Five Failures in Faith

I trust that you're growing in your personal walk with the Lord and worship. By the way, if you're new to the community, it strikes me that frequently you may come and wonder what's going on, but you know that the Lord wants you here. There's a series of tapes that we did on worship all through the month of. I think it was November, late October, November, about worship. And it will help you to establish some of these principles and some of these living truths in your life. And I pray that you'll avail yourselves of those tapes. There's one in particular about the seven something. Seven Hebrew words for worship. I only talk. I don't pay any attention to what I say. But anyhow, that's a particularly practical tape as a step of release and beloved, I know. I know that all of us are growing in this. And as our sister said here, joy, we all grow as God enables. And if you find this is stretching for you, I'm glad. Because as long as you're being stretched, you're where God wants you to be. And we're not going to cease in seeking him and growing in it. Amen. We have been for five weeks, this is the fifth week that we've been teaching about prayer. And we have talked so far. First of all, who are the watchmen? That is the call to prayer. Then we talked on the making of an intercessor and what it means to be an intercessor in prayer. And then we talked about unbelief, a barrier of unbelief, and how unbelief can prevent you from moving ahead in prayer. Last week, Brother Grant taught on listening to God in prayer. Today I felt really constrained to teach and speak on the matter that's crucial to prayer. A thing that really makes prayer ineffectual unless it's rendered in fullness. And that is the matter of faith. I know that for many of us, when we talk about faith, we begin to tread on ground that is maybe not as fresh to us as some of the other things that we deal with in our Christian walk. And yet trying to pray without faith is trying to eat spaghetti with a spoon. It's all there, and it seems like it's right, but it just keeps slipping away. And I worked in that illustration, and you didn't even get that. The Italians didn't even smile. But the Lord knows that it's true, isn't it? I mean, you can pray till you're blue in the face, but if you don't have faith, you will have basically wasted your Time, as it were. I don't believe it's ever a waste, but I believe that what happens is that you grow in frustration rather than fulfillment. Do you know that unbelief in the Greek is the alpha privative of the word for faith? In other words, faith in the Greek is the word pistis P I s T I s. And the word for unbelief is with an alpha primitive, an a in front of it, a pistis. Okay, so the opposite of unbelief is faith. That's what that means. We dealt two weeks ago with what will absolutely choke off your prayer life. Today we're going to look at what absolutely has to be there for prayer to be effectual in our office. We have had a problem with our telephone. For many months we've been trying to get the phone company to get our name in the directory and many people would try to get a hold of North Wake Christian Community, didn't know the number and they would call information and they'd say, we don't have anything under that, that listing. We'd call and we'd say, please clear this up. And they'd say, oh, we cleared it up. And last week, sure enough, for about the 35th time, someone said, I've been trying to get your number from the phone company. And we couldn't do it. And we had the sense that we were doing everything right, but nothing was happening. Have you ever felt like that in prayer? Well, God is much more committed to our well being than the phone company is to getting our name in the directory. And I want us to see today how faith, when it's properly exercised and when it's released in us, can be and must be the very means whereby God breaks through into our circumstance. I really wrestled a lot this week with how much to try to cover today. And I know that if you're like me, that faith is such a broad subject. There's faith for healing, there's faith for salvation, faith for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. There's faith for sanctification. Martin Luther said sola fidei by faith alone. That's how you're saved. His whole life was built on by grace. We're saved through faith. So it's a broad subject. How many of you know that there's men and women who teach the Bible and their whole ministry is built around the concept of faith. And so by giving a one morning teaching and perhaps two morning teachings on faith, I'm not going to begin to cover it all. But I do want to Focus in on something as it relates to prayer. Probably the most staggering statement about faith in the Scriptures, as far as I'm concerned, is in Hebrews 11:6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You think about that. We are prone to think that if we're good, we please God, or if we're obedient, we please God, or if we give freely, we please God. But the Bible says without faith it's impossible. Faith is absolutely crucial to our walk with the Lord. And I want