Sermon Outlines

By Frederick F. Schwindt, Evangelist

FAITH AND DOUBT

1. Background to this prayer:
   1. A heavenly or unearthly scene on the mount of transfiguration - Matt. 17:1-5
   2. A different sight at the foot of the mountain -
      1. A distressed father and his devil possessed son.
      2. Some of the disciples in deep trouble, and a mixed multitude.
2. Jesus brings help and explains why the disciples were unable to help that father:

1. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief":
   1. Here is a most unusual situation -
      1. A distressed father believed that Christ could help his son.
      2. Yet, on the other hand, that faith was mixed with a measure of unbelief.
   2. Is this not, more or less, our own situation? Do we not discover that our faith is, at times, mixed with doubt?
2. Contrast of faith and doubt:
   1. Faith is the God given faculty which accepts and appropriates God's promises - EXAMPLES -
      1. Abraham - Rom. 4:16-19
      2. Noah - Heb. 11:7
   2. Doubt, on the other hand, is to waver in opinion, to hesitate to believe. It is, in fact, an unsettled state of mind.
3. This was the difficulty of the distressed father:
   1. He brought his troubled child to the disciples because he believed that they could help him.
   2. The condition of the disciples, however, brought confusion to him; it caused his faith to waver.
   3. Thus it becomes clear that our own unfitness may create unbelief or doubt in the minds of people who seek for light and truth.

1. Doubt paralyzes faith:
   1. When we pray to God asking mercy of Him, and at the same time cherish doubt in our heart, we cannot be helped by the Lord - Jas. 1:6, 7
   2. A double minded person is too unstable to have his prayer heard in heaven - Jas. 1:8
   3. I greatly fear that there are many double minded souls in the church of God - Jas. 4:8
2. God has a remedy for double minded souls:
   1. Cry unto the Lord, as that father did, "Lord, I believe, help mine unbelief."
   2. "Lord increase our faith" - Luke 17:5
   3. Accepting the word of God without any other condition attached unto it - Heb. 11:1-6
3. If doubt plagues us when we seek the Lord in prayer, let us do some examination of our own life in the light of our petition:
   1. Is the motive of our petition pure and unselfish?
   2. Do we want God to answer our prayer to help us to do His will?
   3. Are there secret sins in our lives which prevent the Lord to grant our petition? Ps. 66:18
   4. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." - Jas. 4:3
4. I greatly fear that our prayer seasons do not bring us the blessings we are in need of:
   1. Because we are ill prepared to ask God to hear and answer our petitions.
   2. If the Lord does not grant our petition, at times, it is a blessing in disguise because if God would give us what we ask for, it might hurt us more than it would help us.
   3. We would, as James says, use it for our own selfish purposes, and that would hurt us and God's cause.
   4. I am confident that the disciples left that scene convinced to pray, as that father did, "Lord we believe, help thou our unbelief."