Feeble Faith Appealing to a Strong Savior
(No. 2881)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
19, 1876.
"And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears,
Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." Mark 9:24.
THIS is the case of a man who knew well enough what he wanted and who
was full of anxiety to obtain it. Indeed, he was so anxious to obtain
it that he prayed most earnestly and most importunately for it. He
prayed to the right Person, too, for, after having failed with the
disciples, he resorted to their Master, Himself. Yet, not withstanding
all this, at the time recorded in our text, he had not obtained the
blessing that he sought.
We probably know of many persons who have not yet been awakened to a
sense of their need–and much labor has to be expended by the faithful
minister in order to show them their danger and to make them realize
their true condition in the sight of God. They have many spiritual
needs, but they do not know what those needs really are. This man had
gone further than that, for he did know what was the great need of
himself and his son. Then there are others who have head knowledge as
to their spiritual needs, but they do not seem to be anxious to have
those needs supplied. They are stolid, careless, immovable. That was
not the case with this man. He knew that he needed his son to be
healed. He was intensely eager that he should be healed, and healed
then and there. His heart was moved with compassion for his child and
he was most anxious that the evil spirit should be cast out of him at
once. There are some of our hearers who seem to have desire of a
certain kind, but they do not use that desire in the right way. They go
about seeking salvation where it is not to be found. They are, to an
extent, earnest in their own fashion, but to them the Lord might say,
as of old, "Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And
your labor for that which satisfies not?"
This man had gone a stage beyond that. He was directing all his
entreaties to Jesus–he was appealing to the great Lord, Himself, from
whom alone deliverance could come. It is a great mercy, my dear
Friends, if you are brought as far as this poor man was–to know what
you really need, to be anxious to obtain it–and to be making your
appeal to Jesus to grant your requests. Yet, with all that, this man
had not obtained the gift he was seeking. There are many like he who
have not secured the blessing they are seeking. You are aware of your
sin and you lament it, yet you cannot get a sense of pardon. You know
your spiritual needs and you bemoan them, but you cannot grasp that
which supply them. You have made an appeal to God in Christ Jesus and
you are resolved that you will never leave off so appealing–yet, for
all that, you have not, thus far, received the blessing. There is
something or other in the way–something that hinders you. And I should
not wonder–no, I feel quite certain–that the thing which hinders some
of you from getting what you seek from Christ is your own unbelief.
That is the point at which I am going to aim in my discourse, as God
shall help me. And I pray that as I do, from many a heart may be
breathed this confession and cry, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."
I. There are three things in our text. The first is THE SUSPECTED
DIFFICULTY AND THE REAL DIFFICULTY.
Reading the story carefully, I gather that this man saw difficulties as
to his child's cure, but that he never thought of the real one. He
fancied that the difficulty lay in the case of his child. His words to
Christ, "If You can do anything," seem to imply that he felt, "This is
a case that is quite out of the ordinary run–something special and
singular–and, therefore, beyond Your power." If I can interpret his
thoughts, it is my opinion that he said to himself, "This is too
mysterious a case to be cured. An evil spirit has struck my boy dumb,
yet that same spirit makes him foam at the mouth and
gnash with his teeth. Those very organs which refuse to utter
articulate speech, are, nevertheless, strangely in motion. He seems to
be taken, too, by this evil spirit at intervals, and hurried this way
and that–he cannot tell how–and, at one time, he is hurled into the
fire and, at another time, into the water. It is a most mysterious
malady and, possibly, because it is so mysterious, it is not in the
Messiah's line of things."
I have known some who have thought their case, spiritually, to be very
mysterious. They have imagined that there was something about their
constitution, or, still worse, that some extraordinary guilt had
brought upon them a condition of heart that was peculiarly vicious.
They have even fancied that this state of heart had put them beneath
the ban of the unpardonable sin and that others had better beware of
coming near them, for their condition was so strange, so singular, so
wild, that they could not tell what to think or say of themselves.
Sometimes they are hot and in the fire. But at other times, cold, and
in the water–with no voice for praying or praising, yet able to curse
and to blaspheme. "Ah," says such an one, "my case is so mysterious
that even the Lord Jesus Christ will never be able to save me."
