Mark 9, we're going to look specifically at verse 24. This contains one of my favorite statements in all of Scripture, and it touches on the doctrine of assurance. What first brought me to this text, actually a couple of years ago, I think, I began to study this text in earnest because I had reviewed all of the sermons I'd ever preached in 15 years plus at Grace Community Church. And I realized I had never preached a single sermon devoted entirely to the subject of assurance, which is a pretty significant oversight, if you ask me. And so I ended up preaching a long series on assurance to sort of, you know, correct that imbalance. And in fact, what brought that particular subject to my mind and this specific verse was that I got an email from a man in the Middle East who had been listening to some of my sermons on the Internet, which is a frightening thought. I mean, my sermons go on the Internet and they go out in the world and I never know who's going to read them or what kind of questions they're going to ask or what kind of confusion I might be sowing. So I always have in the back of my shoulder this voice whispering in my ear saying, get it right, because you can't always talk to the people who listen to your sermons these days. But this guy wrote me an email. And he was writing to ask for help with doubts about his salvation. And in fact, I saved part of his email. I want to read you a few excerpts without violating his anonymity, but I want to share some of our correspondence with you because The questions this guy asked are the very same questions lots of Christians ask all the time. These emails could be echoed by thousands upon thousands of Christians who struggle with the very same fears that have assaulted this man's faith. So here are some quotes. Here's what he wrote. His first email to me was really very short, just a simple question. He asks, Should I say, as of now, I believe I'll be in heaven, or I know I'll be in heaven? He says, I don't know if any believer has a right to say, I know for sure that I'll never be like Demas. You know, Demas was a character in Paul's ministry, and Paul at one point wrote and said, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. And this guy was wondering, can I say with confidence, I know I'll be in heaven, or do I always have to accommodate the fear that I might abandon the faith? And so I wrote him back and referred him to 1 John 5, 13, where the Apostle John says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And I told him, if you're a true believer, you can say, I know. Because that's the exact language Scripture uses. struggling with personal assurance of their salvation, a simple answer like that rarely satisfies all of their questions. And so it didn't surprise me when this guy wrote me back and said, you know, something in your message doesn't let me sigh contentedly, he says. Can you definitively say that you know you will not lose your faith in 10 years? And he went on to say, you know, it's one thing to be confident of your present state, But when it comes to final salvation, he said, it seems to me that the Bible stresses faith and hope rather than definite knowledge. And I wrote him back and I said, you know, first of all, you're trying to make fine points and distinctions Scripture doesn't make. When 1 John 5.13 says we can know we have eternal life, that does give us assurance of our final destiny. Eternal life, by definition, You can't lose it. And I said it wouldn't be eternal, you know, if a mere 10 years from now you could somehow lose it. Plus, I said, I think you're too focused on yourself and what you may or may not do. You need to be more concerned with trusting Christ and what he has already done. Scripture commands us to trust Him who is able to keep us from falling. And if your faith in Christ is shaky, or if your life is lacking grace completely, then you might have reason to examine yourself with regard to the quality of your faith. But it's folly to worry about ultimate failure just because you are weak and prone to wander. That's a given. Surely, I said to him, you must have realized by now your own spiritual bankruptcy when you came to faith in the first place. You must have felt that. And so I said, if your faith is so weak that you think you can somehow thwart Christ's saving work, then you ought to be more concerned about what you think of Christ and less concerned about the weakness of your own flesh, because the plain truth is we can't keep ourselves from falling. But we can certainly trust Christ when he says he is able to keep us from falling, when when he says he is able to keep his own sheep so that none of them can be snatched out of his hand. And we ought to be able to trust God when he says he's able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jude 24, that is the kind of faith That gives assurance, and I close that email to him by saying, if you understand that your salvation is the work of Christ on your behalf and not something you're doing for yourself, then you should know with confidence, with absolute confidence that he will not botch the job. A lack of assurance is something that destroys the joy and the liberty that ought to be the fruit of saving faith. And the persistent kind of chronic uncertainty that plagues some people is spiritually devastating. And in fact, in the worst cases, I think that kind of doubt may be an indication that the person's faith is