Latest / HBCWestminster / 9.13.20 Luke 9:37-43 Pastor Danny Gardner

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9.13.20 Luke 9:37-43 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. Last week, we did our realignment Sunday. And so now this Sunday, we're back to our study of the gospel of Luke. Our text this morning will be verses 37 to 43. Our title this morning is When Faith Fails. When Faith Fails. And if you're open there to Luke chapter 9 and verse 37, and if you're able to stand in honor of God's word, I would ask you to do that now. I'm going to read our text and then pray and begin.
• 0:28
  Beginning in verse 37.
• 0:55
  How long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. Would you pray with me? And Father God, you have shown us what is good and what you require of us. To love justice and mercy and to walk humbly.
• 1:28
  And Lord, we pray that you would bolster our faiths when they fail. We pray that you would strengthen our minds to see the truth of your word. And we pray that you would soften our hearts this morning to receive it. And it's in Jesus' name and for his glory that we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, does it ever feel like that in your Christian walk, you take one step forward only to take two steps back?
• 1:57
  You ever catch yourself battling against your old sin, your old way of life, your old thoughts, the old man, maybe even sin that you thought that you had conquered? You ever glory God, glorify God in one moment only to doubt his power in the next? You ever just feel like a spiritual failure? If so, then take heart because you are not alone. If you were to read Hebrews chapter 11, the great hall of faith, these...
• 2:25
  are men and women that were the most faithful men and women in the Bible, you would find Noah listed among them. Noah, an incestuous drunk. You'd find Abraham, immoral, and Moses, a murderer. If you were to read through the Old Testament, you'd find men like Jonah. Jonah, a prophet of God, a flat-out rebel prophet who actually wanted the hearers of his message to die. You'd find King Saul, a jealous idolater.
• 2:54
  You'd find King David, a man after God's own heart, but who was also immoral and maybe even a second-degree murderer. You find King Solomon, man, immoral. King fill-in-the-blank in the Old Testament. Read through 1 and 2 Kings. Then you find one king after the next, after the next, after the next, just wicked and unrighteous. You find prophets and apostles failing. Even today in the church, pastors, congregants, the saints of God.
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  his people called by his own name, and yet we fail. We have a tendency to learn and obey and then to unlearn and disobey all within a matter of moments. Alistair Begg has said of our passage this morning that the disciples are putting on display again a remarkable consistency in getting things wrong. He said it seems like they can't even get out of their own way. Church, we find as we read through the scriptures that failure is
• 3:54
  a huge part of the human experience. And I've told you before that I coach high school baseball. One of the reasons that I love to coach baseball is because of the character that baseball develops in the lives of my athletes. You will often hear people say that baseball is a game of failure, but it's not only baseball, church. All athletics is games of failure.
• 4:22
  The Colorado Rockies' own Larry Walker was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is certainly deserving of it. I can remember interviews as he was
• 4:33
  getting ready to receive that honor and going into the Hall of Fame. I can remember interviews of some of his teammates and contemporaries who played with him many years ago now. But I remember them saying every time, you know, these are other athletes either on his own team or on opposing teams coming and saying, everybody knew who the best athlete was on the field. Best at everything. Best at hitting, best at running, best at fielding, best at throwing, everything. They always said Larry Walker was the best athlete on the field.
• 5:00
  Every time he took the field, he played for several different teams, but we here in Denver only care about the Rockies. He hit almost 400 home runs, and that is incredible. He had a career batting average of over 300. He accrued more than 1,300 RBIs, runs batted in. He was one of the greatest players of all time, and yet Larry Walker, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, failed at home plate 70% of the time. 7 out of 10.
• 5:29
  played appearances were a failure. Baseball prepares us for life, which is one of the reasons I love the game so much. I love my players despite their failures, and this morning the Savior shows his willingness to, in his own words, bear with us through our failures, and he even shows patience and compassion toward a father who had no other hope.
• 5:58
  There is good news in this morning's passage, church. As you read scripture, you begin to realize that Christ is in the business of offering his people a never-ending supply of new beginnings. Let me say that again because if this is the only truth that you catch from God's word this morning, this is a good truth to catch. As you read through the scriptures, you begin to realize that Christ is in the business of offering to his people a never-ending supply of new beginnings.
