I want you to turn to Mark chapter
9. I want to read this version out
of Mark chapter 9. I'll start reading in verse 14. And it goes to verse 29. And
when he came to his disciples, he came down from the mount of
transfiguration, They had enjoyed some time apart. Those three disciples were allowed
to enjoy a sight of His glory, the glory of the Lord whom they
followed. They were allowed some time apart
with Him and to enjoy this. And when we have these times,
enjoy them. Enjoy them. If the Lord allows
you to have some time, some quiet time away from everyone else
and be able to actually freely meditate upon Him and think upon
Him, enjoy it. Enjoy it. They came down from
the mountain. It's time to get back to work.
It's time to save sinners. So this is when they came back
from the mountain. And he saw a great multitude
surrounding the other nine disciples. And the scribes questioning them.
Actually, they were making fun of them over this inability to
cast out this devil from this young man. Well, I thought you
could cast out devils. You did it before. Was that just
a hoax? They were just making fun of them for what they were
doing. And straightway, all the people, when they beheld Him,
when they beheld the Lord, they saw Him coming. Coming what? To their rescue. He's coming
to the rescue of those nine disciples of His. And He's going to take
care of this matter, this problem with His child, and going to
shut those scribes up. And so, when these people beheld
Him, they were greatly amazed. And running to Him, saluted Him. And he asked the scribes, what
are you questioning them about? What question you with them?
He knew what they were doing. He knew they were like was Ishmael
making fun of Isaac. He knew they were what they were
doing. And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, this
is the father. I have brought unto thee my son,
which hath a dumb spirit. I brought him to thee because
he was on the Mount of Transfiguration. So he brought him to the disciples.
And listen to this, this is a, this is a pitiful case. This
is a case you wouldn't want on anybody. And wheresoever, well,
let me go back in verse 17. And one of the multitude answered
and said, master, I brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb
spirit. He's not able to speak. And wheresoever
he taketh him, he tareth him, dasheth him. And he foameth,
and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away." He's wasting
away. He's so frail now. He's so frail. He's so thin. He pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. And He answered
him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him here unto Me. They
brought him unto Him, and when He saw him, straightway the Spirit
tear him, threw him down. And he fell on the ground, swallowed,
foaming, foaming at the mouth. Satan does not go out without
a battle. He does not give up his fortress. You know, the strong man of the
house is not going to go out quietly. He is not going to go
out quietly. And he asked his father, the
Lord asked the father, how long is it since this came unto him?
He said, of a child. of a child. Can you imagine putting
up with this for this long period of time? Of a child. And oftentimes
it's cast him into the fire to try and destroy him. And into
the waters to try and drown him. To destroy him. But if thou canst
do anything, if thou canst do anything, God
can do everything. God's going to prove this man's
faith. He's going to bring this man to faith. If thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us, me and my son, and help us." And Jesus said unto him, he threw
the if back at him. The Father said, if you
can do anything, and the Lord takes that if and throws it right
back at him. I'm not the problem. The problem
is just what we heard in Bible class on belief. He takes and
throws the if right back at 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, crying, weeping,
Lord, I believe. I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Help me. Help me to believe.
Help me to believe as I ought to believe. Help me to believe
you. Help me to trust you as I ought to. Oh, we ought to pray
that daily. Lord, help me trust You as I
ought to. Help me to do that. Help my unbelief.
