Failure and Faith

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 on these Sunday mornings, we looked at Jesus with three of His disciples on a very high mountain, 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 mountaintop, quite honestly, I'm in a valley, a very deep valley, a very dark valley, a valley of doubt, a valley perhaps of despair, a valley of failure.

Is anyone in that valley not asking you to put up your hands? Isn't that interesting, the way that Matthew has written his 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 scene. Their colleagues, the other nine disciples, and they join them, they are there. And rather than having a wonderful spiritual high, as it were, they're experiencing embarrassment. They're understanding that there is something that they should be doing, but they can't do it.

They're 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? Yes, 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, are 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 come 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 him 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. Isn't that 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 the 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 account tells us that the demon attacked the boy.

The boy had seizures. The demon threw him to the ground and the demon tried to destroy the boy. And so the man, obviously Jesus 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 the casting out of demons, who had healed the sick, but this time they can't do it. This time they fail.

They fail. Here are disciples, followers of Jesus, sincere men, and they encounter spiritual opposition. I can remind you, as we try to follow Jesus Christ, there is opposition. I know many people don't believe in the devil, but there is Satan Israel, the forces of darkness, and he is our implacable enemy. The Bible said 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. Haven't 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, unlike 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 yet, 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 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. There's a great desire, and we pray for them as we've done, but the problem is there is an enemy who is 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 his 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 the kingdom of God is advancing, it's being attacked viciously, unremittingly by our enemy, Satan himself. And past success in spiritual battle is no guarantee for future victory. The top of the mountain, there's a glorious transfiguration. At the bottom 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. What an 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, oh 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, 10 years, 20 years, 25 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 or 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.

A recognition that as I am 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, twenty years ago, but that's not the question. The question is what about today? Is my faith vital?

Is it growing? Is there a fresh 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 Savior?

That's the question. Yesterday, Goodney had a meeting and so I took our three grandchildren to the Lazy 5 Ranch. Have any of you been there? Don't go with a clean car.

I should have taken Goodney's car, but she was using it. So, anyhow, I'm there, three grandkids, we're having a great time. They more than me. And so, 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've seen them? And then there's the cute little piglets, very cute, which our granddaughter loved. But we're driving around and it struck me. 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 it 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. You feel like saying to a 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 they're so fat, right? Grunting around. Inevitably, their face is down in the dirt. And I thought, you know, aren't we sometimes like that? We're looking down.

Our newsletter we call Looking Up. See, as followers of Jesus, we are 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 to Christ, to stop and listen to the Word of God. 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, that 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 in 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 as 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'll 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, as we began by singing, 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 Savior, 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, this is difficult for us, isn't it?

Or is it just me that finds it difficult every day? Following Jesus requires faith from first to last. The writer of Hebrews says without faith it is impossible to please God. God is pleased with you when you have faith in Him, when you trust Him. Those of us who are married, can you imagine if good thing my wife thinks I don't trust her? That's sad, that's heartbreaking.

No. The very fact that I trust her, I know her, I rely on her, that gives her joy. That increases the joy and the fellowship of our marriage and God is well pleased with you. When you turn from your own efforts and say, Lord, I need you.

I need your help. See, faith sees the invisible. Faith takes God at His Word. Faith takes the Word of God and says I believe it and I claim it. Faith is the bridge, as it were, between God and our needs. Faith is the bridge between the almighty power of God and our helplessness.

This man could do nothing to help his boy. And so a very wise man that he was, he brings his boy to Jesus and says I need you. And you say how are we going to deal with the opposition? Paul in describing spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 tells us to hold up the shield of faith, the shield which is faith. He says the enemy is going to fire darts at you and they're going to be extinguished by faith, by the shield of faith. So as you follow Jesus, don't focus on your doubts, don't focus on your past failures, don't focus so much on your state of mind and don't even focus so much on the difficult circumstances.

No, I'm not asking you to be Pollyanna. I'm asking you to be realistic but I'm saying that the emphasis is not on the difficult circumstances but the emphasis is on claiming the promises of God who is faithful. God will never ever let you down. He's a God who made you.

We said that with His children. Psalm 139, we are fearfully and wonderfully made that God superintended our creation right from the moment of conception. God is there. God knows you. He loves you. He cares for you. He's watching over you and He has control of every, every circumstance of your life. He sends His Son to die for us. The Son rises from the dead and now I am to trust God. You say, John, my faith is weak.

So is mine sometimes. What's going to make it strong? By looking at Christ. By focusing on Christ. Not by looking down all the time. Not by focusing on the difficulties.

By looking up to remind myself of how powerful God is, how great God is, of how God cares for us. And in that way, our faith grows as you use it, as you claim the promises of God. If you know someone, supposing you're in business with someone and you invest a lot of money in the company. And initially you're wondering, you know, I think I trust them but I'm not too sure. But after five years, this person is reliable. Time and time again, you see how reliable they are and what happens? Your trust in them. Your faith in them grows.

