If you would turn with me again
this morning to Mark chapter 9, I say again because Mark chapter
9 was our text last week, and it was last week that we looked
at this story in Mark chapter 9 where a poor father sought
deliverance for his son, a son who was possessed and afflicted
with a dumb and deaf spirit. And he sought this help first,
as you remember, from the disciples, but they could not help. Friends,
man cannot help us. Only Christ can. The Spirit had
often thrown this young man into the fire to burn him and into
the water to drown him. And the Spirit's intention, as
we see, was to destroy him, in verse 22. is out to destroy Him. We mentioned last time that sin
is out to destroy us. Now this had been going on with
this young man since he was a child. And I looked that word child
up in the concordance and it meant since infancy. According
to verse 21, infancy as a child. And I think you would agree with
me that there's just something particularly disturbing and upsetting
about anyone, for that matter, to be in harm and pain and torment,
but even more so when it's a young child, a small child, and especially
when it's an infant. So helpless, and your heart just
breaks for them, and your heart breaks for their parents. My
heart breaks for this poor father. He was desperate. He needed help. He needed help for his son. There
are many in the scriptures that sought help for their children.
And that's encouraging to me because the Lord is the only
one that can help my children, those of my children who are
yet without Christ. Oh, that he might be pleased,
as Brother Clayton prays often, save our children, save our loved
ones. Last week, we talked a great
deal about this father's desire to believe and to be rid of his
unbelief. That's the desire of every believing
child of God. Lord, we believe, but help thou
our unbelief And remember the man had said, Lord, if you can
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And the Lord
took that if of the man and he turned it right around on him
and he said, the if is not in my ability to help. The if is
in your ability to believe. And what a great lesson that
is for us. Christ said, if you can believe,
all things are possible to them that believes. And the man said,
Lord, I believe, but help thou mine unbelief. And the Lord helped
him. The Lord always does help those
who earnestly come to him for help. If any sinner is to be
helped, it'll be the Lord that will help them. Now that's what
I want to talk to you about just for a few minutes this morning.
What the Lord does for sinners who believe in Christ. That's
our message every week. That's our message every time
we meet together. What God does for sinners. And
it's the gospel that's good news, especially to the sinner. Now
I usually don't give messages titles, but this one just kind
of came from our text. I've entitled it Dead, Led, and
Lifted to Life. That's a good title. Dead, Led,
and Lifted to Life. And I have four points found
in verses 26 and 27, four things that teach us something of our
salvation and our redemption. So let's pick up this story again
in verse 25. Mark chapter nine. Verse 25,
when Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked
the foul spirit, the one that was within the young man, saying
unto that spirit, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come
out of him and enter no more into him. Now remember, this
spirit had entered into him time and time again since he was just
an infant. But this time, when the Lord
commands His Spirit to come out, He says, enter no more in Him. You see, friends, deliverance
in Christ is not only effectual, but the delivering power of God
is effectual forever. What a blessing that is. He said,
enter no more into Him. When Christ saves us, when Christ
delivers us, it's forever. It's forever. But what about
backsliding? What about being lost once the
Lord saved you? You can't be. Not if the Lord
truly saves you. Verse 26, And the Spirit cried,
and rent Him sore, and came out of Him. Yeah, you better believe
it did, because the Lord commanded it to. And He, the young man,
was as one dead. in so much that many said, he's
dead. He is dead. Verse 27, but Jesus
took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. Now what a great outline the
gospel these two verses give us. My first point found in verse
25, we are spiritually dead. We are dead in trespasses and
sin. We're told that after the Lord
rebuked the foul spirit, that the spirit cried, and with one
last-ditch effort to destroy this boy, it rent, it convulsed. And this man, this young boy,
not man, but boy, it says, soar abundantly, so much so that when
the spirit left the young man, he was as one dead. And so much that many said, he
is dead, he's dead. The spirit has killed him, the
spirit has destroyed him. And what a picture this is of
all men and women by nature. We are as one dead because we
spiritually are dead. We're born physically, we're
alive, we move, we talk, but spiritually we're dead. In that
sense, we are as one dead. In Romans 5, verse 12, Paul wrote,
wherefore, as by one man, that being Adam, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. Why are we dead spiritually?
Because of sin. Death came by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now Adam, being
our representative, our federal head, He has sold all of us under
sin. And death, being the wages of
sin, has passed upon all of us. We're dead in sin. Now, what
does that mean? Well, the Lord told Adam that
if he disobeyed and he ate of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, that he would die. And he ate, and he died. Not physically, he lived 930
years, but he died spiritually. And being our representative,
this is so important, being our representative, our federal head
by our union with Adam, we're guilty and death has passed upon
all of us. When Adam died, we died, and
we died in him. And before you and I complain
about that, before you and I say, well, that's not fair, may we
remember that the wonderful thing about federal headship is that
in Christ, every believing child of God is made perfectly righteous,
just, and holy, and accepted with God. We are as holy and
righteous and just as Christ himself is by way of federal
headship, our union with him. But until Christ does a work
of righteousness in us, we are as one dead. We can do nothing
for ourselves. We cannot make ourselves alive.
