Amen. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Mark chapter nine, where we will begin reading at verse 14 for this morning's message. Mark chapter nine, verse 14. Title of the message this morning is, we will never get to a place where we don't need Jesus. We will never get to a place where we don't need Jesus. That includes heaven, by the way. Heaven wouldn't be heaven if it weren't for Jesus. He sustains it just like he sustains all of his creation. So, but this is speaking more rather than so much location as we are talking about circumstance here this morning. And in these verses, we are presented with a great contrast. We began the chapter with Our Lord taking Peter and James and John up on top of a mountain, and where they witnessed him being transfigured, his appearance was changed, and glory, his glory as God began to shine out from him. And it was a remarkable glorious moment there upon the top of that mountain and then they got to see Moses and Elijah also and they heard God the Father speak and so it was a just a magnificent time there upon top of that mountain and that is analogous to sometimes we experience spiritual mountaintops in the course of our lives will have a spiritual experience that makes us feel just really, really close to God. It's like everything else stops for a moment, and we're close to God, and we have those experiences. But as we also know, we have other experiences, too. We don't stay on that mountaintop. We have to come down off the mountain. We have to go down into the valley. And so are the disciples here. They go from seeing Christ transfigured on top of the mountain back down to the valley where we see the devil is at work. And as we shall see, Jesus is still Lord in both places. He's Lord on top of the mountain. He's Lord in the valley. He is still supreme. He is still sovereign overall. But these places, both places give a very different contrast or experience for the disciples themselves. They change from a place where they fellowshiped with Moses and Elijah to a place where the crude behavior of the scribes was on display. They go from a place where the glory of God was on grand display to a place of suffering and torment. They go from a place of triumph to a place where their fellow disciples are wallowing in defeat and shame. And we can clearly see a great contrast for these disciples here in just these few verses. But I want you to know this contrast pales significantly when compared to the contrast our Lord himself has experienced when he left heaven and the power and the riches of heaven and left that behind to come to earth to take upon himself human flesh. That was an even greater contrast for our Lord. We often want to stay on those mountaintop experiences that we get to have from time to time, but the reality is we do have to come off the mountain And when we do, we need to go down off that mountain preaching and helping real people who are devastated by the ravages of sin. And that's what's going to transpire in these verses. Now, we're not actually going to read the entire passage. I'm going to read through verse 19. We're going to look at the first verses, and then we'll, if the Lord is willing, we'll conclude next Lord's Day. But for now, let's begin reading at verse 14. And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him, saluted him. And he asked the scribes, what question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit, And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. Let's pray. Our kind and most gracious Heavenly Father, oh Lord, we thank you for this blessed privilege we have each Lord's Day to assemble ourselves together and to worship you as a congregation. Lord, we thank you that we have a reason to worship. And primarily for us, that reason is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has won the victory over sin in the grave for us and given to his people eternal life. Lord, I pray that you would help us to see Jesus more clearly in this passage and help us to see even more clearly our need to always have to have his presence with us. Help us to learn to always trust in Christ and not in ourselves. Lord, I just pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. So looking at the first three verses we read there, verses 14, 15, and 16, we're first gonna see that we need Christ when we are criticized by our enemies. And that's what's happening here. In verse 14, it says, and when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning with them. What we need to understand is when Jesus went up on the mountain, he only took three of the 12 disciples with him. And that was Peter, James, and John. The other nine remained behind. And as they were behind there, apparently, as we read more verses, we figure out that a man comes to them whose son has a demon, and he asks them to cast that demon out. And they couldn't do it. And so it says when he came to his disciples, it means he came to those nine who were there. And as they come upon them, it says he, Jesus, saw a great multitude about them. So a big crowd has gathered around them. So I'm sure, now Jesus, I believe, knew what was happening. I believe he knew when he left the mountain, the top of the mountain himself, he knew what was going on because he is God. I believe that. But Peter, James, and John had no idea. And can you imagine what their reaction is as they come down, they see this great crowd, what question are they asking themselves? I wonder what's going on. Maybe even, I wonder what they got themselves into. Maybe thinking of their fellow disciples, who knows exactly what they were thinking. But nonetheless, a crowd is gathered, and they're curious, and Jesus sees this, Saw a great multitude about them. And he sees one more thing. The scribes are questioning his disciples. The scribes, you see, have seized this moment to question them. Most certainly, they are mocking them and belittling them before the crowd because, as we learn, they were unable to cast out this demon. So