The Demoniac Boy, Part 2

Introduction and Review of Christological Focus

0:03 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 some of my root canals. Now since the patterning of the preaching next Lord's Day will be reversed, that being the Lord's Day, the last Lord's Day of the month, and I will be preaching evangelistically in the evening, and Pastor Nichols on Colossians in the morning, I thought it best to go right on from this morning's message and continue in our meditation of the passage which we began to contemplate. That's Mark chapter 9, verses 14 to 27.

1:26 So if you will please turn to that portion of the Word of God. I shall read it in your hearing. Briefly. Briefly review just the structure of the passage, the primary application made this morning, and then we shall go on to what I'm entitling some miscellaneous lessons contained in this amazing display of the grace and power of Jesus.

1:51 Mark chapter 9 and verse 14. And when they came to the disciples, that is the Lord Jesus and the three witnesses who had been with him in the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John, they saw a great multitude about them and scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him, welcomed him. And he asked them, What are you questioning with them?

2:27 And one of the multitude answered him, Teacher, I brought unto you my Son, who has a dumb spirit and wherever it takes him, it dashes him down and he foams and grinds his teeth and pines away. And I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, and they were not able. And he answered them and said, Oh, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

3:04 Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him. And when he saw him, straightway the spirit tore him grievously, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long time is it since this has come unto him?

3:26 And he said, From a child. And oft times it has cast him both into the fire and into the waters to destroy, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Or as we saw this morning, help us, having compassion on us. And Jesus said unto him, If you can, all things are possible to him that believes.

3:59 Straightway the father of the child cried out and said, I believe. Do help my uncle. And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And having cried out and torn him much, he came out.

4:31 And the boy became as one dead, insomuch that the more part said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up, and he arose.

4:47 Now in our examination of this passage this morning, I tried to set before you the basic text of Scripture under two major divisions. I entitled the substance of verses 14 to 19, the prelude to the manifestation of the grace and power of Jesus. For above all else, this portion of Mark's Gospel, as the rest of the Gospel, is concerned not to answer all of our burning questions about the nature of demon possession and how it is that a little child could be possessed of a demon. But supremely Mark is concerned to set forth the great central theme of his Gospel, even the person and work of Jesus. And verses 14, 14 to 19, then constitute this inspired prelude to the manifestation of the grace and power of Jesus. In summary, we could say it sets before us this scene in which this distraught father, in the presence of this pathetic, demon-possessed son, and these powerless disciples are brought together, and into that, into that situation, the Lord Jesus himself comes.

6:14 And then there are given to us in verses 20 to 27, the specific details of the manifestation of the grace and power of Jesus. And with details that are peculiar to Mark, and expansiveness and a thoroughness not found in Matthew or Luke, we are taken, as it were, step by step through the process by which the Lord Jesus manifested both his grace and his power in the deliverance of this boy. And as we concluded our study, we focused on one line of application and one line only, namely what this passage reveals of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners. And I set before you, or suggested that the passage sets before us, in bold relief, first of all, the true nature of Jesus' predicted suffering on behalf of sinners. One who has such mighty power does not go to his death a victim conquered by others, but he goes one who is captured by his own commitment to the will of his Father and his love for sinners. And then secondly, we noted that the passage,

7:38 it sets in bold relief the almighty power of Jesus as the Savior of sinners. Thirdly, it sets before us the tender compassion of Jesus as the Savior of sinners, the true humanity of Jesus in assuming our place in order to save us. And then it sets in bold relief his amazing patience and forbearance towards needy sinners. Now we go back tonight to pick out what I would call the secondary lessons which are contained in this passage, while believing that Christ is indeed the central theme of the Word of God in general, and certainly he is the central theme in the Gospels in particular, yet 2 Timothy 3, 6, and 7, and 16 is equally true of this passage. As Scripture, it is not only profitable for teaching that points to Christ, but for teaching about the full spectrum of Christian experience. It is also profitable for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. There are some in our day who would tell us that once we have discovered, expounded, and highlighted

9:06 the Christological focus, we have done our duty as preachers. I resist that view of preaching with every fiber of my being, for it is patently unscriptural, though it has a ring of pseudo-spirituality about it. Jesus Christ in the glory of his person and work, though the central theme of Scripture is not the exclusive theme of Scripture. And if you are a Christian, if one adopts that premise, he will either omit much of Scripture or twist it, and I like neither of those alternatives.

