Spiritual Depression Pt. 3 Seeing Clearly

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Spiritual Depression Pt. 4 The Soul

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We're reviewing, this is part three, spiritual depression, and remember we're using

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Psalm 42, 5 as kind of our working definition of what spiritual depression is.

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Why are you in despair, O my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hoping God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence.

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One of the things that we looked about over the last two weeks was that most Christians of all times and in different circumstances, at least at some point in their lives, find themselves downcast, unhappy, or in despair.

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So that's the kind of the premise for Martin Lloyd -Jones writing this book.

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This is another quotation from him. We are considering this subject not only because it is sad and tragic that any

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Christian should ever be miserable, but because of the whole state of the church today. I have no hesitation in asserting again that one of the reasons why the

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Christian Church counts for so little in the modern world is that so many Christians are in this condition.

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He wrote this back in the mid -20th century, not something that was just for today.

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So sometimes there's nothing new under the sun. In the first session, we examined the topic in general, looked at what we mean by and defined some terms about spiritual depression, and then last week we examined one particular aspect or reason for this condition, and if you remember, that was a lack of understanding of the doctrine of justification, all right?

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Now as we go forth, each week we're going to pick up on this, and we're not saying that each person who is suffering from spiritual depression exhibits all of these symptoms or that the cure is the same.

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There's many different causes for people to go into spiritual depression, and we'll pick up on a couple each week.

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So this week, he starts off in the book, if you read it, The Miracle of the

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Healing of the Blind Man in Mark 8, 22 to 26. Okay?

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Now, I want you to keep in mind that though the miracles of Jesus were acts of mercy, all right?

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Jesus was teaching something in each one, and even the teaching dimension of it was multi -dimensional.

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In other words, we know also from our, you know, from, in fact, even last week, not last week's message, but the week before, that signs and wonders, the signs and wonders of Jesus attested to his authenticity as being the

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Messiah. But there's even another dimension, and that's what we're going to look at tonight, and that is that the miracles are like living parables.

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Have to be careful when we call them parables, because some people get the idea that, well, a parable is just a story, it's not real.

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But no, just like the Lord's Supper is a living parable, the miracles of Jesus are living parables.

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They teach us something, and I hope you'll get a better idea of what I mean as we go.

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Therefore, the context of the miracles are important. Don't just, if you just find somebody who takes a miracle of Jesus out of the

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Scripture and doesn't set the context for it, be careful, because it can lead you into false conclusions and false applications.

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Okay? Also, the facts concerning the miracle are important, all right?

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And that is very clear in the present text. So, I want you to keep this in mind, this question in mind, as we go through the miracle.

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Why did Jesus heal the blind man in the way that he did? Okay, that's a very important question.

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So, let's read the text. Mark 8. And they came to Bethsaida, and they were brought, and they brought a man, a blind man to Jesus, and implored him to touch him.

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Taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village, and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything?

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Now, notice you're seeing some differences here from the blind man in the Gospel of John, okay?

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And he looked up and said, I see men, for I see them like trees walking around.

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Then again, he laid his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently, and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.

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And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Now, I just want to point out a couple of things here, and then we're going to go through, the way we're going to proceed tonight, we're going to go through the facts of the miracle, looking at the miracle as a parable, and then applying that to spiritual depression.

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Okay, notice. How does he heal the blind man? He spits on his eyes, and laying his hands on them.

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All right, that's the first thing. It sounds funny, right? It's interesting. Why does he do it?

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Then he asked him a question. Do you see anything? And what's his answer?

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He says, I see men, for I see them as like trees walking around.

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And then the miracle is completed. He laid his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently, and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.

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Now, how did he heal the blind man and John, the

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Gospel of John? Spit on the ground, made mud, put it on his eyes, tells him to go wash.

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We also know that there were other occasions, not specifically delineated, but Jesus had the authority.

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He could make him, a blind man, see just like that. Didn't have to use any intermediary means.

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So the fact that he goes through this process is important, and these details tell us something, and that's what the point that I was alluding to earlier.

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There's a teaching methodology that Jesus is using here, and it's telling us something, and these are some of the important points.

