Matthew 17, starting in verse number 14. We'll read down through verse number 21. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and sore vexed. For oft times he falleth into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him. And the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, If you 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. Howbeit this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting. Just a quick reminder of our setting. Our last study we also were in this particular passage. But just a reminder of our setting. The Lord Jesus has been up on the mountain. He was transfigured before Peter, James, and John. They observed him in his glory. While the Lord and those three disciples were up on the mountain, the other disciples were down on the plain meeting with this man and his son. The father had brought the son to his disciples to cast out the devil that afflicted and possessed him. That was not an unusual thing to do because not too many chapters prior, back in chapter 10, we read of how the Lord Jesus had commissioned his disciples to go out And He gave them power to heal the sick and to cast out devils. And in fact, they did that. On many occasions, they healed the sick and they cast out devils. So it wasn't unusual for this Father to bring His Son to them for relief. And we've looked at this passage, not so much from the standpoint of the miracle, but more from it standing as a picture to us. and how it pictures to us the condition of the world in which we live, and how the young boy and the bystanding crowd picture for us the world under the influence, dominion, control of the evil one. And the disciples, we view them as a picture of the church, and how there was certainly a past history They're bringing relief to those who are afflicted. And there was great times when they met with the Lord and told Him with great excitement how God had worked through them to bring the miraculous healing to many people. But on this occasion, they failed. And how it's a picture to us of the church, how despite the fact that we can look back on history and many good times in the church, Presently, the church is failing. And we are an ineffective influence in the world. And the world disdains us and hates us, not just because we are Christians and we follow Christ, and that certainly is true, but they also have no disregard for us whatsoever. We don't have any impact or influence as salt and light in the world as we are supposed to have according to the Lord's teachings. And we find that there is certain evidence that indicates to us and confirms the fact that the church is ineffective in its influence in the world. There is a decline of the church. The church is definitely in a time of decline. And we are different from the historical church. We don't experience the manifest presence of God that he has brought on previous occasions in the life of the church. We don't experience that in our day. There's the denial of cardinal doctrinal truth and the rejection of those basic fundamental truths of scripture. And then there's disobedience of God's commands. We view them as suggestions or good ideas or moral principles rather than commands. We are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength and being. And to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we are commanded to follow and to obey the Lord and to take up our cross daily and follow Him. We're commanded to do those things. And yet the professing church today makes very little demands or brings very seldom into the mind of the followers of Christ the necessity of obedience. So there's plenty of evidence that indicates to us that the church is ineffective is in a state of decline in our day. In today's study, I would like us to look at the second part of this study, and that is the cause of their failure. Why did they fail? They failed. And we're told and taught here why they failed. And I want us to examine that tonight from this passage as to why they failed. What was the cause of their failure? What was the condition of their unbelief? And what is the consequences of unbelief? And how that applies in the church and in our lives in the present day. The first thing I want us to notice about the failure, it's stated very clearly here, when the Lord spoke to the father of the son, And he describes how he had brought his son to the disciples and the disciples failed in casting out the devil. The Lord Jesus in verse number 7 is all faithless and perverse generation. In our day it's very popular to use the phrase, what would Jesus do? And sadly we don't have a very good clue as to what Jesus would do because we speak very softly and kindly and most occasions when we could certainly be much stronger as Jesus was, we kind of back off from that. Jesus didn't. Notice he just went right straight to the heart and told them what they were all faithless and perverse generation. That was not a kind statement that he made. Because the word perverse means twisted and rebellious. And he spoke right to him, you are a perverse, twisted, rebellious people. And you're faithless. How much