Well, good morning, everyone.
Looking forward to a special day of worship this morning.
Our lesson is gonna take up in Mark chapter nine, if you care
to turn to your Bibles there, Mark chapter nine. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we reverently and
carefully come into your holy presence this morning. And yet,
Father, we come thankfully and boldly because of our Lord Jesus
Christ, confident that we will be accepted in him, confident
we'll be accepted in his righteousness, confident we'll be accepted because
we're cleansed of his precious blood. And Father, we praise
your matchless name for who you are. how we thank you that you
are God overall, that there's nothing outside of your control,
your ruling and reigning, everything right according to your eternal
purpose. Father, we especially praise
you that it is your purpose to show mercy and grace to your
people, to save your people, the people that you chose by
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful that you've
been pleased to make yourself known through the preaching of
the gospel. And Father, I pray this morning
that you would bless the preaching of your word. Enable me, Father,
to be able to preach with a heart of love, a heart that is awed
at your wisdom and your mercy and your grace, a heart of compassion
for sinners. And Father, enable us to hear
with the ear of faith that we might hear of the Lord Jesus
Christ and believe on him. Let everything that is said and
done here this morning be done to the praise of the glory of
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is worthy to be worshiped
and praised. Father, I thank you for a place
that you've given us where we can meet together and worship.
I thank you for a people that you've called together that have
love and a care and concern one for another, and that you've
given such a heart of faithfulness for the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And Father, I pray that you would
continue to bless us, lead and guide in this new year as you
have all the years of our past. Father, we pray for those who
aren't with us this morning, those who are in difficult waters
and trials. Father, I pray you'd be with
them, that you'd watch over those who are traveling, you give them
traveling mercies today, and Father, that you'd heal and comfort
your people according to your goodwill and purpose. In all
these things we ask, we give thanks in that name which is
above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
I've titled our lesson this morning, Help Thou Mine Unbelief. In Mark
chapter nine, verse 22, this father describes, as a father
has brought his son to the Lord, he describes the life of his
son. In verse 22, he says, and oftentimes
they have 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.
In a straight way, the father of the child cried out and said
with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Now,
I love what this father says to our Lord, because it helps
me to know there's somebody else who feels exactly the same way
that I do. By God's grace, this is a true
statement, I truly do believe God. I truly do trust Christ. But this is also true. I am so
dissatisfied with my faith. I hate how much I am filled with
unbelief. And I know you who believe are
too. So I want us to look at this passage this morning and
see if the Lord will give us something to help this mixture
of faith and unbelief that's found in every believer. And
number one is this, you know, we'd all like to have more faith,
wouldn't we? We'd all like to have stronger faith. Well, faith
is increased in the valley, not on the mountaintop. Look back
at verse 14 of this chapter. Remember how the disciples had
been up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and now they've come down from
the mountain. In verse 14, and when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
with him. In a straight way, all the people,
when they beheld him, were greatly amazed and running to him, saluted
him, and he asked the scribes, why question ye within? Now I
say that faith is increased in the valley, not on the mountaintop. But you won't ever find a single
believer that is opposed to mountaintop experiences at all. Now Peter,
James, and John They just had a mountaintop experience. I mean,
we can't understand what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Lord Jesus revealed to them
his glory is God. You think about that, that glory
that was so bright, they couldn't even look upon it. And they saw
Moses and Elijah there with him, talking with the Lord about the
death, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. They were talking
with the Lamb of God. about his sacrifice for the sin
of his people. These three men saw that. They
saw that. Now that's a mountaintop experience,
isn't it? But do you know it did not increase their faith
in Christ? It did not make them forget everything except Christ
alone. Look back on the last page, verse
five. This is what Peter said after
he saw this site on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter answered
and said to Jesus, Master, it's good for us to be here. Let us
make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one
for Elijah. Peter, poor old Peter, I mean,
he said that because, you know, scripture says he didn't know
what to say, but he was so overwhelmed at this sight. He said, let's
make three tabernacles. That did not increase his faith.
If it increased his faith, he said, let's make one for you.
