Faith and Prayer

Q: What does the Bible say about the state of sinners?

The Bible teaches that sinners are children of wrath by nature and are taken captive by the devil's will. Scripture reveals that, by nature, we are children of wrath and trapped in a snare of sin without divine intervention. Ephesians 2:3 emphasizes that we were once fulfilling the desires of our flesh and mind, and were in direct contrast to the holiness of God. We need to recognize our desperate condition; only then can we appreciate the necessity of fleeing to Christ for salvation. This acknowledgment of our sinful state is essential for genuine repentance and faith, as illustrated in 2 Timothy 2:25-26, where it highlights how individuals can be taken captive by the devil due to their lack of repentance and acceptance of truth.

Q: How do we know that prayer is essential in the Christian life?

Prayer is critical for Christians as it reflects our dependence on God and aligns us with His will. In the Christian life, prayer serves as a means of expressing our utter dependence on God. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus embodied prayer and demonstrated submission to the Father's will, teaching us that prayer is essential in accomplishing His purposes. In Mark 9:29, Jesus teaches that certain spiritual realities come forth only through prayer and fasting, demonstrating the necessity of prayer in faith and ministry. It is not merely a ritual but a heartfelt expression of reliance on God’s power and authority, recognizing that we can do nothing apart from Him. The failure to pray indicates a lack of faith and acknowledgment of our need for divine assistance.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand their sinful nature?

Understanding our sinful nature is crucial as it leads to genuine repentance and a reliance on Christ for salvation. Christians must grasp the reality of their sinful nature to fully appreciate the grace of God in salvation. The sermon points out that humanity, by nature, walks according to the course of this world, controlled by the prince of the power of the air, which signifies a complete separation from God's holiness. Romans 1:21 indicates that those who knew God did not glorify Him, illustrating the obstinate rejection of divine authority. Recognizing our fallen nature fosters humility and a yearning for redemption. This acknowledgment acts as the catalyst for true repentance—where we turn from our ways to embrace Christ, leading to salvation which is a work of grace through faith, not based on our own merits.

Q: How does faith in Christ relate to our ability to overcome sin?

Faith in Christ empowers believers to overcome sin, as it connects us with the sovereign power of God. The Christian’s ability to overcome sin is intricately linked to faith in Christ. The sermon asserts that the disciples were unable to cast out demons due to their unbelief, underscoring the relationship between faith and divine power. In Mark 9:23, Jesus states that ‘all things are possible to him that believeth,’ indicating that true faith activates the power of God in our lives. This faith is not merely intellectual assent but a trust in Christ's authority and ability to save and transform us. Therefore, overcoming sin is fundamentally an issue of reliance on the one who holds all power, reflecting the assurance we have in God’s promises and intervention in our lives.

So speaking of our spiritual condition and comparing it to the physical condition of this boy and his demon possession, we see this all through scriptures. We just read in 2 Timothy 2 where those who have not repented and acknowledged the truth of God are taken captive by Satan at his will. And they're in a snare that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.

There's a reason why the word snare is used so often in scripture with regard to our sin, because when you're in a snare, the more you do, the more snared you are. The more you pull, the worse you're snared. And that's how it is in spiritual things. How are you gonna resolve your sin by doing more sin. Because everything we do is full of sin. There's no good thing dwelling in us by nature.

And then in Ephesians 2.2, it says, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

That's Satan. You walked according to the course of Satan. not your own course, not your free will course, but the satanic course of hating Christ. And satanic means wanting to be. the authority, wanting to be God. You shall be as gods, is what Satan said to us in the garden. You shall be as gods. That's still what is satanic. It's man wanting everything to be up to them and everything is just something that we decide. Same thing. Satan has set himself up as a wannabe rival to the authority of God, and that's what we are. That's the course that we walk in this world.

