I'm going to have you put a bookmark
in Mark chapter 9, but we're not going to go there right away.
But just put something in there that you can get there, because
we're going to be going back and forth later on in the message. Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. The name of the
message is the mighty power of God. The mighty power of God. And we will continue our encounters
with Christ. It's been a wonderful study to
go through these encounters and to see God's almighty power at
work. I was telling Sister Karen just
how much of a blessing it has been for me to see His almighty
power at work and to know that that's the same power that keeps
me and comforts me. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And that the same King that we
see here in these messages, Exercising His power and healing
folks is the same one who saved us by His grace and by His mercy,
and more so the one who died for us on Calvary's Cross. My,
oh my. Today's encounter with Christ
follows after the Mount of Transfiguration when our Lord Jesus Christ took
Peter, James, and John to a certain mountain to pray, and while he
was praying, his countenance was altered. And his raiment
was white and glistening. What a sight that must have been
for them. What a sight that must have been
for them to see the Lord's countenance changed. He reveals a little
bit of his glory, doesn't he? Oh my. And what an honor for
them to behold that. Not all the disciples were there,
but Peter, James, and John were there. Peter, James, and John
also saw Moses and Elijah. Look at verse 33. They actually
saw Moses and Elijah talking with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
by the words of Peter, it was obvious that he knew who they
were. You ever ask yourself, will we know
each other in heaven? I think we see an answer here.
Peter, James, and Peter knew who they were. Look what it says here. And it
came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus,
Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles,
one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing
what he said. So number one, this clearly proves
life after death. Right? Because they're standing
there with Christ. It clearly proves that there's
life after death. It does. And then it shows that
we know one another. That Peter knew who they were.
They didn't say, hi, I'm Moses, and hi, I'm Elijah. They didn't
say that, did they? But he knew who they were. He
knew who they were. I believe we're going to know
one another in glory, beloved. My. And then look at verse 35,
and we see that God is only pleased with Christ. Peter says, well,
let's make us three monuments here. God's only pleased with
Christ. Moses and Elijah are in Christ. And you know what they were talking
about? They were talking about his decrease, which means his
death. They were talking about his death,
beloved, what he was going to accomplish at Calvary's cross. But look what verse 35 says,
look at the voice of God says, and there came a voice of the
cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. We'll think of that today. We're
going to look at some words of Jesus today. Words of the master,
hear him. Hear him. Oh, may God give you
hearing ears. Oh, as Brother Tom prayed, may
God give us ears to hear what the scripture says. What the
scripture says. God's only pleased with Christ,
beloved, and he's only pleased with those who are in Christ.
And so what a privilege and an honor for God's people. And let
we who are the redeemed of the Lord rejoice. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is every believer's righteousness, and God has revealed to his people
that law and grace cannot mix. And lo, a spirit taketh him,
and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him, that he foameth
again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. And Abba
Sata had disciples to count, and could not. And Jesus answering,
O faithless and perverse generation, How long shall I be with you
and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as
he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down and tear him.
Jesus rebuked the unclean and healed the child and delivered
him again to his father. And they were amazed at the mighty
power of God. But while they wondered, everyone
at all spoke about his death. Look at verse 37. And it came
to pass on the next day or come down from the hill, much people
met him. Because we see it was the next day when they came down
in this text. Came down from the hill. And
when they were good people. And they were looking for Christ,
because his fame had spread abroad, right? The news of the man who
was going to have a divine encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he came. Bring in his son with him. Bring
in his son with him. Expectation that our Lord might
be pleased to heal him. And look at verse 38 of Luke
chapter 9. And he was yelling above all
those people. Remember blind Bartimaeus? They
told him, be quiet. He just got louder. Well, this
man obviously was getting loud. And when the father of that demon
Possessed child saw the Lord Jesus Christ. He immediately
cried out, making it his request. In other words, I beg thee, Lord. I beg thee, Lord. Mark, when giving this same account,
which we'll look at later, tells us that the multitude came running
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Came running to him. before this
man cried out. But this man, just like blind
Bartimaeus, he just kept crying out. He cried out loud. Loud
enough to be heard above the noise of that multitude. And look what again he proclaims
to our Lord. Look at verses 38 to 40. And behold, a man of the
company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my
son, for he is my only child. And lo, a spirit taketh him,
and he suddenly crieth out. and it teareth him that he foameth
again, and prison him hardly departed from him. And I besought
the disciples to cast him out, and they could not." So Matthew tells us in his rendering
of this narrative that the man kneels down before Christ. And that's where the Holy Spirit
brings us, isn't it? right to the feet of Christ. That's where
he brings us. That's where he brings us. And
here's a sincere cry. And every believer cries out
sincerely to the Lord, don't we? Cries out. Lord, have mercy upon me. We
won't sugarcoat the situation when the Holy Spirit's drawn
on us, will we? We'll say, Lord, have mercy upon me. I'm a sinner.