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So, why did Jesus use this particular method to heal the blind man? That's the question that we want to ask.

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Primarily, to teach the disciples. Now, why would

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I say that? Because it's what it is in the book. No. No.

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But that lesson is also valid for succeeding generations. Though he was primarily teaching the disciples something, those principles are applicable to every succeeding generation, including us.

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All right, so this is where the context is important. What had just happened?

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What led up to Jesus healing this blind man in the way that he did?

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Well, he's just fed 4 ,000 people with a few fish and a couple of loaves, right?

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This is different now. It's not feeding the 5 ,000. This is feeding the 4 ,000, and then the

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Pharisees confront Jesus after he feeds the 4 ,000. What are they doing?

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We want to see a sign, right? And Jesus rebukes them, right?

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And he leaves the Pharisees and enters the boat with his disciples, and then he begins to teach the disciples, and what does he say?

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And he was giving orders to them, saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

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Why would he say that? Why is he teaching this at this particular point? Yeah, and if you read the scripture, it says they were arguing with him, okay, and then demanding to see a sign.

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So why does Jesus then turn to the disciples, and he says, beware of the leaven of the

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Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. What is the response of the disciples? Do you remember?

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They began to distrust one another, the fact that they had no bread, and look how, in fact,

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Martyn Lloyd -Jones comments on this. He says, now there's a fallacy of being a literalist.

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They mentioned, Jesus mentions leaven, and what are they thinking about? Bread. They're completely missing the fact of what happened with the

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Pharisees. All right. So Jesus responds to them. Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?

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Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? I hope you're starting to see something developing here.

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Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? I broke five loaves for the 5 ,000.

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How many baskets of broken pieces you picked up? They said 12.

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Okay, notice how Jesus uses the Socratic method here. He's asking questions.

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And then when I broke seven for the 4 ,000, how many large baskets of full of broken pieces did you pick up?

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They said to him, seven. Okay. Are you picking up something yet?

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Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have hardened hearts?

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Let me just put that back one second. What's the relationship that's developing here between what

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Jesus is teaching and what's coming? No?

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All right. Well, let's continue then. Yes, seeing. All right.

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Who did they bring before him? A blind man. What's the problem with the blind man?

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He can't see. So, and then the last comment that Mark records for us in this particular thing is this, and he was saying to them, do you not yet understand?

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Remember, in biblical imagery and all, seeing is relating to understanding.

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Remember what he said to Nicodemus? Unless a man is born again, he can't see the kingdom of heaven.

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Is he talking about that he physically can't see it? To Nicodemus? No. He's saying you can't even understand.

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You can't even get a glimpse of it mentally, spiritually.

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Okay, that's the point. So then they, after this saying, they're out of the boat.

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Now they arrive at Bethsaida, and the blind man is brought to him. I hope you're starting to see the connection now.

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Now look, how does Jesus heal the man? Now again, Jesus does nothing by random chance or happenstance and say, well,

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I think this might be a good idea to do now. Everything he does is with a purpose, because he accomplishes the purpose of God perfectly while he's here on earth, or of course, through all eternity.

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All right, so how does he heal the man? Well, he begins by asking a pertinent question. Do you see anything?

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And the man answers. This is after he had put, he spit on his eyes.

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He says, I see men for I see them like trees. Walking around.

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At this point, is this man blind, or is he sighted? Is he?

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Can he see? How well can he see? Could we say he's somewhere between the two?

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You're allowed to giggle. Yeah. All right, so he's seeing, but he's not seeing clearly.

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I mean, he even makes the comment that he knows it's men walking, but they look like trees.

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All right, now this is from Martin Lloyd -Jones. He says, now this is precisely the condition with which

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I am anxious to deal with at the moment. I am concerned about those Christians who are disquieted and unhappy and miserable because of this lack of clarity.

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It is almost impossible to define them. See, the whole idea is

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Jesus heals this man in response to the condition and the questions of the disciples.

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All right, and let's see how that, so now notice I put it up the parable in quotations because, again,

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I don't want you to get, for one minute, I don't want you to get the impression that the miracle is only a parable.

