We're going to be in the book
of Hebrews, chapter 12, if you would like to turn there. The writer opens up Hebrews chapter
12 with these words. Wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Well, how do you do that? Well,
he tells us. Looking unto Jesus, the author,
and finisher of our faith. Now you notice that word our
is in italics, so it actually was inserted by the translators. So it could read, Jesus the author
and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him,
endeared the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. The writer opens up this
with the same theme that's all throughout Hebrews, that it's
all by faith, isn't it? It's all by faith. And it's not
your faith that you produce, it's not my faith that I produce,
but it's the faith of Christ bestowed freely by His grace.
And he says, run the race with patience. Well, how does one
run the race with patience? And thankfully, our Lord never
left us without understanding in his word. He never left us
scratching our heads saying, okay, well, I need to run the
race with patience. Well, how do I do that? And there's no
answer. He gave us an answer, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, looking unto Jesus. But then he mentions before that,
Let us lay aside the weight and the sin that doth so easily beset
us. What is that? What is the sin
that doth so easily beset us? It's unbelief, isn't it? It's
unbelief. Unbelief was the reason Peter
sank. Think about Peter for a moment. He literally walked on water.
Peter walked on water. And we say, okay, I believe that.
Do you understand what I'm saying? Peter walked on water. And I
don't, have you ever walked on water? No, of course not. Peter
did. How is that even possible? Well, for one, the Lord made
Peter walk on water. And it would be the same in salvation,
that only those who are called of the Lord can come to Christ.
Only those who are enabled can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as Peter, he couldn't have just got out the boat one day
and decided to walk to Christ, it had to be at the word of the
Lord had to call him, and he did. He said, Lord, if it be
you, bid me to come. Peter got out of the boat, started
walking across. How long did he walk for? I don't
know. One step? All I know is he walked. One
step is walk, right? Two step? Three step? I have
no idea how far he got. Farther than me and you've ever
got. But he walked on water. He walked on water. And then
what happened? Well, he didn't do what is said in verse two,
looking unto Jesus. He started looking around him.
He started looking at the elements. He started looking at the circumstances.
He started looking at what was seen and not what was unseen.
See, faith looks to Christ. Faith doesn't look to the left
hand as we're studying in Proverbs chapter four. It doesn't look
to the left hand. It doesn't look to the right hand. It looks
straight on. It looks straight on to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's his faith bestowed. Faith looks to Christ. It believes
Christ. comes from him and he gets all
the glory for it. And what happened to Peter? He
did the same thing you and I do, day after day, time after time,
in unbelief, he sunk. And beginning to sink, he cried
out unto the Lord, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. How many times do we cry that?
Not near enough. Not as often as we should. Lord
calls us to cry out, Lord save me. Calls us to see our need
of Christ more and more and less confidence in ourself. Paul said,
I have no confidence in the flesh. We glory in the cross of the
Lord having no confidence in the flesh. Why is that? Well,
the flesh is enmity against God and they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. We have no confidence in this
flesh. And Peter figured out pretty quick, I can't even swim
back to the boat. Lord, you're gonna have to save
me or I'm gonna die. And what did the Lord do? Lord say, no,
you're on your own. Do the best you can. I'll save
you if you let me. He didn't say none of those things,
did he? He saved him, didn't he? He saved him. That's what
he does. For any mercy-begging sinner
that comes to Christ, you'll see that he never turned one
away in the scripture, not one. He saved him. He saved him. Unbelief
is the reason Peter sunk, and unbelief is the reason Abraham
lied about his wife. They went to a king's palace,
and Abraham's wife was fair to look at. And the king said, who's
that? And Abraham thought in his heart,
well, if I tell him that's my wife, he's going to kill me and
take her as his wife himself. He said, well, that's my sister.
Wanted to save his hide, didn't he? You know he didn't just do
that once. He did that twice. Two different accounts. And it
came after the promise of his son. It came after the promise
of the Lord. I'm gonna make thee a mighty nation. This wasn't
before the Lord called him out of darkness into light. This
was after. He lies and says, that's my sister. He was scared,
wasn't he? We get scared too. It's always about fear. It's
always about anxiety. It's always about worry. And
we try to take matters into our own hands. And it was by God's
grace that that king didn't kill Abraham after he found out the
truth. He said, you've plagued me, you've vexed me. He said,
he's caused all these problems. I didn't even, didn't know what
was happening. You could have just tell me the truth. He said,
well, I was afraid you'd kill me. And he says, well, leave,
get out of here. He didn't want nothing to do
with that, did he? The Lord gave him a bad dream, made him realize
Abraham's sister was not his sister at all, it was his wife.
