Our scripture reading from Luke chapter 1. We've been looking at the pericope from verse 5 to 25, but I'd like to read this morning just the verses that we'll be focusing on, beginning at verse 18. And Zacharias said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years. And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel. who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and to bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe My words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he'd lingered so long in the temple, but when he came out he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, And she hid herself five months saying, thus the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among his people. Thus far, the reading of God's word. This is the word of truth. Heavenly Father, you have spoken. And we ask that You would give us ears to listen and to hear. We ask that Your Word that You have spoken might be hid in our heart, that we might not sin against You. We ask that this Word might be that which sanctifies us. I ask, Lord, that you would do that now as your word is opened. May you give to us your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Zacharias, we left last week, we left him in the temple there offering the incense in the holy place while the people outside were praying and suddenly he's doing this activity that most would typically expect to do once in their life. to offer the incense for either the morning or the afternoon worship service, the liturgy. Zacharias sees this angel standing, Gabriel. The angel said to him, he's troubled, he's afraid. And rightly so. And so Gabriel says to him, the angel says, don't be afraid for your prayer is heard. And then he gives them this message. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son and you will call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn fathers to their children and to the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's a wonderful message. That is indeed good news. This is the message. This is the word that Israel has been waiting for for 400 years. God has promised to do this. God made this promise all the way back in the Garden of Eden in one form, and he continued to give it to each of the patriarchs. And now God is coming to say to Zacharias, to say that now, this is coming to pass, that now, that you, Zacharias, will be the one whose son is the herald of the Messiah. And Zacharias missed it. That great message, he missed it. And all he heard was your wife, Elizabeth, will have a son. And all he thought was she's way too old. She's way past her years of bearing children, and I'm old. He missed the good news. And he blurts out, how shall I know this? The angel delivered this great and wonderful message that was the consolation of Israel, what they had been looking for for centuries, for thousands of years, even 2000 years since Abraham. And he says, how, how shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is old too. She is, but he says it very gently. She is advanced in years. I'm an old man and she's advanced in years. How can I know this? Well, the answer to Zacharias is that you can know it by believing God's word, believing what God has said to you. That's how you know it. But he asks this question, how can I know it? Now, at first glance, it may seem to be similar to the question that other saints have asked when they have been told wonderfully good news, similar wonderfully good news. For example, we can compare it with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15. God also appeared to Abraham, or Abram as he was called then, and he said to him that One who will come from your own body will be your heir and now Abraham didn't have anybody that at this point had come from his own body Ishmael wasn't born yet and Abraham thought that Eliezer who is his chief servant would be his heir and God said no, but one from your own body and remember Abraham is old at this time he's not as old as he was when Isaac is born, but he's still old at this time and He took him out and showed him the stars and said to Abraham this man who had no children who's quite old That's how many you look at the stars that's how many your descendants will be just like that and and It says that Abraham believed the Lord verse 6 Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness and But then he turns around and says in verse, well, then the Lord said again to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Chaldeas to give you this land to inherit it. And so that's another promise. And Abraham then says, Lord, God, Jehovah, God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? That sounds very similar to the question that Zechariah asked. But the Lord responds very differently. The Lord has Abraham prepare the outward elements of a covenant ceremony. And the Lord, in effect, in response to Abraham, how will you know it? The Lord, in effect, swears by himself. He enters into an oath. In the New Testament, we read that God, who can swear by no other, swore by himself. And so there is this ceremony, this covenant ceremony, where God had Abraham prepare these animals, cut them in half, and God moved through the midst. That's a self-maledictory oath saying, may I be this way, may I be cut asunder if anything that I have said fails. And so it sounds like a similar question, But it really, it wasn't. Abraham received a very great and magnificent promise, and he believed God. Now, we wouldn't necessarily know that, but God, in his word, knowing Abraham's heart, has said that Abraham believed the Lord in that. He believed Jehovah. And so when God gave him the further promise that he would inherit the land that he had been living in, Abraham essentially asked God, how will I know this? He's asking God to strengthen his faith. Strengthen my faith. How? How will you be doing this? I believe, but this is amazing. This is hard to believe. Can you strengthen my faith? We also have the testimony of the of the New Testament in this regard as well in Romans chapter four. It says that, Paul writes to the Romans in verse 17, As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him who believed God. God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who," that's Abraham, contrary to hope, in hope believed. So that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. Your descendants will be as the stars of the heaven." Abraham, contrary to hope, in