Very likely, too, the father thought that his child's disease was too
violent to be cured. He was dashed about, here and there, and torn as
though his poor body must be dissolved into the atoms of which it was
made. He could not be held in or restrained–no government or control
could be exercised over him, for the demon carried him, with an
irresistible influence, wherever it pleased. The poor father could
truly have said, "Look at him. I brought him into the Presence of
Christ, Himself, and here he lays wallowing upon the ground, being torn
in pieces by the demon! And now that the spasm is past, he lies there
as if he were dead–and some say that he really is dead."
I should not wonder if I am addressing a man who thinks that the
difficulty as to his salvation lies in the fact that his passions are
so violent and so fierce. Possibly, he says, "I kept sober for months,
but, all of a sudden, it seemed as if the drink demon overpowered me
and I had an awful bout of drinking till delirium tremens was well-near
upon me." "Ah," says another, "I struggled against a vicious habit
which I had formed and I thought I had overcome it, but, alas, the next
time the temptation came in my way, I did not seem to have any more
power to resist it than a snowflake has to resist the wind that drives
it along–and I was carried right away by the evil impulses. Some men
have a peculiar bent towards evil because of their intense vehemence of
character–it was so with Samson, though he had the saving Grace of
faith. Such men are, perhaps, strongly developed in the sinews and
muscles of their body, but, certainly, they are in the passions and
impulses of their soul. You may bind them with fetters and chains, but
the strongest bonds are only like the green ropes were to Samson. The
devil that is in them seems to be absolutely supreme over them when he
puts forth his power. I do not wonder, therefore, if they think that
the difficulty, in their case, lies in the violence and suddenness of
their sin. But it is not so.
Perhaps this poor father thought that in his child's case, the
difficulty lay in the fact that he had been such a long time a
sufferer, even from his childhood. In answer to Christ's question, "How
long has this been happening to him?" he said, "From childhood." So a
man sometimes says, "Sin is bred in my bones and it will come out in my
flesh. My very nature is corrupt. While I was but a child, I loved sin,
and since then, throughout my youth and manhood, I have gone after it
greedily–and it has become a habit that is firmly fixed upon me. 'Can
the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' Then may he
that is accustomed to do evil, learn to do well." Such sinners feel as
if they had been steeped and soaked in the crimson lye until there was
no hope of ever getting the stain out of them. They have been wanderers
from God even from their youth–how can they be brought near to Him?
Yet we know that the difficulty did not lie in the child's case at all,
for Jesus Christ was able to cast the devil out and He did cast it out.
And if that child had been possessed by a whole legion of devils,
instead of only by one, Jesus Christ could, with a single word, have
cast them all out! No matter how long the demon had been in possession
of the child, nor how vehement and impetuous he might be, Christ could
drive him out whenever He pleased. And at this moment, dear Friend,
your past life, your sins, your natural corruptions, your inherited
vices, your evil habits which have grown so strong upon you, are not
the real difficulty. The Lord Jesus Christ "is able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him." He, Himself, said, "All manner of
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men."
So I care not how bad your case may me–it may even be worse than I
should dare to guess–there may be a secret criminality about it that
sets it altogether by itself as an unusual and even unique offense
against God! But that is not the difficulty in the way of your
salvation. Christ can easily write "settled"at the bottom of the long
account of your sins– it is no more trouble for Him to write that word
at the foot of a long bill than a short one! God can as readily make
you a
new creature in Christ Jesus–whatever your sins may have been–as if
you had been living a strictly moral life. You are spiritually dead in
any case–and it is He alone who can give you life. You are lost in any
case and the Good Shepherd can just as readily find the lost sheep that
has gone far astray as another which is only just outside the fold, for
He is Almighty and, therefore, able to do all things! So the difficulty
does not lie there.
Perhaps, however–no, we know that it was so–the father thought that
the difficulty lay with Jesus Christ Himself He seemed to say, "I have
done all I can for my child. I brought him to Your disciples, but they
could not cure him. And now I have brought him to You. If You can"–but
he had hardly got those words out of his mouth before the Lord Jesus
addressed him, in a peculiar Greek idiom, which cannot be fully
translated into English, but which might run something like this–"The
if you can"–that is exactly the Greek word–"the if you can believe,
all things are possible to him that believes," as much as to say, "The
if you can does not lie with Me. Oh, no! The if you can lies with you."
