Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you - Take warning by those disobedient Israelites; they were brought out of the house of bondage, and had the fullest promise of a land of prosperity and rest. By their disobedience they came short of it, and fell in the wilderness. Ye have been brought from the bondage of sin, and have a most gracious promise of an everlasting inheritance among the saints in light; through unbelief and disobedience they lost their rest, through the same ye may lose yours. An evil heart of unbelief will head away from the living God. What was possible in their case, is possible in yours. The apostle shows here five degrees of apostasy:
1. Consenting to sin, being deceived by its solicitations.
2. Hardness of heart, through giving way to sin.
3. Unbelief in consequence of this hardness which leads them to call even the truth of the Gospel in question.
4. This unbelief causing them to speak evil of the Gospel, and the provision God has made for the salvation of their souls.
5. Apostasy itself, or falling off from the living God; and thus extinguishing all the light that was in them, and finally grieving the Spirit of God, so that he takes his flight, and leaves them to a seared conscience and reprobate mind.
See Leigh. He who begins to give the least way to sin is in danger of final apostasy; the best remedy against this is to get the evil heart removed, as one murderer in the house is more to be dreaded than ten without.