they have failed there, essentially. And I'm sure they're ashamed and even puzzled and surprised and bewildered that this has happened, that this has transpired. But the scribe sees the moment to question them, make fun of them. This is something they never could do with Jesus, though they tried to. They just never could do this with Jesus, because after all, he is Jesus. He is the Christ. And so they're taking the full opportunity to do so here with his disciples. You know, we fail, don't we? We make mistakes, we sin, and we should know by now that the enemies of Christ will seize those opportunities to ridicule us and attempt to diminish the work that we do for Christ. This is especially true when we attempt to do that work without Christ. Now these disciples that had some success earlier, if you look back, we saw this earlier in Mark, Mark chapter six, verses 12 and 13, it says, and they went out, that is Jesus had sent all the disciples out and preached that men should repent. So they went preaching. And verse 13, they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. So they had experienced some success. but now they don't. Now they meet with a case that's too hard for them, and they probably feel unprepared for this. They will learn from this humbling experience what our Lord will tell them, rather, in John 15, five, when he told them, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me, You can do nothing. That was true for those disciples in that day. It's also true for you and I in our day. Without Christ, we can do nothing. We need Christ to do anything that's pleasing to God the Father. To do any work for the kingdom, we need Christ in every way. We should learn what Samson Jonah and other others learn think about Samson Samson got the point where he was trusting in what? The fact that his hair had never been cut He was trusting in himself. He was looking back on past victories and then he gets beguiled by Delilah the hair gets cut and that was significant because it's symbolized and that he had been separated from the Lord in a sense. He was no longer trusting in the Lord. Jonah learned that, as we saw when we preached through the book of Jonah. He learned that he needed the Lord. We need Jesus for everything. Turn for a moment to Exodus chapter 33, in verse 12, Exodus 33, verse 12. We're gonna see that Moses learns that he needed God, and he expresses this to God. Moses and God are having a conversation in the verses we're about to read. Exodus chapter 33, verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, see, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. What's Moses saying here? He's saying, Lord, you've called me to lead this people to the promised land. Who are you gonna send to help me, Lord? That's what he's asking. Moses looked at this task and he knew he was not up to it by himself. He needed someone to go with him. And that's what he's asking the Lord. He's asking, who are you gonna send with me? You say you know me by name. You say I found grace in your sight. Don't leave me hanging here then, Lord. If I'm yours and I have found grace, then send me some help. It's a plea, in essence, that Moses is putting forth to the Lord. And that's how we ought to feel about everything. We shouldn't take anything for granted. singing a hymn to God, we should still cry out to the Lord to help us sing that song in a way that's pleasing to Him. Some of us more so than others. If we can't sing, we're probably a little bit more aware of our health. Sometimes if you can sing really well, you get to, depending on that, and not on the Lord so much, you know? And that's just one area. Anything we do for the Lord, we need the Lord to do. He goes on, Moses does, in verse 13. He says, now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. That, you know, this is wisdom coming from Moses. This is a very wise request he makes of the Lord. Now let's look at the Lord's reply, verse 14. And he said, it is the Lord, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Whoa. Those are some good words to hear if you're a servant of the Lord. He promises his presence to Moses. Moses didn't need anybody else. He needed the Lord. Moses didn't need to go to get a better education. In fact, Moses probably already had the best education one could have in that time in history. He didn't need that. What he needed was the Lord to be with him. All of that just left him feeling maybe even more aware of how much he needed help. And then the Lord says that his presence would go with him, and that he would give him rest. And this is a passage I read at the nursing home Wednesday night. We had church there, our Wednesday night service there, as we're doing the first Wednesday night of each month, and I encourage you to join us, because it's a wonderful time. I felt like we had a great time in the Lord this last Wednesday night. It was very special. And I get a feeling that those people, there's not a whole lot of folks that come out there, but I get a feeling that they're hungry for fellowship. They're hungry to hear the word. They're hungry to sing to the Lord. That's good. But the verse I read for them is from Matthew 11, where Jesus said, come unto me. All you that labor and are heavy burdened. And this goes right along with what God is saying here. I'll give you rest. That's what Jesus said. I will give you rest. We need Jesus for everything. And most of all, we need him for rest. We can't go on and on and on without rest. God never needs rest, but we do. We're fallible creatures, we're weak creatures in many ways. And we need that rest, that peace that comes from the Lord. And then Moses says in verse 15, and he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Moses jumped on that with both feet in a sense. He says, Lord, if your presence is not gonna be with us, then don't even take us there. That's how much Moses understood he needed God. And that's the way it ought to be for us. We need the Lord for everything. Then in verse, going