Lord, Help My Unbelief

There was a Beyond Today program that came on, and the title fascinated me because it's one of the verses in the Bible that I have looked at or thought about, really for years and years, wondering what exactly does that verse mean. As I listened to that program, it began to open my eyes a little bit to what was going on, but I've been looking at that verse really since that time and trying to seek what God meant when He had this in the Bible.

So let's go back and let's look at an event here that's only recorded in the book of Mark. Well, it's actually recorded in more places than that, but there is a specific thing in the book of Mark to pay attention to. Let's go to Mark 9 and verse 14. Here we have, of course, Christ in the middle of it, and He says some words, and there's an interaction here that we can all learn from. In fact, we can learn a lot about ourselves from or maybe examine ourselves from as well. Verse 14 says, When Christ came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with them. You get kind of get the picture.

You've got the disciples of Christ and the scribes that they're disputing with them. They're talking about something in the Scriptures, probably something that Jesus Christ said, and they're looking back in the Scriptures and this and that and whatever. It says, Immediately when they saw Christ, all the people were greatly amazed and running to Him, great at Him. And Christ asked the scribes, What are you discussing with them? What are you guys talking about? Then one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I brought you my son who has a mute spirit, and wherever it seizes Him, it throws Him down.

He foams at the mouth, gnashes His teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they couldn't. I know there's a problem. It's been going on for a long time. We're going to find out. I took Him to your disciples. Nothing could be done. Christ answered Him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long will I bear with you?

Bring Him to me. So they brought the child, the boy, to Him. And when He saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed, and He fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. Well, this boy was demon-possessed. He'd been dealing with this from the time he was a young lad. And that demon, when he saw who he was being brought to, he recognized Christ. And he knew. He knew what was about to happen.

And so, in rebellion against Christ, because the demons and Satan have no problem rebelling against God. No problem at all. And that's the spirit that is in us, if we don't allow God's Holy Spirit to... No problem at all. He immediately went into action. He didn't back down. He didn't try to fade away. He was in open rebellion and brought that young man, really, to really lay him out. So, Christ asked His Father, how long has this been happening to Him? He said, from childhood. And often, He has thrown Him both into the fire, into the water, to destroy Him.

This has been a lifelong problem. He probably went on to say, we have tried everything. Even your disciples couldn't get rid of this. What are we going to do? And then, notice what He says next. He says, but if, if, Christ, you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. There's a big little word, if. If you can do anything, help us. He didn't say, we know you can heal Him. Please heal Him. He said, if you can do this, help us. You know, I read, if you can help us do this, and I have to wonder about us.

Do we ever approach Christ, not with those words, and say, if you can help us? If you can help us in this trial? If you can help us with this disease? If you can help us? But I have to wonder, I have to wonder sometimes, do our actions and do our thoughts. Do they tell God, we're doubting a little bit.

If you can do this, if you can do it, because Christ is going to respond to this man in just the same way that the man approached him. He said, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Christ said to him, if. If you can believe, if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes.

If you can believe.

So he's saying, with that attitude, if you can help us, please do something, not going to happen. That's not the faith that Jesus Christ is looking for.

That's not the belief that he wants us to have or his disciples then.

But he said, if, if you can believe, all things are possible.

If you can believe, all things are possible.

And immediately the father child cried out and said with tears, his response was exactly right in that he caught exactly what Jesus Christ was saying in that in that comment. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief.

And that's the title of the sermon today. Lord, help my unbelief.

Because I've looked at that and this man who in this tense and stressful situation that's been going on forever in his life with his son said, I do believe. I know what I said. What I've been doing to you is I've been saying, if you can help, if you can do this, I've caught it. I do believe, help my unbelief. Because he recognized there was something in him that was less, that was less than the belief that God and Jesus Christ expected us to have in him.

And of course, Jesus Christ responded then when he saw the attitude in the man and he healed the boy immediately. If, if you can believe, all things are possible to those who believe.

So the question for us today is, do we ever ask God, do we ever stop and think, is there a part of unbelief in us, even temporary like it was with this man? Do we ever catch ourselves saying, I'm, I'm limiting God. I'm doing something to him. If I believe with all my heart, if I have faith in him, if I have faith in him, all things are possible. Or by our actions and our choices and our decisions, are we telling him, if you are able to do this, then please do it.

