Unbelieving Belief - Part 2

Some people don't want to accept Christ on faith. They'd rather put it off until all their questions are answered.

The problem is that day will never come. Today on Turning Point, Dr David Jeremiah returns to Mark Chapter 9, where Jesus demonstrates the beauty and power of coming to Him with simple, childlike faith. Listen now, is that right? David introduces the conclusion of his message, Unbelieving Belief. Mark 3, 14, and 15 says, he appointed the 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have power to heal sickness and cast out demons. It wasn't that they couldn't do it or that they hadn't done it.

They just couldn't do it this time. And this man was frustrated and he was desperate. So Jesus stops everything in the middle of this discussion and he just said, look, bring the boy to me. Now we have words of demonstration in verse 20. And they brought him to Jesus and when he saw him, immediately the Spirit convulsed in him and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. And the frightening life story of this boy is being played out before Jesus' eyes and before the eyes of all those who have gathered in that moment.

The seizure is not a coincidence because if you study this situation in the New Testament, you will find out that often when a demon was aware of the presence of Jesus, that demon acted out, convulsed. The very presence of Jesus was a traumatic thing to a demonic spirit. And you say, well, how would a demonic spirit even know who Jesus is? I promise you they know who Jesus is. And the devil knows more scripture than a lot of Christians do.

He's very acquainted with what he needs to do to create issues for us. And this demon was aware that Jesus was in the room. And when he became aware of that, he convulsed. And the boy, we've probably never seen anything like that unless you've seen somebody have a grand mal seizure. And he's on the ground foaming at the mouth.

And now we have words of clarification. Jesus looks at the Father This is really interesting to me. He doesn't heal the boy immediately, but he looks at the Father and he says, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood. And often he's throwing him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. The Father's pilgrimage to faith is going to begin with a simple question.

How long has he been like this? And the question allows the Father to tell his story that the boy has been afflicted since childhood. And it also allows the Father to declare his heart. The question of Jesus invites the Father to come to him as a total person with hard facts and with human hopes and say, if there's anything you can do to help us, would you help us? Have you noticed, if you read this story, this Father cries for help from Jesus. Not something to be ashamed of.

I'd like to point that out. He says, Lord, could you help us? Sometimes I think if we go to church all the time, maybe we've been in the church a long time, we think, well, I shouldn't be asking Jesus to help me with this. I mean, that's beneath the dignity of the Savior of it. It's never wrong to say to Jesus, help me.

Never. That's the most simple human cry. How many of you have ever prayed, Lord, help me? No, it isn't in traffic.

No, it isn't in traffic that you say that. You just get right down. You just say, help. And what a joy to know is that the Lord hears the prayer like that. He hears this prayer. This man comes and he says to Jesus, if there's anything you can do to help me, just help me. One of my favorite authors is a man who's in heaven now. His name is Lewis Meades, and he wrote a little bit about this passage in one of his books, and I remembered that he said that sometimes he came to the insight that this Father's cry for help is the cry of most of us as we come to worship the Lord on Sunday morning. It's probably the cry in some of your hearts today.

Here's what he wrote. He said, ordinary people come to my church on Sunday, but I did not recognize them in the early days. I know now why I did not recognize them. I did not want them to be ordinary people. I wanted them to be spiritual. I wanted them to be spiritual athletes, shoulders strong to bear the burdens of global justice that my prophetic words laid on them every Sunday.

But while I was offering them the precious promises and walloping them with the heroic mandates of the word of God, many of them were secretly praying, oh God, I don't think I can get through this week. Help me. It is a miracle of faith to know that life at the center is all right.

Lord, help me. Then we come to the words of invitation in verses 23 and 24. Jesus said to him, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. And the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. This is a statement of great importance. What does Jesus mean when he says all things are possible to him who believes?

Listen carefully to what I have to say here. He was not talking about his faith. Jesus doesn't need faith.

