“Seeing Is Not Believing”

**INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to "Key to the Kingdom." My name is Bret McCasland. As Christians, we sometimes wonder why our faith in God is not as strong as it should be. We see people of great faith and we want to be like them. We find ourselves in situations where we give up on God or we wonder where God is in the midst of challenging and difficult times. We may even wonder, what is wrong with my faith. We might ask the question, well, how can I grow in that area of my daily walk with the Lord? All of those are legitimate questions and concerns. We all want to have a strong faith and to be able to exercise it at all times. Today, on "Key to the Kingdom," we will look at a couple of stories in the Bible that help us to be people of greater faith. It's not really a matter of having enough faith, but rather a matter of learning how to exercise the faith which has already been entrusted to us. Over the next few minutes, we will see how this theme plays out in a familiar and in a not so familiar story. I invite you now to open up your heart and your Bible as we study together.

**LESSON

I would like to begin today by making an assumption. And that assumption is very simply this: We all know something about having faith in God. For those of us who are believers and followers of Jesus Christ, having faith in the Lord is very important. We recognize that is a vital thing in regards to our relationship with the Lord and our daily walk with Jesus Christ. But then that leads to this question: What does that faith really look like, or, is there any way to measure that faith or to evaluate it? Well, faith is not something we do in order to make God move. God is at work in this world. He always has been and He always will be. Now, certainly things like reading God's Word and studying the Bible and acting upon God's Word are all involved in the faith process. Yet in and of themselves, they are not faith. Those are simply demonstrations of the faith we already have within us. Yes, faith magnifies what God has already done. Faith is our positive response to what God has provided by His grace. Faith reaches out and takes what God has already given to us, and as a result, then, our lives are transformed when we realize and activate the faith we already have. In our Bible study, today, we will look at two stories about people who demonstrated great faith. And I do believe there is something we can learn from those stories about the importance of living with great and improving faith in the Lord. The first story is found in the Old Testament, 2nd Kings, chapter 6. This is a story with which, perhaps, we are not familiar. Maybe we have never heard the story before. But it goes something like this; as I will summarize. The King of Syria was continually at war with the King of Israel. He would send out ambushes to destroy Israel's army on a regular basis. However, every time he did that, it seemed as if the enemy knew he was coming and the ambush that he was about to spring upon the Israelite army backfired. Well, he got tired of that. It seemed that somebody knew of the Syrian king's plan before it took place. He even thought that there was a traitor or a spy that was tipping off the Israelite army before he showed up; and so he asked about that. And sure enough, his servants said, well, there is a man by the name of Elisha, who is the man of God, and God is speaking to him and Elisha is tipping off the King of Israel to let him know what is taking place. Well, the King of Israel trusted the prophet and he acted upon his counsel. And as a result, the Syrian army was defeated every time they showed up to do battle against the Israelite army. And so the Syrian king decided to pursue Elisha. He sent out of his servants to do that, and he was going to capture him, perhaps even put him to death. And the Syrian king’s servants found Elisha in a place called Dothan. And this is what happens after that, as we pick up with the story in chapter 6 and verse 15, <“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. He said, “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” The prophet answered, “Don’t be afraid, those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”> Elisha had a servant who was working with him. And when Elisha told the servant to go out early in the morning and to observe the Syrian army and what was going on, he was amazed. He could not believe the number of armies, the number of men, the number of chariots and horses that had showed up in one of these ambushes against the Israelite army. But then God opened the eyes of the servant, and he immediately saw God's powerful armies up in the hills surrounding the Syrian army. It was like a hedge of protection around God's people. Well, Elisha understood that God was extremely powerful and far more able to do beyond what they could imagine, and now he wanted his servant to see the very same thing. And so when the servant saw that, his faith was strengthened. No longer was he afraid. He saw God's army of angels and chariots and horses and fire; and everything else was so powerful, there was no need for him to be afraid of the Syrian army. Not everybody saw that, but it was through the eyes of faith he saw that, just as Elisha has seen it through the eyes of faith. And with that kind of faith, Elisha called upon the Lord to strike them with blindness. And so the servant and Elisha went out to the Syrian army, and those people could not see. And they led them away into the hands of the Israelite king, and he took control of them. That's an amazing story. Elisha took captive the entire Syrian army, and it was because he believed in God's power, even though nobody else except he and his servant could see it. You know, it's something like seeing is really not believing. I think about the words of the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, where he wrote, we walk by faith and not by sight. That evidently is what they were doing. Let me ask us today, can you imagine God's powerful armies surrounding you like a hedge of protection? We may not realize it, and certainly we cannot actually see it with the eyes God has entrusted to us, but we can know that, as God's children, His angel armies are surrounding us all the time. His armies are doing battle for us against the powerful forces of evil in this world. We know they are there. All kinds of bad things are happening in this world. Satan is at work in this world, and he has his army of angels, as well, trying to inflict bad things into our life, trying to tempt us to move in a different direction than to walk with the Lord. The Apostle Paul even stated, in Ephesians chapter 6, “Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities of this world.” In that passage, Paul identifies Satan as the prince of this world, and our battle is against him and those spiritual forces. And, you know, oftentimes our focus is on people that we know, perhaps love, perhaps with whom we attend church services. We battle, we have conflict with them, and Paul says, no, that's the wrong battle. Your battle is to be against those unseen forces of evil that tempt us to do that which is not right. But when it comes to doing battle against Satan and his evil influence, we know that God is on our side. Yes, there are dangers and bad things surrounding us on a regular basis. There are problems which are waiting to happen. And yet God's angels are continually at work in your life and in mine. They are working in ways and through people and in situations we cannot even imagine, and oftentimes in ways that we are never going to see with our own eyes. But we trust God to take care of us. We trust God to provide when we cannot see a way for ourselves. We know that God is at work through His army of angels to lead us in the right way, to protect us from the bad things of this world. The writer of Hebrews chapter 1, in finishing up that chapter, wrote these words. He writes about the ministering angels being sent to serve those who are to obtain salvation. That's encouraging, isn't it!! For those of us who have been called by God to be a part of His family, who have received that call, who have accepted that salvation and responded to it, God says, “I'm going to protect you. I'm going to have some ministering angels, serving you in ways you may not see nor understand, because you are in My family. You're part of Me and I love you so very