Deceived by Doubt

IDENTITY THEFT
DECEIVED BY DOUBT
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 14:25-33
JUNE 17, 2007

On February 9 in the year 1855, a very strange thing happened in Devon, England. Devon is a county in Southwest England, almost in the Southwest corner of England next to Cornwall County. In that part of England, it almost never snows. But on that night, February 9, 1855, it snowed in Devon. People woke up that morning to see two inches of snow covering the earth. That was amazing to them. But even more amazing, they saw footprints in the snow, footprints that went in a line across the fields that went over haystacks, footprints that went up the sides of buildings and barns and over rooftops, footprints that continued for 100 miles. These were not normal footprints because they were from some kind of cloven-hoofed animal. The animal was clearly bipedal. It was clearly a bipod. Of course, everybody knew there was no such thing as a bipod animal with cloven hooves, that only quadrupeds are like that. So, what was this thing that had gone across their fields and over their haystacks and up the sides of buildings and barns and over rooftops for 100 miles? People wondered.

The next day, the headlines of the London Times in bold print this was the statement, “The Devil Walks in Devon.” To this day, no one is able to explain those footprints in the snow in Devon on February 9, 1855, and I don’t know either. I suspect that somebody really clever had a lot of fun.

I also know this. I know that the devil is a deceiver. The devil does exist and he’s a deceiver. The Bible tells us he is the deceiver and he wants to deceive people with regard to God. He wants to deceive people with regard to truth. He wants to deceive people with regard to faith. He wants to destroy faith and one of his greatest weapons is doubt. He wants to deceive us by doubt. I think as Christians we can actually lose our identity when we give sway to doubt and are deceived by doubt.

This morning we have two teachings and the first teaching concerns the subject of compassion. You see, the Bible is clear. God has compassion for doubters. This might surprise you, but the Bible is clear. God does have compassion for us when we doubt.

In the New Testament there are nine different Greek words for doubt, an incredible number of Greek words for this same concept. The first word is “apistos” or “apistia,” whether you take the adjective or the noun form, but the word means, “unbelief.” It means “to be without faith” or “to be lacking in faith.”

The second word is “aporeo,” which means literally “to be without a way,” “to not know your way,” “to be perplexed.” The third word is “diaporeo.” Diaporeo is an intensified form and it means, “to be very perplexed.” It means to have no clue as to your way, your direction, or where you’re going, like a guy that refuses to ask directions.

The fourth word for doubt is “diakrino.” Diakrino means, “to be unable to judge,” “to be unable to decide.” This is another word for doubt. The fifth word for doubt is “dipsuchos.” Dipsuchos literally means “to be double souled or to be double minded,” “to be confused,” “to not know what to do.”

The sixth word for doubt is “distazo” and the word distazo literally means “to stand double,” or “to not know where to stand.” The seventh word for doubt is “Dialogismos,” from the Greek word “logos,” which means “logic.” Dialogismos means, “to be unable to reason it out,” “to be unable to think it through.” Another word for doubt. The eighth word for doubt “meteorizo.” Meterorizo literally means “to be in mid-air.” It means to be “up in the air.” It means to be in a situation of doubt. Of course, we get the English word meteor from this word meterorizo. The final word, the ninth word, in the New Testament for doubt is the word “oligopistos.” Oligopistos means, “of little faith.” Doubt is to be of little faith.

These nine different Greek words all mean doubt and are all found in the New Testament. And why? Why so many different words for the same concept? The explanation is that in every generation, in every part of the world, people have struggled with doubt. This was true in the Hellenized world. It was true in the Greek-speaking world. It was true throughout the Roman world. It’s true and has always been true in the community of Christ. People have always struggled with doubt. Doubt is a huge subject. It a huge concept worthy of many words.

Now, we come to the New Testament and we see that Christ had tremendous compassion on doubters. It doesn’t matter which of the four Gospels you look in, you can find stories of Jesus having compassion on doubt and on doubters. You look at John chapter 20 and you see Jesus and Thomas. Jesus is resurrected. He is alive. He has appeared to Mary Magdalene. He’s appeared in the upper room in the city of Jerusalem to the ten of the disciples, but Thomas was not with them, Doubting Thomas. The disciples go to Thomas and they say, “We’ve seen the Lord and He’s alive.” Thomas says, “I don’t believe it and I won’t believe unless I see in His hands the print of the nails. Unless I press my fingers in the mark of the nails in His side, I will not believe.”

