Human Verus Divine The Sin Of Unbelief

HUMAN VERUS DIVINE the sin of Unbelief

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

How is your Determination in what God has given us to do? Do you have an excuse?

Johnny Fulton was run over by a car at the age of three. He suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured skull, and compound fractures in his legs. It did not look as if he would live. But he would not give up. In fact, he later ran the half-mile in less than two minutes.

Walt Davis was totally paralyzed by polio when he was nine years old, but he did not give up. He became the Olympic high jump champion in 1952.

Shelly Mann was paralyzed by polio when she was five years old, but she would not give up. She eventually claimed eight different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

In 1938, Karoly Takacs, a member of Hungary’s world-champion pistol shooting team and sergeant in the army, lost his right hand when a grenade he was holding exploded. But Takacs did not give up. He learned to shoot left-handed and won gold medals in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.

Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy ball player that the boys in his neighborhood would not let him play on their team. But he was committed. He did not give up. Eventually, his name was entered into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Woodrow Wilson could not read until he was ten years old. But he was a committed person. He became the twenty-eighth President of the United States.

God’s power in contrast to human wisdom.

I. “The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.”

The true wisdom of God is found in the Cross of Christ. To know Christ and Him crucified is the most important thing in our life. The Cross, to those who are without Christ it is foolishness, irrational, stupid, worthless, illogical, unfounded, brainless, of no value, insignificant, unimportant, unreasonable, irrelevant and unfair. Why would anyone who claims to be God end His life on a cross? If He is God, why should he die? I know that God is all-powerful and can do miracles so why did He die. If he were God, why didn’t he call on the angels to deliver him? They have more power than men do. I know He is spoken of in the Old Testament that He would come to set a nation free and rule over the world not die.

Jesus said “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Faith should be one of the most talked about subjects in the church. Why does Jesus say that when He comes again, “Will I find and faith at all?” Heb. 3:12 says, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” What does it mean to depart from the Lord? Unbelief will make us depart from God’s presence.

How seriously does God take our sin of unbelief?

1. This sin infuriates God. We see this in Exodus 17 when the Israelites could see no drinking water in sight and cried out to Moses. Not one of them turned to God in prayer. They had seen God deliver them from Egypt, part the Red Sea and sweeten the waters at Marah. Moses did as the Lord instructed and there was more than enough water to meet the thirst. God had this placed called Massah because God was telling His people I am very irritated with you. They had made the statement, “Is the Lord among us or not?” How can we believe in a God who would allow us to suffer from thirst? It was later that Moses gave the reason for God to be irritated, “You never obeyed God’s Word and are rebellious against Him. They were failing to being committed to Him fully and really trust Him. If you can believe it the Bible tells that they had kept little gods hidden in their tents just in case. Then when God did not come through as they thought, they blamed Him. Ever since they had left the bondage of Egypt, they had carried their little gods and here at Massah God became infuriated because of their lack of trust.

2. The sin of unbelief hinders the deliverance from the influence and authority of Satan. This is what Paul described as the “body of death.” It is a simple thing for God to deliver us from the power of Satan. When ever there is true repentance from sin there is complete forgiveness. There is also instant cleansing and a continual openness to the throne of God. The Hindu religion rejects this in favor of works and will crawl for miles to try to get God’s favor. The Jews reject the simple way by trying to keep over 630 rules to balance the books of good over wrong. Moslems try through lying down and praying five times a day to appease Allah for their sins. It is sad that there are some, who say they are Christians, who are relying on self-improvement to get deliverance from sin. They think by making promises to God and denying themselves of fleshy desires they will in their own strength gain favor with God. What is the essence of unbelief? When we think we are failing or sinning, we run from the presence of God. We stop praying and try to work our way back into his grace. If we can just make ourselves clean and can stay pure for a week or two we will become worthy of God. We can be delivered from the power of Satan by repentance alone.