Mark 9. This is a message of
hope from God's Word. A message of hope for the seemingly
hopeless. And that hope, we have one hope. One hope of our calling. One
hope of anyone that we hope for their salvation. It's their hope. Their calling. Jesus Christ.
The Gospel. of our Lord, a message of hope
for the seemingly hopeless. Listen to Isaiah 35. Strengthen
the weak hands. Confirm the feeble knees. I have
to believe that means those that are weak in the knees, not on
them enough. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance. God recompense. He'll come and
save you. And the eyes of the blind shall
be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. And the lame man shall leap as
a heart. And the tongue of the dumb shall
sing. Mark 9. This is a story of a
dumb young man. We don't know how old he was.
We know he's at least a young man because he's He says he had
this affliction from a child, and now he's older. And this
is a story of a dumb or mute young man that finally cries
out. He cries out. He's deaf and dumb. The Lord said so here in our
text. Look at Mark 9 down in verse
8. Verse 25, Thou dumb and deaf
spirit. Rebuke the spirit. He called
him a dumb and deaf spirit. It always goes together. If you
cannot hear, you cannot speak. Right? But this is my story. This is your story isn't it?
Most of you. The story of many in here. Every
story of our Lord healing someone physically is a picture of him
healing spiritually. That's why he did it. These people
that had leprosy, they died of something. It didn't last. I mean, their healing from leprosy
was, but they died from something. The blind that received their
sight, they grew old and their eyes probably grew dim. And the
reason our Lord came and did these miracles is not only to
show his power, but to show how he saved sinners. picture of the Lord healing us
spiritually. All men and women and young people are born in
sin, which renders all of us blind. Blind. Blind to God. Can't see. God clearly seen. His eternal
power in God is clearly seen. Heaven is clearly seen. Day after
day after day of speech, we can't hear. We're dead. Can't hear
it. Can't hear the Word of God, won't hear it. Don't hear the
truth. Turn away our ears from the truth.
It's just a fact. That's what sin does to all of us. Dumb.
I'm going to look at that in a minute. Can't speak plainly. Can't speak what these tongues
are intended to speak. Lame. Can't come to God. Lepers. Dead. Dead. Salvation is up to the Lord.
It really is. This is not a doctrine. It's a fact. I was blind. I was deaf, but
now I hear. I was dumb. I didn't sing these
songs. I didn't cry unto the Lord, but
now I do. This is my story. Is this your
story? He did it to me. You're listening
to a young fellow who was dumb. You know, we use that term in
a way of I'm making fun of somebody ignorant or foolish or someone
that doesn't have any sense. That applies to, you know, somebody
that can't speak. I'm not making fun of that fiction. It's sad. We all have a real
heart for people like that, can't hear and can't speak. But we
use the term dumb. How dumb can you get? Well, our ignorance and our foolishness
and our senselessness comes because we will not hear the truth. We listen to everybody and anything
else but God. We cannot and will not hear the
truth. So it makes us dumb, ignorant. I use the word stupid all the
time. The old Puritans used that word a lot. I mean, something
has got you in a stupor. You're drunk on something. That's man. That was me. So this thing is, with man it's
impossible. I look at it, verse 14. When
he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them.
The scribes were questioning with them. Now our Lord called
these men. He called these twelve disciples. And he gifted them. He sent them.
You know, Judas, I'm not including him, but he was the son of perdition. But Paul is later. But our Lord
called these men. He really did. They were just
men. They were just sinners. You know their story. And yet
the Lord miraculously, and this is proof that He did call them,
that He did send them, that He did work in them. Because an
old fisherman like Peter, he never sat in a church pew. Are
you kidding? But God, what he does now, and
this is proof that God's salvation is of the Lord and no case is
impossible. And so these were men that God
called and his power exerted on them. They heard his voice
and he gifted them, he sent them, and God still does. Though this
world doesn't believe that, though this world believes Preacher
is just a vocation. You just pick it up, you go there,
you get your degree, and you decide to go somewhere. No, no.
