Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. Hymn 61. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean,
In its fullness over me, Underneath me, all around me, Is the current
of Thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward
to my glorious rest above. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore How He loveth, ever
loveth Changeth never, nevermore How he watches o'er his loved
ones, Guide to calling all his own. How for them he intercedeth,
Watcheth o'er them from the throne. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
love of every, love the best. Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
tis a haven sweet of rest. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Tis I've been and has to be And it lifts me up to glory It lifts
me up to Thee Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 67. Hymn
number 67. O Savior, as my eyes behold the
wonders of Thy might untold, the hymns in glorious flight
Arrayed the vast creation. Thou hast made And yet to think
Thou lovest me My heart cries out How can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow
And gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow And view the precious bleeding
form by cruel nails so bruised and torn. Knowing thy suffering
was for me, in grief I cried, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? How can it be, how can it be,
was ever grace so full and free? From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, in loving kindness thou didst go. From sin and shame
to rescue me, O love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? Don't turn that to you later,
by the way. Turn with me to Mark Chapter
9. Mark Chapter 9. Excuse me, Chapter
8. I'm sorry. I'm looking at something
else. Mark Chapter 8. Mark Chapter 8. I'm going to read from 14 down
to verse 32. And when He came to His disciples,
He saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
with them. And straightway all the people,
when they beheld Him, were greatly amazed. And running to Him, saluted
Him. And He asked the scribes, What
question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered,
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 gnashes with his teeth and pineth away. And
I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and
they could not. He answereth him, and saith,
O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long
shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought
him unto him, and when he saw him straightway, the spirit terrored
him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he
asked his father, How long is it ago 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. But if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. And Jesus
said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. And straightway the father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe,
help thou my unbelief.' 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 wren
him sore, and came out of him. And he was one as one dead, insomuch
that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand,
lifted him up, and he arose. And when he was come into the
house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast
him out? And he said unto them, This kind
cometh forth by nothing but prayer and fasting. And they departed
thence, and passed through Galilee, and he would not that any man
should know of it. For he taught his disciples,
and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands
of men, and they shall kill him, and after that he is killed,
he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that
saying, and were afraid to ask him." Our great, blessed, glorious
God in heaven. our God, no other God like you,
a just God and a Savior, a God that inhabits eternity, a God
that measures the dust all the nations and counts them as a
drop in the bucket, a God that does His will in the armies of
heaven and counts the inhabitants of the earth as nothing, and
doth according to his own will. Oh, what a God we worship. What
a God who has all glory and all power, infinitely holy, infinitely
righteous. Oh, Lord, it's to you whom we
come, not to a pretender, but to the true and living God, the
God who created this world with his word, upholds the same world
by the word of his power. Lord, we come with great thanksgiving
and praise. Bless your holy name. And Lord,
we bring this congregation and ourselves into your presence.
Lord, you see all of us. You know all of us. You know
more about us than we know about ourselves. You know every heart,
every thought, every motive, every desire. And by you, actions
are weighed. So Lord, you know us all. And
Lord, all of us are come here with a need. We need to hear
from you. We need the presence of the Holy
Spirit. We need you to enable us to preach
and honor your glorify your blessed son and exalt him above all.
And Lord, we need the gospel to go in power and liberty today
and give the saints here and the people here ears to hear,
hearts to believe. Lord, unite our hearts here as
we gather today. Come among us. Oh God, come down
among us. And please have mercy upon our
families, our families that never think about you, never think
about you. Only time they think about you
is when they're in trouble. And then when the trouble passes,
the thoughts of you pass away too, just like dew in the morning.
Come among us, O Lord, bless us and do it for Christ's sake.