back to our text, verse 15, After Jesus sees the scribes questioning his disciples, verse 15, and straightway, all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him, saluted him. One thing these scribes could not do is keep the crowd from running to Christ. Now, likely what they behold here, you see what it says there? The wording is interesting. When they beheld him, were greatly amazed. So many of these people had seen Jesus before. So what is it about this particular time that amazes them? You could say it could be one of two things, could be a combination, probably is, of both. One, maybe they're amazed at his timing. because he comes there at just the right time for his disciples to get them out of this mess and to take care of this issue and deal with these scribes. But I think probably even more than that, I think they see in our Lord some of the residual glory that's still shining out of him from that transfiguration on top of the mountain. I say that because Moses had had a similar experience. In fact, it was right after where we were reading a few moments ago. When Moses experienced the glory of God, his face was shining. His hair was turned white. There was a visible difference in Moses. There was a glow, if you will, about him when he came down off the mountain. And I wonder if that's not what they see still in Jesus. And so they come running to him, it says. They were greatly amazed and running to him, saluted him. And this word salute means to greet him very favorably. You might even in some cases use the Greek word behind this to say embrace. So the whole crowd didn't come hug Jesus, but that's the idea. They came warmly to him because they're very attracted to him. And there was nothing. that these belittling scribes could do about this. Nothing. These scribes are creatures of this world, serving evil. That's what they're doing. But they couldn't stop the people or stop Christ from drawing these people to himself. I saw an article this week about how Christians are growing in great numbers in Iran, of all places. Iran's really big in the news of the last few days for other reasons, but we know Iran has long been, for many years, since they overthrew the Shah and all that, they have been very very strongly Islamic and try to root out everything else. But what's happening today according to this article, there are more and more Iranians who are turning to Christ and becoming believers, okay? And being baptized and churches are actually growing in Iran of all places. You know, this, as I said, this is a place where the most severe efforts have been made to wipe out any religion other than Islam. One thing the enemies of Christ have not figured out is that they cannot stop Almighty God from regenerating His elect and calling them to Himself. I want to share something else with you at this point. I just received yesterday a report from our missionary, and because this is broadcast all over the world, I can't say where. He's asked us not to, as you know, so you know who I'm talking about. And he sent a report, and in it, here's some of the things he shares. He says that our brother, who is leading the work there in this country, tells him that men from a particular city who are laboring on the various translation projects are also improving their English so that they may be able to more clearly understand the books I left with them. They're trying to, if you haven't heard lately, they're really working hard on translating into the native language. a better translation than what they have. The translation that many of them use in that language around there is from modern translations, and there was no effort made to explain some very important terms that we understand from theology are very important. So they're trying to basically retranslate this and so they're trying to learn English better so that they can read the King James and Translate from the King James using it into their native language which is I Pray to God that there that he grants them success in this But he then goes on from that. He told me that as they gather to pray and They express themselves before our God with words like this. Listen to this. God, we are handling your word. We are not wise. We are not great men. We need your wisdom and your strength. We need your help. I just believe the Lord's gonna bless that mightily. That humility, that dependence upon him, and he's gonna bless their work. but also wonder, are we that way? Should we not be the same way? When we open up God's word, should we not be saying, Lord, we are handling your word? Your word, this is God's word. Do we take that for granted? Do we understand that we need his wisdom and his strength to understand his word and to do his word? We need that same thing. He goes on and he says, please pray for them as they give themselves to translating the Bible and many other things into their mother tongue. Also, I'll add this, in the weeks following, they had a Bible conference back about October. In the weeks following that Bible conference, they had 10 professions of faith. who were all scripturally baptized into scriptural churches. I say plural, it may be just one, but nonetheless there were 10 souls that the Lord called to himself in a place where Christianity is trying to be driven out, okay? I don't care how hard they try. The Lord has any of his elect there, he's gonna quicken them and he's gonna bring them to himself. Back to our text, this crowd runs to Jesus and salute him with a warm welcome. They are truly delighted to see Jesus in this moment. And then here is our Lord's response in verse 16. And he asked the scribes, what question ye with them? Jesus immediately directs his attention to the scribes and confronted them. He knew what they'd been doing and he questioned them about it. They were probably enjoying themselves immensely until they realized Jesus had returned, and as they watched the crowd rush to him, away from them. There are many in our world today who criticize God's