Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Luke chapter 1. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Our gracious Lord and our Heavenly
Father, we ask you to Be merciful to us this morning. Be gracious
to us and strengthen our hearts to behold our Lord Jesus, to
hear you speak. Lord, give us hearts to truly
worship, to bow before you in our hearts and praise you and
give you all the glory. We ask this in the name of our
Lord Jesus. Amen. Now, Zacharias, we've seen,
he was in the temple praying An angel Gabriel appears to him. Zacharias was fearful at first. The angel said, fear not. And
he tells Zacharias that Elizabeth would bear a son. Told him all
that good news about what John the Baptist, how he would be
great in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 18, And Zacharias said
unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? Whereby shall I
know this? For I am an old man, and my wife
well stricken in years. And the angel answering said
unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,
and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb.
and not be able to speak until the day that these things shall
be performed because thou believest not my words which shall be fulfilled
in their season. Look with me now over here in
verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her
mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel
said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with
God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. Now, here you have two situations
that are almost identical. Same angel came to Zacharias
that came to Mary. And Zacharias asked a question
and Mary asked a question. My subject is two questions,
two hearts. Two questions, two hearts. And I want to focus mainly on
Gabriel and the unbelief. When Gabriel asked, whereby shall
I know this? He said, for I'm an old man and
my wife is well stricken in years. And the angel answering said
unto him, I'm Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am
sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings.
And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not be able to speak until
the day that these things shall be performed because thou believest
not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And
the Lord not only made him dumb, unable to speak. He made him
deaf too. If you look at verse 62, when
John the Baptist was born, they made signs to his father how
he would have him called. They had to use sign language. He was deaf too. For at least
nine months, Zacharias was deaf and dumb due to his unbelief. This angel told him this good
news and Zacharias was overcome with the most hideous of sins. He was overcome with the most
vile of sins. Unbelief. Unbelief. He said, whereby shall I know
this? Well, the angel spoke these words.
This was the word of the Lord. That's how he would know this.
This was true. That should end all argument.
It's the word of the Lord. What grace and mercy from God.
If we could really understand how abominable unbelief is to
God, what an offense it is to God, then we would see how gracious
and how merciful God was to Zacharias in that he only made him dumb
and deaf for around nine months. That was grace and mercy from
God. Since the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, as the head of his
elect, since he served God in perfect faith, with a perfect
faithfulness, representing His people. He was to God the only
believer there was in this world, the only believer that's ever
been. God looked to His Son, and His Son, representing all
His elect from the beginning to the end, His Son obeyed the
Father with perfect faith all His days. Conceived holy in the
womb, came forth and was obedient to God in perfect faith all His
days. And he justified all his people. He went to the cross and justified
all his people. Even as he hung on that tree,
bearing the sin and bearing the curse of his people, he was perfectly
faithful to God, looking to God, and trusting that God would make
good on all his promises to him. And that's the faith by which
we're saved, brethren. We can see from Zacharias, we're
not saved because our faith is so perfect. Our faith is little,
and besides that, our faith is trusting the object of our faith,
Christ. That's how faith saves, is Christ
does the saving. He does the saving. But since
he's our advocate with the Father, now at God's right hand, our
Lord Jesus will give each one that he's redeemed, he will give
each one faith, and he will continue to renew that faith in us and
keep us believing and he will overcome every sin of ours, including
our unbelief. Because He died for all the sins
of His people, including our unbelief. And so He will keep
us trusting Him and looking to Him. Now I want to just look
mainly at Zacharias here, and then at the end we're going to
come back to Mary and deal with the question she asked. But first,
why is unbelief such an offense to God? Why is it such an offense
to God when we do not believe His Word? Well, unbelief calls
God a liar. That's what we're doing when
we don't believe God. We're calling Him a liar. Look at 1 John 5,
verse 10. This is so Anytime, regardless
of if the unbelief is blatant or if it's just our casual unbelief
in a small thing, whatever it is, it's calling God a liar.
1 John 5, verse 10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. That's how we believe. The Spirit
of God bears witness in our heart. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God
has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son.
That's why unbelief is so offensive to God. God's given this record. He's testified to his people.
This is the record of God. God's given us eternal life.
It's free. Christ came and paid all the
price. He paid the debt we owe. He paid
it all for His people. And this is the record of God.