In His holy name we pray, amen. Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Let's try it one more time. Let me sing one line of the hymn
and then we'll switch over to the hymn of the day. Thou whose almighty word, chaos
and darkness heard, and took their flight. Hear us we humble
pray, and in the gospel day, shine forth the glorious ray,
let there be light. Thou blessed incarnate Word,
gird on Thy mighty sword, conquer Thy foes. Fulness of grace divine,
subdue this heart of mine, and may Thy glory shine, let there
be light. Spirit of truth and love, life-giving
holy dove, speed forth thy flight. Shine on the chosen race by thy
almighty grace. Dispel the dark of night. Let there be light. Be seated. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Wait. I don't know how many people
know the story beside that song, as well with my soul, but there's
a businessman, him and his wife and daughters,
he stayed home, he was a businessman, but his wife and four daughters
got on a ship, going on vacation. The ship sunk. He lost his wife and all four
daughters. And he went to where, got on
a ship and went to where it happened. And that's where he wrote the
song, It's Well With My Soul. Just took him right to the place
where that ship went down. And that's how he wrote It's
Well With My Soul. All right, let's look here in
Mark chapter eight together. There you know in verse 24 it
said, And straightway the father of the child cried out and said
with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I think everybody in this building
that's been a believer for any length of time knows exactly
what that feels like. KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE'S TALKING
ABOUT. LORD, I BELIEVE. OUR LORD JUST SAID ALL THINGS
ARE POSSIBLE TO HIM THAT BELIEVES. BUT OH, THIS FELLOW SAID, I DO
BELIEVE, I DO BELIEVE, BUT OH LORD, I STILL GOT SOME UNBELIEF
IN ME, STILL GOT SOME UNBELIEF IN ME. BUT OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
HAD TWO WAYS OF PREACHING, TWO WAYS OF PREACHING AND TEACHING.
The main way of His preaching and teaching was with His words,
His words. His words, you know, even the
words that He used here to rebuke these men and rebuke these disciples
and rebuke this father, rebuke the scribes and Pharisees. He
first taught by His words, His words, but then He also taught
by His works. His whole life was a message.
His whole life was a discourse. It was a message come down from
heaven, and I tell you what, in all of His works of mercy
and all the miracles that He performed, He set forth the gospel,
set it forth in type and pictures, and set forth gospel truth before
our eyes. And what He did for the bodies
of men in His miracles are pictures of what He does for the souls
of men. what he done for these men and their bodies and what
he done for the people and their conditions, it is nothing but
the gospel. And it was a picture showing
us how he does for men when he saves them. And here is a child,
here's a child, an epileptic child, child's got epilepsy,
and he is deaf, can't hear a word. and not on top of that, but he
can't say a word. He's an epileptic. He can't say
one word, and he can't hear a word. Never heard his, you know, didn't
hear anything. And oh, my, it would have been,
you know, over in Matthew, the story over there, his father
calls him a lunatic, calls him a lunatic. He acts like a lunatic.
He acts like a madman. And over in Luke chapter 9 he
says, It's my only child. But oh my, it would have been
AWFUL, absolutely awful, if just ONE of these things was wrong
with this child. If it had just had epilepsy,
that's bad enough, that's bad enough. You ever seen anybody
have an epileptic seizure? It's awful! And then if it had
just been DEAF and not epileptic, THAT would have been bad! or
if he'd have just been dumb and not deaf, or didn't have epilepsy. Any one of those things was bad
enough for one person to have, but this child had epilepsy. He was deaf and he was dumb because
he couldn't say a word. If you can't hear, you can't
talk. And so here's this poor child. And the scripture said,
a spirit taketh him. Now you remember our Lord came
down off the mountain He came down off the mountain. He had
Peter, James, and John with Him, so that means that there's nine
disciples left down here, nine disciples. And when He comes
down off the mountain, and I tell you, when He saw His glory, He
now comes down, and look what happens when He comes down off
that mountain in verse 14. And when He came to His disciples,
whose disciples, not Peter, James, and John, because they're with
Him there in verse 14. And he saw a great multitude
about them, those disciples, the nine, and the scribes questioning
with them. They was having a debate, this
questioning. And straightway all the people,
when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him, they
saluted Christ. They saluted him, acknowledged
him, acknowledged him. And oh my, and when he comes
down, the first thing he sees is this multitude of people.
Sees a great multitude. And he asked the scribes, he
asked the scribes now. He said, what in the world are
you talking about? What are you questioning with
them? What kind of questions you asking
my disciples? What kind of questions are you
asking them? And oh my, that's what our Lord wants to know.
