We're going to be in Mark chapter
9, verses 14-29. Now Christ is returning from
off the mount of transfiguration to find a great multitude surrounding
the nine disciples that were left behind, that weren't up
with him on the mountain with Peter, James, and John. And there
were scribes there as well, and they were questioning the disciples. They were questioning regarding
that which they were trying to do, and what they were trying
to do was cast out a devil out of a boy that his father brought
him there to Christ to have the devil cast out of. And what we'll
see this morning just simply is that Christ, who was sent
by the grace of God, that he it is that delivers us from our
bondage, and he it is that gives us life in him. Our title is
Encouragement for Believing Parents, Encouragement for Believing parents. Let's begin with the first point,
seeing Christ descends. Look at the first verse of our
text, verse 14, Mark 9, 14. And when Christ came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
with them. Now this is a picture here, again,
this shows us the love of Christ our Savior toward his people
when he took upon him flesh, when he laid aside his glory
and took upon him flesh like unto his brethren, and came into
this sin-cursed, dark world full of sin." Just look for a moment. Just put yourself in the place
of Peter, James, and John. Look through their eyes. They
had just been on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord.
They just saw the Lord Jesus Christ transformed before their
eyes into his risen glory. They beheld the Lord God in his
glory before their eyes. And they witnessed there, they
saw Moses and Elijah and Peter was so moved. that he said, Lord,
let me make three booths here, one for you and Moses and Elijah,
and we'll just camp right here. I'm content to stay here for
the rest of my life. And then the Lord God, the Father,
spoke from heaven, and he said, this is my beloved son, in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear him. They had just experienced
that, and then they come down off the mountain, and what do
they see? They see chaos, pain, questioning,
confusion, impotence, inability to do anything. They come down
to this and here's all this commotion going on over a boy who's possessed
with the devil. So you can imagine what it would
be like for you to come from that side of glory into utter
confusion suddenly. And then you begin to get just
a sense, a tiny sense of what it is for the Lord of glory.
to have laid aside his glory and the fellowship that he had
with the Father in heaven. He still had fellowship with
the Father here on earth, but he laid that aside in the worship
of angels and all the glory and the continuous praise to come
down here to a people that rejected him and hated him and questioned
him for everything that he did. And in Galatians 4, verses 3
through 6, it says, even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons." So do you see the love
of Christ for his people? Do you see what he did in laying
aside his glory so that The apostles took great care to show us little
details. Remember when they say, and he
sighed. Christ sighed within himself.
That's not in frustration. The Lord purposed that the son
should know and feel the infirmities, our infirmities, our sicknesses,
our pains, our sorrows, so that he sighed within himself. He
was feeling that which we feel. He was feeling that burden and
that oppression of sin which we brought upon ourselves in
Adam and in our own sins. We see him weeping at the tomb
of Lazarus, right? We see him weeping there because
he was feeling that which he was meant to feel. It says in
Hebrews 4, verse 15, for we have not in high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. That means he
felt the oppression of sin. He felt that burden and that
plague, though he himself was without sin. He didn't sin against
the Father ever, so he felt that. And it says in Hebrews 5, 8,
and 9, Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the
things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."
So the apostles, they bring this out that we would be encouraged
and not be afraid to go to him. He knows what you're feeling.
He knows it. He felt it on purpose that he
might be a faithful high priest, one who feels and knows what
you're feeling, though he himself is without sin. So flee to him. Go to Christ. He is the only
hope of salvation for the sinner. He is the one whom God provided
to save sinners, to save his people from their sins. Flee to Christ. And that's what
this boy's father was doing. That's what this boy's father
was brought to do. Look there, verses 15 through
17. Mark 9, 15 through 17. And straightway,
all the people, when they beheld, when they noticed that Jesus
of Nazareth was there, were greatly amazed and running to Him, saluted
Him. They had no shame. They really
should have had shame because there was just a bunch of confusion
going on there, but they don't even know the depths. None of
us knows the depth of our depravity. Even when we say, I'm a sinner,
we don't even tell the half of it. Just the wickedness that
is in this flesh. And to think that we're anything
when we're nothing is just pride and arrogancy. And they asked,
and rather Christ asked the scribes, what question are you with them?
And one of the multitude answered and said, he breaks in, he interjects,
and says, Master, I have brought unto thee my son. Now, first,
let me just say that I don't believe that Christ's question
to the scribes was just a wasted question. He was actually bringing,
he was ministering to them. He was bringing to their minds
all the foolish things that had just been said. What were you
questioning with them? He was bringing that to their
minds. Oh, yeah, we were just saying that you can't do this.
