Luke chapter nine and verse 37. And this is just following the
occasion of the... Oh, I've forgotten the word. That's terrible. the transfiguration. This is just after the transfiguration
of the Lord. Right, verse 37. And it came
to pass that on the next day when they were come down from
the hill much people met him. And behold, a man of the company
cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he
is mine only child. And lo, a spirit taketh him,
and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him, that he foameth
again, and, bruising him hardly, departeth from him. And I besought
thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus
answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long
shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And
as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down and tear him. And Christ rebuked the unclean
spirit and healed the child and delivered him again to his father. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Now I'm going to be speaking
from this passage particularly today but I will also be making
references to Matthew chapter 17 and also Mark chapter 9 where
the parallel passages are given to us because Luke I think has
been quite summarised in the account that he has given us.
And there are one or two aspects of the narrative, the story that
comes out from these other parallel passages as well that we will
think about. But I just want to begin here
in Luke by saying that this is a very precious portion of God's
Word for many reasons. We could say, for example, that
the outcome is happy and satisfying. A severely troubled boy is cured
of a childhood disorder and he is released from the power of
a demon that appears to have taken advantage of his illness
in order to afflict him further. We could say that it is precious
because the faith of a desperate father is vindicated, though
it is, as we learn, very small faith and it is greatly tested. We also find that Christ's enemies
are rebuked and shamed for intimidating the Lord's beloved brethren. And that speaks to us of the
fact that the Lord is always a shield and defender to his
people wherever they encounter trouble. And we might say as
well that the Lord's disciples are taught a valuable lesson
in this passage, not to take their spiritual gifts for granted,
but to learn to trust the Lord more and more for his power. All these things make this passage
very precious. And it is also interesting as
a passage because of what we don't know, because clearly there's
a background to what is going on here. It's alluded to in different
ways in the different synoptic writers. The Lord has been separated
from nine of his disciples who remained at the bottom of this
mountain. Mountain of Transfiguration,
they remained there and they appear in the Lord's absence
with Peter, James and John to have been engaged by a crowd
of followers who were seeking the Lord. But this crowd of followers
also included critics from amongst the religious orders. They were
scribes. And also amongst this multitude
is a father and son. And this man is a believer. He's
a believer in the Messiah, by all accounts, and there are several,
as I've said. The miracle is recorded by Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. And by describing him as a believer,
I mean that he believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. And he believed that Jesus could
cure his demon-possessed son and yet his faith was weak and
it was readily disturbed and it was easily undermined. He
wanted to believe, he did believe but all the believing that he
could muster didn't provide him with very much confidence concerning
a cure for his boy's plight. But perhaps the most precious
aspect of this portion is the guidance that it supplies to
all of us to seek more faith from the Lord Jesus Christ. Which
of us would claim to be without need? for more grace, more faith
and greater confidence in Christ. This passage encourages us to
trust the Saviour more so that we might see more of his mercy
and obtain more of his help and discover more of his love. So the first point that I want
to draw to your attention is the clear distinction that the
Lord makes between those who have faith and those who do not. There's a big difference between
being faithless and possessing little faith. Jesus had spent
the whole night after his transfiguration on the Mount with Peter and James
and John. And upon descending, this crowd
meet him, which includes his other disciples, who seem to
have attempted and failed to cure this man's son in Jesus'
absence. and then there were these scribes
who were present and these scribes were giving the nine disciples
a hard time for their inability to help the boy or the man and
no doubt berating them and mocking them before the multitude to
their embarrassment for their failure to do something for this
man and his son. And it's these scribes, it's
not the disciples and it's not the man that the Lord describes
as a faithless generation. It's these scribes that the Lord
speaks of as this faithless generation. And it is true that both the
disciples and the man to a degree exhibited at different times
a severe lack of faith. But which of the Lord's people
do not? It's the scribes that were the faithless generation.
Now, note with me, please, that these men were scribes. They
were scripture readers. They were lawyers. They were
religious teachers. But they had no faith in Christ.
And I want us to acknowledge this. There are preachers today
of whom this can also be said. This was the religious aristocracy
of the day. They had studied the Bible, they
had passed their exams, they had gained lots of experience
in the pulpit, the pulpits of their synagogues, but they were
without faith in Christ. And just because a man can speak
about Christ does not mean that he believes in Christ. And there
are many denominations and there are many churches today full
of sanctimonious, pious, self-righteous people who claim to represent
God to men and women but they have no true faith in their own
souls. They are a faithless generation
and the Lord calls them perverse. Their perversity comprises in
holding out that they are God's spokesmen to men and women when
they do not know God themselves and indeed they fight against
God in their preaching and their ministry to make converts like
themselves. If a man isn't preaching grace,
if a man isn't preaching grace found in the work, the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and preaching him all the time,
then that man has no knowledge of the truth. And he's not to
be listened to. The father, on the other hand,
the father of this son, this boy, had faith. And for that, the Lord took notice
of him and blessed him. His faith was not great, but
it was real. It was spiritual and it was God-given,
as all true faith is. All faith comes from Jesus Christ,
who is the author and finisher of faith. And this man believed. And so we may say, upon scriptural
authority, that he was ordained to eternal life, because it is
as many as are ordained to eternal life who believe. And this man
was a believer. Furthermore, his sins were forgiven. He was justified before God and
he was cleansed from all his sin upon the merits of Christ's
shed blood. No one in the whole world, either
before or since, was more ordained to eternal life or more righteous
in the sight of God than this poor soul. because all God's
grace and all God's promises are the full inheritance of all
who have faith and trust in Christ, be it ever so small. Now apply that to yourself. You
may feel that your faith is weak. You may even question at times
if it exists at all. but there is all the difference
in the world between little faith and faithlessness. Faithlessness
does not yearn for Christ. It does not long to know him
and know him better. It does not seek the Lord and
hunger and thirst after him. Faith in Jesus Christ, be it
ever so small, does exactly that. It longs for Christ. It longs
to know him better. It says, as this man did, with
tears in his eyes according to Mark's account, Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. And here's what true faith does.