God has freely given His elect eternal life, and this life is
in His Son. When He made that covenant promise
to Abraham, He confirmed it with an oath. He could swear by no
greater, so he swore by himself. He confirmed it with an oath,
so that there's two immutable things. God's word and his covenant
promise and his oath, and he can't lie. That's how gracious
God is to us, that he not only makes his covenant promise to
us, he confirms it with his oath. God has given to us eternal life
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. But he that believeth
not God is calling God a liar. He's calling God a liar because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. What could
be more offensive to God? You mothers and fathers, you
just think you've been faithful to your children, you've made
good on every promise you've made to them, you've instructed
them, you've taught them, you've shown them that you're faithful
to them, you're gonna do what you say for them, and then you
make a promise to your child, and your child looks at you and
says, you're just going to have to give me a sign. or I can't
believe you. Give me some kind of sound so
I can believe you. Wouldn't that be offensive to
you? Wouldn't that grieve you? Well, look at Hebrews 3. Look here at Hebrews 3. Hebrews
3. And look at verse 15. He's talking
about the children of Israel that were in the wilderness.
I encourage you to read this whole passage, but I'm just,
for time's sake, I'm just going to read a few verses. But in
verse 15, Hebrews 3.15, while it is said today, while it is
said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts
as in the provocation. for some, when they had heard,
did provoke. They provoked God. Howbeit not
all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved
forty years. See, that is grievous to God,
not to believe. Who was he grieved with forty
years? Was it not to them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell
in the wilderness? And what was their sin? To whom
swear he that he should not enter into his rest, but to them that
believed not. That was the sin that grieved
God, they believed not. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. Unbelief is an offense to God
because it's calling God a liar. That's grievous to God. And secondly,
back in our text in Luke, no believer's immune to unbelief. None of us are immune to unbelief. We have an old sin nature, and
as long as we have this sin nature, we're gonna struggle with this
problem of unbelief all our days. All our days. Zacharias was chosen
by God, by grace. He was blessed with all spirits
of blessings by God the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, just
like every one of His people, just like you that know Him are,
you have been from eternity. Christ was His surety in whom
He was perfectly righteous, in whom He was blameless in the
sight of God. And that's so of all God's saints,
everybody that he's called, blameless in the sight of God because of
Christ's righteousness and Christ's holiness, because of Christ's
perfect faith. And the Lord gave Zacharias a
new heart. He gave him faith. He made him
to be a man devoted to God. We saw that. He was a man devoted
to God, in the sight of God. God made him a priest. He was
serving as a priest. He was interceding between God
and his brethren at the very time that the angel appeared
to him. And Zacharias, he had faith to behold Christ foreshadowed
in the office he was in. He had faith, this man had faith.
He could see in all those ordinances, he could see Christ foreshadowed
in those. Those saints of old had faith given to them by God.
That was their worship. They saw Christ in those things.
And he saw Christ in that office of him being a priest, just a
common priest, serving and interceding and offering incense in place
of the people that stood without. He saw Christ in that. That's
what he was doing at the very moment that this angel appeared
to him and Gabriel told him this good news. And also, he was an
aged believer. He was an aged believer. The
very thing that he used as an excuse for asking this question
should have been the thing that made him trust God. He was an aged believer. He had
proven God's promises over and over and over that they were
so and they were true. He knew God to be true in everything
he promised. You see how blessed Zacharias
was? He was a blessed man. Did that
stop him from falling into unbelief? Did that stop him from being
overcome with this horrible sin of unbelief? No, it didn't. No,
it didn't. When that angel of the Lord appeared
to him, Zacharias saw the angel. He saw him. Think of that. Now, he saw the angel right there
in front of him. He saw him with his own eyes.
The angel startled him at first. And then he heard the angel speak
to him. And the angel said to him in
verse 13, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and
thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call
his name John. And the angel and everything
he said, he did not speak in maybes. He told them. He said there in verse 14, Thou
shalt have joy and gladness. And many shall rejoice at his
birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord. He
shall be a Nazarite devoted to God, and he shall be filled with
the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. Many of the children
of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God, and he shall
go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah. He spoke with
dogmatism to Zacharias. Even a perfect messenger can't
stop God's people from unbelief. A perfect messenger, Christ Jesus,
the perfect messenger that there's ever been, stood and preached
the gospel to men, and they heard Him with their own two ears,
saw Him with their own two eyes, and would not believe on Him.