You can't speak like that. However they were speaking, I
don't know what exactly they were saying, but it wasn't working. And he
was going to show them that I'm the Christ. And in me is all
power and authority. You're going to see that. You're
going to know that I am the Christ sent of God. And then notice
here that the father of the son said, I have brought unto thee
my son. And we should notice a detail
in there that you see all the people running to him. You see
the scribes right there. And so that he could question
them what they were speaking. You see the father there. But
you don't see the disciples right there up on Christ's day. They
may have wandered over or come over, but they're still in confusion
and disarray because they don't understand why couldn't we cast
this devil out. If you remember in Mark 6.13
it said, they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that
were sick and healed them. So they were very likely confused
and embarrassed about what's going on. I don't know why we
can't cast this devil out of this boy. And what's going on
here is that they're relearning a very valuable lesson. A lesson
that we learn continually. I'm being taught this all the
time. That Christ said in John 15,
5, Without me, ye can do nothing. Nothing apart from Christ. If
Christ isn't in it, we're not going to be successful. And we
forget Christ, we're not going to be successful. If we are successful,
that doesn't speak well for us. Christ brings an end to our will
and our works in the flesh. He destroys those things on purpose
that we not be proud and lifted up and arrogant and vain in our
glory, but rather we would find our all in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's teaching them that without
him we can do nothing. Christ is our strength and Paul
said that, he said that, he said, I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me. So it's Christ. We can't do anything
apart from Christ. Nothing profitable, nothing valuable,
nothing helpful to men and women for their eternal souls in our
own works and in our flesh, only by the works of the Spirit and
the fruit which he purposes to bear and to do good for his people
with. So the father brought unto Christ
his son, but instead, because he said, I brought my son to
you. But what does he come to? He comes to a bunch of faithless
disciples who are arguing in the flesh, and they're arguing
with the scribes and talking nonsense, and they accomplished
nothing. Nothing. Didn't do anything.
Didn't help that boy, didn't help that man. Nothing was done
until Christ came there. Brethren, we're to see that,
to understand that sinners need Christ. We're all sinners and
we need Christ. So remember that when someone
comes to you and they ask you about creation or they ask you
something about some doctrine or something that you do, always
bring it back to Christ. Because it doesn't matter if
someone believes that God created the world. They could still very
well die in their sins and perish in hell. Because understanding
that God created the world doesn't save a person. Understanding
that God is God doesn't save a person. It's good to know those
things and to give glory and praise to God who created us
and the world, but that doesn't save us. It's Christ. So always
be looking to bring them to Christ, to preach Christ, to say something
that'll help them. Because otherwise, just knowing
the doctrine and what's right and wrong, that in itself doesn't
save a person. You bring them to Christ, and
Christ will teach them the doctrine. He'll show them what is true
and right, and he'll strengthen them and grow them in the truth.
Then all those other things can come. He'll add all those things,
but you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and then all these other things will be added. All right, now,
our second point, an encouragement to believing parents. Our need
of Christ leads us directly right to this point. If we believers,
if we as believers need Christ always, if we need the Lord Jesus
Christ, how much more do your children need Christ? If we need
them always, don't your children need the Lord Jesus Christ? Look at the son's condition,
Mark 9, 17 and 18. 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 pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not." So this
son is under the power of Satan. He is under the prince of the
power of the air. He's just taken by him at his will. And what we see there is that
we ourselves, in our flesh, we're no match for the enemy of our
souls. We're no match for Satan. But
thankfully, our enemy is no match for Christ. He can't stand up
to Christ, and he falls. He's the devil, but he's God's
devil. He can't do anything except God permit him and allow him.
And when God is done, he'll destroy him and cast him in the lake
of fire, and that'll be the end of him. But this boy's father
brought him to Christ, saying, Master, I have brought unto thee
my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And that's a good picture for
us to understand. We all, every one of us, every
one of us sitting here who even professes and believes on Christ,
we come forth and our children come forth with a dumb spirit. We don't speak and glorify God. We don't hear the word of God.
We have no ear for it. We have a deaf spirit and we
have a dumb spirit so we can't even begin to declare what God
has done for us by his son Jesus Christ because we don't have
that spirit. We're dead. We're dead spiritually.