It was the Lord's providence, it was the Lord's mercy. We see
that all throughout scripture. Men that we see here in chapter
11, women that we see here in chapter 11 who believed God,
they had one thing in common. They believed God. Because the
Lord had given them grace and given them faith to believe God.
It wasn't that they Woke up one morning and said, okay, I've
decided today's the day I'm going to believe God. No, Abraham was
an idolater. Abraham was a worshiping, he
was a pagan. And God came to where he was
and said, okay, I'm gonna make you a great and mighty nation.
He came right to where he was. Came right to where, just like
he does for every single sinner that he has purposed to save.
He comes right to where they are, no matter whether they're
pagan, And whether they're Jew or Gentile or whether they're
Greek or bond, he comes right to them and says, live. And if
he doesn't, we're gonna remain dead. We are going to remain
dead. Well, I have one more example
for us of unbelief, Jeremiah. Now think about this one. Jeremiah
was up on the Mount Carmel by God's providence and there was
hundreds of prophets, 400 prophets of Baal. They were up there too.
And they call it a showdown. It wasn't a showdown because
the other God didn't show up because he's not even real. But
it was the men called a showdown between Baal and God. And they,
and Elijah said, okay, you call upon your God. and we'll call
upon, I'm gonna call upon the God and we'll see the God that
answers by fire, he's God. Well, they went first and they
started doing what a lot of false religion does. They made a big
scene, they hoop and holler, they even begin cutting themselves
and trying to draw attention. That's a picture of penance,
isn't it? Well, maybe if I cut myself,
cut away the flesh, maybe if I do a little better, God will
take notice of me and I can obligate him. That's not true. We can't
obligate God to do anything. He's God. He's God, he's absolutely
sovereign. We can't obligate him. They kept
cutting and they kept dancing about and well, Elijah finally
started making fun of him. He said, maybe he's on a journey. Maybe he's sleeping. Cry a little
bit louder. Maybe he's taking a nap. He's
just making fun of him, wasn't he? Our God don't go on journeys,
and he doesn't take naps. He's on the present. He's everywhere
all the time, and he knows everything. He's omnipotent. He knows everything
all the time. That's our God. He's absolutely sovereign over
the inhabitants of earth and heaven and under the earth. Even
the devil's God's devil. He can only do as God permits
and purposes him to do. So what happened? Well, it became
Elijah's turn. He built the altar. He said,
now wet it with buckets of water. And he did. And he said, do it
again. Do it again. Do it again. And they did. And he called, he said, he called
upon the Lord. And the Lord brought fire down.
He saw fire, physical fire. He saw it fall down from heaven.
And it consumed up the sacrifice. It licked up the sacrifice. all the water, all the water.
It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary
work on the cross. Whenever he offered himself to
the Father, and the Father poured out his eternal wrath upon his
son, the Father was satisfied with that sacrifice. The Father
was well pleased with his son, and he saved his people from
their sin. That's what he said in Matthew
chapter one. Call his name Jesus, he'll save his people from their
sin. That was his whole purpose of
coming. Well, you know what it was in a chapter later after
Elijah saw the fire fall and all those prophets were slaughtered
after that, according to the word of the Lord, they were slaughtered,
that Jezebel got wind of that. Jezebel was the queen and Jezebel
found out what had happened and she says, I'm gonna kill him.
I'm gonna kill Elijah. Now you would think a man that
just saw fire fall from heaven would be bold in the spirit,
right? He would be confident. You know
what he did? He tucked tail and ran like a
chicken. all the way down underneath a tree in the middle of the wilderness.
He sat down, he said, okay, I'm just not gonna, I'm done. I'm
done. Can't do this anymore. Is that
not me and you? One day we're able to worship,
we're able to see the Lord's face, we're able to rest in His
unchanging grace, and then the next moment something happens
that just shatters our world, a ripple in our pond that flips
us upside down and we're, oh woe is me, full of unbelief again. That's the sin that doth so easily
beset us. We're no different than these
in chapter 11 into chapter 12. It's the believer's life. It's
back and forth. Either you're in a trial, you're
going through a trial, or you're coming out of a trial. That's
how it works. The Lord didn't promise sunshine and rainbows. He did
promise this. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you.
