from the text in Mark 11, verse
22, where our Lord Jesus speaks to his disciples, to you and
to me, and says, have faith in God. Faith, true faith in God,
is that which distinguishes true believers from mere religious
men and women. Religious people have religious
exercises and religious practices, religious creeds and religious
customs. Believers are men and women who
have faith in God. Now let's read Mark chapter 11,
verses 20 through 26 together. As we do, I want to call your
attention to three very important lessons that our Lord here teaches
us, but they are very important lessons which are commonly overlooked
by us. So listen carefully as we go
through this portion of scripture. Our happiness and peace, as well
as our usefulness to one another and to the cause of Christ in
this world, greatly depends on how well we learn these three
lessons. Here's the first one. Faith in
God is essential. Look at verse 20. Now in the
morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from
the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance,
kind of smart to remember what God does. Try to bear in mind
the special providences of God. Peter calling to remembrance,
saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree. which thou cursest
yesterday is withered away. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that
whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and
be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart,
but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come
to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith. And when the master said to Peter,
have faith in God, he was reminding him and us of the lesson taught
in the barren fig tree. Peter seemed a little surprised.
He walked by and as they walked by, they saw that fig tree withered
from its roots and just yesterday, It appeared to have all the signs
and tapestry of life. It was full of leaves, but it
was barren. It had no fruit. And so the Lord
cursed the fig tree. And now the next day, it's withered
up. The leaves are all gone. It's utterly dead. The Lord Jesus
here declares that all men shall likewise perish without true
faith in the Lord God. It is not just faith that's essential. All men have some kind of faith.
They have faith in themselves, they have faith in the world,
faith in their abilities, faith in the material things of this
world, or they have faith in Buddha or Allah or some stump
or something of the kind. That's not enough. It's not enough
that men have faith in their imaginations concerning God.
It is not enough that we have faith in our faith. We must have
true faith in the true and living God as he is revealed in Holy
Scripture, otherwise we're going to perish. And our religion is
like the religion that was represented in this fig tree, all show with
no substance, all outward form and all those things that impress
men, but with no reality of life within and therefore no fruit
under God. We must believe God, that's essential. We must believe God as he is
revealed in Holy Scripture in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I stress this, because most
people in our day, they have Bibles in their hands, they don't
read them much, but they've got them. They carry them to church,
and once in a while, preacher will preach and act like he's
kindly preaching from it. But they get a notion about God.
And they get their silly ideas about God. Somehow he's sort
of like some imaginary thing, a little better than us, but
then again, a little weaker than us. Somehow fickle and changeable. Now, the God of Holy Scripture
God who is just and true and must punish sin. He is God who
sits upon the throne of the universe and governs everything. Everything. Absolutely. Everything that is,
has been, or shall have to be, comes from Him, is brought to
pass by Him, and shall resound, redound to His glory when it's
over. It's going back to Him. The God
of Holy Scripture is God in the triunity of His persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. And this true and living God
is revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ by his substitutionary
sacrifice on our behalf at Calvary. The Lord God has made himself
known to sinners by this work of Jesus Christ, the incarnate
God, in whom resides all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now believers must have faith
in God. And then believers are people
who live by faith. Live by faith in Jesus Christ
who is God, our Savior. Jesus Christ is not just a man.
He's more than a man. He's the God-man. He's not just
a representative of God, an agent of God, a revelation of God.
He is God. That man who is our Savior is
himself God Almighty or we have no Savior. It is written again
and again in Holy Scripture. The just shall live by faith. Now that's repeated throughout
the Scriptures. The just shall live by faith. That does not mean the just shall
come to a position and a spot in time where they come to believe
on the Lord Jesus and then go on with their lives. Faith in
Christ is much more than a mere isolated act of life. Faith in
Christ is much more than just a creed, a confession of faith,
or a religious ceremony. Faith in Christ is not only that
event in life, when we come to believe on Him, but it is that
continual attitude of life by which believers walk before God,
trusting Jesus Christ. The just shall live by faith. The Book of God never says, he
that believed shall be saved. It says, he that believeth on
the Son of God hath everlasting life. That is to say, buddy,
those who by God's grace at some point in time are given faith
and come to believe Him and continue believing Him and believing Him
and believing Him and believing Him, they have eternal life.
