Alrighty, once again, if I had
not mentioned it already, thank you and welcome. Good to have
you folks with us tonight. I have recently had to deal with
dear brothers and sisters that are weak in faith, who measure
their salvation by the strength of their faith. And I will admit,
be the first to admit, that I struggle with that very same thing as
well. There are many times in my life when I just cannot believe
that the Lord would use a sinner like me to bring such wonderful
news to other sinners. I'm so undeserving of it, and
I know many of you have fallen into that same thing. Lord, I'm
just so weak. How could you save someone who
is as weak as me? Well, tonight, if you're in that
boat, if you've struggled in the past or at this present time
with the strength of faith and measured your own salvation through
that, I hope the Lord will use what He's given us in tonight's
verses to comfort you. That's the Lord's direction to
me. That's the Lord's direction to
all of His ministers is to comfort you, comfort you, my people,
sayeth the Lord. So I pray that tonight's message
will bring great comfort to those who are considering their faith
and the strength thereof. I'd like you to turn in your
Bibles first to Matthew chapter 17 and keep your Bibles open
because we'll be looking at some more verses in Mark chapter 9
as well, but first let's read our text in Matthew chapter 17,
beginning at verse 14, where we read these words, and when
they were come to the multitude. Now remember, the Lord Jesus
was on the Mount of Transfiguration with three of his disciples. And when they had come down to
the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down
to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a
lunatic and sore-vexed. And oftentimes he falleth into
the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil,
and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that
very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said
unto them, Because of your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, If
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and
nothing shall be impossible unto you, howbeit this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting. Now, first paragraph of page
one in our handout, we read this. And in this passage of scripture,
we have the healing of a lunatic by the word of our Lord. How
often we find in our own walk before God our faith is beyond
just weak. This was a miracle that the disciples
were not able to perform because of their unbelief. While the
Lord Jesus was at the Mount of Transfiguration, a certain man
brought his epileptic son to the disciples, but the disciples
were unable to help him. Now, Mark gives us a little more
detail on this account of this event, and he shows us that this
all took place in the midst of a large crowd of jeering adversaries. Now, turn over to Mark chapter
9, if you would, with me. Just over to the next chapter.
Book to the right mark chapter 9 and look at verse 14 mark chapter
9 Beginning at verse 14 we read this and when he came to his
disciples he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning
them and Straight away all the people when they beheld him were
greatly amazed and running to him saluted him and he asked
the scribes What question ye with them? And one of the multitude
answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which
hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pinneth away. And I speak to thy disciples.
that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answered
him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought
him unto him, and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear
him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he
asked his father, how long is it ago since this came unto him?
And he said, of a child. And oftentimes it hath cast him
into fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Listen to
the cry of that man. Jesus saith unto him, If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straight away the father
of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw the people came
running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him,
and enter no more unto him. And the Spirit cried, and rent
him sore, and came out of him. And he was as one dead, insomuch
that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand,
and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he was come into the
house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast
him out? And Jesus said unto them, This
kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. Turn back now, if you would,
to Matthew chapter 17, and we'll continue the rest of tonight's
study in our handout. So we're about mid-page there,
page 1. These disciples tried but could
not cast out the devil, the evil spirit, and cure this child of
his seizures. Can you imagine the father's
disappointment? He had heard about the healings
and the miracles done by his disciples, and here he brings
his son, his only son, to these ones who have been doing it all
around the countryside. The fame had gone out everywhere
about the Lord's disciples and whose name they were healing
in. And hear the disappointment in this father. When the Lord
Jesus appeared, that father immediately appealed to him. He said, Lord,
have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and sore vexed,
and oftentimes he falleth into the fire, and often into the
water. And I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. Verse 15. Do not overlook this,
folks. This is no trivial point to be
made here. When this man brought his child
to the Savior, he obtained mercy, the mercy that he desired for
his son. We read that over in verse 18. And Jesus rebuked the
devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured
from that very hour. I don't want to make too much
of this, I would not make more of this fact than is warranted
by the scripture, but it is a fact that ought to encourage every
one of us. Every believing mother and father,
it should encourage us to bring our children in the arms of faith. to the Son of God by prayer. I do not find a single example
anywhere in scriptures of anyone bringing a needy soul to Christ
during his earthly ministry who did not obtain the mercy desired
for the one brought to the Savior. We also have before us a pitiful
example of the destructive influence that Satan has upon those who
are under his influence. This young man was possessed
of a devil during the days of our Lord's earthly ministry.
