It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The text of our scripture today
is Matthew chapter 13, verses 54 through 58. Let's read it
together. And when Jesus was come into
his own country, he taught them in their synagogue. insomuch
that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this
wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph,
and Simon, and Judas, and his sisters? Are they not all with
us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were
offended in him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet
is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own
house. And he did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief. I've entitled this message, Unbelief
and Faith. This scripture teaches the evil
of unbelief. I would like to consider three
things in this message. First, the evil of unbelief. It is a great sin against God.
Second, the sadness of unbelief. It is the cause for our greatest
sadness. Third, what is saving faith? What does the Bible mean when
it says to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? The people in this
scripture lived where Jesus grew up. They heard his wisdom. They
saw his miracles. They were astonished and called
his works mighty. But they willfully refused the
clear evidence that he was sent of God, that he was the Christ. Jesus' countrymen refused to
recognize him as God's Messiah, as if their recognition of him
was required. God's truth does not depend on
our believing it. God is true independent of man,
but man refuses to believe unless God fits his mold, unless he
can explain God to fit his view of things. These countrymen masked
their unbelief by making an issue of insignificant things. Men
will make much of things that don't matter when their eternal
souls are at stake. And then these countrymen also
were offended in Christ. They stumbled at their long-promised
Messiah and fell under the judgment of God. In the same way, the
Jews in Galatians 5.11 were offended at Paul's preaching of Christ
crucified, because salvation by Christ precludes anything
man can contribute. They trusted their circumcision.
But in Christ, God unmasks man's hypocrisy and reveals his complete
failure to earn God's acceptance by anything he can do. Since
all men naturally trust a salvation that depends on them and leaves
them in control, men are therefore offended by Christ. By their
unbelief, these countrymen forfeited Christ's blessings. Unbelief
is willful rejection of God's testimony concerning His Son.
1 John 5.10 It is refusal to believe the gospel of Christ
that He alone is the only way men can be saved from the wrath
of God. Acts 4.12 We naturally think
that failure to believe the gospel is not a very bad sin. For example,
is unbelief as bad as stealing or adultery or killing? We think,
surely if I am ignorant of God's truth, I can't be held accountable
for not believing. Another reason we are inclined
to excuse our unbelief is that we find so much of it in ourselves
and in our loved ones. If unbelief is so common, it
can't be all that bad, can it? If unbelief is common, isn't
God somehow responsible? Didn't He make me this way? If
unbelief is sin, then isn't the fault with God Of course, I speak
as a sinful man. Maybe you have thought, well,
when I stand before God, He will recognize that I did not believe
because I had so many questions. I just couldn't believe. Therefore,
I'll take my chances that God will consider my ignorance and
that I am not really worse than other people. Surely He will
not judge me for it. If God excuses the ignorance
of your unbelief, what about your sin? Do you think that all
holy God can excuse your sin? But it is not what you or I think.
The only issue is what God thinks. What does the Bible say? First,
let's consider the evil of unbelief. What does God think about man's
failure to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Genesis chapter
3 verses 1 through 6 records the first temptation and the
first sin. The devil tempted Eve to doubt
God. He said, yea, hath God said? In its most basic form, unbelief
is to doubt the truth of God's word. It is to doubt what God
has said. But the devil went further. He
not only suggested that God did not say what he did, but he twisted
what God said into a negative question to make it sound as
if God had placed an unreasonable requirement on man. Have God
said you shall not eat of every tree? He suggested that either
Eve was confused or that God was austere and unfair. Is it
true that God has said you shall not eat from any tree of the
garden? Really? The next thing Satan did was
to directly contradict God's word. You shall not surely die. Thus, in this we see how the
evil one himself knows that sin begins with a failure to believe
God's word. His temptation began by questioning
the truth of God's word. Then it digressed to flatly contradicting
God and His word. He said, you shall not surely
die. Finally, once God's word was
denied, the devil called God's goodness into question. God knows
that in the day you eat thereof you shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. What was the devil's strategy?
First, question that God spoke what he did. Second, doubt the
truth of God's word. Third, flatly deny the truth.
And fourth, call God's character into question. You know the story. Eve believed the devil's lie.
In doing so, she failed to believe God. Therefore, unbelief was
the first temptation and the first sin. God cannot lie. His word is truth. He is good
in all His ways, and He only does wonderful things. Psalm
72, 18. He created the world. He made man out of dirt. He created
a beautiful garden and put man in it. He gave everything in
the garden for man to enjoy, for its beauty and for food.