I believe. You know, there's a difference
in believing in God and believing God. It does not say Abraham
believed in God. Abraham believed God. That's
the faith we need. We need that faith that believes
God, takes God at His Word, and we act on it. 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. Now let's go
back to Matthew and we'll finish this up. And when they were come to the
multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to
him, kneeling down, worshiping him, bowing down to him and asking
the Lord for mercy. Here's another parent. This is
what struck me a lot. There's another parent coming
to Christ for his son, for his child. You know, I actually had
two titles. Two titles. I believe, help my
own belief, but the title that stuck with me was A Father's
Prayer for His Son. This was a father coming to the
Lord for his child that had been stricken with this devil Epilepsy
is what he had. Lunatic epilepsy. That's what
it translates to be. He had epilepsy. And he was possessed
at the same time of the devil. So here he comes and he comes
praying, kneeling down before the Lord. Never give up on your
children. I don't care what age. Never
give up. The Lord is able to save at any age. But also notice
here the evilness of Satan. He took this Young man, when
he was a child, he said, as a child, Satan would destroy our youth
if allowed to. There's nothing more that he
would desire other than destroying you who believe. Nothing more
he would desire than to destroy your own children, bring down
the house, bring trouble in the house. And that's what he's doing
here. If he was allowed, he'd destroy
our children. And I thought, look at our youth
today. Look at our youth today. It's a sad, sad situation. No respect for authority. A few
years ago, I was over at the YMCA playing racquetball. And
there was what I would call a child. He probably couldn't have been
over 10 years old. Him and his buddy came up there cussing,
just cussing like you wouldn't believe, using words that sailors
would use out in the Pacific. On the boat, I mean, I was just
like, where did you learn such words at such a young age? But
he was standing with him and his friend, just cussing as if
we weren't even standing there. I mean, we were several of us
adults standing there, just like we were not even there. Sam,
no respect for authority, no respect for teaching, no respect
for parents, none. Righteous living under the influence
of Satan. He may not possess their bodies,
but he sure possesses their mind. He sure possesses their minds,
their soul. Is there hope for them? Is there
hope for them? The only hope for any age, any
child, is the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, as long as he's
on the throne, he'll never give up. And he's on the throne forever. He's there forever. If he will
show mercy, then there's hope. He's the only hope. He's the
only hope that any sinner has. He's the only one who can cast
out Satan. He's the only one who can break the power. We sing
this in a song. He's the only one who can break
the power of canceled sin. He's the only one who can break
those things. He's the one that can break that lust. He's the
one that can break that power. Christ can do it. He's able to
do it. And listen to the Father's prayer
here. Lord, acknowledge Him. He acknowledges His Lordship.
Lord, have mercy on my son. Have mercy on him, for he's a
lunatic. He's a lunatic. After reading
that, we don't want to use that word so loosely, do we? You think
of what that Father went through. And he sore vexed. For oftentimes
he falls into the fire and often to the water. How many times
did the father have to go into the water and pull his son out
to keep him from drowning? How many times did the father
have to jump in and grab his son and pull him out of the fire?
How many times did he have to do that? He sore vexed when his
father was sore vexed too. He'd go through the same thing.
Ah, we are no match. I tell you, we are no match for
I brought Him to Thy disciples and they could not cure Him.
They couldn't do anything for Him. But listen here, have mercy
on my Son. Our sons and our daughters need
His saving, sovereign mercy just like we need it. Lord, after
all is said and done, You teach them in the class. You taught
us here this morning. When all is said and done, we
need His saving mercy. Lord, if you don't save me, all
the teaching in the world is not going to save me. You know,
Paul said about Timothy, the Scriptures, he was taught the
Scriptures that were able to make him wise unto salvation.
But it's Christ who saves. It's Christ who applies the Word. It's Christ who quickens the
Word in our hearts. It's Christ who does that. He must save them just like he
has saved us. And listen to this father's confession
of his son. My son, Lord, he's a lunatic.
He's crazy. He has a problem of the mind.
Satan has his body, and he's trying to destroy my child. Lord,
have mercy. Oh, what a safe case that this
man was being put through, and his son. And He's trying to destroy
him, trying to cast him in the fire and in the water. Lord,
He's trying to destroy him. How often, when I look back at
my life, especially when I was young, especially when I was
a teenager, I did some stupid, stupid stuff. How often would
our lives have been destroyed had God, our Father, had allowed
it? How often would we have been
snuffed out if the Father would have allowed it? This young man
was tormented, he was vexed, he was cast into the fire and
to the water, but I tell you what, he's not going to die. Because the Father is not going
to allow it. The Heavenly Father is not going to allow it. We
would self-destruct if God would allow it. But He didn't allow
it, did He? Here we sit. Listen to the gospel. Any of you believe in the gospel?
That's of the grace of God. That's of the grace of God Almighty.
And this also shows us how we are divinely kept from our youth to this day. Even, David said,
to our old age, horrid hairs, God has kept us. He knows how
to keep His children. He knows how. And notice here,
the Father recognized His need as well as His sons. I read it
to you over in Mark. Lord, have mercy on us. Have
mercy on us. If the Lord has mercy on your
children, it's mercy on us. Is it not mercy on us? Oh, listen,
there's nothing, no greater blessing than when the Lord speaks mercy
to your children. No greater blessing. Have mercy,
He said, on us. And the Father here brought Him
to the disciples. He brought Him to the means.
He brought His Son to Christ, but the Lord was on the Mount
of Transfiguration. He was on the Mount of Transfiguration.
He was not there. So He did the next best thing.
He brought Him to the means, the disciples, who were able
to cast out devils. They were given that power. A
few chapters back, they were given that power. So He brings
Him to them. And they couldn't do anything.
