Struggling with unbelief
Hebrews 3:6-4:13

I am not very good with directions. Some of you know this about me. My wife Carol sees it with particular clarity. Unfortunately I am seldom so honest about this weakness as I am this morning. When I'm actually driving somewhere I don't FEEL like I'm bad with directions at all.

At the beginning of August I led a whole convoy of Stony Brook cars astray. We were headed to a missions conference at a campground near Great Barrington. I was supremely confident. After all, I had a map. And what was better the map was from the internet and it had a big, red authoritative looking X on it to mark our destination.

Carol was skeptical from the start. You see, she remembered how to get to where we were going. But I complacently and confidently kept on in the wrong direction, as bumps turned to gravel and gravel turned to mud track until finally we came to a dead end.

Today we come to a passage that gives us a rather pointed warning about our spiritual direction.

Turn with me to Hebrews 3 -- you'll find that on page 1185 in our church Bibles. We'll read from chapter 3 verse 7 to chapter 4 verse 13.

You might want to imagine the author of Hebrews as a sort of spiritual track coach. He's working with a group of runners who are disheartened, some are just about ready to give up, and he's trying to encourage them and get them back into the race. Like any good coach, he started positive -- in fact he began where most coaches have to begin, at least with children, just telling them to Pay attention. That was in chapter 1 and the start of ch. 2. Then he went on to another familiar theme of coaches -- focus. That was the end of ch. 2 and the beginning of 3. But a coaches job is not just to encourage, but also to warn -- to shield her athletes from the pitfalls of doing things wrong.

That's what the author of Hebrews begins to do in chapter 3 -- the beginning of one of the longest and most solemn warnings in the Bible. What is he warning against? Look again at verse 12: "See to it brothers (and sisters) that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." And again in 4:1 "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it."

The danger he is warning against is simple: Unbelief.

Now with that I'm probably in danger of losing most of you. Unbelief. Well, that's certainly not a problem I struggle with. Why, I became a Christian when I was three years old. In fact I hold the record for youngest conversion in my church. My names up on a plaque somewhere. I've believed all the right things since I was able to talk. Knew the Apostles creed by kindergarten. Learned the Westminster confession by heart in 1st grade. And that was all before my Ph.D. in theology. I've written doctrinal statements for three Christian organizations and two churches. Unbelief? Not me. Now that guy sitting next to me -- I hope HE's listening. Maybe I should nudge him a little to keep him awake.

Let me introduce just a little problem: This passage is addressed not to people outside the church -- not to people who know they don't believe and quite freely admit it. No. This is written to people like most of us here who claim to be believers in Jesus -- people who may give every outward indication of believing. It is a warning to people in the church -- people who associate with the family of God about the dangers of unbelief.

Now this will probably have some of you squirming. You were taught that when you placed your faith in Jesus you became a child of God and that nothing can now separate you from his love. True enough. You were taught correctly. Jesus tells us plainly and clearly that no one can snatch those who belong to him out of his hand. (John 10:28)

But the question we need to ask is, "what does it mean to believe?" What does it mean to put your faith in Jesus? I think many of us tend to make the mistake of seeing belief as a one-time deal. Sort of an entry ticket into the Kingdom of God Club. We believed, now we're in.

But Belief is more than just a one time decision. Becoming a Christian is just the beginning.

It's like this: Some of you really like to hike, right. Marv K. is the informal head of our church hiking ministry. Well, imagine Marv organizes a hike this afternoon. Get's a nice big group together to go with him. Now everyone knows that Marv is really well organized -- has maps and all of those sorts of things. So you're quite content to trust him to lead you. You believe in him, in a manner of speaking. And thngs start out well, as they usually do on a hike. Everyone's happy. Then we hit a swampy patch in the trail and you get your feet wet. And you start to have your doubts -- does Marv really know where he's leading us? Then the trail starts to get really steep and slippery -- in fact not much like a trail at all. You really start to wonder. This goes on for a while and your wondering turns to grumbling. Where is he leading us? Maybe he doesn't really know where he's going.

You see, if you really believe Marv, it will reflect in your attitude and behavior through the whole hike. You can claim to trust him at the beginning when the going is easy -- but whether you really believe him will only show through the course of the journey when you have to decide.

The same is true in our Christian lives. Coming to faith in Christ is only the start. The test of whether that faith is genuine will come over time as you face situations that challenge your belief. That is why it makes sense for the author of Hebrews to warn us to be careful -- he is telling us to be vigiliant -- always on the alert -- to make sure that our faith is alive and genuine. II Cor. 13: 5 -- Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.

Let's try to get practical here: What are the danger signs of unbelief? How would you know if you were starting to drift into unbelief?

One of the first symptoms is grumbling and complaining -- an ungrateful heart. This is how unbelief first showed itself among the people of Israel.

Another symptom will be an unresponsiveness to God -- a hardened heart.



Here we can
When things don't go just right, do you find yourself grumbling against God?
When you sin, is your heart unresponsive to correction?


The test of whether you believe is not where you start, but where you finish. Runners know this. The test of a great marathoner is not how they start, but how they finish.


The call:

To be vigilant
To encourage each other