Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. How many times has that been
your prayer? Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Lord, I believe too. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God. I believe that. I believe what he said in John
chapter 14, verse six, I am the way. I believe he's the way to
the father. When he said, I am the truth, I believe he's the
truth. Truth is his person. I believe
that. I believe he's the life. He said,
I am the life. I believe his life is the only
life there is that can be accepted. I believe him. I do believe. I believe that the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. I really do believe. And every believer in this room
can say to that, amen. I really do believe. And like this man, I cry at the
very same time, Lord, I believe, help thou, help thou, mine unbelief
I'm not like Abraham who staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief. I'm always getting myself in
there, looking at myself, thinking about myself and thinking, how
could you be saved? I see how Abraham is. I see how
others are. How could you be? There's never
a time, ever a time when that unbelief is not with me. It's always there. I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Now I'm thankful the Lord had
that put there, aren't you? I mean, I'm very thankful. That's
where I'm at all the time. Lord, I believe, I really do. Help thou mine unbelief. Now, how can both of these be
true? Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. How can they both be true? How
can they come out of the same mouth? Lord, I believe. Help
thou mine unbelief. Well, let me remind you that
every child of God has two natures. Very important. The one you were
born with, The fallen nature, the sinful nature, the nature
dead in sins, the way you came into this world, and the nature
that you were born again with, the new nature, born of God. The old nature never
believes, the new nature always believes. Hence, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Now, if that's not your experience, there's a reason. Let me repeat that. If that's
not your personal experience, There is a reason. You only have one nature, and
it's the old nature that does not believe. As a matter of fact,
you don't even know what unbelief is until you're given faith.
You don't know what unbelief is until you can say, Lord, I
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew 28, just back a few pages. Verse 16, Then the eleven disciples
went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed
them. And when they saw Him, they did
what everybody who sees Him does, they worshiped Him. If you and I ever see Him, we
WILL worship Him. It's the inevitable result of
seeing him. Nobody that sees him does not
worship. I mean, even the devils are made
to grovel at his feet. If you see him, you will worship. If you don't worship him, you've
never seen him. It's that simple. But look what it says next. And when they saw him, they worshiped
him, but some doubted. Now the word some is put there
by the translators, and I'm not real sure why, because that's
not the way it is spoken in the original. They worshiped him
and doubted. Here they are in front of the
risen Christ, seeing him, they worshiped him. And even when they worshiped,
there was that doubt. Now what all that doubt comprises
could be different from different people, but it's the truth. I
believe, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Now back to our text in Mark
chapter nine. Look in verse 17. And one of the multitude answered
and said, this is the man who came to him, master, Master,
I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. Master,
teacher. But now look in verse 24, when
the Lord is revealed to this man, and straightway the father
of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, Lord. No man can say Jesus is
Lord. but by the Holy Ghost, not simply
master, but now that he knows who he is, he cries out, Lord. There can be no faith where he
is not seen as Lord. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now, when I'm talking about,
well, when the Bible talks about him being Lord, not talking about
him being a landlord, it's talking about him being the creator. It's talking about him, the one
who controls everything and every event. He's the first cause of
all things. He's the Lord of salvation. That
means your salvation is in His hands. It's not in yours. You
don't have any control in this thing. It's up to Him. What do
you think about that? It's up to Him as to whether
or not you'll be saved. Now, let me give you a hint.
That's a whole lot better than if it's up to you, because if
it's up to you, you really won't be saved. You may say you will,
but you won't. You won't. You'll do something to mess something
up. But oh, He is the Lord. Now I'm so thankful for this
story because it's where I am all the time. I believe help
thou mine unbelief. As a matter of fact, I was thinking
this, this could be an abbreviated statement regarding the seventh
chapter of Romans. And you think about that. This
is an abbreviated statement regarding the seventh chapter of Romans.
I believe that's the new man. That's the inner man. Help thou
mine unbelief. That's the other man. That's
the old man. Now, this thing of having two
natures is easy to believe because you experience it. It's hard
to understand because both natures come through one consciousness.
