All right, let's go back to the
text in Mark chapter 9. This text has been on my mind
for some time now. I've been looking at it this
morning. I want us to look for a few minutes at this account
of our Lord casting out a dumb and a deaf spirit. It's interesting
to note that this event is recorded by three of four gospel writers,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each record this event. In each one
of these books, it's recorded in almost the same way, very
slight differences. Some provide information that
others don't, but between the three, we get a full picture
of what's going on. Now, when studying the Scriptures,
any part of the Scriptures, you know, we've talked about this
many times and said it many times, that we need to determine who's
speaking, to whom he's speaking, what the subject is, if we're
going to rightly understand it. Of course, we know here who's
doing the speaking. It's our Lord Himself, and we'll
see in a minute to whom He's speaking. But the subject, the
subject that our Lord is dealing with, is that of unbelief. That's
what he's dealing with in this text. And you know what unbelief
is. Unbelief is the opposite of believing. It's just the opposite of believing.
Unbelief is the lack of faith. Lack of faith. The absence of
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it's not just any faith
we're talking about. But unbelief is the absence of
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that according to the Word
of the Gospel. Our faith in Christ must be in
Christ. He's the object of our faith,
and it must be according to His Word, the Word of His Gospel.
A lot of people have what they call faith, but it's not faith.
It's not the faith of the Gospel. It's not faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why our Lord, in verse 19, talking with this
unbelief, He answered them. He spoke to this multitude, and
He said, O faithless generation, O faithless generation, they
were faithless. And beloved, this subject of
unbelief is something that affected all to whom our Lord spoke here
on this occasion. And I'll tell you something else,
it's something that affects each and every one of us right here
this morning. Unbelief, we're talking. As we look at this text,
let us pray again as Brother Chris in his prayer that the
Lord would be pleased to teach us by His Spirit and help our
unbelief. Verse 14, let's begin there. It says, And when he came to
his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the
scribes questioned him with them. When he came to his disciples,
now, where had he been? Where had he been? Well, you
remember, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago in the
first part of this chapter. Our Lord had been on the mountain.
Remember, He had taken Peter, James, and John up on the mountain
with Him? And they'd gone up there with
Him, and they'd seen Him. They'd seen Him transfigured.
right before their eyes, saw Him glowing. They saw there with
Him Moses and Elijah, appeared with Him, talking unto Him. They were there when that cloud
overshadowed them, and they heard that voice from heaven speaking,
This is my Son. Hear Him. He'd been on the mountain.
He'd been up on the mountain with three of the disciples.
And now He comes to His disciples. He came to His disciples. He
came to the nine. That's what He's talking about,
the nine who were left behind when He went up there. Nine of
the twelve had been left down below, and here they were, and
he comes to them. Luke, in his account, says it
was the next day that he came to his disciples. And when he
came to his disciples, about them were a great multitude of
people, a great multitude. There were a lot of them gathered
around the disciples. Now, this multitude of people,
this multitude of people, besides the disciples, this multitude
was divided into three groups, into three groups. There were
the scribes, the scribes. There was a curious crowd, and
there was a certain man with his son who was possessed with
the devil. Three groups. There were the
critics, there were the curious, and there was one with a need,
one with a need. Now, who were the scribes? Well,
you know who the scribes were. These were Jews. These were men
who studied and transcribed the Scriptures. Sometimes in Scripture
they're called lawyers. They were the authorities on
Scripture. They were considered to be the experts in theology. You've got a theological question,
you go to the scribes. What does the scripture say about
this? You go to the scribe. They were well-versed in scripture.
And when our Lord came to his disciples, when he came to the
nine, he found these scribes disputing with the disciples.
Now, it doesn't say what they were disputing about, but in
context, it appears that they were evidently disputing with
them concerning their inability to cast out this unclean spirit.
That seems to be the case anyway. Well, in verse 15, straightway,
all the people when they beheld him were greatly amazed, and
running to him saluted him. This great multitude saw our
Lord as he came to the disciples, and they were amazed. Now, what
were they amazed about? Well, I'm not sure, but I suspect
this. I suspect that our Lord's countenance
still glowed from being transfigured on that mountain. You remember
back in the Old Testament when Moses was called up to the mountain,
and he spent 40 days up there with God giving him the law,
the ceremonial law, and the sacrifices, and the priesthood, and all of
that. When he came down from the mountain, his face glowed
from being in the presence of the Lord. And the people couldn't
look upon him. Moses had to put a veil over
his face before the people could look at him. So I suspect here
that when our Lord came down from that mountain from being
transfigured and glorified before these three disciples, that he
retained some of that glory when these people saw him. They were
amazed. They were amazed. And they ran
to him. They ran to him and they saluted
him. The curious crowd. This was the
curious crowd. Always asking questions and seeking
information, ever learning, never able to come to a knowledge of
the truth. They're interested in miracles. They're interested
in the feeding of the 5,000, the healing, and so forth. They
like to see those things. They're just curious. And back
in our text, verse 16, and our Lord said that He begins to deal
with them now with this multitude, and He deals with them. First
of all, He asks the scribes, what question you with them?