It's still a calling. The woods are full of false prophets,
self-proclaimed false prophets, and people that called in. But
God's men are far and few between, but they're still called and
sent by God. And how you know is they do one
thing, like these disciples. They preach the gospel, and what
happens? The blind see. The deaf hear. The dumb, their
loosened tongues are employed rightly from then on. So these
people came to the apostles and, you know, people come to me.
Someone just came to me with questions, problems, with tears
like this man. And the whole time, and I know
these disciples did the same thing, this man brought his son
who was hopeless. And maybe he, you know, before
he heard of our Lord, he probably took this boy to counselors and
here and there and had him go through, you know, all these
programs and nothing helped. Like the woman with the issue
of blood, she went to all these positions and she wasn't better,
she was worse. And now he hears of Christ. Maybe
the Lord healed him. He believes Christ is his only
hope and the only hope for his son. So he brings him to Christ.
At first he brought his son to these disciples. And that's fine. That's good. It's good to seek
out wise counseling. The Lord gave me a pastor that
John and I were just talking about. I wish I should have had
him. I wish I still had him to consult.
I really do. But anyway, someone just came
to me in tears. All the while, they're telling
me, I'm praying inside, Lord, I can't help this person. I cannot do anything. for them and this person they're
worried about. Lord, please, you can. You're the only one that can.
Lord, give me a word to help them. I know this is how you
speak. I know this is your power. Please,
give me a word to give to them that they might use in Caesar. But I can't do anything. Verse
18 says, He brought them to the disciples and they could not
cast him out. Well, I know that well. But look
at verse 15. Then the people, all the people
straightway when they saw Christ coming, they were greatly amazed
and running to Him, saluted Him. There's Jesus. There's Jesus. That's what they said. Jesus.
Jesus. That's what everybody called
Him. The same with that. multitude,
crowd, everywhere he went he was famous. Understand? Nothing's changed. They were
around him. Why did they come to see him?
What did he say? One time he said, you follow
me because you got your belly filled. Another time he said,
you follow me because you saw the miracles. You want to see
something exciting happen. Every now and then, one, Here
and there would come crawling desperately in need. He ran a
whole crowd of people. Remember when that woman came
crawling up there? And the whole crowd was jostling
him and bumping him. Everybody was trying to touch
him just because he's a famous person. People do that with rock
stars. And they still do it with Jesus,
you know. And this woman came to him. She needed him. He's the only
one that could help her and her daughter. And so it was with
this man. And our Lord stopped and said,
somebody touch me. And the disciples, Lord, look,
the throng is around your neck. And somebody touch me. I am touched with the feeling. I'm there in front of me. I'm
touched. I'm moved. Somebody needs me. And she said, it's me. Number
one. I was so proud. Jesus. There's Jesus. Come run in there.
In the end, this multitude was crying out to crucify Him. You
know it? You know what it said. They finally heard what he said
about himself, what he said about religion, about the Pharisees,
the scribes, the law, everything. They said, this is hard saying.
Even the ones who claimed to be his disciples, they said,
this is hard saying, we can't take this anymore. And a little
while later, they're crying out, what will you do with Jesus?
Kill him. We will not have this man. We'll have him heal us.
We'll have him feed us. We'll have him do all these miracles.
But we will not have him reign over us. He's not God. We have
a free will. Nothing's changed. Do you see? That's what we want.
And people call on God and they believe in Jesus when they've
got troubles. But this is the story of a man
He needs his son saved and he needs saved. Look at this, verse 16. Everything
is significant. He asked the scribes. He went
straight up to the scribes and questioned. What are you asking
my disciples? I love this. Scribes, you know, were Bible
scholars. Doctors of Divinity. Scripture calls them physicians
of no value, doesn't it? Rob Barnard used to say, that
D.D. behind their name, Doctors of
Divinity, he said, just put a fiddle in front of that. Fiddle D.D.? ? It stands for Isaiah 56. Dumb
dogs. I can't bark. You're not going
to bark at anybody. I'm not going to warn anybody. You're not going
to say anything to anybody. You're not going to do it. They're sleeping.
They're greedy. Dumb dog. D.D. That's what D.D. means.