Would not believe on Him. A perfect messenger with a perfect
message cannot keep us from unbelief unless God in power bless that
word to our hearts and give us faith to believe. That ought
to be all the evidence we need that we must be born from above.
We must be given faith. God must speak in power to our
heart because here's all this great advantage Zacharias had
and he couldn't believe. He could not believe. He said
unto that angel, verse 18, now get this now, this is a chosen,
redeemed, sanctified, faithful, aged priest of God. And he says to that angel, whereby
shall I know this? He's saying, what sign will you
give me? So I know you're telling me the
truth so I can believe you. That's what he's saying. Are
you gonna give me some kind of, now think of everything we just
looked at. Everything he has that God's given him, angels
standing in front of him, angels speaking dogmatically to him,
and then he says, show me something so I can believe you. Brethren, That ought to show
us there's none of us, no believer, I don't care how blessed of God
you are, as long as you're in this body of this death, there
is no believer immune to unbelief. There's no believer that will
not fall into this hideous sin of unbelief. No matter how God's
blessed us, we have to cry like our brother, Lord, I believe,
help me. thou mine unbelief." It's with
us all the time. It is with us all the time. When
Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. This
evil of unbelief is always present with us. It's always present
with us. Now thirdly, understand this,
that faith is not carnal sight and it is not carnal reason.
That is not what faith is. Faith's not a blind leap in the
dark. God gives you, the gospel is reasonable in every way. But
carnal reason and carnal sight is not faith. In fact, carnal
sight and carnal reason hinders faith, and as we see right here,
can totally blind faith. Zacharias, this is the reason
he gave for asking for a sign. He said, verse 18, for I'm an
old man, and my wife is well stricken in years. See, when
we look at our inability It'll make us disbelieve God's ability. He's looking at the fact he's
unable to do this, she's unable to do this. So now he's attributing
that to God, that God's unable. That's what carnal sight, carnal
reason will do, because here's the truth of the matter. Everything
involved in our salvation is impossible for me and you to
accomplish, only God. Only God. We couldn't make ourselves
righteous before the law. We can't make ourselves holy
in the heart. We can't make ourselves have faith to believe. We can't
make ourselves repent. We can't produce fruit. Nothing
about salvation is possible with a sinner like me and you. What
can a dead man do? Nothing. But with God, all things
are possible. See, Zacharias was looking to
himself. Anytime we start looking to ourselves,
We're going to fall into unbelief. It's going to overcome us when
we look to ourselves. Our master reason and our carnal
sight produces unbelief. That's all it can do. All that
our flesh produces is sin. That's all, just sin. Only God's
revelation in the heart produces faith. Only God. It's a divine
revelation given by God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel, for it's the power of God unto salvation. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. It's got to be revealed. Christ's
got to be revealed to us from heaven. Unbelief reasoned here. This was his reasoning. I'm an
old man. I'm an old man, he said. Listen
to how Gabriel answered. I'm Gabriel. That's standing
in the presence of God. And I'm sent to speak unto thee
and to show thee these glad tidings. That's what faith says. Gabriel
was faithful. He was a faithful angel to God. And what did he say? You're an
old man? I'm Gabriel that stand in the
presence of God. That's what faith says. I stand in the presence
of God who's all powerful. with whom nothing is impossible. I stand in the presence of Him
who rules over heaven, earth, and hell, and nobody can question
Him and ask Him what He's doing. He does what He will. That's
whose presence I'm standing before. That's what faith says. The faith that God gives believes
God is able. That's what faith is. Faith believes
God is able, that God is able. The blind man came to our Savior
one time, and remember what the Lord said to him? He said, believest
thou that I'm able to do this? And they said, yea, Lord. And
then he touched their eyes, and he said, according to your faith,
be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. Faith
believes he's able. When you believe God is able,
then you'll see the glory of God. That's what he told Martha.
He said, Martha, If you believe, you'll see the glory of God. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son. This was the son
of whom God said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. All the promises
were in Isaac. He said, this is the one through
whom all the seed is going to be called. This is the one through
whom your savior is coming. Now go offer him up as a sacrifice.
