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Sins of the Heart: Unbelief · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. Today we're starting a deep dive
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into something really central to the Christian life.
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But maybe something? We don't talk about enough as
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well as a sin we're looking at. Unbelief.
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And I think many people listening might recognize this
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experience. There's often this strange,
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maybe confusing gap between what we say we believe, our public
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confession, and how we actually live, especially under pressure.
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You know, we might affirm God's total control and goodness in
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church. But then Monday comes, maybe a
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crisis hits, financial, health, whatever, and suddenly there's
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this inner panic or we just fall back on trying to fix everything
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ourselves. It shows that what we say with
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our lips isn't always what's governing our hearts deep down.
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We want to put a spotlight right on that hidden inner posture
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today. That inner posture is exactly
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the issue, and our sources are quite clear.
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Biblical unbelief isn't just, say, missing some facts or not
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quite getting it intellectually. It's described as a willful, A
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wrongful refusal, a refusal to actually rest on what God has
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said and who God has revealed himself to be.
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It's a stance, A moral stance of resistance.
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So our goal here is to really unpack the roots of this, this
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age-old spiritual problem. We need to get clear on what it
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is, especially how it's different from say, struggling
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with weak faith, which is common.
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And then, crucially, look at the comprehensive remedy God himself
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provides through new life in Christ and the ongoing use of
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the means He's given us. Right.
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And it seems we have to start with this core idea.
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Unbelief is incredibly serious because it's a root sin, hitting
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right at the heart of our relationship with God.
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It breaks the first commandment. Fundamentally, it's holding back
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the trust, the reliance, the dependence that belongs only to
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God. It's like trying to define
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reality based on ourselves instead of Him, which is, well,
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an attack on his rightful place. OK, so let's get really precise
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here. If we're too casual with the
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word unbelief, we might miss how serious it is.
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Scripture uses some very heavy language when talking about it,
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doesn't it? Language of moral failure?
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Of condemnation? What's the absolute core of this
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sin, especially when we think about it as an offense against
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God Himself? The core essence is that sinful
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refusal to trust the God who has clearly spoken.
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It's an active no from the will to God's known truth.
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It gets called a root sin of the inner life because it's about
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our deepest loyalty is our basic orientation.
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It's never just passive ignorance.
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When someone has heard God's testimony, maybe through
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creation, maybe through his word, and refuses to lean their
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weight on that truth, they are in effect questioning God's
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integrity. They're acting as if he isn't
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dependable. Wow, so that moves it way beyond
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just making a mistake and understanding something.
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It sounds like refusing to trust God is seen as well hostile
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towards him personally. It is absolutely directed at God
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Himself. Think about it.
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Unbelief treats the God of all truth, infinite power, and
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perfect goodness as if he might be, well, a deceiver.
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As if his promises aren't solid, his wisdom isn't sufficient, or
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he might not actually be able to do what he said he'd do.
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It's a direct challenge to God's character.
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When our hearts look at God's sworn promises and decide our
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own anxieties are somehow more reliable, that's a huge
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spiritual betrayal. And this is where that specific
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verse about calling God a liar comes in.
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It's quite stark, isn't it? It feels necessary to grasp
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that. It is.
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That's first John 5.10. It just cuts through everything.
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Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has
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not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning
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His Son. Just think about the weight of
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that. God gave the most concrete,
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costly testimony possible about how He can be saved, the life,
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the death, the resurrection of his own son.
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So to reject that testimony, to look at Christ's work and decide
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it's not enough or it's not worthy of my complete trust,
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well, that's basically saying the God who testified is
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dishonest. It implies he had to either
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made-up the whole idea of substitutionary atonement or the
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resurrection didn't really happen.
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The sin is an attacking God's truthfulness.
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OK, if unbelief is at its heart, calling God a liar, then the
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connection to the first commandment demanding that
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unique allegiance to the Creator becomes really clear.
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It's unavoidable. Yes, it's breaking the first
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commandment. At the deepest level, that
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commandment requires us to have the Lord alone as our God, and
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that includes worshipping him truly, which means relying on
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him completely. By refusing that essential
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dependence, unbelief holds back the unique trust only God
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deserves. And what happens?
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The unbelieving heart put something else in his place.
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It might be self-reliance, human ideas, cultural trends, or just
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trusting in the stability of the world around us for our safety
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and guidance. The moment we look to anything
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created our bank account, our own efforts at being good to be
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our ultimate refuge or our source of truth, we've basically
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kicked God off the throne in our hearts and put up an idol.
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That's a direct violation of the first commandment.
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Hashtag tag tag 1.2. Unbelief versus doubt and weak
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faith. Crucial distinction.
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Now, this is really important for, well, for the comfort of
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genuine believers who just struggle.
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We need to pause and make a very clear distinction here.
