Turn back in your Bibles to Luke
chapter 9. You can follow me in your pastor's
commentary as well. We will be working through those
points there. We'll be flipping through the
other gospel accounts in relationship to this particular text. Luke gives us an account that
is rendered in Matthew and in Mark. And so have your Bible
ready to go through all three accounts. What's fascinating
about this account is not only what our Lord did but more importantly,
the lessons that must be derived from it. Unless you have been
insufficiently or incorrectly taught about the nature of the
Gospel, the Bible is not a book of incantations or magic tricks
or tentilating stories about the power of God. The Bible is
actually a record and revelation of the will of God, the will
of God. Whenever you read the scriptures
or you see the acts of God in scripture, or you contemplate
the work of God in creation, or you are sensitive to the providence
of God in your life, what you want to ask the Lord is not about
his power, but about his will. What you want to derive from
your experience by the hand of God is not merely an understanding
of his power, but what is God's will to be derived from that
experience? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? The pagan wants to be engaged
in the power of God. It was a wicked man in the book
of Acts chapter eight who thought he could purchase the Holy Ghost.
That's what folks do in false religion today. Try to buy the
spirit of God through tithing and other forms of religious
works. It's not the power of God that
we are after, particularly when we are on the other side of the
cross and in the kingdom of God, that power is at our accessibility. What we are after is the will
of God. What we want to derive from the
text of scripture anytime we are reading it or it being taught
to us or expounded is what is God's will being taught in this
text. And the reason for which the
account is given to us in Luke nine is exactly the same purpose. Now, the title of our message
is this kind comes out. This kind comes out. It's a word
of optimism and hope by our Lord. And it's given to the disciples
in response to a very humble request on their part. The disciples
asked the Lord, how come we couldn't do it? But our master has already declared
that this kind comes out. And it's important for us to
understand that this kind can come out and this kind does come
out and this kind will come out. That's a word of promise. You
heard our elder in his prayer saying sometimes our children
act like lunatics. And we do too. And we know this world is crazy.
And you may not be as crass and as honest with God as you are,
but deep down in your soul, sometimes you're asking the question, can
this kind come out? Will there ever be deliverance
in this area? Is there a door of exiting for
this problem? Can God deal with this issue? Can he bring me out of this trouble? Can he deliver me out of this
circumstance? See, you don't want to be honest,
but I'm going to be honest for you today. There are times when
deep down inside, implicitly, you ask the question, can this
situation get fixed? See, I'm deriving the wheel out
of this magnificent text of power being demonstrated to deliver
the devil to make application to you right now, because I know
we're slow. And often you don't think that
you're just like the disciples, but you are. At least the disciples
were honest enough to come and say, Master, what happened? See? False religion, again, will
pretend and pretend that it always has success. False religion,
false prophets and false prophetesses and false churches will tell
you they always have the power of God at their disposal to do
whatever they want to do. They never fail. They never fail. They always
get it right. They never come up against a
situation that's too hard from them. All they have to do is
speak it out the way. And they're lying. And if you
believe that, you're a liar too. Can I share something with you?
Failure is good. Failure is good. And failure
is necessary. Failure is necessary for success. In America, in Europe, and particularly
America, we are infatuated with success. That's all we know it,
success, success. You wanna be successful. Well,
if you wanna be successful, believe me, you're gonna have to accept
failure. Because failure is critical to
authentic success. You know, there's nothing that
you do in life of which when you ultimately succeed, it wasn't first after many failures
that finally you arrived at a nominal or notable success. Success is
predicated upon failure. Failure is not only good, it's
necessary. It's critical. It's essential
to real success. That's the first concept and
point in our outline. We need to understand failure. We need to understand how failure
teaches us, how failure works in our life. It's preparation
to success. You go to school. And the thing
that makes school hard is that you don't know your subject and
you have to be taught it and you fail and fail and fail until
after a while you finally learn that particular subject. You
hate it because we hate failure. But God has ordained the principle
of failure before success in everything we do. Do you know
the success of God's elect The ultimate salvation of all God's
people everywhere in the world from the beginning of time to
the end of time is based upon failure. That's the Genesis account. Critical to the success of God's
people is their failure. Failure is the process by which
we are introduced to humility. And humility is critical to success
in the eyes of God. No one will ever reach the pinnacle
of success before God except through humility. That is the
doctrine of redemption. It is the message of Christ's
condescending glory. It is the way of God to bring
men and women to the highest heights of success that can ever
be imagined, to be seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high, to be ruling and reigning with the God of glory. first
necessitated failure. And so the whole world is in
the school of failure. Am I making some sense to you?
And so why are we all, that's not God. So why are we all so
agitated by and fearful of and troubled with the idea of failure? Pride. Pride. Pride keeps you from success. Am I telling the truth? So many
of us know in certain categories of our life that we have not
attained because not that we have tried, but we have avoided
failure. And there are things you will
not attain to until you accept and embrace the tutelage of failure
to get there. The door of failure is the door
into humility and humility is critical to your success. God
resists the proud and he only gives grace to the
humble. And the Proverbs tells us that
before honor is humility. Am I preaching the gospel right
now? Before honor is humility. There's only one fool in the
universe and he has sucked the whole world up into his Diabolical
diabolical ideology that you can be successful without first
falling and he's lying while he does it Our elder taught us
this morning. He's a liar from the beginning
He never abode in the truth And all he does is murder men and
women with lies that you can be successful without first falling
and he is the epitome of the fall and And he is nothing but
unsuccessful and his middle name is failure, but he would lie
and tell you he's successful. Am I making some sense? And the
way to success is through Christ. But as Christ told his disciples,
the way I'm going is the way you're going to go to. You all
got to go my way to get where I am. So my point to you is,
as we work through the message today, is for you to grasp that
God has determined in the providential outworkings of life, your life,
yours individually, that in order for you to attain to your highest
calling, the success of whatever God has called you to, you have
to embrace failure. Because you just don't know until
you learn. You just don't know. And so let's
deal with the process and unfolding and the the turnabout of our
account when it comes to this thing that we would throw off
as quickly as we possibly can call failure. Let's work through
this and see if we can learn something about how God saves
sinners, how God saves his saints, how God saves his glory, sinners,
saints and his glory through failure. Through failure is a
very Notable statement that's given to us in our account in
Luke chapter 9 verse 40. This is so very important Listen
to what it says in verse 40 This is the man whose son was a lunatic
and his son was demon-possessed and we will work through that
here in a moment but here's the statement of which we have now
the context in which there must be now a Manifestation of God's
glory and I besought your disciples To cast him out. Do you see that?
