LibertyChurch

Sermons / Mark

February 28, 2016

Have Faith in Jesus

Dr. David J. Vaughan · Mark

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

Father, we thank you for your presence here. We thank you for the precious gift of the Spirit. We thank you for the gift of your word. Lord, I think of what Peter said to you when he said, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life. So we thank you that today we get to hear the words of eternal life. Pray that as we hear, we would hear with our hearts. We thank you that your Spirit instructs us. We ask that He would open our eyes and our ears to see and to hear the things that you want to speak to us today.

We pray the same for the children, Lord, as they learn about your word also. Grow them up in the faith. We ask in your name. Amen.

A Miracle Within a Miracle

Be seated. If you would, open your Bibles to Mark. We’re going to look at the passage we looked at last week. In Mark 5, 21, we have a record of a healing within a healing, a miracle within a miracle. In verse 21, we read, Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him. And He was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when they saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death, come, lay your hand on her, that she may be healed and she will live. So Jesus then begins to follow to his home, a great multitude following him. Then it says, a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians. She was probably on Obamacare. For she had spent all that she had, it was no better, but rather grew worse. And when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, If only I may touch his clothes, I should be made well. And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, Who touched Me?” And he looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And He said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” And he was still speaking. Some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. When he came in he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping, and they ridiculed him. But when he had put them all outside he took the father and mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age, and they were overcome with great amazement. And he commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat. Last week we talked on this passage and pointed out the importance of faith. The scripture tells us that we are saved by faith, that we walk by faith, we live by faith, we serve by faith. Faith isn’t a peripheral virtue. Faith is at the foundation of the Christian life, amen? Because we’re told in Hebrews that without faith, it is impossible to please God. So that means we can do many things, many Christian things, but if we’re not doing them in faith, God is not pleased. Has it ever dawned on you that we could possibly pray and God not be pleased? Because we’re not praying in faith? We could worship, but if we don’t worship in faith, are we pleasing God? We could even give, but if we don’t give in faith, is it pleasing God? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So we are called to live by faith, not just get saved by faith, not just get to heaven by faith, but to live by faith, meaning faith is to permeate every aspect of our lives. So today I wanna talk a little bit more about faith because of its importance. And there are many, many, many lessons about faith we could draw from this text, but I’m only gonna mention a few.

Faith Overcomes Obstacles

One is this, faith overcomes obstacles. Faith overcomes obstacles. Notice, the woman here, she apparently had heard about this Jesus who was healing people. And she was at her wits end. She had gone to many physicians. She had basically spent all the money that she had. She was basically at a point of there were no other options but Jesus. So she travels to see Jesus. And when she arrives, there’s a throng around Jesus, a mob. We don’t know how many. But as Mark says repeatedly throughout the gospels, Jesus was constantly being thronged, pressed upon, on some occasions, so much so that the disciples feared that he might be trampled by people. and there were so many people around Jesus. So, the woman sees Jesus, and she believes that if she can only touch his garment, or as it says here, the hem of his garment, that she will be whole. The problem is, Jesus was surrounded by people. In other words, there were obstacles there. Now, she could have done what we often do, it’s like, oh, shoot, can’t get healed today. There’s obstacles there. There’s people there. I guess I’ll go home, try some other time. No, that wasn’t her attitude. Her attitude was, in spite of the obstacles, in spite of the mob, in spite of all the confusion and everything that was always happening around Jesus the mobs were there, she was determined to press through to touch Jesus. She was going to press through the obstacle to get to Jesus. Now, commentators are divided about, when it says here that she touched the hem of his garment, you know what I think of? I think of the hem at the bottom, don’t you? But there’s actually a hem about waist-high also. And so commentators are divided whether she touched the bottom or the hem on the top. You’re thinking, well, what does it matter? What would you do? If there was a mob, how would you get to Jesus? Do you go over the top or do you go underneath? I’d go underneath. That’s what I’d do. And the beauty of that is that it illustrates not only her desperation to get to Jesus, her willingness to overcome obstacles, but just the thought of the woman, the only way she could get to Jesus was to go down. To go down. But isn’t that the way it is? If we want to get to Jesus, don’t we have to go down? Don’t we have to recognize, don’t we have to understand that he really is the only option that we have?

And this is true not just about salvation. Now we all say this, that we believe in Jesus for salvation because we know our works are not good enough. But you know, that principle applies not just to getting saved. It applies to every area of our lives. To live the Christian life as it is meant to be lived, as scripture defines it, requires us, requires us to realize that we are utterly helpless without Jesus.

