Son Of David, Have Mercy On Me explores Matthew 9:27-34, where blind men's faith contrasts with Pharisaic blindness. The speaker argues miracles validate Jesus' message as a winnowing fork separating saving faith from hardened unbelief, emphasizing that faith depends on the object—Jesus Christ—rather than quantity. While physical sighters remain spiritually blind, the sermon concludes that unbelief compounds into moral hostility, urging listeners to respond with humble pleas for mercy instead of arrogance. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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A Cry for Mercy00:06:30
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We're continuing our series through the gospel according to Matthew.
Our text.
For today is Matthew chapter 9, verse 27 through 34.
Again, our text is Matthew chapter 9, verse 27 through 34.
I'll read our text for us in its entirety.
When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you'd respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
One final time, our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 9, verses 27 through 34.
The Bible says this And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, Have mercy on us, son of David.
When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this?
They said to him, Yes, Lord.
Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it done to you.
And their eyes were opened, and Jesus sternly warned them, See that no one knows about it.
But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
As they were going away, behold, a demon oppressed man who was mute was brought to him.
And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying, Never was anything like this seen in Israel.
But the Pharisees said, He cast out demons by the prince of demons.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated.
By way of introduction, I've written the following Christ's divine authority elicits saving faith in some and hardened unbelief in others.
It's vital that we keep in mind that the miracles of Jesus.
Are not merely acts of compassion.
Notice the word merely.
They are acts of compassion.
There are instances where the crowds come to him and he had compassion.
It actually says that, not empathy, but compassion, which is rooted in sympathy.
In the Latin, it's rooted more to sympathy, feeling for someone else, not empathy and just absorbing their pain, and so that you're walking around feeling the exact same thing that everybody else does.
No, it's compassion for others, it's rooted in love.
It's rooted in love.
And so, Jesus does have compassion on people.
And there are instances in the gospel narratives where the crowds were there, they were present, and many were sick among them.
And the scripture explicitly tells us that he had compassion on them and he healed them.
And so, we're not saying that Jesus had something less than compassion, but all we're saying and what we're noticing and witnessing in this text specifically is that the purpose of Jesus' miracles was never less than compassion for those who were hurting.
But it certainly included more.
So it's not merely acts of compassion, but rather these miracles serve as divine revelations that demand faith, and where faith is absent, they therefore expose unbelief.
That the miracles served a purpose higher and deeper and longer, more eternal and ultimate than merely the temporal, physical healing out of compassion.
That there's a message being conveyed by the miracles of Christ.
The miracles ultimately validate the messenger and therefore the message.
So, what Christ is preaching, Christ came to preach.
He came to die ultimately as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but he also came to preach the kingdom of the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom.
And so the miracles serve as a testimony, a witness to validate Christ as the messenger who is therefore preaching a true message.
But the miracles also work as a winnowing fork that separates the wheat from the chaff.
The words of Christ do that on their own right, in their own right.
The message, the sermons that Christ preached.
Also winnowed the crowds down to who really believed in him, trusted him, and who ultimately hated him.
But his preaching does this, but so do the miracles.
And this miracle in particular, we see in this text that there's an immediate dividing line between those who trust in Jesus and those who ultimately hate Jesus.
And that's what we see in our text today.
So that's our introduction, recognizing that every time Christ preached, And every time Christ performed a miracle, it served as a winnowing fork, separating the wheat from the chaff.
It immediately would elicit saving faith in some and hardened unbelief in others.
Okay, so three points from the text as I see it today.
Number one, we find a cry for mercy, and attached with that cry for mercy, a recognition of Christ's true identity.
So it's not merely pleading for mercy from someone somewhere.
In regards to something, it's much more ultimate and deeper than that.
These two blind men are pleading with Christ for mercy, but the reason why they make their pleas to Him is because they recognize who He truly is.
So, a cry for mercy and a recognition of Christ's true identity.
That's the first point that we'll find in the first verse of our text, verse 27.
Secondly, we'll see that Jesus immediately responds to this cry for mercy from these two blind men by providing for them a test of mercy.
Of faith.
That's verses 28, 29, and 30 of our text.
And then, lastly, the third and final point deliverance and division.
We then see a second miracle arise in the text after the two blind men are thoroughly healed by Jesus a complete, total, and instant miraculous healing.
The Messianic King00:15:01
Then, immediately, what follows is the casting out, exercising of a demon that caused a man to be mute, unable to speak.
And this miracle in particular, the deliverance of this man who was demon oppressed, it immediately elicits, not in all, but in some, namely the religious Jewish leaders of that time, the Pharisees in particular, it elicits for them division.
