Good morning. I have to admit
that I've always had a little bit of a problem with that hymn.
But as we were singing it this morning, I thought of something
that made it more special to me. It takes one to know one. It takes one to know one. It
really does. The United Hymn is all about
praying for sinners. but it takes a sinner to know
a sinner. And so in that regard, it's a good hymn. Let's ask the
Lord's blessings on our time together. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that once again, you've been pleased to bring
us each from our homes and come to thy house. Lord, that you've
promised to meet here with us We thank you for your word. We
pray that you would open it and break the bread of life and reveal
to us the glorious person of thy dear son. Lord, we pray that
you would open the windows of having and poured a blessing
of grace on our hearts. Let us leave this place today,
Lord, having our hope and our rest in thy dear son. who has himself accomplished
the salvation of thy people. Lord, open our hearts. Give us
eyes to see and ears to hear. For truly, Lord, as we've just
sung together, that all that we do here will be in vain unless
the Holy Spirit comes down. And so, Lord, we pray that Our
worship will not be vain worship, but that it will be blessed and
inspired worship. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. I've titled this message, The Real
Problem with unbelief. What is at the root of man's
unbelief? We're going to see that in the
testimony of Demetrius and the other craftsmen that were in
Ephesus selling their wares and having their lives and their
profits and their investments threatened by the gospel. and
we see in that what really is the root cause of unbelief. I've experienced enough excuses
in my own life over the years, and I've heard enough from others
to know that the reason that we often present for our problem
is not really the root cause of the problem. The heart, the scripture says,
is deceitful and desperately wicked and that we have a hard
time knowing our own hearts. Scripture also says that we are
by nature liars. And we will go on lying to ourselves
and deceiving ourselves and deceiving others unless the Lord is pleased
to reveal the real root cause of our unbelief. And so my hope this morning is
that we will learn from God's Word what the real problem is. Someone
says, well, my problem is physical. My problem is I've got some very
serious health issues. Or someone else might think,
well, my problem is financial. my problem is emotional or my
problem is relational. I've got a problem with a person
in my life. Is that really the problem or
is there another problem that's below that? What is the real reason for unbelief? The scripture says that the sin
that doth so easily beset us is the sin of unbelief. It is
the root cause of all of our sin. Really, what we present
as a problem in relationship to finances or relationships
or health issues, what causes those things to be
a problem is our unbelief. Isn't that true? If we believed God, we would believe what he said
to the apostle Paul. When Paul thought his problem
was a thorn in the flesh, the Lord said, no, my grace is sufficient
for thee. And as the Lord made his grace
sufficient to the apostle Paul for that thorn, Paul said, I
will therefore glory in my infirmities. For when I am weak, then I am
strong, for his strength is made perfect in my weakness. The problem
is not the thorn that we have in our flesh. The problem is
the unbelief that we have in our hearts. The problem is sin. It really
is. That's the root cause of all
our problems, sin and unbelief. Oh, I pray the Lord will cause
us to believe that, and that we will stop deceiving ourselves
over what we think the problem is, when really the problem is
our inability to trust God as we ought. It's a sin problem,
isn't it? That's why we have to preach
Christ, because we will not see ourselves for what we are. We
will not see ourselves as sinners until we see the Lord Jesus Christ
for who he is, the holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners
and higher than the heavens, son of God. And when we see him,
when God's pleased to give us a glimpse of his holiness and
a glimpse of his glory, Well, our response will be the same
response as it's always been for everyone that's ever seen
the Lord. What did Isaiah say? I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. Woe is me. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean
lips. Here's the problem. The problem's
in my heart. The problem is my sin. When Daniel
saw the Lord, Daniel said, my comeliness is
turned into corruption. That which I thought was my strength,
that's what the word comeliness means, is now turned into weakness. And I see that I'm dependent
completely upon him. When Peter saw the Lord after
the resurrection, he fell at his feet and said, depart from
me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Oh, he thought he had a lot of
other problems, but when he saw the Lord, when he saw the Lord,
when Job heard the gospel preached from Elihu, and then the Lord
spoke to Job's heart, what's the first words out of Job's
mouth? Behold, behold, I see something I've never seen before.
