Let us turn once more to the
Word of God here in this portion that we read in Mark chapter
9 and reading now once again at verses 23 and 24 as the Lord
addresses that man who had brought his sick child that he might
obtain healing and cure Verse 23, 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. Here we see set before us the
great subject matter of that faith, that true faith. And what
a remarkable statement it is that the Lord makes in verse
23, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that
believeth. Why is it that all things are
possible to the believer? Well, it's not because of the
greatness of the believer's faith, but it is of course always because
of him who is the object of any faith, be it a great faith or
a little faith, all things are possible. to him that believeth,
because the believer is one who has to do with God. And what we see in these verses,
and this is the subject that I want to seek to address, is
how this man prays really for faith. He is praying for that
faith of which the Lord has just spoken. Straightway the father
of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. It is a prayer then that we have
in the language of this Father here in verse 24. We know that
there are certainly different types of prayers that can be
made when we come to those parts of Paul's epistles where he gives
exhortation. how Tommy Nagaini will encourage
those believers in those churches to pray, to pray without ceasing. One thinks of the words there
in Philippians 4, 6 where he says, be careful for nothing
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgivings. Let your requests be made known
unto God. How the Apostle multiplies those
various words, all of them indicating different types of prayer. And
when we come to consider the prayer of this particular man.
There are surely two parts to it. He is praying for faith,
and how does one pray for faith? Well, here we see there is a
confession, a confession of sin, a confession in particular of
the sin of unbelief. And then secondly, as there is
a confession, so there is also a request. He is supplicating.
He asks the Lord for something. He wants the Lord to help. In the language then of this
man, He cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. First of all, to consider something
of the confession that the man is making, the confession of
his unbelief. And as I'm sure you're aware,
it is this unbelief, this accursed thing, that lies at the very
root of all our sins. We see it there at the beginning,
we see it in the temptation of Eve and the fall of Adam and
Eve there in the Garden of Eden. How Satan comes through the serpent
and tempts Eve, tempts the woman. And how does he tempt her? He
begins by questioning. There's that questioning of the
Word of God. Yea, he asked, hath God said
ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden? He questions what
God had said, the commandment that God had given. For God had
plainly declared that they could eat of all the trees of the garden
except for one. That was the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil and they were not to eat of it. Because in
the day that they ate it, the day that they disobeyed the commandment
of God, they would have sinned. And the
consequence of that would have been death. And yet, oh, that
subtle foe, the devil, comes and questions what God had said.
Yea, hath God said? And he goes further, because
he also contradicts what God had said. God had said to Adam,
with regards to any disobedience, in the day that they eat us thereof,
ye shall surely die. But how Satan negates that. Look at the language there in
Genesis 3, 4, ye shall not surely die. Ye shall not surely die. It is a blatant contradiction
of what God had said, not just a questioning. of God's commandment,
but now the contradiction of that commandment. And then when
Eve beholds the tree and she sees it as something to be desired,
to make one, why? She falls in with the temptation.
Or we're not to love the world nor the ways of the world. All
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, the pride of life. not of the Father but is of the
Word and all those things are active there in the mind of Eve
as she is taken up with the temptation of the devil and she partakes
of that fruit that God had forbidden. And then we're told subsequently
how she gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. Now
with Adam you see, it's not so much the temptation, Adam is
willful. Adam is willful in his disobedience. He partakes with his eyes wide
open as his wife offers him the fruit of that forbidden tree.
And all of this indicates to us that on belief that lies at
the root of our sins. That sin, Paul says, which does
so easily beset us. There at the beginning of Hebrews
chapter 12. I know some suggest that the
besetting sin is peculiar to each individual. We all have
our our weaknesses, our darling sins we might say, and some think
that the besetting sin is that sin that you're so prone to but
when we take account of the context there in Hebrews we see how that
previously the Apostle has been speaking so plainly of faith
the whole content of chapter 11 And it's immediately after
he has spoken of all those men and women from the Old Testament
who were favored with the faith of God's elect that he goes on
at the beginning of that twelfth chapter to speak of the sin.
