Mark's Gospel, chapter 9 and
verse 14. And when he came to his disciples,
that is the Lord Jesus, he saw a great multitude about them,
and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the
people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running
to him, saluted him. And he asked the scribes, What
question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away. And I speak to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answered
him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me. and they brought him unto him.
And when he saw him straightway the Spirit tear him, and he fell
on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How
long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And oft times it hath cast him
into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' Jesus said
unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And straightway the father of
the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. When
Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked
the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit,
I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent
him sore, and came out of him, and he was as one dead, insomuch
that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he was come into the
house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast
him out? And he said unto them, this kind
can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Returning from the Mount of Transfiguration
with Peter and James and John, Our Lord Jesus Christ encountered
a group of scribes. Now these men were specialists
in the Jewish law, so we might call them lawyers and we would
not be too far wrong. But these were questioning the
Lord's other disciples, the nine that he had left when he took
the three into the Mount of Transfiguration. But did you notice verse 15 as
we were reading together? It says there in verse 15, straightway
all the people when they beheld him, that is when they beheld
the Lord Jesus, were greatly amazed and running to him, saluted
him. When the people saw the Lord
Jesus, they were greatly amazed. Now we're not told what it was
that greatly amazed these followers of the Lord, but something in
the Lord's appearance or something in the Lord's presence caused
this notable reaction. Perhaps the Lord still glowed
in his skin and his flesh from that glory that had recently
shone from him and emanated from his body through his clothes. You remember how Moses' face
shone when he came out of the mountain, when he came down from
Mount Sinai, having spent time in the presence of God, his face
shone. Maybe there's something of an
analogy there. Or perhaps it was that the timing
coincided with something that was being said and something
that was being done at that very moment between these scribes
and the disciples and this man and his son. We're not told. But something greatly amazed
these people. And I think that this is worth
pausing over and pointing out. Soon, soon, Very soon, this world
will once again be greatly amazed at the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They will be greatly amazed to
behold the Lord Jesus Christ. But this time, men and women
will not run to the Lord Jesus Christ, but they will flee from
him. They will flee from him, we're
told, and cry for the mountains to fall upon them. Because the
Lord Jesus Christ is coming in his glory to judge the world
in righteousness and to judge the world for its sin. In Acts
chapter 17, verse 31, the Apostle Paul is speaking to the Athenians
on Mars Hill there in Greece and this is what he says to them. He says that God hath appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he hath ordained. There's that word ordained again.
You see God is going to send the Lord Jesus Christ once again
into this world but this time to judge the world. That's a
prophecy. That's a promise. That will happen. God has told us that to excite
our interest, to test our faith and to glorify our saviour when
he comes. But come he will. He will come
and He will greatly amaze this world in His coming. And until
that appointed day, we preach to those selfsame men and women
a way of escape. We preach a way of life, a way
of salvation to needy sinners. We preach a glorious gospel of
accomplished salvation. And we ask the Lord yet to be
merciful and gracious, yet through the preaching of His Word to
open closed hearts and blind eyes to behold our amazing Saviour. So that sinners like us, like
you and like me, may see Him, may run to Him, may salute Him
as the great Lord and Saviour that He is. So may the Lord send
this message today as a wake-up call to the dead in sin and to
those that are at ease in Zion. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him. Today's message is about faith,
or rather it is about the lack of faith. The Lord Jesus gave
us three distinct lessons, three distinct statements about faith
in this one short passage. Number one, he spoke about a
faithless generation of unbelievers. Secondly, he tried and tested
the first early glimmers of faith in the heart of this poor father. And finally he took his disciples
aside and he stressed the singular role of faith in Christian life
and service. And we're going to look at each
of these three instances under these three headings. elusive
faith, emerging faith, and enabling faith. Elusive faith, emerging
faith, and enabling faith. The first one is this, elusive
faith. Let me begin our thoughts on
the Lord's message upon faith in this passage by saying this.
Faith in Christ is a rare and precious commodity. Faith in
Christ is a rare and precious commodity. And we often fail
to realise that because we're so accustomed to the free will
offers of salvation that are dispensed from pulpits and platforms
constantly. that we imagine that anyone can
have faith, that it's freely available to everyone, and all
that it takes to have faith is some simple nod of consent to
will saving faith into existence. Well I'm here to tell you that
that isn't faith. You can call it what you will,
but it's not faith. I can say that with certainty
because I know this, it doesn't come from the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the author and giver of faith. If the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
give that faith, it isn't faith. Saving faith is the faith of
Christ. gifted exclusively to the elect
of God for whom the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood. Peter speaks in his second epistle
of precious faith and it's precious because it's rare. He speaks
of them that have obtained like precious faith with us, with
the apostles. You obtain faith. You don't will it into existence. You don't magic it up by some
acquiescence of the fallen human will. It's something that is
obtained at the hand of God, at the gift of Christ, and it
is precious, says Peter. Precious faith obtained from
Christ. confirm that by saying this,
the Lord Jesus Christ once asked a question. He said this, he
said in Luke chapter 18 verse 8, when the son of man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth? That's a sobering question. We ought to think about that
question and the implications of that question. People would
say, well, look at the churches, look at the energy, look at the
size and scale of the movement that we have in the world today.
