Alright. Turn to Mark chapter
9 again. Mark chapter 9. Three weeks ago
I made reference to this text mainly Mark chapter 9 and in verses 14 all the way
through verse 29. Two weeks ago I preached from
this text and tried to give us idea of the context Let us remember this Jesus Christ
is always Preparing himself and as Joe
Mentioned is a good point when Christ increases. It doesn't
mean he becomes better When I spoke of Christ preparing himself,
I do not mean he had some lack and needed to feel that lack
But Jesus Christ is always preparing Himself for the good of His people. His work of intercession, even
now, at the right hand of God the Father, is not the Lord Jesus
Christ trying to keep God's mind straight toward us. He is about the Father's business,
looking out for us, praying for us, And in this age, in a certain
sense, denying even himself for our glory. One day he will return
and he will show who is the blessed and only potentate. But right
now, men do not see that. They do not see that. Now my
text for this morning is Mark chapter nine, the same passage
but just two verses. Mark chapter nine, look at verse
23. You remember the context, so
I'll not go back through that. Jesus saith unto him, that is
the father of this young boy, Jesus saith unto him, if thou
canst believe. Now did Jesus know whether he
could believe or not? Of course he could. This was
for the man's benefit, not the benefit of God manifest in the
flesh. If thou canst believe, and I
must ask myself and you this morning, can you believe? Someone says, I thought you all
taught that no one can believe. They cannot apart from the work
of grace in the heart. If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. And straightway, Mark says, straightway. Straightway the father of the
child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. That's what I want to try to
deal with is that phrase. That's my title. Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. What I want us to do for these
next 40, 45 minutes, whatever it will be, I want us to consider
the grand, glorious, wonderful bounty called belief. Now you're probably quite aware
in our day there is something very prevalent, it's called easy
believism. Easy believism. And what I mean
by that is most of so-called Christianity thinks it's easy
to believe God, it's just hard to obey God. It's easy, in other
words, it's easy to believe on Christ, it's just hard to obey
the commands of Christ. And this is just not borne out
by scripture. Believing is obeying. Any supposed obedience apart
from belief is sin. Paul is quite clear that that
which is not of faith is sin. No matter how religious it might
be, no matter how moral it might be, believing is a grand, glorious,
wonderful bounty. There are three things, three
helpful facts about believing that are found in our text, mainly
in verse 24. These three things are connected.
I understand that, but I separate them out only so that we might
examine each one separately, but they're all connected. Here's
the three things. First of all, there is faith's
direction, the direction of faith, the direction of believing. There
is faith's confession. Thirdly, there is faith's comprehension. In other words, if you have been
given faith, if I have been given faith, you have been given this
kind of faith. Any other kind of faith will
not cut the muster. Most people in our day think
that faith is all of one same lump. That is the faith that
a man or a woman has that when they plant a seed and they put
it in the ground and they cover it with soil and it is watered
by them or by the rain and they have faith that it will come
up and sprout up into a plant of corn or beans or squash and
they think that faith that men and women have is the same kind
of faith that it takes to be saved. You just have to put it
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's taught today. And
it's just not so. Look at it, we'll see it here.
Faith's direction, faith's confession, and faith's comprehension. The
first thing, faith always returns. That's why I call it the direction.
Remember, they're all connected. Faith always returns to honor
its source. Do you know what I said? Now
notice the way I said it. Faith always, that is saving
faith, that faith that comes from God, that faith that is
associated with justification before God, faith always returns,
not just in honor of its source. Faith always returns to honor
its source. What did the man say? Lord. I believe. You see it? Lord, I believe. Now, I do not know how much this
man knew. I don't know. I will not speculate,
but I know this. Because of faith, he knew Jesus
Christ was who? Lord. Lord. Lord, I believe, but before I
go any further, let me give us this proof of what I said. There
are two different kinds of faith in this world. There is that
faith which is natural to the natural man, and it's a natural
faith, and it's naturally damning. It may aid men and women in this
world greatly, but it does not aid them before God, neither
now nor in the age to come. All faith, now listen to me,
all faith returns to honor its source. You know that? Turn to Luke chapter 18. And
I'll give you an example of this. This is not my opinion, this
is not something I plucked out of the air, this is not something
that I come up with through some philosophical reasoning. Look
at what our Lord Jesus Christ said in Luke chapter 18. And
it says in verse nine, and he spake this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves. There's a sister word for the
word faith, that word trusted. These men that he's talking to,
he's gonna speak a parable now unto certain which are trusted.