people, and we must know that we need Jesus at these times. Just this week, the news commentator, Chuck Todd, quoted from a letter to the editor, I think in a newspaper in Kentucky, in an effort to explain why people support Trump. His point was the same people, and basically this is what he said essentially, the same people who believe fairy tales like Noah and the Ark are the same people who believe what Trump has to say. Now, for the purpose of this sermon, I'm not interested in the President Trump aspect of this. I just want to point out to you that there are a lot of so-called educated and enlightened people out there in our country who believe that the Bible is a book of fairy tales. And they look down upon people who believe it. They look down. and look at us as if we're idiots. I mean, it would be like we were from another planet as far as they're concerned, because they know better. Well, they better start believing those fairy tales, too, or they're gonna learn to know better on this day called Judgment Day. But there are a lot of people out there, more and more people, who look down upon Believers in Christ. Believers in the Bible. And you know why it is? Because the Bible stands against just about everything they believe in. And they want to believe what they want to believe. They want to do what they want to do. And they see the Bible as constricting them. They see God as being mean to them. So they just want to ignore that God even exists. Well, that might make you mad, it might make you sad, it might make you glad, I don't know, but I'm telling you, what we need is Jesus to help us stand up to this nonsense and proclaim the gospel to those people as we are commanded to do. It's not enough for us to get into little sniping wars with them and throw in scripture in their faces as an attack, we need to sincerely preach the gospel. That includes sharing the scriptures, don't get me wrong. But we should do so with love and compassion and understanding. Because there but for the grace of God, go I. Right? If God had not quickened me and if his Holy Spirit had not opened my eyes, I'd be thinking the same thing. And so we need to have some compassion and some understanding. And we need to preach the truth. And we need to stay firm on the truth of God's word and not shy away from it. And the only way we're gonna be able to do that is with Christ. Now moving on, the second thing, we need Christ when we are confronted by the demonic. In verse 17. So Jesus asked, in verse 16, What question you with them? He's directing this to the scribes who answers him It's not the scribes they don't answer They've learned to keep their mouth shut in a large sense with Jesus because he always gets the better of them so they don't say anything his disciples don't say anything either and I think they're ashamed and embarrassed because they weren't able to cast out this demon. So who answers? Verse 17. And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son which hath a dumb spirit. So it is the father of a son who is possessed by a mute demon. That's what dumb means here. It means could not speak. It would not allow the son to speak. So this mute demon has possessed him. And so it's the father of this son that speaks up here. And now we see here the heart of the matter. Demonic work, demon possession. going on here. Note that he respectfully calls Jesus master, which we could also translate teacher. And he is appealing to him for help. He knew who could help him. I think he'd come looking for Jesus to begin with. Jesus wasn't there. So he settled on the disciples of Jesus who were there, and they let him down. And we can learn a lot of things from this man. and from this experience. The first thing is demons are real beings. They're not things amiss. Jesus believes they exist. I mean, there's simply no other way to explain his response in this situation and in others. Therefore, demons exist. I will say this. I believe that there was more expressions of demonic activity at this time than what we see today. And that was because Jesus had come and the devil was pulling out all the stops to stop Jesus. I also believe eschatologically that Satan has been bound, which means that has restricted his work. And so we don't see as much demonic activity today. But do I believe that demons exist today? Yes, I do. They're real, just as I believe that there are angels. But my caution, too, is this, because when we start talking about angels, some people, some Christians, so-called believers, pretty much worship angels. Well, no, that's not what we should do. That's not what they're there for. They're servants of the Lord. They do the Lord's work. Yes, I believe angels are used. God uses them to protect us. I believe that. We don't see them, but I believe that. Scriptures tell us we might have entertained angels unawares. We don't know. Okay? And we need to understand that. So I believe there are angels too. But they're in a realm that we can't see physically. But I believe they exist now going on to verse 18. We're gonna see some more things we can learn about demons in verse 18 The father explains he says and wheresoever he taketh him that is the demon taketh his son. He teareth him physically He's assaulting this demon is whatever this act is going on here it is causing physical harm to this this young man and he foameth out of his mouth, and he gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away." That means he is wasting away. His body is wasting away, his muscles are atrophying, and all of those things that might occur. That's what the father reports here. And then he expresses disappointment. that the nine disciples who were there had been unable to do anything about it. He said, and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast them out and they could not. You can almost hear the, the, uh, Not just disappointment, but he's overwhelmed here. This is more than he can handle. He needs somebody greater than him to deal with this situation. And if you've