Let's make one for you alone. But look over now at second Peter
chapter one. Now after Peter learned some
things, some years had passed. Now look at what Peter says about
this experience after Lord had taught him some things. Second
Peter one verse 16. For we've not followed cunningly
devised fables, where we've made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. We saw this with our own eyes. For he received from
God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son, in whom
I'm well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy, something that's better.
Weren't do you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star
arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy
came in old time, or came not in old time by the will of man.
The holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Peter said that mountaintop experience
was something else. But God's word is far better
than that. Only three men were up there
on that mountain. Only three men had that mountaintop experience.
And Peter said, I know you wish you were there, but you're holding
in your lap something that's better than that. The word of
God. This word reveals Christ to us
in his redemptive glory. Now, even though seeing the Lord
Jesus by sight with these eyes, boy, that'd be something else.
I mean, that would be something else. But we see Christ in his
true glory. We see Christ as the Savior,
not by seeing him with these two eyes, but by faith, by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. And our faith is increased when
we're in the valley of trouble and hardship. and the Lord comes
to us in his word. You know, it's the word that
reveals Christ. Next time the Lord puts you,
I mean, you're in it. You're in the deep waters of
trial. You're in a difficult situation. Don't get depressed
and say, well, I'm just not gonna go to the service. That's the
time you need to go the most because God comes to us. Christ
comes to us in his word and reveals himself to us in his word. It's
the word that speaks to the heart of the new man. Oh, if you were
sick, we'd come and hug you and do whatever we could to comfort
your body. But it's the word that speaks
to the heart of the new man. Our faith is increased when we
hear from God in his word. We're comforted, we're instructed
when we hear from him in his word. Our faith is increased
when we learn God's faithful to his word. He's faithful to
his promises to his people. There's a precious promise in
God's word. Every believer loves it. I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. Well, that's a precious
promise and every person here believes it. But our faith is
increased when we experience it. That he will never leave
us nor forsake us but he's gonna put us down into the valley.
He's gonna make us feel all alone first, and then he's gonna reveal
to us I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And when we experience
it, our faith is increased. It sure is. And next time it
happens, we're gonna know. I know this from my experience.
God's not gonna forsake me. I'm gonna look for him to come.
Here's another precious promise. My grace is sufficient for thee.
Isn't that a wonderful promise? That's something every single
person in this room believes. God's grace is sufficient for
whatever comes our way. It's sufficient to save us. It's
sufficient to comfort us. It's sufficient to teach us.
It's sufficient to keep us. It's sufficient even on our deathbed
to let this body die and usher us into the presence of the Lord.
Every person here believes that. But I'm telling you, when we
feel hopeless, When we feel like everything's lost and God comes
to us and we learn by experience, do you know what? His grace really
is sufficient. Now my faith is increased because
I've learned it by experience. But now if I'm going to learn
by experience, God's grace is sufficient. He's going to have
to lay me low first, isn't he? He's going to have to take me
to the place that I'm helpless to do anything for myself. That's
when God's grace being sufficient is really gonna be meaningful
to my heart, and that's what'll increase my faith. Now, you know,
while Peter, James, and John were up there on that mountain,
having that mountaintop experience, the other nine disciples weren't
up there. Where were they? They were in
the valley of trouble and persecution. They never did have this mountaintop
experience. All they experienced was trouble.
This father had brought his demon-possessed son to these disciples. He must have heard about the
Lord. He's bringing his son to the Lord, but the Lord wasn't
there. And he brought his son to these disciples, and they
couldn't cast that demon out. They couldn't help the man. And
the scribes, when it says here they're questioning him, the
scribes were berating them. I mean, just making fun of them
and mocking them. They said, well, what's wrong
with you fellas? Why can't you cast this demon out? You know,
I thought, I heard, said, your master giving you power over
these devils and you can't cast them out, he must not give you
any power at all. I mean, if you can't cast this demon out,
tell you what that means, you're a fraud and your master is too.
I mean, they were just unrelenting. And they're telling everybody,
hey, hey, everybody, come over, come over here, come over here, come
over here. Look at these guys, we told you they're frauds. They
can't do anything to cast out this devil. Now that was tough
to take. I mean, that was tough to take.
And the Lord knew that was going on. And he waited till his disciples
had been during this treatment long enough that they were miserable. They're miserable being mocked.
