Morning, everybody. If you'd
like to, turn over to Mark chapter 9. Mark the ninth chapter. We'll begin by reading our text.
When you get there, pick up in verse 14, Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter 9, verse 14. And when he came, speaking of
Christ to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them
and the scribes questioning with them. The scribes are kind of
bullying them at this time. And straightway all the people,
when they beheld him, were greatly amazed and running to him, saluted
him. And he asked the scribes, what
question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered,
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not." Now, you
imagine being this boy's father. He's displaying all the signs
of an epileptic seizure, all the symptoms of it, but the reality
of the situation is he is demon-possessed. And every once in a while, the
spirit will grab hold of this boy, and it tears him, which
means it would throw him down on the ground. And then he would
start gritting his teeth like he was mad, and his spit would
foam around his mouth, and after it was done with him, he'd pine
away, he'd wither away, he'd look like he was dead. And we'll
read here in a minute, sometimes when they get near a body of
water, the spirit would take that boy and throw him in the water
and sometimes into a fire. Can you imagine the terror this
man lived with? It's his son. Can you imagine
the terror this boy lived with? This is a very hard thing. And
he says, I've come to your disciples and they could not cast him out.
Disciples were a failure right now. We are beyond human help. Things are very, very dire. and we can't find anybody to
help. We've come to you. Verse 19, he answereth him and
saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought
it on to him, and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear
him. And he fell on the ground and
wallowed, foaming. And he asked his father, how long is it ago
since this came unto him? And he said, of a child. This
boy had been possessed from birth. Verse 22, and oft times it had
cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But
listen to these words, this man says. But if thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. Did he know who he was talking
to? No, he certainly did not, or he wouldn't have said, if
you can do something, help us. No, he doesn't know who he's
talking to right now. When Jesus saw, I'm sorry, look
at verse 23. Jesus said unto him, if thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And straightway the father of the child cried out and said
with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. When
Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked
the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit,
I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And
the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him, and
he was as one dead, insomuch that many said he is dead. But
Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he arose.
And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him
privately, why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them,
this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. Now when I was reading this story,
I could feel the desperation of the father in this story.
You all have kids, most of you do. Your child's afflicted, your
child's in trouble, and you can't help. You can't solve the problem. You can't find human means to
help. That's a dire situation. This
man was absolutely desperate, and he shows that. Look back
at verse 14. It says, And when he came to his disciples, he
saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with
them. down from the Mount of Transfiguration
where He was glorified in front of Peter, and James, and John. And the scribes are now, they
are questioning His disciples. And really they are bullying
them, right? They are trying to intimidate them. What do you
think they are questioning them about? What they just saw. This man
with the demon possessed boy, he brings his son to the disciples
and says he is demon possessed. And in Matthew chapter 10 that
first verse the Lord said to His disciples, I'm going to give
you power to cast out devils and demons. And he brings his
boy before the disciples and the disciples can't do it, they're
failed. And so the scribes, always looking for an opportunity to
discredit our Lord, they seize on this, right? Maybe he's not
as powerful as everybody thinks he is. Maybe he doesn't have
these abilities that everybody says he doesn't. He goes over
to the disciples, because they're not afraid of them, right? And
these scribes start bullying the disciples. They're questioning
the disciples. And I can only imagine the way this plays out.
I imagine the Lord creeps up on the scribes as they're bullying
the disciples, and they don't see him coming, right? He comes
back from the rear. And look at verse 16. And he asked the
scribes, what question ye with them? So, he comes up behind
them while these scribes are bullying his disciples and he
says, what question ye with them? It's not them you're seeking
to discredit, it's me. You got questions? You want to
question somebody? Question me right here. Can you imagine being
a scribe at that time? Can you imagine the terror of
these men? They weren't afraid of the disciples
but now they have the Lord saying, you got a problem? I'm right
here. You got a question? I'll answer your question. I'm
right here. I'm sure you all have seen a
situation like this before. You've seen something where two
people get tense in kind of a public place, and one of them clearly
is the more dominant figure, and that dominant figure is kind
of offended against. And you figure this lesser figure,
he's about to get it, right? This dominant figure is going
to go after him. And what do you do, right? You don't want
to attract any attention to yourself. You don't want that dominant
figure who is angry to turn his anger towards you, right? So
you'll watch, right? You want to see what happens.
