The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in the Gospel according to Saint Mark, in the ninth chapter, verses 28 and 29. Verses 28 and 29 in the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. I want particularly to deal with that second of those two verses, verse 29. And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. We interrupt for a few Sunday mornings, God willing, our series of studies in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, in order that we may consider together the great subject of revival and of the need, the urgent need, of a revival in the Church of God at this present time. Now it is obvious that we would not thus be interrupting our study in the Epistle to the Ephesians were it not that we were persuaded that this is a very urgent matter. All preaching, in a sense, of course, should promote revival, and it is only as we as Christian people understand the doctrines of the Christian faith that we can ever hope truly to see the need of revival and pray for revival. But it does seem to me that there are certain considerations which call for a special and an unusual, direct, explicit dealing with this subject at the present time. The first is that the need is such, the appalling need with which I hope to deal this morning. But I have a subsidiary reason also for calling attention to this matter, and that is that it happens to be the year 1959, a year in which many will be calling to mind and celebrating that great revival, that great religious awakening, that unusual outpouring and manifestation of the Spirit of God that took place one hundred years ago. There was a great revival, first in the United States of America, and afterwards in Northern Ireland, and Wales, and parts of Scotland, and even in certain parts of England. But there was a great revival in 1859, and as I say, there are many who will be calling this to mind and commemorating this great and signal movement of the Spirit of God during this coming year. And I believe it is right that we should participate in this and understand why this is being done and why the Church of God should be very concerned about this at this present juncture. Now this is a matter obviously for the whole Church. It is not merely a matter for certain leaders in the Church. The whole Church is involved in this matter. The whole story and history of revivals brings that out very clearly. Very often God acts in a most unusual manner and produces revival and promotes it and keeps it going, not through ministers of necessity, but perhaps through people who may have regarded themselves as very humble and unimportant members of the Christian Church. The Church is so constituted that every member matters, and matters in a very vital sense. And I therefore call attention to this also partly because, unless I am greatly mistaken, there is a curious tendency today for members of the Christian Church to feel and to think that they themselves have very little to do or can do, and to look to others to do it for them. This, of course, is something which is characteristic of the whole of life today. Men and women no longer take exercise in sport as they used to. There is this terrible, dangerous tendency for people to sit in crowds and just watch other people play. Everything's being done for us. The wireless and television provide entertainment and pleasure. There was a time when people provided their own pleasure. But that is the tendency in the whole of life today, for everything to be done for us, and we just sit and look and listen. Now, I say that I fear that their tendency is even manifesting itself in the Christian church. And more and more we see evidence that people are just sitting back in crowds and one or two people are expected to be doing everything. Now that, of course, is a complete denial of the New Testament doctrine of the Church as the body of Christ, where every single member has a responsibility and has a function, and matters in a most vital sense. You can read the Apostles great expositions of that doctrine, for example, in 1 Corinthians 12, where you'll find that he says that our less comely parts are as important as the more comely parts, that every part of the body is to function and is to be ready for the Master's use and always to be usable. So I say that this is a matter which rarely deserves the most urgent attention of every one of us. Indeed, I don't hesitate to go so far as to say this, that unless we are feeling, as individual Christians, a grave concern about the state of the Church and the world today, well then we are very poor Christians indeed. If we are the type of person who just comes to the Christian Church in order to get some personal help, and no more, well then I say we are the various beds in Christ. If we have grown at all, well then we must have a concern about the situation, a concern about the state of society, a concern about the state of the Church, a concern about the honour of Almighty God. And therefore I say that this matter is a matter that should come home to every one of us. Well now I start therefore this morning by calling your attention to this incident that is recorded here in this ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark, and especially these two verses that come at the end of the incident, which constitute a kind of epilogue to this story. You remember the picture, don't you? Our Lord had gone up onto the Mount of Transfiguration and had taken with him Peter and James and John. And that amazing thing had happened up there. But now