seriously and fatally defective. If you are utterly lacking any sense of assurance, it could well be that what you think is faith is not really faith at all. And I'm not saying that if you ever doubt, that's proof you're not saved, because this is a fact and you can rest in this. Virtually all Christians struggle with doubts from time to time, doubts that assault our assurance. And new Christians especially are prone to uncertainty about their salvation. And even the best of saints, even the most mature of saints can be assaulted with fears and questions. And it's one of the most difficult and one of the most common things every pastor deals with in the counseling room. People struggle with this a lot and therefore, not surprisingly, scripture has a lot to say about assurance. And it encourages us to seek and to pursue assurance. The whole epistle of First John is all about assurance. It's about the dangers of false confidence as well and the peril of apostasy. And a really thorough study of First John is like a graduate course in the doctrine of assurance. But that's not the only book in the New Testament that's devoted to that subject. The book of Hebrews has the theme of assurance running through it from start to finish. It's a theme, frankly, assurance, a theme that comes up in most of the New Testament epistles. It's one of the major themes of Scripture. And this morning I want to explore the doctrine of assurance with you by taking you to this single short verse in the Gospel of Mark. This probably isn't the first text that would pop into your mind when somebody brings up the subject of assurance, but it is the first text that came to my mind when that guy wrote me for help with his lack of assurance. Mark 9.24. Here Mark records that the father of a demon possessed child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe help my unbelief. That verse has always intrigued me, I think I know from firsthand experience exactly what that man was saying, because I've struggled with the same conflict he described between faith and unbelief, and especially when I was a new Christian. And that man's prayer is still a plea. My own heart echoes practically every day. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Now, this man's honesty is remarkable. He confesses his unbelief as readily as he confesses his faith. This is the very picture of humble, godly sincerity. And as we're going to see, this is not the maudlin notion of transparency that seems to dominate today, you know, where people sometimes practically boast about their doubts. It's not what he's doing. But what you have here is newborn faith seeking assurance. This is the first step towards maturity and it's remarkable. This man's very first confession of faith gives us a wonderfully abbreviated lesson in some of the key truths of the doctrine of assurance. And so what I want to do this morning is look at the immediate context and then we'll focus on this key verse. Here's what's going on here. Jesus' earthly ministry at this point was nearing its climax. He had already withdrawn from Capernaum That lakeside village that had been the base of Jesus' ministry for about two years. And then Jesus entered a phase of itinerant ministry in some of the more remote parts of Galilee. Galilee is the north region, north of Jerusalem, probably 100 miles or so. As you see in verse 33, he was still within reach of Capernaum. And Capernaum, by the way, was the hometown for most of the disciples. And so they would return there from time to time. Now, we're very close to the end of Jesus' Galilean ministry. Remember, most of his public ministry was in that region up north. But he's about to make a trip to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. And he would minister in and around Jerusalem in the region known as Judea. for several weeks, and then the conflict he had with the religious leaders of Jerusalem would force him to Perea, which is a region on the other side, the opposite side of the Jordan from Jerusalem. Perea was the region where John the Baptist did most of his ministry, so it was kind of a wilderness area, but right on the border of the Jordan River. And Jesus there would minister to multitudes for many weeks, and then he would make his final trip to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. And at the height of that Passover feast, he would give his life to become the literal fulfillment of what was pictured symbolically in all the Passover lambs that were ever sacrificed. And the event we're going to look at this morning occurs some six months prior to that final Passover. Jesus is still in Galilee. He is ministering to multitudes who saw him out and followed him everywhere. He had left the multitudes to take Peter, James and John, his three closest disciples, to the top of a nearby mountain where he revealed his glory in the Transfiguration. Matthew, Mark and Luke, those three gospels all describe the transfiguration and all three of them also place the incident we're about to read immediately after that great mountaintop experience. Luke 9.37 says it happened on the next day, the day after the transfiguration, when they had come down from the mountain. Now, The truth is nobody knows precisely where the Mount of Transfiguration is. We don't know exactly which mountain it was. But assuming that it was one of the major mountains north of the Sea of Galilee, which is what makes the most sense and what