and they could not you see that and they and they could not and
the disciples could not do you know in their three and a half
year seminary course with our master i'm talking about the
disciples in their three and a half year seminary course with
the master failure was a repeated experience for these disciples
am i telling the truth these fellas every time you turned
around got an f on their on their on their report card Every time
you turn around, I would suck up all my time if I started from
their call as fishermen and other occupations to the time when
Jesus says, I got to leave you. But from the beginning, even
to the end, failure marked the life of our disciples. Even when
our master said to them in verse 44, I want you to get this fellas
The son of man is going to be betrayed and crucified and killed
and even at that difficult hour You're gonna fail again You're
gonna fail again You're gonna fail to understand that and you're
gonna deny that you're gonna fail but I'm letting you know
you're gonna fail you're gonna You're gonna forsake me You're
going to abandon me. You're going to deny me. Only
thing you're not going to do. And I'm going to give you grace
not to do that is to betray me. And, you know, the only reason
we wouldn't betray the Lord Jesus Christ is because he's given
us grace to. Am I telling the truth? But here, right up against
the pinnacle of the purpose for which Christ comes into the world,
these disciples who will turn the world upside down must go
through failure after failure, after failure, after failure.
But what's before us in our account is a noun, nomenclature. It's a end sign, it's a banner.
It's a word now that's about to rush out into society. It's a statement, it's a comment
that people are about to hear. It's an echo that's about to
reverberate through society if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
do anything. Do you know what that echo is? They could not.
They could not. I brought them to your disciples
and they could not. That's about to reverberate through
the whole of Capernaum and Galilee and everywhere the disciples
go, the fame or infamy rather of they could not do it would
be told everywhere. Wouldn't that be a tragedy? They
couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. They couldn't
get it done. They couldn't accomplish what
they're called to do. Now, listen, if there is no other
statement that would constitute what we would call an un-gospel,
they could not, is it? They could not. Well, we asked
them to do it, but they couldn't get it done. We brought them
to them, but they couldn't accomplish it. The question we want to ask
is, why did this occur? See, the disciples had already
experienced a measure of success. God had already blessed the disciples. You know, we were just recently
on the mountaintop a few days ago, weren't we? with the disciples
beholding the glory of God and the manifestation of the kingdom
of God in Jesus Christ, the effulgence of his glory leaking from Christ.
These three cats on the top of this mountain, they were feeling
pretty good, weren't they? You know, you go to a Bible conference
and the preaching is just outstanding and your soul is full of joy
and your faith is stricken while you're sitting on top of the
mountain and eating good food and fellowshipping with the saints
and like Peter, James and John said, let's stay right here.
You know how you want to do it? Just stay right here. But Jesus
said, no, we got to go down off this mountain. We got to head
on back down to where the people are. In church, it's easy to
have faith. But it's not easy to deal with
the demands of ministry. Now, granted, if we do a little
bit more of a careful exegetical approach to the text, the three
fellas on the hill probably are not the three fellas involved
or included with the other nine down here at the bottom of the
hill. But nevertheless, the infamy of them not being able to do
it would apply to the disciples, Peter, James, and John, as well
as you know. So let's deal with several of
the lessons here. First, I wanna reiterate, God
resists the proud. You guys got that? He gives grace
to the humble. And I say that because it's possible
in our imperfect state for us to fail to embrace what I've
been talking about now for 15 minutes. It's possible for you
to live with a motive of intellectual operation to actually Shirk or
avoid or deny the blessed benefit of failing it's possible for
you to call yourself a believer and always only want to experience
success See It's possible to say that you are a real genuine
Christian and you understand what we call the mystery of redemption
and the complexity of our calling. We've been called out of sin
into a state of grace, but I'm here to remind you, you're not
in glory yet. And so as you are indeed in a state of grace, if
you've been born again, a state of grace is that in-between state
of what you used to be and what you will be. And so while I'm
in the middle of the process, I have to struggle with the tensions
of not always being able to succeed. Am I telling the truth? Am I
telling the truth? And it's designed to teach me
something because I'm in school. I don't know about you, but ever
since the Lord saved me, I've been in school. I don't graduate
until I die. And you may not see it, but I
fail often. I don't know about you, but I fail often. In fact,
when he give me my paper to take the test, I just write my name
at the bottom and put failure across it so we can get to the
answers. Somebody might get it. What's
before us are several lessons to be learned. I want you to
grasp this. The first point in our outline, I want you to get
it. The need justifies the effort to apply oneself in the redemptive
process. I know that's a long sentence,
but I want you to grasp this. Here's the context. God has called
the church of the living God, the body of Christ, those who
are now gospelers, that's what evangelism is, to be a gospeler,
people in whom he has deposited good news. He has placed within
us a message of salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ
that we know actually works. Am I telling the truth? I know
it works. He's placed that in our soul and he's given us a
commission to tell men and women about Christ. And so we are compelled
to share the gospel. The love of God constrains us.
The fear of God moves us. We want to tell men and women,
you're under the wrath of God. Your only way of escape is through
Jesus Christ. And let us affirm to you, Christ
actually saves. He actually saves. He doesn't
promise to save. He saves. We want you to know
that. We want you to know that. But
now in that particular vocation called witnessing and preaching
and teaching and telling the gospel evangelism, which I am
praying that every one of you who are under the sound of this
ministry and the pastorship of myself and our elders and deacons
here, that you will understand your job is to tell it. And in
the call to tell it, you must accept failure. In the call to
tell it, you must accept failure. And for those of you who have
a very low attention span, you ADHD brothers and sisters, let
me help you, give you the short order. In your attempt to tell
it, you must accept failure, but don't worry about it, Jesus
got your back. That's it for you guys who don't
like taking tests. Some of you know how you get
the heebie-jeebies just at the thought of the test. You do good
in school, but test time come around, you get sick. When I say the need justifies
the effort to apply oneself in the redemptive process, it's
this. Christ has called us to ministry. And ministry, I don't
care how you cut it, the Greek word for ministry is service.
It's labor. It's labor-intensive. It's toilsome.
It's painful. It's the kind of effort that
you need grace to achieve. If you are doing ministry, listen
to me, if you are doing ministry and you don't need God's grace,
it's not God's ministry. You are tricking people. You
are deceiving people. You are manipulating people.
You are conning people. You are ripping people off. To
tell people about Christ is supernatural. I'm talking about the Christ
of the Bible. To tell sinners who are naturally antipathetic
and hostile towards God, and they would eat you up and spit
you out for even thinking to tell them, requires a supernatural
grace. Just to share the gospel with
people This is why we're so it's so hard pressed for us to tell
people because we know we're in a battle as soon as we say
Christ is Lord we're in a battle we're in a battle, but Necessity
is laid on us Necessity is laid on us if we believe that God
saves and if we believe that salvation is only through Christ
There is no other way and if God has placed the love of God
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost I must tell men and women even
if I die in the process and even if I fail in the process I've
got to tell them Got to tell them gotta tell them and so our
lord sent his disciples out to go go tell him go tell him and
here they are they're in smack dab in the middle of it and necessity
is laid on what happens my brother and sister what happens to you
when here you are in the pathway we'll see that in our next point
doing what god has called you to do you are You're not like
religious folks who are just trying to get a notch in your
belt. You're doing life. We, you know, lifestyle evangelism.
