Everybody knows somebody who does not know Jesus as his Savior.  It is the TRUTH—

GOD IS AFTER ALL PEOPLE; GOD WANTS ALL PEOPLE TO COME TO KNOW HIM!

The life-transformation a person experiences at the moment they believe is beyond words.  When the Gospel is presented & for the first time, the hearer REALLY HEARS the word of God speaking to his heart, life-transformation occurs.

Until that moment, doubt remains.

Doubt—this is a matter of the human mind, one where an individual cannot fully understand what it is God is doing or why God is doing what He is doing.  Doubt says:  “I just don’t know.”  Doubt wavers, like a wind blowing against the leaves of the tree, one moment this way and the next moment, that way.  Doubt causes people to remain in their sin and REMAINING in their doubt to—NOT COME to GOD.

Unbelief—this is a matter of the human will, a Rejection of Jesus, an ongoing decision of the person who is listening to the Gospel, to the Truth of GOD, but choosing to not believe.

Unbelief is seen in a person walking in one direction, bent on not turning, not changing in the direction he is walking but choosing instead to continue the way he is walking—CHOOSING to NOT BELIEVE in JESUS.

In the Bible, the religious leaders: the Sadducees and Pharisees were just that—religious.

• They did not want to change their ritualistic ways, for it was in living this way, they chose to think they were above the salvation of God.
• They were religious, but they were not searching for the Messiah.
• They were religious, but they were not searching for the Truth.

In the apostle Matthew’s account of the paralytic man who was healed, the Pharisees rejected Jesus as the Son of God.  Their rejection was not based on their doubt of God’s work but their rejection was their blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah!

Jesus Christ brings forgiveness of sins!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God!

To reject Jesus Christ is to reject the image & the person of GOD!

• The real reason a person might reject Jesus IS NOT because they lack evidence, for the historical records are filled with evidence that prove Jesus lived and died (was crucified upon the cross).
• The real reason a person might reject Jesus IS because the person does not want to leave the way he is living.  The person does not want to change.  The person wants to leave his life just as it is right now.

For those who have believed in Jesus as the Son of God who brought salvation to the world through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave—

For those—they have received the Holy Spirit of God so that they might know the things of God, which He speaks—

• Through His Holy Word, the Bible.
• Through prayer,
• Through the encouragement of other believers who follow Jesus.   &
• Through the leading of God’s Holy Spirit that He has placed inside each one who believes.

The evidence can then be seen in the life actions of the Christian, of the one

who chooses to believe JESUS at HIS word.