The Danger of Little Faith

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. You know, sometimes things happen to you that test the reality of that truth. And we had one in our house today.

My wife worked at the office today and so my mother was visiting us from Texas and so my daughter spent all afternoon preparing a lovely meal for my mother. Had all the best dishes out and everything ready and so grandma came up from up the elevator and fell out of the elevator and fell down and she's in the hospital now. Perhaps twisted or broke her ankle.

So my wife and sister Gwen are with her right now. So we're going to pray for her and the Lord will touch her. But I'm sure if she were here she would say it don't matter.

God still, we still rejoice. This is a day the Lord hath made. God still has everything under control.

And we're going to take that need and ask the Lord to touch her and minister to your need tonight as well. I trust as Pastor David said if you came in discouraged I pray it's lifted. If it isn't lifted yet as I pray I pray the Lord will lift it even now as I pray.

Hallelujah. Lord we thank you. We do rejoice.

We rejoice in you Lord. Hallelujah. This is the day you have made.

Lord we're glad to be alive at this hour to serve you. Glad to be here tonight in the house of God. Thank you for the praises of God's people.

Thank you for hearing our prayers tonight in behalf of the many needs that we've lifted before you. Lord if there are others that are sitting here even now that the spirit of discouragement or whatever it might be that be upon them has not lifted from them Lord lift it right now in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.

And Lord as we address the need of the hour in this message anoint it we pray. And I also pray for mother that you would touch her Lord right now that you would heal her bones or whatever this is. Lord that you would touch her in her body strengthen her we pray.

And Lord give her a speedy recover whatever it is in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Praise the Lord. Turn with me if you will to the book of Matthew. First of all I want to go through about three different verses in Matthew and then we're going to go to 1 Samuel.

I want to talk to you tonight about the danger of little faith. The danger of little faith. And Jesus used this term several times and I want to read a few of them here in Matthew.

And then we'll illustrate it in the Old Testament. The danger of little faith. Matthew 6 verse 30.

Jesus in answer to some questions relative to concerns about the future. Concerns about practical needs. Jesus said wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven.

Shall he not much more clothe you? And then he uses that statement oh ye of little faith. Little faith. Go to Matthew the 8th chapter.

And verse 26. In the midst of a storm. Jesus said in verse 26.

And he saith unto them why are you fearful? Oh ye of little faith. Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. And then again in Matthew the 14th chapter.

Again he uses the same term. Matthew 14. And verse 31.

He's addressing Peter this time. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand. And caught him, caught Peter.

And he said unto them oh thou of little faith. Wherefore didst thou doubt? Alright now go with me to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel and chapter 27.

And I ask you just to leave your Bible open there. We'll deal with the story of David here. 1 Samuel 27.

Verse 1. And David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me to seek me any more in any coast of Israel.

So shall I escape out of his hand. Now there's an interesting parallel between the behavior of Peter. The disciples.

And the future king of Israel. In that Jesus addressed them as men of little faith. And David demonstrates the same kind of little faith.

In an incident here that we'll look at in a moment. But I want to say this. Do you know that doubt.

Doubting God. Having doubts. Doubts works for the devil.

Almost as well as any other of his devices. You may as well go on drugs or be on drugs or commit some other gross sin as to doubt the Lord. Now David says here he said I've got to run or Saul is going to kill me.

And so he went down to find a safe house. What we would call a safe house in Gath. And he said perhaps Saul will get tired of me.

He'll leave me alone and I will escape out of his hand. And that's exactly what happened. In verse 4 of the same chapter.

And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath. And he sought no more again for him. You see the devil will leave you alone temporarily.

If he sees that you are operating in unbelief and running away in doubt. You see Saul had been chasing David up and down the coast for months. But he quit chasing him when David was being chased by his own fears.

By his own uncertainty and by his own doubts and his little faith. You see the devil loves to see a child of God in that position. His work is made easier.

You see doubt is brother devil to despair. Now doubt is what I might call I would call it a self-inflicted wound. And it is a sin as clearly as any sin.

Because the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. Now it's true that the devil does sow seeds of doubt. Especially in young Christians.

But doubt are often they're often the cause of our own making. Jesus said to Peter wherefore didst thou doubt? Now my message tonight is drawn primarily from the life of David. During his battles and his trials with Saul.

And I want to demonstrate how David went through the valley of doubt. But praise God he came out on the mountain of faith and trust. And if you're in a valley of doubt.

Or if you're one who seems to quickly fall into doubts and fears. Then that's the topic of my message. But I want to talk to you about the dangers of it.