And sometimes you can't see it anymore. That's the new nature
and that's the old nature. It just doesn't work that way.
We have these two separate natures that come through one consciousness. And because of that, it makes
this very difficult. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Now, verse 14, here's where the
story begins. Now, remember, they'd come down
from that Mount of Transfiguration when the Lord was transfigured
before them, and they saw his glory. And when he came to his
disciples, coming down from the man of transfiguration, he saw
a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning him."
Now, these were the nine that were not there. While the Lord
was up on the mountain with Peter and James and John, the other
nine were down with some people, and what they'd been doing is
a man brought to them his demon-possessed son, and he said, could you please
cast the demons out of him? And they'd done it before, but
this time, They couldn't. And now the scribes are questioning
them. I thought you could do this.
I thought your master could cast out demons. What's the problem
here? Something's wrong with this picture. They were questioning
them. They were calling into question
their integrity with regard to the Lord and calling into question
his ability. They were questioning him. Verse 15, and straightway, this
is as the Lord came down, and straightway all the people, when
they beheld Him, were greatly amazed and running to Him, saluted
Him. Now the masters come down. And
he asked the scribes, what question ye with them? Now that wasn't
because he didn't know. The Lord never asked anything for information.
He always knows, but he's going to use this to teach us something
of the gospel. And that's why he brings out
this question they were asking. What question ye with them? Verse
17. And one of the multitude answered
and said, master. And he did not yet see that this
was the Lord of glory. He thought he was a great teacher,
I guess very much like Nicodemus. Master, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that
thou doest except the Lord be with him. Now he addresses the
Lord as master, teacher. I've brought unto thee my son,
which hath a dumb spirit. Now we know from Matthew's account
that he was both deaf and dumb. And in Matthew's account, the
man called him a lunatic. My son's a lunatic. Moon struck. Evidently he had epilepsy and
they thought the moon caused this. And they had all kinds
of superstitious beliefs regarding everything. And he said, my son's
a lunatic. Verse 18. And wherever he taketh
him, this dumb spirit, this deaf spirit, he teareth him. And he foameth and gnasheth with
his teeth and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out. And they could not. Now this man was deaf. He was
unable to hear. He was dumb, he was unable to
speak, unable to hear the gospel, unable to communicate the gospel,
dead in sins and how destructive his sin is. Matthew's account
tells us that he was sore vexed, evilly ill. The Lord calls this
spirit a foul spirit. And it would tear this young
man, the scripture says he would foam at the mouth, gnashing his
teeth, pining away. And that word pining away means
drying up. Drying up. What a position this
man was in. Foaming at the mouth, gnashing
his teeth, drying up. Matthew's account tells us that
he would oftentimes fall in the fire and the water. He'd fall into the fire of temptation
and then he'd try to douse it out with the water of religion.
Fire and water. All the time, this was his life. Falling in the fire and then
trying to take care of it by falling into the water. Setting himself on fire and then
trying to put it out. What a sight. I brought him to
your disciples and they could not cast him out. They were unable. Now they had cast out demons
before, but they couldn't hear. They were unable. And this tells me a couple of
things. First, it tells me that what
our Lord said is so true without me, you can do nothing. And it's the first thing I see
about their inability to cast out this demon. Without me, you
can do nothing. I like Charles Spurgeon's comment
on that statement by our Lord. He said, he did not say without
me, you can do hardly anything. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. And the second thing that I see
from this inability to cast out the demons when the disciples
tried and could not is the powerlessness of means. You can use the means,
you can use the right means, but the means are powerless in
and of themselves. Even faith, faith is the means
of grace. But faith is not what saves you,
Christ is, you believe that. But if we thought that there
was any saving efficacy in the means and power in the means,
what that would mean would we think salvation is in the means
and not the Savior. And that's never the case. They
found out the powerlessness of the means. Verse 19, and he answered
him. and saith, O faithless generation. Now the disciples were not operating
in faith right now because when he, they go on to ask him in
Matthew's account, why could not we cast him out? He tells
them directly because of your unbelief. That's why. because of your unbelief. If
you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, that's the smallest amount
of faith. That's the tiniest amount of faith. You'd say to
this mountain, remove and be cast in the sea, and it would
obey you, and nothing would be impossible for you. But he looks
at this man, and I don't have any doubt that he was addressing
his disciples as well, when he says, oh, faithless. Oh, unbelieving,
oh, as Matthew's account says, perverse generation, how long
shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Have you ever thought about that? Can you see the Lord being around
you for some time and saying that? How long am I gonna, so
weak, so sinful, so unbelieving, and I can understand him saying
this, can't you? He loved his people, but still
at this time, he says, how long am I gonna suffer you? How long
shall I be with you? And then he says the one thing
that you and I need. Bring him to me. There's the
difference. Bring him to me. This is what
I need. I need to be brought to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'll come to him if I'm brought
to him. And that's what I need. I need to be drawn to him. No
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. I need to be brought to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nothing else will do me any good.