They couldn't do anything for him. Christ is the one that we
ultimately must get to. He's the one that we ultimately
must get to. I've had people talk to me in
the past. I've had people talk to me about
salvation. I've had people talk to me about being saved. I've
had people talk to me about the gospel. But I'm telling you this.
It's Christ they must find. It's Christ they must come to.
It's Christ who they must meet. It's Christ who must speak. It's
Christ who must command life. I can talk to you about it. I
can tell you about it. He's the one who has to give
it. He's the one who has to give it. He is the great physician
of souls. Then Jesus answered and said,
O faithless, and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you, put up with you, endure your
unbelief, endure your hardness of heart? How long? He's speaking
here of a generation of all those people standing there, a generation
of Jews. Bring him to me. Bring him hither to me. And Jesus
rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was
cured from that very hour. Perversion. He calls them a perverse generation,
a faithless and perverse generation. Perversion, and you mark this
down, perversion follows faithlessness. It follows faithlessness. Where
there is no faith in Christ, you will find perversion in religion. You will find perversion in worship. You'll find perversion in morals,
where there is no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without faith,
there's no foundation. There's no foundation. God, Christ,
judgment are just not realities. You who believe God is real,
He is. Christ is real, He is. You believe
Him. You follow Him. You worship Him. You meditate
upon Him. You think that you're never apart
from Him. But without faith, you don't think of Him. You don't
believe Him. No, He's just a historical figure.
These things are just historical facts. They really don't mean
anything. But to you who believe it does,
it means everything. And He means everything. But
notice here, even in His anger, He says here, you faithless and
perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long
shall I have to endure you? Bring him to me. He chides that
generation, but he doesn't forget the mercy on that son. Habakkuk said, Lord, in wrath,
remember mercy. In wrath, remember mercy. And
he says, bring him hither to me. The Lord never drives away the
needy, does he? He never drives away the needy sinner. He delights
to show mercy. Bring your loved ones to Christ. Bring them to Christ in prayer.
Bring them to Christ to hear the gospel. Bring them to Him.
Bring them to me. And wait on Him. Wait on Him. He's the only hope they have.
The only hope we have is that He will show mercy. That He'll
show mercy. That's our only hope. He who
delights to show mercy, sooner or later will show mercy. And
then Jesus, it says, rebuked the devil. He rebuked Satan. The Lord did what no other could
do. He rebuked the devil. These faith healers, you see
them on TV, and they say, I rebuke you, Satan. He's laughing at them. It's a
joke. Remember over in the book of
Acts, there were some men who tried to perform an exorcism
and they said, Paul, we know, Jesus we know, but who are you?
Who in the world are you? The Lord rebuked the devil. He
told him to leave, to come out. I tell you what, he came out.
He came out at the Lord's command. At His Word, He came out. The
devil left that child, and that child, it says, was cured from
that hour. Salvation was instant. You know,
we grow in grace, we grow in knowledge of Christ, but when
the Lord saves a sinner, he's saved. I'm telling you, he's
saved. He's saved for eternity. He's
saved. He was cured from that hour.
Salvation is complete. And Christ is complete. He's
able to say to the uttermost, they must come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. He was
cured. Can you imagine the rejoicing
of that father and of that son? That child, it calls Him a child.
Can you imagine that? Could you just put yourself in
that man's place and have a child that's this possessed of the
devil? Epilepsy, he told himself he'd
have fits, you know, he'd go along okay for a day or two,
then he'd have a fit and throw himself into a fire, then throw
himself into deep water to try and drown himself. Can you imagine
the torment that it was not only on that child, but that father?
He's cured. He's cured. Salvation is complete. I promise
you, Satan won't come back to that young man. He may come back
and tempt him, but he will not possess him. He'll never come
back and possess him. He's cast out. And notice here,
notice here, the father did not come to Christ and brag on his
son. My good boy, he didn't come and
brag. He confessed he's a lunatic.
Lord, save my son. He's crazy. He's lost his mind. He loses
his mind. He just throws himself in the
fire and the water. He didn't brag on him, did he? When he prayed unto the Lord,
he confessed, this is just what my son is. This is who he is.
Save him from it. Save him from himself. Save him
from Satan. Save him from sin. Lord, save
him. Save him from it. You know, the
Lord has never saved a good son or daughter, has He? He's never
saved a good son or daughter. Isn't it amazing that every time
a kid gets in trouble in school, it was somebody else's fault?