The more you know them, the more you realize how reliable they are. And the more you know God, the more you search the Scriptures, the more you understand of the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this way, our faith grows. And our faith is expressed in trusting God. Our faith is expressed in obeying God, even when it's difficult for us, particularly when it's difficult for us. And can I say, because I think there's confusion sometimes with us here, having some doubts is not a denial of faith. You know, I'd like to think that Calvary Church was the kind of place where we're free to express our doubts, our concerns, our spiritual struggles, yes, and our failures.

I hope you're not one of these individuals who wants to try and portray that you're always on the top of things and that you're always on the mountaintop. No, read the Bible. The great men and women of Scripture are people who had doubts. And some people would say, and wrongly so, that if you have doubts, if you have some failure, that that is evidence that you're not a true believer at all. Well, that rules out everyone in the Bible, doesn't it?

Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No, the gospels are telling us something very, very important. Discipleship and failure, faith and doubt are not mutually exclusive. As you follow Jesus Christ, there's going to be times of failure. As you follow Jesus Christ, there's going to be sometimes of doubt.

Some of you who are raised in Christian homes, as I was, you get a certain age and you begin to rethink your faith, at least I hope you do. To examine your faith. And so doubt can be destructive, that is true, but doubt can also be helpful. There is a positive side to doubt because it helps us to examine our faith. It can stimulate our faith. It can drive us back to the great truths of the Christian faith rather than superficially and tritely mouthing some religious platitudes.

But here is ownership. Yes, it can be difficult as we deal with our doubts, as we deal with our concerns, as we deal with questions, but to come through this and to understand that God is with us. Mark tells us, Matthew doesn't in his account, Mark tells us in his same account that when this man speaks to Jesus, now remember he brings his son to the disciples who can't help, and then Jesus comes and Jesus heals the boy. And the man says this, don't you love this? He says, I believe, help my unbelief. You say, well that's a contradiction.

No, it's not. He's saying I believe, of course he believes. He brings his boy to Jesus, if he didn't, he would have stayed at home.

He would have gone to the doctors or whatever. No, he says I believe, but he also says help my unbelief. Isn't that where sometimes we are? We believe but we still have questions. Because the Christian faith is seeing the invisible. I can see the tangible. I can see my car, my home, my friends, my wife, my grandchildren, but there are things I can't see. I can't see Jesus.

Peter says, no, whom having not seen you love. Faith is seeing the invisible, and that's difficult for us sometimes, isn't it? We see the tangible, we see the physical around us, but you're asking me to come to Calvary Church and worship God.

I can't see God. But as we come, as we're instructed by the Word of God, our faith grows and yes, there is a big difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt, as I say, can have a very positive effect if it leads us to examine our faith and if it stimulates our faith.

And the beautiful words of Jesus I read in verse 20, a little faith in a great God results in victory. Jesus casts out the demon, no problem there. He's greater. He's more powerful than any demon, any forces of darkness. There will never be a circumstance in your situation which is too powerful, too great for God.

No. We see the glory of Jesus on the mountaintop. We see his humility in the valley as he heals this little boy.

I love this man. He brings his boy to Jesus with the joy of seeing. Moms and dads bringing their children to Jesus, dedicating them to the Lord.

Why wouldn't they? No, they're in effect saying, pray for us, Lord, we need your help. We recognize these children are yours, they're a gift of God, but we need your help, we need your blessing. And I say to parents, keep bringing your children to Jesus.

Bring them up in the ways of the Lord. That's why we're so excited to have Woodlands camp. That's why we're so excited to have a vibrant children's ministry. That's why we are praying fervently as we search for a couple of new youth pastors.

Why? Because we believe that children belong to the Lord and we want to keep pointing them to the Lord Jesus. I thought, what a hard life this man must have had with a boy who had these seizures, even throwing himself into a fire, throwing himself into water. What terrible distress and agony it must have been for that dad. But he was a wise man. Oh yes, his faith was not perfect. There was still some unbelief, but there was a little faith there. There was a faith of a mustard seed, and he brings his boy to the disciples of Jesus. And what he couldn't do, and what the disciples couldn't do, Jesus does. And Jesus says, your lack of faith, your lack of power is directly attributable to your lack of faith.

Because of your little faith, that's why you couldn't cast them out, because your faith was too small. This man, in a sense, had more faith than you had, because he brings his boy to us. Faith, like a grain of mustard seed, can move mountains. Moving mountains was proverbial for accomplishing something difficult. Don't you find this encouraging? Any mountains in your life?

Anything that you think of in your life that seemed impossible to accomplish. But this man has a little faith. I believe, help my unbelief. See, as you follow Jesus, I repeat, the focus is not so much on your frail, wavering, inconsistent faith. The focus is on the greatness of God.

