This morning we are going to examine four shortcomings for all of those who are in Christ. Now there are more than four shortcomings, but there's four that is derivative from the text this morning. We fall short in all of these, all of us, in various degrees and capacities. My prayer for all of us this morning is that the Lord would open up eyes, that he would warm our affection. Why? So we can see our sin, repent of it, and cling to Christ. You would please open to Luke chapter nine, please Luke chapter nine. After this Lord's Day, we will not see Luke again until next year. Lord willing, of course. Luke chapter nine, verse 37. On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Then, behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, the spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out, it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to bear with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears. Son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. They did not understand the saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, Whoever receives this child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great. John answered, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he doesn't follow with us. But Jesus said to him, don't stop him. for the one who is not against you is for you. Just as a reminder, it's been three weeks since we've been in Luke. You'll remember the last time we were here, we examined the Mount of Transparency or the Mount of Transfiguration. You'll remember that Jesus took with him how many of his disciples. Three, Peter, James, and John up to what? The mountain. And we saw the importance of mountains. Jesus prays on a mountain. He preaches on mountains. He heals on mountains. He gave the sermon on the mount on a what? Mountain. He chose his disciples on a mountain. He was crucified on a mountain. And when he returns, his feet will touch a mountain. And so he takes with him, Peter, James, and John. And well, we find out, what about Peter? He takes a power nap. He's sleeping as both Moses and Elijah appear. Why Moses and why Elijah? Because Moses represents who? The law. And Elijah represents who? The prophets. And they were speaking with Jesus about his what? Exodus. About his departure. And so as the men were departing, you remember Peter woke up from his nap. And he said, I have a great idea. Let's build three, shelters, and it was almost as if the Father from heaven quieted his foolishness by sending a what? Cloud. And we saw the cloud, this Shekinah glory, a theme. This same cloud was the cloud that, or a similar cloud that led the nation of Israel in the wilderness. It was the same cloud or similar cloud that rested on top of Mount Sinai. It's the cloud that descended in the tabernacle in the temple. This cloud made them afraid. And just to clarify everything, Moses and Elijah fade away in the distance, Jesus alone is there, and the voice from heaven declares, this is my son, my chosen one, listen to him. And verse 36 reads, and when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found, what? Alone. Why? Because Jesus alone is to be worshiped, listened, and followed. So this leads us here to our first observation from our text. The first failure, the first shortcomings of all of us is this. We fail to believe God and trust God at all times. We fail to trust God and believe God or believe in God at all times. Mark's account here in verse 37 informs us that they had come down from the mountain. Do you see that? And this mountain, as we saw last time, it was presumably Mount Hermon. And with the parallel account in Mark chapter nine, you remember, what did Jesus and his disciples, the three, what did they see the other nine doing? They were arguing with who? With the scribes about something. So I want you to picture this, Jesus, Peter, James, and John are coming down from the mountain, and they're witnessing and watching a crowd surrounding the disciples, and the nine disciples are there disputing with scribes about something. We don't know what they were arguing about. And We notice as well that in verse 37, that a great crowd met him. Do you see that great crowd? Well, previously we examined the interesting notes about crowds, but from Luke chapter nine and moving forward, it is no longer about the crowds. It's about Jesus and his disciples. And so this whole text is really focused on the failures of the disciples. but not only them, but the failures of us and shortcomings of all of us as well. And it is when Jesus was with the 12 that this father here, you'll see it in verse 38, he cries out and he asked Jesus, notice what he asked Jesus. He says, look at my son, look on my son. So what is he doing? He's appealing to the compassion and the mercy of God. That if Jesus would only see my son, he'd offer compassion. I know you saw it, but verse 38, the father says that it is his what? Only son, do you see that? Have we seen this already? Well, the answer is yes. We've seen it how many times? Twice already. Remember in chapter 7, verses 11 through 17, you remember the widow from Nain? Remember