But I bet nobody in this multitude who is watching, nobody said
a word, not a word. Everybody, a hush fell over the
crowd. We don't want to draw his anger towards us, right? But look what happens here. Verse 17, and one of the multitude
answered. Nobody was speaking to him. Lord
was about to give it to these scribes and all of a sudden he
pipes up the father of this boy who is demon possessed and said,
Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And I'm sure everybody in the
multitude was thinking, why are you talking right now? Right? You don't want to draw his anger
towards you. And yes, this man was taking a risk. This man was
acting with reckless abandon because he was desperate. Yes,
he might get angry at me. Yes, I might draw his ire at
this time. Yes, all these things are true,
but right now my son is demon possessed and there's no one
to help. Luke's account, we find out this is his only son, my
only child, this demon is tearing him. and come what way, whatever
it may be, I've heard this man can cast out demons, so I'm gonna
bring my son to him. With reckless abandon, he came
to Christ, despite what he was seeing. I can't think of a greater
commendation a man could receive at the end of his life. If when he dies, you could say
of that man, with reckless abandon, he pursued Christ. He came to
him, he believed upon him, with everything he had, all caution
to the wind, with absolutely no reserves, with no plan B,
he went after Christ, and he clung to Christ, and he trusted
Christ. I think this is the greatest commendation a man could receive
in this life. It's all by the grace of God,
but yet, what a commendation. And the reason this man did this,
the reason he acted with such reckless abandon and coming to
the master was for this reason, it's because he was desperate.
He had reached the end of his rope, and he was in utter desperation. And here's my point in all this,
folks. We're born into utter desperation.
We are born sinful, and we are born wicked, and we are born
against God, anti-God, without strength, and ungodly. He is a God of holiness. He is
a God of righteousness who cannot accept sin. They can do only
one thing with sin but punishment. And we are anti-God. We are by
nature against God. That is a desperate situation,
an absolutely desperate situation. Here is what I'm talking about
here. Look at verse 17, and one of the multitude answered and
said, Master, I have brought unto thee my Son which hath a
dumb spirit. You know what that means dumb?
It means speechless. We are in a desperate situation,
and folks, we're speechless. We don't have an excuse. We don't
have an excuse for the way we are. If I end up going to hell,
I have no excuse. We are a speechless people. Now, let me see if I can give
you an example of what I'm talking about here. Turn over to Matthew
chapter 22. We'll read of another man who was speechless. Matthew 22, and look at verse
13. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot. I'm sorry, verse 11. And when
the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Now what happened? This man was
at the wedding feast for the king's son. And there was only
one appropriate garment to be worn at the king's son's wedding. And that was the king's garment.
That was it. To be received, to be accepted
there, you had to be wearing the king's garment. And there
wasn't no excuse for anyone not to be wearing the king's garment
because it was freely provided at the door. It cost you absolutely
nothing. And this man strolls in with
his beggarly rags on and he draws the attention of the king. And
the king says, why aren't you wearing a wedding garment? It's
free. provided at the door. He's the
only one I can accept. I've said that. Why are you wearing
this? Where is your wedding garment?
He didn't have an excuse. What could he possibly say? Well,
his situation gets desperate, but he sees his desperation too
late. Look at verse 13. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth for many are called, but few are chosen. This man was in desperation the
whole time. He didn't know it until it was
too late. He was speechless. He did not have an excuse, but
it was too late. The weeping and the gnashing
of teeth had already come. Now what's this all about? Look back
at verse one of Matthew 22. This is a parable. And Jesus
answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage
for his son. Now, if you want to know what
this thing we call reality, this thing we call time, every second
of every day, what this is all about, this is about the king,
God the father, making a marriage for his son. This King is going
to glorify His Son. I'm going to have a marriage
for my Son. I'm going to have a wedding for my Son. And I'm
going to invite people, and we're going to have a big feast, and
everybody's going to look at my Son, and everybody's going
to glorify my Son. And everything that happens in
this world, you want to talk about the fall, you want to talk
about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, you want to talk about
every second of every day. Here's what's happening. God
the Father is glorifying His Son. That's what's going on. That's why everything happens
in every event, in every second. It is the glorification of Jesus
Christ and Christ is glorifying his father. That's what's going
on. What's God concerned with? He's concerned with Jesus Christ.
