Willful unbelief is both very wicked and very dangerous. It is wicked because it always requires more proof, keeps people from coming to Christ and keeps people from repenting of sin. It is dangerous because it blinds people to the truth, and condemns them at the Judgment.
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The Wickedness and Danger of Unbelief
Luke 11:29-36
On one occasion, Jesus cast out a demon from a man who could not speak. As soon as the demon had gone out, the man started speaking. That must have been quite a shock to the crowd! Just moments before, all this man could do was grunt and groan. Now, he’s speaking clearly out loud for everyone to hear. So, do the religious leaders praise God for this wonderful deliverance? No, some of them start accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan! Others start demanding Him to produce a sign from heaven. Jesus answers the accusations of those that said He was Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons in Luke 11:17-22. Having answered them, Jesus turns to those demanding a sign and answers them in our text this morning.
Notice when this took place. It was when the crowds were increasing. Large, vast multitudes were gathering around Jesus to watch His miracles and listen to His teaching. Now, when a church starts to grow rapidly today, there is a strong temptation to do everything possible to keep those people from leaving, by not rocking the boat. We know that if we preach the hard truths of the Bible, many people will leave. So, the temptation is to just tickle ears to keep the crowds coming and growing. But notice what Jesus does. When the crowds were increasing He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation.” How do you like that for a sermon introduction! It would appear that Jesus is saying things that He knows will offend His listeners. Let this encourage all of us not to be wishy washy man-pleasers. Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus would ever soften the truth of God out of the fear of man.
Now, think for a moment of what Jesus has told them. He said “this generation is a wicked generation.” If we were transported back to first century Judaism, we would probably conclude that they were much more moral than we are today. They diligently sought to keep the 10 Commandments. They were religious. They observed the feasts and festivals and Sabbath days. If they were a wicked generation, what does God think of our generation?! We have gone so far into debauchery that we call evil good, and good evil. So, why did Jesus say they were a wicked generation? The answer is quite simple. It was because of their unbelief. Light was everywhere, and they wouldn’t see it. Now, this was not ignorant unbelief. Their problem was not that they couldn’t believe because they didn’t have enough proof or evidence. No, they had all the truth and evidence they could ever want. In spite of all the truth and evidence, they had chosen willful unbelief. Now, you might wonder why Jesus would say unbelief is wicked. Sure, murder, rape, adultery, homosexuality, and fornication are wicked. But unbelief? Jesus said in John 16:8-9, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.” The number one thing the Holy Spirit will convict the world of is unbelief. Unbelief. Jesus said in John 3:18, “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Do you know that unbelief is a sin, and that is blameworthy, and that it is worthy of eternal damnation?
Now, why is willful unbelief so heinous? Why does it make a generation so wicked? That’s what we are going to study this morning. Actually, we are going to see two things about willful belief. Unbelief is wicked and it is dangerous. It is wicked because it always requires more proof; it keeps us from coming to Christ, and it keeps us from repenting of sin. It is dangerous because it will blind us to the truth, and it will condemn us at the Judgment.
1. The Wickedness of Unbelief
Unbelief Always Requires More Proof (11:29-30)
Jesus says in verse 29 that this generation is a wicked generation because it seeks for a sign. Now, that’s interesting. Had Jesus not given them any signs? Were they lacking evidence that He was the Messiah, the Son of God? Did they need more proof in order to believe? No, they had all the evidence they could ever want! Jesus had healed every kind of disease. He had cast out demons all over the land. He had raised the dead. He had walked on water. He had multiplied fish and loaves. He had done these things over and over and over, in full view of the crowds. Jesus had given them sign after sign after sign. So, why were they seeking a sign? It was not because they needed more proof. It was because they refused to rely upon the proof they had already been given.
Think about this with me – why would the religious leaders say that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan? The fact that Jesus was doing miracles was beyond question. Everybody was witnessing them. If they concluded He was doing these miracles by the power of God, then they would have to accept that His message was God. But this they could and would not do. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders. He called them snakes and hypocrites. He called their spirituality into question. He said they were clean on the outside, but filthy on the inside. He said they were self-righteous and wouldn’t humble themselves before God. When Jesus called them on the carpet, it infuriated them against Him, so that no matter what miracle He did, they refused to believe in Him. They demanded more and more signs, as if they didn’t have enough already. They were never content with the signs He provided for them. They decided His power had to come from Satan, because if they concluded He was doing miracles by God’s power, they would have to accept His message and bow to His authority. This, they would never do.
Jesus said He would not give them any other signs. He would not perform circus tricks on demand. However, He would provide one last sign. It would be the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so Jesus would be a sign to His own generation. What was the sign of Jonah? We have a parallel passage in Matthew 12:38-40, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus was saying that just as Jonah passed through a supernatural experience in which he was as good as dead in the belly of a great fish, but was then vomited up on dry ground, so too, Jesus would die and lie in the heart of the earth for three days and then rise from the dead. Jesus’ last and final sign to His generation would be His resurrection. Jesus here clearly predicts His death and resurrection. That is His greatest sign given to His generation. However, how many people are content to accept Jesus’ resurrection, and as a result, commit their lives to Him? Just as in that generation, so too in our generation, most people live in willful unbelief. You can show them the overwhelming evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it will never be enough for them. They choose not to believe in Christ. Willful unbelief is wicked!