Those whose religion is traced back to yesterday. Whose religion
is all together in things yesterday. Whose religion is a historical
thing. Their faith is not the faith
of God's elect. Believers are men and women who
live by faith. Initially, our faith in Christ
is simply the matter of trusting Christ alone as our Lord and
Savior. That is, we look to Him as helpless,
guilty sinners. We come to Him acknowledging
that we are guilty before God and helpless in ourselves to
change ourselves. Utterly incapable of putting
away our sins. Utterly incapable of making ourselves
righteous. Utterly incapable of giving ourselves
life. We come to Him and we trust Him. Jesus Christ. We trust Him
for all wisdom before God, because we don't have any. We trust Him
as our righteousness before God, because we can't perform any.
We trust Him as our sanctification. He alone can make us holy in
the presence and sight of God Almighty. He alone can give us
a holy nature and present us holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in the last day. And we trust Him alone as our
redemption. He alone paid the price for the
atonement of our sins. He alone delivered us from the
bondage of sin and corruption and death, and He alone shall
raise us up in resurrection glory. So we look to Christ. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption, everything is
in Him. But faith is more than that. True faith is trusting
Christ to save me, but it's also trusting Christ to rule me, protect
me, provide for me. to do all things needful for
me, according to His own infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace for
all time and eternity. It's more than trusting Him for
me. It's trusting Him, period. We pray with earnestness, I hope,
for one another, for our sons and daughters, in this assembly,
many of whom are yet without faith in Christ. But let us never,
never, never get the notion in our heads that somehow these
things are not also matters of faith. We trust Christ our God
and Savior to do what is right, even with our dearest kin and
our most prized, prized relationships. And He does what's right. That's
what faith is. Faith is trusting Him. It's not,
it's not picking out this, I'll trust Him here, but now here,
I'll take care of that. I'll trust Him there, but over
here, I'm going to have to have somebody else to lean on. Oh,
no. No, no. Faith in Christ is trust in Christ. Now, I realize
that no man, no woman has perfect faith. There's no such thing
as a human being walking on this earth who believes in his heart
without a doubt. There's not such a thing. Not
you, not me, not anybody else. Not while we walk on this earth.
But believers grow in faith, trusting the Son of God. If we
would know the true meaning and the true value of faith, we ought
to read often and study with great care the 11th chapter of
Hebrews. I was reading this just a little
while ago before anybody else came over. The scripture tells
us that by faith the elders obtained a good report. The report we
have of men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The report we have
of Enoch who walked with God. The report we have of our faithful
patriarch Job. The report we have of Abel who
offered a more noble sacrifice than Cain. They all obtained
a good report by faith. They lived by faith. They walked
in faith. They died in faith. By it, they
obtained a good report. The scripture tells us that he
that cometh to God, he that cometh to God, oh, I would now come
to him. He that cometh to God, not he
who comes, or he who has come, but he that cometh continually,
cometh to God, must believe that he is. and that he is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. Now our Lord in this passage
of scripture used a proverbial saying in the 24th verse to describe
the great power of faith. He tells us that if a man says
to this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those
things which he saith shall come to pass. he shall have whatsoever
he saith. Now understand, this is a proverbial
saying. This proverbial statement, the
Apostle Paul said, if I had faith so that I could remove mountains
and have not love, it profits me nothing. So it's a proverbial
statement. But this proverbial statement
about removing mountains must be interpreted with caution and
sobriety, particularly in this day of religious nuts. health,
wealth, prosperity, folks. They've been taught by the preachers
they listen to, especially on radio and so forth. They watch
them on TV and these preachers tell them, now, if you want a
million dollars, if you want a million dollars, if you want
to heal your bank account, heal your marriage, and heal your
body, you want everything just going rosy and hunky-dory, if
that's what you want, just believe God. And in order to show that
you believe God, send me all your money and he'll give you
some more. Now, that is not what our Lord's talking about here.
Nothing could be further from the teaching of Holy Scripture.
Our Lord's statement is not a blanket promise that God will do anything
we take a notion for Him to do so long as we have enough faith,
so long as we believe perfectly, without a doubt in our hearts.