Well, Jesus Christ, you know, he, many times as he spoke to the generation back then, he would chide them for their faithlessness and for their lack of faith and lack of diligent faith. I mean, right here in the verses we read, he would said when it was brought to him and he was told the disciples couldn't cast this demon out. They couldn't, they couldn't deal it. They couldn't heal it. He said, oh, faithless generation to them. The disciples who heard that had to take that to heart. Oh, faithless generation? We don't have faith in you. And they would have thought, yes, we do have faith in you. We're following you. We've given up everything for you. We've given up family. We've given up career. We've given up our livelihood to follow you. Oh, faithless generation?

Because they were falling short. There was some part of them that wasn't living up to what the faith that Jesus Christ expected us to have in him and God. In Matthew's account, it's the same thing here in Mark 9. He has a little piece to it. Sometimes when you read these events in the Bible that are multiple gospels, you can go back and check those things and you can see another aspect of it or something that's added to it based on what God inspired that writer or what that writer remembered of the incident. But here in Matthew 17, and we'll pick it up in about verse 18, you can see it's the same. It's the same account here, but without the if you can help.

It says in verse 18, Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him. The child was cured from that very hour. And the disciples, because they heard what Jesus Christ said, they saw what he had done. They heard his words, oh, faithless generation, and they realized there was something missing in them that they weren't able to do what God had wanted them to do. The disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why couldn't we cast it out? How come we couldn't get it? You gave us the power. When you sent us out, you said, I'm giving you the power to heal sickness. I'm giving you the power to cast out demons. I want you to go and preach the gospel. Why couldn't we do it? And Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, because of your unbelief. It wasn't that they didn't believe.

It wasn't that they had no faith, but it wasn't the faith required to do what God wanted them to do at that point. Because of your unbelief, we're assuredly, I say to you, if you, okay, focus on us, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. And then He tells them sometimes, prayer and fasting is necessary. Prayer and fasting is necessary to develop that type of faith that God wants you to have, the deep faith that Jesus Christ wants us to have.

Back a few chapters. Well, let's go over to Mark. There's the same account as in Matthew 13, but in Mark, there's a few more comments. Let's go back to Mark. Mark 6 this time.

Well, we find that they couldn't heal. They couldn't do what God wanted them to do because of their unbelief. The same thing that the man said, Lord, help. Help my unbelief.

Then in Mark 6, or in Mark 6 and verse 1, it says, Christ went from there and came to his own country and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue and many hearing him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands? We've heard the stories about him. Where did he come from? Where did he get this knowledge? Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us? So they were offended at him. What makes him so special? Why did God give him this power? What is going on here? What is happening here? But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house. Verse 5, Now he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled. He marveled because of their unbelief.

It stunned him. He goes, Why don't they believe? Why don't they have faith? Why don't they listen to the words I'm saying? Why don't they see the works that are going on? How can they just not believe? How can they have so little faith? How can that be? He marveled because of their unbelief, and he went about the village in a circuit teaching. And he wasn't there long.

He left. Matthew's account says he was not able to do mighty works in that place because of their unbelief. He was more than capable of doing those mighty works. He was more than capable of healing whatever was brought to him. He was more than capable of doing whatever was brought to him.

Any situation. But he couldn't do it because of their unbelief. Because of their unbelief.

What he wanted to do. What he wanted to do. He couldn't do. So the question is, do we? Do we limit God? Or could we be limiting God because of our unbelief? Not lack of total belief, not lack of total faith, but not the faith and the belief that God wants us to have. Could that be happening to us? Now let's go back to Matthew 16. Let's look at another incident here. Matthew 16 in verse 4. I'm going to read verse 4 because later on in the sermon I'm going to recall your attention to this verse. Verse 4 Christ speaking, he says, A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. They're looking for a sign. They just don't believe me. They don't have faith in me unless I give them a sign. Let's go down to verse 8. No, let's not. Let's just let's look and should you read in 5 so you get the context of what we're talking about here. When the disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

And Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And they reasoned among themselves. Kind of we do that sometimes, right? The news media does that a lot. You know, he said this. What did he mean by that? What did he mean by that? So they kind of reasoned among themselves, and they came up with the idea, it's because we've taken no bread.

Applying human reasoning to something that Jesus Christ said, that isn't what he meant at all. But he knew what their human reasoning would do. But Jesus being aware of it said to them, O you of little faith. O you of little faith. It's a different word, but it means a lot, the same as unbelief. You have little faith. You believe, but you have little faith. O you of little faith. Why do you reason among yourselves? Because you brought no bread. Don't you yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up, or the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you don't understand that I didn't speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Don't you remember what I did? Do you think that if I needed bread, I couldn't do the same thing that I've done twice before that you've seen me do? Do you not believe that I can just do these things? Do you not have faith? Do you have so little faith that you think, whoops, this time we forgot to bring the physical things and we need perhaps what Christ is telling us, what are we going to do? Don't you know I can do those things?