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There's a difference between the settled, condemned unbelief
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we're talking about and the struggles with weak faith or
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moments of doubt that even sincere Christians face.
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How do we differentiate those? Yes, this distinction is vital.
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It protects both God's holiness and the believer sensitive
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conscience. True biblical unbelief, the kind
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that condemns, is that settled refusal, a posture of rebellion
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against the light God has given. Hebrews 3.12 warns about this
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specifically. Beware of an evil, unbelieving
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heart leading you to fall away from the living God.
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Notice the words evil, unbelieving, fall away.
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This is a guilty rejection. The Greek word used, apistia,
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often carries a sense of stubbornness, disloyalty, a
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moral refusal to submit. It's about turning off the path
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of following God. So settled unbelief is choosing
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to walk away, rejecting the foundation itself but doubt and
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weak faith. There are still sins, right?
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But they happen inside the relationship with God.
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That's exactly it. Doubt and weak faith are
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frailties within us. They're not a turning away from
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God. They belong sadly but truly
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inside the life of grace. They happen when a genuine
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believer, someone who has received the gift of faith,
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really wants to trust and obey, but gets overwhelmed by
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circumstances or fear or maybe confusion.
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Their spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
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As Jesus said, they're still holding on to the covenant of
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grace, but maybe their grip feels shaky under pressure.
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And the Gospels give us some powerful pictures of this,
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showing how Christ responds to this frailty.
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He dresses the sin, but gently. Right.
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Think about Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14.
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He got out of the boat because he trusted Christ's word.
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That was faith in action. But then he saw the wind and the
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waves. The circumstances screamed
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danger, and he started to sink. Jesus catches him, and what does
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he say? Oh, you of little faith
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oligopistos, why did you doubt? Peter was already a follower,
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already acting on Christ's specific command.
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His faith just faltered when sight contradicted the promise.
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And notice Christ doesn't condemn him, He rescues him and
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gives a gentle rebuke, recognizing its frailty, not
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rebellion. Or think about the Father in
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Mark nine with his demon possessed son.
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He cries out. That famous line I believe help
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my unbelief. That's amazing, isn't it?
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His confession. He admits the struggle in his
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heart, but it's immediately followed by repentance.
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By looking to Christ for help. He's not rejecting Christ.
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He's begging Christ to strengthen the faith he already
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possesses. And Christ's response in these
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cases is the key difference, isn't it?
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He doesn't throw people out for having little faith.
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He actually restores them. Yes, the Lord's harshest words
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are for those who see the truth and willfully reject it,
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preferring sin. But for those with little faith
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who cry out to Him, He acts like a compassionate Dr. a gracious
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Savior. He corrects their fear, rescues
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them from the immediate problem, and works to strengthen their
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inner trust. Believers struggling with doubt
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come to God like children to a loving father looking for help
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and assurance. The person stuck in settled
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unbelief, though, approaches God like a rebel, refusing to accept
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His testimony. And so they stay outside that
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relationship of grace. Making this distinction is so
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important it comforts struggling Christians without minimizing
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the danger of actual hardened unbelief.
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Hashtag hashtag 1.3 Unbelief in justifying faith.
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OK, let's connect this directly to salvation itself.
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Doctrinally speaking, unbelief must be the polar opposite of
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justifying faith, right? They can't coexist as the
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foundation. They are fundamentally opposed.
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Justifying faith, which itself is a gift of the Spirit, is how
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a Sinner receives and rests upon Christ alone for salvation, for
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righteousness, for acceptance with God.
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It's leaning your entire weight, all your hope on the finished
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work of Christ. Unbelief, then, is the refusal
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to lean wholly on Christ. It tries to substitute something
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else or add something else to Christ as the basis for
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acceptance. And this is where confusion
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about the basis of our acceptance becomes so dangerous,
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even within Christian circles sometimes.
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Yes, this is a critical theological point.
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Any teaching, whether it comes from outside the church or maybe
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from confused voices within, that mixes trust in Christ with
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trust and say, our own efforts, religious rule keeping, our own
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attempts at moral improvement, or even our subjective feelings.
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If those those things are presented as part of the ground
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for being accepted by God, well, that teaching is bordering on
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unbelief because it refuses to accept the scandalous truth that
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Christ's righteousness imputed to us is absolutely sufficient
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on its own. How does that?
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Refusal actually work. If someone says I trust Christ
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and I trust my good works, how is that functionally unbelief?
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Well, it denies the sufficiency of what Christ did.
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The Gospel says God accepts us in Christ, counting Christ's
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perfect record as ours. If a person believes they also
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have to achieve a certain level of performance, maybe perfect
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church attendance or a specific feeling of closeness or reaching
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some moral standard to secure God's favor, they're essentially
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saying, OK, Christ's death was good, but it wasn't quite
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enough. My effort has to top it up.