longer have I got to put up with you? So we notice stated right off the bat that the Lord Jesus describes the condition of the people that were there and as to why they could not bring about a healing of this boy that was afflicted of the devil. Well, we notice that the disciples then come to Jesus aside, apart, and say, Lord, why couldn't we bring about the healing of this boy? Why couldn't we cast out the devil? And He said to them, because of your unbelief. Because you didn't believe. You didn't trust. You didn't have the faith to do it. And the Lord Jesus, again, was very straightforward with them. You know, unbelief. Unbelief is at the very heart of spiritual failure. If you follow and trace it back far enough and keep pursuing why it is, why do I have this problem? What is the reason why? And we trace it back and we keep pursuing back and back and back at the root, we'll find unbelief. Somewhere we are failing to believe and trust God. And we see from the Lord Jesus in His presentation here, in His explanation to the disciples and to the people there about the young boy, the necessity of faith. And we see the fruit of faith, what faith can accomplish when we do trust God. And notice it doesn't take very much faith. A grain of a mustard seed. Very small. Small faith. And Jesus pointed out to them, you didn't even have that much faith. Your faith was so weak and so small, you could not cast out this devil. So we find that the cause of their failure, the reason why they could not cast out the devil, was because of their unbelief. And it's interesting that this came upon and not too long after their great successes. And when they had cast out devils, when they had healed the sick, and here's an occasion not long after, when they did not have the faith to believe and trust God for the healing of this boy. That's the cause. That's why they failed, was unbelief. I want us to notice now, secondly, the pervasiveness of the unbelief and the kind of unbelief that each of the participants had in this setting. First of all, we look at the scribes and the Pharisees and the crowd that was around watching this event. Their unbelief was willful and persistent unbelief. If you trail through the Gospels and you observe how the scribes and the Pharisees from the very beginning going back to John the Baptist and his coming and preparing the way for the Lord Jesus time after time after time after time after time they displayed absolute willful persistent unbelief. They rejected the message of John They rejected Christ from the very beginning, even though He performed in their presence the supernatural things that only God can do. They did not believe. They rejected Him. Willful, persistent unbelief. Then notice the Father. The Father was also faithless. Oh, but we don't read it here, but in another one of the accounts of this same miracle. When the Lord Jesus said to them, you faithless and perverse generation, he cried out, Oh God, yes, forgive my unbelief. Help me. Help me. Help me to believe. So his unbelief was an unwilling belief. It was unbelief, but he didn't want to remain that way. Help my unbelief, he said. And then there's the child. His was ignorant on belief. Thoughtless child. We don't know his age. I tried to do some study as to the word that's here used for child. Sometimes the words can give you a little bit of a clue as to the age of the child being mentioned, but there was not a clue here that I could discern. But nonetheless, he was a child. and ignorant of many things because of his youth and his lack of experience. So his unbelief was an ignorant unbelief, but notice it's still unbelief. There's a lot of occasions in our own lives, even as mature adults, when our unbelief is an ignorant unbelief, but it's still unbelief. It may be out of ignorance, and it may be out of a failure to understand and to comprehend all of the truth, but it's still unbelief. And we still suffer the consequences of unbelief. Well, the son, the child, his unbelief was an ignorant unbelief. Then we come to the disciples and we find this is perhaps one of the most unfortunate kinds of unbelief, and that is unconscious unbelief. They didn't know they were in a condition of unbelief. They thought they were following God. They thought they were obeying Him. They thought that they were going to perform as they did in the past. Oh yes, we've done this before. Bring the boy to us. We will cast out the devil. And then nothing happened. And they were not aware that the root cause of why they had failed was because of an unconscious unbelief. Sadly, if you go back over the recent record, of the disciples, we find, in fact, kind of a trail of unbelief. This was not the first occasion of their unbelief from their successes on the mission that God had sent them to. For example, in Matthew chapter 14 and 15, we find four different occasions when they failed to believe God. For example, at the feeding of the 5,000, when the Lord Jesus said, well, what are we going to do? We need to feed them. And the disciples said, oh, I don't know what on earth we're going to do. Two hundred penny worth won't feed