That if we're missing something or we need something, if something is there, I can do it.

If you put your faith in me, I am able, I am willing, I want to, but I need to see that you have faith. Back in Matthew 6, verse 30, you can turn there if you want. Jesus Christ is going through in that chapter saying, you don't have to worry about what you're going to wear, you don't have to worry about what you're going to eat, you don't have to worry about any of those things.

O you of little faith, he says, don't worry about what you're going to eat today or what is going to be close to you. Don't you know, O you of little faith, that your Father can provide all these things you need. He will, he can, we might not know how, but he can if, if we believe, if there's no unbelief in us, if we come and grow the faith that Jesus Christ and God the Father want us to have. Finally, let's go back to Luke 18, another verse that I think about often, and it kind of haunts me, that Jesus Christ would say, could say this about our generation, but back at that generation where his disciples were walking with him and talking with him and seeing him every day and hear him, heard him teaching and seeing him healing and seeing him do these miracles that he did, that he could say to them, O faithless generation, you're not there yet.

In Luke 18, after he gives the parable about the widow who keeps petitioning God, or petitioning the judge, please give me this, give me these things. And she doesn't give up.

She doesn't just give up and give away, and it's a lesson for us that we keep asking God and keep trusting in him and have patience with him that he will do it. But in verse 8, he says, I tell you that he will avenge him, the next sentence there, nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Will he really find the faith that he is looking for on the earth? Or will he find faith, but not complete faith, not mature faith, not the perfect faith that he's looking for, faith, but an incomplete faith, an immature faith, one that's still mixed with a little bit of unbelief, one that still doesn't trust God to do what he says he can do, but looks for answers maybe in a different place and doesn't put all their trust singly in God, but still hedges their bets and says, okay, God, you can do this if you will, but I'll look here, too. I'll do the things that you, I'll do the things the way that I want done. So he asks the question that should haunt us. When he returns, will he find faith? Will he really find faith on earth? So today, and maybe another time besides today, we'll talk about faith, but not in the way that we've always talked about faith, using Mark 9, verse 23 and 24 as, Lord, help my unbelief. But let's go back and we'll think about faith because faith is the foundational principle for us, you know? Just like Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the church, faith is a foundational principle for Christians. If we don't have faith, we're missing the mark. You know, in Hebrews 11, verse 6, it says, it's in fact, let's turn back to Hebrews 11, 6, so you can kind of see it there. In Hebrews 11, verse 6, it says, I'll say it while you're turning to it, and I'm turning you to it too because I want to come up with a couple definitions here for us to look at. It says, without faith, it is impossible. You know that word, impossible? Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. So it's imperative on us, if we follow God, we must develop faith. We must have faith. Prerequisites to baptism were faith and repentance from dead works, from sin.

And a commitment to follow God. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him.

Let's read the whole verse, continuing then, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Now, there's two words in there. There's the word, believe, and we've seen the word, believe a few times in the Scriptures we read already today. Every time we've read, believe today, it is the Greek word, pistoio. And you've heard me talk about pistoio before, P-I-S-T-E-U-O. It's a belief, a deep-seated belief that goes to our core. As in, when we understand it, when we know it, it changes the way we are. It's not just, I believe today, the rest of today is going to be a nice day. It's not just, I believe Jesus Christ is our Messiah. It's something that so rivets us that it changes the way we think, it changes the way we are, and we're compelled to live our lives differently. It's that type of belief. Like if you have something, an incident that's occurring in your life that's just awful, and you think, I will never do that again. It alters the way we are. That's the type of belief that he's talking about. If we believe that Jesus Christ is God, or the Messiah, if we believe that, it changes who we are. Okay? And that is a belief we need to, we need to think about and talk about it a little bit. You know, there's so many. There's a third of the world that would say, I believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah. There will be people meeting here, not in this building, but across the vestibule there, in another building that would tell you all, that tell all of us, I believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

But to them, it's words. To us, it shouldn't have a lot difference in us. Jesus Christ is the only reason we have the hope of eternal life. The only reason. By every way that we've lived, up until the time God called us, we earned death. We earned death and we earned eternal, eternal whatever, condemnation. That was what our lives, that's the way our way, that's what it brought us to. Jesus Christ was willing to come to earth and by His example, by His life, by His living, purely, God looked at that life and He accepted and said, okay, I will take His work and I will let it pay for what you haven't done. Now, if someone did that in their physical life, we would say we owe Him everything. If they rescued us from financial ruin, if they rescued us from whatever we were in, we would say, man, we owe you everything for rescuing us. Jesus Christ rescued us from so much more than just whatever momentary problem we might have on this earth. He rescued us from eternal death. He paid the price. And God, when He called us, expects us to understand the magnitude of what He did. And our faith has to be in Him and God. And that faith has to be sure. No doubting, no wavering, no staggering, like the verses says. No unbelief, and that will grow over time. We read in Matthew 17 that Christ said, if you have faith as a mustard seed.

