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Tonight, we're going to look at one of the most heartfelt and honest statements about faith ever uttered in the pages of Scripture. It's found in the ninth chapter of Mark's Gospel. I believe tonight's Scripture lesson will be of particular comfort and encouragement for anyone who has ever struggled with doubts about their faith or doubts about the claims of Christianity.
My guess is that every believer has had these struggles at one time or another, to one degree or another, or has known someone who has. Why do we have doubts? We have doubts because we're sinners living in a fallen world, and some of that world lives in us.
Sometimes our faith is very strong, sometimes not so strong. We advance spiritually and then we regress, two steps forward, one step back. We learn and then we forget. That seemed to be the pattern for the disciples, especially Peter, and I suppose it's part of the normal Christian life, part of the sanctification process.
It may be normal, but it is worrisome to our soul. When we consider how often we stumble and how prone to sin we are, we have to marvel at the patience of God with us. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 103 said, God knows our frame and is mindful that we are.
But dust.
William Jenkin, a seventeenth-century Puritan, put it like this. Our grandfather was Adam, our grandfather was dust, and our great-grandfather was nothing. Someone else said, when it comes down to it, we're just dust held together by God.
On top of that, we're slow learners. Thankfully, the Lord is a very forgiving and patient teacher. The passage I'd like us to look at tonight has to do with some ineffective disciples, the faith of a father, and the compassion of Jesus.
Jesus, our patient teacher, has much to teach us tonight if we'll listen to him. So, follow along as I read verses 14 to 29 in chapter 9 of Mark, Mark 9, beginning at.
Verse 14.
I'll be reading from the New King James tonight. When he came to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing.
With them.
Immediately, when they saw him, all the people were greatly amazed and, running to him, greeted.
Him.
And he asked the scribes, what are you discussing with them? 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 could not. He answered him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. Then they brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So he asked his father, How long has this been happening to him?
And he said, From childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, Death and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more.
Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast it out?
So he said to them, This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. Listen again to verse 24. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
Has there ever been a more honest confession about the weakness of faith and the great need for God's grace to strengthen it? This will be our scripture text for tonight, and we'll consider it in just a few minutes.
In the first part of chapter 9, Mark wrote about the transfiguration of Jesus which took place on a high mountain. Commentators have pointed out that there is a striking contrast between the events up on the mountain and what happened later in the valley below.
The passage on the high mountain, some wondrous and awe-inspiring things took place. First, Jesus was gloriously transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John. Next, Elijah and Moses had a conversation with Jesus.
Then the voice of God the Father is heard testifying of his love for his son. Down below in the valley, some other things were taking place. The disciples and subscribes are encircled by a crowd, and they're engaged in a contentious.
Argument.
The father is pleading for an unclean spirit to be cast out of his son, and the spirit convulses the boy. Quite a contrast between the two events. One is glorious and uplifting, the other a picture of a fallen world marred by sin.
We should never forget that it was just such a fallen world that Jesus voluntarily consented to enter and deal with when he set aside his glory and came down from heaven. It's the same world that we're called to be in, but not of.
What can we learn from this passage? First of all, let's consider just how dependent Jesus' disciples are upon him. This becomes evident when we picture in our minds the same Jesus encountered when he came down from the mountain.
He had taken Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain, and when the four of them descended, Mark says in verse 14 that they found the other disciples and some scribes in the midst of a great crowd.
The scribes were disputing with the disciples, that is to say they were questioning the disciples in an argumentative manner. We know from other passages that when the scribes asked Jesus questions, they most often weren't motivated by a sincere desire to learn, but were seeking to somehow discredit him with the people or claim that he was a false teacher.
The scribes in this passage were being opportunistic. They were taking advantage of the fact that Jesus wasn't present. If they could discredit these disciples of Jesus, by association they believed they would discredit Jesus.
