Can you imagine having a child
or a brother or sister, a relative or even a friend that would,
without any notice or warning, fall to the ground, begin to
convulse, foam at the mouth, throwing themselves at times
in the water to drown or in a fire to be destroyed? How sad and
heartbreaking Would that be? I'd like for you to turn with
me to the ninth chapter of the gospel of Mark, if you would.
Mark chapter nine. And we'll begin reading in verse
17. Here we have the story of a man
who had a son just like the one I just described. Mark chapter
nine, verse 17. 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,
I'd have you notice that this spirit was in control of this
man. It took the man. He said, and wheresoever he taketh
him, he teareth him. And that word teareth there means
to wreck, to disrupt. And he foameth or frotheth the
mouth and gnasheth with his teeth. He grated or grinded his teeth
and pineth away. And that word means to just shrivel
or dry up. And he said, and I spake to thy
disciples that they should cast him out or this spirit out and
they could not. So we see that when this man
came to the Lord Jesus, he was desperate. His son was in bad
shape. Verse 19, he answered him and
saith, oh, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. I love those
words, bring him unto me, because if I'm ever healed, if I'm ever
saved, I'm gonna have to be brought to Christ. He's gonna have to
do something for me. Verse 20, and they brought him,
that being the son who was in this horrible condition, they
brought him unto him. And when he saw him straightway,
now I don't know if that's when Christ saw him or he saw Christ
or when the spirit saw Christ, doesn't really matter. When he
saw him straightway, the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground
and he wallowed foaming. I remember a few months back,
Teresa and I were on our way to church and there was a young
man walking down the sidewalk and he suddenly just fell over
and began to convulse. And it was a horrible sight.
And I felt so helpless for the young man. We were in the car
and we did call 911 and someone else had already called in. But
can you imagine having a son or a daughter or brother or sister
or friend that was in this condition? And this happened all the time.
Oh, it could just tear your heart to pieces. And the Lord, in verse
21, asked this father, how long is it ago since this came unto
him? And he said, of a child. This
has been going on all of his life. And oftentimes, it's cast
him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. Now look
at this question he asked the Lord here. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus
said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. Now this is another one of those
true amazing stories in scripture that reveal beyond a shadow of
a doubt to the believing sinner that salvation is of the Lord. In two short verses here, verses
22 and 23, we have two questions that begin with the word if. And they're questions of eternal
consequence. Eternal consequence. The first
question has to do with God's ability. And the second question
has to do with man's. First, does God Almighty have
the ability to heal and to save a sinner? Or does man have the
ability to heal and save himself? You know, when it's all said
and done, and if every other issue between the beliefs of
men and women were settled, there would still be two sides that
are diametrically opposed to one another. Those who believe
in grace through faith in Christ's work, and those who believe in
the works that they did. This father, the father of this
young man, at first made the same mistake that many today
make, and that is that he thought that God was altogether one like
unto himself. There are a lot of folks whose
knowledge of God is not according to the scriptures. They have
their own ideas of who God is and what He's like, and most
of the time, you'll find in talking to them that it's because they
thought that God was altogether like them. Well, He's not. But this man made the same mistake
that many do. He thought God to be much like
him, and that God was restricted by a weakness of ability just
like he was. And his question had to do with
Christ's ability, for he said, if you can do anything. He didn't say if you would do
anything, knowing that Christ could, but he said, if you can
do anything. And that is a wrong understanding
of God. It's actually a lack of revelation
concerning Jesus Christ and who He is. He can do anything and
everything. concerning the birth of a child
to a 100-year-old man named Abraham and his 90-year-old wife named
Sarah. God asked Abraham a very simple
question. He said, is anything too hard
for the Lord? And you know the rest of the
story. It wasn't too hard for the Lord. Nothing is. Abraham
and Sarah had a son. Now I want you to turn with me,
hold your place here in Mark 9, and I want you to turn with
me to Romans chapter 4, if you would. Romans chapter 4. I want us to read just a few
verses here together, beginning in verse 19. Here the Apostle
Paul speaks to us concerning Abraham and what I just told
you. Romans 4 verse 19, we read, Abraham being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body now dead. He was 100 years old. When he was about 100 years old,
neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, who was 90. But he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. giving glory to God. I'd have
you notice just in that last statement that believing God
is giving glory to God. It stands to reason that not
believing God brings reproach to Him. God is worthy of being
believed. In verse 21, continuing to speak
of Abraham and being fully persuaded that what he, God, had promised,
he, God, was able to perform. And this describes every believer. They're fully persuaded that
Christ is willing and able to do all that he's promised. And
therefore, it, what? Believing. was imputed or accounted
or charged to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone. Oh, I love it when I read that.