9:46 I am to preach the Word, not twist it or omit it. And so with that brief polemic, which will be totally off the wall for some of you, but particularly for some of the men in the academy, it will make sense, for no doubt you have or will encounter the so-called biblical theological approach to preaching. That is the fundamental premise of the Bible. The fundamental premise of those who espouse that view.

The True Nature and Intention of the Devil

10:11 So we come now, having looked at what the passage tells us about our blessed Lord as the Savior of sinners, we come to glean from the passage some of the secondary applications or the miscellaneous lessons contained in this amazing display of the grace and power of Jesus. And I've collated those lessons, under four headings. First of all, this passage contains a vivid and realistic demonstration of the true nature and intention of the devil. It contains a vivid and realistic demonstration of the true nature and intention of the devil. Now, no ministry that is biblical will ever be found, Concentrating for a long time and giving its attention excessively to the devil and to demons. Beware of any ministry that is preoccupied with the devil and with demons. However, Paul, whose ministry was concentrated continually upon Christ,

11:33 could say, as he writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. And if we are to be thoroughly furnished unto every good work as the people of God, we must have a balanced biblical acquaintance with the devil, with demon powers and influence as they are set before us in the scriptures. And in this particular passage, you and I, are given both a vivid and realistic demonstration of the true nature and the true intent or intentions of the devil. Now, why do I say we are given a demonstration of his true nature and intentions? Well, for the simple reason that rarely does the devil show his true colors. Paul, again, could write later in that second epistle to the Corinthians, in chapter 11, these very, in many ways, frightening words.

12:45 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.

13:28 And he says, we should not be surprised, why? Verse 14, and no marvel, don't be shocked at this, for even Satan fashions himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness. So you see, the apostle tells us that Satan often guises his true nature and his true intentions.

14:02 But here in this passage, the Holy Spirit has given to us an unveiling, a vivid, realistic demonstration of the true nature and intention of the devil. Here he is seen for what he really is, and what he really purposes to do with every single son and daughter of Adam, if God permitted him to do so. Here he is seen as God. Apollyon, the destroyer.

14:38 No concern for the delicate, tender, youthful soul of this boy. When Jesus asks the Father, how long has he been in this horrible condition, thrown down upon the ground when seized by the demon, going into such convulsions that it appears as though his body will be rent in pieces, wallowing, wallowing, as an animal wallows in its den, foaming at the mouth, driven into fires and into waters. We see him in his true condition under the power of this evil spirit. Here the devil shows his colors, utterly insensitive to the delicacy of that undeveloped life, utterly insensitive to anything that is no good, to anything that is noble and upright, one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is the utter destruction of the image of God in that little boy, and ultimately to take him with him into hell forever. Here the devil is unmasked in a vivid and realistic demonstration of who he is and what he intends to do. He neutralizes the faculties of hearing, and of speech.

16:07 He throws the boy into frenzy and into self-destructive activity. And what is this but a manifestation of the true nature and intention of the devil? And of course that work of his will culminate in hell, where the souls and bodies of all of the serfs of the devil will be forever in a hideout, in a satan's state of eternal destruction and the negation of all that is noble and beautiful and lovely and pure and god-like, and will be the eternal haunt of the fiendish reality of satan's true nature and his true intention. Now dear people, that's not a pretty picture. That's why I say one of the purposes of God in a passage like this, one of the purposes of God in a passage like this, one of the purposes of God in a passage like this, one of the purposes of God in a passage like this, one of the purposes of God in a passage like this, one of the purposes of God in a passage like this, is to give us both a vivid and a realistic demonstration of the true nature and the true intention of your adversary of the devil. Therefore I say by way of application beware of anything which bears his finger prints,

17:29 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 the greatest minds and some of the most concerned people of our nation to throw up their hands in horror what lies behind the epidemic of teenage suicide it has taken on epidemic proportions thousands upon thousands every year of teenagers committing what in one sense is the ultimate act of a kind of sickly perverted courage and yet the most frightening act of irreversible self-destruction casting themselves not