We can use that. You're doing life and you know
in doing life you are ready to be salt and light wherever you
are. Am I telling you true? You're doing life because you
got to pay the bills. You got to take care of your family and all that.
Do that. But what happens when God brings to you a person with
as desperate a case as this brother? What you gonna do? Are you hearing
what I'm saying? And especially if you let people
know you are a believer Because see they're gonna they're gonna
test you people aren't gonna come and find out if you actually
believe this thing you say you are They're gonna bring a case
before you I got this problem, man. Can you help me out? Here's
a real difficulty The text tells us that there was a man whose
son was possessed look at verse, uh I don't want to use that one. Look at what our text says here
in a verse 38 Here's what it says and behold a man of the
company cried out saying master I beseech thee look upon my child
for he is my only child and lo a spirit taketh him and suddenly
And he suddenly cries out and it tears him That he foam it
again and bruising him hardly. Let him go That's a mess, isn't
it? Isn't that a mess? And in fact,
go with me in your Bible to Mark chapter 9, because we have an
expanded version, and I want you to see the urgency of the
situation that demands that we do the ministry of the gospel.
See, it would be one thing if our world was fine, if everybody
had good sense, and everybody behaved, and if everybody loved
Christ, we wouldn't have to do any ministry. We get the glory,
we don't have to do all this. But people don't have good sense.
people's lives are messed up and There is a remedy for the
problem And we're supposed to have it now not mark how mark
sets this forth in Mark chapter 9 verses 14 through 18 And when the Lord Jesus had come
to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them. And the
scribes questioning them, that is his disciples, in straightway
all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed and
running to him, saluted him. So Jesus is now encompassed by
the crowd. And he asked the scribes, what
are you doing questioning my disciples? Because the disciples
had made some news. The news that they had made was
they couldn't do it. That's some news there. That's some news, they couldn't
get it done. Whoa, do you know the devil is gonna swoop down
on you when you talk about having all power? And you can't even keep your
kids in line. The Lord didn't give me all power
over the devil. Yeah, right. The Lord Jesus hears the commotion.
He comes and they come to him and the news is reported to him.
Notice what it says again in verse 16. He was questioning
them and one of the multitude answered and said to him. This
is the man master. I have brought unto you my son
which have a dumb spirit and wheresoever the spirit takes
him. He tears him. he foams and gnashes
with his teeth and pines away and I speak to your disciples
that they should cast him out and they could not see it and
They could not get it done. This is the commotion that's
going around the disciples couldn't get it done although The need
justified the effort to apply oneself in the redemptive process
so what I've said to you thus far I want to just ask the question
if you have a been persuaded what I've said thus far that
failure is just part of our life, right? Failure is going to be
part of our life. And sometimes a failure, depending on the situation,
is going to be such that it digs deep down in your soul and it's
going, you're going to have to wear that failure for a while.
You're gonna have to wear it for a while. Are you with me
right now? You're gonna have to wear it for a while. This is not one
of those things you can cover up just by a quick prayer or are moving
geographically. This is one of those things that
I'm just telling you, you're gonna have to wear it for a while.
This failure is gonna be an inside of your little bug. Failure,
failure, failure, an area in category three. Failure, category
three. You just gotta wear it for the moment. But because you
are a believer in Christ, you got to get back up and continue
in the process. Hasn't that occurred in your
life? You know when you were ready to quit just stop. I'm done.
I'm done with this I'm not telling anybody else about Christ because
I'm messing my life is all jacked up. I get it wrong all the time
Here I am. I everything's falling apart
in my life and I've been telling people about you. I'm not saying
anything else Isn't that right? And then God gives you grace
to recover A just man falls seven times yet. Shall he stand? Isn't
that true? You find yourself getting back up. I And you find
because God has poured the word of God into your heart that it
starts to resurrect again and you become confident to share
the gospel with people again, albeit in a much more humble
and a much more discreet and a much more appropriate way. That's the lesson. That's the
lesson. So God doesn't discard you for
major failures. Failure is essential to success. It's absolutely that. So you're
persuaded of that and therefore we must get back up. We just
have to get back up, have to get back up. But when we get
back up to proceed to do what God has called us to do, here's
what I want you to grasp. It's essential for us to make
sure that we learn the lesson. Isn't that right? It's essential
for us to learn the lesson. Look over at verse 28. Are you
there? And when he was coming to the
house, this is Christ, after he dealt with the man that was,
the boy that was possessed. We'll talk about that in a moment.
His disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out? Do you see that? Why could we
not cast him out? See, they're struggling with
what was in their former experience, constant success. See, whether
you know it or not, in our Luke account in chapter 9, I want
us to go there, go to Luke chapter 9. I want you to see that prior
to this event in Luke 9, God had already given the disciples
the commission to go out and preach the gospel. Notice how
it opens up in Luke chapter 9, verses 1 through 6, and I want
us to grasp this point. The blessed fruit of failure
in the midst of our obedience. See point number 2? See because
a lot of times we will we will conclude that failure means I
have been disobedient Are you with me so far? I want you to
see the blessed fruit of failure in the midst of obedience in
Chapter 9 verses 1 through 6. Here's what it says then he called
his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority
over all the devils to cure them and over all the devils to cure
diseases and he sent them to preach the kingdom of god and
to heal the sick do you see that so they already have been commissioned
they already are going forth read what it says in verses four
uh three through six and he said unto them take nothing for your
journey neither stave nor script nor bread nor money nor two coats
of peace see verse three you know what it says and we're going
to get back to that just trust god and you're going got that
verse four and whatsoever house you enter in thereby And then
depart. In other words, don't just be
going from house to house getting money from people. He's teaching
his disciples, don't be like these evangelist crooks that
get a dollar here and leave, go to the next house, get a dollar
here. Stay in one home. If God's called you to preach
to that city, stay right there. This is not about money. Notice
what it says in verse five, but whosoever will not receive you
when you go out of that city, shake off the dust from your
feet for a testimony against them. And watch this. Look at
verse six, ladies and gentlemen. And they what? Departed. And
they went through the towns preaching the gospel. Here it is. And healing everywhere. Do you
see it? These men have experienced a
measure of success in the preaching and the witnessing to the glory
of God. They had already experienced
and tasted the casting out of devils and the healing of the
sick and the success of the gospel. Only to find themselves now experiencing
what? Failure. Sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't. Can you accept that? Sometimes
when you witness to people, they hear you. Other times they don't
hear you at all. Sometimes you share the gospel
with people and the Holy Ghost gives you the kind of eloquence
and clarity and simplicity that you know it's God, don't you?
