It is indeed a privilege to be
here. I'm thankful for the invitation
to be here and be around you good folks. If you have a job
or had a job, you spent a lot of time around a lot of dead
folks, dead in trespasses and sin. And it's just good to get
together with people who are alive, who have an agreement. We know the same God. That's
just a wonderful blessing that God extends to us on this earth.
is to go to church and be with folks that know something about
God. I'm so thankful to be here and I would that you would remember
us out in Oregon. They send their greetings. Would
you join me in the book of Matthew tonight? The book of Matthew
chapter 17. I've been so blessed as the Lord continues
to reveal the glory of His salvation all through the scriptures. In
every place we go, we're going to find the glory of His salvation. That wonderful statement by Jonah
sums up the entirety of our Bible. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
the sum in total. If we had one verse of scripture,
that we had, that would be it. Salvation is of the Lord. And
here in the 17th chapter of the book of Matthew tonight, I'd
like to begin with verse 14. We have in this chapter that
the continuing message, the continuing ministry the continuing acts
of the Lord Jesus Christ that had been set down in the council
halls of eternity before the world began. Not one step did
he ever take that was not predetermined. There was not one word he ever
spoke that he did not have before the foundation of the world.
He came here on purpose to do a purposeful work, and in these
passages of scripture that we are able to visit through reading
the Bible and hearing them preached unto us, he is sharing us the
wonderful message of God's grace in Christ Jesus, to a people
that have no desire and no dessert for it, and yet he is pleased
to show mercy to all those he had written down by his father
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
He is interested in going to those folks, and we find that
throughout the scriptures. Here we find in this passage
of scripture, there is a father that comes to the Lord Jesus
with a great plea. Matthew chapter 17 and verse
14 the scriptures share this and when they were come to the
multitude there came a certain man Kneeling down to him and
saying by divine appointment One more time, the Lord and this
man are on a course to meet because God Almighty has determined that
that would happen. Just like it happens to today,
if you ever get to hear the gospel, it has been on purpose. and he
has purpose to cross our paths with the glorious good news and
not with some candy corn. We find that the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that God uses to save us
from our sins. We must hear the truth of the
gospel. And here he is dealing with a
person on purpose and that is a certain man. We don't know
his name. We are going to find out that
his son has a problem. And this man, before he was drawn
to the Lord Jesus Christ, also had a problem, just like everybody
that is ever born into this world has a problem. And that problem
is brought on by the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, and
he has passed that on to us. We have that imputed sin to us,
and we are children that are born of sin, and we have a problem. And that's what we see around
us all over the world and around the world. The other day I was
visiting with a young man and he was just saying that the problem
in this certain situation was all of the devil. And I just
said, let's take a look at natural man's heart and you have the
problem. There it is. Well, here is a man that comes
down, he's in a multitude, he comes down and he knows there
is a place for him to come with the problem that he has about
his son. This certain man came kneeling
down to him and saying, now, we have someone here that knows
something about who he's going to talk to. We have someone here
that knows something about who this one is that he's approaching.
We have someone here that recognizes the fact that this man is the
master, and this man is the only one that can help him with the
problem that he has and the problem that his son has, and that is
God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he bows before him
and gives him all due respect and honor and praise And there
is no thought in his mind, I'm going to demand something of
God by His mercy and by His grace. He may give it, but that is all.
And in there it tells us in verse 15, Lord, what a wonderful statement,
what a wonderful word we find in this verse of scripture about
the relationship that this man had with this man. This man,
Immanuel, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a
virgin, had no sin in him or on him at this time. And we find
that the sin that was given to him was imputed to him on the
cross. But here we have the perfect, magnificent Son of God, and this
man comes to him realizing that there is only one place that
he can get help, and that is this man. He bowed before him,
cried, Lord, have mercy on my son. This is a parent's prayer. Lord, have mercy on my children. This is the prayer of God's people. It wasn't until God saved me
and I got to be around some sovereign grace preachers that I found
a bunch of preachers that had children that weren't saved.
In the religion I was in, if you didn't have your children
saved by three years of age, you weren't being very profitable.