It was written not for his sake alone, but it was imputed to
him, but for us also. to whom it shall be imputed if
we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. Now, the only way that you and
I can be reconciled to God is to have Christ's perfect righteousness. We talk about this all the time.
The only way that that perfect righteousness can be yours and
be mine is if that perfect righteousness is imputed or charged or accounted
to us. How is this perfect righteousness
imputed or charged to us? Well, verse 24 says, to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised Jesus our
Lord from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses,
our sin, and he was raised for our justification. And the question
this man asked is, if you can do anything, And it proved that
this man didn't really believe that Christ, God the Son, could
do whatever He pleased. He can, can't He? Well, I'll
let the Scriptures do the talking and answer that question. But
our God is in the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven, and in earth, and in the seas, and in
all deep places. There is nothing too hard for
God. God has the ability to do whatever
He pleases. The real issue and the real problem
that we face as the sinners that we are is our ability to bow,
believe, trust, and rely that Christ did for us perfectly,
that which the holy law required us to perfectly do. We know that
the law, the law being weak to the flesh, and that being our
flesh, by the way, we could not do what God perfectly required,
and God graciously revealed to some, not all, that they must
solely depend on Christ, their mediator, their substitute, their
sacrifice and savior, to be their only acceptance with God. It's
got to be perfect to be accepted, and you and I cannot provide
what God requires, and that's perfect righteousness. If my
righteousness before God must be perfect to be accepted, and
it must be, Scripture's very clear about that, then I must
look to the one and the only one who is the sinless, spotless,
perfect Lamb of God that was slain for His people in the eternal
counsels of God. I've got to look to Him. I have
got to trust in Him. I've got to rely on Him totally
to provide for me what I cannot provide. Now that's not hard
to understand, is it? You see the word if in this first
question implies some measure of doubt on this man's part.
So my first point is this. The if is not in Christ. Let me say that again. The if
is not in Christ. There's no doubt about what Christ
can do. Now that word if in the study
of grammar and language is called a conditional clause. Something
happens on the condition of something else happening. And we not only
talk that way, but we very much live that way. We say things
like, well, if this or that happens, then more than likely we won't
do this or that. Or if this doesn't happen, we'll
be doing this or that. You see, it's a conditional clause. It seems that this man thought
that Christ's help was conditioned upon his ability to perform and
accomplish the help that he needed. And if this man's son was to
be helped, it would not be at all conditional upon Christ's
ability. Because he can do anything and
everything. But it was conditioned on the man's ability to believe. And that's the real issue. Man
doesn't have the ability to even believe because he's dead and
trespasses and sin. God first has to give a man life
before he even has the ability to believe. And no doubt, this
is why the Lord Jesus asked this second question that begins with
an if. Back in Mark chapter nine and
verse 23. Look at it with me. And Jesus
said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. The real question concerning
deliverance is can you believe God? And the answer is, You can't
apart from grace in Christ. You just can't. It is the unbelief
in us that begins to doubt Christ's love and ability and His willingness
to save. Let me ask you, does Christ have
the ability to heal and save a sinner? He's the only one who
can. Man has no ability to do anything
for himself. Do you believe that there is
a work of righteousness that you yourself can do that God
will accept as a payment and forgiveness of your sin debt?
