Jeff Schreve - The Issue of Unbelief
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When it comes to the Christian life, sometimes there are issues we wrestle with that become sticking points to our spiritual growth. Hey, is there something in your life right now hindering your progress? Join me today and learn how to wrestle with the issue of unbelief and to win.
We’re starting a new series today called «Sticking Points, Overcoming Obstacles to Faith». Did you know that it’s very easy to get stuck? Spiritually stuck in life? Stuck where you, you can’t move forward anymore. You just, your wheels are spinning, so to speak. Something happened to you. Maybe you experienced some kind of traumatic event, but it caused you to get stuck. Maybe you had a question, some event came in and you couldn’t answer the event. Well, God, I prayed for this, and this didn’t happen. I prayed for my loved one, and my loved one didn’t live, they died. And God, this has just got me stuck. I don’t know why you didn’t answer this prayer. Maybe it’s some event that took place where you lost your job, and you didn’t understand.
Maybe somebody did something to you, lied about you that caused you to lose your job, and you didn’t understand why God didn’t come through for you. And your life is stuck in some snow bank, some mud bank, some ditch, some pothole somewhere, and you can’t seem to get traction. Hey, when that happens, when you get stuck, then you lose your joy. You lose your peace, you lose your sense of purpose, you lose your praise. You lose so much when you get stuck in your relationship with God. So to kick off this series, «Sticking Points,» we want to look at the, probably the greatest issue that people get stuck in. And that is the issue of unbelief. Unbelief affects believers and it affects unbelievers. It affects the saved and it affects the lost. It is the issue of issues. The issue of unbelief.
The writer of Hebrews, we don’t know who the writer of Hebrews was. Some say, Paul, and some say Apollo, and some say, no, it was Barnabas. We don’t know, but he’s writing to a Jewish audience and he is warning the Jewish audience, Jewish Christians mostly and he’s warning them, don’t go back to Judaism. Don’t allow the pressures of life and family and friends who are saying, hey, you’ve departed from our traditional faith, come back to Judaism. Don’t follow the Judaizers who would come in to tell the Christians, hey, you have to follow the Mosaic Law or you can’t be a believer in Yahweh God. You can’t go to heaven. He said, don’t fall back into those old patterns. Jesus, He’s greater than the angels. He’s greater than Aaron. He’s greater than the Aaronic priesthood. He’s greater than Moses. He’s greater than anything. Greater than Melchizedek. It’s all about Jesus.
And in chapter 3, beginning in verse 12, he gives a stern warning about the issue of unbelief. He says this, «Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today, ' lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. While it is said, 'TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.' For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they should not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief».
Unbelief, a huge issue, unbelief, a huge sticking point. So we want to look at the issue of unbelief as it relates to the unsaved person and the issue of unbelief as it relates to the saved person. Let’s start with the unsafe first. For a non-christian. The issue of unbelief is the critical issue. It’s the critical issue in all of life because it determines all of eternity. The issue for an unbeliever. He says in verse 14, «For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end». The way, you know that a person is really a Christian is hard to tell just on the outward. We don’t look at the heart. God looks at the heart. God knows who’s genuine and who’s not. The Lord of the scripture says, the Lord knows those who are His. But the way that you can tell someone is genuine is do they continue on in the faith? Are they firm until the end?
There’s a little phrase that says this, the faith that fizzles had a flaw from the first. If you don’t keep going on with the Lord, that doesn’t mean that you lost your salvation. It means you never had it. And so he is speaking to people, he says, listen, if you’re a partaker of Christ, if indeed this is real in your life. If it’s not, then you need to take heed in an even more serious manner because your eternity rests upon this. It’s a critical issue. Now, we have people today and, they’ll say, well, you know, I don’t believe because I just, I can’t buy that. I think your Christianity is just a crutch. I mean, I think it’s just a myth. I think it’s something that’s made up. I just have questions that I can’t answer.