who died? It was her only son. And then in chapter 8, verses 40 through 56, We meet Jairus's daughter who is an only daughter. And this is the third only in terms of our text. And so I'm just waiting for Jesus to do something amazing. And the petition of the father is insightful. Look at my son. As we read in the, Gospel account of Mark, it was this father who said, I believe, help my unbelief. And it's gonna make sense in a second. And so as the father is bringing this demon possessed boy to Jesus, we'd learn something that is very disturbing that elicits an ethos and pathos within really all image bearers following along. Physically this boy and it's interesting to see how commentators kind of fight over it, but Interestingly this boy may have had some kind of form of epilepsy But what made it worse is that the demon is enhancing the seizures He's uh, he's prolonging them. He's he's essentially making the boy powerless When the demon seizes the child, the boy, the boy screams. He grinds his teeth. He foams in the mouth. He becomes stiff as a board. And on many occasions, both Mark and Matthew tells us on many occasions, listen, the demon throws the boy into a fire. It tries to burn him alive. It tries to drown him. And Mark informs us that this demon-possessed boy, it's happened how long? Since his childhood. How old is he? Well, we don't know, but it's been happening for years and perhaps decades. As a matter of fact, this account may be worse than the demoniac in chapter eight. But even what makes it worse than that is that this is this man's only what? Son, so if this boy dies so does the what the future of the family? So let me put it together. This is a seizing foaming at the mouth fire burned, almost water drowned, screaming, grinding at the teeth, stiff as a board, convulsing, demon possessed boy. This boy is absolutely helpless. And notice what happens. In verse 42, Luke says, when he was coming, the demon threw him, this is the boy, to the ground and convulsed him. Do you see that? This word here, throwing down, it's the picture of a wrestler picking someone up and literally power slamming them. You can only imagine what this looked like. This is a horror. And so when, When this demon sees Jesus, do you know what it does? It cheap shots the boy. It knows its time is running out, so it tries to kill him. It tries to kill him first by slamming him, and then it tries to kill him by suffocating him. When I played college soccer, I'll never forget it. My senior year, we played actually a college right outside of Pittsburgh. And we were winning. I can't say that often my senior year, but we were winning. And I'll never forget being on the field, it was actually the playoffs, and the time was ticking down, and I remember standing, I was a forward, so I remember looking across the field, and I saw a ball in the open, and I saw my teammate and the opponent, they were losing, the opponent ran full speed, not at the ball, but at my teammate, cleats up, trying to break his ankle. Game was over. They lost. And what did he do? Tried to take him out. A cheap shot. We see the same thing in football, don't we? Game's over, and what happens? Player on the other team does a cheap shot. Red card, penalty. This demon here, it knows it's about to be removed. He's losing his place of residency. So he tries to break the boy by slamming him and tries to suffocate him. And one other note as well about this boy, can you imagine what this boy looked like? Think about it. From his childhood, seizures, being thrown into the fire. He's got wounds. He has scars. He has scabs. You can only imagine the kind of disfigurement. As a matter of fact, the synoptic accounts, Mark and Matthew inform us that when the demon left this boy, he looked like he was dead. But notice what he does. The end of verse 42, Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, I love this, and what? Gave him back to his father. He didn't just tell the boy to get up, he helped him up. That's the compassion and the tenderness of God in Christ. Now, I don't want to be way down with the order of events, but if you were paying attention to what I read in the Gospel according to Mark, what Jesus says about this faithless and twisted generation, it has a different order, but I do want to focus on what we find out. We find out that when Jesus, Peter, James, and John were on the Mount, that the other nine attempted to heal this boy, but couldn't. How do we know? Look at verse 40. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they, what? Couldn't, do you see that? I pleaded with them, I begged them, I petitioned them, please help my boy, but they couldn't. So here's the question, why, right? Why couldn't you? I mean, the disciples cast out all demons before, didn't they? It was eight days ago, maybe nine days ago. They came back from a demonic cleansing campaign, talking about it, sharing it. And now when Jesus is up in a mountain, the nine can't even heal this boy. What is going on? Jesus answers this. I don't want you to look at it, please. Look at verse 41. Jesus answered, oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. Here's the question. Who is he talking to? Primarily, he is talking to the disciples. Secondarily, he's talking to the crowd. And third, He's talking to the father, the boy's father, a little bit. Primarily to the disciples. The disciples are the twisted and perverse generation. Now, perverse in our culture, it typically has a sexual deviancy to it, doesn't it? But it's not so at this time. Perverse, it literally means twisted. It means bent. You remember that Peter, just in verse 20, Peter just said that Jesus is the Christ of God, didn't he? The disciples have witnessed all kinds of things. And what happens? Jesus goes and they can't. Here's the question. Is the fact that they can't an inability or an unwillingness? There's a big difference, isn't it? Is it they couldn't because they didn't have the power? Or is it because they couldn't because they didn't have faith? The answer is they couldn't because they didn't have faith. And we know that because Jesus calls them a twisted generation. Now, if you know your Bible, you know your Old Testament, what should come immediate to mind? This is Moses rebuking the nation of Israel for their crookedness in the wanderings. And what's so fascinating about it, don't miss this. What's fascinating is that The Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, they talk to Jesus about his what? Exodus or his departure, right? And Jesus is alluding to the nation of Israel's departure and exodus. Do you see it? just as the nation of Israel did not listen to God's representative and spokesperson, Moses. So in the same way, the disciples and the nation are not listening to Jesus. They don't trust Jesus. They don't believe Jesus. Both the nation of Israel and the disciples primarily have failed to trust and exercise faith. I wanna give you four points of application. The first is this. We see the intention of demonic and satanic forces in our text. It is of no incident that this demon has possessed a young boy. It's no accident that we see demonic oppression even today. And much of that is seen in the doctrine. Satan hates children, you know that. He'll do everything he can to murder them in the womb. And if they get out of the womb, he wants to confuse them. He wants them to question whether or not they're who they feel like. And look, what Christians rightfully get blamed for is crying and complaining about the problems of society, but saying nothing and doing nothing about it. And so really the question is this, where God has you in your life, will you interpose on their behalf? Will you stand in the gaps with every child, every pregnant mother, every expecting father, will you stand in the gap and say, children are an inheritance from the Lord? Life begins at conception because God says it begins at conception. And biology affirms that. Will you tell children that God doesn't make mistakes, that they are fearfully and wonderfully made? There is no division of gender and sex, there's just one. Will you encourage them? And that's unpopular. You're gonna upset a lot of people. But when you committed your life to Christ, we just sang, the hymn we just sang, You've given it all for me, what have I given for thee? You think about that. You think about that. We need to be a people who interpose on behalf of children. You follow Christ, count the cost. Second point of application is this. For those of you who help with the little ones, I know they're not here. Some of you who help are here. Those of you who give your time to help the little ones, whether it's the infants in the back, the baby, whether you get up and you leave mid-sermon to serve them, whether you go to people's houses throughout the week, whether you help out with the women's ministry, with the men's ministry, there are many of you who do this. And you need to know that your labor and your work is not in vain. You know how I know? I know because I ask my children what they learned in the back. And this is over lunch. Say, so what did you learn? I learned, they tell me, and I said, oh, you learned that from daddy. He said, nope. I learned it from Mr. So-and-so or Mrs. So-and-so. And you need to know that your work, your labor will make and has made and impact on them. And you don't remember every meal you eat, but it's nourished you. In the same way, those who help, thank you for Jesus' care. Not just childcare, Jesus' care. May the Lord bless you and strengthen you. The third point of application is this, that we learn a very important truth about what this Father did to every parent, regardless of the age of the children. Point your children to Christ. That is the role of parents. Bring them to Jesus. You can't save them. That is the work of God and God alone. But you can bring them to the throne of grace. And the fourth is this. Don't be discouraged when it seems like there's no hope in gospel advancements. You know, this father here, who did he bring his son first to? The nine, right? The nine didn't heal him, and he brought him to Christ. And we need to be like that. And I want to talk to the parents here who have a heavy heart. And you know what