And let's see how David came out of that and ended up on the top of the mountain of faith. But first of all a little historical background on the events leading up to David's confession of little faith. And that's what it was it was a very very negative confession.

Now this period of doubt followed a time of great personal victory. In chapter 26 of 1st Samuel is the account of when Saul located David in one of his hideouts. And on one side of the mountain was David and his small band of men.

Who were fleeing from Saul. And on the other side of the mountain was Saul with an impressive army of 3,000 chosen men of Israel. Saul had the elite troops.

David had the ruffians. Saul was the pursuer. And David was the pursued.

But on this particular occasion David had the CIA at work for him. That's called Celestial Intelligence Agency. And late one night David and Abishai snuck into Saul's camp undetected.

Because supernaturally the Lord had blinded or put to sleep or caused them to be deaf and dumb. And so he was able to sneak in completely undetected as Saul and his army slept. And David was able to take Saul's spear and his jug away from him while he slept.

Now Abishai who went with David wanted David immediately to take the spear and put it into Saul and kill him. But he refused to do that. Instead he returned back to his own camp with the spear and the jug and he hauled it over into Saul's camp.

When Saul awoke he realized what David had done and had not done. And he was embarrassed, he was humiliated, and he was outwardly repentant. Saul knew that David could have killed him.

And the fact that he didn't was a measure of David's godly character. Now the last thing that Saul says to David in this midnight conversation across these two mountain passes. The last words that he says to them are found and you can see it there the last verse of chapter 26.

Saul hollers out and says to David, Blessed be thou my son David, thou shalt both do great things and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way and Saul returned to his place. Now it's immediately after that that it's recorded here that David cries out in great despair.

He said I shall now perish by the hand of Saul and he takes off into foreign territory. Now why? Why did David run away? How was it that he fell into a state of doubt and what Jesus addressed or said to his disciples as little faith. Saul had said to David, Blessed be thou my son David, thou shalt both do great things and also shalt prevail.

Now whether Saul meant that or not I don't know because Saul was very deceptive, he had a deceptive heart, he had a deceptive mouth. But one thing is for sure, David did not believe it. And why did he not believe it? Why did David seemingly give up? Well I think for one reason he was worn out.

David was going through what is now popularly called burnout. He had gone through a long ordeal, a long trial, not just for weeks but for months. He was hunted like a partridge on a mountain.

And no matter where David turned, things were against him. For example, we go back a few chapters, don't turn there but in Samuel 23, David goes to a place called Keilah. Where he and his men fight against the Philistines and won a victory.

This is what the Lord had said. He said, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hands. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

And do you know what thanks he got for it? Somebody, perhaps even a resident of Keilah or a trader, squeals on David and tells Saul where he is. And in chapter 23 verse 7 it says, And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

But David got out of that. He was able to get out of that. He then fled to the wilderness of Zeph.

But there the Zephites betrayed David and this is what it says, Then came up Zephites to Saul, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strongholds in the wood? Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and our part will be to deliver him into the king's hand. And so no matter what David did, even when it seemed God was with him, things did not turn out. It seemed like everything was against him.

And Saul had wanted posters, as it were, out all over the land. And people, in order to endear themselves to Saul, would look for David and spy on him. It's no wonder that David was suffering with what we might call burnout.

Now there are those who will say that I don't believe in burnout. Well I don't either. Burnout is not befitting to a child of God, but the fact is, even a man of godly character like David, as David was, had to battle against doubt because of the heat of the battle.

You see, even champions face moments of doubt. Was it not David, who in better times had stood with his foot upon the top of Goliath, and upon his dead body, holding a sling in one hand and Goliath's sword in the other, a testimony to the power of God in using that little shepherd boy. But David, like us, you see, was a man of passions.

Remember it is said of Elijah that he prayed that it would not rain for three and a half years, and it did not. And again he prayed, and then it rained. And Elijah, after that, defeated the major cultists of the day.

He literally wiped them out, and he shut down them in one great display of mighty power. And yet right after this, Elijah is afraid of Jezebel, who hunted his life. And he cries out, he says, let me die, I am better than my fathers.

And like David, he runs and he hides himself. And you see, if Elijah and David felt the effects of human passion manifested in fear, and in doubts, and despair, think not that we also, as we go through this race, will not face the same kinds of struggles. Some old preacher said this, he said, doubts and fears are like the toothache.

Nothing more painful, but never fatal. Well, I don't know about that, but one thing is for sure, the strongest of saints at times get toothaches. And face the very fiery trials that will fling you into periods of questioning God, or doubting God.

