Matthew 17, 14. And when they were come to the
multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to
him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic
and sore vexed. For oft times he falleth into
the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? 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. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said
unto them, because of your unbelief, for barely I say unto you, if
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto
this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove,
and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit, this kind
goeth not out. but by prayer and fasting. I want to speak to you this morning
on this subject, faith, prayer, and fasting. The Book of Mark
and the Book of Luke also give accounts of this same event that
we just read of, Mark 19, 14 through 29, if you want to look
at it later, and Luke 9, 37 through 45. And all three of these accounts
reveal things that the others do not. The Lord was coming down
out of that mountain where he was transfigured before Peter,
James, and John, and they were met with a multitude, and among
them were others of his disciples, and they were confronted with
this situation. And I want to show you something
right up front that I think will help us understand the message
of this passage of scripture. Turn to Luke 9, and we'll look
at just a small portion of the account there. Now remember what
our Lord where they'd just come from. They came from the Mount
of Transfiguration, as we call it, where Moses and Elijah were
seen to be speaking with the Lord Jesus Christ. And what they
spoke of was the death that our Lord Jesus should accomplish. The death that he should accomplish.
And as Peter was talking what he was talking, Scripture says
he didn't know what he was talking about. As he was yet speaking,
God spoke and said, this is my son, hear him. They were talking
about the death he should accomplish. His entire book, as we saw Moses
and the prophets all through, wrote of the death that our Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished, what Christ accomplished for sinners.
And God said, this is my son, hear him. What did he speak of? The death that he should accomplish.
He said, I came into this world to seek and to save my own, to
be delivered into the hands of wicked men, to be crucified and
to be raised again. And then in Luke 9, look at verse
42. After this event that we just read about
took place, Luke 9 42 and as he was yet a coming 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 and they
were all amazed at the mighty power of God but while they wondered
everyone and all these things which Jesus did he said unto
his disciples I remember what he had been talking about before
what him and Moses and Elijah were talking about. And what
he had said in the context just prior to that, he said, I must,
I must, the son of man must. And Peter said, oh no. But the
Lord said, I must. And they talked about it on the
mount. And after all of this happened, he said to them, he
said to his disciples, let these sayings sink down into your ears. If the Lord of Glory said that
to you, would that impress you to maybe listen up? And the word sayings there is
logos. Let these words sink down into
your ears. And John Gill rightly points
out that he's talking about what he's about to say. not all of
the things that have been said before. He talked about what
he's fixing to say. And here's what he said, you
let these words sink down into your ears for the son of man
shall be delivered into the hands of men. Don't be distracted and
confused or think anything else about what just happened or what's
ever happened except this, Christ crucified. Everything pictures
that everything sets forth him and his precious blood He's talking about what he Has
been talking about and what he's gonna talk about and what he's
gonna go do But do you understand what he means now when he says
let these words? sink down He said now the Son
of God said before here's what's got to happen and Peter said
oh no I don't think they sunk very far in that case, do you? And Peter, just like us, Peter's
better than us. Let these words sink down into
your ears. Have you ever told your children
something like, for example, I can think of times when I've
told them, you know, they've come and asked me, can I go play
at so-and-so's house? And I'll say, yeah, but listen
to me. And they're already running to
get their shoes on. And I say, hold on a second,
you've got to catch them by the arm, don't you? Because as soon
as you said yes, that's all they're thinking about is going and playing.
But you've got something important you need to say to them. And
you say, yes, but listen to me, and they're not listening to
you. They're running off, so you've got to catch them by the arm. And you
say, now listen to me, this is important. You don't go in the
woods. You can go over there and play, but you are not going
in the woods. But you see, we tend to get excited or distracted
and have our own little thought process going on and not listen
to what's being taught, what's being said. And the Lord's got
to get our attention. And that's what he's doing. He
said, let these words sink down now. What just happened wasn't
just a magic show or a spectacle to excite the flesh. This was sort of a chaotic scene.
There was a multitude around. Some of the enemies of our Lord
were there too, as you'll see if you read the other accounts.