They're miserable being all alone. They're miserable not being able
to do anything to help this poor boy. And then the Lord came to
him and he defended him. He came, he took on those scribes.
Say, what are you mocking him for? What are you braiding them
for? The Lord came to defend them.
Now you know that felt good. You know how that felt good,
that the master was with them. Now, and when the Lord came to
his troubled disciples, now he came to increase their faith.
He came to show them more of his power as God. The more that
we see God's power, the more that will increase our faith,
the more we'll learn to trust him. His power really can take
care of whatever situation that I'm in. And the Lord coming to
us in our times of trial, he lays us low so he can come to
us in the valley and reveal something of himself, of his power, reveal
more to us, he is everything that I need. We don't learn that
on a mountain top. We learn that down in the valley.
That's what increases our faith. And I think this is a very good
point for us to look at on this particular moment. Today is a
mountaintop experience for this pastor, for this congregation. Today's a mountaintop experience.
It's what we pray for every week. The Lord's been pleased to show
mercy to one of his elect, and that's one of our numbers. one
of our children. I remember when Kinsley was born. This is a mountaintop experience.
The Lord's called one of his own to come to him and confess
him. I guarantee you, this is a mountaintop experience for
Brent. Can't hardly have a better name, can you? For Kendon? For
Sabrina? For Kinsley? Oh, this day's a
mountaintop experience. And it should be, it should be.
But remember this about mountaintop experiences. They don't last
very long. They just don't last very long.
And when you come down off the mountain and you go down into
that valley of trouble and trial, don't quit. Don't quit trusting
the Lord. When you're in the valley, you
look for him even more than when you're on the mountaintop because
seeing him when you're in the valley, that's what will do your
heart the most good. That's what will increase the
faith of God's children. So number two is this. Faith
is increased when the Lord makes us desperate. I mean, we're so
far down in the valley, we think we'll never get out, we're desperate.
That is when the Lord is pleased to increase the faith of his
people. Verse 17. And one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb
spirit, and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, He foameth
and gnashes with his teeth and pineth away. And I spake to thy
disciples that they should cast him out. And they could not.
Now the Lord, remember when he came down here, he's addressing
the scribes. Why are you disputing with my
disciples? And before they could answer, his father interrupts. Now, normally, that would be
frowned upon as bad manners, wouldn't it? We teach our children,
don't interrupt, folks. but this father was desperate. He didn't have time to wait to
lay out his case before the Lord. He didn't have time for politeness. He didn't have time for religious
niceties because he was desperate. Now you parents, we can begin
to imagine how this poor man felt, can't we? His son is controlled
by a demon. It made him have violent seizures
and things, but this wasn't a medical problem. This demon was doing
this to him, having these violent seizures. Sounds like he's trying
to bite himself and different things, you know, making him
not want to eat anything. He's pining away. Making him
throw himself into the fire, throwing himself into a lake,
trying to drown himself to kill himself. That's the worst thing
for a parent to have to go through. Every parent here, seven days
a week and twice on Sunday would choose to suffer anything rather
than watch our children suffer. It's far worse watching your
children suffer something. That's the shape this father
was in. He's desperate. But this is a picture too. It's
a picture of the Lord coming to his people in times of trouble.
The Lord doesn't come to us. He sends us a trial and he doesn't
come to us When we think we can still do something to solve the
problem ourselves, He waits to come to us when we're desperate.
That's when He comes. He waits to come when He's brought
us so low, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters but being
with the Lord and able to call on Him and beg Him for mercy
when nothing else matters but the Savior. being able to beg
him for mercy, that's when he comes. And that's a precious,
precious time. And it needs to be that way,
because the lower the Lord brings us, the better view we get of
how high and majestic he really is. I love the Rocky Mountains. Jan and I were out west earlier
this year. I love the Rocky Mountains. Pictures of them. But I'm telling
you, there's nothing like getting to base that thing and looking
up to see really how high those things are. That's what the Lord,
he's got to bring us low. That's when we get the best view
of how high and exalted he really is. The Lord's got to give us
a better sense of our own weakness. When the Lord makes us weak,
I mean, what we really realize, I really can't do anything for
myself. I'm not just saying that, I really can't. That's when I
have a more accurate view of the Lord and his power. We can't
see the power of God until we truly experience, I don't have
any. The Lord lays us low to give
us a better view of him. All right, number three. If the Lord leaves us to ourselves,
we're defenseless. Verse 19, and 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 when they
brought him unto him, and when he saw him, straightway the spirit
tearing, and he fell on the ground, wallowed, foaming. And he asked
his father, how long ago is it since this came unto him? And
he said, of a child. And oftentimes it 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. Now, the Lord
didn't make this statement, oh, faithless generation, how long
shall I be with you? He didn't make that statement
to his disciples. He didn't make that statement to this father.