He takes the man's words and hurls them back at him! I daresay the man
may have thought, "If His disciples cannot cure my child, at all events
their Master does not. He has seen how afflicted he is. If He could
have done it, surely He would at once have said to my child, 'Be
healed.' Yet there He is, standing still and talking to me, as if this
were not a pressing case of urgent need! It must be lack of power on
His part that keeps Him from curing my child." But Jesus Christ will
not let such a thing as that be said without showing that it is not
true! And, Brothers and Sisters, if you harbor in your heart any idea
that there is a lack of power in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, you
are believing a most atrocious lie and defaming the Almighty Savior!
The difficulty, in your case, is not either in the sin or in the
Savior. He is able to forgive the greatest conceivable transgressions
of all who believe in Him and He is able to break and to renew the
hardest heart, even though it should be hard as steel or like the
nether millstone!
II. We have now to consider, in the second place, THE TEARFUL
DISCOVERY–"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."
What was his discovery? Why his discovery was that he did not
believe–and that is where the real difficulty lay. When did the man
make this discovery? When he began to believe! Is it not a very
singular thing that as soon as ever he had a little faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, he discovered the great abyss of his unbelief? "Lord," he
said, "I believe, but, oh, I do also disbelieve so much that my
unbelief seems to swallow up my belief!" Until a man receives faith, he
may think that he has it–but when he has real faith in Jesus Christ,
then he shudders as he thinks how long he has lived in unbelief–and
realizes how much of unbelief is still mixed with his belief! There are
many of you who have never believed to the saving of your souls, yet
you say, "Oh, yes, we believe the Bible! We believe in God. We believe
in Jesus Christ." You stand up in church and say, "I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth," and so on, but you do not
do anything of the sort! If you did, you would be saved, since true
belief in Jesus Christ brings salvation to everyone who so believes.
While men have no faith–I repeat what I said just now–while men have
no faith, they are unconscious of their unbelief, but as soon as they
get a little faith, then they begin to be conscious of the greatness of
their unbelief! When the blind man gets a little light into his eyes,
he perceives something of the blackness of the darkness in which he has
been living–and so you must be able to say from your heart, "Lord, I
believe," or else you will never be able to pray, as this man did,
"help my unbelief." Even a small measure of faith is necessary to
discover the great measure of the unbelief.
This man, as soon as he discovered his unbelief, was distressed and
alarmed at it. He could not look straight at Christ and say, "Lord, I
do disbelieve You, but I cannot help it." No, he was distressed about
it. He felt how dreadful a thing it was to be unbelieving and he
appealed to Christ, confessing his unbelief, saying, "Lord, help me out
of it, I beseech You." Notice how he turned his whole attention to that
one matter of his own unbelief–he did not even mention his poor child!
His child was, no doubt, still in his thoughts, yet his prayer was not
concerning his child, but concerning his own unbelief, for he saw that
was the difficulty needing to be removed! And when God, in infinite
mercy, visits a poor troubled heart and gives it even a little faith in
Jesus Christ, its great distress is concerning its remaining unbelief,
for it perceives that this is the greatest of all sins–the most
terrible of all stumbling blocks–and it is, indeed, the chief
hindrance to men's entrance into rest of heart and eternal life!
Now look, all of you who are seeking Christ, but who say that you
cannot get peace. The difficulty lies here–if you can believe, all
things are possible to you! But it is because you do notbelieve that
you remain as you are.
Let me show you what it is that you do not believe. You say that Christ
cannot save you. Then you believe that Om-nipotence–you dare not say
it is notOmnipotence–has for once met its match! Look that statement
in the face–that the Eternal Son of God has a task set before Him
which He cannot perform! In other words, you do not believe in the
Omnipotence of God, for, if He is Omnipotent, He must be able to save
you.
Next, Sinner, when you say, "Jesus cannot save me," you cast a slur
upon His precious blood. You stand, in imagination, at the foot of His
Cross, and you see Him bleeding away His very life–yet you say, "The
merit of that blood is limited. I know it is, for it cannot atone for
mysin." You are trampling upon the blood of the Son of God and counting
it an unholy thing by declaring that your sin is more mighty than His
Infinite Sacrifice!
Again, after shedding His blood for sinners, Christ went back into
Heaven–and a great part of His occupation there is to make
intercession for the transgressors. Yet you say that His intercession
cannot be powerful enough to avail for you, although I have already
reminded you that God has said, "Therefore He is able, also, to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives
to make intercession for them." To say of yourself, "Christ cannot save
me," or to say of any other man, "He cannot save that man," is to
insult His blood and to caste a slight upon His ever-living pleas! What
greater crime can there be than thus to limit the Holy One of
Israel–yes, to limit Him both when bleeding on the Cross and sitting
on His throne? I charge you, Sirs, to feel the utmost horror at the
very thought that you should have been guilty of such a crime against
the Lord Jesus Christ! God has declared that "He that covers his sins
shall not prosper: but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have
mercy." The Apostle John, writing under the Inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, declares, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from
all sin." If, then, you say, "But it cannot cleanse mefrom mysin," you
call a lie the most solemn Revelations and pledges of the Divine Mercy!