And there's this little boy who is a horrible victim, and no
doubt gruesome, gruesome to look at. His daddy said that this
devil, sometimes it throws him in the fire. Sometimes it throws
him in the water. And as our Lord yet approached
him, It tore him. I don't even know what that what
that was. I bet it was hideous. Don't you
imagine? And the Lord Jesus performs a
great miracle here to show something but sometimes the miracle itself
can be a distraction. And that's why he took hold of
him. He said you let this sink into your ears. This is about
what I'm doing and what I'm about to do. That's what this is about. If the miracle is not understood
for the teaching of it, the purpose of it, it can be a distraction. Many sought the Lord because
of the result of the miracle there in John chapter 6, but
missed the point of the miracle. He said, you followed me because
you were filled, and not because you saw the power of the Son
of God. He said, what you need to do
is not seek the bread that's of this world. But seek that
bread that only I can give you, just like I can make bread from
nothing and feed you. I can give you bread that if
you'll eat of it, you'll never be hungry again. That's the bread
you're to seek after. So in order that his own disciples
didn't miss the point of this miracle, he says to them, let
this sink in now. What was so important that he
had to make sure that they understood? Well, Just what he had told Peter
before, and all the disciples. It's the same thing. The Son
of Man must be delivered, must suffer many things at the hands
of the religious authorities, those who are supposed to be
worshippers of God. And he must die. The Son of Man
must die and be raised again. That's what this is all about.
And Peter said, be this far from thee, Lord, And there they were
talking about the same thing. He was talking with his face
shining brighter than the noonday sun and his garment white and
glistering, the scripture says. And he's standing there talking
with Moses and Elijah in their glory, in Christ's glory, glorified
with the glory that we have in him. And they're talking about
the same thing, what he's about to go to accomplish for his people.
And Peter didn't hear it then either. He said, let's build
some tabernacles. And God said, you hear him. Let
this sink down into your ears. This is not about you and you
building something. This is about my son and what
he came to accomplish. The very same thing that Paul
said is the very sum and substance of our gospel message. We preach
Christ crucified. the Son of Man shall be delivered
into the hands of men. And this is the point, the entire
message taught by every type and picture in the Old Testament
and by every miracle performed in the new. The Son of Man must
be delivered into the hands of wicked men and suffer many things
and be killed and be raised again the third day. Why? Because you
and I are victims of Satan and he's tearing us up. The miracle
that is bracketed by this message is itself the declaration of
the message. You see that? Thank God that
we're able to see a little bit of that. Why must this happen
to him? Because look at us. Look what
we are. We're demon-possessed victims. And when I say victims now, I
don't mean innocent victims. I don't mean that Satan is to
blame for our sin. We're willing victims of Satan.
Satan didn't force Adam to eat that fruit in the garden, defying
the authority and glory of God. He just made the suggestion and
we bit because Satan has something in us. And he plunged an entire
race into sin and depravity by that act. of willful rebellion
against God. That's our situation. We're willing
victims, but we're all, in this young man's case, spiritually,
by nature, horrible and pathetic and helpless. Paul said to Timothy,
now you instruct those that are their own worst enemies and do
it with meekness. And as you do, God might give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover
themselves. God may just give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him
at his will. He'll throw you in the fire.
He'll throw you in the water. And his daddy said, oft times,
oft times he's thrown. How oft? Paul said, in time past
you walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that right now is
working in the children of disobedience. They're running around talking
about their free will and their pawns of Satan who works in them
to disobey God. Paul said, in another place,
it's God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his
good service, his good works, his good will. No, but the spirit
of disobedience worked in us before. Paul said, you walked
that way before. Among whom also we all had our
conversation, our conduct in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
and we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That word disobedience, he said
that the spirit of the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit of Satan works in the children of disobedience. That
word disobedience means obstinacy, rebellious pride. It's rejection
and unbelief of the truth in the face of clear revelation. This book's not complicated.
