Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you that
we can come to you and know you in him, in his salvation that's
so free and so glorious and comes to us out of your heart. And
you bore all the expense to save us. We're so thankful, Lord. We pray that you would give us
this faith we need to see and believe the Lord Jesus. We're
ashamed to admit that faith is not something that comes natural
to us. It's a shameful thing. But Lord, we pray that you would
be gracious. Bless your word to our hearts today. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. In Matthew 13, we're going
to read from verse 53 to the end of the chapter. It begins in verse 53, It came
to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, He departed thence,
and when He 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 Joses, which is another name for 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 miracles
there because of their unbelief. The same account is in Mark chapter
6, and in verse 6 of Mark it says that Jesus marveled because
of their unbelief, and He went round about the villages teaching,
and in verse 5 He said, And He could there do no mighty work,
save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them.
He could there do, or He could, He did not do many mighty works
there, or no mighty works, save that He laid His hands upon a
few sick folk and healed them. I've entitled this message, The
Evil, Danger, and Sadness of Unbelief. I know it's a long
title. I was actually looking at this differently last week,
and since no one was here, we didn't have a message. But last
week's message was going to be, Unbelief, Savage Cruelty, and
the compassion of Christ. And I was going all the way through
chapter 14, and I think it's important to see the context
in which this account is given, which includes chapter 14 in
Matthew's Gospel. Here, Jesus comes to the town,
or not the town, but the country, Nazareth, where He was raised
up. Not where He was born, but where
He grew up. And the people there saw his miracles, and they heard
his words. He taught in the synagogue, and
they heard what he had to say. And they said, this is astonishing. They were amazed. They called
his works, mighty works. And they called what he said,
wisdom. And they were amazed at it. But then, they asked this
strange, long line of questions about, well, wait a minute. Isn't
he just the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother Mary? I mean,
we know his brothers and sisters. And so, in the question that
they asked, they were suggesting that they're familiar with his
family, and his family was nothing great. His dad was just a carpenter,
very lowly trade, fixing plows and whatever the people needed
that was made out of wood. It was considered one of the
lowest trades back then because when the Israelites captured
a group of people back in the Old Testament, they made them
hewers of wood and drawers of water. That means they made them
carpenters and water fetchers. So being a carpenter was a lowly
thing, but it was just honest, hard work. Jesus had grown up
that way, and that's the trade that he had as a young man before
he began the ministry. And his mother Mary was there.
They knew her. There was nothing great about Mary. They didn't
see anything great about her. There was no halo around her
head. And there were his brothers and
sisters. And they list the names of his brothers, but not the
sisters. So they thought, well, how could he have learned the
wisdom that he has from his family. Obviously, he didn't go to school.
We know the synagogue where he went, so this is strange. They were offended at him. But
really, if you think about it, that's unreasonable for them
to be offended. If he really had done works that
were astonishing, and spoke words that were wise words, and they
were astonished at what he said, you would think that they would
have concluded that therefore, God must be with him. How could
someone of no significant background be able to speak the very wisdom
of God and do the works that He did. And so, though their
offense at Him was not reasonable, it was unreasonable. It didn't
make sense. And yet they were offended at
Him. And so, I've entitled this message, for that reason, the
evil, the danger, and the sadness of unbelief. The evil, the danger,
and the sadness of unbelief. And unbelief is something that,
you know, if you ask people about unbelief, they would, and we're
included in that, I would say, you know, it's kind of hard to
find fault with somebody who doesn't believe because, I mean,
they can't help it, really. They're really not to be blamed
for not believing. Isn't that the way we think?
I mean, they probably just don't have enough information. If they
had the right information, they probably would believe. That
makes sense, doesn't it? That's not what the Bible says
about unbelief. And it has a lot of things to
say about it, it turns out. So that's why I want to look
at this, the evil of unbelief and the sadness of unbelief and
the danger of it, because all these things are true. And so
I want to look at that with you. And so we're going to see that
unbelief is not just a faultless sin, a sin without
fault, without blame to us who have it. And we're going to see
that it's really quite bad. In fact, it's the root of all
other sin. And then we're also going to
see the danger of unbelief, that it's not something to be trifled
with. It's something that we should be very, very concerned
about. And we're also going to see the
sadness of unbelief, because there's something about unbelief
that makes me very sad. And then also, I want to look
at this question with you. Why is it that some believe and
some don't? And then thirdly, and this is
the last thing, is that why is it so significant? What is it
that faith gives us, when the Lord gives us faith? If we were
to drill down and to look at the greatest thing about faith,
what would we find? So let's take these things in
order here. The evil, first of all, the evil of unbelief. Look
at Genesis chapter 3, the very beginning. of the Bible, we find
unbelief. It was actually the very first
temptation, and it was the very first sin. It says in Genesis
chapter three, verse one, now the serpent was more subtle than
any beast of the field. That means he was wiser, and
the wisdom here of the serpent is not a wisdom that is a good
wisdom, it's a bad wisdom. He was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the
woman..." Notice these first four words. "...Yea, hath God
said?" What is that? That's a question. And it's a
question, did God really say that? what he's about to say. And it's basically casting doubt
in the first thing the devil said. Did God really say that?