We need to be born again, and that's how your children are,
just as you are. They were spiritually dead, in
darkness, sin-oppressed, just like this boy, born under the
curse of the law, and we do well to understand that. We think
one thing of our children, but they need Christ, just like we
need Christ, and He shows us continually our need of Him. So they need to hear the gospel. And like this father, we bring
them to where Christ is found. We bring them to Christ. We're
praying and hoping that the Lord will save them as well. Look
at verse 19. 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. So think of that in regards to
your children. The Lord says bring him bring
them unto me." Bring your children to the Lord. Remember he said,
suffer little children. Suffer little children and forbid
them not to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven. So what we see in that is that
we want to train. Pray. Pray for your children.
And we want to train them. We want them to come to where
Christ is preached. We want them to be able to sit
out here with us and to hear that gospel. And that takes some
training. That's not easy to do. You've
got to start somewhere. And that's where we're going.
and he said suffer the little children which means they may
not sit here easily at first and it may take time and to bear
with them and to hear some noises but that's what we want we want
them to to be here to hear what we hear so we can talk about
it and and pray about it and and discuss these truths with
them because It's sweet to have that relationship with your children
in that way and talk about those things. The Lord will use that. I'm not trying to make a hard
and fast rule, but as the older ones begin to move out here,
then it gets easier to train the younger ones and have them
sit quietly and learn how to sit back there until they're
ready to come out. So it's a nice cycle that can
be done and I've seen it done very nicely before as well. So
definitely be praying to that end because that's what we want.
We want them to hear what we hear. And then secondly, Christ,
in verse 21, Christ asked the father, how long is it ago since
this came unto him? And he said, of a child, of a
child. And think about that. Satan did
a work on this boy as a child. Satan didn't wait till he was
older. He got to him as a little child. And you think about that. Don't
neglect your children. Don't put it all in wait for
that evil one to get their hearts and to just keep them going down
that path of wickedness. But we pray and teach them early,
right? Because we love them. And we
want them to find Christ. We want Christ to be found of
them. And so we bring them to where
Christ is and we pray for them and we teach them. This man waited. He waited. And the evil one came
upon him and now he's begging the Lord, have mercy on my son. Save my son's life. He says at
the end of verse 22, but if thou canst do anything have compassion
on us and help us. And you see there where the father
includes himself, help us, Lord. And that's true of all of us,
no matter how old our children are, that is true. We still pray,
help us, Lord, because as long as my children don't believe,
It's a burden to me. It tears me up. And that's how
it is for the Lord's people. They are broken and afraid and
concerned. And that's why he says, help
us. If you can do anything, help us. Free him. Free us of this
burden, Lord, because it's not easy to see that. And so this
boy didn't believe, but the Father believed. The father believes,
and he came to Christ. And that's the third thing we
see. The father believed for his son. Not as a proxy. We can't believe for another
person and not be their faith that saves them. We can't do
that. But his faith, he believed for his son in the sense that
he went to Christ for him. He went to Christ and he begged
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said in verse 23
and 24, He said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. And that's really where we're
coming from, right? We struggle with that. We're
afraid for our children and we recognize, we see that when we're
brought to that point and we're considering our children, we
are brought face to face with the fact of our own infirmities,
our own weaknesses, our own helplessness, our own ability. Lord, I'm coming
to you because as weak as this faith is, I believe, help thou
mine unbelief. Don't condemn my child because
of my weakness. but have mercy upon my child."
And that's where we're coming to Him because He is the Savior
and He alone. We're begging Christ to save
our children from the wickedness that we know is on this world
even now and is the condemnation of all those that yet lie in
darkness and don't know the truth. What hope and what help do they
have but the Lord Jesus Christ? And so we're begging for the
Lord to have mercy upon them, and we want to be diligent about
it and not forgetful of their need, just as he shows us our
need. And in Galatians 4, 6, Paul said,
And because ye are sons, because you believing parents are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, You see how the Lord puts that prayer in your
hearts for your children, that you would go to the Savior, the
only one that can save, the only one who is willing Savior, and
able to save. There's no better place for you
to take your child then to the Lord Jesus Christ who said, suffer
the little children to come unto me. Forbid them not. You bring
them to me, and you entrust them to my care. You keep taking them.
I don't care how old. If your children are 40, 50 years
old, you keep praying that the Lord have mercy upon them until
they know. And even then, I mean, Joe sacrificed
for his children every day because he knew that they were sinful.
