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Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

A Crisis of Belief

And we are going to start with our scripture reading, which is taken from 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Our message tonight is entitled, A Crisis of Belief.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We Thank you, Father God, that you are better to us than we are to ourselves.

We ask now once again that you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, Lord, we ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

Our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Mark, the ninth chapter.

This is 1 of my favorite stories of Jesus.

And to give some context to these texts, it's important to remember that in Mark chapter 9, in the first part of the chapter, Jesus had taken 3 of his disciples into the mountain to visit with him.

And when he went up there, he was transfigured.

As you would remember, Elijah and Moses visits Jesus on the Mount of transfiguration.

They'd come, it seems, to encourage our Lord and to remind Him maybe, or to remind maybe even the disciples of what was at stake.

You have to remember that of all the beings in the universe, 2 of whom would have been most concerned with Christ's success on earth, it was Elijah and Moses.

Elijah represents those who would live for Christ, never die, and be taken to heaven.

Moses represents those who would die, be resurrected, and taken to heaven.

Peter was so excited, as it was Peter, James, and John that went into the mountain with Christ, that Peter wanted to make altars and do all these different things.

But Christ was there, and a voice was once again heard from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

As Christ came down from that mountain, he was aglow.

Similar to when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments.

The Bible says as He comes, so if He took 3 disciples with Him, it means He left 9 disciples on the ground behind.

Mark 9 and verse 14 says, 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?

When the people saw Jesus aglow, they ran to him.

But Christ's attention was focused on the fact that his 9 disciples were being accosted by the scribes.

He goes to them and asks, why are you questioning my disciples?

And 1 of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto you my son, who has a dumb spirit.

As the crowd gathers around and Jesus approaches the scribes who are questioning his 9 disciples, out of the crowd, 1 man emerges, A man who the crowd was by now probably familiar with as they'd watched him bring his son who had a particular problem and saw the 9 disciples be unable to deal with the problem.

As Jesus comes toward them, the man steps out.

Kind of like in a schoolyard, a circle clears in the middle.

And in American English, we often now use the word dumb to mean unintelligent or even stupid.

But really, it means someone unable to communicate.

The man goes on in Mark 9 and verse 18 and he says, And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away.

And I spoke to your disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not.

While Jesus was in the mountain with the 3, and the experience that Peter, James, and John had at the Mount of Transfiguration, while that was going on, Down in the valley, his 9 disciples were also having an experience, but they failed the test.

And I wanna submit to you there in Nairobi, Kenya, our brothers and sisters in Christ, I wanna submit to you that when the church becomes divided, it becomes powerless.

The 9 disciples who did not get to go into the mountain were probably quite jealous of the fact that 3 were chosen to go.

So if you can imagine while they're down there brooding and and steaming and angry and jealous and envious that Christ took only 3 up and all of them thought themselves worthy as we saw as we see in other parts of the gospel where they are jockeying for position and leadership and when Jesus comes into his kingdom I can imagine they were not very happy and because of this when this man brings his son they have no spiritual power to deal with this boy.

Because instead of praying and fasting, they were just stating problems and complaining.

There's a great story, I tell it in my sermon sometimes that I heard when I was in E.E.

Cleveland's Dynamics of Christian Living class at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, where I went to undergraduate training.

He talks about this church in Nashville, Tennessee where demon possession had happened.

In fact, Elder Cleveland, as he was teaching us the class, tells us that when he walked into the church, it was ice cold and the pews were floating in the air.

I've got corroborative stories from 1 man who was a theology student at the time and someone else was a pastor at the time in Tennessee.

And they tell me that when they began to cast demons out of the church members, they asked them, how is it that you have the ability to do this in the church of God?

The demons responded, because this church is divided.

But when we are divided, Satan gains advantage.

And this is why the church has to be careful as we allow issues like women's ordination or racial issues here in the States, or even vaccination now.

If the church is not careful and we allow these issues to separate us, that's exactly what the devil wants, because the devil wants us in a crisis of belief.

He wants us not focusing on those things that are important, salvific and eternal.

He wants us to focus on anything that will separate us because when we are separated, we are not as powerful as we could be in the Holy Ghost and in Christ Jesus.

So the father says, listen, I tried, I brought my son to your disciples, but they couldn't do anything.

In Mark 9 verse 19, he answered him and saith, O faithless generation, How long shall I be with you?

Jesus said, listen, there is a crisis of belief in this generation.

All this crowd, scribes, the Father, nobody, even his own disciples, did not have enough faith to deliver this boy from the demons that possessed him.

Let me submit to you, church, that we are living in a time today when we are in a crisis of belief where untoward and heretical doctrine have seeped into the church of God.

In fact, some of these heresies are even being preached from the pulpits of our churches and taught in our institutions.

A faithless generation now has compromised even on simple biblical principles like whether or not God created the world.

On whether or not Christ is divine or the Holy Spirit is a person.

We have compromised as a faithless generation.

We have accepted the teachings and wiles of the world and think that they are now sacred.

We are beginning to bow down to the idols of the world's philosophies rather than worship the truth that is in Christ Jesus.

The Bible says, and they brought him unto him.

And when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear him.

And he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming.

This boy, as they brought the boy towards Jesus, the demons begin to act out.

The demon, the spirit, tear him, begins to mess with him and pull at him, and he fell on the ground.

The Bible says he starts to wallow and starts foaming at the mouth.

Anytime we take someone and begin to lead them towards Jesus, the devil is going to act out in their lives.

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A Crisis of Belief

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