That's the way, that's the tactic of the devil. If you've noticed
that throughout the short history you've been on earth, listening
to the media, television, politics, education, it doesn't matter
where you are, the first thing people do is they cast doubt
on the truth. Is God's word really true? How
could it be true if it was written by men? I mean, who put it all
together? How do you know it's God's Word?
That's the way it is, isn't it? First cast doubt. And then, notice
what happens is that there's not just a doubt cast, but there's
a flat contradiction that follows. He says, after he says, Yea,
hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Questioning whether God really said that there was one tree
they couldn't eat of. And the woman replied, she said
to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of
the garden, God has said you shall not eat of it, neither
shall you touch it, lest you die. And listen to what the serpent
said here, the flat denial. And the serpent said to the woman,
you shall not surely die. But God said you would. And he
said, no, you shall not. A flat denial. First doubt, then
a flat denial. And that's the way it is with
everything. First there's a doubt. Is there
really a baby in the womb? And then the conclusion is, well,
you know, whatever it is, we're just going to give it another
name that means it's a developing human, has really no human qualities
until it's actually given birth. And besides the fact it gets
in the way of the woman's right to her body. I think that we
should make a law to allow her to kill. Giving parents a legal
foundation on which they can murder their own children. That's
the way doubt comes in. First a doubt, and the error
comes in that way. First a doubt and then a flat
denial. But it's even worse in religious matters. First there's
doubt. Is the Bible the word of God? Can you really believe everything
God says? I mean surely He couldn't have
meant what He said when He said that All the animals got into
the ark. That's impossible. So we can
throw out a whole lot of things in Scripture. There's no fish
that could have swallowed a man and him live through that process.
There's a lot of things in Scripture that just are unbelievable. We
can't take the Bible to be true. But that's the fact. The Bible
is the Word of God. In fact, the Bible is the only
thing that's true in the world. And there's lots of doubts that
come in that way, and we could go down the list. Is God really
sovereign? Does He really control everything?
Is salvation really only by Jesus Christ? I mean, what if you're
sincere? Can you be saved just because you're just... I mean,
there's a lot of people in the world that are nice people. I
know a lot of people that are nice. I mean, what about that
woman that went into the house to rescue her daughter in a flaming
house and she died because of it. Or that man who went to war
and fought for his country so valiantly and died. I mean, we
can't find fault with those people, can we? We start thinking outside
of the Bible and we get off track. And that's exactly the ploy of
the devil. So the first thing we see about
unbelief is that it's the very first... root temptation that
the devil gave to the woman, that gave to all mankind. And
the unbelief starts with this. Did God really say that? Is that
really what he means? Is that really true? Can you
really take God's word at face value? So that's the first thing
about it. And then look at 1 John, the
evil of unbelief. Look at 1 John chapter 5. I'll
just take you through a lot of verses today. He says this, just
to show you the evil of unbelief. He says in 1 John chapter 5,
in verse 9, If we receive the witness of men, the witness of
God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. 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. You see how significant unbelief
is? Unbelief is claiming God lied concerning the fact that
he gave his son. That's significant, isn't it?
It's evil because it was the first temptation, the first sin,
and here you see what it amounts to is calling God a liar. God is truth. Jesus said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. God's word is truth. He says
it throughout scripture. Thy word is truth. John 17, 17.
In Psalm 119, throughout there, it says, Thy word is truth. Forever,
O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. It says in Psalm 119,
89, God's word cannot fail, Jesus said. It cannot be broken. God
has exalted his word above his own name. Psalm 138 verse 2. So all these things teach us
the significance of God. God cannot lie. God is truth. And so for man, who was created
by God, think about it. God made man out of the dirt,
breathed life into him, put him in a garden, gave him dominion
over everything, gave him everything. Except one thing. He said, this
one tree, this one fruit, don't eat of it. And then he even made
a woman and brought the woman to the man. Gave him all this.
And for that man to say, you know, maybe God isn't really
true. Maybe what he says is not only
not true, but maybe like the devil said, he knows that when
you eat of that fruit, your eyes are going to be open. You're
going to be like gods, knowing good and evil. Maybe God isn't
really good. I mean, maybe really he's just
like I am, who thinks only of himself. And so we begin to doubt
God's Word. We don't understand God. And
unbelief brings a darkness over us. When we don't believe God's
Word, we're confused about the way things really are. Because
the way things really are, are only known by what God said.