And people respond with a measurable evidence that they believe what
you're saying. At other times, your speech is disconnected,
discombobulated, and you sound like you don't even know the
God you believe. And they look at you and cross eyes and say,
you want to go back and work on that before you share that
with me? You want to go take another shot at that? I'll wait
for you. You know this is true. You know it's true. I'm just
going to raise the mirror up because you know it's true. Then
you go away all messed up because you're thinking, where did I
sin, Lord? Where did I sin at? Because this
didn't come out right. I'm sinning somewhere. And my
point is the blessed fruit of failure in the midst of our obedience.
See, what the disciples were doing is what God had called
them to do. Share the gospel, preach the gospel. So in the
context of doing what they're doing, what they had not actually
embraced as a fundamental to their success was failure. Failure
is necessary. Failure is necessary. One of
the mistakes we make in religion is it's just it's just part of
what I call a mental breakdown and it has to do with oversimplifying
things. I despise it. We oversimplify
doctrines and we over oversimplify the experience of the Christian
life. Yes, we do. Sometimes we so simplify the
idea of faith. that we make a narrow prism of
faith and we really define faith according to our own experience
and our own limited experience. And when you define faith according
to your own limited experience, what you do is you heap upon
people a legalistic structure that does not comport with reality.
First you lie because it didn't always work for you like that.
But you put it off as it did and then you put it on somebody
else and then when it didn't work for them, It was because
you had not given a sufficient definition of faith in all of
its scope and magnitude. And I'll say it to you again.
Faith is not a set of static principles and propositions that
we merely believe. Faith is organic. Faith is vital. Faith is living. Faith is just
as alive as we are breathing. Faith goes up. Faith goes down.
Faith grows. Faith, as we're getting ready
to see, is small. Faith is great. Faith is dynamic. Faith is pure. Faith is perfect. And faith is flawed. I'm telling you the truth. Faith is flawed. God makes it
that way. Faith goes up. Faith goes down.
Faith wavers. Faith diminishes. Faith reaches. Don't always grasp. How come? Because we are in the school
of humility before success. It's a dynamic. It's a dynamic. It's a dynamic so that you don't
worship faith. I know I got to take my time
with this one because this one here needs to be understood.
See, we commit idolatry even in the gospel. By every gift
that God gives us, taking that gift and magnifying it larger
than it should be. in exchange for the person who
gave the gift. Are you hearing me? And every
gift is designed for you to simply glorify the giver of the gift.
And every gift is designed for you to need the giver of the
gift. Can I tell you fundamentally
what faith is for? For you to look to Christ. If it accomplishes
other things, that's God's business. But you're going to learn that
faith is designed for you to genuinely, earnestly, sincerely,
desperately look to Christ. You're going to find that out,
especially if you mess faith up, if you jack faith up. getting a hold of faith and want
to turn it into a gift by which you can make some money, God
will show you. This is what false prophets do.
They build whole systems on the word faith. You got this whole
word of faith movement where people are all jacked up by a
word from the Lord, by the word of faithers that don't come to
pass in people's lives because they have now turned that word
of faith into an idol when faith is a vehicle to Christ. That's
all it is. That's all it is. And I can tell
you right now in our account, while I'm milking this, watch
this now, faith is doing exactly what it's supposed to do with
these disciples. Can you imagine being given power
from the king of glory, the God of the universe, he commissioning
you to go out in his name as his representative, as his ambassador,
as it were, you were calling the world to be reconciled to
God as the mouthpiece of God. Do you understand how gradually
and incrementally your head is swelling? This is why one foot
is lifting off the ground as you walk and you're doing this
a little bit wondering what's this all about? Because your
head is swelling as you contemplate the fact that God is using you
to share the gospel of glory to the universe. And now in God's
providence, he has to send an angel with a pen to put a hole
in that balloon to deflate it. Now watch this now. I'm working
with you. See, you don't believe it, but it's just true. It's
just true. See, the disciples don't understand God's doing
something here. He let them go, didn't he? He let them go. They're
running. They're running and they're doing exactly what they
were supposed to do. Point number three, correction
and clarity in the school of Christ. Are you there? Correction
and clarity. I want you to see it in Matthew's
account because Matthew's account chapter 17 verse 20 is going
to help us same a same event different authors giving some
expanded Perspective on something critical to our understanding
of the glory of God in Christ particularly in the cause of
ministry in Matthew's gospel chapter 17 the disciples now
are Addressing the issue with the master after they see the
master handily deliver this young man of which we will address
Ourselves and I want you to see the correction and the clarity
in the school of Christ. Remember we're all in school
Are we not? Do you call yourself a disciple? Mathathetes is the
Greek term to be a disciple and it means to be under teaching.
It means to be taught. So if you and I are under teaching,
if we're being taught by Christ, that means we are learners. Isn't
that right? That means we don't know everything. That means we
get the right to ask questions. You don't have to be afraid to
ask questions. When you're in school, that's
what you're supposed to do. Lord, what is this about? I don't understand
this somewhere. I messed up. It didn't it didn't
come out right? Show me where I messed up and
the disciples come to the master in chapter 17 in verse 19 Then
came the disciples to Jesus apart and he said and they said why
could we not cast him out? Here it is when I developed this
for a minute and Jesus said unto them because of your unbelief
You got that? Because of your unbelief. Correction
and clarity in the school of Christ. Here's a proposition
in your outline. This will work for you if you
meditate on it. All our failures lie in the soil of what? Unbelief. All of our failures
lie in the soil of unbelief. So this is a challenge because
Again, people make these faulty bifurcations or distinctions
that I don't think are valid. They can't be substantiated in
scripture. I was sharing with our men in our men's meeting
last night about one of the fallacies that go on in church, and that's
this. You cannot have faith and fear at the same time. I would
discard that proposition as completely flawed and fallacious. Will you
hear what I just said? If you think that every time
you are afraid, it's because you don't have faith, you are
wrong. There is sometimes where fear,
fear is a byproduct of faith rooted in a knowledge of the
God who punishes men and women for living in rebellion against
him. Am I making some sense? Watch this now. In other words,
for some of us, fear is an evidence that we believe God. You know,
folks used to be called a long time ago when they actually believed
the Bible. God fearing men and women. But
in this twisted false definition of faith that's being applied
in our generation, they have extracted fear from faith. So now all you get in the depiction
is supermen type of men and women, super faith, triumphant faith,
fearless faith. I don't want to have anything
to do with that kind of faith. See, because today the problem
is there's no fear of God in their eyes. Many women have bought
into a God of love only. And that is not the God of the
Bible. It is a false God. The God of the Bible is a God
of love, but a God of holy love, of righteous love, of just love. And God loves himself enough
to separate himself from everything that does not love him the way
he loves himself. And that's what hell is about.