And scripture says, Abraham did that by faith, accounting that
God was able to raise him up from the dead from what he also
received him in a figure. You know, men don't, They love
to go to James and talk about not being hearers of the word,
but being doers. And the whole book of James is
telling us the works that or the works that God produces in
his people that manifest we have true God-given faith or works
that manifest that we trust God's able. When it looks like all
hope is lost, faith, trust, God is able. And he gives Rahab and
Abraham as an example. We saw with Abraham, The son
who God said all the promises are in. Now you go off for him.
Your only right son. That son he'd waited for. That
son God had given. That son he loved with all his
heart. God said now offer him and he
went and did it because he accounted God is able. And Rahab. They told Rahab, this was a woman
who was a, she was a prostitute living in an ungodly city, Jericho,
and her house was a house of ill repute. That's what it was.
And they told Rahab, they said, we're putting a scarlet line
in this window. You stay in this house right here. You and whoever
you bring into this house will be saved. Can you imagine going
out and telling people, come to this house and you'll be saved?
When everybody looked at that house and said, we know what
that house is. Why'd she do that? She believed
God was able. She looked at that scarlet lion.
We look at the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see him lay
down his life. We see him perfect his people
forever. And we know that nothing is impossible
with God. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? And faith says, I know my God
is able. I know He's able. I might not
know what He's going to do for me in my life tomorrow, but I
know He's able to do whatever He's pleased to do. That's what
faith believes. And you can rest right there.
You can rest right there. Do you believe the Son of God
was able to take flesh like unto His brethren? You believe He
was able to make Himself under the law and to live perfectly
under that law all His days? You believe He was able to go
to that cross and be made sin for us? Some people don't believe
He was able to make Him sin for us who knew no sin. They say,
well, that don't make sense. Do you believe He was able to
be made a curse for us? Do you believe he was able after
three days to come out of that tomb and to show himself to his
disciples for those 40 days and then ascend back to glory where
the Father is and sit down at God's right hand? Do you believe
he's able to make intercession for his people right now before
God and that God will hear him because he's our advocate and
he's our righteousness before God? Do you believe He's able
to come forth and work anything He's pleased to work in your
life and in my life for His glory and for the good of His people?
Faith says He's able. Unbelief says, ah, well, this
situation's so bad. Unbelief says, look at us, we can't get through
this, so then God can't do anything. That's what unbelief is saying.
If we can't do it, then God can't do it. That's unbelief. That's unbelief. All those things I just said,
do you believe the Lord was able to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin? Do you believe He was able to
make reconciliation for iniquity? Do you believe He was able to
bring in everlasting righteousness? Able to fulfill the law of the
prophets? Able to enter into the holiest of holies, having
obtained eternal redemption for us? Do you believe that He was
able and that He did accomplish all those things? That's what
Daniel believed. when the same angel Gabriel came
to Daniel in Daniel 9 over 400 years before and told him, this
is what Christ will do. And Daniel believed him. He had
faith to believe him by God's grace. Now lastly, I want you
to see this. Unbelief's a heart matter. Unbelief's
a heart matter, same as faith is a heart matter. And God looks
on the heart. He looks on the heart. Now, we
see here, Zechariah said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this? Whereby shall I know you're telling
me the truth so I can believe? See, that's not faith. If God
gave you a sign to make you believe so that you would believe, that's
not faith. In the Old Testament, there were some cases where God
gave signs to Abraham and to different ones. But they already
were given faith and believed God. The sign he gave was just
to help strengthen their faith. It wasn't that they didn't believe.
Zechariah is here saying, you've got to show me something so I
can know you and then believe on you. And almost identical. The situation's almost identical.