They had faith in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. You see that? Here's a faith. Here's a trust. Here's a belief. and look at how it returns to
its source, to honor its own source. Two men, he said, went
up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other
a Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God. God. Notice here is not Lord. In any
sense of the word. Capital O, R, D. Capital L, small
o, none of that, just God. Many people have faith in God,
a supreme being. One who is kind of over all things,
but they do not believe in or turn honor toward the Lord God. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men.
Where did his faith return to honor? Himself. The source of
this man's faith and of many other people's faith is found
in themselves and that's why when they run back to the source,
to bring honor to the source, they bring honor to themselves.
They brag about how they're not like other people. I do this
and I don't do that. And our day is filled with that
kind of faith. Is it not? But to move on, here's
another man. He's called a publican. And he
wouldn't even come to the front. Notice how we, in this day and
age, and I include me, we, because I've been there before. We try
to get men and women to come forward, come forward. It's probably
best to stay in your seat. Bow your head in humility before
God, and don't even lift up your eyes to heaven, but smite upon
your breast, and you will, if you have a God-given faith. Oh
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. You see the two different kinds
of faith? And you see how they both returned to honor their
source, did they not? The one bragged about himself. And especially when he had someone
else he could brag against. Especially when he had someone
else he could brag against. But the other has nothing to
boast of. Nothing to boast of whatsoever. Lord, this man said with this
young child, Lord, I believe. Think about it, God-given faith
honors Christ's lordship. It always does. It always does. And Paul is quite clear. Romans
chapter 10. I know this is a very familiar
passage. And it's probably preached upon
as one of those passages that's preached upon more than any other
passage, save maybe John 3, 16. And in Romans chapter 10, the
apostle Paul says this. Verse 8, he's beginning to summarize
this message we have. Verse eight, Romans 10. But what
saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. So remember, it has to be in
both places. A lot of people can say it with
their mouth, but it's not down in here. They say it because
they've been told to say it. They say it because they've been
trained by other men to say it. They say it because they've been
to Sunday school most all their lives, and they've been under
preaching, some kind of preaching, most all their lives, and they're
taught to say certain words, so they come forward and say
certain words, but those words are not coming out of the heart.
The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that
is the word of faith, the word of belief, which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth, what does it say? the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, true faith always returns
to Christ to honor Him as Lord. And where it does not honor Christ
as Lord, it is not a God-given, wonderful, glorious, grand bounty. It is nothing more than the reasonings
of human flesh and human depravity. God-given faith always honors
Christ's Lordship. This is the fallacy of a lot
of that we hear today. Make Jesus Christ your personal
Savior. Accept Jesus Christ as your personal
Savior. Receive Jesus Christ as your
personal Savior. And they'll run to Romans 10
trying to prove that, and it says exactly opposite. You either
confess him with your mouth because you've realized it in your heart
that he is Lord, or you do not know Him as Savior. Oh, the blessed state of those
of us who have been enabled to seek the honor of our Lord. He's Lord. And remember, it's
more than just saying it with your mouth. It is knowing it
in your heart. Secondly, true, God-given faith
causes its recipients to confess Christ's Lordship. Oh yeah, as
I said, this is connected. It causes us to confess His Lordship. We cannot help but confess His
Lordship. We've been convinced of that. Eternal life is to know the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. So true God-given faith
confesses, confesses Christ's Lordship, but it confesses more
than that. It confesses something else as
well. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. Do you see it? My unbelief. Lord, Lord, I believe. help thou mine unbelief. You see, faith alone, that is
that grand, glorious, wonderful bounty of God in free, sovereign,
electing grace, faith alone enables such a confession. Unbelief never
confesses itself as unbelief. Does it? That's right. Unbelief
never confesses itself as unbelief. It takes the gift of faith to
even confess your unbelief. That's exactly right. Amen. That's
good. Faith does not blame others' unbelief. Look at this account. The disciples had failed. Did
this man make excuses because of the disciples' failures? He
said, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Your unbelief is not my problem.
