The Unreasonableness of Faith — David Wilkerson

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The Unreasonableness of Faith

I want to talk to you this morning about the unreasonableness of faith. Faith is totally illogical, totally unreasonable. The unreasonableness of faith. This message has been borne out of fire and floods.

It may seem a little disjointed, I don't even know where I'm going to go with it, but I know it's burning in my heart. I didn't borrow it, I didn't get it from a book, I got it in a hospital room. Father, I thank you, how precious you are to us in the time of need.

And Father, I sense and I know in the spirit that there are many that are here this morning that are going through the testing time of their life. Many that are discouraged to the point of being at wit's end.

And Lord, I know that you always have a word for us, how faithful you are. Now Lord, I come as your servant and I yield my body, my spirit, my mind and all to you. Lord, you've been speaking to me in a little hospital room while waiting on my wife and just speaking into my heart something for this body this morning, but mostly for my own heart.

And the way you spoke to my heart and your great love and mercy and how to get out of despondency, how to get out of the feeling of despair, whatever the enemy may bring into our lives. And we pray this morning that you would speak supernaturally to everyone hearing.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen. You know, when God demands of us, believe, have faith, he's making the most unreasonable request ever made to mankind. The very definition of faith is unreasonable. We are told that faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not even seen.

There's no evidence. It's totally beyond logic. And he asked us to believe and to have faith. Now, let's talk about this unreasonableness of faith. I'm going to take you into the Old Testament and into the New Testament, just give you a picture of how unreasonable it is.

And then you'll understand a little more about what you're going through and how to face it. At least this is how God delivered me from. It's not just this time we all go through, you know, people that are discouraged, people are going through it.

Don't live there. God delivers you and there can be a whole season, a wonderful season when you're free and rejoicing. It's called the good times. Enjoy them because the discouragement is going to come flooding in again.

And usually troubles come in threes and fours and tens and twelves. And sometimes it never seems to end. But consider the the faith demanded of Noah. When you when you stop and look at this picture, you see how totally illogical it is.

There's no sense. There's no rhyme. There's no reason given to this man. Here's a generation that's spun out of control completely. A generation of giants that are giving birth to what the Bible calls mighty men.

A generation that has gone so far that God says, I can't handle it anymore. It's beyond my ability to stand with it. It's enough. I'm going to destroy the earth. I'm going to destroy mankind. And in this time of murder and violence, God comes to this man, Noah, and he says, I'm going to destroy mankind.

Their violence has come up before me and I want you to build an ark. And you've got 120 years yet of mercy. And in that 120 years, I want you to build an ark and I want you to collect two of all animals on the face of the earth.

Now, folks, he had to be collecting that for 120 years. I don't know how long it may have been the last 20 years after the ark was built. I don't know. But can you conceive of how unreasonable a request this is and to feed them and to provide food for all of these animals?

And he gave he comes to and it gives him the size of it. He gives him the width and the length and one door and one window. God speaks to this man and gives him this incredible step of faith. And he's to do this in spite of the fact that there were giants all around him and mighty men, the scripture says.

And these were violent men, violent giants, violent people all around them, skeptics. And God says it's going to rain for 40 days and 40 nights. And he had to explain to him what rain was and for 40 days and 40 nights is going to be this cataclysmic event come.

And all he is given is a word, just a word from God, just directions from God, just a word. That's what this is. That's what this book is. It's the word of God. And that's all he's given. And he's asked no evidence, no nothing else.

God didn't send an angel down there as an architect in human flesh and and draw him the design. He gave him the design. He did it all and totally unreasonable. And he was told, believe this. And he was told to keep his heart moved with fear.

This whole time for 120 years, he keeps his heart moved by fear on the sheer word of God, nothing else, no other evidence, nothing. Now, folks, when you stop to think of this task and and how difficult it is, people still believe it's impossible.

They mock it. They said there's no such thing as a flood. How could he gather animals from all over the earth at that time? And in the face of all this opposition, when giants could have broken through and destroyed, I don't know how many times he must have been thwarted in every area he turned.