18:56 merely into a literal earthly fire but into the fires of hell itself what lies behind that what lies behind the new phenomenon of so called slant dancing when people gather in clubs and literally go crazy and hurl their bodies off stages into a mass of crumpling people acting like wild horses penned in the kind of fury that may be evident in the midst of a lightning and a thunderstorm is this just some innocent manifestation of current American kookishness can you not see behind this with the erosion of common grace with the horrible onslaught of man centered relativistic humanistic teaching conditioning several generations it's as though a whole generation is wide open under the name of liberty and experimentation for all of this demonic satanic impress and influence and in the direction of self-destruction irrationality frenzy in which the ears no longer opening to the which is rational and beautiful

20:24 and the voice no longer articulates that which is intelligible and noble dear people can you not see in all of this the activity of the prince of darkness and the unleashed demonic power demonic powers of hell we are not ignorant of his devices and the application then is to beware of anything which has his fingerprints upon it even when it comes in the guise of religious teaching that says let yourself go let your mind go blank go into passivity throw out your rationality let your jaw loose just begin to mumble Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus then you begin to speak in tongues my friend you're opening yourself to the demonic the Holy Ghost never leads us into irrationality never into passivity of our faculties of thought and of will never the Holy Spirit works by and with and sublimates and brings within the orbit of his influence the most intense activity of the mind and the most free but conscious activity of the human will

21:47 and then my other point of exhortation growing out of this is very simple yet so necessary be satisfied with nothing less than real deliverance from the kingdom of Satan by union with Jesus Christ my friend if you are here and you're not a Christian the Bible says you are in the kingdom and in the power of Satan the commission Christ gave to Paul recorded in Acts 26 is rendered this way I send you to the people and to the Gentiles to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them the sanctified by faith that is in me. You see, there is only one way to be protected ultimately from the true nature and intent of the devil. He is the destroyer whose intention is utterly to obliterate the remains of the image of God in you and if he cannot do it now, he will do it in hell. My friend, be satisfied with nothing less

23:08 than true, vital, spiritual union with Jesus Christ, the Christ of scriptural revelation, the Christ of gospel proclamation, the Christ of almighty power to save, the Christ of infinite compassion and pity to sinners, the Christ who gives us a new record, who gives us a new heart, who unites us to himself and delivers us out of the kingdom of darkness. And incorporates us into his own blessed kingdom.

A Pattern of God's Delivering Grace and Power

23:43 But not only does the passage contain a vivid and realistic demonstration of the true nature and intent of the devil, but notice secondly that it contains a vivid and realistic illustration of a pattern of God's delivering grace and power. A vivid and realistic illustration of a pattern of God's delivering grace and power. A pattern of God's delivering grace and power. Go back to Mark 9.

24:17 In the text we see that just prior to and attendant upon the delivering power of Jesus in relationship to that boy, there was a most violent agitation of the evil one. Notice verse 19. After Jesus laments his praise, the presence in the midst of an unbelieving generation commands them to bring the boy to him, verse 20 tells us, and they brought him, that is the boy, unto Jesus. And when he saw him, this favorite word of Mark, you theus, immediately, straightway, without any delay, the spirit tore him grievously. He fell upon the ground and he wallowed foaming. Now, doesn't this seem strange? When he is at a distance from Jesus, the spirit that has possessed him seems relatively inactive.

25:22 His presence in the lad at that point was dormant, so dormant that they apparently had no struggle in taking him by the hand and leading him to Jesus. But no sooner does he come within visual proximity of Jesus than suddenly that evil spirit within him is no longer dormant, but violently active, tears him grievously, throws him upon the ground, and he wallows and he foams at the mouth. And then when Jesus gives the command in verse 25, come out of him, you dumb and deaf spirit, and enter no more, verse 26, immediately following the command of Jesus is another unusually intense and perhaps even more unique manifestation for he was a dumb spirit and yet this dumb spirit having cried out and torn him much he came out and the boy appeared as a dead one. Now what do we see in this pattern, this illustration of God's delivering grace and power? Well, we see the principle articulated in Revelation chapter 12. Here, here is Scripture's comment upon that which is illustrated

26:51 in our text. Revelation chapter 12.

26:58 In this great song that celebrates the consummation of the ages in the destruction of the devil and in the glorification of the people of God in one of those cycles of conflict leading to the ultimate triumph of Jesus recorded in the book of the Revelation, we read these words, verse 12, Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time. Now there is an intimate conjunction between the measure of his wrath and the knowledge of the shortness of his time. Do you see that? He comes down having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time. And many times, both in Scripture and in Christian biography, we see that principle, not invariably, but many times.