they're coming down the mountain, and there they find a crowd of people surrounding the remaining disciples. And there was much argument and disputation going on. And they couldn't make out what it was. And suddenly a man steps forward and says, well, in a sense, he says, I am responsible for this. I've got a son here, a poor boy who has been subject to fits, to attacks and convulsions, Doesn't matter what it was exactly. And he says, I brought this boy along in order that you might heal him. I came to your disciples and I approached them. And they could do nothing. They tried, but they failed. And then our Lord, you remember, put a few questions to the men and elicited certain information. And then quite simply proceeded to exorcise the devil out of this boy. And the boy was healed and restored. in a moment. And then, having done that, our Lord went into the house, and the disciples went with him. And when they got into the house, the disciples turned to our Lord and said, Why could not we cast him out? Now, it's very easy to understand their feelings. They had tried their utmost, but they had failed. They had succeeded in many other cases, but here they had failed altogether. And yet in a moment, and with extreme ease, our Lord just speaks a word and the boy is healed. And they say, why could not we cast him out? And our Lord answered and said, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. Now, I want to take this story and use it as a very perfect picture and representation of the present position. Here in this barrier I see the modern world, and in the disciples I see the Church of God on earth at this present hour. I needn't stay, but is it not obvious to all of us that the Church is patently failing? The Church does not count as She counted even in the memory of many of us who were present this morning. Certainly she doesn't count as she did seventy, eighty and a hundred years ago. The whole situation speaks eloquently to that. And here is the Church certainly trying, like the disciples, doing her utmost, perhaps in a sense more active than she has ever been. and yet obviously failing to deal with the situation. And I say we understand the feelings of these disciples only too easily. Consciousness of failure, aware of certain things that have happened which indicate that there is a possibility of success, and yet not achieving success. And the question that we ask therefore is, or at any rate we should ask and ask it urgently is, why cannot we cast him out? What is the matter? What is the cause of the failure? What is the explanation of the situation by which we are confronted? Well now, here our Lord seems to me to be dealing with that very question. And the principles that he laid down on that occasion are as vital and as important today as they were when he uttered them on that famous occasion. Fortunately for us, it divides itself up very simply into three main headings. Why could not we cast him out? And the first answer is, this kind. Now there is a significant statement. Why could not we cast him out? Oh, says our Lord, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. What is he saying? Well, he is saying that the first thing they have to learn is to differentiate between case and case. You see, what was at the back of the question of the disciples was obviously this. Our Lord had sent them out to preach and to cast out devils. And they had gone out, and they had preached, and had cast out many devils. Indeed, we read in the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, that on one occasion they had been so successful, they came back with so much elation, that they were very guilty of pride, and our Lord had to rebuke them, and say unto them in this, Rejoice not, that the devils are made subject unto you, but rejoice rather, that your names are written in heaven. They were full of jubilation. end of excitement. They say the very devils have been made subject to us. We've seen Satan, as it were, falling before us. They've been highly successful. So when this man brought his boy to them, they approached the problem with great confidence and assurance. They had no doubt that they were going to succeed. And yet, in spite of all their efforts and all their trying, the boy was no better at all. He was as desperate as he was when the Father had brought him to them. So naturally, they're in trouble and our Lord helps them just at that point. He says, this kind. There is a difference between this kind and the kinds with which you've been dealing hitherto and with which you have been so successful. Now here is a principle that one cannot but notice in reading through the New Testament. In an ultimate sense, of course, the problem is always the same. This was a case of devil possession, as were the other cases of devil possession. Ah, yes. But there is a difference, as it were, between devil and devil. In that evil kingdom there are gradations. There is a kind of hierarchy. You remember how the Apostle Paul puts it in writing? In the last chapter to the Ephesians, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, against what then? Principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. There is a gradation, and at the head of all is Satan himself, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now dwelleth in the children of disobedience. There he is with all his mighty power, but under him are these various other spirits and powers and forces, and they get weaker and weaker and smaller and smaller until you have these evil spirits that have very little