He was certainly not talking about the quality of the father's faith. He was simply saying if you have faith in me, there are no limits to what I can do for you. So often when we get into these discussions about healing and exorcism and all that, we lay the burden of faith on the subject who's involved in the need. Please note that in this text, there's no mention whatsoever of the boy having anything whatsoever like faith.

He's an incidental player in the story. The faith is on the part of the father to believe that he has brought his boy to the one who alone can help him. It's just simple faith in Jesus. Jesus said if you really believe in me, I'm a miracle worker.

All things are possible if you believe. Notice it doesn't say if you believe a lot. It doesn't say if you get rid of all the stuff in your life that's wrong and get right with me and repent of your sin and get clean and all of that and then believe.

It just says, no, if you believe, all things are possible. The father certainly was on the verge of despair, was he not? The Bible says there's tears in his eyes. Jesus presses him on his unbelief. He sees that his biggest failure is not his inability to fix his son.

That would be impossible to do in his own human strength. His biggest failure is to trust his son to the Savior. And yet, even that is not enough to keep him from Jesus. Aren't you glad that our unbelief doesn't keep Jesus away from the door of our heart? When we don't believe, he keeps coming. When we don't believe, he keeps working.

Here's the thing. So often when you hear people talk about stuff like this, when you hear them talking about healing, it comes down to, okay, if you had more faith, you would be healed. When I was sick with cancer, I got letters from all over the country of people telling me, Dr. Jeremiah, you just need to cultivate more faith in your life. If you get enough faith, God will heal you. While I was sick with cancer, I wasn't interested in faith.

I wasn't interested in whether I could get out of bed in the morning. And I didn't have any faith much. You see, healing is not about how much faith the person who needs to be healed has.

It's about how much grace and ability the healer has. You don't need a lot of faith in a big God. If you have a little God, it might take a lot of faith to get there, but you just need a little faith if your God is big. I used to tell this story, and I've probably told it here, about these guys who posed this question. If you were going to go fishing in the wintertime, and you got to the lake, and you stood at the edge of the lake, and you're getting ready to go out on the ice, here's the question.

And I've asked this question many times to people that I've been witnessing to. Would you rather have a little bit of faith on four feet of ice, or a whole bunch of faith on a half inch of ice? Now, you're not going to believe this, but if I took statistical numbers, about 90% of the people answer, I would rather have a lot of faith in a little bit of ice. And I've put down, don't ever go ice fishing with this guy. I mean, yeah, don't ever do that.

Isn't it a great picture? You can have all the faith in the world, but if you walk on weak ice, you're going to get wet. But if you don't have to have much faith, if the ice is two feet thick, you can walk out there with confidence and go fishing and not even worry about what's going to happen. Listen, when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ, it's not about how much we have to bring to the table, it's about what he brings to the table. And he brings everything, doesn't he?

He's a God of great power and grace and ability. And what Jesus was saying to this man, if you'll just grab hold of who I am, just look at me. If you just believe, all things are possible. And then this man responded, and this is the core truth of this message. This man responded like we do, and this is why I love this story because I feel myself in this story.

Did you hear what he said? He said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, I want to believe. I'm trying to believe.

I do believe, but I don't know if I believe enough. The Father cries for God's help, honestly confessing the poverty of his faith. And the Lord answers, not according to the poverty of the asking, but according to the riches of his grace.

He accepts humbly the Lord's estimate of him, and he pleads for divine mercy, not for what he deserves. It is interesting to note that the faith of the child is not mentioned. In fact, I mentioned this earlier, and not one single exorcism in the Gospel of Mark is ever contingent on the faith of the demon-possessed person, not one time. So when you hear some faith healers say, well, if you have more faith, you can be healed, it has nothing to do with that. Is this not an incentive to intercede for our friends because the Lord uses our faith? Remember when they brought the boy to Jesus and led him down through the roof? Was it the faith of the guy on the...no, it was the four men who brought him.

What an incredibly clarifying story this is. So we're almost finished with these ten different kinds of words. Here's number nine, words of exhortation. Jesus exhorted the demon to come out. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, death and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more. And the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly and came out of him, and he became as one dead.