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That's unbelief. Because it refuses the free,
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full, unearned gift. It suddenly tries to put us back
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under a covenant of works idea where acceptance depends on what
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we do, instead of resting completely in the covenant of
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grace, where acceptance is based entirely on who Christ is and
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what He did. The instant our inner confidence
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shifts even a little from Christ alone to Christ plus me, we've
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committed an act of distrust in God's provision.
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So the reliance gets spit. Instead of resting fully on the
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Savior, it's now partly on Christ, partly on self, which
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makes a person spiritually unstable.
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Exactly. If Christ isn't the sole anchor
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you're tossed around when you feel you're performing well, you
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might feel accepted. When you fail, you might feel
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condemned. There's no objective outside of
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you righteousness to stand on, and this just reveals the nature
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of unbelief. Again, it prefers the shaky,
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exhausting ground of self effort over the solid rock of Christ's
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finished work. Justifying faith is that
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singular rest in Christ alone. Unbelief is the refusal of that
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rest. OK, if unbelief is this serious
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and this widespread, we need to grasp that it's not just some
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random error. It seems to be deeply embedded
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in our fallen human condition. Let's dig into the sources of
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this, the roots of this ancient problem.
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The sources seem to point to 4 main ones.
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Hashtag hashtag 2.1. The four root causes of
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unbelief. Yes, and they sort of spiral out
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from who we are as fallen people.
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Route #1 is our basic condition. Spiritual death and hostility.
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The bar truth is unbelief is the normal state for fallen
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humanity. We aren't born neutral waiting
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for evidence. We're born, spiritually
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speaking, dead and hostile towards God.
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Ephesians 2 is stark. We are dead in the trespasses
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and sins. A spiritually dead person simply
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cannot respond positively to spiritual truth on their own.
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Romans 8 adds that the mindset on the flesh is actively hostile
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to God. It cannot submit to God's law.
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So the natural heart is unresponsive to God, uninclined
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towards His Word. Unbelief flows naturally from
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that state. It requires divine intervention,
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not just better arguments. That starting point of hostility
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really changes how we think about sharing our faith, doesn't
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it? It's less about just convincing
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the intellect and more about needing spiritual resurrection.
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And that hostility, it seems, is often kept alive by the second
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root, preferring to stay in the dark.
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Route 2 is the love for sin. This acts like fuel for the fire
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of unbelief. Unbelief is often actively
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maintained because it acts as a shield protecting cherished
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sins. John 3.1920 is brutally honest.
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People prefer darkness to light because their works were evil.
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If you genuinely trust Christ, your whole life comes under His
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authority. Your actions, your thoughts,
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they get exposed, judged, and need repentance.
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The natural heart hates that exposure.
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You can see this playing out, can't you?
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Someone might raise intellectual objections to, say, the doctrine
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of hell, but underneath maybe there's a lifestyle, sexual sin,
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greed, bitterness that would be directly challenged if they
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submitted to a holy God's authority.
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Precisely. The heart is spiritually
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pragmatic in a fallen way. If a particular sin is really
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important to someone, the heart needs a belief system that lets
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that sin continue undisturbed. It prefers A vague God, a
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distant God, a non judging God, or maybe no God at all, and this
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creates A vicious circle. The love for sin feeds the
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unbelief, and the unbelief then protects the sin from God's
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truth. Sin feeds doubt.
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Doubt guards sin. The third root you mentioned is
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pride and self-sufficiency. This one feels very visible in
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our culture today, maybe the most public face of unbelief.
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Yes, this is the refusal to bow, to bow to God's authority both
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intellectually and morally. Fallen human nature prizes its
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own wisdom above God's revelation.
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We insist that our reason, our feelings, or what our culture
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currently thinks must be the ultimate judge.
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Scripture warns us constantly against leaning on our own
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understanding or being wise in your own eyes.
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When pride rules, a person basically sets themselves up as
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the judge over God's truth. The proud mind says I won't
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trust what God says unless it makes sense to me, unless it
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passes my personal test. And this leads straight to the
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foolishness Paul talks about in Romans.
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One people become futile in their thinking, their minds
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darkened, and they end up exchanging the true glory of God
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for idols they've made in their own image, based on their own
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limited understanding. Skepticism often presents itself
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as intellectual honesty, but frequently it's a moral refusal
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to submit the mind to the Creator.
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And the last route acknowledges this isn't just an internal
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battle. There's an external enemy
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actively working against faith. Yes, Route 4 is the blinding
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work of a spiritual enemy, where in a spiritual conflict there
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are forces actively trying to keep people from believing.
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Paul calls Satan the God of this world who has blinded the minds
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of the unbelievers in 2nd Corinthians 4, and the goal is
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explicit, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel
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that displays the glory of Christ.