Jesus said that he was the vine. He is the vine. We are the branches. And he taught his disciples that without him, we could do what? Do we believe it? Do we really believe it? Well, I can go to work. I don’t need Jesus to work. Well, I can live my family life without Jesus. We’re fine. I can do this without Jesus. That’s not what Jesus said. He said, apart from him, we can do nothing. Now, of course, we can do many things without Jesus, but that’s not the Christian life. That’s living as the natural man, because the natural man could do many things in the power of the flesh. We see men build international corporations in the power of the flesh, right? I think we see some pastors build international churches in the power of the flesh. We can do a lot in the flesh, but we can’t do anything of enduring value, anything of eternal value, not in the long run. If we are to bear fruit unto God, bear the fruit of the Spirit, bear fruit that brings glory to Jesus, it requires that Jesus be manifested in us, which means we have to walk by faith. We have to see our need for Him. And yes, there will be obstacles. And I could spend easily the entire sermon talking about obstacles to faith, but I’m not going to because there’s other things I want to say. But let me say this. Faith finds a way. You hear me? Faith finds a way. And this leads to, I mean, when you think about the Old Testament and you think about Israel, when Joshua took over and they finally went into the promised land, you know what God said to him? He said, wherever your footsteps go, that is yours. Well, and then what happens in the next chapter? They go to battle. They had to fight for what God gave them. We said, wait a minute, didn’t God give it to them? Yeah, he gave it to them, but they had to take it. It’s the same way in the Christian life. When you read, just read Ephesians 1, read it once a day, for the next week, two weeks, you know, blow your mind. It will blow your mind. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies has been given to us. That’s what it says. But you have to take it. You have to take it. Just as Israel was given the land by promise of God who cannot lie, they had to battle and they had to take it. All the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ have been given to us, but we have to take it. We have to take it by faith. We have to believe and then act upon that faith.

Faith Perseveres Despite Appearances

So therefore faith overcomes obstacles, but it also perseveres in spite of appearances or or setbacks. And this is illustrated by the ruler of the synagogue. Here he comes to Jesus and says, my daughter’s ill, will you help? He says, yes. So they’re on the way to his house, and when they’re on the way, they get bad news that she had died. So he asked for Jesus’ help, and things got worse.

Well, have you ever experienced that? You ask for Jesus’ help, and it gets worse. And so what’s the easy response? Oh, well, I guess Jesus said no. Or, oh, well, I guess Jesus doesn’t love me because I asked and it didn’t happen. Well, that’s not how faith works because faith perseveres in spite of obstacles, in spite of setbacks, and even in spite of appearances. Think about Israel again. When they came to the land, you know why they didn’t go in? God brought them to the brink, they sent out the spies, they looked in the land and what did they see? They saw giants, oh my. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. They saw something that appeared as if they couldn’t win because they were big. There was a big obstacle there. And so what did they do? They pulled back.

They didn’t respond in faith. They didn’t say, hey, guess what? God’s bigger than the giants. But isn’t that what Scripture says? God is bigger than, and you fill in the blank, whatever obstacle is confronting you, God is bigger than, can I get an amen? God is bigger than whatever you’re facing. This is true because the word of God says that with God all things are possible. He didn’t say everything’s possible but getting you a raise. He didn’t say everything’s possible but healing the sickness in your family. God didn’t say everything is possible but saving your marriage. God did not say that. He said everything is possible with God. Everything. And this is true. And that’s why we need to stop saying things like, well, that will never happen. Well, he will never change. Or da da da da da, and fill in the blank, which are professions not of faith. They are professions of unbelief. Because with God, all things are possible. The thing you think cannot happen can happen if God wills it. It’s true. Sometimes you ask God for something and it appears that the opposite happens. Well maybe the Lord is testing your faith. When God promised Abraham an heir he had to wait 25 years for that child. That’s a long time to wait, isn’t it? And not only that he had to wait 25 years for the fulfillment, he had to believe in spite of, we’re told in Romans 4, in spite of the deadness of Sarah’s womb. They were dead to being able to bear a child. So if you just look at the natural point of view and not with the eyes of faith there’s no way they were going to have a child. And as a matter of fact, when God made the original promise to Abraham, what did he do? He laughed. And then when he came later and he reiterated the promise, what did Sarah do? She laughed. These were the laughs of unbelief. They did not believe, because why? It was unbelievable. But that’s the whole point. Faith isn’t necessary where you can explain everything. Faith isn’t necessary where you can fix it. Because if you can fix it, you don’t need God. Go ahead, fix it. Go ahead, fix it. So God gives Abraham a child in fulfillment of his word in spite of their at times doubt. [audio unclear] And then he says later as the child grows, take the child, now and sacrifice that child to me. Now you talk about something appearing contrary. You know what I’m saying? And yet we know from Hebrews 11 that Abraham was able to offer up Isaac because he did it in faith, believing God was gonna raise him from the dead. He knew God had spoken, he knew the word of God, and because the word of God had said, because God had promised and God cannot lie, God cannot break his promise, he therefore was able to offer up Isaac in faith.