They weren't faithless. They had genuine faith in Christ.
Now, it was weak. It was awful weak, wasn't it?
But it was genuine. They weren't faithless. The Lord
said this to the scribes. Those fellows who were there
disputing and arguing and mocking his disciples, they're there
just dripping in all their pious, religious attitudes. And it's
not recorded here, but one of the first things that would come
to my mind to say, Because much to Janet's dismay,
I know how to be a smart aleck, she always tells me don't do
this, but this seems to me like a good question for those scribes.
How come you boys hadn't cast him out? You notice they didn't
say, oh, we'll cast him out for you. They couldn't either, but
they're so pious, you know, in all their religious attitude.
And that's, the Lord called them faithless. And then he turned
to the father. And the father says what this
demon's been doing to his son. Now everyone, this is not the
first time this father tried to have his son healed. Everyone
he's ever brought his son to has been defenseless against
this demon. Nobody can do anything with this
situation. But now, and this is good advice
for us parents, now this father has done the best thing any parent
can do for any child. Bring him to the Lord. Bring
them to the Lord. Bring them to hear God's word. Bring them to be taught God's
word. Talk to them about the Lord. Talk to them about Christ.
This father comes to the Lord, and he comes with a cry of a
helpless, defenseless sinner. Lord, if you can do anything,
Lord, if you can do anything, please have compassion on us.
Please help us. Now that's at the end of your
rope, when all you can cry is, Lord, can you do anything? Just
anything you can do. You'll notice this father, he
was so helpless, he had no suggestions on what the Lord could do. Lord,
can you do anything? If you can do anything, please
have compassion on me. Now right there, at the end of
our rope, that's where the Lord reveals true faith. This is where
true faith, It's easy to say you believe up there on the mountaintop,
isn't it? But what about when you're at the end of your rope?
What about when all you can cry is, Lord, if you can do anything,
have compassion on me. That's where the Lord reveals
true faith, and that's where he strengthens it. All right,
number four. Now, there is no excuse for weak
faith, but even weak faith saves. 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. When
Jesus saw 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. You leave and
don't you come back. And the spirit cried and ran
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 rose. Now this father, he brought his
son to the Lord, because he knew his problem's not a physical
problem. It's a spiritual problem. It's a spiritual problem. And
he brought his son to the Lord. Now that's faith. That's faith
is coming to Christ. Faith is begging Christ. If you
can do anything, have compassion on faith. It is trusting Christ
that he trusted that the Lord was able to heal his son. He
had faith. He believed it, didn't he? But
his faith was imperfect and he knew it. That's why he said,
Lord, I believe. Help down my unbelief. I wish
I believed you more. I wish I believed you better.
And that's the cry of Every believer. Because at best, our faith is
imperfect. At best. And every believer understands
imperfect faith. We hate it. I'm not making any
excuses for it. But I understand it. Because
every believer is forced to live with two natures in one body.
In every believer, there's both sin and righteousness. In every
believer, there's both faith and unbelief. And as weak as
our faith is, and again, I'm not making any excuses for it,
but this is a comfort to us when we cry, help thou mine unbelief.
As weak as our faith is, you know what? That faith is a gift
of God. That faith points us to Christ,
that faith makes us trust Christ, and that's the faith that saves.
