Testing, 1, 2, 3. If you would, once again, please
turn with me to Matthew chapter 17. We continue in our studies
of Simon Peter, an apostle of Christ. Peter had just come down from the mountain
in our last study. A group of four were coming down.
from a mountain after they had witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was in the flesh, become the glory of God by being transfigured
and shining as a white remnant. This mountain that they came
down from, it's not given. And if you can think about that,
it's a good thing. It's a good thing that we couldn't
find any of the remains of the ark. Imagine what men would do
with that. Look at what they do with a piece
of bread that has a resemblance to Jesus Christ. If men will
do that with a piece of bread, imagine what they could do with
a piece of the ark. Or knowing where that mountain
is where our Lord was transfigured. We can recall the conversation
that these three were having when Christ told them not to
reveal what they had seen until after Christ had risen from the
dead. And we can also take note of our Lord teaching what was
meant by the return of Elijah the prophet, spoken of in Malachi.
But today we want to pick up at verse 14 of Matthew 17, and
we're going to read through verse 21. And when they were come to the
multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to
him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic
and sore vexed. For oftentimes he falleth into
the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. And then Jesus answered and said,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither me. And Jesus rebuked the devil,
and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that
very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, why could not we cast him out? And Jesus saith
unto them, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto
the mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove,
and nothing shall be impossible unto you. How be it, this kind
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. In this passage of scripture,
we have the healing of a lunatic by the word of our Lord. It was
a miracle that the disciples were not able to perform because
of their unbelief. Now while the Lord Jesus was
on the Mount of Transfiguration, a certain man brought his epileptic
son to the disciples. But the disciples were unable
to help him. Now Mark kind of gave us a little more detail
to this account. In Mark's event in chapter 9, it shows us that
this all took place in the midst of a large crowd. Turn over to
Mark chapter 4 for just a moment. Let's read that, shall we? Mark
chapter 4 verse 9. Chapter 9, I'm sorry, chapter
9. Where am I here? I forgot to
mark my book. Normally I get it marked. Beginning at verse 14, and when
He came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about them. You see what I mean by Mark giving
a more detailed account of this? Back in Matthew it just said
that they came down and a man approached the Lord. But here
in Mark we see a little different picture of what happened. And
when He came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about
them, and the scribes questioning with them. So Mark chapter 9
shows us that this all took place in the midst of a large crowd
of jeering adversaries. The disciples tried in vain to
cast out the evil spirit and cure the child of his seizures.
And you can imagine the father's disappointment when they couldn't.
When the Lord Jesus appeared though, he immediately appealed
to him. He immediately stopped appealing to man and he went
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Which is where we should all
go when we have our problems, is it not? Not just with the
things that trouble us of this world, but everything. Lord,
Lord, what would you have me preach on this morning? Lord,
what words would you give me to speak to your people, to comfort
the people of God? We come to our Lord for everything,
because He's Lord of everything. Is He not? He said, Lord, have mercy on
my son, for he is a lunatic and sore vexed. For often times he
falleth into fire and oft into water. And I brought him to thy
disciples, and they could not cure him. This is one of those
miracles that is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And
it is reported to us three times because the Holy Spirit intends
for us to recognize the importance the importance of and to learn
the spiritual lessons that are taught by it. So please allow
me to share a lengthy statement by Pastor Don Fortner this morning
regarding the lessons to see here in these scriptures. First,
we see a good father. We see a good father. Blessed are those children who
have such a father or mother seen here. The best parents are
those who seek the mercy of God for their children. Do we not
seek the mercy of God as He has on us for our children? I can
imagine David. I can imagine David. He had a
lot of children, you know, but only a couple. Only a couple
knew the Lord, did they not? All the rest of his children
turned from God and went their own way. I think about our dear pastor.
Gene and Judy, as they have watched all six of their kids, seem to
show a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then turn and walk
away in the other direction. Shelly, being one that I have
observed very closely, came here when she was working for the
prison, and watched her go through the connection with Ricky, and
after Ricky, and where she's at now, and her faith in Christ. You can see it in her words.
