I Believe, But Sometimes I Have Doubts is a sermon teaching us to overcome doubt by reflecting on how God helped in our lives, the things He has done, and the promises He kept. We are assured by His promises and what we have witnessed.

Key verses:
Matthew 11:1-19
Isaiah 35:4-6
Isaiah 61:1-2
Malachi 3:1
Malachi 4:5-6

Having Doubts in Our Life

Take your Bible if you would and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11. As we often do, I want you to look at one verse with me, well, let’s look at two, verses two and three to begin with. We’re eventually going to come back and look at verses 1-19.

Matthew 11:2: “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,”

Matthew 11:3: “And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”

John the Baptist, one of the greatest preachers who ever lived. Later on in this chapter, Jesus said John was the greatest man who ever lived up to that point. John had a doubt. He was near the end of his life. He spent his entire life living to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, Christ the Savior. Now he’s in prison and he knows he will never get out of prison. He knows that his life is going to be taken. He’s beginning to wonder, “Was I right?” And he had some doubts.

Now, here’s what I want you to understand. If a great man of faith like John the Baptist could have doubts, you and I can have doubts. We can. So, what do you do about it? How do you overcome the doubts in your life? Doubts about being saved, maybe doubts about scripture being true, maybe doubts about other things.

Is God really working in my life? Is He really hearing my prayers? Is He really answering? Is He really using me? We can have doubts. There is a way to resolve doubts and we’re going to look at that this evening. So, tonight I want to talk to you about: I believe, but sometimes I have doubts.

Your God Will

I want to read to you from Isaiah and a couple of other Old Testament prophets. I’m actually not going to read you the verses but I’m just going to give you the references and tell you what they’re about. I wouldn’t have you go and look at them, turn the pages, it would take a while to do that. So, for sake of time, I’m just going to give you the reference and tell you what’s in those verses, and then you can look at them later if you want to jot them down.

The first one is Isaiah 35:4-6. In that passage, Isaiah says, “Your God will” and then he lists things that your God will do. And what he is saying there, it is a prophetic passage, and Isaiah is saying this is what the Messiah, or the Savior, the Christ, will do when He comes. This is what He’s going to do. Isaiah 35:4-6, this is what He will do, verse 4:

Isaiah 35:4: “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.”

“Your God will save you.” He will. He’ll save your soul. He’ll forgive your sins and give you a home in Heaven forever.

Isaiah 35:5: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”

In verse five, Isaiah says He will open the eyes of the blind and the deaf shall hear.

Isaiah 35:6: “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”

Verse six, he says the lame shall leap and the dumb shall sing. Now that’s saying that is what your God, your Messiah, your Savior, will do, Isaiah 35:4-6.

In Isaiah 61:1-2, he says when the Messiah comes, He will do these things. When the Christ, the Savior comes, here’s what He’s going to do. He will preach good tidings, of good news, and we told you so many times good tidings, good news, means Gospel. He’ll preach the Gospel to the meek. He’ll bind up the broken-hearted, He’ll liberate the captives, He’ll open the prison doors, He’ll preach judgment on the wicked, and comfort those who mourn.

Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;”

Isaiah 61:2: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”

That’s what the Messiah will do, Isaiah 61:1-2.

The Messenger

Then in Malachi 3:1, Malachi tells us that a messenger, a prophet, will come to prepare the way of the Lord and just before the Lord himself comes, this messenger or this prophet will come and prepare the way. And then the Messiah and Savior will come.

Malachi 3:1: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”

That’s Malachi 3:1.

Malachi 4:5: “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Malachi 4:6: “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

In Malachi 4:5-6, the name of that messenger or prophet is revealed. It’s Elijah. Now, Elijah was the one taken up into Heaven without dying. And the prophecy here is that Elijah will come again. And we shared this with you many times – that is a prophecy still believed among the Jewish people. Not all of them of course but many of them.

