This sermon discusses a passage from Mark chapter 9, highlighting the helplessness of the disciples in casting out a demon, which contrasts with their previous experiences on the mountain where they witnessed Jesus's transfiguration alongside Moses and Elijah. The narrative serves as a reminder of the perpetual unbelief and faithlessness faced by leaders and prophets throughout biblical history. The sermon emphasizes that unbelief is the core problem, as illustrated by the disciples' inability to perform miracles without Jesus's presence. The father of the possessed boy exemplifies a moment of faith by acknowledging his unbelief and seeking Jesus's help, which leads to the healing of his son. The critical lesson stressed is the necessity of prayer and faith in Jesus's power, rather than self-reliance. The sermon calls the congregation to reflect on personal unbelief and to turn to Jesus for true transformation and salvation.

Mark chapter 9 will be beginning in verse 14. And if you have a pew Bible, the Bible under the chair in front of you, you can turn to page 1005. You can find our passage there this morning and as always if you do not own a copy of God's word Or would like the new American standard Bible to go home and study please Take that home with you and we would love for you to have it. Let's stand together. Just a reminder, at the conclusion, we're working to say together when I say this is the Word of the Lord, we will all say amen after I say that.

Let's hear now from God. Beginning in verse 14 of Mark chapter 9. When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately when the entire crowd saw him, they were amazed and began running up to greet him. And he, that is Jesus, asked them, what are you discussing with them?

And one of the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought you my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and stiffens out. I told you disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it. And he answered them and said, Oh, unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?

Bringing to me. They brought the boy to him. When he saw him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion. And falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him?

And he said, from childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, I do believe. Help my unbelief.

When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again. After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions. It came out and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up and he got up. When he came into the house, his disciples began questioning him privately, why could we not drive it out?

And he said to them, this kind cannot come out by anything but prayer. May God bless the reading of His Word. Amen. You may be seated. Allow me to pray for us before we begin.

Father, what we do not know this morning, we ask that You would teach us. What we do not have, we ask that You would give us here in Your Word. And what we are not, Father, we ask that You would make us for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, the disciples have just come down from the mountain.

You'll recall from last week, Lord willing, that they saw resurrection glory on top of the mountain with the transfiguration of Jesus. A preview of resurrection glory for all who would listen to Jesus Christ. They saw the glory of God on the mountain. They saw Jesus who is God in his glory on the mountain. They heard the voice of God speak from the cloud on the mountain.

And who else did they see up there? Well they saw Moses and Elijah. And that's very significant for our study this morning, at least to begin our study this morning. Moses had been up on a mountain to meet with God, had he not? A number of times.

What's perhaps the most recognizable or in your mind, what's perhaps the most noted instance of Moses going up to the mountain to meet with God? Probably if I was depressed, you would say, well, the giving of the 10 commandments, Exodus chapter 20. And you'd be right that's probably one of the most noted instances and so let's think about that for just a moment God gives Moses two tablets of the law in Exodus chapter 20. God speaks with him. God gives him the tablets of the law.

And then what happens after that? Moses descends. Moses goes down the mountain. And what does Moses find? He finds a wicked and perverse generation, a group of faithless people engaged in immorality and idolatry at the foot of the mountain.

He comes down from the mountain and sees Israel worshiping a golden calf. Think of Elijah in 1 Kings. He too saw the glory of God on a mountain. Do you remember this story? The narrative where Elijah is with the prophets of Baal and they are crying out and cutting themselves, saying, you know, Baal, come and devour our sacrifice.

And of course, Baal never answers. But Elijah, drenching his sacrifice, calls down for God to come in glory, and fire comes from heaven, licks up the sacrifice and then some. What happens immediately? Elijah leads the people to slay all the wicked prophets of Baal up on that mountain and you think wow what a moment of victory and yet immediately after that mountaintop experience Elijah leaves the mountain and he flees why because He's being pursued by a wicked king who governs a wicked and perverse generation. Moses and Elijah.