My unbelief is not your problem. My unbelief is my problem. Your
unbelief is your problem. Yet we live in a world where
we want to find fault with something or someone else. But it takes
the gift of faith to rise above that or if nothing else, lay
down in the dust in spite of it. Faith does not blame others'
unbelief. Faith does not excuse, deny,
or ignore unbelief, does it? Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. Religion, even that which calls
itself Christianity in our day, is trying its best to get men
and women to ignore to excuse or to deny their unbelief and
just prove to themselves, all I have now is faith. And it's
just not so. It's just not so. Every individual
on this earth, even today, saved or lost, elect or reprobate,
regenerate or regenerate, all of us have unbelief. All of us
have unbelief. Aren't you glad the scripture
doesn't say that the person who will be saved is the one who
has no unbelief? Aren't you glad it doesn't say
that? Now it says to him that believeth not, he'll be condemned.
Him that believes, he'll be saved. But it doesn't say that the one
who has no unbelief shall be saved. Because if that's it,
we would all be shut out. Yet this religious world lies
to men and women and basically is telling them to lie to themselves
and to lie before God and try to convince God, I don't have
any unbelief, I believe you wholly. It's just not so. Faith confesses the guilt of
its own unbelief. I'm talking about in the person.
Faith confesses the guilt of its own unbelief. Me, the believer,
is the same person that has unbelief. Me, the believer, I'm not two
people. I have two natures, but I'm not two people. I'm one person
with two natures, and both of them are me. Both of them are
I. They're called the old man, not
the old nature. Now I'm not downing that phrase.
It's indicated that way in some place. It's called the old man
and the new man because that man, both of them, is me. It's me. So faith confesses the
guilt of unbelief in me. It is Lord, I believe. help thou
my unbelief. But here's the third thing. True
faith comprehends the only source of relief for unbelief. Think of the philosophy that
is, and the reasoning, and the logic that is exercised today
amongst so-called Christianity, where people are being taught
how to deal with their own unbelief. Right? Okay, maybe you do have
some, but here's how you deal with it. Do they not? And they'll
write whole books upon how you deal with your own unbelief.
They may not put it that way. They may put a how to believe
God. A self-help book on how to believe
God. What they're in fact trying to
say is here's how you can overcome your unbelief. This is not what
true faith does. This man said, Lord, I believe,
help thou. Isn't that so simple? And yet
so profound and yet so impossible to do without belief. He trusted in the Lord to deal
with his unbelief. Do you see it? Now, again, I
don't know how much this man knew, but he knew something about
the one he was pressing to deal with his what? Not his faith,
but what? Even his unbelief. Amen. Lord, I believe. Help thou, thou. And when I seen that, it's one
of those things I knew, but then God just kind of just opens your
eyes and you say, you know, that's it. Lord, I believe, help thou
mine unbelief. I will spend, God willing, the
rest of my time here on this third point. There are at least
three ways in which Christ does this for those of us who believe. Now, if you don't believe, you
got no reason to think Christ's gonna help your unbelief. You
see what I'm saying? And if you believe, you believe
by the grace of God. You see what I'm saying? Now
someone says I don't understand that. You won't until God gives
you faith. Once he gives you faith and you realize I still
got unbelief, then you'll realize this thing's in God's hands.