Do you mean to do that? Oh, how often shall we have to remind you that
whether you mean to do so, or not, that is what you are doing? Remember
how the loving John writes, "He that believes not God has made Him a
liar because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son."
In addition to insulting the Son as to the efficacy of His blood and
insulting the Father concerning His veracity– bear with me, Sinner, in
bringing these grave charges against you–and as God bears with you,
you may well bear with me as I remind you of your sin! You also insult
the Spirit of God by your unbelief, for you as good as say, "The Spirit
of God cannot renew my heart. He cannot bring me to repentance, He
cannot bring faith to me." Yet the Spirit, the Father and the Son, is,
Himself God–Infinite and Almighty. It is a great sin for anyone to
say, "The Spirit cannot regenerate me. There is no hope for me."
Is it possible that you, poor despairing Sinner, think that your
despair proves that you are humble? It is not so. Despair is one of the
proudest things in the world, for it even dares to tell the Almighty
Spirit of God that He cannot–He cannot–save! I beseech you, do not
say it! But if you have faith enough to believe that Jesus is
Omnipotent and that there is unlimited value in His blood and His
plea–that the Father is true and that His promises must be fulfilled
and that the Spirit of God is able to work such a change in your heart
that old things shall pass away and all things shall become new–then
be alarmed to think that there should be any unbelief remaining in you,
and cry out with tears, as this man did, "Lord, I believe; help my
unbelief."
III. Now comes our third point–THE INTELLIGENT APPEAL.
The man has seen where the difficulty lies. He has made a discovery as
to his own unbelief and now he turns round to Jesus and he cries,
"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." Kindly notice the wording of the
man's prayer as recorded in the 22nd verse–"If You can do anything,
have compassion on us and help us." See that word, "help." And, now,
when he is convinced of his unbelief, look at his prayer: "Help my
unbelief–the same word that he had used before. In his first petition,
looking at his poor child wallowing on the ground, he cried, "Help us!"
But now he has been taught better and he says, in effect, "Lord, I see
that it is easy work for You to cast a devil out, but the difficulty is
that I am unbelieving, and that hinders You, Lord. Help me believe, for
that is what is needed." I recommend some of you, instead of praying,
"Lord, give me a sense of pardoned sin. Give me a new heart. Give me to
feel that You love me"–pray those prayers, by-and-by, but for the
present, pray like this, "Lord, help me to believe. Lord, give me
faith. Lord, drive away my unbelief." Direct your prayers to that one
point–for that is the matter in which you are lacking. Unbelief is the
great stone lying at the door of your heart and preventing that door
from being opened!
Notice that this man's prayer was intelligently addressed to One, who,
he believed, could help him. He seemed to say to himself, "If Christ
can help my child to get well, then He can help me to believe." Believe
that, Sinner, and ask Him to help you to believe! His prayer was
addressed to One in whom he did believe, in a measure, for he would not
have prayed to Christ to help his unbelief if he had not felt that
Christ could do so. And he did say, "Lord, I believe." His was a
strange mixture of belief and unbelief–and so are yours, my dear
Friends–and I charge you, with the little faith you have, if you
believe that Jesus can save other people, go to Him and beseech Him to
cast out of you the unbelief which is still lurking within you! The
chief reason why you have not peace with God–why you have not found
the conscious enjoyment of eternal life–is that you lack faith! You
need your unbelief to be cast out.