most Bible teachers believe, Jesus was going back to the region near the North Shore. And that was a full day's journey from the mountains up there. And on the way, Matthew and Mark both record that the three disciples asked Jesus about Elijah, and he spoke to them about John the Baptist. And so the four of them were talking about profound biblical issues as they descended from the Mount of Transfiguration. They're trying to sort out their eschatology. Where does Elijah fit into this? Because remember, the last verse in the Old Testament is about the coming of Elijah. And Elijah ascended into heaven without dying. And so the belief was that Elijah would show up before the Messiah. And the disciples have already come to realize Jesus is the Messiah. And so they're trying to sort out where Elijah fits into this. And Jesus talked to them about John the Baptist and said he came in the spirit and the power of Elijah. And they're talking about all of this. And as they approach their destination, which was most likely somewhere near Capernaum, They encountered the other nine disciples in the midst of a frenzied mob. Mark 9, 14, it says, when he came to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with them. And as Jesus comes on this scene, someone in that multitude, probably lots of people at once, saw Jesus coming in the distance and they gave a shout. And instantly this massive humanity began to run towards Jesus. Verse 15, immediately when they saw him, all the people were greatly amazed and running to him, greeted him. And he asked the scribes, what are you discussing with them? I love the boldness of Jesus. scoffing scribes had made themselves his sworn enemies, and they thought they had cornered these disciples with Jesus maybe up on a mountain somewhere, and they were going to have a heyday publicly disputing with the disciples. They had opposed Jesus at every turn for about two and a half years by now, but Jesus never backs down from them. He doesn't turn to the disciples and ask in a whisper what was going on. Notice what he does here. These scribes come over and Jesus looks the scribes square in the eye and he puts the question to them. What are you arguing about with my disciples? And the question seems to have stunned them to silence. They weren't, by the way, very good at answering Jesus. Usually when he asked them a question or put the challenge to them, they didn't know how to answer. And so he had made them look stupid repeatedly, which is why they were probably glad to find these nine disciples without Jesus anywhere around. They were winning the argument when Jesus came up. But he asks this question, what are you arguing about with my disciples? And they don't have an answer. They're not the ones who answer. Verse 17, then one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I brought you my son who has a mute spirit. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not. So what we have here is a severe case of demon possession with violent seizures, and that's not all. This man's son had suffered from this evil possession all his life. And worst of all, this is not a simple case of epileptic seizures. This was a malicious demon that seemed bent on doing physical harm to this child, and we're about to see proof of that. But notice, Jesus is more concerned about the unbelief all around him than he is about this violent demon inhabiting this man's son. That's remarkable when you think about it, try to put yourself in this scene and the way Jesus deals with it is not at all what you might expect and certainly not how you and I would be most likely to respond. But he walks in to this huge conflict between his disciples and the scribes. He is presented with an emergency of the utmost gravity. It's the violent affliction of a demon-possessed boy. And yet his first concern, the main thing he is eager to remedy in this whole narrative, is the unbelief embodied in those scribes. The unbelief that those scribes had in their hearts was worse to Jesus than the demon that was possessing this little boy. Amazing. And no wonder. Unbelief had been institutionalized in their religion. Unbelief infected the hearts of everyone who followed the lead of these scribes onto the broad path that leads to destruction. And of all the evils in Galilee, including demons, disease, and just about every kind of social problem you could think of, unbelief was by far the most destructive and the most wicked and the most widespread problem of all, and Jesus knew that. You know, we know that too about our culture, but we tend to forget it. But before Jesus ever turned his attention to the demon-possessed boy in order to cast out that evil spirit, he rebukes the entire community's unbelief In some of the strongest language we will ever hear from the lips of Jesus, notice his first reply is not a gentle word of encouragement for the man whose boy was afflicted. It's a sharp rebuke aimed not only at that man, but at the whole culture of unbelief. Verse 19, he answered him and said, Oh, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. Now, don't think for a moment that Jesus was unconcerned about the demon or the afflicted boy's welfare. He's about to cast out the demon and heal the boy. But his rebuke clearly signifies that as evil as that demon was, as hurtful as this lifelong affliction had been for this man's precious son, the state of unbelief among the people and the scribes was a far