That's who he's concerned with. That's where his love is at.
That's where his concern is at. It is in his son, in his glory,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything makes sense in that
light. Once you take yourself out of the center of the universe,
Can you put Christ there? Because that's where he is. Everything
else makes sense. This is all working for his glory,
not mine. But that's what this king's doing.
He's glorifying his son. Look at verse 3. So what does
he do? And he sent forth his servants to call them that were
bidden to the wedding. Now listen to this. And they
would not come. God the Father has sent his gospel
to this world. And the Gospel message is this, this is the
general call. Sinner, come to Christ. Come. He is the Savior
of sinners. You can't save yourself. Come
to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is the
natural reaction? Notice what it says, and they
would not come. It doesn't say they couldn't.
Although that is true of the natural man, he cannot come to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot because he will not.
He does not want to. He is anti-God. These men who
will not come, do they have an excuse? No, one day, folks, they
will be speechless, absolutely speechless, in desperation and
speechless without excuse. Go on. This king, he's very gracious,
and he calls again, verse four, and again he sent forth other
servants, saying, tell them what you're bidding. Behold, I have
prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all
things are ready, come unto the marriage. You got the gospel
in one verse there. Sinner, all things are ready. You don't have to bring a dish.
You don't have to bring a wedding garment. In fact, you can't get
in the door with anything. All things are ready. The king
has provided everything. Why? Because the king killed. My oxen and my fatlings are killed.
Salvation's done, sinner. All things are ready. There's
absolutely nothing you need to do because God killed. God sent
his only begotten son to be the sinner's substitute. He died
under the wrath of God. The sins of everybody he died
for were put away. Now, sinner, come to Christ.
All things are ready. Come to the marriage. How do
they respond? Verse five, but they made light
of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise,
and the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and
slew him. This gracious king, come, all
things are ready. Concerned with other things,
mocking the king, and then slew his servants because they hated
the king and they hated the king's son. Folks, whatever happens
to these folks next, and I think you can guess what happens, do
they have an excuse? They're speechless. They're about
to find themselves in a desperate situation too late, and they
don't have an excuse. They're speechless. Look what
the king does, verse 7. But when the king heard thereof,
he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those
murderers and burned up their cities. Is there any injustice
with the king there? Did the king do anything wrong? No, the king is gracious. The
king called. He called the first time. They would not. He called
the second time. They slew his servants, and now
the king says, I've had enough. It's over for these folks, and
the justice and the wrath of the king falls on them. And what
are they going to say? Is there any injustice with God?
No, absolutely not. No, they are speechless. They
are without excuse. Now, look what the king does.
Look at verse 8. Then saith he to his servants, the wedding
is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye
therefore in the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid
to the marriage. So those servants went out into
the highways and gathered together all, as many as they found, both
bad and good. And the wedding was furnished
with guests." Folks, do we see the necessity of the sovereignty
of God and salvation now? The king says they were not worthy.
They would not come. A general call would do these
people absolutely no good. Here's what you're gonna do now,
servants. You go out to the highways. You know who you find on the
highways? Beggars and poor people. You go out to those highways.
You're not sending an invitation this time. Take them by the hand
and bring them to the marriage supper. You wanna know why? Because
my son is going to be glorified. That's why. We see now the necessity
of a God who elects. If he doesn't choose before the
foundation of the world, if he didn't choose from the foundation
of the world who he would save and send Christ to save those
distinct people and send his Holy Spirit to call those same
people irresistibly and invincibly, who would be saved? Not a one. Not a one. You get mad at election,
the sovereignty of God, all you want. It's our hope. God has
to be sovereign. If I'm to be saved, it must be
by a sovereign God. I must be chosen. I must be irresistibly
called because if I'm not, if I'm not taken hold of and taken
to this marriage feast, I'll end up like these fellows that
were desperate and without excuse and I found out too late. Now,
Pick up verse 11 where we left off, and when the king came in
to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding
garment, and he saith unto him, friend, how camest thou in hither
not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless, he was
without excuse. Folks, the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is free. The very sinlessness of the Lord
Jesus Christ is free. The call is this, come unto me
all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
for absolutely no reason cast him out. That is the promise. That is the call. The garment
was provided at the door and this man strolls in wearing his
beggarly rags. And why did he do that? Because
he thought they were just as good as the king's garment. The
king will be pleased with this. I'm going to stand out. I'm going
to get the king's attention. Well, he did. And he found himself
in a desperate situation, and he finds out too late. He is
speechless before this holy king. Now, here's my point in all this.
