Slaying the Giant of Doubt

It should not surprise us to discover that in the Bible, there were many people who doubted.

If you read through the Psalms, or you examine the lives of men like Job or Solomon, particularly as he wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, or even in reading of the Psalms of David, you find out that great men and women often went through times of doubt. When you come to the New Testament, one of the most prominent characters at the beginning of the New Testament Scripture is a man by the name of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist, was a man who, on one occasion, expressed a very serious doubt. He sent two messengers to Jesus to ask him this question recorded in Matthew 11:3. He said, "Are you the coming one, or do we look for another"? In other words, "Jesus, are You the Messiah or should I keep looking"? why would that matter? What is the importance of that question? The importance of the question is wrapped up in the fact of the identity of John the Baptist. Jesus said of John the Baptist, that he was the greatest of all of the men born to women. And when you put that together with the fact that just a few days before this, John had been involved in the baptism of Jesus, and in Matthew 3:17 while he was baptizing the Lord Jesus, God Almighty spoke from heaven and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". And yet, here's John saying, "Lord, are you the one or should we keep waiting for somebody else"? Doubts are normal experiences, even for great Christians. I think that's especially true for those of us who grow up in Christian homes. Sometimes we wonder if we're truly Christians, or if we're just conditioned to be who we are. And so, we wrestle with these questions. And if we're not careful, we begin to think that maybe our doubts are some sort of a sickness, or maybe it's sin. I want to tell you that doubting is not sin. Some of the greatest people who ever lived, some of the great people of the Bible were people who experienced serious doubts. And I'm convinced that God respects the probing questions of his children, that he delights when we don't just take things on the surface, but when we go beyond the surface to find the answers that are available. So, then doubt is the act of questioning. It is uncertainty. It is the humility of a mind asking questions and seeking real solutions, and there is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Perhaps it's best summarized this way, doubt asks the sincere questions, unbelief won't hear the answers. So, if you struggle sometimes with questions about your faith or about your life as a Christian, let me just encourage you to relax a little bit and understand that we all go through periods of doubt. And in order to illustrate the principles of doubt, I would like to turn your attention to the 20th chapter of John's gospel where we have the record of a doubter. In fact, with tongue in cheek without doubt, he is the greatest doubter in the Bible. His name is Thomas. Also known as Thomas Didymus (the twin) He's one of the Lord's disciples. He had a lot of questions. He was a person who was very melancholy in his spirit. If he were living today, we would say he was a pessimist. Thomas was that kind of a personality from what we can gather in the references made to him in the Scripture. For instance, on one occasion when Jesus had indicated he wanted to go be near his friend, Lazarus, who was very sick and was dying, when Jesus wanted to go back to Bethany, which was just two miles from Jerusalem, here was Thomas's take on it all.

John 11:16 (NKJV)

Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

Another time… You know, in the upper room, Jesus was trying to prepare the disciples for his departure and he said, "And where I go you know, and the way you know". And Thomas was the first one to speak up. He said, "Lord, we don't know where you're going, how in the world can we know the way"? You kind of get a little bit of a picture of this guy. He's a very questioning person, a probing personality to try to find the answers. Now, the thing I want you to understand is that Thomas was not without faith. He was not an unbeliever. He had walked with the disciples, he had seen all the miracles that Jesus did, he had heard the Lord's predictions about his death, burial, and resurrection. And Thomas had many facts to back up his faith, and yet he doubted. As we examine his doubt, we can begin to see some of the things that caused us to doubt because he is no different than we are. Notice, first of all, that doubt develops in isolation.

I. Doubt develops in isolation.

When we are isolated, when we're the only ones, if we can't find anyone else who believes as we believe about God, sometimes the doubts can come. If you go back to John the Baptist for a moment, it's interesting, when John the Baptist sent his messengers up to Jesus to find out if he was the Messiah, you know where he was when he sent that message? He was isolated from the rest of his friends. He was in prison left alone to think about, "You know what? Is this really Jesus or is this really the Messiah"? Whenever we're struggling with doubt, it's always good to take our emotional temperature. Doubt can flourish during times of isolation. C.S. Lewis, the great English writer, said that he struggled seriously with doubt when he would go on trips and find himself alone in hotel rooms, isolated from his family and from his friends. That's when he struggled most with his doubts.

Next, I want you to notice as you read the Scripture in John chapter 20 that doubt demands evidence.

II. Doubt demands evidence.

John 20:25 (NKJV)

The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

Now remember, this was the Thomas who had warned the other disciples not to go to Jerusalem, remember? He said, "Don't go down there because we'll all end up dying with Jesus". And now the worst has happened, Jesus has died. And Thomas isn't convinced that he's come back from the grave by any means. He's not convinced. And when he gets together finally with the disciples and they say, "We saw the Lord, he's back from the grave," Thomas said, "You know what? I don't know that I believe that. In fact, unless I can see it for myself, unless I can examine the evidence myself, I'm not going to believe". I really have to take my hat off to Thomas, at least he was honest and he said what was in his heart, and he began to ask for the evidence that he needed. And I'm convinced, as we'll see in a few moments, that when we seriously and sincerely seek for the answers to our questions, God will meet us at the point of our need, amen? He will.

