Mark 9 — Mark 9

0:05 Kind of a different setup today. Of course, it's a new year. Happy 2020. I wish I could say that I did the New Year's resolutions from last year. Not to work on a new set for this year, but, and even, I hate to bring this up, but we had our thing.

0:27 There were several of us here that, we were going to try to pray, and this was based on something that Erwin Lutzer was putting on a radio. Set aside one hour a week for just prayer by itself, one hour a week. Now it didn't mean we didn't pray other times. Maybe you prayed different ten, fifteen minutes here or there or whatever. But there was the idea was to just pray one hour a week, set one hour a week aside, not only one hour, but one hour a week specifically And I have some others you did that with.

0:59 And we started off fairly good, but I don't know what happened. Just somewhere during the year and then about two weeks ago, thought, wait a minute, we were supposed to be doing that this year. Anyway, I can assure you we got to do things differently. Sometimes people ask me now how I like retirement and I have to say I like it pretty well actually. But hopefully I'll get something done and one of my resolutions is to get something done around the house that I said I would get done and I haven't yet.

1:34 I suppose one thing I like the most though about retirement is when you work, twenty years, and getting up at about 05:00 every day, you get that, biological clock going 05:00 every day and, but this time, but now since I'm retired five a. M. I'm talking about. I don't have to look at the clock and say, alright, I better get going. I gotta go to work.

1:58 I still like to get up early and, spend time with the Lord. I think that's been the most blessing really of being retired. Not that I want to sit around and do nothing though. I don't think the Lord wants us to do that. He's got something for all of us to do.

2:13 Let's just open in a word of prayer here. Father, we just thank you for your love to us. Thank you for your faithfulness. And that we can say it is well with my soul. Thank you for the Lord Jesus and his suffering and death for us on the cross.

2:27 And I just pray that you would speak to each one of our hearts this morning. And just that we would see the lord Jesus more clearly and we ask your help in these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it's my heart's desire that this message would encourage and build up and that's hopefully that that's where we'll be in the end of this message but Last week, we were listening to Doug Toruk and he mentioned a lot of things about the transfiguration. And the transfiguration is written three different places in the Bible.

3:06 And he talked about the nine. I listened to his message again the other day and about the nine, what kind of conversations the nine that didn't go up there might have been having and things like that or maybe they felt slighted in some way or maybe they just didn't want to go in the first place. Anyway, Peter, James, and John went with him and the lord, I think by by his direction had them go with him and I just I have to look at some verses. We're going to be today, we're going to be looking at Mark chapter nine should say. From about verse 11 to about 29, more or less.

3:49 Before we do that, I want to just turn to These verses are actually Peter talking about what happened when they were with the Lord in that mount. Two Peter one sixteen, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made note unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. It's hard to grasp that really. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

4:41 And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the Holy Mount. So here's Peter talking about what happened and just how that the lord was transfigured and they had a glimpse really. I I have to say a glimpse of the lord and his glory there when he was transfigured before them and he uses this expression, they were eyewitnesses of his majesty. I just don't think I grasp that living in this country you live in and those in authority, not to make it a political thing, but I don't think there's ever been a time where the leaders, the president particularly, has been more attacked and criticized than in recent years. And we don't put him on a high place necessarily, but we should have respect for the position.

5:36 And it's kind of the way the world is going right now, really. There's little respect for those in authority. And I guess we shouldn't be surprised. But just thinking about the Lord and His glory and what all He's done. And like I said, Peter said He was an eyewitness.

6:36 We beheld his glory. We we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. What's amazing to speak about the Lord Jesus, He is glorious and John was an eyewitness, an eyewitness. He also says some things in his epistle, one John one:one :one-three, That which was from the beginning, we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested unto us.

7:37 That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. There's another again witness there. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. An eyewitness, he walked with the Lord Jesus, he saw Him and just amazing.

8:03 Spent approximately three years with him in his ministry and really got to although until they were filled with the holy spirit, they struggled a lot of times to grasp who he was And it's just amazing really. So I just wanted to bring this up as these were eyewitnesses, eyewitnesses. It wasn't hearsay evidence or things like that, but it was actual eyewitnesses. There's an Old Testament principle that says, the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Another reason of John and Peter being there, they both said were used of god to to write scriptures.

8:49 Now, James, I'm not sure it's the James who wrote the book of James. So, I can't say on that. Someone could clarify that to me there but anyway, let's turn to back to Mark. So I'm not going to go through everything word for word. There wouldn't be time to do that but we just kind of we'll be kind of concentrating on from verse 11 to approximately verse 29, something like that.

