Jesus' Answer to the Disciples' Impotence

Introduction: The Disciples' Impotence and Jesus' Answer

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, September 21st, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now let us turn together in our Bibles to the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, as we continue our consecutive expositions of Mark's Gospel. We find ourselves this morning looking at the postscript to that amazing display of the power of Christ in casting out the demon from that pathetic boy who had been demon-possessed from a very young age. And since it has been several weeks since we were in this passage, I'm asking you to follow as I begin the reading at verse 14 in the ninth chapter. of Mark's Gospel.

1:03 Writing with reference to the Lord Jesus and Peter, James, and John, who had been together in the Mount of Transfiguration, had now just about completed their journey down from the mountain, Mark writes, And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great multitude about them, and scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the multitude, when they saw him, were grateful, greatly amazed, and running to him, warmly greeted him. And he asked them, What are you questioning with them? And one of the multitude answered him, Teacher, I brought unto you my son who has a dumb spirit, and wheresoever 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, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

2:15 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 is come unto him?

2:36 And he said, From a child. And oft times it is cast him both into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said unto him, If you can, all things are possible to him that believes.

3:02 Straightway the father, of the child, cried out and said, I believe. Help my unbelief. 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 having cried out and torn him much, he came out.

3:30 In so much he came out, and the boy became, as dead, in so much that the more part said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up, and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, How is it that we could not cast it out? And he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer.

4:04 Now let us again, seek the face of God, pleading with God that the spirit who gave us this portion of the word through the pen of Mark will here today give us illumination and understanding in his truth. Let us pray.

4:27 Our father, we know that we are always in the posture of great need as your creatures,

4:36 and even that additional need that is present, because we are sinful creatures. But there are times when you make us feel more keenly our need, and we thank you that your invitations and encouragements to your needy people who come in the felt and present awareness of that need are such as to give us boldness to come this morning and to pray, O Lord, look upon us in pity, that your people who sit to receive your word, and your servant who attempts to open up and apply that word, may together be under a present and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. For we know that he alone can take of the things of Christ and reveal them to us with power. He alone can give us an accurate understanding of your truth. He alone can incline us, and incline our hearts to faith and obedience before that truth.

5:46 And we therefore would plead with you, we would cry to you, Lord, come, send your Spirit upon us in the ministry of the Word today, casting down imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against your knowledge, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Hear our cry and come to our needy and our waiting hearts. We plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Question of the Impotent Disciples (Mark 9:28)

6:27 Several Lord's Days ago in our regular course of expositions in the Gospel of Mark, we had occasion to examine this rather lengthy account of Mark relatively. To the mighty power of Jesus manifested in the casting out of this powerful demon from this pathetic boy. After expounding the passage and focusing our attention upon what it teaches us of the grace and power of Christ, we took another Lord's Day to consider some of its secondary lessons. And now we come this morning to what is really, a postscript to the miracle, the incident recorded in verses 28 and 29, in which our attention is drawn to the impotent disciples who, when alone with their Lord, ask Him why they were not able to cast out this demon, to which question the Lord gives a very pointed and perceptive answer. In these two verses, we see that the Lord gives us a very pointed and perceptive answer. these two verses before us, we have very simply the question of the impotent disciples in

7:47 verse 28, and then the answer of the omniscient Lord in verse 29. I will expound the passage under those two simple headings, and then seek to draw out three very vital applications after we've expounded. First of all, then, the question of the impotent disciples. And our attention is immediately directed to the setting as well as the substance of their question. Verse 28 begins by telling us, and when. In other words, a precise point in time is pointed out by the adverb of time, and when. He was come into, not the house as though it was some special house, but when he was come into house, when he was in the privacy of a domestic dwelling. In that particular setting, his disciples asked him privately. And so the setting of their question, as in some three or four previous instances recorded in the gospel, of Mark, is a setting in which our Lord enters with his twelve disciples into a house somewhere

