If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter five. Mark chapter five. When the Lord saves a sinner,
he gives faith. And that faith trusts Christ
alone for all their salvation. And yet that sinner is still
left with his old man. And so every believer cries,
Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Help
thou mine unbelief. We're going to be looking tonight
at a miracle that our Lord performs for the purpose of encouraging
us that very prayer, Lord I believe help thou my unbelief. Hebrews chapter 12 the Lord tells
us to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily
beset us and I'm certain that Each of us have different temptations
and different things that we deal with and struggle with,
but there's one sin. It says the sin that does so
easily beset us. There's one sin that besets all
of us. And it is the root cause of all those other problems.
And it is the sin of unbelief. The sin of unbelief. And so all
of God's people, are in need of what the disciples saw their
need for when they said, Lord, increase our faith. Lord, help
me to trust you, to believe you. Help me to seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. The Lord tells us in his word
the reason why he performed the miracles that he performed. In
John chapter 20, John says, many other signs, and that's a very
important word in that verse, many other signs did Jesus that
are not recorded in this book. But these have been recorded
in order that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
son of the living God, and that believing you might have life
through his name. So the word tells us very clearly
the purpose that he had in performing miracles. He calls these miracles
a sign. People then, just like people
today, are enamored with the signs. They're enamored with
the physical miracles and they miss the spiritual meaning of
the miracles, the spiritual purpose of the miracles. It'd be like
going on a journey and every time you come to a road sign,
stopping and inspecting that sign and doing that so much that
you never get to your destination. But that's what a sign is. A
sign points to something else. And the Lord said, a wicked and
perverse generation seeketh after a sign. We refer to the miracles
of healing, the miracles of tongues, and all those things that were
extraordinary in the early days of the New Testament church as
sign gifts. That's what they were. They were
gifts that God had given to the church in order to point to Christ. You say, well, why don't we need
those sign gifts anymore? Because we have the complete
record of God's word. That's the reason. We test everything
now by scripture. We don't look for physical signs. We look in God's word for Christ and for our faith in him. You remember when those men brought
their friend who was crippled and lowered him down through
the tiles of the roof. And the Lord saw him and said,
your sins are forgiven thee. And the Pharisee said, who is
this that forgives sins? And our Lord said, What is easier
to say, thy sins are forgiven thee, or stand up and walk? But
that you may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive
sins, I say unto thee." So he performed that miracle in order
to confirm the truth of who he is and his forgiving
of sins. So when we read these miracles,
Let us not lose sight of what the real miracle here is. The real miracle is spiritual. And that which is of the spirit
is spirit. That which is of the flesh is flesh. The flesh profiteth
nothing. And if the Lord's pleased to
show us the spiritual meaning of these miracles, we will find
ourselves in the same place that Jairus
was, in need of faith, in need of faith. The real miracle that's
being performed here is giving faith to Jairus, not the raising
of his daughter from the dead. As wonderful as that was, That girl grew up and died again. And so whatever physical blessings
we receive from God are always temporal. They quickly fade away. But the
spiritual blessings are eternal. They're eternal. And that's what
we're in need of. We're in need of God to do a
work of grace in our hearts and do something that will last forever. You have your Bibles open to
Mark chapter five. We'll begin reading at verse
21. And when Jesus was passed over
again by ship onto the other side, much people gathered unto
him. and he was nigh unto the sea.
And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue."
This is a man that served God in the synagogue. Obviously very familiar with
scriptures. I think of Nicodemus when I think of Jairus. a ruler
of the Jews. And the Lord saying to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, you can't even see the kingdom of God except to
be born from above. You need a spiritual blessing. And that's where Jairus was.
As religious as he was, as much as he would have known about
the scriptures, he was paralyzed by his unbelief. And when he saw him, when Jairus
saw the Lord, he fell at his feet and besought him greatly,
saying, my little daughter lieth at the point of death, and I
pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed,
and she may live. And Jesus went with him, and
much people followed him." Now, verse 25, down to the verse 34,
the Lord causes another woman, to come to the Lord, a woman
with an issue of blood, and you know the story. And I'm not going
to read those verses, but I want us to think for a moment about
the way Jairus must have been feeling while the Lord is being,
in his mind, interrupted by this other woman, rather than
going with him to his house. His anxiety was growing by the
moment because Matthew tells us in this story that she was
nigh unto death, that she was, Jairus came to the Lord, his
daughter was on her deathbed. We see that in this story, in
this record of the story. In verse 35, and when he spake,
there came from the rulers of the synagogue's house certain
which said, thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the master
any further? And as soon as Jesus heard the
word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue,
be not afraid. Only belief. Jairus, that's your need, to
believe. If I could believe as I ought,
I'd never be afraid. Jairus' problem was not that
his daughter had died, as grievous as that would be. Jairus' problem
is that he didn't trust God. He needed faith. And the Lord
went right to the heart of the issue. The scriptures tell us that perfect
love, God's love, casteth out fear. David put it like this. What
time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. You see, believing God
is the only solution to our fears. Isaiah said it like this, thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.