It's not hard to understand how a sinner is saved. And those
who reject the truth are willfully proud and rebellious. And they're shaking their fist
in God's face. And Paul just said right there in Ephesians
2-2 that what that is is Satan working in you. You're demon-possessed,
just like that little boy. And it's a horrible thing to
see, isn't it? Proud, obstinate unbelief. That's why the Lord
said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Why did the Lord say
that? Because the Lord had just told
Peter what must happen and what the scriptures clearly revealed
must happen. And Peter, because he was selfish
like us and thinking about the things of himself and not the
things of God, as our Lord pointed out to him, And the word of God
didn't fit in with his idea of how things should be. And so
he said, no, get thee behind me, Satan. Whenever and wherever the gospel
is preached and heard and sinners willfully and rebelliously, deliberately
reject. I preached at Tommy Robbins funeral
and there were those who were openly disgusted to hear the
word of God, just openly. What they wanted was to hear
me brag on Tommy. He had asked me there specifically
because I wouldn't do that. That's what he told me. What
a privilege it was to exalt, I pray, the Lord Jesus, Tommy's
Savior. I had to use that as an example
because it's so delightful to preach to you and to see on your
face that you love the gospel. I don't see that much, but I
saw it there. I saw it clearly there. And it's
ugly and hideous and disgusting and vile. We think because of
Hollywood that a person has to have a green tint about their
face and the whites of their eyes have to be yellow and they
have to have great open wounds on their face and black liquid
drooling out of their mouth to be deemed possessed. Because
that's disgusting and horrible to us, but what's disgusting
and horrible to God is something else. You know what's disgusting
to God? Listen to it. Proverbs 6, 16.
These six things doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination
unto him. You know, I looked up that word
abomination. You know what that means? It's disgusting to him. A proud look. I've seen that
look. I've seen it in the mirror. Have
you? A proud look. That's the evidence of demon
possession is what that is. A lying tongue. Oh, God help
me to tell the truth. Tell the truth. That's not talking
about telling your mama I didn't get a cookie out of the jar when
there's crumbs on your face. Oh, that's a lie too. Oh, but
when it comes to the things of God. Has he broken my proud heart
to the point where I'll bow and submit to his truth and abandon
everything I know by nature and everything I love? Hands that
shed innocent blood. Murder is the most horrible of
physical crimes, surely. What about the murder of souls?
What about the innocent blood? You got any of that on your hands?
There's just one innocent blood. and our hands are covered with
it by nature, that God's disgusted by us. This is the condemnation,
that His light is coming to this world. And we loved ourselves
in the darkness and hated the light. And we spit on Him and
nailed Him to a cross and laughed while He bled. A heart that deviseth
wicked imaginations, A feet that be swift in running
to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he, and
this is interesting, he that soweth discord among brethren. It's clearly precious to our
Lord that His people love one another and have unity in Him. Now the casting out of these
devils was something that the Lord had given these disciples
of His power to do. It was an act of faith. He said
it was because of their unbelief that they weren't able to do
it. He had given them power now to cast out devils by faith.
I was going to have you turn, but listen to Luke 10 and 17.
I don't want to go too long this morning, but jot it down if you'd
like to look at it later. The 70 returned again with joy. Now these are not just the 12.
These are 70 disciples that the Lord had given the gifts of the
Spirit. And we know why he gave them.
And we'll see that again briefly in a minute. But they returned
to the Lord, the 70, returned to him with joy, saying, Lord,
even the devils are subject unto us. Through thy name, the Lord
God honorable mention. But they're subject unto us.
And he said unto them, this is interesting. This is such an
interesting passage. He said unto them, I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven. You casting devils out of people,
I cast him out of heaven. I know what you're talking about.
Behold, I give unto you power. I've given you power to tread
on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.
Satan is a lot more powerful than you are, but I've given
you power over him in this. That's exactly right. And nothing
shall by any means hurt you, notwithstanding. That's true. But don't rejoice in that. Don't
glory in that. Don't glory in these gifts. Rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice.
There's something worth rejoicing about. You know what it is? God's
eternal grace in Christ. Rejoice because your names are
written in heaven. Because of the precious blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the book of the lamb he's
talking about. The lamb that was slain. Because
God loved you. A demon-possessed, hideous, disgusting,
vile wretch. But you were his. Your name is
written in his book rejoice in the electing love and grace of
god toward you don't rejoice in the means Thank god for them.
He said i've given you power. Thank god for that But rejoice
in the one who purposed all this and accomplished it by his power
and his grace Sinners are saved through the use of means But
salvation is god writing your name down in his book Choosing
you he didn't write everybody's name down. He wrote your name
down Because he loved you because of the redeeming blood of the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world He wrote your name
down in the Lamb's Book of Life That's what we rejoice in not
the means but him and his finished work His grace and the result
of his power We rejoice that he wrote us down and why he did
it and how he was able to do it In other words, as Paul said
in Philippians 3.3, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. So these disciples,
they had power to cast out devils, but because of their unbelief,
they could not. This is an important lesson for
us who are involved in the ministry of Christ. Not my ministry, not
our ministry, His ministry. We're included in it. You and
I are involved in the casting out of demons. Did you know that? Spiritually, by the power of
God, by the preaching of the gospel. He sent these disciples
out with these instructions. Listen to it, Matthew 10, 7.