Even though this father's faith was imperfect, the Lord still
healed his son. His faith was imperfect, and
the Lord gave him a demonstration of his power. With just a few
words, he cast that demon out of his son, and it never could
come back. Just his power. And you see that all through
scripture. I can't find one example in scripture of a time that somebody
came to the Lord asking for mercy, begging for mercy, and they didn't
get it. I can't find one. I spent a good
bit of time in this book, and I've never found one. Not a single
one. You see, we don't receive mercy
because of the strength of our faith. No question, my faith
ought to be stronger, but I'm not going to receive mercy because
of the strength of my faith. We receive mercy because of the
graciousness of the mercy giver. Isn't that right? We're not saved by the strength
of our faith. We're saved by the object of
our faith. It wasn't faith that healed this
boy. It was the object of faith who healed this boy. The Lord
healed him. He had mercy on him, and he healed
him, even though that father had imperfect faith. Now here's
the last thing. I have faith, but it's far from
perfect. I have to cry every day, Lord,
help thou mine unbelief. But as weak as our faith is,
you know, that faith can be put into action. If we would increase
our faith, it'd be a mighty good idea to put it into action. Look
at verse 29. And he said unto them, this kind,
or in verse 28, when he was coming to the house, his disciples asking
privately, why cannot we cast him out? And he said unto them,
this kind cometh forth by nothing but prayer and fasting. Now here
the Lord mentions prayer and fasting, and that's faith in
action. This is what faith does, it prays.
Faith prays. Faith acts. Now, why do we pray? Well, we pray to praise the Lord,
don't we? We pray to thank the Lord. Oh,
every one of our prayers ought to include Thanksgiving. Oh,
thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy
and your grace to me. Thank you, Lord. Oh, how you've
provided, how you've taught me. Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for giving me something teaches and strengthens my heart
and points me to Christ. Thank you, Lord. Every prayer
ought to include praise. Lord, I praise you. Nobody else
would have done something like this for somebody as low down
rebel as me. Oh, I praise you. Praise your
name. And we pray because we believe
God. We pray because we believe God.
Why do we bring our petitions before our God in prayer? Because
we believe he's able. That's why we do it. You wouldn't
pray and ask God for something if you didn't think he could
give it to you. No, we pray because we believe God is able to help
us. We only truly pray. I mean, we
might go through the motions, but we only truly pray about
things that are out of our control. Now, that should be everything
because there's nothing in our control. When the Lord makes
it a real point to show us this thing's out of my control, that's
when I'm gonna pray. Because I believe they're not
outside of God's control. And then fasting. Now fasting
doesn't mean literally. What it means is this, denying
ourselves the pleasures of the flesh. And you know what the
single greatest pleasure of this flesh is? Is to earn my own salvation. It's to earn some of my own righteousness
that I can contribute to my salvation. It's to earn some righteousness,
some morality, something that makes me look down on somebody
else and says, well, you know, my salvation is more secure than
yours. I'm more blessed than you because of what I've done.
I've done these religious things that please God. That is the
number one pleasure of this flesh. And the only way we'll deny our
flesh the pleasure that it wants so much is faith. It's faith in Christ. We'll only
give up trusting in our works when we have faith to believe
it's Christ that saves without any help from me. The only way
we're going to give up trying to add to Christ's righteousness
and make ourselves more saved is when we believe Christ has
already done everything it takes to make me righteous. He made
me righteous by himself. The only way we're gonna give
up doing these works that makes me more perfect than somebody
else is when I realize by faith I can't get any more perfect
than I am in Christ. And if I try to add to it, I'm
gonna ruin it. We'll only try to quit getting glory for ourselves. Everybody here knows this flesh,
whether just outright or whether it's kind of secretly, we all
want to get glory for ourselves. We'll only give up trying to
get glory to ourselves when by faith we really do believe this,
Christ should get all the glory. He should get all the glory because
of who he is. He's a son of God. He's a son
of God in human flesh that came to save his people from their
sins. And brother, he did what he came to do. He did all of
the saving. Why should I get any glory? I
did all the sinning. He did all the saving. That's
who should get all of the glory. And the only way we'll deny ourselves
that pleasure of the flesh is by faith. Now, weak, imperfect
faith saves. Weak, imperfect faith still sees
Christ, still believes Christ. Now, I'm not satisfied with it,
but it does see Christ. So my constant cry is the cry
of this Father. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. I hope that'll be a blessing
to you.