And so, yeah, I’m kind of stuck in unbelief because, I don’t think this is true. You mark it down. The veracity of Christianity is a fact of history. It is true. Christianity is not something, check your brains at the door because no thinking person could actually believe this stuff, that God spoke the worlds into existence. I mean, who could believe that? Well, if you believe in God, if you know that God can do anything He wants, if you see a creation, you know, there has to be a creator. It takes much more faith to believe that all this happened, that nobody times nothing equals everything. It takes much more faith to believe that than it does to believe, «In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth».
But here’s the thing about Christianity, because Christianity is «The Way,» as Jesus said of Himself, «I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through me». Christianity is true. And it’s a fact of history that Jesus was real. He was a real person who lived, He was a real person who died on the cross and He really did rise from the dead. And that separates Christianity from every other world religion, from every other kind of a faith system is that Jesus Christ, He is the person of our faith. He is the founder of our faith, the author and perfecter of faith, as it says in the book of Hebrews. He is everything and everything is based on the fact that He lived a perfect life, that He died on the cross for our sins, and that He rose again from the dead.
Jesus was in John chapter 2, was confronted by the Jews. They didn’t like the fact that He drove out the money changers in the temple. And they said to Him, «'What sign do You do to show to us, seeing that You do these things? ' Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'» And they said it took 46 years to build this temple. You’re gonna raise it up in three days? But John adds, but he was speaking to the temple of His body. Jesus said, hey, you wanna know the sign? Here’s the sign, you destroy this temple, you nail this temple to a tree, and in three days, I’m gonna raise it up again. And He did just that. The Bible says that the disciples didn’t remember He said that until after His resurrection. They’re like, oh yeah. Yeah, I remember He said that.
The resurrection of Jesus is a fact of history, and just as any fact of history, you can’t go into the lab and recreate it. So it’s not like a mathematical formula or a chemical type of situation. It’s something that happened in the past. But you can look at the evidence and when you look at all the evidence, you say, well, this had to have taken place. Hey, the truth of Christianity is a fact of history. You say, then why do so many people disbelieve it? Ah, because the problem of unbelief is in the heart and not the head. The problem is always in the heart, it’s not in the head.
People say, well, you know, I have intellectual problems. Why can’t I believe, my unbelief is a sticking point for me, and I have intellectual problems. You really don’t. You don’t have intellectual problems. You don’t have problems in your mind, you have problems in your morals, in your heart. There are two verses in the Bible that speak of atheism. Two verses. And they’re the exact same verse. Psalm 14, verse 1. Psalm 53, verse 1. They say the same thing. If you memorize this verse, it’s a twofer because you memorized both of those verses. It says this, «The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good».
The fool, N-A-B-A-L is the Hebrew word. It’s pronounced nabal. It means the morally perverse person. The morally perverse person says in his heart, not in his head, he says in his heart, there is no God, no God for me. I don’t want God in my life. That’s basically what he is saying. It’s not so much that He is saying. There is no God anywhere. He’s saying there is no God for me because I wanna be my own God. I don’t wanna follow this God. So no God please. I just want to be my own God. You know John chapter 3, that has the gospel in a nutshell.
John 3:16, «For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life». In that same passage, in the very next verse, it says, God didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn the world. He sent His Son into the world to save the world. But when Jesus, the light of the world went into the world. This is what the Lord said. And this is the judgment John 3:19, «That the light is come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light. For their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil, hates the light and does not come to the light. Lest his deeds should be exposed. The light has come». But men are like roaches. They wanna run away from the light, they wanna hide in the darkness. Why? Because they love the darkness more than the light. It’s not about an intellectual problem. It’s about a moral problem, and that’s why they don’t come to the Lord.
Now you mark it down, the end result of unbelief is eternal hell. But it’s not that God sends you there. You’re already going there. See people that say, «I can’t believe in a God who would send people to hell that don’t believe Him». They’re looking at it all wrong. Here’s the way to understand hell. You as a person born into this world, you’re born with a disease. The disease is called sin. Everyone is born with sin and we’re dead in our trespasses and sins. The Bible says, «All have sin and fall short of the glory of God». Now we’re sinners by birth, we’re sinners by nature. We’re sinners by choice. We’re sinners by practice. We’re sinners, every single one of us. «All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages,» Romans 6:23, «of sin is death».