How many times were he discouraged? How many times did a voice come to him, say, Noah, what are you doing? This is foolish. Are you sure you heard a voice? Do you really have the word? You're stepping out on this for 120 years.

This this this could be just a dream. You're a fool. But he kept coming back to the word of the Lord and that kept him all this and that saved a whole generation. Noah and his family, Hebrews 11th chapter, if you'll turn there for just a moment, speaks of Noah in verse seven, chapter 11, verse seven.

By faith, Noah. Now, this is all this man has. This is the only thing this man has to act in this most unusual way. Oh, I'm so glad I was not living in that day. I'm so glad I was not Noah. By verse seven, by faith, Noah, this is all being warned of God and things not seen as yet.

Evidence of things not seen. He is told to do this, all of this simply on an act of faith, believing the word. He prepared an ark to the saving his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.

What is the righteousness by faith? Hearing the word, believing it and acting upon it. Nothing else. One word. I don't believe God kept coming back to him time and time again. He gave it to him and he says, I want you for the next hundred and twenty years to look back to this word that I gave you and you live on it, you act on it and you believe it.

Abraham's Faith in Going Without Knowing the Destination

You say it's unreasonable. There's no logic to this story whatsoever, but God. Answered for you, think of Abraham, God said, go out and leave your country. Abraham says, where is it? I'm not telling you.

Just go, just get your family together, pack up and start in a direction, I'll tell you, I'll give you direction, I'll give you a pointer. And he gives him his first step and that's all, nothing else.

Totally unreasonable. You wives, how would you like if your husband came to you? And said, I have a word from God, we're to move. Where? Well, I don't know, but I want you to pack up, I want you to we're selling everything, the house goes on sale, the furniture, everything, and we're going to slim it down and we're going to get a few camels and donkeys and we're going to we're moving.

There's no rhyme or reason to it. It's a step of faith by faith when he was called to go out to a place which he should after receiver inheritance, he obeyed, he went out not knowing where he was going, not knowing where he's going.

How often we want God to tell us what's happening to us and why we're going through it. What's the next step? Where am I? Where am I going, Lord? Folks, I don't know where I'm going. If you do, please tell me how you worked it out with God.

I don't have this last idea what holds tomorrow or down the road that we have plans that we have made, but I don't know how they're going to turn out. I don't know the next step. The Lord says, you go and I'll be with you.

That's all he said. I will be with you. And God said, that's all you need. If I never give you another word, I'm with you. No harm can come to you. Obedience, he, you know, he takes him out on a starry night and he says, Abraham, look up, see the innumerable stars, number, count them if you can.

That's amazing. He stands out in the star. In those days, they didn't have lights. They didn't have electricity. Those nights were dark. How the star, the heavens would light up. And he says, Abraham, start counting, start right there in the middle, that big bright star and start counting them.

Abraham must have shaken his head. I remember being down in Marco Island on vacation, I'm standing on a starry night and I'm thinking about how about God's grace and about what my part is and what God's part is in living a righteous life.

And and I heard a still small voice, David, jump over the moon. I thought that's that's not from God. Jump over the moon. And the Holy Spirit's book said you can no longer you can no more save yourself, you can no more work your way into my good graces than you can jump over the moon.

And you've got to see how hopeless and helpless it is to present any flesh to God and be saved. It's absolutely by faith, by grace alone. He gives you the power. He gives you. Yes, he will enable you.

If folks, if one day I'm going to jump more than over the moon, I'm going over the sun and the stars and I'm going to heaven, I'm going to glory in that day. Hallelujah. He comes to him, he says, I am the Lord.

And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. There it is again. Faith. Counted obedience, not just believing, but acting on that faith is counted for righteousness. Faith demands that we hear the word of God, we hear his promises with no evidence and that we act on it and base and base our whole life and our future on the word of God.

Israel at the Red Sea: Trusting God's Word in Impossible Circumstances

What about the children of Israel? Think about the conditions that God brought them into. The Bible says he brought them to this place where there are mountains on both sides and the sea in front of them and chariots from Pharaoh rushing down upon them.