And we ought not to forget our children and just to assume that
even though they made a profession at a young age, that there's
nothing that we can forget about. We continue to pray for them. I know as a parent who even has
grandchildren now, there's still such a peculiar thing with your
home children that you just you always feel for them in a peculiar
way because everything they do you know is a direct result of
you. And the grandbabies you just
love and you hold them and you're so thankful and you love them.
But there's something about your own children that never goes
away. Ever. And so you keep praying
for them that the Lord have mercy upon them. So he's giving you
the spirit of his son into your hearts to cry unto him. And that's
what this boy did. He cried unto the Lord, have
mercy upon my son. Heal him. Save him, Lord. There's
no help for him. And he's under the burden of
sin. He's oppressed by sin and the devil. Save him, Lord. Have
mercy. And that's what the believing
parents here, what they pray for their children. All right?
Now, fourth, it's very hard for us to imagine that our children,
to see them going down the path of wakeness and ending up in
a horrible life. We all have either friends, some
of us have siblings that just went into very open and wicked
things and fell into that. And it's very hard for us to
imagine our children succumbing to that kind of evil and that
darkness that's so evident that even the world recognizes is
not a good place for them to be. And so we don't like to think
of it because it's horrible to us. But Christ brought this father
to confess what his son was. He brought him to confess and
to acknowledge, yeah, my son He needs you, Lord. He's a sinner.
He needs you. He's under the power of Satan,
and he needs to be delivered. And the Lord reminded them of
that in verse 20. They brought the son unto him, and when he
saw him, when the boys saw Christ standing there straightway, the
Spirit tear him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foamy.
And so the Lord then brings this man to confess what his son's
need is. He asked him, verse 21, he asked
the father, how long ago has it been since this came unto
him? And he said of a child, and oft
times it hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy
him, to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. Our children are sinners
just like we are. And they, not in Christ, they're
under the power of the prince of the air who can take them
at his will and do with them as he pleases. But they need
Christ and they don't believe, but you do. You do. And so beg for their lives. And our adversary, he hates God,
he hates God's Christ, he hates God's Gospel, he hates his children,
and he hates your children too. He doesn't care for his own seed. He despises all and loves only
himself. But though the enemy of our souls,
just understand, the enemy of our souls seeks to destroy our
children. Just like he's trying to destroy
this boy, and he seeks to do the same. Peter said, be sober.
Be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walketh about, or
the devil has a roaring line, walketh about seeking whom he
may devour. And he wants to devour you and
your children. He cares nothing for you. And don't think about that. So, I say these things to encourage
you, to train them up. Train them up here, and when
you're at home, You maybe can't do it every day, but set apart
some time each week to spend with them, especially when they're
young. It's so easy when they're young. Take that time and read.
Between the ages of when they're a child, up to maybe three or
four, and then when they are, again, 16, they maybe can't handle
a long time. But in between that time, they
actually can. And you can spend a good amount
of time. You can read. And you men, if you see Christ,
bring him out. You know the truth, you know
that we're all born dead in trespasses and sins. You know what Christ
accomplished, how he shed his blood to put away the sin of
his people. that He calls His people by election,
that He's a successful Savior, and all His sheep will hear His
voice and believe on Him. It's an effectual call, and He
preserves all those that come to Him. You know the truth of
what Christ has done for you, so as you see it in the Scriptures,
Old and New Testament, bring it out. And if you don't see
Christ, then don't say anything, but just read the Word together.