You know, in Matthew chapter 9, I know you remember this,
there was a certain ruler who had a young daughter, and he
came and the Scripture says he worshipped Christ. And listen
to what he said. He said to the Lord Jesus, my
daughter is even now dead. And our heart breaks for him.
We think about that. I have two daughters, you know,
that the thought of losing either one of them is heartbreaking.
But what he said next is even more astounding and astonishing. He said, but come and lay your
hand upon her and she shall live. What faith! This father knew
that his daughter was dead, but he also knew that if Christ would
come and lay His hand upon her, touch her, take her by the hand
like He did this young man in Mark 9, that she would be as
one dead. That's what a believer is. We're
dead, but with a touch from Christ, we're only as one dead. With
a touch from Christ, we'll be restored to life. When the Lord
came into that ruler's house, He saw the minstrels, they're
called. That word means pipers. They had these professional mourners
in that day that would come and they'd basically play sad music
and stir the family up to lamentation and mourning. And the Lord walks
in and all this rigmarole was going on. And He said, give place. In other words, Move out of my
way. I can just see that. With such
power and authority, the Lord walks in and looks at these professional
pipers and minstrels, as they're called, and He says, move. Move. Save your lamenting and your
mourning for another day. For this maid is not dead. She's not dead. She's just as
one dead. She's not dead, but sleepeth. You know, I was thinking about
Lazarus. Mary and Martha had sent word
to the Lord Jesus to let Him know that their brother Lazarus
was really deadly sick, I should say. And the Lord tarried for
two days, remember that? And it was then that the Lord
told His disciples, He said, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. but I go that I may awake him
out of sleep." And his disciples were elated. They said, Lord,
if he's asleep, that's good. He shall do well. If he rests,
if he's resting, he's not in pain and he'll no doubt recover. But the Lord, the Scripture says,
but the Lord spoke of his death when they thought He had spoken
of Lazarus taking rest and sleep. The Lord told them then plainly,
Lazarus is dead. Now, which was it? Was Lazarus asleep or was he
dead? With Christ, who is life, they're
one and the same. It was both. The child of God,
though dead, are only as one who is dead because they're just
sleeping. The Lord, in His mercy and grace,
is going to give them life. So the first thing we see, like
this young man, we are as one dead. And many say that we're
dead. They did Him, they do us. God's
Word says that we're dead. God's Law says that we're dead.
God's justice says that we're dead, but Christ is our Savior. But as if Christ is our Savior,
we are only as one dead. And that brings me to the second
point, verse 27, but Jesus took him by the hand. My second point
is just that, salvations of the Lord. Christ, the just one, died
for his unjust people. And he takes them by the hand
and he brings them to God, 1 Peter 3.18. Now that word salvation
means deliverance. It means a lifeline, like a life
preserver. It saves a dying and drowning
man or woman from drowning, from death. It's saving and delivering
from death. That's what salvation is. The
Lord Jesus cried, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. We're not being saved from water
or fire, we're being saved from sin. Psalm 119 says, God sent
redemption unto his people, and he hath commanded his covenant
forever, holy and reverent is his name. Let Israel hope in
the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. And with Him is plenteous
redemption. Plenteous redemption. Plenteous
forgiveness, Psalm 137. Salvation is redemption, and
redemption is salvation. Our redemption is free to us,
but it costs God plenty. Paul said, for you're bought
with a price. And oh, what a price it was. Therefore glorify God
in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Friends, we
don't belong to ourselves or no one else, we belong to God.