At Passover time, they set the Passover table and always place an extra chair and place setting for Elijah, and they set a cup there for Elijah. They expect Elijah to come. At some point during the Passover Sedar, the father of the family will say to the youngest son present to look and see if Elijah is present and he’ll get up and open the front door to look if Elijah is coming. Why? Because they expect Elijah to come before the Messiah comes. Now, again, do all Jewish people do that? Certainly not. But those who believe, they do that. Those who believe the Messiah is coming. Malachi 4:5-6, Elijah will come before the day of the Lord.

We just, last week or so, did a message on the day of the Lord, and Elijah will come before the day of the Lord. He’ll come before the day of the Savior. He’ll come before that great day of the Lord’s judgment. Elijah is going to come.

Now, the day and time when Jesus walked this earth was, according to prophecy, the day and time in which Messiah would come. What do you mean according to prophecy? Daniel told us down to the year when Messiah would come and that’s when He came.

And so, one came just before Jesus to prepare the way of the Lord and that was John the Baptist. That’s what he did, and he dedicated his whole life to that. Like no other man that I know of, he lived a life of singleness of purpose. He lived his life for one thing and that one thing was to prepare the way of the Lord, to get people ready for the coming of the Messiah.

And then, one came in the spirit and power of Elijah. It wasn’t the original Elijah, but he came in the spirit of Elijah. Remember in the story when Elijah was taken up, how Elisha asked for a double portion of the spirit that was upon Elijah? Do you remember that? Alright, that same spirit. What spirit was that? That’s the Holy Spirit. And that same Spirit was in John the Baptist. He came in the Spirit and power of Elijah before Jesus came.

John and Jesus are cousins. John is six months older. “How do you know that?” I read Luke chapter one and it is very evident there. They are cousins and John the Baptist is six months older. He begins his ministry before Jesus begins His ministry, and he is preparing people to come. Now, that’s all background to what we are going to read here in Matthew chapter 11.

John’s Question

So, Matthew chapter 11, let’s look at verse one now. We read verses two and three a moment ago. Let’s look at verse one.  And John has a question, let’s look at it, chapter 11 verse1:

Matthew 11:1: “And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.”

Now, what does it mean when it says, “made an end of commanding his twelve disciples”? You go back to chapter 10. Jesus called the 12 disciples and He sent them out on missions themselves for them to preach and teach about the Messiah. He gave them the power to do miracles and so forth.

If you want a list of the 12 apostles, you’ll find it in Matthew chapter 10. What were the names? All 12 of them are there, Matthew 10. Jesus is going to send them out again. So, it’s saying, “when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.” – the cities of the region there. Verse two we read a little bit ago.

Matthew 11:2: “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,”

“Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ” – what was John doing in prison? Well, he was put in prison for preaching. He had been preaching to King Herod’s sin. King Herod was a respected man in some ways and a hated and despised man in other ways. Why? Because He was a wicked man. Why was he respected? Because he had done some tremendous things for the country. So, he is a pretty good politician as far as politicians go but he was not a good man, and the people knew that.

Herod had his own brother put to death so that he could have his brother’s wife. And John, in his preaching, spoke out against that. And he called Herod an adulterer. Herod’s wife who had been his brother’s wife said, “You’re the king, I want you to do something about that.” So, he did. He had John arrested and put in prison.

And then you may remember the story. He had a big banquet where he wanted to show off to all his friends and he had his wife’s daughter, his stepdaughter, do a dance for them and at the end of the dance, it says Herod was very pleased and he said, “Ask me what you want. I’ll give you anything to the half of the kingdom. Ask.” She said, “I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” Herod gave her that.

John knew that his time was short. He knew he would never get out of that prison cell. He knew his day was coming. So, he’s been in prison for preaching against Herod’s sin. But he had heard the works of Jesus.

Now, did John and Jesus know each other? They did. They didn’t actually grow up together. We said they were cousins. They were but didn’t live in the same town growing up. So, they didn’t actually grow up together, but they knew each other, and John had baptized Jesus.

And you’ll remember the story in John chapter one where John is out with his disciples and Jesus comes by and he says, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” But now, some time has passed, and John hears what Jesus has been doing. When he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” and baptized Jesus, he was indeed convinced that Jesus was the Messiah.