power. And therefore the disciples could very easily deal with them and master them and exercise them. But here, says our Lord, is a spirit of greater power. He isn't like those other feebler spirits which you've been able to master. This kind is altogether, he says, much more difficult, and therefore constitutes a much greater problem. Well now then, you and I have got to grasp this selfsame principle, for it is still as true today as it was then. And the first thing, therefore, we must consider is this whole problem of diagnosis. This kind. You see, the trouble with the disciples was they'd rushed into an attempted treatment before they'd understood the nature of the problem. And here is a lesson that the Church so badly needs to learn at this present time. We are all such activists. We are all so busy. We are practical people, we say. We are not interested in doctrine. We must be doing something. And we rush off and do something. And perhaps that is the main cause of our failure. We haven't stopped to consider this kind. We may not be as aware as we should be of the real essence of the problem which is confronting us. Now, here is a universal rule and principle. It is sheer madness and waste of energy to attempt any kind of treatment until we have first established an accurate diagnosis. Oh, I know it's a great relief to be doing things. I'm always reminded of the people who during the last war used to say constantly that what really they could not stand was just to be sitting in an air raid shelter. They used to say that they felt the strain intolerable. They felt they were going mad. But if they could only get up and walk about somewhere, they all immediately felt better. Or if they had something to do, it's a great relief to have something to do. But it isn't always a very intelligent thing to do. There is the danger, I say, of rushing into activity before we fully realize the nature of the problem by which we are confronted. So we start with this expression. this kind. I wonder whether as Christian people we are aware of the real depth of the problem which confronts us in a spiritual sense at this present time. I'm asking the question for this reason, that it seems to me to be so clear from the activities of many that they haven't even begun to understand the depth of the problem. They are carrying on with certain old methods which were once successful, and they pin their face to them. And they don't realize that they're not only not successful, but that they cannot be, because of the nature of the problem that is confronting us. Let me give you an illustration to explain what I mean. And to show you the importance of making an exact and an accurate diagnosis, It isn't enough that we should be aware of some general kind of need, because that is always there. When this man brought his boy to the disciples, there was an obvious need. Yes, but there have been an obvious need in the other cases in which they've been successful. The need is common to all, so that the mere fact that we are aware of a need really says nothing at all. The problem for us is what is the precise nature of this need. What is the exact character of this need? And it's there that we have to think and need a little subtlety and understanding in our approach in order to make our diagnosis. Let me give you, therefore, a simple illustration to show what I mean. Imagine that you are walking along a country road. And as you walk along, you suddenly see a man lying on the side of the road. He doesn't make any move when you come along, so obviously he hasn't heard you. And you come to the conclusion that the man is in a state of unconsciousness. Very well, that's all right, everybody's agreed about that. Here is a man lying on the side of the road in a state of unconsciousness. Yes, but the really important question is, why is that man lying in that state of unconsciousness? Because there are many possible causes of that. One cause may be this, that the man has been taking a very long walk, and he's suddenly felt very tired, and that he can't proceed any further, so he's just put himself down, and he's just sleeping. He's just tired, and he wants a rest, and he's fallen asleep, and he's sleeping very soundly, so that he didn't hear you as he walked along. Very well, there's one possible explanation. But there are other explanations. The man may be in that condition because he's suddenly become ill. He may have had a hemorrhage into his brain which has rendered him unconscious. Or he may be in that unconscious condition because he's been taking some drug. He may have taken too much alcohol. He may have taken too much of some other drug. He's poisoned. And he's unconscious because of the effect and the influence of this poison that is in his system. I needn't go further with the possibilities because there I can illustrate my theme. It isn't enough just to say this man's unconscious. You must discover exactly the cause of his unconsciousness. If it is the case that the man is just asleep, well then if you want to help him it may be raining and the man's in danger of getting wet and getting a chill. If you want to help him, well all you've got to do is to shake him and to shout at him and he'll wake up. And you'll tell him, look here, you're endangering your health by lying here and sleeping in this rain. And he'll be grateful to you and you'll have solved the problem. You just shake him and shout at him. But if the man has got a drug in his system, if this man is under the influence of some poison, well, then your shouting