I am going to close my discourse by showing you that there is nobody
but the Lord Jesus Christ who can help us to get rid of unbeliefand by
advising you to take your unbelief, and all your other sins, and
confess them to Christ as sins and then ask Him to enable you to get
rid of them. It ought to enable you to see how Jesus Christ does help
you to get rid of unbelief if you consider His Nature. If you rightly
understand that, it will be a deathblow to unbelief. Who and what is
Jesus. You believe–I know you do–that He is "very God of very
God"–that Jesus of Nazareth is "over all God, blessed forever." If you
will only think of those two great facts, it will help you to believe
in Him. Cannot you trust your soul in the hands of God? Is He not able
to deliver you? Is He not able to pardon you? "The Son of Man has power
on earth to forgive sins" because He is God! If I had an angel sent to
be my Savior, I dare not trust him. When any man says that he can
forgive my sins, I will not trust him, for I know that he is a liar and
a thief, trying to rob God of His prerogative. When Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, says that He can save me, I cannot find any reason why I
should not believe Him–and I do not believe you can suggest any
reason! Unbelief is a most unreasonable thing, but faith is most
reasonable and right. As Christ is Divine, my natural inference is,
"Then I will trust Him."
Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ is Man as well as God–and such a Man
as the world has never seen before or since. You have read the story of
His life. Did you ever read of any other man so gentle, so tender, so
true, so kind, so full of affection, so willing to live and die for
others? What? Not trust Him? Oh, it seems to me as if I could not help
trusting Him! Certainly, ever since I have known my blessed Lord and
Savior, I have felt that I could say to Him, as David did, "They that
know Your name will put their trust in You." Son of God and Son of Man,
Your very Nature helps to banish our unbelief and, as soon as we
rightly understand it, we feel that unbelief is an unnatural, illogical
and wicked thing!
Think also, for a minute or two, of His great offices. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has a thousand offices, but there is one upon which I especially
love to dwell. He is a Savior–He "came into the world to save
sinners." Many people imagine that they cannot be saved because they
are sinners, but that is the very reason why they can be saved. You
remember how Martin Luther put it? He said, "The devil came to me and
he said, 'Martin Luther, you are a big sinner. You are so great a
sinner that you cannot be saved.'" Luther replied, "I will tell you
what I will do, Satan–I will cut off your head with your own sword,
for I am a sinner–and I know that it is so. And since Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners, I believe He came to save me–and
I have trusted my soul to Him for time and eternity." A doctor does not
come to heal those that are healthy–he naturally looks after the
sick–and a Savior does not come to save those who need no saving! He
comes to save sinners, so that your sinnership, instead of being a
disqualification, is, to speak broadly, a qualification! Just as filth
is a qualification for being washed–just as poverty is a qualification
for receiving alms–just as sickness is a qualification for medicine,
so your very sin and vileness are qualifications for Christ's work of
Grace in you! I am using expressions that some will think strange, yet
I am speaking, nevertheless, what is the absolute Truth of God. Does it
not help to remove your unbelief to hear that Jesus is "mighty to
save"?
Think, next, of the anguish which Christ endured when He offered
Himself up as the great atoning Sacrifice for His people's sin. I have
never been able, for a single instant, to believe in any limit to the
value of the Atonement offered by Christ on Calvary. It does seem to me
to verge upon blasphemy to suppose that if God, Himself, becomes
Incarnate, and suffers, and bleeds, and dies, there can be anything
less than infinite value in the Atonement that He offers. So then,
Sinner, as it is infinite, it can cover your case! As it is without
boundaries, there cannot be a boundary set to it as far as you are
concerned! Look at Christ on the Cross and you will not dare to say,
"He cannot save me." Know what He is and who He is–see how He suffers,
how the Father smites Him and yet how the Father loves Him all the
while–and you must say, "Christ's blood must have sufficient power in
it to take away all the guilt of all who trust Him." It is so! Believe
it and that will help to drive away your unbelief.
Remember, too, dear Friends, that when Christ died upon the Cross, He
was not working out a trifling scheme of salvation. It was a sublime
enterprise that took Him from His Throne in Heaven and brought Him down
to the manger in Bethlehem. It was a God-like undertaking which made
Him lay aside the scepter and bear to have great nails thrust through
His hands. It was a great scheme and, therefore, it included great sin,
great pardon and great salvation! So, if you are a great sinner, you
match the general scale of the whole scheme–which is of such huge
proportions that it can encompass even you!