He deals with these religious experts first. And He said, what
question you with them? You know, religious experts love
to dispute with disciples, especially about their failings. Have you
ever experienced that? They just love to do it. They
love to find fault. Why can't you, if you're a believer,
why can't you do this? Why don't you do that? How come
this or how come something else? Our Lord silences these critics
with one question. What question ye with them? You see, What he's saying, what
our Lord has said to them, they understood perfectly. He's saying,
your problem's with me. Your problem's with me. Why are
you disputing with me? These are some of the people
Brother Dale mentioned in the class. These people, they had
the law. They had the scriptures. They
studied. They were well versed in it. They knew the ceremonies.
They practiced the ceremonies. They kept all these things. They
knew something about the Messiah who was to come. They knew that
he was to be a prophet. Well, they believed that Jesus
of Nazareth was a prophet, but they didn't believe that he was
that prophet. They knew, according to the prophecy
of Scripture, that God was going to be manifest in the flesh,
called his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with
us. And they believed that God was with this man called Jesus,
but they didn't believe that he was God. They believed he
talked about the Christ, but they didn't believe he was the
Christ. They believed he knew something about the sacrifice,
but they didn't know him as the sacrifice. They believed he knew
about the priesthood, but they didn't see him as the great high
priest after the order of Melchizedek. They had a problem with him.
And so at every opportunity, they would pick on the disciples. But our Lord, upon seeing this,
what question ye with them? Your problem is with me. Why
are you bothering them? That's settled. We don't hear any more from them
in this account. And our Lord says no more too.
I said that to say this, when these religious experts want
to dispute with us, let's remember what their real problem is. Their
real problem is not with us, not with what we can or cannot
do. Their problem is with our Lord, who he is and what he has
done and what he is doing. Their real problem is their unbelief
concerning him and his gospel. And my advice to you on such
instances is don't get entangled in that. Just don't get entangled.
Let them take it up with the Lord. That's where the source
of the problem is, their problem. All right, back in the text,
verse 17 now. Here we come into another division
of this multitude. One of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I've brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. But wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and
crineth away. And I spake to thy disciples, that they should
cast him out, and they could not." Here's one in the multitude,
one in the multitude. It's a man whose son is possessed. Matthew, in his account, calls
him a certain man, a certain man. And he speaks up, and he
addresses the Lord. He addresses him respectfully.
He calls him Master, calls him Master. And he says, I brought
my son. I brought unto thee my son. And
he goes on to describe his condition. Here's a man with a knee, a man
with a knee. You know, this man's son, as
I looked at this, I thought, how typical is this man's son
of our spiritual condition by nature? This man, when he described
his son, is describing us spiritually by nature as we come into this
world. We are by nature, you know, possessed
with an unclean spirit. We are by nature under the control
of Satan. Oh, I know Oprah likes to talk
about your good spirit in you, but I'm telling you, apart from
Christ, apart from regeneration and the new birth, all you have
in you is an evil spirit. And I'm talking about all of
us. I'm talking about every single one of us. Probably most of you
here can quote Ephesians chapter 2, the first three verses, can't
you? Let me read it to you anyway. When Paul says, and you, he's
talking to believers. He says, and you hath he quickened.
You hath he made alive who were dead and trespasses unseen. wherein
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 worketh in the children of disobedience, the
children of unbelief, among whom also we all had our conversation,
our citizenship, our behavior in times past in the lust of
the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
And we were by nature the children of wrath, even as they are."
This man's son, with this unclean spirit, is a description of us. By nature, by nature, the way
we're born, we foam and we mash against Christ and the gospel
of His grace while we pine away. Or we find fault with Christ,
we find fault with His gospel, we find fault with salvation
by grace. All the time rebelling against
Him, against Him. By nature, we will not come to
Christ. Our Lord said, you search the
Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and you
will not come to Me that you might have life. That's our nature.