Christ said, when I come back, am I going to find faith on the
earth? Well, the answer to that question
is yes, he will. But the implication is that it
will be a lot less common than most of us think. Here the Saviour addresses a
group of deeply religious people. These were scribes. These were
the people at the top of the religious structure of the Jewish
nation. and likely it is these scribes
that are principally in view here by the Lord. He declaims
against them, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? Now these people were religious.
These people had all the answers. They had all the Old Testament
scriptures. They had all the history and
the heritage and the traditions and the rituals. And here is
the Son of God Himself on earth, performing countless miracles. And yet this generation that
looked on Christ, that saw Christ with their own eyes, saw His
miracles, heard His words, would not, could not, did not believe. They were the most honoured,
privileged and indeed blessed generation ever to walk upon
this globe. And yet for all their religion,
they were a faithless generation. They had their legal observances,
they had their religious pedigree, they had their good works, they
had their self-righteous morality, but they had no faith. Now that doesn't mean to say
that they didn't believe something. Of course they did. But it was
not the faith of Christ. So it was not real faith. It
was not true faith. It was not saving faith. They
were a faithless generation. Because saving faith is a rare
and a precious and an elusive commodity. and they had not obtained
what they had from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you might wonder,
is that good news? Is it good news to know that
faith is rare and precious? Yes, yes, of course it is. Who wants to go to hell leaning
on a lie This is good news for you to know that faith is rare
and precious. It's good news for you, if you
have faith, to know how valuable and precious it is. And if you don't have faith,
then you need to know that you need to get it. And you need
to know that there is only one source. And if I've challenged
you by anything that I've said so far, to wonder if what you
have is the real thing, if what you have is true, rare and precious
faith, then let me point you to the
father of this troubled boy that we read about in Mark chapter
9. Let me point you to this man
and to his experience of being dealt with by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And let me give you our next
heading and ask you, honestly, to ask yourself if the Lord Jesus
Christ has ever dealt with you like he dealt with this man this
day. And this is our second heading,
Emerging Faith. Here is a caring father. who comes with true but slender
faith and brings his child to Christ. His purpose is to obtain a cure
for the only son that he has and the son that he loves. And
it seems clear to me that this man came under great doubt and
indeed fear. knowing, it seems, little more
than that he had a great need and nowhere else to turn. He approaches the Lord's disciples. Now, on other occasions, by the
name and the authority of the Lord, the disciples had worked
cures. They had cast out demons. They had healed the sick. But
here they failed. Here they were not able to do
it. And I am sure that this provoked
fear and anxiety in this man's soul more than ever it was in
bringing his child to Christ in the first place. If the disciples
had failed, might not the Lord? Might it be too much for the
Lord as well? And he came desperately. And
he came pitifully and he says to the Lord Jesus, if you can
do anything, have compassion upon us and help us. If you can
do anything, have compassion upon us and help us. I love the
way he used the plural in there. Have compassion upon us, me and
the boy, me and the lad. And we might ask ourselves, when
does faith, when does trust and confidence and belief ever begin
a sentence with, if you can? That's the opposite of faith. That's not believing he can,
that's saying if you can, that's emphasising doubt. The truth is that the best that
can be said of this man's faith is that it was a vague hope. But he had nowhere else to go.
He had nowhere else to turn to. He had no one else to turn to.
Nothing to offer but his need. And so he threw himself and his
troubled son upon the mercy and the compassion of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I said that this man had a vague
hope, but it wasn't a vain hope. You see, something had stirred
in this man's soul. Something had said to him, go
to Christ, take your son to Christ, appeal to Christ, look to Christ. And that's what he had done.