9:11 in the region of the area in which he had cast out the demon from this pathetic boy, and in that situation of privacy, having more direct access to their Lord, being in a less embarrassed situation to acknowledge openly their utterance. In that setting, the disciples take the initiative and ask a question, the substance of which is very simple, Lord, why did we fail? Now, in studying the original language, there is a linguistic technicality, and rightly so, that technicality is indicated in the marginal reading of the old American standard. When his disciples asked him privately, the marginal reads, saying, we could not cast it out, or, as the text has it, in italics, how is it that we could not cast it out? And whether they asked a question or made an assertion that obviously was a question, it would appear from the parallel passage in Matthew 17, 19, in which there is, without doubt, a question

10:33 that they did indeed raise this question, Lord, how is it that we could not cast it out? Now, this was a legitimate question, for back in chapter 6 and verse 7, we have the clear record of our Lord's commissioning them and imparting to them special authority to cast out demons. Mark 6 and verse 7, And he calls unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth two and two, and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. And so the power to cast out demons was a power distinctly, specifically imparted to them by their Lord. And in the exercise of that power, they were obviously successful, verse 12 of Mark 6. And they went out and preached that men should repent, and they cast out many demons. And in the course,

11:51 then, of their own preaching and healing and ministry of exorcism, they had known consistent success. Therefore, when this man, in his own preaching, and healing, and ministry of his distraught condition, came with his boy to bring him to Jesus, and was informed that Jesus was off somewhere with Peter, James, and John, it was only understandable that the disciples would either step forward and say, Our master is not here, but he has conferred upon us the power to cast out demons. We'll take your case in hand. Or, if the report of their previous success had gone out into that region, it would have been perfectly proper, upon discovering that the Lord was not there, for this man to turn to the disciples and say, Though your master is not here, I have heard that he has given to you the power to cast out demons in his name. Therefore, please help my son. And so, in this verse, we have the record of the question of these impotent disciples. One that arose out of a legitimate set of circumstances in which a demon-possessed person

13:12 was brought to them, and in which they made an effort to cast out this demon. And that effort was made, as we have seen, against the backdrop of a legitimate commission to cast out demons, of duly conferred power to cast out demons, and a previous record of success in the casting out of demons. And so they are completely in this situation confused. Lord, why could we not cast it out? The demons came out at our command in many previous situations, for Mark tells us they cast out many demons. They had no doubt encountered many different kinds of demon possession, but here they found themselves utterly impotent. Impotent to their own shame. Impotent to the occasion of these scribes mocking them, and no doubt maligning both them and their master in the very situation into which Jesus comes as recorded in verse 14 of chapter 9. Well, so much then for the question of the impotent

The Answer of the Omniscient Lord (Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:19-21)

14:28 disciples. We will not try to read into it something of the emotional and psychological state in which they found themselves, though one does not need to have a very fertile imagination to read much into that confession and acknowledgement of their impotence before this demon. Then in verse 29 we have the answer of the omniscient Lord. The answer of the omniscient Lord, and he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing save by prayer. Now, why do I say the answer of the omniscient Lord? Well, remember the details. Jesus, along with Peter, James, and John, was either up in the mount of transfiguration or on his way down from that mount when this event occurred. He was not there

15:33 to witness first-hand their impotence before this incident. He was not there to behold

15:42 their failure as an eyewitness. And yet, when they ask him why could we not cast it out,

15:53 the Lord is utterly and without any hesitation fully prepared to respond to their question.

16:03 And the reason is that according to the scriptures, the incident of Nathanael, John 1, 48, he sees him coming and says, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. And Nathanael says, where did you find anything about me? And he says, before, before you even came, I saw you sitting under the fig tree. The scripture tells us in John 2, 23, that Jesus needed not that anyone should testify of men, for he himself knew what was in men.

16:41 And here is one of those incidents in the gospel, that without any fanfare we are given another indication with reference to the true nature of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the incarnate God. He is exactly what Mark...