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There's a parable within the miracle which actually and physically took place. All right.

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These men are kind of like those in Revelation 3, 15 and 16.

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I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. Wish that you were cold or hot, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,

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I will spit you out of my mouth. The reason I put that up there is that's exactly the position that we find so many

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Christians in, is they'll make an ascent to Christian doctrine.

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Yes, I am a Christian, but on the other hand, they're lukewarm. They're not putting it in place, and we can go back to the church in Laodicea for a good example of that.

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Now, here's another quote. Having seen the emptiness of the world, having seen something of the life lived by certain

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Christians, and having realized that Jesus Christ is the one who has made the difference, they see somehow that he is a savior, so they are interested in him and concerned about him.

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They see that much quite clearly. All right, and again, we're talking specifically more about Christians who are suffering depression than non -christian, and he continues, yet alas,

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I have in the second place to say that they are still confused. They still do not see clearly.

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They have simply seen men as trees walking. All right, now again, here's where we're getting right down to the nitty -gritty of this condition of spiritual depression, all right?

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And this is quite different, what we're looking at this week, from last week with somebody who didn't understand justification.

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And in the book, he gives three manifestations of this type of spiritual depression, okay?

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First, they have no clear understanding of basic spiritual principles. In other words, this is somebody who has made a profession of faith, but if you begin to question them about what does it mean to be a

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Christian, or what does the Bible teach, they can't, it's, they're all over the place, or they're giving a watered -down version of it, okay?

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But if you really, and don't, you know, don't dare get into anything deeper of substance to it, all right?

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If you ask them about the atonement, oh yeah, they know that Christ atoned for sins. They know you need to be born again.

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They've heard that, but they do not understand why Christ had to die. And that may sound simplistic, but you think about it, how many times in your evangelism, dealing with a non -believer, or somebody who has just come to faith, have you asked them, why did

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Christ have to die? And they can give you, well, to pay for my sins, but well, why did he have to die for your sins?

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And they don't know how to answer the questions, right? I mean, especially if you've done any street evangelism, or any cold evangelism, you're going to, these are, this is exactly what you see.

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So people will actually make a profession of faith, and yet still be in this condition, and we'll see why in a few minutes.

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Second, their hearts are not fully engaged, all right? There's the lukewarmness that we see in Revelation 3, 15 and 16.

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They do not find happiness or joy in living for Christ. Living the

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Christian life is a chore for people in this condition. That's why they're unhappy.

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It's, you know, like, oh man, you mean I can't do this? I can't do that? I can't, you know,

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I can't live a flagrant life? No, it's hard, and they don't even really understand why.

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So what do they do? They seek happiness in other places, all right?

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Have you ever known Christians, and they're living a lifestyle that is not godly, and when you ask them, well, that's because it makes me happy.

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That's why I'm doing it. Well, you know it's wrong. Well, yeah, yeah, well, I don't know. Sometimes they'll say yes, sometimes they'll say no.

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Third, double -minded. This comes right from the scriptures. You know this trying to live with one foot in each world, and what does the scripture say about that man?

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The person in his prayers don't expect him to receive anything, and he's unstable in all his ways.

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An unstable man is going to be one who is spiritually depressed. They're rebellious.

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If you have a double mind, you are going to, you know, eventually get to the place where you just don't care that this is what the scripture says, all right?

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In fact, you know where I've dealt with that most often? In a marriage situation where one spouse or the other, all right, says, you know, this is it.

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I've had it. I want a divorce. I want out of this marriage, and then when you confront them with what the scripture says,

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I don't care. I want to be happy, and God wants me to be happy, so I'm going to get the divorce.

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God understands me. That's just an out -and -out rebellion because it's clearly in opposition to what the scripture says, and then they wonder why they jump from that relationship into one that's even worse, all right?

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That's like the kid who can't wait to get out of his parents' house because there's too much authority, joins the

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Marines. I'm going to show mom and dad I'm joining the Marines.

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Yeah, you're going to show them, all right? They give mental assent to the scriptures, but do not apply them to their lives, to their everyday lives, all right?

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Now, those are just three manifestations of what we're talking about. What is the cause?