The sin which does so easily beset us. It is the sin of unbelief. And there we see how this man
is confessing his sin. Help, he says. Help thou mine
unbelief. He acknowledges what he is, he's
an unbeliever. We know what the consequence
of the fall there in Genesis 3 was. We're told by Paul, Romans
7.10, the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to
be unto death. by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men. The language of Romans 5 verse
12 but interestingly there in that particular verse the margin
reading the margin reading as by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men in
whom all have sinned, it says. Adam stands there as the head
of the rice and a representative head. He stands for all those
who were in his loin, all who would descend from him. And when
Adam sinned, that sin of Adam's is reckoned to the account of
all those who would flow from him. always sins in Adam. And of course we have received
from Adam a fallen and a sinful nature. Who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one. Sinful parents give
birth to sinful children. How can he be clean that he is
born of a woman is another question that is put there in the book
of Job. He that is born of the woman
Oh, he is born dead in trespasses and in sins. The language of
David in his great confession there in Psalm 51, Behold, I
was shapen in iniquity, he says, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Oh, we sinned in Adam, but we
have also received from him a sinful nature, a fallen nature. And so we all sin, all have sinned.
and come short of the glory of God. There is not a just man
upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not." But what do
we see with this particular man? Well, he is a man who feels his
sin. He feels what he is. He knows
himself to be by nature an unbeliever. And what do we read concerning
the confession that he is making here? All we see, the sorrow
of his heart. His eyes are full of tears. He
said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Doubtless he is so intent on
the restoring of his child who is possessed of this spirit,
this devil. and that will cause him to cry
out with tears but also here he feels something in himself
he feels that awfulness of his sin or to see sin smart but slightly
to own with lip confession is easier still but oh to feel cuts
deep beyond expression to feel these things and there is feeling
in this particular man help he says Help thou mine unbelief. He wants the Lord to come and
to help him. He is very much looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ, like that woman of Syrophoenicia, that
Canaanite-ish woman who came to the Lord with her daughter
and seems to be, well, he's ignored initially. The Lord is sent to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She's a Canaanite-ish
woman. The disciples rejected, they want the Lord to send her
away. But she will not be denied, and we're told, as she came and
worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me. Oh, what a request is
this that we see in that little word, help. Help, He says. help thou mine unbelief." And
I doubt not that as with that woman who worshipped him, so
also we see that this man is really worshipping the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's worshipping the Lord Jesus
Christ, he feels the awfulness of unbelief. Now it's true that
we see the Lord, in a sense, rebuking him previously. How
does the Lord answer him in verse 19? He said, O faithless generation! He answereth him and saith, O
faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, and how
long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. Those words, faithless generation,
they don't belong to the disciples of the Lord, they belong to this
man and to the scribes who were there, you see. In verse 16 he asks the scribes,
what question ye with him? There's some discussion, some
debate going on. But as the Lord is dealing with
this man, there seems to be a change in the man. He now is brought to feel what
he is as a non-believer, to confess it, to acknowledge it. We know that sin is not of God,
God is not the author of sin. That is blasphemy even to imagine
that God should be the originator, the author of sin. But we know
this, that where there is any real sense of sin, that comes
from God. Sin comes from man. Sin ultimately comes from Satan,
that fallen spirit, that one who is the tempter. But any sense
of sin is that that proceeds from God Himself. And this man
is brought to that the Lord is dealing with him, as he makes
his confession. as he acknowledges the sin of
unbelief. But then, in the second place,
to look more particularly at that that he is asking of the
Lord, the request that he is making. We read at verse 24,