But you know one of the things that faith does, it grows over time. In Matthew 13, we read about the mustard seed, the parable of the mustard seed and the kingdom of God. It starts as a mustard seed a little, so hard to see that it's barely visible to the naked eye, but it grows into a tree. That's what our faith should do over time. It should continue growing. It's an act of faith. It isn't a faith that stays dormant or that stays status quo, but it grows over time. And it must be sure and it must be found that it's the cornerstone of the trace we must have.

If we don't have faith, it's impossible, impossible to please Him. Impossible!

Now, there's other places in the Bible that talk about how important faith is right there at the beginning. Oh, the other word I wanted to share with you is the Greek word for faith. It's pistis, a derivation of pistoio, P-I-S-T-I-S. It means this. It means persuasion or conviction of moral truth, a firm belief in the truthfulness of God, particularly reliance upon Christ for salvation. And Acts 4, 12 tells us the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. If we don't have faith in Him, if we kind of think that what He did was okay, and if we don't understand that when we are called and we accept that, that we have to turn totally from the way that led to death, you just can't keep walking that way. Just like when we get sick. What brought us to that sickness is the way we were living before. It doesn't make any sense that after you're sick, you would go back to the same thing that led to that thing before. Jesus Christ says, if you're going to follow me, if you're going to accept what I have to offer you, salvation, turn from the way that led to death, and follow Me. Follow Me! Do what I did! Do what I said to do! This is the way to life! This is the way to where we need to be. Do we recognize our need for forgiveness? Do we appreciate what God has done? Do we really understand that Christ is the basis of our faith and God the Father too? Because it was Christ who died for our sins and God the Father who resurrected Him and gave us the hope of eternal life. That the example He set would be the same for us.

And does that motivate us to follow Him more closely? Does it motivate us to really examine our way, to look at what we're doing, and to make sure that we are developing that foundational faith that will see us through many things? It should. It should. You know, I think we probably can all recite the definition of faith. It's the...

Every time I try to go to the court of third, I know it. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. But, you know, do we really know the definition of faith?

Do we really get it? Or do we just sort of let the words spin off our mouth and lull ourselves to sleep saying, yes, yes, I get it? Because if we got it, if we got it, we would love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul. We would love Him and we would appreciate Him more, and that would drive us to continually change the way we live, the way we think, the way we act, the way we react, the way that we do the things that we do. Let's go back to Luke 7. Let's look at another incident here, that Jesus Christ, of someone who did, in the physical sense, as Jesus Christ shows up, show how much He appreciated Him and what He had done for her.

Luke 7, he had the incidence of a lady who would live not a good life.

And Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the benefactor of her, anointing Him with the costly oil, washing His feet, kissing His feet, showing how much she loved Him, how much He appreciated Him, because she knew that in Him forgiveness would come, and the life that she had led was going to be, could be wiped away, and she had a future and a hope. In verse 40, Christ speaks to the Master of the house where this is all happening, and then He says, of course, the Master here in verse 39 says, if this man was a prophet, if, there it is again, if he was a prophet, he would know, he would know this lady is a sinner. Jesus answered and said to Him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So He said, Teacher, say it. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one owned five hundred denarii, the other fifty, and when they had nothing with which to repay, He freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love Him more?

Simon answered and said, I suppose, the one whom He forgave more. And Christ said to Him, you have rightly judged. And then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss. But this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Look how much attention she's paid to me.

Look how much she's appreciated for what I've done. Now, what have you done, Simon?

What have you done? Do you appreciate what's been given? Are you changing? Are you yielding to Him? Are you doing the things that God said? Because He said, if you love me, follow me. If you love me, keep my commandments. And yet Simon wasn't doing any of those things, but this woman had. Therefore I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Well, she knew how much she had been forgiven. Simon had yet to realize what he had done, that even his sins may be in his mind. They didn't compare to the sins that she had committed, but he owed God everything as well. Everything, just like you and I do.

