FAITH
David A Barlow
Matthew 21: 18-22
Mark 9: 20-24
Luke 9: 13-14
James 1: 2-6 (to “… doubting”)
I seek help, beloved, to speak about the matter of faith. I would also like to draw on what we had yesterday. We were looking at the end of Matthew 4, seeing that there was a certain progression of the demonstration of the Lord’s healing power. In verse 23 the Lord healed every disease and every bodily weakness, and then after His fame went out in the whole of Syria, in verse 24, they brought to Him all who were ill and suffering under various diseases and pains, persons possessed by demons, lunatics, and paralytics. And He healed them. It is suggestive of an increase in faith on the part of the crowds as to His healing power, and thus an increase in the exercise of that power. I just want to touch on the premium, if I can put it like this, that divine Persons place on faith, and the greatness of this dispensation of faith.
And so we have in this first scripture an illustration of that. We have here the fig-tree in the way, and the Lord came to it, hungry and desiring something from it, and there was “nothing but leaves only”. This fig-tree really speaks of God’s earthly people, the children of Israel, and how the Lord found them. Those in Jerusalem were going on outwardly, as they would see it, according to the law, with the temple rebuilt such as it was. The Pharisees were abiding by all the laws of Moses, and being particularly zealous in relation to them. But the Lord desired something from them; He desired fruit and He found “nothing but leaves only”. And so the word is, “Let there be never more fruit of thee for ever. And the fig-tree was immediately dried up”. Think of the disciples wondering at that.
At another time they drew attention to the great stones and buildings of the temple complex, and the Lord says to them “not a stone shall be left upon a stone”, Mark 13: 2. Perhaps the disciples thought there was something for the Lord in those buildings - but there was nothing, and they wondered at it. The Lord here does not exactly explain to them why the fig-tree dried up, but instead He brings in the matter of faith: “If ye have faith, and do not doubt, not only shall ye do what is done to the fig-tree”. So, we find that faith is superior to all that has gone before, it is superior to all men’s systems, it is superior to anything that man can set up, and it is even superior to the law of old. It is not only just superior, it is far superior, because the Lord goes on to say, “but even if ye should say to this mountain, Be thou taken away and cast into the sea, it shall come to pass”. And it comes to pass because of faith. The great obstacles that men find impossible are moved by faith; faith moves mountains! That is what faith can do, and that is what this dispensation has. I am sure the Lord would delight to have us prove Him in this way. Our brother said that the Lord is always with us, and this is true. But how He would delight for us to prove His power and that is what I wanted to draw attention to in these next three scriptures.
In Mark 9, this man – by his own confession – doubted the Person before him, saying, “if thou couldst”. How I know that in my own heart: knowing the condition that I was in, and how far it was from a holy and righteous God, the question comes, could the Lord’s work really be sufficient for me? - “If thou couldst”: if only He could. But the gospel goes forth that we might come “nothing doubting”. And the Lord would work that it might be so. There is no suggestion of being partly saved in the gospel; we come just as we are with all our need, to be saved completely. And the Lord would work to that end, nothing doubting. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”, as the scripture says; “and thou shalt be saved”, Acts 16: 31. That is the standard of faith, that we come nothing doubting. And we see how the Lord in His grace brought that man to this point, it was no longer “if thou couldst”; it was, “I believe”; and that is faith, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. What a start that is, what a start we have all had in putting our faith in Jesus. We have come to the Lord and found no place for doubt, we have cast all upon Him and Him alone. If we have come nothing doubting, He in His grace has brought us to that point, and how He values it. I do feel that this man’s reply delighted the Lord’s heart. The man knew his failure: “I believe, help mine unbelief”. This man knew his failure, but he came in dependence. And if there is a sense of doubt rising in my heart in relation to anything here, I must cry to the Lord for help: “help mine unbelief”. How he would confirm us, “nothing doubting”.
Where we read in Luke 9, I wanted to draw attention to faith in relation to service. The Lord says to the disciples, “Give ye them to eat”. If we look at the beginning of the chapter, we see that they had just been given power and authority over all demons and to heal diseases and to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, and we also see that they had no staff, scrip, bread or money, Luke 9: 2-3. The Lord speaks of that period later on in the gospel, just before they went to Gethsemane; the Lord spoke to them about that time when He sent them out, and He asked if they lacked anything, “And they said, Nothing”, Luke 22: 35. So they had proved the resource of the Lord in their previous experience. Well, now the Lord has asked them again to do something. He has given them something to do, and they immediately look to their own resources, “we have not more than five loaves and two fishes”. How much that is like my own heart, beloved: I have proved Him in faith so far, but if the Lord gives me something to do, I find I am insufficient for it; I do not have the resources for it, and so I decide I cannot do it. And that is not relying upon faith. The Lord would have us to trust in Him implicitly. It was not a question of their resources: they would never have been able to feed five thousand by themselves; it was the Lord that was to do it. So it is in relation to service, and in relation to what the Lord would have us to do here; we do not rely on our natural abilities: they would only fail. But if the Lord has given us something to do, He will give us the power with which to accomplish it. It all belongs to Him; so the Lord would have us to move in faith in any service that we carry out, nothing doubting, and thus prove Him in it. We did not read it, but the story goes on as to how the Lord here fills them all, and there are enough fragments left over to fill twelve handbaskets, suggestive of perfect administration, v 17. But that was not really what I wanted to draw attention to; the point is if we are given something to do, the resource is from the Lord. Let us move forward “nothing doubting”.
In our final scripture, in the epistle of James, we find we are to count it all joy when we “fall into various temptations, knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance. But let endurance have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. It is wonderful that God delights to prove His work in faith. And although there are tribulations here, temptations and testing, it is in view of a perfect work, and that perfect work will have its completion. There will be a perfect work presented, secured through faith, in a coming day. But we also have this word, "if any of you lack wisdom”. We may find this in the confusion of the time and the difficulty in understanding why certain things are happening, maybe in taking account of the general failure around, or the smallness of the number of those whom we gather with. Perhaps things outwardly do not seem right; things do not seem like they are going as we expect; what are we to do? The scripture says to ask for wisdom. Ask that God might show you what He is doing, ask in full assurance of faith, “nothing doubting”: “let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not”; that is a lovely touch, is it not? He reproaches not; He does not say, ‘Well, you should already know, you should already understand what I am doing’. No! He would say to ask freely, “nothing doubting”, and God would give freely. He would answer that request. Wisdom is from God. My mind goes to what we can read in relation to Abraham: God says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?”, Gen 18: 17. How He would delight to share with us the view of what He is securing, what He is accomplishing, but we are to ask in faith nothing doubting.
It says later on in James, “he that doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about”, v 6. Perhaps we should take that as a word of warning - how I know it in my own heart. I begin to bring in my own natural thinking into matters and difficulties, and effectively doubt the God who brought me thus far, and thus how unstable I find myself to be. Alas, such a course has been a stumbling block for many, and some who we know have gone away from the testimony because of it. How we pray for them, and we have prayed for them already today. But we are to go forward “nothing doubting” with our eyes upon “the leader and completer of faith” (Heb 12: 2), the blessed Lord Jesus Himself.
May we prove the power of it beloved, for the Lord’s name’s sake.
At a meeting for ministry at Sunbury
10th January 2022