Eight days later the disciples were again in the Upper Room in the city of Jerusalem and Thomas this time was with them and Jesus appeared, resurrected and alive. Jesus came for Thomas because He had compassion on doubters. He came for Thomas. He went up to Thomas and He stretched forth His hands and He said, “See My hands. Stretch forth your fingers. Touch the mark in My hand. Stretch forth your hand. Touch My side. Do not be faithless. Do not be doubting, but believe.” Thomas fell down and made his great confession. “My Lord and My God.” Jesus said, “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. You can’t read a passage like that and not see the compassion that Jesus had for the doubt of Thomas—John’s Gospel, 20th chapter.

You come to Matthew’s Gospel, 14th chapter, and you see in our passage for today Jesus and Peter. You see the disciples going across the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a great storm. They’ve been working through the night to try to reach the other shore and the storm is so great and the wind is so strong against them that they are making little progress. Then suddenly late in the night towards the early morning, Jesus just comes walking across the sea. Jesus comes walking on the water. In the midst of the storm, they can’t see Him clearly and they’re terrified. They think it’s a ghost. Jesus calls out to them, “Take heart. It is I. Have no fear.”

Then Simon Peter says, “Lord, if it’s You, bid me come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” Simon Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. But he began to doubt. He saw the wind. He saw the storm. He was afraid. When he was beginning to sink in the midst of the storming waves, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” and Jesus immediately reached forth His hand and grabbed him, lifted him, and said, “Oh man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus lifted him into the boat.

There was great compassion there for Peter’s doubt. Jesus knew that Peter was doubting Him. Peter got out of the boat because of Jesus. He tried to walk on water because of Jesus and it was Jesus he was doubting when he doubted and yet Jesus had compassion on him. So, Jesus said, “Oh ye of little faith, why did you doubt?” The word for doubt there is “distazo,” but the word “Oh ye of little faith” is “oligopistos.” Oligopistos is a gentle word. It was the favorite word of Jesus for doubt. It was a way, with compassion, to gently rebuke somebody. “Oh ye of little faith… ” This is how Jesus treated doubters. There’s compassion there. Always compassion.

Then you come to Mark’s Gospel, the 9th chapter, and you see a dad. On this Father’s Day, it’s kind of appropriate, you see a father whose son is a demoniac and his dad has dealt with this for years and no one’s been able to help. His son is just riddled with demonic activity. What his son had been into and what his son had done we don’t know, but this dad was traumatized and no one had been able to help. No one had been able to heal and then Jesus came and Jesus said to the dad, “Do you believe that I can heal your son?” I love the answer the dad gave because it’s so honest. The dad said, “Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.” Lord, I have faith but I also, Lord, have doubt. Did Jesus rebuke him? No, Jesus didn’t rebuke him. Jesus understood. Jesus had compassion and Jesus healed his son.

You come to Luke, chapter 7, and you see the disciples of John the Baptist coming to Jesus with doubt. John the Baptist had declared at the dawn of the ministry of Christ, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” It was John the Baptist who declared Jesus Christ the Messiah. It was John the Baptist who had seen the Holy Spirit descend from heaven upon the Son of God like a dove. Now John was starting to doubt. Time had passed and John the Baptist was beginning to doubt and so he sent his disciples to ask, “Are you really who I thought you were?”

How did Jesus respond to that? How did Jesus respond? He was not angry. He was compassionate. He said to the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go and tell John that the deaf hear, the blind see, the dead are resurrected. Go and tell John I am who he thought I was.” When John’s disciples leave, Jesus tells His disciples how great John is and how he’s amongst the greatest ever born of women. Jesus did not judge John for his doubt. He did not judge him. Compassion. So, in any gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, Jesus has compassion on doubters.

Maybe you were reared in fundamentalism and you didn’t know that. Maybe there is a thought there that God just doesn’t have compassion for our doubt. I’ve heard fundamentalist preachers say, “If you have any doubt, you’re not saved,” but I don’t think they got that from the Bible. That’s not the heart of Christ. If you’re struggling with doubt, God loves you. If you’re struggling with doubt, there are passages in the Bible that would be great for you to take a look at. One is Psalms 73. It’s a passage of the Bible composed by one of David’s musicians whose name was Asaph. Many of the Psalms are traditionally ascribed to him. He was a man who struggled with doubt and God inspired him to compose Psalms to enhance his faith. It would be good to go and read Psalms 73 and see if your faith doesn’t grow and if your doubt doesn’t diminish. It’s compassion from God.

The second teaching this morning has to do with the dangers of doubt. And certainly doubting can be dangerous. For us as Christians, as we have said, we can lose our identity through excessive doubt.