Well, we're in Luke. Let's look a couple of chapters forward. If we have faith, if we're going to follow God, if we're going to do what He says and do it the way He wants us to, if, and I'll use the word if because the choice is on us, if we intend to be in His Kingdom, if we intend to rely on the promises that He's made us, if we really look forward to those things, He tells us what we need to do if we're going to follow Him. Luke 9 and verse 18.

We'll read some things just so we get the whole context of what He's talking to. His disciples there, same things that He's talking to us today. It happened as He was alone praying that His disciples joined Him and asked, saying, Who do the crowds say that I am? So they answered and said, some say John is a Baptist, some say Elijah. Others say that one of the old prophets has risen again. The Christ said to them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said, The Christ of God, the Messiah that we've been waiting for, the Son of God. And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.

And then He said words to them that are the same words He says to us today. He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, if this is what you want, if this is the path that you see, if you understand, if you are responding to call, if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself. Let him change the things that He's thinking, the things that came naturally He has to deny Himself. Let him take up his cross daily, not just once a week, daily. And let him follow Me. Let him follow Me. Not go back and follow the way He was before, not just say, I'll accept you and then go back to doing whatever He did before. Embrace, accept, live, follow the example and live the way. For whoever desires to save his own life will lose it. If he's really intent on going back to the way he was before, he loved his life before the decision he made, he's going to lose it. He's going to lose it. But whoever loses that former life, whoever denies himself and follows God, whoever loses it for My sake will save it. He'll receive eternal life. But you have to do something in response. Salvation is freely given, but when we accept it, God expects a change in us. And then He says, what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world? Let's put this in perspective. You can come out, go out and be a billionaire, but one day you're going to die. Now what good does it do you if you're going to gain the whole world, but then in the end you lose eternal life? Then it was all for nothing. Put this into perspective, is what He's saying, what I'm offering you. A few chapters forward in Luke 14, He sounds the same thing. And He tells them then, and He tells us now, if we want to be His disciples, if we really want to follow Him, the things we can't do. Luke 14, verse 25. Great multitudes went with Him, it says, And He turned and said to them, If you want it, it's there, it's there, but if you want it, if anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his father and mother, and remember it doesn't mean literally hate them, but love them less, if anyone doesn't put God first above mother and father, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot.

There's no vagueness there. He cannot be My disciple. Pretty clear language.

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

That means you've got to have faith. You've got to know that you know, you've got to believe with all your heart, mind and soul that who you're following and that Jesus Christ is the one to follow, that He is the Messiah, and that He is faithful to do everything that He said He would do.

You have to know it, because if there's a little bit of unbelief in us, then we will put God second or third some of the times. God says, like He said to the man, you know, who said, if you're able to do this Christ, and He said, if you believe, I'm able. If you have faith, I'm able. How much unbelief, not saying lack of belief, not saying lack of faith, might be in us. And what are we telling God? What are we telling God by the things that we do, the choices that we make? Now, I mentioned that faith is an action word. It's a noun, but it requires action. You know, in James it says, faith without works is dead. It's just a word. It's just a platitude. Faith without works is dead. Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5. You know, Christ says, follow me. That's an action word. Follow me. Make choices.

Actively choose me. Actively seek me. Actively deny self and choose what I want. Actively, actively do the things that show me you have faith in me. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, Paul says this, we walk by faith. We walk by faith. As we go through this life, we walk by faith, not by sight, because we haven't seen the promises of God yet. They're there, and we see them afar off, as it says to the people in Hebrews 11 that we read about. They saw them afar off, and they walk by faith. And God wants us to walk by faith. Keep moving. Keep in the direction that He wants you to go. Keep following Him, and He'll lead you, but we walk by faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. Later on, at the end of 2 Corinthians and chapter 13, to show what a big part of life is, faith in our life is, in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, He says, examine yourselves. Look at yourself. Look at it honestly from God's viewpoint, from the Holy Spirit's viewpoint, from the Bible's standpoint. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Are you? Do you just say it? Do your actions? Do your choices?

Say you're walking in faith? Do they say that to God? Or do you maybe couch your bets? Couch your bets and say, I've got to do it my way because I just don't believe God can make that happen in my life. He can't give me a living if I can't work the Sabbath day.

He can't heal this disease if I don't take every medicine that's on the market for it.

He can't do any of these things. He can't solve my financial problems.

And so I have to do this and that and whatever it takes. Do we believe that He can do it?

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith because without faith it's impossible to please Him. Without faith it's impossible to please Him. So the man, back in Mark 9, when he brought his son to Christ and said, if you're able, Christ, if you're able, help us. Christ said, oh, I'm able.