and your shaking won't help him. Now the situation is more serious. And if you really are going to do anything of value to the man, you've got to take measures which will get rid of the poison that is in his system, and administer certain antidotes, and proceed to deal with him according to the particular necessity. Or if it is actually a disease, well then again the treatment is yet different. Now there I think we see in a picture and in an illustration the importance of establishing a clear diagnosis. Oh yes, everybody's aware that there is a need. But the question is, what is the need? And this is the thing which demands our most urgent attention at this present time. And it seems to me that until the Christian church, until Christian people as individuals in the church, are aware of the nature of the problem, we cannot begin to deal with it as we should. And here I see a very great difference, if you like, as between today and two hundred years ago, or indeed even a hundred years ago. The difficulty a hundred years ago and two hundred years ago was more or less that men and women were in a state of apathy. They were more or less asleep. Going back certainly two hundred years ago, there was no general denial of Christian truth. It was just that people didn't trouble to practice it. They more or less assumed it. And all you had to do then, in a sense, was to awaken them and to rouse them and to disturb them out of their lethargy. And that has been the position since a hundred years ago, take the end of the Victorian era. That was more or less the position at that time. And so what you needed was an occasional campaign just to rouse people and to awaken them. And that seemed to be sufficient. But the question is, is that still the position? Are we right if we diagnose that that is the state of affairs at the present time? What is this kind? What is the problem that is confronting us? And it does seem to me more and more clearly to be the case that as we examine this truly, we shall see that this kind of problem by which we are confronted is one which is altogether deeper, more profound, more desperate than that which has confronted the Christian Church. for many long centuries. For the problem for us is not apathy. It isn't mere lack of concern and lack of interest. It is something much more desperate. It seems to me to be a complete unawareness and denial even of the spiritual altogether. It isn't a mere apathy. It isn't that people really have at the back of their minds what is right and true, but that they're not doing anything about it. No, no. The whole notion of the spiritual is gone. The very belief in God is virtually gone. We needn't bother this morning as to the causes of this. But the fact is that the average man today believes that because of some supposed scientific that all this about God and religion and salvation and all that belongs to the realm of the Church is something that should be entirely dismissed and forgotten, that it's been an incubus on human nature all the centuries. It's been something that has been preventing the development and the forward march of the human race, something that should be got rid of. The modern man is impatient with it all. He dislikes it. He dismisses it in total. Now, surely this is something which we should recognize. It's very difficult for us, because we are Christian people and because we are interested in these things, to realize the mentality and the attitude of those who do not belong to the Christian Church. And I am suggesting to you that that is what it is. Not only that, the authority of the Bible is no longer recognized. In past times, people did recognize the Bible to be the Word of God. They didn't practice it, they didn't listen to it. But if you ask them, what is it? Yes, they'd say, it is the good old book, it's God's book. And they felt that they were sinners. But that's no longer the case. It's regarded as an ordinary book. It's to be treated like every other book. It's just literature, which is to be criticized and analyzed. and subjected to our knowledge, historical, scientific and everything else, just a book amongst books, not any longer the divine inspired Word of God. And then take the essential truths about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These are no longer believed as they once were. He is regarded as just a man amongst men. A great man, of course, but nothing more than a man. His deity is denied. His virgin birth is denied. His atoning death is denied. He's just a social reformer. He's just a political agitator. He's just someone who laid down certain ethical views with respect to life which we should practice and put into operation. Let me give you but one illustration of that. Men like Lord Russell, Bertrand Russell, for instance. says that the Christian church ought to be telling the nations and the governments what they ought to do and not to do about the bombs, and yet he writes a book himself saying why I am not a Christian. You see, that's the kind of thing. All that really is of value to us about the Lord is denied, and he's reduced to the mere position of a human teacher, or some kind of great example. Well, we are confronted by that. And then over and above all this, we are confronted by the way in which people live. It's no longer merely a question of immorality. It has become an amorality or a non-moral society. The very category of morality is not recognized at all. And men and women are virtually in the position of saying, evil be thou my good. Surely we all see this if we have