28:09 And this passage is a vivid and realistic illustration of this pattern of God's delivering grace and power. What is it? It is this. The devil seems to be very dormant in the life of an individual until that individual is being brought into proximity to Jesus through the Gospel.

28:34 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 them to prison. That description is given just before God goes forth to get His man. It's as though the Satan who held Saul of Tarsus in the grip of his religious prejudice, his spiritual blindness and self-righteousness, knew that he had but a short time for God had been dealing with him. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

29:55 And then he traced the beginnings of that dealing in an intensified measure back to the martyrdom of Stephen when they laid down his garments at the feet of Saul. And having seen that holy man whose face shone like an angel when being pummeled by stones and whose lips echoed the very words of his master, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Most likely, the word of Jesus began to be brought near to Paul from that point onward, whatever previous dealings there may have been.

30:38 And as with this young man, as Jesus draws near in His word and in His gospel through His servant Stephen, there is an agitation of the power of evil within the heart of Saul of Tarsus. Calvin stated that Christ's presence arouses the devil like the call of a trumpet. Let Christ draw near and it's a trumpet call to the prince of darkness that he's about to lose one of his subjects. You see, if only scribes are present who have a letter religion, all their writing rules and regulations, but know nothing of that power that delivers sinners out of the kingdom of darkness and translates them into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Why should a demon be active? There's nothing there that's a threat to him. But let Jesus draw near.

31:38 The Jesus who can speak to a demon and say, get out and stay out. And the prince of darkness is threatened. And when he's threatened, he becomes active, knowing that he has but a short time. And what is true in the salvation of individuals has historically been true in God's visitations of mercy upon whole groups of people.

32:02 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 conquer. It's as though the powers of hell have been let loose upon the church and the world and perceptive people have wondered, Lord, how long can the church even exist? And then in those dark hours as in the hours when Luther is struggling in his cell, his monkish cell, under the scratchings of his hair garment and under the lashings of a conscience that can find no rest in penance and prayers and fastings, when it seemed that the whole visible church lay under the rubble of all of the ritual

33:30 and emptiness of Rome. The devil knowing that he had but a short time, God came forth wonderfully in might and in power. And so the passage contains a vivid and a realistic illustration of a pattern of God's delivering grace and power. And that pattern is that the most vile and satanic agitation is often an indication that God's gracious deliverance is very near.

34:05 And what does that say to us then by way of application? It says, dear people of God, resist as Peter says. Whom resist? Speaking of the devil, whom resist steadfastly in the faith, give no place to the devil.

34:24 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.

35:02 We've been in the midst of conflict and warfare. And I'm convinced it's because in many ways prayers that have gone up from the hearts of the people of God in this place and all over the world, that God would grant us days of His power, that some measure of the answer to those prayers is as it were pulling down clouds of blessing out of heaven and Satan knowing that he has for a short time is violently agitating. And when he can find a loose tongue and a critical spirit and a proud spirit, he has as it were pumped all of his ungodly influence upon those unmortified dimensions of even Christians remaining sin. We're not just dealing with little fads and patterns of carnality. We're dealing with Jesus drawing near and he seizes him and he casts him down and he foams and he wallows. Dear people, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

36:14 Behind the carping critical spirit that drains the blood of the lifeblood out of your leadership, behind the cynical, unloving spirit that breaks the hearts of those who seek to live and labor to get you to heaven, pray to Christ. Behind the laziness that keeps you from prayer meeting and behind those other seemingly little innocent things, what is there? Oh see, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, or principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness and heavenly places, take the whole armor of God, stand! And having done all, dear people of God, who is he that is in us and he that is in the world? Who is in us? The Christ who can stand calmly.

37:16 Can we think of him without being irreverent, even folding his arms while the little boy lies wallowing at his feet, One ruffled and says to the father, how long has he been in this condition? I'll take care of that as soon as it's proper for me. It doesn't disturb me, it moves me. My compassion is stirred, my heart is grieved.

37:43 How long?

37:46 That's the one who by his spirit dwells in us. We need not fear the prince of darkness grim. We tremble not for him, for though his doom is sure, one shall fell him.

38:07 One little word, fell him.

