The responsibility of preaching
to eternity-bound men and women, carrying the burden of the word
of the Lord to the souls of men, is mentally, emotionally, and
physically utterly exhausting, particularly when the messages
of the heavy, heavy nature That one was this morning that God
gave me for you. But as heavy as that message
was, my message this evening is just that much delightful.
I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter
9. Our text will be verses 37 through
45. This is Luke's account of the
same thing that I asked Larry to read to you from Mark 9. The
reason I asked Larry to read that passage this evening is
so that it would be fresh in your mind, because Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, all three, give us the account of this great event
that took place the day after our Lord's transfiguration. Mark
and Luke give us the more detailed account, and yet Mark gives us
some things that Luke doesn't, Luke gives us some things that
Mark doesn't, so I'm going to be referring both to the passage
that Larry read in Mark 9, and to our text this evening here
in Luke chapter 9. Let me give you the background.
Our Lord Jesus and Peter, James, and John have come down from
the Mount of Transfiguration. And while they were in the Mount,
just picking this up now from what Larry just read to us in
Mark 9, it appears that the other nine disciples had someone to
come and bring a child to One who was possessed of the devil.
And they, these men who had cast out many devils, this was a customary
thing to them. They could not cast him out.
They couldn't do it. And so the next day, the Lord
Jesus found the scribes, the religious crowd, disputing with
them, harassing them, asking them questions they couldn't
answer. And those fellows were just dumbfounded. We don't know
what happened. We don't know what. We did it
yesterday, but we can't do it today. We commanded the devil
to come out of me, and last week, we can't command anything to
happen now. We don't know what happened. And they were being
harassed, and the Lord Jesus saw this going on, knew what
was happening, and he stepped in, came to the defense of his
disciples, as he always does. And he asked the scribes and
the Pharisees before this great multitude that had gathered around
to see what was going on, He said, what are you fussing these
fellows about? What are you disputing about? And there was one fellow
out in the crowd who butted in. He just jumped right in the middle
of the thing. He wasn't interested in the disputes and questions
about the scribes and Pharisees and their wrangling about what
the disciples could or could not do. He wasn't interested
in their controversy. He had a son, his only child. who was possessed of the devil. And he'd been possessed of the
devil since he was a little boy. And he's scared to death for
his son. The devil would take him and possess him for a long
time, would hardly go out of him. And it was destroying him. He calls this boy to gnash his
teeth and foam with the mouth like a lunatic. Indeed, he became
a lunatic. He'd cast him into the fire,
cast him into the water, and little by little, he was pining
away and going to hell. And this man came to the master.
He said, I asked your disciples, I brought them to your disciples,
and they couldn't help him. And he said, if thou can't do
anything, have compassion on us. And the Lord Jesus turned
that thing right around the other way, and he said, if you can
believe, all things are possible. He said, now the issue is not
whether or not I can do anything, the issue is whether or not you
can believe. And that man said, Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. And he commanded the devil to
come out of him. And when the devil tore him, rent him, and
came out of him, obeying the master's command, That boy laid
there and looked as though he were
dead. Because everybody thought he
was dead, it looked like something astonishing had happened. It
looked like the Master had killed him. And the Lord Jesus stretched
forth his hand and took him by the hand and raised him up. And everybody was astonished
at the power of God. Oh, astonished at the power of
God. Now let's read Luke's account. It came to pass on the next day,
verse 37, Luke 9, 37. When they were come down from
the hill, much people met him. And behold, a man of the company
cried out. He didn't care how it looked.
He didn't care for anything except the fact that his boy, his only
child, was about to go to hell. He cried out. He cried out. There was a pain in his heart.