If the disciples can't help, don't stop there. Press on, go
to the Lord himself. And when he did, when he did
that, the Lord made this remarkable answer to him. He said, if you
can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. I suspect that the Lord used
that same construction of the conditional phrase, if you can,
because that was how the man had approached him. The man approached
him and said, if you can do anything, if you can do anything, have
compassion upon us. And the Lord turned that around
on the man and said, if you can believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. And I think that the purpose
of the Lord in using that phrase, that construction in that way,
is surely to show us all the inseparable link between faith
and fulfilment. and I suspect too that the Lord
gave the very faith that this man lacked at that instant and
caused him to cry out, Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief. You see a true believer has no
confidence in his or her own faith. Far less in their works
of righteousness, or their good deeds, or their experiences,
or their history, or their family, or anything else. They've not
even got confidence in their own faith, in their own feelings. A true believer asks even for
the faith they lack from the only source that can supply their
need. And I do believe that these words,
Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief, are amongst the most
encouraging and moving words in the whole of Scripture. And in the light of Jesus' reply
to this man, that all things are possible to him that believeth,
these selfsame words ought to be frequently upon the lips of
his people, you and me, as we face the challenges of this life. Now I'm sure that there's much
more in this passage that we can learn than I'm going to be
able to share with you today or have time to share with you
today. I mentioned a few things in yesterday's introduction. I do hope you read these introductions
because they kind of lead in, well that's what they're for,
they lead into what we're going to say. That's the intention
and the purpose. But I mentioned in yesterday's
introduction the presence of this demon in the child's infancy
teaches us about original sin. That had been there right from
the very beginning. There wasn't a time of innocency
there. There wasn't a time when that
child was without the demonic influence upon him. The passage
also teaches us about the intercession of the father for his child. And surely that encourages us
as parents, and now I always say grandparents as well, to
do the same for our children and grandchildren, to intercede
for them with the Lord. And we might notice the viciousness
of that devil as he aggravated the boy, even as he fled from
the face and at the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet
he still had to tear him one last time. He still had to hurt
him and grieve him one last time. Such was the malignancy of that
demon. and we might think about the
authority of the Lord over the devil and Christ's prohibition
of that demon ever re-entering the boy. That's the protection
of the Lord, his preserving and persevering in his condition. And it speaks about the boy's
ongoing divine protection. And these are all blessed sources
of help for pressed believers like us, I am sure. But I want
to finish up on this note, and I hope, I believe that it will
be an ongoing encouragement for the Lord's people. I speak to
myself as I speak to you who are his in this matter. The Lord's third reference to
faith here is to the faith of his disciples, to stir up faith. to stir up the faith of his own
disciples, and actually it's in the parallel passage in Matthew
that the Lord speaks of the faith, but it's the same passage, it's
the same circumstances, it's the same issue where the Lord
there uses a reference to their faith. The disciples were worried. Why had their power left them? Why could they not heal that
child on this occasion? And so we've got this title,
Enabling Faith. The Lord was blunt about the
problem. He said, this too was a matter of faith. Well, of course
it was, because everything is a matter of faith. Preachers,
they talk about successful Christian life. They talk about victorious
Christian living. or how to be an overcomer, or
how to be a soul winner, or how to be a prayer warrior, or how
to be a channel of God's power. And this is all superficial,
super-spiritual jargon. It's mere sanctimonious nonsense. There is only one thing that
we need in this world, and that is faith. Faith. The salvation of the Lord's people
is a done deal. Election is fixed. Predestination
is sure. The eternal decrees, there's
that word again, the preordained providences of God in this world
are fixed, firm, and unalterable. The terms, the extent, the beneficiaries
of the everlasting covenant of grace and peace is complete in
Christ. The promises are yea and amen
in Him. The appointed times and seasons
of every event and every outcome are in the hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all we lack is faith. All we need is faith. The Lord did not say that all
things are possible by him that believeth, but that all things
are possible to him that believeth. Because the power is in Christ's
hands. And that was the lesson that
the disciples had to learn. And it's the same lesson that
we have to learn. All power is committed to Christ. And anything that we have is
by faith in Him. We receive from Him by faith. And what's the point about prayer
and fasting then? What does the Lord mean when
he talks about prayer and fasting? Do the Lord's words not mean
that we can do more if we pray more and fast more? More prayer, more power, more
fasting, more success? No, no, that won't work. The faith that moves mountains
is the Lord's faith. And faith moves mountains not
because it's strong, but because it leans upon the one who is
strong. Faith draws its peace, its comfort
from Christ, from who He is, from what He has done. Remember when we were reading
in Mark chapter 5, verses 35 and verse 36, the narrative,
the miracle about Jairus' daughter. He's another child. And this
is what it said in those verses. Let me read them to you. While
he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's
house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest
thou the master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he said unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be
not afraid, only believe. Well, what about fasting and
prayer? I don't know, maybe you don't
like me to say that I don't know the answer to these things, but
I don't know what that's about. All I can say with certainty
on that matter is this. The one who fasted and the one
who prayed with success was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Not
the disciples, Not you, not me. It was the Lord who fasted and
prayed, and it was the Lord who cast out this demon. And when
I see and think about the Lord Jesus Christ fasting and praying,
I see in that the Lord's sacrifice and the Lord's intercession.
It was the Lord who fasted when he sacrificed his life on the
cross. And it was to him that all glory
was bequeathed, and to him that all power was given. And it is
he who says to us, be not afraid, only believe. And it was the
Lord who prayed for his disciples and the Lord who prays still,
interceding for his people in heaven. And he knows what is
best for his children on earth. And he says to us, be not afraid,
only believe. It is the Lord who is the author
of all faith. It is He who is the source of
all peace. He is the giver of life. He is
the bringer of comfort and every good gift to His people. All
we have is our need. We are all a part of a faithless
generation. but by grace some of us have
been given sufficient faith to come to Christ. Let this be our
prayer. With the weak-faithed Father
and the disappointed disciples, Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. And may the Lord place this prayer
on our hearts and upon our lips day by day. Amen.