hope, believed that he would be the father of many nations. And not being weak in faith, Paul says, he did not consider his own body already dead. since he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver, Paul says, at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced. that what he had promised, that what God had promised him, that he would have an heir from his own body and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, it says that Abraham was fully convinced, he believed God's word, that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. And Paul then quotes right out of Genesis 15, that it was accounted to him for righteousness. It was accounted to him for righteousness. And a little later, God came to Abraham in chapter 17, and he said to him, I will bless your wife. He said of Sarah I will bless your wife and give you a son by her and she will be a mother of nations and kings will be from her and Abraham fell on his face and laughed and Said in his heart in his heart shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old Now we know from the scriptures that Abraham believed God and he was fully persuaded but this was such a marvelous amazing incredible thing that he laughed and In his heart, wow, can, he said, can in his heart, he said, shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? This is amazing. And his mind expressed that amazement, but he didn't say to God, how shall I know this? Rather, his words to God were, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. And God said, No, no, Sarah, your wife, will bear a son. And that son, that's the son of promise. That's the son from whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. You see, his question was slightly different. He was believing but looking for a strengthening of his faith. Or we could look at Mary just a little later in this chapter. The same angel comes to her with an actually even more incredible message and says that she, this unmarried virgin who betrothed at the time to Joseph, would give birth to a child. And Mary's words were, how can this be since I don't know a man? How can that be? And the angel explained to her how it would be, that the Holy Spirit would conceive within her womb the Messiah. For with God, he told her, nothing is impossible. God doesn't need an egg or a sperm to conceive a child. The seed And so Mary said, let it be to me according to your word. Let it be to me according to your word. Zechariah asked a very different question. He asked, how shall I know this? That's a slightly different question. See, the essence of doubt, the essence of doubt is to not know something. to not know something, to not believe. See, that's in stark contrast. Zacharias' question is in stark contrast. His question, how shall I know this, is in stark contrast to Abraham, who the Bible says was fully persuaded. He believed. Zacharias did not. He did not know. Now that might seem like to us a minor question. Maybe we might say even an insignificant question. or a little problem, but God didn't treat it that way as a, as an insignificant problem that could be overlooked because doubt is a sin. Doubt like this doubt of God's word is a sin. It's a sin because it implies that God is a liar. It implies that what God is saying is not true. or that God is deluded, has delusions of grandeur and thinks that He can do things that He can't do. That's what doubt is. Saying that what God is telling us in His Word isn't true, won't happen. Now, there are certainly many different levels or degrees of unbelief. There is saving faith, which embraces the promise of of salvation of eternal life. And it embraces the testimony, God's testimony, that He has adopted us as His children and that we are righteous in His sight because of the righteousness of Christ, that we are imputed to us, that we are His children by adoption. That is saving faith that believes those promises. But God gives many additional promises to His children, those whom He has justified and adopted. The Scriptures abound with promises that God has given to us, promises that He will feed us. Promises that he will deliver us from dangers. Promises that he will vindicate our reputation when it's assaulted. Promises that he will protect our life from harm and danger. Promises that he will clothe us. Promises that he will provide a way of escape for every temptation. Promises that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Promises that if we ask anything, of the Father in His name, He will give it to us." That's His Word. Promises that if we resist Satan, He will flee from us. He has even promised that we should participate in His victory and that He has given to us through His name power over Satan. He's promised all these things. But sometimes we who trust in God for the pardon of our sins and we are fully convinced that we are accepted in the Beloved, sometimes we may waver on one of these points, on one of these promises. Sometimes the fears that are in front of us the need that is in front of us, the circumstances that are surrounding us may overwhelm us. They may seem far greater than God's power at that moment. And many of God's saints have been in that situation. like Zacharias. Elijah was in that situation. He who had stood up before all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, shortly thereafter trembles and runs for his life in fear of Jezebel, who said she was going to kill him. He doubted. And God, in His mercy, followed him and chased him down and asked him what he was doing so far away. Or Peter. doubting, having one faith at one moment and the next doubting what he so clearly believed a moment earlier. So that happens and it happened to Zacharias. So we're not saying that in his unbelief he was not a Christian, but rather he had a doubt about this other promise of God. The Bible tells us very clearly that Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous and godly people. ready wavered. We, like Zacharias, can have anxiety about something that God has promised to provide for us. Anxiety about the future or about a particular trial that we may be going through. And we may forget God's word to us at that moment. Or it may seem small and insignificant compared to the magnitude of the problem that we face. And so we may end up committing the sin of doubt, doubting that God will do as He has promised to do for us. You see, it's believing faith that at that point calls out, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief, Lord, I believe that you can do this, that you can do the impossible, that you can deliver me, that you can feed me, that you can. Rescue. That you can vindicate, that you can provide, that you can sustain, Lord, I believe. But this problem seems so large, help my unbelief. And Jesus does. He does. Like he reached out to Peter and took his hand, he reaches out to us and takes our hand when we cry out to Jesus, help my unbelief. See, there are things today that God has said that maybe to you seem as impossible or as unlikely or as untrue as the words of Gabriel to Zechariah. Seemed untrue to Zechariah. Seemed too amazing, too far out to be true. Some people today have a lot of trouble believing that God means what He says when He says homosexual fornication is sin. Some people today have trouble believing God's Word when He says that God created people male and female. Something that is written in every cell of our body that no operation, no amount of hormones, no amount of therapy can ever change. Every cell in our body is imprinted with the gender that God created us with, because God created people male and female, and we can't change that. any more than, as God says, a leopard can change his spot. Every cell in our body bears that imprint, bears that stamp of God's creative act. Or, the Bible says that older women are to teach younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be keepers at home and are to be silent in the church. that seems out of place today, and so some people don't believe that that's what God means. Or that God created the world in six days, 6,000 years ago, that seems hard to believe for some today. But that's what God's Word says. Or that He's coming again to judge the living and the dead, and everyone will stand before Him to give an account of what has been entrusted to us. For it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment." That's what God's Word says, that we know this by faith. Now, there are certainly degrees of culpability in unbelief. Greater knowledge or experience renders one less excusable and requires of us greater obedience. Zacharias was advanced in years. He had great experience. He had a lifetime of seeing God provide, of God fulfill, keep his word, of God do wonders. He was far senior to Mary in terms of knowledge and experience. He had a lifetime of sanctification, experiencing God's provision. And so his doubt is more culpable than any doubts that Mary may have had. Greater office renders one less excusable and requires greater obedience. Zacharias is a priest. He is the one who is to teach God's people. You know, he did this work two weeks a year. There were 24 divisions. The rest of the time, what was he doing? He was living in, they lived throughout Judea and they were teaching the people. They were the judges as well of the land. Remember, there were judges of 10, 50, 100, and so on. They were teaching, ministering throughout the land. Zacharias has a greater office. He ministered in the temple. He saw things with his own eyes that Non-priests would never see. He saw the altar of incense where the prayers of the saints rose to God, symbolizing those prayers. He saw the altar. He saw the oil of the lamp burning continuously, a sign of God's Holy Spirit. He saw these things. He was a priest. Jesus rebuked Nicodemus because he said he was a teacher in Israel and he did not understand or know the fundamentals of the faith. There was a greater culpability to his ignorance. You know, James says, let not many of you become teachers knowing that we incur a stricter judgment. So there is a greater culpability in Zacharias's unbelief. Greater revelation, thirdly, greater, greater experience, greater office, but greater revelation also renders one less excusable and requires greater obedience. Zechariah had the example of Abraham. He knew that God had come to Abraham in identical circumstances and said the exact same thing, that his wife, who was advanced in years, would have a son. He knew that. He had greater revelation. Abraham did not at that point. When God came to him and said that, Abraham couldn't look back at anybody that had a baby after they were advanced in years. Gideon, Hezekiah, these are all examples of men who asked of the Lord, who were told, promised great things. You see, Satan can bring doubt about God's Word. Satan can take away the seed that is planted, that faith. And Paul was worried about the Thessalonians. He was afraid that Satan may have come and hindered their work and rendered his labor in vain. And so for all of these reasons then, Zacharias had greater culpability and God brought a chastening to him. He said, you will be mute. Now, before we look at that though, what is the impact, just briefly, what is the impact of doubt? What is the impact of doubt? Well, the impact of doubt, the lack of faith, is that without faith we cannot know anything. Without faith we cannot know anything. I had a recent conversation with an atheist a couple of weeks ago. And the atheist said, faith, as far as I can tell, faith means an attempt to believe factual propositions despite a lack of evidence. He said, that's what he meant by faith, he said that. And the Christian replied, that is not the definition of faith as it's used in the Bible. In the Bible, faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is the evidence of things that are not seen, the substance of things that are hoped for. But many people use it that way, that it is a belief in factual propositions despite the lack of evidence. That's not what the Bible at all means by faith. Faith is based on knowledge. And so the Christian said back, without faith, it's impossible to know anything. So the atheist then said, well, what is your definition of faith? He said, you seem to want to tie it to epistemology, which in my opinion is ridiculous. You want to tie faith to epistemology. Without faith, you can't know anything. That's what he meant, tying faith to how we know things. The Christian said, well, if you think it's ridiculous to tie faith to epistemology, please allow me to ask. Do you believe that matters of fact are established by reason and logic, sir? He said, well, by reason, ultimately, and by evidence. We know things by reason and by evidence. And so the Christian said, okay, so you believe that knowledge come, you get to know things by reason and by empirical evidence, good. But I would like to know, how do you know that fact? How do you know that we know things by reason and empirical evidence? He didn't have an answer. He knows that knowledge comes by reason and by evidence, but how does he know that? By reason and evidence? Okay. But you see, before he can use reason and evidence to learn that knowledge comes by reason and evidence, he first had to believe. that knowledge comes by reason and evidence. You see, there's an inescapable circularity. And the question isn't whether faith is tied to epistemology. It is. Without faith, you can know nothing. The question is, who is the object of your faith? Who do you put your faith in? And ultimately, faith and knowledge or reason and evidence can't account for anything. They didn't create anything. And if your faith is in those, you ultimately can know nothing. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we can know anything. You see, what that conversation pointed out is that that atheist had faith. He put his faith in reason and knowledge. By reason and knowledge, he didn't come to know that knowledge comes by reason and knowledge. He had to assume that. He had to believe that first. and before he could know anything. And so, the real question is, in what are you putting your faith? There is only one true faith, that which is in Jesus Christ, the creator of all things, and in whom is hid all wisdom and knowledge. All knowledge comes by revelation from God. We know, and the only reason we can know anything is by faith, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, without faith, second impact of no faith is that without faith, it's impossible to please God. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Bible says that what is not of faith is sin. Those who seek God must believe that He is. and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Well, what is the Lord's remedy for doubt, for unbelief? Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Gabriel's response to Zechariah's unbelief is to declare who he is. Zachariah said, I don't believe you, God. Gabriel said, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and was sent to bring to you the good news. The UN Galitzo. The gospel. Gabriel said, I was I stand in the presence of God. One of those angels that we read in Revelation standing before the press, one of the seven angels standing before the presence of God. He is a messenger. He came to Daniel. He came to Mary a little bit later, and he's come to Zechariah's as one who stands in the presence of God and was sent. He said, I was sent to bring to you the gospel, the good news. Christ is coming. that God was ready to send a long-awaited Messiah, and that Zechariah would be given a son who would prepare the way for the Messiah. Gabriel pointed Zechariah back to that message, the good news of Jesus Christ. God sent his son to earth to take human flesh, to take to himself a human nature, to live under the law, to live in perfect obedience to the law, have perfect righteousness, to die as a sacrifice as the Lamb of God for our sins and to rise from the dead, defeating the grave, conquering sin, crushing the head of the serpent. That's the message that Gabriel pointed Zacharias to, the Word of God, the Gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Come to Jesus with your doubts. He can take away your doubts. Don't try to take away your doubts and then come to Jesus because you can't. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Those who don't believe God's Word need to hear God's Word. Don't ever be fooled into thinking, well, he doesn't believe God's Word, so I really can't say God's Word to him. No. If he doesn't believe God's Word, like Gabriel didn't believe God's Word, Gabriel came back with the Word of God to Zacharias, pointed him to Jesus. He gave to him the gospel, the good news. God gently chastened Zacharias, taking away his ability to speak, but he pointed him to Christ, the subject of the gospel. You see, seeing Jesus is the remedy for unbelief. So don't ever avoid the Word of God. In your life, when we don't believe, when we have doubts about God's Word, we need to hear God's Word. Because that's how faith comes, by hearing the word of God. And those that stand in front of you as you minister to anyone at work, they may be the greatest atheist. They need to hear the word of God. They need pointed to Jesus, the good news, because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Thomas doubted that Christ had risen until he saw Jesus, the crucified one. And then he cried out, my Lord and my God. He didn't have to put his finger in the holes. He didn't need evidence. He needed to see Jesus. He needed faith. And so God is gracious, God forgives us, and God uses us even with our unbelief. God used Zacharias mightily, we'll see later on, to write a great hymn of faith when His Son is born, circumcised, to write a great hymn of praise, to edify the whole church down through the ages. This hymn is written a little later in this chapter. God used Zacharias, and God can use us too. when we stumble into unbelief. God can forgive our unbelief, and God can restore us as He restores His people, and God can use us even when our faith is not perfect, even when we have doubts and we cry out, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help me to believe Your Word, that Your Word is true. That even though it seems impossible, even though it seems unlikely, even though it contradicts everything that man is saying, let every man be a liar, but God's word is true. Help, help my unbelief. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus Christ who has come as a remedy for our unbelief. We ask, Lord, that you would strengthen our faith where it is weak, where we have doubts, for we do. We ask that you would open our eyes, that you would bring your gospel, your word to us and allow us to see Jesus, the risen Lord and Savior, the reigning King of kings and Lord of lords. Father, there is not one word that you have ever spoken that has ever fallen to the ground or will ever fall to the ground. Indeed, all that you have said is true. You are coming again to judge this world, both the living and the dead. And may we be found in that day not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but clothed with the righteousness of Christ by faith. O Lord, help our unbelief and grant to us and strengthen our faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.