The parents say, it wasn't my son. If it wasn't for your son... No. Same poison of aspen is under
every one of them's tongue. Same poison of aspen. is under
every last one of them's tongue. God saves sinners. He doesn't
save good boys and girls. You know why? God said there's
not any. There's none good, no, not one.
That includes me and that includes my sons. No, not one. They came to disciples apart
after he had left. It says in Mark, they went into
a house. And they said, why could we not
cast him out? You gave us power over diseases and over demons
and devils. You gave us power. Why could
we not cast them out? Why didn't they obey us this
time? They did before. They obeyed us before. And Jesus
said to them, because of your unbelief. Well, they didn't recognize
that, did they? He did. But verily I say unto
you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say
unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall
remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you. They were
so puzzled. They were so puzzled. They were
given power over these devils and over sickness, but they couldn't
cast out this one. And the nine of them, Between
all nine of them, it was unbelief. Unbelief. I tell you, you don't
grow on any type of ground. Unbelief. Unbelief destroys our
usefulness. You can mark it down. You can
mark it down. The very root of all my failures The very root
of all my failures is unbelief. It's not the power of God. It's
not his abilities. It's unbelief. We don't like
to think that there's so much unbelief in us. But he points
out to his apostles here, his disciples, which were his apostles.
He said, you couldn't do this because of unbelief. That's the
problem. That's the problem. Unbelief.
It's the root of all your failures. If you believe, if you have faith
as a grain of mustard seed, nothing's impossible to you. There'll be
nothing that you can't overcome. Nothing. If you believe. I don't believe nearly as much
as I think I do. That's why I wrote that down.
We don't believe nearly as much as we think we do. The Lord knows. He knows. They met with a hard
case. And I've seen this. I've seen
it in myself and I've seen it in the church. We meet with a
hard situation. This is difficult, maybe difficult
times. And we're ready to crack. It
proves our unbelief. They met with this hard case.
The Lord told them they had power to do this. They meet with this
hard case. They meet with this one devil
that totally resists them. And they crack. They crack like
children. They crack. It's not working.
It's not going our way. You know, it's not working the
way it's supposed to. Remember this thirst. Without
me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. We only have power to do the
Lord's work as we believe, as we trust Him, as we have confidence,
total confidence in Him. When we begin to doubt, I heard
someone say not too long ago, and I look inside myself and
I doubt. I don't think that's the case. I think when we doubt,
we doubt Him. No matter what I see in myself,
we doubt Him. The doubt is to doubt Him. And that's what happens. We begin
to doubt. He said, without me, but without me, you cannot do
anything. He can't do anything. He was gone from the nine. He
was up on that Mount of Transfiguration. And they begin to waver. They
begin to waver. Like Moses was gone up on that
Mount for 40 days, 40 nights. Where's Moses? We read a little
bit up there in the Bible. Where's Moses? The Lord's gone
up on the Mount of Transfiguration. He's gone from those nine. He
takes those three with Him. Where's the Lord? And they met
a hard case. A difficult situation? They were
faced with a difficult situation. I'll show you this here in just
a second. And they just quit. They gave up. They quit. We can't
do this. Sorry, Dad. Sorry, Dad. We can't catch this one out.
Can't do it. And our Lord said to them, if
you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could remove a mountain. You could remove all difficulty.
Faith as a grain of mustard seed is real faith. Small but real. It's real. And it's true. Because it's God-given. And true
faith overcomes all difficulties. True faith, now, to truly believe
in God, to truly believe Christ, will overcome all difficulties.
True faith will always be active. It won't quit. True faith does
not quit. No, it does. Unbelief wins. And true faith
always applies to the Lord, for help. Always looks to Him. How
then, how then, that is, however, verse 21, however, this kind
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Prayer, that he's talking
about here, and fasting is hard work. And the laborers gave up. The laborers gave up. It's hard
work. Spurgeon said this, there is
degrees in devilry. There are some devils, and that's
our Lord telling us this here, there are some more wicked than
others. There are some more difficult to deal with than others. That's
what he's saying here. Remember when the straw man left
the house Went away and then he came back. What does it say?
It says he took, brought with him seven other devils, seven
other spirits. What? More wicked than himself. This was more wicked. This was
more difficult. They had never met one like this.
They thought they were all on the same level, all the same,
you know, just cast them out in their seat and they go. Now,
this one, this one was a lot more difficult. This possession
here was a whole lot more difficult than they'd ever faced before.