But here we find among God's people is the truth of the matter
that salvation is of the Lord and God must do the work just
like we see it portrayed here in this wonderful example of
what God does for his people. This man came down and he recognized
the fact that he is Lord and he gives us the problem as it
is identified by this man. He said, have mercy on my son
and here is the problem. He is a lunatic. Can you imagine? a dad coming
to Almighty God and describing his son, not with high regard,
not with promotions, not with statistics, not with master's
degrees, and he's been good all his life. He came to him with
the issue, he was honest with the Lord, he brought it to his
feet and he said, my son has a problem, he's a lunatic. We
have a serious problem here. My son is a lunatic. He's a lunatic. And besides that, he is sore
vexed. Oh, it plays out in so many ways
in this young man's life. Not only is he declared and described
as a lunatic, but he is sore vexed. And then his father goes
on and describes some of the problems that this young man
has in his life as a result of being sore vexed by this lunacy.
For years at the time of the writing or the translation of
the King James, people thought that people became lunatics because
they were out in the moonlight. That's why we get the word lunatic.
Well, that's not the reason people have this problem. The problem
is sin. There's the sum and substance
of the problem. He says he's a lunatic and he's
sore vexed. And here is how he is sore vexed. Here's the results of his quote
unquote illness. He is sore vexed for off times
he falleth into the fire. Can you imagine that? And off times into the water.
Well, what's being described here is a young man that has
a problem. and this problem is so serious
that he can't control it. He has no ability to bring it
under harness, under control. He is one that is a child of
Adam, and just like you and I, we have no ability in ourself
of taking care of this problem. That's the problem with religion.
They think that they can get us better, that psychologists
get us better, but we can't get any better. We're going to have
problems all our life unless this master comes and meet us
where we are and deals with the problem for us. And this problem
is going to be dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ and this
son hasn't even consented to it. He's going to deal with it. The Lord's going to deal with
it. He's the Lord. He's the master. He's the sovereign. He's the king. He's the one in
charge. He's the one that has set up
this appointment. He has set up this appointment
before the foundation of the world and he has set it up in
his Schedule that I'm going to deal with this man's son who
is a lunatic who is sore vexed and has problems and it's uncontrollable
problems because the heart is deceitful above all things and
Desperately wicked who can know it that word desperately means
incurable. There isn't a cure for it in
This life in this world. There's only a cure in the blood
of Jesus Christ Well, we go on here Lord have mercy on my son,
have mercy. I don't deserve it. I really can't come demand, I
can't demand it. Mercy is something God gives. Have mercy on my son because
he is sore vexed and I brought him to thy disciples and they
could not cure him. That's a message to me as a pastor.
That is a message to Bible class teachers. That's a message to
parents. That's a message to anybody that
knows anything about Almighty God. My son, I took him to your disciples
and they couldn't do anything for him. The only thing that
you and I can do is preach the gospel and that's as far as we
can go. We can't do anything beyond that. This man has a son who has a
problem and it's going to take the mercy of God and the disciples
couldn't take care of it. Jesus said, without me, you can
do nothing. We also find that the disciples
at one time were given some liberty to go out and do some healing. and cast out demons. And they
came back rejoicing in that. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to his very disciples, who knew something, don't you rejoice
in these things, but rejoice that your name is written down
in the Lamb's book of life. Rejoice in grace. Rejoice in
mercy. Rejoice in what God does. Don't
rejoice in what you do. And here is a sign to us, a telltale
sign about this, that the disciples could do nothing for this young
man. They had pity for him. They had
concern for him. No doubt they even said, I wish.
But beyond that, there was nothing they could do. And this man was
led by the Spirit of God to come to somebody who could do something
about it. And that was he came to the Lord
Jesus Christ. As we look at this man, this
young man, a good day, A good a day as this son could
have, he still had that problem. You know, there might be a day
he didn't get into the fire. There might be a day that he
didn't fall into the water. Maybe he didn't even fall out
of bed that day. It was a good day for him, but you know what?
He still had the problem. And as good a day as a lost person
can have, we're still lost. God or health, we're still lost.