Master of Divinity. You've got God mastered. Master of Divinity. Our Lord
said, call no man master. You have one master. Well, one of the Motu, that's
what he said to him, Master. But he questioned these Pharisees. I love that. He confronted these
Bible scholars. Read for yourself 1 Corinthians
1. Where is this guy? Paul. Paul was one of these scholars. Paul was one of these Pharisees.
Paul thought he knew everything. When God sent the Word, he realized,
I don't know anything. I don't even know God. He had
to start all over again. God had to teach him like a child,
leave him by the hand, blind. Paul knew. And then when the
Lord taught Paul, he wrote in 1 Corinthians, he said, where
is the scribe? Bring him on. That's what he
said. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? By
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, but in
the wisdom of God, he chose the foolishest of preachers. Start to read the whole thing
to you. He confronted these Pharisees.
He came straight up to them. And out of that crowd, out of
this crowd comes this one fellow, this one man, like that woman.
Verse 17, one of the most, just one of the people. He cried out. He answered. He said, Master,
he had to speak loud as a big crowd. Master, I brought unto
thee my son. He has a dumb spirit. Do you know that in this multitude
there were many sons and daughters who were out in the world on
drugs, living in fornication, completely
in the world, captive by the world, possessed by the world,
everything in it, following the course of this world. This whole
crowd had sons and daughters that way. It probably wasn't a... I started
thinking about it in this congregation, that there's very few parents
that don't have a lost child in this room, or a lost grandchild,
right? And all these people had all
these sons and daughters possessed and none of them asked the Lord
for help. None of them. They all had sons
and daughters that needed the Lord desperately. They don't
know, they don't believe their sons and daughters are that bad.
See, this man is not going to justify his son. He's not going
to say anything good about his son. He's a good boy, really.
He's just got some problems. Oh no, he's got an evil spirit. And there's only one that can
help him. You hear me? This man. God made him to realize. We're dead in sin. We're dead,
and our sons and daughters are born dead. There's only one hope
for us, and that's Jesus Christ. There's no soft-soaping, no beating
around the bush. They're dead. They've got to
be raised. I mean, somebody's got to lay
hold of them. Our Lord, He laid hold of this young man. Just
plead with him. He's a good boy. He'll take the
first step. No, he won't. He won't do it,
will he, brother? He's got a dumb spirit. I said I wasn't going to get
excited here. I preach like everybody in the
world is listening to this. I wish they were. They're not. You are. Maybe somebody else. Maybe the Lord used this for
somebody. I don't know. I hope so. There's a multitude
of people with sons and daughters in this world, captives. We've
got some in this very room right now. Oh, God, lay hold of them. And the only reason parents don't
bring their sons and daughters to hear Christ, hear the gospel
of Christ, they don't believe Christ. They don't believe their
children are that bad. They don't believe they're dead.
There's hope somewhere else. They just get a good education.
They just, you know, straighten up and fly right and do this
and that. They'll be okay. No, they won't. Their only hope
is that they hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is the power of God on salvation. If you believe that, you'll do
everything in your power to bring them to Christ. Seriously now, somebody says
they believe the Lord and don't bring their children, if their
children are under their roof and under their power, and they
don't bring them to hear the gospel, they don't believe Christ. No, they
don't. No, they don't. Boy, if this is how He saved
you, you know this one thing the Lord is going to do. One
thing. One way He's going to speak to
your children, the way He spoke to you. And this man, I can't help but
believe he heard Christ and the Lord dealt with him. Like that
woman whose daughter was vexed with the Spirit, how did she
know? She was vexed. She was born that way. She grew
up that way. Oh, he's a good boy. No, he's
not. I know he's not because he's my boy. And there's none
that doeth good, not one. We all come forth from the womb
speaking lies. I was shaping in iniquity. This
is what David said. In sin did my mother conceive
me. My mother was a sinner. My father
was a sinner. I was born a sinner. And my boy
and my daughter's a sinner. My granddaughter is a sinner.