Truly, I am vile. There's my problem. There's my
problem. You know, the blame game goes
all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? And if we, if the
Lord doesn't, doesn't make us to be sinners, cause us to see
that this is the root cause of all of our problems, we'll go
about thinking that the problems are the secondary issues. Those
issues that we spend so much time and energy on. If God would
enable us to believe him and trust him. Now, what does it
mean to be made a sinner? Does it mean that we feel the
full and true shame of our sin? That we spend sufficient time
as the old Puritans used to do, kneeling at the mourner's bench,
shedding buckets of tears until we've come to some place of contrition
and repentance? Is that what it means to see
ourselves as a sinner? Only the Lord Jesus Christ ever
felt the full weight of sin. Only he sorrowed for sin sufficiently
in a way that God is pleased with. You and I are not capable
of that. If the Lord shows us himself, we will conclude that
we are sinners. We are nothing but sin. Lord,
it is really the root cause of all my problems. The Lord Jesus
Christ, when he When he sweat drops of blood in the garden
of Gethsemane, when the weight of sin began to be put on him,
that's the tears that God's looking for, those droplets of sweat
that fell from his body. When he hung on Calvary's cross
and cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That was
the cry of repentance and sorrow for sin that God was pleased
with. You see, our repentance doesn't
bring forgiveness. but to see him for who he is
and to believe on him will bring repentance. Repentance doesn't bring forgiveness. Forgiveness brings repentance.
You see that? What a difference. This principle applies to so
many areas, every area of life, family, friends, work, whatever. But I want to speak to it as
it relates to this church. And I've heard people say, you
know, I don't come to church because there's too many hypocrites
there. You won't hear a sinner say that. You will not hear a
sinner say that because every sinner believes themselves to
be the biggest hypocrite in the church. You just, you can't even
imagine how hypocritical I feel standing up here preaching the
gospel to you. I really believe that I'm the
biggest hypocrite here. Or someone will say, I don't
come to church because the preacher is an antinomian. He's, what
they mean by that, he's not affirming me in the works that I'm doing
because that's my affirmation. That's the hope of my salvation.
Or they'll flip the other side and say, well, the preacher's,
he's legalistic. If I ever suggest anything, to
do with responsibility or duty of the believer. Some are offended. Some will say, well, that's too
legalistic. No. You know, my experience over
the years is that whenever I mention something from the pulpit in
terms of duty or responsibility, that the most tenderhearted sinners
are the ones offended most. They're wounded, not offended
at me, but they're wounded in thinking that I was speaking
to them, when really I probably had somebody else in mind who
wasn't even here. But as the most tenderhearted
child of God that takes it personal and thinks, well, he must know
something about my life that, you know, that, you see how it
is? You can't offend. child of God. You can't offend a sinner with
telling them or rebuking them or exhorting them about their
responsibilities because they know that they're not fulfilling
their duty as they ought. But you see, what I'm saying
is that the things that I hear from people as to terms of why
they get offended or why they don't come to church, that's
really not the cause. The cause is that they've not seen themselves
as a sinner. Someone asked me sometime, they
said, well, you know, so-and-so hadn't been here in a long time.
Do you think they're coming back? I said, well, I don't know. But
I know one thing for sure, if they don't, it's going to be
my fault. You know, that's just the way it goes. They're gonna
point their finger at me or somebody else and say, well, you know,
it's their fault that we're not coming. No, they don't come because
they're not needy. They don't have a sin problem.
They don't need a savior. They don't need to sit under
the gospel. This is the real cause of unbelief,
is that men don't see themselves as sinners. Someone will say, well, you know,
I've been offended by someone in the church. Sinners are too grieved over
the offense that they've been towards someone else to be worried
about the offense of someone else towards them. So when a
person says, well, I've been offended by someone in the church,
that's not the problem. The problem is that they don't
see themselves as a sinner. Otherwise they'd be more grieved
over their own offenses than they would over someone else's.
You see that? You see, men present one thing
as the problem when really the problem is that they don't believe
themselves to be a sinner because they've not seen themselves before Christ. You know, man
by nature is going to compare himself to himself and he's going
to conclude that he's getting better. Or he's going to compare
himself to others and he's going to conclude that, you know, well,
at least I'm above average. But when God makes you to be
a sinner, you say with the Apostle Paul, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. That was at the end of
his life, he said that. That was a man that had grown
in grace and the knowledge of Christ and was used of God to
write most of the New Testament and said, I'm the chief of centers. You
see, there's the problem, isn't it? All these other things are
just smoke screens. They're just, they're lies. They're
not true. Someone says, well, I don't feel
welcome. That's why I don't come. That's
not the problem. Sinners aren't here to feel welcomed by men.