And, you know, I look at that scene, it's totally unreasonable to expect in my flesh when I look at that, I said, God, that doesn't seem fair to me. All their children are crying. You can't get across that sea.

They have no boats, they have no rafts and they get 20 feet in and it's over their head. What are they going to do with their children? And they look back, all the spotters on the hills can see the dust of these chariots.

Lord, in one night you threw all the firstborn. Why? Why didn't you just lay all of those? Why didn't you slay all those charioteers and that army and leave them in the desert? What's the difference in drowning them in the water or leave them die in the dust?

And I said, Lord, that doesn't seem fair. It's unreasonable that with all the crying children and they've obeyed you and yet you allow this thing and God led them into this situation. But God expected them to believe the word they'd been given.

The word was, I am going to take you in my arms and I'm going to carry you through a wilderness. And I am going to let no enemy is going to prosper against you and I will be with you. Just stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

It was a word that God gave to them. Now, I want to tell you something. God has absolutely no patience. He's a patient, loving God, but he has no patience whatsoever with unbelief. He's not. And my flesh wants to say, well, Lord, give them a little slack.

Man, these people, if I'd been there, I'd have been crying, I'd have been murmuring and complaining. Believe me, I would, because I've done it on this side of the sea. Come on, you look at 10 times God brought them into place.

He brings them into tomorrow to the bitter waters and he's waiting for 10 times. The Bible said they provoked him 10 times, provoke, provoke, provoke. What is the provocation of Israel in the wilderness?

Time and time again, God was trying to find something of faith in them on which he could build. He was trying to find a testimony to all the world and to all history that here's a people when I take them into hard places, I expect them to act on my word so that the testimony that my word, this is the living God, the word is here in its life and God wants that known.

He wants it to be practiced. Folks, we have no other way to get out of any situation we're in except the word of God. You tell me of any doctor, psychologist, preacher, evangelist, anybody in the face of earth can get you out of any situation you're in.

You say, well, send me a millionaire and I'll show you how to get out. No, because if you got out of that, you'd have some affliction hit your body, you have something happen to your family. They can't get you out of all of these things.

There is only one hope, and that's the living word of God. Unreasonable, yes. But God demands of us. That we act and believe and act on his word. You know, this is the question was asked, why is there no food?

Why is there no water? Why are we in this condition? Why did you bring us out here to kill us? And I don't think it's changed. We don't use the same words. But Lord, why this test? Why am I going through this present condition that I'm in now beyond my comprehension?

We still keep asking that. And folks, God is a loving father, but I don't believe he owes us an explanation. When he's given us the answer, he's given us everything that we need in Christ Jesus, all that we need for life and godliness, all we need for every situation in life has been given to us.

And so it was with these in the wilderness. You know, the Lord has at his disposal all the resources. He has the willingness and he could just speak the word at any moment and deliver you and me out of every situation before we go into it.

He could do it halfway through. He can do it at any time. And you have to have this in your mind. I know that God has the authority, he has the power, he has the resources, and he does not put suffering on his people promiscuously for no reason.

He doesn't allow us. Now, the Bible says that God himself led the children of Israel into that condition, into that scary place. And some of you are in that frightening place where you feel stripped and you feel empty, you feel hopeless and you feel helpless.

And what does God expect of you? Folks, God allows that human flesh to have its tantrum. We're human, yes, and there are times that, I'll tell you what, people, when some loved one dies, I know when Tiffy died, people don't understand.

You know, some people think if you have faith, you don't cry. No, if you have faith, you do cry. And I cried a river of tears and others, and there's healing power in that, but you didn't hear from our family.

You didn't hear the complaint, God, why did you do this? Why did you do this? What what did I do? And sometimes when we get in these places, we say, Lord, what kind of sin did I commit? What did I do wrong?

Is this judgment? Some of you right now are going through the greatest trial you've ever had. You are as discouraged as you've ever been. Now, God wouldn't deal with me like this and give me this message for you unless he intended you to hear something of a supernatural kind of voice from heaven.

To show you that the situation you're in right now is common to all men, it's not unusual. When we set out on our mailing list, announcement about Tiffany's passing, 13-year-old granddaughter from cancer, there's hundreds and hundreds of letters from all over the world.