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Why are these people in this condition? And it's always important to understand the cause if you're going to figure out how to combat it, how to cure it.

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J .C. Ryle, Bishop Ryle, who lived a couple hundred years ago, in his book on salvation.

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No, it's not that one. That's a good book, but Ryle says, he says, if you have the wrong cause for a disease, the cure will be wrong.

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He says the wrong cure for the spiritual needs of men is because they don't understand how they were saved in the first place.

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So if you don't understand the root cause, you're never going to understand the cure, all right?

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So why are these people in the condition? First, how they were brought to Christ. Now, this is very important.

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Non -biblical practices of evangelism, presenting a false understanding of what it means to be a

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Christian, okay? The health, wealth, and prosperity people, or as John calls them, the grab it, blab it, and grab it people, all right?

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How is this so? Because if you're taught that this is what it means to be a Christian, all

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I'm going to do is just pray this prayer and ask Jesus into your heart. Don't have to do anything else.

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Person does that, and there's no change, and they're not taught that they have to follow up.

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They don't have to be discipled. Pretty soon, they run into trouble. What's going on here?

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You know? So, however, this does not excuse the person from their own responsibility before God.

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This is a contributing factor, and unfortunately, I think this is one of the major causes of spiritual depression in our country today, because you hear evangelism, it's heartbreaking, you know, just how what people are being told what it means to be a

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Christian, or how to become a Christian, all right? So I put that one first, and then there's four others that you can see can all come back to this in some manner, shape, or form.

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Second, these people generally object to clear -cut definitions, all right?

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They don't want to be told, you must do this, or you must do that. They dislike clarity and certainty, and look what

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Jones says, the most comfortable type of religion is always a vague religion, nebulous and uncertain, cluttered up with forms and ritual.

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Just give me some rituals that I can do every Sunday, and I can go in, and I then

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I can go in, and I can say my confession, and good, I'm good for the next week. Do we know anybody like that?

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Sure do. They often accuse Christians of being too rigid, too narrow, too legalistic.

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Anybody in here never been called one of those things? Yeah, I've been called all of those at one point or another, and you're right, and some that I couldn't even mention here.

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All right. Jones again, but if you start with the theory that Christianity is not clear -cut, do not be surprised if you find yourself like this man seeing men as trees walking.

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In other words, if you start your Christian life by saying, well, there's nothing, you know, nothing's hard and fast.

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The Bible is like the Pirate's Code. It's more like guidelines. Remember Captain Barbossa?

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Okay, now it's just guidelines, and that's what a lot of people look at, that the Bible is like guidelines.

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It's not clear -cut. All right, and yet I don't know of anything that's more clear -cut than Scripture.

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All right, so that's the second category or cause. Third, these people never fully accept the authority in teaching of Scripture.

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Isn't that rampant in the church today? They mix their own ideas with spiritual truth.

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How many times do you have somebody who says, well, I don't think it really means that. All right, to me, it means this, okay?

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And so they begin to modify Scripture sometimes with other philosophies. Look at the, quote,

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Christian counseling movement, unquote. You find that today, that's what they do.

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They try to marry the Bible with Freudian, Skinnerian, Rogerian psychology, and believe me when

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I tell you that you cannot do that. That's like mixing poison and water.

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They rationalize. Times have changed. You know, what a bunch of old dead guys, you know, who wrote this, you know, 2 ,000 years ago.

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They say the Bible is out of date in the 21st century. Have you heard a lot of this?

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Okay. Fourth, these people are not interested in doctrine.

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They read the Bible, but ignore the doctrine it expounds, and they can get really creative in this one.

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They draw a false dichotomy between, well, there's lessons to be learned from the Bible, but I don't want to study doctrine.

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Well, what are the lessons that you're going to learn if they're not based on doctrine?

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It becomes a subjective experience again. Okay. Martin Lloyd -Jones, this is truth, and it examines us and tries us and forces us to examine ourselves.

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So if we start by objecting to doctrine as such, it is not surprising that we do not see clearly.

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You can see why he chose this parable of the blind man who was in his intermediate state before he's fully healed, you know, just not seeing clearly.