What kind of questions you questioning them? You know, our Lord Jesus
cares for His sheep and His disciples so much, He don't want even people,
He said, just leave them alone. What are you doing questioning
them? And then He goes on to, then one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, first thing He calls Him, Master, I have
brought unto thee my Son, which hath a dumb spirit, and whensoever He taketh him,
He tareth him, That means he dashes him, he throws him down
on the ground, throws him down on the ground, and he foams at
the mouth and gnashes with his teeth. And he pines away, lays
there and does that. And I brought unto your disciples
that they should cast him, and I spake to thy disciples that
they should cast him out, and they could not. And over in Luke,
it says, first of all, he said, I brought my son, I brought my
son. And a man cried out, out of this
crowd, a man cried out, and he steps out and cries out, and
over in Luke it said, he cried out with a loud voice, and he
called our Lord Jesus Christ, Master, Master. And over there
he said, look upon my son. Look upon my son. Look upon my
son. Look at him with favor. Consider
my son, I brought him to your disciples. They couldn't do anything
for him. Master, look upon my son. Look with grace upon my
son. Look with compassion upon my
son. Look with grace, look with power. And he said, and Elohim says
unto him, look at, look what he says. And up there in verse
22, And oftentimes it cast him into
the fire and into the waters to destroy him. And look what
he asked the Lord, look what he says to the Lord. But if thou
canst do anything, if thou canst do anything, have compassion
on us and help us. Lord, if you can do anything,
you know, if you can do anything, you reckon he could do anything?
Well, here's the man, that's why he said, I believe, but help
my unbelief. And oh my, he said, look, Luke
said, if you can do anything, anything. And oh, he's held over
and Luke, he says this, he's my only child. He's my only child,
my son, my only child. And you know something about
our Lord Jesus Christ? He was the only begotten son
of God. God only had one son, one son. And it's a mysterious way that
He was brought into this world. It's called the Mystery of Godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. HOW? How would God come into
this flesh? How did God come into this world?
That's one of the most mysterious things in the Bible, one of the
most mysterious things, and it's why people can't believe on Him,
that God Himself and God the Holy Ghost picked out a woman
named Mary, chose a woman. She found favor in the sight
of the Lord, and the Holy Ghost came upon her. And some way or
another, God Himself entered into that womb of that virgin
as a seed. as a seed, and that child grew
in that woman's womb for nine months, just like anybody else. But when he came out of that
mother, and he was born of that virgin, she had never had a man,
and they laid him in swaddling clothes. And you know, the angel
said about it unto us, this day is born in the city of David
a Savior, and who is he? He's the Lord. He's the Lord. And I tell you what, He was God.
When that infinite days that was laid in that mother's arms
was also the ancient of days that Daniel saw sitting on the
throne. Now, if you can ever grasp that,
then you won't have no problem believing Jesus Christ is God.
There's only one man that ever lived on this earth who never
sinned. The rest of us was born in sin,
conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, and had got sin from the top
of our head to the sole of our feet. And if Christ had not come
and He could not be born of the sons of Adam, He could not be
born like us. He had to be born of God to be
without sin. He had to be God in the flesh
to be without sin. And because He was without sin,
when He grew up and was going to go to the cross, He had such
merit and such worth being who He was, that He was able to bear
all the sins of all His people in His own body on that tree.
Oh, and I said, Lord, if you can do anything, if you can do anything, oh my,
but He called Him His only child. Our Lord only had one son without
sin. And oh my, you know, there's
three different people in the scriptures that only had one
child. The widow of Nain, she was on
her way carrying her son, her only son, had him in his casket
and carried him to the graveyard. Our Lord Jesus Christ come the
other way, stopped it. And the scripture said, this
is my only son. Jesus' father said, my only son,
my only son. Christ stopped that funeral procession.