And that's the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. You reject and disobey what God says because you shall be his gods, determining good and evil. among whom also we all had our conduct in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We must understand the desperate case that we're in, and God has to impress that upon our souls in the act of saving us. The day that we realize how wretched we are, is the day that we flee to Christ. We see how wonderful he is. We flee to him from ourselves.

The word disobedience there, we walked according to the spirit, it's the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That word disobedience is obstinance. There we are in the garden. There we are at Mount Sinai, there we are every step along the way in our sin and hatred of God and His Son, obstinance, deliberate and proud rebellion, rejection, and willing unbelief in the face of obvious plain truth. It's not that people don't know that God is God. in their heads, it's that when they knew Him, they glorified Him not as God, Romans chapter 1. Just like Satan, he knows a lot about God, he knows God exists, he knows a lot of God's attributes. But he's not going to give God any glory. And that's us. We walk according to the disobedience to the course of the prince of the power of the air. That's our course, like this young demon-possessed boy. And as we see in our text, it's a self-destructive course.

Whenever and wherever the gospel is preached and heard, there will be sinners who will despise it, just like Satan despises it, because that's their course in this world until God gives them repentance. I've preached to a group of people at a funeral of someone that I loved and was a believer in. There were some believers there. There were also a lot of unbelievers there, and you could see the disgust on their face when they heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And let me say, in addition to what I said a while ago, though, about how sometimes you can see Satan's destruction, it's just as important to understand sometimes you can't see it. Judas was being sifted as wheat by Satan. And he passed for one of the 12 disciples. So sometimes you can't, sometimes somebody will look just as happy.

But it's on the inside, it's an inside problem, it's a heart problem. And here's the thing. It's not just that sinners disagree intellectually by nature with the gospel. It's not just that they're able to reason in an alternate way and convince themselves of different facts. The problem is deeper than that. The problem, people's problem with the gospel is that the gospel is Christ and they hate Christ.

We, by nature, hate God's Son. We despise Him. Every time He asserted His authority in the New Testament, they took up stones to stone Him. When He said to them, hereafter you'll see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand, of the majesty on high, they took up stone, they spit on him and took up stones to stone him. They hate the sovereign Christ who it is up to. And we see that in the scriptures. The gospel is disgusting. to a sinner that does not know God. And you know what's disgusting to God? Proverbs 6, 16, these six things doth the Lord hate.

Yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren." Pride, lying, murderers, hearts that devise wicked imaginations, feet. He's talking about people. And in the last part, it says a false witness that speaketh lies, not just the lies, but the one who speaks them.

God hates. And everybody running around saying God loves you and God loves everybody is not telling the truth. You've got to start with the fact that God hates sinners. He hates you by nature. You're a child of wrath. Now, that doesn't mean as a believer that God used to hate you and now he loves you. That doesn't change. But as an unbeliever before, by nature, you're a child of wrath. By nature, you are the thing that God despises. But his love, of course, is eternal. And we find out one day that we are an object of his love if he gives us grace to believe on him. but by nature we're all. Now the casting out of these devils was something the Lord had given his disciples power to do, but it was an act of faith.

You see that? It was because of your unbelief that you couldn't do it. In Luke 10, 17, where I kind of referred to a while ago, the disciples were able to cast out devils, And they returned to the Lord, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

And we know again where they're written. I referred to this, I believe, last Sunday. They're written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Who's the Lamb? The one who was delivered into the hands of men and crucified and rose again the third day. So again, that's the focus of all of this. the one who purposed all this. Sinners are saved through the use of means, but salvation is God writing your name down in his book. And we rejoice that he did so, and why he did so, and how he was able to do so.

As Paul said in Philippians 3.3, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We're the circumcision who worship God in the spirit. have no confidence in the flesh, and we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Him.

So these disciples had power to cast out devils, but because of their unbelief, they could not. And this is an important lesson for us. Everybody that's involved in the ministry of Christ now, that was the ministry that He gave them, to cast out devils, and by those means to promote and exalt and give confirmation to the word, the gospel that they preached. But we're involved in his ministry, and we're involved in the casting out of demons spiritually by the preaching of the gospel. He sent these disciples out with these instructions.