them all. We can't send them out. What are we going to do? All we have here is a boy's lunch of five loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? Failed to believe in the power of God to meet the need. And then the storm at sea, there was another storm at sea. They were there and they failed to believe and trust God. He came to them walking on the sea and He said, O ye of little faith, why don't you believe me? I calmed the storm once before, why don't you believe me? I told you to go to the other side, don't you believe you're going to get there? O ye of little faith. And then there was the Syrophoenician woman. The Lord Jesus went up into Tyre and to Sidon to preach and to declare the gospel of the kingdom there. And there was a woman, not a Jewess, a Gentile woman came out and begged Jesus to heal her child. And the disciples said, get away, get away. We don't want you here. You're a bother. You're a pest. Get away. Can you imagine that? After all of the times that they had healed the sick and cast out devils, they were shooing away this woman and her child. You're bothering the Lord. Leave them alone. Then we come to the second feeding of the masses, the feeding of the 4,000. The first 5,000 you might say, well, they didn't quite know that God could do that, but now they have the experience of the Lord feeding 5,000 people. Now there's a crowd of 4,000 people, and the Lord says, well, what are we going to do here? He says, boy, I don't know what we're going to do. So here was kind of a pattern of unbelief developing in the disciples, and it culminated here with this boy. Because of their unbelief, they could not cast out the devil. Well, what are the causes of unbelief? What brings unbelief to our lives and our experience? Well, some of them are kind of pictured here. I'll just mention a few things here as to what brings about or what leads to unbelief. First of all, it's the inherent condition of man. Man is a sinful creature. And because he is a sinful creature, he does not believe God. He doesn't believe Him. I know we hear much in our day, we hear professions of people talking about how they believe in God, and how they believe in Jesus, and the wonderful good man of Jesus. Well, I would remind you that the scriptures tell us that the devils also believe. The devils believe. So it isn't just this kind of quasi understanding of having some kind of a nebulous faith in God that thinks God is good. No, the inherent condition of man is one of unbelief. Another cause of unbelief is fear. Fear causes unbelief. Fear of what God is going to do. Oh, can I trust God? If I come to Him with this, what's He going to do? How's He going to work? And there's fear. There's fear of those around us and what they might think if I really pursue and follow after God. And we have fear of man and fear of the world around us. So fear is a cause of unbelief. Another one is self-confidence. Now, I can't say with authority that the disciples suffered from self-confidence, but it's certainly possible, because they did have great successes, they did cast out devils, they did heal the sick, on many occasions on their mission, they were certainly with the Lord Jesus on many occasions when He performed miraculous, and they had observed others casting out devils in the name of Jesus. So why not us? Self-confidence can on many occasions cause and precipitate unbelief. We take confidence in our abilities. We take confidence in our history and our experience. We take confidence in our intellect and in our reason rather than trusting God. It's a condition of pride. Another cause of unbelief is ignorance. That was the occasion of the young boy. He was ignorant. We can, in a sense, excuse him because he was young and youthful, although he still was in unbelief. Sometimes ignorance can bring about unbelief. Unbelief is at the root of sin and of spiritual failure. And it was true of the disciples on this occasion, and it's true in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ today. The church of Jesus Christ today fails because of unbelief. We don't believe the truth. We reject it. We refuse to bow the knee to it. We explain it away. We accept cultural explanations in place of the scriptures. And we doubt God. Let me suggest to you just a few ways in which the unbelief has crept into the professing church of our day. As with the disciples, we are in a condition of decline in which the church is declining in its power, in its influence, and in its effect upon the world because of unbelief. But what are some of those things? Well, we condemn doctrinal preaching. We want to hear how-to-it messages. We want to hear things that make us feel good. We want to hear messages that kind of prop up my self-image and make me be a wonderful person. There is greater concentration upon me than there is upon the glory of God and of Christ. We condemn that kind of preaching. We don't want it. We go places where they will give us the kind of preaching we want. And that's why many people are flocking to some of the churches that we see them attending in our day. It's because there they will hear