I'll go with you all the way. And that's exactly what he did
for Elijah. The ravens brought him food,
and he had water to drink. And he went on the strength of
that food for 40 days. That one meal, 40 days. The Lord
gave him strength. And the most amazing part about
Elijah, the Lord brought him up out of that, and he continued
to preach. He was so discouraged, he said, and think about his
words here, whenever he was down in that dumps at this point.
He said, I'm the only one left. I'm the only one left. You ever
felt like that? I'm the only one left. We're the only ones left
that believe the gospel. We're the only ones left that
are looking to Christ. Well, that's what he felt like.
He felt sorry for himself, didn't he? The Lord said, no, I have
5,000 reserved that have not bowed a knee to Baal. I have
my people. That's what the Lord told him,
I have my people. Every nation, every tribe, every
kindred, every tongue will be represented on that day. I have
my people. Unbelief, unbelief's the root
of our sin. Unbelief is not looking to Christ.
Unbelief is simply just desiring something to change, a different
outcome than our circumstances. That's what unbelief is. Unbelief
is just not believing Christ. He said, I am God, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Yet we see our
sin before us and we think, how is it, if we look at, now looking
at ourself, how is it that we can even be saved since we do
these things? Since we want to do, Paul said
it best, he said, that which I would do I do not, but that
which I would not do, that's what I find myself doing. Oh,
it's the sin that doth so easily beset me, now I'm, I'm not looking
to Christ again, Lord save me. I'm hiding under a tree from
a woman. Jezebel was God's Jezebel and Elijah knew that, but yet
he still fled from her. It was because of fear. Now fear
necessarily is not a bad thing. Fear will keep you alive. It'll
keep you from getting He'll tell you, well, don't get on that
roller coaster. You may not die from the roller coaster, but
your fear of it may prevent you from being in certain circumstances
that you could actually be harmed. But most of the time, fear comes
down to us saying, well, what if? What if? What if? What if this happens?
What if that happens? What if this doesn't happen?
We're wanting change. It's unbelief. It's unbelief. Is he not seated on the throne
still? Is he not God? Is he pacing the floor, waiting
on you and I to do something? Is he playing chess with Satan,
hoping that you and I will break the tie? He's God. No, he doesn't
play games. He's God. He's sovereign. He's
sovereign. All things are purposed and ordered
by him. All things consist by him, and
everything obeys him. He's God. He's God. What happens is with the what
ifs, and I was talking to somebody about this recently actually,
when we start on what ifs, we end up going down rabbit holes. And what do I mean by that? Have
you ever chased a wild rabbit? I've had dogs for a while, and
I've watched my dogs try to chase a rabbit, and they go around
and around. That rabbit's fast. They can't catch it. And I don't
even know what they would do with it if they caught it. I
don't think they know what they would do with it if they caught it. They just
try to chase it. Ain't that the truth with us and our unbelief? We
just try to chase something. We don't even know what we'd
do if we caught it. If we knew the answer to it, would it give us rest? No,
the rest only comes to him by looking to Christ. It only comes
to him by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we chase rabbits,
don't we? And, oh, wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? That's what
Paul said. Oh, wretched man that I am, not was. Paul was an old
man then. He didn't say, well, I've gotten
better over the years. I'm not as bad as I used to be.
Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am. I'm the chief sinner, the
chief of sinners. May God stop us from focusing
on what isn't or what could be. or what's a possibility, whether
it be good or whether it be bad, and focus on what is. He said,
I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. I've titled this message, I Believe,
Help My Unbelief. I Believe, Help My Unbelief. Hebrews 11, six said, without
faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God
must believe. that he is and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. See, faith believes God,
faith don't look to circumstances. Faith believes God, faith doesn't
worry. Faith believes God, faith doesn't fret. Faith looks to
Christ for everything, for everything pertaining to life and eternity.
Faith believe he is still seated as the successful redeemer of
his people. He's still seated. And that's
never gonna change. What'd the Lord tell him? Come
sit thou here on my right hand, till I make thy enemies thy footstool.