We've already studied it. V 70, he sent them this way.
He said, as you go, preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
What's the first thing? As you go, preach. Preach the
kingdom of heaven. heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils as you're preaching. As part
of the ministry of the preaching, freely you have received, freely
give. We know that the ability to do
these miracles was a means by which the gospel was confirmed. It was confirmed. They knew that
God and an audience is gained by these things. Peter and John
in the book of Acts, who would have listened to them if they
hadn't healed that lame man? But they did by the power of
Christ, I say they did. He said, silver and gold have
I none, but what I have I'll give you in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk and next thing
you know, there's thousands of people standing around to hear
the gospel Peter fixing to preach. That's why God gave it. And the
gospel is illustrated in these miracles, as we've already talked
about. Hebrews 2, 3, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord?
Salvation is preached by him and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard him. His disciples, these 70, everybody
that hears Him and is able to say what He said by His grace
and power. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. He bore them witness
by those things. What? Those who preached. It's
the preaching. It's by the preaching that He
saves sinners, not by miracles that can be seen. Also Acts 14
3 long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord which
gave testimony unto the word of his grace Granting signs and
wonders to be done by their hands God gave testimony that this
is my word. They're preaching Because he
displayed his power in these miracles We have then the same
ministry as them What was their ministry the preaching? We don't
have the same powers they do the same confirmation and witness. Because as I said already this
morning, the Word of God is sitting on everybody's coffee table or
stuck in a drawer somewhere. God has given His complete Word. We don't have signs and wonders
now. He said a wicked generation seeks a sign. You've got what
Jonas preached. I'm not giving you another sign.
You've got my Word. They have Moses and the prophets.
So we have the same ministry they did. But we, just as they
did, acknowledge that it is by His power that we do what we
do. Listen to what Peter said in Acts 3, 12. He saw all these
people marveling and looking at them like they were gods or
something. And he said unto them, you 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 made this man walk? We're nothing. The God of Abraham and of Isaac
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son
Jesus, not us, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence
of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied
the Holy One and the 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. His name, He
did it, He hath shed this abroad, but it's through faith. These
miracles were an act of faith. So is salvation, what's pictured
by these miracles. 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. By grace through faith are you
saved. So it is with the preaching of
the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 7, we speak the wisdom of
God in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world
knew, but he revealed them to us. He revealed His mystery,
His wisdom to us. And we received the truth by
faith. We preached by faith. It's heard
and believed by faith. Our Lord said in Matthew 11,
25, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
You've hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them to babies. That's what happens when the
gospel is heard and believed. It's by His power. It's by His
revelation. It's through faith in His name.
Paul said in that verse we quoted a while ago, 2 Timothy 2.25,
that as we teach and instruct, we pray that God, peradventure,
will give those that hear us repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. The acknowledging of the truth,
that word there means to know, perceive, and understand the
truth. That's faith. By faith we know. We know who God is. We know what
we are. We know how God can be just and
justify a sinner. Belief of the truth. Second Thessalonians
2.13, but we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Faith. Faith, prayer, and fasting. Faith. We preach by faith. We hear by faith. We let hold
of Christ by faith. A miracle is wrought by God,
and it's through faith in His name, as Peter said. Just like
that physical miracle, the miracle of His grace is performed that
way in the heart of a sinner through faith. By faith we preach,
by faith sinners believe. Look at the faith of this father
in our text and we'll glance at another account in Mark 9.
We looked at Matthew and Luke. Let's look at just a part of
the account in Mark 9, 21 through 27. Look at the faith of this
father. This is what God does in the
heart now. It's evidenced in his words.
Mark 9, 21. And the Lord asked this boy's
father, how long is it ago since this came unto him, and he said
of 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. Jesus said unto him, if thou
canst believe, can you believe? We know how. If we can, we know
how we can. Christ is the author of our faith.
The fruit of the Spirit is faith, not the fruit of the flesh. It's
not, can you muster up some faith? Can you believe? By God's grace,
can you believe? All things are possible to him
that believeth. Isn't that glorious? And straightway
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord,
I believe. But he knew there was something
lacking. He knew it wasn't about it, that his belief wasn't much.