The Mixed Nature of Present Christian Experience

38:12 Then I hasten to a third very vital principle in the passage, and it's this. It contains a vivid and a realistic manifestation of the mixed nature of present Christian experience. There are a few passages that I've studied in our course. A course of studies in Mark that have more vividly underscored this to my own mind than this passage before us.

38:43 It is a vivid and a realistic manifestation of the mixed nature of present Christian experience. Taking the passage in its immediate and larger context, 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 glory, the face of the Father, and the writhing, foaming, twitching, helpless wretch of a little boy at the base of the mountain. You talk about a study of contrast. You see the contrast between the glorious and the ugly, the ugly, faith and unbelief, I believe, of thou my unbelief. Let's look at a couple of these contrasts in a little more detail.

39:52 I've already suggested the first. The contrast between the glory of the mountain and the ugly that is found at the base of the mountain. There were the jeering, taunting scribes. There were the embarrassed, defeated nine disciples.

40:11 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. Surely this passage gives us a vivid and realistic manifestation of the mixed nature of present Christian experience. Peter says, Lord, let's build booths!

41:13 Let's stay a while here! No, the Lord Jesus knows that at the base of the mountain is a demon-possessed boy who needs deliverance. Defeated, discouraged disciples who need to be lifted up lest the bruised reed break and the smoking flax be quenched. There's the contrast.

41:35 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.

42:08 And there is such a felt sense of the nearness of God, that you don't know whether it would be better to pray, Lord, take me the rest of the way. You don't even want to come down and face the realism. And yet you must. There is that constant alternating between the glory, the wonderful, the rapturous, and the ugly, and the disfigured.

42:33 Think of it with regard to the disciples in Mark 6.7 and in Mark 6.13. It says, He gave them authority over demons.

42:41 Mark 6.7 says, They cast out many demons. They had known tremendous success. By whatever words of exorcism they used, they had seen what they saw in the presence of Jesus in this instance.

42:55 They had seen the demons leave. But now they spoke the words and nothing happened. There was the glory and the wonder expressed by the Seventy Lord. Even the demons are subject to us.

43:10 Surely they shared in that sense of the Lord. They shared in that sense of exaltation. But those same disciples are now wallowing in the doldrums of defeat and discouragement. I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cast him out.

43:29 That's the realism. You see, God so wonderfully sets before us that realism. And each of us will know if we walk with God any length of time that realism of Christian experience in this present life. Those of us called upon to preach, and teach, there are times when as best we know, we've been as diligent in our prayer and preparation and conscious dependence upon God.

43:53 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.

44:24 And when the people of God are nothing but lumps of clay, there is nothing of the sensed responsiveness. You see the eyelids drooping and you see that dull glassy look over the eyeballs. And you say, Lord, what is it? What is it?

44:44 And in the midst of preaching, you're crying to God. And half the time you don't know whether you're preaching or praying. And you go home and say, God, if this is what the ministry is, I'll never preach again. But then you come back, and you preach again.

44:59 And in your felt weakness, you throw yourself upon the mercy of God. And wonder of wonders, He comes. And where there was defeat, He grants success. And then look at the father with his struggle.

45:12 Lord, I do believe things are possible, even the casting out of this demon from my son. Your disciples failed. Lord, if you can, I'm not even convinced you can, but if you can, Lord, help us. And Jesus said, look, my ability is not the question.

45:34 It's whether or not you see in me the one who is able. If you believe, all things are possible to him that believes. But now here's the mixed state, Lord, I do believe. But in saying that, I'm conscious of a contrary spirit that in so many ways gives me an affinity with those unbelieving scribes.

45:57 With your disciples, I would see you and confess you to be Messiah, Son of God, able to deliver. But with the scribes, I would be the skeptic in doubt and question. You see, the whole passage throbs. With this demonstration of the mixed nature of present experience.

46:23 Now, why do we need to understand that? Well, for the simple reason, dear people, 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, then we're playing head games on ourselves. It's like people who claim the second blessing and say, I'm above inbred sin.

46:54 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.

47:13 I never read in the Bible, if we confess our human limitations, He's faithful and just to forgive us our human limitations and to cleanse us from all our human limitations. I read if we confess our sins. So you see, the child of God must understand what is beautifully and vividly and realistically displayed in this passage, that the Christian life is a mixed experience this side of the consummation. And if you only regard your seasons of glory as real and the horrors, and the ugliness and the defeat and the ambivalence and the tearing between faith and unbelief and holiness and lechery between humility and pride, you say, that tension is not real.