And straightway the father of the child cried out and said
with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now, what do we see here? Well,
surely he saw that it was not in his own power to believe,
nor had he any strength to believe. John Gill says he had no power,
no ability to oppose his unbelief. He was born a non-believer. And
that's the condition in which all are born. dead in trespasses
and in sins but here you see this man is brought to recognize
that if he has faith that faith must be given him that true faith
is the gift of God he has no power of his own to believe no
strength in himself And so he comes and he asks the Lord. Why
Christ tells us this is the work of God. That ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. That faith, that is true faith,
that faith that is saving faith, is faith of the operation of
God. And as you know from Ephesians
1, 19 and 20, it's the same power that is there when the Lord Jesus
is raised again from the dead that is necessary in them who
are brought to saving faith. The exceeding greatness of His
power to us who do believe according to the working of His mighty
power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. or thy dead men shall live, says
Christ, together with my dead body shall they arise." And here
is this man and he knows only the Lord can help him, only the
Lord can grant him that faith, that faith that is the gift of
God. for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of
yourselves Paul says it is the gift of God but what is it when
God is pleased to come and to grant that gift and by his gracious
working by the effectual work of the Holy Spirit in the soul
of the sinner to to work in the heart that true faith, it doesn't
come alone Paul tells the Philippians, unto
you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe
on Him but also to suffer for His sake it's all given on the
behalf of Christ but it's not only faith but together with
faith there comes in a sense the trying of that faith there
are sufferings and part of those sufferings is that that the unbeliever
is brought to experience in his own soul and what he begins to
feel in his own soul he feels his old nature we all have an
old nature but when we're dead in trespasses and sins we know
nothing of what that old nature is but as soon as we are born
by the Spirit of God, and we become partakers of the divine
nature, and that seed of God is within us, then we're aware
of what we are in our old nature, and that old nature is full of
sin, and full of the sin of unbelief. And so strangely, we feel that
we cannot believe. How dear John Newton knew that,
or could I but believe, he says. He wants to believe. And yet
he feels, you see, he's got this in him that is preventing him. Oh, could I but believe, then
all would easy be I would, but cannot. Lord, relieve my help,
must come from Thee. Oh, doubtless, Newton must have
been thinking of this particular man and the words of his prayer. Lord, I believe, help Thou mine
unbelief. What is there here? There's that
looking onto Jesus. That constant looking onto Jesus. That is what faith is. That's
not just the beginning of faith, that's the continuation of faith,
that's the end of faith. Our faith must have to do constantly,
always with the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking onto Jesus. Looking away
from every other object, looking only onto Jesus, the author.
and the finisher of our faith. And Mark here, as this man is
brought to recognize that faith is God's gift, it's not something he can produce of himself by
his own endeavor. Men might like to talk about
duty of faith and duty of repentance if men have it within their capacity
to perform these duties. But this man doesn't think like
that. He has no power to believe. all he has really is unbelief. But where there is that looking
on to Jesus all there is that recognition that he is the author,
the beginner of our faith and he is the end of our faith. And
so what do we see in this man? We see real faith. We see the
reality of the man's faith. Look again at what he actually
says to the Lord, Lord I believe help mine unbelief." No, he doesn't
say that, does he? He says, Lord, I believe, but
there's an emphasis. He says, help thou. Help thou mine unbelief. How his faith is so evidently
centered in this person whom he is addressing. His faith is
centered in the Lord Jesus Christ as its only object. Remember
what the Lord said to the man born blind that we read of in
John chapter 9. That man that Christ performed that remarkable
miracle of healing. He gave sight to a man born blind
and the Jews cast him out of the temple. They excommunicated
him. They put him out of Israel. They
would treat him as a heathen man, as a Gentile sinner. But
the Lord finds that man, and what does the Lord say to him?