We will not come to Him for life. If and when we ever come to Christ,
we must be brought by the power of the Spirit of God, just like
this man was, just like this man was. They brought him to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know how he came when
they brought him? Look at verse 20. They brought him unto Christ,
and when he saw him straightway, the Spirit came, and he fell
on the ground wallowing, foaming." That's not unusual when a sinner's
brought before Christ. He comes finding fault, wallowing
and foaming in his own filth. But he's brought, he knows not
how, he knows not why, but he's brought, irresistibly, invincibly
he's brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Something
else we learn from the description of this young man, this man's
son. We learn what the design of Satan
is in this possession. The design of Satan is to destroy
him. The design of Satan is to destroy
one who belongs to Christ. Look at the first part of verse
22. Oftentimes it, that is this evil spirit, this devil, hath
cast him into the fire and into the waters. Why? To destroy him. To destroy him. But he wasn't
destroyed. He wasn't destroyed. You know
why he wasn't destroyed? It's not possible that Satan
can destroy one whom Christ came to save. It's not possible that
Satan can destroy one for whom Christ died. Just not possible.
He may be allowed to go so far. He may be allowed to cast him
into the fire and into the water. His goal was to destroy, but
he cannot succeed because there's one mightier than he. One mightier
than he. And this man, this one out of
the multitude, this certain man who had a need, like many of
us, he came to the right place. for the wrong reason. Back in
verse 18, the last part of that verse, he said, I spoke to thy
disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not.
He headed in the right direction, wasn't he? He came to the disciples
of our Lord. That's a good place to start
if you're coming to Christ. He asked them to cast this unclean
spirit out of the Son, but they couldn't. They could not do it.
They couldn't do it. You see, it seems here that this
man's faith, what faith he had, if you want to call it faith,
It was in the disciples' power to cast out the sun-cleaned spirit.
Not in the power of the Lord, but in the power of the disciples.
Now, I said he came to the right place, but he came for the wrong
reason. Listen, it is true that if we hear the gospel of Christ
and believe, if we hear of Christ and believe on him, we're going
to hear that gospel by man. We're going to do that. So in
that regard, they came to the right place. They came to the
disciples. They came to those who knew him. to those who could
tell them about him. But the power to save, and we
must never keep this in mind, the power to save is not in man,
but it is of God in Christ. He's the only one that can save.
A man preaching the gospel is the means God is pleased to use,
but it is a means and not the end. The end is Christ himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself
the object and author of faith, and He alone is able to save. Oh, don't ever get caught into
this thing of putting your faith, your hope, your confidence, your
trust in a mere man. Just don't do that. Just don't
do it. I want you to turn back to Psalm
146. Psalm 146. This psalm begins, Praise ye
the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While
I live, while I praise the Lord, I'll sing praises unto my God
while I have any being." Now listen, put not your trust in
princes, that is, the chief of men, the leaders of men. Don't
put your trust in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. Do you have a marginal reference
there? In whom there is no salvation. Do you know what man is? Do you
know what happens to man? His breath goeth forth, he returneth
to his earth, and in that very day his thoughts perish." How
grand they may have been. He may have had the grandest
thoughts, the grandest plans and schemes. He may have been
eloquent of speech and convincing many, but the day he dies, the
day God withholds that breath, he returns to his earth and his
thoughts perish with him. Oh, but listen, listen. Verse
5, that hath the God of Jacob for his salvation, whose hope
is in the Lord his God, the Lord his God, which made heaven and
earth and the sea, and all that therein is. He's the Creator,
which keepeth truth forever. He's the Truthkeeper, which executeth
judgment for the oppressed. He's the Performer, which giveth
food to the hungry. He's the Provider. The Lord looseth
the prisoner. He's the Liberator. The Lord
openeth the eyes of the blind. He's the illuminator. The Lord
raises them that are bowed down. He's the lifter up. The Lord
loveth the righteous because He made them that way. The Lord
preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and
widowed, but the way of the wicked He turneth upside down. Don't
put your trust in me. And what do you say in the preacher?
He summed that up for you? Well, very simply this, our hope
of salvation is not in men. It's not in men. I'm thankful
that God has given us these things. I'm thankful that God has given
us men to preach the gospel of his grace. Aren't you? But my
hope, my confidence, and my trust is not in me. It's not in the
church. I love thy church, oh God. Don't
you? I'm just so happy when I'm in
the presence of God's people. That's where I want to be. I
love those people. who like myself have been redeemed
from sin and death and given life in the Lord Jesus, those
who love Him and worship Him. I'm thankful for the church.