Bring him to me. Verse 20. And they brought him unto him, And when he saw him, this foul
spirit, straightway, the spirit tear him. And he fell on the
ground and wallowed foaming. Now, I can't help but love this. Anytime a demon spirit came into
his presence, they had to hit the dirt. I mean, they were made
to hit the dirt. Wallowing, foaming. You know,
they're not able to stand up in his presence. You know, I
can't even express how much I loved it when those fellas came looking
for him. He said, whom seek ye? Jesus
of Nazareth, I am. And they fall backwards. He's the Lord. And he's gonna
have all men know that and all demons know that. At the name
of Jesus, every knee is going to bow. Do demons have knees? I suppose so. They're going to
bow too. Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess that he is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. So that demon and that poor young
man that was possessed by him, when he saw him straight away,
the spirit, tear him! fell on the ground and wallowed,
foaming. We have such a pathetic sight
here. And he, the Lord Jesus, verse 21, asked his father, how
long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, oh, a
child. I believe he was born that way.
David knew something about that when he said, behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. This young
man was born that way. And then he says in verse 22,
and oftentimes, it is cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. And then the man makes a very
wrong statement. if thou canst do anything. He's wrong. He obviously did
not know who the Lord Jesus Christ was, or he wouldn't have made
a statement like this, if thou canst do anything. This is the creator he's speaking
to. If thou canst do anything, This is the man who has all the
fullness of the Godhead dwelling in his body. If Falcons do anything,
this is the one who's all powerful. If Falcons do anything, this
is the one who's absolutely sovereign in control of everybody and everything
and every event and every thought. If Falcons do anything, he still doesn't know who it
is he's speaking to. You see, is anything too hard for the
Lord? If thou canst do anything, have
compassion on us and help us. Verse 23, the Lord didn't correct
him, but he did turn the tables on him. He said in verse 23,
if thou canst believe, You're saying if I can do anything?
If thou canst believe. If thou canst believe. Now he
was telling him to do what he was unable to do unless God enabled
him to do it. If thou canst believe. And I love what he says right
after that. All things are possible to him that believeth. Now, unfortunately, people take
that and say, you know, if you just believe you can have this,
you can have that, you can have money, you can have riches, you
can have health, you can have wealth, you just gotta believe.
All things are possible to him that believeth. That has absolutely
nothing to do with anything the Lord's saying. Nothing. But I tell you what is possible
to that person who believes? Me being unjust and sinful. can be perfectly pure and holy
before God. Now that's the gospel. That's
possible. Me. Sinful me. Weak me. Stupid me. Unable me. I could go on and on and on. This me that's speaking to you.
It's possible for me to be perfect before God. without sin, without
guilt. It's what the Bible calls justification. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. All things are possible to him
that believeth, if thou canst believe. Now, Look at this man's
answer, verse 24. And immediately, straightway,
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord. He's not calling master now,
is he? You see, it's been revealed to him who he is. You know when
he is revealed to you and you know who he is, you'll know he's
Lord and you will believe. Everybody that he reveals himself
to, you know what they do? They believe. Lord, I believe. You see, this thing of faith
doesn't come by education but the revelation of his person.