47:58 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 of assurance. I know whereof I speak. I dealt with someone in this congregation just a few weeks ago, and I spent my entire time trying to get him to see four things that are true about him that are as real as faith. And when he saw them in faith, he got off the horrible treadmill of spiritual stagnation.

49:12 All he was regarding as real were his defeats, his backslidings, his vacillations, his falls. But he wasn't looking at his...

49:23 That's a master stroke of the enemy. You see, God gives us these pictures. Don't deny either. And then you see, if you ask the question, why does God allow this?

49:38 Because this is not home, and He doesn't want you to settle down and get too comfortable. You leave Peter up in the mountain in heaven, couldn't be much better than that. Could it? The companionship of glorified saints?

50:00 Hallelujah, I'm already there. The Lord says, no you aren't. There's a demon-possessed boy down there, Peter. That's reality too.

50:10 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. That's why the Apostle Paul, not only panted, there are times he groaned. He said, we that are in this present state of affairs do groan being burdened.

50:38 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.

51:02 They're transported back to a place where Paul was staying somewhere in the Roman Empire. And they say, I'm gonna go by his prayer closet. And they think, boy, I'm really gonna hear him speaking in tongues and shouting hallelujah. And if I peep through the keyhole, I'll see him floating around the room with his hands raised, blessing God, dancing a holy jig.

51:24 And one morning they go by and they put their ear to the door and what do they hear? They hear this. Oh, oh. Paul, that man's groaning.

51:42 That man's groaning like he's in pain. He sounds like a woman going into labor pains. He's groaning. Yeah, he is groaning.

51:52 And he said, we that are in this tabernacle do groan. And he says the whole creation groans and travails. And not only so, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit. He says, my groaning is a part of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who has not only marked me for perfection, but who's given me an insatiable longing for the very thing for which he's marked me.

52:23 And until I get it, I'm gonna groan. That's Bible Christianity. Now granted, some days you go by, you'd have heard him shouting. You'd have even heard him speaking in real tongues because he said, I speak in tongues more than ye all.

52:39 I'm not sure if he would have spoken them in private, but he'd had the real thing. But even with the real thing, he still said, we groan. And this passage, dear people, I'm convinced among its many purposes is set before us to give us this vivid, this realistic display of the mixed nature of Christian experience. You don't want that?

53:02 You say, I'm gonna go somewhere where they tell me I can be happy, happy, happy all the time. Go ahead. The places are legion. I'm not gonna go.

53:17 Go ahead then. Write the Bible. Rewrite the Bible. Curse God.

53:21 Tell him you don't like the kind of religion he's revealed. Make your own, but go to hell with it. Your controversies with God. But then finally, and here I would speak lovingly to parents and children, because this passage contains a vivid example of Godly, Biblical, parental concern for the spiritual needs of our children.

Godly Parental Concern for Spiritual Needs

53:48 It contains a vivid example of Godly, parental concern for the spiritual needs of our children. What were the leading elements in this father's concern? Well, first of all, he had imbibed a stark realism about his child's true condition. Back in the text we're told that when Jesus said, Why are you questioning with my disciples?

54:22 He answers and says, Teacher, verse 17, I brought unto you my son who has a nervous tick. No. He has! You think it was easy for a father who loved his son to say, I brought a demon-possessed boy to you?

54:46 And then to say, and this demon seizes him, dashes him, my precious son foams, grinds his teeth, and withers away. Furthermore, his condition is so bad that your disciples have cast out other demons. I've heard the record and heard the testimony. They could not budge this demon.

55:15 And then when the Lord asked him in verse 21, How long is this condition obtained? He says, Lord, I'll answer that and then I'll give you a few details I forgot. From a child and. I didn't tell you this before, Lord, but I want to be honest.

55:30 I want to be transparent. Here's his condition. Oftentimes, it cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. Oh, what an example of godly parental concern.

55:47 For first of all, there was a stark realism with respect to his child's true condition. He didn't say he has a nervous dick. He's got a congenital nervous problem. He has this.

56:01 He has that. He has a dumb spirit. It seizes him. Cast him down.

56:08 He forms. He gnashes. He pines away. He's driven into fire.