You can see it in her actions. Blessed are those children who
have such a father as seen here. Parents who seek the mercy of
God for their children. This young man's father recognized
the great need of his son. He recognized that his son's
needs were primarily spiritual, not physical. Oh, how we look
at our children. You know, I have some very blessed
children with health. I'm blessed to see my sisters
and brothers with health. I have a mother who is healthy
at the age of 85. But all the health that we have
physically will do us no good at all if we are spiritually
dead. He realized, this man realized
that his boy was possessed of a devil. Blessed is that son,
blessed is that daughter whose parents earnestly seek the salvation
of their children's souls. And this man recognized that
his son's great need was the mercy of God found in Christ
Jesus alone. He brought his needy son to the
Lord's disciples hoping for a cure as we read in verse 16. These
were the men who he knew had been used of God in healing many.
Therefore, he brought his son to them, Blessed are those children
who have parents who bring them to the house of God, whose parents
see to it that they hear the preaching of the gospel, that
it is the means by which God gives life and faith to chosen
sinners, the means by which He communicates His mercy to a needy
sinner. But it took more than the work
of His disciples to cast this one out, this evil spirit, and
to cure the child. It takes more than the voice
of a preacher to save a sinner. The word preached must be accompanied
by the power of God, or it will accomplish nothing. So let us,
like this man, take our children and their needs directly to the
Savior, making intercession, earnest intercession on their
behalf. Here's something else that we must not overlook, and
that is when this man brought his child to the Savior, he obtained
the mercy that he asked for his son. Now, Pastor Fortner goes on to
say, I would not make more of this fact than is warranted by
the Scriptures, but it is a fact that ought to be encouraging
to every believing mother and every believing father that bring
their children in the arms of faith, to the Son of God by prayer. He says, I do not find a single
example of anyone bringing a needy soul to Christ during his earthly
ministry who did not obtain that mercy, craved for by the one
who sought the Savior. Next we look at Satan's influence. We have before us a pitiful example
of the destructive influence of Satan upon those who are under
his influence. This young man was possessed
of a devil. During the days of our Lord's
earthly ministry, demon possession was very common. One reason it
was allowed was to give clear evidence of Christ's power over
hell. And another reason why God allowed that horrible evil
was to teach us that Satan's influence is always destructive,
as we read in Matthew 17, 15. The child would fall in the fire
or fall in the water. Like a roaring lion, the devil
seeks to devour the souls of men, we read in 1 Peter 5.8.
That old serpent appears to seek destruction of young souls, especially
thousands upon thousands of young men and women who seem to be
wholly given over to Satan's influence. And as it is said
in 2 Timothy 2.26, taken captive at his will to the destruction
of their souls. Ignorant, indulgent parents often
look upon this recklessness, rebellion that is in their children
as a possible passing phase. They excuse a child's disregard
for authority, moral perversity, and pleasure-seeking, sowing
their wild oats, they might call it. Fortner says, how foolish,
how irresponsible. We must not forget that the heart
is desperately wicked. And no matter how beautiful and
how wonderful our children seem in our eyes, the heart is desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Do not overlook
the fact that this young man was raised by a man who believed
and worshipped and loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Many look
upon parents whose children are rebels as though the parents
themselves must be bad parents. Who maketh us to differ? The Lord. Amen. Such thoughts arise from hearts
that are full of pride. Look at how I've raised my child.
Look how good my child is. It's because I've done a good
job raising him. Foolishness. But that's the exact
same foolishness that I used to think. My children, my daughter was
quite a good child. I was quite blessed with her.
I still am, don't get me wrong. My son, though, my son was like his father, a
wild, wild rebel. And his father was not a good
father. I was not a good father in the
ways of raising my children in church. It was more about John
and his desire to go out and drink and party and have a good
time with friends rather than be an example to my children.
So what could I expect? What could I expect from my son
but the same? But then I've also turned and saw another young
man whose family was just like that, and maybe even worse, most
of them were in prison. In fact, I understand that his
mother would bore him in prison. And yet this young man is a wonderful
young man and loves to hear the Word of the Lord. We've seen
him sit right here in this very church. I've heard his confession. He doesn't go to any of those
other churches anymore at all. He didn't come up here as often
as I'd like him to be here, but I've talked to him recently and
he still believes what he's being preached from this pulpit. So
much so that he's turned from those other religions. Who makes
us to differ? You get the point, what we're
making here about parents? It is God who makes us to differ. I'm not saying go out there and
not give it our best. We need to go out and be the
best we can, be like this man, bring our children if we could,
bring our grandchildren if we can. But oh, how foolish it is
to have a heart full of pride and self-righteousness. David
was a man after God's own heart, yet his own sons and daughters
were all, except for Solomon, reprobate rebels. I said there
were two, I apologize, there was only one. Though this man's
son had been under Satan's dominion for a long time, and though it
appeared that he would ultimately be destroyed, or by destroying
himself by Satan's devices, he obtained mercy. What a blessed,
sweet revelation that fact is. Satan was given permission to
torment this young man to make way for a greater manifestation.