Listen to Matthew 10, seven. As you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you have received, freely give. But what was number one on the list? What was preeminent above all of it? Preach. And these other things are given to confirm the gospel.

Hebrews 2.3, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. But it was the word spoken that convinced us. It was the word spoken by which we believed. That word was confirmed by these other things, but the point was the gospel and the preaching of it.

Acts 14.3. Long time, therefore, abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. It was a testimony unto the word of his grace, and then there were signs and wonders that confirmed, again, that gospel.

So we have the same ministry as them, though we don't perform these signs and wonders, we have the entire written word of God. But just as they did, the result of the preaching of the gospel is the spiritual casting down of demons. It's Christ's power that is expressed and exerted when we do what He told us to do. He gives us commandment to go and preach.

Acts 3.12, turn over there with me, please.

Acts 3.12. Now, Simon Peter had just raised a lame man and made him able to walk. But they were marveling at Peter and looking at these disciples as though they were some kind of great miracle workers, and they were working miracles.

But it wasn't their greatness, and Peter made that very clear, Acts 3.12, and when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this, or why look ye so earnestly on us? As though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk. And that's the same with this ministry. If anything is accomplished, if a sinner is saved, don't look at the ministry itself, look at the one who gave the ministry.

Look at the one whose power What did he say about the gospel? It's the power of God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. It's Christ's power exerted in the preaching of the gospel. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus.

Whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go, verse 14. But you denied the Holy One and just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of Life. Whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses, and his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong.

Whom ye see and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." So you see how it's faith in Christ that saves sinners. And even in these miracles that represented the salvation of sinners, it was by faith that they were performed, and by faith in the person that it was performed upon were these miracles accomplished. And so it is with the preaching of the gospel.

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, 1 Corinthians 2.7, which none of the princes of this world knew, but he hath revealed them unto us. The wisdom of God he hath revealed unto us.

Our Lord said in Matthew 11.25, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. has revealed them unto babes. And so we know the gospel, we know Christ, we're able to preach Him by God-given faith, by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves.

Where we quoted a while ago in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 25, that as we teach and instruct, as we speak the words of Christ and expound the Word of God, We pray that God, peradventure, will give those that hear us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Repentance, because when the truth goes forth, we realize that everything that we ever knew was wrong, and it was an offense against God. I reject my own former beliefs, and everything that I knew, it's dung, as Paul said, that I may win Christ.

So that's that word repentance. We change our mind. You've got to change your mind about who God is. And the leopard can't change his spots and you can't change your mind. God's got to do that. We pray that God peradventure will give those that hear us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. The acknowledging of the truth. To know, perceive and understand the truth. You know what that is? To know, perceive, and understand the truth. That's called faith. That's called faith. Belief of the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2.13, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation which you experience, and I'm adding that, not to add anything to the word, but this is what it's saying, and clearly so in the context of all scripture. God chose you from the beginning. We know that belief of the truth didn't happen in the beginning. We didn't exist when God chose us.

So this happens in time. God chose us from the beginning to salvation. But we experience that salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And this whole thing of the saving of sinners is accomplished by grace through faith. That's why our Lord stresses that in this text that we're looking at, this miracle. He said it's because of your unbelief. The only way a sinner is going to be saved is by Grace through faith.

By faith we preach and by faith sinners believe. And the faith of this father in our text, look at Mark 9. I told you we'd look at the different ones. Look at Mark chapter 9. Mark 9, 21. So again, we could go back to the beginning of the story, but you'll see where we're breaking in here in verse 21.

And he asked his father, how long is it ago since this came into him? And he said of a child, and oftentimes it has cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou can't 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 mine unbelief.