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Satan doesn't just sit back, he actively fills the world with
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distractions, false philosophies, counterfeit
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religions and gospels that sound almost right but twist the core
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truth about Christ. This external assault works
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together with the internal corruption of sin and pride.
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Hashtag Hashtag 2.2. Historical and scriptural
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patterns of unbelief. And this pattern of resistance,
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this unbelief, isn't new. It's woven right through the
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biblical story, showing it's been the human default from the
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beginning. Let's trace it back.
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It starts in Eden. Doesn't.
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It Eden really gives us the template.
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The serpent didn't start by yelling eat the fruit.
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He started by planting seeds of doubt about God's word and
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suspicion about God's character. Did God really say, and then God
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knows that if you eat it, you'll be like him.
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The core temptation was to distrust what God had clearly
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said and to suspect He was holding back something good.
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The outward act of disobedience, eating the fruit, flowed
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directly from that inner distrust.
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Unbelief was the heart sin that came first and made the outward
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sin possible. And this same distrust showed up
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dramatically with God's own people, Israel, after the
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Exodus, even after seeing incredible miracle.
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Yes, the wilderness generation is used in Hebrews 3 as a stark
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warning against belief for the church.
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Think about what they saw. The plagues in Egypt, the Red
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Sea parting supernatural food every day.
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Yet when they face the challenge of the giants in the Promised
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Land, they chose fear over faith.
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God's own words and Numbers 14 are startling.
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How long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs
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that I have done among them? Their refusal to go into Canaan
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wasn't just a bad military decision.
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It was a refusal to rest on God's explicit promise that He
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would give them the land. Hebrews 3 uses their fate not
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entering God's rest to warn US against developing that same
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evil, unbelieving heart. Seeing miracles alone doesn't
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fix the underlying spiritual problem.
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And we see the same kind of resistant that spiritual
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stubbornness even when Jesus himself was right there among
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them, doing things only God could do.
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Absolutely. Jesus encountered stunning
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unbelief even in his hometown, Nazareth, Mark 6 says.
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He marveled because of their unbelief.
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They couldn't get past his ordinary background, his family.
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They knew their prejudice. Maybe their intellectual pride
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blinded them. And think about the crowds that
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followed him. Many came for the miracles,
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especially the food. After feeding the 5000.
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They chased him. But Jesus saw right through it,
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he said in John 6. You have seen me and yet do not
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believe they wanted the external benefits, but they withheld
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their actual trust and allegiance to him as the bread
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of life. And even after the resurrection,
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we get that classic example of unbelief demanding its own proof
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instead of resting on God's appointed witnesses.
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Thomas It's the perfect illustration.
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He had the unified, clear testimony of the other apostles.
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We have seen the Lord, but His response was the essence of
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unbelief, demanding its own terms.
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Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger
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where the nails were and put my hand into His side, I will not
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believe He refused to rest on the word of the chosen
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witnesses. He needed physical proof,
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sensory data according to His own criteria.
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It was a rejection, albeit temporary, of God's way of
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revealing truth. And while Christ graciously met
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His demand, He immediately corrected the principle.
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Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed that
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points us, the church throughout history, to rest on the
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reliable, sufficient testimony of Scripture, not on meeting
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personal signs or unique experiences.
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OK, so unbelief is this deep root sin.
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That means it's going to show up in many different ways, specific
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actions and attitudes. We should probably try to
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categorize these. Maybe start with the obvious
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ways it shows up outside the church, and then look at how it
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lingers, sometimes subtly, inside the heart of a believer.
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Hashtag Hashtag 3.1 Unbelief manifested outside and around
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the church. Right outside the church,
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unbelief takes a couple of main forms.
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There's open rejection, which we're familiar with.
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Atheism says there's no God. Agnosticism says we can't know
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if there is. But perhaps more widespread
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today is religious pluralism. It sounds tolerant, but it's
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actually based on unbelief because it denies Christ's
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unique claim in John 14.6. I am the way and the truth and
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the life. No one comes to the Father
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except through me. By saying all paths lead to God,
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or all religious figures are basically the same.
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Pluralism rejects the specific necessary work of Christ is the
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only way to salvation. Then there's that trickier form
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where Christian words are still used, but the OR truths of the
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faith get hollowed out or changed.
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Yes, we could call that religious distortion, or maybe
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polite editing. Liberal theology often fits
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here. It might keep using Christian
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vocabulary, talk about love, justice, community.
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But it's systematically denies key doctrines revealed in
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Scripture. Things like the final authority
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of the Bible, the virgin birth, Jesus dying as our substitute,
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the physical resurrection. The person doing this has
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essentially refused to submit their mind to God's revelation,
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keeping what seems acceptable to modern thought and discarding
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the rest. It's unbelief dressed up in
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theological language. And what about movements that
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actually use the word faith but pointed at the wrong thing?
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That's very common and deceptive.