Caught a good fish, we're still lost. Had traveling mercies,
still lost. But now let's see what happens
here in this account of this man that brought his son to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now it tells us there in verse
17, And I'm inclined to believe that he's speaking to the crowd
that's around there because they're just wondering, what's going
on here? You're interrupting a good time that we're having.
This man has interrupted us. That's just the world when the
gospel is being preached. They says, oh, faithless and
perverse generation. How long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither. Now the disciples
understood eventually, and you and I that know anything about
God, understand that if we have anything given to us with the
truth and meaning out of this book, it's a gift of God. We
do not appropriate it by study, but don't quit studying, but
everything that we've ever got about God is a gift, and it's
been revealed to us, and we can't brag on it. It's God's gift to
his people. And some people have a lot more
revealed to them than other people. And yet in the church, we are
instructed, and God knows to instruct us this, we're not jealous
over it. We're not jealous in any gift.
There's some men here that can preach the gospel a whole lot
better than I can preach, but they can't preach a better gospel
than I can preach. They have words, they have, God
has given them gifts, but you know what? I'm going to get to
sit in their presence and hear the blessed gospel from their
mouths as God gives them the utterance. So this, this disciples
understood what he's talking about. that this gift, anything
that's given, we're faithless without the faith giver. We have
no way of even walking straight in a spiritual way unless he
directs us. We're just sinners saved by grace
and here the disciples, they can't do anything for him and
yet they understand that anything they have and anything that's
gonna happen here and anything that's gonna be pleasing to God
is gonna be as a result of the master himself. Well, he goes
on here and says, and Jesus. Now it's interesting that we
find the man called him Lord. And the writer of the scripture
says it's Jesus. And guess what? That's the same. Emmanuel, God with us. Same one, Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus rebuked the devil and he
departed out of him and the child was cured that very hour. There's a multitude of spiritual
blessings in just a few words, isn't there? Jesus rebuked. Now, Jesus is the only one that
can take care of our sin. Jesus is the only one that can
take care of our character, our nature, our person. Jesus is
the only one. He's almighty God, and he's the
only one that can deal with us in a way that will cure us. Religion,
and we find that the disciples couldn't do anything for this
man, this young man. We find in another instance,
there was a lady that had an issue of blood and she suffered
much by many doctors and still was in the same condition. And
we can look at that and say, oh, this religious guy came along
and he tried to do something, and this religious guy came along
and he tried to do something, and this religious guy came along
and he tried to do something, and she's worse off than she
was because of the religious guys. But when the Lord dealt
with it, she was healed instantly, cured, because He is the only
one that God Almighty, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, the
Lord Jesus Christ, has ever authorized to take care of this problem.
The Lord Jesus Christ, thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And the people that know that
say amen, because that's all that could happen. So the Lord
rebuked the devil. I don't understand all I know
about that. But I know this, the person that Jesus dealt with,
this young man Jesus dealt with, was cured at that moment. He had power over all that was
withholding that young man and causing him to do what he was
doing. All of that nature that he had,
that uncontrollable. I just can't comprehend the thought
that he enjoyed falling into the fire, can you? I cannot comprehend
the thought that he would enjoy falling into the water. Can you? But here we have someone that
took care of the problem, and it was not by a vote of the young
man. It was not even by a vote of
his father. It was by the perfect mercy and
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that he met him that day on that
road on purpose. Jesus rebuked him. He departed
out of him and the child was cured from that very moment.
What a blessing it is to be set free. The Apostle Paul was in prison many
times and he was freer than the people that were keeping him.
Those soldiers that were over him, he was freer than they were.