us to look on one specific passage of Scripture. And I just think it was a very kind thing that the Lord did last week by turning us to Mark chapter nine. And so we're going to pick up where Grant left off in Mark 9 and begin in verse 14. Would you all turn there if you have your Bibles or look on with someone? And I think it's necessary to read this portion of Scripture today. And when they came to the disciples, verse 14, mark 9. And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, what are you discussing with them? And one of the crowd answered him, teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit, and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. And I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able. And he answered them, o faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. They brought the boy to him, and when the spirit saw him immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, how long has he had this? And he said, from childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe. Help my unbelief. And when Jesus saw their crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, you dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse. So that most of them said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting. As I considered this portion of Scripture and how to deal with the large subject of faith, I decided that the best thing that we could do here would be to ask you to identify with some of the characters in this passage with the hopes that you'll be able to uncover some of your problems, some of your biases, some of your hangups with faith. And so I'm going to go through each character in this passage of Scripture and help us to take a look at exactly what's happening in them and why faith was not released. And so I put this on an overhead, and it's very simple, but it will give you a means whereby you can follow along. Now, the first group that I want to address here is the group in verse 14, the scribes. The scribes. Were a skeptical lot. Now, if you don't know who the scribes were as you look into the Scripture, they were the people who were deeply skilled in the letter of the law. They were the men who had taken the Bible and literally, in many cases, memorized the entire script. He imagine that they knew the letter of what was spoken here in detail. They didn't have any problem reciting chapter and verse of the Old Testament. But they were skeptical when it came to this matter of faith. Now, each one of these, I want to underline this. Each one of these we're going to look at when it comes to as related to faith. And what were they doing? What were these scribes doing? They were arguing, weren't they? They were arguing with who? With the unbelievers, with the disciples. They were arguing with the disciples. And I think it's very significant, beloved, that you'll find many people who know this Bible who will argue with you about faith. And I don't believe that we need to get into faith arguments with our brothers and sisters. And I don't know. Have you ever met those who I guess we could categorize as faith killers? You go to someone and you say, would you pray and believe the Lord for me? Because I've had a terrible headache. And they'll say, I don't believe in healing. And, you know, somehow. And they'll probably turn you to some passage of Scripture which will underline where, well, you know, things ceased at the end of the apostolic age. And then you get into an argument. And in the meantime, your headache is just pounding away, right? And the scribes, you see, had that kind of a mentality. And I want to say this in all love that there are many of us today who know this Bible pretty well, but who are not involved in exercising faith in the word of God to help others. Beware of that leaven that causes you to know where things are in the Bible, but does not release it for the sake of others. And that's what the scribes were doing. And you know, in our day. It's interesting to me that there's been a lot of bad press in the last two years as regards faith teaching. And I see some of the folks from Oral Roberts have made it back up here to God's chosen portion of the country. And down there in Tulsa is the absolute hotbed of the faith teaching. And I want to say, without digressing into this too far, I just want to say that there is an immense importance that the faith teachers have put their finger on, and that is the importance of the wisdom of exercising faith in God's word. And I want us to beware of throwing out the baby with a bathwater when we respond to some of the extremes of the faith teaching, which are the hyper prosperity. You all know what I'm talking about. You believe God for a cadillac for each of us and this kind of thing. I claim the scripture and there's a lot of it, and I don't want to get off on it, but I do want you to know that I don't want us as a people to dismiss the truth of faith because of some extreme teaching. You know, when the cults were really getting a lot of publicity about three years ago, there was a lot of it going around. It's and it still is, but not quite as much. Maybe