On their own, the disciples were no match for the highly trained and educated scribes who were skilled in disputing and arguing and asking questions. When Jesus came upon this scene, everyone ran to him, and he became the interrogator.
Verse 16, what are you discussing with them? Jesus probably said that to divert the attention of the scribes away from his outmatched disciples to himself. Now it's the scribes who are outmatched. They know it, and they'll not be heard from again in the rest of the passage.
In verse 16, when Jesus asked the scribes what they were talking about, notice that it was someone in the crowd who responded. In verses 17 and 18, a man 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 could not. Think about what has happened. The scribes had the disciples back on their heels, on the ropes, so to speak.
They had tried to cast out an unclean spirit, but failed. These were the same disciples who had previously healed the sick and had cast out many demons, but now they could not.
Why?
Why not? They would later ask Jesus that very question, and in verse 29, Jesus told them that prayer and fasting was required. That answer suggests that in this instance, the disciples relied on their past successes and believed that they would be able to cast out the mute spirit in their own strength without calling on the power of God.
In the absence of Jesus, more than ever, they should have engaged in much prayer and even fasting if necessary to help them be focused in prayer. Whatever the reason, the disciples could not cast out the spirit, and their failure taught them and taught us an important lesson.
Without me, you can do nothing. This important lesson was humbling but useful. The disciples did not know Romans 8 .28, but the truth of that verse was being worked out in their very lives. An unclean spirit is a bad thing.
Not casting one out is a bad thing. But God works all things, even bad things, together for the spiritual good of believers. It was for the disciples' good that they were made aware of just how utterly dependent they were on Jesus.
It was a lesson they would eventually learn. The lessons we learn through humbling or painful experiences are the ones we don't quickly.
Forget.
They are bitter at the time but become sweet later. We are prideful, so we don't like to think that we can do nothing without Christ. God has to patiently teach us, sometimes by humbling us as He did the disciples.
Let us learn once and for all that daily we need the grace and presence of Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing. With Him, we can overcome the greatest temptations, but without Him, the smallest will overtake.
Us.
Related to this lesson of our dependency on Jesus is the great truth that He will be there when we need Him. When Jesus came down from the mountain, His appearance had an immediate effect. One commentator put it this way.
His appearance was like that of a general arriving on the field of battle just in time to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. Jesus, our General, always comes at the right time with the right blessing.
He is indeed a very present help in time of trouble. As we continue on in this passage, there is more we can learn. There is a lesson we might overlook, but one we shouldn't miss. It's a lesson especially relevant for parents of young children, but it's also for grandparents, for uncles, aunts, and for all Christians, for that matter.
The lesson is this. It is never too early to pray for the salvation of children. It is never too soon to speak to them about God and Christ and right and wrong. We may discover one day that children become responsible and accountable at a younger age than we ever suspected.
While the age of accountability may not be certain, what is certain from this passage is that the enemy begins early in trying to influence and control the minds of young people. We're told in verse 21 that the mute spirit had been attacking the boy from or since childhood.
And so parents should be diligent to counter that influence. When impressionable young hearts and minds are filled with the words of God, they cannot be filled with the words of the world or the enemy.
Catechize children young and keep teaching them until they go off on their own. There's another great lesson we can learn from this story, and it's actually the main point of this message. It's something all Christians need to know, and it is this.
Faith and doubt can be found together in the same heart. Look again at verse 24. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief. Mark is the only evangelist to include this emotional and honest confession of a man whose faith had been put to a severe test.
A man whose son was tormented by a spirit which made him mute. We saw in verse 18 how controlling it was. The spirit would seize the boy wherever he was, throw him down, and the boy would become rigid.
We're not told if the man sought help first from physicians, priests, and rabbis, and then only went to Jesus as a last resort, or whether he had gone to Jesus first. We're only told in verses 17 and 18 that when Jesus arrived on the scene, the man brought his son to him and told him that he had brought his son to the disciples.