Demon possession was a common thing. I'm starting to wonder
if the Lord's not allowing that again in this very age. How many
crazy things we have seen from people who at one moment we thought
were perfectly sane, and I'll just use the man who we thought
was going to be the pastor here. Five years! We had watched this
man and observed what the Lord had given us to observe on this
earth. And within a month, within 30 days of him taking the reins
of the ministry here, he had changed completely into a man
that we never saw. Just a complete authoritarian.
What a difference. Is it that the Lord may be allowing
it again in today's age? I don't know. I thought about
that as I was putting this together. One reason it was possibly allowed
was to give clear evidence of Christ's power over hell. Another reason why God may, this
page 2, why God may have allowed that horrible evil was to teach
us that Satan's influence is always destructible. Like a roaring
lion, the devil seeks to devour the souls of men. Our Lord warns
of this, of this very thing in 1 Peter 5, verse 8. He says,
be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil,
is as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Brother Don Fortner wrote this,
he said, the old serpent appears to seek the destruction of young
souls especially. Thousands upon thousands of young
men and women seem to be wholly given over to Satan's influence
and are taken captive at his will to the destruction of their
souls, as we read in 2 Timothy 2, verse 26. Do not overlook
the fact that this young man was raised by a man who seemed
to believe and worship and love the Lord Jesus Christ. It may
be easy to look upon parents whose children are rebels as
though the parents themselves must be bad parents. And I assure
you, such thoughts arise from hearts full of pride and self-righteousness. Remember David? He was a man
after God's own heart, yet his sons and daughters were all,
except for Solomon, reprobate rebels. Remember what David's
last words were? He says, even though my house
be not so, and not exactly that, but to those words, he trusted
in the covenant of God, even though his house, his family,
didn't. He still trusted in the covenant
that God had made with our fathers. Though this man's son had been
under Satan's dominion for a long time, though it appeared that
he would ultimately be destroyed or destroy himself by Satan's
devices, he obtained mercy. What a blessed, sweet revelation
that fact is. Satan was given permission to
torment this young man to make a way for the greater manifestation
of Christ's glory in healing him. That's why Israel was allowed
to fall into slavery in Egypt, so that God could raise up a
man and destroy him to show the world his power throughout all
time. Egypt. That's what he says in
Romans 9, I think, where it talks about Pharaoh being raised up
for the glory of God. Again, I quote from Brother Don
Fortner there on the second to the last paragraph. The Lord
often allows the fiend of hell to cast his chosen into the fires
of their own lusts for a season, that he may snatch them as brands
from the fire by his omnipotent mercy. Lord, help us to never
look down on those who seem most in need of mercy. When the Son
of God spoke to this young man, he was immediately cured, immediately
healed, immediately saved from the grasp of Satan. When we read of our Lord's miracles
like this one, we should be encouraged to believe that He may yet repeat
His wonderful works in the lives of others today. That's why I
remind each of us to pray for our loved ones who still walk
in darkness. This is why the Lord reminds
me to pray for my children who still walk in darkness. I pray
that these last two months have been great trials for my son.
May God be merciful to him and draw him through these fires
that he's having to go through. Oh, how I pray for them. In verse
17, our text, we read, Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless
and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How
long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. Now these
words are often misunderstood. Our Lord Jesus was not speaking
here to his disciples, but to the jeering multitude given in
Mark's account of this thing, and especially to the scribes
and the Pharisees who had mocked his disciples for their failure.