Glory, power up on top of the mountain. And they are immediately met with unbelief. With immorality, with perversity. Do you think that's a mistake? That we just saw them up on the mountain?

And now here is Jesus with Peter, James, and John. They're coming down the mountain. And what do you think they're going to be met with? Mark tells us they saw a large crowd around the other disciples and some scribes arguing with them and immediately when the entire crowd saw him saw Jesus they were amazed and again running up to greet him. And he asked them, what are you discussing with them?

And one of the crowd answered him, teacher, I brought you my son possessed with the spirit, which makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground. He foams at the mouth. He grinds his teeth. He stiffens out.

I told your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it. And he answered them and said, Oh, unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me. What meets Jesus at the foot of the mountain?

The same thing that Moses experienced in the wilderness. The same as Elijah in the wilderness. Wickedness, sin, unbelief. I'll have my clicker if you could click for me. Click the next slide please.

Oh there it is. Never mind, I found it. The problem is unbelief. Mark holds out to you very, very clearly this problem. Other translations translate verse 19 as that word unbelief.

They translate it faithlessness. Oh, unbelieving generation. Oh, faithless generation. The problem is the sin in this passage of unbelief, no faith, and the question should be in your mind, okay, whose problem is it? Well in this passage, Mark takes great pains to make sure you know exactly who Jesus is zeroing in on, who is the unbelieving group that he has in mind.

In other places in Mark, it's very clear that the crowd is unbelieving. But here, in verse 15, we see the crowd is amazed when they see Jesus and they're running to Him. Later on in verse 25, even more people are coming to see Jesus excitedly. They're not the ones in this particular pericope, in this particular section that Jesus has in mind. They're coming to Jesus.

No, no. Who has it been that Jesus continues to work on? He continues to invest in. He continues to teach. But they have had hard hearts throughout.

They've had little to no faith who have been characterized as men without belief throughout the Gospel of Mark. The disciples. In Mark chapter 4, when Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples still did not believe that Jesus was in fact God. They didn't know who Jesus was. Jesus asked them, why are you afraid?

How is it that you still have no faith? In Mark chapter 6, Jesus walked on the water in the midst of a storm and the disciples once again. They saw Him. They were terrified, but immediately He spoke to them words of comfort. Take courage.

It's I. Don't be afraid. He gets into the boat with them the wind stops They're utterly astonished and what happened in their hearts mark tells us They did not gain any insight from the incident of the lows instead their hearts were hardened Mark chapter 8 Jesus told his disciples watch out beware of the corruption beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod They're corrupt. They're gonna lead you astray watch out for them and The disciples completely missed the whole point of that they start talking about not having bread when they've just seen Jesus the bread of life feed not just the 5,000 plus women and children but also the 4,000 plus women and children with basketfuls left over instead they're saying we don't got any bread Jesus and Jesus said to them do you have hardened hearts Have you not seen what I've done? Do you not understand who I am?

Do you not believe? And the answer is no. They didn't. This language of unbelief, hardened hearts, this language of faithlessness has truly throughout Mark's Gospel followed the disciples around like a bad reputation. Like a dog hard on their heels.

And speaking of dogs, they would have done well to pay attention to the Gentile woman who called herself a dog content with the scraps from Jesus' table. So long as they were from Jesus' table. That's belief. That's faith. They would have done well to pay attention to her.

They would have done well to pay attention to this Father in this narrative in our passage this morning. She cries out desperately for Jesus to heal his son. That's belief. That's faith. But the disciples, according to Jesus, they are unbelieving.

They are the wicked ones in view here. Their unbelief is categorized in Matthew and Luke's account of the same incident as perverse. Matthew and Luke use the word perverse. These men are part of an unbelieving and perverse generation, and they are the cream of the crop. They symbolize this generation.