Now I'm not saying these are the only three. I'm not saying
I've exhausted all the scriptures. But I am saying there are at
least three ways in which Christ does this for those of us who
believe. That is Lord, I believe. help thou mine unbelief. The first thing I will try to
build on this building until we get to the crowning glory
of it. The first way in which Christ
helps our unbelief is by the past evidences manifested in
Holy Scripture. Now let me try to explain what
I'm talking about. If you were to go back and read again the
book of Judges, You remember the book of Judges? And what
is the kind of the whole tenor of the book of Judges? Remember,
there were many Judges. I don't know. I don't remember.
I didn't look it up. It doesn't matter. There were Mason judge after
judge after judge after judge. You know what the word judge
really is implying? They were deliverers. That's
who they were judging. It wasn't these judges were men
that stood up before Israel and said, all right, this one done
that and that wrong, and this one done that right, and this
one's gonna be okay because they did this. That's not what a judge
is there. The book of Judges is about deliverers. And why
did they need so many deliverances? Why did they need so many deliverances? Because of unbelief. They would cry out because of
their oppression and their trials and their troubles. And what
would God do? He would send deliverance. Would
he not? He'd send a judge. And if you
look up, look at each one of those. Takes the time one of
these days. Look at each one of those judges. It's all typical
of the one deliverer, the one judge God has sent for the deliverance
of his people. But all of those different judges
show us different aspects of our one Lord Jesus Christ. And
somebody says, well, but those who had unbelief didn't enter
into the land. Those that had unbelief only
didn't enter into the land. But everyone who believed still
had unbelief. You see what I'm saying? Be careful
that we don't condemn everybody just because they got some unbelief.
Because how much unbelief do you have? Lord, I believe. Who is it? Thou! Lord, you, oh
God, you help my unbelief. And yet God sent deliverance
after deliverance. He'd deliver them, and then they'd
go right back to their everyday lives. And isn't that me and
you? Now come on now, be honest. Isn't that me and you? and you
stand up and you hear a man preach a gospel message and it just
lifts your soul out of the dust. Whatever oppression you may have
been going through that past week or whatever it was that
he lifts you out of the dust and you go home rejoicing in
the Lord and it seemed like it only lasts a day or two at best.
And then you go right back to where you were before. Isn't that our lives? The book
of Judges is my life. And I turn around, Mason, and
though I'm not forsaking the truth of God doctrinally, yet
in my life and in my mind and in my actions, I start to do
that which is right in my own eyes. And I become oppressed
because of it. I find guilt because of it. And
I find shame because of it. And that's still the purpose
of God because it's meant to bring me back into the dust to
where I must cry out, oh God save me. And what's God do in
mercy? What's he do in mercy and compassion
and grace? He sends me deliverance again.
And Paul kind of put it this way, he has saved us. He doth
save us, and He will yet save us. Isn't that the way it works? You see, that's God. That's there
to show us we're not any different than those folks were. Those
folks were no different than we are. Are they? Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. And here's
the point. If He did that for them, will
He not do that for me if I'm one of His? Will he not? Yes, he will. Think of it. Go
back a little further. Israel is standing at the Red
Sea. Frightened out of their wits,
don't you imagine? The Red Sea before them, Pharaoh's
army behind them, and even the presence of God had removed himself
from in front of them. Can you imagine that? Mason,
they've been following him, following him, following him. They come
up to the Red Sea. Here's the Red Sea. Pharaoh's
army behind. And what happens? This glorious
flame at night and this cloud during the day removes itself. Where did he go? Guess where
he went? He went back behind them to keep
Pharaoh off their backs. So they would be forced to stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. Now God said, stand
still and see. Look this way. And then he said,
go forward. They were not to be looking back.
The cloud was doing his job. Notice I said his job. Because
if you read it, it says the angel of the Lord, that was Jesus Christ,
folks. The angel of the Lord, he was
the one, he's why there was a fire at night and a cloud of shade
during the day in that hot desert. And he removed himself, what?
