Word of Salvation – Vol. 29 No. 38 – October 1984
Help Me Overcome My Unbelief
Sermon by Rev. L. A. Stokes, v.d.m. Mark 9:22b–24
Scripture Readings: James 1:1-12, John 20:24-29, Mark 9:14-29
Suggested Hymns: 439, 424, 460, 137
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
DOUBT for most Christians is a dirty word. Faith is our catchcry.
Doubt isn’t our thing. It is seen as an enemy of faith.
We know what the Bible says about doubt. James says: “If a Christian lacks wisdom he should ask God for it. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a doubleminded man, unstable in all he does.”
The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea. Tossed around by every wind; changing with the tides; rising and falling; unstable, doubleminded, doubting instead of believing!
We have good reason to consider doubt to be a great danger. Doubts are like white ants in a building. They slowly eat away the foundations until the whole building collapses!
But my brother, my sister, who of us has a faith that is free from all doubt? A doubt-free faith would be a perfect faith. Is that the faith that you and I have: a perfect faith? We have a perfect Saviour, there’s no doubt about that. But none of us would dare to say that we have a perfect faith!
So when we read this story in Mark chapter 9 we see a person like ourselves:
I. A man who doubts Jesus. He says to Jesus: “If you can.”
II. A man who believes; but who struggles with his doubts.
III. And we hear the words of our perfect Saviour:
“Everything is possible for him who believes.”
* * * *
The first thing we see in our text is
1. THE MISPLACED “IF”.
The “IF” that was put in the wrong place.
The teachers of the law and the disciples loved to argue. They were all so sure of themselves. Each one thought he had the right answer; always defending their orthodoxy and their rightness; and, therefore, always finding themselves in an argument.
Here in our text we see them arguing again. And Jesus comes along and asks them what they are arguing about:
“A man in the crowd answered: ‘Teacher, I brought my son, who is possessed by a spirit which has robbed him of his speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit but they could not.”
We could imagine the type of argument that these disciples were having with the teachers of the law:
One disciple stands up and says: “We’ve done it many times before; we’ve driven out dozens of demons. Why can’t we drive this one out?”
Then one of the teachers of the law speaks up: “The reason why this spirit won’t come out is because this is a punishment from God. Either this boy has sinned or his parents have sinned and God is punishing them.”
Then another says: “No, no, it’s all a matter of faith! Maybe we haven’t got enough faith to drive out this demon. Maybe the boy has no faith, or his father hasn’t got enough faith.”
Then Jesus walks into the midst of their arguing and says: “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
Jesus says to the boy’s father: “How long has he been like this?”
The boy’s father answers: “Since childhood. It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“IF YOU CAN…?” Jesus replies! Here was doubt! “IF you can…!” The doubt of a man who had seen the disciples unable to help and now doubted if Jesus himself could help!
Here we have a misplaced IF. This man’s ‘if’ is in the wrong place; and Jesus puts it in the right place.
Jesus in effect says to him:
“There’s no ‘IF’ about my power or ability to help you. The only ‘IF’ is the one that lies with you! “IF YOU BELIEVE.” Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Jesus turns the whole thing around: from a man questioning the perfect Son of God saying: If you can…? to the perfect Son Of God questioning this doubting father. No, the question is “If YOU can!” Everything is possible for him who believes.
How many misplaced ‘IFS’ do we have?
How many times do we ask God a question and we put an “if” in front of it? IF God will only help me to overcome this sin! IF God will make his church grow! IF God will forgive me! How many ‘ifs’ are in the wrong place?
The ‘if’ doesn’t lie in front of God; it lies in front of us!
Everything is possible for him who believes.
We say to God “If you can”. And he says to us: “No, the question is: “If YOU can?”
2. HERE IS THE PROBLEM OF DOUBT IN THE LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN.
The boy’s father confesses his faith; but he also confesses his doubt: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”
A young person grows up in a Christian family; grows up under the protection and security of the church. Then he goes off to university, and at university he is taught to question everything, including Christianity. The doubts start creeping in: What is it: Creation or evolution? Is Christianity the only way? OR is it just superstition and tradition? Then he goes home but shares none of these doubts with his parents; he goes to the young people’s group but is afraid to share his doubts because he’s always been taught: Christians are not supposed to doubt.
How many Christians feel guilty because of their doubts? And, of course they should.
How many hide their doubts because they are afraid to share them?
We are taught to confess our faith: ‘I do believe’; BUT when are we honest enough to confess our doubts? And to turn to Jesus: “Help me overcome my unbelief”?