Do you think that there is something that you yourself can do that
would cause God to be mindful of you? The answer is no. Nothing. Not by works of righteousness
that we've done. but according to His mercy, His
grace, His love, His forgiveness, He saves. In other words, we
believe that God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone. And if you can believe that,
our Lord says, there's nothing impossible. There's not an if
in Christ. The if is in our ability to believe. Man has made the Lord, now stay
with me on this, man has made the Lord Jesus an if. Religion
has made Christ a conditional clause. The self-righteous claim
that they must collaborate, that they must cooperate with this
seemingly poor, puny, and pathetic God that has made salvation possible
and He's made it available to you, you just got to add your
will and your work and your worth to it in order to make it effectual. But Christ is not a conditional
clause. There is no if where Christ is
concerned. Will men call Him to question
the power of His death? Well, Christ was so holy that
the law couldn't condemn Him. Christ was so perfectly righteous
that God's justice could not hold Him. He returned unto glory,
and it is there that He sits enthroned at the right hand of
God. What's He doing there? Well,
He's making intercession, He's pleading, and He's praying for
the people that He redeemed. Will God deny Him anything? not
when he pleads the merits of his own sacrifice. When Christ
pleads for his elect, will the Father deny him his plea? And please understand me that
he's not pleading two sinners to believe, he's pleading four
sinners who do believe. Big, big difference. And that's
why all things are possible to them that believe. It's the Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. What a glorious thought. There's no if concerning his
power to save. The Lord's question to this man
is, if thou canst believe, the difficulty of casting out the
dumb spirit in this man's son lay mainly in the necessity of
faith found in the father. The difficulties that lay in
the way of the Lord having compassion and giving help to this man and
his son did not lie in the Lord Jesus, but within the man. It's the same today. Is there
a need to ask the question, can Christ forgive? The real question
is, can you believe that He can forgive? If God's grace enables
you to save, I can and do believe that Christ can do whatever He
pleases. And whatever He does concerning
me is for my eternal good and for His eternal glory. Then I'm
telling you that all difficulty will vanish out of the way. That
leper that came to Christ, he said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. He knew the Lord could. He knew
the Lord had the ability to make him clean. But he doubted Christ's
willingness, and I don't really know which is worse. Christ is
both willing and able to save to the uttermost those who come
to God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession
for us. They are saved to the uttermost and unto the end because
it is Christ who forever lives to pray and plead their cause.
And it's Christ who in having loved His own which were in the
world, loved them unto the end. So my hope and my confidence
of being saved is not in what I do, but in what He's done for
me. It's Christ that saves us, and
it's Christ that keeps us. Salvation is of the Lord. Now it's the Lord here that asked
this man, if thou canst believe, and then says all things are
possible to him that believeth. That gave that man some encouragement
to believe, didn't it? He said, if you can believe,
and you should. Christ is worthy to be believed.
And he said, if you believe that all things are possible to him
that does. Did this man believe? Could this
man believe? Not apart from God's grace. This
man evidently believed that Christ was a healer. After all, he did
bring his son to him. Would he have brought his son
to the Lord Jesus if he didn't have some confidence in Christ
as being a healer? This man had some measure of
faith in Christ's willingness to help. And this father had
not yet reached the point of faith that would secure the miracle. It seemed more was needed. What
was it? What was needed? He needed to
believe Christ in reference to his own case. There are some,
even some here this morning, that do not doubt God's ability
and willingness to save others. but they really, really struggle
with His ability and willingness to save them. Christ is able
and willing to save the worst of the worst, and for you to
doubt that He can save you is nothing but pure, unadulterated
unbelief. Is there any one sin that the
blood of Christ cannot atone for? It's ridiculous to think
that you're too bad in order for God to save. To think such
a thing is to doubt the ability of God and to doubt the ability
of Christ. Now this man was defeated. This
man was in great need. But you know what? That's not
a bad place to be. Matter of fact, it's a good place
to be. And the Lord said unto him, and the Lord says to you
right now, if thou canst believe, all things are possible. for
them that believe. But can you believe? Can you
will yourself to believe? And our Lord puts the word if
in this question, if you can believe. What puts this if there? Have you ever thought about that?