ever seen your child hurting or ailing or injured or something like that, very ill, then you know a sense of what this father must have felt. But understand, this has been going on for apparently several years as well, since the boy was a young boy, as we'll see later. Some more things we can learn here. Demons desire to inflict pain and death upon people. They're evil, and that's what they do. We need to understand that. It's a serious thing. Third, demons are capable of inflicting physical suffering, similar to afflictions that we see medically, such as epilepsy. Much of what is described here could describe someone who has epilepsy. And some people excuse away the demon possession by saying that, oh, they're really just mentally ill, or something like that. I believe people can be mentally ill, I believe people have epilepsy, but I also believe they can be demon possessed, and some of the ways that is expressed will be similar to those other things. But it's its own thing. In our own strength, fourth, in our own strength, we are helpless against the supernatural strength of demons. They have a strength we don't have. They have power we don't have. Fifth, spiritual victories in the past are no guarantee of success today if we operate on faith in ourselves instead of in Jesus. Some people get caught up in spiritual victories in the past, and that's all they dwell on. Well, that's all well and good, and there are things we can learn from that, certainly. But the first thing we need not forget is, if those spiritual victories occur, they occur because of Christ and his power. He brought them to pass. And if we're gonna have spiritual victories in the future, it's gonna be because of Christ and his power and his wisdom. He will bring them to pass. So our faith should be in Jesus, not in whatever's happened in the past. And then six, Jesus is more than capable of overcoming our sinfulness and weakness. The disciples failed here. Was it because of sin? I don't know. We can't say that. But they failed. Likely, it was a lack of faith. But Jesus can overcome that. Praise the Lord. Because we will fail. We will lack faith at critical times. We will make bad decisions. We will do things like that. We will sin. Yet Jesus can overcome our sinfulness and our weakness. The thing is, we should trust him from the start. And then finally, the last thing, very quickly, we need Christ when we are corrected in our defeats. So our Lord's response then, when this man is spoken up, our Lord says this in verse 19. He answered him and said, O faithful, faithless, let me get that right, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. Now, Jesus may mean these words for just the disciples. That's what some think. Or he could be addressing the whole crowd, the whole group. I really think it's kind of a combination of both. I think it's for the benefit of the group, but I think he's also correcting his disciples here, as we shall see in the verses that come later. I think he's demonstrating some frustration here in the words that he says. And I believe his words surely hurt their feelings, that is, the disciples. but these words can also cure what's wrong, and that's what they're meant for here. These disciples, as do we, needed to learn that they can't do anything without Jesus. We will experience defeat, we will experience setback from time to time, because we take our eyes off of Jesus, and we trust ourselves instead of him. The way back on the right path is to trust Christ and obey his word. Turn to this passage, and we'll close with this, 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, verse 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. I heard someone explain this verse this way one time. There are four things here. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. That's one thing, in and of itself. And we believe that. These aren't just idle words. These aren't just some words somebody threw down on a piece of paper. These are the inspired words of God given to us for a purpose. This word is special, okay? And those four things, it says it's profitable for doctrine. The way this person explained it, the scriptures show us the path that we need to take, okay? Do we stay on that path? No, we often stray off because of sin. The second thing it says is they're profitable for reproof. What is reproof? It's pointing out that you're sinning. It's what it is. You're doing wrong. The scriptures will show you that Okay, and Then it says for correction. What is that the scriptures show you? Okay, you've seen now This is how you get back on that path. It corrects you it helped it helps you change your direction get back on the path that you should be on and And then fourth, and finally it says, they are profitable for instruction in righteousness, that the scriptures teach us how to stay on the path. So the scriptures show us the path, they show us when we get off the path, they show us how to get back on the path, and they show us how to stay on the path. We need the word of God. And it may hurt us sometimes. It may hurt our feelings. It may cut us to the soul. When we realize we've sinned against God, it's important for us to feel that and to know that and for us to listen to the scriptures so that we can do what's right. If you say you love God, then you must do what is right. You must follow him in everything. This is all a very valuable lesson for all of us. We won't ever get to a place where we don't need Jesus. Let's bow our heads. There on the Father, Lord, we thank you for this time together again here this morning in these words that we have just read. And I thank you for your Holy Spirit who has been teaching us in this time and will continue to do so as we leave this place. And I pray, Lord, that we be not hearers only, but we also be doers, that we go forth and we do and carry out your word and your commandments. Lord, help us to remember we always need Jesus. We pray this in his name, amen. Let's all stand, what number shall we sing?