There wasn't much to it. Help thou mine unbelief. When
Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked
the foul spirit, saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit,
I charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And
the spirit cried and rent him sore and came out of him. And he was as one dead in so
much that many said he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up and he arose. That's when I arose, when he
lifted me up. God has ordained means like he
did for the casting out of devils. He gave them the gift to do that.
But more than means is required if a devil is actually going
to be cast out. you know what's required. Our
Lord told them this, that prayer and fasting are required. What
is that? He said he's not coming out except
by prayer and by fasting. What is prayer? It says in Matthew
17, 14, when they were come to the multitude, there came to
our Lord a certain man, kneeling down to him and saying, Lord,
have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed. For oft times he falleth into
the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples
and they could not cure him. Have you ever known anybody who
openly and sometimes even frighteningly displayed the effects of sin? I know it's a lot easier to see
it in others than it is in ourselves, so we have to be cautious about
that. But I've seen it, and I'm sure you have too. It's almost
frightening to even be around some people, and I know that
that was me. God give us grace to do what
he has told us to do. And at the same time, acknowledge
that what is required. I don't know how it was they
spoke like Peter did, I'm sure in the name of Jesus. Rise up. I'm sure they spoke in his name
in some way or another. Whatever they did, they did.
They did what they had always done and it worked. They came
back reporting to it. The demons are subject to it.
But it didn't happen today. And he said, these come out by
prayer and by fasting. And not just the speaking of
words, but what's required is for the son of God to come and
by his divine will and power, cast that devil out. I don't
have the power to do that, but the Lord said, ask and you'll
receive. I know that. Prayer. What he's
teaching them here is the means are wonderful. The means are
not to be neglected. But if a devil is going to be
cast out, it's going to be by his power. It comes out by prayer. What is prayer? It's resignation
to the fact that we can do nothing without him. We need for him
to come and do something. Lord, cast the devil out. Lord,
teach, grant repentance, open their understanding. Prayer is
required. A dependence upon His power and
will. Lord, if you can't, well, you
can. That's prayer. That's the only
way to pray. Did you know that? To acknowledge
His ability and to ask Him if He will. That's what prayer is. That and thanksgiving and praise
and worship. You reckon these disciples got
a little self-sufficient, maybe? What about you? What about me?
Maybe that's why they couldn't cast him out. Because our Lord
said, it is only gonna happen by prayer. You think when they
said the devils are subject unto us, that maybe they got a little
puffed up about that at times? And thought, look what we can
do, we have power and you don't. Devils aren't cast out that way.
The work of the ministry is not done by us. It's done through
us. It's not done by us. They gave
the Lord, as I said, honorable mention there. We had to use
your name, but the devils are subject unto us. No, they're
not. No, they're not. If we have any
power, he gave it to us. And we're gonna have to pray.
We're gonna have to get on our face before God if anything's gonna
be done. You reckon? You think they got a little self-sufficient
and went around just saying the words and thinking something
was going to happen, and then the Lord one day maybe woke them
up a little bit and said, let this sink down into your ears.
This is not about you and your abilities. This is about me and
what I'm going to accomplish. We get to thinking maybe we have
some capability. How do spiritual demons get cast
out? Prayer. Faith. Prayer. We're depending on Him. We're hanging upon His mercy.
Do we understand that? Do we really get that? If God's
gonna use us, I believe we're gonna have to get that. That
it's Him and not us. And there's another thing required,
fasting. What is that? Maybe you're thinking, you know,
Chris, do you fast? It doesn't much look like it.
Yes, I do. I actually do. Not like I should. I do, and you do, too. You do,
too. If you're in on this ministry,
you do. Fasting in the Old Testament was, at times, done involuntarily,
in times of great sorrow and prayer, like when David's child
was dying. He didn't eat anything. Probably
didn't give much thought to eating, do you reckon? That wasn't, he
said, well, today's fast day. I think, no, that wasn't a voluntary
fast. He was so taken up with sorrow
and with beseeching the Lord for his mercy that he didn't
think about food. And he said he fasted until the
baby died, and they expected him to fast after that. And he
said, why would I fast now? The Lord's already done what
he's gonna do. Before, I fasted because I said, per adventure,
God might have mercy. But the Lord's done what he's
gonna do, and now it's time to worship him. He worshipped. He got dressed and ate and worshipped
God. Prayer and fasting are often
mentioned together in the Word of God because they go together. But what fasting essentially
is, is the denial of self. For whatever reason you're doing
it, it's a denial of self. It was also a Jewish tradition
in the New Testament. It was to stop eating for a certain
time and stop doing other things too. It wasn't just about eating.
but it was as a sign of earnest devotion and attention to prayer.