We admit our sinnership, don't we? And we continue to admit
our sinnership even after the Lord saved us. We beg for mercy,
don't we? God's people receive mercy, great
mercy, immeasurable mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord. And beloved
God, when we pray for our unsaved children, we must be honest.
We must be honest about their condition, as this man was about
his son. He didn't sugarcoat it, did he? He was honest with the Lord about
the condition of his son. And we must be honest before
our God as we love our children, but the unregenerate are not
good in God's sight. They're not. I have two children who I pray
for all the time. They're not good in God's sight.
They're not. They're sinners, just like I
am. They came from me, so they're a sinner. Just like that. And I'm not good
in God's eyes, in my natural state. Now in Christ I am, but
not in my natural state. So we must be honest. We must
say, my father, my children are just as undeserving of your mercy
as any others. But please have mercy on them.
Please, if it be your will, have mercy upon them. Please, Lord. Show mercy to my unsafe loved
ones. And we see that this concerned father did that. This was his
only child. He's crying out to the Lord of
Glory. He's crying out to the only one who can help his son,
the only one who can help him. You imagine what he's went through?
All the years of seeing his child go through these things? Do you
imagine how heart-wrenching that's been for him? My. Oh, but thou, Lord, art a God
full of compassion. That's what our God, he's full
of compassion, isn't he? Oh, he's full of compassion and
graciousness, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth,
Psalm 87, 15 declares. And we declare that too as God's
people, don't we? We declare that. Oh, let us lift
up our hearts. Let us lift up our hearts in
praise and glorify our great God. We've tasted, we who are
the redeemed of the Lord, have tasted that the Lord is gracious,
haven't we? We've tasted that the Lord is
merciful. We've tasted, we've really tasted
that the Lord's long-suffering. Think of how long-suffering He
was before He saved us. Think of how long-suffering He
is with us after He saves us. Mile, mile, mile. Have you tasted
that the Lord is gracious? Have you tasted that the Lord
is long-suffering? Have you tasted that the Lord
is plenteous in mercy and truth? Just as the scriptures declare,
then let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let us say so. Oh,
we've tasted his mercy. Praise his mighty name. We've
tasted his graciousness. We've tasted his long-suffering.
Praise his name. He's so good to us in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray, we pray, we pray
that he be gracious to our unsaved loved ones. Oh, Lord, please
be gracious to them, if it be your will. Oh, Lord, please. So I can relate and you can relate
to what this father, how he's crying out. How he's crying out
to the Lord. And if he saved our souls by
his death upon the cross, if he's cleansed us from all our
sins, if we're dipped in the fountain of his blood, we'll
praise his name, won't we? We'll rejoice, because he's so
gracious to us. Are you regenerated by God, the
Holy Spirit? Have you been given faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then rejoice and praise his name. He's had mercy upon you. He's
so compassionate. He didn't leave us where we were,
dead in trespasses and sins. And we pray, oh, Lord, please,
if it be your will, do so for my family members. Oh, Lord. Do so for others as they hear
this message. Give them life, Lord, we pray,
if it be your will. These wonderful truths that the
Lord is full of compassion, that he's gracious, that he's long-suffering,
that he's plenteous in mercy and truth, these wonderful truths,
what do they do? They glorify God, don't they?