Oh, I'm able if you believe. If you believe.

And the man recognized by his revenge there was some unbelief in him.

There was something that he just wasn't sure.

And he caught himself and he said, I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

And we see that the disciples had this unbelief. Jesus Christ said, oh, faithless generation.

We can go back and you know well the stories of Peter who had some of that unbelief in him.

We can look at the incident of the boat and the storm he sees.

And what Jesus Christ said, oh, you have little faith.

Why didn't you believe? I can calm those storms.

You won't perish if you trust in me. Everything's going to be okay if you would just have rest in me.

If you wouldn't be anxious and if you wouldn't worry about those things and not allow that part of how Satan can help, or not help, can attack our faith and make us question our faith. Another time, Peter and a boat again on the waves of the water. And they saw Jesus Christ coming. They thought it was a spirit, right? And they recognized it was Jesus Christ. And Peter said, if it's you, call me to come and walk on the water. And he did. He stepped out of that boat and as long as he stepped to the sides on Jesus Christ, he was able to walk on water, physically impossible. No one would dream it. No one could think of it. When they saw Christ walking on the water, it never occurred to any of them that a person could walk on water. And yet, Peter, as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus Christ and his faith in him, he did it. He did the impossible. But as soon as he looked around and started allowing human reasoning to fall in to place, as long as he saw the water and thought, what am I doing? I can't be doing this. I can't have my faith in this. What did he do? He began to sink. The same thing happens to us.

When we look around and we think, what would the world do? What would my parents say? What do my kids say? What do they want me to do? Rather than keeping our eyes on faith, on Jesus Christ, firmly fixed on him, the firm faith, believing he can do these things. When we start looking around, just like Jesus Christ said, you know, in Matthew 6, he said, after all these things, the Gentiles seek. When we revert to that and we look, oh, this is what the world would say. This is what we should do. Our human reasoning, another one of those enemies of faith. This is what we think. This is what we should do. Rather than looking at it from God's eyes, have faith.

If you believe in me, if you believe in me with faith, total faith, mature faith, I'll provide these things to you. And Peter had to learn a lesson. You know, he denied Christ when he was afraid, when Christ was arrested. He feared for his life, and he denied him, and he had to learn, and he did learn. You know, there's hope when we have unbelief. If we are led by God's spirit enough to realize when we have these periods of unbelief, or where our faith is lacking a little bit, and we don't cover it over and think, I'm okay. That's the latest in attitude. I'm okay.

God knows what's in my heart. I don't have to change anything. I don't have to do anything. God's okay with what I do. He understands. Well, he understands. He understands, have faith in him.

Have faith in him. That's what he wants for us. That will be the thing that sees us through. That will be the thing that God rewards. But when we have a latest in attitude, I don't have to worry about that. Well, we better worry about it, and it's healthy to worry about it, because you know, Paul said, examine yourself. Is there any unbelief in you? And, you know, there was some in Peter. There was some in some other people in the Bible. But you know what? It wasn't a death sentence.

It wasn't a death sentence. It wasn't like God said, that's it. That's it. You've missed Mark.

Peter, what did he do? He learned. And God strengthened him. And out of those times of unbelief, and those times when his faith wavered and staggered, he became stronger.

He became stronger so that at the end he was willing to let his whole life be sacrificed to God.

You know, in James 5, it's interesting, you know, speaking of healing, James 5, when it tells us when we're sick and go to the elders of the church, it says, the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith will save him. The prayer of faith is not the prayer of healing, but the prayer of faith will save him.

Well, you know, we've got four enemies of faith. You know, we've got worry, we've got human reasoning, we have fear, right? Fear can come in and we fear what was going on and that can make our our faith waver. And we've got doubt. Doubt. You know, in Mark 9, verse 24, doubt was part of him. If you can do this, and I can't, I hope we can't even imagine, you know, if we would say to God, well, if you can do this, but he did. Well, we're speaking of faith, you know, we look at we look at Abraham. Let's, he is the father of faith. Let's look at Romans 4. Romans 4.

Romans 4, verse 16.

He's speaking of Abraham. I'm breaking into the chapter here, but you can read the whole chapter later and you know the context of what we're talking about. He's talking about how Abraham was the father of many nations and the faith that he had in God, even in the physically impossible of having a son born to him well past his wife's age and his age of being able to bear children. It says, verse 16, therefore it's of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, who have faith. Let's drop down to verse 19.