But Jesus had not brought in the kingdom yet and John was not out preaching anymore. He’s sitting in a jail cell and awaiting his execution. And he is beginning to wonder, “Have I been right all these years? Have I given my life doing what God told me to do? And now it comes down to this, prison and death?”

He had seen others rise up and call themselves the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ. He’s beginning to wonder, “I thought this was the Christ. I thought this was our Savior, but why am I here? If He is really the Savior, if He is really the King, the Son of David, why aren’t the Romans gone? Why is wicked Herod still on the throne? Why am I about to die in prison?”

He was at a very low point in his life. Just before he died, he needed some assurance. He had some doubts and he needed to be certain. His question is sincere, and I don’t criticize John for this, not at all. I’ve gone through doubts. I wish I could tell you only once. I had a doubt one time and never had another doubt in my life. I wish that was true, it isn’t.

I’ll tell you a major time that I had a doubt. I had been a Christian, I had been born again for just about a year, a little over a year and I began to have a doubt about my salvation. “Now, why would you doubt your salvation?” Well, same reason most people doubt their salvation. I was doing some things I knew a Christian shouldn’t do. I had not gone back to my old way of living. I hadn’t gone that far but my living wasn’t right, and I knew it and I had some doubts.

I had been memorizing some verses 1 Corinthians 15:4, and then I was in a revival service. I wasn’t preaching, I was sitting in the pew and the evangelist, Dr. Monroe Parker – later he and I became close friends, he preached here many times, a great man of God but he was preaching on the cross. In his sermon he discovered the cross so vividly that you could, just from his description of it, you could see it. He had a wonderful gift for that. I’m telling you if that man preached on Heaven, you felt like you were there. If he preached on Hell, you could feel the heat. I’m not exaggerating, folks. I mean he had this wonderful gift I wish I had it. I do not.

But as he described the cross, I could see it. And I put that together with 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, that Pete shared this morning, how that Christ died for our sins. He rose again the third day according to the scripture. I said, “That’s it.” No doubt about it, I never doubted salvation again. Never again.

Do I have doubts about other things? Sure, but not about salvation. Not at all. So, we all could come to some points in our life where we have doubt. And Jesus is going to answer John’s question. Look again at the question:

Matthew 11:2: “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,”

Matthew 11:3: “And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”

[Paraphrasing] “I thought you were the one. I thought you were the Savior. I still think so, I want to believe so. Are you really? Or do we need to look for somebody else to come?”

Jesus’ Answer for Doubt

Jesus’ answer to John will help you if you have doubts. Watch carefully.

Matthew 11:4: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:”

Now, John had heard before, he had seen some things himself. He had heard before the things that Jesus taught, things Jesus did. But He says, “Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see.” In verse five, He begins a list. Let’s look at it. Here are the things that you hear and see:

Matthew 11:5: “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

“The blind receive their sight” – go tell John that blind people are receiving their sight. “And the lame walk” – those who had never walked, those who lost the ability to walk, they were walking because Jesus came. “The lepers are cleansed,” – the lepers are never cleansed. When you had leprosy in those days, it was fatal. Nobody ever recovered from it. But the lepers were cleansed. “And the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Matthew 11:6: “And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

Now, that is Jesus’ answer to John’s question [paraphrasing], “Are you the one who should come? Or do we look for another? In need to be sure, I need to know.” Jesus said the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised.

Those are the very deeds that Isaiah prophesied that God, the Savior, the Messiah would do when He came, Isaiah 35:3-6. It is exactly what the Messiah was supposed to do. And Isaiah 61, the poor would have the Gospel preached to them. Jesus was doing the things exactly what Messiah would do. John knew the scriptures. This assures John.

So, where does he get this assurance? Because he knows that the prophecies have been fulfilled. He knows that God has done what He said He would do. He is witness to it and others are witnesses to it and it is confirmed in his heart and mind. Look at verse six:

Matthew 11:6: “And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

There are those who are offended by Jesus. Those who don’t accept Him because they are offended by Him. And then there are those who do accept Him. But today, many are offended by Jesus.