They glorify him. They cause our lips to praise
his name. Oh, my. Think of this, too. You want to think of how compassionate
the Lord Jesus Christ is to his people. Think of this, that we are saved by the sinless,
spotless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of that. Think that he gave his life for
us. My, what mercy he's had upon
us. How compassionate he is. My, oh, my. Oh, Lord, we pray. We pray if
it be your will. Save our friends and family members
if it be your will. Save our children who do not
know you. And I'll tell you what, pray for future generations too. Lord knows. You got a little
grandchild, pray for him. Never too young to pray for him.
Pray the Lord to show him mercy as he gets older or she gets
older. Pray for him. Lift them up. I told my buddy Jacob in Colorado,
I'm already praying for your boys. They're all little, but
I'm praying for them. Lord, please, if it be your will,
give them faith. When they get older, show them what they are
and grant them faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the young people in our church, pray for them too. Pray for them,
beloved. Lift them up. Oh, my. Remember this too. Not only do
these truths magnify the Lord Jesus Christ, but always remember
this, that God cannot pour his wrath out on any guilty sinner
that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for. We do not know
who God's people are. God knows who they are, but we
don't know. And God will not pour his wrath
upon anyone who Christ died for. Again, we don't know who they
are. We don't know who they are before the Lord saves them. We
don't know. We have no clue. My, oh, my. And God cannot pour
out his wrath on any guilty sinner that our Lord suffered and died
for, not even our own children if they're one of his sheep. And I'll tell you what. If you
had met me in my 20s and my 30s, you'd have had no idea I was
one of the Lord's people. As a matter of fact, you might
have probably said, Man, he might be a lost cause,
that fellow. But you know what? God had mercy on me. God saved
my soul. I had no idea I was one of his
sheep. I had no idea at all. And he
saved me by his grace and by his mercy. So keep lifting up
your friends and your family members until they breathe their
last breath. Keep lifting them up to the Lord. My, pray that God will turn them
from their wicked ways. That's what he did for us. We
still struggle with sin, but he's turned us, isn't he? Now
we look to him, in him alone. What a hope we have, beloved.
What a hope we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at verse 40 here. The man tells the Lord Jesus
Christ that his disciples had tried to cast out this evil spirit
from the boy, and they could not. They couldn't do it. And
I besought thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not.
Now, I was thinking about this. I was thinking about this as
I was putting this message together, and I thought, wow. The Lord
had sent them out, and they had the power to cast out demons,
and they had done that. And they came back marveling,
and he said, don't marvel about that. Marvel that your names
are written in heaven. So he got them on the right perspective,
right? But look at this. I was thinking about this. I
thought, boy, they besought the disciples. They tried to cast
him out. They tried to cast this demon
out, but they couldn't. So the other nine apostles who
we're going to see were with the multitude, waiting for the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this concern, father had already
bought his child to them, to the disciples of the Lord, and
they tried to cast him out, but they failed. We'll remember that these men
had just recently, again, been sent by Christ to preach his
gospel and the Lord giving them power over unclean spirits, perform
miracles, and here they can't cast this demon out. You know why I believe they couldn't
cast this demon out? From this boy? Because it
was ordained by God the Father. It was ordained by God the Father
that the Lord Jesus Christ would demonstrate his power, would
demonstrate his power in a personal way before all the multitude
of people and before that Father. It was ordained by God that this
man and his son would have a divine encounter with the Lord Jesus
Christ and try as much as they would. The disciples couldn't
cast out that spirit. My, oh, my. Now, there were some
unbelieving scribes and Pharisees in that crowd of people, religious
men who hated the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to see
that when we turn over to the narrative in Mark. It's not mentioned
here in Luke, but it is mentioned in the narrative in Mark that
the Pharisees and scribes were there. And they'd been mocking
the Lord's apostles and disputing with them because they could
not heal the child. Look at verse 41, actually. And Jesus answering said, oh,
faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you
and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. Now, right away when
we read that, our first thought is he's speaking to the dad in
all the multitude there. But he's not speaking to his
apostles, and he's actually not speaking to the dad. Because
the word faithless in the text means faithless without faith. Well, we know the apostles weren't
without faith. And we know this man wasn't without
faith because he came and said, Lord. And we've identified that as
one of the marks of a believer crying out, Lord. With the exception of the apostles,
only Judas Iscariot had no faith, right? But all the other apostles
had faith. And again, the father had faith.