greater evil and a more pressing problem. Which puts the wickedness of unbelief in perspective, doesn't it? Now, hang on to that thought because that's a hugely important truth. And it embodies the chief lesson of this whole narrative. And it's this unbelief is supremely wicked. To distrust the word of God or to doubt the power of Christ is not some minor infraction that has no practical consequence. But doubt is not a plaything you can wear as a badge of transparency. Unbelief is the seed from which every other crime against the righteousness of God springs. And therefore, we should never think of any form of unbelief as a small transgression. It's not. And that's why Jesus rebukes the people's skepticism before he even rebukes this monstrous demon. And that says volumes about the Gross evils of doubt and disbelief, because this was a terribly wicked demon. Verse 20, they brought him to him. And when he saw him immediately, the spirit convulsed him and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. And so he asked his father, Jesus asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? And the father said, from childhood. And he has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. So here's the situation. This kid has suffered his whole life like this. He seems to be, at this point, an early adolescent, because the father speaks of his childhood as something past, and yet he's still in the father's care. And verse 24 refers to him as a child. And so I gather that this boy is somewhere in the realm where the end of childhood meets the dawn of adulthood. We call it adolescence. The Hebrews didn't have a concept like that. They went immediately from childhood to adulthood. And this boy was right in that range. I'm going to refer to him as a boy because that covers all the possibilities. But think of him probably as a 12 or 13 year old. The violence of his seizure is remarkable and frightening because as soon as this demon is brought into the presence of Jesus, the torment is unleashed. I was reading you the New King James Version, which says, when he saw him, the spirit convulsed him. The Greek expression literally means having seen Jesus immediately, the spirit tore him back and forth. So it's an active verb that signifies not just one convulsion, but a series of convulsions that tear him back and forth. He foams at the mouth. He writhes on the ground. Verse 18 says these fits also made the boy gnash his teeth, which means he ground his teeth with such force you could hear it. He was helpless under the cruel power of this demon. And I love the calmness of Jesus. Even in the face of this violent evil, again, put yourself in this situation and imagine if this kid is on the ground writhing at your feet and everybody's expecting you to help. This is a terrible emergency to get caught up in. Jesus is calm. He's clearly in control. He looks up while the boy is still wallowing uncontrollably in the dust. And he asks the father, how long the boy has been afflicted like that? And so the father adds some terrifying details. Verse 22. Often, he says, the demon has tried to drown or burn the boy. And this has been happening to him from childhood. Doesn't this just tear your heart out for both the father and the son? The thought of a little boy from his childhood afflicted like this by so powerful a demon. From the time he was a toddler. I have a little grandson that's two years old and I can't help reading an account like this without thinking of him. And if he was afflicted like that, what a grief that would be and what a torment it would be. And this had been going on for years. And this man had no doubt tried everything he could do to help his son. He had brought him to this place now where he knew Jesus was or was supposed to be. He had undoubtedly heard the stories of Jesus that Jesus could heal any disease and he could cast out any demon. Who knows how far this man had come, but if you were in his place, you would have been willing to go any distance to get help for your son. But he happens to arrive just when Jesus had withdrawn to the mountain with three of his inner circle disciples and the man missed him. Think of it. So much trouble in his life already. And when he gets there, his last hope, he finds out he had chosen the one day when Jesus was gone. His best hope now is the nine remaining disciples whom Jesus had given power to cast out demons, but even they couldn't seem to help in this case. Verse 18, he says, I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not. And so his hopes were shattered. Whatever faith had brought him to this place in the first place had already been demolished. This must have been one of the most despondent days of this man's incredibly difficult life. And when Jesus finally arrives on the scene, his very first words to this guy are a rebuke for his unbelief. Wow. And furthermore, Jesus is about to chide him once more for his faithlessness. Look again at the end of verse 21. The guy says to Jesus, if you can do anything, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And so Jesus echoes the man's words right back at him. If you can. Now, some versions have inserted the word believe so that Jesus says, if you can believe. But the word for belief isn't found in the best Greek manuscripts, and I think the very best translations of that verse are the New American Standard Bible and the English Standard Version, and both of them have Jesus simply repeating this man's words right back to him, because that's how it is in the Greek. And you can hear a tone of astonishment when you read it that way. So that by these translations, the guy says, if you can do anything, and Jesus replies, if you can, What do you mean if all things are possible to him who believes? That's the reading I think makes the best sense. And it's clear that this guy picked up on that rebuke right away because he instantly makes this tearful confession. And this is the key verse we want to look at. Verse 24. Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe help my unbelief. He knew Jesus had put his finger on the man's unbelief. He had seen through him and he knew just by the word if that the man was plagued with doubts and he challenges him for that. Now, all of this had happened very quickly. Because lots faster than it took me to describe it to you, because lots of people from the multitude are still running from the place where the disciples were disputing with the scribes to the place where Jesus was. And you've got to figure the distance was maybe as much as a quarter of a mile. It's as far as you can see and recognize somebody, because the minute they recognize this was Jesus coming, people left this dispute between the scribes and the disciples and started running towards Jesus. And some of them are still coming. Verse 25, when the people saw that when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to a deaf and dumb spirit, I command you come out of him and enter him no more. And then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly and came out of him. I love that. And that's the high point of the story. Of course, the boy is delivered. It's a happy ending. And I'll stop the narrative at that point, even though it goes on for a few more verses, because that's more than enough to give you the context of the verse I want to focus on, verse 24, and specifically the phrase, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Here is a perfect expression of the tension every believer struggles with. This is a conflict between our faith and our unbelief. It's a contest between assurance and doubt. This man has just met Jesus and he makes this simple, conflicted confession of faith, but he perfectly and very simply summarizes the whole Christian doctrine of assurance in its essential elements. There's the ground of our assurance, that's Jesus himself, which you see expressed in the address, Lord, There's the root of our assurance, faith. You see that in the words, I believe. And there's the means of our assurance, grace. And that's reflected in the man's plea, help my unbelief. And I want us this morning to look, there's this afternoon, isn't it? Still seems like Sunday school to me. And that's supposed to be in the morning. But this afternoon, I want us to look at each of those elements individually. And I think that will give us a firmer grasp on the doctrine of assurance, and my prayer is that it will encourage and help those of you who may be struggling to lay hold of settled assurance and be forewarned. This may also upset the overconfidence of some folks who have seared their consciences or deadened their own hearts and minds with a kind of presumptuous false assurance. So here are the three elements of assurance we're going to talk about. The ground of assurance, the root of assurance, and the means of assurance. And we'll start with the ground of assurance, seen in the word Lord. This is the ground of assurance, Jesus himself. Here is perhaps the number one truth about the doctrine of assurance. This is what trips up and confuses, I think, more people than any other point. And it's this. Assurance of your salvation is not gained ever by looking inward at my own heart or outward at my own works, hoping I'm going to find myself good enough and righteous enough to rest easy. Because if that's what you're looking for, assurance within yourself, you'll never find it. But true assurance is grounded in Christ and what he has done for us, not in me and what I've done for him. The object of our faith is Christ, and therefore the only ground for the assurance of faith is Christ, which is not to suggest that what you do or don't do is irrelevant to the question of assurance. There are some people who teach that, you know, there are antinomians. who teach that faith in Christ is just bare assent to the truth about Him, so that if you intellectually accept certain key points of doctrine, you can rest in an easy assurance, even if your life is utterly devoid of the fruits of faith. That's a lie, according to Scripture. And that's why 1 John makes our behavior one of the main tests of whether our faith is genuine or not. If your life is completely devoid of any kind of love for Christ, If you lack any desire for righteousness, if you are destitute of any real interest in spiritual things, if you're barren of any of the fruit of the Spirit, then whatever assurance you think you enjoy is a lie. You're not a true Christian at all if Christ has never made a difference in your life. But that's not to suggest that you should ground your assurance in your own good works. Because I don't care who you are. If you examine your own good works to see how you measure up to the standard, which is perfect Christ likeness, you're going to fall far short. If you think your own works are where you can find the confidence to come boldly before the throne of