So if we don't believe God, we know nothing at all. It says
in Hebrews 11.3, In fact, look at Hebrews 11, because this is
a significant chapter. This is the faith chapter, as
it's called. Hebrews chapter 11. He says,
now faith, this is going to be a definition of it. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not
seen. What he's saying here is what
faith is in its essence is that faith We don't have what God
has promised. The things that we hope for because
God has promised them. They're certain. God will, without
fail, give them to us. But we don't have them yet. God
told Abraham, I want you to leave your country, leave all your
family, go to a place, I'm going to give you. And Abraham left
and he dwelt in tents his whole life. He never received that
promise. But he looked at it as if it
was his already. That was faith that enabled him
to see what God had promised was his. And enabled him to enjoy
the reality of it spiritually, even though the physical fulfillment
of it hadn't yet come to pass. So faith takes things that are
future in God's promise and certain, and it makes them reality to
us in our heart. We know it's true. I know that
I stand before God accepted because of Jesus Christ. I don't see
it. I don't have any evidence of it, except what God said in
His Word. And the faith that God gives
us rests on that. And then he says it's the evidence
of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. We don't see the Lord Jesus Christ,
do we? You can't see Him. He used to
be on the earth. His family saw him, but they
didn't believe him. At least not while he was alive.
While he was on the earth. Later, some of them did. But
we can't see him. And yet, it says, "...whom having
not seen, you love." In 1 Peter 1.7 he says, "...whom have ye
not seen ye love?" It's faith that enables us to see what's
true, even though we can't see it with our physical eyes. It's
the evidence of things not seen. And then he says in verse 2,
"...for by it the elders obtained a good report." Then he says
in verse 3, "...through faith we understand that the worlds
were framed by the word of God." So that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear. Everything we see
was not made of things that you can see. That you can measure.
God spoke and it was done. He made the world out of nothing. By His word. How do we know that?
Because God says that. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. Right there. And it says throughout
scripture that God created the world out of nothing. All things
were made by Him. Nothing was made that was not
made by Him. And He made it for Himself. How do we know that?
Because we believe God. And God said it. And we know
that because we believe God it's true. So now we understand what
you can only know by revelation. That's what faith is. So to deny
that, to deny that in unbelief, what does it mean? It means that
we're taking our acts to the foundation on which our lives
depend. God and His Word. All things
are upheld by Him and His Word. Look at Daniel chapter 5. Daniel
chapter 5 is after the book of Ezekiel. If you happen to stumble
on Jeremiah, then Ezekiel, then Daniel, chapter 5. In Daniel,
chapter 5, there was a king, Nebuchadnezzar, a notorious king,
who was proud, he was powerful, he raised up an image, he made
everyone bow down to his image. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
would not bow down to it. He cast them into the fiery furnace. God preserved them in the furnace.
Christ appeared with them in the furnace. They were saved.
Not even their clothes smelled like smoke when they came out.
They were saved alive. Nebuchadnezzar did many things
like this. He was a ruthless ruler. God
humbled him. And he had a son. And when his
son was raised up, his son forgot everything that God had taught
Nebuchadnezzar through the pain of his life. And so his son goes
out and he gets all the golden vessels out that they had taken
from the temple in Jerusalem. And he began to drink. He and
his concubines, the harlots and everybody in the palace with
him were drinking out of these golden vessels. And while they're
drinking this hand appears, just a hand. writing on the wall. And it writes something on the
wall. And the king, who was Nebuchadnezzar's son, he sees this writing of
this hand on the wall, and he begins to be afraid. His knees
actually knock together, it says in scripture. And so he says,
what is this? Well, what was written on the
wall was not decipherable. Nobody knew what it meant. So
he had to call Daniel. And Daniel said, interpreted
what it said to him. But I want to read this. what
Daniel said to this son of King Nebuchadnezzar. He says in verse
22, he says, And thou, his son, speaking about Nebuchadnezzar,
O Belshazzar, this is verse 22 of Daniel 5, And thou, his son,
O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest
all this, all that God did to his father. He knew it. What
does it mean when you know something and you reject the knowledge
of that? If you say, I know that to be true, but I'm just going
to set that aside as if it doesn't. That's called unbelief. Verse
23, But thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord God, the Lord
of heaven. And they have brought the vessels
of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives,
and thy concubines have drunk wine in them. And thou hast praised
the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone,
which see not, nor hear, nor know. And the God in whose hand
thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified. But my point in reading that
was, that's what unbelief does. It's like taking, and you know
the proverbial thing, he shot himself in the foot? It's taking issue with the very foundation
on which your life and soul and eternity depend. The Word of
God. No, that's not true. But yet,
God Himself, in His hand is your breath. And you're raising yourself
up in unbelief against Him. You're calling God a liar? The
foundation of everything? That's the way unbelief is. It's