Unbelief Keeps Us From Coming To Christ (11:31)
In verse 31, Jesus uses the Queen of the South (the Queen of Sheba) as an example of the wickedness of unbelief. Most scholars agree that she traveled from Southern Arabia, or modern day Yemen, all the way to Jerusalem in order to hear the wisdom of Solomon. I went on Google Maps and discovered that this is a distance of about 1,900 miles. It would have taken 2.5 to 3 months to make this journey! Remember, the one making the journey is no peasant or commoner. This is the Queen that was willing to make this difficult and arduous trip. Why? Because she wanted to be exposed to Solomon’s wisdom first hand. However, someone infinitely greater than Solomon was right in their midst! Here was Wisdom incarnate. Jesus was the very wisdom of God. And Jesus’ own generation refused to come to Him in faith. This Gentile queen traveled for six months round trip to hear Solomon’s wisdom. Yet this generation would not come to Christ in faith, even though He was right in their midst.
Why is willful unbelief so wicked? Because it will keep a person from coming to Christ. Jesus said in Mt. 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus commands all to come to Him for rest, and life, and salvation. But willful unbelief keeps them from obeying. Unbelief is wicked because it makes us disobey a direct command from our God.
Unbelief Keeps Us From Repenting Of Sin (11:32)
Jesus’ second illustration comes from the men of Nineveh. When Jonah came preaching, “40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown”, they repented. Yet One who was infinitely greater than Jonah was right in their midst, yet they did not repent. Notice that the two illustrations Jesus used were of Gentiles. The Queen of the South and the Ninevites. Both were from people groups who were far from God and His truth. Yet they came and they repented. Here are Jews with all of God’s revelation, and they won’t come and they won’t repent.
Do you see how wicked unbelief is? Jesus said in Luke 13, “Repent or you will all likewise perish.” Without repentance we will certainly perish. Yet unbelief will keep us from repenting and being saved. Repenting is the right thing, the God-honoring thing, because sin dishonors and devalues God. Unbelief tells us, “I can live any way I want. No one can tell me what to do. I don’t need to be concerned about the evil I’ve done. It’s my life after all.”
2. The Danger Of Unbelief
Unbelief Will Blind Us To The Truth (11:33-36)
In verses 33-36, Jesus starts talking about light and eyesight. Let’s walk our way through these verses and see if we can understand His flow of thought.
33 – Here Jesus says it would be crazy for someone to light a lamp, and then put it down in the cellar or under a basket where no one would benefit from it. Instead he puts the lamp on a lampstand so that it will illumine the whole room, and everyone in the room will be able to see clearly and not grope around in the dark. / Likewise, Jesus Christ is the light of the world. When He came into the world, He sought to fully reveal God’s truth. He didn’t conceal the truth, but spoke of His Father, and the Kingdom, and salvation openly and fully to all, so that His truth might benefit all who heard it. He didn’t put His truth down in the cellar or under a basket, but up on the lampstand where it would benefit all.
34-35 – In this verse, Jesus takes up the figure of the eye. The eye is the organ of the body that lets in light, so that we can perceive what is around us. When a person has a clear or healthy eye, their whole body is full of light, so that they can see everything clearly around them. However, if their eye is bad or diseased or blind or has cataracts, very little or no light can enter their body, and their whole life is filled with darkness. They can’t perceive what reality is, and they find themselves groping around in the dark. / Likewise, through faith our heart can let in God’s truth to our souls. What the eye is to the body, the heart is to the soul. A person’s heart can only be healthy and perceive truth when it is a believing heart. However, if a person is unbelieving, it’s like cataracts growing over the eyes until you can’t see anything at all. When Jesus came into the world He was like a brilliant shining light. However, it doesn’t matter how bright the light is if you’re blind. For these Jewish leaders to demand more signs from Jesus was like a blind man demanding that someone turn on more lights. It wasn’t going to do any good. Their hearts must go from unbelieving to believing. Unless that changed, no amount of truth or signs would change anything. We need to “watch out” that we are not blind to Christ and His truth. As long as we cherish sin, and continue in willful unbelief, we walk in darkness. The religious leaders claimed to be a light to those in darkness. However Jesus over and over called them “blind guides” and said if a blind man tried to guide another blind man they would both fall into a pit.
36 – However, if your eye is healthy and clear, it will let in light that will illumine your whole life and let you perceive reality clearly. / So too, if our hearts are filled with faith, God’s truth will flood our lives and bring great blessing to us.
So, what is the point Jesus is making with the illustration of the Lamp and the eye? He is warning the religious leaders of His day. They had started journeying down the road of willful unbelief. They had a “bad eye”. If they continued down this road, they would eventually find that they were totally blind, and none of God’s truth could gain entrance into their life. They would be cut off from God and find it impossible to be saved. Look with me over at John 12:35-40, “So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light. These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT ? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED ?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.”