16:59 Mark announces him to be, in his opening words, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so with perfect knowledge of their hearts, with perfect knowledge of all the circumstances of the actual event of the failure, our Lord answers them, according to Mark, with these very simple words, this kind can come out by nothing, save by...

17:30 Now this is one of those incidents where a comparison of the parallel passage in Matthew is of tremendous help to us. And so I would ask you to turn back to Matthew 17, Matthew 17,

17:47 and follow as I read verses 19 and following. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, why could not we cast it out? You see, in Matthew's account it was a straightforward question. And he said unto them, because of your little faith.

18:13 For verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Now, do we have a discrepancy? Mark says that in answer to their question, Jesus said this kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer. Matthew says in answer to their question, why could we not cast it out?

18:47 It is because of your little faith. Well, the first thing we can say is, of course, we do not have a contradiction. What we may have is one of two things. It may be that our Lord gave two reasons as to why they could not cast it out.

19:02 Why did He not cast out the demon? He may have first of all said, because of your little faith. And He may have rebuked them further for their unbelieving spirit and dealt with the whole matter of unbelief in relationship to this incident. Then He may have gone on to tell them, because they did not in their time of need persevere in believing prayer.

19:31 They had been given, a due commission to cast out demons. They had been given authority. And apparently when the demon did not immediately come out after the initial words or form of exorcism, whatever they used, instead of pressing on in pursuit of the deliverance of that boy and crying out to the Father in Heaven to validate their legitimate call and their duly conferred power and authority, they backed off in unbelief. And so our Lord may have been rebuking not only their unbelief, but also their prayerlessness.

20:13 But there is another possibility, and I believe it is the right option. And that is that Matthew focuses upon the root issue of their failure, which was a spirit of unbelief called little faith, whereas Mark, Mark focuses upon the expression of that root issue in their prayerlessness.

20:41 And so what we have in Matthew and Mark is a different point of perspective in answer to their question, why could we not cast it out? Our Lord is saying, you could not cast out that demon because of your little faith, a little faith that manifests in itself in failure to engage the living God by earnest, fervent prayer. Which prayer of faith would have brought deliverance to the lad? Now try to reconstruct the scene of their failure.

21:23 The desperate father comes with his little boy. They see the lad in his condition. Perhaps there was, as in the case of the presence of our Lord, some visible manifestation of his demonic possession. And as they had done many times before, either speaking in the name of their master or in some other form by which they exercised demons, they went through their ritual fully expecting that they would see an evident departure of the demon from the body and personality of that little boy.

22:07 But instead the demon remains entrenched. Now it is precisely at that point that they fail. When they went through their normal ritual or form and did not see an immediate intervention of the power of God, they obviously began to doubt the power of their Lord conferred upon them. They were not able to see the power of their Lord.

22:31 They began to doubt perhaps the validity of their commission. And they did not at that point lift up their hearts in prayer to the heavenly Father and say, O Father, our master is not with us to come to our aid, but he has not removed his commission from us. He has not withdrawn the power conferred upon us. We believe that his word of conferral is valid.

23:02 O Father, we plead, come, intervene. Enter into this situation and manifest your mighty power by delivering this boy from the power of this demon. And so you see it was unbelief, little faith in the word and promise of their Lord, which resulted in the failure to pray and to lay hold of the power of God, which in that instance would have resulted in the deliverance of that boy from the power of the demon that possessed him. And so I'm convinced, and this is not a bizarre conviction, but one shared by many commentators, that the proper way to understand and bring together into true spiritual harmony, the witness of Matthew and of Mark is to understand that it was in one sense a single expose of the cause of their failure. It was little faith manifesting itself in failure to pray. Now then, having considered the question of the impotent disciples, the answer of the omniscient Lord, what are we to learn?

Lesson 1: An Excellent Example to Follow – Owning Defeat

24:30 From this incident, from this postscript, to this mighty miracle performed by the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, let me suggest this morning at least three of the lessons of this incident from the impotent disciples. First of all, and this may surprise us, we have in it an excellent example to follow. When you say an excellent example to follow, in the face of little faith, in the face of prayerlessness and example, what can there be in this incident that is exemplary for us as disciples?

