Turn with me now to Mark chapter
9. I wanted to read both accounts
to you this morning. The one in Mark 9 verses 14 through
29 are just a little different from Matthew's account. In Mark's
account, the disciples were being questioned by the scribes as
to why they couldn't cast out the demon. And they were making
light of the disciples before the followers of Christ, taking
advantage of the situation, so to speak. And also in Mark's
gospel, in Matthews, he talked about the boy falling in the
fire and falling in the water. In Mark's gospel, he said, the
man said to him, to the Lord, he said, he cast himself into
the water and into the fire to destroy him. So we've gotta,
they're both saying the same thing because that's how Satan
works, isn't it? He works in you and you don't
even know it. Somebody seeing you would have
said, well, he just fell in the fire. Yeah, but there was a power behind
it. My subject this morning is the
possibilities of faith. I want to say this at the outset,
that as I talk about the possibilities of faith, I'm not putting in
any way a question mark upon the sufficiency of that redemption
accomplished by our Lord. nor implying in any way that
apart from faith that his life and death is of none effect. So don't go thinking that. If
the whole world should perish in unbelief, it would not diminish
the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice. That's foolishness when a man
said God done all he can do and now it's all up to you. That's
foolishness. That sacrifice is as sufficient
whether you believe or whether you don't. The scripture said
he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. He did that before we were born. And being put into an eternal
union with Christ, we're said to be risen with him and seated
together with him in the heavens. in full possession of our inheritance
and our representative. And I don't want you to think
this. I don't want you to think when I'm talking about the possibilities
of faith, I'm talking about some possibility of changing God's
mind. That's foolishness, too. God
said, I'm the Lord. Now listen, I change not. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
Well, don't you reckon if this circumstance arose that he might
change? No. No. Fact is, he ordained a circumstance. But he doesn't change. James
said, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from
above. It comes down from the Father
of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's
not going to turn. Not going to turn. I don't want
you to think as I talk about the possibilities of faith that
I'm talking about some change in God, some possibility that
God will change His mind. And I don't want you to think
that I'm talking about some kind of unsettled future as to do
with the purpose of God. God's purpose, He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. I talked to you this morning
about these possibilities of faith. I'm strictly talking about
such things through the eyes of a seeking sinner. That's how
our Lord spoke to this man. He was a seeking sinner. Boy,
he was. And he talked to him in his own
experience. He talked to him through his
own eyes. He talked to him on his level. I think we don't do that a lot
of the time. But this is what's going on in
this particular place. Mark 9 and verse 23 especially, but
you can read through the whole account. So I've got two or three things
I want to tell you about this account, and we'll go through
it as I go. But here's the first thing I
want you to see. Apart from faith, there's no
possibility of salvation whatsoever. So when we're talking about possibilities
and people running around here and there and everywhere else,
there's no possibility apart from Christ of salvation at all. Apart from faith, there's no
possibility. Well, whatever will be, will
be. You go ahead and believe in that. But I'm telling you
what our Lord said. He said it through his own apostle,
he said, without faith it's impossible, impossible to please God. Without faith. Every man, woman, boy and girl
born in Adam's race is born with a nature of sin. And Paul gives
us a very good and general outline of mankind over in Ephesians
chapter 2. in trespasses and sins. Walking
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air. Don't take comfort in that, well,
all my friends think the same way I do. Well, you all spend
eternity in hell together. Don't take no comfort in the
fact that all of your friends believe the same way you do.
The fact is, On every monumental occasion in the scripture, the
multitude was always wrong. The multitude opposed themselves
against Moses, didn't they? God opened up the earth and swallowed
up his enemy. They came up to the promised
land. The multitude didn't want to go in, just a handful. And you can go on and on and
on. Multitudes always add to the cross. The multitude. Crucify
Him! Crucify Him! I don't take no comfort in that. We walk according to the course
of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air,
the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
He said we live our lives in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of our flesh, whatever our flesh craves, that's what
we work for, it's what we labor for. And are by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Men and women have a mind, Russell,
but their mind is enmity against God. It's a carnal mind. They
have an understanding and they have a will, but the will is
a will not. It's I will not come to you.
You will not come to me that you might have life. That's what
our Lord said. And men and women have an understanding,
but their understanding is dark and being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that's in them. Having their ability stripped
by a fallen nature, the natural man receiveth not. He receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Isn't that something?
He'll receive anything. Tell him to speak in tongues.
He'll do it. He won't quit until he does. Tell him he has to come down
an aisle. Might take a while, but he'll come down the aisle. All you did was change locations.
A little bit of difference in geography, wasn't nothing happening
in the heart. Being stripped of all his ability
by a fallen nature, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, but their foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, for
they are spiritually discerned. You know, a man looks at a gospel
preacher and he listens to him preach for a little bit and he
says, that's foolishness. But he'll bend down on his knees
and kiss a man with an Easter egg on his hat and kiss his ring.