Speaking of Abraham, not being weak in faith, his faith was strong. Not being weak in faith, he didn't consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He didn't waver. He didn't stagger. He didn't think, oh, I don't know, can God really do this? Can God really give my wife, who's this old, a child? He didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform. The same thing God has told us.

I've given you promises. Do we really believe he's able to perform them?

And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham lived the way of life that God said. He committed himself totally and wholly to God. Whatever God said to do, he yielded himself to him and he followed him. He was faithful and he believed with all his heart that God would do even the seemingly impossible thing of letting his wife bear a child well past her childbearing days. Abraham, of course, is mentioned in Hebrews 11 among the faithful. Sarah is mentioned in Hebrews 11 as well, but let's go back and look at Genesis 15. I'm sorry, Genesis 18.

Genesis 18. And we see that Sarah, you know, she had a momentary doubt. She was a little unbelief in her when she heard these things about what the child she was going to have.

I'm looking at Genesis 18 verse 12.

We'll pick it up in verse 11. Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, when she heard these men saying, God's going to give you a child, you're going to have a child, therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, After I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?

Oh, there was a little bit of unbelief in Sarah. And the men that were there, the angels over there, oh, the Lord, verse 13, said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for the eternal? Is there anything he can't do?

Is there any trial he can't resolve? Is there any situation he can't command? Is there any disease he can't heal? Why did she laugh? Does she think he's not capable of doing it? Is she in her heart saying, If you're able to do this, do it? He says at the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Sarah heard it. Sarah caught herself, and she tried to cover for herself like we would do too. Sarah denied it, saying, I didn't laugh, but she did laugh. She did laugh, for she was afraid. She was afraid, and he said, No, but she did laugh. But she caught herself, and from there on out, she believed. And she's in Hebrews 11. Now, one chapter back in Genesis 17, sometimes this gets raised, a similar incident occurs with Abraham. We just read that Abraham never wavered. He never staggered. He always had complete faith. But in Genesis 17, verse 17, after God tells him, I'm going to bless Sarah.

She's going to have a child. She'll be a mother of many nations. Kings of peoples will be from her. Verse 17 says, Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?

God didn't reprimand him. God didn't say, Why did you laugh, Abraham?

Abraham's laugh was a different type of laugh than Sarah's laugh. It was a laugh of joy. Just like when we hear some good news, we might laugh and say, Really? Can that be? Really? Can that be?

That got resolved. God worked that in my life. God was going to do that. Abraham's was still faith. He was laughing. Really? God's going to do that? That's the promise he's going to make. He's going to have Sarah have a child. We're going to have our own baby. There was no wavering in Abraham. Just like Romans said, there should be no wavering in us either.

In James 1, James 1, James the brother of Christ, writes this about faith and the perfect, mature, complete faith that God wants us to develop. We don't have it the day we're baptized. We don't have it the first time we receive the Holy Spirit. We grow it over time as we choose and as we walk in faith and as we make the choices to choose God rather than self and others for our own reasoning. James 1, verse 5, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Just a sentence here where God says it'll happen. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. God knows what's in our heart. When we ask it, is there something in our heart that says, I don't know if God will do that or not? I don't know if he's going to do that or not.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts, he who has that unbelief, is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Isn't that a tough verse to read? If there's a little bit of doubt, if there's a little bit of unbelief, whether it's doubt, fear, human reasoning, anxiety, and worry, if we're doubting God by the things that we think, the things that we say, the things that we do, God says, don't worry about it. That man won't receive anything from me.

Let him ask in faith. Let him believe me. Because if he believes me, it can happen.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting. Oh, verse 7. Let's read that again. For let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man. He's got one foot with me and one foot back in the world, one foot with him, his own reasoning and his own mind.

He's saying he believes me, but he's kind of on the fence. He's also looking over here and saying, I'll cost my bets. I'll look at this. I'll look at this and I'll do this and I'll do these things.

God wants single-minded people who are faith is in him. And that takes time. And that takes commitment. And that takes the Holy Spirit. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James makes some pretty straight statements under inspiration from God.

The Mark 9 man learned it. Peter learned it. Sarah learned it. We can talk about other people, Gideon, Moses, you name them. All those people listed in Hebrews 11, they all had momentary doubts. Just like you and I, if we're honest with ourselves, that there's times there's a little bit of unbelief. Can God do this? Will God do this? Do I need to do something else?

But out of it, they all became stronger. Back in the book of Luke, where we've spent some time today, right at the beginning of the book, there's another example of a man who allowed a little unbelief into his life. Let's go back and look at Luke 1.