And I was shocked at the numbers who wrote said. We lost our three-year-old granddaughter to brain cancer, so many from brain cancer, children. A mother who wrote said her daughter, day after 9 -11, was sitting in the schoolyard.

They were sitting with the family and a tree branch falls, hits her on the head and kills her. And one after another, my 16-year-old daughter was murdered and mutilated. And they were encouraging us.

They were they were they were not writing and complaining and saying, why did he do that? Why did God allow that? Folks, I don't know why, how these things, but that's what happened until the visit kept asking why, when all the time they had the word of the Lord, they had all the resources they needed if they would have drawn upon them.

If they were to really believe what God said, and it's an amazing thing, God doesn't come along with anything other than his word. He comes. Yes, he sends angels of time, but he does that for those who believe his word.

He's not an impatient God. He allows us to express our our fears. He allows us to say, I'm overwhelmed. I feel down. And sometimes you'll pick up the phone and call somebody and just you don't take it out on God.

You say this is over me, I'm over my, I'm at wit's end. And it's a form of murmuring and complaining, but maybe not meaning any harm. And God gives you time for that. But folks, I want to tell you, I warn you in the love of God and I know from the experiences that I've had with a lot of suffering in ministry and in the family.

Spiritual, physical, mental, all kinds. I don't know any man or woman of God hadn't gone to hell and back with one trial difficulty after another. Many of the afflictions of the righteous and the Lord delivers them out of them all.

Yes. But how? He allows you to go through that. But if you hang on to that, why, if you hang on to those questions, if you if you hang on to the doubt and unbelief, you're going to spin out into a pit that you can never get out.

You're going to harden your heart. You got angry at God. And the Lord expects you to give you time. But there comes a time that you have to lay hold of the word of God. And if you just sit and languish in your affliction, if you just sit and languish and go over questions, Lord, how did this happen?

Where am I going next? What's going to happen next? And you don't get into this book and you don't get a hold of the promises. He's given us every promise we need for every condition. And finally, the Lord will come to you and say, look, you have no excuse for the condition, for your feelings right now.

You have no reason to accuse me or to doubt me. You have none whatsoever, because I have given you a promise. I've given you everything that you need, and I expect you to lay hold of it now. And if you lay hold of it, I'll anoint that word by the Holy Spirit, and it'll become life to you.

It'll be healing power above any medicine you could ever know or take. The word of the Lord. This is the answer. It's the only answer. It's the only hope. It's the only hope for Israel. And this scripture says, here's the promise that had been made to them before they marched.

I will bring you out of affliction into a land flowing with milk and honey. No one will be able to stand against you. The great I am will be with you. Not a promise shall fail. Not a promise shall fail.

But hear that again, I will bring you out of affliction. I don't know who I'm talking to, but to some of you here this morning that are in great affliction, God's promise to you, I will bring you out of your affliction.

This is going to pass. Every one of those trials, those 10 trials of Israel passed. And they ended up, their carcasses lying dead in the wilderness simply because they would not enter in, the scripture says, because of unbelief.

Someone they had heard did provoke him. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. That unbelief aroused the wrath of God to a loving people that were destined to be his witnesses for all time and into eternity.

But they would not go back and remember and stand on the word of God. They wanted something reasonable, they wanted something they could see and feel and touch, they wanted somebody to spell out their pathway.

But that's not faith, faith is saying God has given me a promise and I lay hold of that promise and I'm going to live and die on that promise. I'm going to cast my whole life, everything I have on the word of the living God.

Hallelujah. With whom was he grieved for 40 years? Was it not with them who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? They believed not. So we see they could not enter into his rest because of unbelief.

And folks, you can go into the Bible from cover to cover in scripture, you find men and women of God going through great troubles and great afflictions. It's all through the Bible. It's all about the afflictions of mankind.

Biblical Examples of Discouragement and Returning to God's Word

The psalmist wrote in his affliction, why is my soul cast down? Why this restlessness in me, this quietness in me? He said, why do I, what do you say, why do I feel so helpless and so useless in my affliction?