those kind of messages. We don't want to hear doctrinal truth. And that's what we need to hear. That's the truth we need to have because we are ignorant. We don't know the truth. We don't understand it. And it's the truth that sets us free. Another area of unbelief is the acceptance of claims of salvation, just because somebody says they are. Because after all, in the great explanation of our days, you know, I made a decision. There was a time in my life when I made a decision for Christ. And after all, you know, you can't really push me to do much because, you know, once saved, always safe. You know, the devil is very clever at using half-truths. That's what he did in the garden, and that's what he's done throughout his history, is use half-truths. Take part of the truth and blow it up as being the whole truth. Well, it is true that once you are saved in Christ, you are safe in Christ. That is true. But you have to be in Christ. You have to be one with Him to be safe in Christ. And sadly in our day, most who claim to be Christians have no life, nor experience, nor fruit to substantiate and confirm the fact of their faith. James rightly instructs us when he says, faith without works is dead. It's true. If you truly believe and trust in Christ, there will be works. There will be fruit. There will be evidence of the fact that you belong to Christ and that He has chosen you and that He lives within you by His Holy Spirit. There will be evidence. We should look for that evidence. We should expect that evidence. And when we don't see it, we should question. Granted, we can't see the heart. That's true. But the Lord Jesus taught us and He said when you look at those who are your leaders and you look at other people who profess to be followers in Christ, look for the fruit. Because you don't see figs on thorn bushes. Nor do you see thorns on fig trees. You see fruit. And so you look for the fruit and yet in our day we don't demand fruit. We just gladly and quickly accept anyone and everyone who comes down the road who says they're a believer and we accept them as such. Furthermore, we sacrifice doctrinal fidelity for cultural acceptance. We would rather be accepted by the culture in which we live than adhere and believe the truth. It is more important to us to satisfy the culture and the peoples around whom we live and work than it is to satisfy a holy God. That's unbelief. That's a failure to trust God. Furthermore, the professing church today stresses pragmatism. If it works, it must be right. That's the catchphrase in our day. If it works, it must be right. After all, it worked. Well, those are just a few of the indications and evidence of unbelief in the professing church today. Now, there are consequences to unbelief. As in the occasion here of the disciples and the young boy, they could not cast out the devil. They could not help him. They could not bring about a healing to that young boy. And in like fashion, we find in the world in which we live, Because of unbelief, the Church of Jesus Christ today is not able to effectively influence the world and unbelievers around us. Why? Because unbelief blinds our eyes to the truth. Unbelief blinds our eyes to the truth. Now notice here that the disciples in particular did not know, were not aware of their unbelief. Their unbelief had blinded their eyes to the truth of their own condition. Their own spiritual condition was one of unbelief and they didn't even know it. They didn't even see it. Because their unbelief had blinded their eyes. We also find that they did not enjoy victory over their circumstances because of their unbelief. And we do not see the presence of God and His manifestation of His power because of unbelief. There was no manifestation through the disciples of God's presence and of His power and the occasion that they faced. And it's true in the church today. Oh, we have a lot of hoopla. We have a lot of dancing. We have a lot of jumping up and down, clapping hands, raising hands in the air, shouting hallelujahs. Sadly, the presence of God isn't there. Oh, we make a lot of noise. We make a lot of excitement. Oh, but the manifest presence of God is absent and missing because of our unbelief. Furthermore, our unbelief prohibits God from acting. We read in the scriptures that the Lord Jesus left and departed from Nazareth, His own hometown, and He left and departed to other cities. Why? Why didn't He stay in His own hometown? The Scriptures tell us He could not do many mighty deeds there because of their unbelief. We lose out as children of God when we fail to believe and trust Him. Our unbelief prohibits God from working. And we also find here that their unbelief displaced God. The Lord Jesus was not pleased He was not happy and satisfied with His disciples and those there to whom He spoke. He spoke very harshly to them and He spoke very honestly to them. He had a very hard message that He gave them. He was not pleased. Nor is the Father pleased with us when we fail to believe Him and to trust Him. There are consequences to our unbelief. Well, just a few implications of these truths. Those are a few of the