Hell is about the love of God for himself. Did you hear what
I just said? The reason why God must judge
sin is because he loves himself. God is the highest object of
love. It is necessary and only rational
for God to love himself. And it's necessary and rational
for us to love God, since God is love. But if I reject who
God is in terms of the character of his love, then I must experience
God's abhorrence and hatred of that which rejects love. And
hell is filled with people who reject the love of God. Am I
making some sense? And as a consequence they don't
fear God. So I just quoted earlier to you 2 Corinthians chapter
5 verses 8 through 12 when Paul says it's the love of Christ
that constrains us. It's the fear of God that motivates us
knowing the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. You're going
to hell, friend. You cannot live in rebellion
to the gospel of God's glory and think you will accidentally
make it to heaven. I see it with all trembling in
my soul, down in the core of my being. I identify with you
as a worm, as a sinner, as a human being. We are perishing under
the wrath of God if we don't bow to the crown rights of Jesus
Christ. Am I telling the truth? I fear God. Do you? I fear God. Moses said, when God, the God
of glory called me to the mount, I came up. But there was much
fear and trembling when I came up. And when God talked to me,
I quaked like I don't know what. Daniel said, and when I saw him,
I shook so bad that everything beautiful in me turned to nothing.
I melted before God. I fell down on my face and I
couldn't even breathe. My face was in the ground. I
couldn't lift my head up in the presence of his glory. Isaiah
said, when I beheld his glory, I became so corrupted myself
that I said I am vile. My lips are full of wickedness.
Just an hour ago, he was going, woe unto you, woe unto you, woe
unto you. When he saw God's glory, he said,
woe unto me. And when you see the glory of
God, it's woe unto us. Not woe unto you, Not woe unto
me, woe unto us. There is nothing that matches
the matchless, superlative glory of the infinite being. Compared
to him, we are all darkness. Do you understand that? You don't
stand a chance creature looking in the face of God without a
mediator. is wholly appropriate to fear.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you believe that?
You'll get a hearing with God if you fear God. Did you get
that? Write that down for some of you
knuckleheads. Listen, you will get a hearing with God if you
fear him. I'm coming but I'm afraid Lord. I have no right
to come to you. I'm afraid. I'm coming because
I need you but I'm afraid. God will hear a person like that
trembling and Trembling. And so the point is correction
and clarity in the school of Christ. Listen to what our master
said. He says, because of your unbelief, you were not able to
cast him out for verily I said to you, if you have faith as
a grain of mustard seed, you shall send to this mountain,
remove his to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall
be impossible to you. That's verse 20. Now, that's
a rebuke, isn't it? Yes, it's a rebuke. It's an absolute
rebuke, and it's almost oxymoronic. It's not. Our Lord has simply
given us the proper diagnosis to the problem at hand. So let
me explain. Our master knew what the disciples
didn't know. Now watch this. Sometimes, isn't
it true, you know when you messed up? So let me come over here, because
they didn't tell me. So now, sometimes, isn't it true, you
know when you messed up, right? I tell you, an honest person
ain't going to hell. Now watch this. But there are
times when we don't know. We mess up, we don't know. And
the disciples messed up here and they didn't know why. And
our master, and the word there is didaskalon, which means teacher,
he's about to explain to his disciples what the problem was,
why it didn't work out the way it should have. And you and I
must know this. He said the reason why it didn't work out the way
it should have, even though you were acting in obedience, according
to the commission to go and preach and heal and cast out devils
because you are serving as Ambassadors and a precursor to the messianic
kingdom that will come when the Holy Ghost is poured out and
I'm giving you power to do this in the process of what you were
doing in the process of what you were doing which was a Fundamental
faith they believed God Am I making some sense? They believed God
But in the process of what they were doing they failed to realize
that tangent of unbelief that rises up to impede their faith. In the process of doing what
they were called to do, they failed to realize that subtle
tangent of unbelief that rises up and impedes one's faith. Can faith and unbelief coexist
in the same place? Can you believe and find yourself
not believing at the same time. See, I'm going to get a few honest
people in here today. The rest of them, you guys have
problems because I'm tearing your doctrine up right now. I'm
destroying your doctrine because you are under a false notion
that your faith never is flawed. But I'm here to tell you, your
faith and my faith is always flawed. It's always flawed. It's always limited by design,
By design. By design. God gave you a faith
that's organic, that must grow, that must mature, must be informed,
must be strengthened. Am I telling the truth? 2 Peter
chapter 1 verse 7 through 10. Add to your faith virtue. Add
to virtue knowledge. Add to knowledge temperance.
Add to temperance kindness, brotherly love. Add to brotherly love charity.
And if you do these things, you will never fail. So faith, like
a tree, must bear the fruits of virtue and knowledge, temperance,
kindness, charity, and all of the things essential to accompany
faith. And sometimes we go through dry
seasons where our faith is so diminished that when we go to Mark's account,
where I want us to close at, our Lord actually is actually
treating this subject. In fact, go there. I want to
do it right now. Go to Mark's account. I want you to see what
I'm talking about. See, in reality, what's taking place in our account
is a treatment, the treatment of unbelief in the midst of obedience
and in the midst of need. Mark's account of this is in
Mark chapter nine. This will also help us. So we
are at that place where correction and clarity in the school of
Christ is essential. And so in Mark's account of this,
we have it as well. Mark chapter 9. Now watch this,
I want you to see how this works. I'm in Mark chapter 9 and we
are at verse 19. Are you there? Mark 9, 19. Now
let me start at verse 18. The Lord has now been confronted
with this man who is describing what's taking place with his
son, verse 17. And I have brought unto you my
son, which hath a dumb spirit. So now not only is he a lunatic,
that's our Greek term for him being possessed. Not only does
he have a dumb spirit, wherever the spirit takes him, he tears
him, he foams, he gnashes with his teeth, he pines away. I spake
unto your disciples that they should cast him out and they
could not. Now watch how our Lord responds. Are you ready?
Oh, faithless generation. How long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Stop right there. To whom is
our master talking? I want you to get this. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone. See, this is a lesson. He's a
teacher. Isn't he a teacher? He left his disciples to do ministry.