I’ve said this before so many times I couldn’t count it. But you can go out here in public and go anywhere you want to, you can go to a public school, or you could go to a public courthouse, or you could go wherever you want to, you could stand out on the corner and talk about Muhammed all day long if you want to and nobody’s going to say a word to you. Nobody’s going to stop you. If you want to stand down here at the street corner and talk about Buddha, everybody is fine with that. You drive down to City Hall and try to talk about Jesus and see what happens to you.

See, they’re not offended in Muhammed, they’re not offended in Buddha, they’re offended in Jesus. Why? Because Jesus isn’t like Muhammed and Buddha. “Oh yes, they are founders of great world religions.” No, they’re not. Jesus isn’t the founder of a great world religion. Christianity is not a belief in a religion. Christianity is a belief in a person, Jesus Christ. I’ll give you another way they are different. Jesus is still alive.

But there are those who are offended in Him. And so, it says:

Matthew 11:7: “And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?”

He [Jesus] didn’t go to John to assure him, He sent the messengers back – the two disciples that John sent – sent them back with the message [paraphrased], “Tell John what you’ve seen and heard.”

Now, He’s going to talk to the people about John. And He said concerning John, “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?” What does that mean a reed shaken with the wind? You can make things with reeds, you can actually make a flute out of a reed, and sometimes, if the reed has an open top and the wind can blow across it, it may make a pleasant sound.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that, I have. The air blows across a reed shaken in the wind, it can make a pleasant sound, no real melody or music to it. It may even be a pleasant sight but there’s no real message prepared. You just hear this nice sound.

So, Jesus is saying, “Is that what you went out to hear? When John was preaching in the wilderness, did you just go out there to hear a nice sound?”

Matthew 11:8: “But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.”

Jesus asks [paraphrasing], “Did you expect to see a man in king’s robes? Is that what you thought you’d see when you went out to hear John preach?” John wore camelhair clothing. He would not have been the winner of the best dressed man in town award.

I heard one great preacher say “You know, in most of our churches and Christian colleges today, if John came on campus, they wouldn’t have let him preach – the way he was dressed, the way he looked, they wouldn’t let him preach.

Matthew 11:9: “But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.”

Matthew 11:10: “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”

Malachi 3:1 – this is the one Malachi wrote about more than 400 years prior to John’s coming. John lived with singleness of purpose. Wholly dedicated to the Lord. Wholly dedicated to the Lord’s work. Notice what Jesus says next.

Matthew 11:11: “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

What a testimony, what a testimony. He said up until this point in time there’s never been a greater man than John the Baptist. Think about that. Earth at this point was thousands of years old. There have been lots of men on the planet. Jesus says there’s not a better man than John the Baptist has lived up to this point in history. “Why do you keep saying ‘up to this point’?”

The Kingdom of Heaven

Well, let’s go on in verse 11, start again:

Matthew 11:11: “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Wow, that’s saying something, isn’t it? “Kingdom of heaven” is a term – I’ll help you with a study in your Bible – “kingdom of heaven” is a term you will only find in the Gospel of Matthew. In other books, you’ll see “kingdom of God” and other phrases similar to that. You’ll see “the kingdom” or “thy kingdom” and things like that but you will only see the phrase “kingdom of heaven” in the Gospel of Matthew. And there’s a reason for that.

The Gospel of Matthew was written to the people of Israel to show them that their Messiah had come. The kingdom of heaven refers to the millennial reign of the Messiah, that kingdom when Heaven will be on earth. I’m not saying the words and the truth are nowhere else in the Bible because it is. It is in the Old Testament and the New Testament, both. But that specific phrase “kingdom of heaven” is unique to the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Now, that’s an interesting statement. Violence against the kingdom. There have been people who would seize the kingdom. In Jesus’ day, there were people who claimed to be the Messiah, and before Jesus came, and they were getting together bands and they were getting ready to fight the Romans and drive off the Romans and every one of them failed, every one of them. Because they were not the Messiah, they were not the Savior. And so, Jesus said the violent would try to seize the kingdom.

People were looking for a leader who would liberate them. And Jesus came to liberate them from a far greater enemy than Rome. Rome was a tremendous oppressor, but He came to liberate them from the wages of sin. He came to give them spiritual liberty.

