Would you turn to Mark chapter
nine? We're going to look at Mark's
account of that passage of scripture that I read out of Luke. It's
found in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but Mark gives us this detail.
I've entitled this message help for unbelief. In verse 22 of
Mark chapter nine. The young boy's father says,
and oft times it hath 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. 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. You ever prayed that prayer?
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now, in this passage
of scripture, we go from a scene of majesty, to misery. The Lord comes down from the
man of transfiguration where his deity burst through his humanity
and his face shined above the brightness of the sun and his
clothes were white and glistening. And he spake of the decease,
which he should accomplish at such a glorious high time. And he comes from that down from
that verse 14. And when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them and describes questioning
with them. Now, perhaps you'll remember
that it was Matthew or it was a Peter, John and James were
up with him and the rest of the nine disciples stayed down. They
weren't on the manual transfiguration. They didn't get to experience
this. And when he came down to his disciples, he saw a great
multitude about them and the scribes questioning with them.
Verse 15, and straightway all the people, when they beheld
him, were greatly amazed, 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 brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. Now, This dumb spirit was also
called a foul spirit, an unclean spirit. In Matthew's account,
he said he was a lunatic, which means he had epilepsy. And it
was he would go through epileptic fits brought on by this demon
possession. I don't understand all that,
but there it is. This man was so afflicted. And can you imagine seeing your
child afflicted like that? Well, he did. I mean, this man
was just so troubled and he had brought his child to the disciples
because he'd heard they can cast out demons and they could not
do it. And this caused such destructive
behavior for this young man. Verse 18, he has a dumb spirit
and where so ever he taketh him, he teareth him and he foameth
and gnashes with his teeth and pines away. And I spake to thy
disciples that they should cast him out and they could not. He answered him and said, O faithless
generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer
you? Bring him to me. Now, the disciples at this time
were failures. They had cast out demons before,
but for some reason this one they couldn't. They were failures,
and they didn't understand why. As a matter of fact, you go on
reading in this passage of scripture, and you'll see where they ask
the Lord, why could not we cast them out? What happened? We've
done it before, but we didn't do it at this time. The disciples
at this time were failures. Now, James and Peter and John
were with the Lord on the holy mount of transfiguration, and
they had been left to themselves to find out the truth of what
our Lord said. Without me, you can do nothing. Don't you know that that is the
truth? Without me, you can do nothing. They were completely powerless
before this dumb and deaf spirit. And oh, the destructive behavior
it caused. And then we read of the scribes
disputing with him at this time. And I can imagine the venomous
and sarcastic questions they asked them. Why couldn't you
cast them out this time? You did it in the past. Evidently
it didn't work this time. What's wrong? I mean, shouldn't
it work all the time? Maybe all this was trickery after
all. Maybe there wasn't anything to it because you all weren't
able to do it. And then the Lord comes and stands
for them. You know, Child of God, aren't you glad
the Lord undertakes your cause? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Now the scribes were questioning
him, but the Lord speaks up. Verse 16, he asked the scribes,
why question ye with him? And one of the multitude answered
and said, master, notice how he addresses him, master, teacher,
teacher. I brought unto thee my son, which
hath a dumb spirit. He can't speak. And we find out
also that he was a deaf spirit. He couldn't hear. If you can't
hear, you can't speak. And I think this is a powerful
picture of the natural man. He can't hear the gospel. He
can't. Oh, he can hear audibly and he's
got enough intelligence to understand what's being said, but he can't
hear with hearing ears. He's deaf and his speech betrays
it. He's dumb. He can't speak. The
deaf and dumb spirit caused by this demon. One of the multitudes,
verse 17, one and one of the multitude answered and said,
Master, I brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit,
and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he fometh
and gnashes with his teeth and pines away. And I spake to thy
disciples that they should cast him out, and they couldn't. He answered him and saith, O
faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long
shall I suffer you? Bring him to me. That's what I need. I need to
be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. Bring him to me. Now, when the Lord says this,
oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Is he speaking to the scribes?
Yes, he is. Is he speaking to his disciples?
Yes, he is. His powerless and unbelieving
disciples. I don't know how to say this
properly because I know that the Lord is never exasperated.