Now if you'd been watching this thing, you would think this thing has really gone bad. You brought your son to the disciples, they couldn't do anything. You finally get Jesus' attention, and he says something to the boy and he dies, laying on the ground like he's dead.

But he's not dead. Jesus reaches down and takes him by the hand and lifts him up. Tim Keller wrote in his book on Mark that Jesus could have told the man, I am the glory of God in human form. Purify your heart, confess all your sins, get rid of all your doubts and your double-mindedness. Once you have surrendered to me totally and can come before me with a pure heart, then you can ask for the healing you need. But Jesus does not say that at all. The boy's father says, I'm not faithful, I'm riddled with doubts, I can't muster the strength necessary to meet my moral challenges, but help me. That's saving faith, faith in Jesus instead of in yourself. Perfect righteousness is impossible for us, and if you wait for that, you will never come into the presence of God.

You must admit that you are not righteous, that you need help, and when you say that, you are approaching God to worship. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. You say, in the quantity of his faith, how much was faith and how much was unbelief, I don't know.

But it doesn't matter. He just needed a little bit of faith because the object of his faith was this one who was illuminated on the mountain, challenging the open pit of hell and saying, I am the Lord God of heaven. Don't need a whole lot of faith to do that. Some of you say, well, Dr. Jeremiah, I've become a Christian, but I just can't summon up enough faith. You don't need a lot of faith because the one you have faith in is this great God, just a little bit of faith. To say is this man said, Lord, I do believe, just help my unbelief.

You know what? A friend of mine got saved some years ago out of Islam. I remember the day he came to see me in my study, and he had all these questions. He had a yellow pad full of questions, and I dealt with them for two hours. Finally, I just said to him, I said, Sam, if you're waiting until you get all your questions answered, you're not ever going to get saved. But if you will just express faith in Jesus Christ and say that you believe that he's the Son of God, once you make that decision, your questions will get answered. He looked at me and he says, that makes sense. We get down on our knees in my study, and he prayed and invited Christ in his life. Now he's written a book to help other people understand what's happened in his life. It's incredible.

I read it. Isn't that it? You know, we think the Christian faith is so hard. We want to make it something.

Some people say, well, when I get ready, when I get my life in order, when I get some things carried for that I'm not doing right, when I stop doing this, look, that's not it. You just come to him in the simplicity of your simple faith and say, Lord, I believe. There's a lot I don't understand, but I believe.

That's where it starts. And finally, we have these words of explanation. You remember when they couldn't cast out the demon, the disciples? Do you know why?

Here's why. And when he had come into the house, his disciples came into the house with him, and they said to Jesus, why couldn't we cast it out? And Jesus said to them, this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. I'll just make this little notation. If you have a study Bible of any kind, there's probably a little A or something next to the word fasting, and it says down at the bottom that that word is not in most of the best manuscripts.

And I think that's an accurate statement for a number of reasons. The disciples were never encouraged to fast because you don't fast when the bridegroom is with you. You wait till he's gone. I don't mean that you should never fast and pray. I'm just saying it doesn't show up in this passage probably. What Jesus said, you didn't cast this demon out because you weren't praying.

Now, you can get this picture, can't you? It's probably easier to cast out demons when Jesus is in the surrounding area, but Jesus has been on the mountain. He's been way up on the mountain, and these disciples are down in the valley, and they've forgotten that they don't have any exorcism techniques. They've not been to exorcism school.

That's not how this all works. It works by the power of Jesus. And apparently, when Jesus got out of sight, he got out of mind, and they quit praying. And so they tried to do this in their own strength based upon what they'd experienced in the past, and they fell flat on their face. Can I get a witness? Whenever we try to do the work of God in our own strength, that's what happens, isn't it? I can testify to that.

I've been down that road many times. What lesson we learned from this, it wasn't that they didn't have the ability. It was they didn't have the ability in themselves.

