Warning Against Unbelief
Hebrews 3:7-18
Have you ever met someone who is a doubter? I mean someone who refuses to believe anything unless they see it, feel, and smell it. They are annoying. They never take anything at face value. It is hard to talk to them or deal with people like that. They are always questioning everything you say or do. Thomas was like that you remember He said unless I see Him for myself and place my hand in his side and my finger in the holes of his hand I will not believe. Many people are like that today they refuse to believe that Jesus died for them on the cross that He paid their sin debt. They even refuse to believe that they are sinners in need of salvation. Satan has tricked them so well that they are trapped in unbelief.
On the corner of Park Row and Beekman Street, New York City, where Horace Greeley’s Statue now stands, stood a man offering $20 gold pieces for $1 each. All day he kept up loudly announcing his wares, but of the thousands that passed him, most paid no attention and others either laughed or scowled at him.
About 15 minutes before six o’clock, when he was about to quit, a woman timidly approached him and, after carefully investigating the gold piece, by biting it and testing its sound, but throwing it on the pavement, she reluctantly paid the dollar and pocketed the golden double eagle. Ten minutes later, just as the man was about to go home, the woman reappeared accompanied by two friends and between them they purchased the rest of the man’s stock, worth $160, for $8 in bills.
The next and for several following mornings, the street was crowded for blocks with the same woman in the lead waiting for the vender of gold coins, but he never appeared again.
This story is known to be true and Horace Greeley is responsible for the incident in demonstration of his theory that most poverty is due to the fact that the general public refuses to believe even in the face of overwhelming evidence and there is the point.
Is that a perfect example of many people in America today? Many who come to church would probably fall into this category. But God does not call us to unbelief He calls us to believe. Faith and unbelief can not live together they do not mix.
Try doing this sometime. Take an empty 2-Liter bottle, and fill it up half way with just plain water, and the other half fill up with vegetable oil. Then try shaking that bottle up and mixing those two things together. What’s going to happen? Well, you can shake that bottle all day, but as soon as you stop shaking it, the oil and the water are going to separate from each other in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. Why? Back in 11th Grade Chemistry Class you learned that oil and water are “polar opposites” of each other. These two substances have a totally different chemical make-up from each other, which makes it impossible for them to mix together. Polar opposites just don’t mix.
what we’re going to focus on this morning are the polar opposites in this story. We are going to study the characters and see a number of things that just don’t mix very well inside a person: 1. Faith & Unbelief 2. Humility & Pride.
When you are tempted to doubt God’s promises, remember that 2-Liter bottle with oil and water not mixing. Neither can your doubt mix with faith! Get rid of it, and have a simple, strong trust that God is going to work everything out. Remember that 2-Liter bottle when you are tempted to think of yourself as an important person. Pride sure doesn’t mix very well with humility.
Prayer
I. What is wrong with Unbelief?
a. It means we have hardened our heart toward God’s voice.
i. We are not listening to Him. We don’t hear His word.
ii. We feel that we know better than God about what God wants us to do.
iii. We create a form of religion. But it has no meaning, no purpose and definitely no salvation.
iv. That is why alters are not filled with praying member and churches are dying because of hardened hearts.
b. It means we are testing and trying God.
i. When we don’t believe we are testing God’s patience
ii. When we don’t believe we are testing God’s love.
iii. When we don’t believe we are testing God’s mercy.
iv. When we don’t believe we are testing God’s grace.
c. We are not seeing His works.
i. Our unbelief will cause us to be blind to God’s blessings all around us.
ii. Our unbelief will cause us to deny the very existence of God.
iii. Our unbelief will cause us to be prideful and we want need God in our pride.
II. What is the danger of Unbelief?
a. It provokes God V. 10
i. God’s righteous anger will rightly be directed at you because of your unbelief.
ii. You will be justly punished because of your unbelief.
b. We will not have rest or peace because of it.
i. God said we will not rest in Him because of our unbelief.
ii. We will have no hope because of our unbelief.
iii. Satan will be our God if we do not believe in Jesus.
c. We will depart from God because of our hardened hearts.
i. Our unbelief will cause us to walk away from God. To turn our backs on Him.
ii. We will come to serve other gods created by our hands. These gods have no power.
iii. We will end up in Hell because of our unbelief.
d. We will be deceived by sin’s deception
i. One of Satan’s most powerful tools is deception.
ii. He wants to make a fool of you. He wants you to spend eternity in hell not because He loves you but because He hates you. He knows that Hell is his eternal home and He wants you to spend eternity there also. Hell was not created for you but for Satan and his fallen angels.
III. What are we to do with Unbelief?
a. We are not to harden our heart to God’s Word.
i. We are to hear God’s word an accept it.
ii. Once we accept God’s word and know that we are sinners we are to ask Christ for salvation and then profess it.
b. We are to hear God’s Word and turn unbelief into belief.
i. We become believers by accepting Jesus’ free gift of salvation.
ii. Just because we came to church does not save us we are saved when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Anything else does not save.
c. We are to rest or have peace with God.
i. Once we have accepted Jesus’ salvation we discover the rest that God has for us.
ii. This is a peace in the knowledge that God is in control and that whatever happens is for His glory.
iii. I will know that what ever happens I am victorious. If I live I win and if I die I win.
d. We are to encourage one another so that our hearts will not harden.
i. Christians don’t put one another down or attack each other. We are to love each other and beach each other burdens and sorrows.
ii. We are to encourage each other in the good times and in the bad.
iii. We are brothers and sisters in Christ.
e. We who hearken unto God will enter into rest and peace.
i. Gods rest is confidence in
1. God’s justice
2. truth
3. judgment
4. mercy
5. authority
ii. God’s peace is Jesus’ victory
1. we are victorious because Christ is victorious
2. We share His victory, His death, His resurrection
3. We share His inheritance.
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