He's God. He's never exasperated. But I
can see how he would be around folks like me and you. Can't
you? He looked at his disciples, and
he said, how long shall I suffer you? How long shall I be with
you? Bring him to me. And you know, there was a time
when Christ told God the Holy Spirit, bring him to me. What a blessed, blessed thought
that is. Now, when people brought others
to Christ, good things happened. You remember when those four
men brought their paralytic friend to Christ on a mat of some kind,
and they couldn't get in. They broke the roof up and let
him down. And he's down and sits before
them. And I think of the Lord. He stopped preaching. They interrupted
him. I'm sure people thought, what are they doing? Well, they
knew they had to get their friend to Christ. And they set him down. And the Lord looked at that man.
And he said, son, be of good cheer. And you know, I can see
him smiling at that man when he said that. Be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven me. Good things happen when men brought
men to Christ. Bring him to me. Actually, every
time someone brought Someone to him, he did something for
them, even when it was done with malintent. What about when those
Pharisees brought that woman to him, taking an adultery in
the very act? What did she end up hearing from
him? Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I. Good things
happen. They didn't mean for that to
happen. But it did bring him to me. Now, somebody says, how
can I bring somebody to Christ? Well, I guess the first question
you ought to ask is, how can I get to Christ? Before we think
about somebody else, how can I get to Christ? That's what
I want to know. Well, the Lord said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out. How do you get there? He's seated
at the right hand of the Father. How do you get there? How can
I come to the Lord Jesus Christ? I hear words like that, but how
do I go about doing it? I can tell you. By believing
on His name. You're commanded right now to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe on Christ, you're
coming to Him. And you know what He promised? Him that cometh to me. I'm coming
to Him right now in my heart. I'm coming to Him. Lord, have
mercy on me. Lord, save me by Your grace. Lord, do something
for me. I'm coming to the Lord. And He's promised, He that comes
to me, I will in no wise cast out. You come to Him and you
know what the first thing you're going to want to do? You're going
to want to bring somebody else to Him. That's what happens when
you come to Christ. You can't come to Christ if you
don't have a great desire to bring others to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, how can I bring somebody else to Christ? Well,
first of all, I can bring them to Him in prayer. I can take that person's name
in prayer and bring them to Him. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy
on this person. Make Yourself known. I can bring
them to the place where He's promised He is. You know, I love
that promise where two or three are gathered together in my name.
There I am in the midst of them. There I am. He inhabits the preaching
of the gospel. He is there. Somebody says, well,
I don't feel it. I don't experience it. Well,
he's not speaking to you then. But he is there. He is there
in the preaching of the gospel always. He makes that his promise
where two or three are gathered together in my name. Are you
gathered together in his name right now? You know that the
only way you can be accepted is his name and you come to hear
his name exalted. He's there. We bring them by
preaching the gospel to them. You bring, you preach the gospel
to somebody, you're bringing them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to be an ambassador of Christ, don't you? I want to
bring people to Christ. He said, bring him to me. Verse 20, and they brought him
unto him. And when he saw him straightway,
the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. You know, when one is coming
to Christ, that's when his greatest opposition begins. That's when
the trouble really begins. I'm sure, you know, there was
a time where where where sin just didn't bother me all that
much. I mean, just to be honest, it just didn't bother me all
that much. I didn't feel bad about it. But man, when the Lord
caused me to come to Christ, sin took a completely different
meaning to me. Oh, that's when opposition came.
When you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, that's when you're going
to get torn. And that's when this fellow was
torn. Verse 21, And he, the Lord Jesus Christ, asked his father,
saying, How long is it since this came unto him? Didn't the
Lord know? Of course he did. Of course he
did. But he's teaching this fellow. How long has it been? And he
said, of a child. He's going to have us know that
we're born this way. Did you know that you were born
bad? Do you believe that? You were born bad. You came out
of the womb evil. You believe that? You know I
do. I know it's so. I know it's so.
Born bad. How long has he been this way?
Of a child. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. The wicked go astray as soon
as they be born, speaking lies. I never will forget hearing that.
I thought, well, how can they speak lies if they can't even talk? And I remember
hearing Bruce Crabtree talk about that. And he said, well, babies
cry. They're lying. You know, they're trying to get you to
respond somehow to them, to tell them lies then. I thought, well,
yep, there it goes. The wicked are... Explains that to me at
any rate. But how desperate this must. Can you imagine? Verse 22. And
oft times it had cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything.
Does he realize who he's talking to? This is the creator of the
universe. If thou canst do anything, that's
what he says. If thou canst do anything, have
compassion on us. and help us. Now, understand
this about faith. I know this about faith. I'm
sure of this. Faith believes his ability. When that fella said, if thou
canst, he didn't have a drop of faith when he said that. Because
true saving faith believes in the ability of the Lord Jesus
Christ, always. The leper understood that. He
said, Lord, if you will, you can, you're able to make me clean. The Roman centurion knew this.
Lord, speak the word only. That's all you have to do. All
you have to do is will it. And my servant shall be clean. Abraham knew this, being fully
persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. It's what Paul believed. He said,
I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that
day. You see, if you have faith, you
believe in His ability. At this time, this man didn't
have a drop of faith, or he wouldn't have said, if you can. Faith is believing his ability. This is who created the universe.
This is who upholds all things by the word of his power. This
is the one who is mighty to save and works of grace are easy to
Christ because of his ability. He has the power. He has the
right to forgive sin, and there is no limit. There is no limit
to the saving efficacy of his blood. No matter how bad I am,
no matter how abandoned I may feel, no matter how far away
I am, the blood of Christ has power to reach me. Now, we talk
about limited atonement. That's a Word we use to describe
the intentions of Christ's atonement was limited to the elect, and
it was. It was. But my soul, his atonement
is limitless in its power. It's unlimited in its power. His blood has the power to take
me or you and make us perfect before God. It's unlimited. Yes, I believe in limited atonement,
but I also most surely believe in unlimited atonement. There's no limits to the power
of His saving blood. Now, The Lord says in verse 23, Jesus said unto him, he turns
the table. That fellow says, if you can
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And I'm not
being hard on this fellow. I feel sorry for him. I understand
where he's coming from. I mean, he was ignorant. When
he came to the Lord, he came to the Lord as a teacher. And
the Lord is a teacher, but he's more than a teacher. But he came
to him as a teacher. Same way that Nicodemus came. Teacher, master. We know you
come from God. You're a teacher. You're a teacher
from God. Well, I need more than a teacher. I need a savior. I need somebody to save me. I
need somebody to do something for me. Now look, Jesus saith
unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible. to him
that believeth. Now the Lord says, the if's not
with me, the if's with you. If you can believe. All things are possible to him
that believeth. Now, he's not saying that he
can't heal this man unless this man has enough faith to be healed.
If that were the case, no one would be healed. You see, faith
is the gift of his grace. If you have faith, you know he
gave it to you. It's not something you just came
up with. You didn't decide to start believing. He gave you
that faith, and you know that in the experience of your heart.
You know what faith you have. He gave you. Now, he wasn't saying,
if you can't come up with the faith, I can't heal you. But
it's equally true that all things are possible to him that believeth
for with God, nothing shall be impossible. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? I love that question. The Lord asked Abraham when Sarah
laughed, when he said, you're going to have a child. He said,
is anything too hard for the Lord? What a question. Is anything? Too hard for the
Lord. He can make a black sinner as
pure as the driven snow. He can justify the ungodly. He can make holy the unholy.
He can make sin to be no more. He can give a new heart. All
things are possible to him that believeth. Now, here's the big
question. What's it mean to believe? All things are possible to him
that believeth. But what does it mean to believe? Yes, it's believing he's able. That's certainly, you don't even
begin in faith if you don't believe that he's able. But that's not
all it is. It's not just believing in his ability. Now I've got
a hundred dollar bill in my wallet. Remember that. The word faith
is translated in Luke chapter 1611, the word believe is translated
committed to your trust. Luke 1611, who will commit to
your trust the true riches. Now think of that, the language,
commit to your trust. Now I have a hundred dollar bill.
in my wallet. And I started thinking about,
I want to pick somebody out of the congregation and say, I'm
going to trust you to take care of this. But I thought, what
if they don't give it back to me? So I'm just using this as an illustration.
I trust you. I trust you. I do have a $100
bill in my pocket. I feel pretty good about that.
$100 bill. I like to show everyone through
the store. I like to open up my wallet and $100 bill. This guy's got
something. Here's the point. I can trust. I trust. I trust. If I gave that $100
bill to Audrey, I'd trust her to keep it for me. I really would. I'd trust her to keep it for
me. But you know, if all I did was trust her to keep it for
me, it wouldn't mean anything. It wouldn't mean anything until I actually handed
her the $100 bill and committed it to her trust. My hands are off now. It's up
to her as to whether that $100 bill is safe. Not up to me. Now, I've entrusted it to her,
but as to whether or not it's safe, it has nothing to do with
my trust. It has to do with her trustworthiness,
whether she is able to keep that hundred dollar bill for me. Now,
where there's faith, not only is there a belief in the ability
of Christ, but you commit to your trust. You commit to
his trust all your salvation. You know what I'm doing right
now? Once again, I'm committing to His trust the entire salvation
of my soul. I'm committing to His trust all
my hope of salvation. My hands are off. Just like Paul
said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed to him. I'm committing to his
trust my salvation. Now my salvation is totally dependent
upon him doing something for me. For him being, doesn't have
anything to do with me. I'm not, now I could, when I'm
handing out that $100 bill, I might have thought, well, what if Aubrey
doesn't keep it? I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep 50 of it
and I'll give her 50. Well, that's not committing to
her trust, isn't it? I only commit it to her trust when I give her
all of it. All of it. And I commit the entire
salvation of my soul to him. Verse 24. Verse 23, Jesus saith 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, what's he say? Different from what he called
him the first time. First time he called him master, teacher. Now he calls him Lord. Now when you believe that he's
the Lord, Two things are true. You believe in His ability. He's
the Lord. I love, you know, I love calling
Him the Lord. He's the Lord. He's my Lord.
He's the Lord. Don't you love Him as the Lord?
Now, it's one thing to come to Him as a teacher to be taught,
but, you know, I want to be taught. I want the Lord to teach me.
I want the Lord to teach you. I want to, no doubt about that, but
I need Him as the Lord to save me. No man can say Jesus is Lord,
but by the Holy Ghost. And that means really believe
he's Lord. I want to be just like that thief
on the cross when he looked up and saw him. Who did he see? Lord. As he was hanging on the cross,
he didn't look like Lord, but the thief knew he was. Lord. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Now, when you believe, I'll tell
you what this fella did. He didn't believe at first. And
then all of a sudden, he found himself believing. If you believe
Jesus Christ as the Lord, you believe. What did he say? Lord, I believe. He found himself believing. Lord,
I believe. You know what believers do? They believe. You know, I believe. I do. Do you know what? I really believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. I believe He's the Creator of
the universe. I believe He's the second person of the Blessed
Trinity, equal with the Father. I believe that when He died,
He put away the sins of everybody He died for. I really believe
that His righteousness is the only righteousness, and His righteousness
is my personal righteousness. I believe He's sitting on a throne,
ruling and reigning, and I've committed the salvation of my
soul. I've entrusted it to Him. I don't have anything to do with
it. It's totally, I believe. Can you say that? Lord, you know
my heart. I believe. Help thou, oh help thou, mine
unbelief. Because when I believe, I have
something else breathing on my neck that I'm always conscious
of. Unbelief. There's never been
a time when I could say, Lord, I believe I have no unbelief. I love what Spurgeon tells the
story of a man who came up to him and said, I never have any
doubts. And Spurgeon said, I never had
a doubt about you. I always knew you were a confounded hypocrite.
What a way to speak to someone. But he did. He did. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Now,
the new nature always believes. There's no unbelief in the new
nature. Try to not believe. Try. You can't. The new nature always believes. The old nature never believes. And we have these two natures,
and here's their summary. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Well, what's he do to help it?
Verse 25. 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 was dead in
so much that many said he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up and he rose. You know what help run belief
is? It's so simple. The call of sovereign
effectual grace. The Lord said to that spirit,
out of it! Could he say no? Could the Lord
fail? Is there any way that that? No.
The Lord said, come out, you deaf and dumb spirit. And he
came out. Now that's the only help there
is for unbelief, seeing His mighty power in salvation. Don't you
love sovereign grace? I love the way the Lord commands.
You know, if He commands you, you know what you're going to
do? You're going to obey. If He commands, you're going
to obey. If you don't obey, He didn't
command you. He didn't speak to you. If He
speaks, you will obey. And that is what help I need
for unbelief. I need for him to cause me to
believe by a sovereign grace, where I say, Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief. And when he gives his commandment,
my unbelief crawls off into the background. It ends up coming
back. I realize that. It always will,
as long as we're in this flesh. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. I know this, the only help for
unbelief is him. Lord, pray this prayer from your
heart right now. If you believe, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Let's pray.