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Take the prosperity religion, for instance.
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It uses the language of faith, but redefines it as a kind of
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spiritual force or tool you can use through positive speaking to
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get things like money, health, earthly success.
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This is unbelief because it refuses to rest in Christ
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himself as the greatest treasure.
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Instead, God becomes a means to an end, a way to get worldly
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things. The trust isn't really in God's
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personal promises, but in the technique of believing or
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speaking aimed at getting stuff. We also see a sort of functional
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unbelief in some moralistic preaching.
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This kind of preaching focuses heavily on behavior change.
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Be kinder, work harder, be a better citizen.
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But it fails to clearly present Christ crucified and risen as
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the only hope for sinners and the only source of true
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righteousness. It leaves people trying to trust
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in their own efforts, their own moral track record.
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But Romans 3.2 A tells us no one is justified by obeying the law.
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So trusting your own efforts is functionally unbelief because it
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denies our desperate need for Christ's righteousness and the
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sufficiency of his work. Hashtag, hashtag 3.2 unbelief
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lingering inside the true believer.
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Remaining sin. OK, now let's turn inward.
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Even for genuine believers, people born again by God's
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Spirit, sin remains. And that includes the sin of
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unbelief fighting against the faith God has given.
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These aren't signs that someone isn't saved, but they show this
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corrosive distrust is still present.
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What are some common everyday ways this remaining unbelief
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shows up? Probably the most common daily
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manifestation is anxiety and worry.
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When a true Christian frets constantly about the future,
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money, job, health, politics, they're acting functionally as
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if their Heavenly Father is either unaware or uncaring, or
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maybe just powerless to keep his promises about provision and
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care. Jesus hid this directly in the
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Sermon on the Mount, didn't he? He called his disciples, O you
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of little faith, for worrying about basic needs like food and
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clothes. When worry takes over the heart,
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it's a refusal to rest in God's known wisdom and goodness.
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It replaces trust in God's promise with panic reliance on
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controlling things ourselves. And closely related to worry and
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practical life is prayerlessness.
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You call this functional atheism earlier.
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It really is the best way to describe it.
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We say we believe God is sovereign, all powerful, wise,
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but then we pray very little, or maybe just tack on a quick
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prayer after we've already made huge complicated plans based
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entirely on human calculation. When big decisions are driven
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solely by strategy, meetings, budgets, risk assessments
21:44
without genuinely seeking God's wisdom and help first, the
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Christian is silently declaring that their own resources, their
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own intelligence, their own effort are more reliable than
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God's intervention. Skipping meaningful prayer is
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basically acting like God isn't really involved or necessary,
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it's relying on the arm of flesh.
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We also see this distrust when obedience becomes selective.
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You know what? Christ is Lord over most areas,
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but not quite all. Yes, selective obedience often
22:10
reveals A fundamental distress in God's goodness or wisdom.
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Maybe a believer follows God's commands about worship or giving
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money, but resists his authority in areas like sexual purity or
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controlling their tongue, gossip, harsh words, or maybe
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forgiving someone who hurt them deeply.
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When we do that, we're implicitly saying God's way
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might be good generally, but not here.
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Not when it costs me something I want or makes me vulnerable, the
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heart reasons. If I obey God in this, I'll miss
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out on pleasure or I won't be safe.
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This picking and choosing is a subtle but real form of
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distrusting the law givers wisdom and love.
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And that desire for security often leads us to trust things
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other than God, which the Bible calls idolatry.
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Right. If a believer's real functional
22:53
confidence, the thing that actually gives them peace, the
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thing they rely on for security is their savings account or
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their career status, or their political party, or even their
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marriage, then they're resting more in creative things than in
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the creator. Colossians 3.5 specifically
23:06
calls greed idolatry. Why?
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Because greed treats money in possessions as the source of
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security, stability, and happiness.
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It puts wealth in the place that only God should occupy.
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Idolatry is always rooted in the unbelief that some created thing
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can provide what only the uncreated sovereign God can
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truly give. Lastly, let's touch on something
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that can feel like humility, but might actually be unbelief,
23:30
struggling to accept God's forgiveness.
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Yes, this one is particularly deceptive.
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A sincere Christian might confess a sin, maybe a repeated
23:37
failure or something they feel is especially terrible, but then
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continue to insist inwardly that their sin is just too big for
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God to forgive. They doubt God's promise in
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first John 1.9 that he's faithful and just to forgive us.
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Now. This can feel like deep
23:52
repentance, but it can actually be a subtle form of pride.
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It questions the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice.
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It implies my sin is uniquely awful, perhaps bigger than the
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grace offered at the cross. It refuses to rest in the
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objective power of Christ's atonement, focusing instead on
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the magnitude of 1's own failure.
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It's unbelief about the scope and power of God's pardon.