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They know something. They can see something. They can perceive something, but they're not seeing it clearly.

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Oh, and I like this one. It's not right on point with this, but he sums up the purpose for creeds here.

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The whole purpose of all the creeds drawn up by the Christian Church, together with every confession of faith on doctrine and dogma, was to enable people to see and to think clearly.

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And then, in fact, in the chapter, he says, do you think they enjoyed writing those creeds?

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And the answer, of course, is no, it was laborious, and there was a lot of discussion and debates that went on in those councils before they ever came up with any of the creeds.

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Okay, then that leads us to our fifth one. Fifth, these people are in a condition of spiritual confusion.

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Their study is haphazard. If you talk to somebody who is spiritually depressed, you ask them, what are you studying in the

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Bible? They say, well, yesterday I read from 2 Kings, tomorrow I'm going to read from Ephesians, then

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I might jump back to Genesis, you know. Well, how do you figure? Well, however the Spirit moves me. Okay, the studies have haphazard, they don't think things through.

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All right, that means there's a lack of clarity as well. Just like the blind man, they see and yet they don't see.

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I think how Jones has brought this parable, this miracle, it fits this topic so, so well.

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So now we get to the cure. Now, Lloyd -Jones, he offers some general principles that are helpful to those in this condition, and I just want to caution, it's not this simple.

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Somebody who's in spiritual depression needs good, wise, biblical counsel.

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But these, so these are just some general principles so that you understand that there is a cure, there is a remedy for those who are spiritually depressed.

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First, don't be presumptuous. All right, don't think there's an easy solution.

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All right, somebody who's in spiritual depression, it probably has taken them a while to get there.

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Don't think that you're going to wave a magic wand, you know, or hit him over the head with the

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Bible and hope that by osmosis it sinks in. I've tried, I wanted to do that many times.

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So don't think that there's necessarily an easy solution because the person can somewhat see, they may not even understand or acknowledge the condition that they're in.

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When you tell them, you know, when you tell them, you know, you're not addressing, you're not coming to the scriptures right, they say, oh, no, yeah, yeah,

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I understand it. Oh, no, I know what it means to be a Christian. Yet then when you push them, you know, they they can't articulate what it means to be a

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Christian. That's why one of the questions I'd love to ask when somebody, I'm counseling with somebody,

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I always ask them at some point, all right, if you were to die today and you appear before heaven and you meet

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Jesus, you know, and he says, why would you, why should I let you into my heaven? What's your answer?

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You would be amazed at the answers you get. Okay, and of course the only answer is because Jesus Christ died for my sins.

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It's amazing how many people can't articulate that. Okay. Yes.

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Yes, now this can also apply to people who think they're saved, but the the premise of the book is that these are people who are in fact truly

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Christian, and he differentiates. If somebody is truly a Christian, then the the remedies are all the more easier.

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If somebody's not truly saved, what's the first thing you have to do is you got to give them the gospel. You got to get them to understand the point of that, you know, you're not saved.

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Yeah, it applies to both, but specifically, he's really writing a book for Christians who are spiritually depressed.

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Well, all right. Yeah. And yet the doctrine is superficially taught, you know, it's not, there's not a lot of depth.

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I remember a pastor who's got, you know, Pastor Sarai loves his people, but the idea of holding people to accountability and sharing some of these things, he too much overemphasized love and love for people, and he would have people who were in ministry positions, nursery and all this stuff, they weren't saved, you know, or they were living in an open sin and not dealing with things that he was aware of, and his idea was eventually the

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Holy Spirit will get a hold of them, but the Holy Spirit operates through his word. Yeah, and if you don't deal with that, you're gonna have this kind of malaise.

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And so you have all sorts of people who are hurting and suffering and not growing because they're not looking at the truth that's being taught.

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Just take somebody who has an Arminian view of salvation, all right? In fact,

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I was once asked, Pastor, do you believe that Arminians will be in heaven? And I said, yeah, that I think many of them, you know, are truly saved.

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They just don't know how. Or the pastor that I knew was asked if Pentecostals will be in heaven, and he says, yeah, unless they run right by the gate.