That's not foolishness. Huh? Why would he do such a thing? Because he's stripped of all
his natural abilities by a fallen nature. Paul said, we know that the law
is spiritual. The law demands love. Very first commandment, love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And love your neighbor as yourself. And the rest of this law, he
said, hangs on this. Don't come down here and say,
I paid my tithes. Did you pay them because you
love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? If
you didn't, you broke the law. And in one place, he said, if
you're guilty of these, you're guilty of the whole law. You failed altogether. Paul said, we know that the law
is spiritual, but we're carnal, sold unto sin. And when I would
do good, evil's present, and I can't do the good that I would. It says in Romans chapter 8,
he said to be carnally minded is death because the carnal mind
is enmity against God and it's not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So apart from faith, there's
no possibility of reconciliation because of the depravity of our
nature. And then secondly, there's no
possibility of salvation apart from faith because God so ordained
it and purposed it to be through faith. Now, I'm going to tell
you something. If God says, by grace are you
saved through faith, that's how you're going to be saved if you're
saved. But men like to invent something else. They want to
add a feeling to it. They want to add experience to
it. They want to add some walking to it. They want to add some
bowing to it. We're going to crawl on glass, and we're going
to do this, and we're going to do that. We're going to put it
in the wine and put it in the bread. You ain't going to put
it anywhere. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. That's how you're going to be
saved if you're saved. You see what I'm saying? Apart
from faith, there are no possibilities. Just forget it. It's not going
to happen. There's no possibility of salvation. God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. When did He do that? From the beginning. You reckon
it's going to be that way? I guarantee it's going to be
that way. And then thirdly, because salvation is not by works of
righteousness which we've done, but by His sovereign immutable
grace. Grace. Boy, men hate that word,
don't they, when they find out what it means. Grace. The man hadn't had nothing to
do with it. He didn't have anything to do with it. You wasn't there
when he wrote your name in the book of life. You hadn't done
it. God said, I'll tell you how I'm
going to teach you election. He said, here's how I'm going
to do it. Before these two boys was ever
born, and before they ever did any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, he said, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved and Esau have I hated. When did he do that? From the
beginning. From the beginning. So let this be established, apart
from faith, there's no possibility of salvation. It is a faith,
Paul said, that it might be by grace to this end that the promise
might be sure to all the seed. That's Romans chapter four, verse
16. Now, I want you to listen to
me for just a minute. I know that there are men and women
out there with great potential. great potential. I have a son
who has a great ability or capacity to learn things. He graduated from the University
of Kentucky with a perfect 4.0 average. He was recognized in
high school, who's who. He was invited to Washington
to appear there with Schwarzkopf, a special thing for high school
students. He has a great capacity to learn and to know things. And he has. He's studied and
he's learned things. Politics, computers, math, science,
so on. He can talk with the best of
them. Spent time over in Cambridge University over in England while
he was over there. and helping them with their computers
and things. Great potential. There's people
out here like that. But with all his potential, he
has no more ability. And he's just an ignorant beggar
before God. His potential doesn't do anything
for him. There was a rich young ruler.
This was a successful man, a rich man. He was loved in society. He was a moral man. He had all
the potential a man could hope for. And the disciples brought
him to Christ and Christ sent him away with his head bowed.
And they looked at each other and they said, who then can be
saved? You know what the Lord said? He said, with man, it is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. All things are possible. And
then fourthly, Paul tells us in Hebrews 11, 6, that without
faith, it's impossible to please God. You can please me. You can fool me. I'm easily fooled. You can please
your wife and husband, you can please your boss, but without
faith, it's impossible to please God. So here's the first thing
we need to know, that apart from faith, there's no possibility
of salvation. If thou canst believe, isn't
that what the Lord told this man? If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth. Here's the second thing I want
you to see in this account. preserved for us over here in
scripture, is that the one true object of faith is Jesus Christ
the Lord. Paul said, through this man,
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
Through him. Take him out of the picture.
I don't care what you got or what you say. There's no possibility
of salvation. And God uses means, I know that.
Please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Paul said to the Corinthians, who is Paul? Who is a Paulist
but ministers by whom you believed even as the Lord gave to every
man. And God who chose a people in
his son also ordained a means whereby they shall believe. But
here in our text, the boy's faith brought his son, this man brought
his son to the disciples But they couldn't directly do anything
for him. Now, don't you listen to me.
People bring their sons and daughters in here. And they leave here that morning,
and they say, well, that can't be nothing to him. He didn't
do anything for them. He didn't change them one bit.