much.” You know, God's presence in our lives is as real today as it was in the days of Elisha, and we are to live with faith that is based upon the Lord and what He is doing on our behalf, even though we may not actually see with our own eyes what is happening. And that is the kind of faith that God entrusts to us. That is the kind of faith that we rely upon, we depend upon, and we try to develop and make it grow on a regular basis. We cannot limit ourselves only to what we can see with our natural eyes. When the problems and uncertainties of life press in hard and we find ourselves at the end of our rope, we demonstrate our faith in God. Well, that's the first story. The second story is found in the New Testament part of the Bible, and it takes place during Jesus’ ministry here upon this earth. We know that He had a number of disciples following with Him, and He taught them, He encouraged them. He allowed them to do some of the same things He was doing. But on this particular occasion, in Mark chapter 8, they were traveling on the northern slopes of the Sea of Galilee. Many people were there, and Jesus and His disciples were proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom. They were feeding those who were hungry. Jesus was healing those who were sick and who had problems. Perhaps He was even raising people from the dead. Lots of things were going on! In the first part of that chapter we find that some 4000 people were fed because they were hungry. And soon after that, later on in the 4th chapter, we find this story beginning with verse 22. <“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When He had spit on the man’s eyes and put His hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”> This is the only time in Scripture when Jesus asks, while performing a miracle, what do you see? Or, how is it going? Do you see what's happening in this miracle? Well, some people say, as Jesus did that miracle and He asked that question, He evidently messed up. He did not perform the miracle correctly the first time and so He had to repeat it. That's why He put His hands on the man's eyes the second time. I don't believe that's the case at all. Jesus never messed up. He always did the right thing. He always made the right decision. He was perfect in all that He said and did. Well, here's the background to the story. The miracle took place in a town or village called Bethsaida, as we just read, Bethsaida was a fishing village right on the northern slopes of the Galilean Sea. There were all kinds of bad things that took place there. The life of a fisherman, no doubt was rough. It was difficult. It was a hard place to live, a hard place for people to grow up. But there are other things that happened in that area. The Bible recounts the story of Jesus walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee and calming a great storm while the disciples were nearby. It was also near this place where Jesus fed the multitude of people some 5000 men with just a few loaves of bread and some fish, that's recorded in Luke chapter 9. But that was simply not a good place to live. Evil people lived there. Bad things took place. In fact, in Matthew chapter 11, we notice that Jesus could not even do mighty works there; and the reason was because the people were evil. They did not accept Jesus. They did not believe He was the Son of God and they did not receive the works nor the teaching He offered. And so on this occasion, when Jesus came into the village, He encountered a blind man. The blind man begged Jesus to open up his eyes so that he could see. And we notice, the first thing Jesus did was to lead the man outside of that village. Once he was there, Jesus then spit on the man's eyes. The Bible doesn't tell us why He did that. I don't know why He did that; quite unusual, but that's what He did. And I cannot, in my wildest imagination, can imagine any kind of an eye doctor doing that to treat people today. We wouldn't stand for it, would we? Certainly, things are much different. Yet, Jesus knew what He was doing. He did it for a reason. But what is of more significance, however, is the fact that Jesus took the man out of the village, Bethsaida, before He performed that miracle. And the reason seems to be, He had to get the man out of the town. Jesus did not want the evil influence of that community to affect this blind man anymore. And even though the man was out of the town, the town was not yet out of the man. And as a result, when Jesus asked him, “What do you see,” the man said, “I see people walking around, but they look like trees.” That represents an incomplete faith. It was only a partial faith when he saw the people walking like trees. His faith was not as complete as it needed to be. And here's the deal. The man had to get rid of his unbelief before he could see properly; and once that was done, then the man could see completely. His faith was developing. And he can be credited for having faith by approaching Jesus in the first place. There is the first sign of his faith. His sight was beginning to grow and process as he saw something, but it wasn't yet complete, but it was only the start of the process of getting to where his faith in Jesus Christ needed to be. Well, after the miracle had taken place, Jesus told the man, “Do not go back into that city.” Don't go back into the village of Bethsaida. He wanted him to find another place to live. Oh, the evil environment of Bethsaida was not the place he needed to be if he wanted his faith in Jesus Christ to grow; so Jesus told him to make his home somewhere else. Where he was living was not good for his new found faith in the Lord. He needed to find a different place away from that evil influence. Likewise, in our walk of faith with the Lord, sometimes we encounter people or situations that challenge our faith. They are not good for us. They tempt us to move away from the Lord instead of drawing closer to the Lord. In fact, there may be many things in the environment in which we live that prevent us from growing in our faith. And it is important for us to understand that, and to eliminate those temptations, those problems, those people, whatever it might be, that keep us from growing up in Jesus Christ. We may even need to take some drastic measures to stay away from such influences because we recognize they will destroy our faith in God. Yes, there may be times when we too need to get out of an evil environment in order for our faith to be strong and complete. Oh, many of us have come to faith in Jesus Christ. We have acted upon the faith with obedience, and we are following Him as one of His disciples; and that's a great thing, and we are to continue to pursue Jesus. But hopefully our faith in the Lord is a progression, like this man's faith. And we can never believe we have a full measure of faith and that there is no room for us to grow in our spiritual journey. Yes, the Lord wants us to continually grow in our faith, and that takes time. That takes effort. That takes experience. Yes, we appreciate the faith we have developed over the years and we continually want to bring it to completion; and so we keep on walking with the Lord. In other words, we take the faith God entrusts to us and we seek to make it grow, every day. Today, we looked at two stories, two examples of people who possessed a measure of faith; but their faith needed to grow. It needed to be developed and experienced. And these are two messages about living with the faith God has already instilled in the lives of His children. They also remind us of the importance to continue to trust God to help our faith grow. And there are many other such stories, very similar to this, which are found throughout God's Word. You know, maybe today you see yourself in one or perhaps even both of these stories. You might have a great measure of faith in the Lord. That's great! I'm glad you do. But yet it may not be complete. It may not be perfected, and you need to continue to grow that faith. And therein lies the question: How do we exercise the faith that we have, and how do we look for experience to grow closer in our walk with the One who has saved us? I would encourage all of us, today, to allow the faith that we have in Jesus Christ to make a difference in our lives. I would encourage us to allow our faith to come alive and to be at the very center, at the root, of who we are in our daily walk with the One who has brought to us salvation through His son, Jesus.

