From Doubt to Settled Faith

I want to bring a message to you tonight entitled, From Doubt to Settled Faith. From Doubt to Settled Faith. Tonight we want to look at the nature of doubt, illustrated in the lives of the apostles, the disciples, and how the Lord comes to his children in such weakness to move them from doubt to believing faith. I think it's a bit unfortunate that Thomas takes the rap here in John chapter 20 and is born that infamous characterization as doubting Thomas as if he was the only one. Luke gives the same, speaks to the same exact event that we read about in John 20, but I want you to listen to how doubt is not just manifested in Thomas' life.

Listen to this. The two men on the road to Emmaus have had this encounter with Jesus and then they go back to Jerusalem and it says, verse 33 of Luke 24, so they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon and they told about the things that had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. So Luke is giving us the same account of the disciples and others gathered in the upper room on that first Easter Sunday, verse 36, now as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you.

But they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? Now notice he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while still they did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food?

So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me and he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. From doubt to settled faith. Let's begin tonight by looking at the reality of doubt. The reality of doubt will follow that by a definition of doubt, an illustration of doubt, and then an analysis of doubt. Doubt and uncertainty are common experiences for, dare I say, every believer.

We live as Christians between two poles. The one extreme being doubt, now we're talking about believers here. Doubt on the one hand and extreme certainty on the other hand.

Now we all would hope that we could live our entire lives over here with extreme certainty but the reality is that is not the way it is. I personally am not equally certain about everything that I believe. To some questions of Christian doctrine and theology, I am absolutely certain about, but there are other areas that I remain uncertain. The Puritan Thomas Brooks speaking to the universality of doubt says this, quote, our knowledge of God, of Christ, of ourselves, and of the blessed scripture is imperfect in this life.

And then he ends this statement with a question. How then can our assurance be perfect? How then can our assurance be perfect? Unless you think that encounter, that gracious, wonderful encounter that these disciples had with Jesus in the upper room, lest you think that that dispelled all of their doubts, we're talking about the reality of doubt. Listen to what is recorded at the very end of Matthew's gospel right before the Great Commission. Well, in the context of the Great Commission, these are the last four or five verses of Matthew's gospel. Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed to them. When they saw him, they worshiped him.

You say, okay, I get that. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Some doubted. We're talking tonight about moving from doubt to settled faith. There are many things about the Christian life and our relationship with the Lord that we have doubts about. Doubt is common among believers. I would go so far as to say doubt is a fact of life, differing from Christian to Christian only in frequency, degree, and length of experience. You may be surprised to hear this testimony of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

It's in Donald Whitney's book How Can I Be Sure I'm a Christian on page 20 of that book if you happen to have it. But in his autobiography, Spurgeon wrote of such a battle with doubt. He said, quote, I felt at that time very weary and very sad and very heavy at heart, and I began to doubt in my own mind whether I really enjoyed the things which I preached to others.

He goes on to say, it seemed to be a dreadful thing for me to be only a waiter and not a guest at the gospel feast. Well, if Spurgeon experienced occasional doubts about his relationship with the Lord, then I doubt there's any of us that are sitting here saying, well, not me. I'm beyond that. I've never doubted. I never will doubt.

No. We're talking about the reality of doubt. Doubt is common among believers. So I trust that I've convinced you of that, and if not, we can talk later, but we need to move on beyond not only the reality of doubt but a definition of doubt.

What are we talking about here? And I've given quite a bit of study to this matter because it's so common among us and often manifests itself in counseling contexts, and we try to help people, and you've got to be able to understand what it is that we're dealing with here with doubt. So let me help you here with what I think is a good definition of doubt. Let me start by saying, doubt is not the same as unbelief. Doubt is not the same as unbelief. It's not the opposite of faith. What is the opposite of faith?

The opposite of faith is unbelief. Here's my brief definition of doubt. Doubt is a state of mind in suspension between faith and unbelief, a state of mind in suspension between faith and unbelief.