9:26 Verse 11, and they asked him saying, why say the scribes that Elias must first come? And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first and restoreth all things. And how it is written of the Son of Man that he must suffer many things, and be set at naught. But I say unto you that Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed as it is written of him. And there's some things to bring out about that.

10:01 The scribe said, and you just turn back shortly in your Bible, the very end of the Old Testament, And see Malachi four:five says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. But there's that that may have been what the scribes were looking at the Old Testament scripture that behold, I send you Elijah the prophet. Verses here that explain who that was. Again, hold your place in Mark Mark nine.

10:52 Excuse me. And just look at something in Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11 and verse 11 to 14. Matthew 11 verses 11 to 14. The Lord says, verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.

11:24 Notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if he will receive it, this is Elias or Elijah, which was for to come. And also in the seventeenth chapter, verse 11 to 13, Matthew seventeen and eleven through 13. And Jesus answered and said unto them...

12:06 Before that, the disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes Elias must first come? Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias has come already and they knew him not but have done whatever they listed. Likewise, shall also the son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

12:35 Okay. Well, that should be fairly clear there that when they used the term Elias there, Elijah was speaking about John the Baptist. John the Baptist is one he referred to as a voice of one crying in the wilderness. He was once sent to reveal who the Messiah was. And it's just amazing really.

13:02 And the Lord says of him, among those born among women, there's none greater. Yet he was least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. Okay, moving on from that, they come down and they verse starting at verse 14. When he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them and the scribes questioning with them. Straightway all the people when they beheld him were greatly amazed and running to him saluted him.

14:01 Sometimes he asks questions in scriptures just for the sake of the people that are around there because he's knowing he knew what was going on. He knew he knows our thoughts and as god, he he knows everything. And so Lord's response is in verse 19. He answered him and said, oh faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?

14:26 Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him. And when they saw him, straightway the spirit tear him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. Now this is a bad situation. Bad situation.

14:42 And this was brought on by an evil spirit from the other. This was not just a sickness. This was a demonic issue with this young man. And Jesus in verse 21 asked his father, how long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said of a child.

15:04 I think he asked that question for the sake of those around there so they would know this guy he'd been in this case for a long time. Verse twenty two and twenty three is I can kind of relate to some of these. We all have situations in life where our faith maybe gets pretty weak and just this phrase, a couple of these phrases in verse twenty two and twenty three. Oftentimes, it's cast him into the fire and so on but notice middle of verse but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. It doesn't sound like he had a lot of faith there.

15:45 Yeah. If you can do anything, if you can do anything, help. You know, I just It's sad to be in that situation. And the Lord's answer to him said, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. All things are possible.

16:04 It's hard to live by those things sometimes. We might think that there are situation in life that we're facing or we've gone through where it's impossible. I'm sure many here, and I wouldn't ask anybody to raise their hands, have gone through things in their life that they thought was impossible. Maybe some are experiencing things right now that they think is impossible. But is there anything impossible with the Lord?

16:34 Is there really anything impossible? Is there anything too hard for Him? And the Lord said, if you can believe, you can believe. There are other places where He it says he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Unbelief.

16:51 We lose sight of the fact of who he is. We let our problem get bigger than the person you know, bigger than the person who's who's able to do all things. And then Jesus said to him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible. Verse 24, Straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou might unbelief. It's just again, when we're facing a really tough situation.

17:31 And I can think of sometimes in my life going way back where I just thought, there's no way out. There's no way out of this mess. There's no way out. And, I found by the grace of God, by the grace of God, he's able to reach out and rescue us. And whatever situation we might be facing in life.

18:33 If you're living someplace and it's going to be overrun by the enemy, probably one of the last things you would do would be buy some real estate in that area. But here, Jeremiah makes his purchase right when the enemy is getting ready to come in and take over everything. And his response is verse 17, our Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm. There is nothing too hard for thee. Nothing too hard for thee.

19:06 Love that verse. I love the expressions. There is nothing too hard for thee. And then verse 27, the Lord says, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?

19:23 Is there anything too hard for me? We know that there is nothing too hard for the Lord, no matter what. But And we've got to just go before Him and say, Lord, I got to give you this situation. I got to cast this burden upon the Lord. Isn't that what He wants us to do?

19:40 Cast thy burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He'll give us the strength to face Whatever he's called us to go through. And we just can't pray enough really and talk to the lord enough just to for strength to get through all of the things we might be facing in life. We never know how long we're going to be here. Andy said, it's 2020, but are we all going to be here all this year?

