As we continue our verse by verse examination of Mark's gospel, we find ourselves this morning in Mark chapter six. So if you will take your Bibles and turn there, let me read the passage that we will look at closely this morning, under the heading, “The Shocking Reality of Unbelief.” Mark 6 beginning in verse one, "Jesus went out from there and came into His home town, and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, 'Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to him, and such miracles as these performed by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses, and Judas and Simon, are not His sisters here with us. And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his own relatives, and in his own household.' And he could do no miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he wondered at their unbelief, and he was going around the villages teaching."

Last week, we examined Mark chapter five and there we witnessed Jesus power over disease and over death, a power that validated His deity and his power to save and to sanctify sinners. And therefore, if Jesus is God very God, as he says, he is and as he proved to be, then he should be obeyed. And when we behold the perfections, and the power of Jesus, in these historical narratives, we must do far more than just marvel at who he is and what he did and continues to do. We must also bow before him in humble obedience to His word, because Jesus is Lord, but remarkably, most people in the first century and frankly, most people today, refuse to do that. And here in we have the shocking reality of unbelief. It was so shocking that you will notice in verse six, Jesus, quote, "wondered at their unbelief," their refusal to believe and obey Him as their Messiah. The term "wondered" from the verb "thaumazo," in the original language means to Marvel, it means to be amazed. The only other time Jesus wondered at something was when quote, "he marveled at the faith of the centurion." You will recall in Matthew 8:10, "and he said to those who were following 'Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.'" He marveled at the faith of a Gentile, but now he's marveling at the unbelief of his own people. And here in Mark 6, we see the opposite therefore, in their unbelief. Later on, we will see the same thing with Herod. And there's a fascinating contrast as well and Mark does a lot of this in his Gospel in chapter five Mark emphasized the gift of faith to if you will recall Jairus who was the prominent official of the synagogue. He had a 12 year old daughter that was sick and then she died and the Lord raised her from the dead. And also the faith of the unnamed woman, the social outcast, who struggled with a persistent menstrual disorder for 12 years, and her faith was evident. So we see that dominant theme of faith in chapter five.

And now we have the direct opposite of that. We have the shocking reality of unbelief in chapter six. And as we look at this passage before us this morning, I want to emphasize three concepts that need to be understood, so that we can understand biblically this whole issue of the shocking reality of unbelief. We're going to look at the cause, the characteristics and the consequences of unbelief. But I have much to say before we get there, let me give you some context here, historically.