We'll read through the first 20 verses here of Luke 1. The story of Zacharias, who was the father of John the Baptist. Here in Luke 1, verse 1, it says, inasmuch addressing his gospel here to Theophilus, it tells the reason he's giving the gospel in here, it says, "...inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set an order and narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered to them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed." I want you to know firsthand that what you've been taught is true.

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Kind of like Job, nothing that you could find any fault with. They were obeying God. They were doing their jobs. They were walking with Him. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. So it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense, and then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zacharias knew that was an angel. It just appeared this person wouldn't have been here. And the angel had a message for him. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled. Fear fell upon him. What can this be? What is he going to say? But the angel said to him, Don't be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will call his name John. Similar situation to Abraham and Sarah.

Now Zacharias knew the Scriptures well. You know, people back in that time, they knew the Scriptures better than we did. They know everything. It should have immediately dawned on Zacharias, this is an angel from God. He's got a message from me. The same thing he's telling me is there in the Old Testament. Abraham never wavered. God delivered a child or let her become pregnant with a child, well past her childbearing days. You will call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

He gave him what the purpose of this young boy would be, that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what's going to happen. He is going to prepare the way for the Messiah.

He's telling them all these things.

Zacharias should have laughed like Abraham did and said, that's marvelous. Why would you visit that blessing on us? What a wonderful thing that you could do! But instead, he has a response like the man in Mark 9, with a little bit of unbelief.

And Zacharias said to the angel, how will I know this? Give me a sign. What you're saying is good.

I want to believe it, but can you prove it to me?

He should have known better. He should have known better.

For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.

Now, I'm an old guy. She can't have children anymore. How can I know that this is going to happen? And the angel answered, you notice in the same way that Zacharias said to him, the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel. You're an old man. I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God and who was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.

You didn't receive them with total, complete, mature faith. There's a little bit of unbelief in you. It doesn't mean that he had no belief. It didn't mean he didn't have faith, but he wavered a little bit. He doubted a little bit. That unbelief was found in him. And there was going to be recompense for that. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you didn't believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.

You didn't believe. And so now you're not going to speak. And from now until the time the child is born, because you just didn't believe. Now Zacharias could have spent those days where he couldn't speak, complaining, bemoaning the fact and saying, God's not fair. Look at everything I did. Tell me what I did wrong. Why would he do that to me? And if we find ourselves in a time of unbelief, in a time where we may hear something or do something or read something in the Bible or someone say something to us, and we have that attitude. That's not the attitude God's looking for. Zacharias, the man in Mark 9, handled it right. Zacharias handled it right. He went back and he examined himself. And he thought about things. And he looked at his faith and probably thought, why did I just not say, thank you, God. Thank you for this blessing come upon us. Why did I doubt? Why did I waver? Why did I stagger in my faith? He didn't do that at all. He didn't complain, but he did. Well, I guess he did. Look at himself honestly. And so when we drop down to verse 57 here, when the child is going to be born, we find that Zacharias is a different man as a result of the problems or the trial that he went through and learning from his mistake of unbelief, the same thing that God wants for you and me. We all stagger. We all waver from time to time. But when we do, don't stay away from him. Go back and seek him. Go back and look at what you're doing. Go back and look at what your actions have told God. Not if you can, but I know you can. I believe you can. Now, Elizabeth's time, verse 57, came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him by the name of his father Zacharias. That was what the custom of the day would be. His mother answered and said, no, his name is going to be John. But they said to her, oh, there's no one among your relatives who's called by his name. This is what you should do.

Listen to us! This is a blessing from God. Name him Zacharias. So they made signs to his father what he would have him called. Come on, Zacharias. Let your wife know what needs to be done here.

And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, saying, his name is John. Exactly what he had been told. So everyone in that room marveled. He's doing exactly what he's been, you know, what he's been told, but his name is John. We're defying tradition. I'm not listening to you. I'm listening to God. I'm listening to what I was told. His name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. And then you can read from verses 67 down to the rest of the chapter how he praised God. He didn't blame him. He didn't say, woe is me. He recognized his faith and he can't recognize his problem, and he came out of that incident with greater faith. That's what God wants for all of us. Sometimes we go through these things. God wants us to have faith. He wants us to be in his kingdom. He wants us to succeed, and sometimes we have to go through some trials in our life and the unbelief that we might experience.

But don't let it sidetrack you. Don't let it lead you away. Get it. Arrest it. Remember the examples. Remember Mark 9.24 and pray, Father, I believe, help me with my unbelief. Let's all go through that and let's all pray that prayer. Help us with our unbelief so that when Christ returns, he really will find faith on earth.