelief the unbelief in God speaking in judgment unbelief in God speaking in mercy you couldn't argue like that no that is the outgoing of unbelief take heed then a very pertinent question in conclusion is this how am I going to take heed how is this to be done well if anyone else knows of any answer to that but one we clearly confess that we don't we have only one answer to that question take heed how am
[64:04] I going to take heed by calling consistently calling with patience with import on the God of truth take no rest until he saves me from my unbelief from my error from all the danger that's around me we don't know of any answer to the question but that that is to say whichever approach we take to this they all lead to the one end to the one destination and it is this man needs God you need God my friend you need
[65:08] God you need God to save you from yourself you need God to save you from your false reasoning and from your false conclusions and he only can do it he speaks to you and to me as rational responsible creatures and the door is open to us as creatures to call upon he is the God of truth he puts the truth in the heart and he is delighted with it there so that every precept every exhortation every warning if I understood it would drive me to God to God himself that he might make his power his grace his love effectual to my salvation in the full and the widest meaning of that earth take it then exhort one another dare it lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin let us pray and