He said, go ahead on, fellas. I've already given you authority
to do what you do. They're going about their ministry
and a whole scandal has broken out. You know what the scandal
is comprised of? The unbelieving Jewish people. A man who is struggling to have
his son healed. He probably took him to the Jewish
rabbis and leaders. They couldn't do nothing with
him. Now he's taking him to the disciples and the disciples can't
do nothing with him. And so everybody's in a tizzy
about what could not be done. Do you get the picture? Now,
come on, now watch this now. I want you to see our master.
Our master is in the midst of a situation where nothing is
getting fixed and he gives the diagnosis to the whole crowd.
You know what the diagnosis is? Y'all don't believe. You just
don't believe. Now I want you to work with this
for a moment because in Mark's gospel back in chapter six, our
master went to his own hometown. This is what it tells us in Matthew
six. And he marveled at their unbelief. so that he couldn't
do but a few miracles, heal a few sick folks. Nobody got saved.
Now I want you to understand what's going on. Our master is
God, but he is also man, and he is sent as God's representative.
And in this capacity, he has confined himself and limited
himself to God's providence and God's sovereignty. He is not
acting in the majesty of the second person of the Godhead.
He's acting in his role as the last Adam, as the representative
of sinners. So he's depending upon his father,
and he's assessing the situation the way the Lord, the Father
has put it out to him. And what he sees is a group of
unbelieving people. This is why he used to get so
excited when Gentile folks actually believe the gospel. Remember,
that centurion, that ruler that said, just send the word, Lord.
He turned to the whole crowd and said, did you hear what that
brother just said? The Syro-Phoenician woman? Lord, I'm a dog, but I'm
your dog. Did you hear what that sister
said? I haven't found any faith like this in Israel. And so what
he's talking about is a commodity that is critical to the ministry
and that is faith. Here he's letting the whole crowd
know that they are unbelievers. The scribes and the Pharisees
couldn't cast him out. The people couldn't cast him
out and the disciples couldn't cast him out. So the master says,
y'all are all unbelievers. Do you know he just threw the
gauntlet down? He just threw the gauntlet down. You know what
he's saying? I can solve this problem. But before I solve this
problem, I want you to know your problem is unbelief. Got it? I want you to know the boy has
been possessed by a spirit from his youth. In that culture, they
called it falling sickness or child's disease. These were the
medical terms for the manifestation of what looked like epilepsy.
It was not epilepsy. Nothing in our text will allow
us to conclude that our master would deceive people by using
theological and spiritual terminology that deals with the dark forces
of demon world, when in fact he was merely dealing with a
psychological or a physiological problem. He would not do that.
Are you guys hearing me? And when we expand the text,
the text tells us that Christ dealt with the demon. Are you
hearing me? So we must not conclude in our,
again, meltdown of mentality that really what we're dealing
with here is a sickness. But the way the culture was addressing
what was happening, here's what they said. We have never ever
seen a person with this kind of problem ever be healed. And that conclusion had everyone
in unbelief. It's interesting what's going
on here. It's interesting what's going on here in this case, because
when the Lord Jesus come to his disciples, he had told them in
Matthew's gospel, as we said, because of your unbelief, these
things take place. Now, the term unbelief has to
be understood for a moment. We've got a few more minutes.
I just want you to get this, particularly for those of you who care. You
are believers, and to be a believer is to have faith. Isn't that
right? Faith and believing, two sides of the same coin. To be
a believer is to have faith. So how is it, Lord, that I can
have faith in you and then also have Unbelief in the situation. Are you guys hearing me? How
can I have faith in you and also have unbelief? I Want you to
see this in your text. Are you there? the Lord turns
and he deals with the son of with the father of the son in
verse 21 and here's what it says and He asked his father. How
long is it ago since this came unto him? Do you see that? I
And the man said, since he was a child, Pideon, very young,
and often it has cast him in the fire and into the water to
destroy him. Watch this, I want you to hear it now. Here we go.
If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. See, this is the motif of the
only child representing you. The only child representing you
the firstborn the only child he's the extension of your life
when that child dies you die Your existence fails if your
child doesn't perpetuate who you are. Am I making some sense?
This is why the father just like the mother will say help us Help
us Help us, you know, that man was invested in his child wasn't
he? See when you love somebody you get invested in them Here
we could draw this out if we wanted to make a larger redemptive
truth and demonstrate the love of God for his elect. Did not
Christ take on our infirmity? Did not he take on our burden?
Did not he take on our diseases? Didn't he take on our troubles?
Didn't Christ make himself like us and enter into our problem
in order to deliver us? His situation for us wasn't him
versus us. It was us, him and us, and we
and him. It's the doctrine of union that
gives us hope of salvation Because the son has chosen to enter into
our problem just like this father is entering into his problem
This boy has a blessed dad doesn't he here? We have another occasion
of a mediating father. Don't wait A mediating father
watch the language. Are you there verse 23? Jesus
said unto him If you can what? If you can believe All things
are possible to him that what now that's what Matthew's gospel
has said to the disciples So here's what I'm getting to I'm
trying to help you understand that Jesus is teaching the whole
crowd the essential and critical principle of faith That the problem
with them is that they did not believe God and that this man
who is coming to Jesus He's coming to Jesus. I would assert to you
and I'm gonna prove it here that he's coming to Jesus by faith.
I He's not coming to Jesus in what we would call raw unbelief
or our Criticism or the kind of doubt that says I don't believe
he's God There's no way that he would bring this boy to Jesus
unless he believed that it was possible to be done Now watch
this. I want to I want to deal with
this before I answer this last part. I'll try to keep it together
our theology our doctrine must be derived from scripture and
And our view of God and God's glory and work must always be
derived from scripture. So let me ask you the question.
This is what I said in the beginning of the message. The Bible is
the will of God. It is a revelation of God's will.
In that revelation of the will of God, we have depictions of
God's power. We see power all through the
scriptures, but that power is in order for us to get to the
will of God because it's the will of God that we want. Isn't
that right? I need to know his will. And this is the Father's
will that sent me. Jesus didn't come to do the power
of God. He came to do the will of God.
And so he's revealing to us god's will I need to know god's will
that's what's in view in this particular context What is the
will of god and in our account what jesus is trying to get across
to the disciples and to this father? and to us Is that sometimes
in the process of our believing? Unbelief will rise up and impede
The accomplishment of the goal that we are seeking for Jesus
challenges this father With believing the father said if you can do
anything have compassion on us and help us Jesus says if you
can believe All things are possible to him that what now watch verse
24. Here's my answer to the proposition
that faith Can be mixed with unbelief and straightway the
father of the child cried out. He cried out with tears, Lord,
I believe. Do you see it? Don't give me
that phony doctrine of pure unadulterated faith. That man believes. He believes. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. See how they
mutually exist in the same place? Now somebody getting some truth
today. Do you see it? Do you see it? Do you see it?