Their ability had never been in themselves. It had always been delegated to them by Almighty God, and he had given them the authority, and they had separated themselves from that authority, and so they couldn't do it. With the Father, Jesus highlights the importance of faith. With his disciples, he highlights the importance of prayer. Just a good reminder to us that as we serve the Lord God and we attempt great things for God, we should expect great things from God, but we should never think that it's because of us.

We should always remember that our only hope is to stay in touch with the one in whom the power resides. Apparently, the disciples had failed to cultivate a life of prayer, and that is also a kind of an unbelief if you want to know the truth. Well, at the end of this message, I want to tell you a story that perhaps will help all of us understand how we can have unbelieving belief. In his book, The Art of Prayer, Timothy Jones tells this story.

He says, we don't like to stand speechless or stammering before God, but that doesn't mean God holds it against us when we do. He said, I remember a vacation with my parents in France when I was in high school. I had just completed two years of French, hardly enough to make me fluent, but here we were, tourists, wanting to make the most of our time. So when we needed a bathroom, when we wanted to find a café, or when I lost my eyeglasses, I falteringly used my butchered French.

I was trying, to the politely suppressed laughter of others, to speak the language. But I remember more than the townspeople's bemusement. I remember how they warmly received my efforts. They strained to hear past my fractured sentences, and they honored me by responding. And then he said, if God is God, could he be any less generous with our prayers? He hears all that arises from us. He hears the words of our mouth. He hears the longings of our heart, the thoughts of our minds, the intentions of our will, the regret, the grief, the thanksgiving, the hope. God hears our emotions, not just our grammar. Because of his grace, it is never our eloquence.

It is always his grace and his power. Even if we stammer, God hears us. So does God hear the prayer, Lord, I believe, but I don't have a whole lot of belief? I just believe?

Absolutely. And if you're here today and you've been waiting to drum up, to summon up enough faith to trust God, I just want to tell you, you don't need a lot of faith because the God you want to put faith in is so great. He will take the little bit of faith you have, and he will turn it into the most wonderful thing you've ever experienced. If you've been holding back and trusting the Lord because, Pastor Jeremiah, there's so many things in my life that I have to get right. There's not anything in the world that you have to get right except get right with God. And you get right with God through prayer, and you come as simply as this man did and say, Lord, I believe, there's a lot I don't understand, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And in that moment of humility and honesty and admission, Almighty God comes, and he changes your life from the inside out, and you will never be the same.

And guess what? The more you get to know him and who he is, the more your faith will grow and your unbelief will shrink because it's really not about you, it's about him. The more you know him, the more you know how worthy he is of your faith, and how mighty he is to change your life.

I hope if you don't know him, you will take the faith that you have that's in your heart and use that faith to ignite a relationship with the great God of heaven through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I used to tell people this story about somebody ice fishing, and I would say to them, if you went ice fishing, would you rather have a lot of faith in a thin piece of ice or a little bit of faith in a huge, thick piece of ice?

I was shocked at how many people thought that it would be better to have a lot of faith in a little, little thin piece of ice, and I made notes in my notebook not ever to go fishing with those people. Because you see, it isn't how big your faith is that makes the difference, it's the object of your faith. And I want to promise you that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, he will never fail you. Your faith is secure in Jesus Christ. He is the rock. He is the one in whom you can trust. While you're listening to Turning Point, I'm David Jeremiah. We're studying the book of Mark.

We'll see you right here tomorrow. The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church, where Dr. David Jeremiah serves as Senior Pastor. Let us know how Turning Point keeps you spiritually strong. Write to us at Turning Point, Post Office Box 3838, San Diego, CA 92163. Or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Ask for your copy of O.S. Hawkins' new book, The Bible Code, finding Jesus in every book in the Bible.

It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your favorite smart device, or search in your app store for the keywords, Turning Point Ministries, for instant access to our programs and resources. Visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio for details. I'm Gary Hooke Fleet. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series in search of the Savior. That's here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au