a really bad crime. Look at... Look at John chapter
3. We might ask, well, if unbelief
is that bad, whose fault is it? Why don't men believe? You'd
think that, is it the devil's fault? Well, the devil did tempt
Eve with unbelief, and the devil's job is to deceive men. But it's not just the devil's
fault. It's our fault. And that's the
thing about unbelief. It's a sin that God holds men
accountable for. Look at John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
We saw in 1 John 5, verse 10, that to deny the witness of God
the Father is to call God a liar, because He spoke concerning His
Son. Here it says, if you don't believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're condemned already. Look at verse
19, "...and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil." Why do men not believe? Because they love the darkness. They love the lie. We love and
we hold to a lie. And when the truth comes and
presents itself to us so that we can't deny it in unbelief,
we will harden our hearts and reject it in spite of all the
evidence. That's what unbelief is. Unbelief
is not a blameless crime. It's a willful disobedience to
the clear evidence of God's Word. And since God's Word is the only
truth there is, then we know that it's what God has given
us to teach us what's right and what's wrong, what's true and
what's not true. And so to deny God's Word is
unbelief. That's what unbelief is. It's
to deny the truth clearly revealed in the Word of God. And it's
a willful thing. Look at Romans chapter 1. Romans
chapter 1, it's not like, well, I can't help it that I don't
believe. I'm just a poor, uneducated native in the deepest,
darkest regions of the world somewhere, where I've never heard
anything about God, so how can you blame me? Isn't that the
way we think? I'm a victim. I can't help being
stupid about God, ignorant about God. Verse chapter 1 of Romans,
he says, "...for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Why? "...who hold the
truth in unrighteousness." To hold the truth means they suppress
it. Ugh! I don't like that! See, unbelief
simply doesn't like what God says, and so we reject it. Whatever
God says, I don't like that. I don't want to hear it. And
we hold it down. It says, "...they hold the truth
and unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God
is manifest in them." How do you know? God has showed it to
them. That's what it says right here. Verse 19, verse 20, "...for
the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world,
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."
If God created the world, which He did, then He Himself is uncreated
and the world is temporary and God's eternal. We know God's
eternal and that His power is limitless, that He can speak
and the worlds are created. Verse 21, "...because that when
they knew God, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like the corruptible man." They didn't
just, uh, there must be a God, so let's make Him. No, and that's
stupid. Isn't that stupid? That's what
we are by nature. So you can see the evil of unbelief. It's our fault. It's a blatant
denial of the truth we are taught in our conscience by God Himself.
And look at Hebrews chapter 3. Turn the pages from Romans to
Hebrews. Not only is it a blatant denial,
but it's evidence of an evil and hard heart. Hebrews chapter
3, if I can get there. The children of Israel in the
wilderness, they heard God's Word, they were delivered out
of Egypt, Egyptian bondage. brought through the Red Sea.
God opened up the sea and they walked through on dry land. God
closed the sea on their enemies and they were completely destroyed.
All the armies of Egypt. God brought water out of a rock,
manna from heaven, sustained them in the wilderness. Their
shoes didn't wear out. He brings them right to the edge of Canaan.
All the while, you know what they were saying? Why didn't
God bring us out here to kill us? That's exactly what they
did. We should have just stayed in Egypt and died like slaves
in the misery of Egyptian bondage. That's what they were saying.
God isn't good. He brought us out here to kill
us. That's unbelief. So in Hebrews chapter 3, notice
what he says here. He says in verse Verse seven,
wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if you will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. in the
day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me,
and proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was
grieved with that generation, and said, Listen, they do always
err in their heart, and they have not known my ways." Unbelief
is a hardness of heart. It's an error of heart thinking. And it shows a total ignorance
of God and His ways. You can't know God without believing
Him. God makes Himself known to us
through His Word, and faith enables us to understand the truth of
it. And yet, here these people were, a whole nation, hardening
their hearts against God in unbelief. And it was an evil thing. Look
at what he says a little bit later. He says in verse 12, I'm
sorry, verse 11. So I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest. We just read in Romans 118, "...the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
But here he says, here these Israelites were tempting God,
provoking Him in the wilderness for 40 years. Can God do this?
Can God do that? We had this in Egypt. He didn't
do it here. You know, whining and complaining all the time.
And so that's why they actually wandered for 40 years. Remember,
they went to Canaan. Here they are. Within two years,
they're at the border of Canaan. And God's got all of them there.
He says, now you go in and spy out the land. And they sent in
some representative men, sent in 12. And they come back and
say, this place is amazing! Grapes. Two men have to carry
one bunch of grapes. It's just incredible. Oh, by
the way, there's these giants there. They're so bad that we're
not going to be able to... And we look like grasshoppers
in their eyes. How did you figure that out?