He created a woman for the man. God only withheld one thing from
man, the one thing that would bring his death, to eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Was God evil in any
of this? Was He not rather supremely good?
Isn't it good of God to forbid what causes our death? Therefore,
when Eve doubted God's word and doubted God's goodness, it was
a very evil thing. We see in this that unbelief
is the first sin and the root of all sin. Hebrews 3 verse 12
says, Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God. The second example
of unbelief is found in the nation of Israel. Once again the evil
of man's unbelief is seen against the backdrop of God's goodness.
They were in the wilderness about to enter Canaan. God had delivered
them from Egypt and its slavery. He had destroyed their enemies
in the Red Sea. He gave the entire nation water
to drink out of a rock. He fed them with bread from heaven.
He guided them by His presence. He was a light to them by night
and a cloud to them by day. But for all of the signs and
wonders and goodness of God to Israel, they did not believe
Him. In every trouble they accused God of evil intent. Many times
they said, you brought us into the wilderness to destroy us,
such as in Exodus 16.3. When God led them to the border
of the promised land, Israel sent 12 men to spy out the land. But 10 of those men brought back
an evil report, Numbers 13.32, a report of unbelief. They instilled fear into the
entire congregation by telling them there were formidable giants
in the land. Yes, the land was good. Yes,
it flowed with milk and honey. All was just as God had said.
But they told them there were terrible and unconquerable giants
in that land. They said, we saw the giants,
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight,
Numbers 13.33. From this account we learn the
evil character of unbelief. Unbelief looks upon itself through
its own eyes and through the eyes of its enemies. Unbelief
measures God by itself. Unbelief measures God's strength
by its own weakness. Unbelief measures God's goodness
by its own evil heart. Unbelief therefore accuses God
of evil. Unbelief can only believe God
as far as human strength is able to do to fulfill His promise. What about us? Do we measure
God's righteousness by our own? Do you see yourself as a grasshopper
in the eyes of the giant of your own sin and God's law? Or do
you see your sin in the light of what Christ has done? Israel
looked upon their weakness in the eyes of their enemy, but
faith looks upon its enemy through the eyes of God's word, His promise,
and His strength. Caleb and Joshua gave the report
of faith. They said, They are bread for
us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with
us. Fear them not. Numbers 14 verse 9. So far we
have learned these facts about unbelief. Unbelief fails to believe
God and His word. Eve believed the lie of the devil.
She did not believe the word of God, though she had it and
understood it. Israel did not believe God could bring them
into the land of Canaan, though they had seen His goodness. And
unbelief flatly denies God's word. The devil flatly denied
God's word. Eve believed his lie. And unbelief
accuses God of evil. Eve believed the devil's suggestion
that God withheld the fruit of one tree from them because he
was keeping back a blessing. And Israel interpreted all their
troubles to mean that God intended evil against them. Unbelief cannot
believe God's promise unless it can see a way in its own strength
to fulfill that promise. Unbelief requires something from
itself to make God's promise work. The Jews rejected Christ
because they wanted God to bless them by what they did, by their
circumcision, by their law keeping, and so on. Now, let's look briefly
at the New Testament. In Matthew chapters 11, 12, and
13, we see unbelief again and again. In Matthew 11, for example,
Jesus publicly commends John the Baptist. In so doing, he
also underscores the importance of his own ministry. John warned
Israel of the coming wrath of God. He told them to repent,
to change their mind concerning the remission of sins. He pointed
to Jesus and announced, The Lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world. But many rejected the testimony
of God that John preached. They did not repent towards God
and they did not believe Christ. Acts 20 verse 21. When Jesus
came, they rejected him and his testimony. In Matthew 11, Jesus
compares them to children playing games in the marketplace. John
warned men. He exposed their hypocrisy and
self-righteousness. He pointed them to Christ and
Him crucified, the Lamb of God. John's message was as a mournful
song to them. But Jesus preached the gospel
of His redeeming work to lost, ruined, and helpless sinners.