He said when he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down. The sin's gone. The Lord did
that. And in time, he just lets us
know about it. He just lets us know about it. You think he'll
leave us to ourself if he spared not his own son? Certainly not. Certainly not. Now in our text, He uses the word lay aside every
weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us. Lay aside,
that means to put off or to cast away. Make every effort to cease. Cast it off, get rid of it. How
do you do that? Well, maybe if I go to church more, or maybe
if I read more scripture, or maybe if I do more than I'm doing. No, he tells us how in verse
two, looking, unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.
That's how. How you cast aside looking unto Jesus. Now, how do you look to Christ
that's invisible? Well, he has to give you the eyes to do it.
He has to give you the ears to hear his voice. And that's where
faith comes in. He gives repentance and faith
to his people. He gives, it's all by grace. By grace are you
saved through faith. And that's what he does. Paul
said it this way, to whom coming? We continually come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We never stop coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Salvation's not a one-time-and-done
action. It was on the cross of Calvary
when Christ came, but we are needing to be saved constantly.
Am I saying I lose salvation? No, certainly not. But is it
not true in the believer's life, we're constantly like, Lord,
I've made a mess again, save me again. Save me again. That's
the truth, isn't it? Our hope doesn't come in what
we do or what we've done. Our hope comes through and by
the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done. What he has done. Coming to Christ is continually
begging him to have mercy. Coming to Christ is surrendering
to his authority, to his character, to his person, to his power,
saying I'm powerless. You have all the power. I don't
want any glory, you get all the glory, both now and forever.
That's what coming to Christ means. Someone may say, well, I can't
do that. I can't rest, I can't come to Christ unless he makes
me. Well, that's why coming to Christ is begging. You're asking
him, Lord, cause me. Lord, make me. Lord, teach me
thy ways. Lord, help me. Notice the same
pattern all throughout, those who came to Christ. They came
begging Him for something, didn't they? They never came to Him
pompous and arrogant. They never came to Him presumptuous.
They never came to Him saying, you're going to do this for me
because I've done this for you. You won't find one person in the
scripture that received mercy from the Lord that said, I've
done this for you, so you owe me. You won't find it. Everyone
that came to Christ came to Him begging. Have mercy on me, the
sinner. Lord, I'm blind. I cannot see. Lord, will you give me my sight?
Lord, will you make me whole? I will be thou made whole. Lord,
you have all the power. I don't have any power. I don't
have any ability. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. I can't do anything to please you, to obligate you,
to restrain or constrain you. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. I'm the sinner and you're the
Savior. Turn with me to Mark chapter
nine. Mark chapter nine now the Lord
had just been transfigured in front of Peter, James and John.
They call it the mountain of transfiguration. What that means
is is he actually dropped his veil of flesh and his glory was
revealed and. I love Peter so much. We're just
like him. We put our foot in our mouth
so easily. And Peter looked at the Lord, and he saw Elijah,
and he saw Moses talking with the Lord. And Peter says, Lord,
let's build three temples right here. Just one to you, one to
Moses, and one to Elijah. The Lord didn't even acknowledge
what he said. I love that. He didn't rebuke him or anything.
You hear the voice that comes from heaven. God the Father says,
this is my beloved son. Hear ye him. Why is that? Why did he say it that way? Well,
because Moses represents the law. Moses represents the law. He said, no, don't go to the
law for your righteousness. You will be saved from the law or
by the law, by doing. And don't go to the prophets.
This is the prophet in front of you, the Lord Jesus Christ
that all of them spoke about. This is the embodiment of the
Lord's prophet right here. Hear ye him. Well, after that
conversation, Peter didn't say anything else. They left the
mountaintop, they come down to the bottom. And a group, a group
of individuals, called a multitude, a multitude was down at the bottom.
And, The scribes were questioning
them. Why are you following this, Jesus? Why are you doing this
or why are you doing that? And the Lord questioned them.
Why do you question the people? He said, why do you question
the people? Now that's where we're at right here. So let's read this,
Mark chapter nine, verse 17 through 27. And one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he bometh and gnasheth with his teeth and
pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they could cast him out and they could not. 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 they brought
him unto him. And when he saw him straightway,
the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming.