But they were unable to cast out the spirit. Briefly, that's the background for verse 24. Let's pick up the story again in verse 19. He answered him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. Then they brought him to him. And when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him. And he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So he asked his father, How long has this been happening to him?
And he said, From childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. And then, not sounding real confident in the ability of Jesus to deal with such a powerful spirit, the man said, But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
We'll now see Jesus extend grace to a man who is very distraught about his son. Compassionately, Jesus did not rebuke him for questioning his power, but simply said to him in verse 23, If you can believe, all things are possible for one who believes.
And then in verse 24, the father of the boy cried out and said, I believe. Help my unbelief. Was this man a believer? If so, why is he speaking about his unbelief? Isn't that like someone saying, I am rich.
Help my abject poverty. Or, I am strong. Help my weakness. I believe. Help my unbelief. That sounds like a contradiction. But it is not. It's a paradox, something that only seems like a contradiction.
There are many paradoxes in the Christian faith which don't make sense to the wise of this world. For example, the Bible says a man must become a fool in order to be wise. He must become a pauper to be made rich.
He must be made weak in order to be made strong. He must be set free from sin. He has to become a slave of righteousness. The world's most brilliant philosophers don't understand such things, but God reveals these mysteries to his people.
To have a heart that distrusts God, a heart which leans upon anyone and anything except God, is a frightful condition to be in. Such is the condition of unredeemed man, man apart from God, apart from Christ.
Oh, he has plenty of faith, but his faith is in himself or in his fellow man, or in science or philosophy. Plenty of faith, but no faith in God. And without Christ is to be without hope, and no God in this world.
That's why Jesus exclaimed, as he did in verse 19, Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? In Matthew's gospel, Jesus is quoted as saying, Oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?
That's an even stronger condemnation. But who is Jesus addressing? The disciples, the father, or the scribes? Jesus' strong words were most certainly directed towards the scribes, not to his disciples or to the father of the boy.
Neither the disciples nor the father were faithless. They had weak faith, but they had faith. Jesus never spoke harshly against ignorant and weak persons, but against those who maliciously and obstinately resisted God, as the scribes often did.
The scribes had all the recorded revelation of God up to that point in time, and of all people should have believed that Jesus was the Son of God. But they did not, and it was their unbelief that Jesus condemned.
It's unbelief that explains the universal attitude of unregenerate men toward both the law and the gospel. They do not believe the author and the giver of them. They are completely lacking of faith in him.
And unless the Holy Spirit sovereignly intervenes and performs a miracle of grace in their hearts, they'll live out their lives without faith and without hope. What about believers, those who have faith?
Unbelief remains even in the hearts of believers. Although God has given them the gift of faith, he does not remove the root of unbelief. Nothing is perfected in a Christian this side of heaven. Since not even faith is perfect, believers are, in effect, partly unbelievers.
Trust and doubt, hope and fear, faith and unbelief exist side by side in a believer. Faith and unbelief, two distinct and totally different natures indwelling a believer. They war against each other because one originates from the spirit, the other from the flesh.
Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, put it like this. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish.
It's this unceasing warfare of these two opposing natures that leads a Christian to trusting in God one moment and doubting him the next. One moment resting upon his promises, the next having no confidence in them.
It was this struggle going on within this distressed father which caused him to cry out, I believe, help my unbelief. Unbelief is a great burden for many a believer. It grieves the soul of a believer.
It causes much anxiety and worry. The father of the boy undoubtedly wept many tears over it. Believers would love for the Lord to take away all their unbelief once and for all, to free them from it permanently, but the Lord may not see fit to remove it in this life.
Just as Paul had his thorn in the flesh, believers may struggle at times with the thorn of unbelief. Believers can be plagued by questions of doubt. Is the Bible really the word of God? Did Jesus die for my sins?
How can God love me with all my sin and fears and doubts and lack of faith? I know God promises never to forsake me or leave me, but why don't I feel his presence? If God loves me, why did he allow this to happen?