He now knows he's the Lord. Lord, I believe. He said so with tears, Lord.
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now, I believe he could not not
believe. I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now a lot of people will make
the claim of faith, unbelief can speak highly of Christ. Nicodemus
did, didn't he? Pilate did. I find no fault in
the man. Unbelief can have a reformation
of life. God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are. Unbelief can have an emotional
response to the gospel. You remember the stoning around
here, how he received the word with joy. It was only temporary,
but he had an emotional response to the gospel. Unbelief can express
great sorrow over sin. Judas did. Unbelief can be baptized
and join the church. Simon Magus did. Unbelief can have many wonderful
works. Lord, Lord, have we not preached
in your name? In your name, have we not cast
out devils? In your name, have we not done
many wonderful works? You know, I seriously doubt if
these people ever cried, Lord, I believe, help out my unbelief.
Bet you they didn't. Now let me tell you four or five
things that unbelief can never do. Now everybody knows what
unbelief is. I hope everybody in here has
faith too. I hope everybody in here is a
believer. If you're not, I hope you will be after this message,
that you will believe the gospel. I want to see people believe,
don't you? I persuade people to believe.
I want you to believe the gospel. But let me tell you something,
what most people possess, it goes under the name of faith,
but it's nothing more than unbelief. Now, why do I say that? Well,
here's the first thing that unbelief can never do. Unbelief can never
be broken over sin before God. You can't do it. Turn with me
for a moment to Psalm 51. And the word I want you to notice
is the word my. You know, I can see other sins
pretty clearly. I'm good at that. I can spot
contradictions. I can spot inconsistencies. You
can too. We're all like that, particularly
if we think we're being judged by somebody, buddy. We can see
every contradiction. And I can see the sins of society.
Boy, society's so bad right now. How many times you hear people
say, what's going on right now? Things are so bad. I can see
the sins of society. But I want us to notice the little
word me and mine. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according to thy multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. Now, one thing that unbelief
will never do is be broken over its sin before God. Won't happen. Knows nothing of what David is
saying. in this psalm. Stay here. Look what he says
in verse four. Here's something unbelief will
never do. Unbelief can never justify God. It can never render agreement
to God in whatever he does. Look in verse four. Against thee,
the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when you speak and be clear when you
judge. Whatever you do is right and
whatever you do with me is right. Unbelief can never justify God
for all that he does. Unbelief will never say with
Peter, depart from me, I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. Unbelief can never
say with Paul, and believe it, I am the chief of sinners. Unbelief can never deal with
justifying God the way the leper did. Lord, if you will, you can
make me clean. What about the Syrophoenician
woman? She cries for mercy. The Lord ignores her. She continues
to cry. He said, I'm not sent but the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's saying in no uncertain terms,
I've only come to save the elect. That's exactly what he meant,
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You know what she did
then? Then came she and worshipped him. She didn't say this isn't
fair. She didn't say this isn't right. She came and worshipped
him saying, Lord, help me. And he said, it's not right to
take the children's bread and to throw it out to dogs. You
know what she said? Truth, Lord. If I ever heard the truth, that's
it. Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat
of the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Unbelief never bows before the
God who is sovereign. Unbelief, and here's, I reckon,
everything I'm saying is important, but I reckon I'm not gonna say
anything more important than this. Unbelief can never look
to Christ alone. Never does. It's always Christ
and unbelief can never look to Christ alone. And unbelief, false faith, it'll
never persevere. It'll never continue in the faith.
It can't do it. It will not continue looking
to Christ alone. It may think it does temporarily,
but it will not continue in that strain looking to Christ alone. You're made partakers of Christ
if you hold the beginning of your confidence steadfast to
the end. We're holy and unblameable and
unapprovable in His sight if we continue in the faith, grounded
and settled, and be not moved from the hope of the gospel.
That's one thing unbelief will never do, or there's a lot of
things unbelief will never do, but it will never continue looking
to Christ alone. It can't persevere. Now, when
the disciples And we're gonna look into this more next week.