So don’t evaluate things by how they always appear. You have to evaluate things in light of the word of God. How does the situation appear in the light of the Word of God? Not how does it appear in light of my ability to change things, but rather in light of God’s ability to change things? That’s the question.

Faith Is Both Active and Passive

Thirdly, I wanna point out about this passage, something that I think is very important to learn, and that is this. Faith is both active and passive, and this is important to remember. What do I mean? Well, when the woman illustrates more than the ruler does, the active nature of faith. If she had come, saw the mob, said, well, I can’t mess with that, I can’t get through, and had walked away, she would not have been healed. She had to persevere, she had to press through, she had to find a way in faith, and it shows the active nature of faith. She reached out and touched Jesus. Now, the ruler, although he initially came to Jesus for healing, you would say that was an act of faith. It was active. But as they went on the way, they got bad news and he was told, your daughter’s dead so, so there’s nothing to do. And so what does Jesus say to him? Jesus says, don’t be afraid, only believe. And at that point, there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do. So his faith from that point on was passive. There’s nothing he could do. But he had to rely on the word of Christ. And when you look at Hebrews 11, matter of fact, let’s turn there for a moment. Where it talks about faith here in Hebrews. We see both kinds of faith illustrated.

Hebrews 11, if I can get there.

Hebrews 11 and 4 says, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. So notice that Abel offered by faith. He had faith that God had mandated a blood sacrifice, so he acted on that faith and offered Him a blood sacrifice. Cain offered Him a non-bloody sacrifice. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death. But Enoch didn’t take himself away, did he? God took him away. So right here in these two verses we see this principle that in some cases faith means acting. Sometimes faith means waiting. It all depends on the situation. But the thing I want you to understand is that when you read through Hebrews 11, in the majority of cases, faith meant doing something. And this strikes at this problem of how we can say things that we believe, but then when we look at how we’re acting, it really doesn’t line up. You know what I’m saying? So if we believe we act based upon that faith, that’s what living by faith means. It doesn’t just say the just will wait by faith, as if, well, I believe Jesus died for me, I’m going to heaven, so I’m just kind of waiting around until I die and I go to heaven. So I’m waiting by faith. Well, that’s really not biblical thinking, is it? We are to live by faith. We act on what we profess is true. We live according to that which we profess is true. Of course if we don’t live according to it, then the question becomes, do we really believe it? Now there are cases where there’s nothing we can do. We have to, if you will, we have to wait. So we pray. We lean on God. We rely on Him. We embrace his promise and we wait for him to fulfill his word. And if we’re truly waiting in faith, he will fulfill his word. And again, I can use Abraham, I can use David, I can use many examples from scripture of men and women who had promises from God and they believed the promise, but it took years for God to fulfill that promise. But they continued to wait and they continued to believe, even though it took many years for God to fulfill it. Why He does this, we don’t know, other than I believe that often He delays in order to build our faith, not tear it down. And he trains us often by making us wait and to develop our faith. You know, if faith was—

The Fight of Faith

this is the footnote. So if you’re trying to figure out where it goes in the outline you’re writing down it won’t. I think there’s this thing that we fall into where we think faith is something easy to do. But it’s not easy. Because if faith were easy, you would all be working miracles every day. But it’s not easy, is it? And so we didn’t. The life of faith is a fight of faith. We have to battle to walk in faith. We have to battle the enemy who wants to attack our faith. We need to battle the world which wants to seduce us from faith and wants us to walk by sight. We have to battle our own flesh. We have to battle sometimes the Christians around us who are walking in unbelief. That’s what happened with the spies. The people of God discouraged the people of God because of their unbelief. So there’s many things. Walking by faith is not an easy task. It’s something that we have to work at. And even when I talk about this passive faith, even that is not totally passive because the soul is always engaged in relying on God and His word. Even when you’re waiting. It’s not like, okay, well I’ll just wait and I’ll never pray or I’ll never, you know. That’s not faith. In the sense of the action of your heart and soul, in that sense, faith is always active because it’s always leaning. It’s always trusting, always relying on God. And it’s a battle to do that. But faith perseveres.