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  beginnings. If you feel like a spiritual failure, take heart church, you are not the only ones. And Christ is in the business of overcoming our failures. That's what he does. What we see in our passage this morning is not only that our faiths often fail, but we also see what happens when they do. We see the patience of Christ in bearing with us and we see his compassion overcome.
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  failures and so let's look at just a quick note of context in verse 37 when it says on the next day when they had come down from the mountain now two Sundays ago
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  We studied what we called a glimpse of glory. That is the famous transfiguration passage, what is the text preceding the one we're looking at today, beginning in verse 28 of chapter 9. When Jesus took his favorite few apostles, Peter, James, and John, up onto the top of the mountain, Jesus had a conversation with Moses and Elijah, discussing his crucifixion and resurrection, what the text calls his oncoming or soon departure.
• 7:35
  In that moment, during that conversation among those three, Jesus was completely transformed. And the apostles, and by extension we, caught a glimpse of who Christ truly is. Glorified, exalted, even the very source of light. Not just in bright clothing, but remember from two weeks ago, the Bible actually describes bolts of lightning coming out of him. That Jesus actually became the source of light. Light emanating.
• 8:01
  from him, glistering, one translator recommended, the very next day. So that was one day. The next day, Jesus got back to doing what he came to do, and that is healing and teaching in our sin-cursed and fallen world. You'll recall from two Sundays ago, the father's voice speaking in the midst of the terror-invoking cloud. This is my beloved son, he said. Listen to him.
• 8:30
  And now upon departing that cloud, that beloved son, Jesus himself, is confronted by a crowd of people. And in the midst of that crowd, another father also had a beloved son. Now let me take a brief aside here and just mention something from two weeks ago.
• 8:51
  That passage, you'll recall, we kind of poked fun at Peter for recommending that they build tents and that they just stay up on the mountain. And I explained about the Feast of Tabernacles booths and what the people of Israel were celebrating Jerusalem that same week and all of that. It wasn't probably as absurd as people often make Peter to sound. But the apostles had received a very literal mountaintop experience, but also a figurative mountaintop.
• 9:18
  experience. They came down from the mountain and had to dip back into the reality of a hopeless world. And I must confess here, the appeal that the mountain has, we see in verse 37, on the next day when they had come down from the mountain.
• 9:37
  And church, I'm not going to go there today, but I have heard many, many pastors in my life explain that phrase and use this as kind of that figurative mountaintop experience. They'd gone up on the mountain, they had seen Christ, they had experienced Christ in a new way, and now they had to come back to reality. And so let me just touch on that idea. I will confess that leaving this world and being with Christ up on the mountain has a certain appeal, certainly. I must confess.
• 10:06
  I thought I have more than once actually during this pandemic and during the rioting and civil unrest that has ensued, looked at property in the middle of nowhere. I've done that, you know, just kind of dreaming, fantasizing about what a life would be like where we could just disappear from the reality of this world. And I must confess that Peter's offer to build tents and stay up on top of the mountain makes more sense today than it probably did.
• 10:34
  In 2019, but beloved church, we are not called to stay on top of the mountain. We are not called to disengage from this world, despite how appealing that may sound. So much easier to remove ourselves and to disappear seemingly, but we are actually called to come back down from the mountain as well. To engage with the world that crowded and sick and ugly and what we find this morning, even demon possessed, demon riddled.
• 11:04
  world. And so with that as our context, we'll look for the next couple of weeks at the failures of Christ's apostles, beginning with this first failure this morning, a failure of faith. And so let's pick up in verse 38. Behold, a man from the crowd cried out. And so you can imagine again, Jesus
• 11:27
  descending from the Mount of Transfiguration back into this ocean of humanity. And among that thronging, suffocating crowd, a man's voice can be heard over all others. And he cries out, teacher, I beg you to look at my son for he is my only child. The same wording there, not only as it just translated my only child, but it's the same wording as just a few verses above.