Have you ever been there, folks, when you felt helpless? And say, I'm not of use to anybody. And that's what came over David, you hear Elijah under juniper tree begging God to kill him. He's so downcast, he's ready to quit on life in his ministry.

Jeremiah cried out, Lord, you've deceived me. And I was deceived. I will no longer mention your name. He said, that's it. I don't understand this, God. And what he was really saying, I've done nothing but seek you, have given my life to you.

I've prayed, but I feel now that I've I have been deceived. Lord, you've deceived me because everything that you told me to preach, I don't see any of it happening. I've been made a fool, is what he's saying.

Now, God understands that. But I want to show you how these men came out of it and how in the middle of their affliction, the spirit of God came down, turned the light on and showed them the answer. Remember what David said.

David said, thy words were found. And I consumed them. No, I'm sorry, that's David said. That was it, Jeremiah cried, Lord, thou hast deceived me and I was deceived and I will no longer mention his name.

His despair, though he cried out, thy words were found and I did consume them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of host. David said, I remembered your word.

Elijah said, Lord, your word came back to me. Jeremiah saying, I remembered your word and that word became the joy and rejoicing of my heart. And it was the remembering of his word. It was coming back to his word that all of these men go all through the Old Testament.

You'll find the same story. These men came out of it, not by counselors. The Lord waited, he listened to their human outcry and now he says, all right, you've cried it out, you've had your time. Now, will you trust me?

Will you go back to my word? Will you lay hold of that promise? If you lay hold of that promise, I'm going to see you through. Folks, it doesn't matter how you got into your trial, it doesn't matter how you got discouraged, whether it came from God, whether a situation God has allowed or whether the devil brought it into your life or whether it's your flesh.

It doesn't matter how or where it came from. The only thing that matters is how you get out of it. And there's no other way out of it. But this, you go to the New Testament and suddenly you find out what appears to be the most unreasonable demands ever made on mankind.

The Unreasonable Claims of Jesus as Messiah

Can you imagine the Jews for centuries, they've been taught and they've been looking for this Messiah and this Messiah that they believe is coming, is coming in majesty and power. He's going to come with an army.

He's going to be such a mighty army, he's going to overrule every army on earth. He's going to go into Rome and destroy the Roman Empire and break the yoke of the Romans from their neck. And they anticipate that he's going to make them a prosperous nation, the greatest nation on earth.

And this mighty deliverer called the Messiah is going to come and set them free from their poverty and no more pain, no more sickness. And he's going to come in great majesty. Instead, he comes on a donkey.

He comes born in a stable. He comes with an unreasonable life history. No earthly father, an immaculate conception. And here are these Jews that all their lifetime anticipating this kind of Messiah. And here comes this lowly man, this meek, lowly Nazarene.

And they say, we know who his father is. We know his mother. He's a carpenter. And he's calling himself God in flesh. Folks, it was the most unreasonable thing to expect from these people, faith. How do you believe somebody that's fixing your dining room table is God?

How do you believe that this man here in Jerusalem, Gamaliel, sits with hundreds of young, brilliant scholars? And here are the scribes, the brilliant men of the day, and they're teaching in palaces. And here is the man who cries he's the Messiah.

And he's up by the river or in a hillside teaching the poor and the lepers and the lame. And he's saying, believe in me, I'm God in flesh. You hear this man saying, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you can't get to heaven.

And they've been spending all these years working themselves to heaven with 663 rules and regulations. And he comes along and said, just trust me, I'm from the father. If you see me, you've seen the father.

If you don't believe in me, you don't believe in God. You think that if you were there, you would have all thank you, Jesus. You are my Lord and my Savior. No, no, no, no. Now, you stop and think about this for a minute, the absolute illogic, the absolute unreasonableness of the demands of faith.

This man does miracles and they don't believe him. The miracles, he said, at least believe me for the miracle's sake, but they won't believe it. And Jesus says, I am the living son of God. No man comes to the father except by me.

Now, you go into the temple and you watch him rush into that temple with cords and he's driving out the money changers and they're saying he won't even tell us where he got the authority to do this. We don't know who he is.