Did you see the progression in this passage? In verse 36 Jesus says “believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of light.” In verse 37 it says “they were not believing in Him.” In verse 39 it says “they could not believe.” Jesus commanded them to believe, but they chose not to. What was the ultimate result? They could not believe. First, they would not believe. Eventually, they could not believe. What is this? Judicial blindness. When God presents His truth to an individual, and even provides substantiating evidence to confirm that truth, if a person persistently and willfully chooses not to believe, God may eventually confirm them in their own blindness so that they can not believe. That’s a very scary thought, but it is a very real possibility for those who reject the light. That was the scary position these religious leaders were in, and that’s why Jesus says, “watch out that the light in you is not darkness.”
Unbelief Will Condemn Us At The Judgment (11:31,32)
Notice what Jesus says in these two verses that the Queen of the South and the Ninevites would do at the Judgment. He says they will condemn the people of Christ’s generation. If they bring a righteous sentence of condemnation upon that generation, I think we may safely assume that God Himself will confirm their sentence, and condemn them as well. We know that those who will not come to Christ will be condemned. We know that those who will not repent will be damned.
The great danger of willful unbelief is that they will be eternally condemned on that great and final day of Judgment. Yes, all those who will be condemned on that final day will be guilty of many and varied sins: pride, covetousness, bitterness, anger, malice, adultery, lust, murder, etc. However, the great damning sin, the sin which is the root of all the other sins is unbelief. The reason unbelief is so wicked is that it is the seed which bears the fruit of all other sins.
Conclusion
Are there any examples in this passage we should follow? Yes, there is the example of the Queen of the South and the Ninevites.
- The Queen of the South: She loved wisdom. She yearned for wisdom. She was willing to do whatever she needed to in order to obtain wisdom. For her this meant traveling about three months to get to Solomon, and then traveling another three months to get home. Are you following her example? How great is your spiritual hunger for God’s Word? We own several copies of the Bible in our own language. Do you realize how blessed we are?! For most of the history of the church, that would have been unheard of! It wasn’t until about 1450 A.D. that the printing press was invented. That would mean before that time, any copy of the Scripture would have had to be hand copied. Consequently, copies of the Scripture were rare and very expensive. Most believers did not have their own copy. Folks, we take for granted that we own a Bible. Don’t take it for granted! Do you see what sin it is for us to own a Bible, but rarely crack its pages, when many of our ancestors would have willingly given anything they had just to have a copy for themselves. There are still many groups of people in the world that don’t have any of the Scriptures in their own language. Do you hunger after God’s revealed wisdom in the Scriptures like the Queen of Sheba, or are you nonchalant about God’s Word? In Donald Whitney’s wonderful book The Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, he tells the story of a man who was severely injured in an explosion and lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He had just become a Christian before the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he couldn’t read the Bible any more. However, he heard of a woman in England who could read braille with her lips, so he ordered some books of the Bible in braille. However, he found that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly injured to be able to distinguish the characters. One day as he brought the braille letters to his lips, his tongue happened to touch some of the raised characters and he discovered that he could feel them. Overjoyed, he realized that he could read the Bible with his tongue. At the time Donald Whitney wrote his book, this man had already read through the entire Bible with his tongue four times!
- The Ninevites: The Ninevites were quick to repent when God’s Word came to them. Jonah’s entire sermon was comprised of 8 words: “yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Jonah didn’t even tell them that if they repented, God would show them mercy. They only had a hope that God might be merciful to them. Yet, when the Word came home to them, they repented in sackcloth and ashes. When God’s Word comes home to you, are you quick to humble yourself and repent? Or are you stubborn and stiff-necked. Oh, be very careful that you don’t adopt that posture, because if you do you will be cut off by God! James tells us if we have become friends of the world and its values and entertainments and philosophies, we must humble ourselves and be miserable, and mourn and weep. We must let our laughter be turned into mourning and our joy into gloom. When the Spirit of God shows you your sin, are you quick to repent? I pray that you can say “yes”.
- The Religious Leaders: The Queen of the South and the Ninevites provide us with good examples we should follow. The religious leaders of Jesus’ generation provide us with a negative example we must shun. Even though they had all the light and proof and truth they needed to recognize Jesus as their King and Messiah, they kept on demanding more signs. They persisted in willful unbelief. Oh, my friends, don’t follow their examples! You have all the proof that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and was raised from the dead that you need. You have all the information you need to prove that He was the Son of God that you will ever need. You have your own copy of the Bible to read and examine. Now, what will you do with it? Will you go on in your sin, refuse to surrender your life to Christ and complain that you need more proof? If so, many others with less proof and no copy of the Bible will condemn you on the day of judgment! Oh, watch out! You are exposed to great danger! Surrender your life to Jesus Christ today, now! It doesn’t matter if you have never given your life to Christ or have been living for Him for 30 years. Surrender to Him this morning and you will experience His blessing. Here are the three lessons: hunger for God’s Word, repent of your sin, and surrender to Christ. Let’s pray.
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