Unless God saves them, we're going to cast them into the outer
darkness. That's a path. This is desperate. It really
is. It's serious. I'm not going to church. I'm
coming to the Lord. I hope He'll save somebody. He brings His Son to Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, and you do, I know you do,
bring Him to Christ. If you can't physically bring
Him, you bring Him in prayer. Don't stop praying. Don't ever
stop. Our Lord said in the end of this,
this kind doesn't come out in one way. You read that, see, the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth man. Effectual. Fervent. What's effectual? In
the name of Jesus Christ. What's fervent? From the heart. Continual. Continuing prayer.
Don't stop praying. It availeth man. You're a righteous
man, brother. You're just as righteous as Elijah.
You know that? Every believer in here is just
as righteous as Elijah whom God heard praying. It's a fact. Our Lord said here, if you believe,
I'll think about it. He did. I'm not sure I fully
understand that, but he said it. Don't quit praying. Don't stop praying. God forbid
that we should sin against the Lord and our brethren and cease
to pray for them. Pray for other people's children.
I know you do. I know you do. Bring them. Bring them. Bring
them. You know, somebody brought me. Somebody brought me to hear
the gospel. But my parents first. My grandparents
set a good example, like Timothy. And that woman right there. The
Lord used that woman right there for me to hear the gospel. You
know, your mother, Kelly, came up here to train horses. And his mother said, son, there's
a gospel church right up there. He didn't. Your mother brought
you. And he brought her. Your mother, did your mother
bring you here to Gospel Heaven? Huh? Did your mother, Tammy Jo? What's your name? Irene Davis? Who brought you here to Gospel?
That fellow sitting right beside you. Huh? Bring him to Christ. Bring him to Christ. This man
brought his son. What happened? Keep praying. It ain't over till
it's over. Our Lord's mercy. This child,
this young man was dumb. He couldn't speak. He was mute. That means he can't speak. He
won't speak. Listen to Romans 3. Romans 3. It says of mankind, Jew and Gentile,
none righteous, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. They're all out of
the way. They're together become unprofitable. Put them all together,
they're worth nothing. Everyone of them. Oh, wait a
minute. What do you mean, wait a minute?
This is God speaking to me. No ifs, ands, buts, or buts.
No exceptions. They're all going out of the
way. There's none that doeth good. Not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher. We are in the last days. Is it not clear to you that God
is removing His hand from this world so that nothing that comes
out of man's mouth is but filth? It wasn't this way just 40 or
50 years ago. The only thing men and women
and young people use this tongue and this mouth for is filth.
And blasphemy. 2 Timothy 3 said their mouths
are full of blasphemy. Blasphemers. Proud. Headache. Boasters. Big talkers. That's never fit a generation
more than this one. There's an open
sepulchre. With their tongues they've used
deceit. If you can't hear, if someone
can't hear or won't hear what God says about himself and about
man, then you will blaspheme God. You will say all manner
of filth. You'll be so full of pride. Our
children will be so full of pride. If they've not yet heard from
God, they're going to be so full of pride. Look at me. I'm blind. I can't see. And this young man couldn't speak.
He couldn't speak. He wouldn't speak. He wouldn't. You know, and our Lord asked
him, how long has this been? He said, from a child. And I
quoted that, the wicked come forth from the womb speaking
lies as soon as they're born to go to Australia. A natural
born child, a son of Adam, is an enemy of God when they come
out of the womb. Is that right? Is that what this Bible, Romans
8 said? Ephesians, Colossians. We come
out of the womb loving ourselves. We come out of the womb loving
ourselves and hating the truth. And our first words, and nobody
has to teach us. Nobody has to teach our children
these first words. No. Mine. Jimmy. Huh? No. We have to force our
children to use these lips and these mouths to say, please. Everything they think, we think
it's our right. Gimme, gimme, mine. Nothing belongs
to you. You're a beggar. We come out
of the womb a beggar. Good for nothing. No price to
pay. That's a good illustration. We
have to force our children to say, please. We have to force
our children to say, thank you. Everything is given to them.