consequences. Let me just bring to a close here these thoughts on unbelief in this fashion. Unbelief is not an intellectual virtue. There are many today who take great pride in their unbelief. Oh, I'm a question. You've got to prove it to me. I don't just believe things right off just because somebody says it. Just because you read it to me out of the Bible, that doesn't mean I believe it. It's got to be proven to me. Unbelief is not an intellectual virtue. It's a confirmation of our dependence upon our intelligence and our sophistication rather than upon the truth of God. Unbelief is not an intellectual virtue. Unbelief is perversity and ignorance. You say that's harsh. Yes, but that's what unbelief is. Unbelief is perverse. It is a refusal to accept by faith what God says. Unbelief is evil. Unbelief is sin against God. Unbelief is a refusal to bow the knee to God and to accept what God says just because God said it. You know, God doesn't have to explain Himself to us. And so often we demand that, don't we? I know I do. God explained this to me. Well, God doesn't have to explain anything to me. He calls upon me to believe Him because He's God and because He said it. And because He said it and it's in His Word, I should just believe it. unbelief causes us to depend upon our own human abilities, intelligence, and understanding, rather than upon God. And as a consequence, our unbelief further not only causes us to be ineffective and to fail in a spiritual sense, but because our eyes are blinded by our unbelief, We make an inaccurate diagnosis of ourselves and of our circumstances, and that's what the disciples did. They didn't properly diagnose, and we'll see this in a future study. They failed to see what was really the problem here with this boy. Their eyes were blind, they didn't see it. Furthermore, because of their unbelief and their blindness, they came up with the wrong solutions. What they attempted didn't work. It was the wrong solution. Just because it worked back there doesn't mean it works here. Their unbelief blinded their eyes to what was the proper solution to this boy's ailment. Furthermore, their unbelief caused them to suffer from insufficient power. They didn't have the ability to cast out the demon from the boy. Those are just some of the implications and consequences of unbelief. And the thing about unbelief is we cannot pick and choose the area where we will suffer the consequences of our unbelief. We have this tendency to think that our sin that we may commit here stays right there where we committed the sin. Not understanding and realizing that that sin is like leavened It pervades all of the batch. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. It doesn't just stay in that one little corner where you put it. It pervades and goes through the whole batch of the mixture that you're baking. That's the way sin is. Unbelief doesn't just stay in the corner where we doubt and question. Oh no, it pervades our whole being. The disciples could not cast out the devil because of their unbelief. They failed. And much the same today is true of the professing Church of Jesus Christ and perhaps even true of us in our own individual lives. We fail spiritually because of our unbelief. We just don't believe God. We just don't trust Him. Well, just quickly, and we'll close, how can the Spirit of God use these truths in our lives? He can open our eyes to see them. He can open our eyes to see the truth regarding unbelief and the necessity of faith and trusting God. And in so doing, He can point out to us our unbelief, where we have failed to trust God. Where has He identified in your heart tonight, your failure to believe Him, to trust Him? to step out blindly, yes, step out blindly and believe and trust, casting your confidence upon God who said it, not upon your own reason and intelligence, which fails. He only points out our sin that He might bring us to repentance. And in bringing us to repentance, that He might revive us and reform our lives to conform us to the truth, that we might believe Him, trust Him fully, completely. I pray the Spirit of God will do that work in your heart and in your life. Bring you to trust faith and believe in God completely. He is God. He is worthy of our trust. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, for this illustration that you have provided for us. of the failure of our Lord's disciples to heal and cast out the devil from this afflicted boy. And how their failure can point out to us our failure. And where we have doubted you and failed to believe and to trust you just like they did. Perhaps even unconsciously. Perhaps even like the young boy, ignorantly. but yet still not believing you, still not trusting you. Father, I pray that by your Holy Spirit you will open our eyes to see those areas where we have failed to believe. And may you, Holy Spirit, bring about your complete work in our lives and bring us to repentance, to confession, and to turn from those areas in faith and trust upon a holy God who deserves our complete unfettered faith and trust. And we will give you honor, glory, and praise. Triune God. Amen.