True faith comes to Christ. This man had followed the Lord
a long way, and he had brought his son with him. That probably
wasn't an easy job to do, but he had done it anyway. This man
was not theologically astute. He wasn't doctrinally skilled. He wasn't even sure where he
was going. But he was desperate for what
Christ alone could supply. And he even had to learn that
simple fact, that only Christ could satisfy his need. At first
he tried to get the Lord's disciples to cure his son. And when they
could not do so, it was then that he had only one place to
turn to the Lord himself. And that's what the Lord does
to us. He makes it that we only have one place to turn to himself. And that's how it is for true
faith. True faith brings us to Christ. We don't get faith when we come
to Christ. That would make our coming effectual
to save. We get more faith in coming,
but it is the first function of faith to lead us and bring
us to Christ. And this man came because he
believed. When Jesus said to him, if thou
canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth,
the man found Christ's words to be true. And let us make this
very practical for you and me. Let it be our life's task to
go to Christ in faith, no matter how small that faith is. True
faith goes to him in prayer. True faith looks to Christ in
the Scriptures. True faith listens for him in
the Gospel. And true faith won't be distracted
or diverted by false imitations, no matter how genuine they appear
at first. True faith goes to Christ and
that's what this man did. Here's the second thing that
true faith does. It brings its troubles with it. The man did
not come alone. He brought his trouble with him. He said, Lord, look upon my son. He brought his need to the Saviour. And let us do that as well. First,
it is the felt need of forgiveness. that we seek. It's an awareness
of need that is in us for grace and mercy. And then it is for
those around us, for help and for comfort and for encouragement
in times of trial and need. And it's good for us to exercise
such an intercessory ministry. It's good for us to feel a burden
for those around about us. those that the Lord places upon
our hearts. We ask a lot for healing because
we feel so vulnerable when we are ill and exposed to the frailty
of this body. But let us always ask wisely,
knowing that whatever the Lord sends, it is for a good purpose
and his timing and his means are according to his will and
purpose. but let us bring them nonetheless.
The Lord told the Old Testament church in Ezekiel 36, thus saith
the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel to do it for them. The Lord has many good gifts
to give to his people. He has many good gifts for you
and for me, but he will be inquired of house of Israel. He calls his church to pray and
to ask for those things that he is ready to give. Here's the
third thing that we learn from this passage with respect to
the nature of true faith. True faith desires to grow. True faith recognises its own
inadequacies. Spiritual assurance for believers
can be a trial and a test But never think that because your
faith isn't stronger than it is, that it is therefore non-existent. Don't constantly ask yourself,
have I got faith? Rather, ask that it might grow. Ask the Lord, as this man did,
that Christ might help his unbelief. And what a wonderful request
that is. I'm so glad that Mark is explicit,
that he explicitly records the man's words more fully than did
Luke or Matthew. We all can identify with this
poor man and we all should humbly adopt his prayer. After Peter's
prayer, remember on the Sea of Galilee when he started to walk
out towards the Lord and he was there stepping on the surface
of the water and then he looked around and he saw the storm around
about him and doubt grasped his heart and he began to sink, he
cried out, Lord help me. After Peter's prayer, the prayer
of the drowning man. I don't know that there is a
better prayer in Scripture than this man's prayer. Lord, help
thou mine unbelief. And finally, true faith, or fourthly
and finally, true faith receives Christ's mercy. The man got his
son back. A demon had taken control of
this boy from his family as a child. And now the Lord returned him. Satan will rob us and hurt the
child of God as much as he can. You see what it says in verse
42. As he was yet a coming, the devil
threw him down and tear him. I've no doubt that the devil
knew that his time was short. There was a malevolence about
this spirit, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed
the child and delivered him again to his father. There is a trial
of our faith in this life. And like Jacob, we may sometimes
feel that few and evil have been the days of the years of our
lives. Nevertheless, we have God's mercy,
we have Christ's love, and we have the promise of his grace
to be sufficient for our every need. And if you occasionally
feel like your life is on a roller coaster, it must have been like
that for this man. First the disciples had been
powerless and then he thought that the Spirit had killed his
boy. Nevertheless, the Lord was faithful
and provided for him blessedly. and he will do so for us as well. He delights to be merciful. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delighteth in mercy. Here's a wee concluding thought,
it's kind of a little bit like an add-on really, but Matthew
and Mark, it's not mentioned in Luke, but Matthew and Mark
both make reference to prayer and fasting as the reason why
the nine disciples had not been able to cast out this spirit,
this evil spirit. I just want to make a short comment
about this because the disciples afterwards spoke to the Lord
about this matter. It was clearly an issue for them. The nine disciples had been disturbed
that they could not cast out this evil spirit and they asked
the Lord why. This is what it says, and he
said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing but by
prayer and fasting. And some suggest that this means
that by prayer and fasting we can better influence God to grant
us our wishes. And you have days of fasting
and you have nights of prayer that are sometimes advocated
by churches to demonstrate to the Lord just how committed a
congregation or an individual might be to obtain what it desires. But let us just pause and acknowledge
for a moment that prayer and fasting are creature, natural
exercises, and it's not physical doing, but spiritual faith that
prevails with God. Whatever the Lord meant by this
statement, it is faith alone and faith by grace that succeeds
with the Lord. Jesus said, if thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. Let our prayer
always be, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Amen.