Since the child of God has been purchased with the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, both our body and spirit belong to
Him. You're bought with a price. Be
not ye the servants of men, 1 Corinthians 7, 23. Salvation's of the Lord,
it's not of men. So we serve God, not man. Now that word redemption means
to do something that compensates for poor past performance. That
gets my interest, because all I've ever done in the past was
poor performance. The problem with that is that
God requires a perfect performance of His word and of His law that
we cannot perform. And only the perfect God-man
can provide it. And see, we're shut up to the
Lord Jesus again and again and again. To redeem means to gain
or regain possession of something in exchange for payment. Now,
what do you and I have to offer God? Not a thing. The only acceptable payment that
God will accept is death, for the wages of sin is death. The
only acceptable payment cannot be provided for us. It's payment
for sin, a perfect death, a perfect offering, a perfect sacrifice,
and God will accept nothing less. And Christ is all of that and
more. A sacrifice not having spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, but the sacrifice that must be holy
and without blemish, according to Ephesians 5, 27. It's got
to be perfect to be accepted. And I harp on that, because today
men and women think that they can actually provide to God something
that He'll accept. Well, we've never done anything
good, much less perfect. And that's why Paul wrote, being
justified, which means rendered innocent, remember? How are we
rendered innocent? Freely. Freely. Aren't you glad? We have nothing
to offer, we have nothing God will accept, but freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's
where it's found, friends, only there. Whom God has set forth,
that being Christ, to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness, not mine, I don't have any, for the
remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance, long-suffering
of God, To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness.
We don't stand up here and talk about our goodness and our righteousness
and what we've done for God. No, we proclaim His goodness
and His righteousness and His perfect righteousness before
God. And that He might be just and
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. And that word lead
there, Led, I mean. He led him. It means to go with one, being
led by their hand. The Lord took this young man,
whom everyone thought was dead, He took him by the hand. Where
did He lead him? He led him to life. He led him to life. He takes
us by the hand and he leads us to life everlasting. In Mark chapter one, Peter's
wife's mother was sick with a fever. And it says that Christ took
her by the hand and lifted her up. And immediately the fever
left her and she waited on them. She served Christ and the others.
And friends, when the Lord takes you by the hand, Life is given,
and service to Christ is rendered. We're not saved by our service.
We serve Christ because He saved us. It's absolutely amazing how
many get that wrong. Oh, if I could just do this,
or if I could just do that, I believe the Lord would save me. You'll
never do it, and you'll never be saved. All we do in service
for Christ is out of love for what he's done for us. Don't
get that wrong. In Mark chapter eight, verse
23, the Lord Jesus took that blind man by the hand and he
led him out of town. And when he had spit on his eyes,
he began to see. And when the Lord takes you by
the hand, good things happen. You better believe they do. How
did the Lord deliver Israel out of Egypt? Hebrews chapter 8 verse
9 tells us, He said, I took them by the hand to lead them out
of the land of Egypt. That's how God saves every chosen
sinner. He takes them by the hand to
lead them out of the bondage of their sin. Do you remember
when He took you by the hand? Well, so we know that we're dead. We know that salvation is of
the Lord. How does God save us? That brings us to the third thing.
He lifts us up. The Lord God is sovereign in
all things, especially in the salvation of his people. I've
heard men say, I believe God's in control of everything except
our salvation. We got a part in that. Well,
that's talking out of both sides of your mouth. If the Lord is
sovereign over everything, that is especially true in your salvation. And this book is very clear about
that. He lifts us up. He alone lifts
the mercy beggar out of the dust and the dunghill. That's what
Hannah said. That's what Hannah prayed. She
said, the Lord killeth and the Lord maketh alive. He bringeth
down to the grave, and He bringeth up in life. He lifteth up. The
Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up.
He raises the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them among princes. Isn't that what
He did for you? It's the Lord that makes poor
beggars to inherit the throne of glory. How can He do that? Because the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's and He has set the world upon them. What a God! God is sovereign. He'll keep
the feet of His saints. And He keeps the wicked silent
in darkness. For by His strength shall no
man prevail. God is sovereign. The adversaries
of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall He
thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth, and He shall give strength unto His King, and exalt
the horn of His anointed. God is sovereign. It's God who
does all these things. It's God who does whatsoever
He pleases. What the Lord pleased, that did
He. Now that can't be said of me.
There's a lot of things that I'm pleased to do that I cannot
do. But that's not true with God.
He can do all things. He can do all things. He has
mercy on whom He'll have mercy. He has compassion on whom He'll
have compassion. And He hardens whom He will harden. And none can stay His hand. And
none can question him. As he thinks, so shall it come
to pass. As he purposes, so shall it stand. For the Lord of hosts
hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is
stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Man's will? I think not. The Lord lifted,
the Lord lifted up the mink. He casteth the wicked to the
ground. Psalm 148, 6. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Consider
my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me. Thou that
liftest me up from the gates of death. Psalm 913. You remember
when John the Baptist was in prison, he had two of his disciples
go and ask the Lord Jesus this question. Art thou he? that should
come, or do we look for another? Now here's John the Baptist,
the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. One who pointed men to
the Lord Jesus and said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. And now he's in prison, and like
all men who are prone to wonder and prone to doubt, he asks this
question, art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
And the Lord told those two disciples, He said, go show John again those
things which you do here and say. What were they? The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, listen
to this, the dead are raised up, And the poor have the gospel
preached unto him. There's not another to come. He is the
one who came to save his people from their sin. Paul wrote in
Romans 8, verse 11, But if the Spirit of him that raised up
Christ, who lifted up Christ Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken,
make alive your mortal physical bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth
in you. Even when we were dead in sins,
He hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are you
saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's all you talk about,
Brother David, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there anything else
to talk about? He who lifted us up was lifted
up for us. Isn't that wonderful? He who
lifted us up was lifted up for us. And He must be lifted up
in order for us to be saved. He must be. As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, John 3.14. You know, everybody can quote
John 3.16, but not many believe John 3.14. He must be lifted
up. We must not only be made alive,
we must be lifted up. Well, what do you mean by that?