So we all have this disease, this internal disease, think of it like an internal terminal cancer called sin, and that’s gonna kill you, and that’s going to cause you to not only experience physical death, but to experience spiritual death, death forever. That’s why hell in the Bible is called the second death, the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. Now, here you are with this terminal disease. The Lord didn’t give you that disease. You chose that disease because you chose to go your own way. Just as Adam and Eve chose to go their own way. Sinners by birth, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, sinners by practice. Has anyone ever told you, well, I’ve never chosen to sin. No, they can’t tell you that with a straight face, we’re all sinners and we’ve all chosen to sin.
So here the Lord comes to sinners and He says, listen, you are perishing. You have this disease and if you continue on in this direction, you’re gonna go off a cliff, and off the cliff leads to hell forever. But I came to save you and I have the remedy for your disease. It’s the blood that I shed on the cross and He offers you His hand to save you. And it’s a nail scarred hand and you reject the hand. You say get out of here. I don’t want that. You blow that off. You say I don’t want your remedy. I’m gonna go my own way. And then you have the audacity as you go your own way to look at Him and to say now if I die and go to hell, it’ll be your fault. It’s not His fault. It’s your fault. You have to stop and receive Christ in order to be taken from the broad road, and put on to the narrow road.
So that’s the first issue in the sticking point of unbelief for a non-christian is the issue that is critical. Now, secondly, let’s talk about for a Christian. For a Christian, the issue of unbelief is the costly issue. Costly because you’re not going to, that’s not gonna determine whether you go to heaven or hell. What determines whether you go to heaven or hell is what do you do with Jesus. As Pilate said, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? Now, a Christian has received Christ. He’s seen his need. She’s seen her need. Trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord. But how do you live the Christian life? How is life lived on the narrow road? It’s lived by faith, it’s lived by faith.
And so verse 12 says this, «Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God». This is a stern warning. Hey, be careful here, because if you’re not careful, what happened to the children of Israel can happen to you. That there should be an evil, that word means, to be diseased, to be sick. This is what Jeremiah said about the heart. «It’s deceitful and wicked and sick. Above all else who can know it». And the Lord says, take care that that evil ill diseased heart of unbelief doesn’t get in you. Now, the unbelief that’s used here, the word doesn’t mean honest doubt. It means a refusal to believe. It means a hardened heart that refuses, a stubborn heart that refuses to believe. And see the Christian life is all about faith. It’s all of a walk of faith. We enter the Christian life by faith. We continue in the Christian life by faith.
Colossians 2, verse 6 says, «As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord. So walk in Him». How do you receive Him? By faith. How do you walk in Him? By faith. And God’s promises are experienced through faith. Everything in the Christian life is through faith. That’s why it says in Hebrews 11, verse 6, «Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him». If you don’t have faith, if you’re not believing God, you can’t please Him. It’s impossible to please Him because that’s the currency of Christianity. The currency of a relationship with God is that you believe Him and you walk by faith and not by sight.
Now it says in chapter 4, verse 2, «For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God». And when you hear the Word of God, you need to take what you hear and unite it by faith. You believe it and you step out on it. That’s what faith is. It’s taking God at His word. It’s believing that God, what God says is going to come to pass. Now, the example that He uses is the children of Israel. And the children of Israel, namely when they didn’t go into the promised land, when they were supposed to do that.
And see we walk by faith and not by sight. And some people think, well, you know, I mean, if I have trouble believing certain things, you know, God doesn’t get mad at me. Note this, if you’re struggling with doubt, God’s okay with that. John the Baptist, he struggled with doubt when he was in prison, and he sent some of his messengers to come to Jesus and say, «Are you the one, you’re the Messiah or is there someone else? Because I didn’t expect for me to be in prison»? And so he had honest doubt. He brought those to the Lord. That is good, that is fine. Every one of us deals with doubt and when difficulties come into life and you can have questions, and you don’t understand, you bring those to the Lord. He wants you to do that. It’s like the man who had the demon possessed son said to Jesus, if you can do anything to help us, please help us.