So who's he speaking to when he says, oh, faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? And
then he says, bring thy son hither. Again, the father of the child
was not faithless. If he was, he wouldn't have brought
his child to Christ, right? And just like the woman with
the issue of blood who we looked at, she said, if I could just
touch the hem of his garment. This man believed that the Lord
Jesus Christ could heal his son. He believed it. He knew the disciples couldn't,
so he's coming to the master himself. He's coming to the master
himself. And the word perverse there means
distorted or corrupt in the Greek. So, oh, faithless and corrupt
generation. Well, that's all of us by nature,
isn't it? Right? It was the faithless scribes
and Pharisees he was talking to. They were distorted. They were nothing but religious
men who had twisted the scriptures to their own destruction. They changed the way God was
to be represented. They put all these burdens upon
men. We still have them today, false
preachers who say you got to do this and you got to do that
to be saved. We still have them today. Anyone who tells you there's
something you have to do to be saved that adds to the finished
work of Christ is a false preacher. Now, do we come to Christ? Absolutely,
we do, because God draws us to Christ, right? But we do exercise
that God-given faith, don't we? We come to Christ. We don't deny
that, absolutely. God gives us faith, we run to
Christ. But if you add anything that
you have to do to earn that salvation, or a pinprick of your works,
or if any preacher says just a pinprick of the works, that's
a false gospel. I don't care how sincere the guy is, it's
a false gospel. And these religious blind leaders
of the blind, they usually lord over their flocks, they twist
the scripture to try to prove their false doctrine, they deceive
those who follow them. But we see our Lord rebuke those
men who had been mocking his disciples. We see our Our Lord
proclaiming, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? He'd
done so many miracles. The miracles alone were proof
of his deity, weren't they? He'd done so many, yet they still
denied him. How long shall I suffer you?
He was letting them know that he's patient and long-suffering,
just like that text in Psalms proclaimed. The God-man is patient
and long-suffering. We're exhorted in James, as we
looked at this morning, to be patient, which means long-suffering.
God's not telling us something that he doesn't do himself. And
again, as we saw, that long-suffering's not something we can muster up.
It's a fruit of the Spirit. It's God working in us. He makes
us long suffer. Don't sit there and go, because
I used to do this in religion. I'd be like, oh, I need to be
more patient. I need to be more long suffering
with people. And you know what? It was work. Now. I realized from what the
Lord showed me in Scripture that the Holy Spirit has to work long-suffering
in us. The Holy Spirit has to work joy
in us. The Holy Spirit has to work peace in us. It's the fruit
of the Spirit, not the fruit of our works. And we find ourselves
rejoicing more. We find ourselves with more joy.
We don't ever see ourselves as more long-suffering, though.
I'm just going to put that out there, because we don't. We don't
see ourselves. But others see it in us. They see it in us,
even though we don't see it in ourselves. Others see it. So our Lord had been putting
up with their hateful mocking. Oh, their hateful mocking. But
he wouldn't put up with it forever, because in AD 70, Jerusalem was Just leveled. Some of these mocking Jews died
then. I'll tell you what, vengeance
is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. And he will. He will. But think of this. We were amongst
our faithless and perverse generation. Where did God find us? In that.
and he saved us by his grace. Have we not tasted that the Lord
is merciful? Have we not tasted his graciousness,
beloved? Have we not tasted his long-suffering
with us before and after we're saved? Oh, he's so good. He's so good. He's so good to
us. God has delivered us from that
same faithless and perverse condition. We were just like everybody else.