First of all, doubt can be dangerous with regard to spiritual barrenness. Doubt can lead to spiritual barrenness. I want you to understand this because this is pretty important. You look at Matthew, chapter 21, or Mark, chapter 11, and you see Jesus and His disciples traveling by foot from Jerusalem to Bethany. As they’re traveling along the road, Jesus notices a fig tree just off the road but it’s barren. The disciples see Jesus walk over to this barren fig tree and curse it. He curses this barren tree. In a short period of time the fig tree withers to the ground and the disciples are stunned and they are confused. But we’re not confused. We’re not confused because we understand the fig tree was a symbol of Israel. The fig tree was a symbol of Israel and Israel had become barren and Jesus was saying, “There’s a curse on you through your barrenness.”

Jesus had just come out of the temple of Jerusalem. If you look at the passage contextually, you’ll see that Jesus has just come out of the Jerusalem temple and He had seen the spiritual barrenness of Israel. They had taken God’s house of prayer and they had converted it into a place of business with tax collectors and moneychangers. Jesus turned over the tables and He was enraged. Spiritually they were barren and therefore cursed.

Here we are today, a small segment of the church of Jesus Christ universal, and we’re called to bear fruit. We’re not called to barrenness. We’re called to bear fruit. The moment we came to Christ and we embraced Him, His Father became our Father and Jesus became our elder brother. We became sons and daughters of God, brought into the family of God, co-heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ, bound for heaven with an eternal destiny. And we have a heavenly cause on earth and we’re called to bear fruit. So, Jesus said, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen You and I’ve appointed you to go and bear fruit that your fruit should abide.”

This is part of our identity in Christ. We are fruit bearers by the power of God. By the power and grace of God, we bear fruit. We are children of God, sons and daughters of God, called to be light in the darkness, salt in the corruption. We are called to ministry in this world, ministries of love, and we’re called to bear fruit. It’s part of who we are, but doubt can make us barren. Doubt can even destroy the powers of our prayers.

You come to James, chapter 1, and the apostle says, “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all men and without reproaching, but let him ask in faith without doubt.” And there is this warning from James. If your prayers are riddled with doubt, they become impotent. They lose power. They become barren. Even our prayers become barren when we give sway to doubt.

There are lots of stories about Thomas in the ancient literature. Some of the stories come from the early church fathers. Of course, there are many stories in the Gnostic Gospels and most of these stories regarding Thomas are bogus and spurious (and in fact most of the Gnostic Gospels are) but there are some interesting stories and there’s one I think is particularly interesting of Thomas, who after the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ still doubted.

According to the story, he still doubted and he was kind of paralyzed by doubt and he was just focused on his doubt. He thought he needed to get help. He thought he would go to Peter and go to James and go to John, the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem. So, he went to them and said, “Hey guys, I’m still struggling with doubt,” and they said, “Man, Thomas, we don’t know how to help you but we’re so busy. There’s so much to do. There’s so much to do for Christ and the kingdom and for the church.”

Thomas thought, “Well, I’ll go to some of the devout women of the faith and see if they can help me.” He went to Mary, the mother of Jesus. He went to Mary Magdalene. He went to Mary and Martha of Bethany. He said, “Hey guys, I’m struggling with doubt.” They said, “Hey, Thomas. I wish it wasn’t so. We feel for you, but we don’t know how to help you. We do know this. We’re awfully busy. We’ve got so much work to do. There’s so much ministry to do, so many things to do. Why don’t you just help us.” And this insight came to Thomas. It occurred to him that, “maybe I need to get to work. Maybe I’m just paralyzed by doubt and I actually need to act on my faith instead of focusing on my doubt. Maybe I need to kind of act on my faith.”

As the story goes, Thomas became a missionary to India and Parthia and we have plenty of early church evidence that that is so. He became a missionary in India and Parthia acting on his faith instead of focusing on his doubt, and guess what? As the years passed and he was ministering for Christ, his doubt began to diminish and his faith began to rise as he began to see the power of God and the provision of God. As he was seeking the cause of God, his faith grew and his doubt diminished.

It’s like that. I like that story because it’s true. You can’t just sit on your doubt. You’ve got to act on your faith and what you’ll find is, when you act on your faith, your doubt diminishes and your faith rises. If you get busy in some cause of Christ, you’ll begin to see Him more clearly. You’ll begin to sense His power and see His provision. Your prayers will begin to be effectual if you’ll get to work for the cause of heaven on earth. That’s what we were made to be, people who are fruit bearers.