We have an illustration here. Goliath is a huge man. He's a monster of a man, over nine feet. And he's there, and the seasoned soldiers of Israel look at him and say, we're not going to fight him. He's so big, we could never kill him. But the young man, David, who knows God, who has a little faith in a great God, as he looks at Goliath, he says, he's so big I couldn't miss him. One thing, he's so big, we can't kill him. David is saying, no, my trust is in God, and he's so big I couldn't miss him.

Can you say, can I say to you this morning? Some of your giants in your life are very big. Some of these circumstances are very difficult. Don't focus on the size of your circumstances. Don't even focus so much on the size of your faith.

That's not what it is. Focus on the size of your God, of your God. And as you do that, I found my faith grows and grows. The more I look down, the weaker I become.

The more I focus on the circumstance and the mountain, as it were, and saying there is no possibility that I can ever get through that mountain, the more depressing it is. But to look up, and to be still, and to know that I am God. Can I say to you, brothers, sisters, don't limit the power of God. Jesus is saying here, nothing will be impossible for you. We face impossible situations, fierce temptations, tasks which are completely beyond our natural ability. And you say, why would God choose me to do this? There's no way I can do that.

Listen to Jesus, nothing will be impossible for you. Verse 24, here's an example. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two drachma tax went up to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the tax?

He said yes. And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first saying, what do you think Simon? From whom the kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?

And when he said from others, Jesus said to him, then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up and when you open its mouth, you'll find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.

And you say, well that would be nice if I pay my taxes, I just go to Lake Norman and all the money is right there. That's not the point. The point is this, and it's an important one. As you trust God, as you put your trust in God, all of your needs will be met by him. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? God is able to pay a tax from the shekel in the fish's mouth.

Did he need a fish to deliver the tax? Of course not. That's not the point. It's showing in a kind of a bizarre way, isn't it?

The power of Almighty God. Why are you worrying? Why are you fretting? Why are you fearful?

Why are you not trusting me? I can even pay your taxes from the mouth of a fish with the shekel in it. God is sovereign over the sea. God is sovereign over the fish and therefore will take care of all of your needs. Don't put limits on what God can do. Don't focus on the problem.

Don't say this situation can't get better. This is why it is so important to have a vision of God, to worship God, to glorify God. And when we pray, we're acknowledging our own insufficiency. So you have to humble yourself. I began as the parents were coming up to read. I read the wonderful story of Jesus saying, become like little children.

There's humility there, isn't there? A child is helpless. These babies that I had, they can't feed themselves. We could never survive in this world by themselves.

No, they are utterly dependent on their parents. And you and I are utterly dependent upon God and we are to trust Him. Proverbs, or Hebrews 13 verse 6 rather says, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. You afraid of a problem?

You afraid of a situation? God is your helper. God is on your side and if God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, the enemy is there. Yes, the valley is deep.

Yes, the mountain seems huge, but keep your eyes on God. John Bunyan in his amazing Pilgrim's Progress tells the story of Christian making his way to Celestial City and he comes to a very narrow passage to go to the porter's lodge. And he's about to go through the passage and he sees these two enormous lions on the other side of him. And they're chained, but Christian only sees the lions. And he's afraid and he's about to turn back because he thinks the lions are going to devour him and the porter, whose name Bunyan calls Watchful, calls to him and says, fear not the lions, for they are chained.

And they're placed there for trial of faith where it is and for discovery of those that have none. Keep in the middle of the path and no hurt shall come unto thee. And so what does Christian do? He presses on. He keeps his eyes on Watchful and he keeps on the straight path.

Bunyan says, the lions roared, but did no harm to Christian. That's it. I want you to look up. I want you to look to God. I want you to live your life straight according to the Word of God. And I'm asking you today, will you do it? If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior to open your heart to Christ, to ask Him come, to come and save you.

Will you do that? And if you are a follower of Christ, can I ask you afresh to place your faith in God? Yes, saying like the man I believe helped my unbelief. Yes, I sometimes doubt his love.

I doubt his power to do the impossible, Lord. I sometimes doubt your goodness. I sometimes get afraid, but don't allow these doubts to harden into unbelief.

Trust the Lord with all of your heart. And in following Jesus, isn't it the case that we're often driven to our knees and say, I believe, but help my unbelief. We have but little faith. Ah yes, but that little faith is in a great God who still says, nothing will be impossible for you.

Will you bow with me? We're going to sing a song reinforcing our faith, but before we do that, let me give you an opportunity for you to do, to say what you need in the presence of God this morning. A little faith in a great God. Father, we confess our doubts. We confess our failures, our sins, that often we take you for granted.

Forgive us. And I pray for those who don't know Christ personally, that they will trust him, that they'll call on the name of the Lord and be saved. For many who are following Christ, strengthen their faith, Father. Help them to look up to Christ, to see him, to listen to him, to obey him, to follow him closely, not to fear, to know that you are our helper, and you're on our side, and if God is for us, who can stand against us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.