And that brings us to the third thing that doubt draws us back to Christ.

III. Doubt draws us back to Christ.

In the first meeting when Jesus came into that room, Thomas wasn't there, but it is interesting that eight days later, those same disciples got together and this time, Thomas was with them.

John 20:26–29 (NKJV)

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Thomas didn't sit around and argue with the disciples about whether Jesus had come back from the grave, he just determined, "The next time they get together, I'm gonna be with them. And if Jesus comes back, I'm gonna check this out for myself". That's what happened to Thomas. In his desire to find evidence, he found the living Lord. Let me suggest, fourthly, that doubts have the potential to deepen your faith.

IV. Doubt deepens your faith.

It is interesting that Thomas never would have had the opportunity to see Jesus as He saw him, had he not doubted. Later on, I can imagine someone coming up to Thomas and saying, "Thomas, do you believe that Jesus Christ came back from the grave"? And Thomas would say, "You know what? I had my hands on his body. I put my hand in the side where the spear went. I looked right smack into the nail prints in his hands, and I put my fingers in there and saw". How did Thomas get that unparalleled opportunity? Because he doubted and he followed his doubts through to their solutions.

Use those doubts to draw closer to God, not run from him. Let those doubts deepen your relationship, not drive you away. Finally, the last thing I want you to know as you face doubts is that doubts can define your faith.

V. Doubt defines your faith.

Well, what that means is that when we follow a doubt all the way through to the resolution of it in our heart, that gives us the ability to say like Thomas said when he finally saw the Lord, and touched his body, and saw the nail prints, and put his hand in his side, you remember what Thomas said? One of the greatest statements He said, "My Lord, and my God". I wish I could have been there for that moment when the doubts of Thomas were once and for all put away. He sought for the answer. And when he finally stood in the presence of the Lord Jesus, put his hands on his body and saw the nail prints and the side wound, it suddenly hit him, So, how do you fight the giant of doubt? Let me just give you four or five practical things.

How to Disarm Your Doubts:

A. Admit your doubts personally.

First of all, you need to admit your doubts personally. You know, it's not very much fun to go to a testimony meeting when everybody else is standing up, saying, "You know, I'm all excited about what God's doing in my life. And, you know, God is great, and life is great. Witnessing is great. My prayer life is great". And you're sitting back there with doubts. You don't feel very good about standing up and saying, "You know, well, let me give you my testimony tonight. My testimony is I really question God. I really doubt God". Nobody's gonna say amen, and they're gonna look at you and some of the glow will come off of your halo, I promise you. But that's where it starts, isn't it? Doubts that are buried often come back in unbelief, but doubts that are dealt with will lead you to a greater and stronger relationship with Almighty God. The first thing you need to do, if you're struggling with doubts, is admit that to yourself and to God, "I've got some doubts".

If I ask my son to do something, and he doesn’t understand why, would I rather him stay confused and walk away angry or would I rather him say, “ok Dad, I’ll do what you say, but honestly I don’t understand why, and it just doesn’t make sense to me. Can we talk about this?”

Man, as a Father, I would love that!

God is the same way. He wants to us to ask, and understand, and grow. And we may ultimately never really understand or agree even, but we worked it out, and we stay close and keep talking and praying and struggling together. the other way creates…isolation, bitterness, unbelief, no trust.

B. Articulate your doubts clearly.

Why do you doubt? What is your doubt? And if we don't crystallize our thinking and articulate what's really going on in our lives, we will allow doubt itself, without ever defining it, to destroy us. If you just sit down for a moment and say, "I've got these doubts," and you begin to crystallize them, and write them down, and articulate them, the more clearly you can articulate your doubts, the easier it will be for you deal with them.

Sometimes we have just a knee jerk emotional response, and it helps to take a deep breath and think and maybe search the scripture, write down what it is that we are doubting. It may take a while. It’s ok.

C. Acknowledge your doubts prayerfully.

Here's the most important thing I want to say today based upon the Scriptures, and I want to put it up on the screen so you won't miss it. Here's what you do with doubts,

"Turn your doubts into questions. Turn your questions to prayers, and turn your prayers to God".

You say, "You mean I'm supposed to tell God that I doubt him? Won't I get zapped"? No, you won't get zapped. I'll tell you what, if you read the Scriptures, you'll find out that many of the people whose lives are described in the Word of God, they doubted. They had questions! God had told Abraham and Sarah they were gonna have a son, and they were both pushing a hundred. I mean, that could cause you to doubt, could it not? But we're not talking about just anybody saying this. This was Almighty God saying this. “Is anything too hard for God? “ Sarah not only doubted kids, she laughed at God. When God told her she was gonna have a baby, she laughed out loud and she didn't think God was listening.

Lord, here’s my doubt, let me ask you this question? And I turn that into a prayer. Help me understand Lord! I want to be obedient. And then you need to analyze the scripture diligently.