No, and he can't. He can't. any more than these
disciples could. But let me tell you what preaching
is in its purest form. It's bringing them to Christ. God didn't allow them to cast
out those demons. They had special gifts given
to them of God, special gifts of the Spirit. They could discern
things, they could heal the sick, raise the dead, they could do
all kinds of things. But they couldn't do anything on that
day because He wanted them to learn that it wasn't in them,
it was in Him. And He teaches me that every
so often. He reminds me of that every so
often. He spoke to Christ's ambassadors,
and the ambassadors couldn't do anything. So they brought
him to Christ. And I tell you, I get disappointed
from time to time when I preach what I know in my heart is a
God-honoring, Christ-exalting message, and it seems to have
no effect whatsoever on anybody. Huh? I get so disappointed. But you know what happens when
this happens? We bring them to Christ. I'm reminded again and again
that that power is not in my hands. It's mine to teach as
clearly as I can teach. It's mine to set before you the
truth, but it's His to cast out the demons. It's His to give
life. It's not mine. Preachers are
not the Savior. They represent him in this world,
they bear his name before this world, and they preach his gospel,
which we know is the power of God unto salvation. But our sufficiency,
Paul said, is of God. That's our sufficiency. We've
got no power except it be given us to do anything. I've stood in this pulpit from
time to time, and still do, in awe of the hardness of man's
heart. I may preach until I'm shaking
and with tears running down my cheeks and I look and I might
as well be talking about how they make bubble go. Just rolls
off their back like water off a duck's back. And I stand in
awe of the hardness of man's heart. But I'll tell you something. I know this, I know this is so
by my own experience if I could bring them to Christ. Now we'll
see what can and can't be done. I was talking to Paul Mahan this
past week and here's what we both agreed on. God uses preachers
in spite of themselves. That's what he was doing on this
day. All faithless, perverse generation. In spite of them. And another thing I see taught
here, we can bring even an unwilling man or woman to Christ by prayer. Bring them to Christ by prayer.
Bring them to Him. I can plead as this man did for
his son. I can lay out his case before
the Lord and ask for mercy for him. You remember now, this boy
is demon possessed. We like to think about sinners
of themselves seeking the Lord. Scripture said there's none that
seeketh after God. The only way you're ever going
to seek after God is for His Spirit to come within you and
cause you to seek after the Lord. Or arrange His providence in
such a way as to bring you. This man wasn't willing to come.
His father drug him. He drug him in there. Here's
this boy over here and he's wallowing and foaming and throwing himself
on the ground. The man didn't know how to plead
for his son. He said, my son's a lunatic.
Boy, that was me. Huh? Yeah. That's me. He was brought there. I get the idea listening to modern
day preachers that sinners out there by the thousands seeking
the Lord. No, they're not. So what have we learned so far?
Well, we've learned that apart from faith, there's no possibility
of salvation. None whatsoever. And we've learned
that the one true and effectual object of faith is the Lord Jesus
Christ. If anything's going to be done,
we're going to have to get to Him. We're going to have to get
to Him. I tell you, I'd sit and listen
to a preacher for a little while, but if he don't start telling
me something about Christ, I'm out the door. I'm not going to
waste my time. All right, here's the third thing
I want you to see in these verses here in Mark chapter 9. I want
you to see where the if belongs. Where the if belongs. This man
brought his son to the Lord's disciples. And he looked to them
to be able to do something for him. But nothing happened. His son kept right on foaming
at the mouth and going through all of what he was doing. And I can only imagine how frustrated
he was as the scribes began to take advantage of the situation
and put a question mark on the person of Christ and his gospel
ministers and his followers. They wasn't questioning his disciples
for information. They were trying to expose them
as frauds. And here he stood with his son,
who was a basket case and a handful of preachers trying to figure
out why this boy was so different than everybody else they preached
to. And the scribes came over and began to rub it in. And just
about the time he was ready to throw in the towel, the Lord
came on the scene. And the disciples said, let's
go to him. So this man, in one last desperate act to find a
cure for his son, brought him to the Savior. And as they approached
the Lord, the demonic spirit tear him and he fell on the ground
and he wallowed, foaming at the mouth. And the Lord said, how
long is it that he's been like this? All his life. You discovered
that yet? How long you been like that?
All your life. From the time you was a... We
go astray as soon as we be born speaking lies. All our lives. We lunatics just like this boy
here. Now this is the Lord of Glory.