and say what the Lord gives you in accordance with the light
he's given you in Christ. And it doesn't have to be a sermon,
but I mean, just speak of those things and talk with them, with
your children, because it gets a lot more harder as they get
older. And even as one whose all my daughters confessed Christ
in their teenage years, I can tell you those teenage years
are still difficult. They're still a challenge because we
all know what we were like as teenagers. it gets really difficult
as they get older. So if you have young children,
be thankful and go at it early because it will be a labor. It
will be a labor and it'll show you your need and their need. And so be thankful for that time
to speak with them because it's a real joy to have that fellowship
and to be able to speak of those things. To be able to pray and
to sing a song, a hymn, together and to sing songs and to pray
and they'll come back to you and they'll ask you things and
you'll have that blessed opportunity just you and your daughter or
you and your son and you can just have that sweet fellowship
together and speaking of the Lord some of the happiest memories
I have is just walking to Carvel with my dad that was a long walk
and I could just speak to him about the Lord and just talk
about the things I was hearing and it was a I still remember
those days and thank the Lord for that mercy of his and showing
that to me. All right. Our third point is
weak but true faith. So this whole example, it pictures
the grace of God toward sinners. And we see Christ, we saw him
come down from above and he takes upon flesh like ours and he comes
into this chaos and this confusion of a sin-cursed world, but he
did it for our good, to save his people. And when a people
is saved, when there's a people saved, we expect to see a change. We expect to see what the Lord
has done, and we should expect to see what the Lord has done,
certain things to happen. First, we see a divine call,
right? In Mark 9, 19, Christ said, bring
him unto me. So God is, Christ will call all
his people to himself through the true gospel. We don't want
to sit under a lie, just to be religious and just to have, to
say that we're a religious family and they speak a little bit about
Jesus and a little bit about the Bible. No, we want to be
under the gospel because that's what the Father, that's what
the Son uses and the Spirit uses the true gospel of Christ. They're
speaking lies about your Savior. You don't want to be there. Get
out of there and move to a place where the gospel is preached. And turn over to Isaiah 43 verses
5 and 6, because the Lord promises that he will call his people.
Isaiah 43 verses 5 and 6. We saw the ones preceding this
just this morning, and now we see the call that goes out. He says, I will give men for
for thee and people for thy life." And now he says through that
call, those people laying down their lives, he says, "'Fear
not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth.'" All right? And then we see from this text
that there will be opposition. There will be opposition. In
verse 20, It says, and they brought him unto him, and when he saw
him straightway, the spirit tear him. The spirit tear him and
he fell down on the ground and wallowed foaming. And at this
point, because there is opposition, a lot of people fall away. A
lot of false professors will fall away because there is opposition. I've told you before where there
was a girl who heard the gospel and she professed Christ and
she was baptized and then Bam, she got into a car accident,
she was in the hospital a few days, and bam, she lost her job
because she couldn't get there, and all these bad things happened,
and she said, wow, ever since I professed Christ, all this
trouble has come upon me. So she forsook Christ. But she
didn't know. She didn't have the spirit. It
wasn't a true profession. It was just of the flesh. And
so there will be opposition and don't be surprised. The Spirit,
tear him, it says. Third, and remember this is in
light of our children and we understand. Third, the flesh
will be killed. Look at Mark 9, 25-26. And 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. 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." And there's going to be
a death to this flesh. You know, there's a lot of people
in the world, and a lot of parents make the mistake they want, you
know, what this world says is the best thing for them. They
want the best schools, and they want the best education, and
they want the best spouse for them who's wealthy, and they
want them to have all these opportunities, worldly opportunities. And if
that's what you want for your children, you know, for them
to be God's gift to this world in terms of flesh, then just
don't bring them to Christ. Don't bring them to Christ. Don't
speak of these things. Don't pray for them. Don't try to instill
what you're hearing here or anything like that. Let them just do what
they're going to do and they may be very successful in this
life, but then they perish in their sins and they go to hell.
60, 80, 100 years in this life of some success
just to go to hell, it's not worth it. And they're your children.
And they will curse you for leading them to that and not leading
them to Christ. So we want to preach Christ.
So at least they have heard and know the truth and can't hold
you accountable and their blood won't be on your head. But then
we see forth, we see life from the dead. Look at verse 27. But
Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. There will be a new birth. We
will walk, we'll confess Christ. We're gonna acknowledge and know
that He is our Savior and that this flesh profits us nothing
and we need Him. John 5.25 says, Verily, verily,
Christ said, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is
when the dead, us dead in our trespasses and sins, shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. We have many enemies and we're
no match for the sin that's in our heart and in this flesh.
We're no match for the grave, which is death. We can't defeat
that and overcome that. We're no match for Satan. We're
no match for these things. But they're no match for Christ.
And John, in 1 John 3, 6, John was saying, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. And what he's saying there, because
that is a trouble to a lot of people, because they know what's
in our heart. And what he's saying is, ye that
believe on Christ, that have faith, that have been given faith
in Christ, you do righteousness, and you won't forsake Christ,
who is your righteousness. And then he goes to verse 8.
