“Unbelief is a Great Sin—It Fosters All Other Sins”: Do You Believe in Christ Alone? Or, Are You Still in Unbelief?

"Faith" is the noun. "Trust" is the verb!

A Devotional for the Seventeenth Day of February 2025

From the Desk of Dr. John Albert Broadus

(Taken from an unpublished manuscript of Dr. Roger D Duke) 

“Unbelief is a Great Sin—It Fosters All Other Sins” [1]     

1. It is seen in the fall. “Ye shall not surely die” [Genesis 3:4, KJV]—and the woman began to doubt whether God would fulfill his threatening—the tree was pleasant looking, the fruit inviting—the prospect of being as God awakened sinful pride—she ate. In unbelief it commenced. This led to disobedience.

            2. The Israelites “could not enter in because of unbelief” [Hebrews 3:19, 4:6, KJV]—they had no sufficient confidence in the divine protection. So when unbelieving messengers made a fearful report, the people refused to enter, and were condemned to wander, that generation to perish in the wilderness.

            They did not believe the clear promise of God’s blessing, so amply attested, but did not believe the exaggerated report of difficulties. Men are ready to believe what falls in with their feelings or their carnal fears, while they are slow to believe what God hath spoken. Unbelief of the truth always connected with the belief of a lie—that earth is better than heaven, sin lovelier than holiness, time more important than eternity. These and [a] thousand such lies men are believing, and accepting, while the pure light of divine truth shines all unheeded upon them.

            3. Unbelief the occasion of other sins—perverted passions and depraved desires may be the inciting cause, yet by for unbelief these would suffice. With a true faith we would appreciate the evil of all sins, and be impressed with the beauty of holiness—and faith working by love would purify, etc. Unbelief is to the life as bitter fountain to the stream. An evil heart is like a great marsh sending up noxious vapors. Men often see and deplore the evil effects, and try to correct it but in vain.

[1] This is an excerpt from a sermon published in Vernon Latrelle Stanfield, Favorite Sermons of John A. Broadus (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1959), 136-138.