Those words, O faithless and perverse generation, he never
used when he was speaking to or about his disciples. Though
like his disciples today, their faith was often weak, they were
not faithless, neither were they perverse or a rebellious generation. Though like us, there was much
in them to call perverse. The Pharisees, on the other hand,
though they were highly respected religious leaders, were just
that, a faithless and perverse generation, just as their fathers
had been. Listen to Deuteronomy 32.5. Faithless,
they have corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of
his children. They are a perverse and crooked
generation. The Lord Jesus demanded that
the child be brought before him publicly. Out in the open, everybody
was going to be able to see it. Bringing Him before those faithless
and perverse people who mocked the disciples, that the Lord
might publicly reprove those religious hypocrites. That's
what light does. It reproves the darkness. Yet
when the disciples asked why they could not cast out the evil
spirit, our Lord said plainly, because of your unbelief in verse
19 and 20. Sadly, there is much unbelief
in the most faithful believers. These disciples were believers,
yet they could not perform the work before them because of their
unbelief. The weakness of our faith is
often set before us, and in many different ways in the Scriptures.
It is set before us for the encouragement of God's people in every age,
especially in today. See why I address this message
to those who are concerned about the weakness of their faith? It is set before us for the encouragement. Listen to Romans 15, verse 4.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope. Well, if my faith is weak today,
look what the Lord's showing me in the weakness of the very
ones who walk this earth with Him. That gives me great hope. If He's to save them, He could
save me. It is faith in Christ. Not great faith, just faith in
Christ that is the evidence and assurance of God-given salvation
in our souls. Listen to Hebrews chapter 11
verse 1 and 2. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it
The elders obtained a good report. Page 4. Or what about these words
from 1 John 5 verse 1? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. You know, I've had a conversation
a couple of times, not just once, a couple of times, with folks
who, again, were just beside themselves with sorrow. I just don't know if I'm saved.
I can't believe God would save a sinner such as I. I don't even
know if I have any faith at all. And I ask him this question.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh? Oh yeah,
yeah, I don't doubt that one bit. I said, that's the belief
that God's talking about right there. Do you know you can't
believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh with your heart
unless the Spirit of God dwelleth in your heart? That's what Scriptures
tell us. Scriptures tell us you can't call Him Lord without the
Spirit of God dwelling in you. Folks, it's not the amount of
faith that we have. It's the faith in. It's our faith
in whom He is and what He's done. Do you believe Him? Do you believe
He's put away the sins of His people? Natural men don't. Natural men believe it's part
of their works that causes salvation. God's people are the only ones
who believe that salvation is of the Lord. That's what He tells
us in His Word. Again, I quote from our brother
Don Fortner's first paragraph of page four, the weakest faith
in Christ is as truly the evidence of grace as the strongest. Amen. Amen. A drop of dew is
truly water as all the rivers in the world. It is of the same nature and
quality, though not the same in quantity. So it is with God-given
faith. That faith which is the gift
and operation of God the Holy Spirit is the evidence and proof
of our union with Christ, of our election, of our redemption,
and regeneration by His grace. Listen to these words from Acts
13 verse 39. And by Him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. You see that? You see that? By Him. By Him all that believe
are justified from which you could not be justified by the
law. And what about these words in
Acts 13 verse 48? And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Oh, folks, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. mid-page
four, yet we must not fail to see that nothing so greatly hinders
our usefulness as our unbelief. These disciples truly trusted
Christ as their Savior and Lord, yet their unbelief made it impossible
for them to perform the miracle they had been commissioned to
perform. And this is the commission that
was given to them in Matthew 10, verse 8. You may remember
the Lord sent them out and He said, heal the sick, cleanse
the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils freely ye have received,
freely give. God's sovereignty. His divine
predestination and eternal election, the purpose of God stands forever,
and that is altogether immutable, or in other words, unchangeable,
but we must never blame God for our failures. The Word of God
lays the blame upon our unbelief and nowhere else. Peter began
to sink. Why? Because of unbelief. Isn't
that what we read in Matthew 14, 31? And immediately Jesus
stretched forth His hand and caught him and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Israel's failure. to obtain the blessedness that
might have been theirs was because of their unbelief. Isn't that
what we read in Isaiah 48, 18? Oh, that thou hadst hearkened
to my commandments. Then had thy peace been as a
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Page
5. Or what about these words, Matthew