And that's exactly what happened to David. Now, when you face such trials or struggles as David, don't listen to your heart. This is what we should learn from David's experience.

David listened to his own heart, to his own emotions. The Bible says, the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it or rely on it. The scripture says here, and David said in his heart, all the things we say in our hearts and minds that we're sorry for later.

Be careful what comes out of your heart when you're under pressure and when you're under attack. A lot of times it's not the language of faith, it's the language of little faith. And you see, it's at that moment that it's important to hold up your statements of doubt, up to the light of God's word.

And to see just how false and untrue they are. Note in David's case what he said and how false it was. He said, I shall now perish by the hand of Saul.

The disciples in the storm used the same language and said, Lord save us, we perish. And tonight I say to you, if you go through those same kinds of periods, and you say things out of desperation or under pressure. Or if you have an attitude of heart, if you're in a doubt tonight and have fears and doubts that come over you.

If we will but bring the attitudes of our heart into the supreme courtroom of God, they will be thrown out for lack of evidence, hallelujah. You see, the Holy Spirit is a lawyer, and he wants to expose our doubts and our fears and our unbelief. And he wants to throw them out for lack of evidence.

Take David, for example. Sure, he was threatened by Saul, but Saul never prevailed. When David was holed up in the city of Keilah, and Saul was looking his chops, expecting victory.

Listen to what happened. It's in 1 Samuel 23, 13. Don't turn there, I'll read it to you.

It says, But God delivered him not into his hands. Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hands. Let me tell you tonight, whenever your heart tells you, or the devil tells you, or somebody else tells you that you're going to perish, that you're not going to make it.

Bring those feelings, bring those doubts into the courtroom of God. Hold them up to the light of God, and they'll be thrown out, hallelujah, for lack of evidence. Especially if you're walking in covenant before God.

1 John 3, 19 and 20 says, We shall know by this, meaning that if we're walking in covenant, if we're walking in righteousness, we shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him in whatever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, hallelujah.

David had to but look at God's history, and God's track record with him. It's true that he was exposed to a variety of personal attacks by Saul. David had been betrayed, he had been belittled, he was befuddled, and yet with every trial also came a way of escape.

There were no wounds in David's body, there was not a spear that had come close. David could pull out his warrior's log, his daily log, and he could say, look here, God did not forsake me at any moment. Here's evidence that God never let me down.

Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him, delivered him not into his hands. And you know, I want to encourage you tonight to look back over your life as David had, if he could have just looked back over his life and remember when he cared for his father's sheep and a lion and a bear came and God was with him. The Philistines came and God was with him.

And he could not present to God one solid fact that God had changed his mind that David would someday reign as the king of Israel. Somebody has said this, never doubt in the dark what God has promised you or told you in the light. Never doubt in the dark what God has said to you and promised you in the light.

And that was why David was in despair. He hadn't seen what God had promised him. He forgot it, he didn't see it in the dark.

And so what applies to David applies to us. You see, we don't condemn a man without evidence. And should we condemn our Lord without evidence? There's a beautiful old song that says, never failed me yet.

Never failed me yet. This one thing I know, that where'er I go, Jesus' love never failed me yet. Let God be true and every man a liar, even if that man is yourself and your own doubting mind and heart.

You see, the highest pinnacle of spiritual life is not joy in unbroken sunshine, but it's absolute and undoubting trust in the love of God. When David was in Keilah, Saul said, David is now mine. He even thought that God was on his side.

And this is what he said, he said, for he's shut in. He's in the city of Keilah, he's shut in. And I don't know about you, but you might be here tonight and feel shut into something.

Saul said, I've got him, he's in Keilah, it has bars on the gates. It has walls around the city and I've got him shut in. And some of you may feel exactly like that, seemingly in an impossible situation.

And Saul said to David, for he is shut in by entering into a town that has gates and bars and walls. In other words, David is walled in, I've got him in a corner. Now that's what Saul said, but listen to what God says.

Isaiah 49, 15 to 17 says, can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hand. Your walls are continually before me.

Hallelujah. Excuse me. Will you stand with me? Will you stand please? I'm struggling.

There's a wall right here. I feel walled in as I'm preaching. And I just want to pray and I just want to break it right now.

There's a wall. I've never done this before. But there's just a wall and I've got to finish this message.

And I know God's given me a word for somebody here tonight. And some of you are sitting on the meeting. Some of you, I've told you about my grandfather.

