Today, on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe, the Gospels are telling us something very, very important. Discipleship And failure. Uh Faith and doubt are not mutually exclusive. As you follow Jesus Christ, there's going to be times of failure. Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe.
We've all experienced wonderful mountaintop moments in life. But what happens after one of these climactic high points? Eventually, we come back to Earth and may find ourselves in a valley of doubt and despair. We're continuing our study in the Gospel of Matthew and learning what to do when our faith is weak.
Now with his message, failure and faith, here's Pastor John Monroe. In the life of every authentic follower of Jesus Christ, there are successes. And yes, failures. There are wonderful high points when we're strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus. But at other times we falter, we stumble, we get entangled with sin so easily.
How can we be strong in the Lord? One moment. and then become distracted and disobedient. Also, as we serve the Lord, there are challenges and sometimes seemingly insuperable obstacles. What are we to do?
I love this passage in Matthew 17. After the triumph, the great mountaintop experience of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, now the disciples face a challenge to their faith. and they experience spiritual failure. Today, Let's learn from the disciples. How would you describe your faith?
If I met with you one-on-one and said, describe your faith, how would you describe it? Strong? Weak. Wavering? Inconsistent.
Perhaps non-existent. When we last looked at the Gospel of Matthew, which we're going through consecutively, we looked at Jesus with three of his disciples on a very high mountain. uh commonly called the Mount of Transfiguration. It was truly a mountaintop experience. And As we follow Jesus Christ from time to time, we do have these mountaintop experiences.
I wonder if you've had one this past week where you have Kept your eyes on Jesus. Where you have listened to Jesus, where you Are following Jesus. And yes, where you are obeying. Jesus, a truly mountaintop experience where your faith feels so strong. But as I say that, I know some of you are saying, well Quite honestly, that's not where I'm at.
Far from being on the Mountain top. Quite honestly, I'm in a valley, a very Deep valley, very dark. Valley. of doubt. A valley perhaps of despair, a valley of Failure.
Anyone in that valley? Not asking you to put up your hands. Isn't it interesting the way that Matthew has written this gospel? Because here are three disciples Three of the inner circle, they're with Jesus at the top of a mountain, and they have one of the incredible experiences where Peter later writes and says that they beheld the very majesty of God, they saw something. of that brilliant glory.
of Jesus. But Now they come down. And as they come down the mountain, There's a very different Same. Their colleagues, the other nine disciples, and they join them. Uh they are there.
And rather than having a wonderful spiritual high, as it were. They're experiencing embarrassment. They are understanding that there is something that they should be doing, but they can't do it. They are experiencing. Failure.
The reality is, if we're honest, that all of us who follow Jesus Christ.
However, sincere our intentions are for all of us who follow Jesus Christ, isn't it true that there are times. Of doubt. Times of failure, times of frustration. Yeah. Times of defeat.
I've called this message failure and faith. If you have your Bible, Turn with me to Matthew chapter 17, and we're first of all going to read from verses 14 through 20 in Matthew 17, verses 14 through 20. You see, We have been praising God today, and it's a wonderful experience. Literally, we've been saying, Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Do you know people who are always doing that?
They're always praise the Lord hallelujah Some of you? If you're on this field, they're a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes, aren't they? You think I can't relate to this? They always seem on a spiritual high. Doesn't always seem real, does it?
Because The reality is, as we follow Jesus Christ, We sometimes encounter Opposition. There are problems, there are hardships and Sometimes our faith Rather than being strong and dynamic, is weak. And wavering. I find this passage rather encouraging. Because Matthew, as all of the writers of the Gospel, paints reality.
Here is Authentic. Christianity. And we're going to learn that authentic followers of Jesus encounter spiritual opposition. I use the word authentic because I'm not talking about the cultural Christian. I'm not talking about someone who merely pays lip service and would say, Yes, I'm a Christian.
They come to church occasionally, but they're not really living for Christ. They're living for themselves. I'm talking about true believers in Jesus Christ. Those who are sincerely Trying to follow Christ, yes, they encounter. Opposition.
Verse 14, and when they came to the crowd, Mark in his parallel passage explains that this happened right after the experience in the Mount of Transfiguration when they came down. When they came to the crowd, a man came up to him, as to Jesus, and kneeling before him, said, Lord, have mercy on my Son. For he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.
And Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon. And it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast them out? He said to them, Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, You will say to this mountain, move from here to there. And it will move. And nothing.
will be impossible. For you. It's not an intriguing Passage. Here we come, and a man. very wisely brings his boy to Jesus.