That's a very long way of getting to this one point. Folks, we
are born in a desperate state, desperately wicked, desperately
against God. And if we die in that state,
we are without excuse. So what? What am I saying? Come
to Christ. Come, believe on Him, come to
Him in faith and do it right now. Do not wait. You do not
know when you are going to pass. You do not know when the Lord
Jesus Christ is going to come back. There is an exigency in
this thing. This is a desperate state. Come
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
That is, in fact, the promise. Now, somebody says, great. What
do you mean by that? What is faith? Do I have it? Have I been given this gift?
Go back to your text. Let's see what it looks like. Mark 9, look at verse 19. The Lord speaks, he answereth
him and saith, O faithless generation, How long shall I be with you? Who's he talking to? Is he talking
to the scribes that were berating his disciples? Yes. Is he talking about his disciples?
Yes. Is he talking about the multitude
that's standing around? Yes. Is he talking about the father
and that son who is demon possessed? Yes. Oh, faithless generation. Folks, everybody suffers with
unbelief. The unregenerate man, the man that is born into this
world, the way we are born into this world, he is faithless.
He cannot and will not believe God. He cannot and will not trust
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
does not intercede for that man, he will die in that desperate
state. And then you have the regenerate
man. You have the Lord's people, those saved by the grace of God.
And they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but just as the
Father in this story says, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Why? Why can we say that? And it's absolutely true, it's
the experience of every believer. Because that old man, That natural
man, he's still there. He is still breathing down the
backs of our necks, and he never believes God. And he is at war
with that new man, that holy man, that always believes God,
and they stay at war. So all we can say is just like
this, Father, Lord, I believe, I do, I trust you, help them
my unbelief, because you're the only one who can do something
about it. Three things I want to show you about faith, true
saving faith here. And what you can see most of
it is found in what these characters, the opposite or the reverse of
what some of these characters do. Look up here and look at
verse 22. The father of this possessed
boy speaks and says, and oftentimes it has cast him into the fire
and into the waters to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything,
Have compassion on us and help us. Now this man didn't have
an ounce of faith right now. The Lord had not revealed himself
to this man. And here's the reason we know
it. He has a lack of confidence in Christ's ability. If thou
can't do anything, have compassion on us. And we know he doesn't
know who the Lord is at this point because he starts in verse
17 by saying, master. Master, teacher, You're a good
man. You're a prophet of God. You've
got some power. Master, Master, I'm bringing
my son unto you." He doesn't know who he's come to yet, and
he doesn't have confidence in his ability. We know that because
this is the bedrock of faith, confidence in the ability of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One thing I enjoy hearing Todd
say, more than just about anything else when he's talking about
faith, is this, faith has nothing to do with what you think about
yourself. It has everything to do with what you think about
Christ. Is he able? Is anything too hard
for the Lord? Absolutely not. Says this, Isaiah
42, 4, He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set
judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. He can't fail. He's God. If you're sovereign, and your
purposes are always done. That means you can't fail in
your purposes. That means if he purposed to
save you, if he purposed to save me, saved I must be because he's
the one who's in control. He's the one who has all the
power. He's the one who makes the rules. And he satisfies his
own rules. He cannot fail. It has nothing
to do with what you think about yourself. And we have those fears
and those doubts all the time. Is he willing to save somebody
like me? Has he really revealed himself to me? Do I really know
him? I struggle with that. You struggle with that. We all
struggle with that. What don't you struggle with? Is he able? By himself, is he able to save
you with absolutely no help from you in a manner to where he gets
every aspect of the glory and that salvation? What do you think
about that? Yes, and that's what's called
confidence in His ability. That is the bedrock of faith. Look what happens next. Look
at verse 23. This man says, "'If thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us.'" Well, here's how the
Lord responds. Verse 23, "'Jesus said unto him, If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.'" Now,
what's He saying there? Is he saying, well, the reason
I can't do anything for you is because you don't have strong
enough faith, you don't believe in me appropriately. Is that
what he's saying? If that is what he's saying, that means
two things are true. He's not omnipotent and salvation
is not up to his blood and his grace. It's up to the will of
man and man's ability to muster faith. It's not. You can't believe on me, so I
can't do anything for you. What he's doing here is saying
this. He's turning the tables on this man. He's meeting him
on the grounds this man came to him on. If you can do something,
help us. He says, well, can you believe? There's inability on the table,
friend, but it's not on my side of the table. It's on your side
of the table. It's not that I'm unable. I'm
the Lord. I'm God. I control all things.