20:16 And just not to be morbid, I'm not saying this to be morbid, so clarify that. Just looking at my local paper the other day, we don't get it all the time, but just sometimes every now and then I open the obituary page and there wasn't a lot of obituaries and there were about seven. Out of the seven there, five of them were younger than I am. And I thought, wait a minute. But doesn't the scripture say we should number our days, we really should number our days.

20:46 So I really, and I think others here have said the same thing and Christians even feel that way too. The older you get, the more you realize I want to make every day count for the Lord. Don't have time to be wasting any more time. And said the other day, I want to follow that verse that says we should live the rest of our time to the will of God, to the will of God. And that should be our heart's desire to live to the will of God.

21:18 And only He can give us the strength to do that. How long are we going to have? We don't know. We don't know. But my family history, my dad died at age 50.

21:33 I've already gone seventeen years beyond that. But God is He's able to do all things. I don't want to leave this world not having done what the Lord wants me to do. Have I ever been sidetracked? Oh, yes, many times over the years.

21:50 I wish I could say I've lived every day for the Lord and it's always been fruitful every day and it's just, that's not the case, but God doesn't give up on us. He doesn't give up on us. He's a God of saving grace to bring us to Himself. And I believe He's a God of restoring grace. When we have found ourselves going the wrong way, we have two choices.

22:13 We can keep going and just make a bigger mess or we can say, I got to stop. I got to stop. I got to turn to the Lord. I got to humble myself under His mighty hand and He will restore us. He'll restore us like David said, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

22:31 When we get away from the Lord, lose that joy of his salvation a lot of times and God wants us to return. If you study the book of Jeremiah, you'll see that's one of the most common words used in the book of Jeremiah, return, return to me. God was calling his people to return, but it just seemed like many of them didn't and they didn't want to hear the word of God, they cast his word behind their back and it was just a sad situation there. Well, nothing is too hard for the Lord and so we see that God by his grace restored this one. He, made the child well back in Mark nine.

23:54 I think there was there's at least 20 verses in the New Testament that mention fasting and we have examples in many of the Old Testament scriptures of people that really fasted to seek God, and they were greatly blessed by doing it. So it's something that we should really, I think seriously consider. Now I don't know how long we should fast or whether just because you miss a meal, is that a fast? Just between you and the Lord, really. Of course, we know from the early scriptures, he doesn't want us to go around saying, oh, I'm fasting and I can't do this or that or just making a big show like the Pharisees pretended to be godly, they were fasting.

24:45 The Lord really looks on the heart. That's the most important thing. But I do think that there's a time that... And we could be blessed, I believe, if we would do some fasting. I'll speak for myself.

25:01 It wouldn't hurt me at all. But the lord hears our prayers. I don't want to say he doesn't hear our prayers if we're not fasting. He does but I think it maybe I don't know. It makes you feel like you're more serious, more serious about things.

25:21 And if we look back and we won't do it now, we looked at back in the book of Esther when all the things were happening there and the enemy of the people of Israel was wanting to... He sent out a decree that all the Jews would be killed. And what was their response? They fasted and prayed and they put sackcloth on and as it turned out, in the end, the enemy was destroyed and the people of God were blessed So that's just amazing. Other, I'm sure there's many other examples where like in Hezekiah's day, they sent a letter saying, just surrender basically.

26:06 And Hezekiah took the letter and just laid it out before the Lord. And they got the great victory because they went to the Lord in prayer. So God can do all things and He wants to use us, I believe. Now all the different in the next few weeks or so, they'll probably talk about the different ministries going on and not everybody has to be doing the same thing. God has...

26:39 There's differences of gifts. There's different ministries out there. So we don't all have to be doing the same thing. The disciples said, we saw someone casting out devils in your name and we told him, you can't do that. You know, because you're not with us.

26:57 Let's jump it down and the next person will probably talk on that but let's jump down verse 38. John answered him saying, master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name and he follows not us and we forbid him because he followed not us but Jesus said, forbid him not. There's no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. It is not against us as on our part. I just bring that up because sometimes, it's easy to be looking inward and looking at our own little group.

27:34 And we were with a meeting some years ago that the focus got inward and almost to the point where everything that was not part of ourselves was criticized all over the place. It was like, why would you want to be involved in that? But the goal is not that everybody would be doing exactly the same thing. Each one of us should be exercised before the Lord. What do you want me to do?

27:59 And I'm trying to learn hoping that we all know that we're responsible to walk in God's Word. This is something all of us have to say. We can say, I'm responsible to follow the Word of God. But we're also individuals and there's an individual direction the Lord wants us to go. And it's hard to always discern that because I know I tend to just go with the group.