And Jesus said, what’s this if stuff. If you can, all things are possible to him, who believes. And the man said, I do believe, help my unbelief. That’s fine to do that. See, that’s an honest doubt that you bring to the Lord. Hebrews is not talking about honest doubt. It’s talking about getting hardened in disbelief. And what he uses as the example is the children of Israel when they didn’t go into the promised land.
See God’s anger burns when we refuse to walk by faith. God had his people primed to go into the promised land. He had delivered them out of Egypt. He brought them to Mount Sinai, brought them through the Red Sea. Great huge miracle, gigantic miracle. Wiped out Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. Brought him to Mount Sinai, gave them the 10 commandments, and they brought him up to the the border of the promised land in a place called Kadesh Barnea. He sent the spies in there. Had Moses send the spies in there and they came back with a negative report, 12 spies, two of them, Joshua and Caleb had a positive report.
This is what God has promised. Let’s go get the land. But ten of them had a negative report and the negative report overshadowed the positive report. And the people wept and they said, we can’t go in the land. There are giants in the land. Why did the Lord bring us here only to kill us in the wilderness? Oh, would that we had died in the wilderness or would that we had died in Egypt? Now we’re just gonna go and get wiped out in this promised land. It would be better for us, they said, to go back to Egypt. So they appointed a leader to take them back to Egypt. And Moses fell on his face and cried out to the Lord and Joshua and Caleb said by all means, we should go into the land.
Why are you rebelling against the Lord? God has given us that land. I don’t care how big those people are. They’re not as big as God, but the people prevailed and they were gonna stone Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb with stones. And then the Lord shows up, and the Lord weighs in and this is what the Lord had to say. He was angry and it says in Numbers 14:11, «And the Lord said to Moses, 'How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst.'»
God says to Moses in the very next verse, «I’m gonna wipe them out, and start over with you». And Moses had to intercede for the people, otherwise God was going to destroy him. He was very angry. He says in the book of Psalms, Psalm 95, speaking of this incident. He said «for 40 years, I loathe that generation». I loathed them. He was angry with them, it says in verse 17. I mean, he’s not just a little bit perturbed, he’s angry, he’s grieved, displeased and disgusted with them. Why? Because they wouldn’t believe him. How long will they not believe me, in spite of all the signs I have done in their midst. They knew God was there. His presence was visible.
The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, they had seen what God had done, but they kept trying the Lord. They kept testing the Lord. They kept saying, well, how do we know God is really among us? Let’s have God do another miracle. Maybe he could do another miracle. We’re thirsty and God brought water from the rock. Well, that ought to be enough. But there was always something else. And when God would provide for them, they’d moan, and groan, and whine, and gripe. God rained down bread from heaven. And what did they say? We loathe this miserable manna. We loathe this miserable food. And they wouldn’t believe God, when it was time to go into the promised land and enjoy the promises of God. They didn’t get to go in. Why? Because of unbelief.
The Bible gives the call. Acts 3:19. So all of those, all of us, maybe we’re here, and we say I like the, I’m like the children of Israel. I haven’t gone into the land and what do I do? I mean am I just, am I just stuck now? I’m just gonna be wandering around for the rest of my life, and God is mad at me and angry with me? No, because Acts 3:19 says this, «Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord». You can repent, you can return, you can experience God’s refreshing power in your life.
Now, things may be different, and you might have missed your window of opportunity to experience some of the things God wanted you to experience. But remember this, if you have a pulse, you have a purpose. And if you have a purpose, you have a praise, and there’s opportunity right now to get right with God. That’s why it says verse 15, «Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoke me». Today, if you hear His voice, respond to Him. «Repent therefore and return, so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord». Hey, you stuck in unbelief? The Lord is faithful and true. It’s impossible for Him to lie. You can believe what He says.