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  When the Lord, the Father from heaven, had said, this is my beloved son, it's the same wording that the man looks at Jesus and cries out, begging him to look at his beloved son, his only begotten son. Now, I don't think that the main thrust of the text this morning is a lesson on parenting, but allow me to take a moment to draw out a principle here that I don't think we should miss. Here is an example of God honoring parenting.
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  Church, put yourself in this man's position. There is nothing on earth that makes us feel like a greater failure than raising our kids. And when our kids fail, it feels as though it's a parenting slap in the face. It really does. We who are parents know that there is no greater heartache on earth, no greater heartache and more grievous heartache than the spiritual failure and torment of our children.
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  We also see the priority that such parents should place upon bringing those children into the presence of the Lord. You can imagine what a failure this father felt like having lived with an actual demon-possessed son.
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  You even see more about this son's behavior in verse 39. Behold, a spirit seizes him, the father says, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. Now, Matthew and Mark's parallel accounts of this same passage, this same event.
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  say that the father actually said that every time there's an open fire, when people have a fire there either to keep warm or to cook, the demon actually throws the boy onto the fire seeking to burn him and destroy him. When there is water, open water, either a lake or a river, even a well, the demon will throw the boy into the water seeking to drown him. So you can imagine the vigilance that this man has had to display in parenting and protecting
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  His beloved son, his only begotten son. And he says in verse 40, I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. As a pastor, many of my days are filled with advice giving. Advice about everything. Church, you can only imagine some things that you'd expect. Bible questions, advice about marriage, how to witness to neighbors and coworkers. There are also some things that you wouldn't expect.
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  People come to me asking about housing markets. They come asking about retirement. What are my thoughts on retirement? They come asking about athletics. I get questions about baseball all the time.
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  I even get questions about interior design, interior decorating, things I know nothing about. I've been educated and trained in a few things. I've been educated and trained in a lot. I've not been educated and trained in a lot more things, and yet I get questions about all kinds of things. There are two types of advice, however, that I'm reticent to give apart from being asked directly. Two types of advice that I find that unless I am invited in to speak specifically, my words are often unwelcome.
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  Those two things are advice about money and advice about parenting. There is something about those subjects that makes people nervous and guarded and many times even defensive. And so I hesitate to give parenting advice unless I'm asked specifically because it hits so close to home. But let me give here some encouragement to those who are parents from our text. From our text.
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  First, you who are parents, be encouraged because nobody's kids are perfect. Nobody's are. Every one of us, when we were blessed by God with the stewardship of children, when those children were gifted to us by God, we were blessed.
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  with unregenerate reprobates, every one of us. Psalm 58 verse 3 actually says that we come from our mother's womb speaking lies. And you may think, well, Danny, that's a little harsh. My little angel doesn't lie. All my baby does is kind of coos and smiles and giggles. But let me ask you, have you ever fed those babies, changed their diaper, held them, rocked them, laid them down?
• 16:21
  Only to have them cry anyway? You've done everything that they need. You know what that baby needs? You've done everything the baby could possibly need, and yet they cried anyway. Those of you who know me know that I have three sons, right? If you don't know me, I have three sons. Now, as I'm preaching this morning, they are years 18, 18 years old, 15 years old, and 10 years old. But all three of those began as just tiny little cute boys.
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  My first two, Pearson and Zach, were big when they were born. They were big. They were both almost nine pounds, tip the scale, about nine pounds each. And that meant that Hallie and I could be a little more strict in terms of our parenting of our infant sons. When they cried, we could let them cry knowing that nothing would happen to them, knowing that they were fine. They just needed to learn that when they cried, they were not going to get instantly picked up.
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  And this is a good parenting tip. If you guys are now parenting infants, if you know that there's nothing wrong with your child and the child is crying anyway, leave them alone. Teach them a lesson that every time they cry, every time they make a scream, they're not going to get picked up by mommy or daddy. And so our first two nine pounds, they were ginormous boys. Stick them in the crib. Even if they cried, I know you're fine. Your diaper is clean. You've been well fed. You're fine. Nothing's wrong with you. You're just crying for no reason.
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  Our third son, Chase, was really small when he was born. He was about three and a half years old. And the doctors told us, when we were being discharged from the hospital, the doctors actually told us not to allow Chase to cry. They said he is so small and is burning so many calories when he cries that he could actually starve himself to death by crying. They actually said you could feed him.