Not Faith in Faith

Last point I want to make is this, that when we talk about faith, I think there are often many misconceptions about faith. One is, when we talk about the importance of faith, we’re We’re not talking about having faith in faith. Do you know that your faith does not save you? Who saves you? Who? I can’t hear you. Jesus Christ saved you, if you’re saved. Not your faith in Jesus Christ. Now Jesus says to the woman, your faith has made you well. Do you think, well, hey, wait a minute. Didn’t her faith heal her? Well, yes and no. What I mean by that is this. Only yes, because Jesus was the object of her faith. Jesus Christ, she had faith in Jesus Christ. She touches Jesus and power goes out of him and she’s healed. Her faith did not heal her. Her faith put her in touch with the one who healed her. Your faith doesn’t save you if your faith is on the wrong object. If you believe that Krishna will save you, you won’t be saved. Because it’s the wrong God. Jesus Christ saves, so the faith must be in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, for by grace you are saved through faith. Not your faith saves you, but grace saves you. God saves you through Christ, and faith is the receptacle, if you will, the empty hand that takes what is offered to us. So this is very important because I think sometimes Christians hear about faith and they think, well, I need stronger faith. Well, guess what? We all need stronger faith. Do you need stronger faith? I do. Raise your hand. I need more faith. Yeah. Okay, good. Well, guess what? I need more faith, I need more faith, I need more faith, and you will have no more faith. Truly. But we do this. Unwittingly, we try to build our faith up, like some kind of work it up. [audio unclear] That’s not how you build faith. Because that’s taking the focus, making the focus of faith, faith. The focus of faith isn’t faith, it’s Jesus. And if you want to have more faith, set your eyes upon Jesus. Learn who Jesus Christ really is, and you will have faith.

It will build your faith. It must build your… well maybe not must because I guess you can reject the revelation of God. But if you want more faith, or should I say if you want a stronger faith, you need to set your eyes on Jesus. I remember when I got saved, someone handed me a Bible and said, read this, and you know, this is what I believe. I read the gospels, blew my mind. So I read them again, blew my mind more. I read them again. It’s amazing. And looking back many years later, I realized that as I read the gospels over and over, I fell in love with Jesus. That’s what happened. I did. And that revelation of Jesus Christ through his word made me trust him. So my faith was a product of seeing who Jesus Christ was and is today. That’s why I was able to trust him. You know, you’re not going to trust a person you don’t know. It doesn’t work that way. It’s psychologically impossible for me to stand up here and tell you, trust Jesus if you don’t know who he is. Trust God if you don’t know who he is. You won’t do it. It’s not possible. You have to know him to really trust him.

So the more, if you want a stronger faith, and I think you all raised your hand, except for Austin. No, I’m just kidding. You all raised your hand. We need more faith. Well then, I’m telling you, if you want more faith, get more of Jesus. Look at Jesus. Read the Gospels. Meditate on them. Pray over them. Find out who this Jesus really is. And as you learn more about Jesus Christ, then your faith grows.

John Brown, the great commentator, said this. You ready? Speculation about the person and work of Christ, however correct, is not the excellent knowledge in comparison with which the apostles counted all things lost. Assent to abstract propositions, however true, is not Christian faith. He goes on to say this, a firm belief of the real existence of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ really did and does exist. This living faith of a living Christ lies at the foundation of true Christianity. And the superstructure, meaning that which you build on that foundation, is composed of the transforming, intimate acquaintance with him. With him. Do you believe that Jesus is alive? Say it like you mean it. Well, we’re gonna celebrate Easter soon, so let’s get started. Let’s not do it one hour a year. And one hour a year, act like he’s alive. And this is why Christians gather on Sunday and not on Saturday, because Sunday was the day of the resurrection, and every week they were to celebrate the resurrection because Jesus was alive. Jesus is alive today. So we talk about trusting Jesus. We’re not just talking about looking back to what he did 2,000 years ago and saying, I trust what that Jesus did a long time ago. Yeah, you do. You look back, you trust his work there. But you trust that same Jesus who was in the grave and was now alive because he was resurrected and ascended that same Jesus is alive today and if you really trust that Jesus who is the same yesterday today and forever if you really trust that Jesus for what he did then you can trust that same Jesus for what he can do now it’s the same Jesus the same Jesus that conquered the grave is the same Jesus that’s alive today who can conquer anything you bring to him. Any problem. Same Jesus. Not a different Jesus, the same Jesus who rose from the dead. The same Jesus who blew the stone away. The same Jesus is alive today. That’s the person we believe in. We don’t believe in our belief in Him, we believe in Him. So it is not faith in faith. It is not faith in ritual. This is what many Christians have. If you do church the right way, meaning our way, then you’ll somehow be saved. And they like sacramentalism, and their faith is in the right order and the right things and the right dippings and the right, all that. Okay? That is not faith in Jesus; it’s faith in ritual. It’s more like the woman’s faith who had this belief. She had a touch versus just believing.