There's people that come in and they're sitting on the meeting. Most of all, I feel the enemy sitting up. We're going to break it right now.

Hallelujah. We're going to pray right now. Lord, I pray right now.

Lord, in the name of Jesus, I break, Lord, every barrier. Lord, there are people here tonight that have doubts. And we come against them in the name of Jesus.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, we come against it.

Hallelujah. We break it, Lord. We break it, Lord.

Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.

Glory to God. Lord, we break it. We bind the enemy.

That would want a wall in a meeting. Hallelujah. That would want a wall in a meeting.

But Lord, he can't do it. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

You may be seated. Now I can continue. I started to read to you Isaiah 49.

I want to read it again because it climaxes in a beautiful truth. He said, can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

Your walls are continually before me. And listen to me. The one who inscribes us in his nail-scarred hand is able to break down the walls that wall you in and to deliver you.

And especially if that's a wall of doubt or fear. The verse goes on. It says, your builders hurry.

Your destroyers and devastators will depart from you. Hallelujah. Isaiah 54.10 says, the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed.

But my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that have mercy on thee. And you see, every time the enemy attacks you and brings doubts, you hold those up to the light of God's word. And they'll disappear.

Hallelujah. David didn't do that. Now, the serious thing, and here's the tragedy of it.

Here's the effect of David's lack of faith and trust in God. Look again at verse 27, chapter 27, verse 1. He said, there is nothing better for me to do that I should speedily escape into the hand of the Philistines. You see, the very first effect of little faith or of doubting God is that you make a great big mistake.

Can you imagine David's reasoning when he said, there is nothing better for me to do than to escape to the Philistines? Nothing better? David, you could come up with something better than that. Nothing better than to go down to the Philistines, the very ones over whom he had prevailed by the hand of Jehovah during his youth? You see, doubt and unbelief will cause you to do some very foolish things. The reasonings of a natural mind and an unbelieving heart cause one to say, there's nothing better to do.

In other words, where am I going to turn to? God is not coming through for me, therefore I've got to come through for myself. Or I've got to do this, or I've got to do that. David had already acted the fool and had gone down to Gath previously and acted like a madman.

And now he's about to do the same thing again. You see, some people will never learn. Some people will never learn.

They always seek man-made help instead of waiting on God. And let me warn you tonight, let me say that if we continually distrust God and doubt Him rather than trust Him, He will bring us to the very brink of disaster to get your attention. And the very last effect of David's doubt in going to Gath is that he almost lost everything.

When David settled in Gath, he had to show his loyalty to the king by going out into battle. And so he took his army out. And while he was out fighting, an enemy came into his own city where his own soldiers' family, his family and his soldiers' family were living, and attacked them.

And when they returned from battle, this is what they discovered, 1 Samuel 30 and 3. So David and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. Now they saw that and they were devastated.

Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept. This is the end of side 1. You may now turn the tape over to side 2. You see, before David went down to Gath, he was afraid for his own life because of Saul. But now because of doubt and unbelief, he has to fear for his own people.

He was better off just facing Saul. There was only one with Saul in his army, but mainly it was Saul. But now his very own people are turning against him.

That's the price, you see, of unbelief. That's the price of little faith. Ah, but here, as I said in the beginning, David went through the valley of doubt.

Ah, but he came out on the mountain of faith. What did David do to overcome little faith? Well, for one thing, he recognized the troubles that he was having was the rod of God to bring him back to where he should have been all the time. 1 Samuel 30 and 6. It says, for David was greatly distressed.

It's talking about when he came back to his city and found their families were taken captive, his sons and his daughters. He was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Now, that part of the verse, that last part of the verse, David encouraged himself in the Lord, is familiar to many of us. We often quote it, but most often we don't get the full impact because we don't quote it understanding its context. You see, David in a time of suffering was suffering because of his doubts.

But finally, God brings him back to the place where it all started. And David said to Abathar the priest, I pray thee bring me hither the Ephod. And Abathar brought hither the Ephod to David and David inquired at the Lord.

And David inquired at the Lord. Now, go back again, look in your Bibles, go back to chapter 27 and verse 1. And David said in his heart, I shall now perish by the hand of the king. You see, there was no turning to the Lord.

There was no Ephod there. There was no looking to the Lord. Do you know something? David was 14 months in Gath.

14 months he had gone there and was living out of the will of God. No praying, no turning to the Lord, no direction, no faith. And all that happened at Gath, all the troubles his family suffered at Ziglag, all that could have been avoided if David had turned to the Lord in his moment of physical and spiritual weakness.