And he's patient and long-suffering with us. We were filled with
enmity against him, and yet now we're turned to praise him. And
he's still patient and long-suffering with us, isn't he? He's still
patient and long-suffering. Why? Because of the sovereign
grace and mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord. He bestows his mercy and his
grace to us through his perfect redeeming work. God, and there we can say with
confidence, God saved me. God saved me. Couldn't save myself,
but God saved me. He saved me by his power, by
his grace, by his mercy, by his sin atoning great work. that's
complete, finished, and perfect by the shedding of His precious
blood. Oh, what a Savior. We should
be filled with perpetual praise, shouldn't we? But we're sinners.
We're sinners. But we give thanksgiving to our
great God, don't we? Oh, we thank Him. We thank Him for His mercy. And when our Lord said, bring
thy son hither, he spoke personally to the father of his child. Turn,
if you would, to Mark, chapter 9. We'll go there now. Mark,
chapter 9. Mark, chapter 9. Mark, chapter 9. And look at
verse 14. And when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
with them. They were disputing with them.
And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly
amazed, and running to him, saluted him. They greeted him. When he
asked the scribes, what question ye with them? And one of the
multitude answered and said, Master, I have bought unto thee
my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, And he foameth and gnashes away his teeth, and
pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answered
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 tear him, and he fell on the ground and wall foaming. And he asked his father, how
long Is it ago that since his child came unto him? And he said,
of a child. So he's been possessed by this
demonic spirit since he was a child. And oftentimes 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. Look at this. Look at verse 22. But if thou
canst do anything. A little bit of doubt there,
right? Look what the Lord answers him. Jesus saith unto him, If
thou kinnest, believe, all things are possible. You believe on
me, all things are possible. That's what he's saying. So you
get a little bit of doubt. If thou kinnest, because your
disciples couldn't, but if you can, I love this man's response. Look at it. Kinnest thou, believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. And straight
away, the father and child cried out and said with tears, Lord,
I believe. I believe, Lord. Help thou my
unbelief. That's our cry, beloved. even
after we're saved. Help my unbelief, Lord. Help
me from doubting. Oh, the flesh, the flesh, the
flesh. When Jesus saw that the people came running together,
he rebuked the foul spirit, saying, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And
the spirit cried out and cried and rent him sore and came out
of him. And he was as one dead in so
much that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand.
He took him by the hand, beloved. Touched the master's hand. My
gosh. And lifted him up. The God man
lifted him up. And he arose. And when he was
come unto his house, his disciples asked him privately, why could
not we cast him out? This kind can only come forth
by nothing but by prayer and fasting. My oh my. So Mark gave us a little more
of that personal conversation too, didn't he? Between the Lord
and this young man's father. And as we compare the different
scriptures that record this event, we see this child had already
been bought to the Lord Jesus Christ before this personal conversation
took place. And the devil that was in that
child had thrown the child into the fire, thrown the child into
the water, trying to destroy the child. Trying to destroy
the child. And probably since he was a child
that that's happened. Since he was a child. Can only
imagine what that father had went through. And the pain that
pierced his heart as he watched his son tormented by this evil
spirit. These things are real. Nothing for us to mess with.