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Hashtag, hashtag 3.3. The consequences of unbelief.
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OK, given how seriously Scripture treats this sin, the
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consequences must be severe, both eternally for those outside
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Christ and in this life for believers.
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Let's start with the eternal outcome for those who remain in
24:26
unbelief. For those outside of Christ, the
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consequences are final and judicial.
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First, there's present condemnation.
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John 3.18 is chillingly clear. Whoever does not believe is
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condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the
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only Son of God. The judgement isn't just future,
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it stands now because they've rejected the only way to be made
24:47
right with God. Second, flowing from that is the
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abiding wrath of God. John 3.36 says that God's wrath
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remains on him who rejects the Son.
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Unbelief is willfully refusing the only shelter offered,
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leaving the person exposed to the just consequences of their
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sin. And that Old Testament picture
25:05
of the wilderness generation reinforces this idea of eternal
25:09
loss, doesn't it? It does.
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The warning in Hebrews 3.19 echoes down.
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They were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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For those who die outside of Christ, this points to permanent
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exclusion from God's gracious presence, the loss of eternal
25:21
rest. It's the ultimate consequence.
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Now for genuine believers, while our eternal salvation is secure
25:26
in Christ, remaining unbelieved still has damaging corrosive
25:30
effects on our life and relationship with God.
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Now, what are some of those losses we experienced because of
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distrust? Well, the most immediate is
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probably the loss of assurance and joy.
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When a believer feeds their fears, worries and self reliant
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tendencies instead of feeding on God's specific promises, the
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sweetness of knowing they belong to Christ gets clouded over.
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The union itself is secure. God holds on to us.
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But the felt sense of that union, the subjective comfort,
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the peace, the spiritual clarity, it gets obscured by
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this persistent distrust. We can become spiritually
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downcast, like the psalmist wrestling in Psalms 42 and 43
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and beyond. That ongoing distrust actually
26:04
invites God's fatherly discipline.
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If a believer continues in a pattern of functional atheism or
26:10
selective disobedience or crippling worry, God, as a
26:13
loving father, steps in to correct.
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Hebrews 12 describes this not as punishment for seeing Christ
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took that, but as corrective training paideia designed to
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expose the hidden unbelief and draw his child back to reliance
26:25
on him. God might use difficult
26:27
circumstances, a job loss, an illness, a conflict to reveal
26:30
our self-reliance and force us back onto His promises.
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It's painful, but the goal is restoration and fruitfulness.
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And the final consequence for the believer is that unbelief
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hinders our growth and our usefulness in God's Kingdom.
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Absolutely unbelief acts like a drag anchor on spiritual
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progress. It can make Christians dull of
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hearing, as Hebrews says, slow to take in and apply deeper
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spiritual truths because they don't fully trust God's commands
26:55
are truly good or wise, especially the costly ones they
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hold back. This might mean giving money
27:02
reluctantly, sharing their faith, timidly forgiving
27:05
incompletely avoiding difficult callings God might be placing on
27:08
them. Unbelief keeps believers
27:10
paddling in the shallow end, afraid to launch out into the
27:13
deep waters of radical dependence on Christ, and that
27:16
inevitably limits their impact for the Kingdom.
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And we should also briefly mention the damage unbelief does
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corporately when it infects a local church.
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Yes, when a church community loses confidence in God's
27:26
ordained ways, it can slip into functional unbelief together.
27:30
Instead of relying on the faithful preaching of the Word,
27:32
earnest prayer, and the sacraments as God's primary
27:35
means, churches might start depending on human methods,
27:38
things like marketing techniques, entertainment value,
27:40
or business management models, to generate growth or
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excitement. This subtly declares that God's
27:45
ways aren't enough. It weakens the Church's witness
27:48
and often leads to chasing after other things, maybe novel
27:51
spiritual experiences or is supposedly new revelations,
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because there is an underlying doubt about the sufficiency of
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Scripture and the power of the simple gospel.
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OK, the diagnosis is pretty sobering.
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Unbelief is a sin rooted in spiritual death and rebellion,
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and no amount of sheer willpower on our part can fix it.
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So now we absolutely must turn to the good news.
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The solution comes entirely from God.
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It has to start with His sovereign work of making us new.
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Hashtag tag tag 4.1. The triune God sovereign remedy.
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New creation. That's right.
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Since unbelief stems from spiritual death, the cure can't
28:27
just be advice or trying harder. It requires new birth.
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Jesus was clear in John three. You must be born again even to
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see the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit has to
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intervene, grant new spiritual life and open eyes that were
28:40
blinded by Satan, the God of this world.
28:43
Regeneration, God making dead sinners alive in Christ, is the
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sovereign act that creates faith where only hostility existed
28:49
before. So faith itself isn't something
28:51
we initiate out of some neutral state.
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It's entirely a gift from God. Entirely.