The first century Jewish people, for the most part, worshipped God of their own making, one that they thought they could impress by their fastidious rule keeping. And they were an exceedingly arrogant people. They were self righteous, and they hated Jesus because He exposed their hypocrisy as he does for all of us when we approach the Word of God, right? You will recall, in Acts:7, remember the story of Stephen. The text there says that he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit full of grace and power. He was performing signs and wonders, and many priests were coming to faith in Christ. And yet, the synagogue leaders said that they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Holy Spirit. And so what do you do? Rather than bow down and believe and worship the Lord Jesus, they get mad. And they ended up stoning Steven, but in Acts chapter seven, part of his message to them reads this way, beginning of verse 51, "You men who are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart, and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did, which one of the prophets did. Which one of the prophets did your father's not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One who is betrayers and murderers, you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and they began gnashing their teeth at him." Gnashing literally means to grind to the teeth. It was a sign of rage. And so they took him out and they stoned him, you will recall. And there was also a young man there with him by the name of Saul, that held the clothes of those that were doing the killing. And Saul later became the Apostle Paul . Stephen's ministry and others in that day really infuriated, especially the Jewish leadership. But what Jesus did took it to a whole new level. Jesus ministry fanned the flames of their fury into a raging inferno. And so the the leaders in particular were scheming to kill him and what made it worse for them is his popularity because everybody is flocking to come to Jesus. And again, there are priests that are being saved. Many people were being saved. But most people were in awe of him outside of Nazareth, because the people in Nazareth knew Jesus. They knew that he grew up there. You will recall that his family had moved there; Joseph and Mary after returning from Egypt where they had fled from Herod. And so the people there knew who Jesus was. Nazareth, by the way is about 25 miles southwest of Capernaum. Those of you that were with me in Israel, this last year, we went there. It's nestled up in some fairly steep mountains there on the North Ridge of the Jezrell Valley. It was founded in 2200 BC, and in Jesus day, there was only about 500 people that lived there. Interesting, today, it is still there in the Northern District of Israel and it's known as the Arab capital of Israel, there's about 80,000 people that live there. About 70% of them are Muslim 30% are Christian. And it's really sad like in most of the Arab villages, the streets and the roadways, literally are landfills. It's just, it's just filthy. There's just junk everywhere. But the residents of Nazareth knew Jesus, he lived there for about 30 years. They knew the whole family. We see from scripture that Mary had given birth to at least six children after Jesus was born. They called him a carpenter, which is true, a "tekton", which would be a construction worker, it could be translated "a builder," it was used to describe a stone maker, a sculptor, metal smith, and so forth. And of course, this is one of the main reasons why they rejected his claim as Messiah. From their perspective, this is just Jesus that you know, the builder that lived here with Joseph and Mary, it be the Messiah. Now, this event in Mark 6, you must understand is the second and last time Jesus would visit his hometown. After commencing his public ministry, I want to remind you of what happened the first time, he went to Nazareth. That happened at the end of the temptation that he experienced in the wilderness with the devil, Luke chapter four. And this visit almost cost him his life, as it was customary in those days the rabbis would be asked to teach in the synagogue and certainly in your hometown. And undoubtedly, the hometown folks were fascinated, Jesus is coming. And we're hearing about these miracles and, and his astonishing ability to teach with such clarity and authority. So here's what happened in his first visit, Luke chapter four, beginning of verse 14, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.' And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down."

Now you must understand, a rabbi would stand up to read the Scripture and then he would sit down to teach. It's not like he came up here and read the Scripture and went back over there to sit down with the rest of everyone, no, he sat down now he's ready to teach. Well, the text goes on to say "and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" In other words, he told them that "I am the fulfillment of that prophecy." I am your Messiah. Verse 22, it says, "And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips;" in other words, at first until he said this, everything was rose petals and daffodils, right? Everything was wonderful, oh my... until he claimed to be God. And of course, that went over like a pork chop at a bar mitzvah. Right? Only much greater. And they were saying, is this not Joseph son? Really? You claim to be the Messiah? You're Joseph, son? You gotta be kidding me. It was fascinating. Rather than trying to douse the fire, he pours more fuel on it. He says to them, No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!' Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." In other words, he knew their mind, he knew they wanted to see him do some ,iracles, they wanted to be entertained. And he said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown". And if that wasn't bad enough, by the way, this was before we understood how important it is to be seeker sensitive, right? He rubs salt into the wound, verse 25, "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land." By the way, why did that happen? God was judging Israel for their apostasy, for their wickedness, for their paganism, for their idolatry. He goes on to say, "and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, none of them in Israel, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." See, you must understand, what they understood, the woman of Zarephath, and Naaman the Syrian, were Gentiles. God withheld His blessing from Israel and went to the Gentiles.

Jesus point was simply this, even as Elijah and Elijah were rejected by Israel, so too, I am experiencing the same kind of hard hearted unbelief. So God is going to withhold His blessing from you, and extend His grace to the Gentiles. Verse 28, "and all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city has been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went his way." Many of you have been with me at the brow, that cliff is an amazing place. And somehow miraculously, Jesus went through their midst, whatever that means. Folks, this is what happened on his first visit. And now in Mark six, he's going to return uninvited. He's rather brave, right? And that's why we read "Jesus went out from there, referring to Capernaum, and came into his hometown and his disciples followed Him."