Well, that's just the way we saw ourselves in the eyes of
these giants. We were nothing. They were monsters. We couldn't
go in there. There's no way. They saw what
they did in unbelief. They thought the only way to
get the job done was in their own strength. They trusted only
in what they could do and see. They had no concept that God
and His salvation was entirely independent of their weakness.
So that was unbelief. So there's a hardening of the
heart. There's a deliberate refusal. There's a love of darkness rather
than light. And there's a refusal against
all evidence. Remember what Jesus said to so
many times. He said in John 6.36, You also
have seen me and believe not. You've seen me. They ate the
bread. They said, Wow! He made bread. What sign are you going to show
us that you're sent from God? 5,000 people just fed with the
bread that Jesus created. On the spot. In their very eyes.
Right before their very eyes. And they ate it themselves. And
then they asked the question, Well, you know, God gave us bread
in the wilderness. Moses gave us bread in the wilderness.
What are you going to do? Jesus said, you have seen me
and you don't believe me. That's what unbelief does. It
sees the truth and it denies it. It rejects it. And it's a
great danger too. Remember the wrath of God? Let
me read to you this verse in John 3.36. He says the wrath of God in Romans
118 and Hebrews 3.12. But here he says in John 3.36,
"...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. I like this quote from Don Fortner.
He says, "...the only thing that will keep you out of heaven is
your own unbelief." The only thing that's going to keep you
out of heaven is your own unbelief. Isn't that what it says here?
He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abides on him. But then Don also added this,
but the only thing that will keep you out of hell is the will
of God. Your own will is the only thing,
your willful unbelief is the only thing that will keep you
out of heaven, but it's the will of God alone that's going to
keep you out of hell. And if you understand that, then
you understand the next part which we're going to look at,
which is why some believe and some do not. But before we get
there, I want to talk with you just a minute about the sadness
of unbelief, the sadness of it. Because if you think about it,
if you see the evil of unbelief, what is your reaction to that? You know, the reaction in my
heart is, that's really shameful. How could I not believe God?
God has said, all those in Christ, their sins are forgiven, they've
been given a perfect righteousness, they have eternal life now, they're
going to be brought to glory, they're going to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. All these things God has said, and yet, how much
joy do I have because of that? Very, very little. Why? Because
I don't believe. How much assurance do I have?
Very little because I don't believe. All the things that faith receives
from God, unbelief prevents me from having it. It robs me of
those things and that's sad. But not only is it sad for that,
it's sad to me and breaks my heart that I can't believe Christ. And I can't believe God unless
He gives me His grace. That's how bad I am. Look at
this verse in Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, because
this helps. Why do some people believe and
some don't? Is it that some people are just
born with a disposition to simply believe and others are not? Look at Romans chapter 11, verse
32. God hath concluded them all in
unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. Concluded means
He shut them up. The word concluded means God
has shut them up all. All. How many? All. He's talking
here about the Jews and the Gentiles. He's taken all people in the
world and He's closed them up in unbelief. That's the conclusion
God has drawn. And we think about the word shut
up. You should think about it as
a prison. God has shut men up in the prison of their own unbelief. Darkness. Well, why would God
shut men up in unbelief? Does God make men not believe? No. Men are unbelievers, but
He keeps that prison closed. He shuts it up and doesn't let
them out of that prison until He, according to His good pleasure,
gives them faith. So we're concluded, we're shut
up in unbelief. And only God can open the prison
door and shine the light. That's what the gospel is. It's
the light. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And so,
when we are in this prison, it's the same thing that's in Galatians
chapter 3. Look at that. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
20. I'm sorry, yeah, Galatians 3.22. He says, The scripture has concluded all
under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be
given to them that believe. Concluded all under sin is the
same thing as in Romans 11.32. All men are shut up under sin. And they can't get out. We're
in the prison of our own sinful... We're slaves to sin. We love
sin. We go after sin. There's nothing
we can do to free ourselves from the bondage of sin, or the guilt
of sin, or the condemnation of sin. We're sinners. And we're
without strength against sin. In the same way we're without
strength against our own unbelief. We're guilty. We're under the
wrath of God for our wickedness, for our unbelief. And it's a
sad thing. It robs me of being able to see the glory of God
in Christ. And yet I can't believe of my
own self because it's endemic to me. It's part of my nature.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or the leopard change his
spots? Then you also, which are accustomed
to doing evil, can do good. That's what God says in Jeremiah
23 13. So unbelief is that way. And
the other thing about unbelief, and here's the thing I think
that is so sad to me. Not only does it deny the plain
word of the Lord Jesus Christ, but unbelief, think about this,
is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross."
