Alright brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 1. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Our gracious Lord and our Heavenly Father, we ask you to Be merciful to us this morning. Be gracious to us and strengthen our hearts to behold our Lord Jesus, to hear you speak. Lord, give us hearts to truly worship, to bow before you in our hearts and praise you and give you all the glory. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Now, Zacharias, we've seen, he was in the temple praying An angel Gabriel appears to him. Zacharias was fearful at first. The angel said, fear not. And he tells Zacharias that Elizabeth would bear a son. Told him all that good news about what John the Baptist, how he would be great in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 18, And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb. and not be able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed because thou believest not my words which shall be fulfilled in their season. Look with me now over here in verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now, here you have two situations that are almost identical. Same angel came to Zacharias that came to Mary. And Zacharias asked a question and Mary asked a question. My subject is two questions, two hearts. Two questions, two hearts. And I want to focus mainly on Gabriel and the unbelief. When Gabriel asked, whereby shall I know this? He said, for I'm an old man and my wife is well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I'm Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not be able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the Lord not only made him dumb, unable to speak. He made him deaf too. If you look at verse 62, when John the Baptist was born, they made signs to his father how he would have him called. They had to use sign language. He was deaf too. For at least nine months, Zacharias was deaf and dumb due to his unbelief. This angel told him this good news and Zacharias was overcome with the most hideous of sins. He was overcome with the most vile of sins. Unbelief. Unbelief. He said, whereby shall I know this? Well, the angel spoke these words. This was the word of the Lord. That's how he would know this. This was true. That should end all argument. It's the word of the Lord. What grace and mercy from God. If we could really understand how abominable unbelief is to God, what an offense it is to God, then we would see how gracious and how merciful God was to Zacharias in that he only made him dumb and deaf for around nine months. That was grace and mercy from God. Since the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, as the head of his elect, since he served God in perfect faith, with a perfect faithfulness, representing His people. He was to God the only believer there was in this world, the only believer that's ever been. God looked to His Son, and His Son, representing all His elect from the beginning to the end, His Son obeyed the Father with perfect faith all His days. Conceived holy in the womb, came forth and was obedient to God in perfect faith all His days. And he justified all his people. He went to the cross and justified all his people. Even as he hung on that tree, bearing the sin and bearing the curse of his people, he was perfectly faithful to God, looking to God, and trusting that God would make good on all his promises to him. And that's the faith by which we're saved, brethren. We can see from Zacharias, we're not saved because our faith is so perfect. Our faith is little, and besides that, our faith is trusting the object of our faith, Christ. That's how faith saves, is Christ does the saving. He does the saving. But since he's our advocate with the Father, now at God's right hand, our Lord Jesus will give each one that he's redeemed, he will give each one faith, and he will continue to renew that faith in us and keep us believing and he will overcome every sin of ours, including our unbelief. Because He died for all the sins of His people, including our unbelief. And so He will keep us trusting Him and looking to Him. Now I want to just look mainly at Zacharias here, and then at the end we're going to come back to Mary and deal with the question she asked. But first, why is unbelief such an offense to God? Why is it such an offense to God when we do not believe His Word? Well, unbelief calls God a liar. That's what we're doing when we don't believe God. We're calling Him a liar. Look at 1 John 5, verse 10. This is so Anytime, regardless of if the unbelief is blatant or if it's just our casual unbelief in a small thing, whatever it is, it's calling God a liar. 1 John 5, verse 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. That's how we believe. The Spirit of God bears witness in our heart. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. That's why unbelief is so offensive to God. God's given this record. He's testified to his people. This is the record of God. God's given us eternal life. It's free. Christ came and paid all the price. He paid the debt we owe. He paid it all for His people. And this is the record of God. God has freely given His elect eternal life, and this life is in His Son. When He made that covenant promise to Abraham, He confirmed it with an oath. He could swear by no greater, so he swore by himself. He confirmed it with an oath, so that there's two immutable things. God's word and his covenant promise and his oath, and he can't lie. That's how gracious God is to us, that he not only makes his covenant promise to us, he confirms it with his oath. God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. But he that believeth not God is calling God a liar. He's calling God a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. What could be more offensive to God? You mothers and fathers, you just think you've been faithful to your children, you've made good on every promise you've made to them, you've instructed them, you've taught them, you've shown them that you're faithful to them, you're gonna do what you say for them, and then you make a promise to your child, and your child looks at you and says, you're just going to have to give me a sign. or I can't believe you. Give me some kind of sound so I can believe you. Wouldn't that be offensive to you? Wouldn't that grieve you? Well, look at Hebrews 3. Look here at Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3. And look at verse 15. He's talking about the children of Israel that were in the wilderness. I encourage you to read this whole passage, but I'm just, for time's sake, I'm just going to read a few verses. But in verse 15, Hebrews 3.15, while it is said today, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. for some, when they had heard, did provoke. They provoked God. Howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved forty years. See, that is grievous to God, not to believe. Who was he grieved with forty years? Was it not to them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And what was their sin? To whom swear he that he should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not. That was the sin that grieved God, they believed not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Unbelief is an offense to God because it's calling God a liar. That's grievous to God. And secondly, back in our text in Luke, no believer's immune to unbelief. None of us are immune to unbelief. We have an old sin nature, and as long as we have this sin nature, we're gonna struggle with this problem of unbelief all our days. All our days. Zacharias was chosen by God, by grace. He was blessed with all spirits of blessings by God the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, just like every one of His people, just like you that know Him are, you have been from eternity. Christ was His surety in whom He was perfectly righteous, in whom He was blameless in the sight of God. And that's so of all God's saints, everybody that he's called, blameless in the sight of God because of Christ's righteousness and Christ's holiness, because of Christ's perfect faith. And the Lord gave Zacharias a new heart. He gave him faith. He made him to be a man devoted to God. We saw that. He was a man devoted to God, in the sight of God. God made him a priest. He was serving as a priest. He was interceding between God and his brethren at the very time that the angel appeared to him. And Zacharias, he had faith to behold Christ foreshadowed in the office he was in. He had faith, this man had faith. He could see in all those ordinances, he could see Christ foreshadowed in those. Those saints of old had faith given to them by God. That was their worship. They saw Christ in those things. And he saw Christ in that office of him being a priest, just a common priest, serving and interceding and offering incense in place of the people that stood without. He saw Christ in that. That's what he was doing at the very moment that this angel appeared to him and Gabriel told him this good news. And also, he was an aged believer. He was an aged believer. The very thing that he used as an excuse for asking this question should have been the thing that made him trust God. He was an aged believer. He had proven God's promises over and over and over that they were so and they were true. He knew God to be true in everything he promised. You see how blessed Zacharias was? He was a blessed man. Did that stop him from falling into unbelief? Did that stop him from being overcome with this horrible sin of unbelief? No, it didn't. No, it didn't. When that angel of the Lord appeared to him, Zacharias saw the angel. He saw him. Think of that. Now, he saw the angel right there in front of him. He saw him with his own eyes. The angel startled him at first. And then he heard the angel speak to him. And the angel said to him in verse 13, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And the angel and everything he said, he did not speak in maybes. He told them. He said there in verse 14, Thou shalt have joy and gladness. And many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall be a Nazarite devoted to God, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah. He spoke with dogmatism to Zacharias. Even a perfect messenger can't stop God's people from unbelief. A perfect messenger, Christ Jesus, the perfect messenger that there's ever been, stood and preached the gospel to men, and they