Because here's the greatest enemy right now, Pharaoh. God will
deal with this in front of you. And he parted that thing open.
and they walked across dry shot. And then a few days later, what
did we do? What do we do? Just days after
God will give us a miraculous deliverance from glory through
his word, we'll start to murmur and complain. And yet, through this desert
wilderness journey, there is a rock that follows us. We follow
him, but you know, thank God he follows us. That rock that followed them,
that amazed me when that hit me. That rock that followed them
was Christ. Wherever God's taking you, be
assured, Christ is there for you to drink of. And when you
murmur and complain, and you will. Now we shouldn't. We shouldn't, but we will. When
we bellyache and look back in our hearts and minds upon Egypt
and the leeks and the onions and the garlics, God said, well,
let me show you what it's really like. But still yet, look at
Israel through all, he delivered them and delivered them and was
merciful to them and compassionate to them. Even Mason jumped forward
now, even when he sent them into Babylon. He was still compassionate. He could have sent them all to
hell. Could he not? But he sent them into captivity
for 70 years. Why? So they might experience
another deliverance. And here is God's word saying
that for hundreds, if not thousands of years, Mac, my God is able
to deal even with my unbelief. Right? Look at the past evidences
in scripture. That's number one. Secondly,
we know that Christ does this for us. That is, he helps our
unbelief in our own experiences in trials and failures. Now I
say this only to those who in trials and failures have not
abandoned the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, God, help me in my failures. And somebody says, what did the
preacher do? I'm not going to tell you. It ain't your business. It's between me and God, just
like yours is between you and God. We don't need to know each
other's failures. We can confess our faults to
one another, but not our failures, not our sins. that all God helped
me He has even in the face of my utter failures of unbelief. Mason, He's never abandoned me.
He's always either been in front leading me and pulling me forward,
or if need be, He will go behind me and push me in the right way
that I should go. And sometimes I feel like He's
not pushing enough, sometimes I feel like He's pushing a little
too hard, but bless God, He knows the best way. Think of Peter
and his denial. He was told he was going to miserably
fail. And I don't think Peter believed
it. Do you? I don't think Peter, but he thought,
he's already given a warning. All right, if anybody should
have been prepared for it, should have been him. Right? Now let
me ask you, Peter failed. Was he given the okay to fail?
No, but he was told he was going to. And fail, he was going to. And he was going to do it exactly
three times because Christ had ordained it so, even gave permission
to the devil to sift him as wheat so that it would come to pass. And yet in all, in those three
great acts of unbelief, to where in the third one he finally cried
and swore and cussed, I don't know the so-and-so, right? We
don't know what he said, but I figure it was some of that
old rough fisherman language. Don't you figure it was? I don't
know the so-and-so. That's unbelief. Is it not? And yet, think about it, what
was the one thing Christ said I prayed for you that during
all of this, here's the one thing that won't fail? Your faith. And it didn't? No it didn't? He may have outwardly with this
because of the fear of men said what he said, but down in here,
he knew who he was. He was the Christ, the son of
the living God, and he couldn't get away from it. Why? Because
of him? No, because Christ had done prayed for him. Help thou
mine unbelief. I think Peter learned that lesson
the hard way. And you know what? We all have
to learn that lesson the hard way. Not a one of us is so adequately
taught, nor are we such a great adequate receptacle of teaching
that we hear it and never have to face the trials and tribulations
and troubles and chastisements of our own unbelief. We have
to be taught that lesson by experience. by experience. Oh, but read these
words. Turn to Psalm 103. What a glorious psalm. I'm only going to read a portion
of it. Psalm 103. If you're reading along, are
you there? Psalm 103. Let's begin in verse
8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger. And look, plenteous,
plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. Now that does, this means, listen,
yes, there may be seasons when God shows his displeasure because
of our unbelief. When we do not believe, When
we conduct ourselves in unbelief, he will show us his anger, but
he doesn't hide it forever. You see it? I'm sorry, keep his
anger forever. Look at it, he hath not dealt
with us after our sins. He hath not. He did deal with
somebody after our sins, but we're getting there. But he hadn't
dealt with us after our sins, especially by unbelief. He hath
not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquity. Well, God's getting me back.