He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth
from the beginning. And what he's saying is the devil
was lifted up with pride, and he forsook his first estate. He thought he was something when
he was nothing, and that he didn't need the Lord of glory. And so
he turned to his own strength and his own self. And that's
what the wicked do. They're turned to the flesh.
and they forsake Christ. That's what he's saying. That's
the sin that John is talking about in that letter is the sin
of forsaking Christ, forsaking the brethren. That's the sin. But those that believe Christ,
they do righteousness and they can't sin because the seed remains
in them. There's no way that a child of God is going to depart
from Christ and his people. But those who don't have the
truth, the truth They'll leave either because they're offended
or they'll leave because of a job and opportunities to go live
it up in this world. They'll leave for all kinds of
reasons because Christ means nothing to them. He's just not
that important to give up your life here, your 60, 80 years
of living just for Christ. But the child of God knows this
ain't my inheritance. This world is passing away, and
all this world are dying in their sins, and they're going to pay
for their own sins, which is eternal death, separation from
God. What's worth it? Your little,
measly life for a few years here to have some fame and glory?
Or an eternity in hell, separated from the true living God? to
know Him, even though things are harder for you in this life,
and your flesh will perish. You will know what it is to be
slain in the flesh, but Christ raises you up. Christ gives life,
and He lifts up His children. He does that work. And so, for
this purpose, John said, the Son of God was manifested that
He might destroy the works of the devil. So Christ is the one
who destroys the works of the devil. So we're no match for
those enemies, but Christ is. And we're no match for God's
holiness. God is holy and perfect. So don't think that your works
are good enough to have you standing before God, because they're not. And the scriptures are clear
on that. That's why he sent Christ, because Christ is the righteousness
of his people. So we don't want to come in our
own works. We come in the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
come in his righteousness alone. That's why we're not looking
to the law. He said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all and no
man is able to pluck them out of my hand. I and my father are
one. So that's where you want to bring
your children is to him who is faithful and in whose hand they
are eternally secure. More secure is no one ever than
in Christ's hand. no one can take him out of his
hand. All those enemies are nothing compared to Christ. And the reason
why is that Christ was sent for this purpose. Wherefore, Hebrews
7, 25 and 26, wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them. So, Christ's blood is that effectual,
and his spirit will save and does save his people. For such
a high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Alright, now,
one other thing that we see here is that no matter how weak our
faith is, because when we examine ourselves Most of us see, my
faith is weak, and I can't even boast of it, I can't even speak
of my faith. And you who have the smallest
amount of faith, you have the tiniest, weakest amount of faith,
it's a saving faith. This dad was fearful, he was
afraid, he was helpless, he had nowhere else to turn, but he
turned to Christ. And that's true faith. True faith,
no matter how weak it is, looks to Christ and goes to Christ
and falls before Christ and begs Him for mercy and grace. He said, Master, I have brought
unto thee my Son. And so that kind of faith is
not of the flesh. The true faith will always find
its way to Christ because he's the one that gave it and so he's
going to bring it to himself. So don't worry if your faith
is small and weak and nothing to speak of at all, even if it's
a mustard seed faith, he said, you can move mountains. That
is, that mountain of law will not be able to stand before the
faith of Christ, because he is your righteousness. And so he
delivers his people. So rest there. All right, just
very quickly, back in our text, the last two verses, 28 and 29,
just so you know, And when he was coming to the
house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast
him out? And he said unto them, this kind
can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. And in Matthew, he makes it a
little more clear that what Christ is, he's uniting there, but he's
joining there as he's saying that it's, he's speaking of faith. He's not speaking of the type
of possession that this boy had. He's saying that without faith,
You won't be able to do anything. You can't bring a person to Christ. You can't declare the truth of
the gospel. You can't speak of Christ except
there be faith, which is given to me. And that's what Christ
is showing us. This comes only by faith. That's the prayer in
the fast and the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is that
gift of Christ. it will seek back to him who
gave it. It will seek out the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'll just read that there from Matthew 17, 20. 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 to you. That is, faith in Christ
is the evidence that we are the children of God. So it might
be weak and puny, but it'll go to Christ and it'll stay. As
the Apostle John showed the first time, it won't forsake him. You
won't easily speak ill of Christ. And when we depart from the truth
just to go live in this world, that's speaking ill of Christ.