The disciples have a problem. It's a very grave problem called unbelief. And so do the scribes. The scribes, they've been unbelieving since the beginning of Mark's Gospel. The scribes of the Pharisees, they've been out to discredit and raise havoc against the ministry of Jesus since before even Mark chapter 2.

In that moment, Jesus declared Himself to be God when He said that He was able to forgive sin. In that moment, it was plain. The scribes are unbelieving. The disciples and the scribes both, they are the ones who are faithless here, and they are the ones arguing with one another. What are they arguing about?

What are they arguing about? Well, verse 17 tells us, look there in verse 17, a father has brought his son to the disciples to be healed. The boy has an evil spirit. He's possessed by a demon. And this demon continues to try and destroy him, slamming him to the ground, grinding his teeth into dust, making him mute, unable to speak, causing his body to stiffen out, rigid, convulsing.

This little boy, this young man is tortured by this evil spirit. And so I think you can easily imagine it. This father seeing his son tormented like this, being unable to do anything about it day after day after day For years, I mean, can you can you just imagine the sorrow and truly the helplessness of this father? For years being unable to help his son, seeing his son go through these realities. So perhaps he sits outside of his home, he's sobbing and helplessness and hopelessness and then he hears these travelers come down the lane as he's outside weeping.

He hears these whispers of a group of men who follow Jesus, who've been given authority to cast out demons and heal sick people. He raises his head. What a spark of hope that would ignite in him. What joy, what longing this might have brought this man. You could potentially see it.

Could these men that I'm hearing about, could they heal my boy? Could they heal him? And so this father full of hope, he grabs his son. We don't know what that was like. He goes to the disciples.

He kneels before them. Please, heal my son. Do for him as you've done for so many others. Please! And yet in verse 18, we're told, the disciples could not do what Jesus had tasked them to do.

They could not cast out that demon from this boy. You'll remember just a few chapters earlier, in Mark chapter 6, Jesus gave the disciples authority over the unclean spirits. Jesus gave them the authority to cast out demons, the power to exorcise demons. And yet now in this moment, they cannot do what Jesus has tasked them to do. And that should create a big question in your mind.

That's the whole point of this passage. Why can't they do it? And it's when he hears, when Jesus hears, that the disciples could not do the very thing that Jesus had tasked them to do. That's when verse 19 happens. That's when Jesus, when Jesus hears about his disciples' inability to cast this demon out, that's when Jesus declares the problem.

Verse 19, Oh, unbelieving, oh, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? In other words, how long will you be hardened in your heart? How long are you gonna keep going on and on and seeing but not understanding, hearing but not listening? How long will you carry on in your unbelief?

To the scribes, he says this, right? I mean, he's saying this also to the scribes to the scribes they seem to be arguing with the disciples in this passage and they seem to be taunting them. Why would the scribes be taunting and arguing with the disciples? Right? Here are the disciples who the scribes do not like.

The disciples cannot rid this boy of this demon. And so, likely, the scribes are pouring on the taunts, pouring on the shame, pouring on ridicule, delighted that the disciples have failed. To the scribes, Jesus says, how long will you carry on with your hardened heart? How long will you go on with your unbelief? He said that to the scribes several times in Mark's Gospel already.

Yes, he speaks to the scribes, but more particularly, Jesus speaks to the disciples. To the disciples, Jesus declares them to be unbelieving. Why? Because they cannot cast out this demon. And so Jesus painfully declares, if you look there, that word, oh, oh, unbelieving generation.

There's pain there. There's anguish at the hardness of these men's heart, at their lack of faith. Oh, unbelieving generations, oh, my dear disciples, you cannot cast out this demon because you don't believe. You are no different than the rest of the people. You are unbelieving.

And Matthew's gospel says this explicitly. If you think I'm doing Isis Jesus, well, I'm not. I'm just taking the totality of the gospels. If you were to go to Matthew's gospel, it says this explicitly. Why couldn't the disciples cast out the demon?