See, but it was necessary for our Lord to probe. Remember two
weeks ago we learned about the word of the Lord. It's alive
and sharper than any two-edged sword and it's able to divide,
asunder between soul and spirit. Marrow and bone, it's a discerner
of the thoughts and tense of the heart. You and I can't know
what our problem is until the word of God reveals it to us.
Now this man knows, you know what he knows? My faith is deficient. That's why I'm coming to you. Can I keep talking to you for
a minute? Listen, the man, if he had perfect faith, will you
listen to me? He wouldn't even have to work
through all of this mess and obstacle that he was dealing
with. If he believed God, he wouldn't have to drag this boy
through the people, through the disciples to get to Christ. He
could have stayed home and called on the name of the Lord. And
out of a mature and perfect faith, believe God to heal his son.
Am I telling the truth? See, so I'm trying to get you
to understand. Don't tell me you have perfect faith. No, you
don't. No, you don't. And the scriptures
don't give us cases frequently and rarely of perfect faith being
exhibited. It's flawed faith. But that's
the kind of faith God gives us. He gives us flawed faith so we can take our flawed faith and come to the man who has perfect
faith. and place our flawed faith in
the soil of perfect faith and believe the one who has faith
by which all things are possible. Somebody got that. See, listen,
dummies. All things are not possible to
you. I don't care who you think you are. All things are not possible
to you. All things are not possible to
you. All things are not possible to you. All things are not possible
to me. Did you hear what I just said?
See, you may talk like you're God if you want to, wrapped up
in those demonic systems and talk as if you can speak things
into existence. I decree this and I decree that. But all things are not possible
to you because you're not God. I'm telling the truth. I'm not
telling the truth. Can I keep telling the truth? You're not
God. You're not God. And you were never meant to be
God. And your faith was not meant for people to look at you. Your
faith was not meant for you to build big ministries in your
name. For people to come to you because you're the man or woman
of faith. And if we tell the truth, our
faith is flawed. Biblical faith is designed for
us to bring our flawed faith to him who has perfect faith
with whom he can do anything. That man can do anything. Watch
this now. To him that believeth perfectly,
all things are possible to him. I believe with Christ, all things
are possible. See, in the doctrine that Jesus
is teaching right here, I want to get at this in close because
I know I'm challenging you guys, I'm taxing the mind. Here's what
I'm getting. Are you ready? When God saved you and me, he
saved you and me for us to know what it means to be in Christ. This is what we're going to learn
as we go through the In Him series. What Jesus said in John chapter
15, 5 is critical. Are you hearing me? Without me,
you can do nothing. You can't do a thing without
me. Without me, nothing gets accomplished. Are you guys believing
that? So watch this. I'm getting ready
to tell you how it went down. Here's how it went down. The
disciples were jazzed, coming off the hill, seeing the glory
of God. Man, do you know who we are? We're the disciples. of the king of glory. We casting
out devils, we're healing the sick. Man, we're pretty good. I'm glad we're not like those
other religious folk, those poor, idiotic religious folk over there.
They don't know what we know. We got revelation. We got insight. We got great gospel insight.
We must be really, God must really love us. We must be real special.
So here we go. Situation comes at all. Cast
out a devil? No problem. We done done that
before. Bring him to us. Did you get
that? Bring him to us. We're the disciples. We got this. So the one disciple
goes over and lays hand on him and the devil knocks his hand
off. Now the other disciple goes and
prays over him and the devil spits on him. And all of a sudden
the devil starts giving all these disciples trouble. And they're
standing around internally, intuitively, mentally wondering what's going
on here. This thing ain't as easy as it was. Are you hearing
me? It's not quite as easy. We thought
we could just have... All the other cases were easy.
All the other cases were easy. And as they're going about, they're
trying to, struggling, the people are coming. They're watching
the disciples struggle to cast this devil out, and it's not
happening. The devil is causing them to
have fits to be tied. I can hear it. You can't, but
I can hear it. See, our Lord had told the disciples
in Luke chapter 9, I give you power. Do you hear? I give you
power to cast out devils. I give you power to heal the
sick. I give you power to preach the
gospel. But you see what we do is we
turn that proposition into something that we shouldn't. We didn't
hear the way it was constructed. I give you. We start talking
like I have power. I possess power. Power is with
me. See, we start making ourselves
the source of the power rather than the means of the power.
And what Christ says is, I give you power. And the giving of
that power really is based upon something we're going to close
with. But do you know it's necessary for the Lord to take from you
what he gave you so that you can get your gospel right and
stop telling people what you have rather than what God has
given you? Yeah, I'm telling you the truth.
I have power. No, you don't. You and I don't
have any power at all. And I can see the disciples,
they have fallen prey to thinking they have power because they
saw it happen an hour ago. And so here they are, they're
working, they're working, they're working, and the devil is giving
them a run for their money. They found themselves all together
in the flesh. You believe that can happen?
Is it possible to do ministry in the flesh? Now watch this
now. How come you didn't say, Peter,
in Jesus' name when you were laying hands on that devil? You
got that? You know how some religious folks
say, I know why we didn't cast him out, because you forgot,
Peter, you forgot to say, in Jesus' name. Peter said, man,
I was struggling, man. I was just struggling with this
thing. You might be right. Then the other disciples said,
no, I wasn't that. You forgot to speak in tongues. Remember,
you got to speak in tongues, because when you speak in tongues,
the devil don't know what you're talking about. That's the problem. See, as you
was talking, you was talking in Aramaic and Greek, and he
heard what you were saying. But if you had been babbling,
he wouldn't have heard what you said. And then you would have
been able to trap him. Another disciple said, no, that
ain't it. I saw you man, we was at church last week, you didn't
pay your tithe. See, had you paid your tithe, God would have
gave us power. Didn't the preacher say, it's
a curse that comes on you who don't pay your tithe? Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
Speak in tongue, use Jesus name as an incantation, make sure
you give your tithe and you can manipulate God into letting you
be God for five minutes. I have to mock false religion. I have to. Because it sends souls
to hell. And it denies God his glory. And it does not rightly represent
the truth of Christ. And no person can be saved through
lies. No one can be saved through lies.
Go head on if you want to. to continue pretending that you
are some super Christian and about the only thing you will
do is deceive a group of uninformed people into buying into your
shenanigans. That's all you will do. And you
will be contending with all the other false prophets who are
operating in the false way, which is a broad way that's sending
most people to hell. Or you can humble yourself before
the mighty hand of God Admit that you can't do a thing of
your own You know that God has to work in you the willing to
do of his good pleasure. Do you understand that? You understand
God has to invade your life with his power and when God does it
is when God wants to do it See, we don't ask the question here.