Nothing for us to mess with, beloved. Not at all. But our elder brother crushed
Satan and his angels, didn't he? And our Lord Jesus Christ knew
the need of this man's heart. He knew the situation. He knew
that this was ordained not only for the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ, but for the eternal good of the Father and the Son. And
the healing of that young boy was purposed by God to bring
glory to God. My, oh, my. And look over there
in Mark 9.21, he asks, how long is it ago since this child, or
since this came unto him? And he said, of a child. Now,
again, our Lord wasn't asking this for information. Not at
all. He already knows. He knew this
boy had been in that condition for a very long time. And our
great God and King had allowed that demon to throw that child
into the convulsive fits and cause the father of that child
to cry out to him for help. Which could only come from God. And here's the God-man. The one
he's crying out to is the God-man. The one who has control over
all things visible and invisible. And all this was coming to pass
for the glory of God and for the good of the father and his
young child. Now the father didn't know that
God would be glorified in the healing of his son as he watched
his son cast himself into water and fire. He had no idea that
down the road that his son would be used by being healed by Jesus
to glorify God. He had no idea. He had no hope,
so he's bringing the only one he can hope can heal him. And
even when he said, well, if you can, and then he changed his
tune real quick, didn't he? Lord, help my unbelief. Oh my,
and he had tears flowing down his face. It's like he's crying out, Lord,
be merciful to me. And think of this, if it had
not been for the restraining hand of God Almighty, that demon
would have destroyed that child. He'd have destroyed that child.
It was obvious that was his intention, but not even demons can do anything
unless God allows. And this is true of every one
of God's elect. Satan would destroy us if he
could. He'd destroy us if he could. But we're kept by the
power of God. God protects us. He protected
us before we were saved, and he keeps protecting us even after
we're saved. So imagine the pain and the sorrow
that this father had went through. He'd seen his son. Maybe they walked by a pond of
water. All of a sudden, the son throws
himself in there. Back then, they had open fires
for cooking. And remember, it was the demon causing them to
do this. Imagine an open fire, cooking
your food, and all of a sudden you turn your back and you're
chopping something up over here and you hear your son screaming.
He's cast himself into the fire because of the demon. It'd be horrendous, wouldn't
it? And from our text, it started from when he was a young child.
And now he's a young man. So I couldn't even imagine the
sorrow that this father went through hearing his child scream for
help. And there was large bodies of
water then. There were small bodies of water. And from what
it sounds like, when they went by a large body of water, the
demon would cause the young man to cast himself into the water.
Well, you know what the dad would do? What any one of us would
do, jump in there and get him out of there, right? But would
that not, your heart would be pounding? You'd be, you'd have
tears hearing your son screaming for his life? My. The demon sought to destroy him.
The evil spirit obviously had attempted it many times. And
this man cried out to our Lord. Thou can do anything, have compassion
on us and help us. And then again, this man had
heard of the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings
his son to him. The Lord had given this man faith.
How much faith does it take to save us? Faith is a grain of
mustard seed, right? Just a little faith, right? And
we know that, we know that because of how we're plagued with unbelief.
how we're plagued with doubt. Right? It's true of all of us. I'm the first to say amen. That's
true of me. I talked to Donnie Bell, same
thing. Norm Wells, same thing. We're all plagued by it, beloved. Some point or another, we're
plagued by it. My, oh my. And look at Mark 9.22 again.
I want to just look at this real quick again. And oft times it
hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him.
That's what it sought to do. It sought to destroy him. But
if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. See, there's that little bit
of doubt. If thou can do anything. If you can, Lord. Our faith is often mixed with
doubt, isn't it? Right? But what happens when
the Lord says to this man, and he said it to us in our hearts
too, if thou can believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. Now that, see, now the name it
and claim it guys, they take this and twist this all up. See,
you just got to name it. I'm not going to be sick. That's
just ridiculous. We know afflictions and sorrows
come our way. They're appointed by God. And
we end up glorifying God more on the other side than we do.
Remember what I said this morning, how the sun is always shining,
but sometimes it's obscured by clouds? But you know, the sun, S-O-N,
is always with us, even though sometimes he's obscured by clouds
of trials and sorrow. Do you know he's ever with us?
Here, never leave us nor forsake us. He's ever with us. The sun
is always there. Behind those clouds is the sun
all the time, right? Just remember that when we're
going through trials and things. He's always with us. He's always
with us. He says, if thou can believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. So the Lord,
the man fires an if, and the Lord fires an if back to him.