Division.
Okay, so beginning with the first point, I've written the following The passage intentionally contains a theological irony.
And we should see this.
So this is historical narrative, right?
So different books of the Bible have different genres.
All scripture is God breathed.
All scripture is infallible.
That is, it is without error.
It's all inerrant.
It's all the Word of God.
It's perfect and pure.
But not every book of the Bible, they're all equally inerrant and infallible.
Don't get me wrong with that.
But they're not all the same genre, right?
The Psalms and the Proverbs are poetic, and they need to be read as poetic literature, right?
There's other passages of the scripture that are just historical accounts, like 1 and 2 Kings, right?
Whereas 1 and 2 Samuel, my wife just recently went through those four books of the Bible.
And she was telling me, I like 1 and 2 Samuel more than 1 and 2 Kings.
And I agree with her because that's just, it's not that one is more profitable or one is more inspired.
But 1 and 2 Samuel are more narrative, it's story.
Whereas 1 and 2 Kings are just history.
Here's another king, this is what he did.
And you can read more about it in the Annals of the Kings.
Here's another king, this is what he did.
And you can read more.
And that's just, that's the nature of 1 and 2 Kings.
Whereas 1 and 2 Samuel is, it's a story.
You know, it's, this is David from the very beginning.
It's not just his exploits, but it gets into, His emotions and his thought process, and all these different things.
It's a narrative, it's a story.
And so, in our text, this is narrative.
The gospel accounts are narrative.
They give us exploits of Christ, but also contained in a story format.
So, it's not just like 1 and 2 Kings, but it's kind of more like 1 and 2 Samuel.
There are exploits, there are events, and particulars that are included, but it's in the genre of story.
And so we're reading this story, and because we're reading this story, we should pick up on some of the major themes because they're not random, they're not accidental.
They are intentional by the Holy Spirit inspiring the human author, in this case, Matthew.
And one of those themes that we should pick up on is a theological irony.
And the irony is this the physically blind, these two men who are physically blind, they recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
While the religious leaders in Israel remain spiritually blind.
So the physically blind can spiritually see.
While those who are physically able to see, who are physically not blind, are spiritually blind.
And that's an irony.
Again and again, what Matthew, all the gospel writers, but especially Matthew, especially Matthew, what he is doing again in every single text is he's sticking it to the Jewish religious rulers.
That's just what he's doing.
It is in the text.
Some of you, it's not in the text.
I love Israel.
I understand, but it is in the text, and you're wrong.
You're simply wrong.
And Matthew draws it out again and again and again.
Here's two guys who can't see their hand in front of their face, and they're spiritually have 20 20 sight, and they're great.
And here's some other guys who are trained and religious rulers in Israel, and they suck.
That's what Matthew's saying.
That is what he's saying.
More than that, That's what God is saying.
That's what the Holy Spirit is speaking through Matthew.
So, that is a massive theological irony that we're missing part of the point of the text if we don't pick up on that irony.
It's there by design intentionally.
The physically blind, they can see spiritually, they can see Jesus.
While the religious leaders who are physically not blind, they are spiritually blind as a bat.
In other words, these blind men see more than the sighted.
Specifically, they see Jesus as the promised Jesus.
King from David's line.
So, in this first verse, namely Matthew 9 27, the first thing that these blind men see in terms of Jesus' true identity is they recognize that Jesus is messianic.
They recognize that he is messianic and kingly, that he comes from the lineage of David, and not just like every single one of David's descendants come from the lineage of David, but that he is the promised one.
And the prophets spoke of that he is the true king of Israel.
Of the increase of his government there shall be no end.
That he is kingly and messianic.
And they use that title which conveys those points messianic and kingly.
What do they refer to Jesus as?
Son of David.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
They see Jesus as the promised king from David's line.
2 Samuel 7 speaks of this, and Isaiah chapter 11.
They speak to Jesus and cry out, saying, Son of David, son of David, have mercy on me.
Son of David, this particular phrase was an explicit messianic title.
Now, lastly, their cry is clearly rooted in faith, not entitlement.
It's rooted in faith in the identity, the person, the object of Jesus Christ, who he is.
Their faith is rooted in him, attached to the true and only saving object of faith, which is Christ, and it's based in faith, rooted in faith, and not in entitlement.
They're not saying, Jesus, son of David, We too are Israelites.
We too are the lineage of David, and therefore you owe us our physical sight.
That's not their plea.
That's not their claim.
It's not a claim of entitlement.
You are of a kingly lineage, and we also, by lineage, are of this kingdom, and therefore you owe us this miracle.
That's not the request.