I'm thankful for this assembly this morning. But I'm telling
you, my confidence and my hope and my trust and my faith is
not in the church. It's in Him who is the head of
the church. I'm thankful for the ordinances.
I'm thankful I'm thankful for the Lord's table that he gave
us, those simple ordinances by which we remember him, we show
his death till he comes. I'm thankful for that. And that
ordinance of baptism by which we confess before all the world,
before him, that he is our salvation. That in his death, burial, and
resurrection is our salvation, that we died with him. were buried
with Him and rose with Him again to newness of life. I'm thankful
for that. But my hope, my faith, my confidence, my trust is not
in these ordinances. It's in Him of whom the ordinances
pertain. My hope and my faith is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way. He said,
I know whom I am. And I'm persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that
day. And that's my confession. Is
that not true? And while I'm thankful for all these things,
thankful for the means that God has provided, thankful for the
preachers of the gospel, the gospel that's preached, thankful
for those men, thankful for his church, thankful for his ordinances,
yet my faith, my faith is fixed on Christ alone, on Christ alone. Yeah, this man had a need, and
he came to the right place, but he came for the wrong reason.
He looked to the disciples, cast out this demon, and they couldn't
do it. They couldn't do it. Here's a question. Why couldn't
they cast him out? Why couldn't they cast him out?
What was the problem? What's going on here? What's the problem?
Well, look at verse 19. Our Lord answered him, that is,
this man, and He said, O faithless generation, talking to all of
them, He talked to that whole multitude, disciples included,
O faithless generation, O unbelieving generation, how long shall I
be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
How long shall I put up with your unbelief? You know, I suspect
that when Peter wrote his epistle and he wrote, The long suffering
of our Lord is salvation, he probably had this right here
in mind. Isn't it amazing that our Lord puts up with our rebellion
and unbelief for so long? Haven't you ever wondered, you
who believe, haven't you ever wondered why God didn't just
cast you into hell for your rebellion and unbelief? Well, I have. I
have. I have. Old faithless generation. You know, Matthew and Luke, when
they talk about this, both of them use an additional word.
I want you to go back to Matthew 17. Matthew 17. And this is in Matthew's account.
Now, verse 16, this man said, I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. Matthew 17, 17. Then Jesus answered
and said, O faithless and perverse generation. Faithless and perverse
generation. You know that word perverse gives
us a little additional meaning to what our Lord is saying here.
Not only faithless, but perverse. And I looked that word up. You
know what it means? It has three meanings. It has three meanings.
It means to misinterpret, to distort, and to corrupt. And
that's exactly what men do to the gospel. That's what they
did in that day, and that's what they do in this day. They misinterpret. They'll take the scriptures,
they'll get it out of contest, and they'll give a wrong meaning
to it. Almost always it has a legal view. Almost always it has a
view towards work. has a view towards law and tries
to mix law and gospel and works and grace. They misinterpret. They misinterpret. They're trying
to teach others without being able to see themselves. That's
why it doesn't do any good when these religious experts start
wanting to dispute with you about things spiritually. Don't bother. Don't bother. It'll do you no
good or them either. You can't make a blind man see. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are what? Their foolishness
unto him. But not unto us. There are great
hope, and joy, and life, and comfort, and peace. But their
foolishness to them. Neither can he know them. You
know why? They're spiritually discerned. God's got to do something for
them spiritually before they And they may have all the facts
of Scripture. They can tell you the historical
facts. They can impress you with their
knowledge of Scripture, and they don't understand a word of what
they're saying. They misinterpret. They give
a wrong meaning. They distort. They'll take the words of God. They'll take the Word of the
Gospel, and they'll twist the meaning of it. They'll distort
it. You take a plain portion of Scripture that speaks very
plainly, speaks very plainly, and they'll twist it to the point
to where it's just... It looks awful in the Word of
God. It's distorted. You know what
it is to distort something, don't you? Twist it out of shape. I
probably shouldn't even say this, but they'll take something like,
we're made partakers of the divine nature, and they'll say, well,
no, that's just a principle. That's distortion. That's not
what the Word says. When the Word of God says that
in the new birth and regeneration, we are made partakers of the
divine nature, that's exactly what it means. That's not hard
to understand, is it? You distort it, change it into
a principle, and, well, what does that mean? Well, nobody
knows. They corrupt it. They misinterpret,
they distort, they corrupt. They change the truth of God
and make it into a lie. Take the very truth of God and
change it into a lie. They corrupt it. All faithless
and perverse generations. It's thought that these people
hadn't heard the gospel. Our Lord Himself had declared
it. that they didn't believe, that they were faithless. Why?
