A WARNING AGAINST APOSTASY FROM THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS CHAPTER 3 VERSES 7-13 WHEREFORE AS THE HOLY GHOST SAYS TODAY IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE 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 always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways, so I swore on my wrath. They shall not enter into my wrath. 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 while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. There is some difficulty in determining the right method of construing the first of these paragraphs. Some interpreters connect a particle, therefore, with a quotation from the 95th Psalm, including the words, as the Holy Ghost says, in a parenthesis, and consider the apostle as adopting the words of the psalmist as his own, and directly addressing them to his readers. Another connective particle, wherefore, with the twelfth verse, and include the whole quotation in a parenthesis. They do not consider the Apostle as addressing these words directly to the Hebrews, but as quoting a passage of Old Testament Scripture which had an important bearing on the subject of consideration, and from which he afterwards proceeds to reason. It is not a question of vital importance as to the right interpretation of the passage. It does not matter much which side we take in it, but the latter mode of construing it seems to us preferable. Let us first send Examine the quotation which the inspired writer makes from the Book of Psalms, the psalm quoted is the 95th, a psalm which does not contain in it any of those very decisive marks of the time and circumstances in which it was composed, which many of the other psalms do, but which on highly probable grounds has been considered as composed in the Maccabean times. This opinion is in no way inconsistent with the inspired writer saying in the next chapter. Again he limits a certain time saying in David. The whole book of Psalms going under the name of David though it is certain he was not the writer of all these sacred odes. The words of this psalm are represented as the words of the Holy Ghost. It was true of all the psalmists of Israel, as well as of the royal psalmists, that the Spirit of the Lord spake by them, and His word was in their tongue. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and the holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God, spoke not in words which man's wisdom taught, but in words taught to them by the Holy Spirit. The passage is generally an exhortation to the Jewish people to listen to and believe and obey the voice of God promising to lead them into his rest and warning them of the fearful consequences which would flow from their disregarding this exhortation by pointing out to them the dreadful results of their fathers disbelieving and disobeying the voice of God. when he invited him to enter into the rest of Canaan. Today is equivalent to this is the day in which God is inviting you to enter into his rest. as he invited your fathers long ago to enter into the rest of Canaan. The rain of heaven is approaching. Messiah is at hand, if you will hear his voice." These words are obviously elliptical, and consistently with the Hebrew idiom, the ellipsis may be filled up in either of the two following ways. If you hear his voice, you shall enter into his wrath. Or, if you would but hear his voice. This is a common form of expressing a wish in the Hebrew idiom. If you had known in this your day the things which belong to your peace, hearted not your hearts. The heart is in scripture just equivalent to the mind. Beauty is endowed both with intelligence and affection. To harden the heart is to be inattentive, unbelieving, impenitent, disobedient. The prophet calls on his countrymen not to be inattentive, unbelieving, impenitent, and disobedient, as their ancestors were in the provocation and the day of temptation in the wilderness. This is a reference to what happened at a place which received name from the undutiful conduct of Israel towards Jehovah. Meribah, to strife and or provocation, and Massah, to trial or temptation. Exodus 17, 2 and 7. These are particularly referred to because it was then that the scene of provocation and temptation commenced, which continued down to the period that the awful sentence was pronounced on them, that they should not enter into God's rest. The history of the Israelites is a history of continued provocation. In the wilderness of Zin, they murmured for lack of bread, and God gave them manna. At Rephidim, they murmured for want of water, and questioned whether Jehovah was with them, and he gave them water from the rock. In the wilderness of Sinai, Soon after receiving the law, they made and worshipped a golden image, a tabara, they murmured for want of flesh, and the quails were sent, followed by a dreadful plague. They refused to go up and take possession of the land of promise which brought down on them the awful sentence referred to in the psalm. And after that sentence was pronounced, they presumptuously attempted to do what they had formerly refused to do. All these things took place a little more than two years after they left Egypt. Thirty-seven years after this we find them at Kadish again, murmuring for lack of water and other things. Soon after this they complained of the lack of bread, though they had men in abundance and were punished by the plague of fiery flying serpents. At Shatim, their last station, they provoked the Lord by mingling in the impure idolatry of the Moabites. So strikingly true is Moses' declaration. Remember, and do not forget, how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness from the day that you did depart out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place. You have been rebellious against the Lord. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. They tempted him and proved him and saw his works forty years To tempt God and to prove him are nearly, if not altogether, synonymous expressions. They refer to men as if they were making experiments, whether he be indeed the powerful, holy, just, and faithful God he has declared himself to be. Instead of believing his declarations and acting accordingly, they seemed, as it were, bent to discover, though at the hazard of their own destruction. Whether he really was able or meant to execute either his promises or threatened means, that part of the quotation contained in the tense verse slightly differs both from the Hebrew text and the Greek version in common use when the apostle wrote. In him it reads, 40 years long was I grieved with that generation. The apostle refers so 40 years to their seeing God's works. The Hebrew text in a Septuagint to the time during which they grieved God. It comes however materially to the same thing for they both saw his works and grieved him during these 40 years. The word translated grieve properly signifies grievously offended. Jehovah was displeased with that generation. Their conduct was the object of his moral disapprobation. Indians of his wise and holy government required that this should be manifested by its becoming the object of his judicial punishment. Its determination and the reasons of it are shortly but most emphatically stated in the close of the 10th and in the 11th verse. These words, they do always err in their heart, are not to be found in Numbers 14, but the inspired psalmist expresses a sense of what Jehovah said on that occasion. They do always soar in their heart. They are radically and habitually evil. They have not known my ways. God's ways may mean either his dispensations or his precepts. The Israelites did not rightly understand the former, and they obstinately refused to acquire a practical knowledge, the only truly valuable species of knowledge. Of the latter, the reference is probably to God's mode of dealing. Romans 11, verse 33. Deuteronomy 4, verse 32. Deuteronomy 8, verse 2. And 29, verses 2 to 4. Such a people deserve severe punishment, and they received it. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. The original words both in the Hebrew text and here are if they shall enter into my rest. This elliptical mode of expressing oaths is common in the Old Testament. This awful oath is recorded in the 14th chapter of Numbers. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him and has followed me fully, Him will I bring into the land, whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say to them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me. The words of the oath seem here borrowed from the account in Deuteronomy 1.35. There are many threatenings of God which have a tacit condition implied in them, but when God interposes His oath, the sentence is irreversible. The curse was not causeless, and it did come. We have an account of its actual fulfillment in Numbers 26, verses 64 and 65, the rest from which they were excluded was the land of Canaan. that your lives were spent in wandering. It is termed God's rest, as there he was to finish his work of bringing Israel into the land promised to their fathers and fix a symbol of his presence in the midst of them, dwelling in that land in which his people were to rest from their wanderings, in a dwelling safety under his protection. It is his rest, as of his preparing Deuteronomy 12 verse 9 it is his rest rest like his rest along with him we are by no means warranted to conclude that all who died in the wilderness came short of everlasting happiness it is to be feared many of them Most of them did, but the curse denounced on them went only to their exclusion from the earthly Canaan. Such is the passage of Old Testament Scripture to which the Apostle refers in his exhortation to the believing Hebrews, and from which he proceeds to reason in a subsequent context. Therefore, seeing Jesus Christ, who presides over the family of God of which you profess to be members, is so far superior to Moses, who presided over the family of God in a former age. Call into mind what an inspired writer had said of the fearful judgments which overtook those of the family under Moses, who were unbelieving and disobedient. Verse 12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. The evils to which unbelief and impenitence expose the Israelites were dreadful, but the evils to which they will expose you will be just as much more dreadful if the new economy exceeds the old in dignity, as Jesus Christ is superior to Moses. The apostle cautions the Hebrew Christians against an evil heart of unbelief. The heart of unbelief is just an idiomatical expression for an unbelieving heart. And for a person to have in him an unbelieving heart is just a doubt or disbelief. When the apostle then says, take heed lest there be in any of you a heart of unbelief, his exhortation is just equivalent to, beware lest any of you doubt or disbelieve those statements which have been made to you by him who is so far superior both to Moses and angels. The unbelieving heart is styled an evil heart. The word evil sometimes signifies wicked, diseased, and sometimes mischievous or destructive. In all of its senses, it is very applicable to unbelief, to doubt or disbelief the revelation which God has made of us of His Son. which is a plain and well-accredited revelation, is wicked, it originates in immoral principles, in the love of sin, or in thoughtlessness, which in such a case must be highly criminal, or in pride, whether the pride of wealth and station or of intellect or of self-righteousness. To doubt or disbelieve the revelation which God has made to us by His Son is most pernicious and ruinous. Faith naturally leads to holiness and happiness, to purity and peace, and unbelief has naturally produced guilt, depravity, and ruin. It is probably the last of these ideas, that of mischievousness, that the apostle meant to convey by the epithet wicked, as he immediately proceeds to show how unbelief excludes him who indulges it from the rest of God, into which only those who believe can enter, to words which follow In departing from the living God, point out the native tendency of an evil, unbelieving heart. The whole exhortation may be thus stated. Take heed lest any of you have in you an evil heart. an unbelieving heart, leading you to depart or manifest in itself in a departure from the Living God. Beware of departing from the Living God under the influence of a wicked, unbelieving heart. To depart from the Living God is just an expression for apostasy from the Christian faith. In the case of those whom the Apostle was addressing and renouncing the profession of the faith of Christ and returning to Judaism, those who did so, no doubt, flattered themselves that they were not departing from, but returning to God. But the Apostle presses on them this truth, that they could not abandon Christ without abandoning God. There is but one God. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is God and Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. And, of course, he who renounces Christ abandons God. The appellation living God is emphatic. Some have supposed it is just equivalent to the true God, as if the Apostle had said, In apostatizing from Christianity to Judaism, you Israeli depart from the living God as if you were becoming the worshippers of idols. I'm rather disposed to think that the expression living is intended to convey the idea of power. Dead is often equivalent to powerless, living to powerful. This is remarkably the case in two passages in this epistle. The word of God is quick, living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of the soul and spirit. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is quite safe to depart from dead gods. No spiritual advantage can be obtained by adhering to them. No danger is incurred in abandoning them. They cannot punish the apostate, but it is otherwise with them who apostatizes from the living God. He departs from him with whom is a fountain of life, and who alone can make him happy. He departs from him who can execute all the threatenings which he has denounced against those who forsake him. There is need of constant watchfulness on the part of the professors of Christianity, lest under the influence of unbelief they depart. From the living God, Tahit says the apostle, there is nothing, I am persuaded, in regard to which professors of Christianity fall into more dangerous practical mistakes than this. They suspect everything sooner than the soundness and firmness of their belief. There are many who are supposing themselves believers, who have no true faith at all. And so it would be proved for the hour of trial, which is perhaps nearer than they are aware, to arrive, and almost all who have faith suppose they have it in a greater measure than they really have it. There's no prayer that a Christian needs more frequently to present than, Lord, increase my faith. Deliver me from an evil heart of unbelief. All apostasy from God, whether partial or total, originates in unbelief. To have his faith increased, to have more extended and accurate and impressive views of the truth as it is in Jesus, ought to be the object of the Christian's most earnest desire and unremitting exertion. Just in the degree in which we obtain deliverance from the evil heart of unbelief, Are we unable to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, to follow Him fully, and in opposition to all the temptations to abandon His cause, to walk in all His commandments and ordinances blameless, to prevent so fearful and disastrous a result as apostasy from the living God? The apostle calls on them to strengthen each other's faith by mutual exhortation, and thus oppose those malignant and deceitful influences which had a tendency to harden them in impenitence and unbelief. Verse 13, But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Verse 13, But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, For the explanation of this verse, it will be necessary to turn our attention first to the evil into which the Hebrew Christians were in danger of falling, to be enhardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and then to the means which he recommends to be employed for preventing this evil, de-exhorting one another daily while it is cold today, to be hardened as to become insensible to the claims of Jesus Christ. so that they do not make their appropriate impression on the mind, in producing attention, faith, and obedience. He is hardened who is careless, unbelieving, impenitent, and disobedient. But how such a sin is calculated to deceive them, and by deceiving, to harden them, to make them careless, unbelieving, and disobedient. So is that they depart from Christ, and in departing from Him, depart also from the living God. It is natural for man to wish to stand well with himself. Self-condemnation is one of the most intolerable of all feelings. When a man has, from whatever motive, done something that is inconsistent with the law of Christ, he naturally sets himself to extenuate. to excuse, and if possible to defend his conduct. There is perhaps an attempt made to convince the mind that there really is no violation of the law of Christ, the duty of the Holy Spirit, or that if there was a violation it was in the circumstances scarcely avoidable, and if not justifiable altogether, yet deserving of but very slight blame. In the state of mind, doubts of the reasonableness of the law, he is transgressed, and of the authority to which it lays claim, presents themselves to the mind, and instead of being immediately dismissed, meet with a welcome reception. These naturally lead to a repetition of the act of violation of the law of Christ, or to other violations of the law, and just as the backslider proceeds in his downward course, the process of thought above described is apt to become more and more habitual to him, until at last he becomes completely hardened against the claims which the word of Christ has on his attention, faith, and obedience, and finally makes shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Unbelief thus naturally leads to disobedience, and disobedience is naturally hardens in unbelief. It is equally true that the great obstacle in the way of a man's belief in the gospel and a most powerful incentive to apostasy from the gospel is a love of sin. The truth can be kept only in a good and honest heart, and it can be held only in a pure conscience. Apostates from the truth often flatter themselves that they have yielded to the force of argument, but the just statement of the fact is that given by the prophet, a deceived heart has turned them aside, or by the apostle, they have been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The means which the apostle prescribes for preventing this evil is quite appropriate to its nature. exhort one another. He says daily, while it is called to-day, the food of faith, is truth and is evident. All that men can do to produce faith and maintain faith is just to place these before the