The request is well, it has less to do with entitlement, and it has everything to do with worship.
So, when they recognize and acknowledge Jesus as Son of David, they're not boosting themselves, Son of David, and so are we, and therefore you owe this to us.
No, it's Son of David, it's exalting him above themselves and above all others.
It is a claim, it's a statement of worship.
They're paying homage to Jesus, they're worshiping him, they're recognizing him as the one true messianic figure and the true king of Israel from the lineage of David.
The fulfillment of all these prophecies that are made in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah, and their claim then is a claim of faith, not entitlement, and it's on the basis of mercy, not merit.
Notice they don't come to him and say, Son of David, give us what we're promised, or Son of David, give us what we're owed.
No, it's Son of David, have mercy on me.
And ultimately, this is, in a nutshell, it doesn't have to be, they're not magic words, it's not an incantation.
Ultimately, it must come from the heart, and it must come from a new heart, which we only receive by the regenerative, miraculous work of the Spirit.
But this phrasing, these words, the spirit of it, the heart of it, is ultimately the words that must be expressed by anyone in order to be a Christian.
This is kind of the heart of what the Christian cries out when it comes to salvation.
That a person looks to Jesus, recognizes his identity, and then pleads on the basis of mercy and not merit.
That's what it is to be a Christian.
That's what it is to belong to Christ, to be saved.
There will be those two things.
There will be no one in heaven, no Christians, who don't recognize Jesus as the Son of David.
And there will also be no Christians, no one in heaven, no one who's truly born again and saved from the wrath of God who recognize Jesus as king, but do not recognize their need for his kingly mercy.
Both of those are equally important.
You must acknowledge that Jesus is the son of David, he is the Messiah, he is the king.
But you also can't just say, he's king, and I'm kind of kingly too.
He's king, and I'm of his kingly lineage.
And you know, he's like he's a notch above me, but you know, just a little because I'm really special too.
No, you're going to hell.
If you do not repent to that attitude, you are going to hell.
There are two things here a recognition of his identity, king, and a recognition of their identity.
The plea to mercy is a subtle, indirect acknowledgement, not just of Christ's identity, but their own identity.
You're a son of David, and I'm a son of hell.
I don't deserve anything.
Nothing.
I don't deserve anything from you.
You're the son of David, the Messiah, the King, and I don't deserve a scrap.
But I know that in you are oceans of mercy.
And so I'll appeal not to the basis of my merit, but I'll appeal to your character, which is filled with mercy.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
So that's first.
Spiritual sight belonging to those who were physically blind, as a further indictment and irony against the religious rulers of that day who claimed to see, but Jesus himself said elsewhere, they are the blind leading the blind.
And then Christ's first piece of his identity as king and Messiah.
We're going to get a little bit deeper here in the next few verses.
But first, as son of David, which is a messianic title and kingly because David was king.
And then lastly, the appeal to his mercy and not their own merit.
Spiritual sight, Jesus as Messiah and king, and the need for his mercy.
Those are three sub points in that first point, verse 27.
Now let's look at verses 28 through 30.
The second big idea from our text today, the test.
Faith.
I've written the following Christ confronts these men with a personal and propositional question of faith.
He presents to them a personal proposition.
He does not merely ask, Do you want to be healed?
And that's not to say that that question would be wrong because he literally asked that exact question.
I believe in John chapter 5, the pool of Bethesda.
Remember the man who's standing by the pool waiting for an angel to come down and stir the water.
But every time something like that happens, someone else beats him.
And he is able to get into the pool first because he's lame and there's no one to help him.
And Jesus actually asked that guy explicitly, Do you want to be healed?
Which I think there's a lot of implications from that.
One of them, I think, is Do you want to be healed and therefore be responsible for what whole people are required to do?
Do you want to get a job?
Right?
Because you won't be able to be here begging any longer.
So there are some theological rich implications that come from Jesus asking that question.
But my point is, in our text today, he does not ask that question, but it's not to say that that question wouldn't be wise or profound or necessary in other instances, because he literally, quite literally, asked that question elsewhere, namely John chapter 5 with the man at the pool of Bethesda.
But in our text today, that's not the question that Jesus presents.
Instead of asking, Do you want to be healed?
He's ultimately asking them, Do you trust my authority?
Do you trust my power?
That's what's most explicit.
He says, Do you believe I'm able to do this?
He knows that they want their physical healing, physical sight to be restored.
And the first question he asks is Do you believe that I am able to perform this miracle?
So it's a question, a proposition in regards to his power, but that power is ultimately rooted in his authority.
So it's a personal proposition asking them Do you believe that me, as the son of David, which you've already claimed, do you believe that as the son of David, I have authority over sickness?