Does thou believe on the Son of God? Oh, that's the all-important
question. Does thou believe on the Son
of God? And what is this man doing here
in our text this evening? He is confessing the Lord Jesus
Christ. when he says, Help thou, help
thou mine unbelief. All his faith centers very much
in Christ. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made. unto
salvation it is the Lord Jesus this is where real faith centers
and we know that without faith it is impossible to please God
but that real faith is always saving faith We often sing the words of that
31st hymn, that Christ is God, I can avouch, and for His people
cares, since I have prayed to Him as such, and He has heard
my prayers. How the Lord hears prayers, and
answers prayers, and how precious is this prayer, which consists
of just this one word, help. or two words we might say, help
them or the Lord will listen to those prayers he listens to
this man's prayer but then also here we have to recognize that
there are those different degrees of faith now I said at the beginning
there are different types of prayer we have to be careful
for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgivings were to make our requests known to God. There are different types of
prayer and so there are also different degrees of faith. To Simon Peter the Lord says
on one occasion, O thou of little faith, O thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt? Remember it was when Peter, having
first of all climbed out of the boat, walking on the waters to
go to Jesus, who himself is coming to them on the waters, then becomes
so aware of the winds boisterous, the raging of the sea, and he
begins to sink. And he cries out, Lord, save
me. And that's how the Lord answers
him. O thou of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt?" But that was real faith. Oh, that was a real
faith, though it was but a small faith. We read of him that is
weak in the faith. There in Romans 14, 1, him that
is weak in the faith, receive, but not to doubtful disputations,
says the Apostle. Weak faith, as well as small
faith. And how the Lord Jesus Christ
is able to succor all of his people. How the Lord Jesus is
that one who is a compassionate Savior. How He feels, He feels
for all His people. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched, it says, cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. but was tempted in all points
like us, we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need." Or when we understand, you see,
that Christ is so compassionate, we'll come. We'll come to Him
who Himself is the throne of grace, that we might find help. in all our times of need. Christ is that one who does succour
his people. And again, look at the language
of this man as he answers the Lord's question. Verse 21, the Lord asks, How
long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. and of 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." Oh, he appeals
to the Lord that he will be compassionate and the Lord is compassionate.
Christ does help those of little faith. There is such a thing
as growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, there is the possibility of an increase. The disciple
says to him on another occasion, Lord, increase our faith. We
don't despise little faith, but we desire a greater faith. We want an assurance of faith,
or to know the full assurance of faith. We're not to think
that our doubts and fears are really evidences for us. No,
the Lord rebukes Peter, remember, because of his doubts. Although
of little faith, he says, wherefore didst thou doubt? We're not to
doubt him. Or we should desire that the Lord would come and
increase. Increase our faith, and yet we're not to be surprised
that that faith will often be tested. How Satan even tempted
the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember after his baptizing
and all that had occurred on that momentous occasion, when
all the persons of the Trinity come together, the heavens opening,
the Spirit descending and lighting upon him in the form of a dove. how he is given that Spirit of
God without measure, he has the unction of the Spirit upon him
and the Father speaks those words from heaven, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased and then how the Spirit leads
him into the wilderness and there he is tempted, if thou be the
Son of God, if thou be the Son of God and yet Hadn't the Father
just acknowledged that blessed truth? This is my beloved Son. Oh, the devil you see again daring
now to contradict God and to contradict the Word of God. He
does it time and again. And so he will do it with us. He'll seek to undermine all our
faith and all our confidence in the Word of God. And yet we
know that this is where we have to come. Oh, it's constantly
to the Lord, to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this Word, it is because there is no light in them. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
says the Lord. My Word shall not pass away.
Oh, we have then here this Word, and these things written for
our learning, that we through faith, comfort, hope of the scriptures
might find that that is strengthening and establishing the words end
of our text tonight as the Lord reminds us of the possibilities
of faith or that we might be enabled to to pray in faith to
be delivered from all that that straightness of our unbelief
how so often we feel it We struggle with it. But the Lord says, 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. May the Lord be pleased then
to bless these words to us. Now let us Sing our second praise
and then turn to the Lord in prayer. We sing the hymn 232,
the tune Houghton 808. Be gone unbelief, my Saviour
is near and for my relief will surely appear. By prayer let
me wrestle, and He will perform, with Christ in the vessel I smile
at the storm. Though dark be my way, since
He is my guide, tis mine to obey, tis His to provide. Though systems
be broken and creatures all fail, the word He has spoken shall
surely prevail." The Hymn 232.