UNBELIEF PRODUCES SPIRITUAL PARALYSIS

INTRODUCTION: Isaiah 59:1–2 speaks of the “separation between you and your God.” The ground in which your sins grow and flourish is unbelief. And that unbelief is a ground full of elements that paralyze the Christian’s vision and action.

In Mark 6:1–6 we read that in His hometown, Nazareth, Jesus was almost completely paralyzed by the people’s unbelief. “He could do no mighty works there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.”

I. Now let us consider some Old Testament illustrations of the paralyzing effect of unbelief:

A. We read that when Noah built the ark and preached 120 years none believed. All perished except Noah and his family (see Gen. 6–7).

B. Then there was Israel’s unbelief at Kadesh Barnea (see Num. 13–14). Consider all they lost.

C. Zacharias became “dumb” because he did not believe Gabriel’s message (see Luke 1:5–25, 57–64).

D. Jesus told the disciples that they could not cast the demon out of the boy “because of your little faith” (Matt. 17:19–20).

II. Paralysis is brought on by unbelief.

A. Unbelief leaves a Christian powerless in attempted service.

B. Unbelief leaves him powerless to receive God’s truth and blessing.

C. Unbelief is a pestilential plague that devitalizes the praying faith of others in the church.

D. Unbelief paralyzes the vision, and men cannot see the peril of the lost.

E. The paralysis of unbelief reduces God to the level of only the things that are possible by human endeavor

INTRODUCTION:

Now let us consider some Old Testament illustrations of the paralyzing effect of unbelief:

A. We read that when Noah built the ark and preached 120 years none believed. All perished except Noah and his family (see Gen. 6–7).

B. Then there was Israel’s unbelief at Kadesh Barnea (see Num. 13–14). Consider all they lost.

C. Zacharias became “dumb” because he did not believe Gabriel’s message (see Luke 1:5–25, 57–64).

D. Jesus told the disciples that they could not cast the demon out of the boy “because of your little faith” (Matt. 17:19–20).

A. Unbelief leaves a Christian powerless in attempted service.

B. Unbelief leaves him powerless to receive God’s truth and blessing.

C. Unbelief is a pestilential plague that devitalizes the praying faith of others in the church.

D. Unbelief paralyzes the vision, and men cannot see the peril of the lost.

E. The paralysis of unbelief reduces God to the level of only the things that are possible by human endeavor.