By the way, that's an important statement, his disciples are with him. They need to see what it's like to be around people that absolutely hate Christ, hate the gospel. Those of you that want to serve Christ, don't even think of doing that until you get a sample of what it's like to be absolutely hated for your stand for Christ. Because you must learn to endure that. If you ever expect to be faithful in ministry, and that's what was going on here.

So we read that when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many listeners were astonished, the term means they were utterly amazed. They were flabbergasted, saying, "Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to him as such miracles as these performed by his hands?" Now, I might add that this this was a common reaction wherever Jesus went. For example, you will recall in Mark 1:22, those hearing him in the synagogue at Capernaum, we read, "they were amazed at His teaching." By the way, I love that they were amazed at His teaching, not his cultural relevance, not his political correctness, not his hairstyle, not his wardrobe, not his band, not his Hollywood savvy. They were amazed at his preaching the Word. And he went on, it's to say, for "he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." You will recall the scribes were the main teachers of Israel. That's what the people were used to. The scribes emerged on the religious scene of Israel in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. They would get up and they would read and explain the law. And that was very important because ordinary people didn't have access to the Scriptures. They were very expensive to have copies of the Scripture, so they depended upon the scribes. And the scribes were also called rabbis or honored ones, because they taught the scriptures. But by the first century, the scribes didn't exposit the scriptures anymore. They primarily quoted the convoluted and obscure musings, and far fetched mystical allegories of other rabbis. So they didn't speak with authority. So when Jesus comes along and explains the Word, therein is the authority and the people are amazed. They're astonished. It's like I didn't know that's what the word said, I didn't even know that was there. He spoke the truth with such supernatural clarity, and authority and power and precision. We even read later on in Luke chapter 19 and Jesus ministry beginning of verse 47, "and He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word H said." You will recall that Jesus teachings and his miracles were so astonishing that the greatest teacher of Israel, by the name of Nicodemus comes to him in secret, and says in John 3:2, "Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him." So this is how people perceived Jesus in the first century, even those who hated him. Now back to Mark 6:3, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James," by the way, James later became the the leader of the church in Jerusalem in Acts 15, he wrote the epistle of James. "and Joses, and Judas," who could also be translated Jude, he wrote, the little epistle of Jude, "and Simon, are not His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him". Verse four, "Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his own relatives and in his own household.'" You see, at this point, even a lot of his own household didn't believe him. "And he could do no miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them." Now, that's not because he lacked the power but because the people were already sealed in the vault of their hard hearted unbelief and additional miracles would only increase their condemnation. I might add that withholding miracles was also a sign of judgment. Jesus said this and, for example, in Matthew 7:6, "do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." So back to Mark 6:6, "And he wondered," he was amazed, at their unbelief. And he was going around the villages teaching."

Now that we understand the text let's talk for a moment about this whole issue of unbelief. Let me address the issue of its cause. And just real simply the cause of unbelief is because people are blinded by sin and satanic deception. It's interesting in I John 3:4 we read sin is lawlessness. And that's a description of the inner state or disposition of the sinner, not so much the wicked behaviors that he commits Sin is lawlessness and unbelief arises from the sin nature. Man is depraved, from birth. And sin is that innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. When we look at the center, we see that sin is not so much what he does, but who he is. All that man does, all that man is, is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. Now, that's not the God that most people like to think of. But that is the God of the Bible, the one true God. And we know that Satan's world system appeals to man's sinful nature. Remember, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, I John 5:19. And until Christ comes again, we must endure the diabolical schemes of the kingdom of darkness and its ability to appeal to the innate depravity of sinners. For indeed, according to Ecclesiastes 9:3, "the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives." And it's for this reason that the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:3, that "the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they saw that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." So we must understand with this whole issue of unbelief. Unbelief is not an intellectual problem. Unbelief is rooted in an evil heart and the depraved nature and the defiant will of man who is in love with Satan's world system that appeals to the lusts of his flesh. Jesus made this clear when he said in Matthew 15:19, "out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders," you see, humankind is hopelessly prone to evil and unbelievers live in a state of alienation, and hostility toward God described in Ephesians4 , where they are described as those who quote, "walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." By the way, this explains the staggering inability of unbelievers to understand and savingly embrace the truths in the Bible. Every conversation is consistent with 1 Corinthians 2:14, "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness to him; and he cannot cannot understand them, because he is spiritually appraised." In other words, he has no capacity to savingly embrace spiritual truths. He cannot do that. Well, what about the free will of man people say. Well, yeah, everybody's got a free will. That's not an issue. The problem is the desire. We have the free will to choose Christ. But we have no desire to do that, unless God does the work of grace within us. I believe it was Finley that said that unbelievers are like, quote, "deaf men judging music." It's a good way of putting it. You see, because of their sin nature, and the religious deceptions that they embraced, the Jewish people of the first century, most of them that is, especially those in Nazareth, simply could not believe And dear friends, none of us would ever be able to believe apart from regenerating grace, the miracle of being raised from spiritual death to spiritual life.

