1. Our Lord was up on the mount of transfiguration with Peter, James, and John. Moses and Elijah came down from heaven and talked with our Lord.
2. It must have been quite a meeting. But alas, it came to an end and they came down from the mountain – down to a mob of confused people and a demon-possessed boy.
3. What a picture this is of the day we are living in. We come to church on Sunday morning. Our Sunday school class was a blessing. Then we have an excellent service on Sunday morning, and again on Sunday evening. But then it’s back to work Monday morning. We get in the car and face a traffic jam. Or we get on a crowded bus filled with grumpy heathens, etc.
4. It is wonderful up on the mountain, but then we must come down to the valley. This is what we see here in our text today.
5. Consider this: The Lord Jesus Christ is up yonder in heaven. He has not come down yet, though soon He will.
6. And while we are waiting for His return, we are oftentimes like the powerless disciples.
7. The demon-possessed boy is a picture of the people in the world today who are enslaved by sin and in the grip of evil spirits, and in bondage to the lusts of the flesh. They are "sore vexed" by the devil (17:14,15).
8. The boy’s distraught father represents the sincere sinner seeking help. He went to the disciples but "they could not cure him" (17:16). In like manner, many a lost soul goes to church looking for help but finds no help at all. The church is powerless. The preaching is powerless. The prayers are powerless. Souls are not being saved. What a sad picture this is!
9. There is a multitude gathered (17:14a). These are the lost souls that are drifting around, from church to church, looking here, looking there, curious, but not convicted of their sinful, lost condition. They are very restless. The things of this world can never truly satisfy the soul of man.
10. To get a more complete picture, it is good to read Mark 9 and Luke 9. Mark 9:14 tells us the scribes were hanging around asking questions. These scribes represent the unsaved religious leaders. They are the worldly, religious big-shots, the experts who have all the answers. These scribes were already conspiring to kill Jesus (cf. Matt.16:21).
11. In the midst of this chaotic scene comes our Lord. He immediately cast the devil out of the boy (17:17,18; cf. Mark 9:25-27). What a picture this is! But it is not the end of the story. The disciples wanted to know why they could not cast out the devil (17:19).
12. Our Lord’s answer is for all of us (17:20,21).

I. THE MULTITUDES ARE CONFUSED AND SOME ARE "SORE VEXED".

1. Like the multitude milling about at the foot of the mountain, the multitudes today are confused, lost, unsaved, and on their way to eternal damnation.
2. The prophet Isaiah said, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isa.57:20,21).
3. Our Lord had compassion on these great multitudes of people and we should also (Matt.9:36-38; 14:14).
4. Some are exceptional cases (17:15; cf. Mark 9:17-24). I think we are seeing more and more of this type of behaviour as we get closer to the end of the age. There is much more occultic activity, more strange religious cults, more wickedness. Sadly, much of this demonic confusion is coming in through the Pentecostal and charismatic churches. What many of them are doing is very similar to spiritualism and witchcraft.
5. On Memorial Day, we went to the bus station to pick up our sister Zac, and I saw a madman running down the street screaming and yelling at no one in particular. The next day we had to go back to pick up her luggage and the same lunatic was running down the street again ranting and raving.
6. Beloved, demonism is on the increase. Lost people are looking for help. Can we help them? Or are we like the helpless disciples?

II. THE DISCIPLES "COULD NOT CURE HIM" (17:16).

1. These are sad words. But before we criticize these powerless disciples, let us examine ourselves.
2. When was the last time some poor soul came to you for help and you were able to help him? Perhaps someone hooked on drugs or alcohol or rock music. Maybe some sex fiend. These sort of people are all around us.
3. Maybe it is some religious person, going from faith healer to faith healer, from one weird church to another, being tugged here and there by other lost souls. And their situation is getting desperate.
4. If you could talk to some of the radio listeners who call me on the phone! They are not all like the ones who have joined our church.
5. The disciples could not help (17:16-20). They could not help because they lacked faith. Unbelief is a sin. Even Christians can be guilty of the sin of unbelief. Many Christians do not read their Bibles. And if we do not pray or read our Bibles we will get weak. "So then faith cometh by hearing…" (Rom.10:17).
6. If you lack faith, admit it before God (Mark 9:24). Jesus said, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
7. Our Lord said all we need is "faith as a grain of mustard seed" and we can move mountains (17:20; cf. 21:21,22; Mark 9:23).
8. The disciples could not help because they lacked faith (17:20). The proof of their lack of faith was their prayerlessness. The result of their prayerlessness was powerlessness (17:21).

III. IF WE EXPECT TO GET THINGS DONE WE MUST FAST AND PRAY (17:21).

1. We need revival. Elmont needs revival. The USA needs revival. Revival can only come through prayer and fasting.
2. People often talk about the Great Awakening and about Jonathan Edward’s great sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But they seldom mention that he spent several hours in prayer before he preached it.
3. Beloved, we have great needs – a very expensive building program, lost loved ones, a struggling Christian school, a struggling Spanish ministry with a new preacher in charge, we have many members (especially among our young people) who are still very worldly, etc.
4. Let us listen to the words of our Saviour (Matt.17:21). The flesh and its appetites must be kept in subjection. We must get serious about getting through to God in prayer.
5. Many churches are in serious decline. Many churches are even closing their doors. They have absolutely no impact on their community. Unsaved people are passing them by as if they were invisible.
6. Many churches are excusing their failure – too many RC’s, too many Jews, too many rich people, too many poor people, too many foreigners, too many hardened sinners, etc.
7. Some blame it on the devil. Some blame it on demons. Some blame it on the wicked people that are running our government and schools and media.
8. But our Lord blames us (Matt.17:17-21).
9. Let us remember that the early Christians went out all over the Roman Empire and built strong churches. And most of the people they were winning to Christ were wicked idol-worshipers, barbarians, degenerates, drunkards, etc.
10. But they had the power of God.

CONCLUSION:

1. Shortly before he started preaching, D.L. Moody was impressed by a remark made by a friend, "It remains for the world to see what the Lord can do with a man wholly consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ."
2. D.L. Moody determined he would be that man. God blessed him and many souls were saved through his ministry. And yet on his death bed, D.L. Moody admitted to his loved ones, "I am not that man."
3. Back in 1892, John Hyde was a young missionary on a ship to India. His father was a godly preacher, and one of his father’s friends had sent him a letter and it was delivered to him on the ship.
4. The friend asked John Hyde if he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He told John Hyde that unless he was filled with the Holy Spirit he would never be effective in winning souls.
5. John Hyde crumpled the letter in anger and threw it on the deck. After all, he was a preacher’s son. He was a missionary. Did this friend think that Hyde did not have the fullness of the Spirit?
6. "I was angry. But by and by, better judgment prevailed and I picked up the letter and read it again. Possibly I did need something which I had not yet received. The result was that during the rest of that voyage I gave myself much to prayer that I might indeed be filled with the Holy Spirit."
7. John Hyde went on to say, "These prayers on shipboard were finally answered in a marvelous way." He arrived in India and won many souls to Christ. Then he went to Korea and from 1902 to 1905 there was a great revival in Korea.
8. John Hyde became known as "Praying Hyde" (cf. Matt.17:21).