And Jesus responds, because of the littleness of your faith. Because of your unbelief. That's what's going on here. These disciples did not believe who Jesus was and what Jesus could do. They were not trusting Jesus.

They did not believe His promises. They did not believe in His person and His power. They did not believe what Mark is conveying in the entirety of his gospel, the mighty person in the first eight chapters, and the mighty work of the Savior Jesus Christ in the second eight chapters. The disciples had a problem. The scribes had a problem.

Listen to me, you friend have a problem. You are part of a sinful generation. You are sinful. You come from Adam, friend. You come from Adam and from Adam has come sin and death in Adam You are spiritually dead and headed to eternal damnation You sin not because of some external circumstance surrounding you, you sin because you are a sinner.

You have a great problem. What was Adam's sin? Adam did not believe God, and he plunged all of humanity into sin and death because of his unbelief. And you partake in the same sin. You have broken God's law.

And why would you break God's law? Because you do not believe Why are you anxious? Because you do not believe the promises of God that he would care for you therefore you sin Why do you lust? Because you do not believe the promises of God that He will satisfy you. So you sin in your lust of unbelief.

Why do you commit murder in your heart by being angry? Because you do not believe the promises of God that He rules and reigns in perfect justice and righteousness. Why do you hide your sin? Because you do not believe the promises of God that He rules and reigns in perfect justice and righteousness. Why do you hide your sin?

Because you do not believe the promise of God that He is everywhere and that nothing can be hidden from him. Why are you proud and insistent on being the Master and Lord of your life and spurn Christ's Lordship over your life? Why is that? Because you do not believe the promise of God that He will one day judge the living and the dead, and all those who are rebels to His will will be thrown into the lake of fire forever. You do not believe, though you know it to be true.

You do not believe the truth about God, the truth about your sin, and the truth that you must repent and believe the Gospel. You do not believe. Romans chapter 1 is very clear. It tells us that you very much know the truth about God. But rather than submit to the truth, rather than believe what God has said to you and what God has declared to you openly in His natural revelation, You stand guilty before Him, and you are in desperate need of salvation that you cannot achieve.

Rather than believe the truth, you suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And you choose to believe a lie rather than what is plainly true. I hope this day that you begin to see the folly of your way. Do you this day Find yourself as one who sees His great problem called unbelief. You've sang songs about the mercies of God.

You sang songs about how God is righteous and just and He will punish the wicked. They will be like chaff, blown away. If that concerns you this morning, and you this day, find yourself as one who sees this great problem called unbelief, called sin, and the enmity that it is created between you and the thrice holy God. Are you hearing these things this morning? And are you finally listening?

Do you find yourself this morning to be like this father in this passage who says out loud to Jesus, can you do anything for me? Can you heal? Can you make things right? If that is you this morning, there is great hope, friend. For what does Jesus say to the father of this child who is enslaved and tortured by this demon?

What does Jesus say? Jesus says, bring him to me. Are you reading that? Give it a moment. Those brown girls.

That precious sweeties. They're struggling this morning. I want you to see this. This is the best part of this passage. This man comes to Jesus desperate.

And what does Jesus tell this desperate man? Bring him to me. Jesus Christ, friend, is the solution to your greatest problem. Jesus says, come to me. Come unto Him, Jesus says.

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, heavy burdened, burdened under the weight of your sin. Come to me. Don't try to rest the burden away yourself. You try to do that, the straps of your burden will get tighter. The weight of your sin will only grow if you try to cast it off yourself.

You cannot fix your great problem. You cannot solve the spiritual mess that you are in. Jesus says, but come to me. Bring your sin to me. I will give you rest.

Come unto me. Just the next chapter, Jesus says what I'm saying. Come unto me. I will give you rest. Jesus calls out, bring Him to me.

I am salvation, Jesus declares. So I want you to just think of the imagery that Mark has held up for you so far. We began chapter 9 with the Father, God the Father, in heaven being pleased with the Son. Do you remember that on the Mount of Transfiguration? Begins with God the Father is pleased with the Son.