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  And the amount of calories he takes in cannot supersede the amount of calories that he's burning by crying. So you could feed him and he could still starve to death by crying. And so whenever he cries, you need to pick him up. And church, I'm not kidding, for four years, for four years, this was what we did. Now, truth be told, primarily what Hallie did, right? We all know the truth about Hallie for four years. Church, she didn't sleep for four years.
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  She held that boy in the middle of the night and I can remember her talking to him, rocking him, patting his little rear end, comforting him, right? Just trying to get him to stop crying. I can remember taking Chase and holding him, comforting him until he would stop crying, right? And then all parents know about this. You go over to the crib.
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  You lay that little baby down and that one move where you're like, now what, right? The baby's laying down. I've got him in the spot. He's not crying, but now my arms are stuck and trying to work your arms out of that so you don't wake him up, right? And then moving back and hoping that he doesn't cry. But then you begin to hear that upset noise again. You know, church, there's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong. And yet they cry anyway. Do you know why?
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  Because humans are liars. We're liars. We complain even when there's nothing wrong. Even babies do it. I can remember holding him for four years, right? There's nothing wrong, Chase. There's nothing wrong. Just go to sleep. There's nothing wrong. Listen, church, nobody was blessed with perfect kids. Nobody was. And despite whatever perception you may have about somebody else's kids, oh, their kids are so good. Listen, nobody was even blessed with good kids. Nobody has good kids.
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  Anything that's good in our kids, anything that's good in your kids is because of your faithful instruction in the grace of God. Which means that if you have kids that are struggling spiritually, don't think that you're the only one.
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  Sometimes it feels as though we are parenting alone, but church, we are not. And last week, we talked about the one another's of scripture, right? Love one another, be devoted to one another, honor one another, serve one another, speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. But there is another one. Church, be blessed by the one anotherness of parenting sinners, because every single one of us who is a parent is doing that. We're all in that same boat. Be blessed by the one anotherness.
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  of parenting centers, avail yourselves of our children's ministry, of our men's and women's Bible studies, moms especially, avail yourself of insight, insight, our mom's ministry, because nobody has perfect kids. That's first. Second, no matter how imperfect your kids may be, they are never beyond the Lord's ability to forgive and to restore. I'll say that again. No matter how imperfect your kids may be, they are never beyond the Lord's ability to forgive.
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  and to restore. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 25 says, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. To the uttermost. Having been in pastoral ministry for 20 years, I can tell you that I have seen some pretty wild and rebellious kids. None even compares with the boy we see in our patches this morning.
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  None. I have never met a kid who is that out of control. And we joke sometimes about kids being demon possessed, but church, this kid actually was. What does his father do? He presents him to the Lord and then just begs the Lord for help. You see in verse 38, again, teacher, I beg you to look at my son and no parent should be so proud that we are unwilling to beg.
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  And for what does the father beg? We say, look at my son. Just look at my son. And the Greek idea here actually includes that Christ would look with pity or compassion on the boy. Don't just look at him and move on, but he would look at my son with pity. And it is easy for us to cast off those in our daily interactions that we believe deserve what they get.
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  those who are beyond reach or beyond help in our opinion, but Christ does not do this when he looks at us, all of us. He sees us for who we truly are. He never sees us as beyond his ability to help. J.C. Ryle has said this, what should a father and mother do in cases like these? They should go to Jesus in prayer and cry to him about their child. They should spread before that merciful Savior the tale of their sorrows and entreat him to help them.
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  Great is the power of prayer and intercession. The child of many prayers shall seldom be cast away in church. I genuinely believe that so long as a child has praying parents, there is no reason to despair over that child's soul.
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  So long as you, as his or her parents, are willing to pray and to lift them before the Lord and to beg for his help, there is no reason to despair over that child's soul. And our hearts may break, and indeed they do, to be a parent is to have a broken heart, no doubt. And our desires for their life choices may never be met. As long as the sweet aroma of a parent's prayer reaches the throne of grace, church, there is
• 23:54
  And if you'll allow me to skip forward just a few verses in our text, look at verse 42. Verse 41, Jesus answered, O faithless, twisted generation, we'll come to that. How long am I to bear with you and to be with you? Bring your son here. Now look at verse 42. While he was coming.