25:15 Well notice that amidst the defeat, amidst the previous rebuke of the Lord, right in the whole story as it unfolds, O faithless or unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? No sooner are they alone with their Lord when they come forward of their own accord and fully own the reality of their defeat. Not only do they fully own the reality of their defeat, they expose themselves to the searching knowledge of their Lord and say, O Lord, tell us, why did you do this? Why did you do this? Why did you do this? Why did you do this?

26:03 Why did you do this? Why did you do this? And in that way the disciples, particularly the nine who were the company of the impotent in that incident, for Peter, James, and John were up in the mountain when this happened, they are an excellent example for us as the people of God. They did not try to play little head games on themselves, that though they said the words of exorcism and nothing else, happened, that something really did happen, and they were successful in spite of their obvious defeat, nor did they, when they were alone with their Lord, draw back and try to simply forget the incident and say, well, you win some, you lose some, hopefully better days are coming down the road, they could not escape the haunting, pressing, humbling realization, in an hour of crisis, when someone looked to us to exercise, and I keep emphasizing, legitimate authority, duly conferred power and ability, we did not produce in the hour of need, and they were utterly honest about their defeat, and they did the best thing that anyone can do when he is defeated.

27:31 In seeking to pursue a ministry laid upon him by Jesus Christ, they went directly to Christ and said, Lord, we did not succeed in the hour of crisis, why? Tell us. And in that exercise, they are an example to us as individual believers, and even more so, as the people of God. Don't you say, Pastor, how do you make the connection?

28:05 Well, it's very simple. We, individually, we, corporately as a church, we too have had specific responsibilities laid upon us by Jesus Christ the Lord. Fathers have had this responsibility laid upon them, nurture your children in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. Husbands have this responsibility.

28:32 Love your wives as Christ loved the church. Wives have specific responsibilities laid upon them. Children, all of us have specific responsibilities laid upon us. Furthermore, there are specific dimensions of power and authority conferred upon us according to the word of God.

28:55 We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have been sealed unto the day of redemption. We have been given. We have been given the promise that His grace is sufficient for all that His will demands of us.

29:08 Now, we have not been given a specific commission to cast out demons. We have not been given a specific commission to raise the dead and heal the sick. Don't wrench the thing out of its setting. It is presumptuous for us to act as though we had their distinct commission and the conferral of their particular authority and power.

29:32 But the principle is that within the realm of what the Lord Jesus conferred upon them in the way of duty and privilege, when they failed, they owned their failure. They came to the Lord Jesus, and they said, Why? And, oh, dear people of God, how much blessing we miss for failure to do precisely that. You find that motif in many of the Psalms.

30:02 For example, in Psalm 44, the psalmist reflects upon God's past mercies to His people. He says, We've heard with our ears what you did in their days. But then he says in verse 9, But, oh, Lord, you no longer go forth with our armies. We turn heel before our enemies.

30:23 We no longer have power to conquer. So it is incumbent upon us individually and as the people of God, when pursuing the revealed word of God, within the framework of the limits of the power conferred upon His church, when we meet with defeat, to face defeat realistically. And having faced it, not to turn heel in unbelief and run from our Lord, ashamed of our defeat, but to come to our Lord and say, Lord, why? Now, that's precise.

31:06 Nicely, what we are doing is a church in the light of some of the recent defeats in our church-planting efforts. Have we hidden from you as a congregation that two of your elders this past week had to go down to Georgia and do a spiritual post-mortem and give a decent Christian burial to a church-planting effort? Have we hidden that from you? Do we only tell you the successions and the triumphs?

31:37 No. We have laid the defeat before you. Now, we believe that God is sovereign even in those defeats, that He overrules them for purposes that are wise and good and which He alone will ultimately exegete to the full in that day when we see Him and are like Him and we know even as we are known. But here and now it is right that we should come to our Lord.

