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Devotions from Gospel Chapel Ministries HOME SERMONS SERMON NOTES
GUILTY OF HUMAN REASONING, NOT UNBELIEF
Abram believed that God would give him a son of his own bowels, and he figured out a way to make it happen. It was not the Lord's time. ROM 4:20 says, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God," It is important that we understand the meaning of these words.
This same Greek word "unbelief" comes from the Greek word "apistia" which means "unfaithfulness, disobedient." Abram was not unfaithful to the Lord; he loved the Lord and had no desire to come against the Lord. It was not rebellion against the will of God. He fell into human reasoning.
This same Greek word is used to denote a heart problem in departure from God in HEB 3:12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Abram did not do that. He did not have an evil heart of unbelief. His heart was set solely on the will of God, but he mixed in human reasoning out of ignorance. He did not understand what he was doing. It was not rebellion.
Again, this same Greek word is used to denote rebellion against God in HEB 3:17-19, "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?" So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. This unbelief speaks of open, out-right rebellion against the will of God with knowledge. Knowingly and willfully departing from the will of God was not a sin of Abram's. He mixed faith and human reasoning as Peter did.
The same root word in the Greek is used to denote the heart of an infidel in 1TI 5:8, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." The word "infidel" comes from the same Greek word as "unbelief." We see how this Greek word has been used in different areas of Scripture and start to understand what the apostle Paul was saying in ROM 4:20, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief." It was not an act of departing from the Lord.
That which we read of Abraham in ROM 4:20, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God," is parallel with what we read of David in 1KI 11:4. "For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father." The Lord looks at the heart condition, i.e., the attitude or motive of the heart. We know that David sinned in the matter of Uriah, the Hittite. David had sinned, but his heart had not departed from the Lord. His heart had not gone out to serve idols. Neither did Abram's heart depart from the Lord, even though, in his foolishness, we see many slips and falls.
We need to examine our own hearts. As we go through life, and our faith is being tried, how often do we desire to do the Lord's will but mix in some human reasoning? Then we find ourselves doing that which human reasoning prompts instead of the Lord's will. It happened to Abram; it happened to Peter. It is one of Satan's tricks to pull on God's people. We must beware of this tactic. That is why it is important to understand the difference between unbelief (rebellion and departing from God) and acting out of human reasoning.
We saw how Peter was an example of acting out of human reasoning in "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." The same Jesus Christ tells Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." This is teaching us to be on guard, especially at a time when we have just had a blessed revelation of God's love and are most vulnerable to Satan's tricks. We saw it with Abram and Peter. The lesson we see here is that if we think we stand, take heed lest we fall. As soon as we proclaim something like Peter did, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee," then we are standing a little stronger than the Lord had planned. All of a sudden He kicks the bricks from under us. Now we are in the same place Peter was. That is what happened to Abram. That is the lesson we are learning from them.
We see it was the exercise of the obedience of faith which was meant by this perfection of David in "...and his heart [Solomon’s] was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father." In other words, the heart of David was perfect with the Lord. It is speaking of his obedience of faith, not his slips and falls into sin. The desire of the heart is the subject.
It reads in 1KI 14:8, "And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee [the man who became king in the place of Solomon's son]: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes." When it says he kept the Lord's commandments, it was speaking of David's heart's desire to keep those commandments. We know that in his flesh he fell. He committed murder and took another man's wife. He was weak, and he stumbled and fell. That is not what we are talking about here; we are speaking of the heart condition of "... my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes."
This is also what we find recorded of Abram who kept the commandments of God from his heart, but in his foolishness and weakness, mixed human reasoning with his faith. It is recorded in Scripture about Abraham in confirming the blessings of Abraham unto Isaac in GEN 26:5, "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Abram was not accused of departing from the living God through unbelief. Amen.
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