intelligent eyes as we read our newspapers. The defense, as it were, of immorality, the justification of it, in terms of medicine, or of men's constitution, or in terms of denunciation of the taboos of the past, And things which should never be mentioned are even to be allowed to be presented on the stage as long as they don't violate certain canons of decency. Now, surely it is time that we, who are Christian people, had a living understanding of the position which confronts us. That is the state of society. The terminology no longer means anything to people. And speaking of the vast masses of the people, they're in a position of plenty, plenty of money, able to get everything they want, and they're unconcerned about these things. No interest in the soul, no interest in the higher things of life, just eating and drinking and enjoying themselves, and they've got it, and all they're anxious to do is to hold on to it. Now then, there as I see it is something of this kind, the problem with which you and I are confronted. Now that is essential for this reason, because in the second place our Lord goes on to say this, this kind can come forth by nothing but there are certain things which are quite useless when they are applied to this kind. In other words, what our Lord was saying to the disciples can be put in this form. He said you have failed in this particular case because the power that you had, and which was sufficient and quite all right with the other cases, is inadequate in this case. That's why you failed. You've lacked the necessary power. Oh, it was all right for the other. It's no value here. It just leaves you utterly helpless and hopeless, and it leaves the boy in his diseased and powerless condition. And surely this is the second step which we need to take at the present time. Isn't it becoming obvious at last that so many of the things to which we have trusted and in which we have pinned our faith are proving to be of no avail? No, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong in these things in and of themselves. The power that the disciples had was a good power, and it was able to do good work in casting out these feeble devils. But it's of no value here. That's the argument. so that all these things which I'm going to mention are quite all right as far as they go. I'm not saying they're wrong. What I am saying is that they're not enough, and that until you and I come to see that they're not enough and see the greater need, well, we will just continue as we are in our utter ineffectiveness in spite of all our efforts and organising and endeavours. What are some of these things that are proving to be useless? Let me just indicate some of them to you. For these are the things on which the Christian Church is still relying. These are the things to which men are still pinning their faith. Let me give us my first heading of what I would call apologetics. And I mean by apologetics something like this. The belief that all we really have to do is to make the Christian faith acceptable to and commendable to the men and women of today. And so, you see, books are written and lectures are delivered and sermons are preached in an attempt to produce and present the Christian faith in a philosophical manner to the modern man. And so you get your books which deal with the philosophy of religion. You take the great works of the past philosophers, the great Greek philosophers and others, and you say, well now you see the Christian faith fits into this, it's just something that comes in this way, it's highly reasonable, it's very rational, and so on, and so you show the utter reasonableness of the Christian faith. That's apologetics presenting itself in the form of philosophy. And, of course, particularly at the present time, we are interested in doing this in terms of science, reconciling science with religion. We say, you know, the people today, they're scientifically minded, they've got their scientific output. And, of course, they can't believe the gospel and the scriptures because they seem to them to dispute their science. They talk about miracles and things like that. So the church argues the great thing that's necessary is to reconcile science and religion. And so we clutch at any scientist who even remotely seems to hint that in some vague way he believes in God. Haven't you noticed the excitement about the recent Reith lectures? This great authority from Jodrell Bank, at the end of his lectures, in the last lecture, we are told with animation and excitement, even seem to indicate that he as great scientist believes that after all there may be a God who may have created at the beginning, and it's marvelous, it's wonderful. You see the pathetic state we've gotten to? That we should become excitement when a man like that, great men, I grant you, and great scientists, he seems even to allow the possibility that there is a God and there is a Creator. And we are pleased about it, and we are excited about it, and we all mention it to one another, and we say, isn't this marvelous? It shows, you see, that we are pinning our faith to that kind of thing. What we rarely are to say is this. Does he rarely? How kind of him. How nice of him. And then, perhaps, we pause for a moment and say, why has it taken him all these years to come even to that nebulous conclusion? But this, you see, is indicative of the whole attitude. We clutch at these men, doesn't matter who they are, and however vague their statements showing that ultimately we rarely believe that the way to deal with the modern