That means he ain't that important to me. I don't need him that
much. Not to give up my life, but faith settle us, anchors
us in Christ, and will keep us hungering and thirsting for His
righteousness and always going to Him. So I pray that you parents,
and you are parents, but who love the church and care for
Christ, to see His kingdom grown, pray for your children, pray
for the church here, pray for the work that He's doing, because
that's why He's put us together. And to see that growth, and we
can do nothing better for our children and for the people in
this community to preach Christ and to keep declaring what God
has done for his people through the Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray
that you would be encouraged as parents, not discouraged,
but encouraged to bring them to Christ because he's the one
who saves his people to the uttermost. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you. We thank you, Lord, for the mercy
and the grace which you showed to us in your son, Jesus Christ.
Lord, we see that you are a willing Savior. Lord, we see how you
are touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Lord, we
thank you for that and to know that you receive all who come
to you seeking you for mercy, begging you for forgiveness,
begging you for help, looking to you and you alone, Lord. And
though Especially when it comes to our
children, Lord, though it seems like a mountain that is immovable
and seems impossible, because to us in our flesh it is impossible. Lord, you say that with faith,
even the faith of a mustard seed, we shall say to this mountain,
Be ye removed from here, and it shall. Lord, we pray and ask
that you would rain down mercy and grace upon our children,
that you would deliver their souls from the bondage and the
oppression of sin. Cause them, Lord, to hear this
gospel, to hear your word, whether it be here in this place or another
place where they are. where they can't be with us,
but cause them to hear this gospel and to be delivered from the
bondage and the oppression of the devil and the bondage of
sin, Lord. Save them. In Christ's name,
we beg you and ask this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. All right. We're going to take
the Lord's Supper. And before I call up the brethren,
I'm going to be reading out of Mark. Mark 14. Let me just say a couple of remarks
here. Let me just begin before I call off
Scott and Levi in a moment. Let me just say in verses, Mark
14, 27 and 28. Jesus said unto them, All ye
shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.
But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee."
And so the Lord said, all you will be offended. And if you've
never been offended by this gospel, if the Lord has never brought
home this gospel to your heart, and you don't know who Christ
is, you don't believe on him as your Lord and Savior, don't. Don't take the Lord's Supper.
It's not about being religious. It's not about us doing this.
There's no grace communicated to it. It's not going to help
you in any way just taking the Lord's Supper. But it's for those
who believe, those who were offended, those who were slain in the flesh,
that the Lord cut down his flesh but gave life by his Spirit.
It's for you who believe, who have no confidence in the flesh,
and look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone as your Lord and your Savior
as your glory, your hope, and your righteousness. You who open
Him and have no hope in self, take of the Lord's Supper. He did this work for you. So
I wanted to say that first. And the other thing too is just
so you know that this is wine. This is real wine. If you were
an alcoholic and you can't drink, then don't. Maybe you don't want
to subject yourself to that. Or if you think that alcohol
is sin, I would just say, remember that our Lord drank wine, and
he was accused of being a wine-bigger and a glutton. And he even turned
water into wine. But it's wine, and so I just
wanted you to know that it is wine, and so if you can't do
that, if you think you're so holy, and more holy than Christ
is, that he drank wine, but you can't drink it, then don't drink
it. Don't do it. I just want you to know that
before we begin. All right. But Scott and Levi, if you can
come up. And Scott, if you pray, too,
before you hand it out. And once he hands it out, we'll
just get the bread and the wine together and wait. And I'm going
to read a little bit more, and then we'll take it together.
Father, we come to you thankful today for a place to come to
hear the gospel. Father, in a desert, this is
one drop of cool water. Father, we're so thankful for
this place to come and for you raising up a church in this area.
Father, we're also thankful that you sent your son to save a people. And Father, we're thankful that
you came to us because we're dead. We were dead. We weren't
coming to you. And if we had the ability, we
would have run from you. Father, we're just so thankful
that you did send your son for a people. Father, we ask that
you watch over the children of this church. Father, may you
watch over their souls and bring them to you. And Father, we just
ask that you watch over and care for us in Christ's name. All right, so I'll be in Mark
14, verse 22 first. What we'll do this time, we'll
read, and then we'll take the bread, and then I'll read the
next portion, we'll drink the cup, and then I'll finish up
here. Verse 22, as they did eat, Jesus
took bread and blessed and break it and gave to them and said,
take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when
he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
of it. And he said unto them, This is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily
I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine
until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And then it says, verse 26, and
when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. And so our brother will come
up and we'll close with a hymn. But what he's saying there is
like those disciples, let us go without the city. Let us go
without the camp where Christ was crucified, bearing the shame
and the rejection of men. Let us be willing to bear that
shame and that rejection of men for Christ's sake who died