There's nothing that's too hard for me." You can't believe. There's inability here, but it
all rests with you. You lack the ability to even
believe. I have to even give you that.
That's what he's saying here. Well, look how this man responds.
One of the shorter messages I've ever heard anyone preach, but
it had a great effect. Verse 24, "'And straightway the
father of the child cried out and said with tears," notice
that next word, Lord, not master. Verse 17, it was
master, it was teacher. You're a great man, you've got
some power. Now, Lord, what he told him, I'm in control, I'm
God, I'm the savior, I'm the one who does all things, he believed
him. That's what happens when the
Lord preaches the gospel to you. when he makes that word effectual
to you. You believe he's the one who's
in control. He's the one who's able. Whatever
he purposes, he must perform, the bedrock of faith. He was
given faith in just that little message right there. And straightway
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. He's the Lord. He had confidence
in his ability. But I see another thing here
too. This man is fully committed. Paul said this, I know whom I
have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. This man is
fully committed. He has brought his son to the
Lord for healing. He's brought himself to the Lord
to save. And now you know what he's bringing?
His unbelief. You're the one who gave the faith. You're the
one who does the saving. You're the one who does it all.
And now I'm even going to trust you to deal with this thing of
my unbelief." Coming to him for faith. He is fully and utterly
committed. And there's a story that I think
relays that point. It's probably one of my favorite
stories in the scripture. Turn over to Acts 27 for just a moment. Acts 27, Paul is a prisoner on
a ship going to Rome, and they find themselves in a great storm.
You're a Platon. And so along the way, the Lord
appears to Paul and says, Paul, don't worry. Everybody in that
ship, they're all going to be safe. They're all going to live.
But the ship has to go down. The ship has to be destroyed.
What a picture of the gospel. Everybody in Christ is going
to be delivered safe and sound to the shore. The ship has to
go down. Christ has to die. Well, he tells the crew members
this. And then things get a little
worse. The winds kick up. They think they're going to crash
on some rocks. And look at verse 30 of Acts 27. Look at what these
crew members do. And as the shipmen were about
to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into
the sea under color as though they would have cast anchors
out of the foreship. So they have the promise. The
promise is everybody in the ship is going to be safe. Paul tells
these men, no doubt about it. And then these men are looking
around. They get afraid. The winds are
kicking up. The waves hit. There's rocks coming up. They're
afraid the boat's going to crash against the rocks and they're
all going to be killed. And they see something on that boat they
hadn't noticed before. There was a lifeboat. There's a little
tiny dinghy sitting there. And they get this unbelieving,
wicked, illogical thought. I think we're going to be safer
in that little tiny dinghy than we are in this big huge ship.
Does that make any sense whatsoever? Huge sea, winds kicking up, 50-foot
waves. What do you want to be in, a
huge ship that can cross the ocean? You want to be in a little
rowboat. Which one? Say that's stupid and that's illogical.
Folks, unbelief is stupid and illogical. Greater than what
they could see is that this massive ship was much safer than the
little dinghy. The promise of God was in the ship. He said
everybody in the ship would be safe, but they said, I want to
get in this little dinghy. I think I'm going to be a little
bit safer in this little dinghy. You know what that is, folks?