The pain in his heart was reflected in his voice. He cried out. Master, I know who you are. Master, my master, my boy's master,
master of these demons, master, master of everything. I beseech
thee, look upon my son, for he's my only child. And lo, a spirit
takes him and suddenly cries out, and it tears him, and he
foams again, and bruising him, he hardly departs from him. And
I've besought, I've begged your disciples to cast him out. They
couldn't. Jesus answered, said, oh, faithless
and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How
long will I suffer you, put up with you? Bring your son here. Bring your son here. And as he was yet coming, the
devil threw him down and tear him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean
spirit and healed the child and delivered him again to his father. And they were all amazed at the
mighty power of God. But while they wondered, everyone
and all things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples, now
listen to this, let these sayings sink down into your ears. You know how often I say to you,
now hear me, hear me, listen now, that's what he's saying,
let this sink in, let this sink in. For the Son of Man, shall
be delivered to the hands of men. Let what you've seen and
heard sink into your ears. You've seen the mighty power
of God in this hand. You've seen the mighty power
of God in these words. You've seen the mighty power
of God cast out that devil by my command. Let it sink down
in your ears. For the Son of Man shall be delivered
into the hands of men. But they understood not this
saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not, and
they feared to ask him of that saying. Now let me show you six or seven
things here. First understand this, those blessed mountaintop experiences
which we so cherish, which are so beneficial to our souls, in
which God graciously makes known his glory and causes his face
to shine and allows us to hear his voice, those experiences
seldom last for very long. If you read the Song of Solomon,
then I urge you sometime to sit down and read those eight chapters
at one sitting. Just read all eight chapters
at one time and mark clearly where Christ speaks and where
his church speaks to him, and you'll understand what is reflected
in your own heart's experience. Our lives are a continual variation
of reviving and vanquishing. Hearts burning with love for
Christ and hearts cold toward Christ. Sweet, blessed, high mountaintop
experiences and deep, deep, deep valleys. The contrast between
this paragraph we just read and the one preceding it is striking. Let's not overlook it. We move
here from the mouth of transfiguration into the valley of sorrow. from
the vision of Christ's glory to a sad, sad history of Satan's
power, influence, and destruction in the life of one young man.
Peter, James, and John had just the day before been in the company
of Moses and Elijah and God the Father speaking to God the Son
and God's glory manifesting in His Son. Wow. Now, they're down
here for the demons of hell controlled the life of a man, torn up a
family, destroyed all comfort for a father and his only son.
No mention made of the mother, perhaps she was dead, perhaps
she had left, but the demons of hell had influenced this man's
life, and the disciples here are in the midst of it. Here's
a boy in agony, tormented by the devil. Here's a father with
a broken heart in deep distress. Here's a band of disciples who
suddenly are baffled by Satan's power. Men who had tasked out
devils, men who had performed miracles, men who came and said,
Lord, the devils are subject to us. Now they're baffled because
nobody will hear them. Baffled because their power seems
to be gone. They're utterly helpless. That's
a fairly vivid picture of my experience in this world. and
I expect it is yours too. Mountaintop experiences, as I
said, are delightful. They're blessed times, but we
must not expect them too much and we must not expect them to
last too long. Most of our time in this world is spent in conflict. That's just the way it is. That's
just the way it is. I know the religious world has
helped wealth, prosperity, religion of this age. You listen to these
silly, I can't find words contemptible
enough to describe them, these silly, money-grubbing, self-serving
prophets of deceit on television. You believe on Jesus, and God
will heal your family, and God will heal your bank account,
and God will heal your life. Oh, everything will be so sweet,
so happy, and so lovely. You line up under the banner
of Jesus Christ, and you've lined up under the banner to go to
war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And there's no
laying down the battle until it's over. That's just the way
it is while we live in this world. Thank God for those blessed visions
of Christ's glory, those poor taste of heaven, Those sweet
seasons when the Lord's with us in the Holy Mount. How often
have you come here and God speaks to your heart. You're able to
sing His praise. You're able as best men can to
worship God. Your soul's lifted up above the
fray for a little while. And you think, man, I've been
going straight to that bread for a while. Tomorrow morning
about lunchtime, it's wore off. You're right back in the must
admire the content. Let's try to remember some things.
In the deep valleys, I'm talking about the deep valleys of your
soul's distress. The deep valleys of your life's
trouble. The deep valleys of perplexion.
Try to remember some things. The Lord Jesus comes to his own
in the valley, just like he does on a mountaintop. And he makes
himself known in the valley, just like he does on a mountaintop.