C.S. Lewis said this, quote, faith is much more than the absence of doubt, but an understanding of doubt is a key to a strong faith, a sound faith, a quiet, settled heart. But what does he mean by that? Well, we're dealing with the reality of doubt, and if we'll acknowledge it and we will confront it, it's not something that is a threat to faith. It's something that is a part of faith, and we're gonna have to continually work through that as long as we're on the face of this earth. So again, doubt is a state of mind in suspension between faith and unbelief.

What do we have? We have faith on this side. We have unbelief on that side, and doubt is somewhere between those two extremes. And because faith is crucial, how crucial? Well, without it, it's impossible to please God. Because faith is crucial, doubt is serious. Not because doubt is not unbelief, it is not terminal. It won't send you to hell, all right? It is a halfway stage that can lead us on to dependent faith as easily as it can break down in unbelief.

So it's a serious matter. These disciples were experiencing a crisis of faith. They have had a traumatic Lord's Day, to say the least.

Confusion, bewilderment, excitement, joy, marvel, fear, and doubt. And isn't it wonderful to see Jesus coming to them in this condition, to minister to them? So I want us to think about doubt being illustrated here from John chapter 20. The apostles were in a state of mind in suspension between faith and unbelief. Now, you don't see the word doubt in relationship to Thomas. When Jesus spoke to Thomas, he said to him, do not be unbelieving, but believing. And yet when you look at the account in Luke, he spoke to them and said, why are there doubts in your heart? So doubt is very much a present reality in this upper room, in the presence of the risen Christ. They had the words of Jesus. Jesus had spoken to them over and over and over again, not so much at the beginning of his earthly ministry with them, but as they move closer and closer to his time to go to Calvary, the language that Jesus chose to communicate to them was anything but ambiguous.

It was as clear and as crystal clear as it could possibly be. Let me read a couple of passages to you, because when you hear this, it causes you to scratch your head and say, how could they be in the fog? How could they be caught off guard?

How could they not been expecting the very things that had happened? So listen to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew 16. Peter gives this incredible confession when Jesus asked, who do men say that I am? Some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah. Jesus said, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus, the Christ. Now listen to verse 21. Tell me if you hear any ambiguity here. From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.

Could it be any clearer? Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me Satan, you are an offense to me for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. That's Matthew 16. Let me read two passages in Mark, Mark's gospel, Mark chapter nine, Mark nine verse 30. Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee and he did not want anyone to know it. Verse 31, for he taught his disciples and said to them, the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill him and after he is killed, he will rise the third day.

How could it be any clearer? But you know what the very next verse says? After hearing that verse 32 says, but they did not understand this saying and were afraid to ask him.

Now you can be thick, but I'm thinking, come on now. And then Mark chapter 10 verse 33 and verse 34, Jesus says, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles and they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him and the third day he will rise again. Now this is getting on toward the end of his earthly ministry. Early on there was things being communicated about the very reality of his betrayal and his crucifixion and his death, but it was veiled. Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it again. Well, that was speaking of him, but that's veiled language.

We get that looking back. I can understand why they may not have picked up on that, but this is about as clear as it can be, isn't it? So we're looking at doubt being illustrated here in the lives of these disciples. Jesus comes to them, comes to his doubting apostles, disciples, and he meets them at their point of weakness.

Three times recorded in these few verses, John chapter 19 verse 21 verse 26, three times it's recorded that Jesus speaks to these disciples who are afraid, who are doubting, who are bewildered. Jesus speaks, peace be with you. Peace be with you, verse 19. Peace to you in verse 21. Peace to you again in verse 26.

Jesus deals graciously, tenderly, and patiently with them. He does not berate them. He doesn't rebuke them. He doesn't say, you guys are a bunch of thick numbskulls. Where were you when I said this and when I said that?

There's no hint of that. He speaks words designed to alleviate their fears, and I simply draw from that how kind and merciful Christ is to dull and slow believers. And I hope you see yourself in that category. There are times where we are just slow and dull. We hear it, we hear it, we hear it, but we really don't hear it. So we've considered this subject of doubt, the reality of it. We've looked at a definition of it. We've seen it illustrated here in John chapter 20. Let's now take a look at this subject and try and bring some analysis to it.