That kind of is analogous and reminds me of the aqueduct that is in Segovia. I’m sure that all of you draw this analogy all the time. There’s an aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, and the aqueduct was built in the year 109 AD by the Romans. It was well built and it was built to bring fresh water from a spring 18 miles from the city of Segovia. So this aqueduct brought water into the city. Amazingly, the aqueduct was used by the city of Segovia for 1800 years until the dawn of the 20th century, faithfully carrying water into the city of Segovia. Then shortly after the year 1900, the people of Segovia thought, “Wow! This is an amazing thing. This is an ancient relic and ruin. This is an aqueduct still functioning after 1800 years. This thing is very special. We shouldn’t be using this. Let’s just shut it down and preserve it.”

So, they shut the aqueduct down and it went dry as they began to try to preserve it. And you know what happened? The aqueduct began to crumble and crack. You can go to Segovia today and there still are the ruins of the aqueduct but it’s not like it was in 1905 or 1910. It’s not like it was for 1800 years because it was meant to be used. It was meant to bear water and when they shut it down it just dried up. Christians are like that. We’re meant to be used. We’re meant to bear water. We’re meant to be water bearers and fruit bearers. We’re not meant to be shut down. Doubt can paralyze us. If you just sit on your doubt, your doubt will just increase and you’ll become barren. The call of Christ is, “Don’t be deceived by doubt, don’t lose your identity.” You’re called to be fruit bearers.

Secondly, with regard to the dangers of doubt, I think that doubt can kind of steal our identity through anxiety and fear. Is that not true? Part of our identity in Christ is that we’ve been given His peace and His joy. I think doubt can paralyze us with fear and with anxiety.

Many of you who have attended the church for a while know that I’ve been a Christian for a long time. I’m 61 years of age and I accepted Christ when I was 5 years old, so I’ve been a Christian for 56 years. I remember very vividly, very clearly, at the age of 5 accepting Christ and kneeling in the living room of our family home beside my mom and asking Jesus into my heart and asking Jesus to forgive me of my sin and pledging my life to Christ. But I had doubt.

In the years that followed, I had a lot of doubt. In the early years my family went to Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, and then we moved up to La Cañada Flintridge, California, and began to go to Glendale Presbyterian Church. As the years went by, many evangelists would come by and do crusades at Glendale Presbyterian Church, and they all scared me. All of these evangelists kind of scared me. They were kind of fire and brimstone guys and they would stand up there and they would say, “Are you 100% sure you’re saved? You may have accepted Christ before, but are you 100% sure and do you have any doubt? Because if you have any doubt, then you’re not saved. If you have any doubt, you’re not saved. You may leave this building tonight and get hit by a car. In fact, you probably will. Do you know where you’re going to go and spend eternity?” My heart would just pound in my chest and I’d just get anxious and I had doubt.

It wasn’t just doubt when an evangelist was speaking. I had doubts that bothered me during the day and at night. When I was in bed, I had anxiety. It was hard for me as a kid to believe that I was really forgiven and that I was really saved. I felt so unworthy. I had some strange sensitivity. Spiritually I just felt inadequate, and so I went forward at a lot of altar calls. I accepted Christ again and again. In fact, I went forward and accepted Christ at 17 different altar calls over a period of years.

One day my dad took me aside and I could tell he was really mad. He was ticked. I’d just gone forward to my 16th altar call and Dad took me aside and Dad looked at me and he said, “No more altar calls! No more altar calls! You accepted Christ, you asked Him to forgive you. Christ is a man of His word. He is true. He is honest. He has forgiven you. You’re bound for heaven. Get on with life. Quit kind of wading in a sea of doubt. Get on with life. I don’t want you going forward at any more altar calls.”

A few more years passed and I didn’t go forward at any more altar calls. I wanted to. I still had that doubt. I would sit there and I would get scared and my heart would beat in my chest. Finally, when I was I think in my second year of high school, I was at the church for some evening deal and there was another evangelist and he began to do the fire and brimstone thing again. I began to get kind of spooked again. I didn’t go forward because I was more afraid of my dad than I was of God. But then as I sat there, suddenly I see my dad get up and I see my dad go right down that center aisle and I’m shocked. I’m just stunned. I think, “If Dad’s going forward at an altar call, he can’t get mad at me.” So I get up and I follow him down the center aisle. I didn’t know that Dad was one of the counselors. Dad was an elder at the church. I can’t describe for you what it was like when he turned around and looked back and saw me coming. The look on his face was unbelievable.