13, 58? And he did not many mighty works. Why? He did not many mighty
works there because of their unbelief. And again in Mark 6
verse 5 and 6, And he could there do no mighty works, save that
he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them, and
he marveled because of their unbelief. The disciples failed
to grasp the good news of Christ's resurrection because they believed
not. Listen to these words from Mark
16, 11-14. And they, when they had heard
that He was alive and had been seen of her, believed not. This
is talking about Mary when she came back to Him saying, the
Lord is gone, He has been risen. Now, it wasn't that long ago
when the Lord was telling them, I must go up to Jerusalem and
be killed, and what? Folks, God was not obscure about
what would happen. He was very, very clear. and
raised the third day. And when proof of it was brought
before these disciples, look what we read here, and they,
when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her,
believed not. Do not think of yourself any
better than these very men here. Oh, I would never fall into that. Oh, yes I would. After that,
he appeared in another form, we go on to read, unto two of
them as they walked and went into the country. We'll read
about that in a moment. And they went and told it unto the residue,
neither believed they them. Afterward, He appeared unto the
eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief
and hardness of heart, because they believed not, not them which
had seen Him after He was risen. Those two men, speaking of them
who walked into the country, listened to these words. This
is their story in Luke 24, 17-27. And He said unto them, What manner
of communications are these, that ye have one to another?
They were sad. They were talking about how they
had hoped that the Lord would raise up a throne and sit on
His throne and relieve them from the burden of the Romans. He
said these as you walk and are sat. And the one of them whose
name was Cleopas answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And he saith unto them, What
things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and
all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered
him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we
trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.
And beside all this, today is the third day since these things
were done. Yea, and a certain woman also of our company made
us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher. And when they
found not his body, they came, saying that they had also seen
a vision of angels, which said unto said that he was alive,
and certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher,
and found it even so, as the woman had said, but him they
saw not. Now listen to the response from
our Lord. Then he said unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
His glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures of
things concerning himself. Page 6. I wonder, I could not
help but thinking this very thing, what blessings I have missed,
what works I have been unable to perform or do, or what wonders
have I failed to see because of my unbelief. Jesus saith unto
her, Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God? In John 11, 40. In verse 20 of
our text, we read this. If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence from
yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible
to you. Most of the commentators I read
believe this to be a reference to Zechariah 4, verse 7, where
we read, who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain. Now,
Zerubbabel is typified as our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Savior
here declares that if we look to Him, If we trust Him, no obstacle
will be too great for us to overcome. It says, before Zerubbabel, thou
shalt become a plain. Before God Almighty, we will
become flat. I'm thinking about Rick and what
Rick brought in his Bible study on Thursday night, how the first
shall become last, and the last shall become first. The greatest
shall become the lowest, and the lowest shall become the greatest.
The base things of the world shall be raised up, and the things
that are raised up of this world shall become a base. Isn't that
what this is talking about? It's raising up our Savior. Remember why Peter began to sink
back in our handout again? Remember why he began to sink?
He took his eyes off of Christ. No work is too difficult for
us to perform, and nothing shall be impossible for us as we look
to Him as our all. And I put in here 1 Corinthians
1.30, but of Him, but of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom. When we look to Christ for our
wisdom, we've got all the wisdom in the world right there in Him.
And righteousness, when we look for righteousness, if we look
to Christ, we've got all the righteousness we need right there
in Him. and sanctification. If we're
looking for sanctification, we have all the sanctification we
need. This is why there's no such thing
as progressive sanctification. Folks, we are completely sanctified
in Christ. And if we are in Christ, we have
all the sanctification we need. Justification we need. Redemption
we need. It is all in Him. And it is of
God who has made us. Of Him are we in Christ Jesus,
who God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. If we have true faith in Christ,
nothing shall prevent us from glorifying our Lord God, doing
the work He has given us to do, and overcoming every obstacle
that opposes us or would hinder us in this world. You know why
Paul could write these words? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril as a sword.