grace, you're sadly mistaken. You and I will never in this life be good enough to find any assurance in our own works. But the only true ground of assurance is the perfect work of Christ, the absolute perfection of what he has done for us. And we stress this all the time, faith in Christ. Complete trust in his work on our behalf, that is the only instrument of justification. If you think you can do anything to gain a right standing before God, if you think some work or ritual or gift of alms is the means by which you can attain justification, then you haven't yet come to grips with the most basic truth of the gospel. And what you need is not assurance, you need salvation. But still, if your faith is real, It will make a difference in your life. Authentic saving faith is dynamic and robust and personal. Personal in the sense that it lays hold of Christ. It doesn't merely give intellectual assent to sound doctrine. We're not saved by theorizing that the doctrines of grace are true. We're saved by trusting wholeheartedly in the God of grace. And that's not to suggest that sound doctrine is optional. It's not. Faith always accepts the truth of God. But it also goes further than that. Its focus is the person and the work of Christ, to trust him, to rely on his provision, to surrender to his lordship. And this man was clearly being drawn to that kind of personal faith in Christ, trust in him. It's not it's not likely that this guy was any kind of expert in doctrine. We don't know anything about him, but it's clear that his faith is obviously a very rudimentary belief, but it's centered on the right object, Christ. Previous to this, the man had entrusted his case to the ministry of the nine disciples, and they had failed miserably. And yet there was something in this man, a glimmer of the grace of God that compelled him to look beyond the disciples failure and maintain some vestige of hope in Christ. According to most manuscripts, the man called Jesus Lord, which is a title of deep respect. He clearly listened to Jesus. Because he responded to the main point Jesus was trying to make. And think about this. Of all the people in that multitude, this man probably had more reason than anyone else to be distracted and inattentive. His son was convulsing on the ground at Jesus' feet while Jesus was rebuking the unbelief of Israel. In fact, listen to what Spurgeon says about this. Spurgeon says, It's very noticeable that the man does not say, Lord, I believe, help my child. Nor does he say, Lord, I believe, now cast the devil out. Not at all, Spurgeon says. He perceives that his own unbelief was harder to overcome than the demon. And that to heal him of his spiritual disease was a more needful work than even to heal his child of the sad malady under which he labored. That's a great point, isn't it? This here was a guy who was properly focused, and even though by his own admission, his faith was imperfect, he had enough faith and it was focused the right direction. He had laid hold of the proper object of faith, Christ himself. This is precisely what Jesus meant when he said you have to come with the faith of a little child, childlike faith. It doesn't have to be a lot of faith. Mustard seed faith, what's important is that it's focused on the right object. And this guy was. His faith was in Christ and that was the only solid foundation on which to build, to ground his assurance. I know people, in fact, my Middle Eastern friend whose letter I read you excerpts from at the beginning. People like that become so obsessed with the imperfections of their own faith and the shortcomings of their own obedience that they take their eyes off Christ, who is perfect in every way. No wonder they lack assurance. Christ himself is the only proper ground of our assurance. Look to him if you lack assurance. Now, there's a second element of assurance I see in verse 24, and this is the root of assurance, more or less captured by the words, I believe. That's the root of assurance. Faith, this man's faith, weak and elementary though it is, is impressive really on several levels. I've already pointed out how remarkable it is that this guy was actually paying attention to Jesus' point Even while his son was in the throes of such a violent, demonic fit, writhing on the ground, foaming at the mouth, grinding his teeth, literally dispossessed of both mind and body by this powerful demon that inhabited him. But the father was absolutely desperate by now. And that kind of desperation has a way of forcing us to confront what we otherwise might be unwilling to face. Verse 23, Jesus repeats this phrase from the man's own words as if to underscore the unbelief inherent even in his appeal to Christ. If you can, it's as if Jesus is saying, you doubt my power? Well, I'm not too sure about your faith. And then he says, all things are possible to him who believes. And the man got the point. I think he felt the rebuke and he was humbled by it, and that explains why his confession of faith includes a confession of unbelief. He had only a moment for self-examination before he replied, but it is clear from his reply that he was reflecting deeply on what Jesus was saying to him, Lord, I believe. This is a triumphant statement, absolutely defying a whole lifetime of heartache and disappointment. This man's son had suffered the most excruciating kind of demonic bondage almost constantly from his early childhood. This boy had no doubt been