And now we're at the foot of the mountain, and there is a Father who is desperate for the well-being of His Son. And the Son of God, in whom the Father is well pleased, invites this Father to bring the burden of the Son to the Son of God, and the Son of God is well pleased to heal Him. It's all kinds of imagery going on. And it's glorious because The gospel, the good news is glorious. The Son will deal with the spiritual sickness of this boy.

So I'd like to talk to the children. Children, I know that you probably checked out, but stop it. Listen to Pastor Grant right now please. I really want to know what you think about this passage so far. You've just heard me say many times that you've disobeyed God, That you've done what you've done as a sinner because you are a sinner.

You sin because inside of you there is a sickness. There's spiritual death. You have a heart that is wicked and stands guilty before God, children. And the Bible tells you, Mark told you just a few chapters ago, the reason that you do evil things, the reason that bad things come out of you is because you've got a bad heart. Do you agree with me?

Better yet, do you agree with God? He says to you children, you are desperately sick. That inside of you spiritually, your heart is the greatest problem. So I want to ask you a question. Children, How do you know when you are physically sick?

How do you know? How do you know you're physically sick children go ahead and say it? Maybe your nose starts doing what? Children what happens? Starts running What about your throat it starts what?

Getting Getting hurt in that very good. She's the only one. She gets like a hundred points. What happens? You start to feel bad.

You start to hack and cough. You can't stop coughing. You can't stop. Your nose is running. You get a fever.

Your body is doing things that it shouldn't be doing. Well, I think you should think about this. You know when you're getting sick because your body's doing things that it shouldn't be doing. Do you ever do things that you know you shouldn't do before God? Do you ever disobey your parents when you know that you should obey them?

God says that's disobeying Him. Do you ever get angry, children, with your brother or your sister when they have something that you want and you want to take it away from them? God says you just committed murder in your heart and that you're a thief. Do you sometimes say mean and evil things about others that you would be so embarrassed if I repeated what you had said out loud right now. God says that's slander and evil.

Those things are coming out of you. I've seen it. Those things are coming out of you. Why are they coming out of you, children? They're coming out of you because you have a heart that is wicked within.

You have a problem. You have a problem that's far worse than a runny nose, far worse than a cough or sore throat. You aren't doing right because within you, there is a heart that is sick. So I want to ask you one more question. What do you do when you're sick, children?

When you are sick, what do you do? What do your mommy and daddy take you when you're really, really, really sick? Say it. The doctor. You go to the doctor.

What does the doctor give you? He gives you medicine. And you go home and you say, what do you do with that medicine? You take that medicine because you know, oh, I feel so lousy. I need it desperately.

You take that medicine and it heals you. Does it not? Will you not take medicine from physical doctors? Then how much more I plead with you children to take the greatest of all medicine from the greatest of all physicians, Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus says to you children, come, drink deeply from me.

I will be the medicine that will take your heart of stone, your heart of corruption, your evil within. I'll deal with it. I will hang on a cross for you and bear the blame for every evil word that came out of your mouth, every evil time that you disobeyed your mother or your father, every time you stole something from your sibling or were angry with them, I will take the punishment and the blame for that and in exchange I will give you a new heart. I will give you my righteousness and my grace so that inside you'd be different. I'll transform you.

That's the medicine. Children, I'm pleading with you, take Christ. Take Christ. Your heart is sick. The only medicine that can make the heart brand new is Jesus Christ.

So if you will take the medicine from a doctor, take Jesus Christ. Parents, fathers, you need to plead with your children to take Jesus Christ. You need to exhort your children to embrace Christ by faith. If you will take them to the doctor and give them physical medicine, why will you rob them daily of the medicine of the Gospel? You cannot do that.