56:14 He's driven into water. Oh, Lord. Oh, Mass. My son is in a hopeless state unless you are able and willing to do something.

56:30 Now, I ask you, my parents, do you have that kind of realism about your children? Do you think of them biblically or psychologically and emotionally? God says your children pass the day of their accountability in Adam. They are conceived guilty and vile and polluted.

56:55 That's what the Bible says. Through you in the natural processes of generation there is passed on to them a vile, depraved, sinful nature from conception. In sin did my mother conceive me. They go astray from the womb speaking lies for from within out of the heart proceed.

57:28 And everything is listed from adultery and murder to pride and even to foolishness. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child. Where and when did it get bound up? In that bundle of life at conception.

57:46 Oh, no, not my darling little. Oh, yes, your darling little. Yes. And until you as a parent come to grips with biblical realism about the true state of your child, that that child born of the union between you and your wife is conceived and born with the capacity and the inbred tendency of every single sin that's ever been committed on the face of the earth.

58:20 And until you believe that and begin to view your children that way and pray for them, it would be right for God to give them up to hardness of heart because you've got a controversy with God. Furthermore, we see in this man not only this stark realism about his child's true condition, but we see an aggressive determined approach to Jesus. I love this in the passage. He sees the crowd.

58:49 He hears that Jesus has been in the territory. Obviously, he takes his son and comes because he says to the Lord, I brought him unto you. I brought him unto you. Verse 17.

59:01 And when Jesus was not there, he didn't get discouraged and say, Oh, I'll go home. He said, well, if Jesus isn't here, I'll try his disciples. And when they failed, he didn't stick his tail between his legs and go home. He still for some reason hung around until Jesus was there.

59:16 And then he budded into a conversation that he had no business entering into. Jesus comes down and takes on the scribes and says, what are you doing disputing with my disciples? He doesn't wait for a scribe to answer if one was even looking for a chance. He breaks right out.

59:30 He just... I love the aggressiveness.

59:32 Do you see it? Do you feel it? Pulsing through the text. There was an aggressive, determined approach to Jesus.

59:41 And he hung on. Even when all looked dark. You can imagine what his first thoughts might have been. Hear the sun, the demon in him is quiet, inactive and passive.

59:52 But no sooner is the sun brought close enough to Jesus than this paroxysm comes over him. And he says, oh no, not again. Not again. And he sees that sun go into that horrible state.

60:04 And there he's lying at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus for a moment even ignores him. But he doesn't take the posture of unbelief. He doesn't take the posture of discouragement.

60:13 He answers the Lord's question. And then when Jesus speaks and he watches even another vile and convulsion, he doesn't in unbelief turn away and say, I cried in that. He hung until Jesus placed that boy in his arms, according to Luke. And it says Jesus gave the son to the father.

60:32 Hallelujah. Oh dear parent, this is what you and I need to do with our children. Come to grips with what their true state is. They are lost under wrath.

60:45 They are in Adam condemned. They are conceived in sin. Whatever barriers are there by temperament and genetic input and training and culture and all the rest. Barriers of common grace and how we thank God for them.

61:04 That's all they are is barriers. And until God dries up the fountain by special grace, until God dethrones sin by special grace, don't be content that they are simply polite, civil educated lovely children. Stop short of nothing less than vital union with Christ in which the Son of God will be more precious than mummy and daddy, which the Word of God will be more precious than their favorite television program, in which confessing Christ will be their determination even if they have to stand alone on their block and in their school. And come to the Lord Jesus with this aggressive determined approach that you will lay hold of Christ to do for your precious children what you cannot do for them. But then the third and final thing we see about this man as an example of biblical parental concern is this. There was a willingness to have his own sin laid bare in the process of seeking the well-being of his child.

Willingness to Have One's Own Sin Laid Bare

62:27 And this fascinated me in my preparation. I had never seen it before. You see in the beginning he thought there was only one person with a need. That was his demon possessed son.

62:39 You remember his prayer? I told you that a better rendering, more accurate in terms of the order in the original, verse 23. I'm sorry, verse 22. If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

62:58 The verb help us, an aorist imperative. The imperative in entreaty is at the front of the sentence. If you can do anything, help us! Then you have a participial construction of the verb which means to have the bowels the liver the viscera moved translated compassion.