But when the disciples, after the crowd had gone, they came
up privately to the Lord after this event. And they said, why
couldn't we cast him out? What was the problem? And he
said, because of your unbelief. Well, that man had unbelief. I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
You mean a disciple has unbelief? Come on, of course they do. They
have an old nature. But I love the way the Lord said
when he answered that question because of your unbelief. He
didn't say you need to have great faith, although faith ought to
be great faith. There isn't any reason why every
one of us shouldn't have great faith. We have a great God. We believe a great gospel. He
gives us no reason to disbelieve it. But the Lord said if you
just had faith as a grain of mustard seed. That was the smallest
seed. So he's talking about just the
littlest faith. Just the littlest faith. You
see, it's not how much, but who. It's not what do I think of myself,
that's where I get in trouble. It's not what do I think of myself,
it's what do you think of Christ? Not what you think of your faith,
or whether or not you're saved, or whether or not you're right,
whether you're not anything. You don't even enter the equation
in this thing of faith. What think ye of Christ? It's not how I stand before the
law, but how I stand in Christ. It's not my ability to keep myself,
but his ability to keep me. Now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. Faith is not dependent upon my
ability to not sin. Now let me say that real carefully
and clearly. Faith is not My ability to not
sin, but Christ who did not sin and put away my sin. Little faith is not my groaning
and sorrow over sin, but his groaning and sorrow over sin. I don't even trust my experience.
I trust his experience. I'm justified by the faith of
Christ who roamed over my sin becoming his sin. He's the only
one who ever really was sorry for sin. He's the only one to
ever truly repent of sin. He's the only one who knew what
sin was. I'm not accepted by my efforts
to believe. I'm accepted in the beloved.
And I do believe. To him that worketh not, but
believeth. On him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Now let's go back to our text
in Mark chapter nine. Verse 24, in a straight way,
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord,
I believe, I do. Help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee. Come out of him, and hear no
more into him. Now, the Lord only speaks by
command. He said, get out. It got out. His commands are never disobeyed. You say, what about when somebody
sins? Now, when you sin, it's your fault, and it's a horrible
thing. But I would never say under any
circumstance that his will is not being done. Now, we can't
take our sin and say, well, he made me do it. It's his will
for me to do it. Don't ever even think anything like that. Don't
ever think anything like that. But aren't you glad he's in control
of it all? He said, get out. Irresistible
grace. And the spirit cried, and wren
him sore, and came out of him, and he was as one dead. In so
much as many said, he's dead. He's dead, this has killed him.
He's laying there motionless. He's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up. The only way you and I are going
to be lifted up is by him taking us and lifting us up. And he arose. Now, every believer in this room
in closing right now has both of these things operating in
their consciousness, in their heart, in their experience. I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. It's such a wicked thing. Unbelief,
to not believe him. I want us to remember that unbelief
is the greatest sin. We don't generally think that
way. At least I don't. If I say to you, oh man, I have
a great personal sin that's dragging me down and affecting me in a
terrible way. Everybody in here would be thinking
about either some kind of sexual sin or some kind of, I guess
you would. I don't know, maybe you wouldn't,
but some kind of perverted sin like that or some kind of substance
abuse. You'd think about all these horrible
things. And then if I said, It's unbelief. You go, whew. Is that all? And yet, that is the most evil
sin. What was Eve guilty of in the
garden? Not believing what God said. Now, here's the glorious part. One of these days, now, until
I die, I'm gonna be crying, Lord, I believe, and I do. And I'm
also gonna be saying, help thou mine unbelief. It's gonna go
on to the day I die. But when I die, I'm not gonna
have that old nature anymore. I'm gonna have a new nature.
But this new nature, it's not really, faith has turned to sight. Hope
to experience. Now I'm still going to love.
Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three. Well, I won't need
faith. I'll be seeing. I won't need
hope. I'll be experiencing it. I won't
have to deal with unbelief anymore. I won't have to deal with sin
anymore. I won't have to deal with self
anymore. All there will be will be love
to Jesus Christ, the Lord, spending eternity admiring Him. Let's pray.