And why is that? Well, because faith is crucial. Doubt is serious. Again, doubt is a halfway stage that can lead on to deepened faith as we see it happening in the lives of these men and particularly Thomas. Isn't it amazing how this man was doubting the very reality saying, unless I see, unless I take my finger and put it into his hands and into his side, I won't believe. And how that doubt just completely banished and gave way to an incredible statement of steadfast, believing faith. He didn't need to put his finger in. Jesus came to him and said, Thomas, take your finger.

He didn't need that. He said, my Lord and my God. That rivals Peter's statement in Matthew 16, doesn't it?

Who do men say that I am? Dangers of doubt. Doubt is like an attention seeking child.

The more attention you pay to it, the more attention it demands. And by worrying about our doubts, we can get locked into a vicious cycle of uncertainty. Because the more you worry about your doubts, the less you're going to be looking to God. And the more those doubts are reinforced in your thinking. So I'm not excusing doubt. I'm not minimizing doubt. I'm wanting to face it head on. I want you to see it as a threat to God honoring faith, to a steadfast faith, to a enduring faith. Don't say, well, the preacher said doubts with all of us and don't worry about it.

No, I'm not saying that. This is a crucial matter. Doubt is not a static matter.

What do I mean by that? Well, it's not static. It doesn't stay in one place. You'll either move in one direction or the other. You'll either move in this state of suspension between faith and unbelief. And what will determine which direction you will gravitate towards? Doubts can become unbelief by feeding doubts and starving faith.

But the opposite is true as well. Feed your faith and starve your doubts. So as we bring this message to a conclusion, and I don't mean I'll be done in two minutes, but I'm getting to the end. I want us to guard against three dangers. Guard against three dangers. We're talking about moving from doubt to settled faith.

So let's guard against three dangers. Chapter number one, an unbiblical definition of faith. Faith isn't a product of absolute certainty and knowledge. None of us know it all. We have to believe the word of God, even with questions in our minds.

Listen to what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. He says, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. So in this life, we're seeing reality. We're looking at the spiritual realm through darkened glasses.

It's dim. It's not crystal clear. I'm warning against an unbiblical definition of faith. Faith is antithetical to sight. Many things about the Christian life are difficult to explain, to apprehend. There are many difficult questions.

And here's the issue. Are we going to believe the objective truth revealed in Scripture whether we can explain those things or not? Now one day, faith is going to give way to sight, but as long as we're walking the face of this earth, we are going to have to live by faith. And there are going to be uncertainties. We're going to have to acknowledge that.

That's the nature of it. Let's guard, secondly, against a morbid preoccupation with doubt. People can become obsessed with their doubts. But listen to me, assurance does not come by looking within.

Assurance comes by looking without. And one of the means of grace for the people of God, for believers, for the church of Jesus Christ is the Lord's table. We are to come, we are to observe the table, we are to remember our Lord, we're to look out to Him in faith and lay hold of Him, which is the opposite of looking within. Look to the promises of God, savor them, accept them, stop allowing doubts to dominate.

What did Jesus say to Thomas there in John 2027? Do not be unbelieving but believing. Be not faithless but believing, stop doubting. Deal with this habit of doubting, questioning. Give up your doubting disposition.

Here was Thomas' besetting sin. Jesus speaks directly to him in order to correct him. It pains me when I see people who are walking in the way, sitting under the ministry of the word, month after month, year after year, sitting beside us. And they're just full of insecurities and doubts and I don't know if I know the Lord, I don't know this, I don't know that. And no preacher can look into anybody's heart but I begin to think, this is your disposition.

You have this weakness and particularly in a place where there's so much emphasis on objective truth, looking away from ourselves and focusing on the object of our faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. But I could name you right now, half a dozen people that come to my mind that for 20 years or more, as I look at their life, observe their life, they give the evidence of being a genuine Christian. They have a love for the word of God. They have a desire to honor God. They have a desire to glorify God. They have a desire to obey God.

And yet, boy, they are just tore up inside constantly in turmoil, have no... I don't know how to get to the bottom of that but perhaps one of those issues is a morbid preoccupation with doubt. It's not a badge of honor, by the way. It's something to discard. It's something to trust God with.

