Let’s say you have an acquaintance who is willing to talk to you about the Bible and the Lord. He was raised Roman Catholic, or Mormon, Episcopalian or any number of other “Christian” religion. As you talk to him, you easily recognize that his faith is faulty. He may believe he is a Christian because of his baptism, or his church membership, or his victory over some past sin. If he doesn’t realize that nothing but faith in Christ delivers from God’s wrath, then he is a lost man. If he doesn’t know that faith in Christ is more than signing on some religious dotted line, then he is not saved. Christ is the Saviour, and He never uses human means or religious tools to complete redemption. For example, faith in one’s immersion in the name of the Triune God is a false faith. A person cannot eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and be delivered from the judgment which we deserve. Sorrow over past sin – in the name of “repentance” – and victory over recent temptations are not salvation either. The Lord may use tools to bring sinners to the cross, but there is no salvation in any tool.
How accurate is it to say that false faith is just another form of unbelief? A improper faith – a false faith – is not recognized by the Lord as faith at all. That person remains an unbeliever if his belief doesn’t rest in God’s provision. Therefore, the man who trusts his baptism to save him is in reality an “unbeliever.” That might not fit a dictionary definition, but it does emerge from the Bible.
Mature saints can easily spot false faith when it comes to the salvation of other people. But do those same saints recognize their own post-redemption false faith? That is our theme for this afternoon.
While Peter, James and John, Christ’s elite troops, were with the Saviour watching the transfiguration, the more common disciples were at the foot of the mountain trying to help a demon-possessed child. You may disagree, but I picture you and me in the spiritual valley, not on the mountain peak. When the disciples failed to cure the boy, his father waited for the return of Christ, and presented his need to the Master. Jesus, then, rebuked the demon, and the boy was made instantly sane and whole. Then the frustrated nine disciples asked Jesus about the cause of their failure. “It is due to your false faith” – “It is because of your unbelief.”
I wonder how many miracles the disciples had witnessed by the time of these two 17th chapters . Was it a dozen; were there dozens? One would think that having experienced the thrill of previous miracles, these men might have had faith enough to expect another in the case of this little boy. I would venture to guess that they fully expected another great victory that day. But in addition to the need of prayer and fasting, Christ said their failure was due to a lack of faith. That unbelief may in fact have been a faulty or misplaced faith. It wasn’t that it was a weak faith, or they had no faith at all; it may have been simply misplaced.
Let’s use our imaginations and try to visualize what the disciples might have first tried to do. One might have spat on the ground, making a little dollop of mud which he then applied to the eyes of the boy. Hadn’t Christ done that and healed a blind man? If He hadn’t yet, He will. It wasn’t the mud which healed the blind man, but perhaps Thomas and Bartholomew thought it was. No wonder this boy wasn’t healed; the disciples may have been trusting the wrong thing. When that failed, perhaps three others surrounded the child and laid their hands on his head, asking God to intervene on his behalf. What is the likelihood that some thought that the laying-on of hands had miraculous power? Hadn’t Jesus touched people and healed them? When that didn’t work, perhaps Andrew walked up to the boy and shouted, “I command thee, demon, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out this lad.” Is it possible to trust in a good and religious-sounding command rather than in the Lord? The Lord can and does use tools to get His work done, but tools are all they are. And if we place our faith in those tools, we are behaving like unbelievers.
In addition to the possibility of unbelief in true Christians, there is the ever present weakness of faith.
In Luke 17:5 we read “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” Please recognize that these were Apostles – sent ones – special servants of God. We are not talking here about unsaved people, pleading for faith to trust Christ – something which is perfectly acceptable and commendable. Rather these were saints who recognized the need for greater faith to serve the Lord.
They were not children – neither children of men nor babes in Christ – they were apostles. Children often think they can do a better job than the experts. Kids think they can play baseball, football or basketball better than the professionals. “If I had the ball, I would have done this or that and scored.” Kids just don’t clearly see themselves as they really are. But of course, WE are not children, and we never think like that. On the other hand do we realize how spiritually weak we really are? We are often LIKE children. “Lord, increase our faith.”
How true is this statement? There is very little faith found within Christianity today. Test yourself. With how much faith did you come to the House of God today? Did you trust God today to break the heart of one of the lost people on your prayer list? Yes, you HOPED to see someone saved, and you even prayed that might be the case. But did you come with enough faith to be surprised no one was converted this morning? “Lord, increase our faith.” You invited someone to attend this service today, but was your faith strong enough to expect them? I am not trying to be mean, just honest, because I have to admit the weakness of my own faith. Did you come today expecting the Lord to somehow change your life through the Word or some miracle? Can God still work miracles? Do you expect, by faith to experience or witness a miracle? Today? Are you really a person of faith?
As I say, the Lord often uses tools to get His work done. You and I, along with these disciples, are among the tools on His work belt. Simon and Thaddeus, may have expected the demon to leave that little boy, because they considered themselves to be tools of Christ, but if toolishness was their faith, it was misplaced. Each of us as saints of the Lord, are instruments of righteousness, but we are not necessarily plugged into the proper power source. Were you looking to me to provide you with a blessing from this morning’s message? In one sense, I hope not. Because if your faith was in my preparation, my delivery or even in my faith, then your faith was misplaced. Ideally, our faith, both yours and mine, should have been in the Lord in regard to the morning’s service.