An insult! Why do I say that? Because unbelief
says that all that the Gospel claims He has done, unbelief
holds tightly to the fact that I I cannot submit myself entirely
into the hands of Christ to save me all by himself. I have to
bring something of myself in order to allow my conscience
to have that peace of knowing that God accepts me. Because
I brought something. Maybe I think about, well, that
time I walked forward in church, or said, I accept Jesus, or asked
Jesus into my heart. I think back about my own experience,
something that I had a twinge, an experience in my heart. I
just felt so good and warm all over. And whatever it is, something
I did. I was kind to a lady one time
who didn't have any... I helped her get to the grocery
store. Whatever I think about. Those
things that I hold on to and cuddle and think. Yes, there
is some spark of goodness in me. All I need to do is get that
flame going. But that is wicked unbelief.
That is an insult to the grace of God. Look at Galatians chapter
2. While we are there in Galatians. He says... In verse 21, I do
not frustrate the grace of God. Frustrate means to claim that
it's of no value, it's not necessary. I try to nullify it in what I
say and do and think. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And you can read it
this way. If righteousness come by my obedience, doing what I
think God requires me to do, are not doing what he says not
to do, if I think that that's the way righteousness comes,
then why did Christ die? He died for nothing, and so unbelief
holds onto this. Look at chapter 3, verse 1 of
Galatians. Paul, like he takes his boot
out and he kicks him, he says, Oh, you foolish Galatians! Unthinking! Who has bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth? To obey the truth means to believe
the gospel. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. The gospel
was preached to the Galatians so clearly, that Paul said, it's
as if Jesus Christ was right there before your eyes, crucified
among you. And now, you're so foolish, it's
like you're under the spell of some magic, in the dark. Because what do you do? He says
in verse 2, this only would I learn of you. Did you receive the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Did you,
were you given the Spirit of God by something you did? Or
was it just because when you heard the Gospel, God gave you
that faith and you realized that Christ was true and all that
He did was all of your salvation and God gave you His Spirit to
know it and to believe it in your heart. It was nothing to
do with your obedience. You see, unbelief takes the law
and all the things we can do in order to try to please God
Even though God gave it to us to show us that we're sinners,
and it clutches and clings to that thing, that gives us some
confidence in our own obedience, or all these other things, our
own sincerity, what we think and do and feel. It gives us
confidence in those things, even though God meant to show us,
look, you're in a prison, you can't get out. And then he shows
us that Christ was given. He shed his blood. He did everything
in order to save his people. But unbelief says, no, no, I
need something else. I got to add something a little
bit to that. That's denying the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what unbelief does. It's
a hard heart of unbelief. And that's what we do when we
don't have full assurance and joy in all the things that faith
gives to us. Faith enables us to receive the
peace of knowing that before God we stand as holy as Christ
is holy, justified in His sight, without blame. redeemed by His
blood. All those things that faith enables,
unbelief denies us. And so it's a sad thing, isn't
it? So, very quickly now, why is it that some do believe? Look
at Romans chapter 3. Again, Romans chapter 3. He says here in Romans 3, the question
is asked, At the very beginning, what advantage then has the Jew,
or what profit is there of circumcision? He just got through proving that
the Jews had the law, they had circumcision, and yet they broke
the law, and their circumcision didn't mean anything because
it wasn't inward of the heart. And so, the question is raised,
well then, what good is it to be a Jew? I mean, what value
is circumcision if all it does is add to my guilt for being
a Jew, having had the law and circumcision, and disobeying
it? Why did God even give it to me anyway? God's at fault
again. That's what's suggested. And Paul answers, there's much
profit every way, chiefly because unto them, the Jews, were committed
the oracles of God. And what do the oracles of God
teach? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus told the Pharisees, you
search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. They testify of me. The oracles of God, taught of
Christ. Unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.
But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith. But look at verse 3. For what
if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith, or the faithfulness, or the truth of God without effect?
Okay, so here's the question then. Well, you say, look, you've
just been proven to be guilty, you had the law, you had circumcision,
you're guilty, you didn't believe God. Well, what advantage then? I mean, well, you know, I think
there's something wrong with God's Word because if God said
all these things and it didn't have an effect on me, there's
something wrong with God's Word. Then we ask the question, well,
if some didn't believe, that doesn't make the faith of God
without effect. And why is that? Well, because
he says, "...let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is
written." And he cites David, because David was a man who,
after he committed adultery and was found guilty, he said, "...that
you might be justified when you're judged and overcome." So he's
saying here that all men... naturally are liars. And all
men don't believe. But that doesn't nullify the
importance and the usefulness of God's Word. Because some do
believe. Some do. Why? Why is it that
some do? Look at Romans chapter 9. He says, In verse 27 of Romans 9, Isaiah
crieth concerning Israel, There's the sum. There's the few. Those
are the ones who believe. In other words, God's not going to let the world
go on forever and ever. He's not going to save all the
people in the nation of Israel. He's going to cut short the work. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Sabaoth, however you say that
word, Sabaoth, had left us a seed, that means a spiritual seed,
children of promise, we had been just like Sodom and Gomorrah.