You see, again, what we need is Christ. And if we have him,
we have everything. David in another place said,
trust ye the Lord, for he is thy everlasting strength. We are weak, we're prone to fear,
we're full of sin and unbelief. But it's not our circumstances
that we have a problem with, it is our sin. It is our sin. If we were able to believe God
as we ought, we could be asleep in the back of the boat in the
midst of a raging storm. You say, well, that was the Lord.
Yeah, well, what distinguishes Christ from us? He had perfect
faith. He had perfect faith. We don't. We're always in need
of more. And that faith comes in Christ. The apostles were beaten to the
edge of their lives and chained to a Roman dungeon. and singing praises to God when
the earthquake came and the doors opened. You see, it's really not our
circumstances. We could be cast into the fiery
furnace, and if one like unto the Son of God was in there with
us, then then the fire would not touch
us. Those Hebrew children came out
of that fiery furnace without the smell of smoke on their clothes,
and not a hair was hinged, singed. They were protected. and kept by the presence of the
Lord Jesus. Daniel was in the lion's den,
and it was the Lord that kept him in that horrible place. You and I are in need to be kept.
We are in need of, you know, so often we think, well, if the
Lord could just change my circumstances, everything would be all right.
No. Lord, change me. Change me. Truth is that the
way of the Lord, the scripture says, is through the seas. And
God stirs up troubles in the lives of his children in order
to reveal to them what their real need is. And beauty of heaven,
the scripture says that there is no more sea, no more trouble,
no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sin, no more unbelief. No more unbelief, we see him
in the fullness of his glory and we become like him and are
satisfied. When Samuel told Eli the judgment
of God against his family, what did Eli say? It's the Lord. It's the Lord, let him do whatever
he seems fit. Whatever he wills, it'll be right. God does it, it'll be right. That thief on the cross, could
circumstances get any worse than his? Tortured in crucifixion. Yet he heard the master say,
this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. That's what we need. We need to see his face. You
just read it, Caleb, or cause thy face to shine upon us. Yes, the sin that doth so easily
beset us is the sin of unbelief. Those disciples, when the Lord
was wakened from his sleep, The Lord said to the disciples, why
are you afraid? Another place where the Lord
asked a probing question. Why are you afraid? Oh, ye of
little faith. So he answers the question that
he asked. There's why you're afraid, because you have such
little faith. You don't trust me. And, uh, Peter got out of that boat and
walked on the water. Lord bid me to come unto thee,
and know what he said? The Lord said, come. Peter got out. Only man other
than the Lord Jesus ever walked on water. As long as he had his
eyes fixed on Christ, he was fine. But what happened? He took
his eyes off the Lord. He looked at the wind and the
waves and began to sink. See, every time we take our eyes
off of Christ, isn't that what happens? The Lord lets us sink
in our circumstances until we are brought as Peter was to say,
Lord, save me. And immediately he reached out
his hand. The real, the real reason for unbelief
is sin. And it's not our circumstances. It's our sin. And that can only
be met by the Lord saying to us, be not afraid, only believe. Only believe. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
43. Verse one. But now, but now,
thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed
thee, O Israel. You see, Jacob's that supplanter. He's that unbeliever. He's that
old man. He's that man that tries to take
things under his own control. And Israel,
he's the prince of God. There we are. And God, just as
he created us in our natural state, he also created us in
our spiritual state. And so he's saying, don't be
afraid because I created you, I made you. For I have redeemed thee. He
said, oh, Israel, fear not. How many times we read in God's
word, fear not, don't be afraid. Why would the Lord say that so
oftentimes? Yeah, yeah. You see, only a fool would say,
well, you know, I'm not. We're sinners. God's holy. And we have circumstances that
we don't have any power over. And so we have reason to be afraid. The man who says, I'm not afraid,
is a fool. He's not brave. He's ignorant, he doesn't understand
what's at stake. We're always in need of the Lord
to say, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. Not only did I
make you, I bought you. I purchased you, you belong to