of Christ's glory in healing this young man. As God gave Satan
permission to afflict Job that he might show his goodness and
grace, more gloriously he often allows the fiend of hell to cast
his chosen into fires of their own lust for a season that he
may snatch them out of the brands, as brands of the fire by his
omnipotent mercy. Folks, We must not despair of
those who seem most in need of mercy. When the Son of God spoke
to this young man, he was immediately cured, immediately healed, immediately
saved from the grasp of Satan. When we read our Lord's miracles
like this one, we should be encouraged to believe that He may yet repeat
this wonderful work in the lives of others. I often pray, I didn't
know the Lord until I was 40. Father, there's still today is
the day of salvation for my son. Today is the day of salvation for my daughter.
Lord, call upon them. Do what is necessary. Have mercy
on my children. Have mercy on my grandchildren. Have mercy on my sisters, on
my brothers. Third, we see faithless and perverse. In the 17th verse, what did we
read? We read, Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer
you? Bring him hither to me, the Lord
said. Do not misunderstand these words, folks. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was not speaking here to His disciples, but to the
jeering multitude that questioned them. How come you can't do this?
You know, they said the same thing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you be the Christ, then you save yourself from the cross. He was speaking to the jeering
multitude, and specifically to the scribes and the Pharisees
who mocked his disciples for their failure. Those words, O
faithless and perverse generation, he has never used such words
when speaking to or about his disciples. Granted, he called
Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. But Peter was doing something
that Satan would do, and that was trying to hinder Christ from
the cross. He did not call Peter faithless,
did he? He did not call Peter perverse.
Though like his disciples today, their faith was often weak, they
were not faithless. Neither were they a perverse,
rebellious, or stubborn generation, though like us today, there was
much perversity in them, yes. But it was the Pharisees, on
the other hand, though they were highly respected religious leaders,
But that's just what they were. They were faithless and perverse,
just as their fathers had been. We read in Deuteronomy 32.5,
speaking of the fathers of the Pharisees, they have corrupted
themselves. Their spot is not the spot of
his children. They are perverse and a crooked
generation. The Lord Jesus demanded that
the child be brought to him publicly. Why? Why would the Lord say right
there, OK, bring him to me? So that those faithless, and
perverse people that He might publicly shame them for their
mocking, for their questioning. Let us consider faith and unbelief
for a moment from the words we've read. Yet when the disciples
asked why they could not cast out the evil spirit, our Savior,
He told them plainly. He said, because of your unbelief.
Now, there's a picture here, folks. There's a good picture
here. There is much unbelief even in
the most faithful believers. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. I don't know about you folks,
but that just resonates in my heart. Because I know how fast
I can turn and forget about who it is that I believe in. These disciples were believers,
yet they could not perform the work before them because of their
unbelief. The weakness of their faith is
often set before us, and in many ways, in the Scriptures. It is
set before us in the encouragement of God's people in every age,
as in Romans 15-4 we read, for whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. It is faith in Christ, not great
faith, just faith in Christ that is the evidence in the assuring
of God's salvation in our souls. The weakest faith in Christ is
truly the evidence of grace that is strongest. A drop of dew is
truly water in all the rivers, is it not? Is it not the same
nature and quality, though not the same in quantity? Well, so
it is with God-given faith. That faith, which is the gift
and operation of God the Holy Spirit, is the evidence of proof
of our union with Christ, of our election, our redemption,
and our regeneration by His grace. We must not fail to see that
nothing so greatly hinders our usefulness as our unbelief. These
disciples truly trusted Christ as their Savior and Lord, yet
their unbelief made it impossible for them to perform the miracle
that they had been commissioned to perform. I'm fully aware, Pastor Fortner
writes, of God's sovereignty, divine predestination, and eternal
election. But brothers and sisters, the
purpose of God stands forever, and that it is altogether immutable. But we must never blame God for
our failures. The Word of God lays the blame
of our unbelief upon us and nowhere else. Peter sank because of unbelief
as we read in Matthew 14.31. Israel's failure to obtain the
blessedness that might have been theirs was because of their unbelief. We can read about it in Isaiah
48. The disciples failed to grasp
the good news of Christ's resurrection because they believed not, as
we read in Mark 16. Pastor Fortner goes on and says,
I can wonder what blessings I have missed and what works I have
been unable to perform, and what wonders I have failed to see
because of my unbelief. We cannot pass over this matter
lightly. Faith is the key to our success,
to success in our warfare. Unbelief is the path to heartache,
trouble and defeat. When faith is weak, usefulness
weakens. The same Israelites who went
through the Red Sea in triumph became cowards on the borders
of Canaan and could not enter the land because of unbelief.