that is. Out of nowhere, Child who you've brought up all these years drops the bomb. You know what the bomb is? I'm not interested. I don't want to go. I don't believe what you believe. I'm an agnostic. I'm an atheist. You know that. The heaviness of it. The weightiness of it. or perhaps the discouragement from seeing that the child's profession does not match the child's possession. That is the lips do not match the life and how discouraging that is. The prodigal child, the apple of your eye, the one who you've poured thousands of hours into, of sweat and tears who breaks your heart. But what we learn about this father, and please listen, is a father did not have a pity party. You notice that? He wasn't in despair. And if you miss anything from this application, it is this. While your child lives, there is hope, okay? Because this child is still alive, there is hope. You must do what this man did. Petition the kindness of God. Plead for his mercy and grace. There is great power in intercession. Just as the honeybee, he doesn't just That doesn't just buzz around the flower, does it? It doesn't just hover around the flower, but it settles in it. It rests in its petal. It goes inside, labors and works to retrieve the nectar. And in the same way, parents, don't be discouraged. God's time of conversion is not ours. If the person is still living, you have no reason for despair. God can save to the uttermost. Do not be discouraged, but wait and persevere and watch as the watchman waits for the morning. Point number two, the second shortcoming. that all of us struggle with, not just that we, like the disciples, fail to trust God at all times, but second, we refuse to submit to God's self-disclosure through His Word. Now, verses 43 through 45, it forms almost like an inclusion, and the reason is because you'll remember the disciples had curiosity previously. Do you remember when Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples asked, who is this? Who is this? Mark informs us that after Jesus fed the 5,000 that the disciples didn't really understand the feeding of the loaves. And so the crowd is marveling in verse 43, and the disciples, they're marveling at everything that Jesus has just done. Now the timing of it, I don't want to burden you with the timing of this, but all you need to know is that as there is the wow factor of the disciples in the majesty of God, Jesus now is going to address the disciples like parents do with children. It's almost like the wonder and the awe, it just fades in the background, and Jesus is going to tell his disciples, hey, listen, I need to tell you something very important. Look, look, look. Look, you squirrel, right? Look, look. Listen to me, I need to tell you something very important. And he says in verse 44, let these words sink on your ears. Listen, I'm about, the Son of Man is about to be delivered. Do you see that? Delivered. This word here, delivered, Into the hands of men this word delivered here. It is the divine passive in the greek This essentially Is the mission of the incarnate yahweh? God is going to deliver himself to his creatures. Oh my Now in order for god to deliver himself He has to have something to deliver, doesn't He? So what does He have to do? Well, He has to assume on Himself a body. Why? Because God essentially is omnipresent, isn't He? He's everywhere at all times. He fills the universe. And so in order for God to give Himself to man, well, He's got to assume on Himself a body. A body that he doesn't essentially possess, but he will possess now at the moment moving forward. Now he doesn't give himself to those who are worthy, but he gives himself for those who are unworthy. I want you to think about this. God assumes on himself human flesh so he can lay his life down to redeem those who are unworthy. Have you ever thought about that? This is the giving of God. God will hand himself over to sinners so he can save them, not only through his death, but in his resurrection and ascension. But Luke here informs us in verse 45, something fascinating. He says, they did not understand this saying because it was concealed from them. Here's the question, who or what is doing the concealing? Is God concealing it from them or are they just hardened? I give you the two options on the outline. First option is that God has concealed the meaning of what Jesus is saying from his disciples because they would have hindered the cross. And so God intentionally discloses the meaning of what Jesus is saying, so they just kind of stay, sit still. Or the second option is that they're actually morally responsible for refusing to believe because they're fearful. I want you to notice what's at the end of verse 45. They were afraid to ask him about anything. Now I'm thinking here, asking. Why are they afraid? The parallel account in Matthew notes that they were distressed. Contextually, the answer is this. Contextually, God, Jesus, holds the disciples accountable for refusing to change their theology and to trust God at His word. They won't allow God to define himself. Now, evidence of that is what happens in the next text. We're not