No, God ain't getting you back. He's chasing you, and that means
correction, and He's doing that in love. Every son He loves,
He chases. He's chasing us in love. He let
us fall so that we might see once again, He's the one that's
gotta deal, give me faith, and also deal with my unbelief. Isn't
he? He's the one that's gotta deal
with my unbelief. For as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as
the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. And that's God's opinion about
the matter, not how we see the matter. My sins are still right
down in here. My unbelief is still right down
in here, and I experience it every day of my life, but God
Almighty's removed him from me. And that's the way God sees it,
and guess whose sight matters? Guess whose sight matters? His
sight. Look at it, like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,
for he knoweth our frame. God's not playing ignorant in
this thing. No. He's plenteous in mercy. He's
not playing ignorant. He remembers our frame. He knows
our frame. He remembers that we're what?
Dust. You're dust. That's the way God
made us to start with before we fail. Out of the dust. Do you think he's ignorant of
the fact that we fail and we're still dust? Now, Joe, I'm falling
dust. At one time I was good dust.
Now I'm fallen dust. But He knows that. And He's not,
oh, my brothers and sisters gathered right here, if you fear Him,
He is not dealing with you angrily. Even when He chastens you, though
it may seem as though it's a fierce wrath, it's not wrath at all. It's love. It's love. So we see the past evidence from
Scripture? Oh, if I could see that past evidence as it is.
There's one of your reasons for a pastor to be here two or three
times a week maybe, once a week at least, to be reminded of these
very facts. Because we don't like reminding
ourselves about them. Now do we? Just be reminded of
it over and over and over again. Remember, he knows your frame,
your dust, then why should you think any less or more either
way about yourself? If He knows you're dust, just
remember, what am I? Dust. I'm just dust. Ah, but here's the third thing.
Christ has dealt with my unbelief. Christ has dealt with your unbelief
in the most glorious way ever. He bore the punishment and the
penalty of it on the cross. And even though it still exists
in me, he has satisfied all of divine justice for it. That's a glorious thing. Unbelief
is not a mere lack of belief. It is positive disbelief, even
in believers. You hear what I'm saying? Most
people think, well, that person don't believe, so that just means
they're kind of in this neutral state. They just don't have belief. No, unbelief is positive disbelief. It is, I will not believe. Here
is unbelief, an example of it. Here is unbelief. God told the
Israelites, go in and conquer the land. They said, we cannot.
That's right. Oh yes, it's glorious. We've
seen that cluster of grapes. We heard about the news of the
milk and the honey and all. We heard it, but those people
are too big. Yeah. We can't do this. We will
not enter in. That's unbelief. Exactly. Was
it not? Amen. And a matter of fact, Paul
puts it down as one of those kinds of unbelief that could
even damn the soul. Yeah. Right? And then God says,
because now of your unbelief, I'm gonna kill every one of you
above 20 years old. And you're gonna march around
in this wilderness one year for every day that those spies had
to suffer in that land. Isn't that what he told them?
Isn't that the fact? And you know what they said then?
Now here's unbelief again. Still unbelief. Oh, we will go
in. No, now God done said, okay,
that's over with. Now you're gonna go back out
into the wilderness. And some of his carcasses were going to
fall on the wilderness. Isn't that what God told them? And
then they said, oh, we will go in. And guess what they did?
They went in. And you know what happened? They
were slaughtered. That's exactly right. They were
slaughtered and had to march back out of that place and march
around in that desert for 40 years. Both of those things were
unbelief. Yes, sir. Unbelief, folks, is
not just not believing. It is positive disbelief. Whatever God says, I will go
the opposite way. Wherever God points, I want him
pointing in another way. Whatever God desires, I desire
something else. How many times have you said,
how many, we talked, some of us talked about this this morning,
not in this light. How many times have you looked
at something that's been done and it's done in the past so
you know whose purpose was that? Yesterday's Facts, I know was
God Almighty's sovereign purpose. Whatever happened yesterday is
what God ordained to happen yesterday. And how many times do I murmur
about what happened yesterday? How many times have I murmured
about what happened yesterday? That's unbelief. Now here's the
problem. I cannot change that in myself.