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The very ability to trust is divinely given.
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Scripture is explicit. Faith is a gift of God.
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Ephesians 2.8, Philippians 1.29 says it has been granted to us
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to believe in Christ. It comes by sovereign grace.
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This makes sure that the source of our trust, the beginning of
29:10
our reliance, is God's work, not our own striving or merit.
29:13
All the credit goes to Him. And the focus of this guy given
29:16
faith is always specific. It's centered completely on the
29:18
Son of God, Jesus Christ. Yes, the object of true faith
29:21
isn't just general optimism or some vague spirituality.
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It's the specific person and work of Jesus, His perfect life,
29:28
His death on the cross in our place, His resurrection from the
29:31
dead. He is the anchor.
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Hebrews 12.2 calls Jesus the founder and perfector of our
29:36
faith. He starts it and He finishes it.
29:38
He initiates our faith and guarantees its completion.
29:41
Justifying faith receives and rests on His finished work alone
29:44
for righteousness. And this truth that God starts
29:47
faith and finishes it leads to the doctrine of the security of
29:50
the believer that seems crucial for empowering us to fight the
29:54
unbelief that remains. It's absolutely critical.
29:57
The doctrine of divine preservation or the perseverance
29:59
of the Saints tells us God doesn't just start the work of
30:02
faith in us. He keeps it going until the end.
30:04
First Peter one says believers are guarded by God's power
30:08
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed.
30:11
Our security doesn't depend on how tightly we cling to God, but
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on his unbreakable grip on us. Knowing this, that the Father
30:17
chose us, the Son redeemed us, the Spirit seals and guards us,
30:21
gives the believer the courage needed to face the remaining
30:23
unbelief head on and fight it, knowing it can't ultimately
30:27
defeat them or separate them from God's love.
30:29
Hashtag tag tag Tag 4.2. Strengthening faith through
30:32
appointed channels. Means of grace.
30:34
So God gives faith sovereignly, but he sustains and strengthens
30:37
it through specific means, specific channels He's
30:39
appointed. If we want to fight unbelief, we
30:42
need to actively use these means of grace.
30:44
Yes, the Holy Spirit works through these ordinary means to
30:47
weaken, distrust and nourish our reliance on Christ.
30:50
The primary means is the Word of Christ.
30:52
Romans 10.17. Faith comes from hearing and
30:56
hearing through the Word of Christ.
30:58
Through consistently reading, studying, meditating on, and
31:01
especially hearing the faithful preaching of Scripture, God
31:04
repeatedly puts His objective promises before our hearts and
31:07
minds. The Word exposes the lies we
31:10
believe counter Satan's deceptions, and presents the
31:13
solid truth about God's character and His plans.
31:16
It's systematically chips away at the foundations of our
31:19
distrust. Next is prayer, which we've
31:21
already seen is the direct opposite of that practical
31:23
atheism of self-reliance. Exactly.
31:25
Regular, genuine prayer is a vital daily act of dependence.
31:29
It's structurally fights against pride and self trust.
31:32
It's the soul training itself to lean on God's resources instead
31:35
of its own. When we pray, especially in
31:37
Jesus name, we are actively affirming His promises and His
31:40
authority. Prayer is that moment where the
31:42
believer consciously stop saying I've got this and start saying
31:45
my resources aren't enough. I choose to rely on your power
31:48
and your promises. And finally, the sacraments,
31:51
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. They serve as visible anchors
31:54
for our faith, don't they? They do.
31:56
They function as visible signs and seals of the Gospel
31:58
promises. They don't add anything to
32:01
Christ's finished work, but they act like God's handshake,
32:04
confirming his covenant promises to us in a tangible way.
32:07
They help us grasp that his grace is personal, directed
32:10
right at us. The Lord's Supper, especially,
32:13
repeatedly pictures the sufficiency of Christ's death
32:16
for us. It's a powerful, visible counter
32:18
message to the lies of the unbelieving heart that might
32:21
question God's forgiveness or the power of the cross.
32:24
Hashtag tag tag 4.3. The daily practical battle plan.
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OK, we're in a lifelong battle against this remaining sin.
32:31
If a believer listening recognizes these patterns,
32:34
anxieties, selective obedience, trusting other things, doubting
32:37
forgiveness, what's a practical daily battle plan look like?
32:40
Well, the fight has to start with honest confession and
32:43
repentance. We can't just excuse ongoing
32:45
unbelief as that's just how I am.
32:47
Or I'm just a warrior. We need to bring it into the
32:49
light and name it for what it is.
32:51
Sin. An offense against God's
32:53
trustworthiness. A breaking of the first
32:55
commandment in our hearts. That Father's cry is still the
32:58
best model, I believe. Help my unbelief.
