Believing Thru Unbelief

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. – Luke 13:22-27

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, - 1 Timothy 4:1-2

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, - Hebrews 3:12-14

Believing through unbelief and the answers for the silent quitters. Silent quitters are not loud with their deconstruction but remain in our churches and fellowship at some level is found in Luke 13:22-27. Two large groups are standing at the closed door of Jesus, knocking, asking to be let in. The first group gives Jesus a list of why they should be let in. It is a list of the works they have done in His name. But we are not saved by work. The work on the Cross of Jesus saves and keeps us. We are saved by grace through faith and not of works lest we can boast we had something to do with our salvation. Any resulting works in His name are a fruit of believing in the finished work at the Cross.

The second crowd on the outside knocking to be let into the Kingdom of God is a group with no works in Jesus’ name but also no resulting works from believing in His name. They were hearers of the Word of God but not doers of the Word of God, thus deceiving themselves.

How many people come to Sunday worship and attend life groups, but they are silent when it comes to the request of serving? They love to hear but not do. They are in the same events but not connected. And in the event of a shaking, they fall away, even if doing so silently.

Years ago, God gave me a picture of the church in the form of a 500-piece puzzle. When you buy a puzzle, is it put together, or are all the pieces gathered in one place? All the pieces are in one place, but none are assembled. The scripture tells us not to forsake assembling as we have some. You don’t have to make a video deconstructing your faith to know you have left the assembly. All you have to do is remain unassembled in the box. Refuse to be interconnected in serving one another.

Being a hearer but not a doer will always leave you on the outside looking in. You can be a silent quitter, and no one will ever know. Show up, smile, and take your seat. But allow me to remind you faith without works is dead. And one of those works is a divine love for His church and those attending. You serve those who you love. Paul wrote to Timothy it’s possible to depart from the faith and not leave the church community.

In the latter times, the Spirit expressly says that some will depart from the faith. Departing is not a rejection of the faith as the social media deconstructionists have made it but a departure from sound doctrine for a doctrine of demons, seducing spirits that leads to hypocrisy.

We are seeing the apostate church on the rise. They claim the same name, Jesus, but the Jesus they proclaim is not the true begotten Son of God. The actual Jesus was crucified for us so that we could be crucified with Him and not judged by the world. They have been seduced into believing a lie and creating new foreign doctrines of demons.

They speak lies in heresies with a seared conscience. Departing is not necessarily published on social media but written on the seared consciences of those who sit next to us in service. They hear the truth and wish it was true, but they turn the truth into a fable, having chosen to go with their version of the truth. How is it possible to hear the truth every week but only wish it was true and not embrace it as the truth?

Hebrews 3 tells us that the deceitfulness of sin will cause us to have an evil heart of unbelief. Sin hardens us. Unrepentant sin, over time, will harden to the point that we can no longer hear the truth or be convicted. We live in hypocrisy, claiming Jesus as our Lord, but we don’t do what He tells us to do. We cherry-pick the scriptures that tickle our ears and brush the convicting ones away as legalism. We choose a faith that doesn’t require follow-up. We choose grace but hold back the truth of our heart condition. We choose the kindness of God but scratch out the severity of God. God is our friend, yet we can’t perceive Him in His holiness.

Like the other Proverbs women, not the thirty-first woman, the silent quitters prepare their sin offering before their premeditated sin. They rehearse their prayers of repentance and claim in 1 John 1:9 that God will forgive and cleanse them. And with every insincere prayer and offering, they harden themselves to the deceitfulness of sin. They hear the benefits of God but don’t read the fine print of being doers of the Word of God.

God has a way about Him. He desires no one to be lost, but all come to the saving knowledge of the Son of God, Jesus. God hardens who He wills and gives grace to who He wills. Is God playing favorites? Is the final Judge of all things able to be bribed? No! God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. And God causes it to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. When it rains, we become pliable if we don’t stiffen our neck in rebellion. And when the sun shines, we become the molded image we allowed during the rain.

In the adversity of life, we are shaped. When it rains, sometimes it pours. If we have faith that God can transform us into His image and likeness, then we won’t be conformed to the ways of this world. We become living sacrifices, renewing our minds to the will of God that keeps us from departing the living God in unbelief.

When the sun shines, we see the results of the storm. Some people wake up with their homes destroyed, and some wake up with their homes firmly planted on the Rock of Jesus, untouched by the evils of this world. We are shaped in the adversity of the darkness and made known in the light of the day.

Unbelief is worse than not believing. Unbelief is the deconstruction or the departure of what you once believed. The seed of the Word of God was received with joy at one point in your life, but because it never took root, you exchanged belief for unbelief when trials came your way to test the sown Word. If this is you, there is hope.