And disability, that I have the authority to restore your sight.
The blind men answer by saying, Yes, Lord.
Now, this is significant because now we've gone even a step further.
At first, there's already a recognition of Jesus' true identity by using the messianic kingly title, Son of David.
They don't just say, Jesus of Nazareth, give us our sight, but they say, Son of David, have mercy on me.
But now it's even deeper.
It's no longer just messianic and kingly.
It's now recognizing divinity.
They're now using a title, namely Lord, and in their reference towards Jesus with this title, they're recognizing that he's not only son of David, nothing less, but also more, that he's son of David, messianic, kingly, and divine.
He's God.
There's a recognition of his godness, his divinity.
They move from Son of David, kingly, to Lord, divine.
Faith Is Not Quantity00:07:04
Faith, now let's talk about faith for a moment.
Faith is the instrument for this miracle, but it is not the cause of the miracle.
Faith is the instrument, but it is not the cause of their healing.
The power lies in Christ Himself.
The power for healing and the power for anything else, for creation, ex nihilo, out of nothing.
The power for salvation and forgiveness of sin is not rooted in faith.
Faith is the instrument.
It's, as the Reformers would say, Luther, it's the empty hand that lays claim, that grasps grace.
So, God's salvation and forgiveness of sins, this is a gift of grace on the basis of mercy and not on the basis of merit.
And that grace, right, we're not saved by faith, we're saved by grace through faith.
So, we're saved by grace on the basis of mercy.
Not merit, and we lay hold of that grace, that mercy, with the empty hand of faith.
Faith is not ultimately what saves.
Jesus saves.
And the salvation that Jesus provides on the basis of grace, not merit, it is ultimately picked up, received through faith.
Okay, so faith is not, it's an instrument, but it's not the cause.
It is not faith as a source, the power source.
That makes these men see and performs the miracle.
The power source for their healing is Jesus.
It's Jesus.
He is the one ultimately who has power over life and death, heaven and hell, the blind and those who see, those who are deaf, those who are lame, those who are mute.
Jesus is the power source.
Faith is the empty hand that receives this power that comes from Christ and Him alone.
So faith is the instrument, but not the cause of their healing.
The power lies in Christ Himself, not in the strength of these men's belief.
Now, if we're not careful, it would be easy for us to conclude from our text otherwise.
And so I want to break that down briefly.
Christ says specifically, this phrase, if we're not careful, could confuse us or throw us off.
Christ says, according to your faith.
Let it be done according to your faith.
This is verse 29.
Then he touched their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it done to you.
According to your faith, let the miracle happen.
Let it occur.
But Christ does not mean that the miracle should occur in proportion to the quantity of these men's faith, but rather in accordance with the presence of true faith.
It's not, may this miracle, namely your sight, physical sight being restored, may this miracle happen in accordance with however much quantity, size of faith you possess.
And because their sight is fully restored, then we're meant to assume that they had, you know, large faith, a full measure of faith.
That's not what's going on.
Because, and you might say, well, how do you know that?
Well, we could look elsewhere.
Real quick, let's cross reference.
This is Mark, the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 9, verse 24 and 25.
There's another instance of Jesus healing.
And in this instance, the person does not.
He even acknowledges and confesses he doesn't have perfect faith.
He kind of has some and then kind of doesn't.
Right?
So this is verse 24, Mark chapter 9.
Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I believe.
Help my unbelief.
And when Jesus saw that, a crowd came running together.
He rebuked the unclean spirit.
So, this is a father beseeching Christ to exorcise a demon from his child.
He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.
And spoiler alert, that's what happens.
That's exactly what happens.
Now, if Jesus healing someone in accordance with their faith, Meant in proportion to the quantity of faith they possessed, then we would expect that in Mark chapter 9, verse 24 and 25, that this demon would maybe halfway come out of this individual.
Because the father, Jesus asked him just a verse earlier, Jesus asked, Do you believe that I can do this?
That I can cast out the unclean spirit that is tormenting your child?
And the guy is honest.
You've got to give him that.
I think it's admirable.
And honorable, he answers truthfully and says, Yes, I absolutely believe, and I also absolutely doubt at the same time.
Part of me believes, and part of me doesn't.
And so, because he has half belief and half unbelief, he gets half a miracle, right?
Wrong.
No, he gets the whole enchilada.
In fact, I love the language in verse 25 at the end Jesus commands the unclean spirit, says, Come out of him, not halfway out, and never enter him again.
So, Jesus, in some sense, even does more than what the man asks for.
He exercises the demon.