And the angel appeared, and Mary was fearful. And the angel said,
fear not. And he told her the Lord Jesus
was in her womb, and he was gonna be holy, born of the Holy Spirit,
conceived of the Holy Spirit, that he's gonna be great. He's
Jesus, he shall save his people from their sin. He gave her the
name. All the situation here was just
almost identical. And then said Mary to the angel,
verse 34, how shall this be seeing I know not a man? Almost an identical
question. How shall this be that I know
not a man? And the angel said to her, he answered her. He said, the Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God. And then he said this
in verse 36, and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also
conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with
her who was called barren. For with God, nothing shall be
impossible. And Mary said, listen to this
answer, behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according
to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Their questions sound almost identical. But God looks on the
heart. He's looking on the heart that
he's made. And God doesn't see as a man sees. Man looks on the
outward appearance. God looks on the heart. And the
angel said to Zechariah, you believe not my words. Because
he knew in his heart. He saw his heart. You don't believe
my words. But the Holy Spirit came upon
Elizabeth, and the Lord spoke through Elizabeth in verse 45
and said, blessed is she that believed. She believed. He said, for there should be
a performance of those things which were told her from the
Lord. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit is rejoiced in God my Savior. Two persons
can do the same thing. Two people can do the same thing,
say the same thing, do almost identical, say almost identical
same thing, or do almost identical same thing. And one may even
appear outwardly to be better than another. But God sees the difference in
the heart. I'll give you an example. Lot's
wife looked back to Sodom. and the Lord turned her into
a pillar of salt. That same morning, at that same time, Abraham arose
and looked towards Sodom, and nothing happened to him. Why? She looked back longing
to go back. That was her heart. She wanted
to be back there. She came out bodily, but she
didn't come out spiritually. Abraham looked and was amazed
at God's holy justice that had fallen on Sodom. And he was hopeful
and trusting that God had made good on his word and brought
light out of Sodom before he destroyed it. Two different hearts
all together. One's a heart of faith looking
at Sodom, one's a heart of unbelief looking at Sodom. But you couldn't
tell the difference by looking at either one of them. I already
did the exact same thing. But God knows the heart. He looks
on the motive of the heart. On the motive of the heart. Outwardly,
one may be all but blameless. He may appear all but blameless
outwardly to the eye. But inward, his heart is far
from God. That was the case with the Pharisees.
And another may be a lowly handmaid like Mary. One that you don't
look on her and think, oh this is a holy and righteous person. And yet her heart, in her heart,
she believed God. Every word. Zacharias asked in
unbelief. Mary asked with astonishment.
She asked believing God. She knew the Son of God's coming
into the world. That's what she believed. She
knew this is the woman's seed, the one that's holy, that's coming
to save His people from our sin. She heard that name Jesus, Savior.
She knew that name, Hosea. She knew that's Savior. The motive
of her question was not to have a sign so that she might believe. The motive of her question was,
since she knew not a man, she just asked, how are you going
to do this? She asked with astonishment and
amazement like David when he said, who am I and what is my
house? Like Mephibosheth when he said,
why would you look on such a dead dog as I am? Why would the Lord love me? You
ever ask that question? Why would He choose me? Why would
Christ die for me? How can God use somebody like
me? But they're questions of faith. They're questions where
you stand in amazement at what God's done for you and what He's
doing with you and in you. But you see here, here's something
else I want to end with. God's faithful. God is faithful. Aren't you thankful He's faithful? The Lord renewed faith in Zacharias. We're going to see another time,
we'll see what his confession was after he loosened his tongue
and he spoke. You can read about it in the
end of the chapter. We'll see that another time. Here's what
I want you to get. Paul said, what if some did not
believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? God forbid. If we believe not,
yet he about us faithful, he cannot deny himself. He chose
Zacharias. Christ was his righteousness
and his holiness. He had given him the Holy Spirit
and all these gifts of grace, and God never takes back any
of his gifts of grace. God saved him because he was
his own, even though he sinned in unbelief. That ought to tell
us, brethren, salvation is entirely by God's grace, entirely in Christ,
entirely to the praise and glory of God alone. You believe the
word of the Lord. You trust the word of the Lord.
When it appears altogether impossible, you believe God. You believe
God. Believe He's able and trust the
Lord Jesus. He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. Nothing is impossible with the
Lord. Nothing. Let's go to Him, brethren. Our God and our Father, we thank
You for Your Word. Lord, how we thank You that You
saved by grace. Lord, we believe. Help thou our
unbelief. Save us from all our sins, Lord.
We want to serve You. We want to honor You. You've
given us a heart to want to. And Lord, we're thankful for
any good work You work in us. It's all of Your glory and Your
grace. Lord, we see this evil present with us, our unbelief
and our sin. Lord, we ask you, help us. Help us to believe you and trust
you. Lord, put down our flesh. Put it down. Subdue it. by your
power, help us, Lord, give us strength to keep our body in
subjection and trust you alone. We need you every hour. Lord,
we're thankful that you, we're thankful you're faithful and
continue to save us in spite of us. Thank you for this picture
and what you've shown us here today, Lord. In Christ's name,
amen.