Somebody has said, and I've quoted this before, that if you feed your faith, your doubts and your fears will starve to death. But too often we feed our doubts and we starve our faith. And you see, when David began to inquire of the Lord, he recovered the ground that he had lost because of doubt and because of little faith.

Verse 8 of 1 Samuel 30, again, it says, And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after? In fact, look at it if you will, chapter 30 and verse 8. I want to read it to you. 1 Samuel chapter 30 and verse 8. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he, the Lord, answered him. I want to stop right there in the middle of that verse.

It says, And he, the Lord, answered him. It had been 16 months in which David was out of God's will. 16 months of not inquiring of the Lord.

16 months of lost time, of all kinds of troubles and so forth, and losing ground. But I want to tell you something tonight. Lost ground can be recovered.

And he answered him, the Lord answered him, and said, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them. And without fail, and without fail, recover all. Oh, how strong I feel that this is a word from the Lord to some of you here tonight.

The word is this, pursue. The only way that you can be lifted up out of your doubts, the only way to encourage yourself in the Lord, is to ask for the ephod. That's turning to the Lord, that's turning to his word.

That's inquiring of the Lord. And if you do, God will answer you back and say, Pursue, go for it. Get back on track with the Lord.

Call upon him, turn in faith towards him. And here's the promise to David, which is a promise that you can bank on tonight. And without fail, you will recover all.

Hallelujah. And tonight I want to say that I want to speak to doubt that's here tonight. In the name of the Lord, I speak to doubt or to fear or anxiety and little faith.

And I say to you tonight, as was said to David, pursue. For thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail, recover all. But also, let me also say this.

Here's the danger if you don't. If you don't do it, if you don't come out of little faith. I read this this week by one of the early Puritan writers, and let me, it's a long quote, but let me read it to you.

Some of you are always fashioning fresh nets of doubt for your own entanglement. You invent snares for your own feet and are greedy to lay more of them. You are mariners who seek the rocks, soldiers who count the point, excuse me, soldiers who court the point of the bayonet.

It is unprofitable business, this business of doubt. Practically, morally, mentally, and spiritually, doubting is an evil trade. You are like a blacksmith, wearing out his hand and making chains with which to bind himself.

Doubt is sterile, a desert without water. Doubt discovers difficulties which it never solves. It creates hesitancy, despondency, despair.

Its progress is a decay of comfort, the death of peace. Believe is the word that speaks life into a man, but doubt nails down his coffin. And tonight, if you're in a coffin, I want to tell you that as David did, you can do it.

He burst out of that coffin, hallelujah. He burst out of the coffin of doubt and so can you. Let me just give you a few verses in closing.

Listen to a few things that David wrote after coming out of his doubts. Apparently, he never forgot those 16 months living in a desert of doubt. Because later, he would pen these words.

For example, and don't turn there, I'll read it to you, Psalms 56, 3 and 4. He said, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust.

I will not fear what flesh will do unto me. What a contrast from when he said, I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. Psalms 86 and 7, he says, in the day of trouble I will call upon thee, for thou will answer me.

C.S. Lewis said this, he said, relying on God has to begin all over every day as if nothing yet has been done. Every day is relying on God as if nothing had been done and that God will meet you for the need of the day, hallelujah. And then Psalms 57, 1 says, be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me.

For my soul trusts in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed, hallelujah. David went from I shall perish to I will trust in God.

And there are some wonderful, we could go down a whole list of over and over again where David said, I will trust in God, I will not be afraid, I will call upon the Lord. And tonight the Lord wants to lift you if you're a person who's beset by doubts and by fears. If you have little faith, then God wants to lift you tonight.

Let me give you one, let me go back to one last thing. It's Matthew the 14th chapter. I was reading this again today and it blessed me.

This is when Peter, Peter was walking on the water and when he, he had, he had, he had said, Lord, if it's you, bid me come. And he said, come, and when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and began to sink and he cried, Lord, save me.

Now here's, here's what I like. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. And then he said, O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? In other words, he didn't rebuke him until he had lifted him.

He said, all right, I understand. All right, I understand your doubt. But he took out his hand, he lifted him up and he, and he met his need, he heard his cry.

And then he reminded him that he had little faith. And if you've got little faith tonight, you're just like that. The Lord wants to reach out his hand, he wants to lift you up.

And while he's lifting you up, he wants to say to you, you don't have to do that again. You don't have to have little faith again. You don't have to go back at it again.

He wants to lift you out and keep you out. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Let's stand together. This is the conclusion of the tape.