We know from what Jesus says in other places that a demon, when exercised from a man, the house isn't swept clean and put in order.
But if the house isn't ultimately filled, regeneration and the spirit coming to dwell within the person, then the house is now swept clean and put in order, but it remains empty.
And that demon will go through waterless places, arid places, but eventually come back, find the house empty, and bring back seven other unclean spirits worse than itself.
And re embody, refill, and dwell within that same man.
So, the concept, my point is the concept of a demon coming back is not a foreign concept.
Jesus explicitly talks about it elsewhere in the gospel narratives.
But in this case, Jesus doesn't just cast out the demon, he casts out the demon and uses his divine authority to command that the demon never return.
So, not only does this guy get, not only does he not get half of a miracle, but he gets a full exorcism, the demon fully cast out, and He gets like an insurance plan, lifelong insurance plan for the rest of his life that the demon's never gonna come back.
I'm gonna exercise the demon completely, not partway, completely, and I'm gonna ensure that there's no more demonic oppression for your child ever again.
Quality Over Size00:03:51
Pretty awesome.
And all this happens on the basis of the guy, he gets this perfect miracle with lifelong insurance because he had perfect faith.
Right?
Wrong.
He literally says, I believe, help my unbelief.
So, when Jesus says back to these two blind men in our text today, when he says, let it be done in accordance with your faith, that phrasing is not meant to convey, let the miracle take place in proportion to the amount or quantity of your faith.
That's not what that phrase means.
Let it take place in accordance to your faith.
Rather, what that means is in accordance with the presence of true faith.
Regardless of the size, it's not the quantity of faith, it's the quality of faith.
Is this true faith or not?
Because if it's true faith, even if it's faith the size, quantity, so quality, true, quantity, small.
Even if it's in terms of quantity, the size of a mustard seed, it can move mountains.
Jesus doesn't tell us if you have faith the size of a mountain, you could maybe move a mustard seed.
He tells us precisely the opposite.
If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain.
If that faith is small in terms of quantity, but pure, true, genuine in terms of quality.
And what is it?
So that's what ultimately raises the real question that we should ask.
What is it?
What determines the quality, not quantity, but quality of our faith?
And what determines the quality of our faith is not its quantity, not its size.
And it's also not the complete absence of any doubts or questions.
How do I know my faith is of true quality, that it's genuine?
Well, I had some doubts, so that means the quality of my faith must be lacking.
No, that just means the quantity of your faith is lacking.
The presence of doubt, the presence of unbelief, help my unbelief, does not necessarily invalidate the quality of your faith.
What makes faith Of saving quality is not its size, but rather its object.
What is the object of your faith?
Not the size, but what is the object of your faith?
What is your faith attached to?
And the only proper answer has to be Jesus.
If you're truly trusting in Jesus, and not Jesus fashioned according to your own imagination or preference, but Jesus of the Bible, that he's the Son of David, Messiah, King, and Lord, divine, he's God.
If you're trusting in Jesus and he's the object of your faith, However small it may be, then the quality of your faith is true.
The quality is what matters, not the quantity.
And what determines the quality being genuine is the object.
And the object, the only proper object of our faith, is Christ.
That's what the passage is getting at here.
That's what it means in accordance with your faith.
Is there the presence of any true faith?
However small it may be.
Not may the miracle happen in proportion to the size or quantity.
Of your faith.
All right, last point, verses 31 through 34.
Deliverance.
So now we're shifting to a second miracle.
The first is a restoration of the physical side of these two blind men.
True Faith Object00:11:07
And now we're going to see Jesus exercising a demon that had caused a man to be mute.
Deliverance, and what immediately follows is a claim, an accusation really, of division.
I've written in your notes this now a mute demon, oppressed man, is brought to Jesus.
Symbolizing another picture of spiritual helplessness.
So the two blind men, son of David, have mercy on us.
They're stumbling around, chasing after Jesus.
This spiritual helplessness is the picture.
And those who are helpless are appealing to Christ and his mercy.
And they can rightly see, spiritually speaking, that he's the only object of salvation.
He's the only one who has that power, who is the source of their healing, their salvation, their hope.
Whereas those who claim not to be helpless, but rather those who claim to be sufficient and whole, they're the ones who are spiritually blind.
That Jesus is standing right in front of them, and not only do they reject him as Messiah, son of David, king, and Lord, but they're now going to go at the end of our text here with this second miracle the exercising of this demon that caused a man to be mute.
The opponents and detractors.
Of Christ are now going to go a step further, not just rejecting Jesus, but indicting him.
Not just rejecting Christ, but accusing him.