So why do some believe? Because God left us a remnant,
a very small remnant, a seed. You see, even though all men
are unbelievers by nature shut up in the prison of unbelief
and concluded under sin, the reason that any are saved is
because God gives them faith. Now I want to take you to just
a few scriptures here real quickly because I want you to see these.
These are blessed scriptures. Look at Philippians 1.29. How
do you know that faith is not from you, but it's a gift of
God? Can you show me in Scripture? Look at Philippians 1.29. I'll
just take you to a few. He says in Philippians 1.29,
Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake. It's given you to believe
on him. You see? And then look at Hebrews
chapter 12. Hebrews 12 says this, verse 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Do you see that? Who is
the author? Who's the finisher? Who's the
one who maintains it and brings it to its full, the full growth
in us? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one who gives it. And to you it is given, on the
behalf of Christ, to believe. Here, He's the author and finisher
of it. Look at... We already looked at... Well,
we didn't look at that place in Hebrews, but look at Ephesians.
This one is the most commonly referred to, for good reason. Ephesians 2. I'll read this in
verse 4. But God, when you were by nature
children of wrath, but God who is rich in mercy... Listen. For
what you did, for what you felt, for all the things you thought? No. But God who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins, has made us alive, that's what it means, hath quickened,
has made us alive together with Christ. By grace you are saved. And has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That
in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved through faith. And that, that faith,
is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
any man should boast. Why is it that some believe and
some don't? Because God has chosen to give
faith to some and not to give it to all men. Look at Acts chapter
13. This is the last verse on this.
We'll look at Acts 13. He says, and when the Gentiles,
verse 48, I'm sorry. 13, 48. When the Gentiles heard
this, they were glad, and they glorified the word of the Lord,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. So, if you believe the gospel,
if Christ is your only hope, the ground of all of your hope,
then God gave that to you. It's not of something you did
to earn it. God gave that. He persuaded you
of the truth. He gave it to you. Look, I said
that was the last one. That's not true. It's not going
to be the last one. 2 Timothy. I just have to take you to these
because they delight our souls. He says in 2 Timothy
2.24, he says, "...the servant of the Lord must not strive,
not arguing, always fighting and bickering about this or that
doctrine, but gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in
meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure,
will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
You see, where does this faith come from? God gives repentance. What is repentance? It's a change
of mind from unbelief to faith in Christ. God gives it, we naturally
oppose ourselves. But the Lord sends his servants
to instruct us in meekness for our salvation, for the glory
of God. And in that instruction, God
gives us this repentance. He gives us faith. And what is
that? It's acknowledging the truth of what God has said. That's
what faith is. So we're out of time, but I just
want to touch on this last one because this is this last point
in this sermon, and I want you to think about this. Maybe go
away, and I'll mention a couple of scriptures to you, but I want
you to hopefully take this with you. Turn to Ephesians chapter
3 as I'm giving you the introduction here. Ephesians chapter 3. When we talk about the sadness,
the evil of unbelief, and the danger of unbelief. And then
we see how that faith is God's gift, that He gives it as it
pleases Him. Still, in all that, And we know
that faith enables us to see the things that are invisible
and to receive what God has done for us in Christ. Still, in all
that, there's something else that faith does, I think, that
is the most precious thing about faith. And we need to understand
this. We need to take this and take
it to the Lord in prayer because this is important. Faith enables
us to know God in Jesus Christ. Now, what does that mean? It means to have knowledge of
Him? Yes, it means that. But I mean to know Him so that
we, in the experience of our life, we go through all kinds
of thoughts and emotions, and things happen to us, and we do
things, and we reflect on that, and then God's Word is added
into that. And God teaches us through the
experience of our life something about who Christ is from the
Gospel. As we're hearing the Gospel,
as it's preached to us, and we're meditating on it, we read God's
Word, something happens. God makes Himself known to us
in Christ. And that knowledge comes to us
through faith. And what do we see? We see Christ
for who He is in His character. When we hear the law that says,
you need to do this, you need to do that, don't do this, don't
do that. A lot of the things that we are told to do, we don't
even know what it means. When God says, love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and
love your neighbor as yourself. What is love? Do you know what
it is? But then the gospel comes. And we see the Lord Jesus Christ
in the gospel by faith. We see what He did. We see why
He did it. What did He do? He did something
that we can't do. He humbled Himself. What does
that mean? It means that He who is God,
He came to us who were His enemies and He made Himself known to
us. And you know how hard it is to
make friends and to have a heart-to-heart communication with them? You
would never have that with your enemy, would you? But the Lord
Jesus Christ comes to us in the humility of His love and He wants
us to know Him. And so He comes to us in His
work of salvation and He humbles Himself to us. Here He is in
the upper room with His disciples. He takes off the shoes of His
disciples. He has a towel. He has the water and He washes
their feet. I can see His hands washing between
their toes and all the grime and everything is washing. and
looking up into the eyes of that disciple. And that disciple must
have felt very uncomfortable to have the master washing his
feet, and then he dries them, cleans them all up. And then
he gets done all 12 of them. And he says, you call me master
and lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then your lord
and master have washed your feet, you ought to also wash one another's
feet. Everything Christ did, he did
as a servant. And he didn't do it so that they
would say, oh my, he's great. Although that is true. But he
did it for them. And if you understand something
about why Jesus did what He did in His atoning work on the cross,
and see that it was entirely out of His heart, out of love
for His people, so that they could be saved, so that they
could know Him and enjoy the peace and the rest and the love. All the things that you get when
you see God in Christ in His work for His people. His humility,
His patience with us, His love for us. Never doing anything
in order to do it for Himself, but always for His people. He's
God. He was in glory. He says, what
if you see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? He had
glory with His Father, but He left that. He emptied Himself.