The list of doubts goes on and on, and, of course, the enemy loves to add to it. Your profession of faith wasn't genuine. You're not one of God's children. How could you be when you're having so many doubts?
Or, you're such a sinner, how could God possibly allow someone like you into heaven? There's some good news for those who struggle with unbelief. As painful as the struggle is, that struggle is actually a positive and encouraging sign.
It's not until God has given someone the gift of faith that anyone is conscious of their unbelief. It takes a living faith to be aware of dead unbelief. To be conscious of unbelief and to struggle over it is sure evidence that the Spirit of God is present in that person.
The Puritan John Rogers put it like this. He said, Weak faith is true faith, as precious as strong faith, although not as great. That is because the same Holy Spirit is the author, the same gospel the instrument, for it is not the strength of our faith that saves, but is the truth of our faith.
Likewise, it's not the weakness of our faith that condemns, but the lack of it. Verse 24, then, is recorded for our instruction and comfort and encouragement. The sentiment expressed in verse 24 is one of the clearest possible proofs that a person is a believer.
Some translations say the man cried out with tears. No unbeliever ever shed tears over his unbelief. No unbeliever ever groaned because of questioning God. No unbeliever is ever burdened with doubts and fears about his relationship with God.
Doubts are part of the normal Christian experience. Christians are not perfect. None of the graces that Christians are given are perfect. Not love, not knowledge, not humility, not hope. All are defective, even faith.
Now, that's not to say that the gifts God gives are defective. Rather, they are perfect gifts that God gives us, but they become imperfect because we're sinners. And because we're sinners, unbelief is one of the consequences of our sin that we're burdened with.
Well, then, what do we do with it? What do we do with unbelief? It won't completely go away, but it hangs around the way pride, envy, and covetousness seem to hang around and bedevil us. What do we do about unbelief?
J .C. Ryle was an excellent 19th century Anglican preacher. He made a very astute comment about the problem of unbelief. He said, Before we do anything with unbelief, we must do something with our faith.
We must use it. What Ryle was saying is that we must not wait for the day when our faith becomes mighty and strong and perfect. But like the man in verse 24, we must exercise it and pray that one day it will be stronger.
And so we say, Lord, I believe. And then we deal with our unbelief. We must resist and pray against it. We must not let it keep us from following Christ. We must not let it cause us to stop reading our Bibles.
We must not let it keep us from daily prayer or assembling each Sunday with the brethren. We must take our unbelief to God as we do with all of our other sins and infirmities and cry out as the man in verse 24, Lord, help my unbelief.
The Christian who does this will be happy indeed. Unbelievers are ignorant of such a confession and petition. Faith and unbelief, doubt and fears about God are foolishness to the unbeliever. And so may we ever be grateful that the Holy Spirit directed Mark to add this man's humble confession and petition to this story about his son.
Let us learn from it that a true believer may be known by his inner warfare, by his struggle with doubt and unbelief, as well as by his victories and inward peace.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, you abound in mercy, loving kindness and patience. You have loved your people before you created the heavens and the earth. Your love is eternal. It had no beginning and can have no end.
Because your love for us was before time, before we even existed. It does not depend on us, but only upon your own sovereign will. Knowing that truth about your love for us should give us complete assurance that you will never leave us or forsake us.
But because we're sinners and our faith is imperfect, sometimes doubts may creep into our minds and we may wonder if you could really love us, someone who is so quick to go their own way and so slow to follow after you.
We may sometimes even wonder if we're truly saved. May this confession of a broken-hearted Father in Mark's gospel help take away any doubts that we may have. May it give us assurance that weak faith is true faith if it is grounded in the fact that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day according to your word.
And for any who do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ who died for the sins of the world, the Christ who died for their sins, may they hasten to cry out to you to take away their unbelief and grant them repentance so that they too can say, Lord, I believe.
In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.