That boy's laying in there dead. He said, arise and get up. He
got up out of that casket, sat up in that casket, throwed his
leg over it, and throwed the other leg over it, and got up
and walked away, and went back home with his mama. Can I do anything, if I can do
anything? And then there's Uriah's daughter,
12 years old. And the Lord Jesus, you know,
they run, said, he said, oh Lord. And they said, just don't trouble
the master, she's dead. 12 years old, my only child,
my only daughter. Our Lord walked in the house,
looked at it, took her by the hand, He said, daughter, arise. First thing he said to him, give
her something to eat. Only child, only child. Oh my. It would be awful, awful, awful
to lose a child. But Christ, Christ does something
for children he don't do for anybody else. Oh my. And this boy, this young man,
He was an epileptic, and the Scriptures told us there, you
know, in verse 18, He tears him, dashes him, and he foams and
gnashes with his teeth. And look up in verse 22, And
oftentimes it hath cast him into the fire. You know, when he has
a fit, he falls into the fire, and sometimes he falls into the
water, and trying to destroy him. But if thou can do anything,
have compassion on us. Have compassion on us. Oh my,
he was taken captive by this spirit. A spirit taketh him. That's what it said, a spirit
taketh him. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them in whom
the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that don't
believe the gospel. Paul talked about the spirit
of the children of disobedience. and that the man of God ought
to be GENTLE, KIND, UNDERSTANDING, hoping that people that recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil that takes them, as
he will. You know, a spirit comes, and
I'll tell you what, their spirit comes and takes people. You know,
people asked me before, you know, you reckon people's got devil?
Of course they've got devils, there's still plenty of devils
around, still plenty of people with devils in them. and the
Spirit comes sometimes and takes people, and they say things they
ought not say. They do things that they ought
not do. They do acts that they shouldn't
do. They do so evil and so wickedly, and He takes them captive. What
sometimes did He take people captive to? Well, He takes them
captive to liquor, takes them captive to drugs, My drugs. Oh my goodness. We
we have a drug epidemic in this country people are dying by the
drones and I'll tell you there's not a I doubt if there's a Very
few families in this building today that don't have their lives
hasn't been affected some way by drugs Some way by drugs and
then sometimes he brings a spirit of hate a spirit of hate And
there's people that hate If you re not like them, they hate you.
If you don t believe like them, they hate you. If you don t act
like them, they hate you. If you don t believe the same
things they do, they hate you. Our Lord, they hated Him. Why
did they hate Him? He said, Without a cause. They
had no cause to hate Him. They just hated Him because they
hated Him. And I tell you what, and sometimes
He comes and speaks to people in the spirit of bigotry, bigotry. Oh, we're the best, we're the
most, we got everything going for us, oh my. And they're held
that way with hatred, and held those ways with all the things
that spirit takes them with, and they stay that way till they
die, if they don't cry out to Christ and say, Lord, if you
can do anything. Now I tell you, if you can't,
I'll tell you something about myself. When I was a young man,
when I was a young man, When I first got back from overseas,
I could not get enough to drink. I would hide stuff all over the
house, wait till my wife went to bed, and then I'd get up and
start drinking. I'd drink all night. And then
not on top of that, but I'd spend hundreds of dollars on drugs.
I would go out on Friday and I'd spend my whole paycheck,
Friday and Saturday, not even come home, and spend it all on
drugs. How'd I get over that? I didn't
get over that. I could not set myself free.
I would sit in a chair and cry and said, how in the world am
I going to ever get out of this mess that I'm in? How am I going
to quit this? How can I stop it? And I couldn't. I couldn't. But who did it for
me? I was sitting in a mental hospital
in Chillicothe, Ohio. 21 years old. And a woman came visit
me, I told you this before. And she said, Donnie, don't give
up hope. There's hope in Jesus Christ. A little light come on
in my heart. A little light come on. I went
and bought me a Bible. Started reading that Bible. And
I thought, I'm gonna start living right. But that didn't happen,
that didn't work either, that didn't work. You know what worked? When Christ, when I came to Christ
and I said, Lord, you don't owe me, I mean, I was in agony. I said, Lord, you don't owe me
nothing. You absolutely owe me nothing.
I have dishonored you in so many ways. But if you will, and I
said, I said, have a sorry, sorry, rotten dog. That's exactly what
I told him. I said, Lord, but if you will,
if you will, would you have mercy on me? And mercy is what I got. And I ain't look back. I ain't look back. A spirit had
me, another spirit. What happened? Christ happened. Christ, I cried to him like his
father cried to him. Lord, have mercy on my dad. Have
mercy on my child. If you can do anything for my
child. And I tell you what, I still feel that way. Lord, you absolutely
owe me nothing. Everything I've got, you gave
to me. You don't owe me nothing. You don't owe me nothing. And
this boy was inept, he was taken. And oh my, the only hope I had,
the only thing I could do was crying to the Lord for mercy.