Because they misinterpreted, they distorted, and they corrupted. That's why he called them a faithless
generation, because of their unbelief. That's why he said,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with
you? But bless God, he didn't stop there. Remember, we're talking
about this man's son and the disciples' inability to cure
him. And you know what he said there, the last of verse 19?
Bring him unto me. Bring him unto me. Oh, boy. Well, something else I want to
point out to you here. We're talking about this thing
of unbelief, and I want you to see unbelief expressed. Unbelief
expressed. You know, they did bring this
young man, this child, to our Lord. We've read that already.
Our Lord asked him how long, and he told him of a child. He
was born that way. The devil had tried to destroy
him. And then this man expresses his unbelief. Now here's unbelief
expressed. Last part of verse 22. If thou
canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. That's a clear
statement of unbelief. Right there. Unbelief, unbelief,
beloved, puts a question mark on our Lord's ability. And just
mark it down. It puts a question mark on our
Lord's ability. If you can do anything. I thought about how best, how
best illustrates you the error of that utterance. And the thing
that came to mind that I can't improve on is found in Matthew
chapter 8. I turn back to Matthew chapter 8. Remember this man,
got a need, his son's possessed. And he comes to our Lord and
he says, if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help
us. It's a statement of unbelief. And the opposite of that is best
expressed by that leper who came to our Lord in Matthew 8, verse
2. Behold, there came a leper and
worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can. Make me humble. Make me plain.
It's not a matter of your ability. It's a matter of your will. If
you will, you can. There's no question. There's
no question that he can help us. If you will, if you will,
not if I will, and not if you will, if you will. You see how
that's a statement of, a clear statement of unbelief that questions
his, puts a question mark on his ability, if he can. But now
listen, before we go too far in that direction, let me, let
me point out something else to you. Actually, actually, unbelief
can take another form. And I've seen this. Perhaps you
have too. And the form it takes is this.
It believes that the Lord can do anything. Well, I believe
that the Lord can. I believe the Lord can do it.
I believe He can. I believe He can save a man without hearing
the gospel if He wants to. But believing the Lord, that's
not faith. That's unbelief. That's unbelief. It's not faith, beloved. I'm
telling you, it's not. Faith, faith, listen to me. Faith is
believing that the Lord can and will do what He says He will
do. It's not a question if He can.
The Lord is able, of these stalls, these rocks on the ground, to
raise up children of Abraham. He's able, but nowhere in His
Word has He said that He was going to do that. And therefore,
the rocks on the ground have no hope of becoming children
of Abraham. Faith, beloved, listen. Faith
is believing that the Lord can and will do what He says He will. Turn to Romans chapter 4. Romans
chapter 4. Let me just give you a couple
of verses here and move on, because I want to cover a little bit
more, if you want that. Romans 4, look at verse 20, talking
about Abraham, the father of all them that believed, the example
of the faithful, the father of the faithful. Romans 4, verse
20, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully
persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform. You get
that? It wasn't a vain hope. Abraham's
faith wasn't based on him believing that God was able to do something.
It was based on his confidence that God would do what he said
and promised he would do. That's faith. That's faith. Wherefore,
he, the Lord Jesus Christ, is able to save unto the uttermost
them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lived, to make
intercession. See? All right, let's go back to our
text real quick now. Verse 23, Jesus said unto him, If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Our Lord takes that if spoken by this man, and he puts it where
it belongs. The question is not his ability
to perform, beloved. Do not at any time put a question
mark on our Lord's ability to perform what he's promised. The
question here is our ability to believe, our ability to believe. If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself
salvation. His incarnation as a man, His
obedience unto death, by these things He accomplished salvation
for all of His elect. You and I are centers. We come
into this world of center by a birth, by nature, by choice,
by practice. We're sinners. Well, how can
we be redeemed and forgiven? I'm telling you, there's only
one way. That's by the blood of the Lord Jesus. How can a
lost, condemned, guilty sinner worthy of eternal death and destruction,
how can he be clean and accepted in the sight of Almighty God?
I'm telling you, it's by the righteousness of our Lord Jesus
Christ alone. We're forgiven through faith
in His blood. We're justified by His righteousness
imputed through faith. We're sanctified by His righteousness
imparted in regeneration of the new birth. And we are saved by
grace through faith without works. Can you believe that? If you're
going to be saved, you've got to believe. Can you believe?