This kind, he says, goes not out without a fight, without
a warfare. The strong man trying to keep
his house, trying to keep it. Evidently, they couldn't cast
him out, so they quit. They gave up. They gave up. They
lost faith, and they gave up. They made some resistance, and
they gave up. It's just like as if they went
home. Well, we can't do anything for this one. I'll tell you what. We need to
faith like that father had. He didn't quit, did he? The nine
gave up. They quit and said, well, we
can't do anything for him. But I'll tell you what, that father didn't give
up. He didn't give up. If we ever begin to love others, Like we love our own, we won't
give up on them so easily. We don't give up on our own.
As long as we got a breath in us, we won't give up on our own.
But if we ever learn to love others like we love our own,
we'll pray like this Father. We won't give up. And this is
why we have to go through sufferings. This is why we have to go through
trials to make us compassionate. to make us more compassionate
toward others. That's why the Lord has to put
us through these trials. I was watching the news some
weeks ago. It spoke of someone dying in
a wreck. And I thought, that's troubling. That's tragic. But I realized as I listened
to it, I didn't feel anything close to what the parents felt
or the family felt of that person that passed away. I thought, boy, what must they
be feeling at this hour? What must they be feeling? And
that's why we have to go through these trials and heartaches that
we go through so we can have compassion on one another, so
we can feel those things. But this father, this father
who would not give up on his son, he would not leave the Lord,
fell at his feet, worshipping him at his feet. Lord, if you
can do anything for us. Oh, he sure can. He can. The problem is not with
him. He said, if you can believe.
That's the problem. If you can believe. All things are possible
to him that believes. And he cast him out. And he was
cured from that hour. Satan never came back to that
house. He never came back and took possession
of that house again. He belonged to the Lord. He belonged
to Christ. And while they abode in Galilee,
and I'll close, Jesus said unto them, you see, they'd been on
the Mount of Transfiguration, what a glorious sight they beheld. The Son of God. They got a glimpse
of His glory. They came down and these nine
were being tormented by these scribes. And this young man being
tormented by the devil and his father being tormented by Satan
and the possession of his son. All this was going on and all
this excitement. They go apart. They go to Galilee
and they abide there. And He brings them back to their
central message. And He focuses them on this,
this, my death, my death. Whatever goes on out here with
us or in here with us, we never forget Christ and Him crucified. He is the message. That message
never changes. It never changes. Because Jesus
said unto them, the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands
of men. And they shall kill him. And
the third day he shall be raised again. He said for encouragement.
They're going to kill me, but I'm going to be raised. And he
gave him a specific day. He didn't say I'll just be raised
again. Three days are going to go by and you're going to see
me again. Now, it's just going to be three days. What encouragement! What encouragement! He gave them
even a specific time that they would see him again. You'll see
me again. I'll be back. It's like, well,
that's a lot more than this. It's like, I'll see you Wednesday.
Today's Sunday. We're going to go home. I'll
see you Wednesday. I'll be back. And that's what he's saying to them.
I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to die. I'm going to be crucified.
I'm going to accomplish redemption. The same thing he talked to Moses
and Elijah about. But in three days I'll be back.
You'll see me again. Oh, let your hearts be lifted
up. But they were exceeding sorry. Exceeded. He spoke to them of
his death and they became exceeding sorrowful. But listen, the substitute
has to substitute. You can't be a substitute and
just do part of it. No, the substitute has to substitute.
He has to die. He has to suffer what we need
to suffer, what we ought to have suffered, and he must die. And
when we consider who died, why He died for our sins, it causes
sorrow. They will mourn when they look
on Him whom they've perished. It causes sorrow, but I'm glad
He died. I'm glad He died. I'm glad He died for sinners.
But look what it took. Look what it took to save me. His sorrows. His grief. his suffering, his death. But he said, I'll be back in
three days. I'll be back in three days. I'll
rise again. I'll be raised from the dead.
You see, it took more than rebuking the devil to save me or to save
anyone whom the Lord saves. It's more than rebuking the devil.
It's more than rebuking sin. It's more than, listen, he can
rebuke the devil and tell him to leave. He cannot rebuke the
law and tell him to let it go. No, he's got to satisfy it. He's
got to satisfy the law in order for the law to release me. He
has to go and die. His death is the central theme
of this whole book. Christ and Him crucified. But
here's the good news of it. There's good news at the end
of this story, end of this truth. He's risen. We are gathered here
this morning to serve and to worship our risen Lord, who is
seated at God's right hand. He's risen, and we rejoice. We do rejoice that He's risen.
Death hath no more dominion over Him. Therefore, it has no dominion
over us. Father said, Lord, I believe. I believe the gospel. I believe you. Help my unbelief. Help me to overcome this unbelief
that's still in me. Help me.