three to five years ago now, it made it difficult for us as Christians to go up and share with people, didn't it? Because immediately what people thought was, you're one of them. And so the true gospel was diluted. And it's the same idea. I don't want us to be throwing out the truth of faith because of perhaps some extremes in error. So this was the scribes next was the. The crowd. Maybe you identify with the crowd when it comes to faith. You see, they were attracted by the reality of what was happening in the ministry of the disciples. They were attracted by it. There was a power there that they recognized. And, you know, it's still true today, isn't it? All you need to do to draw a crowd is to publicize your next meeting as a miracle service, right. Even if it's not, if you publicize it, you're going to have a crowd. I'll never forget, I GUESS it was 1973 that I, Carol and I went down to Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, to see Kathryn Kuhlman in her gathering there, which was about, I think, once a month or so in Los Angeles, maybe every other week. But we got down there fairly early in the afternoon. The meeting was at 2 o' clock so the people could go to their worship services and then go to the real service. And we got down there, I'd say It was around 12:30, because we were told to get there early. And do you know that there were people lined up on both sides of the street for about three or four blocks waiting to get in there? And I remember saying to Carol, I don't think we're going to get in. And this was 12:30. And then people began to filter in. And we ended up being up in the balcony and we made it. And there was all kinds of people there. Some people who drove up in very expensive cars and some who were pushed up in wheelchairs. But they were there because there was miracles taking place. And they were there to see the power of God, same as this crowd. They were there to see what the Holy Spirit was doing. Now, notice something about this crowd. Beloved. When Jesus appeared, they saw him, they were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. The word for greet there is the word salute. It's the word to greet cheerfully. It's like it's a respectful greeting. And many times the people in the crowd are very fond of Jesus. Maybe you're here today and you're fond of Jesus, but primarily you're curious because you're not sure really what you think. Notice, too, this is interesting. The word greatly amazed there in the Greek is a word that signifies amazement to the point of exhaustion. And what this says to me is that these people had been following this miracle trail and they were amazed to the point where they were really exhausted in watching it. How many people, when it comes to this matter of faith and operation, have been to meetings all over the place looking for something to happen on a search that exhausts them, and yet God has not yet met their need. I wonder if that's true for you today. Have you been going from meeting to meeting looking for something in faith, but it's not there. But the primary thing about the crowd is that they were playing it safe I'll get up and see what's happening. But I don't want to be necessarily categorized with the fanatics that are causing all this trouble. And Jesus referred to them, beloved. Look at verse 19. O faithless generation. That's what it means to be part of the crowd. You won't see things happen through your hand. The third character in the story is the Father. Basically, the Father was frustrated. The Father had been seeking this miracle on behalf of his Son for quite a while. Look at verse 18. Of course, he had come to the disciples. And I asked your disciples, he says, to cast it out. And they were not able. Another failure for the Father. Jesus put his finger on it even more so in verse 22, end of verse 21. How long has he had this? And he said, from childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have pity on us. You see, the Father had been looking and looking and looking, and he was frustrated. I wonder, are there some here today who have been looking for a miracle to happen? And you're frustrated. You wonder if it's ever going to take place. Are you at the end of your rope? Have you come to the point of saying to God, if you can do anything, does this man do? Now, I appreciate this, Father. There were some qualities in his life that I really am blessed by. Look at verse 24, verse 23, to begin there. And Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the Father of the child cried out and said, I believe. Help my unbelief. This man was a man without guile. He was an honest man with God. He didn't say what he thought God wanted to hear, did he? So many times we're not honest with God. We say what we think he wants to hear. Reminds me of this story that Michael Gere told me yesterday about a Sunday school teacher who said to the children, a little boy in particular, tell me what's kind of small and furry and has a big bushy tail and eats nuts and lives in a tree? Little boy looked up and said, I'd like to say squirrel, but I'll say, Jesus Christ, You see, because he expected