Our Savior says, 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
was in verse 20. We just read it. Thorner goes on to say, I think
there's an obvious reference here to Zechariah 4.7, where
it says, Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou
shalt become a plain. Their rebuttal, of course, typified
our Lord Jesus Christ and our Savior here declares that if
we look to Him, if we trust Him, no obstacle will be too great
for us to overcome, no work too difficult for us to perform,
and nothing shall be impossible to us. That is not to be understood
as a blanket promise that we can do anything we want to do
or have anything we want to have if we just believe in our faith
is strong enough This promise is made to the smallest grain
of faith, not to the strong faith. If we have true faith in Christ,
nothing shall prevent us from glorifying our God, doing the
work that he has given us to do, and overcoming every obstacle
that opposes us or would hinder us in this world. Faith in Christ is the most powerful
influence in the world, as we read in 1 John 5, 4. The Word
of God gives us constant testimony of the power of faith in the
lives of God's elect. It was faith in Christ that caused
Joshua and Caleb to give a good report in Numbers 13.30. It was
faith in Christ that sustained Job in Hope in Job 13.10. It was faith in Christ that caused
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to remain faithful in Dan 3,
17 and 18. It was faith in Christ that caused
the woman who was a sinner to love her Savior as we read in
Luke 7, 47 and 50. Hebrews 11 gives us example after
example after example of the power of faith, showing us that
faith honors God and God honors faith. In this 20th verse, Our
Lord once more compares faith to a grain of mustard seed. Mustard
seed faith is little faith with a big object. And that object
is the omnipotent Christ. So now let's look at God's work.
And we'll bring this to a close. God's work must never be attempted
by the arm of the flesh or with careless indifference. In 1721,
we read, how be it? This kind goeth not out by prayer
and fasting. These words were addressed as
a gentle rebuke to his disciples, who possibly had perhaps become
overconfident in their powers as the servants of Christ. Like Israel, maybe they were
puffed up by the fall of Jericho. We are all quick to say this,
are we not? The men of Ai are but few. There is no need for
us to put forth all our strength. But that's a mistake. To underrate
our foes, for Satan will not be unseated without a fight.
It says, this kind goeth not out by prayer and fasting. So
long as we are in this world and we seek by faith to serve
our God and Savior, let us do so by prayer and fasting. By faith in Christ. And fasting
means denying ourselves. Trusting in our Lord, rather
than trusting in us. We must interpret this statement
in Matthew 17 and 21 in its context. Our Savior is referring to the
message of Zechariah's vision in Zechariah 4. That vision was
about God's work. It was about the building of
his house, the saving of his people, which is the very thing
portrayed in the mercy performed upon this demon-possessed boy.
God's message to His prophet then is the message to His disciples
here, and it is our message to this very day. The work is all
God's. He uses men to preach, to perform
His work, and He allows us to lay bricks and take away stones,
and to preach the gospel, but nothing depends upon or is determined
by man. This work is all of His and His
alone. Bring your children. Bring your
family to hear the Gospel. But remember, it's our Lord who
does that work. He must speak to the hearts of
our loved ones. The work is all His. In Zechariah
4, verses 6-7, it says, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, And He shall
bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace,
Grace unto it." So let us serve our Lord with
prayer, trusting Him and fasting. Fasting. Quit depending on this. Fast
from this and look to Him. Denying any strength or any goodness,
any power, any ability in ourselves, let us not seek our will, but
His. Seeking not our own gratification,
but His glory. Amen.