THE GOSPEL MESSENGER—March 1899

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. Heb. iii. 12.

This admonition to take heed applies specially to the household of faith. It is an admonition and a warning often given by Christ and His Apostles. So long as the disciples of Jesus are in this evil world they are surrounded with its evil influences, and for this reason they will continue to need faithful admonitions and warnings against the deceitfulness of sin. They need also continual and daily encouragements to self-examination, lest there should be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Any departure of a disciple of Jesus from the living God is a mark of distrust and want of confidence in His promise. It manifests an evil heart of unbelief in the authority, power, wisdom, and mercy of the living and true Cod. He is the living God, the Creator and Giver of all life and breath of every living thing. To depart from Him is to depart from the very source of our being, whether natural or spiritual. In Him is life, and we have no life without Him; for “in Him we live and move, and have our being.” Let us, therefore, brethren, take heed, lest there should be, in any of us, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the very source and power that gives and sustains our existence.

As children of God and subjects of saving grace, we are assuredly the “workmanship” of God the Father, “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. ii. 10.
Any departure in word or deed from any of those good works which God hath ordained for His children to walk in, is a sin against God. It sets aside His law -and tramples His authority under foot. It is, therefore, called an “evil heart of unbelief.”

But it may be asked, “Whence cometh this tendency to distrust Cod?” Does it not come from our carnal lusts that were in our earthly nature? Does not this “evil heart of unbelief” come from that fountain in which no good thing dwells? The flesh is weak; and not only weak, it is corrupt. No good thing in the service of God can come of it or proceed from it. It is a corrupt fountain that sends forth corrupt streams of evil thoughts, evil surmisings, unbelief, and rebellion against our God. Take heed, brethren, that this evil heart of unbelief does not control you and form your general character. We can not prevent its annoyance, or its evil suggestions, but by the grace of God we may fight against it, fight the good fight of faith in the all-sufficient merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus by these “war a good warfare,” keep the body under and bring it into subjection, lest by any means we should be as castaways. (1 Cor. ix. 27.)

When the Apostle says of the saints of God that “We are His workmanship created in Christ unto good works,” he also shows how they are adapted in spirit to the performance of the good works which God had ordained for them to walk in, even before they were born into the kingdom of Christ.

When men are manifested as “the workmanship ofGod, created in Christ Jesus,” there is an adaptation in this new creatureship to the very work which God has ordained for them to walk in. The workmanship of God gives them a conformity, not merely to the letter, but also to the Spirit of good works. The good works they are created unto and commanded to do are the very works they earnestly desire to walk in. “I delight” says one “in the law of God after the inner man.” To this inner man the yoke of duty is easy and the burden light, because the law of the Lord is his delight.

“But I see” says Paul “another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity 10 the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom. vii. 23. Here is a terrible warfare that is never in this life to cease. No compromise with any false way can be made without sinning against high heaven. All unrighteousness is sin. Every violation of the law of Christ is sin. Sin is the transgression~ of law, and, as Christians are born into the kingdom of Christ, they are under law to Christ, and the command of God that comes out of the “bright cloud” from heaven is “Hear ye Him.” “Exhort one another, therefore, daily, while it is called to-day: lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Now, it is evident from this text last quoted, as well as from many others, that sin has a hardening tendency. And it is further evident that sin is deceptive. It flatters its votaries and holds out false colors. It brings false motives to hear to seduce one from the right way. And sometimes, by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, it draws one away from the truth and simplicity of the gospel of Christ, and such is the nature and hardening tendency of sin that every step we take in the wrong direction we become harder and harder until nothing we read or hear preached, nor any gospel instruction, admonition, reproof or rebuke from our brethren, has any other effect than to drive us away from them, until we become so hardened in the sin of disrespect for the Word of the Lord that the company of the saints in their assemblies of worship becomes irksome and distasteful to such an extent that we forsake assembling ourselves together with them, and seek other company more congenial to our carnal state of worldly conformity.
We have often noticed that when brethren begin to neglect their duty in assembling with the church at her appointed meetings, this sin of neglect will grow and grow upon them until it seems to be a heavy drag and a strained effort to mingle with their brethren at all in worship. Like the disciples of old, they seem for a time to have forgotten the mighty power of God in feeding and sustaining them while they were following Him and: hearing His word—” yea, their heart was hardened.” (Mark vi. 52.)

Distrust, unbelief, and sinful neglect of duty always hardens the heart and shuts up the bowels of compassion and love one towards another. It leads away from Christ, and conforms us so much to the world that our mind and care and thoughts run more ardently and with more apparent concern upon the things of the world than upon the things of Christ or of the spiritual instruction or comfort of His redeemed people. We have a forcible illustration of this state of things in the immediate connection of the text last quoted, wherein it is said of the disciples of Jesus, “They considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened.” (Mark vi. 52.)

Now, in closing this rather lengthy article, we feel that the true disciples of Jesus can not well attach too much importance to every word of the text we have given at the head of this article—“Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”
Let us take heed more earnestly, if possible, than we ever have, to the things we have heard in the Scriptures, lest at any time, in some unguarded moment, we let them slip, and thereby suffer loss, and become hardened against the truth.
But we can not well dismiss this subject without saying to our brethren that we may reasonably look for this- awful state of hardness of heart to be manifest in these last days, even among some who have professed to know and love the faith of the gospel—for “The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some (not all) shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1 Tim. iv. 1.)

Thus the spirit of prophesy and of inspiration has foretold and described this dreadful state of hardness by reason of sin and of its horrid effects in hardening and searing the conscience with a hot iron, so that such hard and impenitent hearts are past all feeling of penitence or remorse of conscience for any sin of deception, hypocrisy, or falsehood of which they may be guilty.
These things, dear brethren, are awful to contemplate; but let us not conclude that the picture is too highly colored. The Spirit of truth has spoken it, and for this reason there is an awful warning given the church of God in our text, which says: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” And should we not -heed the admonition to “Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of us should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin?” W. M. M.