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We need to be specific. For example, confessing Lord, I
33:04
confess I acted as if my job was my real security, not your
33:07
promises. Or I confess I believed your
33:10
command to forgive was foolish and holding on to bitterness
33:12
felt safer. Forgive my unbelief.
33:14
Confessing distrust as sin is itself an act of faith,
33:17
acknowledging our weakness and turning to Christ.
33:20
And confession needs to be followed immediately by actively
33:22
replacing the lie with God's truth, right?
33:25
Exactly. That's the application of
33:27
specific promises. This isn't just general Bible
33:30
reading, it's targeted spiritual warfare.
33:32
You identify the specific lie your heart is believing, and you
33:36
counter it with a specific promise from God's Word.
33:39
So if worry about money is attacking you, the weapon is
33:42
Matthew 6.3133. Your heavenly Father knows you
33:47
need them all. Seek first His Kingdom.
33:50
You might need to memorize that verse, write it down, pray it
33:53
back to God until your heart starts to lean on that promise
33:55
more than the fear. If guilt is overwhelming you,
33:58
the weapon is Romans 8.1. There is therefore now no
34:02
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
34:05
You saturate your mind and heart with that objective truth until
34:08
the subjective feelings of condemnation lose their power.
34:11
It's about training our inner self to default to trusting
34:13
God's Word over our feelings or circumstances.
34:16
And this fight isn't meant to be fought alone.
34:18
The church community plays a vital role.
34:19
Absolutely. Corporate exportation is
34:22
commanded for a reason, unbelief, love, secrecy and
34:25
isolation. Hebrews 3.13 urges us exhort one
34:29
another every day that none of you may be hardened by the
34:32
deceitfulness of sin. We need fellow believers to
34:35
gently, lovingly point us back to Christ and His promises when
34:39
our hearts start to drift towards self-reliance, fear, or
34:42
despair. This happens through hearing
34:44
God's Word preach together, through conversations, through
34:47
praying for each other, through the shared experience of the
34:49
Lord's Supper. The whole life of the local
34:51
church is designed to help us fight unbelief together.
34:54
Finally, we need to be really intentional about rejecting
34:57
false cures that pop up, promising relief but ultimately
34:59
distracting us from true faith. Yes, we have to settle it in our
35:02
minds as a core conviction. Christ is enough.
35:05
The gospel is enough. The Bible is enough.
35:07
We have to consciously reject the substitutes that imply God's
35:10
revelation is inadequate. This means turning away from
35:13
friends that chase after mystical experiences or
35:15
supposedly new revelations when we have the completely
35:18
sufficient authoritative word of God.
35:20
It means rejecting pop psychology that diagnosis.
35:23
Our problem is just low self esteem instead of sin, including
35:26
the sin of unbelief. The real cure for unbelief isn't
35:29
generating a better feeling inside, it's resting the entire
35:32
weight of our existence on the objective historical reality of
35:35
Christ and His finished work. Hashtag tag outrip.
35:37
So we've covered a lot today. We've defined unbelief not just
35:41
as a lack of information, but as a serious sin of resistance
35:45
deeply rooted in our fallen nature and pride.
35:48
We've seen it leads to eternal separation for those outside
35:50
Christ and for believers it causes real losses, loss of joy,
35:54
assurance, usefulness, and it invites God's loving discipline.
35:59
But the great news is that this spiritual condition is overcome
36:02
only by God's sovereign grace in giving new life, and then by our
36:05
diligent, ongoing use of the means He's provided His Word,
36:09
prayer, and the fellowship of the church.
36:11
That's right, and the call that comes out of this is pretty
36:14
straightforward for anyone listening who hasn't yet trusted
36:16
in Christ. The call is to turn from ruling
36:18
your own life, repent of that sin of self, alliance and
36:21
unbelief, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for
36:24
salvation. And for those of us who are
36:26
believers, the call is to stop making excuses for the unbelief
36:30
that still remains in our hearts.
36:31
We need to confess it honestly, bring God's specific promises to
36:35
bear against it day by day, and actively discipline our hearts
36:38
to walk by faith, relying completely on the God who is
36:42
faithful to finish the work He started in US.
36:44
Thinking about all this should really push us to examine
36:47
ourselves, to confront those areas where maybe our hearts
36:50
still prefer to trust what we see or feel rather than what God
36:53
has revealed. Unbelief tends to keep us
36:55
playing it safe, spiritually speaking close to the shore,
36:58
hesitant to really depend on God for the big things, the costly
37:01
things. So maybe the final thought for
37:03
you to take away and wrestle with this week.
37:05
Is this what hard calling maybe, and how you use your money, or
37:09
in pursuing purity, or in sharing your faith, or in
37:11
forgiving someone? What hard calling are you
37:13
currently avoiding deep down because that small secret sin of
37:16
distrust is whispering that God's command isn't really wise
37:20
or truly good or actually sufficient for your well-being?