gonna get there. But do you remember what he called his disciples in verse 41? What does he call them? Faithless in what? Twisted generation. It has to do with them embracing and changing their theology in light of Jesus' progressive revelation. I wanna give you three points of application here. The first is this. Our theology and our understanding of God must be flexible as we learn more about his word. And once we know more about him, we must submit to what God has revealed about himself. Let me help you with this. If you question, or if I question, we question the character of God, the problem is not with him, the problem is with us. The second point is this. That Jesus will oftentimes place us in situations that are uncomfortable, that we don't expect, that we don't plan for, but that God in his marvelous providence will bless. He'll grow us and he'll sanctify us through it. And the third is this. Those who are mature in the faith have to be very patient with those who aren't. We must be a people who patiently bear with the shortcomings of others. Men, women, and children are regenerated. Most of them have a big heart, but a small head. It's usually the other way with infants. Usually they have bigger heads and smaller hearts, but for my analogy part, You know what I mean, right? They want to serve the Lord. They're all in, but their theology is a little bit off. And we need to be very careful that we're nurturing that faith and that we're patient with them. Why? Because God was patient with you. We all come into this world as infants. And we all enter the kingdom of heaven, beginning at regeneration as infants. Do not stifle them. Be patient with them. Why? Because God has been patient with you. Here's the question you need to answer. And if the answer is yes, then be patient. First, do they love Christ? Second question, do they belong to him? The answer is yes. And if Jesus could endure such slowness from the disciples, we should also be able to with others. Remember, everybody begins as an infant. Point number three, I want us to look at the third shortcoming. Of all of us in Christ, not only do we fail to trust God, not only do we fail to submit to God's word, but third, we pursue greatness for ourselves, period. Look at this in verse 46. An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. So not only are the disciples slow to learn, slow to believe in God, but now they're gonna argue about who's gonna be the greatest, who is the greatest and who's going to be the greatest. You know what this demonstrates? They haven't even been listening to Jesus' second, first and second passion prediction that he is going to die. They're arguing about not only who's gonna be the greatest, who is the greatest, But who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom? And Matthew informs us this in chapter 17 and 18. Now again, them arguing, listen, it was not an issue of ignorance. It was not an issue of inability. It was an issue of arrogance and selfishness. They're fighting over who's gonna get the biggest room. over whose pearl and emerald in their proverbial crown is gonna be the biggest. They're fighting over who's gonna sit next to Jesus. I mean, I can just picture this. As they're walking, Jesus, in verse 47, Luke informs us Jesus knows the reasoning in their hearts. Now, whether or not Jesus is there or not, it's a side issue, but Jesus knows. I can just picture Peter, saying to the other nine, you know, if I wasn't up on the mountain with Jesus, I would have healed this boy. Hey, Thomas, were you up there? No, no, no, you weren't. Yeah, I was there. Sons of Zebedee were there. You know, it was amazing. The glory, the curtains of Jesus' essence was pulled back. It was crazy. It's insane. Moses and Elijah were there. You saw that. No, no, you didn't. That's right. You were on the bottom of the mountain. Oh, and you know what was crazy about it too? Is that a cloud came. You know, the same cloud in the wilderness? rested on Sinai and the temple and tabernacle. You know that cloud? Yeah, look, we were almost in glory. It just overshadowed all of us. I didn't see you, Thomas. Where were you? Oh, yeah, you weren't there. Clearly I'm greater. You were down there. Oh, and by the way, you couldn't even heal that boy. And then Thomas perhaps said back to Peter, hey, Peter, I heard you took a power nap. I heard you slept again. Surprise. Yeah, yeah, Peter, you didn't, you didn't. I heard from two reliable sources that you slept the whole time. And then you woke up and you tried to build three shelters. And then they all fade in the distance. And then you were afraid of the cloud. No, Peter, the reason why Jesus took you with him up in the mountain was not because you were special, it's because he didn't trust you. He had to keep a leash on you. He left us to ourselves. It's just this kind of bickering, right? Just back and forth. God incarnate just told them that he was about to die and they're arguing about who's the greatest. And this quarreling here is perceived by Jesus, and so he's going to give them an object lesson. Look at what he does. In verse 47, he takes