Accusing him of actually casting out demons by the prince of demons and the power of demons.
A very, very stupid accusation.
Jesus says elsewhere, and we'll get to it eventually, but that a house divided against itself cannot stand, that Satan doesn't cast out Satan.
Satan does a lot of tricky things, but that's not one of them.
You guys are dumb, ultimately, is kind of how Jesus is responding.
And here's the thing the Pharisees aren't dumb, they're wicked, they're evil.
They know that this is like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel on this one.
Right?
But there's so much here because the fact that they make this accusation about Christ, there's a reason for it.
It's not random and it's not just mere stupidity.
The reason why they make this accusation is because.
I think it's not explicit in the text, but implicitly, what we can derive from the text here is if they had any other excuse, they would have used it.
Right?
So, if this was a man who did not have like a history and two or three witnesses, his parents and neighbors and extended family members all being able to say, yeah, he's actually mute.
And yes, this is a long term affliction.
And yes, like this is truly demonic and blah, blah, blah.
If there weren't several parties able to validate the legitimacy of this man's plight, then I don't think the Pharisees would have jumped.
To by the prince of demons, he casts out demons.
Because again, that's kind of a dumb line of attack.
I think they would have said it's a ploy, it's a trick, right?
It's smoke and mirrors.
This was just set up, but they would have used something else.
The reason why they're scraping the bottom of the barrel here is because they have to.
Because the power of Jesus that validates ultimately his identity, his person as the Messiah, as the King, as the Son of God.
Is so on display, so clear, so unavoidable, so undeniable, that they now have to get into weird, twisted pretzel theology in order to discount him.
Well, okay, we know that this guy's really demon possessed, so we can't deny that.
And we know that the demon really was just cast out.
We can see that.
And we know it's not smoke and mirrors, it's not a sleight of hand, it really is a spiritual power.
So, what do we have left?
Well, he did it by demonic spiritual power.
That's okay, yeah, we'll go with that.
They're going with that because it's all they've got.
And so ultimately, here's the point going all the way back to the introduction of the sermon Christ's divine authority elicits saving faith in some and hardened unbelief in others.
It's vital that we keep in mind that the miracles of Jesus are not merely acts of compassion.
This man, oppressed by demons, he's mute, right?
He's in a difficult situation.
Jesus is leaving that torment out of compassion.
Yes?
All that's there, it's nothing less than that, but it's more than that, namely this.
The miracles of Christ serve as divine revelations that demand faith and expose unbelief.
And in the exposing of unbelief, it's not just, oh, this person just doesn't believe in Jesus.
Where you find unbelief, you will also always find hostility to Christ.
So it's not just, it's not unbelief that's somehow amoral.
Oh, the person just doesn't believe, you know, they just don't believe in God, but they're actually, you know, a really good person and, you know, and they want to believe in God, but they just, you know, they just don't.
And enough sufficient evidence just hasn't ever been presented for them.
And this poor person, but they're really a great person and they're really kind and they're really compassionate.
No, no, wherever you find true unbelief and only unbelief, Right?
Because remember what we looked at earlier, Mark chapter 9, 24 and 25.
I believe, help my unbelief.
Even the Christian will wrestle with degrees in various times and in various arenas, degrees of unbelief.
But what the Christian always has, not by their own strength, not sola bootstrapia, it's not that they pull themselves up, but it's not their doing, but because faith is a gift.
It's not a work of man that is conjured up by our own ability and strength, but rather faith is a gift that is granted by God.
So, for any Christian that has been given the gift of faith, no matter how small, if that faith came from God, then its quality, not quantity, but quality, as we've already established, will be genuine because it will have as its object, its sole object, the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And that faith in quantity may be small, but in quality is genuine.
But But there may still be surrounding genuine faith that trust and grasp Jesus.
There may be surrounding it some measure of doubt and unbelief.
But for the person who only has unbelief, there is no presence of genuine saving faith whatsoever.
For that person who only has unbelief, it's not merely an intellectual lack of belief in Jesus, but it is also a moral posture of hostility towards Jesus.
And you have to see those as two peas in a pod, always coming as a pair.
So, I'm going to give an example because I like to be practical.
I'm going to give an example.
I'm not trying to be rude.
We, the church, should have never partnered with James Lindsay, an atheist who hates God.
Because it's not just that he just doesn't have the evidence and just intellectually doesn't believe, but morally he is hostile towards the church.
And we have seen that in real time because what he wanted to preserve.
Was he wanted to fight off, you know, in woke wars one, he wanted to fight off, you know, radical leftism so that he could continue as a white man to have a job.