He, the man fires, you know, but if thou can do anything,
and then the Lord fires an if back to him, if thou canst believe, he fires right back at him, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. And don't
forget that this man's son, the demon had thrown him into a convulsive
fit, and the boy is wallowing around in the dirt right before
them. Right before them. It's just a pitiful sight. But
our Lord knew what he was going to do. He knew what he was going
to do. But the father of that demon
possessed child didn't know, did he? And so he cries, Lord,
help my unbelief! Help my unbelief, Lord, please.
With tears, the scripture says. Look at verse 24 of Mark 9. And
straightway the father of the child cried out and said with
tears, Lord. Look at that. He called him Lord,
beloved. Called him Lord. God's people call Christ Lord.
Lord, I believe. He's been given faith. He's been
given faith. Help thou my unbelief. And look at the power on display
in Luke chapter 9. Turn back to Luke chapter 9.
Look at the power on display here. It says, and as he was yet coming,
the devil threw him down. He's still trying to destroy
him. Even as he's coming to Christ, he's still trying to destroy
him. I'll tell you what, when a person's
coming to Christ, sometimes the heat gets turned on even higher. unsaved folks around people who
are coming to Christ sometimes start saying to them, why are
you doing that? Why are you doing that? You're
going to miss out. You're not going to be able to
do anything fun anymore. I'm more joyful now in Christ
than I've ever been in my life. I'm more joyful now than anything
I ever did to try to drown my souls and drown things. I'm more
joyful now just on Christ and what he's done for me. Isn't
it wonderful? Absolutely wonderful. My, oh,
my. Look at the display of sovereign
power here, though. And he was yet to come, and the
devil threw him down and tear him, and Jesus rebuked the unclean
spirit and healed the child and delivered him again to his father.
Oh, the father cries out, Lord, help my unbelief, and immediately
the Lord heals his son. My, what mercy. What compassion! He heals the son on the spot!
No recovery time! Again, I'm going to keep saying
that with each of these narratives, because there's no recovery time,
just instantaneous healing. That evil spirit, when the Lord
says, come out of him, or you rebuke him, that evil spirit
can't do nothing but come out of him. Because he's, the one
who's speaking to him is the one who's king of kings and lord
of lords, the one who has all power and might. My, the disciple
could cast that evil spirit out, could they? But I'll tell you
what, when that evil spirit's faced with the king of kings
and the lord of lords, it takes right off. And he says, don't
go into him again. I bet you that dad and that father
testified of the mighty power of the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ for the rest of their lives. Telling people the great
things the Lord done for them. Oh, my. It doesn't say the son
was saved, but something tells me I think he might have been.
But that's neither here or there. We know the dad was. The Lord
saved the dad. And that dad, he'd be bragging
on Christ for the rest of his life, wouldn't he? And the demon
knew Christ. He knew who he was, because we
know the scripture says the demons know who he is, and they tremble.
I was talking to my son this week, and he was telling me about
someone who went to a place they probably shouldn't have went
to that was supposedly frequent by spirits and all this. And
I said, don't mess with that stuff. Josh didn't go, but somebody
he knew did. And I said, just don't mess ever
with that stuff. Take it from your dad. Don't
mess with that stuff. Well, I guess this person went
there, and they messed around. And some things happened. And I said
to my son, I said, now they were terrified of that, weren't they?
And he said, yeah. And I said, but they're not terrified of
God. And I said, but those spirits are terrified of God. They're
terrified. The devils believe and tremble.
That's not a saving belief, but they know who he is. Are thou
come to judge us before the time? Remember the Legion of Evil?
Demons? 5,000 demons in one man. And
he says, come at them! And they went into them pigs,
didn't they? And them pigs, they went right down to the water
and all died, didn't they? They had a big bacon feast that
day. But I'll tell you what. Those Jews were selling pigs,
and they weren't supposed to. My, oh, my. I'll tell you what. Those demons had to obey his
command. They had to. They had to. This demon had to obey the Lord's
command. He even tried to destroy that
young boy as he's coming to Christ, as he's being bought to Christ.