injured when the demon threw him in the fire and he faced the threat of death every time he came within reach of any body of water. If one of your children were afflicted like this, you would never want to let him out of your sight. And so this was a constant, unending source of grief and stress for this father. No one had ever been able to help his son. Even nine of Jesus' disciples could do nothing for him, and Jesus' words so far seemed more calculated to sting the man than to encourage him. If you were just standing around watching this, especially if you were the seminary professor type, critiquing the ministry, you might criticize the way Jesus handled this. And you certainly would understand if this man decided he had already exhausted his last resort. If he simply gave up hope and walked away, it wouldn't surprise us. But this man found a glimmer of promise even in the gentle scolding Jesus gave him. All things are possible to him who believes. And at that moment, this man who dared to hope against hope, laid hold of that promise and made this very simple profession of faith. Immediately, it says, the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Now, depending on what version you're reading, the text may or may not mention the tears. Most Greek manuscripts include the phrase with tears, but it's not in the earlier manuscripts. Nevertheless, the pathos is there, and it proves that this confession of faith came from the man's heart. He cried out. That's in every version. Meaning he exclaimed with a vocal cry, some kind of moan or shout or outburst of emotion. And that was his immediate response. And then follows this exclamation with the words, Lord, I believe. Now, remember, just moments before this massive crowd had been gathered around the scribes who, verse 14, were disputing with the disciples, arguing with them, carrying on this heated public debate. The scribes were clearly milking the passions of the crowd for their own advantage. The disciples had been unable to help the boy and so the crowd would have not been inclined to be on their side. And we know these scribes, very powerful religious leaders, were hostile to Jesus, hostile to his disciples, hostile to everyone who followed Jesus instead of them. They were winning this argument until Jesus showed up and attention got diverted by the sudden demonic attack against the boy. And so there was no rational human reason for this man to declare right out loud that he trusted Christ. And yet he makes this confession boldly right before the faces of those sneering scribes. You got to respect him for that. What a remarkable thing faith is. We're reminded by this that true faith is a gift of God. It's a miracle. It must be because it's always completely contrary to human nature. Romans 8, 7 and 8 says that in its fallen state, the human heart, the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Think through the implications of that passage and you'll realize that faith in the true God and humility under the weight of God's truth are the most unnatural things in the world for sinful human beings. And in this case, particularly, this man was hoping against hope. He was trusting Christ in the aftermath of a lifetime of disappointed hopes on a day that so far had proved to be the lowest, darkest point in that long valley of shadows his entire life had been. And that's not all. This man's faith also teaches us some lessons about the simplicity of faith. His belief at this point, as I said earlier, this could hardly be more than the most rudimentary trust in Jesus. I'll say again that authentic faith never takes a deliberately stubborn stand against the truth. But lots of people are ushered into the kingdom of God through a mustard seed kind of faith. When we first come to Christ, most of us don't have a very full grasp of the truth. We lack understanding. It's ignorance, not unbelief. And it's only a temporary ignorance, because when we are confronted with the truth, we recognize the shepherd's voice and we follow him. But here's the point. Advanced theological knowledge is not a prerequisite to faith. The power of saving faith does not lie in how much or how well you know doctrine. But the vitality of saving faith, it's not proved by showing off how many good works you've done. We are fully justified at the first glimmer of faith when we lay hold of Christ. Not sometime later when faith brings us to some point of perfect sanctification, but faith is a simple thing. So simple that Jesus compared it to childlike trust. And in fact, just a chapter after this, Mark 10, 15, look over there. It's just one chapter later. Jesus says, Surely I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. The vitality of saving faith does not lie in the quality of our works or the quality of our theology or any of those things. But the vitality of faith lies in its object, Jesus. and in the fact that faith itself is energized by the Holy Spirit. It's a gift God gives us. This man's embryonic faith embodies that quality of childlikeness that Jesus is talking about. You see this a lot in Scripture. Think of it. Very few of the most dramatic conversions in Scripture involved trained theologians like Saul of Tarsus. Scripture often shows us The simplest kind of faith, the thief on the cross, the publican who could only smite his breast and call out to God for mercy. The blind man who in the first stage of his healing said other men looked to