How to have Victory over Unbelief: Lesson 1

 How to have Victory over Unbelief

Lesson 1

Introduction:

Unbelief is unreasonable.  It makes unreasonable demands of God and the bible. 

The word “unbelief” is not found in the entire Old Testament.  It is found 16 times in the New Testament. 

·        12x it is translated from the Greek word- ap-is-tee'-ah Strongs # 570 “disbelief”

the act of disbelieving : mental rejection of something as untrue

Matt 13:58; 17:20

Mark 6:6; 9:24; 16:14

Romans 3:3; 4:20; 11:20; 11:23

1 Timothy 1:13

Hebrews 3:12; 19

·        4x it is translated from the Greek word- ap-i'-thi-ah Strongs # 543 “Unpersuadable”

: unshakable or insistent especially in maintaining a position or opinion : UNYIELDING

This act and mindset in your life that resists God and the Bible is and always will be a demonic influence in your life or worse and spiritual oppression backed up by you allowing these unreasonable thoughts to become a strong hold in your life.

Mark 11:22   “So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.”

1.   What is Unbelief?

a.       Unbelief is a refusal to trust God’s Word

b.      Unbelief is a fear of obstacles.

c.       Unbelief results from looking at the problems instead of at God

2.   Doubt versus Unbelief

a.     There is a difference between “doubt” and “unbelief.”

b.    The word “doubt” is from the French word, douter, and means “fear”.  It also originates from the Latin word, dubius, which means “unsettled.”  The dictionary says that to doubt means to waver in judgment or hesitate in indecision.  One who doubts suspends judgment.

 James 1:2-8 “² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

 

This means that doubt can be honest.  For example:  Nathaniel had doubt, but later believed.  Thomas had doubt, but believed.  However, Judas had unbelief – a refusal to believe.

c.     Unbelief is very different from doubt.  It means a skepticism – a negative rejection of faith.  It is an indisposition to belief.  A definition of an unbeliever is “infidel.”  Unbelief is a negative action, a deliberate action, an unreasonable action, and proceeds from an evil heart. 

Charles Finney wrote in his book, Finney’s Systematic Theology- under the topic of Lectures 11 attributes of selfishness- “Unreasonable is another attitude of selfishness.  That is it is intended, that the selfish choice is in direct opposition to the demands of the reason.”

“It is a dethroning of reason from the seat of government, and an enthroning of blind desire in opposition to it.  Selfishness is always and necessarily unreasonable….”

If possible unreasonableness would dethrone human reason, and dethrone God and place in its place mere blind human desire to throne the universe.

“Total, universal, and shameless unreasonableness, is the universal characteristic of every selfish mind.”

 

Hebrews 3: 12  “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;”

 

3.    Unbelief is the cruelest thing in the World

a.     Unbelief will kick the crutches out from under the arm of a crippled man.  Unbelief will steal bread from a widow.  Unbelief will refuse water to a thirsty soul.  Unbelief is like weeds and briars that grow without cultivation.  Unbelief creates the materialist, the “free-thinker,” the agnostic and the atheist. 

Unbelief screams, “NO!” without thought or proof.

 

b.   When Christ was dying on the cross for the sins of the world, unbelief screamed in Matthew 27:40 “and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Rather than seeking to know the purpose of Christ’s dying on the cross, unbelief demanded that He be selfish and come down.

c.    Unbelief denies the deity and lordship of Christ, with a million spurious, so-called evidences to support it.

d.   Unbelief mocks without seeking to determine if they were good men, or if it was a gift from God.

                                                   i.     Acts 2:13 “ Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”

e.   Unbelief shouts at the man praying for the sick without seeking to know the truth.

                                                    i.     Mark 3:22 “And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

f.      Unbelief demands statistics and material reality rather than faith.  For this reason, no spiritual thing can flourish in the atmosphere of unbelief.

 

4.   What Unbelief will do to you

a.     Israel wandered for forty years until a generation died because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:9-11 “9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.10, Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.11, So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

b.     II Kings 7:19-20 “¹⁹ Then that officer had answered the man of God, and said, “Now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?”

And he had said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” ²⁰ And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.                                                                   

The kings right-hand man was trampled to death at the gate of the city because he would not believe in the miracle that was prophesied by Elisha.

c.     Denominational unbelief:  Many churches reject the Great Commission, which teaches that he who believes is saved and he who not believes is damned.  It also teaches that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are to heal the sick and cast out devils.

Mark 16:14-18 “  ¹⁴ Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. ¹⁶ He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will follow those who ^[a]believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they^[b] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

 

5.   Effect on Towns or Cities

The force of unbelief is seen in Matthew 13:58.  Jesus could not perform any great miracles in Nazareth because of unbelief.  The sick did not get healed.  There unbelief prevented the sick to a healthy recovery. 

6.   Ultimate Destiny of Unbelievers

Revelation 21:8 “⁸ But the cowardly, ^[a]unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

 

7.   How to Destroy Unbelief

Faith is an act.  We destroy unbelief by acting on God’s Word.

Romans 10:17 “¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

James 2:20 “²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”

a.     Noah acted, and saved his family and the world.

Hebrews 11:7 “⁷ By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

 

b.    Abraham acted and gave birth to a nation.

 

Genesis 17:19 “¹⁹ Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant,…”

 

Galations 3:16 “¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.

 

c.     Moses acted, and led two or three million souls out of slavery.

 

Exodus 12:31-38 “³¹ Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. ³² Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

³³ And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. ³⁵ Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. ³⁶ And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. ³⁸ A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.

 

d.    Joshua acted, and Israel entered into the Holy Land.

Joshua 11:23 “²³ So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.

e.     The blind man obeyed.

John 9:7 “⁷ And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

f.      The man with the withered arm thrust it forth.

Mark 3:5 “⁵ And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored ^[a]as whole as the other.