me. You've been bought with a price. The precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ has been shed to make you my own. And I have called
thee. I've called thee by thy name,
and thou art mine. You belong to me. When thou passeth
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. My Savior. What a precious promise. What a glorious God. When we
were yet without strength, without strength, here's what we are. Christ in due time. He died for the ungodly. Lord,
I don't have strength. I don't have strength. You know,
the word ungodly in the Bible We look at our own hearts and
we see a lot of ungodliness. But if you look up the word ungodly
in the Bible, it's the word worship with the Greek alpha in front
of it. And just like in English, when
you put an A in front of a word, it reverses the meaning of that
word. And so in the original text,
when God says that we are ungodly, What he's saying is we're not
capable of worshiping God. We can't come into the very presence
of God. We can't approach a holy God. We don't have the ability but
by his grace. We can only come before the throne
of grace if the Lord gives us grace. And our acceptance before
God is only in the beloved. So, Lord said, don't be afraid. I
created thee, I redeemed thee, I bought thee, I gave you your
name, you're mine. When you go through these trials
and these troubles, as Jairus was with a daughter that now
has died, the Lord says, don't be afraid, only believe. Jairus's need was to believe
God. And that's your need and that's
my need. And it's constant. I want you to notice the exclusivity
of saving faith. He said, do not be afraid. That's
your problem. Your problem is fear. Your problem
is unbelief. And that's the root cause of
everything else that you think is the problem. And then he says, only, only
believe. To believe God is to rest in
Christ. It's to is to have all of our
hope in him. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that. I'm
trusting Christ alone. It's not Christ plus anything
else. I can't add anything to what
he's accomplished and to who he is. Christ is all my hope. And if God ever leaves us to
ourselves, We'll diversify our hope in lots
of other things. A simple illustration. Where
we live, we have pretty bad storms sometimes and we lose our electricity
sometimes for long periods of time. And I'm a pretty slow learner. But for years, we had flashlights
in every room of our house. And whenever we needed a flashlight,
I couldn't find one. I couldn't find one. And a couple
of years ago, I gathered up all the flashlights, put them in
one basket in one place, and they haven't moved in two years.
Anytime I need a flashlight, I know exactly where it's at. And it worked. Well, that was
pretty simple. We've got 10 flashlights in one
basket. You have your hope in anything
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't have all your flashlights
in one basket, all your eggs in one, if you don't have all
your hope on Christ and Christ alone, you're not gonna be able
to find help when you need it. When it gets dark, you're not
gonna be able to find a flashlight. We don't add our works, we don't
add our knowledge, we don't add our experience, we don't add
our feelings. We look to Christ. When that Philippian jailer asked
Paul, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Paul didn't say, well,
you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you have
to apologize for what you've done to us, and take care of
our wounds, and prove yourself to be a, no. He said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved in all thine
house. Now he did those other things, but that wasn't a prerequisite
for salvation. When the Ethiopian eunuch, Ask
Philip, what doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip didn't say,
well, if you believe with all of your heart, and then by the
way, you gotta go back with me to Jerusalem because there's
nobody in Ethiopia that knows the gospel, and you're such a
brand new, you know, we've gotta disciple you. We gotta take you
through our discipleship training classes and make sure that you've
got a good understanding before you go home and start preaching
the gospel. That Ethiopian eunuch, as far
as we have the book of Isaiah, I don't know what else he might've
had. Immediately when he came out of that water, Philip was
caught away by the spirit and Ethiopian went rejoicing down
to, the eunuch went rejoicing down to Ethiopia. If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. All right, you say, well, you've
been saying, preacher, that we have unbelief in our hearts,
and we do. And so how can you believe with
all of your heart? Are you talking about just not having any unbelief?