He asked his father, how long Is it a go since this child,
since this came unto him? And he said, of a child. And
oft times it hath cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. Jesus answered him, if thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Now there's a statement. Thou canst believe. If you can
believe, if is the key word there, if you can believe, all things,
all things are possible. And straightway the father of
the child cried out as we do and said with tears, Lord, I
believe, 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 enter
no more into him. And the spirit cried and rent
him sore and came out of him and he was as one dead in so
much that many said he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand,
lifted him up, he arose. And when he was coming to the
house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast
him out? And he said unto them, this kind
come not forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. Notice the sad state of this
child first. First thing I want us to notice
is the sad state of this child. He was possessed. He was a maniac. We've heard about the maniac
several times, haven't we? What hope did this maniac have
of becoming sane? He was possessed. What hope did
this maniac have of becoming non-possessed? What hope did
he have? In and of himself, what could
he have done to get rid of it? See, we're all born with a sin
problem, aren't we? The problem isn't that we sin
and therefore we become a sinner. The problem is we sin because
we're a sinner. A dog barks. Not the first time
to become a dog, it barks because it is a dog. You and I are born
in sin. We're shapen in iniquity. We
come from our mother's womb speaking lies, the scripture says. We're
born maniacs, we don't know who God is. Not from birth, we don't
know. Only the Lord can introduce himself.
Only the Lord can come and reveal himself and he's the only one
that can put us in our right mind. Our right mind, he has
to do it. He has to do it. And what of
this lad, well he, this child, says that he was controlled by
an evil spirit. And isn't it true for those who
are not the Lord's people, those who are lost, is it not true
the influence, and the Lord's people still have influence,
don't get me wrong, but it's the Lord that keeps us by his
power. It's the Lord that keeps his
people according to his will. Otherwise, we would succumb to
all kinds of terrible things, but the Lord keeps his people.
What about those who are not kept? Well, that's why you see
all the things that are going on in the world today. Say, how
could God do this? God just left them to their self.
That's the truth of it. You wanna know what the Lord
has to do in order for a man to go to hell? Leave them to themselves,
that's it. Never speak to them, never reveal
his gospel, never tell them the truth, leave them to themselves,
that's it. And you know what they'll do? They'll believe the
lie. that they are God, I'm good enough
for God, taking the place of the Lord Jesus Christ all the
way to the pit. Thank God he chose to come to
this place where this child was with the dumb and deaf spirit.
I love the fact that it's dumb and deaf, meaning it can't hear
and it can't speak, and yet when the Lord speaks to him, he hears.
I like that. I like that a lot. What does
that mean? Well, we're dumb and deaf by nature. We're born blind,
we're born deaf, we're born mute. We can't understand the spiritual
because we're in the flesh. The Lord has to come to us and
speak the words, live, just like he told Lazarus. Lazarus, come
forth. And if he does not, we'll remain
blind, we'll remain deaf. and will remain dumb, thinking
that we can see. That's what he told the Pharisees
when they were asking him. They said, are you saying that
we're blind also? And he said, because you say you see, therefore
your sin remaineth. But of those who are made blind,
they're made blind by the Lord, and the Lord says, receive thy
sight. So the Lord gets all the glory, doesn't he? Pharisees
had their own glory. They kept their traditions, they
kept their law, they kept all the things. looking to themselves. Lord, I thank Thee that I'm this
way and not that way. It's what the Pharisee said about
the publican wasn't it? I'm not like this man. I'm not
even like this Pharisee or this publican back here. And the publican
would not lift his head up to the ceiling, not to the sky.
It's a picture of his humility. Coming to Christ is humble. And
he said, have mercy on me, the sinner. See, it's a heart problem.
He beat on his chest. He knew it was a heart problem.
He said, Lord, I can't fix this heart. It's deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked, the scripture says. Lord, you
don't want my heart. I need a new one. Take out this heart of stone
and give me a heart of flesh, one that beats after you, one
that looks to you by faith. That's what he was saying. And
the Lord said, one of these men went home justified. It was the
publican, wasn't it? Well, the father's boy had already
come to the disciples and they were powerless. Why were they
powerless to cast out this evil spirit? The Lord tells them,
this kind, this kind cometh not. This kind can come forth by nothing
but by prayer and fasting. What do you mean come forth by
nothing? Well, you can't do it in and of yourself. That's the
point. You don't possess the ability in and of yourself. See, we need a substitute. We
need a surety. We need a savior. Not an offer. Christ Jesus offered himself
to the Father and the Father was well pleased with his darling
son. We need the Lord to save us when
we're unsavable. Love us when we were unlovable.