that answer. And so we think many times that God wants us to say a certain thing. And I'll tell you, God wants us to be absolutely honest with him, right? How many of you have ever prayed the prayer, lord, I believe, help my unbelief. We've got to be absolutely honest with God. Now Notice something else here that you may not pick up. When the man said, I believe, help my unbelief, he said that in the continuous tense in the original language. So he's saying to God, don't just help me with this, but help me on the long haul. Help my faith to continue on in growth. Now, what did Jesus say to this man? No, I'm not going to help you. Do you see, beloved, when we come honestly to the Lord, that it's his delight to answer for us? Help. My weakness of faith is how sweet translates that. Help my weakness, Jesus. And he does. All right. The fourth group are the disciples. Now, I wanted to say the disciples were duds, but I thought that might be too much condemnation on us all. I just put they were distracted in their faith. They had been called on to perform this miracle and they could not do it. Has anyone ever asked you to pray for them? And you have, and nothing's happened. Maybe you can identify. You feel helpless. You feel like, what can I do? I'm not functioning. It's not happening in me. And these disciples were. I'm sure they were discouraged. They had tried and they failed. They were well intended, but they were ill equipped to meet the challenge. And have you ever asked the question of God in verse 28, why could we not cast it out? Have you? Why could we not see healing, Lord? Why could we not grow in this point of a character in our life? It keeps pulling us down. Why? It's interesting to me. I appreciate a couple things about the disciples. First of all, they hung in there. Some of us, if we asked to pray or do something and we fail, our inclination is to want to hide from that situation, isn't it? And I appreciate the fact that these disciples didn't run and hide, but they hung in there and Jesus came along in time to lift the burden from off of their shoulders. And beloved, if you're in a spiritual battle and you find yourself losing, don't run and hide. Because you never know when Jesus is going to step in and lift that burden from you. And I also appreciate the fact that the disciples were teachable. They didn't sulk because they couldn't do it. They said, why couldn't we do it? And Jesus spoke to them. The final character to look at today is the Son. Maybe you're here today. And when it comes to this matter of faith, you're like the sun. You feel absolutely helpless, absolutely out of control, absolutely unable to do anything to be what God wants you to be. I didn't Put anything beside the sun's name because it was hard for me to describe what he must have really felt like. But I'll tell you something that the Lord impressed me with the Son. And what was happening to the Son is a picture of hell. You look at the characteristics of what's happening in this boy's life. This is what hell is like, beloved. It's a place of silence. There was a dumb spirit. Look how this spirit is described and you'll know what hell's like. There was a dumb spirit, a spirit that would not allow the boy to speak. Verse 18. It seized him, which means it literally took control of him. And in hell you have no control over what happens to you. It convulsed him. That is it distorted and absolutely twisted what he was supposed to be. And hell is a grand distortion of what eternal life is to be. The Bible says that the spirit caused him to gnash his teeth. You know that the Gospels speak frequently about the fact that outside of the kingdom of God there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that's an indication of the absolute futility that hell represents. Verse 22, the Spirit cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. Hell is a place that's suicidal, continual destruction taking place. The absolute opposite of the creative love of God. In verse 25, Jesus addresses that spirit and he says, you dumb and deaf spirit. Now correctly, that word is foul, you foul spirit. You may have that in your Bible. And foul is the word that means the exact opposite of everything that's pure and lovely and clean. That's the word that's used there. And that's what hell is like. The opposite of what is pure and lovely and clean. And I urge you, beloved, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus as your personal savior from your sin, you consider the realities of what hell is like. I heard someone say once a phrase that stuck in my mind about the Holocaust. From time to time, there seems to be a remembrance that's marched before us on the television screen about the Holocaust and remember the Jews and don't ever forget and the tragedy and the unbelievable brutality of all of that. But how many of you remember? How many of you keep before you the reality that the Holocaust that manifested itself in the flesh came from this spirit and there's a demonic holocaust, and that's what hell is like. And it happens forever. I believe we need to keep that in mind when we share our love with non