No, I'm talking about what Philip was saying. And that Ethiopian
answered the question when he said, I believe, I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that that one, he had
asked him, Does the prophet speak of himself or does he speak of
another from Isaiah chapter 53 and Philip beginning there in
that passage preached unto him Jesus and the Ethiopian said,
I believe what you just preached. I believe that that is the Christ,
the anointed one, the Messiah, the only hope that I have to
be saved and to stand in the presence of a holy God. And I
had all my flashlights in one basket. This faith that we are in such
desperate need of can only come from God. For by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourself. Faith is not
a decision. Faith is not a choice. Faith
is not our contribution to salvation. We have a, got a call just this
morning. We have a lady in our church
that's three weeks early, but they're breaking her water and
she's in labor right now at the hospital in Orlando, Daytona
actually. And what's the baby's name? Jack. Jack. Lord willing, Jack
will be born today. And when he comes out of the
womb, he won't be breathing for a second or two until he's
born. And if he's born alive, he will
breathe. And the only reason a baby doesn't
breathe when they're born is that they're stillborn. And my point is that breathing's
like faith. We believe because we've been
made alive. Faith is the result of our salvation,
not the cause of it. It's such an important distinction
because everybody in the world makes faith the cause of salvation. God's done his part, now I have
to do my part in order to make what he did work for me. And
so I have to believe in order to be saved. The gospel of work says if you
believe, then God will save you. The gospel of grace says I have
saved you and you will believe. You're going to be birthed. Nicodemus,
except you be born of the Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of
God. And the Spirit's like the wind. The Spirit of God births
us and then we breathe. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. It's not the cause of it. God gives faith. Faith is what
we do when we're made, when we're birthed into the kingdom of God
by the spirit of God. When we're made alive, we just
breathe. You say, well, doesn't the Bible
say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, and everything that
God commands us to do, God must provide. That's why he commands
it. He commands it in order for those
who he's made sensible to their need to say, Lord, what you've
commanded, you're gonna have to give me. A man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven. Turn us again, O Lord. Turn us again. I love that. Turn us again. I think there's
five times in that Psalm that David says that. Turn us again,
O Lord, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be
saved. You see, we're always in need
of the Lord turning us. We're always in need of the Lord
giving us faith. Peter put it like this. In religion,
men talk about, you know, when they got saved. You don't hear
believers talk like that. Peter put it like this, to whom
coming? Always coming to Christ. Always
in need of faith. Always crying, Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Jairus, don't be afraid. As difficult as your circumstances
are, your need is to only believe. That's your real need. And that's
the real miracle. The real miracle that you and
I need is not for God to change our circumstances. The real need
that we have is for God to change our hearts. give us faith, reveal
Christ to us, and that we will only, only have him. David said
it like this in Psalm 143, cause me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning. Cause me, cause me to know the
way in which I should walk. Where are you going to have to
cause it? Draw me, "'and I will run after
thee,' Solomon said "'in the Song of Solomon. "'Draw me, and
I will run after thee.'" I said, well, doesn't the Bible
say that God commands all men everywhere to believe? Yes. And
the Bible also says that many are called, a few are chosen. Children of Israel, when Moses
came down off the mountain with the law, first thing they said
was, we're going to do it. That's what God wants, that's
what we're going to do. Moses said, you can't keep God's law,
and he made a blood sacrifice right there. You see, that's
man's pride to think, well, God said do it, I'm going to do it.
God said do it, Lord, you're going to have to enable me to
do it. You don't have to cause me to believe. Here's my need. And my last point is the object of our faith. The object of our faith is not
faith. Men look in faith to their faith. They say, well, if you could
just believe harder, just believe more, just have more faith, That's
not what the Lord said. The Lord said if you had faith
as a mustard seed, you should say unto this mountain, be ye
cast into the sea. Faith is not in faith. And faith
is not in doctrine. We don't believe in the sovereignty
of God. We believe in a God who is sovereign. It makes a big difference. Faith
has to be in a person. And the Lord's looking at Jairus
in his eyes. Jairus, don't be afraid. You just heard that your daughter
is dead. Trouble the master no longer.
Don't be afraid. Only believe. Only believe. Believe what? Believe me. Believe
me, trust me. It's not one's faith in Christ
that saves, it's Christ that saves. It's not one's hope in Christ
that saves, it's Christ who is our hope. It's not one's joy in Christ
that saves, it's Christ who is our rejoicing. He is the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the third person of the triune
Godhead. He's the sovereign, omnipotent
Son of God, the uncreated, eternal, self-existent, Immutable. He's the same. He said, I am the Lord and I
change not. And that's the only reason why
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The reason we're not consumed
by our circumstances and by our unbelief is because the Lord
refuses to change. He cannot change. He cannot change. That's why he said to Peter,
Peter, Satan has asked to sift thee. And before the night's
out, you're gonna deny me three times. What a horrible sin and
circumstances Peter found himself in. Here's what the last thing
the Lord said to Peter, be of good cheer. I have prayed for
thee. And the only difference between
Peter and Judas that night is that the Lord prayed for Peter.
He left Judas to himself. They both did the same thing. And when thou hast been converted, when did that happen? Well, it
happened at least twice, when the Lord looked at him and Peter
wept bitterly. And then three days later on
the seashore of the Sea of Galilee, when the Lord came to Peter.