And some fathers in this room and some mothers are content with training up our children in every way possible. We'll even go and evangelize to the neighbors, but we will not evangelize to our own children. Repent, believe the forgiveness that is in Christ. You take that medicine and then offer it to your children. The medicine is for you, children.

In chapter 10, I cannot wait till we get to it. In chapter 10, you know what Jesus says to you children? He says, let the little children come to me. The medicine is for you. It's for you.

Take it. And if you take Christ at His Word that He will not just work forgiveness, but newness within you, that he will make you born again. You'll be able to you'll be able to sing with your mommy and daddy Jesus you are my rock of ages cleft for me So let me hide myself in thee let the water and the blood from thy wounded Side which flowed you could sing this with them be of sin my sin to double cure Save from wrath and make Me pure." You could sing that with your mother and father, and it would be glorious. The medicine is for you, children. Well, Jesus said to these unbelieving disciples, to this Father who is probably hanging as if on the edge of a knife between hope and despair as He brings this son to these disciples.

The disciples can't cast the demon out. Can Jesus? Jesus says to this man, bring him to me. Don't go anywhere else. Go nowhere else for salvation.

Find hope in no other name, no other person, no other work than Jesus Christ alone. And beloved, he says the same today. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you are unbelieving this morning, you must choose this morning. You must decide who you will be brought to.

Today is the day of salvation. Today you must choose who you will serve. You need to listen to me, ladies. You need to listen to me, adults. Young men, older men.

How long will you hesitate between two different opinions? If Jesus is Lord, follow Him. But if worldly pleasure, fame or fortune, or some other worldly trinket, if it be God, then follow it. But today, I am asking you, I am telling you, you must choose. You will not leave this room without choosing.

You will hear this sermon and it will do one of two things. It will either soften your heart, that you see the glories of Jesus Christ and say, I need Him. Or you will go away hardened. It will not leave you the same. Who this day will you serve?

Sinner, you have seen the years that the locusts have ate away. With all of your efforts and all of your trying, and trying to reform yourself and pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. All you have left to show by your own self-righteousness and your own self-exaltation, all you have to show are years eaten away by locusts with a burden more heavy than what you started with. So I ask again, who will you serve? Who will you come to?

Who will you bring your burden to? Will you bring your burden to the bail of the age called self-help, self-esteem, self-exaltation, or will you bring your burden to the one true living God who calls you this day to turn from your wicked ways to no longer identify with this wicked and perverse generation and believe on Him. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified and raised up for the salvation of sinners. And if you repent and believe in Him, He promises to cleanse you. The fire of forgiveness will fall down and deal with your sins in a way far greater than the way that God sent fire down to lick up the sacrifice of Elijah.

Because the Son was the greatest of all sacrifices. In Christ there is more mercy in Him than there is sin in you. Today is the day of salvation. You must choose. And if you choose Christ, you better believe it.

It is because God has worked that in you. Jesus said to this father, bring him to me. And this father hears the call of Jesus, bring your son to me. And what does the father do? I know it's really simple, but what does the father do?

Think about it. He obeys. He brings the boy to Jesus helplessly, looking to Jesus for grace. And what happened? In that moment, the boys brought before Jesus, violence happened.

A battle happened. The evil spirit threw the young man into convulsions, rolling around the ground, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus looked at this man. The text seems to suggest compassion. How long has this been happening?

And the man says, from childhood, from childhood this demon has tried to destroy my son. From childhood. Friends, you should look at the end game of Satan right here. All of the little inferior promises that he gives to you and holds out to you, follow me, follow the path of the wicked. Do you not see their end game?

Destruction? Do not give yourself children to the schemes of the devil. Do not give yourself. Do not believe his lies, friends. Their endgame, the endgame of the evil one is destruction.

And notice the battle. Here is Jesus who says, bring him to me. The father brings the boy to him and there's a great violence that erupts this morning you in this pew in this chair you could be thinking well I know I'm a sinner but if I'm a sinner I got to give these things up. I've got to repent. I've got to turn.