situation is our apologetics. Ah, we can show that after all the Bible doesn't deny science. Science is the authority and the Bible has got to be fitted in. And we think that by means of that kind of effort and endeavour we are going to deal with the present situation. Then it's done of course in terms of archaeology. Don't misunderstand me. Archaeology is very valuable. Thank God for everything that it produces, which does confirm the biblical history. But if you are going to depend upon archaeology, well, then God help you. There are different schools amongst the archaeologists, and they have their different interpretations. But there seems to be this tendency to clutch at every straw, feeling that this is what's going to do it. And in the same way, as I say, we clutch at men. Have you noticed the fashions? Do you remember the excitement when the late Dr. Jode wrote a book in which he acknowledged that the war had driven him to believe in evil and to believe in God? Do you remember the vogue of C.S. Lewis? You don't hear much about him now, but why all the excitement? Ah, here's a philosopher! And it indicates our pathetic faith and belief in these methods which are nothing but apologetics. exactly in the same way as at the beginning of the 18th century they were pinning their faith to Bishop Butler and his great analogy of religion and your Boyle lectures and so on. These, they thought, are the things that are going to do it. But they didn't do it. This kind can come forth by nothing along that line and then come to method. How tragic it is to see the way in which men are pinning their faith to particular methods. Here's one of them, new translations of the Bible. Have you noticed the excitement about them? And it's based on this. The belief is, you see, that the man today who isn't a Christian and who's outside the church is outside the church because he can't understand the authorized version. These technical terms, this Elizabethan language, justification, sanctification, ah, they say it means nothing to the modern man. What you want, you see, is a Bible in modern language, in modern slang, in the modern idiom. And then men will read it, ah, they'll say, this is Christianity, and they'll embrace it. So we're having fresh translations, one after another. Everybody buys them. Great excitement. All we need is the Bible in modern language. Isn't it tragic? Is that the thing that's keeping people from Christ? Do you think that people 200 years ago knew anything more about justification and sanctification than they do today? Were those the common terms of a thousand years ago? Is that the difficulty? No, no. It's the heart of men. It's the evil that is in him. It isn't a question of language. It isn't a question of terminology. And yet we pin our faith to this. We need nothing but modern, up-to-date translations of the Bible. Don't misunderstand me. There may be some value in modern translations, nothing like as much as people think. You've got to go a long way to improve on this authorized version, and be careful with your modern translations. They may mislead you theologically. But I say, whatever their value, that's not going to solve the problem. What else? Well, the belief in the wireless and the television. Make use of these media. Everybody's listening. Take it to their home. Give them these short, snappy messages. That's going to do it. And we are pinning our faith to it. Then advertising. Big business succeeds because it advertises. Therefore, we must advertise the church. And so you set up your publicity agencies in the church, and you're going to tell the people what the church is and what she's doing, with the belief that if you only tell them, they'll jump at it and take it and want it, as they do the various commodities that you advertise in these various ways. And people seem to believe that. They think that this kind can come forth by such methods as that. What we need to see is new magazines, new literature, new tracks. And off we go, and we distribute all these, and we write articles in a semi-popular form, and people, ah, they'll now get it. And then, of course, you have your popular evangelism, in which all this is put into practice. Everything that can appeal to the modern man. The last word in presentation. And you do it with a modern technique, and then you'll get hold of the modern man. Now then, I say, the time has come to ask this simple question. What are the results? Is the modern problem being touched at all? Of course, these various methods, your apologetics and your various modern methods, they lead to individual conversions. Of course they do. We are all aware of that. Almost any method you like to imply will do that. Of course there are individual conversions, but what I'm asking is this. What of the situation? What of the bulk of men and women? What of the working classes of this country? Are they being touched at all? Are they being affected at all? Is anybody being affected except those who are already in the church or on the fringe of the church? What of the whole spiritual and religious condition? What of the whole state of society? Is it being touched at all by all our activities? Well, my answer from this pulpit is this, that it all seems to me to put us into the position of these disciples who have tried to cast the devil out of this body, who have been so successful in many another case, but who could not touch this case at all. And our Lord gives them the explanation. This kind can come forth by nothing like that. Well, what then? Prayer and