That's what we need. We don't need an opportunity
to get better. Lord, I'm wretched, I'm vile,
I'm a maniac like this little boy here. I'm dumb and deaf.
You're gonna have to save me. You have to save me because I'm
powerless. And why were they powerless?
Unbelief. Now, one way or another, they were looking at themselves.
They were looking at circumstances, not what could not be seen, but
what they could see. They were looking at themselves
and their own power, their own ability, and they couldn't do
it. Because the Lord said, you can't
do this. It's impossible unless you do
it by looking. Prayer and fasting, what does
that mean? Looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
way. That's the only way. Imagine them thinking, I can
see them doing this. It said he took them to the disciples.
That's plural, it's not singular. He didn't take them to a disciple,
he took them to the disciples. And so you have one disciple
that comes up and says, yeah, I can cast out this spirit. Think
about that. And you know that's how it went.
That's pretty much how it went. And he tried and it didn't work.
Then another one said, well, I'll try. And another one said,
well, I'll try. Because all the disciples came and said, why
couldn't we do this? Why couldn't we do this? Well,
because you're doing it Number one, for the wrong reason. You're
doing it because you think that you can do it. That's the problem. You
can't do it. It's my power. It is the Lord's power that he
gave to them. And you can imagine that they had the same thought
that you and I have over and over and over and over in life.
I thought. That's it. That's the root, part
of the root of unbelief right there. I thought. I thought if
I did this, then I would get this. I thought if I didn't do
that, I would get this. I thought that if I tried a little
bit harder, did a little bit better, that I might be able
to achieve this. And we're constantly going, physically
we're dealing with things and we get knocked down. But I'm
talking about when it comes to spiritual matters, When it comes
to spiritual matters, look to what Christ has done. He's the
one that pleased the Father. Don't look to yourself. That's
what the disciples were doing. Well, we cast out this one and
this one and this one, so we're good to go. We can cast out this one,
too. Nope, because you're not looking to Christ. You're not
looking to Christ. Naaman had that same thought.
You remember Naaman? Captain of the Guard of Syria. Can you
imagine being the second in command over the Syrian Army, the biggest
powerful army in the world at that time? He had a lot of problems.
Think about that. How many problems do you think
that man had? Rob, you have a company, and
Steve, you too. You guys have problems all the time popping
up here and there, and you only have a dozen men, right? Think about how many
problems a captain of the host of Syria would have. He had a
lot of problems, until one day, he had one problem only. Why? He was made a leper. He was made
a leper. And he could not fix that problem,
no matter what he did. But it was by God's divine purpose
and providence that a Hebrew girl was taken into captivity
and happened to be, and I love saying happened. You know good
and well it was on purpose. God doesn't make mistakes and
he doesn't make accidents. God purposed that young lady
to be in that house at that time. He's saying, I'm a leper. And
she says, well, there's a prophet in Israel. I know him. I know who
it is. It's a prophet in Israel. You
go down to him and he'll heal you. He'll heal you. And Amon
said, OK, well, let's do it. I can do that. I can do that. And he got his caravan ready
and all of his goods ready. He got all of his gifts ready.
He was going to go honor the prophet with all these goods
and whatnot and said, this is going to be great. I'm going
to come down here and do this and that, and then it's going
to be all over. And we know that because of what transpires. Well,
he gets down to the place where the prophet is, Prophet don't
even come outside. He sends the servant and says,
go wash in Jordan seven times. Go wash in Jordan seven times.
Jordan represents death, number one, but Jordan's a muddy river.
It's a muddy, nasty river. You wouldn't look at it and say,
boy, I'd like to go swimming in that. There's places I've seen I'd
like to go swimming in. It's nice and clear and warm
and pretty, whatever. No, this is just muddy and ugly.
And he said, you gotta wash there. And Naaman said, but I, he says
these words, he said, I thought. I thought the prophet would come
out and he would wave his hands and he would do all kinds of
this and that and the other and then all of a sudden I'd be healed.
I thought. It's our problem, isn't it? We
thought. See, our ways are not God's ways. See, he's higher
than the heavens. He's holy. He's just, he's right,
he's other than we are. That's what holy means, other.