Christ's design in dying, too, ought to help to kill your unbelief. Why
did He die? Was it not that the Free Grace of God might have full swing
and abundant scope? And will it not have full swing if you are saved
and is there not great scope for pardoning mercy in you? Remember, dear
Friends, our Lord Jesus Christ never thought it was worth His while to
come from Heaven to give glory to a man–He came from Heaven to bring
glory to God by vindicating His justice and manifesting His mercy! Now,
if such a sinner as you are–you who think yourself too bad to be
saved–if you get saved, what a display of Divine Grace there will be
in your case! A man said to me, some time ago, "If ever I get to
Heaven, Sir, I believe they will carry me about the streets and exhibit
me as a marvel of God's mercy." "Well, then," I replied, "they will
have to carry me around as well." I suspect that every saved soul in
Heaven is a great wonder and that Heaven is a vast museum of wonders of
Grace and mercy–a palace of miracles in which everything will surprise
everyone who gets there! It has been well said that there will be three
surprises in Heaven–first, we shall not find some we thought we would
meet there. Then, we shall find some we never thought would be there.
But the greatest surprise of all will be to find ourselves there! I
think it will be so–not that we shall be astonished at the fact when
we remember God's promise and what He has done for us–but we shall be
amazed when we remember what we used to be and what the Grace of God
had to do for us to make us fit to be there. Well, if you are one of
those who will be carried all around Heaven as a marvel of mercy, I
believe you are the very person who is likely to get there–because God
wants the angels and all the redeemed to see the wonders of His Grace
displayed to us-ward who believe!
I close with this one thought. If, poor Soul, it is your lack of faith
that stands in the way of the blessing coming to you, and if that lack
of faith is infamous on your part since you call God a liar, I charge
you to repent of it and to believe God here and now! If you still say,
"I know not how to believe and I cannot trust," I dare not try to
excuse you for saying so. Unbelief is the greatest of all crimes–I
know of none to match it. But if you really want help in fighting
against your unbelief, cannot you go to Christ for it? Even while you
are thinking about Him, you will believe in Him! If you need to trust
His blood, thinkof His blood. If you need to trust Him as a living,
loving Savior, thinkof Him as a living, loving Savior. "Faith comes by
hearing." When you are hearing about it, thinking about it, reading
about it, the Holy Spirit will breed faith in your soul! Oh, do get
faith, whatever else you do notget! May God enable you to exercise
saving faith in Jesus Christ before you rise from your seat, lest, in
this very building, you should stumble into death and into Hell!
Do I need to ask you, Sirs, a thousand times, to believe the Truth of
God? Must I, over and over again, say to you as Jesus said to the Jews,
"Because I tell you the truth, you believe me not"? If Christ is not
worthy of being believed, then He is a liar. If Christ cannot be
trusted, then He is wrongly named. Oh, do not drive us to the inference
that you think thus of Him! Commit your soul into His hands this very
moment and have done with it, once and for all, for His dear name's
sake. Amen!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MAARK92-29
Verses 2-6. And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter, and James,
and John, and led them up into an high mountain apart by themselves and
He was transfigured before them. And His raiment became shining,
exceedingly white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could whiten them.
And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking
with Jesus. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good
for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for You, and
one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he knew not what to say; for
they were afraid. Brothers and Sisters, like these disciples of our
Lord, we are not yet fit to be favored with a sight of His Glory. As we
now are, we could not bear it. As our poet says–
"At the too-transporting light,
Darkness rushes over my sight"
These three Apostles of Christ were too bewildered to know what to say.
They were quite lost and, I suppose that if we could go to Heaven as we
are, our bewilderment would even exceed our bliss! But we may rest
assured that God will prepare us for that which He has prepared forus.
7, 8. And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a Voice came
out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him. And
suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man anymore,
save Jesus only with themselves. And although this was not so ravishing
or so astonishing a sight, yet it was more encouraging to them–
something which they could more easily bear with joy and peace–"they
saw no man anymore, save Jesus only with themselves." May God grant to
us, as long as we are here below, that if no Moses or Elijah shall ever
come to visit us, at any rate Jesus may never be absent from us! May
our fellowship with Him be unbroken!
9, 10. And as they came down from the mountain, He charged them that
they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of Man
were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves,
questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
These were Peter, and James, and John–the three most privileged
disciples of Christ–probably the best scholars in that class which had
the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, for its Teacher. Yet His plain language
was without meaning to them–"questioning one with another what the
rising from the dead should mean." I wonder whether, when our Lord
comes the second time, we shall discover that the prophecies concerning
His advent were wonderfully clear, but that we could not understand
them till He came. Plain as His teaching concerning His Resurrection
was, His disciples could not understand it till that great event had
really occurred!
11-13. And they asked Him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elijah must
first come? And He answered and told them, Elijah verily comes first,
andrestores all things; andhowit is written ofthe Son ofMan, that He
must suffer many thing, and be set at nothing. But Isay unto you, that
Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatever they
wished, as it is written of him. John the Baptist had come, in the
spirit and power of Elijah, and had reconstituted matters and prepared
the people for the advent of the Savior, whose herald he was.