heard Him with their own two ears, saw Him with their own two eyes, and would not believe on Him. Would not believe on Him. A perfect messenger with a perfect message cannot keep us from unbelief unless God in power bless that word to our hearts and give us faith to believe. That ought to be all the evidence we need that we must be born from above. We must be given faith. God must speak in power to our heart because here's all this great advantage Zacharias had and he couldn't believe. He could not believe. He said unto that angel, verse 18, now get this now, this is a chosen, redeemed, sanctified, faithful, aged priest of God. And he says to that angel, whereby shall I know this? He's saying, what sign will you give me? So I know you're telling me the truth so I can believe you. That's what he's saying. Are you gonna give me some kind of, now think of everything we just looked at. Everything he has that God's given him, angels standing in front of him, angels speaking dogmatically to him, and then he says, show me something so I can believe you. Brethren, That ought to show us there's none of us, no believer, I don't care how blessed of God you are, as long as you're in this body of this death, there is no believer immune to unbelief. There's no believer that will not fall into this hideous sin of unbelief. No matter how God's blessed us, we have to cry like our brother, Lord, I believe, help me. thou mine unbelief." It's with us all the time. It is with us all the time. When Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. This evil of unbelief is always present with us. It's always present with us. Now thirdly, understand this, that faith is not carnal sight and it is not carnal reason. That is not what faith is. Faith's not a blind leap in the dark. God gives you, the gospel is reasonable in every way. But carnal reason and carnal sight is not faith. In fact, carnal sight and carnal reason hinders faith, and as we see right here, can totally blind faith. Zacharias, this is the reason he gave for asking for a sign. He said, verse 18, for I'm an old man, and my wife is well stricken in years. See, when we look at our inability It'll make us disbelieve God's ability. He's looking at the fact he's unable to do this, she's unable to do this. So now he's attributing that to God, that God's unable. That's what carnal sight, carnal reason will do, because here's the truth of the matter. Everything involved in our salvation is impossible for me and you to accomplish, only God. Only God. We couldn't make ourselves righteous before the law. We can't make ourselves holy in the heart. We can't make ourselves have faith to believe. We can't make ourselves repent. We can't produce fruit. Nothing about salvation is possible with a sinner like me and you. What can a dead man do? Nothing. But with God, all things are possible. See, Zacharias was looking to himself. Anytime we start looking to ourselves, We're going to fall into unbelief. It's going to overcome us when we look to ourselves. Our master reason and our carnal sight produces unbelief. That's all it can do. All that our flesh produces is sin. That's all, just sin. Only God's revelation in the heart produces faith. Only God. It's a divine revelation given by God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God unto salvation. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It's got to be revealed. Christ's got to be revealed to us from heaven. Unbelief reasoned here. This was his reasoning. I'm an old man. I'm an old man, he said. Listen to how Gabriel answered. I'm Gabriel. That's standing in the presence of God. And I'm sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. That's what faith says. Gabriel was faithful. He was a faithful angel to God. And what did he say? You're an old man? I'm Gabriel that stand in the presence of God. That's what faith says. I stand in the presence of God who's all powerful. with whom nothing is impossible. I stand in the presence of Him who rules over heaven, earth, and hell, and nobody can question Him and ask Him what He's doing. He does what He will. That's whose presence I'm standing before. That's what faith says. The faith that God gives believes God is able. That's what faith is. Faith believes God is able, that God is able. The blind man came to our Savior one time, and remember what the Lord said to him? He said, believest thou that I'm able to do this? And they said, yea, Lord. And then he touched their eyes, and he said, according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. Faith believes he's able. When you believe God is able, then you'll see the glory of God. That's what he told Martha. He said, Martha, If you believe, you'll see the glory of God. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. This was the son of whom God said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. All the promises were in Isaac. He said, this is the one through whom all the seed is going to be called. This is the one through whom your savior is coming. Now go offer him up as a sacrifice. And scripture says, Abraham did that by faith, accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead from what he also received him in a figure. You know, men don't, They love to go to James and talk about not being hearers of the word, but being doers. And the whole book of James is telling us the works that or the works that God produces in his people that manifest we have true God-given faith or works that manifest that we trust God's able. When it looks like all hope is lost, faith, trust, God is able. And he gives Rahab and Abraham as an example. We saw with Abraham, The son who God said all the promises are in. Now you go off for him. Your only right son. That son he'd waited for. That son God had given. That son he loved with all his heart. God said now offer him and he went and did it because he accounted God is able. And Rahab. They told Rahab, this was a woman who was a, she was a prostitute living in an ungodly city, Jericho, and her house was a house of ill repute. That's what it was. And they told Rahab, they said, we're putting a scarlet line in this window. You stay in this house right here. You and whoever you bring into this house will be saved. Can you imagine going out and telling people, come to this house and you'll be saved? When everybody looked at that house and said, we know what that house is. Why'd she do that? She believed God was able. She looked at that scarlet lion. We look at the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see him lay down his life. We see him perfect his people forever. And we know that nothing is impossible with God. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? And faith says, I know my God is able. I know He's able. I might not know what He's going to do for me in my life tomorrow, but I know He's able to do whatever He's pleased to do. That's what faith believes. And you can rest right there. You can rest right there. Do you believe the Son of God was able to take flesh like unto His brethren? You believe He was able to make Himself under the law and to live perfectly under that law all His days? You believe He was able to go to that cross and be made sin for us? Some people don't believe He was able to make Him sin for us who knew no sin. They say, well, that don't make sense. Do you believe He was able to be made a curse for us? Do you believe he was able after three days to come out of that tomb and to show himself to his disciples for those 40 days and then ascend back to glory where the Father is and sit down at God's right hand? Do you believe he's able to make intercession for his people right now before God and that God will hear him because he's our advocate and he's our righteousness before God? Do you believe He's able to come forth and work anything He's pleased to work in your life and in my life for His glory and for the good of His people? Faith says He's able. Unbelief says, ah, well, this situation's so bad. Unbelief says, look at us, we can't get through this, so then God can't do anything. That's what unbelief is saying. If we can't do it, then God can't do it. That's unbelief. That's unbelief. All those things I just said, do you believe the Lord was able to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin? Do you believe He was able to make reconciliation for iniquity? Do you believe He was able to bring in everlasting righteousness? Able to fulfill the law of the prophets? Able to enter into the holiest of holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us? Do you believe that He was able and that He did accomplish all those things? That's what Daniel believed. when the same angel Gabriel came to Daniel in Daniel 9 over 400 years before and told him, this is what Christ will do. And Daniel believed him. He had faith to believe him by God's grace. Now lastly, I want you to see this. Unbelief's a heart matter. Unbelief's a heart matter, same as faith is a heart matter. And God looks on the heart. He looks on the heart. Now, we see here, Zechariah said to the angel, Whereby shall I know this? Whereby shall I know you're telling me the truth so I can believe? See, that's not faith. If God gave you a sign to make you believe so that you would believe, that's not faith. In the Old Testament, there were some cases where God gave signs to Abraham and to different ones. But they already were given faith and believed God. The sign he gave was just to help strengthen their faith. It wasn't that they didn't believe. Zechariah is here saying, you've got to show me something so I can know you and then believe on you. And almost identical. The situation's almost identical. And the angel appeared, and Mary was fearful. And the angel said, fear not. And he told her the Lord Jesus was in her womb, and he was gonna be holy, born of the Holy Spirit, conceived of the Holy Spirit, that he's gonna be great. He's Jesus, he shall save his people from their sin. He gave her the name. All the situation here was just almost identical. And then said Mary to the angel, verse 34, how shall this be seeing I know not a man? Almost an identical question. How shall this be that I know not a man? And the angel said to her, he answered her. He said, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And then he said this in verse 36, and behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, listen to this