That's trust in our works. That's trusting in something
we do, something that comes from us. The Lord can have absolutely
nothing to do with that. It's illogical, it's stupid,
it's unbelieving because the Lord tells us all our works are
as filthy rags. It's unrighteousness before God.
Have no trust in this. Now look what happens, look at
verse 31. Paul said to the centurion, to the soldiers, except these
abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Verse 32, then the
soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. There's one thing they had other
than the ship, this little rowboat. They take the cords, they cut
it, it falls off in the water and they watch it drift off into
the night. And they are left with the bare
promise of God and the ship. That's called commitment. It's
where you cut ties with everything, but Christ and Him crucified,
and you fully commit to that, to Him. I've got absolutely nothing
but Him. Every experience I had, who knows
about it? All my works, nothing before
God. My best thought, self-motivated at best. All wickedness, all
nothing, I got one thing, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
all my hope, that's commitment. right there. And here's the thing,
as long as we have a rowboat, we won't let go of it. Until
the Lord comes to us and he shows us everything about us is wickedness
and sin, we'll hold on to that boat. But when you see it for
what it is, that it cannot save, that it cannot stand before God,
it's easy to cut ties with it and you just cling to Christ.
Now, these are the three things I want to give you about faith.
Number one, the bedrock of faith is this, confidence in Christ's
ability. This is the second one, commitment.
All your eggs are in this basket. You got nothing else. It's relatively
easy for a sinner. We don't have anything else.
All we have is Christ. And here's the third one, what
always accompanies faith, a destruction of any confidence in the flesh.
I want you to look at Matthew's account of our text. Look at
Matthew 17. Matthew 17 and look at verse
19, Matthew's account of what we're reading. Verse 19, then came the disciples
to Jesus apart and said, why could not we cast him out? That's a logical question. The
Lord said to them, I'm going to give you power to cast out
demons and to cast out devils. And I'm sure that they had gone
along and they had done this several times, but all of a sudden
they come to this boy who has this dumb spirit and they can't
cast him out. So he said, why? Why couldn't
we do it this time? Verse 20, and Jesus said unto
them, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto
this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove,
and nothing shall be impossible unto you. What happened with
the disciples? If the Lord bestowed upon you
the gift to heal diseases and to cast out demons and to do
all these wonderful things and you did it for long enough, what
would happen? Eventually you start thinking,
look what I'm doing. Look at this, look at this power
I have. I can cast out demons, I can heal diseases. All these
things, this is what happened to the disciples. They forgot
that the only power they had was the power the Lord gave them.
And the Lord took it for a time so they would see this. Thou
canst do nothing without me. That's it, it was taken from
them. And here's the thing about faith.
Every time it's given. Everything about ourselves, every
sense of self-sufficiency is blown out of the water, just
taken away. And we're left with this. Look at what the Lord says
here in verse 21. How be it this kind goeth not
out but by prayer and fasting. What does he mean by that? How can a man be saved? How can
it my sins can be taken out of me to where I bear them no more?
How can I be sent out to where I actually stand before God without
guilt, holy and unblameable and unapprovable? By fasting and
prayer in this regard. What's fasting? It's voluntary
suffering is what it is. It differs from starving in this
way. Starving there is no food, therefore you starve. Fasting
is I'm doing this voluntarily. I am suffering voluntarily. How
can a man be presented to God blameless? The voluntary suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ for that man. That's it. And prayer. What is prayer from the standpoint
of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's his intercession for his
people. It's where he stands before his father and he presents
his people and he shows his father the wounds in his hands and his
sides and he says, accept them because me, because of what I've
done. And the father said, I will receive
every single person you offered yourself for. That's how man
can be saved. It's not faith. Faith looks to
that one who did the saving. That's it. Confidence is ability. Got nothing else. Committed to
him. No confidence in yourself. Folks, that's faith. That's faith.
And if you have that, you have that gift of God. We're born
into utter desperation, folks. Utter desperation. Sinful people
before a holy God. But if the Lord's given you this
gift, look to the Lord Jesus Christ right now. We'll stop
there.