In fact, he makes himself known in the valley in such ways as
you could never know him if he didn't come down in the valley
with you. He always comes manifesting himself to us at precisely the
right time. We are all like the disciples,
Merle. We don't ever tell him really exactly what's on our
minds. The disciples were afraid to
ask him what he meant. Did you catch that? They were
thinking it, but they were afraid to say anything. And we won't
dare cry out like David did, oh Lord, how long? Will you cast
off forever? Is your mercy clean gone forever? How long will you not hear my
cry? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That was David's cry. Read it
in Psalm 22. And we often feel that way. But
he comes at exactly the right time to make himself known. He comes at exactly the right
time to make us know how desperately we need him. He comes at exactly
the right time to make us know that he is God our Savior and
without him we're utterly undone. And understand this too, the
sorrows and the conflicts of our ballots, be they struggles
in our souls or struggles in our lives, be they struggles
with our own nature, our struggles with things around us. The sorrows
of the dark valleys are as much by divine appointment as the
Lord Jesus taking us into the mount to see his glory. Exactly right. Exactly right. You will not shed a tear he doesn't
break. You will not feel a pain he doesn't
break. You will not experience any difficulty. He hasn't brought it. These two
are by divine appointment, and being by divine appointment,
they are for his glory and are good. Here's the second lesson. These disciples learned something we must learn. And learning it once will never
be enough. Here it is. Without me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I have a horrible fear. A horrible
fear. Of daring to presume I can do
something on my own. Of daring to presume I'd stand
here and preach to you on my own. Of daring to presume I can
influence the souls of men for good on my own. Of daring to
presume I can go to warfare with hell on my own. Without me, you can do nothing.
These disciples, as I told you, They had had remarkable power. Man alive. Just think of it. These fellows would go out in
the name of the master. They performed miracles. They
healed the sick. They called for fire from heaven.
They asked the Lord, did you want us to call for fire from
heaven to destroy these folks? They had power to cast out devils. And here's one man. with one
boy who comes to nine of these disciples, these apostles, these
pillars of the church, these mighty men. And they said, come out of here. And nothing happened. Nothing happened. How come? Because they worked on their
own. And without me, you can do nothing. Oh God, teach us this lesson,
so bitter to our flesh, so necessary to our souls. It's demonstrated again and again
in scripture. Our Lord will have us never forget
it. If he leaves us to ourselves, we have no strength to do anything
or in any way to resist the Sometimes I hear fellas talk
about how strong they've become, how much they've learned, how
they have grown in the Lord. And I try to be nice, because
I realize they're still messing their britches. They're still
in diapers. They haven't learned anything
yet. When you find out how weak you are, you might find something
in his strength. When you find out how little
you know, you might discover the wisdom of God in him. Go
ask Noah what you can do when the master leaves you alone,
and watch him in his drunken stupor. Go ask Abraham, that
mighty example of faith. Oh, what an example of faith
he is, this friend of God, this man who, this man by whose Argument
with God in prayer a lot was delivered from Sodom. This man
who was so mightily used of God, Abraham, ask him how you will
treat your wife when you're scared to death of another man, if God
please you. Go ask him. Go ask Moses. That man who didn't even tremble
when he walked into Pharaoh's court and said, God said, let
my people go. He might have been shaking in
his boots inside, but Pharaoh didn't see it. He was a man.