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All right. All right, so, but here's the point.

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Because the person can somewhat see, in other words, their eyes have been opened to a certain extent, but yet they may not understand or even acknowledge their condition, but they can see somewhat.

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That's why they will acknowledge. Most of these people that we're talking about are those who would at least say that they are

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Christians, and some of them are truly. Like the blind man, they see, and yet they don't see.

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They're in that position, and that's one of the things that puts them into depression. All right, so now the cure.

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Second is the opposite of the first. Don't give up hope.

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Don't be presumptuous, but don't give up hope. All right, don't think there's no solution to the problem just because it's complex.

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All right, because people who are in this condition are probably going to be some of the most difficult to reach, because they have certain amount of knowledge, and when you tell them something that goes against the way they've been taught, they have trouble understanding it.

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All right. If the blind man had given up when he saw things darkly and unclear, he would have remained in that condition.

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If he would have said, when Jesus said, yeah, I can, and he answered him, he said, I see men walking like trees, and he says, thank you so much, he'd run away.

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All right, he would have been happy for a while, but following through, and in fact,

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I'll get to that in a minute, when he obeyed he gained full sight. All right, and the first will lead to the third.

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I don't know if I have this up later, so I'm going to say it now anyway. One of the great stories is

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Naaman. It's one of my favorite stories in Scripture, the Syrian general who comes to Elisha.

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All right, and what does Elisha tell him? Go dip into Jordan seven times, and he's all upset. Why? Because he said, we got beautiful rivers, the

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Euphrates, the Tigris, back in Syria, but the Jordan is, oh, probably like the

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East River, you know, and and what his servant convinces him, and so he dips down seven times, and he's clean.

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What would have happened if Naaman had only dipped six times? He would have gone away a leper.

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So, incomplete obedience is disobedience. Third, submit yourself to the instruction and teaching of Jesus.

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Actually, I just jumped ahead a little bit. It's only through the Word of God that a person will see how serious his condition really is.

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What is the best cure for this? You have to confront them with the

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Word of God. All right, partial obedience is disobedience.

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If the blind man had given up when he saw things darkly and unclear, he would have remained in that condition. The answer is a systematic study of the

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Word of God. This is where biblical counseling, this is really what biblical counseling is.

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Biblical counseling is systematic study of the Word of God, bringing the person to the Scripture, to the truthfulness of Scripture, teaching them the importance of doctrine, that those are the things that are going to put you back on the right track, you know, in your

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Christian life. All right? Systematic study followed by complete obedience.

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Questions? Yes? When you say, well, this last part, when you're talking about systematic studying of Scripture, like, let's say, you know, you wanted to start a study with this person like, what does it mean by a systematic?

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Just that. You have to take them through the important doctrines that are going to affect their life.

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If the person is just a very weak Christian with not even grounded in good doctrine, take them right through.

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Start off with, what is the condition of man? Why do you need a Savior? You know, and you'd be amazed at how many people can't even articulate that.

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So you start off with the major doctrines. What is the condition of man? If you understand total depravity, then you say, all right, you cannot, you realize that that means total inability, you cannot save yourself.

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How can you be saved then? You know, and then you go on to the atonement of Jesus Christ.

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What does it mean to be regenerated, reborn? Just some sort of systematic systematic study.

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And putting the doctrines in the right order. That's one of Lloyd -Jones's pet peeves, too.

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Taking about, he says, people, somebody's saved, and immediately you start them on a doctrine of sanctification before they really understand what justification means.

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And if you remember, that was last week's lesson, that, you know, too many people focus on sanctification, and instead of justification, and what does it do?

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It leads the person to believe, well, I have to keep working for my salvation. So...

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What are the scriptures? Like, you know them in a paraphrase, summarized type of way, but like, where to go?

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Well, this is why, if you're going to counsel with somebody, you have to prepare ahead of time.

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Okay? Any good biblical counselor, after he or she meets with somebody and ascertains what the problem really is, prepares for each session.

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You know, what am I going to say? Where am I going to lead them? And what homework? It's my policy.

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I always give homework so that the person is into the scriptures. So it needs prior preparation.