32:07 That's precisely what we are doing. And we urge you as a congregation to enter in with us. Lord, what lessons would you teach us? Is there, were there conditions in us, in your servant Jeff Lee, that from the human perspective resulted in that failure?

32:26 Now, from God's standpoint, we know that this failure was ordained of God from before the foundation of the world, or I would have had nothing to preach on this morning with reference to what the people of God do in the face of failure. Yes, even their failure was woven into the fabric of divine purpose. But while it is woven into the fabric of divine purpose, it is our responsibility nonetheless to come before our God and, like the disciples, honestly own the failure. Why could we not?

33:03 And then expose ourselves to the Word. And to the Spirit of Jesus speaking by and with and within the framework of the Word. And rebuking us, instructing us, all to the end that in a similar situation in the future, rather than defeat, we may know the manifestation of the conquering power of our Lord. So, the first great lesson from this incident of the impotent, impotent disciples is that we have an excellent example to follow.

Lesson 2: An Important Insight to Remember – Varying Intensities of Spiritual Warfare

33:40 But secondly, there is in it an important insight to be remembered. An important insight to be remembered.

33:51 Look at verse 29 again, if you will.

33:55 And he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer. And by the use of those words, This kind, our Lord is emphasizing what is revealed elsewhere. That there are differing degrees of evilness and evil power among the demonic hosts. For example, in Matthew 12 and verse 45.

34:29 Matthew 12 and verse 45. Jesus said, Then he goes, that is one demon, and takes with himself, seven other spirits, more evil than himself.

34:49 Now, without entering into a carnal inquisitiveness about the nature of demons, surely this much is clear. Some demons are more evil than other demons. Or the words of Jesus make no sense. He takes seven other spirits, more evil than himself.

35:11 And our Lord, in responding to their question, Why could we not cast it out? Gives this important insight. An insight which the people of God do well to remember. And that insight is this.

35:28 That as there are varying degrees of evil powers, there are varying intensities of spiritual weapons to confront, those evil powers. And what he was telling them was this. Though in all of your past encounter with demonic forces, all you needed to do was to speak the word of exorcism. Use your normal form, whatever it may have been, to command the demon to leave you.

36:05 This kind. When you meet with a demon who has so deeply entrenched himself, from the very youth of this individual, into, as it were, every recess of his personality, this kind will not go out by the ordinary means. There must be an intensification of the means ordained of God, for the conquering of the powers of evil. This kind, he didn't say all kinds, but this particular kind, goes not out except by prayer.

36:48 And surely, dear brethren, this is a vital insight that we as the people of God need desperately to remember. For in a real sense, every work of evangelism, whether a godly father and mother living before their children, teaching them in family worship, instructing them, instructing them as occasion arises, whether it is the evangelism speaking over the back fence to a neighbor, going door to door with gospel literature, preaching the gospel publicly in the gathering of God's people, in a real sense, every effort of evangelism is nothing less than an aggressive attack upon the kingdom of darkness and upon the prince who sits his head over that kingdom.

37:42 Every effort to seize souls brought to the light of the gospel is an aggressive attack upon the kingdom of darkness. You remember how God made this so plain to Paul in Acts 26? He said to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness and an inheritance. He said Paul, in going out as a missionary, in going out as an evangelist and a gospel preacher, your work is one of an aggressive attack upon the kingdom of darkness and if men are to receive forgiveness and the inheritance given to the believing, they must be delivered from the power of darkness and from the devil himself. Though we are not saying that all unconverted men are demon possessed, surely it is the record of scripture and confirmed in our own experience that the degree to which men are held by the chains of their sins vary from one individual to another. The degree to which men are given over to an opposition to the light and truth of the gospel and the claims of Christ, those things vary. And in the waging of our spiritual warfare with our weapons that are not carnal

39:09 but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, there are some situations where ordinary means will not do. This kind goes not out but by prayer. And there is great textual evidence that the words and fasting may have been spoken by our Lord. Some argue that they were probably inserted when asceticism began to take place.