mind. It is the duty of every Christian, knowing that there is in him an evil heart of unbelief, often to turn his own mind to a serious consideration of the truth, and its evidence is contained in the volume of inspiration. And it is his duty, too, knowing that in every fellow Christian there is also an evil heart of unbelief, and especially if perceived this evil heart manifest in itself in anything like a tendency to apostasy, to bring before his mind the truth and its evidence, that he may continue steadfast and unmovable rooted and grounded, established in the faith wherein he has been taught. This is, I apprehend, the mutual exhortation to which the apostle refers. It deserves notice that the word rendered exhort is the same word which is often translated comfort, and it is very probably used to suggest the idea that nothing is better fitted to prevent apostasy in bringing before the mind the truth as to the exceeding great and precious promises made to those who hold fast to confidence and rejoice unto the whole firm to the end. It is a good news, the consolatory message of a free and full salvation through Jesus Christ. It is this believed, which binds the heart to the Savior and to His law. It is quite right to imitate the Apostle in placing before the mind of the backslider the awful results of apostasy, But such statements alone will produce but little effect. The voice of a reconciled God behind him proclaiming, Return to me, thou backsliding child. For I have redeemed you." When heard, we'll do more to prevent apostasy and induce him to turn his feet to God's testimonies than all the tears of the tenfold damnation which awaits the apostate, though presented to the mind in the most striking and alarming form. The duty of public exhortation forms an important part of the duty of Christian pastors. But it is plain from the passage before us that it is the duty of all Christians, as they have opportunity privately to exhort and admonish one another, lest they be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. It is too much to practice the professors of Christianity in our times. When they perceive in one of their brethren a tendency, it's a thing to depart from the living God, to speak of it to every person rather than to the one to whom alone, in the first instance, it ought to be spoken of, to lament over it. In the presence of others, instead of endeavoring to remove evil by friendly exhortation to the individual himself, in earnest prayer to God to render the use of the means prescribed by himself effectual for the purpose for which he has appointed it, Dismissed your exhortation, the Apostle enjoins to be engaged in daily. While it is called today, they were to exhort one another daily, frequently, and without delay, whenever we observe in brethren. What appears to us an indication of departure from the path of Christian truth and duty were to use the means prescribed by the inspired writer for bringing them back. Every step they take in the downward path makes a recovery more difficult and yet a little while, and they will be removed beyond the reach of our exertions. If any of us have a friend whom we think in danger of, the greatest of all evils, the loss of the soul. Let us be speedy, diligent, earnest, whether by instruction, admonition, or prayer. Ah, how soon may ye be in that world where warning is too late! What your hand finds to do in its way, do it with your might. For there is no work, nor device, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in the grave where you go. This idea seems intended to be suggested by the additional clause, while it is called today, while the voice of God still invites men to enter into His rest. As God's fellow workers, we should beseech Him not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, I have heard you in a time accepted, and in a day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. The deceitfulness of sin and the preciousness of time are considerations which greatly strengthen each other. As time wastes, the sinner hardens. Not only is the season passing away, but the work is becoming more difficult. It is plain that the duty here enjoined on the Hebrew Christians is, from the nature of the case, obligatory on Christians in all countries and in all ages, so long as there are evil hearts of unbelief in professors of Christianity, so long as they are exposed to the fascinating influences of an evil world in the endless buried devices of the crafty old serpent. So long will they need to be exhorted daily, lest they be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. To the right discharge of this duty must Christians' wisdom and affliction be necessary, but when rightly performed, I am persuaded, it very seldom fails of producing a happy effect. Surely, when we consider the interest at stake, we ought not to be so backward as I am afraid we generally are to the discharge of this duty. What a power of motive is contained in these words of the Apostle James. Brethren, if any of you do err from the faith and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his ways shall save his soul from death. and shall hide a multitude of sins. The importance of taking heed lest there was in any of them an evil heart of unbelief, and of their exhorting one another daily, is placed in a strong point of light by the declaration made by the apostle in the fourteenth verse. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. To strike an analogy between these words and those in the sixth verse, which have been already explained, must be obvious to all. Whose house are we, if we hold fast to confidence and the rejoicing of the whole firm to the end? Some interpreters have considered the words we are made partakers of Christ as equivalent to we shall be made partakers of Christ. Understanding by that, we shall be made participants of all the blessings of the Christian salvation. if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. But the words will not admit this mode of exposition. The words literally translated are, we have been made partakers of Christ. And the following clause, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, does not express a means of attaining the fellowship of Christ. It's something future, but the evidence of our having already attained that fellowship.