Could it be our hearts by nature? Yep, sure could. You see, the
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It's called in the scripture
an evil heart of unbelief. It's out of the heart of men
that proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within the man and they are the things that defile him. Every
imagination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually,
and none of us will believe unless we, like Noah, find grace in
the eyes of the Lord. And it's when God creates in
His people a clean heart, and renews within them a right spirit,
that they will with that heart believe unto righteousness, even
that perfect righteousness that Christ worked out and imputed
to them, charged to their account. Remember, Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And he was called,
what? The friend of God. It's the same
with every believer. The only reason we can believe
is because God enabled us to do so. Believing Christ is the
same thing that coming to Christ is. No man can come, the Lord
said. No man has the ability to come
unless except the Father which sent me draw him, Christ said. Christ is the one exception in
believing and in coming. And if you can believe, all things,
all things are possible to him that believeth. You mean the
salvation of my children? Yes. Yes, even that. My second point for consideration
this morning is how can we remove this if? Such a big too little
word, isn't it? Have you been putting an if on
Christ? That's what puts this if on us.
When you see that Christ can do anything, when you see that
he can do everything, I'm telling you, when God shows you that,
it's then that you'll trust him for what he can do for you. First,
you must believe with what faith you do have. Now that's what
this poor man did. In verse 24, this man, the scripture
says, cried out. I don't think they had any trouble
hearing him. He said, Lord, I believe. We must walk in the light of
the faith that God has already given us. You see, by faith I
can go as far as, Lord, I believe you're God the Son. I can go
as far as saying, Lord, I believe that you're able to save. Lord,
I believe that your blood takes away the sin of those who trust
in you. I can go as far as to say, Lord,
I believe that those who trust in you have everlasting life. Lord, I believe that you have
the words to eternal life. Lord, I believe that faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And Lord, I believe
that whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Lord,
I believe, but help thou mine unbelief. I still need help. Every minute, every hour, of
every day. Lord, help thou mine unbelief. This is the way to knock this
if out of the way. To appeal to Christ for help.
Lord, help me to believe more. Enable me to trust more. Lord,
I trust you, but help me to trust you more. to petition Him for
compassion and help out of a personal need. This man said, Lord, help
thou mine unbelief. Not help the man that just offended
me. Lord, help him. No, help me. Can we, like this man, believe
Christ to help us believe? We must. If I'm ever to grow
in the grace and in the knowledge of Christ, He must help my unbelief. I'm not at all embarrassed to
tell you this is a request that I make often. I believe, but
there's still so much unbelief within. Lord, help thou my unbelief. And this man may have been of
ignorant of Christ's ability. No doubt he needed to grow in
the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. But he petitioned
the Lord Jesus with what faith he had, and he called Him Lord. He said, Lord, help thou my unbelief. He may not have known what all
that entailed, but he knew that no one else could help him. Do
you know that? Do you know that no one else
can help you? No one else can do for you what
Jesus Christ can. The Lord was not saying to this
man that if he didn't have enough faith, he wouldn't heal his son.
If that was the case, none of us would ever be saved. It's
not how much faith we have, it's who it's in. The Lord is simply
saying, if you can believe that I'm your mediator, I'm your go-between,
I'm your substitute. No one comes to the Father but
by me. If you can believe that, all
things are possible. What does it mean to believe?
Well, the word believe actually means to commit to your trust. If I have a $100 bill and I say
I'm going to entrust and commit it to one of you, you know, it
wouldn't mean a thing until I handed it to you, first of all. And
the safekeeping of that hundred dollar bill would have nothing
really to do with my entrusting it to you, but the ability of
you to safely keep it. You see what I'm saying? If you
can trust Christ to do for you all that God requires of you,
If you can believe that Christ has paid your sin debt, fulfilled
the law in your place, satisfied His justice against you, all
things are possible to those who believe these things. Why?
Because the safekeeping of our soul is in the trusting of Christ's
ability and not ours. This man by grace began to see
that all things are possible to those who believe that Christ
is both able and willing to save, even the healing of his son.
Look at verse 25 and I'll finish. When Jesus saw that 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 into him. Verse 26, 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 look at this, verse
27. What a picture of the gospel.
But Jesus took him by the hand. Isn't that what he did to you?
Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up. Isn't that what
he did to you? And what happened when he did?
And he arose. You know, I love this story because
it's my story. Lord, I believe. I know that
you can do anything. I know that you can do everything.
But help thou my unbelief. Amen.