There wasn't a quiver in his voice. And that same man, Moses,
in his anger, smites the rock the second time because he was
mad at God. Mightiest man, physically the
mightiest man who walked on the earth. Ask him how strong he
is when God leaves him alone. Go ask David, that man after
God's own heart. Go ask Peter. Peter takes a beating
from all preachers, takes a beating from all of us in our thoughts
too much. Of all the apostles, I expect I'd rather be like Peter
than any of them. I admire him. He might not have had good sense
all the time, but he had good backbone all the time. And I
like backbone better than I do sense. He was 100% man. But you go ask that 100% man
how strong he is before a little girl who dares to challenge him
when the master leaves him alone. Without me, you can do nothing. Oh, may God, the Holy Spirit,
teach us daily that we are weak, weakness itself, utterly helpless
without the wisdom, presence, power, and grace of God in Christ. Sometimes I hear preachers say,
I just don't believe a believer could do that. You know what
I think? I don't believe there's anything
that Rex Bartley or Don Fortner could not and would not do and
think we were right in doing it if God just leave us to ourselves. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I got a letter from
a fellow I've had some correspondence with over the last year, year
and a half, and thankfully I got a second letter from him. He
saw the newspaper reports and saw the television accounts of
that bombing and he wrote to me. He said, now I understand
what you've been telling me. Now I see how the scriptures
teach the total depravity of man. And I wrote him back and
I said, I'm afraid, my friend, you have no idea what the scriptures
teach about total depravity. What you saw in New York City
last week. doesn't hold a candle to the
depravities in you and me by nature. Not a candle. Thirdly, this story is recorded to teach
us the horror of satanic power. This unclean spirit described
by Mark and Luke in five different ways. A foul spirit, a destructive
spirit. He tears him, he causes him to
gnash, causes him to foam, he pines away. He's a deaf and dumb
spirit. A lunatic spirit. Matthew 17,
15. This is interesting. Matthew
uses a word from which we get our word cardiac. As a matter
of fact, cardiac is just a transliteration of the word. Matthew uses this
word had anything to do with the heart. And he says, he says
he has a lunatic, delirious heart spirit. That's the spirit of all men
by nature. This demon took possession of this young man as a mere child. The Lord said, how long has this
boy not been going on? All his life he's been like this. All his life. Don't you ever imagine one of
the dangers of television and the cartoons and all stuff from
television where things are portrayed. You kids see that stuff and you
begin to think Hollywood's telling you truth. Don't you ever imagine
That Satan, the devil, the demons of hell are jokes that caught
you the old man and pull it on you, scare you to death. Satan
is your soul's enemy. The demons of hell are real.
And the influence of hell is real. Real. More real than anybody's prepared
to acknowledge. He said, well Pastor, I thought
you said this is a delightful message. It is. It is. Because
next thing revealed here is the totality of our Savior's dominion. He said to the demons of hell,
come out of him. And you know what they did? You
know what they did? They came out. You see, Satan
is no rival to the Son of God. The demons of hell are no rival
to our God. The influence of evil is no rival
to our God. He said, come out of him and
don't you dare think about going in again. I'm telling you, everything that
wiggles under heaven obeys his will. Absolutely. Everything. But there's another difficulty
here. We see fourthly, or fifthly rather,
the dual nature of the believer. See it in two things. This man, the Lord said to him,
if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And he said that Mark gives us this too. He said, Lord, I believe
help thou mine unbelief. In this man was a heart of true
faith. He believed Christ. He believed
him to be the Lord. He believed him to be master.
He believed him to have power to do whatever he would. He believed
this man called Jesus of Nazareth, this one whom these disciples
had reported, this one who had performed such things. If he
will, he can help my boy. I believe he can. That's just about the kind of
faith I have most of the time. I don't dare say it. I prefer
not to think it. But you see, there is in us in
this sinful, vile body of flesh, there is in us two natures. We
believe God and we don't. We trust Christ and we don't.
We love him and we don't. And so the man dealt honestly
with the master. He said, Lord, I do believe. Lord, yes, I do believe. My faith ain't much. Hardly worth
calling faith. But I believe you. Now help my
unbelief. You see, you might say, well, that's not much
faith. Well, it's not, but it's enough. Because it's not the
quantity of faith, it's not the measure of faith, it's not even
the quality of faith we have that's of any significance. It's
the object of faith! And faith lays hold of here,
who is the omnipotent God. And we just, this is how we lay
hold of it. If I can just, if I just touch
the hymn of God, and we touch it, and he gets
older. And he holds us. And that's all. You see, none of God's people
in this world are perfect. Not even in a single area. Not even a single area. There's something else here about
the dual nature of the believer. In Luke 9, verses 43, 44, and
45, our Lord told his disciples, let
this sink down in your ears, hear this now. But they didn't
understand what he was saying. Not only is true faith very often, and Skip, I think this is honest,
I think this is just right, usually very weak faith. Not just often,
but usually. Which of you, my brothers and
sisters, which of you has ever exercised strong faith? All believers are strong in faith,
but which of you have ever exercised strong faith? Now, true faith is also weak
faith. And true believers, while they
know the gospel, know all things necessary for their souls, are
terribly ignorant about many things. These disciples, with
the exception of Judas, were believers. They were believers. They had walked with the messenger.
They were taught of God. They heard the word directly
from him. But there was a whole lot hidden
from them. Now, this is what I'm telling
you. It is a very dangerous thing.