Everything. Well, so is it with adults. Just say, thank you. Why are
we here? They say, OK. Why are we here? To thank God. Because everything we are and
have is by His grace. We're not in hell right now because
of God's mercy. We're here to thank Him. You
parents, what do you require from your children? You want
them to pay the house payment? You want them to pay the car
payment? You want them to pay for groceries? Do you? You want
them to pay for their education? You want them to buy their clothing?
Any of that? What do you want? Thank you. Clean up your room. You
make a mess, clean it up. That's the only reason, isn't
it? You have to force them to say,
yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. That's the foreign
language of it. You have to force them to come
to God's house. You have to force them to sing
His song. It's dumb. I can't do it. I can't sing. I can't say thank
you. I can't call on God. I'm dumb. I'm dumb. It's the spirit. It's the spirit of this world.
It's the spirit of evil. It's this evil spirit within
us called self. I'm full of it. I know. Because
it was me. It was me. I thought just as
soon as I'm old enough, I'm out of here. And this is why I cannot
preach ever. I can't ever stand up without
saying these two words. But God. I'm here because, but
God. I'm out of here. And God said,
no, you're coming back here. I'm leaving. And God said, I'm
coming after you. I won't have to sing these songs
anymore. Yes, you will. You'll be singing louder than
anybody. And as I said, this man wasn't
making any excuses for his son. Look at verse 18. It said, Whenever
he takes him, he terrors him. He terrors him. Wherever he takes
my son, he terrors him. You know, people in the world
don't know God, don't have any Faith in our Lord, don't know
Him, don't know His sovereign power, don't trust Him. You know,
they're tore up over everything. Tore up from the floor. Everybody
stays tore up. God send the least little thing,
anything, a germ. Just tear people all up. Just
tear them up. It's real disappointing when
believers do that. It's grievous to our Lord. How long, how long
do I have to suffer, you say? Listen to this. Whosoever hearketh
unto me shall dwell safely and be quiet from the fear of evil. And on and on it goes. Thou,
Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety. You compassed me about
as with a shield. They that know thy name will
put their trust in him, and nothing shall offend them, or make them
afraid, if you just believe. Just believe. Just trust him
and go to bed. Come what night, it's the Lord. It'll kill us all. Good. Hallelujah. Then we've got nothing to worry
about. Go ahead. Throw us in the furnace. We'll be done with
you. I'm done with this, my whole
mess. Tears him up, just tears him up. Everything he hears,
he's tore up. Foams at the mouth. He gets mad at everything. He's
just mad. Gets all worked up like a horse,
you know. In a lather, we call it. Did you ever get that way? Do
you still get that way? Yeah, we do. That's sad, isn't
it? And this won't end until we're
somewhat broken. You know that? Until we realize, finally realize
who God is, and that God is the first cause of everything. Every
single thing that happens, God willed it and perfected it. Everything.
And so that will just make you sad every day. You won't get
toe up on the floor. Kelly's 160. I didn't say that. Toe up on the floor. homing. It says, look at our text, it
says he fell on the ground wallowing. Isn't that what man is doing?
Wallowing. Wallowing. And people, religion
doesn't help. Have you looked at this Pentecostal
Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost stuff on YouTube? Just look at it real
briefly. Just Google it. Holy Ghost Revival. Just look at it. It'll make you
throw up. They're in a frame wallowing
on the ground. like they're possessed with a devil. They are. So religion's
not the answer. It's a problem. In verse 21,
he asks the father, how long has it been? He said, from a
child. And in verse 22, he says, all the time they cast him in
the fire. Cast him in the fire. You've
heard religion talk about acquire the fire, haven't you? That's what they're all, you
know, I get these things all the time in the mail, you know,
the fire, Holy Ghost fire, bring the children, have a fiery revival,
fire, fire, fire, fire. Make the children pass through
the fire. Have you read that many times, Milton? Do not let
your children ever go anywhere in this world, any kind of religious
gathering at all. Don't you dare. They might acquire
the fire. Water. So it throws him in the
water. Baptism. We had our two neighborhood
boys when they were just kids. We liked those boys so much.
Oh, we loved them, didn't we? Had a burden for them. And they
came. We asked them to come, and they
did. The whole family came, sat right back there. And they couldn't
take this, and it wasn't any fun. And it came one time, they
left. Well, lo and behold, they went
somewhere else and they baptized those two boys the next Sunday. It's a crooked world. Religion
is behind it all. That's the problem. That's what
happened to Israel. Religion. False religion. And if our children are not in
the religion like that, and our children, you know, have been
baptized, but I tell you what, our children have the fires of
lust in their hearts, that rage in their hearts. We call them
hormones. But they rage, don't they? And
they're dangerous. And they'll get out of control
if the Lord doesn't do something. If the Lord doesn't reign it
in, they'll be out of control. It will consume them. I know. I know. And the water, this world, the
waters of this world, you just can't get enough of them. The
riches of this world drowned people in perdition. Look. Look
at all these riches. Look at this, what the world
has to offer. It will drown you. So our Lord said, in verse 23,
If thou canst believe, is it up to him? Is it up to this man? Is that what he's saying? If
you just have enough faith. Is that what he's saying? What
is faith? And what? Not what you believe. It's who. It's not what you do. It's who did what for you. It's
not your strength of your faith. It's the strength of your God. Faith's a person, he said. It's
not faith in your faith. You just have enough faith. This
person didn't. When my brother was killed in
Vietnam, one of these religious persons came, neighbor, came
to visit. And they said this to my parents.
They said, well, my son came home from the war. And she actually
said to him, I guess we just prayed harder than you did. What are you talking about cutting
up a knife? You know what God thinks of people
like that? If you speak in front of those
pharisees, you come straight to those pharisees. What are
you asking them? I love that. Talk to me. I love that. You talk to me. You got any questions,
ask me. Oh, religion. I hate it. It's dangerous. It's a problem
with this world. It really is. Not the truth. So, if thou canst believe, meaning,
if you can, by the grace of God, because faith is not of yourself,
it's a gift of God. If you can believe, if you can
trust the Lord, if you can look to Him for all things, and appeal
to Him for all things, if He's all your hope, All your trust,
all your salvation, all your wisdom, all your righteousness,
all your strength, all your sanctification and redemption. He's all your
everything. Your prophet, your priest, your
king. He's all to you. That's what faith means. It's
faith in Him. It's not faith in your faith,
not faith in your strength. It's faith in Him. He's your
strength. He's your faith. You're saved by the faith of
Jesus Christ. Not your faith in Him. Him. Do you believe that? It's all possible to them that
believe. Those that have me, it's not only possible, it's
certain. He cried out, Lord, I believe. When I was saying all these things,
I heard eight men here and there. You believe. You do. You really do. You really
do believe and trust Christ alone. You really do believe God is
God, don't you, Sally? I do this all the time. You know
how blessed we are. I just don't think we do know
how blessed we are. You know how few people
really believe that God is God? Kate, you know how many people
think you've got to let God be God? Then what good is it if you have
to let Him be God? We call on him, let me know you
are God. And he does. I'm your God. And you're my people. Now rest. I'm going to take care of it.
Whew. I believe. Where'd you get this
faith? He decided to believe. Lord gave
it to him. Oh, but help my unbelief. Now when Jesus saw the people
coming together, now the crowd is really gathering, just blocking
them. He turned to this man with the dumb spirit. He turned to
this young man personally. The Lord has got to speak to
us individually. He's got to speak to your son
personally. He's got to speak to you. He's
got to speak to you. He spoke to me. I remember. You
remember, don't you? You remember thinking, he's speaking
to me. You told the preacher, I felt like you were speaking
to me. No, like Eli said, son, it wasn't me, it was the Lord.
And that's what we need him to do. Get a hold, because we can't
do it, can we, sisters? We can't do it. We've tried.
We speak to him. Our voices don't have any power. But his is. As we turn to this young man,
what did he do? Now, son, I love you so much. I just love you
so much. You're basically a good boy.