But in all of its different forms, as it's shown in the Word of
God, it's denial of self. This is, in its true form, a
spiritual denial. You think with me for just a
few minutes more here. It's not just a physical denial
of things. Like with prayer, it's fine to
kneel down, and I think it's often good to do that, to get
on your knees before God, but I'll tell you what's necessary.
bowing in your heart. If your heart's not bowed before
God, you're not praying. Your knees may or may not be
bowed. Listen to what it says in Joel 2.12. Therefore also
now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and
with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your
heart, and not your garments, That was another thing, that
was a sign of repentance and grief and sorrow when they would
rend their garment. He said, don't do that, rend
your heart before me. That's what needs to happen.
And that's true fasting too. It's something that takes place
in the heart. Rend your heart and not your
garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth
him of the evil. rend your heart before him. And
that's what fasting is. It's spiritual denial of self
that manifests itself in physical things. And this is, the context
here is important because the Lord just got through saying
to his disciples, if a man will come after me, let him do what?
Let him fast. Let him deny himself. How are
demons cast out this morning? How is the ministry that they,
that God had given these disciples to do? It included the casting
out of devil, but that was just a picture of the ministry of
the preaching. That was just part of it. That
just accompanied it and illustrated the important truth that the
message is him and what he accomplished. The death that he should accomplish.
He must suffer and die and be raised again. That's clear all
through this. But how is this ministry gonna
be carried out? How are we gonna be successful
in this ministry? By prayer, we're shut up to him. By faith, you got to know him,
you got to love him, to believe on him, to be included at all,
but by prayer, we're shut up to him. We talk about what we
want to see happen and what we're thankful for and all that. Is
it important enough to you to pray about him? I have to ask
myself that. Really pray. Not say our prayers. Pray. We're shut up to God. We're shut up to His mercy. That's
what prayer is about. And fasting. If I'm going to
do what I do, I'm going to have to deny myself. It can't be about
me throughout the week if this ministry is going to be successful. His ministry. Not that it depends
upon us. It's just the way He does it.
He does it through denials of self, through fasting. And I'll
tell you this, if you're gonna be part of this ministry, self
must be denied. It's easier for me, when I look
at myself, I don't see an example of this, I see the need for it.
But I can look at you sometimes and I can see it a little bit
better. Self has been denied a lot for this to happen. That's
the way the Lord accomplishes it. I thank God for it. And it's going to be that way
and it's going to have to continue that way. And there may even
have to be a lot more of it before this is over. Somehow this is
going to end up being about Him, isn't it? And His glory and what
He accomplished. And not what we can do. He must
increase and we're going to have to keep on decreasing. You see
that here? We can't play at it and see God
work in our midst. In our study in Exodus 32, Moses
came down out of that mount and he saw what was going on and
he cast those tables of stone that the Lord had written his
law upon down to the ground and they broke. And then Moses came
and dealt with Aaron and Aaron gave him a little different version
of what happened than what actually happened. And Moses took that
golden calf and he ground it up into powder And he put it
in water, and he made them all drink of it. And you know what
he did after that? It says, he stood in the gate
of the camp, and he said to all the people who is on the Lord's
side, come stand with me. And all of the Levites came and
stood with him. Now, sure, not just them. It
mentions that all of them did. It doesn't say only they did.
But all the Levites came, and he said to them, you go and take
your swords. and kill every man, his brother,
and his neighbor, and his family. And it says 3,000 men were killed
that day. But what impresses me here is
what Moses said there, who is on the Lord's side? Come and
stand with me. And our Lord told His disciples
that day, you let this sink down into your ears. This ministry
is Christ and Him crucified. It's him and what he accomplished.
It's not your ability to do anything. They failed. They failed in the
casting out of this demon and they did it for a reason because
he was teaching them this. You're going to have to get on
your face before me and you're going to have to deny yourself
if this is going to happen. Can we learn that? Can I? By
His grace, learn that. Who's in? That's what Moses said.
Who's in and who's out? That's a good question, isn't
it? I'm asking it myself. Let's bow in prayer.