Let us open our Bibles today
to Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter 9. We'll be looking
at verses 14 through verse 30. And when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning
with them. 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 you with them? One of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And whithersoever he taketh him,
he teareth him. and ye 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. He answered
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
him unto him, and when they saw him, straightway the spirit tear
him, ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, how
long is it ago since this came upon him? And he said, of a child. And oftentimes 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. Straightway the father of the
child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help
thou my unbelief. When Jesus saw that he came,
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, lifted him up, and he arose. And when he was
coming to 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. As we look at these scriptures
this morning, First of all, I want us to see
a sad case. A sad case. And second, a faithless
generation. And third, the Lord Jesus putting
the if in the right place. And then fourth, a very important
question for each one of us. So first of all, a sad case. I don't think that anyone, especially
any parent, can read this account of this man with his son possessed
of a demon and not be moved with compassion. Just reading it just
now, just reading over it again, it calls forth our compassion
and pity, especially all of us who are parents. We all put ourselves
in the place of this man, this father, put ourselves in his
position, and realized just how awful this case was. Every parent,
every parent here this morning, we would spare our children from
all hurt and all suffering that they experience in this world
if we could, but we can't. I saw a report this past week
on the news of a lady who is pregnant, and they were showing
the ultrasound, and she said this. She said, I was surprised
how quickly I loved that child. I mean, that baby in the womb,
she's never really seen it, but she already loves it. And that's
just true, mothers and fathers, isn't it? We love our children,
and as I said, if we could, we would spare them from any hurt,
any harm that they might experience in this world. But we can't. We know that. We would, but we
can't. In this very sad case, we have
a father whose son was possessed with a dumb and a deaf spirit. He couldn't hear, therefore he
couldn't talk. Now we do not know how old this
son was. We're not told that. But we are
told, the Father told the Lord Jesus that this foul spirit had
possessed him from a child. Leads me to believe he's no longer
a child. But from a child, this foul spirit Childhood. You know, there's
some diseases, some sicknesses that people used to refer to
as childhood sicknesses. Well, this wasn't one of them.
This wasn't something he was going to outgrow with years. No. From a child, he had been
possessed of this deaf and dumb spirit. It wasn't something any
medic, any doctor, medicine that could cure this
young man's problem. This man, this father, I can
imagine he watched his son at times and he was foaming. You know, when a rabid dog, they
foam at the mouth. And this man had seen his son
foaming at the mouth. Not only that, but he gnashed
with his teeth. And the Father not only said
that about him, but even worse, sometimes under the influence
of this spirit, he'd cast himself into the fire. Now, in a place
like that, of course, all the cooking, I'm sure, was done. And this young man, this boy,
sometimes this spirit would cause him just to throw himself into
the fire. Fire burns. And not only that, but evidently
around a body of water, sometimes it would cause him to throw himself
into the water, to destroy himself, to drown himself in the water.
The Father probably had saved him. So what I see here is a very
sad case. A very sad case. None of us this
morning can doubt that. Now there are two things I want
to point out to us. I want you to turn with me, first
of all, to Matthew chapter 12. The first thing I want us to
say about a foul spirit is, some are worse than others. Some foul spirits are worse than
others. And you will see this here in
Matthew chapter 12 and verse 43, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking
when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man. Now the first thing
to notice here, the unclean spirit was not cast out of this man. The unclean spirit went out of
this man. In other words, on his own volition,
his own will, This foul spirit decided to leave this man or
woman that it had possessed. When the unclean spirit is gone
out of the land, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding
none. Then he saith, I will return
into my house from whence I came out. And when he come, he findeth
it empty. You see, the demon spirit had
gone out of this man. When he comes back, he finds
the house is empty. If the Lord Jesus Christ had
cast the dumb spirit out of him, and what we refer to as saving
him, then now when he comes back, what would he find? He wouldn't
find an empty house. He would find a house in which
God the Holy Spirit dwells. But no. This spirit goes out
on its own accord, and when it comes back, he finds it empty,
he finds it swept. It's all clean. He's turned over
a new leaf. He's become very moral, maybe
even very religious, because he's garnished the house. He
may have hung the Ten Commandments, a plaque of the Ten Commandments
up on one wall, and be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another up on another wall. I mean, He's garnished the house,
but it's still empty of God the Holy Spirit. And so what does
He do? And this is the point I'm making
here. What does He do? Well, He says, Then goeth he,
and taketh with himself seven other spirits, yes, but notice,
more wicked, more wicked than himself. And they enter in and
dwell there. And the last state of that man
is worse than the first. Even so shall it be unto this
wicked generation. Some evil spirits, or worse than
others. Isn't that what our Lord says
here? He finds seven others that were more wicked to take back
with Him, to live in this man's house or body. The second thing I want us to
see is this, and I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter 2. All lost men, and that includes
you, If you're here this morning and you have never been saved
by the amazing, sovereign grace of God, this includes you. All lost men, natural men, as
we are born into this world, have the wicked spirit working
in them. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
1. And you, now these are people
who have been saved. You find that in chapter 1. And
you, something happened to you. God did something for you. And
you, salvation is of the Lord. From A to Z, from first to last,
it's by grace and it's by the God of all grace. And you have
equated who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past,
that is in sins and trespasses and sins, you walked What dead fish do? They go along
with the stream. There has to be a live fish to
swim upstream. But man by nature is dead in
trespasses and sins, and so he floats along, he goes along with
the course of this world. Now notice, according to the
prince of the power of the air. Now that doesn't mean, as some
people have thought, that Satan somehow has control over the
airwaves. I've read where some people believe
that he could produce lightning and hail and all of those things
that... No, no. That's not what this
verse is saying at all. When he destroyed some of the
flocks of Job by lightning, sending fire down out of heaven, he did
that by God's permission. Satan cannot do anything without
God's permission. Some people act like Satan is
as strong as God, as powerful as God, as though they're two
forces and they're fighting against each other, and of course, This
is where most men come in on this. Here's Satan. He's doing everything he can
against God. God's doing everything he can
against Satan. And here comes sovereign man
rising up in the middle, and he'll make the deciding choice,
cast the deciding vote. Oh, no. Know what this means
when we read here? According to the Prince of the
Power of the Air, it speaks about a posse. You've seen those old
westerns, you know, someone would rob a bank and the sheriff would
go, let's get up a posse. Instead of one person going after
the thief, the criminal, they'd get other men to get on their
horses, take off. They got a posse after this guy.
Well, this posse are the evil spirits. But there is a prince. whichever name you choose to
call him by. And all lost men, by nature,
have this wicked spirit working in them. According to the Prince
of the Power of the Air, notice now, the spirit, he's a spirit,
the spirit it in the children of disobedience."
And who are the children of disobedience? Those who do not bow to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those who do not believe and
trust in Him. Children of disobedience. He
worked the spirit of disobedience, now worketh in them. Among whom our conversation, our lifestyle. That's the way we live. All of
us, all men by nature, in times past, in the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're
by nature children of wrath, even as others, but God. But God. He makes a difference,
doesn't he? He's the only one who can. But
God, who is rich in mercies, for his great love wherewith
he hath loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. So first of all, we see here
a very sad case. You agree, don't you? You agree,
don't you? A very sad case was this father
with his child, and a very sad case for all men apart from Christ. Sad, and your condition here,
if you're without Christ, is sad because you don't care. You
don't care. A dead person doesn't care. If
we had a corpse here before us today, you could stack every
songbook in this building on top of him, on top of that body,
wouldn't feel a thing. And the sad thing about lost
people is they're lost, but they don't know it, and they don't
care. And when they hear the gospel,
oh no, I don't believe that. A sad case. The second thing
we see here, a faithless generation. The father of this young man
tells the Lord that he had brought his son to him, but the Lord,
as we saw last week, was on the Mount of Transfiguration with
Peter, James, and John, so he had asked those other disciples,
at least nine of them, to cast this demon out of his son. But they could not. They couldn't
do it. The Lord Jesus had given them
power before he had sent them out to work miracles. We studied about this in the
6th chapter of Mark. The scripture says, he called
unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and
two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. Why could they
not cast this spirit out? Well, how did the Lord answer
that question? Oh, faithless generation. You
say, well, was he speaking to his disciples, or was he speaking
to the father of this young man? generation. Now this tells me, in fact in
Matthew's account of this, our Lord said, because of your unbelief. When the disciples later came
and asked him, why couldn't we cast that demon out? Matthew
tells us the Lord said, because of your unbelief. Our Lord said,
oh, faithless generation. A generation, not only a wicked
generation, but a faithless generation. But this tells me that these
signed gifts, and that's what they were, they were signed gifts.
Remember Paul later writing to the church at Corinth, that truly
the signs of an apostle were brought among you. There were
miraculous gifts given unto the apostles, and some to whom they
laid their hands. And they had these gifts, but
they were signed gifts. And you read about that in Hebrews
chapter 2. And I'll quote that in just a
moment. But I want to point out that even these men who had these
signed gifts, they had to exercise faith. And I think we see that
when we look at Peter's words in Acts chapter 3, when he and
John were going up to the temple to pray, and there was a man
there laid every day by the gate there, or the door, called Beautiful.
And they put him there. It was a good place to be. And he held out his hands and
asked Peter, John, to give him something. Peter said, silver
and gold have I none. But such as I have, give I unto
thee. Now notice, in the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. These gifts had to be exercised
with faith. The reason they could not cast
this foul spirit out of this man was because of unbelief. Whole faithless generations. Now, that begs the question,
are there men alive today that have these signed gifts, such
as healing? Now, when we speak about healing,
you know we believe, and the Scriptures tell us, all healing
comes from God. There's not a person in this
room who probably has not been healed at some time. You've had
some sickness or another, and who healed you? God did! But
there was no man who had the gift of healing to lay his hand
on you, or to say in the name of Jesus Christ, Be ye healed. Now God uses means, we find that
in the Word of God, doctors and medicine, things like that. Yes,
God heals, but there are no men alive today who have the gift
of healing. to witness to the truth of the
message which they preach, the gospel. And you see that in Hebrews
chapter 2. I want to read these verses.
You may want to turn, but Hebrews 2 verses 3 and 4. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord, now watch this, and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with
signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost according to his own will." When the New Testament, which
is all the was finished, along with those
apostles who passed away. Those signed gifts, they passed
away. Think about this. When those
people on the Day of Acts, they spoke in languages. I don't know
why the translators used that word, tongues, because it certainly,
maybe it meant languages. That's what the word means. They
spoke in languages. Of all of those gifts, The easiest
one to try to imitate is speaking in tongues. And isn't it amazing,
my friends, after 2,000 years, there's never been a case, a
recorded case, when a person was given a gift to preach the
gospel in a language that he had not or she had not learned. Isn't that amazing? And yet people
tell us that they still have that gift today. And they latch
on to that one verse in 1 Corinthians 13, if I had the tongue of men
and of angels. And they say, oh, well, my tongue
is an angelic tongue. Really? Really? An angelic tongue. I went to a meeting one time,
and this man, he was given his testimony of how he was filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, languages. And I never will forget it, because
he was a very naive man, being used by these manipulators. He said, well, he said, I did
what they told me to do. I didn't have any language coming
out of my mouth. And they told me, well, just
say hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Just keep repeating that over
and over and over and over again. And he said, before I knew it,
I was speaking in tongues. That's foolishness, my friends.
That's contrary to the teaching of the Word of God. Don't be
deceived by these charlatans. If a man today had the gift of
healing, you could not get close to that guy. I mean, you could
take a Sherman tank and try to drive into his presence, but
there would be so many people around his door. If he really had the gift of
healing, you could not get close to it. Now that's just so. That's just so. To have those gifts, one had
to have been an apostle of Jesus Christ or have the apostles themselves
lay their hands upon them and anoint them. Well, third, let
me hurry. The Lord put the if in the right
place. You say, that sounds strange.
Well, it does sound strange, but look in verse 22. The Father
put the if in the wrong place. In verse 22. He said unto the
Lord, and oftentimes it hath cast him into the fire and into
the waters to destroy him. But if, Lord Jesus, if, If, if
you can do something, please help us, have mercy, be compassionate
toward us. The Lord Jesus put the if in
the right place, didn't He? Now, He said, Jesus said unto
him, If thou, here's where the if They all know. Now, the ball
belongs in your court. It's not a question if I have
the power. Two blind men followed the Lord
Jesus Christ one day, and he entered into a house, and they
were crying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.
And when they got in the house, the Lord looked at them, and
he asked them, do you believe that I have the power to do this
for you? Do you believe that I can open blind
eyes? In other words, do you believe
who I am? That I am the Son of God? Do
you believe that? We believe. According to your
faith. And their eyes were opened. The
Lord Jesus him. Don't ever put the if in
before the Lord. There's nothing too hard for
him. There's nothing impossible for him. Let me close with this, a useless
question. What is your need today? No,
I say, I don't have a need. Well, you must be blind. What is your need today? What
is my need today? Whatever it is, whatever my need
is, whatever your need is, ask yourself this question. Do I
believe that Jesus Christ can meet my need? Do I? Whatever it is, do I believe
that Jesus Christ can meet my need? Do I believe that? Or do I believe my need's too
great for him? Or I don't believe he's who he
said he is? Whatever your need is, ask yourself
that question. Do I believe that the Lord Jesus
can meet my need? Well, is your need something
that he has promised to do? He has promised all that cometh
unto All that the Father giveth unto
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. That's his word. That's his promise.
Do you believe he's able to do that? Whatever that need is that you
have today, do you believe Jesus Christ will
meet that need? It's not great faith. You say,
well, my faith is so little. It's not the size of your faith.
It's the size of the Savior. This man didn't have great faith.
He said, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. I don't have
perfect faith. No one in this world has perfect
faith. No man, no son of Adam, none
of us ever come to that place that the grace of faith has grown
to where it's perfect. It's not the size, the amount
of our faith. It's the Savior. It's who He
is. It's His blood. It's His righteousness. Lord, I believe. Well, the Lord charged this spirit
to leave this man and to never come again. You see, when the
Lord casts out a foul spirit and he saves a person, he doesn't
leave that house vacant, empty. He moves in, his spirit. It's Christ ending the hope of
the Lord. Satan may harass you, and no
doubt he will, but he can never take control over you again. Not once the Son has set you
free. Isn't that what he said? It is. I believe it, don't you? If the
Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Amen. I want us to sing a hymn before
we're dismissed in prayer. Number 453.