Can God heal? We know God can heal We don't
ask the question, does God have the power to heal? We know God
has the power to heal. What we ask the question is,
will God heal? I'm back to the will of God.
Don't tell God when to heal. Am I making some sense? I believe
in the power of God, but it's subservient to the will of God.
God is manifested according to his will. Sometimes he heals,
sometimes he doesn't. That's up to sovereign God. in
order that no flesh should glory in his sight. Am I telling the
truth? in order that no flesh should glory in his sight. And
listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, the disciples have to get this message,
because the disciples, as we have been learning for years,
are no different than you and me. Peter, James, John, the rest
are just like us, just men. They struggled over this demon,
and they allowed the flesh to get in, and unbelief cropped
up. The Greek term unbelief, apestuo,
the little negative prefix a, is like our word unkola, unkind. Unrighteous. Pisteas is the Greek
verb for believing. Pistou is for faith. And in our
translation, the literal Greek actually has the word oligo,
pistou, and it really means, and I want you to hear this,
little faith. Little faith. Our translators
translated unbelief. But if you were to go through
the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, three times our
master said to his disciples, I want you to hear this before
I close. Am I boring you? You can go home right now if
you want to. I want you to hear this. Hear me now. Please hear
me. Please hear me. Three times, our master admonished
the disciples about the danger. And deficiency of little faith. In Matthew, Chapter six. where
he taught the disciples not to be anxious for anything. If God
cares for the sparrows, if God clothes the lilies of the valley,
if God takes care of creation, will he not also take care of
you, O ye of little faith? In Matthew chapter 8, In what
we call classroom 101, when our Lord was in the boat with the
disciples and the storm came up, remember they said, Master,
do you care about us? As Matthew 8, Jesus stood up,
rebuked the storm, and here's what he said to them. Why are
you so fearful, ye of little faith? And then we get to Matthew's
gospel chapter nine, where Jesus has taken them to class room
102, where this time he didn't get in the boat with them. We'll
preach that message down the line. He went about the other
way and he said, I'll meet you on the other side. And that's
where our Lord was walking on the water. Remember that? And
as he was walking on the water coming to them, they were having
fits because the storm was coming again. And he got in the boat
with them and he said to him a third time, Oh, ye of little
faith. Now, here's the point. Our faith,
if we are true believers, is a gift from God. No human being
has saving faith of themselves. It's a gift from God. for we
are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves it
is a what gift of God not of works lest any man should boast
so when you and I discover that we are believing on God that's
a gift from God but understand that gift is not perfect in itself
it must mature and it matures through trials some of us who
have been in the Lord 20 and 30 years now there are some trials
that just don't bother us no more isn't that true Do you know
why? It's not because when we had the trial back then, we overcame
in that trial. It's that when we failed, we
had a Savior who intervened. Did he intervene? Every time
I fail, Christ shows up. He intervened. Do you believe
that? Now watch this. I'm closing right here. Our Lord
knew that our disciples, his disciples, would be running into
trouble. He let them get into trouble. He let all of the scandal
get out. They could not do it. Only for
him to intervene. Don't we love an intervening
God? The master shows up on the scene
and he first checks the rulers and the scribes. What you talking
to my boys about? What's your issue? You got some
issues? Come talk to me. And then he goes towards his
disciples and the man comes. I brought him to your disciples.
Isn't that what he said? Jesus could have said that was
your problem. Because too many religious folks
put their faith in men and systems and things. Then he said, you
unbelieving generation, bring him to me. Do you see that? Bring him to
me. Do you know what our master just
did? He just delivered his disciples. He delivered them. He just delivered
his disciples. See, had he not shown up, they
would have been stuck and stigmatized with that failure. Had he not
shown up, they would have had to live with the infamy of that
failure. Our master intervened like he always intervenes. He
came and he stood between his disciples and their failure. You know what he did? He covered
their sin. He covered their transgression.
He covered their wickedness. He covered their unbelief. He
covered their failure. In such a magnificent way, he
caused the whole group to turn from the disciples to him. And
the way he handled that demon, Read Mark chapter 9. He said,
hey, come out of him and don't enter into him again. Do you
hear that? Do you know what he did? He opened
the door, said get out, and he shut the door and put a double
bolt on it. And he did that in front of the crowd to let the
crowd know, you can look to see if this boy will ever fall again,
but you will be looking in vain. Because when God does a work,
He does it perfectly. And this man, this man, this
man, this man, I know he toiled within himself. OK, my son is
feeling good today. But what about next week? What
about a week after that? What about a month after that?
What about a year after that? What about five years after that?
What about ten years after that? Do you know when God saves a
sinner, he is saved everlastingly? When God redeems a sinner, he
redeems him totally. When God's grace come into your
life, you are liberated completely. Do you understand that? Our people
look for you to fall again. They look for the devil to get
a hold of you again, throw you in the water, throw you in the
fire. But when Christ liberates a sinner, The sinner is liberated.
If you read the text, Christ said, come out. And for the last
time, he threw him in the fire. For the last time, he threw him
in the fire. He foamed and gnashed and kicked up and he fell down
dead. Isn't that what the text says?
Fell down dead. That's Mark's gospel. Fell down
dead. I'm in Mark's gospel. Look what
it says in verse 26. And the spirit cried, ripped
him sore and came out of him. And he was as what? One dead. Watch this. In so much that many
said he is dead. Do you see the unbelief? Do you
see the unbelief? But Christ gets glory in our
failures. Do you see it? Now, can you imagine
the father sitting there and say, Oh, Lord. OK, what we got
going on here? My time is almost up. Look at
what we got going on here. We are now stuck between possibilities. It's possible that this devil
won. His job is to steal, kill and
destroy. It's possible that he won. It's
possible that he finally killed my boy. Don't we worry about
that? Isn't that what we worry about?
Because see, death is finality with us. It's possible that Jesus
came up against something too great for him. Our master just
stood there and let that resonate through your head. And in a very
elliptical way, he was saying, your problem is unbelief. Didn't
I say, if you believe all things are possible and he reached down
and picked the boy up, get on and the boy got up. You see,
This is about, listen to me, God's glory. It's not about your
glory. It's not about our glory. It's
about, listen, we are not preaching the gospel if your eyes are on
a man. The whole group came to a worship
service where Christ showed up and revealed his sovereign power
to raise sinners from the dead, to deliver them from bondage,
to deliver them from darkness. Only Christ can do that. The
disciples are on the sideline just like everybody else. They
said, check out my master. Look at him get down. And they were reminded once again
that their faith is flawed. But when you have flawed faith
and you realize that your faith is not working, you must take
your faith and bury it in the soil of him who is faithful unto
death. Because with Christ, all things
are possible. Are you guys hearing me? With
him, all things are possible. Amen.