39:40 While this is not an issue of the church in the 2nd century. And so we cannot decide the issue with any conclusiveness in terms of the textual evidence, but I believe we can say in terms of the context that Jesus did not on this occasion say and fasting. For when you got a desperate man with a boy who's demon possessed, you don't have time to go off and fast and say, Well, you wait for a few days while I go on a three-day fast. So the internal language of the gospel is that we must not go off and fast.

40:09 So the internal evidence would seem to indicate that Jesus did not use the word fasting here, but there is a biblical doctrine of prayer joined to fasting. And what is that doctrine? It is this, that in certain spiritual exercises, ordinary means are not enough. There must be extraordinary prayer, extraordinary concentration of all of the faculties upon engaging God to intervene and to bear His mighty arm in the destruction of the kingdom of darkness.

40:46 And dear people of God, we need to remember that insight. You parents need it desperately. You may find with one child that the prayerful application of the rod very soon and very quickly brings the will of that child into subjection to its parents' will. And never forget, that's your goal in discipline.

41:12 The subjugation of the will of the child. I didn't say the destruction of its will, but I said its subjugation.

41:22 In some children, the ordinary means, an occasional spanking, just the snap of a finger and a stern look, and they're malleable and pliable and submissive. Others? I've had parents come to me, and said, Pastor Martin, I don't know what to do. I remember one pastor.

41:43 He said, I don't know what to do. I keep spanking my son, but he just is determined to have his own way. And I had a very big example. I was with the man in meetings, and one morning we were in his study trying to pray, and his study was in the home.

41:59 He didn't have a lock on the door. And six times that little kid came in, his father said, no, you're not to come in, spanking, sent him out. He came back in. Six.

42:11 Determined, stubborn kid. After that, some months later, he called me and said, Pastor Martin, I'm beside myself. I don't know what to do. He said, this morning, so-and-so was so rebellious, I spanked him, spanked him, spanked him, didn't do any good.

42:24 And in my frustration, I put him in the shower and turned on the cold water on him.

42:35 He had a form of torture chamber. Now, I'm not advising that as a legitimate method, but I'm using it to illustrate something. He got desperate. To the point where he's ready to use extraordinary means to try to bring the will of that child into submission.

42:53 Now, take that over into the realm of the Spirit. The disciples were being taught by their Lord that there was no simple formula that would do for every instance. And parents, you can read all the books on child training, and there are some good ones you ought to read, others you ought to avoid like the plague. But having read the book, and understood the principles, you'll be brought up against the wall where what seemed to work so effectively with one doesn't dent another.

43:25 One child very easily and almost naturally emerges into a sense of his or her own worth and identity and doesn't have any real hang-ups on who they are, and they're not playing 1724 different roles trying to find out which one is them.

43:45 They just seem very naturally, in the context of love and acceptance and the enforcement of encouragement and positive recognition of their distinct strengths and loving pointing out of their... They seem to have no problem.

43:59 And in the same context, another child doesn't seem to know who he or she is. And what do you need to do? You need to apply extraordinary means in helping that child through to that vital aspect of its development. Well, in the realm, of the spirit, the same is true.

44:20 We must not view the work of God as something that has five or six spiritual weapons all to be wielded the same way with the same intensity for the same amount of time and the same results will follow. And we, like the disciples, will be brought to understand again and again and again this kind, this kind goes not out by ordinary means, this kind goes not out except by prayer. This kind can come out by nothing save by prayer. An important insight to be remembered.

Lesson 3: An Incisive Explanation to Be Applied – Faith and Prayer

45:01 But then finally, and I believe this is the heart of the passage, there is in it an incisive explanation to be applied to our own hearts. An incisive explanation to be applied.

45:19 In his answer to their question, why could we not cast it out? Jesus explains when we take Matthew's account and blend it or set it alongside of Mark's, that there is an intimate and delicate relationship between a vigorous growing faith and the activity of persevering prayer. There is an intimate and delicate relationship between, Between, a vigorous, growing faith and the activity of persevering prayer. Why could we not cast it out?

45:59 Because of your little faith. And in the disciples' case, what was that faith? It should have been a settled confidence in the word of commission, in the present availability of the power of God to validate that commission. For the disciples, in the presence of that distraught father with his demon-possessed son, a vigorous, strong faith would have said in the face of nothing happening when they first gave the word of exorcism, strong faith would have said, alright, the demon has not come out.

46:42 But we have been commissioned to cast out demons. We have been instructed that our Lord and our Father is more mighty than the power of darkness. Therefore, we will cry to God, O God, the word and the commission and the authority have been granted. Vindicate your almighty power.

47:04 Vindicate our identification as the truly sent and commissioned ones of our Lord and our Master, Jesus of Nazareth. You see, a strong faith would have given birth to prayer which would have engaged God and which would have seen deliverance and their prayerlessness, their failure in that incident before the initial resistance of that demon. The absence of their prayer was really but the revelation of the shriveling of their faith.

47:47 You see, they doubted. Well, do we really have power over this kind of demon? Are we able in the name of our Savior to cast out this kind of demon?

48:08 Could it be, as we've been making reference again and again and again in recent weeks, that the whole setting of this part of the Gospel of Mark is permeated with this intense emphasis upon His coming suffering? Could it be that having announced that He was to suffer, He was to die, and it says they did not understand and Peter sought to withstand Him? And in the next verses, we see that he emphasizes it again. Verse 31, He taught His disciples, the Son of Man is delivered up into the hands of man.

48:44 They shall kill Him. They understood not the saying. Could it be that their growing misunderstanding about all this talk about the cross was creating some doubts and some distance between their hearts and their Lord?

49:05 He who is out of sympathy with Christ crucified will never be strong in faith and persevering in prayer.

49:14 And it could well be that the withering of their faith was the direct result of the offense of the cross. This teaching about a coming death perhaps was beginning to wither some of their confidence in His ability to do what He said He would do with them and through them. The other possibility and a very real one is perhaps they got so accustomed to seeing the demons leave the first time they spoke that they began to think that the power lay automatically with themselves and not in living bonds of present faith and faith in and trust in and communion with their God and with their Messiah. And if so, then you see there was a form of idolatrous self-confidence beginning to emerge. Jeremiah 17.5 was coming into play.

50:18 Cursed be he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm. Could it be that the Lord was discerning in them the beginning of the cross? Could it be that the Lord was discerning in them the beginning of the cross? Could it be the beginnings of this spirit in which so many times in so many different circumstances just one word of command and the demons left that they began to forget that that power was converted personally by their Lord and could only be operative in them and through them in living fellowship and faith in their Lord?

Application: Abandoning Self-Confidence and Cultivating Communion

50:58 And if so, then our Lord would be the one who would give those words to them because of your little faith. This kind cannot go out save by prayer was a call to abandon that beginning of a spirit of self-confidence, the beginning of estrangement from Him and to call them back into a deeper and a more vital bond of communion and trust in Himself. And surely that explanation imparted to them needs desperately to be applied to us. Think again of what this means for us as a congregation. What has God given to us? He's given His word of promise that when we gather in His name He will be among us. He will be in the midst.

51:55 He has told us that He has given us the earnest of the Spirit and that we are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption. He has freely given us all things in Christ and we so often enjoy so much of the felt reality of that. But the moment we begin to think that those things are automatically operative apart from living bonds of present faith and trust and communion with our Savior it will be right for our Lord to withdraw them and to let us feel our utter impotence to let us feel our total powerlessness to praise or prayer or preach as we ought. It's a terrible thing when the Lord must allow His disciples to be humbled by defeat in order to rebuke them for their self-confidence. But these disciples were confronted with that very lesson and hopefully they learned the lesson well for we all know we see in the subsequent record not only in the Gospel of Mark but more particularly when the Spirit of God comes and the new covenant blessings are poured out these are the ones who in the name and power of their Master go forth to bring blessing to the world.