Matthew 9.13 and Matthew 11.28 His message was a melodious tune
to sorrowful hearts. But in their unbelief the scribes
and Pharisees were like naughty children who only seek their
own way and cannot be pleased. Jesus compared their unbelief
in rejecting John and himself to notoriously evil Gentile cities. He said that in the day of judgment
it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah and for Tyre
and Sidon than for them. What do we learn from this? We
learn that unbelief is stubborn, willful rejection of God's revealed
truth. We learn that unbelief is more
evil than the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah and the idolatry
of Tyre and Sidon. The Jews in Jesus' day were proud
of their standing before God. They based their confidence on
having God's law and knowing it. But Jesus said having and
knowing were of no value unless they kept it. Jesus exposed them. They disobeyed the law that they
trusted. In their hypocrisy, they failed
to see that they were spiritually wretched, poor, blind, and naked
before God. Revelation 3.17 Therefore they
did not come to Christ. His message was not good news
to them. They did not think they needed Him or His mercy. They
did not need God's Savior. Do you Do I? Do we see ourselves utterly sinful
and helpless before God? Do we see that apart from God's
free and sovereign mercy in Christ, we will die in our sins? And
do you call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save you? Do I? In these three examples we see
the evil of unbelief. Here are more clear statements
from scripture that affirm just how bad unbelief is. 1 John 5.10
says, He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. To not believe
the gospel concerning Christ is to claim that God is a liar. That is the height of evil arrogance. For a sinful man to deny God,
whose word is truth, and who made me, and upholds me by his
word, is to take issue with the one in whose hand my breath is,
and whose are all my ways." Daniel 5, verse 23. Is it not madness
to assail the foundation on which my life and my eternity depend? In Romans 10.16 God says, Who
hath believed our report? This is a quotation from Isaiah
53. The report is the gospel. Isaiah
prophesied that Christ would substitute himself for his people,
that he would offer himself to God in their place, bear their
sins, answer God's justice, satisfy that justice to justify them
by his obedience and suffering. Isaiah 53 is perhaps the greatest
prophecy in all of scripture. It explains how Christ made atonement
for the sins of his people. It shows how God accepts from
the substitute all that He requires of those for whom He stands.
And it establishes that glorious truth that God's people are one
with their substitute who stood in their place. God looks upon
Christ and receives from Christ all that He requires of His people. There is nothing in the universe
more glorious than this, that Christ interposed himself to
answer God for all that his people owed, and to fulfill for them
all that God required. Believing this, we will never
cease to worship and love God. He receives his people for Christ's
sake alone, and he receives them as he receives his Son. Christ
made satisfaction to God's justice for the sins of his people, and
there is no greater love. Now in Romans 10.16 it says,
they have not all obeyed the gospel, for who hath believed
our report? Isaiah 53 is the gospel. Failure
to believe the gospel, therefore, is disobedience. Thus, we see
that unbelief is not a blameless crime. It is disobedience. And disobedience is my fault,
not God's. And it is not any ordinary disobedience. It is failure to believe God's
record of His Son. Unbelief is the claim that God
is a liar. Unbelief is truly evil. It exceeds
the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. It exceeds the idolatry of Tyre
and Sidon. It is failure to believe that
Christ made full atonement for the sins of his people by substituting
himself in their place under the wrath of God. Galatians 3.13
Unbelief is willful disobedience to the only way God saves sinners. We see now not only the evil
of unbelief but the sadness of it. Why is unbelief so sad? It is sad because unbelief opposes
my own salvation. Paul told Timothy that the servant
of the Lord must instruct those that oppose themselves if God,
peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. 2 Timothy 2.25 The truth, we must acknowledge,
is the gospel of Christ and Him crucified, the truth about who
Christ is, that He is God and man, and the truth about what
He accomplished, the complete salvation of all of His people
by His death on the cross as their mediator. Paul told Timothy
that men oppose themselves by disobeying this truth in unbelief. And he says that only God can
give them repentance. The repentance that only God
can give is believing Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel.
Faith is acknowledging the truth of Christ as He is revealed in
the Gospel. It is sad that though the Galatians
heard so clearly from Paul of Christ that it was as if he had
been crucified among them, yet they failed to believe, they
failed to obey the truth of the Gospel. They attempted to add
and improve on what Christ accomplished by His death. See Galatians 2.21
and Galatians 3.1-2. Their unbelief confused them.
They thought acceptance and perfection before God could be attained
by an act they were able to perform, rather than the offering of Christ
for His people. Hebrews 10.14 says, By one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Paul told
the Galatians, Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
crucified among you? Is anything sadder than sinners
opposing their own salvation or professing believers attempting
to secure God's blessing by their personal obedience? God's wrath
is upon all who refuse to believe God. John 3.36 says, He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Unbelief accuses God of evil. It makes God a liar and brings
upon me the wrath of God. It hides me from the glory of
God. It prevents me from knowing Jesus Christ and seeing God in
Him. Therefore, there is nothing more
evil or more sad than unbelief. Another sad fact of unbelief
is that men do not naturally believe God. Since Adam sinned,
all men are born into the world in unbelief. Romans 11.32 says,
God has concluded them all in unbelief. Concluded means God
has shut them up. Unbelief is man's fault. It is
a prison of their own making. That is sad. Only God can deliver
us from our own unbelief. God will have men to know that
there is no way of escaping judgment for our sin except in Christ.