If you can believe. All these impossible things.
Forgiveness, righteousness, acceptance. Eternal life, inheritance, communion
with God, all these impossible things. They're all possible
if you can believe. If you can believe. Well, can
you? Can you? Can you believe? Can
you? I believe. Can you believe? Well, preacher,
tell me how you believe. I don't know. I just believe.
And I'll tell you this. My belief, my faith mirrors the
faith of this man. Look what he said. Verse 24,
straightway the father of the child cried out and said with
tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. You
know what the first evidence of faith is? First evidence of
faith. First time this man addressed
our Lord, he said, Master, that's respectful, but that's not worship.
But by faith, by faith, here, he said, Lord, If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth, Jesus, to be quite Lord, my faith, my
faith, Lord, I believe, my faith confesses Him as Almighty Lord. Does yours? Come on now. You
say, well, I don't know. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You
know. You know whether you believe
or not. I know you're not your own selves, for the Christ be in
you, except you be reprobate. Come on now. You know whether
you believe or not. So that's the first mark, Lord.
And then look here, here's the second thing. Help thou mine
unbelief. I believe. That's second thing.
Lord, I believe. Third thing, help thou mine unbelief.
Now listen to me. Help thou mine unbelief. This
is another marking evidence of faith. Preacher, you surely got
to be putting me on. A confession of unbelief is a
marking evidence of faith? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Only the
regenerate child of God can recognize and confess unbelief. Only one
who believes, now listen to me, only one who believes, truly
knows his unbelief. It's like that man that was born
blind, whom our Lord cured, you remember? All those religious
folks kept pressuring him to give glory to anybody except
Christ. They said, he's a sinner! Well,
whether he'd be a sinner or not, I don't know, but one thing I
know, whereas I was blind, now I see. How'd he know he was blind? Because he'd have soul. How do
you know you have unbelief? Because you now believe. You
know the difference. It helps out my unbelief. And
I'll tell you something else about this unbelief. It's my
unbelief. Now, listen to me. Don't misunderstand
me. My unbelief is the effect of
the work of the Spirit of God in me. Well, I thought faith. I thought the Holy Spirit worked
faith. He does. But as a result of His work,
I know my unbelief. Well, preacher, can you show
that to me? I sure can. I wouldn't say it if I didn't.
I couldn't. Turn over to John 16. John 16. Our Lord's getting
ready to go to the cross. He's talking to the disciples.
He's going away. It's necessary that He go away.
If I go not away, the Comforter won't come. But if I go away,
I send Him to you, the Holy Spirit. Verse 7, John 16, 7. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if
I depart, I'll send him unto you." And when he is come, he
will reprove, he'll convince the world of three things, of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now watch this. He'll
convince of sin, because they believe not on me. If you know you're unbelieving,
it's because the Spirit of God has fixed you. Unbelieve, beloved,
it's that great sin. Do you know why Israel, why the
vast, vast majority of all those that came out of Egypt could
not ever enter Canaan? Why every single one of them
over the age of 40, except two men, died in the wilderness,
couldn't ever enter, because of unbelief. Well, I thought
they did all these horrible sins, I think. They did. That wasn't
the problem. It wasn't their sins that condemned
them. It was their unbelief. Their unbelief. Paul, when he
wrote to the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 12, he talked about,
Let us lay aside that sin which doth so easily beset us. What sin is that? Unbelief. You
see what I'm talking about? All right, now quickly. This
man made that confession. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. And when the Lord saw that the
people came running together, here comes this curious multitude
again. They want to know what's going
on. Notice how our Lord just ignores the curious. He doesn't
even address them directly except to say, oh, faithless and perverse
generation. He saw them coming. When he saw
them coming, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, thou
dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him. Cast him
out. He cast him out for good. He said, don't enter into him
anymore. And the spirit cried and ran him sore, and he came
out of it. Now watch this. And he was as one did. Casting
out an evil spirit is not salvation. We carry about with us, like
that man in the tombs, we've got a legion of them. And we
cast one out here, and we cast one out there, and we stop doing
this, and we stop doing that, and we start doing something
else again. That's not salvation. The Lord
cast him out and said, don't come back. But he's like one
dead. Well, what's he need? He needs
more than a spirit. The evil spirit comes out of him. He needs
life, doesn't he? Spiritual life. He's deaf. He's dumb. He can't hear. He can't speak. What's he need?