They're here to meet the welcoming savior with his arms open to
embrace them and love them and forgive them and give them their
grace. That's what sinners are here
for. If you're here for any other reason, you're going to find
a reason to leave. Someone's going to offend you. I'm probably
going to be me. Someone says, well, you know,
I've just got too many issues going on in my life, too many
things that tend to, that's not the problem. No, no, if they,
if you're overwhelmed with the circumstances of your life, this
is the one place you need to be, isn't it? The one place sinners
are when they realize I've got, I've got too much. Lord, I can't
bear this burden. I've got to have Christ. Lord,
I'm full of sin and weak and needy. You see what I'm saying? I'm
just telling you from my personal example, experience, what men will say when really
the problem is that they have not seen themselves as sinners.
They're protecting their investment. It is not man's sin that keeps
him from Christ. It is his righteousness. Men who do not believe themselves
to be sinners are holding on to a righteousness that they're
trusting in for the hope of their salvation. John chapter three, verse 20,
light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. They loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone
that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Men won't come to Christ. because
they don't want their deeds to be exposed for what they are.
Sinners do. Sinners love to be told that
they're sinful. It's the reminder of their sinfulness. You see, there's a Pharisee within
each of us. I'm a lot more concerned about
the Pharisee in here than I am the one out there. And there's
a Pharisee within each of us that has to be put to death. And there's a clinging to our
works of righteousness that has to be exposed and reproved. And so we come to the light in
order that our sin might be reproved and exposed for what it is. Even those who won't come to
Christ because they are enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, If they ever saw Christ and saw
themselves as a sinner, and if their righteousness, the righteousness
that even they are holding to, was made filthy rags, they'd
come. They'd come. We talk about total depravity
and unconditional election and limited atonement and irresistible
grace and perseverance of the saints of God. You know the acronym,
TULIP. Those are dominoes that all fall
together when the first one is pushed over. When God makes you to be a sinner,
when you see yourself having fallen in Christ, you won't have
any problems with unconditional election. You won't have any
problems with particular redemption or limited atonement or irresistible
grace or perseverance of the saints. You see, that's really
the root problem, isn't it? Men are presenting one thing
as the issue when really the issue is something else. Now to our text, quickly. Acts chapter 19, verse 24. For a certain man named Demetrius,
a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no
small gain unto the craftsman. This man was making a profit
off of religion. The temple of Diana was one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a huge edifice
to the worship of the sun goddess and the goddess of light in the
city of Ephesus. The remains of that are there
today in Ephesus. And the people at Ephesus were
proud of their goddess. The whole world came to Ephesus
to worship Diana. And so this man was making a
great profit off of this pagan goddess. Religion can be very profitable,
and there are many people involved in it for financial gain, but
there are more people involved in it to protect the investment
of their own righteousness. The Lord said, it is more difficult
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven than it
is, it's more difficult for, easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples were amazed. They said,
Lord, who then can be saved? And what'd the Lord say? He's
not talking about just financial riches. Although those things
can be a means by which we don't trust God as we ought, because
we can pay our way out of everything. But more so than that, he's talking
about the riches of one's righteousness. The investment of righteousness
that they're looking to and trusting in for the hope of their salvation.
And the disciples said, who then, Lord, can be saved? And the Lord
said, with man, it's impossible. He'll never turn from his righteousness. He'll never look to Christ, but
with God, all things are possible. You see, all men are rich in
their own righteousness. And until the Lord is pleased
to make you to see that all your righteousness are as filthy rags,
you'll not come to Christ. You'll not come. Here's the real
problem. So this Demetrius had his investment
in this goddess Diana and in the religion of the day. And
nothing's changed. Most men in our culture and in
our associations today call Diana Jesus. And they say that he's
the God of life and the God of the sun, but they don't believe
themselves to be sinners and they've not seen him as God. You listen to what they say about
him. it's just not true. Verse 25, whom he called together
with the workmen of like occupation, So he gets together all of these
religious associates of his who are making a profit off of Diana. And he says to them, sirs, you
know that by this craft, we have our wealth by what we're doing
with our hands, by the fashioning of these false gods and these
false hopes and these lies of false righteousness. Self-righteousness. This is how we make our living.