a child, and he puts the child by his side. Children were not in a position of honor during these times. As a matter of fact, half of all children died, at least by the time of adulthood, due to primitive medical knowledge and hygiene practices. In addition, children did not generally contribute to the workforce. They didn't contribute anything to the enhancement of a family's honor, at least as young, so they really weren't viewed as significant. Listen to what one rabbi wrote, and I quote, morning sleep, midday wine, chattering with children, and tearing in places where men of the common people assemble destroy a man, end quote. So keeping company with children doesn't enhance anyone's honor, and so at this time, you don't really bother with children. And so what does Jesus do? He throws the Jewish and the Roman customs and social conventions on its head. Very important, don't miss this. I want you to notice who Jesus is telling his disciples to be like. Look at the text. Whoever, what? Whoever what? Whoever receives this child. This text is not teaching that we are to be like children toward Jesus, but that we're to be like Jesus toward children. Do you see it? What's the point? To be Christ-like is to give attention to those who are dishonored and overlooked in society. That's what he's getting at. Let me give you two points of application for this. And the first one is one on pride. You just heard a sermon on humility a few weeks ago, so I'm not going to drive the nail any farther into the wood. It's deep enough. I do want to remind you that pride will oftentimes wear garments that appear to be one of humility. And pride and arrogance is deeply rooted not only in the unlearned, but in the learned as well. The disciples were given the keys to the kingdom. They saw more than anyone else. They had special visits, so to speak. They were favored. And everybody here who is in Christ, anybody here who has received favor, you must be on guard not to think of yourself more highly than you want to. As Paul asked the rhetorical question, what do you have that you didn't receive? And if you received it, why do you go on boasting about it? Were you wiser? Were you smarter? What about you caused God in Christ to have mercy on you? Why you? Because God was pleased. God hates prideful people. He breaks prideful people, but he gives grace to who? The humble. Anyone who's been regenerated, justified, adopted, and bound for glory They realize that they bring nothing to the table but their what? Poverty, in exchange for Christ's righteousness. In any way, in any manner, that they resemble any Christ likeness, it's because of what God is doing in them and through them. We accept responsibility when we sin, but we give God all the thanks when we resemble Christ. Second point is this. We must have people in our lives who we are ministering to whose society views as lowly or unworthy. That's the point, isn't it? That's why Jesus picks up a child. The point is not be like a child and trust God, though it's true. Jesus is calling the disciples to be like Jesus to children. Be like Christ to those who are dishonored in society. That's his point. Fourth way in which all of us fail as Christians. We're already looked at. We failed to trust God. We failed to submit to God's disclosure of himself. We're selfish and we long to be greater than others. And fourth, we confuse friends and enemies with enemies and friends. And we see this here in verses 49 and 50. Please look at it. John answered, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your names and we tried to stop him because he does not follow. Who? With us. You see that? With us. But Jesus said to him, don't stop him. For the one who's not against you is for you. If the disciples were playing baseball, they'd be like 0 for 3, and they're about to be 0 for 4. No one's drafting them. Failure after failure, and they're not done. The disciples had witnessed an unnamed man casting out demons in Jesus' name. Now, the Greek tense for try to stop him, it's actually in the imperfect. In the imperfect tense, it means that it didn't just happen once. It means it happened multiple times. They saw this man, he's unnamed, but they tried to stop this man casting out demons in Jesus' name multiple times, and notice who speaks up, John does. It's interesting, isn't it? Usually, if any gospel writer mentions anyone in specific, oftentimes it's who? It's Peter, isn't it? But here John is, and as a side note, I don't have time to unpack this, but there's a reason why Luke mentions that John said this, by the way. But John said it. John had the problem. He was the spokesperson for the disciples. And he makes this complaint, and please, notice what he says. He says, we tried to stop him because he does not follow with who. Us. You see that? He doesn't say because he doesn't follow you. He says he doesn't follow us. The disciples still possess an elitist and superior position in their standing with Jesus and rebuke the man for not being with them. Now, think about this. John and the others think that they're the greatest and that they're model citizens of