And the boy is demon-possessed. There's an unclean spirit. When the Lord Jesus Christ in His incarnation came, there was an outbreak of hostility, there was an outbreak of the forces of darkness. Tremendous demonic activity, tremendous opposition to the advancement of the kingdom of God as our Lord Jesus Christ is born and. goes around proclaiming the kingdom.
Of God. And so this father comes and asks Jesus to have mercy on his boy. Mark in the parallel I kind of tells us. uh that the demon attacked the boy. The boy had seizures.
Uh the the demon threw him to the ground and The demon tried to destroy the boy. And so the man Obviously, Jesus is not there at the time up in the mountain. He brings his boy. to the disciples who as we had read previously, who were able to heal, who had done uh the casting out of demons who had Heal the sick. Uh but this time They can't do it this time.
They fail. They are disciples, followers of Jesus. Sincere man. And they encounter Spiritual opposition. Can I remind you, as we try to follow Jesus Christ, there is opposition.
I know people, many people don't believe in the devil, but there is Satan is real. The forces of darkness, and he is our implacable enemy. The Bible says sometimes he appears like an angel of light. He can disguise himself that he seems like an angel from heaven. Other times he goes around like a roaring lion.
And he attacks us. Have you experienced this? He attacks us with temptations, with doubts, with fears, with discouragement, sometimes, yes, despair. All who follow Jesus encounter opposition. Encounter problems, yes, and like the disciples here, sometimes encounter.
failures. And haven't you found this to be true? That sometimes you're on a spiritual high, on the spiritual mountaintop, as it were, and you feel so strong. And yeah, just A day or two.
Sometimes even the next day.
Sometimes even the next hour. And you are in the valley. of despair. You'll recall that after the baptism baptism of Jesus Jesus is led into the wilderness. Where he is tempted by Satan for 40 days.
Can you imagine the audacity of our enemy tempting Jesus, the perfect Son of God? You see, when God is at work, Satan is there trying to create problems. Here are a number of families that you saw. And they are seeking, in God's grace and with His help, to have strong Christian homes, to have strong Christian-lasting marriages. And that's wonderful, it's a great desire, and we pray for them as we've done.
But the problem is there is an enemy who's going to try and wreck their marriages, try and wreck their homes. Notice what we read in verse 22. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And he will be raised on the third day. And they were greatly distressed.
A reminder That as we follow Jesus Christ, there is hardship, there is suffering. That our Lord Jesus Christ Himself In this humanity, is prophesying that he himself is going to be killed by evil men, they're going to nail him to a cross. That as they The kingdom of God is advancing. It's being attacked viciously. unremittingly by our enemy, Satan himself.
And pass Success. And spiritual Battle is no guarantee for future victory. The top of the mountain, there's a glorious transfiguration. At the bottom of the mount of the mountain. There's spiritual failure.
Three of the disciples had listened to a conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah about the death, about the Exodus, the departure of Jesus from this earth.
Well, incredible conversation. Peter and James and John witnessed. Ah, but now. That is over.
Now they're back. And With their Colleagues. can't handle a situation. They're embarrassed that they have failed. And Jesus says, O you of little faith, and their lack of faith is hindering the work.
of the Lord. You know, if I were to ask some of you about your faith, as I did at the beginning with the opening question, some of you would take me back five years, ten years, twenty years, twenty-five years, when perhaps when God saved you. Perhaps when God used you mightily. Perhaps to the day when you got married and you stood here, as it were, and with all of your heart, you were declaring your love for God and your love for your wife, for your husband. And you're on a spiritual high, and life seemed wonderful.
And if I ask you about your faith, you take me away back there.
Well, it's wonderful to have spiritual experiences of the past. Wonderful that God used you in the past and that God kept you, but. That's not my question today. My question is what about now? What about Today.
You see, you can't depend On the past spiritual success for present spiritual victory. You may have been spiritually strong in the past. God may have used you in a mighty way. You may have followed Jesus very, very closely and. Faithfully, but the reality is today, tomorrow.
You may experience a lack of power. You may be experiencing right now some staleness in your own soul. You may have doubts. You may be cynical. You may be critical.
But why is that? the very nature of the Christian life. The nature of the Christian life is living by faith each Day. The nature of the Christian life is, I am to trust God today. There's A hymn, I think it's in the hymn book that we sometimes use.
I need thee every day. Every hour I Need you. That as I'm following Jesus Christ today, this moment, I need Jesus Christ. I am to depend on him. My trust is to be on him.
Yes, I trusted him yesterday, five years ago, ten years ago, 20 years ago, but that's not the question. The question is: what about today? Is my faith vital? Is it growing? It's a refresh reality.
of the presence of God. Am I truly today looking to Christ? Today am I listening to his word? Today am I obediently following my word. Saviour.