Not Faith in Feelings

We do not have faith in feelings. You know, sometimes we think we’re walking in faith when we’re kind of exhilarated, you know? You ever get exhilarated for Jesus? You know what I mean? Get excited? Everybody ever get excited for Jesus? Okay, somebody like, I don’t know if I ever did that. And it’s easy to think that when I’m feeling full of faith, I am full of faith. But that’s not necessarily true. Because sometimes faith means that you act with a naked faith. That means a faith where you’re not feeling anything. You don’t feel a thing, but you know the will of God, and so you do it in faith. That takes more faith than when you’re feeling full of faith. Sometimes I’ll preach, and I’m thinking to myself, man, the Holy Ghost is all over me. People are going to be getting blessed today. And then I’m done with it. Then some days I preach and when I’m [audio unclear] putting your faith in feelings because they don’t always line [audio unclear] They’re in the desert. Because a lot of times you can’t control that. But you can believe. You can believe on the mountaintop, and you can believe in the valley. Believing means putting your faith in Christ, not in your feelings. And this is so important, because so often I hear Christians say things like, well, I didn’t do that because I didn’t feel like it. That’s not the question, that we feel like it. The question is, what does the Word of God call us to do? What does the word of God call us to be? We are not to be governed by our feelings. We’re to be governed by Christ. He is our Lord and our faith in Him.

Not a Creed, but Christ Himself

Lastly, our faith is not in a creed. This might be the most dangerous trick of all of the enemy.

Now, anybody that knows me knows that I am a firm believer in knowledge.

I believe that we’re to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m a firm believer in correct doctrine. I’m a firm believer in studying and meditating not only on the word but on doctrinal books and learning and renewing your mind according to the truth. I believe truth, objective truth, revealed truth is profoundly important. But there is a but. And the but is, is that truth by itself does not save us. The truth is like a road map that leads us somewhere. And where the truth ought to lead us is to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ saves us. If you want to visit London, don’t get on the internet and just look at pictures. That’s not visiting London. It’s getting knowledge about London, but it’s not London. If you want to visit London, you have to get in the plane and fly to London. Right? Learning about Jesus is profoundly important, but your book of doctrine on Jesus isn’t Jesus.

Even the Bible, which is the book above all books, even the Bible isn’t Jesus. It reveals Jesus. And so it’s a means to an end. The end and the object of the Christian life is not faith, it’s not ritual, it’s not feelings, it’s not creed. The end and the object of the Christian life is Jesus Christ Himself. Somebody believe that? Jesus Christ Himself. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. We are told to run the race looking unto Jesus. Jesus has the name which is above every name. We’re told that at the name of Jesus, every tongue will confess and every knee will bow. We’re told that Jesus is above all principality, all power, all dominion, all might, and every name that is named.

To know the love of Christ, that we might be filled with the fullness of God. That is God’s will for us. Paul said, for to me, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, meaning then I’ll literally be with Christ. He said, I counted all things, I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Jesus Christ is the end and the object, the author, finisher, the Alpha, and the Omega of the Christian life. Colossians—we’re going to close with this text. He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him. Jesus Christ is to be preeminent because in fact He is preeminent.

In fact He did create. In fact all things subsist in Him. In fact all things were made for His glory and all things will end in bringing Him glory. Therefore since Jesus is preeminent We can trust Him. We can believe in Him. We can rely on Him. We can call on Him. Jesus Christ is the Savior. [audio unclear] Call on Him and trust Him daily as you walk by faith. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray.

Lord, we thank You that You have granted us this beautiful revelation of who You are through Scripture. We thank You, those of us that know You, Lord. We thank You that You’ve given us the Holy Spirit to illumine to us, to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear that we might know You, the living Christ. Lord, I pray that You would continue to reveal Yourself to Your people. Lord, that You would continue to show us who You really are. That we might believe in You, trust in You, call on You. That we would walk by faith and not by sight, not by feeling, not by ritual, but Lord, to walk hand in hand with You. that we would follow the Lamb wherever He leads. Jesus, we thank You that You’ve called us to a life of faith. I pray, Lord, that we would truly bring You honor and glory by walking in faith, trusting you daily. We pray these things, Lord, in your name. Amen.

← Living by FaithLFC2016: The Church and the Word →