He needs life. He needs the Master to take hold
of him and raise him up. And lo and behold, he was like
one dead in so much that many around him said, he's dead. But
the Lord took him by the hand and lifted him up. He arose. What else could he do? It's like
Lazarus. When the Lord said, come forth, Lazarus didn't stay
in there and say, well, I think I'll just wait a while and see
how things are going to work out. He came forth. He that was dead
came forth. Well, quickly, I want to give
you this. I want to give it to you first
because I think it will be helpful to you. Secondly, if I didn't,
somebody would think I was avoiding it because it was difficult.
Look, verse 28. And when he was come into the
house, his disciples asked him privately. Now, these are the
nine. Why could not we cast him out? You know, they had cast
out devils before. You can go back and read that
in chapter 6, Mark chapter 6, when he sent them out to preach.
They rejoiced then. Even the devils were subject
to it. I said, Oh, don't rejoice in that. Rather rejoice that
your names are written in heaven. So they cast him out before.
Why couldn't they cast him out now? Well, there's two parts,
at least two parts to this answer. I want you to go back to Matthew
17 again. Here we get, Matthew records
the whole answer. Mark just records part of it,
but I want you to see the whole thing. Matthew 17, verse 19.
Matthew 17, 19. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said
unto them, You need to underscore this, because of your unbelief,
because of your unbelief. For verily, truly, 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 to you. It was because
of their unbelief they couldn't cast him out. You see, their
faith had failed them. Their faith had failed them.
Does that mean they weren't disciples? No, they're still his disciples.
If we believe not yet, he abideth faithful. He can't deny himself.
Their faith will be back. Their faith will be back. You
see, their faith... And our Lord goes on in Matthew
17, 17 to show us that even the very smallest amount of faith,
people always complain. You know, you hear people complain,
well, my faith's just not very strong. It ain't the strength
of your faith. It ain't the strength of your
faith that saves. It's Him on whom your faith is fixed. Our
Lord said, if you've got faith, Even as a grain of mustard, you
can say to this mountain, remove it, and it will remove you. Now
listen, is he talking about a literal mountain? No. What mountain is
he talking about? He's talking about that great
mountain of unbelief. That's in the whole context here.
What is that great obstacle between us and the Lord? Between all
these spiritual things? It's that great mountain of unbelief.
What will do away with it? What will remove it? Faith so
small that if you're sitting back there and I was holding
it, you couldn't see it. Not a literal mountain of unbelief.
He's not talking about all things temporal being possible, but
all these spiritual things that we've mentioned before. All right,
back in our text in verse 29. Here's the second thing. And
He said unto them, this kind, this kind of devil can come forth
by nothing but by prayer and fasting. By prayer and fasting. Now listen. Our Lord by this
answer shows us why, first of all, why these disciples' faith
had failed. And he also shows us in this
answer that true faith makes the use of the appointed means.
Now, why did their faith fail? And this is so important. I wish
I had more time to deal with it. But remember when their faith
failed, they couldn't cast him out because of their unbelief.
Where was the Lord? He was always with them, but
on this occasion, he was up on the mountain being glorified.
He wasn't there. And that's the key, beloved.
That's the key. Our Lord, our Lord, right now. Where's the
Lord now? He's not with us bodily, is He? If He was, we'd just walk
over to Him and commit everything to Him. But He's not here. Paul
said, though we've known Him after the flesh, yet we know
Him no more in this manner. Where has He gone to glory? He's
taken some of the disciples with Him already. They're up there
too. By faith. By faith. Now we seek His power. We seek His power. We don't seek
our own power. We don't utilize the power of
our own faith. These people talking about, well,
if your faith was stronger, you'd have all these things, you know.
That's hogwash. They don't know what they're
talking about. I'm telling you they don't. This is referring
to spiritual things. It's not the power of our faith.
It's not our own power. But by faith, we seek His power,
and we seek it by prayer, and we seek it by fasting. That's
the appointed means that He's given. Now, faith. Listen to
me. Faith prays for the presence
and power of the Lord to perform the work. Anybody here have a
child, a friend, a relative that you want to be saved? What do
you pray for? You say, Lord, help me to save
me. You don't pray that way. What
do you seek? Power, the will of the Lord,
don't you? Lord, would you have mercy on my son? Would you have
mercy on my son? We know something about prayer,
don't we? But what about fasting? This is where everybody has a
problem right here. What about fasting? Somebody says, do believers
fast? Yes. Our Lord made that clear
in Matthew chapter 6. He said, when you fast, be not
a Pharisee. Don't be hypocritical like that.
You anoint your head. You go about cheerfully. You
fast in secret. And he who seeth in secret will
reward you openly. Here's an important question.