That's the question. Yesterday Good they had a uh a meeting and so I took our three grandchildren to the Lazy Five ranch. Any of you been there? Don't go with a clean car. Uh I should have taken Gutini's car.
But uh she was using it.
So Anyhow, under Three grandkids. We're having a great time. They more than me. And uh So Yeah. We're driving along and there's all these pigs.
These black pigs. And they're so fat that their belly hits the ground. You seen them? And then there's the cute little piglets. Very cute.
which our granddaughter loved. But we're driving our and it struck me And I don't know how many of these Pigs there were. And I don't want to be disrespectful to a pig, it's created by God. Isn't it? But every single one of them.
Do you know what he was doing? It's got its snout in the ground. Every single pig I saw had its snout. On the ground. You say, well that's what a pig does.
That's right. And you feel like saying to pig. Did you ever see the sky? Did you ever look up? and see birds flying.
Did you ever look up and see the beauty of these trees? No. They're down trying to get every last little bit of food. No wonder there's a fat, right? Grunting aloud.
Inevitably, their face is down in the dirt. And I thought, you know. Aren't we sometimes like that? We're looking down. Our our newsletter we call Looking Up.
See, as followers of Jesus, we have to keep looking up because sometimes. As I look down, it can be very attractive. There's material things, there's tangible things, there's food, there's things to be enjoyed, and we are to enjoy these things. They're gifts of God. But we are not animals.
We are Men and women and boys and girls created in the image of God. And we must, if we are to be the kind of people that God created us to be, we're not, as it were, to keep our snouts in the trough all the time, we're to look up. The Christ To stop. And listen. to the word.
And when we don't do that, We find spiritual Failure.
Now this spiritual opposition that we all experience is an opportunity. I want you to get this, to grow in our faith. That difficult time. That event in your life, that disappointment. The tragedy.
That difficult person that you work with. That situation, you think, you know, if that were removed from my life, life would be so much easier. I want you to think of this. That difficulty, that difficult person, that situation. is an opportunity.
For you and me to grow in our faith. You see, in following Jesus, Faith. is essential. Did you notice verse 20? He said to them, Why was it they couldn't cast out the demon?
Because of your little faith. We read of the Syrophoenician woman whose faith was described as Jesus as great faith, but their faith should have been better, but they weren't. Their faith is little faith because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, If you have faith. Like a grain of mustard seed, the smallest known seed at that time.
Proverbial for its Smallness, as it were. If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible. For you. Faith.
So I ask you, how's your faith? No, not faith in faith. That's a popular error, isn't it? Just believe, believe, believe. It's kind of part of positive possibility thinking.
No, that's not it at all. Faith in the Bible always directs us to the object. It's not faith in faith. That's silly. It's faith in God.
It's the object of our faith. It's not. Telling yourself in the morning, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, therefore I can. No. It's rather saying, I know I can't, I know I can't, but I know God can.
That's it. Faith.
And God.
So Paul writes, for the very beginning of our faith, for the very foundation of our Christian life, he says, for by grace you are saved. Through faith. And not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Not of your own doing, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
No, the basis of our salvation is the grace of God, it's what God has done in Jesus Christ. We can't save ourselves. You just can't. as it were, suddenly decide, well, I'm going to be a good person now. Very quickly you will demonstrate that you're not totally good.
Yes, you do some good things, but you also do many bad things, many selfish things, many things which even by your own standard you know are wrong. No. The basis of our salvation is the grace of God. It points us to what Jesus Christ has done. That's the gospel.
That God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That this grace Yes, I understand that I have sinned, I've messed up, but it points me to Christ. My salvation is outside of myself. It's been accomplished by God in Christ. How do I receive this?
Faith.
Faith is the instrument, it's the means by which God's salvation comes to us. We are saved through faith. And now that I'm saved by faith.
Now that I've received Christ as my Saviour. Does my faith end? No. I am to live by faith. Every day I'm to live by faith.
Paul says, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20. No, the very. Heart of the Christian life is living by faith. That is, following Jesus.
requires faith From first to last. This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God.
To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at the verdict. org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry.
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Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you know anything about spiritual opposition? We're all aware of our sinful desires and the enticements of the world. But we also have an active enemy who comes in all kinds of forms from being an angel of light. to being at other times like a roaring lion.
seeking to devour us. Isn't it wonderful to know that our Saviour is with us? and that as we depend on him, he'll give us the victory. Each day see Jesus. Each day listen to Jesus.
Each day obey Him. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