But the moment that it went further, right, that the Christian church went further and said, actually, we don't want to just fight off radical leftism, but I think kind of liberalism in general, that it's all bad.
We don't like any of it.
We want to get rid of all of it.
And we want to go back to historic.
Christianity and politically and culturally speaking, a paleo concern.
The minute that that conversation started happening, James Lindsay was out.
And all of his weaponry and all of his attacks went on the church.
So he partnered with the church for 15 minutes.
Because he had a practical, surface level, not because of love for God, but there was just a surface level temporal incentive that for a brief window, a brief moment, he shared with Christians.
But But then the moment that Christians said, no, but we want to be even more obedient to God.
Like, we don't want to just stop transing kids, but we want to stop the L and the G and the B and the whole, all of it, the whole alphabet.
We're done with all of that.
And the moment that Christians start having those kinds of conversations, then all of a sudden, James Lindsay, I mean, 90% of his tweets now are focused on fascism and no longer really teaming up with the church against communism.
Why?
Because true unbelief, every Christian wrestles with doubts, right?
We've already established that.
It's the quality of faith, not the quantity.
But for the non Christian, it's only unbelief.
There is no mustard seed of faith that's there present.
No belief, no faith whatsoever.
And in that case, the case of the non Christian who has no belief, no faith in Jesus, only unbelief, that unbelief is.
Is not just intellectual hindrances where I just can't quite get over the hurdles and the obstacles to believing in a creator.
No, there's a moral piece.
Not just intellectual, I can't come to believe, but morally, I hate Christ.
I hate Christ.
Romans chapter 8 says this that the mind of the sinful man is indifferent towards God.
No, it is hostile towards God.
It does not submit to his law, nor can it.
So for the person who is embodied solely by unbelief, And there is no saving faith whatsoever.
That person will not just be indifferent towards God.
That person will be hostile towards God.
And by virtue of being hostile towards God, that person will be hostile to anyone who is for God, to God's people.
In other words, in God's providence and his kindness, it's often a good litmus test.
Rejecting Divine Power00:07:37
Right?
If you find yourself, you're a Christian pastor, and James Lindsay likes you.
Then you suck.
You're a bad Christian pastor.
He hates God, but he really likes you.
There's your sign.
By God's grace, and nothing to boast in myself, but by God's grace and His grace alone, I have passed that test sufficiently.
I am thoroughly hated by James Lindsay.
All right, that's enough.
Okay, continuing.
So, I've written this in your notes.
A mute, demon oppressed man is brought to Jesus, symbolizing another spirit.
Picture of spiritual helplessness and bondage.
Jesus cast out the demon without need of any spiritual ritual or struggle.
Notice it's not just that Jesus exercises the demon, but he does it, the manner in which he does it is with a word.
It demonstrates absolute authority.
Now, the crowds, not just the individual who has now experienced relief from his prior demonic oppression, but all the surrounding crowds are marveling, acknowledging not only the degree That Jesus has such high authority and power that he's able to cast out a demon by merely a word.
But they're also recognizing, this is the very end, we're almost done.
They're also recognizing the uniqueness, not just the high degree of Jesus' authority and power, but the uniqueness of Christ's power.
And they say this explicitly by saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel.
Now, when you look at the Old Testament, you look at Elijah and Elisha, Jesus raises the dead, which is incredible.
But that's actually something that had been done.
Now, it wasn't common, it wasn't prevalent, but it is something that had been done.
One of the most, in terms of Jesus' miracles, all right, so I'm explicitly just speaking of his miracles for a moment.
In terms of Jesus' miracles, the most unique miracles that Jesus performed were the exorcisms, his casting out of demons.
And that's why the Pharisees really struggle with this one.
That's why you see them in terms of their excuses.
No, he's still bad.
Jesus is still bad.
Listen to us.
He's really bad.
You find them scraping the bottom of the barrel the most when it comes to Jesus' miracles, specifically that are exorcisms of demonic powers.
You don't see them scraping the bottom of the barrel with healing because healings had happened before.
Again, not common, but also not never.
There had been healings, there had even been resurrections.
But what's really unique are these demonic exorcisms.
And when Jesus does this, it shows he doesn't just have authority over nature to calm winds and waves, to expel disease and disability, or even authority over nature as it pertains to life and death, revivification, bringing someone back to life, as we saw last week in our text.
But here we see that Jesus has authority over even cosmic powers.
Not just nature, but he has authority over principalities and princes and demonic powers over Satan himself.
And perhaps these types of miracles, Jesus casting out demons, speak to his divinity the clearest in a way that is most difficult for his opponents to argue with.
And so that's why we see them coping and seething.