This is our craft. Verse 26, moreover, you see and
hear that not only alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia,
this Paul hath persuaded and turned many people saying that
they'd be no gods which are made with hands. That's what we're
saying. We're saying that when you put
your hand to your salvation, you've defiled it. That's the picture of Uzzah touching
the ark. And he defied, God killed him
because he put his hand, his dirty hand to the ark, his sinful
hand to the ark. That's why the Lord said, when
you make an altar, don't put a tool to the stone. When the
Old Testament believers gathered together stones in order to make
a burnt sacrifice, the Lord forbid them to put their hands to it.
Don't try to fashion the stone and make it look pretty and stack
it up nice. Just pile up those stones. Because
as soon as you put your hand to it, you've defiled it. And
so Demetrius is saying this craft that we have is the craftiness
of our own works. It's the It's the hope that we
have in what we're fashioning with our hands. And this guy's
coming along and saying that they be no gods, which are made
with the hands of men. And that's the root of the gospel,
isn't it? Verse 27, so that not only this
our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also that
the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and
her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship. Now there's the smoke screen. There's the argument that they're
gonna use to incite a riot. And you read the rest of this
chapter, a riot breaks out and all the people come to the theater
in Ephesus and they all cry, great is the Diana, the goddess
of Ephesus. For two hours, they chanted that. All they heard was that this
man is defiling our goddess. But what was the real problem?
What was the root cause of their objections? It was the loss of
their wealth. That was the problem. They were
pretending to defend the honor of Diana, but the truth is they
didn't care about Diana. Diana was just a means to their
own selfish end. They were more concerned about
their wealth than they were about the honor of Diana. And so when
men say about the gospel that I don't believe it because it
dishonors God in some way, that's not it. I don't believe it because
I've invested too much of my life and too much of my righteousness
in this false gospel. And if I believe what you're
preaching, I've got to jettison all of that. I've got to lose
it all. I lose my wealth. I lose my profession. You see, you see, here's the
problem. Here's the issue going on here.
Demetrius tells his fellow workers what the real problem is, but
then he tells the crowd what he wants them to believe so that
he can get them on his side to support his getting Paul out
of town, which happens at the very end of this chapter. Nothing's changed, has it? Nothing's
changed. They're still the same issue.
Men will say, well, this is the problem or that's the problem.
No, the real problem is that this gospel will strip you of
all your wealth, your spiritual wealth, and your
material wealth. It'll put you in a place where
everything you've got belongs to God. And men will not have
that. They'll not have it. I will not
have this man to reign over me. And the real problem is that
they don't see themselves as sinners. That's the issue. So when somebody
starts giving you all these reasons why they're doing this or that,
or why they're not coming to church, don't believe them. That's
just a smokescreen. That's a diversion. The real
problem is that if I believe that, I'm gonna lose everything. I'm gonna lose everything. But it worked. Demetrius and
the other men that were involved in his craft, who got their wealth
from their works and from where their hands, Their lies to the
masses worked. Look what happens. And when they,
verse 28, and when they heard these sayings, they were full
of wrath and cried out saying, great is Diana of Ephesus, of
the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled
with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus,
men of Macedonia, Paul's companions to travel, they rushed with one
accord into the theater. And when Paul would have entered
into the people, the disciples suffered him not, and certain
of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring
him that he would not adventure himself into the theater. Paul
wanted to go into the theater and declare unto them the gospel,
tell them what the real issue was. But these men knew that
he'd been murdered in that theater. I shared with our folks Wednesday
night, we were looking at verses before this and several years
ago, Trish and I were on a cruise and we went to Ephesus, which
is in Turkey and the ruins are all there. And I had talked to
a man on the ship who was from Lexington, Kentucky and had heard
Todd preach on TV in Lexington. And we're in Turkey. And so we're touring the old
ruins, and I'm standing in the Berry Theater that's being described
here. It's all there. And this guy
comes up to me, and he says, now, what is it that you all
believe? And I told him, and he started shaking his head.
If he had had a crowd of people, they would have done exactly
what I'm trying to say to you is that nothing has changed.
You can go back to the same spot or you can go right to where
you are with your friends and family members. Nothing's changed.