believers. Hell is real. Demons are real. And Their life was seen in this boy. Now, what about the Lord Jesus? Okay, Paul, would you put that other overhead up? I saved the Lord Jesus for last in this thing. Because in Him I believe that we see the principles of faith. The first, and if you're not taking notes to this point at least, these are four things that will help you in this matter of growing in faith. I'm going to conclude with these. The first one is in order to see victory in your life, in order to see faith come to fruition. The first principle is the principle of seeing. You've got to see what your heavenly Father is doing. Jesus said in John 5:19, I only do what I see the Father doing. You've got to see. Faith has got to see what God is doing. Look at verse 29 in this regard. And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Question for you. When did Jesus pray in this passage? When did Jesus pray in this passage? Right. There's no reference to prayer here, which implies that Jesus was in a continual state of communion, prayerful communion with the Father. And we know from other passages that he frequently was with the Father in extended prayer. And you see, he could absolutely bring into the physical realm what the Father was doing in heaven because he'd been with him in prayer. There's no substitute for it. There is no faith without seeing. You know, beloved, it's because we lack faith that we tack on to most of our prayers. If it be thy will, we just don't know what the Father is saying to do. So before you end up washing away any hope of seeing your prayer answered. And I could do a whole morning's teaching on that. If it be thy will, because it really is. It's an indication that we don't know what God wants. And if you don't know what God wants, apart from a desperation prayer, how can you expect to see God do it? Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Faith comes from seeing God at work. I don't know if you've ever read the book the Real Faith by Charles Price. It's an interesting account of a man who lived in the early part of this century who had a tremendous faith, miracle ministry. One of the stories that he talks about is when he's called to the bedside of a man who had been involved in an accident and had been severely burned. And he walked into this bedroom or this hospital room and saw this man in this pool of salve. It's before the more modern techniques of wrapping and whatever they do with burn patients now. But he was in his pool of salve to relieve the terrific pain that was wracking his body. And brother Price had been called in to pray for this man. And he walked in and he saw the man and he turned around and walked out because he knew that he couldn't pray in faith. And he went and he sought God for one day, three days. And I believe it was after seven days of seeking God that he came back. Because he got ahold of God in faith. He walked into that same room and spoke a word. From that point on, that man's healing was incredibly rapid and total. You see, beloved, if we go in, no matter how hard we try to generate faith, if it's not there, it's not there. And that's why we walk out so often discouraged. Faith comes by seeing what God is doing. Remember John 1:12. To him he gave the power to be called the sons of God. That's unto who all that believe on my name. That's the same Greek word, faith. Those who have faith in my name, I give the power. Faith comes as God's gift to us. As we see. Alright. Second principle of faith, to grow in faith. The exercise of faith involves speaking. Speaking. Now look at this. Did Jesus, when the boy was brought to him, did he sit down and pray with the Father? And I want to be careful not to sound legalistic here because I realize there's sensitivity involved in all that we do. But faith, beloved, is spoken, it's not prayed. I'll tell you, when that gets ahold of you, you realize how far off we've been. There is a direct link of prayer and faith. Faith comes through prayer. But Jesus spoke. Look at verse 25. He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, you dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And time after time after time, in the Gospels, Jesus spoke to things. He spoke to the wind and the waves, Peace be still. He spoke to the deaf and say, be opened. He spoke to the unclean leper and said, be clean. I don't fully purport to know and understand all of this, beloved, but I know one thing, that we have been very timid in our exercise of authority. We've been very timid. And I believe that we stand to lose a great deal if we don't learn the wisdom of speaking out in faith. And I've been very convicted lately too of the fact that I don't expect God to use my mouth and my lips to bring Forth faith miracles. When I've been using my mouth and my lips to dirty the living water. And I pray that you'll pray with me and for one another, that God will teach us to use our mouths as God intended. You know, the Bible says that in the tongue is the power of life and death. That's Proverbs 18:21. There's all kinds of scripture about what comes out of our mouth, and this is why. What did