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  The demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. Not only did he strip the demon of power, but then he healed the boy and restored the boy to his power. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. And what a gracious God we serve, who came not only to the powerful, but to the weak, unwilling to allow this boy to suffer.
• 24:42
  Because of his disciples' lack of faith, right? It was because of the disciples' lack of faith that they could not cast out this demon. And Jesus, unwilling to allow their lack of faith to continue to allow this boy to suffer, he calls the boy to himself, heals him, and presents him back to his father. And church, if Jesus could save the demon-possessed boy, then he can save anyone. We've said for many months now that the gospel of Luke is a reminder that Christ came for those
• 25:11
  whom until then the world had no savior. Jesus came not to those who ranked highly, but to the lowly, even to a demon-possessed and culturally cast-out boy. Third, we also see the responsibility here that parents have over the souls of their children. And church, don't miss this. For you guys who have spiritually struggling children at home, don't miss this.
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  What is the responsibility of a parent over their child's soul? And that is simply this. Make sure you hear it simply. To bring them before the Lord and then to allow the Lord to do his work. Church, we are utterly powerless when it comes to the control of our children's souls. And often I meet parents whose lives and whose marriages honestly have grown weary.
• 26:07
  by the carrying of spiritual responsibility which was never theirs to bear. A parent cannot control the soul of their child. And therefore, a parent must not take responsibility for the deviance of a child who willfully neglects the way they should go.
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  Okay, make sure you hear this church. And I know I've said that a lot. Make sure you hear this. Make sure you hear this. But church, sometimes it is difficult. And I find this in my own life. Sometimes it is difficult to comfort grieving parents. If you feel like a parenting failure, it's hard for the truth to penetrate our ears and our hearts. And so make sure you hear this. We cannot, should not, must not.
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  take responsibility for a deviant child who willfully neglects the way they should go. If we have, as parents, been faithful to lay truth at our child's feet, if we have been faithful to model what it means to follow Christ, if we have been faithful to prioritize the church, the bride of Christ, in our own lives,
• 27:15
  If we have been faithful to make our Christian homes and our Christian marriages attractive to our children, then we must leave it to them to pick it up. Now, church, certainly we bear some responsibility and catch that last one.
• 27:30
  We've got to make the gospel attractive to our children. When they look at us and see how we run our home and see how we run our marriages, and they're looking at us and saying, that looks miserable. They're anxious and nervous. They fret all the time. They argue all the time. I don't want that. That's not what I want. That's not attractive.
• 27:51
  then we do bear some responsibility. If we have not made the gospel attractive to our children, then yes, some of that is on us. But if we have been faithful as parents to lay truth at their feet, then we must leave it to them to pick it up. That's some notes here from our text on parenting. Now let's go back to the apostles. In verse 41, Jesus answers. So you get this dad.
• 28:16
  right, who has done what a dad can do. He's been faithful, but then Jesus answers. And the dad says, I tried to bring it to your disciples to cast it out. They couldn't do anything for me. And Jesus answers in verse 41. And this is kind of our second main takeaway this morning. Oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and to bear with you? Bring your son to me. Only 24 hours previous, Christ's favorite few apostles witnessed the transformation and glorification of their Lord.
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  They saw Jesus exalted. They saw Jesus as he was prior to his incarnation. They marveled. And now the very next day, they failed at invoking that same power and its power and authority. You'll recall, church, that they had been granted in this same chapter. If you just go back a page, Luke chapter 9 and verse 1. And he called the 12 together, Luke 9, 1, and gave them power and authority over. Look what it says.
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  and to cure diseases, and sent them out proclaiming the kingdom of God. He gave them power and authority over all demons. And so they had the power and authority to cast that demon out, and yet they failed. And it wasn't the power of God that failed. It was their faith that failed in order to invoke that power. Both Matthew and Mark's gospels include in their parallel accounts a private meeting that happened in this same...