You see, we quote that scripture often. This is the context in which he said that, Lord, you know, this is something this is something that's unbelievable by nature. It's literally unbelievable that you'd be able to do something about this. This man had watched his son from a child being thrown into the fire and into the water and being a lunatic and no doubt just horrible to even be around. Can you imagine?

And so you see, he says, Lord, I believe, help mine unbelief. I believe, help me to believe. And I think everyone that does believe understands that. We understand that. 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 I like that part, don't come back either. I like that, don't you? What a savior we have. Come out of him and don't you enter into him again. What a sovereign master he is. He rules over all of the principalities and powers of this world.

And the spirit 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. We were as one dead too, weren't we? We were dead in trespasses and sins, but Jesus took him by the hand. This is such a beautiful version of this. It gives many more details, but we know a lot from the Matthew version too, don't we? That we didn't see here in this one, but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose.

And when he was coming to the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. Now God has ordained means to the end. When the Lord did it, He is the embodiment of prayer and fasting.

He came down here to do the will of His Father, and He always did those things that pleased the Father. And He often prayed unto the Father so that we could hear Him in order to teach us. So prayer is submission to the Father. It's looking to the Father for everything. It's knowing that everything is by the divine purpose and grace and power of the Father, and going to Him who is able to do all things.

And as Job said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that none can hinder you when you do it. Nobody can stop you when you set about to do something. That's who we come to in prayer. And the Lord Jesus was the embodiment of that. He did always those things that pleased the Father. He submitted to the will, not my will, Father, but thy will be done.

And fasting, we're gonna talk about that more tonight. Fasting is denying self. It's very simple. And in the Old Testament, it wasn't done It was done by the Pharisees as a ritual. We're going to fast on this day. We're going to do fasting this day for this many days. Oh, you can still eat fish and stuff. Where did that come from? But we're going to fast for so many days on this day. That's not how fasting was in the Old Testament.

It wasn't planned. When something terrible happened, when their hearts went out to God in so much that they didn't care about the flesh anymore, their heart was set on God. David fasted when his child died. And he came before God. That wasn't planned. That wasn't a set date.

He prayed unto God and fasted because he forgot about his bodily needs. in lieu of, what's the word I'm looking for? He forgot about his bodily needs because he had such regard for his spiritual need at that time. And he fasted for, we don't know for how long exactly. Doesn't make any, we're not told any of that in the scripture. We're not told when to fast, how long to fast. But what it is is denial of self and the Lord is the embodiment of that also. is to look to God and forget about yourself. It's really that simple.

And now it's spoken of in the New Testament in a specific way, and we'll see that tonight, but he said prayer and fasting, belief, it's because of your unbelief. You've got to just know Christ and know him to the extent that you know he's who he said he was, that you know that when he speaks, it's done. You know that you can trust him. Believing on him is trusting him. Even in a terrible situation like this, that this father was in, he said, I trust you, Lord, but help me to trust you. Help me to trust you.

And that's our cry. And then by prayer, we'll see in essence what prayer is. It's dependency upon God. If you start thinking, and these disciples had, you know, maybe they were feeling a little high and mighty, they said, boy, even the devils are subject unto us. They're not subject unto you. They're subject unto the master. That's who they're subject unto.

And maybe it's because of that attitude that they weren't able to do it again, that they weren't able to do it here. I don't know. But I know it was unbelief. It was unbelief. It's starting to trust yourself and look to yourself and away from the Son of God.

Prayer is utter dependence upon God. It's to preach with the understanding that if anything good is going to happen, it's going to come down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of attorney. And so we'll look into that a little bit more tonight. Pray the Lord will meet with us.

Faith and Prayer

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the state of sinners?

How do we know that prayer is essential in the Christian life?

Why is it important for Christians to understand their sinful nature?

How does faith in Christ relate to our ability to overcome sin?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

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Faith and Prayer

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the state of sinners?

How do we know that prayer is essential in the Christian life?

Why is it important for Christians to understand their sinful nature?

How does faith in Christ relate to our ability to overcome sin?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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