And look what it says back here now. And we're told in verse
16, back here in our text. And one of the multitude answers
said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit, and it takes him, he pines away. And I spake to
thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they couldn't.
ask your disciples, I spake to your disciples, you walk with
Christ, you know who Jesus is, you're one of His disciples. They brought His Son, take Him,
please help Him, have mercy on Him. And the scripture says,
They could not, they could not. Well, they had done it before,
You remember our Lord, He said He sent them out. He sent them
out two by two, and He gave them power over unclean spirits, power
over death. They come back and said, Lord,
even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. He said,
don't rejoice that the devils are subject to you, but rejoice
that your names are written in heaven. You're gonna rejoice
about anything. Rejoice that you got your name up there. Oh
my, they didn't have faith and they was arguing with the scribes
and that because no doubt them scribes and them looked at him
and said, you all ain't got no power, what's happening here? But oh my, and our Lord is moved
to his very soul. And look what he says in verse
19. You're talking about our Lord moved to his very, very
soul. He answered him, he's talking
to this man now. He's talking to this man. And
he answered him, and saith, O faithless generation. In one place he said,
a faithless and perverse generation. A whole group of people, how
faithless generation. Faithless generation, he's moved,
faithless, perverse. And I tell you, he's talking,
he's answered him. And then he's also, not only
is he answering him, he answered the father who lacked faith.
He lacked faith, and oh, He s talking to the scribes who showed no
pity, who showed no compassion. He s rebuking this crowd concerned
with temple things to hear Him and to see a miracle, and they
come running to Him. And He s also calling these nine
that couldn t cast out this people that helped this child with the
nine because of their failure of faith. Oh, faithless generation,
faithless generation. And look what he says. This is
amazing to me. How long shall I be with you?
How long do you think I m going to put up with you? That's what
our Lord is saying there. How long shall I suffer you?
How long shall I have to deal with a faithless generation like
this? It moved Him to His heart and
soul. And I'll tell you what, you know,
when you preach the gospel time and time again, and you know
our Lord will look at somebody and say, Are you faithless? You're
a faithless generation. Oh my, our Lord looked at him,
you know, and he said, how long am I going to, how long am I
going to put up with you? How long is he going to put up
with people? How long is he going to put up
with people? You know, I was going through
a list the other day. You know how many people have
said in this congregation for two to three years, and I haven't
seen them in a year or two. They used to come faithful, faithful,
faithful. How long is it I'm going to put
up with you? How long am I going to put up with your lack of faith?
How long am I going to put up with your carelessness? How long
am I going to put up with your worldliness? How long am I going
to put up with you? Well, I tell you a whole bunch
that he didn't put up with very long. I gave them up. I gave them up. I gave them up. Oh, my. When God gives up on
you, and that's what he's telling these fellas. Oh, you faceless,
perverse generation, huh? And oh, how long am I going to
put up with you? Not only did condemnation and the cross bring
suffering to our Lord, so did unbelief. He was angry one time
with people over their unbelief, over his wickedness and hypocrisy. But you know what happens? Mercy
and grace triumphs and grace abounds. Look what he says. He said there in verse 19, and
how long shall I suffer him? Listen to this now. He said,
bring him unto me. Bring him unto me. Bring him
to me. Where's a better place to bring
somebody? Next time you're thinking about somebody, praying for somebody,
bring them to the Lord. Bring him to the Lord. Oh my,
oh my. But oh, he said, bring thy son
here. Oh, bring him to me. Bring him
unto me. And look what it says, and they
brought him unto him. They done the thing that everybody
ought to do. Everybody ought to do. If you can t bring nobody else,
bring your son, bring yourself, bring yourself to Christ, and
I ll look upon him, bring him here, and I ll look upon him
with mercy, I ll look upon him with grace. And here s an example
of our Lord Jesus Christ and His readiness, readiness to show
mercy to young people. Christ answered this Father s