He doesn't have new thoughts like you and I do. And yet he
chooses to think upon his beloved people. He chooses to think upon
them. Naaman said, well, I thought. Well, the servant looks at him
and said, listen, I know you're mad, but if he would have told
you to do something amazing, you'd go do it. All he's saying
is go dip in the Jordan. Well, Naaman swallows his pride and
he does it. And he's healed. And he's healed of his leprosy.
Why? Because going to Jordan and dipping seven times represents
the perfect death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we don't die
in him, then we will die without him. See, when he died, it wasn't
that he just died to make a place where everybody can come and
dump their sins into. No, he took his people's sin
into himself. He who knew no sin became sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And the wrath
of God poured out upon him. And the moment God was satisfied,
the veil in the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom so
that we can now enter boldly to the throne of grace, having
obtained mercy to find grace to help in the time of need.
God saved his people from their sin that day. We say, well, I
thought, but I thought. Naaman went and had to die the
perfect death, just like you and I have to die the perfect
death. And the only way that can happen is if the Lord chose to put us
in Christ before time ever began. That's what he said he did in
Ephesians chapter one, verse four. Naaman was healed. Naaman was healed. And the only
way you and I can be healed is Look to Christ. Look to the words. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The only way that we can look is if we're given sight. The
only way we can believe is if we're given faith by the Lord's grace. See, we're saved by grace alone.
It's not grace plus something I do or something you do. Looking
is passive. If I'm looking, it's because
he's given me the ability to do so. If I believe, it's because
he's given me the ability to do so. See, Naaman was looking at what
he could see. He actually, I failed to mention this, but he said,
why can't I go up to the northern waters and dip? He said, they're
much prettier up there. Because God said so. Just how
it is. You know, as a father, many times
I've looked at my kids and they're like, why can't I do that? And
I said, because I said so. And they know that's the end of it.
That's good enough. Okay, Dad said so, got it. Now,
they might not like it, but is that not what the Lord does sometimes
for his people? He says, because I said so. And
we're like, truth, Lord. You know better than I. Matter
of fact, I know nothing. Like Job, I'm gonna put my hands
over my mouth. I'm not gonna talk anymore. That's what he
does. Well, look at the Lord's statement
here. Verse 23. Jesus said, 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 my unbelief. These are tears of desperation.
These are tears of total relinquishment of any pride whatsoever. This
is tears of abasement. This is tears of complete dependency. These are necessary tears, not
to try to obligate God, but because his heart's broken. See, those
who come to Christ, those who come to Christ, the Lord has
to give a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And if he doesn't give
that, no one will come to Christ. No one will come, nor can they
come to Christ. Am I saying if you come to Christ,
you must cry? No, I'm saying if you come to
Christ, you'll come with a broken heart. It's the only way. And
that's a gift of grace as well, isn't it? It's a gift of grace
that he gives his people. But we agree with the Father
here. Lord, I believe, but I can't trust my heart. I can't trust
my tears. I can't trust my emotions. I
can't trust my feelings. I can't trust my words. I can't
even trust my prayer. Lord, I see the sin that I am.
Everything that I do is sinful. Even the prayers that I pray
are sinful. Unless you take them and wash them in your blood,
unless you present them perfect unto the Father, they're sinful.
Lord, I don't have any hope. Help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. And the Lord said, I will. I
will, and he healed him, didn't he? He healed him. Oh, if the Lord doesn't cause
us, we'll see that we're false and full of sin. The only way
to be saved is by grace alone. We see that, don't we? Oh, we
see that. The Lord healed this young man. He tells the disciples, they
asked him, why can't we do this? He said, well, this kind cometh
not, come nothing but by prayer and fasting. It means looking
unto Jesus Christ alone, not yourself, not your power, not
your choice, not your efforts, not what you do, but what he
has done, his choice, his power, his efforts, his work, looking
to Christ. That's where salvation is, is
in him. It's not in you and I. Salvation's not in the choices
that we make. Salvation's in the choice that
he makes. You have your bulletin in front
of you. If you look on the front of it, you'll see that 2 Timothy
1 verse 9, it says, God saved us first, and then he called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which were given us before time, before
the world ever began, before the world ever began. That's
called the covenant of grace, isn't it? That's what he does
for his people. That's what this is a picture of here. He came
to this child that could not help himself just as he come
to each, you and I, to save his people at his appointed time.
He comes to where we are and he casts out that demonic spirit.