fasting. This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. What does he mean? He means this. You failed there, he said to these disciples, because you lacked power. You hadn't sufficient power. You were using the power that you had, and you were very confident in it. You did it with great assurance. You were masters of the occasion. You went forward. You thought you were going to do it at once, but you haven't done it. Now then, he said, it's time you paused for a moment and began to think. It was your ignorance of these gradations in power amongst evil spirits that led to your failure, that leads to your crestfallen condition at this moment. You haven't sufficient power. I succeeded easily because I have power. Because I am filled with the power that God gives me by the Holy Spirit, for he gives not the Spirit by measure unto me. This kind, he says, you will never be able to deal with or to treat unless and except you have applied to God for the power which he alone can give you. You must become aware of your need, of your impotence, of your helplessness. You must realize that you are confronted by something that is too deep for your methods to get rid of or to deal with, and you need something that can go down beneath it and shatter it. And there is only one thing that can do that, and that is the power of God. You've got to become aware of that. You've got to feel it until you become desperate. You've got to say to yourself, how can we succeed until we have this authority, until we have this commission, until we have this might and strength and power? You must become utterly and absolutely convinced of your need. You must cease to have so much confidence in yourselves and in all your methods and in all your organizations, and in all your slickness, you've got to realize that you must be filled with God's Spirit. And you've got to be equally certain that God can fill you with His Spirit. You've got to realize that however great this kind is, that the power of God is infinitely greater. That what you need is not more knowledge, more understanding, more apologetics, more reconciliation of philosophy and science and religion and all modern techniques. No, no. You need a power that can enter into the souls of men and break them and smash them and humble them and then make them anew. And it's the power of the living God. And you must be confident that God Has this power as much today as he had a hundred years ago and two hundred years ago? And so you must begin to seek the power. You must begin to pray for the power. You must begin to plead and yearn for the power. This kind needs prayer. Very well, I leave it this morning. This is but introduction to the theme that we are going to consider together. But it leads me to ask this question. Are you really concerned about the present position? Are you desperately concerned about it? Are you praying about it? Do you ever pray for the power of God in the Church today? Or are you just content to read the weekly newspapers which tell us about all these efforts and to say, it's all right, the work's going on? This kind cometh not forth but by prayer and fasting. This word fasting isn't in all the ancient manuscripts, but its idea is this, not only literal, physical fasting, but concentration. The value of fasting is that you may give your undivided attention to a subject. And what our Lord said to the disciples is this, you'll never deal with this sort of problem until you've been praying and concentrating in prayer and waiting upon God until He's filled you with the power. You know you've got it, and then you go out with authority. That's the way. And that is the only way. Surely no one should need to be convinced this morning that nothing short of a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God is adequate to deal with our situation in this mid-twentieth century. Are you really still trusting to these other things? Here is the vital question. Have you seen the desperate need of prayer, private prayer, corporate prayer, the prayer of the whole Church. I shall see no hope until individual members of the Church are praying daily for revival, are meeting in one another's homes, meeting in groups amongst friends, meeting together in churches, meeting anywhere you like, and praying with urgency and concentration for a shedding forth of the power of God such as he shed forth a hundred years ago. than two hundred years ago, and in every other period of revival and of reawakening. There is no hope until we do. But the moment we do, hope enters. For when God manifests his power, it happens as it happened in the case of this poor boy, with apparent ease, in an effortless manner. The devil is exorcised and the boy is healed and restored to his father. Oh, when God arises, his enemies are scattered. That is the story of all the great revivals of history. But we shall not be interested in revival until we realize the need, this time, the futility of all our own efforts and endeavors, and the utter, absolute need of prayer and seeking the power of God alone. We do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. The MLJ Trust retains exclusive copyright ownership to all audio files of Dr. Lloyd-Jones sermons, including all derivatives, such as translations, modifications, or edited versions of the files. You must gain written permission to license, distribute, or broadcast the audio files, and under no circumstance may the files be offered for sale to or by a third party. You can find our contact information on our website at mljtrust.org. Thank you.