14, 15. 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. Some relics of the glory on the mountain still
remained upon His face, and the people were astounded. So, though
deeply interested in the battle which was proceeding between the
scribes and the disciples, they left them and turned to look upon that
mysterious radiance which hovered about His brow.
16. And He asked the scribes, What are you discussing with them? The
circumstances of the disciples resembled a battlefield on which the
enemy was winning the day and the loyal troops were about to die
defeated–when suddenly, the great Commander, Himself, appears for
their relief. His Presence is worth more than a thousand battalions of
men–and He charges at once upon the adversary and puts them to rout!
"He asked the scribes, What are you discussing with
them?"
17. And one of the multitude answered. One who had a peculiar reason
for answering, just as, I trust there will be one in this multitude
before me who will have a peculiar reason for listening to my message
and a peculiar reason for remembering it after it is delivered–"One of
the multitude answered." [Remember the Exposition was always before the
sermon.]
17-19. And said, Master, I have brought unto You my son who has a dumb
spirit; and wherever he takes him, he convulses him: and he foams, and
gnashes with his teeth, andpines away. And I spoke to Your disciples
that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answered him, and
said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long
shall I bear with you? Bring him unto Me. I suppose our Lord's rebuke
was meant specially for His disciples. It was something like the speech
of a schoolmaster who, having taught his pupils the same lesson a great
many times, and labored hard with them, from year to year, yet finds
them failing in the very elements of knowledge. Christ does not speak
as if He were tired of His life and wished to get away from His
disciples–but this is His way of saying how disappointed He is that
these learners have learned so little.
"How long shall I bear with you? Bring him unto Me." Those words struck
my heart very forcibly as I read them– "How long shall I bear with
you?" Does not the Lord Jesus Christ have to put up with a great deal
from every one of us? I applied His words to myself and I thought I
heard Him saying to me, "How long shall I be with you? How long shall I
bear with you?" Often, He must derive more pain than pleasure from
communion with many of His people. How grieved He must often be to see
their slowness to learn, their readiness to forget and the difficulty
with which they can be brought to live the lessons which He so
carefully imparts to them! Then note what His action is concerning the
poor child– "Bring him unto Me."
20. And they brought him unto Him: and when He saw him, straightway the
spirit convulsed him. As soon as ever Christ looked at him, "the spirit
convulsed him." One look from Christ awakes the devil! Sometimes
sinners are worse, for a time, when Christ looks upon them. The devil
always has great wrath when he knows that his time is short. And he
rages and convulses most violently when he is about to be ejected. The
Jews have a proverb, "When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses
appears," and we may make it into a Scriptural proverb, "When the
devil's torment of the heart is doubled, then Jesus appears to cast him
out."
20. And he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And Jesus, instead
of curing him at once, gave his first attention to the other patient
before him, namely, the father of the child. He was suffering from an
equally bad disease, though the symptoms were different–and Jesus
meant to cure him as well as his boy!
21, 22. Andhe askedhis father, howlong has this been happening to him?
Andhe said, from childhood. And oftentimes it has cast him into the
fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if You can do anything,
have compassion on us, and help us. He put himself on a level with his
child and that is the best way to pray for your children–"Have
compassion on us, and help us." It will be compassion on youas well as
upon your son, if the Lord saves him!
23. Jesus said unto him. Catching at his words, "If You can do
anything"–
23-29. If you can believe, all thing are possible to him that believes.
And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears,
Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! When Jesus saw that thepeople came
running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, You deaf
and dumb spirit, I charge you come out of him and enter no more into
him. And the spirit cried, and convulsed him sorely and came out of
him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But
Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And when
He was come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, Why
could not we cast him out? And He said unto them, This kind can come
forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. There are some things which
we are not fit to do until we have drawn very near to God and have been
deeply humbled and, with sincere repentance and the gracious operation
of the Holy Spirit, have been cleaned so as to receive so great a gift.
Faith alone will not accomplish everything. Faith must be accompanied
by prayer, and prayer must be, at least sometimes, in special cases,
attended with fasting. The Lord makes reserves of His mercies which He
does not give immediately. Even to the request of faith, He demands
importunity on our part and heart-searching, and heart-cleansing before
the blessing will be bestowed.