He made Himself a servant. Took on our nature. Forever became
a man. And there's a man in glory now
interceding for his people. All that he does selflessly,
all of his thoughts are for his people. And he doesn't think
any evil against them. He doesn't impute iniquity to
them because he took their debt on himself and owned it. And
made it his own so that he bore the guilt of it before God and
took it away. And then he revealed his own
heart to his people. He says, this is what is in my
heart. To give and to provide and to
save all, doing all that God requires for us. and then telling
us about it, in meekness, instructing us, who oppose ourselves, convincing
us so that we'll acknowledge the truth, and forgiving us,
over, 70 times seven? No, no. Over and over without
end. Infinite debt, forgiving us all
of our sins, and washed us, and put his own robe of righteousness
around us, so that when God sees us, he can find no fault, and
we can enjoy God with peace of conscience, full embrace, without
any guilt, come to God in Christ, fully acknowledging and praising
God for His mercy in Christ. All these things faith enables
us to see in Christ, to know Him. Paul says in Philippians
3.10, Oh that I might know Him, that I might know Him. That's
what faith gives to us, that I might know the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why it's so important
that we understand how bad unbelief is, and yet how good the gift
of God is that He would give us this grace of faith to see
and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to know Him. I want to
know the glory of His person. I want to be acquainted with
Him. I want to not only know Him,
but I want to reflect who He is. in Romans 8, that we're being
conformed to the image of His Son. And God performs that operation
in us by presenting Christ to us and giving us faith to see
Him as He is. I know it's just as, it's through
a glass darkly now, but it says in 1 John 3 that when we see
Him, You know what's going to happen? We're going to be like
Him. We'll see Him as He is. And by faith now, we can see
Him. And in seeing Him, we're conformed
to His image. That's why the Gospel is so significant. It's an insult to think that
we take the law and try to conform ourselves to that law and present
ourselves to God. differentiate ourselves among
men, or even that we would take the gospel and try to differentiate
ourselves in the church by degrees, so that we have, some people
have been here a long time, really grown in grace, and other people
are just kind of starting out. No, we don't see any of that.
It's all about grace from start to finish. We don't ever attain
any difference between us. in the eyes of God. What we are
is sinners saved by grace. All of our acceptance and righteousness
before God is all in Christ, and He's the one who's done it
all, and faith teaches us the glory of His person. May God
help us to know Him and grow in His grace. Hebrews 11, 6 says,
That God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Faith
does that. Faith says, Lord, I can't believe. I find this sadness of not being
able to believe. Give me this grace. Lord, help
my unbelief. Lord, increase my faith. God,
give me this grace of faith. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would be so gracious, we know you're gracious, and kind,
and patient, and meek, and humble of heart, lowly of heart. You
have all power, and you love your people with eternal love,
unbounded, immeasurable love. Lord, we pray that even now we
might be given what you, by your Spirit, prayed for your people
to have, to know the love of Christ. the height and depth
and breadth and length, and to see what you've done for us and
why you did it. Know your ways, not in unbelief,
not knowing your ways, but Lord, that we might know your heart.
know what you did for your people, and we might have communion and
fellowship with you in this grace of faith. See our Lord Jesus
Christ in your salvation, how you gave yourself for your people
and told those who came after them, if you seek me, let these
go their way. And you couldn't save yourself
because you saved us. Lord, help us to see what you've
done. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.