The fact is, as I said earlier, no man has that kind of perfect
faith. Well, what is our Lord telling us? He's telling us that
true faith in God enables those who believe God to overcome great
obstacles, accomplish great things, and triumph in great difficulties. Child of God, in your woe, in your heartache,
in your trouble, in your misery, in the trials and temptations
you have. You don't need more pills to
keep you calmed down. You don't need something to pep
you up. You don't need some pagan psychiatrist
to tell you, you know, your problems back yonder the way your mom
and daddy treated you when you were six years old. I'll tell you
what you need. You need to have faith in God. Believe God. Believe God. Oh, God help me to honor him
by believing him. Believe God. A preacher, you
mean that'll move this mountain? Oh yeah, that'll move this mountain. One way or the other, that'll
move this mountain. You mean that'll get us over
this hurdle? Oh yeah, one way or the other, one way or the
other. You mean that'll overcome this difficulty? I guarantee
it. Believe God and the mountains
shall be leveled before you. Do you want to grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you want to be strong
and valiant for Him in this world? Do you desire to grow in spiritual
maturity, believe in God? If you do, pray for more faith. I think we could do no better
in our prayer in seeking anything from God than to pray that God
would give us greater hope, greater faith, and greater love. We can
do no better. Pray that God will give you more
faith. Nurture the faith God has given you. Jealously guard
it and nurture it with the bread of life in the house of God.
Water it with prayer and exercise it, and I'll tell you how to
exercise it, by consecration to Christ. No. You're not going to turn
me aside. No. No. You're not going to keep
me from what I know is right. No. No. You're not going to keep
me from the worship of God and the house of God and the family
of God. No. No. I'm going to give myself
to Christ alone. And as you consecrate yourself
continually to God, exercise in faith, thus the believer by
God's grace grows in faith. in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ. Blessed are those who rest the whole weight of
all things upon their covenant, faithful God and Father. There
is no possibility of a more peaceful, more happy, more blessed life
than a life of faith in God. He that believeth, the scripture
says, shall not make haste. You ever get in a position where
that you're, you're just pressed, pressed in, I've got to do something,
I've got to do something. The best thing, that's not doing
anything. Best thing, no. No, he that believeth shall not
make haste. I can't tell you how many times as a pastor and
preacher, both here and other places around the world, people
come to me and they say, you got to do something. No. No,
best thing we do is just wait. Best thing we do is just sit
back and wait. Believe God. He'll take care of it. He'll
take care of it. And he always has, one way or the other. He
that believeth shall not make haste. Now then, secondly, look
at verse 24. Faith, true faith in God is essential. The prayer of faith is effectual.
Therefore, our Lord is now referring to exactly what he's been talking
about. Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever you desire
when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have
them. Now again, I remind you that
prayer is not a blank check waiting for you to fill in the amount,
whatever it is you want. That's not what our Lord's talking
about here. I know that carnal minds think that way. But prayer
is primarily a spiritual exercise. It primarily concerns spiritual
matters. It is not something that is carnal. It is not about carnal matters.
I do not suggest that prayer has nothing to do with carnal
things, not at all. It has everything to do with
carnal things, both our health, and our bank accounts, and our
food on our table, and our relationships. It has everything to do with
everything carnal. But for the believer, his carnal
things are spiritual things. because the believer has turned
his carnal things over to the dominion of Christ. That makes
him spiritual. So that all that concerns me,
whether we're talking about my physical health, or we're talking
about my daily bread, or we're talking about my relationship
with my wife, or we're talking about my daughter and son-in-law
or this grandchild that's coming, all that concerns me is spiritual,
and we turn it over to the Son of God. So when our Lord tells
us here that when we pray in faith, We shall have whatever
it is that we desire from God. He is simply reinforcing what
he taught in Matthew chapter 6. I want you to turn there for
a minute. Matthew chapter 6. Here in verses 9 through 13,
our Lord gives us the model prayer. He teaches us how to pray. I don't pretend to I know a great
deal about prayer. I've got all kinds of books on
prayer. I've read a lot of books on prayer. And frankly, most
of what I've read on prayer doesn't say much about prayer. It says
a whole lot about introspection and self-righteousness. It doesn't
say much about prayer. But essentially, these are the things for which
believers pray. In all our petitions before God,
these are the things we want with all relations, in all our
carnal things. Whether you're talking about
my health or yours. Whether you're talking about my safety or yours. You pray for me as I get on that
plane. Shelby and I get on that plane
Thursday morning. You all be praying for us, praying for God to give
us safety. But there's a catch. There's a catch. You pray for
God's blessings on the ministry, but there's a catch. We pray
that God will cause his word to prosper, but there's a catch.