So the cause of unbelief is the blindness that occurs within us because of our sin nature. And then the double blinding that occurs because of Satan's deceptions. What are the characteristics of unbelief? Well, we've seen it here in this passage, and many others. It's open hostility, as well as what I would call logical fallacies. Now you will remember, Jesus authority, and his supernatural abilities were indisputable, yet people still rejected him. Empowered by Satan, they tried to kill him the first time when he goes to Nazareth. We're not sure it doesn't say why they didn't try to kill him the second time, maybe they did. It just doesn't say, they were probably too afraid of him. So he simply departed. And as we will see, just left them in their unbelief. But like all unbelievers, those people used logical fallacies to justify their unbelief. There's a lot of logical fallacies. I won't get into all of that, but you're familiar with them. You've heard of red herring, you've heard of a straw man argument, you've heard of the slippery slope or begging the question or an ad hoc or post hoc argument. Politicians are masters at this, you know, you give them a question, and they skirt all around it and before you know it, you're off in lala land in order to distract you or communicates their own agenda or whatever. Well what they did here in Nazareth would be what we would call a red herring, a logical fallacy of irrelevance. In other words, using an irrelevant issue, or argument, as a diversionary tactic to distract them from the real issue, and that is of the deity of Christ. And that red herring simply went like this, he can't be the Messiah, because his family is so ordinary. That's like saying for Frederick Chopin, who was one of the greatest pianists and composers that ever lived, couldn't have been one of the greatest composers and pianists that ever lived, because after all, his father was a French immigrant to Poland, who was merely a tutor. Well, yeah, but haven't you heard him? No, it doesn't matter. He can't be because look who his dad was. You know, the specifics relating to his family weren't germane to the question of his Messiahship. Especially in light of the Old Testament, Messianic prophecies, which understandably, because of the scribes, they were unfamiliar with, because they hadn't been taught. They should have known that the Messiah would come from the seed of Abraham, Genesis 12:3; that he would be of the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49; 10, that he would be born of a virgin, Isaiah7, verse 14, so many other passages. He would be full of wisdom and power, Isaiah 11, 1-10, he would be a light to the Gentiles, Isaiah 49:6, he would be hated without reason. Psalm 69, for he would be a rock of offense, Isaiah 8:14, and 15. And on it goes, but their pride and their jealousy and their prejudice against Gentiles, not to mention their self righteousness, prevented them from seeing Jesus for who He really was. And the more Jesus tried to expose them, the more they dug in. You see what the people couldn't stand was Jesus claimed a deity and the gospel that he preached. Let me show this to you from another passage, you will recall in Romans 1:18, we see more about this issue of unbelief, we see that people suppress the truth in ungodliness. Ungodliness just really describes one who does not worship the one true God. It can refer to an idolatry or a false worship or hypocrites, phonies, those who worship false gods, and those who think they are worshiping the one true God, but they do so falsely. Which just describes the majority of evangelicalism today. They suppress the truth in ungodliness. Suppress "katecho" that verb it means to, to restrain or to hinder the course or progress of something. And this is the progress of truth. It could be rendered, people who are constantly attempting to suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. And Paul went on to describe how despite the irrefutable evidence of God, through reason and through conscience, those in rebellion to God continue to suppress the truth of who he is and how they should respond to him. The very nature of the unregenerate is opposed to God, they prefer their sin, over worshipping Him and people will contrive the most ridiculous reasons to justify their unbelief. And again, as we look at Romans one, we see how the reality of the truth of who God is, as the creator, is something that everybody can see. Moreover, we have a conscience and everyone is made in the image of God and that conscience bears witness to the fact that God is and we are responsible to him, that we have an obligation to obey Him. Yet people rejected all. That's why Paul said in Romans 1:19, "that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen." By the way, think how much more clearly we see it today with the advent of microscopes, and these telescopes that now are out In the universe. "It's clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Reminds me of what Jesus said in John 12:35, "Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes."