And even Christ ain't gonna change that in you. Christ, when he
helps your unbelief, he doesn't make, turn your unbelief into
belief. He's given you belief. He's left you with unbelief.
He deals with you according to belief. Isn't that it? He deals
with you according to belief. But what about this great trial?
He's dealing with you according to belief. If he was dealing
with you according to unbelief, he would take his hand off you
completely and you would perish in a devil's heel. That's just
the way it'd be. You would abandon every thought
of your Redeemer. You would leave this place and
never darken a door like it again. That's what happens when God
takes his hand off of someone. And let me tell you, God's got
his hand on a lot of people, providentially. Maybe not down
in here, but he's got his hand on them. They're under the sound
of the gospel. They're influenced by the sound
of that gospel. And they make a great start,
but then God just removes his hand to see what's down in here.
Did God put something down in here when He laid His hand on
here? And the answer is no. Why? Because they abandoned Christ
forever. Oh, aren't you glad you just,
you can't abandon Christ? You can't abandon Him. I can't
get, just like Peter, even when I say it with this, God help
me. God forgive me. It's still down
in here. And it won't go away. And Mason,
that's my only hope is that I will die with that down in here. That
I will die with that down in here. Because if God put it down
in here, my beloved, it'll stay down in here. Now let me just
sum it up. You don't have to turn anywhere.
Now you just pay a little attention. That's right, buddy. This is
the way it is. It is no natural thing to believe. It's no natural
thing to believe. It's natural to not believe.
It's natural to rebel, and that's still with us, and we will find
that rebellion as reality until we awaken His likeness. Lord,
I believe, help thou my unbelief. But believing is no natural thing.
Believing is one of the mysteries of godliness. It is equal to
the first one, which is God manifest in the flesh. I think it may be the last one,
but it's next to the last one, if not. You know what one of
the other mysteries of godliness is? Believed on in the world. You see, our believing is the
continual act of God in grace upon us by resurrection power. It took the same power that God
used when he raised Christ from the dead is the same power God
uses that brings us to believe through the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And notice if you go back to
Ephesians chapter one verses 15 through 23, note to those
of you who believe, not who believed. My belief is not something I
did when I walked out, it's something I do every day, every day, every
day, right alongside of my unbelief. And God is not going to help
your unbelief by changing it, making it better, or sweeping
it under the rug, or getting rid of it. He helped my unbelief
when he died for it on Calvary's tree. Therefore, Mason, I cannot
be condemned for it. I may need to be straightened
out because of it, corrected because of it, drawn through
God's own wise, sovereign purpose through certain trials because
of it, but he will not ever, ever condemn me because of it. Do you believe the Lord? Do you
believe? I can't answer that for you.
I just can't answer that for you. But do you believe the Lord?
Then I want you to listen to these words. This is what Paul
says in Romans chapter five and verse 10. For if, and this is
not an if of maybe it's so, maybe it's not, this is an if of God
Almighty's sovereign purpose. For if when we were enemies,
that's nothing but an unbeliever. That's before we ever even came
to be a believer. Right? For if when we were enemies
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more. Now just think about that. Much
more. Did God not understand my unbelief
before he ever gave me belief? Yes he did. And yet he in love
sent his son to die for that very unbelief. Now you think
God's gonna deal with me in any different way after that. My
brothers and sisters, God loves us. God smiles upon us. Even when you're at your deepest
woe. Even when you're down there by
the enemy's fire warming your hands and saying things you shouldn't
say. If he showed you as he did Peter,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, that will
never leave you, even alongside your unbelief. Guess what? I'm done.