We pray that God will save our sons and daughters, but there's
a catch. There's a catch. You take your wife or your husband
to the doctor and you find out that they've got cancer. And
the doctor says, about over, they're going to die. And you
come home and you plead with God, have mercy. But there's
a catch. There's a catch. Because something
else overrules all those petitions. Something else overrules all
those concerns. Something else is more important
than gratifying my lust keeping my wife here or keeping you here.
Something more important than me simply having what it is I
want in this life. Our Lord said in verse 9 of Matthew
6, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. This is how you ought
to pray. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Number one catch. Number one
catch. I just caught Jenny's eye peeking
around, looking at me. Prayed for you for a long time.
Still do. Praying for her. All I ever sought from God for
her, and now seek for your daughter. All it is, number one, let God's
name be honored. That's more important than your
soul. You understand that? That's more important than my
soul. Sanctify your name. Get honor
to your name. Number two, thy kingdom come. What is it we want? We want the
honor of God's name. And we want the building of his
kingdom. That's just another way of saying, Lord, save your
people. Rex often prays, save your little sheep. That's exactly
what this is. Lord, Lord, build your kingdom. Catch number three, thy will
be done. Not my will, thy will be done. Number four, give us this day
our daily bread. That is, Lord, give me what I
need. Just give me what I need. That's
all. Give me what I need. Nothing more, nothing less. And
that's what he'll give you. Number five, and forgive us our
debts. Forgive us our sins. Forgive my sin. I could even imagine asking for
any more. Number six, lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. That is, keep us, protect us
in your hand of mercy and grace. Number seven, get praise to yourself,
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Lord, now this is what
I'm asking. When I call on you, allow me in this world to give
praise to you in everything. To honor you in everything. That's it. Now thirdly, In verses 25 and 26, our Savior
teaches us that a forgiving spirit is the fruit of true faith. When you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against any,
that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. Now the connecting link between
the necessity of faith and the spirit of forgiveness is prayer.
First our Lord taught us that faith is essential both to life
and to prayer. And here he teaches us that we
do not have true faith and we cannot truly pray, never have
and never will, if we have not been given by the spirit of grace
a forgiving spirit. He is not teaching us that by
our forgiving one another, we merit and earn God's forgiveness.
Oh no, nothing could be further from the truth. What he is telling
us is that the one thing that matters in all aspects of worship
and prayer, the one fruit of grace and faith without which
we cannot worship, without which we cannot pray, is brotherly
love, which is manifest by spirit of forgiveness. Let me see if
I can illustrate this for you. 20, oh, I guess, 26, 27 years ago,
one of my best friends, a man who had been so useful to me
and in my life was visiting in our home in lookout, he was a
deacon in the church where I was ordained, and he and the pastor
had a falling out over a cotton-picking lawnmower. I mean, they worked
together, They worked here, two or three men worked between them,
and the pastor worked down there. Worked together. And here are
two men in the same church, claimed to believe the gospel of God's
grace, who weren't speaking to each other. When they wanted
something, I wanted them to say, you tell him. Like two little
kids, you tell him. And he was in my home one day.
He and his wife had come to spend the weekend, and I said to him
in conversation, You're gonna have to put this behind you.
You're gonna have to forgive and forget. It doesn't matter
who's wrong. It doesn't matter who's wrong. You're gonna have
to forgive this man or you can't worship God. And it's still true. You know,
the man's never spoken to me again since either. He and his wife left about 10
minutes later. And frankly, I'm so concerned. I've never heard
from them since. You can't worship God if you
don't forgive. You can't do it. The nearest approach we can make
to being like Christ in this world is to bear injuries and
forgive one another. That's the nearest we can come
to being like Christ. God's free forgiveness of our sins is the
highest privilege and greatest joy we can enjoy in this world
and our only title to the world to come. Let us therefore be
merciful, kind, and forgiving in the few days we have here
where forgiveness is needed. I'm not going to need your forgiveness
over yonder, but I need a bunch of it here, and I ask you to
give it, and I ask you to pray, God, give me grace to bear and
forgive and bear and forgive as well for Christ's sake. Amen.