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are conquerors through him that loved us." Folks, John
Reeves can't even mess up what God has prepared for John Reeves. John Reeves can't get in the
way of what God has prepared and purposed for John Reeves.
I am persuaded, as Paul says in verse 38, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. If we have true faith, back in
our handout again, I'm going to repeat that paragraph. Nothing
shall prevent us from glorifying our God, doing the work He has
given us to do, and overcoming every obstacle that opposes us
or would hinder us in this world. Faith in Christ is the most empowering
is the most powerful influence in the whole world. Listen to
1 John 5, 4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Again, I repeat, it is not our
faith, but who our faith is in. That is how we overcome the world. The Word of God gives constant
testimony to the power of faith in the lives of His elect. It
was faith in Christ that caused Joshua and Caleb to give a good
report. Remember this story? Aaron had sent men over into
the land of Canaan, into the land of milk and honey, to see
what it was. And only Joshua and Caleb came
back. Only those two came back with,
ah, who cares about the giants? We have God. By faith, they gave
a good report. Read about that in Numbers 13.30,
if you'd like, in your own time. It was faith in Christ that sustained
Job in hope, given in Job 13.10. His only hope was in Christ.
He had no hope in himself. He could do nothing about the
loss of his children, the loss of his farm, his land, the loss
of his animals, his crops, his herds. His only hope was in Christ
Jesus. You can read about that in Job
13.10. It was faith in Christ that caused
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to go against the king's word
and to remain faithful In Dan 3, verse 17 and 18, page 7, it
was faith in Christ that caused the woman who was a sinner to
love her Savior, recorded in Luke 7, verses 47 through 50. And then there's Hebrews 11.
That great crowd of witnesses. God gives us an example after
example of the power of faith, showing us that faith honors
God, and God honors faith. In this 20th verse, our Lord
once more compares faith to a grain of mustard seed. Mustard seed
faith is little faith with a big object. The object is the omnipotent
Christ. That's who. It's in who our faith
is in. God's work must never be attempted
by the arm of the flesh or with careless indifference. That's
what we read in verse 21. How be it this kind of faith
goeth not out but by prayer and fast fasting. You can't do it
with your own works. These words were addressed as
a gentle rebuke to the disciples, who had perhaps maybe become
a little overconfident of their powers as servants of Christ.
As it is recorded in Luke 10, verse 17, and the 70 returned
again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto
us through thy name. You don't think they were boasting
a little bit there? The Lord rebuked them in that, by the
way. told him, have glory in verse 20. Notwithstanding in
this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather
rejoice because your names are written in heaven. So he rebuked
them. And that's what I wanted to bring
up. Just under mid-page of page 7.
Like Israel of old became puffed up with the fall of Jericho,
we are quickly to say this, as in Joshua 7.3, the men of Ai
are but few. There is no need for us to put
forth all our strength. But it is a mistake to underrate
our foes. Ephesians 6.12 tells us this,
for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Folks, Satan will not
go down without a fight. Our Lord says, this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting. So long as we are in this world
and seek by faith to serve our God and Savior, let us do so
by prayer and fasting, by faith in Christ, denying ourselves. As always, we must interpret
this statement in Matthew 17.21 in its context. Our Savior is again referring
to the message of Zechariah's vision in Zechariah 4, page 8. The vision was about God's work,
the building of His house, the saving of His people, which is
the very thing portrayed in the mercy performed upon this demon-possessed
child. God's message to His prophet
then is His message to His disciples here, and His message to us today. Salvation is of the Lord. The work is all God's. He uses men to perform His work. He allows us to lay brick. He
allows us to take away stones and preach the gospel, but nothing
depends upon or is determined by men. The work is all His. Listen to these words of Zechariah
4, verse 6-7. This is the word of the Lord
unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by
My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great
mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings crying,
Grace, Grace, unto it. Let us, therefore, serve him
with prayer, trusting him and fasting. If this is the way I
should understand this correctly, I mean by denying any strength
any goodness, any power, or any ability of ourselves seeking
not our will, but His. Seeking not our own gratification,
but His glory. Isn't that what we read in 1
Corinthians 1 verse 31? That according as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen.