Our lesson this morning is in
Matthew chapter 17. We're going to be looking at
verses 14 through 21. And I kind of struggled around
with the title of this lesson, and finally I settled on this,
No Faith, No Power. No faith. No power. Matthew 17. Let's begin reading
here in verse 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 a lunatic. And so were vexed, for oft times
he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought
him to thy disciples." That was according to the Lord's direction. He taught them, anointed them,
and sent them out to preach the gospel. And he tells the Lord,
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 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 not we cast him out? And Jesus said
unto them, Because of your unbelief. These were children of God. God's elect believers. because of your unbelief. For verily 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."
Now, if you'll take time to read all three accounts of this miracle,
in Mark, I think it is, chapter 9, and in Luke, chapter 9, you'll
get a few more facts about what's going on. You'll get a much clearer
picture of what's going on. Having heard the voice of God
on the Mount of Transfiguration, you remember our lesson last
week, and God covered them, shrouded them in a cloud to where they
couldn't see the three men who first appeared on the Mount,
the two of them with the Lord, Moses and Elijah. And then He
spoke to them while He had them in that cloud, and He said, this
is My beloved Son, hear ye Him. And after that, obviously, according
to our text, if you read all three of these texts, I think
Mark gives us the clearest of the three. But our Lord tarried
on the mount, and His disciples came down first before Him. And
this man came to the disciples and told them about his son. They were approached by this
desperate man seeking help for this boy who was possessed by
a devil. And they were commanded and gifted
to do these things. This was of the Lord. They were
sent out and given power to cast out demons. They come back rejoicing. You remember our text back in
early in Matthew where they came back rejoicing because the devils
were subject unto them? And He said, Rejoice not because
the devils are subject to it. Rejoice because your name is
written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. You rejoice in that. But as they were commanded and
gifted to do these things, they spoke the appropriate words over
the sick, but nothing happened. Nothing happened. Just like they always did, they
said the same words they always said, but nothing happened. There was no change, no visible
change in this boy. And seizing the opportunity,
seeing these things, the scribes began to question what the disciples. I have no doubt that their questions
were all aimed to put them and their master in a bad light.
There's just no doubt in my mind this is exactly what these questions
were for. They wanted to expose them as
frauds because that's what they believed they were. And they
came to them and began questioning the disciples, trying to put a question mark
on their calling and upon their master. Now, if we've got time
this morning, I have six things that I want you to see in this
particular miracle of grace. The first thing I want you to
see here is a blessed and believing Father. You know, we look at
these miracles and sometimes we discount these people who
came and brought these men. We discount them altogether.
And yet, they are recorded there for our knowledge and to teach
us something. And the first thing that I saw
in this thing is a blessed and believing Father. I say this,
blessed is the child, whoever he is, whose father and mother
seek to bring him to the Lord. Blessed. Blessed is that child,
and blessed is that Father that God has given the grace and the
understanding to do it. It's all a gift of God's grace. I tell you this morning, if you're
here and you're a father and you have children that's under
you, there's nothing more important in your life than to see to it
that child is here to hear the gospel. Nothing. I don't care what it is. There's
nothing going on in this world more important than that. See
to it. See to it. This man knew his child's problem. He was a lunatic. He was a lunatic. And this child's problem was
of a spiritual nature. Yes, he manifested these things
physically. in that he acted a certain way,
falling into the fire and falling into this and falling into that.
But he told the Lord in Luke 9, verse 39, he said, A spirit
taketh him. His problem is spiritual. A spirit
taketh him and teareth him and causeth him to cry out. This
boy's problem is spiritual. He wouldn't do this if he was
of a right mind. This young man would off fall
into the fire, he said, and off fall into the water. Now let
me tell you something. When I was a young man, before
I knew the Lord, I fell into everything. Didn't you? I fell
into everything. I fell into the fire. Huh? The fire of lust. I fell into the fire. Off! That's
a good word, oft. All the time. All the time. And I'll tell you something else.
I fell into the water. The waters of religion. The waters
of all these things. The worldliness and vain religion. You know, if the Lord hadn't
snatched old Peter's hand, he would have drowned it in the
deep, wouldn't he? He would have drowned. How aught, how aught
that we fall into the fire. This man's father plucked him
out. He'd fall in, he'd pull him back. He'd fall in, he'd
pull him back. This believing father knew that
his son was beyond anything that he could do or anybody else he
knew. His problem was of such a nature
that he couldn't do anything for that boy except one thing.
Bring him to the Lord. That's all he could do. Bring
him to the Lord. He heard about the Lord. He heard
about his disciples. And he brought his son with him,
hoping to find some help for him. And the disciples spoke
the appropriate words over him. But the troubled son showed no
sign of change. But I'm going to tell you something.
The man didn't quit. He didn't quit. I wonder about myself sometimes,
how many times I've quit and brought my kids to hear the
gospel, and the appropriate words were said, but nothing happened,
and I quit. This man didn't quit. He didn't
quit. He can go away. This man was
persuaded that this was the only place he could take his son and
have any hope of a cure. And suddenly, the Son of Man
came down, and by His Word, that devil was cast out, and that
boy was made whole. This man came seeking the Lord.
He came seeking mercy and taking advantage of the means that God
ordained. He was a blessed and believing
father. And God honored his faith. You
know what the Lord, when He said what He said about faith, the
disciples didn't say anything. They never said a word. This
man, you know what he said? He said, Lord, I believe, help
thou my unbelief. This was the man who said that. And then secondly, let me show
you this experiential knowledge of grace. It is the experience of every
believer that seeks the salvation of the Lord that it requires
more than the voice of a preacher to do you any good. Now, God
is going to use that. That is His ordained means. And
He is going to use these words. But it takes more than His words.
It takes the presence of the Lord Himself. It takes the presence
of the Holy Spirit of God to accompany that Word. Turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. The disciples spoke, but nothing
happened. The Lord Himself spoke, and the
problem was gone. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2
verse 13, Paul said, For this cause also thank we God without
ceasing. Because when you received the
Word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the
Word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe." It didn't work
in everybody, but it works in those who believe. Appropriate
words are not enough. They must be accompanied by the
presence and power of the Holy Ghost. And in believing parents,
when we bring our children to hear the Gospel, let's don't
get discouraged. Let's don't get discouraged.
When they hear a message and you don't see any immediate change,
let's don't get discouraged. Let's not go away. Let's bring
them and continue to call upon Him whose words are life. My
words are spirit in their life. And then pray for me. Lift me
up before the throne of grace and pray that the Lord will give
me a message, that He will lay a message on my heart for His
people for that day, for that time. And then thirdly, let me
call your attention to the influence of Satan here. And this young man's demon possession
is an example of the destructive influence of Satan upon every
mother's son born into this world. 1 Peter 5, verse 8, we are told
to be sober, talking to those who believe, God's people, in
whom He has done a work of grace in your heart. He said, you be
sober. You be sober. This is a spiritual sobriety.
He's not talking here about not being drunk with alcohol. He's
talking about being sober-minded with all that goes on in this
world. Be sober. Be vigilant because
your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. And then listen to this one,
2 Timothy 2, verse 24. He said, the servant of the Lord
must not strive. That word means to argue. He
must not argue. There's no point in it. You don't
accomplish anything. But be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach, and patient. in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. That's who has
to give it, Winston. I can't give it. You can't give
it. You children, your mom and dad can't give it. It has to
come from God. God gives these things. He gives these things. and that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil," now
listen to this, "...who are taken captive at his will." Satan's
influence over our children is mostly, I believe, religious.
That's what I fear the most. If he can get them to buy into
these lying ways, he'll cause them great harm. Great harm. Like this young man, they'll
be torn. Torn away from their loving parents. Torn away from
the means and message of God. Torn away from the church. And
cast down. There is no peace in a false
gospel. No comfort. No hope. Satan does
not care how your life ends. I have seen so many. I had a
little nephew. I won't go into all the details,
but his life ended in absolute misery. Misery. I found him dead
on the beach. The mind of a madman. That's what this man said. My
son has the mind of a madman. He's a lunatic. Solomon said,
the hearts, now listen to this, the hearts of the sons of men
is full of evil. And madness, madness is in their
heart while they live. Madness. It's madness. I'm telling you this morning,
it's madness to ignore the gospel of God's free grace. It's madness. Nobody but a lunatic would do
that. We've got a Bible here that says, forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together. And what do we do? Over anything,
we forsake the assembling of ourselves together. That's madness. It's madness to expect God to
do something for you outside the means that He declared He
gives. But that's what we do. That's what we do. It's madness
to ignore these things that God has given to us, prayer and reading
of the Bible and worship. We ignore those things as though
they meant nothing. We treat them as though they're
commonplace. That's madness. This world, this world. And we
do that as believers. What about this world, this ungodly
world? They live, there's madnesses
in their heart. Madness. Well, I just think. Really? Really? You put that before the declaration
of God. What do you think? Now, I'm telling
you this, there's no hope for them except with the Lord. Fourthly, a fatherless, a faithless,
he said, this is a faithless and perverse generation. Now,
I'm persuaded that our Lord did not speak this word to his disciples,
but to the scribes and that multitude influenced by their presence,
criticizing the Lord, and criticizing his authority, and criticizing
his preachers, all the while in a pretense of religion. And
he calls them a faithless and perverse generation. Now, I look
that word perverse up, and one of its meanings is to practice
sexual perversion. Now, he's not talking here about
that, but he's talking here about spiritual perversion in the same
light. That's what he's talking about.
That's what he calls it. And only in the sense that it
has to do with a spiritual perversion, like in Galatians 1, 7, where
he told them, he said, they have perverted the gospel of Christ. This world of great denominational
influence and power looks upon the remnant of God's elect meeting
in their homes and small buildings, and they mock, and they set their
pastors in a bad light because they see no miracle in their
preaching. They see no God in their preaching.
They see no God in their numbers. They don't see their God in these
things. And then fifthly, let's look
at faith and unbelief. He said the reason why the disciples
could not perform the work was unbelief. Unbelief is the opposite
of faith, isn't it? It's the very opposite of faith.
Faith believes God. We call all kinds of things faith,
but faith is believing God. That's what it is. Faith rests
in the person and accomplished work of Jesus Christ according
to the Word of God. Faith looks for its strength
in the reigning, redeeming Christ according to the Word of God. Now maybe these men were so used
to the devils being subject to them that they spoke in a presumptuous
manner. Maybe they spoke without any
reasoning of the situation. Maybe they spoke simply because
it was expected of them to speak. Maybe they spoke without any
thought in their own heart as to the necessity and glory of
their Lord who must alone do the work. Maybe they just stood
up there and said the words. Maybe that's what happened. It
don't really matter whatever it was. God called it unbelief. Unbelief. A believing soul is
a humble soul who knows without Christ he's nothing and can do
nothing. A faithful soul cries out with
all these desperate fathers who bring their sons to the Lord,
saying, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. And then the last thing I'd have
you to see this morning is the cure for faithless preaching
and practice. The Lord said prayer. and fasting. That's the cure. Prayer and fasting. Prayer is the inner man coming
to the throne of grace, seeking what only the living God can
give him. He needs understanding. He needs
enlightenment. He needs a broken heart. He needs
a contract spirit. He needs the spirit of the living
God to work in him, through him, and by him. He needs the presence
and power of God. He needs a godly sympathy. He
needs patience. He needs wisdom. He's one big
need. And prayer knows it. And prayer
seeks it. He comes empty to be filled. Be filled. It's an empty soul coming to
God to be filled with the fullness of Christ. Prayer is a thankful
heart, giving thanks for all things to the giver. of all grace. And prayer is a reverent heart,
praising God in His glory. And we're to pray with the spirit,
Paul said, and pray with the understanding. And to pray without
ceasing, and in everything give thanks, we're to pray for one
another. I can't find a single letter
Paul wrote where he didn't tell them that he prayed for them.
Constantly prayed for them. And James says, you have not
because you have not. You ask not. And you ask and
receive not because you ask and miss. Prayer, I believe one fellow
said, was the breath of the believer. Those who knew old Saul of Tarsus,
they saw him after God converted him and they said, look, he prays. He prayeth. He's alive. He's alive. And then the second
cure for faithless preaching and practice is fasting. Fasting,
I believe, is symbolic of denying oneself. That's what it is. Some of you have asked me questions
about fasting in the past. Do we fast in our generation? Not in a physical sense, I don't,
but I do in a spiritual sense. I believe it's symbolic of one
denying oneself. We have to deny. If we're going
to do any study at all, you're going to have to deny yourself. Whatever else would fill that
hole, you're going to have to slam the door and say, I'll deal
with it later. Right now is my devotion time. And right now, I'm going to read
the Bible. Right now, I'm going to spend some time with the Lord.
You're going to deny yourself. You are going to have to deny
yourself to be here when the meeting is. Did you know that?
You are going to have to deny yourself because Satan is going
to put everything in the world in the place where you can't
be here. He does with me. I know when
the Lord is giving me a message of some importance, I know it
because everything on earth will go wrong all the way up to the
day I stand to preach that gospel and including that morning. Everything
in the world. There was a passage back in Matthew
chapter 16 that I skipped over that maybe I need to go back
to. Back in verse 24, he said, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself. Huh? Let him deny himself. If you're going to come after
him, you don't come any other way. That's what he told those people.
If any man comes after me, comes to me for life, and comes to
me for faith, and comes to me for forgiveness, comes to me
to worship God, comes to me for understanding, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
will lose it. And whosoever will lose his life
for my sake will find it. Faith doesn't call for a treaty
with God. It calls for unconditional surrender. Bow down. Put your guns up. And not just in doctrine, not
just in word, but in soul and spirit. True saving faith consists
of three things. First of all, it consists of
knowledge. You can't believe what you don't
know. Well, I just believe. What do you believe? What do
you believe? You can't believe what you don't
know. He tells you that in Romans chapter 10. How are you going
to call on Him in whom you have not believed? You don't know
who you're calling on. I spent years doing that. Calling on
Him I didn't know. Calling on a God I didn't know.
and expecting to hear from him. How are you going to call on
him in whom you have not believed? And then secondly, there's persuasion
involved in this thing. Abraham's faith, described in
Romans chapter 4, said he was fully persuaded that what God
promised he was able also to perform. There's a persuasion.
Man ain't going to commit everything he's got into the hands of Christ
until he's persuaded that this Christ can keep what he commits
to Him. And that's the third thing. Commitment.
Commitment. Comes a time when a man or a
woman commits their souls, their lives, and all that they possess
to the Lord. Listen to this, and I'll close.
2 Timothy 1.12. Paul said, I'm not ashamed. For
I know, there's the first thing, I know whom I have believed. Knowledge. And I'm persuaded,
godly persuasion, that he is able to keep that
which I've committed, there's the third thing, unto him against
that day. He can keep it. It's what it
means to fast. It means to deny yourself and
take up your cross. Follow Him. He said, here's why
you couldn't do this. Prayer and fasting. That's the
only way this kind goes out. That's the only way it comes.
There's no shortcut. I can't run in my study and grab
a volume of Spurgeon and turn to page 386 and copy down an
outline and come here and preach and expect God to do something.
He ain't going to do anything. that bore you to tears. He has
to lay a message on my heart. I have a wonderful message all
planned out for you this morning out of the book of Genesis. Maybe
the Lord will allow me to preach it someday. But I tell you, at
9 o'clock last night, He gave me the message for this morning.
And I had to throw it away. I had to lay it aside. And He
moved that message from Genesis to Galatians. And we'll see if
that was of God or of me. We'll find out.