Well, you know, a man can be alive, and yet be completely
disabled. And a man can be alive, or a
woman, and be in a coma. A man or woman can even be alive
and be what physicians call brain dead. Christ came and lifted
us up to have life and to have it more abundantly. He's the
good shepherd that giveth His life for the sheep. We are as
one dead, but Christ takes us by the hand and He lifts us up. Oh, I love that. And lastly,
because of these things, We had the certainty of life everlasting. Let that sink in for a minute.
Christ didn't make salvation possible. He made it certain. Look at verse 27 one more time.
But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up. And what's
the result? And he rose. He didn't try to get up. He didn't
lend a helping hand to rise. He didn't get up by himself.
He didn't pick himself up by his bootstraps. I had a man tell
me, a preacher tell me that one time. Son, you need to pick yourself
up by your bootstraps and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ took him by the hand. He reached down His hand for
me. and what a stoop that was. He took me by the hand, he lifted
me up, and I rose just like this young man did. Salvation is certain, salvation
is sure. Now let me quickly give you some
things from the Word of God that you can be certain of. 1 John
5, 11, and 12, and this is the record that God had given to
us eternal life. God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. Nowhere else. He doesn't
say this life is in His Son and in your faith. No. This life
is in His Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. You can write it down. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Do you hear
the certainty in that? Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless. Luann Perryman, you are faultless. before the throne of God. Present you faultless before
the presence of His glory, and He does so with exceeding joy. It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. Wherefore he's able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever
liveth to make intercession for them, Hebrews 7.25. Nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord, Romans 8.39. Beloved of God, we have an inheritance
incorruptible. Now, I just got lost in this
this week. I got to thinking about this
and studying. Our inheritance, our inheritance
from God is incorruptible. What does that mean? It means
it's everlasting. The Greek word for incorruptible
means undecaying and immortal. Now, when a man dies, we put
the body into the ground, And I suppose if it wasn't for bombing
and all that, immediately it begins to decay. We've prolonged
that a little bit further, but that's what corruption is, it's
decaying, rotting. But our inheritance from God
is incorruptible, it's undecaying, it's immortal. I love what Peter
said in first, 1 Peter 3, verse 9, he wrote, knowing that you
are there unto called that you should inherit a blessing. We're
called to inherit a blessing. We've been predestinated to obtain
this inheritance according to Ephesians 1, 11. I don't know
why anyone would have a problem with predestination. We've been predestinated to receive
the inheritance of God. We've been predestinated unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. God predetermined
that his people would be adopted into his kingdom and inherit
his incorruptible inheritance. Boy, is that not good news? Both
the predestination to an incorruptible inheritance and the adoption
of children is according to the good pleasure and purpose of
God's will, who works all things after the counsel of His own
will. Ephesians 1.5 and Ephesians 1.11. This is in God's Word. Then you
add these things to that. Our inheritance is undefiled.
Unsoiled, pure. You know, I was looking at this
water, a minute ago, and it said Kroger purified drinking water. Well, it may be, but I'm telling
you, I know of a fountain that is really purified. And that's
the fountain of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that fountain which
flows with rivers of living water. Our inheritance is undefiled.
Our inheritance fadeth not away. And then the apostles said, it's
reserved for you in heaven. Now, you go to a restaurant. Have you ever done this? You
had a table reserved and you get there and they go, I don't
have a table for you. Well, it was reserved. Well, I'm not showing
it. But when God reserves something for you, you can count on it
being there. It's going to be there every time. It's reserved
for you in heaven. Who reserved it? God did. The One who takes you by the
hand, He's the One that reserves you. The One that saves you by
His grace. The One that lifts you up. The
One that saves and keeps and preserves you. I'm speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're kept by the power of God
through faith by believing Christ and His Word unto salvation. It's not our faith that saves
us. It's our faith in Christ. It's trusting what He's done
for us, what He's finished for us. And as I said, the Lord never
makes salvation possible. He only makes it certain.