prayer, Oh, Lord, I answered this father's
prayer. If you could do anything for
my son, have mercy on my son. The woman had brought her daughter
to the Lord Jesus Christ and said, Lord, if you have mercy
on my daughter, and he ignored her and he just kept, she kept
on and on and on. And finally Christ said, okay. And that daughter was made whole
and went back home with his mama. And oh my, he answered the widow's
son, and Jairus' daughter, he answered the prayers of Jairus'
and the widow's named son. And oh my, but look what the
last thing to happen here now. And oh, and down in verse 25, and when Jesus saw that the people
come running, together he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him,
and enter into him. And the spirit cried, and wren
him sore, and came out of him, and he is as one dead, insomuch
that many said, He is dead." This is the last attack. Satan
does NOT want people to come to Christ. He don't want people
to come to Christ. He don't want people to get to
Christ. And he thought, this is my last
chance. I'll make this boy in such a bad state that nothing
can be done, and look like he's dead. Oh my. When that boy was approaching,
the Spirit caused a convulsion, caused a convulsion. And oh my,
the Cure, He rebuked him. He rebuked him. You know, He
rebuked that spirit. They said in verse 25, He rebuked
that foul spirit. He rebuked that unclean spirit.
You know, you go through the scriptures, several things our
Lord rebuked. You remember when Peter's mother
lay sick of a fever? He rebuked the fever. She got
up and started cooking supper for him. He was out on a ship, and them
fellas scared to death that their boat's gonna sink. Christ is
asleep. They wake him up. Master, do
you care that we perish? He just got up and said, wind,
be still. Waves, be still. And he rebuked
the waves and the wind. Oh my. He has sordid authority. And I'll tell you, he expels
it. He expels it. And oh my, He healed this child
of epilepsy, deafness, and dumbness. And oh my, look what happens
now. He's laying there as a dead man. In verse 26, and He is dead. And oh listen, what happens?
Every time our Lord touches something, something happens. If He touched
you, what happened? He touched your heart, what happened?
He touched your mind, what happened? He touched your soul, what happened?
When Christ touches you, something s going to happen. And look what it says, took him
by the hand. You know how many times, the
other day we was preaching on this, and Christ took that man
by the hand, you know, that blind man, and took him out, walked
him out of hand, took him by the hand and walked him out of
town, that blind man, remember? Spit on his eyes and make clay
for his eyes. Oh my, and oh my, and he healed
that child, and Jesus took him by the hand. Oh my, bless his
holy name. And look what it says, he lifted
him up. He didn t wait for the boy to
get up. It said he lifted him up. David said, He LIFTED me out
of the miry clay, my feet out of the miry clay, set my feet
upon a rock. Oh my, and I tell you what, and
over in Luke it says, He healed the child and gave him back to
his father. And oh my, no wonder that man
cried and said there in verse 24, the father of the child cried
out and said, I believe, help my unbelief, help my unbelief. Oh, he gave him back to his father.
Our master, his heart was in the healings of all people. When he healed somebody, his
heart was in it. His heart was in it, his life was in it. And
this is the most mysterious thing, that he could touch a leper and
not become unclean. He could touch a dead man and
give him life. He could speak to a dead man
and he'd have to come to life. But when he touched him, when
he took him by the hand and lifted him up, I don't think that fella
got on his knees and tried to get up. I think Christ got him
and lifted him up. I mean, he has the power. He
said, my own right arm brought me salvation. And that right
arm brought salvation to that man. Lifted him up. Lifted him
up. And I tell you something, beloved,
bless his name. God lift us up. Please hold us
up. Not only lift us up, but hold
us up. Hold us up. And look what he
goes on to say. Oh, He heals that paralyzed man,
remember? Our Master s heart was in His
healing. You remember when they let that paralyzed man down through
the ceiling? And He said, Son, your sins be
forgiven you! And He restored that Gadarean
maniac and turns around and said, Go home and tell everybody what
I ve done for you. He makes a missionary out of
him. He heals the woman with the issue of blood where she
touched Him, and He turns around and comforts her. Raises Jarius's
daughter from death and tells her to get something to eat.
