<TITLE>03. Par 13-18</TITLE>L-13 Now, watch. Then the disciples came to Jesus alone, privately, and said, "Why could we not cast him out? Ten days ago You gave us power. Have You taken it back again?" Jesus never told them He had taken His power back. Neither did He tell them that they didn't have the power to do it. He said, "It was because of your unbelief, not lack of power, lack of faith to use what power you got."
And that's what's the matter tonight with the church and the peoples. It's not a lack of power. Why you borned again children of God has the power to move mountains. You've got the power, but you lack faith and--to operate what power God has given you.

L-14 Notice, and now, how petty people can be. These disciples just like other men, two or three days later they found a man casting out devils, and he was getting the job done; he was doing a real job. And the disciples found him, and just like men of our day, they said, "You come and join our denomination. You come hook up with us, 'cause you can't do this unless you go with us." But they were just a little bit too late. God was already proving He was doing it. He heard Jesus say, "Whosoever will, let him come." They were jealous because that this man was getting the job done, and they could not do it.

L-15 And that's the way it is today. Who starts a jealousy is men in great prestige sometimes, who because of different denominational barriers or social prestige is afraid to come out and tell their church that the Holy Spirit lives today to make intercessions, and will heal our sickness today just the same as He did then. And it's petty jealousy, because it's not in their denomination, not in their social ranks. But God can deal in any rank that He wants to deal in. That's His own sovereign will. Oh, how little that we can be sometimes on those things. And it does nothing but stand in the way of the real believer.

L-16 Now, we know that God always has had a way to help His people. In the reading of our lesson tonight, which just for a few moments, let's look at it: St. Matthew the 12th and 42. We find Jesus had just been discussing, because a spirit of deaf and dumb had went out of a person. He had been able with His great power to discern the thoughts of the people, and the Pharisees had--had been attacking Him. They could not figure out this great phenomenon of how this Man, a poor Galilean, how He could stand under supernatural power and look into a man's face and tell him who he was, where he come from, and where he was going; to speak that a certain thing would take place, and would happen exactly the way He said it did. They was trying to figure it out.

L-17 And so is the world today trying to figure it out what makes this great trans--in--transformation that changes men? And I wish to say this: It will never be figured out. I do not understand it, and you do not understand it, and no one else can understand it. It's in the realm of God alone. God has not asked us to understand it. He asked us to believe it. And if we understood it, it would not be an act of faith any longer. It would become a knowledge. And we're not saved, neither are we healed by knowledge. We are saved and healed by faith, and that alone.

L-18 Jesus had just discussed it with them, and they could not understand this great thing that He was doing. So because that they could not understand it, they just branded it the devil. They could not accept it because of their social standings. For all that was to accept it was to be excommunicated from the church and to be called a heretic. And they could not accept it. So if they could not accept it, there was only one thing they could do, was brand it the devil. And Jesus said, "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, who does your children cast them out by?" And another place He said, "If I by the finger of God cast out devils..."


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