28:27 What's the group doing? Just to some degree and maybe don't seek the Lord individually enough. I'd like to be able to be guided like was it Philip when he was sent to go out, just go a certain way, go down this road. He didn't have all kinds of detailed instructions, but when he obeyed, he comes across the Ethiopian eunuch sitting in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah, the scroll of Isaiah. So I mean, how do you be guided to the Lord like that?

29:02 He still guides us and He wants to lead us that way. But there's things that, like I said, that God wants us to do that there might not be a clear example in Scripture of. But something that can be a real good ministry. I can think of a lot of different examples. I've mentioned it here before.

29:23 I think others have in Mexico. There's a brother there. Abiel Molina, I think it is, that does the clown ministry. I mean, how different is that? He dresses up like a clown.

29:37 He goes into the little towns there and his people come out. They bring their kids out. I mean, it's maybe more popular there than it would be here but but he does this little clown presentation and then children come out and he brings the gospel out. What a wonderful way of doing that and I just want to say something else here that our brother Abe, I don't know if he's not here right now, but has a big ministry going to nursing homes, I don't know how many he goes to, probably over 20 some nursing homes a week. A lot of the people there, they've been raised, they have a religion, but they haven't really personally trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ.

30:22 They may be trusting in their religion. And it's amazing the open door there really. And it's different. He might be singing some songs that we wouldn't sing necessarily or Elvis Presley hymns or something like that. But hey, the Lord can use it and many of the people there have heard a clear gospel message.

30:44 So I wouldn't want to criticize him for that. But many other things we could do and I know Chris Schroeder was talking a few weeks ago about just we can pass out little gospel tracks sometimes. I tried something a little different this year. I don't have to talk. I mean, I'm a feel like I'm boasting or anything.

31:24 Just there's only about eight or 10 neighbors on our block. And a lot of them I still don't know their names. So I put our neighbor at such and such address. I haven't got any response, but at least I feel like I did something. So you never know.

31:42 You never know. And I shared this one other time before that it's been some years ago that Don and I were going around in the neighborhood and he probably encouraged me to do this, to go with him to a few houses to give out little gospel tracts. And I forget, was it Rubik's cube gospel thing you were showing or something like that where you could twist this thing and I can't explain it, but It was a way of presenting the Gospel to people, the good news. And we went around, I don't know, a dozen or so houses. I don't know if we did it once or twice, whatever.

32:21 But it was maybe a year or two after that, there was a lady visiting in our neighborhood. She came up to me. I didn't even know who she was. She said, I just want to thank you. Something along this line, I've come to know the Lord.

32:36 I've become a Christian. You had a part in it. Thought, pardon? I mean, I didn't really remember talking to her at all. The nearest thing I could think of is there was one lady we talked to on our street.

32:47 We were just coming back and she was out there doing something and gave the gospel to her. Didn't get saved right then and there, but she went, she ended up moving out of the area, got a job in Cleveland somewhere. And it just so happened that the person she was working with was a Christian who shared the gospel with her and she was saved. So it was just, was encouraged by that because sometimes you never know. You think, why don't I see a lot of people saved?

33:18 If you go to Mexico, man, I'm amazed. I mean, there's such an open door there. It's like everywhere you go, people want to be saved. Seems like and but god is working and he can work in this country too. I just I think of before I close here, I want to read one other verse.

33:43 Just came to mind again. It's come to my mind a number of times. Isaiah 59, it describes our country so much. Isaiah 59. Let's see.

34:04 Get the right book. Yep. Verse 19. Isaiah 5nine 19, about the middle of the verse, is when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him or put him to flight. When the enemy shall come in like a flood.

34:25 Has there ever been a day when the enemy has come in like he has in our country right now? Oh, we need to be in prayer, but God has the power. There could be a revival. There could be. And many of us have said, just start with me and let's start the revival.

34:44 God is able. And just so, we see so many things happening right now, but let's not be discouraged because God has the power to work and the many souls can still come in and be saved at this time. Just pray that the Lord will use us and if each one of us could just look at our little circle of influence and say, is there somebody right that I see all the time or around my neighborhood or who I work with or go to school with that I could share the gospel with? I think the Lord could use us. Could use us in that way.

35:19 He delights to use the least likely vessels. So that's an encouragement there. I hope that we can get some encouragement from what we've had today. Nothing's impossible with the Lord and he can do all things and he certainly has the power to do everything. Let's pray.

36:08 We just thank you for this time together. In Jesus' name, amen.