D. Analyze the scripture diligently.

I guarantee you, someone in the Bible went through something similar. What did they do right? What did they do wrong? How did God work with them? Just understand that if God's put a doubt in your heart, it's probably a little motivational program to get you going in a study so that you can learn something you didn't know. Remember, God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. He wants us to work this out! Dig in.

E. Accept limitations humbly.

And then, I want to be real careful here, but let me just say this, you need to accept limitations humbly. And I want to talk about two limitations that you need to accept.

*Accept your own limitations.

First of all, accept your own. You know what? You're probably not the smartest person who ever lived, I know I'm not. And there's a lot of stuff I don't understand. The more I study, I think I'm just now finding out how much I don't know. And we waste so much time and energy sometimes, trying to “make sense” of everything. Sometime I try to explain things to my dog. And she just gives me that sideways head turn! What the heck are you doing? Isn’t it amazing that we think sometimes that God doesn’t make sense?! As if we are on the same level or wavelength! We look like that dog’s head turning!

And we aren’t animals, but you get the point. We aren’t God. We are limited in our understanding!

*Accept the Bible’s limitations.

But let me give you one other, and this was one I'm really frightened because I'm afraid someone's gonna misunderstand this. You need, you need to also accept the limitations of the Bible. Whoa, I bet you can't believe I said that. The Bible has all the truth that you need to know, but it doesn't have all the truth that there is. There are a lot of things the Bible doesn't address, a lot of things the Bible doesn't touch on. Wherever the Bible touches on anything, it's always true. But the Bible doesn't give you all the answers to every specific question you may want to ask. And if you don't understand that, you may say, "Well, I'm a Bible Christian and I went to the Bible, and it doesn't have the answer". There are some things the Bible's not supposed to have the answer to. But listen to me carefully. When you get all done with that, you need to realize this, that all truth is still God's truth. If it's true, it's from God. He may just not have put it down in the Word of God as a part of the revelation he wants to give to us. we can get discouraged because, someone will come and say, "Well, what’s the Bible say about this"? Well, there'll be general principles in the Bible about that, but there won't be specific answers 'cause that information's not there.

*Accept the complexity of God’s plans.

Finally, last but not least, you need to adjust to the complexity of the world. This goes right along with accepting our limitations, How many of you know this world is really complex? And God has plans we can’t even begin to understand. Think about how detailed and crazy God’s plan is JUST for your life. Now, think about everyone in this room, and how complex it would be to visually see all these plans! Then think of the whole church, and the city, and the world. Very complex! We're finite beings, and we cannot always understand God's ways.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NKJV

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

I have a friend named Alex. I love his story because it’s a great example of how God works things out in such crazy ways. His family is from Colombia. They came to the US when he was a baby. He was in my youth group back in the 90’s! He came to Texarkana because his Dad got put in FCI prison. So imagine, if you were him for a moment. You are a kid, everything is going great. Your dad is arrested, put in prison. You move to a strange town, make new friends. He started at PG elementary. I met him in 8th grade. He came to church, he was lost. He ran with a wild crowd. He got saved at our youth camp I think. He moved away after high school. He really started seeking the Lord, and was in college somewhere else and really grew into a very committed Christian. Several years later, he moved to Costa Rica. So he’s at a church party somewhere, and he sees this girl. Finds out she is American and she’s a Christian. He gets to know her, and really wants to ask her out. He goes over and talk to her and they are really hitting it off. He says, so where are you from in the states? She says, Texas. He says no way! Me too! Where in Texas. Oh it’s a little town, you’ve never heard of it. Try me! It’s a small town in east Texas on the border with Arkansas, called Texarkana. Is this unreal??!! He about falls out of his chair! Me too!! She doesn’t believe him! She thinks he’s being cute! No really, he finds a way to prove it, tells her things about the town etc… So they are now just glued to each other! He said where did you go to school, she said Arkansas high. I went to PGHS. She said well I went to PG when I was in elementary. They figured out as they talked, they were the same age, in the same grade, and they later found a yearbook, and they were one classroom away from each other in 1st grade!! They fell in love and got married and now have a beautiful family and live in Costa Rica.

Isn’t that amazing. Now imagine trying to explain to that little child, your dad is going to prison, you’re moving, new school, new life, but your going to find Jesus in Texarkana, and I’m going to put you in school with your wife, who you won’t meet for another 20 years but just hang in there. God’s plans are complex. And we may never know all the reasons. And our doubts will continue to come as long as we’re alive.

And we may say: Lord, I don't understand all of this. I know it's you, but I'm just gonna fall in line with where you're going. Along the way, if you want to give me some more understanding, that'll be great. But I know it's you. I know who you are. You're an awesome God, I love you. I want to worship you. And what I don't understand I will worship, You may never know the full answer, but your questions and your doubts will lead you to a deeper understanding of what you do know And walking with God, and walking through doubts, you come to know him better. And I trust you can come at last to the place where Thomas did and say, "My Lord, and my God".