In the prison of my unbelief, I cannot see how God can save
me. I am so bad. I cannot see how he can look
upon me with favor. He is of purer eyes than to behold
evil. How can God accept me, a sinner? How can God receive me as righteous?
Only the gospel answers this question. Only faith enables
us to understand and receive it. Now let's consider what is
faith. Unbelief refuses to believe the
gospel witness that Christ is God and man, that he accomplished
salvation for his people. But God's word is the only evidence.
Faith needs proof. Faith needs only God's word to
know that Christ paid the uttermost farthing of my sin debt. Faith
needs only God's word to know that God is satisfied with Christ
and therefore with his people. Romans 4.25 says, He was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
Faith needs only God's word to know that Christ's obedience
is my only righteousness before God. Psalm 71 16 says, I will
go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy
righteousness, even thine only. Faith needs only God's word to
know that Christ rules over sin and death and over all things
in heaven and earth and will save me to the uttermost. Romans
6.14 says, Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are
not under the law but under grace. Faith hungers and thirsts for
God's word to know that Christ has done all in my place. What
is faith? Faith is the persuasion of the
truth concerning Christ and the salvation He accomplished for
His people, which God has revealed in the Gospel. This persuasion
makes the Lord Jesus Christ all my trust. When Abram was old
and unable to have children, God said, I have made you a father
of many nations, Romans 4.17. When he had no children, God
called him Abraham, father of many nations. Though it was not
fulfilled, but based solely on God's word, Abraham was fully
persuaded that what God promised he was also able to perform. Romans 4.21 That is faith. Faith is a God-given persuasion
that God is true, that his word cannot fail, that what he said
Christ has accomplished is finished. Hebrews 11 says, Through faith
Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered
of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful
who had promised. Do you see that this is God's
definition of faith? This persuasion of the truth
concerning Christ? Sin begins with a failure to
believe God and His Word. But faith seeks all things from
God in Christ. Hebrews 11, 6, He is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him. Believers seek all things
in Christ, even the faith they need to believe. Do you bring
your faith to Christ, or do you come to Christ for faith? Unbelief
looks upon itself through its own eyes and through the eyes
of its enemies. Unbelief can only conceive of a salvation
that includes some contribution from itself. But faith sees Christ
as all and receives God's testimony that he sees his people only
in Christ. Jeremiah 50 verse 20 says, In
those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
them whom I reserve. Faith sees what God sees, Christ
and His people in Him. Unbelief measures God by itself. Faith measures God by God's word
concerning Christ. Unbelief thinks God will accept
the obedience from men as righteousness. But faith looks away from itself
to Christ's obedience alone. Unbelief does not know God. But
faith knows God in Christ. It knows Him by what He did,
His kindness, His love, His justice, His grace. Christ loved me and
gave Himself for me. God did not spare His own Son,
but made Him the propitiation for the sins of His people, the
one offering that compensated and made satisfaction to God
for their sins. 1 John 4 verses 9-10 Unbelief
can only believe God as far as human wisdom and strength are
able to conceive and act. Unbelief therefore tries to secure
God's promises by what it does. Unbelief says, accept Jesus,
or be circumcised. But faith takes God's word as
true. Christ has perfected his people
forever by his one offering. It is finished. And in Christ,
faith rests. Unbelief attempts to bring to
God something from itself that God will accept, but faith is
the gift of God's grace that persuades sinners that God has
already made his people acceptable in his Son. Ephesians 1.6 Unbelief
secretly thinks God is evil, but faith sees only beauty in
Christ. Unbelief is sad, because it excludes
me from glory. But faith sees that God is glad,
because His grace overcomes my unbelief by the resurrecting
power of His Spirit of grace. He persuades me that Christ is
enough, that He is all. If God has said that Christ is
enough, and that He is satisfied with Him apart from any obedience
on my part, then I can be satisfied with him. By the resurrection
of Christ, God has stamped his eternal very good on his people,
because he sees them in Christ. And Hebrews 1.3 says, When he
had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. Look to Christ. Believe Him. Look no further than Him and
look no more to yourself. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com.