He didn't ask questions for information. He didn't ask questions to fill
in the blanks. He knows all things. He asked
questions so you can fill in the blanks. He wants to hear
you say it. And the picture here is the sinner who walks according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. That's what's being pictured
here. And this possession is from a child. All his young life,
he's been this way. And oftentimes, it casts him
into the fire. Fire represents judgment and
death. The fire of passion and lust
and the fires of anger and vengeance and jealousy, all times it casts
you into the fire, don't it? And other times it casts you
into the waters to destroy you. Some of the other versions of
the Bible, it's translated as being thrown off a cliff. He
didn't trip and fall in a creek, get wet. He's talking about throwing
himself off of a precipice down into the deep. It meant to destroy
him. To destroy him. And in desperation,
he looks up at the Savior, and as he looks, he looked to the
Savior exactly the same way he looked to the disciples. And
there's this desperate man, and he's down on his knees, Matthew
said. And he's looking up at the Lord
and he said, if you can do anything. This is the Lord of glory. If
you can do anything. He's already done everything.
What hasn't he done? He created the world. In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. All things were created by Him
and for Him and by Him all things have a continuance. What hasn't
He done? In Hebrews chapter 1 it said
when He came into this world He was the brightness of the
Father's glory and expressed the image of His person and by
Himself purged us from our sins. If you can do anything, my soul,
he's done everything, he's God. He left the throne of glory and
condescended to become a man. And as a man, he kept God's law
perfectly without flaw. And then as I represented him,
he went to the cross and bore our sins in his own body on the
tree. made seeing for us who knew no
fear that we might be made the righteousness of god if they
are can't yes my soul no wonder the lord covered his eyes and
said all right and then the lord looked at him and he said let
me tell you something if you could believe Let's put the if where it belongs.
If thou canst believe. If your faith, he said, was as
of a grain of mustard, you can't even hardly see a seed of a mustard
plant. If your faith was that big, you
could say to the Rocky Mountains, get out of my way, and that mountain
would move. Oh, I tell you, I'm not trying
to run this man down because this man represents every last
one of us. We're so pitiful. Oh, what am
I going to do? What do you mean, what are you
going to do? You're going to go to him who can do anything.
What can't he do? We're pitiful. That's why we
don't pray, because we don't believe. That's why Satan gets
the upper hand all the time. He said, I'll tell you why he
couldn't cast him out. It's your own belief. That's why. The omnipotent God gave you the power
to cast out demons. And you went out there and tried
to cast them out on your own. That's what we preachers do all
the time. We try. We try. And God reminds us that
it's not in our hands. It's in him who can do anything.
He's the creator of the universe. We have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Who's the firstborn of all
creation? How pitiful we must sound when
we come before God with so little confidence, so little recognition,
so little awe and wonder. The very purpose and predestination
of God's saints has been trusted into His hands. And he sits now
at the right hand of God working all things after the counsel
of his own will. Paul said, you have now received
an inheritance being predestinated according to him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Who worked that
out? The Lord sitting on the throne. Worked every ounce of
providence, every ounce in you, Preparations of the heart and
the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. He did it all, if thou
canst do anything. Am I driving that point home?
This whole message is about this. He can do everything. Problem
is, we don't believe it. We don't believe it. With man
it's impossible, but with God all things are possible. Is there
any possibility that the reigning spirit within us can be overcome? Is there any possibility of it? Well, there is, whether you know
it or not, a strongman arm that rules over these fleshly houses
we call bodies. And his rule is so powerful,
so strong, that his goods are said to be at peace. He's fortified
his house and made it into a walled palace, a stronghold, a refuge. Man's affections and man's understanding
and man's will is held there and it's kept there under the
strong man's power. There's no possibility of you
ever escaping and no possibility of any man to overcome him. But
in Luke 11, 22, our Lord said, but when the stronger than he,
shall come upon him. He's going to take away all his
armor wherein he trusted, and he's going to take away all his
foals. They're going to be his. What's
that mean, preacher? Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what that means. And all
my sins. My sins, David said, are ever
before me. God cast him behind his back.
He buried him in the uttermost depths of the sea. But they still
before me. My sins, he said, are ever before
me. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The soul that sinners shall surely
die. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul
said, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Are you
listening? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. He put away my sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. He died the just for the unjust
that He might bring us to God. And is there any possibility
that a sinner such as we are could ever have a righteousness
approved of God? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. My friend, all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And our Lord looked upon
this frustrated man with his pitiful words, and he said, if
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And the man looked up to a tear-stained, frustrated face, and he said,
Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Now, I wonder this morning if
somebody in here is not in that same shape. Not in that same
shape. You see all your inabilities
and you see all of these things. Can you pray that prayer to Him?
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Because that's what
faith is. That's what faith is. There are
no such things as perfect faith. Just faith. And we're filled,
every one of us, filled with unbelief. And I'm going to tell you something
else. You don't need perfect faith when you have a perfect
Lord and Savior. He said, Lord, I believe. And
I'm full of unbelief. Help thou my unbelief. The Lord
cast that demon out and sent him home. Home. Huh? Can you do that? Can you do that? That's what faith is.