53:25 This kind goes not out but by prayer because of your little faith. And dear people of God as you heard this morning in the Sunday school hour faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Faith feeds upon the unseen world of spiritual reality and this is why we cannot be strong in faith if we are inordinately attached to the world of sight and sense. I said inordinately attached.

54:05 We live in a world of sight and sense. The clothes we of necessity put on this morning are tangible commodities and we see them and feel them in the food that we have eaten, yes. But once there is an inordinate attachment so that we can no longer say with Paul we do not look we do not intently gaze upon the things that are seen we must look upon them or we'd stumble over all of them. But he said we do not intently we do not look the focus of the soul is not upon the things that are seen but on the things substantial realities things which are not seen though not seen they are substantial realities for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal. We shall come in due course to Moses as an example of a man of faith and his faith in terms of the things of that which fed it is described for us in these words he endured seeing him who is invisible seeing the invisible God and it is in that present sight of his glory of his majesty of his power of his livingness and of faith that goes out to him expressed in believing persistent fervent prayer there is the healthy soul there is the healthy soul

Conclusion: Faith, Prayer, and Salvation

55:33 there is the church there is the place where the Lord Jesus manifests the power of his grace what is true of God's people it's true of you who are here outside of Christ the Bible puts in the closest conjunction the faith that is unto salvation and the faith that gives birth to prayer it's often said we're not saved by prayer and that's true but you're not saved without prayer either Romans 10 9 and 10 tells us that we're not saved if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for whosoever shall what call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved where there is faith in the heart there will be prayer in the heart and prayer and confession upon the lips and prayer and in the heart and in the heart and in the heart and in the heart and in the heart and in the heart seeing yourself lost and estranged from God and under his wrath there is no way of escape for you but in Jesus Christ you say but how do I get to Christ you get to Christ by faith when you say how will faith express itself by calling upon him the faith that owns your sinnerhood and owns the reality and the livingness of Christ

57:02 as the only savior of sinners will cause you to cry to him son of David have mercy upon me and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved well bless God for this little postscript to the mighty power of Jesus manifested in the healing of that demon possessed boy just a question from impotent disciples then the answer of their omniscience is that they are the same as they are the same as they are to us may the insight of those varying dimensions of spiritual opposition be laid upon our hearts that we will never be unwilling when necessary to give ourselves to more than our ordinary devotions more than our ordinary stated seasons of prayer that when we face impasses in your elders call us to a day or a half day of prayer you'll not say well we already pray twice a week isn't that enough no there are times when we must cry to God with even greater intensity and then let us lay to our hearts the explanation that our Lord gives of the delicate relationship between unbelief and prayerlessness

58:31 and positively stated between a growing living faith and a life that is of intense fervent and believing prayer let us pray our Father we do thank you for your holy word we thank you that you have given it to be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway and we pray that you will forgive us for the many times when we have been unwilling to own our defeats to own our impotence to own and to come honestly before you and to ask Lord why could we not forgive us for the pride for the indifference that have kept us from coming before you eagerly seeking an answer to that question and then we pray that by your grace you will so work in us that we will be prepared for whatever intensity of exercise in spiritual weaponry is needed to face the needs that are brought before us as individuals as families and as a church oh God we confess that we do not like to be jarred loose from our comfortable rituals

60:01 but we thank you that defeat is often the instrument by which you jar us cause us to cry to you and in which you come to us and do a deeper richer work in our hearts oh write upon our hearts then the lessons of this portion of your word and help us to call them to remembrance in the times when we most desperately need them hear then our prayer and strengthen our faith as even this day we look away from ourselves and upon him who is mighty to say even our Lord Jesus Christ hear us as together we plead these mercies in his name amen