It's something to get over. And let's guard number three against an immature faith that is a faith that refuses to grow up because weak faith is vulnerable faith. And that's why Jesus continually, when he was speaking to the disciples, he would say, oh, ye of little faith. It was a rebuke. It was a reminder. Don't be happy with little faith.

Grow up. Oh, ye of little faith. Let's not be people of little faith. If we've walked with the Lord for a number of years, our faith ought to be growing, becoming stronger. The process of maturing as a Christian involves deepening our understanding. Deepening our understanding of what?

Deepening our understanding of what we believe. Now, if you are resistant to truth, if you are rejecting truth, if you have no interest in truth, no interest in God's word, I don't think we're seeing a manifestation of weak faith here. I think we're most likely seeing the absence of faith at all. People that continue in that vein become hard and sealed in unbelief, a very, very dangerous direction to be moving.

Again, what are we talking about? We're talking about faith and unbelief and wherever doubt is. You may not be completely content and satisfied with where you are, but my question maybe to help you tonight is to ask in which direction am I moving? Am I making progress? Am I moving toward faith or is my doubt giving way to unbelief? Am I becoming settled in a position of unbelief?

That is a very dangerous condition to be in. So what is your response to the truth as it is in Jesus? Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 says, let us draw near. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

You see that? There's a connection between having a full assurance of faith in drawing near to God, drawing near to his word, drawing near to the things of God. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

Verse 23 goes on, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Why? Because you're such a strong person. You have such a strong constitution. No, for he who promised is faithful.

That's why. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. And then verse 24, let us consider one another.

Why? Why should we consider one another as we come together in corporate worship? Brothers and sisters, we will be observing the Lord's table together, one another.

Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. I've entered into the joy of some people to see faith strengthened and doubt banished would be to God that in every occasion it would be like what Thomas experienced. I mean, he was, he was settled. He was making demands. He was absent from the gathering of the other men on that first Easter Sunday. And he missed out, didn't he? No doubt the other men went to him and said, man, you missed it.

You should have been with us. Jesus appeared to us. We saw him. Well, did he did that melt his heart? No, he became more insistent. Unless I can take my finger and put it into his hands and into his side, I will not believe. Well, Jesus came to him, didn't he?

In a wonderful, wonderful way. He said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

We've not seen. You've not seen Jesus like these men had the privilege of seeing him. And yet God has given us the gift of faith that we might lay hold of Christ to the saving of our souls. Jesus is a very tender, merciful savior. I love this passage.

It's just so encouraging. What a startling time they experienced. I mean, this is unprecedented, what they experienced. The two people on the road to Emmaus, they're walking along and Jesus's identity was concealed to them on purpose. And as they were walking, came to the end of the day, it says he sat at the table with them. He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. I've tried to put myself in the shoes of these men on that particular thing.

You talk about an emotional rollercoaster. These two men are walking on the road to Emmaus talking with Jesus. While they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them, verse 16 says, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. Their eyes were restrained. God had a purpose of concealing the identity of Jesus from these two for a time.

Why was that? I think so that they would know who he was at a crucial time. And when did they know who he was? Well, the text tells us. Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

Now this isn't the Lord's table, but that sure is language that sounds like the Lord's table, right? Then, then their eyes were opened and they knew him. And again, all we can do is speculate, but Jesus is in his glorified body and as he took bread and broke it, they saw his hands. They saw the scars. And it seems that sight gave way to faith.

They saw. It has to be him. It's Jesus. So my prayer for you tonight, if you're in a state of doubt over whatever your relationship with the Lord, some particular doctrine, something you're wrestling with, may God move you from doubt to settled faith for the good of your soul and for his own honor and glory. Let's pray. Father, thank you tonight for your word. Thank you for preserving this precious narrative, how we thank you for such a tender, kind and merciful savior who comes to needy men and women and speaks to us at our point of need. Strengthen weak faith here tonight. Cast away doubt, Lord, if it would please you and cause all of us, because we've been here tonight and because we're going to gather around the Lord's table to leave this place tonight with a settled faith, a re-energized faith, a faith that will sustain us in this world as we seek to honor you with our lives, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.