Why do we fast? And this comes right back to
the text. Why do we fast? You've got to read this. We've
just got to take time to look at this. Matthew chapter 9. Matthew
chapter 9. Look at verse 14. Matthew 9,
14. Then came to him, that is, our
Lord, the disciples of John, that is, John the Baptist, And
they said, Why do we, and the Pharisees, fast oft, but thy
disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can
the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom
is with them? But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken from them. Then shall they fast. No
need to mourn if our Lord is standing right beside of you.
There is no use to fast to seek his presence, his will, his power,
his work. I guess it's hard for you to
say, Lord, what about this? He's gone to glory. He's taken
away. Now I go to him in prayer, in prayer. He's taken away, and
I fast. And when do I fast? Now this
is important. Do we fast? Yes. Why do we fast? Because
he's taken away. When do we fast? We fast when
the will, the word, and the power of the Lord is sought in person. You know what? I don't need to
repeat that again, right? Let me give you an example. When the disciples of the Lord
in Acts 13, they were They were ministering to the Lord and fasting,
and the Holy Spirit spake to them and said, Separate me Saul
and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I have called them. And after
they had fasted, they laid hands on them and sent them away. They
were seeking, they were worshiping the Lord, and they were seeking
His will, His word, His way. That's why they were fasting.
Now I want you to turn to Acts 27. Acts 27. We have a Perhaps I should have done a
whole study on this thing, the fasting. I think it would have
been profitable to tie it together here. Now, Acts 27. Remember,
Paul is on his way to Rome. He's in this ship, and the storm
has been going on a long time. Verse 27. Acts 27, 27. No, I'm
sorry. Acts 27, 20. And when neither sun nor stars
in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay upon us, all
hope," now here's the problem, all hope that we should be saved
was then taken away. Have you ever been in that kind
of need? Have you ever been in that kind of need? I mean, you
really need something. You lost hope in everything else.
Your only hope is in the Lord. But after a long absence, what
was he doing? He was so concerned about this
thing that he wasn't eating and drinking, a long time. After
a long absence, he stood forth in the midst of them, and he
said, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed
from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I
exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of
any man's life among you, but of the shoe. For I got what I
sought, what I was praying for, what I was seeking so earnestly
that I didn't eat or drink. There stood by me this night
the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of God, whose I am and whom I
serve. And he said to me, Paul, don't
be afraid. For you've got to be brought
before Caesar, and, lo, God hath given these all myself." You
see the connection, prayer and fasting. When I pray about the
will, word, power, presence of the Lord in a man, that it drives
me to pray to him. And I'm so intent, so intense
on knowing his will, and on his interceding for me in behalf
of whatever it is. I'm so intent on that that I
literally, literally just forego food and drink. I'm concerned
about that. That's prayer and fasting. And we do that because
He's gone to glory. His presence is taken away from
us. And beloved, I close with this. Now listen, I suspect,
I truly suspect that all true believers fast, and most of them
do it without knowing it. They don't say, well, I'm going
to fast from Monday to Tuesday or 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. When their
need is great, and when they seek the will, the word, and
the power of Christ in prayer and meditation, they just forget
to eat and to drink. You ask these men who preach
and teach, and they'll tell you that sometimes they're so intent
on getting a message from the Lord, and in prayer, and studying
the word, and meditating upon His word, they just forget to
eat, forget to drink. Sometimes I'm at home, and I'll
be studying upstairs, and Cheryl will call, lunch is ready. And
that's the farthest thing from my mind. Which I need, I should
be hung. I'm not thinking about that. Have you ever gone to God that
way? Have you ever wanted something so bad? Have you ever meditated
on the gospel so much? I suspect you have. And I tell
you, if you can, if you can schedule a fast and do it unto the Lord
and be happy about it, and don't tell anybody, have at it. My experience is that everybody
that does that, they can't keep from telling you that. You've
had people tell you how they fast, haven't you? They ain't
supposed to. They're supposed to be a secret to God. That's
what I'm saying. So don't be thrown by that. Don't
let these legalists, these workmongers try you with that. That's just
legalism, and I'm telling you, for the most part, it's pure
unbelief. Pure unbelief. I hope that'll
be a help to you, because all of us, all of us like this man,
Just like Brother Dale in the class said it, and Brother Chris
in his prayer said, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. All the
people of God know that and realize that. And realizing our unbelief
is evidence of our belief. So don't let people... I do sincerely hope, Lord, make
that a blessing.