And he gives this widow's son, widow's named son back to him.
And oh my, they were all amazed at the power of Christ is what
it says. Look over in Luke 9 with me. I want you to see this. Just
this one word over here in Luke chapter 9. Look at what it said
over here about this. Luke chapter 9. Look down in verse 43. There
it says, he delivered him to his father in verse 42. And they
were all amazed at the mighty power of God. I'm still amazed at it, ain't
you? I'm still amazed at the power
of God. It's still amazing to me. It's
like grace, it's amazing. It's like there's power in the
blood. What does it do? Cleanses from all sin. Power
in His word, what does it do? Gives life to dead people. And
oh my. And I tell you, while they wondered,
everyone that ever think all things which Jesus did, he said
unto his disciples. He said unto his disciples. And look what he goes on back.
They were sorely amazed. Back over here in Mark 8. Let's
look at this together. And when he was come into 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 prayer and fasting. I was talking
to Caleb Hickman last night, and he asked me what I was going
to preach, and I told him. And he mentioned this cometh
not by prayer and fasting. I said, we can't pray enough,
and we can't fast enough. to cast out anything. We can't
even, we can't even keep ourselves straight, much less somebody
else. But oh my, there's people that
teach you, if you pray enough, fast enough, you cast out devils
too. Well, I can't pray enough. I
can't pray that, I can't pray that long. And I, I get hungry,
you know. So I'm telling you, this is what
happens. And as they departed, Vince, look what he said in verse
30 now. He goes to speak of his death again to his disciples.
He's speaking of his death. And they departed, Vince, and
passed through Galilee, and would not that any man should know
what happened. And he taught his disciples,
said unto them, the Son of Man is delivered in the hands of
men, and they shall kill him. And after that he is killed,
she shall rise the third day. But they understood not that
saying, and were afraid to ask him. Our Lord tellin' His disciples
again, I gotta die. I've got to die. I'm gonna be
killed. I'm gonna rise again the third
day. I'm gonna rise again. And they didn't understand. The
Scripture said they did not understand. They did not understand. Why
didn't they understand? Because it was hid from them.
Who hid it? God did. They should've understood. He told them before. Why in the
world was it hid? Because they were afraid to ask
Him. But I'll tell you something, beloved, his death, his death happened and he rose again. But
oh my, next time you're concerned about one of your children or
about yourself, about yourself, come to him. Bring your children
to him. Bring your sons and your daughters
and your grandkids to Him. Bring them to Him. Bring them
to Him. He said all things are possible. All things are possible to who?
Him they believe. Lord, I believe, I believe, I
believe. But Lord, I've got unbelief too. Have mercy on me. Oh, our blessed, blessed Savior,
our Master, our Master, our Lord, our God, our Savior, our Redeemer,
our one mediator between us and God. I thank you that we have
a gospel to preach, that we have a Savior and a one that can do
things for people that nobody else can do. He does for sinners
what nobody else can do. He does for a body and a soul
that nobody else can do. He's the only one that can save
a man. The only one that can break a chain. He broke the chains
of that Gadarene maniac. Oh Lord, he's the only one that
can break a chain. He's the only one that can break
a wheel. He's the only one that can break a heart. He's the only
one that can put in a new heart and take out the old one. So
Lord, we look to you. We have no one else to look to,
but oh God, we're thankful that we can look to you. And bless
this message today. God bless it. And bless our time
together this afternoon as we gather to eat. Let us not be
in a hurry. Let us truly sit and spend some
time together. Enjoy one another's fellowship
and conversations and time together. Please bring glory to yourself
through us here at Lantana Grace Church. save you people in this
place and do it for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus, He's the Savior
of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, I said I would see you tonight,
but I won't. I get a night off, and I'm looking
forward to it. I tell you what, that's what's
good about this. I do this three times, so I'm so grateful for
Bruce coming by. But listen, you go, whatever
you need to do to get ready to eat, when they get ready, they'll
holler at you. You know, way back in the day
when farmers, you know, you'd go work for a farmer and his
wife fixed dinner, they had that big dinner ring thing, they'd
bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and everybody knows, boy, they
hear that thing ringing, it's time to eat.