There is a genuine fear in the church of ever expressing a doubt. There are Christians who have turned their back on the church because they bottled up their doubts, too afraid to ever share them with another Christian. There are even people who pretend that they have no doubts, because they say: “A Christian should never have even the slightest doubt.”
We seem to have the idea that doubt always immediately destroys faith, that if we doubt the slightest point the day will surely come when we will deny the faith.
But is this really true?
It would be like saying that a person cheats on his income tax, and therefore, the day will surely come when that person will be robbing service stations and holding up banks! We all have to confess that we have our doubts! We all have times when we need to say, “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief!”
We may believe that the Bible is the Word of God. That every word in it is true and correct. But only a perfect faith can have no doubts!
Here on earth our faith cannot be free from all doubt! The Bible is filled with stories of those who struggled with their doubts. Here we have the man in our text who says to Jesus: “If you can do anything!” We also know about the disciple Thomas. The one who has been nick-named: doubting Thomas; who said: “Unless I see the risen Christ I will not believe.” And then there was Jonah, who sat under a bush outside Nineveh and doubted why God did not destroy that city like he said he would. And David, who said to God in Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? O MY God, I cry out by day but you do not answer.” And in Psalm 77 we hear the Psalmist doubting God’s love! “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he never show his favour again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever?’
“Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has He in anger withheld his compassion?” Or remember Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord; struggling with God in prayer.
Or Paul with his thorn in the flesh! Three times he asked God to take it away. Do we think he never doubted? And God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” And big, brave Peter, walking on the water to meet Jesus, then he became afraid and began to sink, crying out: “Lord, save me.” Jesus said to him: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
And the eleven disciples on the mountain just before Jesus gave His great commission to go into all the world with the gospel. The Bible says: “When they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted.”
Faith is a struggle; a struggle in the midst of doubt. How many times have we doubted the words of Jesus: “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
3. Yet, the man in our text had FAITH IN THE MIDST OF DOUBT
He had faith: “I do believe.” But he also had doubt: “Help me overcome my unbelief.”
We too have times when we are on the mountaintop. When we feel that we have faith to move mountains.
But we also have times when we are down in the valley; and down in the valley doubt is lurking in the shadows. We have times when we’re hanging on as by our finger-nails, praying: “Lord, I believe help my unbelief.”
The disciples once said to Jesus: “Increase our faith.”
Jesus replied: “If you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ’Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it will obey you.” It is not a question of whether our faith is small, it is a question of whether we repent of our unbelief and put our trust in God.
It’s true that doubt can destroy faith. Already in the New Testament there were Christians who had made shipwreck of their faith. There still are many Christians who start doubting and end up denying.
Doubt can destroy faith.
But it doesn’t have to! Doubts do not automatically destroy faith. Doubt may also turn into faith if we repent of our unbelief.
Doubting Thomas made the great confession when he said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” He repented of his sinful doubts, when Jesus revealed himself to Thomas.
The father of the demon-possessed boy said: “I do believe.”
Galileo, the sixteenth century discoverer, once said: “Doubt is often the father of discovery.”
By the grace of God, some of the greatest doubters in history have become the greatest believers, when they repented of their doubts. What about the person who says: “I’ve never doubted any of God’s promises? I’ve never had a doubt?” When a person says that, we may well wonder how much real wrestling with God has been going on! Faith has to grow; but how can it grow without growing pains?
We believe in earth-shattering facts! Facts that challenge every person on the face of this earth!
– That God created all things out of nothing!
– That because Adam sinned all men are sinners!
– That 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem
God invaded this planet and became one of us!
– That on the cross a man called Jesus paid for our sins!
– That this book (The Bible) is no ordinary book.
It IS the Word of God!
– We believe that Jesus is the Lord and Master of this world.
– We believe in those words of Jesus:
‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’
– And in hundreds more promises God has made to us!
Show me a Christian who never has any doubts.
But that isn’t the point. The point is what do we do with our doubts? Where do we go with our sins and unbelief?
The father in this text went to Jesus! Help me in my doubting. The more we look upon ourselves, the more uncertain we will become. Faith is looking to Jesus. Faith is holding on to Jesus, as did this father.
That Christians too have doubts is no surprise! The great surprise is that we may repent of it and say: ‘I believe’.
That takes a miracle! To become a Christian, and to repent and believe, that is the miracle; the miracle of a faith that holds on to Jesus, because he all the way held on to us.
Congregation, there are times when doubts lurk in the darkness, when we pray “Help me overcome my unbelief!”
But in and through all this Christ holds on to his own and he helps us to say: “I DO BELIEVE!”
Amen.