Their response is there's a lot of cope on this one.
Right?
Well, he casts out demons by the prince of demons.
I mean, this is pure copium.
I mean, they just don't know what to say.
They've got no excuse left.
And so they're really, really scratching the bottom of the barrel because this particular type of miracle puts on display in such an inarguable, undeniable way that Jesus is not just a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Elijah or Elisha, but that he is the God man.
Never was anything like this seen in Israel.
Even the crowd is acknowledging.
Imagine you're one of the Pharisees standing by, and the crowd's like, This is incredible.
No one's ever done anything like this, especially you guys over there, Pharisees.
You've never done anything like this.
And so the Pharisees are enraged.
I mean, Jesus is just humiliating them publicly in real time.
So the Pharisees once again reject Christ by saying, Oh, yeah, well, okay, this is unique.
We've never seen anything like this in Israel either.
That's true.
But.
He casts out demons by the prince of demons.
And we'll explore further in our next text, but we're going to leave it there today.
But we should recognize that the Pharisees are now desperate.
And this is true for anyone, for anyone who's not in Christ, I should say.
That rejecting Jesus is, in most cases, systematic, progressive.
And what I mean by that is, The rejection of Christ, what it requires of you at each stage, as God reveals more and more of himself, is it requires a progressive compounding rejection.
That as life goes on, you will have to get more and more intentional in suppressing the truth.
This is Romans 1 in your deeds of unrighteousness.
Like at first, it might just be, well, I don't know if there's really enough evidence.
And so, you know, and it's just a little suppression.
But over the course of a lifetime, sin is progressive.
What I mean by that is you're not able to just quarantine sin and say, I'm only going to sin in this area and to this degree, and I'm just going to maintain that.
No, no, no.
That's not how sin works.
Sin is cancerous, it grows, it develops.
It compounds.
And so too, the deepest, the root of all sin, rejection of Christ, hostility towards Christ, unbelief in Christ.
So too, sin compounds, and so does the root sin of unbelief.
And what it will require of you, if you will not confess your sins and trust in Christ and repent of your sin, what it will require over the lifetime of an unrepentant sinner is a compounding, ever compounding, ever increasing rejection, hostility, and unbelief towards Christ.
And we see that in real time with the Pharisees.
Ah, we don't know if he's really a prophet.
Ah, he doesn't have two or three witnesses.
Ah, you know, other people have done this too.
He's the prince of demons, casting out demons by the power of demons.
Like, I mean, they lose it.
They lose it.
And that's how sin works.
That is how unbelief works.
Greater Judgment00:03:41
The further and further you resist God, the harder and harder your heart becomes.
It is a frightening and dangerous, perilous thing to reject revelations of Christ.
Where God gives grace and a revelation of his deity, a revelation of his identity, who he is, a revelation of his mercy, his kindness, his compassion, wherever God is dispelling grace, revelations, that grace needs to be quickly and humbly received.
Because the more grace you resist, the more condemnation and damnation you are storing up.
This is why Jesus says elsewhere in the gospel narratives when he's speaking of towns in Israel, Tyre and Sidon, he says, Woe to you, Bethsaida, these kinds of towns where he walked among them, ministered in them, woe to you.
For I tell you the truth, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah.
On that day of judgment, than it will be for you.
Why?
Because with great grace comes great responsibility to respond to that grace.
Jesus is saying it'll be worse, your judgment will be worse to these Jewish towns.
Your judgment will be worse on that final day because I was here.
You had a greater outpouring of grace.
To you were the prophets.
To you was the law given.
And to you, the specific generation, not just your fathers and ancestry, but to you, the specific generation, you got me.
You had the prophets, you had the law.
Your fathers witnessed the ten plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.
And now you have me, the God man in the flesh, performing miracles, preaching sermons, and you're still rejecting with a greater degree of revelation of grace.
It requires, if you don't answer that call, a greater degree of hostility and suppression of the truth.
And that will invoke a greater degree of judgment.
That's the idea.
And the Pharisees are a stark and should be, for us, a startling example of that.
Let your response to the Pharisees, I'll end with this, let your response to the Pharisees be fear and trembling.
Not arrogance or boasting.
Like the two blind men, their response is Son of David, have mercy on me.
And so, too, our response should be the Pharisees are terrible.
We don't need to sugarcoat it.
They're terrible.
God, let it never be said of me.
Please, continually, not just once upon a time, not just a one time thing, but again and again, soften my heart daily.
Bring me low.
Keep me humble.
Let me always, let my plea always be have mercy on me.
Not entitlement, not merit, but mercy.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
Bless it to your people and bring about great glory to yourself.