I thank God that I got into college and there was this time between my freshman and sophomore year when I was telling my mom all this stuff and we had our neat prayer time one night and I remember my mom praying that God would give me peace and joy and take away all the doubt, all the anxiety, all the fear. And very supernaturally, God did. I’ve had 40 years of peace in my faith, and I thank God for that. I don’t doubt anymore, but I’d really be a fool to doubt today because, acting on my faith, I’ve seen God work. I’ve seen His power. I’ve seen His provision. I’ve seen His protection. I’ve seen miracles. I’d be a fool to doubt. I tell you, He is true and He’s who He says He is.

But don’t let doubt fill your life with anxiety and fear. Know that God loves you and God has compassion. God cares very much about our anxiety. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.” Jesus said, “Don’t be anxious about your life—what you should eat, what you should drink, what you should wear. Just seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He’ll give you everything you need.” The Bible says, “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” The Bible says, “Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares about you.” We don’t want our joy and our peace and our identity in Christ to be stolen by the deceitfulness of doubt.

One final thought as we close. That one final thought is this: I think the real danger of doubt is that it might keep you from saving faith. That’s the real danger of doubt. The real danger of doubt is it might keep you from committing your life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That’s the great danger of doubt and that’s the plan of the devil. That’s his desire.

A lot of books are being written these days. You go to Barnes and Noble or to Borders and you can see books written by Hitchens and by Harris, by Dawkins and by Dennett, and these books are all books designed to destroy your faith. All four of those men—Harris and Hitchens and Dawkins and Dennett—are atheists and they are writing books to destroy your faith. You’ve got Dawkins writing “The God Delusion” and you have Hitchens writing “God is not Great” and “How Religion Poisons Everything” and you’ve got Harris’s book called, “The End of Faith.” Of course, that’s their desire, to bring you to where they are, which is completely in a position of no faith.

Of course, atheism is untenable. To posit a universe and the existence of matter itself without God is ludicrous. Either you have to position yourself to proclaim that matter is eternally existent, that it never had a beginning (which is virtually the deification of matter and produces an effect without a cause) or you have to say that matter just kind of spontaneously generated ex niliho. If you take God out of the equation, it’s untenable. These men want to take away your faith.

This week’s issue of Newsweek Magazine commenting on all these books points out that only 3% of people in America would identify themselves as atheistic. Most people believe in God. They’re not that stupid. Of course, over 70% of the people in America, according to Newsweek, would never knowingly vote for somebody who was an atheist. There is still faith here but it’s kind of a scary time.

A professor at Harvard, just this last month, said that Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, and Dennett are atheistic fundamentalists filled with negativity and hate. I think there’s some truth to that. They seek to demonize people of faith and demonize Christian history, but I don’t know of any Christian anywhere in the world today that’s trying to go out and do damage with acts of violence. Christians by and large are seeking to love people and establish ministries of compassion all over the world.

A couple of weeks ago when I mentioned how many professors at institutions of higher learning across America have decided to attack Christ and the Christ faith, when I was finished with the service a college student came up to talk to me. She was here visiting her parents for the weekend. She was a student at Wittier College in California. She had started out at CU right in Boulder and she wanted to say to me, “Thank you, because people need to know that so many professors are attacking our faith.”

She said that is true at Wittier and it was true at CU. She said when she started as a student at CU in Boulder, she had a first-year biology class and the teacher came the first day of the biology class and stood in front of the class and said, “How many of you are Christians? Raise your hands.” She raised her hand with trembling because she didn’t know what was going on. She raised her hand and four other kids raised their hands. So five kids in that CU classroom raised their hands. The teach said, “I want you to notice who these five kids are. By the end of this course, I will have destroyed their faith.”

Of course, his salary is being paid by our tax dollars, at least in part, and it’s a scary thing. You look at Matthew’s Gospel, the 18th chapter, you look at Mark’s Gospel, the 9th chapter, and you see Jesus saying, “Woe unto those who would cause any of these little ones to stumble, any of these who believe in Me. It would be better for them if a milestone was tied around their neck and they were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe unto them.” It’s one thing to live a life of unbelief, but it’s something else to try to make others do the same. It’s scary. Don’t let it happen to you. God has compassion on doubt but don’t sit on your doubt. Act on your faith. And here’s a chance today. If you’ve never made a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, this is the day. Act on your faith instead of sitting on your doubt. This is your chance to act on your faith. You see, saving faith can co-exist with doubt but saving faith cannot co-exist with apathy. You’ve got to make a decision. You’ve got to make a commitment.

Some people will never find their identity in Christ because they’ve been deceived by doubt. So today, as we close, I want to give you a chance to act on your faith. Let’s close with a word of prayer.