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  event where Jesus and his apostles were talking privately and the apostles asked Jesus why they were unable to cast out the demon. Why didn't it work? And Jesus said to them that their failure was due to a lack of faith. And he includes in that parallel account, if you have faith even as little as a mustard seed, he told them, you would move mountains. Why is faith so important?
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  And why does Jesus rebuke this generation of disciples for their lack of faith? And what would Christ say about our generation in regard to our faith? Why is faith so important? Well, Jesus was living in what could arguably be the most religious society on the planet. From childhood, the people of ancient Israel were taught not only how to read, they had the highest literacy rate per capita in the world at the time, they were also taught how to understand the Hebrew law.
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  In fact, Hebrew schools taught their youngsters thoroughly what it took to please God.
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  That those Torah scrolls were so well known to boys and girls being raised in these Hebrew schools that you could take a young boy growing up in Israel at the time, going to synagogue, going to Hebrew school. You could take a rolled up Torah scroll, rolled up. You could take a knitting needle, jam it into anywhere you wanted on that Torah scroll as deep as you wanted. And that boy is so familiar with the scroll that he could tell you what word the tip, the point of that knitting needle was touching inside of.
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  the scroll. So they knew the Torah scroll. They knew the law, but the application of those laws and a true understanding of the heart of God and his offer of grace and mercy escaped them as a culture almost entirely. By the time those kids reached adulthood, they believed that salvation came by works rather than by grace through faith. They were a thoroughly religious society, but church
• 31:51
  They were utterly faithless. Let me say that again. They were thoroughly religious, but they were utterly faithless. And so allow me to make an argument here dividing religion and faith. They are not the same. And for centuries, it has been assumed that these two words, religion and faith, are synonymous, that there's no difference between your religion and your faith. In fact, most modern Americans will even use the terms interchangeably. What religion argue is the same question as what faith
• 32:21
  are you but that's not necessarily true the reason is because religion involves belief but then ends there what do you believe that's your religion but faith begins with belief and then leads to obedience so faith is like religion but put into action okay let's look i would ask you to turn with me to the right to hebrews
• 32:49
  I want you to see this in your own Bibles, Hebrews chapter 11, the great chapter of faith. But in verse 1, we get a definition of faith. And notice here, two words, specific words that it uses in regard to faith. Now faith, Hebrews 11 verse 1, is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Assurance, assurance, blessed assurance.
• 33:16
  Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. What is assurance? It's not just hoping that something might happen someday. It's not dreaming. It's not fairytale and make-believe. Assurance is absolutely positively knowing that something is true. That's the first word, assured. The second word is conviction.
• 33:44
  Conviction means I am going to be a man or a woman of action based on that assurance. And so conviction is integrity. It's action. It's following through on what I believe. That's what faith is. And by its simplest and most accurate definition, faith is the belief that God will do precisely what he said he will do simply because he said it. And then the living out of that belief in obedience.
• 34:12
  We must never define faith as our world does. And that is to boil it down, to dumb it down, to be defined simply as a mystical ability by which the will and power of God may be manipulated to suit the needs and desires of his followers. In other words, there are those who will teach that by the faith of a man,
• 34:39
  The very mind of God may be changed or his heart transformed or his will actually overcome, that we can overcome the will of God by our faith and the course of human events set anew. Church, I believe this is a misunderstanding of faith at its best. At its worst, it's heresy taught by those who I think are often seeking to shear the sheep rather than shepherd them. The faith does not grant its bearer access to divine power. Rather,
• 35:08
  It grants the one who believes access to divine promises. And so, promises of healing, which the scriptures give, promises of provision, promises of deliverance through the gospel of Jesus Christ can be accessed by faith. In fact, James chapter 1 says, ask for wisdom. You who lacks wisdom, ask for it, and it will be given abundantly because it's being asked for in faith. Ephesians chapter 2 makes a promise of salvation.
• 35:37
  But it says by faith, by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And so whatever has been promised to you by God in his word may be asked for in faith.
• 35:51
  Faith, wisdom, peace, mercy, forgiveness, grace, hope, joy, biblical insight, conviction over sin, all of it. Every aspect of your sanctification from the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and you became a new creation all the way to the moment that you will be glorified in heaven from that day in the past to that day in the future. Everything is contingent upon the Lord's work in your life by faith.