God do when he wanted something done? What happened in Genesis 1? Did God have a prayer meeting? Let there be light. Now, recognizing that God is God and we are our frail human selves, God spoke it and it happened, and that's how we're to grow. And I pray. There's so much here, there's so much we can do, but our tongues are somewhat like those of us who have bumper stickers on our car. We were driving up to a conference, Blaine and I and another pastor on Tuesday, and I made some rash maneuver on the highways, which anything you hear about pastors and their driving ability is greatly exaggerated. But any. I don't remember. It was a small thing, of course, and I'm sure it wasn't Blaine that made the comment because he never comments like this, but it was probably the other guy and he said, what about those bumper stickers on your car? Because, I don't know, I cut someone in short or something like that. And I quickly told him that I'd taken them all off. But you see, the truth really is that if we want our cars to be used for the glory of God and our attitudes, then they can reflect it. And if we want our lips to be used for the glory of God, it can't be used as an instrument of cursing. James 3 talks about this. And I, you know, I asked your prayers and I pray that many of us will grow in this matter of exercising our faith through our lips. And that's what it is. It's an appropriation. It's not, I want to say this. It's not because you say it, you get it. It's because you see God doing it and you speak it, that it happens. You see, speaking is what brings whatever's out there in God's invisible realm into the visible. And faith is the substance of things hoped for, the substance of things, the evidence of things not seen. You see God at work in your prayer life, and you bring it into reality. All right, last two, quickly standing is the third principle of faith. Can you imagine when Jesus spoke this prayer or this word of faith and Then the little boy began to convulse and shake and foam and curl up and writhe around. And if that had been most of us who had been praying, we would have said, oh, my goodness, you know, and get back to, what did I do wrong? And we'd run back and start. But Jesus Christ knows that his word had authority. And he stood. And we hear the voices around us, beloved, when we pray a prayer and something doesn't happen, we hear people saying, he's dead. He's dead. Your prayer isn't working, Beloved. We need to learn to stand, to have confidence in God when the circumstances don't reveal it. You look at Isaiah 66. 8 and you'll see that Zion is only birthed through travail. Faith is only brought to fruition by the working out of it, by the labor of it. Okay, and finally there is a sealing that takes place of our faith. Here's where people many times say, well, I've got to do it. I pray, but God, I've got to do it. I want you to just crush that thing in your mind. God does it, beloved, but he may call you to participate in it somehow. And I appreciate this. In some cases, Jesus tells others to take care of the one that he ministered to here. He said, the Bible says, Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And many times after the prayer, after the prayer of seeing and after the word of faith and after the standing in the face of negative circumstances, there's a sealing. There's a time in which that faith event is completed and Jesus calls us to either to speak, praise over it, or to do something in response to it. And that's what he did here. I think it's beautiful because Jesus expressed that care to him. Seeing, speaking, standing, then being involved in the finishing, the sealing of it, to continue on, to see it to completion. I just want to close with a thought today of the fact that you look at these principles and you may see, well, I understand it, or I don't understand it, or I don't have that many needs, but I want to urge you, and I believe the Holy Spirit prompted me to say this to you. I want to urge you to grow in these faith principles on behalf of the world. World, it's lost. Last night, as I was coming home from my quiet time in the office, I was going down. I was very near to my house, a couple hundred yards, and a car stopped right in the middle of the road. And he didn't have a signal on or Anything. And he just stopped there. And I didn't realize it. And I pulled up behind it and I saw two young people, you know, with the jeans jacket and the whole bit, running in toward the car. And the door opened and the young fellow got in the car first and the girl was just a couple steps behind him. And the door slammed and this girl was frantic and the car pulled away and she was crying and screaming, waving. And I still had some momentum as I came to that scene, you know, the car was still rolling and I guess it was reflex that I let the clutch out and just kept on going past this young girl, couldn't, you know, I don't know, 15, 16 years old. And she. Her eyes looked right at my eyes through that glaring windshield thing and she waved. And I saw. Just caught up in that one moment encounter, the absolute frustration, hopelessness and frenzy of