We use tracts, business cards and our church flier to invite people to church, but if our faith is in these things, we should not expect visitors. Our faith must be in the Lord. I tried to cancel our ad in the phone book, but a very persuasive salesman talked me into an extension. I also bought an ad in the material distributed by the local welcome service. We use Facebook, and we have a website. All such things are a waste of time and money, if our trust is in these tools as our service of God.
Intellectually, we know the power for Christian service lays in the Lord – the power of the Holy Spirit. But do we actually and fully plug into that power? If I don’t deliberately flip the switch which controls the electricity to the lights in this room, we would be in th darkness. Have you heard the joke about the lady with the unplugged skill saw, pulling the thing back and forth across the 2×4? If we don’t deliberately, specifically plug our service into the proper power source, should we expect to be profitable to the Lord? Even apostles cry out from time to time, “Lord increase our faith.”
And that means our faith CAN be strengthened; it doesn’t need to be weak and palsied. But it can’t be increased through anything we might do about it. There are no physical exercises and protein bars which will strengthen our faith. And it doesn’t matter how strong we are, if the chain saw is out of gasoline, it is not going to cut very well
What does Galatians 5 say about the faith. We are told that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith…” Faith is a gift of God, a fruit of the Spirit, a dispensation of Christ. So it must be to the Lord we go to receive it. In other words, it is not a product of our own concentration, preparation or hard work. I think that like salvation itself, is comes through surrender and turning to face the Lord. It is not a shameful thing for us to ask God for something as important as faith. In fact, although the Lord is displeased with our lack of faith, He is pleased if we recognize our need.
Do I detect a little playful jab at the disciples when they asked about their failure with the boy? “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” This is a very serious statement, but was it made with a bit of smile on the Lord’s face? Maybe not? How important is it that Mount Spokane stay where it is rather than submerged in the ocean off Astoria? Didn’t the Lord Jesus point to the semi-ridiculous in order to make a serious point? In the Lord and His Spirit we have access to power beyond anything the world has ever seen. We have said, “Believe on the Lord and thou shalt be saved” so often that it has become trite. But that salvation required a miracle greater than the resurrection of dead Lazarus. And when Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” those “all things” were potentially just as great. But do any of us actually have faith to say and believe what Paul said?
Our question for the afternoon is this: Do we have any mountains which we would like removed?
By the way, Jesus’ “this mountain” was probably the one upon which He was transfigured. The statement suggests that there is really no limit to the power of God when we access it by faith. What are some good mountains which appear to be impossible to move? How about those lost people on your prayer list. What are you trusting to bring about their salvation? The Lord’s tools or the Lord Himself? Maybe you are trusting your faith – is your faith in faith rather than in Christ and the Holy Spirit? Do you think that has become impossible for those people to be redeemed? With you and me, there is hardly anything possible, but with God there is nothing impossible.
Is the problem an health Issue? Were the little boy’s infirmities to be considered only mental or physical? Some might have thought so. Could this child have been cured in the medical sense? No, he could not be cured in any natural way, because the problem wasn’t physical. But that was no problem for the Creator of the universe. Did that father expect Christ to heal his son? Did he have faith to surrender the boy to the Lord? Only a fool will say that the Lord is going to heal EVERY disease in every saint. But only a fool would say that Christ could NOT heal them all. And the truth is, eventually the body of every saint will be made whole.
In the past six months the Lord has done some pretty spectacular things around here. It seems like we have had more first time visitors during that time than in the previous six years. The Lord has blessed our finances unlike any time in our history. Electronic doors have opened through which the Holy Spirit has touched souls, some of whom had never been touched before. And the blessings have not been confined to Post Falls; our missions have been blessed as well. Have these blessings given us strength to trust the Lord for more?
“Lord, increase our faith to expect more blessings and greater miracles.” “Lord, give us faith to expect miracles on the Spokane Indian Reservation next summer.” Can we trust Him for additional blessings at our own family camp? What does the Lord intend by moving the Fulton’s up here? You might think that developments in Colorado have made us think the Fulton’s move is a mistake. Actually, we are more and more convinced that the Holy Spirit is using these events. But can we trust the Lord to create a viable mission in Colorado where there used to be a dying church? Is our faith great enough to trust God for a missionary to go to the Tri-cities?
Is our faith great enough to be practical? There is nothing more impotent than a theoretical faith. “Lord increase our faith.” I would like us to step out by faith and ask Bro. Fulton to become our evangelist/missionary-at-large. I want us to trust the Lord sufficiently to begin supporting him at the same rate we are supporting Bro. Parrow – and perhaps to raise the support of both men. I have a vision of a mission on Vancouver Island and perhaps up in the Silver Valley. I would like us to invite Godly men from back east to minister to us, as Raymond Johnson did last year. “Lord, increase our faith” and at the same time increase our vision, our resolve and our courage. Do we have faith sufficient to ask God to make Post Falls into another Antioch? The Northwest needs an Antioch. Why can’t we ask God for that privilege?
The weakness of the first disciples was their faith. I believe that the weakness of the disciples of the last days is the same. “Lord increase our faith.”