• 36:16
  Faith certainly begins with belief, but more than that, it involves obedience to God's word. Now, follow me. I'm going to get technical here for just a moment, okay? We won't dip our toe too deep into the theological pool, but follow me just for a moment. Theologians will often use a combination of three Latin words in their description of faith.
• 36:39
  And so it says, if you want to understand Christian saving genuine true faith, you got to understand it has three aspects. The first word that they use is notitia. And this is where we get the word notice. It refers to the intellectual element of faith where one positively recognizes the truth. Notitia. The second, assensus, where we get the word assent.
• 37:02
  It refers to the emotional element of faith, where we come to a deep conviction of that truth. Not only do I see the truth, but now I recognize the truth as true. The third Latin word is fiducia, where we get the word fiduciary. If you guys are in real estate at all, you've signed fiduciary contracts. That fiduciary word means trust. It's ultimately actually where the word faith comes from, fiducia.
• 37:29
  And it refers to a person's volition or will. And so faith, genuine faith, involves not only the seeing, the recognizing of truth, but it is a conviction that the truth is true. And then it involves a changing of the will, action, in order to come in line with the truth that we know to be true. Burkhoff has said in his systematic theology, saving faith is not merely a matter of the intellect or emotion, but a matter of the will.
• 38:00
  It determines the direction of a soul. It consists, he says, in a personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord, including a surrender of the soul as guilty and defiled to Christ. In other words, he said, saving faith is not just believing something to be true. You can believe something to be true and do nothing about it. Saving faith is believing something to be true, coming under conviction, and then changing your life accordingly. Let's go back to verse 41.
• 38:29
  Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and to bear with you? When Jesus said that that generation was faithless and twisted, it means much more than simply saying that they couldn't perform the exorcism or that they were denying the existence of miracles or had ceased believing in the Lord. Church, they were faithless and yet they still believed. They had rejected their religion. They had rejected their...
• 38:59
  And there is a difference. It meant instead that they had rejected the truth of God's word, notitia. They'd refused to be convicted in their hearts, a census, and then failed to trust in Christ for healing power, fiducia, all the while holding tightly to that religion. The Apostle Paul, in his description of his own Jewish brothers, described them this way in Romans 10 and verse 1. He says,
• 39:30
  and prayer to God for them, that is his Jewish people, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Zeal without knowledge. And church, if there is one statement that could be the summarizing statement of 2020 America, it is zeal.
• 40:00
  Without knowledge. If there's one thing we've got seemingly in spades, it is zeal. It is not hard to get people fired up right now. But if there's one thing we seem to be lacking, it's knowledge. And especially knowledge of God. 2 Timothy 3, in describing the last days, says that people will have, and I quote, the appearance of godliness, but they will deny.
• 40:30
  They're going to look very religious, just like Jesus' disciples did here. They'll look religious, but they will deny its power. They'll have a portion. They'll believe, but they won't have faith. The book of Jude, in verse 12, describes these types of religious but faithless people as shepherds feeding themselves like waterless clouds, he says. Like clouds, which may be promised rain.
• 40:59
  but then never actually deliver life-giving water. And church failure is a part of the human experience. We saw this morning what happens when the faith of God's people fails, a lack of divine and healing power. We know that what is needed in our country today, in 2020 America, is an outpouring of obedient faith in Christ. Not just people who believe, but people who have faith.
• 41:28
  Not just people who recognize the truth, but actually act on that truth. And for the next couple of weeks, actually, we will see the apostles' failures. Failure in faith today, failure to understand in the weeks upcoming, failure to show humility, to show compassion, failure to follow Christ wholeheartedly. But what I want to point out, church, and this is why it's good news, as we saw this morning, we will also see Christ's patience and forbearance. Allow me to pray. God, thank you.
• 41:58
  for your word and thank you for the truth that it contains. And may we not only believe and do nothing, may we believe and exercise faith that you may work through us in a powerful way. Lord, may we never view ourselves or anyone else as beyond your ability to help because certainly, Father, if you can help the demon-possessed boy heal him and restore him, then God, you can restore and heal any one of us. We love you, Lord. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.