They were yet in their sins. The apostle Paul shares with
us much as he's led by the Holy Spirit to talk to us, talk to
the church, talk to us individually as the Holy Spirit gave him utterance
to share what it is to be free in Christ. to be shed of all
that that was held against us because He was going to pay the
full price when He endured our sin on the cross. The lies of
religion have been taken away. How blessed it is to be able
to say, I'm not going to be turned by every wind of doctrine. He
has set me on a path. He has drawn me by his cords
of love. He says, hold fast. And we say,
how in the world can I hold fast? He grips us with his almighty
hands, and he holds us fast. The glory of self-righteousness
is banished. Oh, how pitiful we are in our
own state when we think by our own works we can approach an
almighty God and he's not going to have anything to do with that,
and then realize that he has given us his imputed righteousness,
and we stand in awe that the work has been done. The pride
of works is thrown aside. There's nothing in our works. Oh, I'm just so thankful for
that passage of scripture that where his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath before ordained
that we should walk in them, Because without the Lord Jesus,
we have nothing. There is no work we could perform,
even in our saved condition. And the disciples, verse 19,
then came the disciples to Jesus apart. That's a good thing. to go to the Lord Jesus apart
from everyone else. Now that may be right here, but they went to the Lord Jesus,
disciples went to the Lord Jesus apart and said, why could not
we cast him out? Jesus reminds them of mercy and
grace. Jesus said unto them, because
of your unbelief, your feebleness, your inability as a human being
to do this kind of work, salvations of the Lord, deliverances of
the Lord, you have no ability. Just keep that in mind. your
unbelief. Verily I say unto you, If ye
have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this
mountain, Remove hence into yonder place, and ye shall remove, and
nothing shall be impossible to you, howbeit this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting. The Lord Jesus assures us that
these things can only be dealt with by Almighty God. It is wonderful
to have prayer and it's wonderful to have fasting before God, but
you shouldn't know that I'm fasting and I shouldn't know if you're
fasting. But this wonderful experience that this man had when he came
down and met the Lord Jesus Christ, bowed down at his feet and said,
have mercy on my son who is greatly vexed. This is his problem. and
the Lord Jesus dealt with it in such a wonderful way. If you'd turn with me over to
the book of 1st John Chapter 3. In 1st John Chapter 3 and verse 8, we have these words
that the Lord used there at that time with that person. He said,
he cast out that demon, And here in 1 John chapter 3 and verse
8, the scriptures say, he that commit a sin is of the devil,
for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose. You
see that word? For this purpose. For the purpose
we just witnessed here. I used to have people tell me
that if they saw the Noah's Ark, they'd believe. No. If you saw Noah's Ark, you wouldn't
believe. It's not by sight. We find that
if we'll not believe Moses and the prophets, we'd not believe
that one rose from the dead. So on purpose, 1 John chapter
3 and verse 8 says he, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested
that he might destroy the works of the devil. All the sin that
God saw in all his people has been taken care of completely
and thoroughly by the blood of Christ on the cross. Our sin
was imputed to him, his righteousness is imputed to us, and we stand
before him as clean, as pure, as righteous this very moment
as we will ever be. And then if you'll turn with
me to the book of Hebrews, back to the book of Hebrews for just
a moment. Hebrews chapter two and verse 14. Hebrews chapter two and verses
14 and 15. For as much then as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, He, the Lord Jesus, also himself likewise
took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power over death, that is the devil, and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The old preacher said, I'm not
afraid of dying. I'm just a little concerned on
how it's going to happen. God's people are not afraid of
dying. He's taken away that fear. But
am I going to go home in my sleep or am I going to go home in a
train wreck? That's the issue. What happened to that young man?
Nothing else is said in scripture about this young man that was
cured of his lunacy. Many commentators say it was,
oh, that was just that terrible thing that he had. He was cured
of a problem that he had from birth, just like we're cured
of a problem that we have from birth, and that is our sin. And
the Savior took care of it, just like he takes care of it today.
The Lord Jesus Christ has promised to save everyone that he died
for on the cross, and he's in the process of doing that, and
he may be doing that tonight. And I know this, that the very
last sheep that's ever saved, this thing is going to be wrapped
up quickly. We're going to see him as he is. We'll be in his
presence. But until that time, he is going
to endure with this. the systems of government, the
peoples, the heartache, the pain, the suffering until the very
last one is saved and then all will be cured of that dreadful
disease that was passed on to us by birth from our parents
and birth from their parents down through the ages to us from
Adam and God will take care of it all and there will be a meeting
of God's people that he has purchased with his own blood and there
won't even be a thought of being a lunatic.