Stop listening to lies. Stop listening that there's more green grass in the pasture of the wicked. That grass will be burned. But if you walk in the path of righteousness, If you belong to Jesus, oh, how blessed you are. You'll be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, and it will never run dry.

Isaiah 45. This day God says, turn to me and be saved, for I am God and there is no other So this man brings this boy to God the Son and this father He said he asked Jesus if you can do anything if you can do anything Please take pity on us have mercy on us. Help me if you can do anything Jesus do it. What does Jesus tell him in verse 23? If you can.

If you can. All things are possible to him who believes. Now, don't be turning that verse into something it's not. Man, there are so many people that take that verse and one from Philippians, and man, turn it into things, put it on sneakers, and you know, I'm five foot tall, but I'm going to go dunk in basketball. I can do all things.

Okay. Verse 23. All things are possible to him who believes. Jesus is just referring back to verse 19. The problem.

Unbelief versus belief. Trusting lies versus trusting the Savior. Faith in yourself versus looking outside of your faith, looking outside of yourself and placing your faith in Christ. What's it going to be? Are you going to remain in your unbelief or are you going to trust Christ?

For all, this is what verse 23 is saying, for all who side with the Savior, for all who fly to the Savior and cry out with the hymn writer, Foul I to the fountain fly, Wash me Savior or I die. If that's you for any who find themselves in that space for them, there will be nothing that The Savior cannot clean. There will be no sin, no power that God the Son cannot consume. God will purify you if you're in Christ Jesus. There's nothing too hard for him.

That's what verse 23 says. There is nothing that the Savior cannot overcome. Because who is the Savior? We found this out in chapter 5 of Mark. The Savior Jesus is the stronger man.

Who is going to be able to wrestle the stronger man? Nobody. Nobody. Believe, Jesus says to this man, believe in me. Trust me.

Trust in my power. Trust in my righteousness. Trust in my perfection. And what does the Father do? The Father cries out a cry of faith.

What does he say? Glorious. I do believe. Help my unbelief. I do believe.

But help my unbelief. We see the Father's right response. The problem, your sin, is unbelief. The solution is Christ Jesus to bear the judgment that your unbelief deserves and to make you new from the inside out. And now we see the right response.

Faith and belief. You must repent and believe in Jesus Christ. You must repent and believe. The Father cries out, I believe. Help my unbelief.

I don't want to go on unbelieving anymore. Help me Lord. I hope you see the heart of the boy's father. Are you seeing the heart there? That is a heart that is not sick.

That is a heart that's been made well by Jesus. I believe in you Jesus. I trust you. I trust your promises. I trust your power.

But my trust is weak. My faith is weak. Help me to believe. It's the same language at the end of Mark where Jesus tells his disciples, who can't stay awake in the garden, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Same kind of language. Here is this Father crying out, help me to believe.

And that's really where we get that hymn, don't we? That wonderful hymn when we sing, oh, for grace to trust Him more. Does it not really come from things like this in God's Holy Scripture? Oh, for grace to trust Him more. Beloved, you need to see plainly that this Father in this narrative is really held up as what the disciples should be.

There's a contrast here. Here is this Father who cries out to the Savior, I believe You, Jesus. I trust in You, Jesus. My faith is in You. I'm weak.

I need your help. I need your help to rid me of my sin, of my unbelief. That's a prayer of faith. That's the response of a child of God. And Jesus, who is the author of this Father's faith, Jesus Himself is the one that granted faith to this man.

What does He do? He does exactly as He promised He would do. He invites the Father to bring the Son to Him. I can do all things. There's nothing too hard for me to do.

He promises the Father. The Father cries out in faith, and Jesus does exactly as He promised. There is no evil. There is no sin. There's no spiritual force that can overcome Jesus.