the kingdom. They don't get it. They didn't have enough faith to heal the boy, did they? You didn't believe Jesus' second passion prediction. You're arguing about who's the greatest. And here this man is, casting out demons, and you can't. You can't even do it. And you're rebuking the man for not being with you? No. You need to learn from this man. Because he's doing good kingdom work. and you're bickering and arguing. Making Jesus known is more important than who makes him known, isn't it? It's said that it's easy to be in unity when everyone agrees, right? The shortcomings of many of us It's that we become so sectarian and so elitist that we confuse our enemies with our friends. And what's fascinating among all of us is that we believe that we think what the non-negotiables are. But it eventually grows, and the minor things, the tertiary issues, become major things, don't they? The question really for you is this. If you've got someone in your life doing God's business, they don't have to conform to you or me. Look what he says at the end. The one who is not against you is what? For you. Ulrich Zwingli, who was the Swiss reformer, he Him and Martin Luther got along with about 95% of things until it came to the Lord's table. Luther did not agree with the Catholic Church with transubstantiation, but he did believe that as you partook of the bread, or as you partook of the cup, that you received grace. Zwingli, on the other hand, argued that it wasn't his literal body. Jesus used repeatedly in the Gospel of John, he says, I am the door. Well, Jesus is not literally a door. I'm the vine. Jesus isn't literally a vine. And whether it's a like, or whether it's an as, it doesn't matter. But this issue actually became a big issue, and it prevented both the Swiss reformers and the Jewish reformers from coming together. One of the men who I've had a chance to really invest in over the last three years have been George Whitefield. I know I've mentioned him several times. I just can't put him down. He was the greatest evangelist that has ever stepped foot in North America. And during his campaign in the 1740s along the colonies as he was preaching, One of his good friends, his college buddy, John Wesley, he published, who was an Arminian, Calvinist, Whitfield was a staunch Calvinist. But while Whitfield was preaching along the colonies, John Wesley in Britain was publishing the tracts. that actually undermined Whitefield's preaching. And so when Whitefield actually came back to Britain, he was confronted with this. It was a low blow. Proverbially, it took the steam out of Whitefield's public evangelistic engine in many ways. And so when he found out about this literature, someone had asked him and they said, so Mr. Whitefield, Do you believe that you're gonna see John Wesley in heaven? And Mr. Woodfield replied, no, I don't think I'll see him in heaven because he'll be much closer to the throne of grace than me. We need to make sure that we distinguish between false teaching, heresy, and selfish personal preferences. We need to make sure that just because these people in this group, because they're not part of our group, they're not part of Christ's group. The question you need to ask is this, is Christ being proclaimed? and are the essentials of the faith being heralded, Jesus gives the direction. The one who's not against you is for you. Jesus didn't make any comment on what the man was doing. So he's basically saying, hey John, are you for me? You should be for him. Let him cast out demons. He's doing a good work. And just as a side note, him, this man casting out demons, you hear about someone casting out demons, that's not something that you can let go. It doesn't transfer to today. but others who, let me make it simple, whether you've got one petal on your flower or whether you've got four or five, it doesn't matter as long as Christ is to be proclaimed. That's all that matters. I have noted several times now that there is an allusion to the nation of Israel. One of Moses' servants came and told him that other men were prophesying. I guess they wanted to get Moses to be upset. And then Moses says, this is in Numbers 11, Moses said, are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit in all of us. Paul says, if Christ be preached, I rejoice. and that should be the theme of all of our lives. May we be a people who trust God at all times, who submit to his revealed word, our humble servants, and our fellow co-laborers with others who are committed to God's business. Let us pray. Father, again, we are thankful for your word, thankful that there are areas in all of our lives that haven't been conformed to your word, that we have grieved your spirit, but that you welcome the broken and the contrite. Thank you not only for the forgiving work, but the cleansing work of your spirit inside of us. And we're thankful for Jesus, who who became sin, who was rendered sin for us so that we may receive his righteousness. Thank you for the great exchange. Our rags for his riches. Give us grace. We'll walk in faith and give you the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.