Think of a lowly man dressed in a seamless robe and picture this as a synagogue without the electricity and all the finery we have here. And a man walks in, a man walks in and he picks up the Torah and he opens to start reading from Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah.

And he closes the book. He says, I'm that man. Mark says, believe it. The Pharisees are crying out, unreasonable. The Pharisees, he said, he that heareth my word and believeth on me shall have everlasting life.

The Pharisees cry out, you bear record of yourself. Your record isn't true. In other words, you're telling us that we're to believe just your word. To take you at your word. Look at this, so I won't over preach you.

I've been thinking about that this past week. The demands of faith. When God speaks to a whole generation and he comes. He says, I'm the living word. He that believeth in me shall never hunger and never thirst.

That's all glory. I don't have to work anymore. He's going to feed us. Maybe he is the Messiah. Until he said, then eat my body and drink my blood. And the saying was too hard. How do you believe this when you can't comprehend?

Jesus said, I bear record of myself. Yes, yet my record or my word is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the father that sent me beareth witness of myself. Why don't you understand? Because you cannot hear my word.

And that's why we don't understand our afflictions. That's why we don't understand. Because we are not hearing what he said in our despair, in our hard times. We go down and lay down in that despair and just question.

And we let this drag on and on and on. When all you need to do is, you don't even have to get on your knees. Just say, oh, Holy Spirit. You said that that's the life. These words are life and they're hope.

And you go to the Psalms, if you have to go into his word. Don't just open it up and say, Holy Ghost, lead me. Start in the first chapter in Psalm and start reading it. Mark it and let God speak to you by his word.

Hearing and Obeying the Word of God

And that's the only hope, folks, we are living in a time. I'm going to close in just a moment. We're living in a time of the greatest revelation of the gospel and history of mankind. We have more teachers.

We have more supplies. We have more literature. We have more help books. We have we're not there's not a famine of the preaching of the word. There's a famine of hearing and obeying the word of God. But there's not a famine of preaching.

There is powerful preaching all over the world today. And everywhere we go in any land, you'll find powerful preaching, anointed preaching. You'll find those who've been shut in with God. And yet there's never been more distress.

There's never been any more affliction, mental, physical and spiritual. Never in history, in spite of all of the word of God. You know, amazing thing pastors today. And I know. And God's been speaking to my heart about this.

And I'm going to wrap this up now. Now, once you listen closely, pastors now are having to spend almost all their time praying and getting messages to try to pick people up, pick their chin off the ground.

How to conquer fear, how to do this and five points to do this and five steps to this and how to deal with with affliction and despair and all of these things helps all lifting up folks. There's nothing wrong with that.

But you see, the real problem, the real issue is this. He has already given us a word. It's here, it's finished. And God expected it out of Israel, he expected it out of the Jews, he expects it out of you and expects it out of me.

But I don't need a preacher coming to me with steps. I don't need somebody trying to just keep propping me up. Trying to bring me some human source of encouragement. I have got to believe what God said and I have to take quality time and get here and study the word until I bring out of it a message of hope.

The Lord's Word to the Discouraged Christian

I want to close with this. Five more minutes. I want to give you an imagined conversation between the Lord and I'll call this man discouraged Christian. Little conversation, get your Bible out. Put it on your lap and open to Psalm 33, Psalm 32.

I got up early this morning, I was sitting at my desk and praying and I said, Lord, how do I close this message and try to try to make it clear? And I received this from the Holy Spirit. It's just a simple little thought.

A conversation between the Lord and discouraged Christian. All right, discouraged Christian comes to the Lord and he says, Lord, I'm down and I'm discouraged. You promised you would not allow me to bear more than I would be able to bear, but you'd make a way of escaping.

I don't see it. I'm overwhelmed. If you would only tell me, explain to me what this is all about. The Lord is answered. Psalm 32, the Lord says, go to Psalm 32. You don't believe the Lord speaks like that.

He spoke to me this morning, told me to go there for you and for myself. Psalm 32, starting verse six. For this, so everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him.

For thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with what? Songs of deliverance. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye.