The Demoniac Boy, Part 2

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin explains the unexpected change in preaching schedule and reviews the previous sermon's focus on Mark 9:14-27, which highlighted Jesus' suffering, power, compassion…

Martin explains why he is preaching instead of Pastor Nichols, citing Nichols' severe head cold and his own recent dental issues, illustrating the practical realities of ministry and mutual support.

This sermon was preached on August 24, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now those of you who fellowship with us on a regular basis know that in the normal course of the Lord's Day pulpit ministry at this stage of our life together as a congregation, that Pastor Nichols would be preaching to us from the book of Colossians. However, a rather severe head cold has incapacitated both his nasal passages, his resonant chambers, and his larynx, and it fell to my lot to take his place, even as he did for me several weeks ago when the passing of the years took their toll on ...

0:03 - 1:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of any ministry that is preoccupied with the devil and with demons.

Martin describes false teachers not openly declaring their deceit but fashioning themselves as apostles of Christ, illustrating how Satan disguises his true nature and intentions.

2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 and 14. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. The church was being plagued with false teachers, but they did not come down the pike carrying a placard, saying, I am a false teacher, all you who want to be led astray and damned with me, follow my teaching. No, they came down the pike, dressed up in all the garb and appearance and even the terminology of apostles of Jesus Christ.

12:45 - 13:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of anything which bears his fingerprints, for though he may come as a messenger of righteousness, as an angel of light, fingerprints are upon it no matter what the guise may be there is but one ultimate intention …

Martin points to the epidemics of teenage suicide and 'slant dancing' as manifestations of demonic influence and self-destruction in a culture eroded by humanism, illustrating the devil's destructive fingerprints.

for though he may come as a messenger of righteousness, as an angel of light, for though he may come as a messenger of righteousness, as an angel of light, fingerprints are upon it no matter what the guise may be there is but one ultimate intention and that's the destruction of the image of God that yet remains in you by common grace and to hinder you from embracing the overtures of special grace by which alone that image can be restored and brought to perfection at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ dear people do you not have eyes to see behind the things that are presently causing t...

17:29 - 18:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The most vile and satanic agitation is often an indication that God's gracious deliverance is very near.

The intense 'threatenings and slaughters' breathed out by Saul just before his conversion are used to illustrate how the devil becomes violently active when God's deliverance is near.

Until that individual is coming within the orbit of the authoritative Word of Jesus, speaking in the Scriptures, speaking by the Scriptures through the servants of God, through a loving father, mother, work associate, friend at school, whoever the human instrument may be. He's a dormant devil, relatively speaking, until Jesus comes near in the Gospel. And then often, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus, it is just prior to his conversion that the Scripture says, in this most graphic imagery, he was breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church, dragging men and women and committing...

28:34 - 29:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist as Peter says. Whom resist? Speaking of the devil, whom resist steadfastly in the faith, give no place to the devil.

Pharaoh's obdurate hardness before the Exodus and Luther's struggle in his monastic cell before the Reformation are cited as historical examples of intense resistance preceding God's mighty visitations of mercy.

You see, it's in conjunction with that Old Testament redemption of the people of God out of Egypt into covenant relationship with God that there is this obdurate, this unusual, almost supernatural, hardness in Pharaoh. It's in conjunction with God's purpose to draw near in the way of deliverance that there is all this activity of resistance. And so it has been in the course of church history, often before some of the most glorious seasons of divine nearness, when the Lord Jesus has come forth riding upon the white charger of gospel warfare with his sword drawn out and drawn, conquering and to ...

32:02 - 33:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

Martin shares his personal conviction that the intense spiritual warfare experienced during the summer is a sign that God is answering prayers for revival, causing Satan to violently agitate.

Remember that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And I want to speak very intimately and pastorally. I am personally convinced without any claim to direct revelation, but based upon biblical principles, I am personally convinced that some of the intense spiritual warfare through which we've passed in this summer, one of the most draining summers I've ever known. I've not been away on vacation, not because I'm Superman, but for good and wise reasons I have felt it my duty to stay at my post.

34:24 - 35:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Where in all of Mark's gospel could we find such a contrast between the glorious, Christ in the mountain, face shining with the brilliance of a thousand suns, Moses in Elijah speaking of his coming decease, the Shekinah …

Martin mentions the artist Raphael's sketch of Mark 9, depicting both the Transfiguration and the demon-possessed boy, to visually emphasize the contrast between glory and ugliness in Christian experience.

There was the distraught father. There was the desperate boy. I'm told, I haven't seen it, but the man who wrote it seemed to know what he was talking about, that the great artist Raphael never put onto canvas in the thinnest product or the thinnest picture or work of art, but he did a sketch of Mark 9 in which he placed on the same canvas, a painting of the Transfiguration on the top of the mount. Then he showed at the base of the mount the disciples and the crowd gathered round the writhing form of the demonic boy, that he might set forth the contrast. That's the point that I'm making. Surel...

40:11 - 41:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Where in all of Mark's gospel could we find such a contrast between the glorious, Christ in the mountain, face shining with the brilliance of a thousand suns, Moses in Elijah speaking of his coming decease, the Shekinah …

Cowper's hymn is quoted to illustrate moments of unexpected divine nearness and ecstasy in prayer, contrasting with the harsh realities of life at the mountain's base.

And, dear people, that's a vivid and a realistic manifestation of the nature of Christian experience in this present state. There are times when we are in the mount, when in prayer, or as Cowper said, sometimes a light surprises the Christian when he sings. It is the Lord who rises with healing in his wings. And you've done nothing to intensify the ordinary means of grace, and yet God wonderfully, as it were, breaks back the veil, gives you unusual liberty and access in prayer.

41:35 - 42:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon highlights the stark contrast between the glory of the Transfiguration and the ugly reality at the mountain's base, demonstrating the mixed nature of Christian…

Martin describes the experience of preaching when the congregation seems unresponsive, like 'lumps of clay,' illustrating the discouraging 'valleys' in a preacher's experience.

And God draws near, gives the people ears and hearts, and gives a tongue and a mouth and a spirit to the preacher. And preacher and people are caught up in something that they're all conscious is bigger than all of them together. And the servant of God and the people of God leave and rejoice in the goodness of God. But there are other times when it seems as though one is preaching through a whole tub full of molasses.

43:53 - 44:24 Read in full sermon

The point: If we do not live the Christian life realistically, we're not going to live it successfully. If we only believe that our seasons of glory are real and our seasons of horrors and defeat and discouragement are not real, th…

Martin critiques those who claim a 'second blessing' and deny 'inbred sin,' forcing them to redefine sin as 'mistakes' or 'human limitations,' illustrating the danger of an unrealistic view of Christian experience.

Well, if they don't give up their doctrine within a half an hour, they start giving up all that the Bible teaches about what sin is. And they've got to redefine the reality of what sin is to square it with their experience. And I've met such people. And they talk about mistakes and shortcomings and human limitations.

46:54 - 47:13 Read in full sermon

The point: If all you regard as reality is the writhing, foaming, twitching, helpless, ugly, demonically oppressed boy, if all you regard as reality is the consciousness of unbelief, if all you regard as reality is your defeats, th…

Martin recounts counseling someone who only regarded their defeats as real, illustrating the enemy's master stroke in blinding believers to the reality of God's grace and their true identity in Christ.

My friend, you will not be living the Christian life according to the Scriptures. But then, if all you regard as reality is the writhing, foaming, twitching, helpless, ugly, demonically oppressed boy, if all you regard as reality is the consciousness of unbelief, if all you regard as reality is your defeats, then you never have eyes to see and appreciate and believe that they are real, those seasons of divine nearness, that reality is expressed in that communion that you've known and tasted. My friend, you will be so vulnerable to the devil and to false accusations and to instability and lack ...

47:58 - 49:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Why does the Lord let you come sometimes from the mountains of ecstasy to the valleys of dejection and despondency and discouragement and defeat and falls? Because He's determined to keep you panting for heaven.

Martin imagines people expecting Paul to be always joyful in prayer but instead hearing him groaning, illustrating that even Spirit-filled believers experience burdens and longings for heaven.

I've said sometimes when I've been in the company of those who have this unrealistic notion if you're full of the Spirit, you'll always be six feet off the ground, your cheeks will ache because you've got a smile on from morning till night. That's a silly notion. And I like to picture them saying, oh boy, I'm gonna go hear Paul pray. I'm gonna go hear Paul pray this morning.

50:38 - 51:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Parent, you willing to pay the price? You want just enough polite, orthodox, reformed religion to make you respectable? Or do you want enough to make you a monument of the power of God in the face of your children?

Martin shares his personal goal of preaching with his family present and their consciences on his side, acknowledging the 'costly' process of 'eating crow' to maintain integrity, illustrating the price of godly parental influence.

I don't believe they're generally warranted. But I want to say that I adopted as a goal for my ministry many years ago that I would never stand in this pulpit, that pulpit, tracing all the way back to any pulpit I've stood in, if I could not preach on any occasion with my wife and children present and look them straight in the eye and know that their consciences were on my side. That's been costly. I've eaten so much crow, my throat is lined with crow feathers and scarred with crow's feet. I say those things with my wife and two of my grown children sitting here confident that they will not le...

66:29 - 67:42 Read in full sermon