him like trees walking. God uses. Simple faith, and he calls us and draws us to him as newborn babes squealing for milk, not grown up food. But he doesn't let us stay that way. And we're not supposed to stay that way. We're supposed to grow in faith, in knowledge, in understanding and in assurance. And that is the whole point of the third element of the doctrine of assurance, as you see it in this man's exclamation. Point number three, it's the means of assurance. Help my unbelief. Let me say that I believe there is an element of assurance that is inherent in saving faith. In fact, one of the classic debates of post-Reformation theology deals with this very question. Is assurance of the essence of faith? In other words, are faith and assurance basically the same thing? Does the very epitome of saving faith lie in the assurance that I am actually saved? And some will try to tell you that assurance is the defining quality of saving faith. They'll say, until you have a full, settled assurance that you're saved, you don't really have saving faith at all. I think that's a horribly wrong view. For one thing, it's contrary to the text we're studying this morning. This guy didn't have unshakable assurance. His faith was weak. It was a mere mustard seed, and he confessed that. And also, for reasons we really don't have time to explain in detail this afternoon, The view that equates faith and assurance tends to lead to antinomianism. There's a chapter in John MacArthur's book, The Gospel According to the Apostles, that deals with that question if you're interested in following up on it. But assurance and faith are not the same thing. However, I do believe there is a germ of assurance sometimes just the weakest, smallest glimmer of assurance in faith. And that's because the object of saving faith is Christ, and as we saw in point one, He is also the ground of true assurance. So the basis of your assurance is inherent in faith. Now, true faith can sometimes be temporarily shaken by doubt. And in fact, based on this text, I think it's fair to say that as long as we are in this world in an unglorified state, faith coexists with the remnants of unbelief in our hearts and minds. And that is to a very large degree, that is why we struggle with Our pursuit for sanctification, our quest for assurance, our striving to mortify the deeds of the flesh, because the remnants of unbelief remain in us. That is the paradoxical nature of faith. The moment we first place our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we immediately begin to discover our own unbelief and wretchedness. There's no such thing as a true believer who hasn't experienced that phenomenon. Unbelief fights against and sometimes threatens to swallow up our newborn faith. What I love about Mark 9.24 is that it perfectly expresses that tension in an amazing economy of words. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. This is an amazingly honest plea. But it's not, as I said, it's not the sort of artificial transparency you hear about today. You know, people who glorify their doubts as if doubt was a virtue. People who think there's some kind of glory in chronic skepticism. Have you noticed that? People today expend an extraordinary amount of energy trying to justify their doubts. Don't do that. Now, we're short on time, I'm actually over time, so let me close with this. Unbelief is actually a dreadful thing and a grievous transgression. It's not something to be pampered and cultivated, it's a sin. Listen again to Spurgeon, he says this, too much in the church of God regards unbelief as if it were a calamity, commanding sympathy rather than a fault, demanding censure as well. Doubts are among the worst enemies of your souls. Do not entertain them. Do not treat them as though they were poor, forlorn travelers to be hospitably entertained, but treat them as rogues and vagabonds to be chased from your door. Fight them, slay them and pray God to help thee kill them and bury them and and not even to leave a bone or a piece of a bone of doubt above the ground. Doubting and unbelief are to be abhorred and to be confessed with tears as sins before God. We need pardon for doubting as much as for blasphemy. We ought no more to excuse doubting than we would excuse lying because doubting slanders God and makes him a liar. This man in Mark 9 was notice he's grieved and dismayed at the discovery of his own unbelief, and that's fitting. In fact, the alarm you hear in his plea to Christ is his faith speaking against his unbelief. Some people think assurance of salvation is inherently presumptuous. In fact, that's the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome anathematizes anyone who claims to be fully justified and thus fully assured of salvation. You're not supposed to believe like that in the Roman Catholic Church, but Scripture teaches the opposite of the Roman Catholic Church on that point. First John 5.13, you can know, you can know that you have eternal life. Assurance is not only the privilege of every believer in Christ, it is our duty. And it is a thousand times more presumptuous to doubt God's word than it is to believe it. I do believe. May the Lord cure our unbelief. Let's pray. Lord, we see that assurance is a duty, and our hearts confess that it's one of the duties of faith. We long to have assurance. Lord, help our unbelief, cure it, and strengthen our faith, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.