And now we see Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. We just
see him. We rest in him. We look to Christ alone, not
ourselves as any part of our salvation. We're gonna take the
Lord's table this morning after second service. We look to his
blood alone, don't we, to cleanse us. We look to his body broken
alone, not our service, his service. Look to his body and blood alone,
not our blood, not our body. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto you be all glory and honor and praise. We look
to how he satisfied the demands of God alone. And we say with
this child's father, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. Lord, I
reek of unbelief. Lord, I'm saturated with it.
Lord, I despise myself because of it. You know something I look
forward to one day? We'll never have unbelief again. When faith
ends in sight, there'll never be a time where we don't believe.
There'll be no need for faith anymore or hope. They'll pass
away because we'll be face to face. Face to face, we won't
have to worry. We won't have to fret. We won't
have to fear. We won't have to say, Lord, help
my unbelief. There won't be any. There is
no unbelief in glory. Lord, I reek of it now, Lord,
I'm saturated with it. Lord, help my unbelief. And you
know what the Lord said? I will, be thou made whole. Be thou made
whole. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but sinners. to repentance. I didn't come
to call the righteous. Those who believe that they are
doing something to please God on their own, I didn't come to
call them. I come to call the sinners. Are you a sinner? Are
you a sinner? Has the Lord made you a sinner?
Only the Lord can make a man and a woman a sinner. He has
to do it. Otherwise, we'll see ourself as self-righteous. Now
in closing, let's go back to Hebrews chapter 12. Verse one, wherefore, seeing
we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. We have these witnesses of God's grace here.
in chapter 11 as it's mentioned. But did you know you and I, we're
witnessers of God's grace. Isn't that true? One to another.
Now you and I may not see that we're a help to one another in
the love that we do one towards another and the kindness that
we do, meaning I'm not looking at myself and saying, okay, well
I really love so and so and I've done this and this, so that must
mean I believe the gospel. We don't do that, do we? Love
is selfless. So if I operate in love, I'm
doing it selflessly, not for to gain something. But as we're
witnessing one to another, ministering one to another, what are we doing?
We're pointing them to Christ. No, look to Him. Don't look to
me. Don't look to the gift I gave you. Look to Him who supplied
the gift for me to be able to give it to you and gave me the
strength to give it to you. See, Lord's people want Him to have
all the glory. And whether we did or didn't, He's gonna get
it anyways. He's gonna have all His glory. Every knee's gonna
bow and every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, period. It's gonna happen. Oh, for the
grace of the Lord to allow us to bow now and confess that with
the heart of faith that He gives. Oh, for the grace of God to believe
in his shed blood now for the remission of sin, that it's not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us, according to his mercy. Well, how do we lay aside every
weight and sin that does so easily beset us and run the race with
patience that is set before us? Well, I told us starting out,
he doesn't keep us guessing, looking unto Jesus. How does
a blind man look? Well, a blind man can beg, Lord,
cause me to see your face. Don't let me ever think that
I've saw your face and missed it. Don't ever let me think I've
saw it and actually missed it. Cause me to see your face. Do
you ever cry out to the Lord and say, Lord, if I've never
saw you before, may today be the day. May today be the day.
No, I'm positive I saw him back then. I'm positive I seen him.
I need manna today. I need the fresh bread of the
Lord today. I need my, I need to be satisfied
today with the milk and honey of the word. Yesterday's manna's
gone. You can't go back on yesterday's
manna. I need it today, right now. Right now. Looking unto
Jesus, he's the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross and despised, despising the shame.
You know what that word despise means? It didn't bother him.
He literally paid no attention to it. Didn't affect him in any
way. Can you imagine getting beaten,
ridiculed, cursed, beard plucked out, spit upon, mocked, made
fun of? Didn't even bother him. Why?
Who for the joy set before him. What joy? The salvation. of God's chosen people. The joy that was set before him
to honor the father in the covenant of grace to complete the job
given to him of the father before time ever began. And did he accomplish
that? Is he a failure? Is he waiting
on me and you to do something? No, he accomplished it. He is
seated at the right hand of the father. The father said, sit
thou here at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool. Shame didn't bother him in the
least. He was doing business with God on his people's behalf.
He is seated as a successful savior of his chosen, elected,
and purchased people. You believe that? Lord, I believe
that. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your word. We pray that you would take it
and bless it according to your will, to our understanding. May
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and have no confidence
in the flesh. In Christ's name, amen.