Great is my God. Are you saying that my God is
no God? Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Either your God's no God or my
God's no God, but it can't both be God. So there's great confusion. And
when, look at verse 32, some therefore cried one thing and
some another for the assembly was confused and the more part
knew. not wherefore they were come
together the majority of the people didn't even know why they
were there they just knew they were there to defend the honor
of diana no they weren't defending the honor of diana they were
they were defending the investment of demetrius and his friends
who were making profit off of the religion of diana and that's
what men are defending today when they want to debate and
argue the gospel. They are defending their investment,
their righteousness toward their false god and their religion. There's the real problem. They have not been made sinners. When The Lord raised Lazarus from
the dead in John chapter 11. And there
were men there that watched this miracle. This man had been dead
four days. They came out of the grave. They unwrapped his mummy clothing
and took the grave clothes off of him. And you can imagine the
amazement of that event. And some believed, but some didn't. Even though they saw it with
their own eyes, they didn't believe. They ran back into Jerusalem
and they told the Jewish leaders and the Sanhedrin got together.
And here's what the high priest said. He said, what are we going
to do? This man performs many miracles. And if we allow him to continue,
the Romans will come and they will take away both our place
and our nation. There's the problem. They're
going to take away the power and the influence that we have
over the people. They're going to rob us of our
wealth if we allow this man to come. And so they trumped up
charges against him and they said, well, he's going to destroy
the temple or he's blaspheming or he's an insurrectionist. And they made all these false
charges against him. What was the real problem? Losing
power over the people. losing their nation, losing their
investment, losing their righteousness. This was the real problem. What a blessing it is when God
the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our understanding and causes
us to see what the real problem is. The real problem. is that I'm a sinner. The real
problem with all the difficulties and things in my life that I
want to point to as my problem aren't really the problem. It's
my unbelief. It's my unbelief. I want to close briefly with
a story. It's a personal story, not just to me, but to several
of you that are here. And it's a 25-year-old story.
And the reason I want to tell you this story is because it
relates to this very point. Someone asked me yesterday, they
asked me permission to go visit the old church that I used to
pastor because they wanted to find out why I left. And I said,
well, you don't need my permission to do that, go. But I'll tell
you why I left. And I told him. And some of you
know this story very well. Todd Nyberg came down from Kentucky,
preached the gospel God gave some of us ears to hear. And
I started to trying to preach Christ. And there were men in
that church that hated what they were hearing. And they hated
me as a result of that. 11 weeks after Todd came down, it was clear that this wasn't
going to work. Someone asked me on the Sunday
before I resigned on Monday if I was going to resign, because
they knew there was turmoil in the church. And I said, no. This was the day before. I said,
no, I'm not going to resign. I was here when they got here,
and I'll be here when they leave. I'm going to keep preaching the
gospel. Well, Monday morning, I got a letter from a lawyer
in the church telling me that he had a petition and demanding
that I come before the Sanhedrin to answer their questions. And
the Lord revealed to me, you all know this story, some of
you do. We had purchased a very valuable piece of property and
paid cash for it. And after we bought that property,
the Orlando Magic built their training center right across
the street from it. And the value of that property
skyrocketed. And we had men in that church
that had made investments into that property. And they, because I was confused.
Well, you know, why don't you, there's plenty of places for
you to go. Just leave if you don't like what I'm preaching.
They wouldn't leave. They would not leave. And on that Monday
morning, it became clear to me that they're not going to leave
because they're holding on to that investment that they have
in that property. Yes, they hate the gospel, but
it's the investment they have in the property that's not going
to allow them to walk away. And I wrote up my resignation
on Monday morning, send it to everybody in the church. And,
uh, I'm so thankful that on that Sunday before I didn't know I
was going to resign because I would have gone out in a flame of glory. I mean, I would have given them
a piece of my mind and I didn't. I just preached the gospel on
that Sunday. And the next morning I resigned, but it was over the
property. It was over that piece of property.
It was worth millions. And they weren't going to leave
it. They had too much invested in their religion. That was the
real problem. And so it is with men who will
not believe the gospel. I've got too much invested in
my goddess of Diana. And I'm not going to walk away
from that. God makes you to be a sinner. You'll be stripped
naked before God and you'll have nothing but Christ. Nothing but
Christ. He'll be all your righteousness.
He'll be your life. He'll be your salvation. You
won't be holding on to anything. Amen. All right, let's take a
break. Okay.