63:18 Help us! Having compassion on us. And his only thought was the condition of the child. But after Jesus begins to deal with him about his own state of heart he then uses the very word help with regard to his own sin of unbelief.

63:38 Now how did that happen? Here's the principle. It was in the course of aggressively seeking the intervention of Jesus for his boy that Jesus laid bare his own sin. And my friend, my dear parent, you get serious about pleading with God for the salvation of your children.

64:02 And I know a few things that will become a more intense searchlight upon your own heart and life. You begin to pray, Oh God, if there's anything in my life that is a stumbling block, reveal it. Anything that is an impediment, reveal it. You get earnest with God about your children and God will begin to put pressure on you.

64:33 Now he didn't fight it. He didn't say, Wait a minute, Lord, I came here for my kid. Don't go monkeying around with me. I want my kid help telling him.

64:43 No. Jesus turns and says, If you can, if thou canst, question mark or exclamation, if thou canst, you say to me. Whatever it is, he turns and said, All things are possible to him that believes. The problem is in your heart, not my power.

65:04 And he takes the arrow and he welcomes it. And he says, Lord, I believe. But you've laid bare my sin of unbelief. Help me.

65:14 Help me. Help me. Now that's an example of godly, parental concern. And I'm convinced it's the difference, generally speaking, between children that end up cynical and unconverted and those, if not converted, at least respect the power of the gospel.

65:40 And I've lived long enough to see cynicism because the kids believe everything the preacher's thumping and hollering and shouting about. His parents sit there, shake the head. But they see the way they live at home. And they say, He's probably no more real than they are.

66:01 Why should I believe him? And all of the passionate pleadings of a biblical ministry are neutralized by the shoddy, careless life of parents who do not walk in blameless integrity before God and their children. God have mercy on you parents. I don't often make personal references.

66:29 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 leave here cynical tonight. It's been costly, yes. Yes.

67:42 But ask me if I feel the price was too high to pay. To have reason to believe that each one of them is enfolded in Christ. Parent, you willing to pay the price? You want just enough polite, orthodox, reformed religion to make you respectable?

Exhortation to Children and Concluding Prayer

68:12 Or do you want enough to make you a monument of the power of God in the face of your children? And dear children, I must close by saying to you, don't resent the mommy and daddy whose greatest longing is to get you to Jesus. Can you imagine this boy when his father took him by the hand and said, where are we going, daddy? I'm going to take you to Jesus, the only one who can cast the demon out of you.

68:47 If somehow he could convey it in sign language. Remember, he was deaf. He must have some way of communicating. I don't know.

68:54 But imagine if he could and if the boy could hear, if he could communicate to him. Imagine how stupid it would be for the boy to say, no, take my hand. No, I'm not going to go. But son, do you like being thrown into the fire?

69:08 And into the water? And foaming and wallowing? Oh yeah, I love it. You'd say the boy had lost his mind.

69:16 Dear children, listen. When mommy and daddy pray with you, teach you your catechism, have family devotions, try to teach you right and wrong and about God and heaven and hell. Why are they doing that? Because they don't want the devil to take you to hell with him.

69:35 That's all. And why do we preach to you? And why do we plead with you? And why do we entreat you to turn to Jesus, to seek the Lord?

69:46 It's because we don't want the devil to destroy you in hell. That's true of you younger ones. It's true of you teenagers. I'm looking into the faces of some of you on the threshold of manhood and womanhood, thinking that you can find the meaning of life in the world in sensual pleasure, in boys, girls, beauty, makeup, clothes.

70:09 No! There's nothing real in that! Dear young men and women, you were made to know God, and you can only know Him as you come to Christ. Don't resent our efforts to take you to Jesus, the only one who can do helpless sinners good.

70:31 May God help us to lay to heart these four very practical lessons that come to us from this portion of the Word of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we never cease to marvel at the richness of Your Word, and we plead that the Holy Spirit will take the truth that we have sought to lay before Your people tonight, and, oh, that He may make it effectual to the maturation of Your own and to the salvation of men and women and boys and girls that are yet in the clutches of the Prince of Darkness. Oh, make this Word effectual in those many ways that only You know it needs to be made effectual. According to Your own infinite knowledge of our need, apply it with power and give us grace to believe and obey its precepts. Hear our cry.

71:42 May the blessing of Your presence and Your grace rest upon us and go with us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.