But beloved, our great God is upon the throne of power. He
has all power. We see his power displayed right
here. This is the God-man. This is God incarnated in the
flesh. This is our Savior. This is the
one who died for us and redeemed us. And he just cast that demon
out. The word of his power. And then
he even said to it again, don't go back into him. And then, could
you imagine? It says he gave the son to his
father and his whole Could you imagine, there's probably a sparkle
in his eyes. He can see and hear. And who would he see when he
woke up? Because remember, he was on the
ground, it was looking like he was dying. Who's the first person
he'd see? The Lord Jesus Christ. And God manifested in the flesh,
helped him up, delivered him from that spirit, and gave him
to his father. I tell you, that was me, you
couldn't shut me up. I'm telling you, I believe that,
that dad, he probably just went back, he just told everybody
everything. Oh my, look what the Lord's done. Look what he's
done. Mark records the words, as thou
dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him. And he
came out of him and entered no more into him. No more. He's healed. Never to be in that
state again. After the evil spirit came out
of him, the boy's convulsions quit, the foaming of his mouth
quit, and he was laying there. He was laying there, and some
thought he was dead. Turn, if you would, quick to
Mark again. Mark chapter nine. Some thought he was dead. Mark
tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ took him by the hand and
lifted him up. And he arose. He arose. Mark chapter nine,
verses 25 to 27. When Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying, thou
dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him. And he
had to, right? And enter no more into him. And
the spirit cried, and ransom soar, and came out of him, and
he was as one dead. And so much that they, many said
he is dead. He's just laying on the ground.
He was convulsing and foaming before, and now he's just, they
think he's dead. He's just laying, he ain't moving. But Jesus took him by the hand.
Is that not what he does with us? Takes us by the hand, beloved. We've been delivered. Took him by the hand and lifted
him up, and he lifts us up. He lifts us up from the pit of
sin that we were in. We couldn't help ourselves, just
like this young boy couldn't help himself. He lifts us up
out of that pit, sets our feet upon the rock, which is him,
Christ, and establishes our goings. That's what our king has done
for us. Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose.
That young man had felt the personal touch of the God-man. He felt
the personal touch of the God-man. And it was a tender, loving,
compassionate, long-suffering, merciful touch. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
delivers this young man to his dad. Delivers him to his dad. And I can only imagine the boy
had a different countenance. Totally different countenance.
He was completely healed. Completely healed, beloved. Oh
my. Even though we have the presence
of sin with us right now as believers, we're washed clean in the precious
blood of Christ. Clothed in the perfect spotless
righteousness of Christ. Completely healed. But we're
still sinners, aren't we? Oh my. And again, this man, you
wouldn't be able to shut him up. I bet you he went home and
proclaimed what the Lord Jesus Christ had done for him and for
his boy. And the scriptures here tell us they were all amazed.
Of course, they should be. They should be amazed, shouldn't
they? They should be amazed. The mighty power of God had just
been on display in front of them. Look at verse 43, and they were
all amazed at the mighty power of God. God had just done a miracle. And they should have all been
amazed. Our God's an amazing God. He's
an amazing God. And we who are redeemed, we should
be amazed, too, that He saved us, that He redeemed us, that
He regenerated us, that He gave us faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't let it become commonplace. Be amazed by it.
It's amazing that God's done that for us. So many others,
He just passed them by. But He didn't pass us by. Because in
love he chose us. My. So this week, let us just
meditate and consider God's majestic power. Think of that. And then
think of his perfect plan of salvation. Perfect. It's in and
through Christ alone. Think of his unchanging love
towards us, who are hell-deserving sinners. That's what we are.
We're hell-deserving sinners, and yet his unchanging love is
set upon we who are his people. Think also of his sovereign grace
and mercy. and how it's been bestowed upon you. All those
who Christ bought with his precious blood, all those who he purchased
through the finished perfect sin atoning work of our great
God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ, let us be amazed, let
us rejoice and be glad. Let us ponder these things in
our mind this week and let the redeemed of the Lord praise him.