I know it's a love, but when the Lord rose from the dead and
told Mary, go and tell Peter and the disciples that I'm alive. Go and tell Peter, I've prayed
for him and I'm gonna minister grace to him. I'm gonna keep
him. He's the uncreated creator and
sustainer of all of life. This is who we, this is the object
of our faith. The one who said, let there be
light, and who is himself that light. The one who holds all
things together by the power of his word. You know, let the
men of this world try to figure out, you know, how's all this
thing, oh, our God holds it together. The brightest minds in the world
are, what are they looking for? They're looking for the dark
matter out there in the universe. They call it the God particle.
They're never gonna find it. Never gonna, you can't put God
under a microscope. You can't see him in a telescope.
Only by the eyes of faith can God be seen and those have to
be given to us by God. It is our God that holds all
things together. And he's seated, he's seated
right now at the right hand of God. And he is worthy of all
praise and all glory and all power and all honor. Oh, what
a glorious Savior He is. And our faith is not only in
Him as a person, but our faith is in Him for His accomplished
work. And He was able to do what He
did because He is who He is. As the all-powerful, immutable,
sovereign, Savior, he was successful, successful in what he came to
do. He came to save his people and he accomplished his purpose. Isaiah put it like that, Daniel,
I'm sorry, Daniel chapter nine put it like this. Well, the Lord
put like this in Daniel nine when he said, when he comes,
he's going to be the one who will make an end of sin, who
will finish the transgression, he will make reconciliation for
the iniquity of his people, and he will bring in an everlasting
righteousness. And that's what he did. That's
what he did. Believing in a Jesus who died
2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and offered man salvation, To be completed by something
that we do is not saving faith. It's not saving faith. He actually destroyed the works
of the devil. Remember when Samson took the
gates of Gaza? And Gaza means strength. And Samson, the strong man, a
picture of the Lord Jesus, took the gates of Gaza and put them
on his shoulder and carried them away. And the children of Israel
would go able to go in and destroy that city because of what Samson
had done. What a glorious picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, he said, the gates of
hell shall not be able to prevail against me. And I'm going to
go into the very pit of hell and I'm going to lead captivity
captive. Those who are captive to their
sin, those who are unable to worship God, those who cannot
believe, those who are blind and dead, I'm going to bring
them out. And that's what he did. He brought
every one of them out, every one of them. And he took every
one of them with him back into glory. And we're just waiting now for
the Spirit of God to call the last one, the last one for whom
the Lord Jesus died, the last of God's elect. When they're
brought like Jairus to believe on Christ, This whole thing's over. It's over. There's no reason
for this world to exist one minute past that moment of time when
the last of God's elect is called to Christ. It's the reason for everything.
Men are trying to figure out, well, what's the purpose of life?
There it is right there. God's saving His people. He paid the full price of the
redemption of his people. There was not anything else to
be paid. I had a man in our home recently from India. And it's
the first time I ever actually met somebody that was living
in an arranged marriage. And I had a chance to talk to
him about it at length. I mean, he was in his 50s and
been married, got grown kids. And so, yeah, in India, our parents
put us together long before we met. And it worked well, working
good for them. I think sometimes some of the
choices that young people make for a spouse, I think you probably
should have let your parents make that decision for you. And in India, a dowry has to
be paid. And the dowry is always paid
by the bride to the bridegroom's family. Well, the two times the dowry
is mentioned in the Bible, it's the bridegroom that pays it to
the father of the bride. And the two times that it's mentioned,
the once when Saul told King David, told David before he became
king, for you to have my daughter, Michael, you got to pay me a
dowry. And what it's going to be is
104 skins of the Philistines. David said, no trouble. He went
out, got 200, brought them back. The other time was when Jacob's
sons deceived the men that had taken Dinah, I think it was,
the daughter of Jacob, and slept with her. And the man that had
slept with Jacob's daughter wanted her to wife, and he said, tell
me whatever the dowry is. He was willing to pay to the
wife's Father, a dowry. And the sons of Jacob said, you've
got to be circumcised and your foreskins will be the dowry.
So what's the significance of that? Well, in the cultures of
the world where the wife pays the dowry to the husband, it's
backwards. The husband always pays the dowry
for the wife in the Bible. And the dowry paid was circumcision,
was foreskins. What's the picture there? The
Lord Jesus Christ was cut off from the land of the living,
and that's what circumcision translated means. It means to
be cut off. And his flesh was cut off when he died on Calvary's
cross. What was he doing? He was paying
to the father of his bride a dowry to redeem her to himself. And
the father said, I'm satisfied. Price has been paid. He bought to himself his bride
and he says to her, be not afraid. The troubles, I sent them. When you go through the waters,
I'll be with you. Through the fire, I'll be with you. Be not
afraid. Only, only believe. Okay.