And so what happens? Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit to come out and never enter Him again. We could spend time on just that phrase. Beloved, if you are in Christ Jesus, Christ has saved you and no one will pluck you from His hand. No one can do such a thing.

Talk about good medicine. And what happened? Well, Come out, never enter Him again. The demon cried out, threw the boy into one last convulsion on his way out, and then the boy was free. And yet, the boy looked as if he was dead.

But no, just as He did with the little girl just two chapters earlier in chapter 7. Jesus took this little boy by the hand. This little boy that He had rescued. We don't know the age. I'm saying little boy.

It could have been an older young man. He takes this young man by the hand. He raises him up as if, just like you did with the little girl in chapter 7, nothing is too hard for Jesus. Nothing is too hard for Jesus. So my exhortation to you is, will you not cry out to Jesus in like fashion?

There is no sin in you that Jesus is not able to master. If you this morning recognize that you have been overcome by pornography, do you not know that there is a Savior who you can run to and bring that to, to confess your sins. He is faithful and righteous to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Pornographers, come to Christ. Confess your sins to Him.

Get with the brother in this church, let's fight, because if you're in Christ, there's victory to be had. If you're a constant worrier and you're full of anxiety all the time, Linger no more in that sin. I know that there's times that perhaps anxiety might not be sin, but by and large it is. And so times where it is, lay that before the Lord. Bring your sin to Him.

Confess and walk in newness of life. Any habit. Anything. There is nothing too hard for Jesus. His power to forgive and cleanse is on display in this chapter.

That's the prayer of a child of God. I need you desperately. So today you must choose, will you be as this man who believes, or will you go on in your unbelief? Well, the scribes, they represent Israel, do they not? And what happens to Israel just 40 years after this Gospel concludes?

The scribes represent Israel, and Israel in their unbelief is destroyed. Jerusalem destroyed. So I ask, will you repent or will you likewise perish in your unbelief? Final word and then we're through. This is very brief.

A final word on the disciples' response. Just one more minute or so. Jesus was questioned by his disciples in verses 29 and 28. 28 and 29 they asked, well hey Jesus, why couldn't we drive that demon out? And Jesus says to them, this kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.

In the other gospels, Jesus says, you couldn't cast it out because you did not have faith. You weren't trusting in me and my power. That's what the other gospels say. But why does Jesus say what He says to the disciples about prayer in Mark's gospel? Why does Mark just say the words, it only comes out by prayer?

You should ask that question. And the answer is really simple. What did the Father, whose Son was healed, what did He do? Think about that. He cried out in faith.

He depended entirely upon Jesus for the salvation of his son from the devil. And these disciples did not do that. If they had cried out to God, if they had cried out to Jesus for help in prayer, if they would have recognized that only the power of Jesus can make this exorcism succeed, and not their own power. They would have succeeded. To put all the Gospels together, that's very plain.

The disciples should be like this Father praying in faith. So I leave you with this, dearly loved ones in this room. Your problem is very severe. It's perverse, the Bible says. It's unbelief.

But I need you to hear this once more. You may come to Jesus Christ. And like this Father in need, you will be delivered. You will. You will believe.

And He will help your unbelief. And you will be taken by the hand as if one dead and be raised up to walk in newness of life and you will obey Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior because those whom He justifies, He sanctifies and promises to glorify. There will not be one soul that He loses. The invitation is open for you, friend. Today is the day of salvation.

I urge you come and be welcomed to Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this, your word. I know that there are some in this room who are not believing. I ask that you would grant them the gift of faith.

There are some in this room, Lord, who do believe on Christ, and yet they have not brought their sin of late to Him. We ask, Lord, that you would convict them. Bring them to their knees. Open their eyes even further to see the grace that is in Christ that they would respond as His Father responded. Oh, help my unbelief.

Make us into a people that are desperate for Jesus. Make us into a people like that man who could not lift his eyes, but only beat his breast as a sinner and said, be merciful to me, God. Make us into that kind of justified people for Your glory and the good of this church. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.