answer, behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. Their questions sound almost identical. But God looks on the heart. He's looking on the heart that he's made. And God doesn't see as a man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. And the angel said to Zechariah, you believe not my words. Because he knew in his heart. He saw his heart. You don't believe my words. But the Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth, and the Lord spoke through Elizabeth in verse 45 and said, blessed is she that believed. She believed. He said, for there should be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit is rejoiced in God my Savior. Two persons can do the same thing. Two people can do the same thing, say the same thing, do almost identical, say almost identical same thing, or do almost identical same thing. And one may even appear outwardly to be better than another. But God sees the difference in the heart. I'll give you an example. Lot's wife looked back to Sodom. and the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt. That same morning, at that same time, Abraham arose and looked towards Sodom, and nothing happened to him. Why? She looked back longing to go back. That was her heart. She wanted to be back there. She came out bodily, but she didn't come out spiritually. Abraham looked and was amazed at God's holy justice that had fallen on Sodom. And he was hopeful and trusting that God had made good on his word and brought light out of Sodom before he destroyed it. Two different hearts all together. One's a heart of faith looking at Sodom, one's a heart of unbelief looking at Sodom. But you couldn't tell the difference by looking at either one of them. I already did the exact same thing. But God knows the heart. He looks on the motive of the heart. On the motive of the heart. Outwardly, one may be all but blameless. He may appear all but blameless outwardly to the eye. But inward, his heart is far from God. That was the case with the Pharisees. And another may be a lowly handmaid like Mary. One that you don't look on her and think, oh this is a holy and righteous person. And yet her heart, in her heart, she believed God. Every word. Zacharias asked in unbelief. Mary asked with astonishment. She asked believing God. She knew the Son of God's coming into the world. That's what she believed. She knew this is the woman's seed, the one that's holy, that's coming to save His people from our sin. She heard that name Jesus, Savior. She knew that name, Hosea. She knew that's Savior. The motive of her question was not to have a sign so that she might believe. The motive of her question was, since she knew not a man, she just asked, how are you going to do this? She asked with astonishment and amazement like David when he said, who am I and what is my house? Like Mephibosheth when he said, why would you look on such a dead dog as I am? Why would the Lord love me? You ever ask that question? Why would He choose me? Why would Christ die for me? How can God use somebody like me? But they're questions of faith. They're questions where you stand in amazement at what God's done for you and what He's doing with you and in you. But you see here, here's something else I want to end with. God's faithful. God is faithful. Aren't you thankful He's faithful? The Lord renewed faith in Zacharias. We're going to see another time, we'll see what his confession was after he loosened his tongue and he spoke. You can read about it in the end of the chapter. We'll see that another time. Here's what I want you to get. Paul said, what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. If we believe not, yet he about us faithful, he cannot deny himself. He chose Zacharias. Christ was his righteousness and his holiness. He had given him the Holy Spirit and all these gifts of grace, and God never takes back any of his gifts of grace. God saved him because he was his own, even though he sinned in unbelief. That ought to tell us, brethren, salvation is entirely by God's grace, entirely in Christ, entirely to the praise and glory of God alone. You believe the word of the Lord. You trust the word of the Lord. When it appears altogether impossible, you believe God. You believe God. Believe He's able and trust the Lord Jesus. He shall not fail. He shall not fail. Nothing is impossible with the Lord. Nothing. Let's go to Him, brethren. Our God and our Father, we thank You for Your Word. Lord, how we thank You that You saved by grace. Lord, we believe. Help thou our unbelief. Save us from all our sins, Lord. We want to serve You. We want to honor You. You've given us a heart to want to. And Lord, we're thankful for any good work You work in us. It's all of Your glory and Your grace. Lord, we see this evil present with us, our unbelief and our sin. Lord, we ask you, help us. Help us to believe you and trust you. Lord, put down our flesh. Put it down. Subdue it. by your power, help us, Lord, give us strength to keep our body in subjection and trust you alone. We need you every hour. Lord, we're thankful that you, we're thankful you're faithful and continue to save us in spite of us. Thank you for this picture and what you've shown us here today, Lord. In Christ's name, amen.