And sadly, dear friends that describes some of you. You're walking in the darkness and you're being exposed to the light of the gospel today and I beseech you, as a minister of the gospel, you need to get right with God, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ while there is still light, or you will perish in your sin. And the darkness that you love will become your permanent habitation forever. Men prefer darkness rather than light, right? Why? Because their deeds are evil. Their whole life is what you might call Gothic. You see kids today wearing all this stuff. What a manifestation of a dark heart. You see, darkness replaces light. And this is the darkness of those that are spiritually blind and dead. And they're doubly blinded by Satan. They are spiritual cadavers. They are corpses incarcerated in a tomb of spiritual pitch blackness, utterly bereft of any light, and again, dear friends that is a foretaste of hell, which Jesus called outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 22:13. These are like the ones Jesus described in Matthew 6, verse 23, whose whole nature is so corrupt, that we read darkness actually emanates from within them, and thereby characterizes their whole being that text reads, "If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?" For those of you that might be here without Christ and you don't believe in Christ, you don't believe in the gospel, what type of excuses have you contrived to justify your unbelief? Oh, I've heard them all. Well, the Bible is full of mistakes. Oh, really? You know, I've studied it all my life. I've never seen that. Would you please enlighten me? There are 1817 prophecies in the Bible. 351 Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled precisely in the person in the work of Jesus Christ. So, can you help me understand how that can be true if the Bible is full of mistakes? Well, the church is full of hypocrites. Absolutely. It is. Jesus warned that that would happen. And the world is full of murderers. Are you one? Oh, you're not? Neither is the church full of hypocrites. Well, I can't believe in a god that would send someone to hell. Well, of course. And I say this with all respect, you are spiritually dead and you have no capacity to understand the holiness of God. You have no ability to see your own sin. And until you humble yourself, you will continue to live in darkness. And you will never understand the holiness of God that is so repulsed by sin, that hell is the only holy and righteous remedy. Well, unbelief again at its core is rooted in an evil heart, one that resents God and exalts self. This is why people hate Christ. This is why people hate the gospel. This is why people hate the true church. So what are the consequences of unbelief? Well, if I could put it simply, divine abandonment and eternal wrath. We see a little sample of this even in Mark 6:5, "And he could do no miracle there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he wondered if their unbelief. And he was going around the villages teaching." In other words, he just stopped performing the miracles, stopped pouring out His love and His grace on those stiff neck people and he just walked away and left them in their darness. For instance, unbelief is a sobering reality, and it has devastating results in this life and damning results in eternity. Think of what Jesus said in John 3: 18, "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already." Why? "Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Oh, well, well, I believe, I believe won't do you. If that is true, then those who know you best will say that your life reflects the virtues of Christ. Is that true of you? You come up here and you take communion, if people see you and the rest of the week when you're not here, would they say oh my, there is evidence of a new creature in Christ right there. Jesus said in Matthew 5 that believers will mourn over their sin. You mourn over your sin? He said they will hunger and thirst for righteousness is that you? He says that they will serve me and be persecuted but they will persevere in the midst of persecution. Does that describe you? Peter says that a true believer will long for the sincere life giving milk of the word. They will gladly obey it and they will grow into Christ's likeness because of that. Do you have that kind of appetite for the Word of God? Are you growing in Christ? You say you believe? Can you say that these things are true? Dear friends, if not, you're still in the state of unbelief. I don't care how many aisles you have walked, or how many sinners prayers you have prayed. The proof is going to be in the pudding. Right? John 10:27, Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow Me." Does that describe you? I hope it does. Sadly, there are many professing Christians that live in a world of self deception. They claim Christ but they live as if Christ doesn't exist because ultimately down deep they don't believe Christ is who He says He is and therefore shouldn't be obeyed and worshipped gladly from the heart. Matthew 7:18 Jesus said, "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." If you're a good tree, we should see good fruit, right? John 12:48 Jesus said, "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him on the last day."

Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:19, that unbelievers manifest the deeds of the flesh, which includes things like "immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these." It goes on to say those who practice such things shall "not inherit the kingdom of God." Folks, this is the fruit of unbelief. And if that characterizes you, don't kid yourself. And it's this kind of unbelief that destroys marriages and destroys families and destroys communities and destroys countries. 2 Peter 2:10, we read that the unregenerate man is one who seeks to, "indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires." And Paul said in Philippians, 3:19, that they are those "whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things." So, the point is simply this, we experience the horror of unbelief, all the time, and in the world in which we live, some of you even in your own families, man simply refuses to believe who God is, and what he has said, and what he has done, and therefore you call God a liar. And you scoff at his authority, this is what happened in Nazareth. The Light of Christ simply disappeared and left them in the darkness they loved, which was a foretaste of hell. So again, Jesus said in John 3:18, "He who believes in Him is not judged; He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." In other words, you do not believe in who he really is that is encompassed in his name. And then Jesus went on to warn in verse 19, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil." My you're gonna see this in the story of Herod as it plays out. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

You see, because sinful man stands guilty, and therefore condemned before a holy God and a righteous God, it's God's wrath that is poured out upon the one who suppresses the truth of the gospel in unrighteousness. In ungodliness, again, Romans 1:18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven." That's a synonym from for God's throne, "is revealed from God's throne against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppressed in unrighteous." The word "wrath" comes from the Greek word "orge" and it refers to "anger, vengeance, passionate, rage, righteous indignation." Oh, but God loves the sinner but hates the sin. How many times have you heard that? It's a common saying. Folks, be very careful with that, because that is not true. Let me explain this. Biblically, we see that God hates the sinner. His wrath abides upon the sinner, and he hates the sin that the sinner commits. Psalm five beginning of verse four, "For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit." Psalm 7 beginning in verse 11, "God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day. If a man does not repent, he will sharpen His sword; He has bent his bow and made it ready. He has also prepared for himself deadly weapons; He makes his arrows, fiery shafts." In other words, he's prepared to judge the sinner. Psalm 11, beginning of verse four, The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord test the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, his soul hates."

Everybody wants a God that winks at sin, kind of puts his arm around us, hey, ya know, you messed up, no big deal, everything will be okay. Grace covers it all. That's not what Scripture teaches. However, there is a contrast. And here's the glorious truth of the gospel. Yes, God hates the sinner and he hates the sin. "But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace, you have been saved," Ephesians 2:4-5. Beloved, there's the glorious truth of the gospel. Because of his holiness, He hates those who sin and the sin that we commit, but he chooses to love us enough to provide a way for us to be reconciled unto Him. And God always acts justly even in his anger. Exodus 34 beginning in verse six describes how God's wrath is always in perfect harmony with his compassion, with his mercy, with his eagerness to forgive his grace, his love, his faithfulness, there we read, "the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth; who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." Paul said in Romans 2:3, that people apart from Christ will not escape the judgment of God. Those who according to verse four, who quote, "think lightly of the riches of His kindness, and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads to repentance?" But because of their stubbornness and unrepentant heart they are storing up wrath for themselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And Paul warned the Colossians about God's judgment upon sin, according to Colossians, three beginning in verse five that because of quote "immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry." He goes on to say the wrath of God will come Ephesians 5:6, "Let no one deceive you with empty words." Which is a reference in this context to the hollow apologies for sin, that a lot of people say are just mistakes rather than offenses to a holy God. "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things." In other words, those sinful acts of rebellion, "the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Beloved, apart from God's grace, all believers would still be slaves to sin, and under the wrath of God, but Paul makes this clear, in his words to the Ephesians that prior to salvation, we quote, "all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh." Boy those of us who know love Christ, we can all say that is so true, right? Before we came to Christ, we lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're, catch this, by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest. Beloved, unbelief is the settled position of a fool, one who lives in a fool's paradise, and who will perish and their sin. But this judgment upon the wicked begins even in this life, you will recall, as we've studied before, in Romans 1:24-32, the sobering and terrifying passage in that epistle, where we see that God rejects man, when man rejects him, he removes all restraint, even in a society. When a culture reaches that stage of depravity there is the wrath of divine abandonment. We see a lot of this even in a small way in Nazareth. We certainly see it in our country. Collectively, a culture will be given over to three things progressively, first, to sorted immorality, second to shameless homosexuality, and then finally to shocking depravity. Well we see this today in our culture, don't we? I mean, our jaws absolutely drop when we witness the threats posed by, for example, our progressive public school systems that indoctrinate our children with Neo-Marxist propaganda ideologies such as the brutal murder of the unborn, the demonstrably false hoax of critical race theory, and systemic racism, the lunacy of wokeism, the gross immorality of the LGBTQ, whatever else, revolutionaries, the biological absurdities of transgender ideology. And, of course, I think one of the most most profound, most sickening displays of this depravity today are these painted up pedophile pervert drag queens, that we see even in churches. God's word is clear, dear friends unbelief is the proud stand of the ungodly.

Jude warns of this in verses 14 and 15 where he speaks of, of Enochs prophecy when God will one day quote, "execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Dear friends, do you believe who Jesus is? And what he has said? Reminds me of Isaiah 53:1 where the prophet says, "Who has believed our message? And to whom, as the arm of the Lord been revealed?" And we must remember, dear Christian, that when it comes to unbelief, we are absolutely at the mercy of a sovereign God and His Holy Spirit. There is no human key that can unlock the gates of unbelief. There is no compelling apologetic that can breach its walls. There is no irrefutable logic that can render it powerless. Unbelief is far too powerful. Clever argumentation is like shooting a pea shooter at a battleship. Some of you young people may not know what peashooters are, but some of us older people remember them.

Beloved, God must do a work in the human heart through the preaching of the gospel. And I close with this. What Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse three, "for though we walk in the flesh," in other words, that we have human limitations, "we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Indeed, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ so we must yield the sword of the Spirit effectively, and watch him do his work. In closing, if you're here today without Christ, you know, as well as I do, that your life is a train wreck. And you don't want to admit it. But in the darkness of the night, when all is quiet, your conscience is accusing you. And you know you stand guilty before a holy God, even though you're trying to suppress the truth of all of that in your unrighteousness. And I plead with you again as a minister of the gospel, that you will humble yourself and you will cry out to the Lord our God for forgiveness, that you will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Your sins will be forgiven. You will be made a new creature in Christ. You will receive the imputed righteousness of Christ as well as the imparted righteousness of Christ and your life will change radically. That's the power of the gospel. Amen. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word. And as always, I pray that your spirit will make our hearts receptive to what we have heard today. That's sinners might be saved. And that saints might be sanctified to the praise of the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.