**VIDEO CLIP

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed an extra measure of faith? It appears that you are facing some insurmountable odds and you don't know how to overcome them. And you wonder, where is my faith? It's not strong enough to handle what is before me. And you're struggling with how to overcome those odds. You look at your situation. You think there is no way that I can get out of this. And that might especially happen when we face some uncertain health challenges. And we don't know what's going to happen with our health, and that causes a great deal of concern. The whole matter of faith is to believe what we cannot see. Oh, it's easy to put our faith and trust in something we can see and that which we do know and is tangible. But yet God calls upon us to put our faith in Him, the One we cannot see. And when we do that, it works out. We don't have to worry. All of the fret and the anxiety and the concerns that we have can go away because our faith is in a God whom we cannot see. But we know He is there and He provides for us. He has solutions. He has options. And the main thing is that we turn to Him in times of uncertainty. We put in our faith in God. Even though we cannot see Him, we know He is there. We see the evidence of the existence of God all around us. We know how He has helped and provided for us in the past. And so when we think we just can't go on any further, we know that God is there and we put our faith in the unseen God; but then we see the results of how He takes care of us. That's what I would encourage you to do today.

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for joining us for today's broadcast on “Key to the Kingdom.” I trust this message has reminded us that, indeed, seeing is not believing, when it comes to putting our faith in the Lord. If you would like to view or to listen to this message again, it is available on our website in a variety of formats. I invite you to go to keytothekingdom.com for this and other messages which might be of interest. On the website you will also find short two minute and three minute devotional thoughts. They are designed to offer a word of encouragement as you grow in your walk with the Lord. Other Bible lessons and studies may also prove beneficial, and I encourage you to look at those which might be of interest. An app is also available to download onto your smart phone. And all of these media options are free and easily accessible. Thank you again for joining us for today's broadcast. It has been our pleasure to share it with you. I trust you will tune in again next time, as we continue to study the Bible on "Key to the Kingdom."