John in the Role of Elijah

Matthew 11:13: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”

Matthew 11:14: “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.”

If you’ll receive it, this is the prophesy that Elijah would come before the Messiah. That’s John the Baptist, that’s him. “Well, preacher, I don’t know about that. It says Elijah then it ought to be Elijah.” Hold on.

Matthew 11:15: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Matthew 11:16: “But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,”

Matthew 11:17: “And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.”

Matthew 11:18: “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.”

Matthew 11:19: “The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.”

What is the Lord saying? He’s saying this: All the prophets until John spoke of things to come. But John comes in the role of Elijah and the prophecies are fulfilled right before your eyes. That is what Jesus is saying to that generation. Everything that has been promised up to this point you’re seeing it right now.

And then, the first coming of the Lord is preceded by John the Baptist in the role of Elijah. But guess what, Elijah is going to come again. If you were going to look at the story of the transfiguration, you’ll find two men who appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration: Moses and Elijah.

Then if you go to the book of the Revelation, you’ll find just before the Day of the Lord, just before the Lord comes in judgment, after the Tribulation period is over, just before the Lord comes, there will be two witnesses. Those two witnesses are not named but they are preachers, and they are preaching in Jerusalem, and they do miracles.

And if you look at the miracles that those men do, they do the same miracles that Moses did and then Elijah did. Some people say it’s not Moses and Elijah, it’s Moses and Enoch, or it’s not Moses and Elijah, it’s Enoch and Elijah. There’s no prophecy that Enoch will come again, none. There is prophecy that Elijah will come again. I could give you more evidence on that, but we need to move along.

Those who choose to listen will understand. Those who receive the Messiah will be saved and those who reject Him will be lost. Here’s the conclusion of the whole matter. Jesus came in fulfillment of all those prophecies as the Messiah. He did indeed come as the Savior of the people of Israel, but He also came as the Savior of all who trust Him.

When You Doubt

We’ve talked tonight about when you doubt. You have doubts. Number one, go back and read your Bible about fulfilled prophecy and understand how the Lord has done all that He said He would do. He’s going to continue to do all that He has promised to do.

Number two, look at things in your own life. I asked you to give testimony when He gave you assurance. Look back on those things. One of the reasons I told you about what I call “our small miracle out here” this morning is just to keep it fresh. “Has the Lord done anything since then?” He sure has. And He continues to do things and you look at it. Look at how the Lord has done things and worked in your life, and you’ll be assured by it.

So, number one, claim the promises of the Bible. Recognize prophecies that have already been fulfilled. Number two, look at how God has worked in your life. Did you trust Him to save you? If you can say yes to that, the second question is, did He do it? Well, He did, didn’t He? Alright, if you trusted Him to save you and He did it, why wouldn’t He do other things that you’d trust Him to do? You can trust Him; you can put your faith in Him.

I’m not saying life is always going to be a picnic. I’m not saying you are never going to have problems. I’m not promising you wealth and fame and prosperity. Nowhere in the Bible are you promised these things. Never. But you are promised of the Lord that He will never leave you or forsake you. And you are promised that He’ll be with you.

So, when you have doubt come back to His Word and then reflect on what the Lord has done in scripture and in your own life. You’ll see His hand working and you’ll know that the Lord is still on the throne. You’ll know that you’re going to be okay, you’re going to make it.

Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, so much for blessing us. Thank you that we have this time together to be in your house. Thank you, Lord, for what we read in the scriptures, how you promised to do those things and did those things exactly and precisely. Thank you, Lord, for all that you have done in our lives. Thank you for what you’ve done for us as a church congregation. Lord, I will just pray that you would bless and help us this evening.

I pray that you would help us to reflect on how you helped us in our lives, the things you have done for us already, and to be assured by your promises and be assured by what we have witnessed and those things which we have seen and heard. When we thought things could not happen and they did. When we thought the problem was too great but it wasn’t. When we thought there was no hope and then hope came. Lord help us to remember how great things the Lord has done for us.

Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. No strangers here tonight but if there is a spiritual need in your life, we’re going to sing a hymn of invitation. If you need to respond, I’ll be down front to help. Father, we pray at this time, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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