It is a very dangerous thing for you and I to set ourselves
up as measuring sticks for anybody. Don't you dare do it. Man's got
to know this, got to know that. You've got to know the Son of
God. You've got to know Christ to
have life eternal. The Christ, the true Christ.
How much you have to know? These fellas, when all said and
done, they didn't know a whole lot. And you know what? You don't either. And I don't
either. I read this book. I studied it. I spent my life doing it. God's
arranged my life so that I can. And I'll be honest with you,
I know what the book's all about. I know the message of the book.
I know the message God sent me to preach. I don't have any question
about that. I know truth from error. But there is indescribably
more, I find, in this book that I don't understand than there
is that I do. Indescribably more. Correspondence to some fellow,
I hope he hears this. He has different things all the
time. He is a real theologian. He's great. Oh, he's brilliant.
He calls himself the Bible answer man. Got questions, come to me. I'll
answer them for you. Yeah. You got questions? If you're smart, you go somewhere
else. I ain't got any answers. I just know the answer. Learn
this too. This dear man here reminds us
of the privileges and responsibilities of believing parents. Look what he did. He brought
his son to the Savior. He brought him to the place where
the master was doing business. He brought him to hear the gospel
from the lips of the Son of God, brought him Brought him to the
place where God was working. Brought him to the place where
God came near to men. Brought him to the place where
God condescended to meet with sinners. And he didn't just do that. He
didn't just bring him to church with him, Lindsay. He brought
his son to the Savior and he brought his Savior to the Son.
He called on the Master. If you can do anything, have
compassion on us. He made his sons need his own
need. He wasn't asking for the master
to do something just for his boy. He was asking the master
to do something for him. He said, this is my son, my only
one, my only child. He said, that's awful selfish.
It is. Ladies, I acknowledge that. And I pray for your children.
I pray for the children of this congregation. I want to love yours like I love
mine. I want to. I ought to. But I just can't. I just can't. I'm sorry. And I can't love those kids I
see on the street like I love yours. I just can't. I can't separate myself from
those around me, those I'm related to, those I'm associated with.
I just can't. I just can't. Well, what do you
do? I'm not going to pray for them like I'd pray for a puppet.
No. Lord, I'm going to come to you as a sinner with a sinner's
son. And I'll tell you, Lord, God,
my heart's wrapped up in that boy. A whole lot more than it
ought to be. He's in desperate need. Me too. And you know what
he did? He did what there's not one parent
in 500,000 who'll do. He told the truth about his son
to God. Not necessary to tell it to me.
Not necessary to tell it to the neighbor. They don't need to
know none of their business. But if you're going to do business
with God, you better deal honestly with God. They said, Lord, I've
got a boy here. He's my only child. I love him.
He's deaf and dumb, not just physically, spiritually. He's an absolute raven lunatic. He's wicked to the core. Not
a good thing in him. He's always been that way. And it looks like he's fixing
to go to hell if he don't do something. He's dying. And he believed God. Here it is, Lord. I can't do anything. Your disciples
can't do anything. I'm coming to you, Master. Have compassion on us. Put them in your hands. Do what
you can. Oh, that's a good thing. It's
a good thing to put your life and your son and your daughter
and your family in his hands and say to the omnipotent God
with a submissive spirit, Lord, you do what you can. I can't
do a thing. Stand back, I'll tell you what God can do. The Lord said to this man, all right, all right, let me
show you what I can do. And he called this boy. He said,
bring him here. What's it going to take for this
lunatic to come to the master. I've got him here. What's it
going to take for him to come? I brought him here, but what's
it going to take for this demon possessed, hard-hearted, wicked,
lunatic rebel to come to you? It's going to take God the Son
saying to God the Spirit fetch him, bring him here. And you
know what he did? He came. He came. And when he came to the master,
at the command of the master, Satan tear him and threw him
and rent him. Spurgeon has a sermon on this
I read, I guess, 30 some years ago. He said, the devil's last
throw. He's about to lose one and y'all
can lose him easy. And he tear him and he threw
him on the ground and read him and it came out of him. And there
he lay like a dead man. Blessed death. Blessed death. And the Lord God stretched out
his omnipotent hand. Raised him from the dead. And this is the sweetest word
in the whole thing. He restored him to his father. That's what the Master's done
for me. It's what the Master's done for you. Oh, may he do it
for you.