If you'll let me, into your heart. He rebuked him. Are you with me? Do you see what
the Lord does when He saves somebody? He told him what he was. He rebuked him. You're a dumb
spirit. That's what's wrong with you. That woman, I'm laughing. I love it. Only a believer can
love when the Lord calls you a worm. When a preacher stands
up and says, you're worthless, amen. You know, aspire God in
it. Take a proud sinner, full of
himself, loving himself, and a preacher stands up and says,
you're not worth hanging. Amen, brother. That woman came to him with her
daughter, the devil, and he said, it's not fit to give this to
dogs. Call her a dog. What's she say? Everything he
said to her, she said, truth. Everything you say about me,
everything you say about God's word, everything you say about
God is truth. I know it. It's true about me. It's true about my son. It's
true about my daughter. It's true about every man. Let
God be true in every man's life. That's what God's people said.
He rebuked them. Look at verse 25. Thou dumb and deaf spirit, you
haven't heard a word I've said. You've read the Bible You've
heard all these messages, and you haven't heard one word. I
charged it. Only when the Lord speaks in
power is this going to happen. Come out of him. And enter no
more in him. Now that spirit came out of him.
Verse 26, what happened? Now this fella hadn't uttered
a word. He hadn't spoken a word this
whole time. He's standing before the Lord.
His mouth is stopped. He's dumb. He can't speak. He
won't speak. But when the Lord speaks to him,
what does he do? He cries. He cries. Whosoever shall call. You ever
cry? You ever cry? I mean really cry. We all do. We all do. He ever cried unto
the Lord? That's what that man called the
Lord. When Peter was going down, when
Peter was going down under the way, he didn't say, well, if
I'm one of the elect, I'll be okay. Well, if he's going to save me,
he's going to save me. I know it's all predestined. This is all
the will of God. He cried. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Me and my son. What did this man say? He cried. What did he say? I know what
he said. Well, it doesn't say what he
said. I know what he said. Because I said it. Lord, have
mercy on me. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to Thy loving kindness, according to the multitudes I tend to mercy.
Blot out my transgression. Isn't it? You'll be just when
you judge me, clear when you judge me. Create in me a clean
heart, a clean spirit. Take this foul spirit out of
me. I know what he said. He said, Lord, if you don't save
me, I'll perish. That's what he said. He cried out. It was the first
time in his life. and rent him sore. And it came out of him,
in verse 26, as one dead. That is, he's lying still on
the ground. Where is he? He's at the feet
of Jesus Christ, lying there like a dead man. And they said,
he's dead. No, he's not dead. Finally, he's alive. Because when the law comes, when
the Word comes, what it will do first is kill you before it
makes you alive. Like that man with a demon possessed. He was jumping and hollering
and doing all this. He acquired the fire and all
that when Christ came. They found him sitting at the
feet of Christ with his mouth shut in his right mind hearing the
word of Jesus Christ. People come in here, you know,
these Holy Ghost revival people come in here and say, this place
is dead. That's what they said. This place is dead. Y'all are
dead. We need to acquire the fire. No, we don't. You're the
one dead. In dead religion, dead works.
We just quietly listened to what our Lord had to say. In our hearts,
we're shouting. He's dead. No, he's not. He's
alive. He's alive. Our Lord, look at this, verse
27, He took him by the hand. Oh my, when he reached down for
me and lifted him up, he lifted me out of the deep miry clay
and settled my feet in the straight now. He lifted me up to a heavenly
place and floodeth my soul each day with his grace. Lifted him
up out of the muck, out of the mire, out of the pit, out of
the dung heap and set his feet on the rock. What's that? set his feet, now where's his
feet going to be from here on out? Under a pew. And this boy
had never said thanks, never said please, never said yes sir,
never said I'm sorry, never said I'm wrong, dumb. He's now saying all those things,
and he's now sitting at a pew, worshiping the Lord, and singing
all these songs that he never could sing before. And he's singing
them now, from the bottom of his heart. So salvation of the Lord really
is. He's still in the saving business,
Brother Byron used to say. As long as the gospel is still
being preached, the power of God is out there. Call on Him. Ask Him. Bring your lost love
unto Him. Okay, stand with me.